154 On the Philosophy of Nature. 



mal breathing in the air or a fish. And wherever, in this very 

 case, the predominant system does not stifle the other entirely, 

 there always remain traces of the latter, the existence of which 

 is sufficient to attest the twofold original design, and whose de- 

 velopment, Hmited as its uses, so far from hurting the free ex- 

 ercise of the opposite system, enriches it with constantly useful 

 aids. 



The author then spoke of his researches I'especting insects. 

 He dwelt particularly on his numerous investigations on the sub- 

 ject of monstrosity, on those by means of which he succeeded in 

 shewing that all the cases of monstrosity, formerly considered 

 as lusus or sports of Nature, on the contrary furnish so many 

 proofs of the constancy of her laws. It was especially in conse- 

 quence of this examination that the author arrived at this en- 

 tirely unexpected result, which very happily solves the difficul- 

 ties, and explains them in a perfectly natural manner : that it is 

 not the organs themselves, but the materials of which the organs 

 are composed, that recur in all animals in invariable positions, 

 which are in short always and decidedly similar. 



" There results from this recital," said the author in conclud- 

 ing, " that, if we believe in the determinate existence of certain 

 organic materials, in that of a very small number of laws for 

 arranging them, in a prescribed and necessary order of arrange- 

 ment, and consequently in the philosophical similarity of beings, 

 and, finally, that if we have made of these propositions, extended 

 to all their identical cases, the subject of an abstract and general 

 principle, we have not at least conceived it before examining 

 facts, but we have, on the contrary, adopted it as the result of 

 long and laborious researches." Le Globe. 



Observations on the Daily Periodical Growth of Wheat and Bar- 

 ley. By M. Ernest Maykr, Professor at Konigsberg. 



X HE author, who distinguishes himself as well by the accuracy 

 of his observations as by the philosophical direction which 

 he gives them, had already made known to us the rapidity of 

 growth of the stalk of Amaryllis belladonna *, which is such 



• Mem. de la Soc. Horticult. de Berlin, t. v. p. 110. 



