276 



NATURE 



[7uly2T, 1876 



discussion of which is tlje object of the memoir we are 

 noticing. On the northern bank of the Save there rises 

 from the " diluviuim " of the vast Hungarian plains an 

 " island " composed of various crystalline, Triassic, and 

 Tertiary rocks, and on the southern side of this tract of 

 older deposits and upheaved along its flanks, between the 

 towns of Alt Gradiska and Turkish Brod, stretches a 

 vast mass of strata, constituting probably the most mag- 

 nificent representative of the latest stage of the Tertiary 

 period which geologists have as yet had the good fortune 

 to discover. 



The strata in question consist of sands and clays, with 

 numerous beds of lignite, and it is to the value of the 

 latter as fuel that we are indebted for those excavations 

 which have afforded such excellent opportunities for 

 studying the successive series of faunas of the formation. 

 The whole of the beds appear to be of lacustrine origin, 

 and have been accumulated, doubtless through the long- 

 continued subsidence of the area, to the enormous thick- 

 ness of about 2,000 feet ; the lower division of the strata 

 known as the " Congerien-Schichten," appears to have 

 been formed under brackish-water conditions, but their 

 upper and by far their thickest portion was certainly 

 accumulated in fresh water. This upper fresh-water 

 series, the. " Ealudinen-Schichten," is divided by our 

 authors into three principal groups, comprising eight 

 zones, each of which exhibits a well-marked and charac- 

 teristic fauna. 



The group of shells which affords the most interestinf 

 evidence of the origin of new forms through descent with 

 modification is that of the genus Vivipara or Paludina, 

 which occurs in prodigious abundance throughout the 

 whole series of fresh w^ter strata. We shall not, of 

 course, attempt in this place to enter into any details 

 concerning the forty distinct forms of this genus (Dr. 

 Neumayr very properly hesitates to call them all species) 

 which are named and described in this monograph, and 

 between which, as the authors show, so many connecting 

 links, clearly illustrating the mode of derivation of the 

 newer from the older types, have been detected. On the 

 minds of those who carefully examine the admirably 

 engraved figures given in the plates accompanying this 

 valuable memoir, or still better the very large series of 

 specimens from among which the subjects of these figures 

 are selected, and which are now in the museum of the 

 Reichsanstalt of Vienna, but little doubt will, we suspect, 

 remain that the authors have iully made out their case, 

 and have demonstrated that, beyond all controversy, the 

 species with highly complicated ornamentation were 

 variously derived by descent — the lines of which are in 

 most cases perfectly clear and obvious — from the simple 

 and unornamented Vivipara achatinoides of the Con- 

 gerien-Schichten. It is interesting to notice that a large 

 portion of these unquestionably derived forms depart so 

 widely from the type of the genus Vivipaj'a that they have 

 been separated on so high an authority as that of Sand- 

 berger, as a new genus, under the name of Tulotoma. 

 And iience we are led to the conclusion that a vast 

 number of forms, certainly exhibiting specific distinctions, 

 and, according to some naturalists, differences even 

 entitled to be regarded of generic value, have all a 

 common ancestry. 



The vast Tertiary lake-basins of Eastern Europe, in 

 which similar conditions were maintained during such an 

 enormous period, and in which such an unbroken 

 sequence of deposits was accumulated, offer, of course, a 

 particularly favourable opportunity for investigating the 

 relations existing between successive life forms. The 

 disturbing elements, arising from rapid variations in 

 physical conditions attended with the circumstance of 

 the immigiation of forms from other areas, and the con- 

 sequent retreat of the older fauna, the evidence of which 

 is .so constantly detected in the case of geological 

 formations of marine origin, are here to a very great 



extent eliminated ; and henge we are ^ble to trace with 

 marvelloys precision tl^e exact pedigree of an immense 

 number of diverse forms. 



We may, however, be permitted to add that much of 

 the failure in recognising the undoubted ancestral relation- 

 ships which exist between many marine invertebrate fossil 

 forms, appears to arise either from prejudice on the part 

 of the observers, or from that unfortunate divorce between 

 the work of the physical geologist and the palaeontologist, 

 which, in this country at least, tends to confine the former 

 entirely to the fi.eld, and the latter as absolutely to the 

 museum. In no way can the admirable results which 

 may be expected to ensue from the combined study of 

 the physical and palasontological characteristics of a 

 formation be better exemplified than by an appeal to the 

 publications of the Geological Reichsanstalt of Vienna. 

 In the same volume of the Abhandlungen, which contains 

 the valuable memoir to which we have alluded in the 

 former part pf this article, is published a second in- 

 stalment of Dr. E. Mojsisovics' splendid monograph, 

 " Die Mollusken-Faunen der Zlambach und Halls'a'.ter- 

 Schichten," in which the wonderfully- varied mollusc m 

 forms of the Alpine Trias are so admirably described, 

 their derivation traced, and their relations to the Palaeo- 

 zoic and Mesozoic types clearly indicated. While the 

 study of such exceptionally well-preserved faunas as 

 those we have alluded to cannot but impress us with that 

 incompleteness which is undoubtedly the usual charac- 

 teristic of " the geological record," it nevertheless leads 

 us to entertain the hope, and even to express the cer- 

 tainty, that in the hands of the palaeontologist lies the 

 key to that mystery which at present envelopes the laws 

 that have governed th^ appearance of the successive forms 

 of lif?. 



J. W. JUDD 



PRIZES OFFERED BY THE DUTCH SOCIETY 



OF SCIENCES 



T^HE following subjects for prizes have been proposed by the 

 •*• Dutch Society of Sciences, Haarlem. 



1. To make a complete experimental study of the question 

 whether a Daniell element can decompose water, and to submit 

 to a critical examination the theories according to which it does 

 or does not possess this power. 



2. What are the meteorological and magnetic phenomena 

 which there are sufficient reasons for believing to be connected 

 with sun-spots ? 



3 It seems to result from certain experiments of M. Bunsen 

 {Ann. der Chem. und Pharm. Ixxxv. p. 137, et. siq., 1863), 

 that when mixtures ol hydrogen and carbonic oxide are inflamed 

 in a eudiometer with a quantity of oxygen insufficient for 

 complete combustion, there always remains a part of the two 

 combustible gases, and that the quantities of water and of car- 

 bonic dioxide which are formed have the relation to each other of 

 simple multiples of their molecular weights. The same will hold 

 good for the quantities of carbonic monoxide and carbonic dioxide 

 which are generated by the combustion of cyanogen by means of 

 a limited quantity of oxygen. The Society requires that these 

 experiments be repeated on a more extended scale, with gaseous 

 mixtures of very diverse composition, and by varying consider- 

 ably the proportions of the constituents. 



4. The researches of Mr. Lockyer concerning the difference of 

 the spectral lines which calcium gives by means of electricity at 

 different temperatures, have excited in a high degree the interest 

 of the Society which requires that these iinportant researches 

 be extended to other elements. 



5. Give a critical rhume oi the observations and experiments 

 concerning the existence of Bacteria in the contagious diseases of 

 man, followed by original researches on the same question, 

 studied in one or more of these diseases. 



6. The society requires a simple instrument by which tempe- 

 ratures above 350° C. may be measured in degrees of the air- 

 thermometer. 



7. Make researches on the influence which the different colours 

 of the spectrum exercise on the life of the lower animals. 



