i86 



NATURE 



\yune 29, 1876 



It would be advisable that the Presidents of the follow- 

 ing Societies should be ex-officio members of the Govern- 

 ment Grant Committee, viz. : — 



The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 

 Royal Irish Academy, 

 Royal Astronomical Society, 

 Mathematical Society, 

 Chemical Society, 

 Linnean Society, 

 Zoological Society, 

 Geological Society, 

 Physical Society, 

 Institution of Civil Engineers, 

 Institute of Mechanical Engineers, 

 General Council of Medical Education and 



Registration of the United Kingdom. 

 Royal College of Physicians, 

 Royal College of Surgeons, and 

 British Association. 

 No definite rule can be laid down as to the amounts to 

 be awarded in individual cases. These must depend 

 upon various circumstances, especially on the amount of 

 time which the investigator devotes to the inquiry. 



There would be no objection to the application of some 

 portion of this fund to the payment of such clerical assist- 

 ance as may be found necessary. 



I should feel obliged if you will consult the Council 

 of the Royal Society on this scheme and inform me what 

 is their opinion of it, and also give me the benefit of any 

 suggestions as to modifications that may occur to them 

 or to you. 



I have the honour to remain, Sir, 



Your obedient servant, 

 (Signed) Richmond and Gordon 



Letter to the President of the Royal Society. 



Science and Art Department, South Kensington, S.VV., 

 May 29, 1876 



Sir,— In reference to our conversation on Monday last 

 on the subject of the Duke of Richmond and Gordon's 

 letter of April 29, I should feel obliged by your informing 

 the Council of the Royal Society that the Lords of the 

 Committee of Council on Education agree with you in 

 thinking that, under the circumstances, it would perhaps 

 be more advisable to leave the grant of 1,000/. exactly as 

 at present. The conditions of the Lord President's letter 

 would then apply only to the vote of 4,000/. Should the 

 Council of the Royal Society concur in this view, we will 

 communicate with the Treasury on the subject. The 

 recommendations of the Royal Society with respect to the 

 appropriation of the 4,000/. must, no doubt, be liable to 

 revision by the Minister responsible to Parliament for its 

 due administration, and of this responsibility he cannot 

 divest himself. But the power is one, we beUeve, for the 

 exercise of which there is never likely to be occasion. 

 Should it, however, happen that the Committee of 

 Council on Education found it inadvisable to act on all 

 of the recommendations of the Royal Society, the best 

 course would probably be to give the Council an oppor- 

 tunity of revising them ; so that, if thought desirable, the 

 items of the grant, to which exception had been taken, 

 might be allocated in some other way. If the Royal 

 Society are still desirous that the grant should be accepted 

 or rejected as a whole, the Lords of the Committee of 

 Council on Education will of course undertake that this 

 shall be done. But they beheve on consideration that the 

 Council will agree that such a course would be likely to 

 have a mischievous effect, and entail great hardship on 

 those recipients of grants who, from the success that had 

 attended their investigations, might naturally have ex- 

 pected the continuance of their grants. 



As respects the reports of progress, My Lords believe 

 that the Council of the Royal Society will see that Parlia- 

 ment will naturally desire to have laid before them such a 



report from those capable of giving an opinion, as will 

 enable them to judge of the nature and amount of work 

 being done, and the desirability, or otherwise, of continu- 

 ing the grants. It is not asked that the report should be 

 in any great detail ; as a rule it would be sufficient if it 

 were of a general character, unless some of the subjects 

 should from their special nature seem to require more 

 precise information. The Lords of the Committee of 

 Council on Education are fully aware of the great diffi- 

 culties which surround the question of the direct en- 

 couragement of research and of the labour and responsi- 

 bility that must necessarily be entailed on those who 

 undertake to organise the experiment in this country. 

 They therefore are glad to find that they may reckon on 

 the cordial co-operation of the Royal Society, to whom 

 they naturally first appealed to aid them in this matter. 

 I have the honour to be, Sir, 



Your obedient Servant, 



(Signed) Sandon 



J. D. Hooker, Esq., C.B., M.D., &c., 

 President of the Royal Society 



Letter to Lord Sandon. 



The Royal Society, Burlington House, W., 

 yitnez, 1876 



My Lord, — With reference to your Lordship's letter to 

 the President of the Royal Society dated May 29, I am 

 to inform you that the President and Council of the Royal 

 Society concur in the proposal therein contained, namely 

 that, while the grant of 1,000/. should remain exactly as 

 at present, a vote of 4,000/. should be taken on the con- 

 ditions expressed in the Lord President's letter ; and that, 

 in case it should happen that the Committee of Council 

 on Education found it inadvisible to act on all the recom- 

 mendations of the Royal Society, the Council of the 

 Royal Society should have an opportunity of revising 

 them, so that, if thought desirable, the items of the grant 

 to which exception had been taken might be allocated in 

 some other way. 



I have the honour to be, my Lord, 



Your obedient ServJint, 

 (Signed) G. G. Stokes, Secretary, R.S. 



The Lord Sandon, &c., &c., &c. 



WALLACE'S GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 

 OF ANIMALS * 



The Geographical Distribution of Animals, with a Study 

 of the Living and Extinct Famtas, as Elucidating the 

 Past Changes of the Earth's Surface. By Alfred 

 Russel Wallace. Two Vols. 8vo. (London : Mac- 

 millan and Co., 1876.) 



IL 



THE second part of his great work on Geographical 

 Distribution Mr. Wallace devotes to the discussion 

 of fossil animals. It might seem at first sight, as our 

 author observes, rather out of place to begin the 

 systematic treatment of this subject with extinct ani- 

 mals rather than with recent ones. But those who take 

 the trouble to read these most interesting chapters will 

 be speedily convinced to the contrary. Imperfect as is 

 our knowledge of the geological past, enough has been 

 already ascertained to enable some enchanting theories 

 to be started which account to a greater or less ex- 

 tent for some of the most difficult problems of the 

 present. As regards the comparatively recent extirpation 

 of large and important forms which has taken place in 

 Europe, in North America, and in South America alike 

 since Post- Pliocene times, " it is clear," our author tells 



« Continued from p. 168. 



