364 



NATURE 



{August 16, 1888 



of Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A., announces that he has made 

 a remarkable zoological discovery in the Philippine Islands. In 

 the interior of the little-known Island of Mindoro he has pro- 

 cured specimens of a strange animal, which, although much 

 talked of in the Philippines, is little, if at all, known elsewhere. 

 This is the Tamarou of the natives, a wild species of the family 

 Bovidse, allied to the Anoa of Celebes, which Prof. Steere 

 proposes to call Aiwa mindorensis . Its general colour is black, 

 the hairs being short and rather fine. A greyish white stripe 

 runs from near the inner corner of the eye towards the base of 

 the horn. There is also a greyish white spot above the hoof on 

 all the feet, and a greyish white patch on the inside of the lower 

 fore-leg. The height of the male at the shoulder is about 3 

 feet 6 inches, the length from the nose to the base of the tail 

 about 6 feet 8 inches. The horns are about 14 inches long. 

 Prof. Steere obtained two males and one female of this animal, 

 of which his full description will be read at the first meeting of 

 the next session of the Zoological Society. The discovery is of 

 much interest, as giving an additional instance of the similarity 

 between the faunas of Celebes and the Philippines, which was 

 already evident from other well-known cases of parallelism 

 between the natural products of these two countries. 



P. L. SCLATER. 



Functionless Organs. 



In reference to the Duke of Argyll's letter, I should wish to 

 say that I am not aware of any reason for regarding the electric 

 organ of any Skate as a " prophetic structure," using that term 

 in the sense given to it by the Duke. And I should be very 

 glad if he, instead of confining himself to a simple assertion 

 that it is so, would explain the reasons which lead him to re- 

 gard it as being so. It might then be possible to combat those 

 reasons. 



Further, I think it is only right to say that my own 

 observation of the progress of the doctrine of evolution during 

 the last quarter of a century leads me to a conclusion dia- 

 metrically opposed to the Duke's in regard to the balance of 

 evidence in favour of, or opposed to, the doctrine of creative 

 design in variations on the one hand, and that of the non- 

 significance of variations on the other hand. 



I do not hesitate to say that what may be called "pure" 

 Darwinism — the doctrine of the origin of species by the natural 

 selection in the struggle for existence of non-significant con- 

 genital variations — is everywhere being more completely demon- 

 strated by reasoning and observation as the single and sufficient 

 theory of that origin ; to the exclusion of Lamarckism, and 

 still more certainly to the exclusion of any vestige of the 

 doctrine of design. E. Ray Lankester. 



45 Grove End Road, N.W., August 4. 



With a certain class of thinkers, when endeavouring to dis- 

 parage the labours of Charles Darwin, no argument appears 

 absurd. Does the Duke of Argyll, in his letter which appeared 

 in your last issue (p. 341), mean to imply by his " prophetic 

 germs " that such cases as the mammae in the male indicate a 

 time when he will be able to take part with the female in suck- 

 ling the young, and that the coccyx is prophetic of a tail to the 

 human family, or that a time is approaching when the rudiment- 

 ary covering of hair on the human body will develop into a 

 warm coat similar to that of the bear or the beaver ? For myself, 

 I fail to see how a "functionless organ " can build itself up. 

 Perhaps the Duke of Argyll will explain. J. T. Hurst. 



Raymond Villa, Geraldine Road, Wandsworth, S. W., 

 . August 11. 



Dr. Romanes's Article in the " Contemporary Review." 



Absence from England has hitherto prevented me from seeing 

 Mr. Poulton's letter in your issue of July 26 (p. 295). Having just 

 read it, I am not a little surprised that he should have deemed it 

 necessary to refer me to the titles of two of the most notorious 

 essays in the recent literature of Darwinism. Nor can I fail to 

 wonder that, without a particle of evidence, he should accuse 

 any man of "not making himself acquainted with views which 

 he professes to expiess." 



If I could think it worth while to discuss a somewhat lengthy 

 matter with a cri ic of this kind, it would be easy enough to 

 justify the incidental remark in my paper to which he has drawn 

 attention. Hut my only object in noticing his criticism is to 



observe that, if its tone is due to his supposing that I have not 

 sufficiently appreciated the importance of his own experiments in 

 this connection, he is entirely mistaken. For, although I do not 

 agree with his theoretical interpretation of them, it has always 

 appeared to me that the experiments themselves are among the 

 most valuable which have hitherto been made regarding the 

 causes of variation. But it has also appeared to me that my 

 appreciation of their importance in this respect depends upon 

 what he calls "the Lamarckian conception," i.e. a conception 

 which he expressly repudiates. Were ic not for the attitude of 

 theory which he thus adopts, of course I should not have alluded 

 to him as a naturalist who concerns himself less with the causes 

 of variation than the other (or I amarokian) writers whom I had 

 occasion to name. But, as the matter stands, I have merely 

 forestalled the expression of his opinion as stated by himself, 

 where he says in his letter to you, " I agree with Dr. Romanes 

 in the belief that my work does not throw any light upon the 

 causes of variation." 



My paper was concerned only with the opinions of others, and 

 I nowhere expressed the "belief" thus attributed to me. In 

 point of fact, "the Lamarckian conception" enables me to hope 

 that work of the kind on which Mr. Poulton is engaged is more 

 calculated than any other to throw light upon the problem in 

 question ; and it seems to me a curious corroboration of the, 

 remark to which he objects that, on account of his loyalty to the 

 school of Weismann, he is obliged to regard his own experiments 

 as destitute of significance in this respect. 



August 9. George J. Romanes. 



Taxation in China. 



Nature (vol. xxxvii. p. 269), in its review of M. Simon's 

 "China: its Social, Political, and Religious Life," represents 

 on that author's authority that in China "taxation is very light — ■ 

 not one-hundredth part of what it is in F ranee," a statement so 

 misleading to publicists, so illusive to economic science, that I 

 take upon myself the task of exposing its fallacy, both as regards 

 direct and indirect taxation. 



Taking for illustration the amount of taxation at Ningpo (M. 

 Simon was the efficient Consul of his country at that port, where 

 he won golden opinions of foreigners generally, and natives as 

 well), it will be seen that he has been led into egregious errors 

 by incompetent interpreters. 



M. Simon says that " five francs per hectare is the utmost that 

 is paid for the best land." 



From municipal archives I tabulate the following relative to 



the three qualities of rice land : — 



n ... rT , Relative Taxation 



Quality of Land. Quandty pe r Mow. 



1st 60% ... $0.35 



2nd 25 ... 0.28 



3rd 15 ••• 0-25 



Average ... 100 0.291 4-4° l -7& 



Six mou = one acre. Fifteen mou = one. hectare. 



Hill land, $0. 13 per mou. From the second quality only one 

 crop is obtained. 



Instead, therefore, of the best land being five francs per hectare, 

 it is (according to present rate of exchange) about 21 francs, and 

 for the average about 1 7 francs per hectare. 



With regard to indirect taxation, that author affirms that the 

 Chinaman has no excise duties to pay. So far from that being 

 the case, his octrois {likin) contribute far more to the State 

 demands than the levies on his land ; but from lack of trustworthy 

 data, that is altogether an incomputable quantity. 



Nevertheless, with such levies, and the salt gabel und so forth, 

 it may be shown that the Chinese are not overburdened with 

 taxation ; albeit to imagine that their taxation is " not one- 

 hundredth part of what it is in France " is sheer economic 

 Hallucination. D. J. Macgowan. 



Wenchan, June. 



Partial Eclipse of August 7. 

 The above eclipse was observed at Cambridge, and the times 

 of contact were estimated as follows : — 



h . m. s. 

 First contact ... 6 44 50 G.M.T. 

 Last contact ... 7 7 20 ,, 

 At the time of greatest eclipse, 6h. 56m., a photograph was 

 taken which on being measured gives a magnitude of about 



