July II, 1878] 



NATURE 



285 



and of the Bureau des Longitudes, and was for some time 

 a member of the Council of the Observatory, It is 

 understood that M. Bardoux suggested the adoption of 

 the system in operation at the United States Naval 

 Observatory at Washington, and to model the great 

 Paris Observatory after that institution ; and as stated 

 above, the appointment of Admiral Mouchez as director, 

 and M. Loewy as sub-director, are at present intended 

 to be limited to five years, with the same restriction as to 

 future nominations. 



M. Maurice Loewy, who was born at Pesth in 1834, 

 commenced his astronomical career at the Imperial 

 Observatory of Vienna, under the late Prof. Carl von 

 Littrow, on whose recommendation he was transferred to 

 the Observatory of Paris by Leverrier, in i860. At 

 Vienna he was much occupied with the calculation of the 

 orbits of comets, including the great comet of Donati in 

 1858, for which body he was one of the first to esta- 

 blish elliptical elements. He succeeded Laugier, as one 

 of the astronomers of the Bureau des Longitudes in 1872, 

 and since 1874 has been charged with the preparation 

 of the Connaissance des Tetfips, the French national 

 ephemeris, and the Antmaire, works which have^ greatly 

 benefited by his energetic superintendence. Under 

 Delaunay's rule, M. Loewy occupied the position of sub- 

 director of the Observatory of Paris, charging himself 

 with the meridian observations. 



The installation of Admiral Mouchez took place on 

 Saturday by the Council of the Observatory, of which M. 

 Dumas is president, 



PROF. IV. M. GABB 



"XirE greatly regret to hear of the death from con- 

 * * sumption, on May 30, at his residence in Phila- 

 delphia, of Prof. William M. Gabb, who for many years 

 has occupied a very prominent place among American 

 naturalists. 



He was born on January 20, 1839, in Philadelphia, 

 and was educated at its High School, being one of the 

 many graduates of whom that institution had reason to 

 be proud. As a boy he was especially interested in 

 mineralogy and palaeontology, and at an early age was so 

 fortunate as to secure an engagement with Prof. James 

 Hall, where he had ample opportunity of indulging his 

 tastes. Returning to Philadelphia, he became a member 

 of the Academy of Natural Sciences, and soon com- 

 menced the critical study of the fossil invertebrates of 

 the United States, especially those of the cretaceous 

 formation. 



In i860 he entered the service of the Geological Survey 

 of California, under Prof. J. D. Whitney, but returned to 

 the East in 1868, and undertook the geological survey of 

 their lands for the Santo Domingo Land and Mining 

 Company, which, however, was made to cover a con- 

 siderable portion of the Dominican Republic, and to 

 which he subsequently made several successive visits for 

 the purpose of continuing his work. 



During his connection with the Geological Survey of 

 California he made an extended exploration of the penin- 

 sula of Lower California, collecting much important 

 geological and biological material. 



In 1873 he became connected with the Costa Rican 

 Government, undertaking a general geological and topo- 

 graphical survey of its territory, and combined with it 

 very extensive researches into its natural history and eth- 

 nology, sending his collections to the National Museum 

 in Washington. This labour occupied him for about 

 three years. The results of his work have been given 

 to the public in various forms. A full account of the 

 topography, with an elaborate map, appeared in Peter- 

 mann's Mittheilmigen, and a paper on the ethnology of 

 the native tribes, published by the American Philo- 

 sophical Society, is one of standard value. 



In the autumn of 1876 he revisited San Domingo, 

 returning to the United States in March last For many 

 years he has been threatened with pulmonary disease, the 

 extension of which has been checked by his abode in sub- 

 tropical regions. The unfavourable symptoms, however, 

 increased of late, and he succumbed shortly after his 

 return to Philadelphia. 



Dr. Gabb left an extensive manuscript on the geology 

 and palaeontology of Costa Rica, which will be published 

 ere long under competent supervision, thus closing a 

 career of energy and activity, not only in the prosecution 

 of researches, but in the elaboration of their results, which 

 has been seldom equalled by a man of his age. It is very 

 rare, indeed, that one man has accomplished so much in 

 so many distinct branches — in geology, geography, palae- 

 ontology, ethnology, &c. — as the subject of our present 

 notice. 



ON THE ANATOMY OF THE ORGAN OF 

 HEARING IN RELA TION TO THE DISCO- 

 VERY OF THE PRINCIPLE OF THE MICRO- 

 PHONE OF PROF. D. E. HUGHES, AND 

 THE MAGNOPHONE OF MR. W. L. SCOTT, 

 A.S.T.E.'' 



THE two gentlemen whose names appear in the 

 heading of this paper seem to have arrived at the 

 same important result, viz., the extraordinary effect of 

 mobile particles in transmitting sound under certain con- 

 ditions, by quite independent research. In perusing the 

 interesting accounts of the microphone in several scientific 

 journals, but especially an article in the Electrician for 

 May 25, in which' number also will be found Mr. Scott's 

 statement of the principle, it occvured to me that the 

 transmitting power of the otoconia and otoliths in the 

 ears of animals bore very pertinently upon this question. 

 We find otoconia, or numerous minute particles in all the 

 Vertebrata, with perhaps the exception of the bony fishes 

 which have single concretions, or the union of many in 

 one. Otoconia are also found in the Tetrabranchiate 

 Cephalopoda {Nautibis, Fig. i), the whole of the Ptero- 

 poda, in the Pulmonifera inoperculata, or rather the bi- 

 sexual Pulmonifera (snails and slugs. Fig. 3), there being 

 an operculum in Amphibola. On the other hand, in the 

 Dibranchiate Cephalopoda {Sepia, Fig. 2), all the Hetero- 

 poda (Fig. 5) and the unisexual operculate Pulmonifera 

 (Fig. 4) the ear-sacs contain single otoliths. 



It will be thus seen that the nature of the auditory 

 concretions is by no means an unimportant element in 

 the classification of animals.^' Prof. Huxley alludes to 

 the genus Polyophthalmus , an Annelidan with eyes in 

 every segment, as a remarkable fact, but this is excelled 

 by his notice of otoliths in the tail of Mysis flexuosa^ a 

 little pelagic crustacean which I have often had the 

 opportunity of examining. 



Every physiologist is aware that there are structural par- 

 ticulars in the ears of Vertebrata which show clearly that 

 nature's philosophy is of a more profound character than 

 that to which man has hitherto attained. Indeed if we study 

 the simplest ears in creation, those, for example, of the 

 common Snail and of the Periwinkle, a most interesting 

 problem is presented to us to solve, namely, the precise 

 function of the numerous otoconia in one case, and of 

 the single otoliths in the other. It is commonly granted 

 that these concretions augment the sonorous undulations 

 by resonance, a view which is borne out by several con- 

 siderations. If we take two stones and strike them 

 together under water, the head also being immersed, the 

 collision will produce a very loud and pecuhar sound, but 

 in order to make the minute otoconia impress one another 



» By John Denis Macdonald, M.D., F.R.S., Dep. Ins. Gen. R.N., &c. 



2 See a paper by the author in the Ltnnean Tt ansacttons for i860, in 

 which a classification of the Gasteropoda has been attempted. 



3 S»e Ann. and Mag. 0/ Nat. Hist, for May, 1851. 



