ASSOCIATIONS FOR ADVANCEMENT OP SCIENCE. (BRITISH.) 



C. Geology. This section was presided over by 

 John E. Marr, Secretary of the Geological Society 

 and lecturer on geology at Cambridge University. 

 His subject was " Stratigraphies! Geology," and lie 

 discussed the effect that the work done on the sub- 

 ject in recent years has had upon our knowledge 

 of geology considered as a whole. In opening, he 

 referred to the death of Sir Joseph Prestwich 

 " as the last link between the pioneers of the sci- 

 ence and the geologists of the present day." " Of 

 the four great divisions of geology," he said, 

 " stratigraphical geology is essentially British as 

 regards origin, its scientific principles having been 

 established by William Smith, who was not only 

 the father of English geology, but of stratigraphical 

 geology in general. . . . The object of the strati- 

 graphical geologist is to obtain information con- 

 cerning all physical, climatic, and biological events 

 which have occurred during each period of the past, 

 and to arrange them in chronological order, so as 

 to write a connected history of the earth. ... It 

 is specially desirable that the ancient faunas and 

 floras of tropical regions should be more fully made 

 known, as a study of these will probably throw con- 

 siderable light upon the influence of climate upon 

 the geographical distribution of organisms in past 

 times. Large collections of varieties of species 

 should be made, and local observers should devote 

 themselves to the study of particular groups of 

 organisms, for work of this character would greatly 

 reduce the imperfection of the record from the bi- 

 ologists' point of view." 



The recent advances in geological knowledge 

 were discussed, as well as the glacial problem. He 

 made reference to the work of Charles D. Walcott, 

 G. F. Matthews, C. E. Beecher, and R. T. Jackson, 

 concerning which he said : " These are four strik- 

 ing instances which especially illustrate the great 

 advances that are being made in the study of the 

 paleontology of the invertebrates by our Amer- 

 ican brethren." / 



Among the more important papers presented be- 

 fore this section were : " The Geology of the Isle of 

 Man," by W. Boyd Dawkins ; " Observations on 

 some of the Footprints from the Trias in the Neigh- 

 borhood of Liverpool," by H. C. Beasley ; " Recent 

 Borings in the Red Marl near Liverpool," " On the 

 Range of Species in the Carboniferous Limestone 

 of North Wales," and "An Account of the Erosion 

 of the Seacoast of Wirral," by G. IT. Morton ; " On 

 Tertiary Deposits in North Manxland," by A. Bell ; 

 " On Pre-Cambrian Fossils," by Sir William Daw- 

 son ; " On the Depths of the Sea in Past Epochs," 

 by E. B. Wethered ; " On the Cause of the Bathy- 

 metric Limit of Pteropod Ooze," and " The Con- 

 ditions under which the Upper Chalk was de- 

 posited," by P. F. Kendall; "On the Source of 

 Lava" and "On the Post-Cambrian Shrinkage of 

 the Globe," by J. Logan Lobley ; " Notes on the Rip- 

 pling of Sand by Water and by Wind," by Vaughan 

 Cornish ; " The Geology of Skomer Island," by F. 

 T. 'Howard and E. W. Small ; " Notes on Sections 

 along the London Extension of the Manchester, 

 Sheffield and Lincoln Railway between Rugby and 

 Aylesbury," by Horace B. Woodward ; " The Dis- 

 covery of Marine Shells in the Drift Series at High 

 Levels in Ayrshire," by John Smith ; " Notes on the 

 Superficial Deposits of North Shropshire," by C. 

 Callaway; "Some Post-Pliocene Changes of Phys- 

 ical Geography in Yorkshire," by Percy F. Ken- 

 dall ; "Another Possible Cause of the Glacial 

 Epoch." by Kdward Hull; " Fifth Contribution to 

 Rhastic Literature," by Montague Browne ; " Notes 

 on Some Fossil Plants from a Place a Short Dis- 

 tance South of Johannesburg," by A. C. Seward ; 

 "On the Action of Currents in the Deposition of 

 Purple Clays," by Harry G. Seeley ; and " A New 



Theiodont Skull from Wonder Bonn, Cape Col- 

 ony," by Harry Govier. 



I). Zoology. Edward B. Poulton, Professor of 

 Zoology at Oxford, presided over this section, and 

 in his address he discussed the difficulties arising 

 both from the physical and the biological points of 

 view in considering the question whether the pres- 

 ent state of palaeontological and zoological knowl- 

 edge increases or diminished these difficulties. He 

 said : " Our object to-day is, first, to consider the 

 objections raised by physicists against the time de- 

 manded by the geologist, and still more against its 

 multiplication by the student of organic evolution ; 

 secondly, to inquire whether the present state of 

 paheontological and zoological knowledge increases 

 or diminishes the weight of the opinion of Darwin, 

 Huxley, and Herbert Spencer, that the time during 

 which the geologists concluded that'the fossilifer- 

 ous rocks had been formed was utterly insufficient 

 to account for organic evolution." His conclusion 

 was: " In this matter of physical arguments we are 

 at one with the geologists, for we rely on them for 

 an estimate of the time occupied by the deposition 

 of the stratified rocks, while they rely on us for a 

 conclusion as to how far this period is sufficient for 

 the whole of organic evolution." Concerning the 

 geological argument, he said that the stratified 

 rocks would have been laid down in about four 

 hundred million years. The biological evidence 

 was considered chiefly from a palaeontological point 

 of view, and the speaker contended that " the con- 

 sideration of the higher Phyla which occur fossil, 

 except the vertebrata, leads to the irresistible con- 

 clusion that the whole period in which the fossilif- 

 erous rocks were laid down must be multiplied sev- 

 eral times for this later history alone. Moreover, 

 the period that is thus obtained requires to be again 

 increased, and perhaps even doubled, for the earlier 

 history." 



Among the more important papers presented be- 

 fore this section were : " On the Cultivation of Oysters 

 as practiced by the Romans," by R. T. Gunster; 

 " Some Recent Investigations on the Utility of 

 Specific Characters in Crustaceans," by Walter 

 Garstang; "The Present Position of Morphology 

 in Zoological Science," by E. W. MacBride ; "On 

 the Morphology of the Olfactory Lobe," by Charles 

 S. Minot; "On the Habits of Wasps," by Prof. 

 Edgeworth ; " On the Genyornis Newtoni, an Ex- 

 tinct Australian Bird, "by Dr. Stirling; " Phoronis, 

 the Earliest Ancestor of the Vertebrates " and 

 " Some Effects of Pelagic Spawning and the Life 

 Histories of Marine Fishes," by A. T. Masterman; 

 "On the Structure of the Male Apus," by W. B. 

 Benham : " On the Life History of the Haddock," 

 by W r illiam C. M'Intosh; "The Index Generum et 

 Specierum," by F. A. Barter ; " On the Develop- 

 ment of the Tiger Beetle," by F. Enoch ; " On the 

 Eozoon Canadense," by Sir William Dawson ; and 

 "An Account of Herr Dannevig's Sea-Fish Hatch- 

 ery in Norway," by J. W. Woodall. An important 

 discussion on " Neo-Lamarckism " occurred, in 

 which many of the members took part, including 

 Prof. Charles S. Minot, of Boston, Mass. On Sept. 

 2 a joint session of the sections on zoology and 

 botany was held for the purpose of discussing the 

 " Cell Theory," over which Dunkinfield H. Scott at 

 first, but later Edward P. Poulton presided. Profs. 

 Farmer, Hartog, Minot, and Zacharias participated 

 in the discussion. Also the following reports were 

 presented : " On Bird Migration in Great Britain 

 and Ireland," by John Cordeaux; "On the Fauna 

 of African Lakes," by J. E. Moore ; " On the Zoolo- 

 gy, Botany, and Geology of the Irish Sea," by Wil- 

 liam A. Ilerdman ; and " On the Work of the 

 Marine Biological Laboratory in Plymouth," " On 

 the Zoology and Botany of the West India Islands," 



