May 6, 1875] 



NA TURE 



13 



means of which we should be enabled better to under- 

 stand both the past and the future, and to judge more 

 clearly of the present. 



The important bearing which the work at the Naples 

 and similar stations had on the elucidation of this law 

 was then pointed out. " Every fish, every crab, every 

 Medusa is the result of a long process of development, 

 which we have to trace, and the determination of which 

 the Zoological Station is intended to facilitate. That is 

 its purpose ; it was for that end that I built it, and for 

 that reason I have asked you to lend your support to my 

 efforts." 



W 



THE " VILLE DE CALAIS" BALLOON 

 ASCENT 



Paris, Afay 3. 

 'E made our ascent yesterday from La Villette gas- 

 works at 1*25 P.M., and landed safely in a field 

 at Creney, a small country place four miles south-east of 

 Troyes, which is about 100 miles south-east from Paris. 

 After having made observations during a little less than 

 six hours, our grapnel was let down at ten minutes past 

 seven. There were three of us in the car— M. Duruof, Mr. 

 Marriott, an English correspondent in Paris, and myself. 

 The;maximum altitude reached was about 12,000 feet. 

 The ascent was very gradual, and the above height was 

 reached only at six o'clock. No sensible effect was per- 

 ceived, although the temperature of the air, which on the 

 ground was about 50° F., was no more than 26° at this 

 altitude. We tried several experiments, with what suc- 

 cess it remains to determine on examination of the appa- 

 ratus. Some of the results, however, I am able to state 

 here. 



We had suspended to the net a number of cages con- 

 taining small birds and guinea-pigs. The current of gas 

 had a decided inclination to flow in a certain direction, 

 and we had not ascended 6,000 feet when one of the birds 

 was found dead by suffocation. It was the only bird 

 exposed to the inhalation of the current of gas, and no 

 other was injured. It was proved by a careful autopsy 

 executed this morning by Dr. Lionville that this bird had 

 perished by intra-osseous haemorrhage in the cranium. 

 The haemorrhage had taken place on both sides, and 

 without any lesion appearing to the exterior. 



We discovered that not less than four different banks 

 of clouds, were being carried over Paris and its vicinity. 

 Before the end of our journey the clouds had consider- 

 ably diminished in thickness, and the blue sky appeared. 

 I was able to take some thermo-solar observations with a 

 blackened bulb thermometer in vacuo. 



As the effect on our constitutions of our 1 2,000 feet trip 

 was very trifling, I am of opinion that the experiment may 

 be scientifically conducted gradually to an immense alti- 

 tude, independently of previous catastrophes. 



W. DE FONVIELLE 



NOTES 

 As we announced some months ago (Dec. 24, vol. xi. p. 153), 

 Prof. Huxley is to undertake the duties of Prof. Wyville 

 Thomson's chair of Natural History in the University of Edin. 

 burgh during the present summer session. Prof. Huxley gave 

 his introductory lecture on Monday afternoon to a large au- 

 dience. He was accompanied by Principal Sir Alexander 

 Grant, Principal Tulloch, St. Andrews, and the members of the 

 Senatus, and was enthusiastically received. He expressed at the 

 outset a hope that at this time next year Prof. Thomson would 

 be among them again, full of health and vigour, laden with the 

 spoils of the many climes through which he had travelled, and 

 a sort of zoological Ulysses, full of wisdom for their benefit. 

 He then took a general view of his subject, put before the class 



the considerations which resulted from the careful study of a single 

 animal, the Crocodile ; an animal which was worthy of atten- 

 tive study, as it might be said that a knowledge of its organisa- 

 tion was the key to the understanding of a vast number of extinct 

 reptiles, and the key to the organisation of birds; while it 

 helped them to connect the higher with the lower forms of verte- 

 brate life, and was, in part at any rate, the key to the history of 

 past life upon the globe. There might be asked respecting this 

 animal, as respecting every other living thing — first, what was its 

 structure ? second, what did it do ? third, where was it found ? 

 and fourth, in virtue of what chain of causation had this thing 

 come into being ? — this last having only been recently recognised 

 as one of those questions which might legitimately be put. He 

 then proceeded to describe the organisation of the Crocodile — it 

 morphology, physiology, and distribution ; and remarked that 

 there were few animals about the palaeontological history of 

 which they knew so much, as they could carry back its history 

 through the tertiary and secondary epochs. The answer to the last 

 question constituted /Etiology, or the science of the causes of the 

 phenomena of morphology, physiology, and distribution. Here, 

 as in all cases where they had to deal with causation, they left the 

 region of objective fact and entered that of speculation. With 

 their present imperfect knowledge, the only safe thing they 

 could do in attempting to form even a conception of the cause 

 of this extraordinary complex phenomenon was what a wise his- 

 torian would do — stick by archaeological facts. He pointed out 

 that palceontological facts showed that there had been a suc- 

 cession of forms of that animal to the present day, the oldest 

 being something like the Lizard. 



The Instructions prepared for the use of the officers of the 

 Arctic Expedition in their Scientific work are now nearly com- 

 plete, and all the courses of instruction, comprising the use of 

 magnetical, astronomical, and meteorological instruments and of 

 spectroscopes, will be concluded next week, many officers from 

 both ships having taken part in them. We believe that the 

 present arrangement as to date of leaving, the 29th instant, may 

 be considered as final. We have already stated that the ex- 

 ploring ships are to be accompanied as far as Disco Island by the 

 Vahrous for the purpose of enabling them to fill up with stores 

 and coal at the last moment. At the suggestion of the 

 Council of the Royal Society, advantage will be taken of the 

 presence of this ship to make observations in a little explored 

 region, her homeward voyaj^e being employed in carrying out 

 such a physical and biological exploration of the southern part 

 of Baffin's Bay and the North Atlantic between Cape Farewell 

 and the British Isles as may serve to complete the work which is 

 being so successfully prosecuted in other seas by the Challenger. 

 Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, the coadjutor of Dr. Carpenter and Prof, 

 Wyville Thomson in the Porcupine expeditions, which first 

 demonstrated the feasibility and scientific importance of this 

 kind of exploration, has volunteered for the service, and he will 

 take with him as his assistant Mr. P. Herbert Carpenter, who 

 did good work when accompanying his father in the Porcupine^ 

 and who will especially take charge of the physical inquiries. 



M. CoRNU's lecture on the velocity of Light at the Royal 

 Institution to-morrow evening is looked forward to with great 

 interest. We believe he intends to speak in French, though his 

 knowledge of English renders him quite competent to make use 

 of that language if he chose. An account of the results attained 

 by M. Comu will be found in Nature, vol. xi. p. 274. 



HoFRATH Heinrich Schwabe died at Dessau on April 11 ; 

 he reached a patriarchal age, having been born on Oct. 25, 

 1789, at Dessau. He retained his faculties to the last, although 

 he had been compelled for many years to relinquish his favourite 

 astronomical studies, which in 1857 had won for him the Royal 

 Astronomical Society's Gold Mfdal. 



