194 



THE AMERICAN MONTHLY 



[October, 



to our regret, but we saw various evi- 

 dences of his interest in the Society 

 in the form of valuable donations. 

 Mr. Breckenfeld has been studying 

 the fresh-water Hydra ^ and we are 

 able to promise an illustrated article 

 from him on the subject before long. 



At the Academy of Sciences we 

 found Dr. Harkness hard at \voi-k 

 over his Fungi, of which he has a 

 large and growing collection. At a 

 later day, or rather evening, we joined 

 a gathering around the festive board, 

 over which the Doctor presided with 

 the genial qualities of the best of hosts, 

 and revelled in the exuberance of 

 good and congenial spirits there pres- 

 ent. 



At last our voyage is nearly at an 

 end, and the coast of Japan will loom 

 above the horizon ere three more 

 hours pass. Even now some passen- 

 gers have their glasses out, eagerly 

 seeking for the first glimpse of the 

 isolated peak of Fusi Yamo. But a 

 mist over the horizon obscures every- 

 thing yet, and though there is still 

 nothing around us but the rippled sur- 

 face of the heaving water, we must 

 bring this to a close, and get ready 

 with camera and plates to make a 

 faithful record of all we may see of in- 

 terest in the strange land we are 

 approaching. H . 



The British Associatiox for the 

 Advancement of Science held its 

 56th annual meeting this summer at 

 Birmingham. 



Sir J. William Dawson, F. R. 

 S., F. G. S., principal of McGill 

 University, Montreal, in his presi- 

 dential address calls attention to the 

 occasion, in 1884, when the Associa- 

 tion met in Montreal, and when 

 many of its members attended the 

 meeting of the American Associa- 

 tion in Philadelphia, and refers to 

 the project of an international scien- 

 tific convention, in which the great 

 English republic of America shall 

 take part. 



He refers to the wonderful strides 

 of progress which make such inter- 



national affairs possible ; and we may 

 well stop a moment to conteinplate 

 with pleasure the stride of progress 

 in the feeling of brotherhood which 

 is fast uniting the scattered mem- 

 bers of the human family. That 

 America can furnish a president for 

 the British Association is a matter, 

 too, for pride. 



Dr. Dawson's presidential address 

 is an able restiine of present opinion 

 upon the Phvsiography of the Atlan- 

 tic Ocean. It treats of the condition 

 of the earth before an ocean could 

 be ; the dividing of the water from the 

 land ; formation and growth ; con- 

 tinents and seas : the history of the 

 Atlantic, its climate, and the relation 

 of its climate to the glacial period ; 

 the transmission of life across the 

 ocean. 



In closing the address on the 

 ' Geological Development of the 

 Ocean.' Dr. Dawson says: — 'We 

 cannot, I think, consider the topics 

 to which I have referred without 

 perceiving that the history of ocean 

 and continent is an example of pro- 

 gressive design quite as much as that 

 of living beings.' 



' The vastness and might of the 

 ocean, and the manner in which it 

 cherishes the feeblest and most frag- 

 ile beings, alike speak to us of Him 

 who holds it in the hollow of His 

 hand, and gave to it of old its bound- 

 aries and its laws.' 



o 



Mr. John H. Long has published 

 an article in the Bulletin of the 

 Illinois State Microscopical Society 

 on the microscopic examination of 

 butter, in which he very squarely 

 contradicts Dr. Taylor's statements. 

 The facts brought forward by Mr. 

 Long, however, may not be so im- 

 portant in practice as they seem to 

 be ; for although it is true that butter 

 fat does sometimes appear crystalline 

 in parts of commercial packages, the 

 fact is perfectiv familiar to all ob- 

 servers (and has not been overlooked 

 bv Dr. Taylor), and need not, there- 

 fore, give rise to any difficulty. 



