1864. ] Microscopy. 683 
The immediate direction of the field-work of the British survey is 
in the hands of Professor Ramsay, F'.R.S., to whose close attention to 
accuracy of detail, combined with a profound acquaintance with 
physical geology, the trustworthy character of the maps and sections is 
greatly due. The Irish survey, under the able management of Mr. 
Jukes, F.R.S., is also making rapid progress. During the past year 
1,453 square miles were surveyed in Great Britain, and 818 square 
miles in Ireland, portions of these being re-surveys of the superficial 
drift accumulations. 
Complaints have sometimes been made, and with some show of 
justice, of the slow progress of the British surveys. This has been 
mainly owing to two causes. In the first place, for several years after 
the survey had been set on foot, under Sir H. De la Beche, a very 
small number of surveyors, not exceeding half-a-dozen, was allowed 
by the Government to be employed at one time. In the course of 
time the staff was gradually increased, and this source of delay may 
now be said to have been surmounted. The second cause is still in 
existence, namely, the low scale of remuneration granted by Govern- 
ment to the surveyors. We have no hesitation in saying this is short- 
sighted policy, and will eventually result in a larger outlay of the 
public funds. The result, as proved in many cases, is that the young 
surveyor, as soon as he has passed through a couple of years or so of 
training in the field, which is in every case necessary, and is ready to 
commence operations on his own resources, is tempted to accept the 
first offer of a surveyorship in the colonies, or any other opening that 
presents the prospects of a competency. ‘Thus the public lose the 
benefit of his services soon after he has become capable of rendering 
them. Under the present scale of remuneration this branch of the 
public service (in common with another connected with the same 
department of the state, namely, the “Science Teacher”) can only be 
regarded as a stepping-stone to some more substantial source of liveli- 
hood, as it is scarcely possible the Surveyor can save out of his income, 
or that his physical strength will withstand the wear and tear to which 
he is exposed till the age at which he is entitled to retire on a pension. 
VI. MICROSCOPY. 
Tue history of embryological science dates from the invention of the 
microscope, and has advanced pari passu with the improvements of 
that instrument and the facilities afforded to microscopical observers. 
Dr. C. Robin has lately directed his attention to the development of 
the spinal column from its earliest stages with some important results. 
He has succeeded in showing that the atlas and axis vertebre offer this 
peculiarity, that the first constitutes a vertebral ring without a body, 
whilst the second has two vertebral bodies united in one. The odon- 
toid apophysis, in fact, is nothing more nor less than the body of the 
atlas, which during the processes of development becomes thus sepa- 
