404 



NATURAL SCIENCE. dec. 



and that the expenses of the Association are far greater than they 

 should be for the results achieved. There is, too, an inside history 

 which cannot be detailed, which would explain a large portion of the 

 indifference displayed. Before the Association can regain its influence, 

 it must undergo a complete transformation in its management and 

 methods of administration. It must also present features which will 

 attract the better workers of the country." 



Fortunately, the harmony of the British Association is not marred 

 by any such " inside history " as that of which our American cousins 

 complain ; but even here, and in other British learned Societies, those 

 who happen to hold professional positions do not always pay that 

 respect to distinguished amateurs which is their due, when chosen to 

 officiate or to inaugurate discussions. The picnic-element can never 

 be entirely eliminated from annual gatherings — it is not desirable that 

 it should be. Science cannot progress satisfactorily without some 

 practical sympathy on the part of the outside public ; and it is the 

 duty of those concerned in purely scientific work at the great festival 

 which nearly every civilised nation now holds, to maintain the correct 

 balance between technical discourses and intellectual recreation. 



The Correlation of Geological Formations in Europe. 



With the advance of science, more and more minute methods of 

 investigation are adopted, methods which could not have been adopted 

 before, while sources of error remained so numerous, but which, when 

 once a firm foundation has been laid for them, speedily lead to impor- 

 tant results. It is often found, too, that the foundations are laid by 

 branches of a science that appear distinct, and that the eventual results 

 are attained by the combination of dififererent methods. Changes of 

 tliis kind are now taking place in Palaeontology and Stratigraphical 

 Geology. It is no longer possible for the palaeontologist to study his 

 fossils within the four walls of a museum. He has learnt all that can 

 be learnt there ; but now he sees certain minute differences between 

 forms, which he cannot quite explain. They may be important or 

 they may be only accidental. He can only decide by himself carefully 

 collecting the specimens in the field. Prepared by long study of 

 certain groups of animals, intimately knowing them, almost as a shep- 

 herd does his sheep, he now proceeds to examine the rocks with equal 

 minuteness. He is no longer content with the broad generalisations 

 of pioneer geologists, but, just as he has already split up the genera of 

 the old naturalists into numberless more accurately defined new 

 genera and sub-genera, so he must divide the strata into zones and 

 sub-zones and almost infinitesimal horizons. Then at last he will be 

 able to discover the relations that exist between the variations that he 

 has observed in his fossils and their place in geological history, and he 

 will be able to trace out with a certainty that none can gainsay the 

 evolution of species and of genera, and the migrations of fauna. 



