ASSOCIATIONS 



ADVANCEMENT <>F srlKNVK. < BKITISH.) 



4:, 



and custom?, religious beliefs, and laws of all the 

 primitive races inhabiting the British colonies or 

 upon the borders of the empire, was adopted. 



On Sept. IS this section devoted a portion of its 

 proceedings to commemorating the centenary of the 

 birth of Dr. Andreas Ret/ius, the Swedish craniolo- 

 gist. Various a -re made. 



I. P/n/ftiolof/i/. This seel ion was presided over by 

 Or. Walter H. Gaskell. Lecturer on Physiology at 

 Cambridge, who delivered his address on Sept. 21. 

 and presented as his subject a new theory on the 

 ancestry of the vertebrata : The characteristic of 

 the vertebrate central nervous system is its tubular 

 character. Dr. Gaskell's hypothesis is that it is 

 composed of two parts, an internal epithelial tube, 

 surrounded by a segmented nervous system, and 

 that the internal epithelial tube was originally the 

 alimentary canal of an arthropod animal, which 

 has become surrounded by the nervous system. 

 Any hypothesis dealing with the origin of one group 

 of animals from another must satisfy three condi- 

 tions : 1. It must be in accordance with the phylo- 

 genetic history of each group. It must therefore 

 give a consistent explanation of all the organs and 

 tissues of the higher group which can be clearly 

 shown not to have originated within the group it- 

 self. At the same time, the variations which have 

 occurred on the hypothesis must be in harmony 

 with the direction of variation in the lower group, 

 if not actually foreshadowed in that group. 2. 

 The anatomical relation of parts must be the same 

 in the two groups, not only with respect to coinci- 

 dence of topographical arrangement, but also with 

 respect to similarity of structure, and, to a large 

 extent, also of function. 3. The peculiarities of 

 the ontogeny or embryological development of the 

 higher group must receive an adequate explanation 

 by means of the hypothesis, while at the same time 

 they must help to illustrate the truth of the hy- 

 pothesis. All these three conditions, he said, are 

 satisfied by the hypothesis stated as far as the head 

 region of the vertebrate is concerned, and he spoke 

 only of the head region for the present. 



Among the more important papers presented be- 

 fore this section were : " On the Genesis of Vowels," 

 by J. R. Lloyd : " On Further Researches with the 

 Phonograph." by Prof. McKendrick : "A New 

 Method of distinguishing between Organic and In- 

 organic Compounds of Iron in the Tissues." by Prof. 

 MeCallum; "On Types of Human Respiration." by 

 W. Marcet ; " On the Occurrence of Fever in Mice." 

 by Loraine Smith and Prof. Westbrook ; " The 

 Physiological Effects of Peptone when injected into 

 the Circulation." by W. II. Thompson ; ' On the 

 Nerves of the Intestine and the Effects of Small 

 Doses of Nicotine upon them," by J. L. Bunch : 

 "Peristalsis and Paralysis of the Intestine." by A. 

 S. Griinbaura : ' The Glucoside Constitution of Pro- 

 teid." by Frederick W. Pavy ; " The Discharge of a 

 Single Nerve Cell," by Francis Gotch: "The Rela- 

 tion between the Eye and Ear." by E. Stevenson ; 

 " Fragments from the Autobiography of a Nerve." 

 by A. W. Waller: "The Principles of Microtome 

 Construction," by Charles S. Minot, of Boston, Mass. ; 

 " The Structure of Nerve Cells," by G. Mann ; 

 " Cell Granulation under Normal and Abnormal 

 Conditions, with Special Reference to the Leuco- 

 cytes." by R. Buchanan : " Points illustrating Den- 

 tal Histology," by Prof. Paul: "Photometry and 

 Purkinje's Phenomena," by Prof. Haycroft : " The 

 Physical Basis of Life," by Prof. Allen : " The Role 

 of Osmosis in Physiological Processes." by Lazarus 

 Barlow ; " Bacteria in Food," by Dr. Kanthack ; 

 ' Organization of Bacteriological Research in Con- 

 nection with Public Health," by Dr. Woodhead ; 

 " On the Mechanism of Peritoneal Infection," by Dr. 

 Durham ; " On the Minute Structure of the Cerebel- 



lum." by Dr. 1 1 ill; " Some of tin- Observations on the 

 of Bacteriological Theory." by A. P. Fokker; 

 "The Action of Glycerin on the Growth of I; 

 ria." by Dr. Copenian; "On the Bacteriology of 

 Oysters'." by William A. Ilerdman and Dr. Boyce; 

 "The Actio'n of Human Serum on Typhoid Bacilli," 

 by Dr. Griinbaum : and " On the Detection of Lead 

 in Organic Fluids by the Immersion of a Strip of 

 Pure Magnesium in the Suspected Liquid," by Dr. 

 Abram and Mr. Marsden. 



K. Botany. The presiding officer of this section 

 was Dr. Dunkinh'eld II. Scott, honorary keeper of the 

 Jodrell Laboratory at the Royal Gardens in Kew. 



He limited the" scope of his address to modern 

 morphological botany, which he described as the 

 accurate comparison "of plants, both living and ex- 

 tinct, with the object of tracing their real relation- 

 ships with one another, and thus of ultimately con- 

 structing a genealogical tree of the vegetable king- 

 dom. In conclusion, Dr. Scott remarked on the 

 wonderful fascination of the records of the far-dis- 

 tant past in which our own origin, like that of our 

 distant cousins the plants, lies hidden. If any fact 

 is brought home to us by the investigations of mod- 

 ern biology, it is the conviction that all life is one; 

 that, as Nageli said, the distance from man to the 

 lowest bacterium is less than the distance from the 

 lowest bacterium to nonliving matter. The prob- 

 lems of descent, though, strictly speaking, they may 

 often prove insoluble, will never lose their attraction 

 for the scientifically guided imagination. 



Among the more important papers presented be- 

 fore this section were : " On Some Species of the 

 Chytridiaceous Genus Urophlyctis." by P. Magnus; 

 A Parasitic Disease of Pellia Epiphylla," by W. 

 G. Ellis: "An Account of Corrallorhiza Innata 

 and its Associated Fungi," by Vaughan Jennings ; 

 ' The Arrangement of the Vascular Bundles in 

 Certain Nymplnvaca'." by I). T. Gwynne- Vaughan ; 

 "On the Ascent of Water in Trees," by Francis 

 Darwin ; " On the Changes in the Tentacle of Dro- 

 sera Rotundifolia,"by Gustav Mann : " The Singular 

 Effect produced on Certain Animals in the West 

 Indies by feeding on the Young Shoots, Leaves, 

 Pods, and Seeds of the Wild Tamarind or Jumbai 

 Plant (Leuccena Glauca, Benth.)," by D. Morris; 

 " On the So-called Tubercle Bacillus," by Vaughan 

 Jennings : " Some Floral Diagrams of the Polygo- 

 nacav' by James W. II. Trail: "The Number of 

 Spores contained in the Sporangia of Various Types 

 of Filicineae." by Frederick 0. Bower ; " The Rela- 

 tionship of the Various Groups of Green Algav' by 

 Prof. Chordat : "Some Peculiar Cases of Apoga- 

 mous Reproduction in Ferns," by W. H. Lang; 

 "The Geographical Distribution of Plants," by 

 Thistleton Dyer: "On the Cells of the Cyanopy- 

 by Prof. Zacharius: "On Some Points in the 

 Morphology of the Orchidacea?," by Prof. Pfitzer; 

 "A New Hybrid Passion Flower," by J. Wilson; 

 " Observations on the Doranthaceag of Ceylon." by 

 F. W. Keeble ; " An Account of Experiments Deal- 

 ing with Latent Life in Seeds," by Casimir de Can- 

 dolle ; " A New Cyc'ad from the Purbeck Beds of 

 Portland," and "A Nte on a Large Specimen of 

 Lyginodendron " by A. C. Seward ; " Some Carbon- 

 iferous Fossils referred to Lepidostrobus," by D. H. 

 Scott; and "A New Species of Albuca," by J. 

 Wilson. 



Popular Features. On Sept. 17 a conference 

 of delegates representing local scientific societies 

 was held in Crown Court in the afternoon, over 

 which Dr. Carson presided and at which papers 

 were read. A symposium in honor of Sir Joseph 

 Lister was held in Adelphi Hall on Sept. 18, at 

 which 300 members were present and over which 

 Prof. Mitchell Banks presided. In the evening a 

 discourse on " Safety in Ships " was given by Dr. 



