254 my, Scientific Intelligence. 
the centres multiply, till in the lowest grades, with little but 
cellular tissue in their constitution, the possible centres are ex- 
tremely numerous, and the ova as numerous. ‘Throughout we 
find the proposition supported, that an animal cannot produce an 
animal of higher powers than itself.* These views, although 
not yet admitted among established facts, may lead us at least to 
look with much suspicion upon the “ progress” theory of creation. 
The Vestiges, notwithstanding some errors, has been, and wi 
continue to be, of incalculable value to science and general know- 
ledge. It has aroused the minds of the many indifferent to sci- 
entific investigation, to a spirit of inquiry and research, thus 
hastening the final establishment of truth. 
SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 
I. Cuemistry. 
1. On the Chemical Changes produced by the Action of the Solar 
Rays, or Actino-Chemistry ; by Roserr Hunt, (Lon. and Ed. Phil. 
Mag., July, 1845, p. 25, and October, 1845, p. 276.)—At a meeting 
of the British Association at York, it was proposed by Sir John Her- 
schel, that all those phenomena, which exhibit change of condition 
under the influence of the solar rays, should be distinguished, as form- 
ing a peculiar province of chemistry, and be designated by the term 
Actino-chemistry ; this was generally approved by the chemical section. 
Accordingly, the sun’s rays are divided into those producing light, 
those producing heat, and those producing an actinic influence. 
Mr. Hunt, in his experiments, confirms a fact first pointed out by 
Sir John Herschel, that the rays of the sun facilitate precipitation. 
_ A solution of manganate of potash having been made in the dark, 
was placed in two glasses and set aside. After having been kept in 
darkness for two hours, the solutions remained as clear asat first. One 
of the vessels with its contents was then removed into the sunshine, 
a necessary result of the animal mechanism; and their vast number is a conse- 
quence of the low order of the animal. The theory merely hinted at above, is 
Fawn out at some length in Mr. Dana's work on Zoophytes, in a chapter treating 
of the growth of Zoophytes and of organic development in general. 
