44 



ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Hebrides," by Sir Archibald Geikie; " A New Meth- 

 od of Measuring Crystals," by H. A. Miens; "The 

 Pebbles of the Trias of Budleigh Sallerton and of 

 Cannoek Cha>c." by T. (',. Moim. y ; " A Soda Felspar 

 at hinas Head. Cornwall,'' bv Howard Fox; 

 "Notieeof a New Fossil Fisli from the Upper Old I.'ed 

 Sandstone ..t' KVmshirc." by R. B. Traquair; "His- 

 torical Account <>f the IHscovery of the Cambrian 

 Fauna in Britain," by H. Hicks; "Some Vertebrate 

 lu-niains from the Kinetic Strata of Britain," by Mon- 

 tagu Br.>\vrie; "Some Forms of Saurian Footprints 

 from the Cheshire Trias," by Osmund W. .Mis; 

 "On Some Lime-tone 1 /.-posits of the Glacial Period 

 in Middlesex.' 1 by 11. Hicks; "On Sporadic Glacia- 

 tion in the Harlech Mountains," by J. F. Blake; "On 

 the Probable Temperature of the Glacial Period," by 

 T. G. Bouncy ; An Examination of Croll'sand Ball's 

 Theory , .f Ice A^cs and Genial Ages," by Edward P. 

 Culvei'A i 11 ; --On the Mechanics of an Ice Sheet," by 

 J. F. Blake: "The Permian Strata of the North of 

 the Isle <>f Man" and "The Carboniferous Limestone, 

 Triassic Sandstone, and Salt-bearing Marls of the 

 North of the Isle of Man," by W. Boyd Dawkins. 

 The following special reports we're presented : " Report 

 of the Committee of the Stonesfleld Slate"; "Report 

 of the Committee on Geological Photographs"; "Re- 



Krt of the Committee on Fossil Phyllopoda of the 

 heozoic Rocks"; "Report of the Committee on 

 the Euryptcrid-hcaring Deposits of the Pentlands"; 

 "Report of the Committee on Erratic Blocks "; "Re- 

 port of the Committee on the High-level Shell-bear- 

 ing Deposits of Clara, the Elbolton Cave, and the 

 Calf Hole Cave " ; and the " Report of the Committee 

 on Earth Tremors." 



D. Biology. This section was presided over 

 by Prof. Isaac B. Balfour, Professor of Botany 

 in the University of Edinburgh. His address 

 was chiefly devoted to the advocacy of systematic 

 and scientific forestry in Great Britain. ' In open- 

 ing his address he referred to the Oxford School 

 of Biologists and the loss that it had recently 

 suffered in the death of Prof. George J. Romanes. 

 Concerning forestry, which was the chief sub- 

 ject of his address, he said, "It is a division of 

 rural economy which ought to be the basis of a 

 large national industry." Great Britain is spe- 

 cially well adapted for tree growing. Forests 

 are of importance to a country, firstly, as a 

 source "f timber and fuel, and, secondly, on ac- 

 count of their hygienic and climatic influences. 

 These aspects wen- dix-nssed, and Dr. Nisbet 

 was quoted as authority for the statement, 

 " Where, t he rainfall is over forty inches it is un- 

 desirable to increase the forest area." The eco- 

 nomic importance of sylviculture was clearly 

 shown by a statement of the value of imports of 

 r>>iv-t produce, much of which could be pro- 

 duced at home. The amount of state ownership 

 rests on Continental Kurope was of value in 

 preserving the timber supply, but in England 

 this dement has been largely 'ignored. While it 

 is true that, owing to the condition of land ten- 

 ure, tenants were not disposed to raise timber 

 which would not result in any advantage to 

 themselves, still recent legislation had tended 

 to improve this condition" of things. Lack of 

 knowledge as well as the great, length of time 

 necessary for returns operated against, raising 

 timber. Ordinary crops yield returns in a, year, 

 but cultivating woodlands would yield returns 

 only to posterity. The state should set, an ex- 

 ample. It ought to treat its own forest areas in 

 a reasonable and scientific manner, instead of 

 leaving them as objects of scientific scorn. The 



area of state ownership should be increased, and 

 forest stations should be established. The prof- 

 its from such areas would more than repay any 

 outlay. The diffusion of accurate knowledge is, 

 after all, the true solution of the question. 

 Landowners must be convinced that a profitable 

 investment for their capital is to be found in 

 woodlands. The literature of the subject is im- 

 proving, but more standard manuals are neces- 

 sary. Chairs of forestry in the universities and 

 schools of forestry are needed. For teachers, it 

 would be necessary to draw upon the Indian 

 Forest Service, for they could not be found in 

 Great Britain. Botanists must be the apostles 

 of forestry, and forestry in turn will react upon 

 their treatment of botany. Botany can not 

 thrive in a purely introspective atmosphere. It 

 can only live by keeping in touch with the na- 

 tional life, and the path by which it may at the 

 present time best do this is that offered by 

 forestry." 



Owing to the large number of papers before 

 this section, it divided itself into a subsection 

 of zoology, that met under the presidency of 

 Prof. Ray Lankester, and a subsection of botany, 

 under the presidency of Prof. I. B. Balfour. 

 The papers were as follow : 



" The Didermic Blastocyst of the Mammalia," by 

 A. A. W. Hubrecht; "Ancestry of the Chordata," by 

 Walter Garstang; "The Rudimentary Scales of the 

 Spoonbill Sturgeon (Polyodan)," by W. E. Collinge ; 



" A I 1 - r 



lg;e which deposit Calcareous 

 sues," by T. Johnson ; " The Development of the Cys- 

 tocarp in Polysiphonia Nigrescens," by H. Phillips ; 

 " On the Relations of Protoplasm," and " On the Ori- 



gin and Morphological Signification of the Noto- 

 chord," by E. Van Beneden ; u On the Periodic Varia- 

 tion in the Number of Chromosomes," by E. Stras- 

 burger; "On Chlorophyll in Animals," bv Ray Lan- 

 kester;" On the Carpus of the Greenland Eight Whale 

 compared with that of Fin Whales," by JohnStruth- 



" On the Hygroscopic Dispersal of Fruits in Certain 

 Labiatae," by Miss Pertz ; " The Hybridization of Or- 

 chids," by James Clark ; " Temperature as a Factor in 

 the Distribution of Marine Animals," by Otto Mars; 

 "Marine Fish Hatching and the Dunbar Establish- 

 ment of the Fishery Board for Scotland," by W. C. 

 Mclntosh ; " Correlation between Root and Shoot," 

 by L. King; " On the Sensitiveness of the Root Tip," 

 by Prof. Pferr'er; " Pachytheea," by George Murray: 

 " Structure of Fossil Plants," by Dr. Scott ; " A Thames 

 Bacillus," by H. Marshall Ward ; " Influence of Light 

 on Diastase," by J. R. Green ; " Geological History of 

 the Cycads," by A. C. Seward ; ' Some Difficulties of 

 Darwinism," by D'Arcy Thompson ;" Serial Insects 

 and Evolution," by Charles V. Riley, of Washington. 

 D. C. ; " The Phenomena of Mimicry in Butterflies," 

 by F. A. Dixey ; "A Plea for a Suspension of Judg- 

 ment regarding the Transmission of Acquired Charac- 

 ters " by Henry F. Osborn, of New York city ; " On 

 the Wing of the Archteopteryx," by W. P Py croft 



The Origin of the. Sexual Organs in the Pterido- 

 P u' yt y 1) ""- las n - <'ampbeir; "The Function of 

 the Nucleus," by E. Zacharias; arfd "Sterilization 

 and a Theory of the Stropilus in the Archegoniata? ," 

 by I. O. Bower. The following reports were also 

 pn-ented, viz.: "On the Naples Zoological Station "; 



On the Plymouth Biological Laboratory"; "On 

 the Zoology of the Sandwich Islands ";" On the 

 Zoology and Botany of the West Indies" ; "The In- 

 dex Gcnenmi of Specicrum Animalium " ; " On the 

 MiirnUions of Birds as observed at Lighthouses"; 

 ()n the Legislative Protection of Wild Birds' EIMM?' 

 'On Experimenting with a Deep-sea Tow Net for 



