Sept. 1 8, 1879] 



NATURE 



499 



separately considered, enables us to discover the description of 

 teeth to which they have belonged ; so also reciprocally we 

 may determine the form of the other bones from the teeth. 

 Thus, commencing our investigation by a careful survey of any 

 one bone by itself, a person who is sufficiently master of the 

 Jaws of organic ftructure, may, as it were, reconstruct the 

 whole animal to which that bone had belonged." 



We know to-day that unknown extinct animals cannot be re- 

 stored fro 1 a single to ith or claw, unless they are very similar 

 to forms already known. Had Cuvier himself applied his 

 methods to many forms from the early tertiary or older forma- 

 tions, he would have failed. If, for instance, he had had before 

 him the disconnected fragments of an eocene tillodont, he 

 would undoubtedly have referred a molar tooth to one of his 

 pachyderms ; an incisor tooth to a rodent ; and a claw bone to 

 a carnivore. The tooth of a hesperornis would have given him 

 no possible hint of the lest of the skeleton, nor its swimming 

 feet the slightest clue to the ostrich-like sternum or skull. And 

 yet, the earnest belief in his own methods led Cuvier to some of 

 his most important discoveries. 



Jean Lamarck (1744-1829), the philosopher and naturalist, a 

 colleague of Cuvier, was a learned botanist before he became a 

 zoologist. His researches on the invertebrate fossils of the 

 Paris Basin, although less striking, were not less important than 

 those of Cuvier on the vertebrates ; while the conclusions he 

 derived from them form the basis of modern biology. Lamarck's 

 method of investigation v\as the same, essentially, as that used 

 by Cuvier, namely : a direct comparison of fossils with living 

 forms. In this way, he soon ascertained that the fossil shells 

 imbedded in the strata beneath Paris were, many of them, extinct 

 species, and those of different strata differed from each other. 

 His first memoir on this subject appeared in 1802,' and, with his 

 later works, effected a revolution in conchology. His " System 

 of Invertebrate Animals " appeared the year before, and his 

 famous " Philosophie zoologique," in 1809. In these two works, 

 Lamarck first announced the principles of evolution. In the 

 first volume of his " Natural History of Invertebrate Animals," ' 

 he gave his theory in detail ; and to-day one can only read with 

 astonishment his far-reaching anticipations of modern science. 

 These views were strongly supported by Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, 

 but bitterly opposed by Cuvier ; and their great contest on this 

 subject is well known. 



In looking back from this point of view, the philosophical 

 breadth of Lamarck's conclusions, in comparison with those of 

 Cuvier, is clearly evident. The invertebrates on which Lamarck 

 worked offered less striking evidence of change than the various 

 animals investigated by Cuvier ; yet they lead Lamarck directly 

 to evolution, while Cuvier ignored what was before him on this 

 point, and rejected the proof offered by others. Both pursued 

 the same methods, and had an abundance of material on which 

 to work, yet the facts observed induced Cuvier to believe in 

 catastrophes ; and Lamarck, in the uniform course of nature. 

 Cuvier declared species to be permanent ; Lamarck, that they 

 were descended from others. Both men stand in the first rank 

 in science ; but Lamarck was the prophetic genius, half a century 

 in advance of his time. 



(To be cottlinued.) 



FRENCH ASSOCIATION FOR THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 

 n^HE French Association for the Progress of Science has 

 taken a bold step and decided that its session for 1881 will 

 take place m Algiers. To avoid the numerous inconveniences 

 of the strong heat which prevails all over Algeria in the month of 

 August, It has been decided that the meeting should be held in 

 April, during the Easter recess. 



This happy result of the deliberations must be attributed to 

 the personal exertions of M. Albert Grevy, the brother of the 

 President of the French Republic, who holds the pot of Civil 

 Governor-General of Algeria. 



It is supposed that the new scientific establishment whose 

 formation has been decreed this year, will be formally inauTu- 

 ratcd on this occasion, and a scientific movement of some 

 importance will take place in the colony. 



The Akhbar announced a few days back that a geographical 

 society is being organised in Algiers. ° 



' " Mcmoirc sur les Fossiles dcs Environs de Paris." 1203-6 



" Hisioire natnrclle des Aninuiux sans Vertcbres." 7 vols! Paris i8«- 

 ^ r I Lditlon. 11 volt. j83S.i8<S- 



In the meantime a number of representatives headed by 

 Algerian senators and deputies will make a tour of exploration 

 during the month of October. They will start at the end of 

 September, as we announced some weeks ago. They will 

 witness an agricultural and horticultural exhibition, which is to 

 be held at Bone, for the whole of Algeria and Tunisia, and 

 which will be held in Algiers in 1881. 



The most successful lecture this year at Montpellier, was 

 organised by the Languedocian Society of Geography. MM. 

 Soleillet, Brau de Saint Pol Lias, Director of the Sumatra 

 Exploring Company, and other explorers or intending explorers, 

 appeared before the public on that occasion. M. Rabaut, the 

 President of the Society of Geography of Marseilles, and the 

 commercial agent for the Sultan of Zanzibar, gave most interest- 

 ing details of the several explorations at present going on in that 

 part of the Dark Continent. 



The lecture on the progress of electricity was given by M. 

 Denayrouze, of Jablochkoff candle notoriety. The speaker tried 

 to show that Jamin's candle ought to be superior to the light 

 which is spreading so largely in Paris and in London. 



Another lecture was delivered by M. Barral, Perpetual Secre- 

 tary of the National Society of Agriculture, on the necessity of 

 using Rhone water for irrigation. There is, however, a variety 

 of opinion on this subject, commercial people being really opposed 

 to the irrigation scheme for the reason that it would diminish 

 the quantity of water necessary for navigation, especially as it is 

 intended to submerge vines in order to save them from phylloxera, 

 the plague of the country. 



A very interesting display took place in the Polygon, of the 

 destroying power of modern methods of warfare, as practised 

 by French engineers of the 2nd Regiment, which is garrisoned 

 in Montpellier. It cannot be said that science is alien to the use 

 of dynamite and electric sparks for such pm-poses, but it is the 

 first time that warfare has been considered as being really within 

 the limits of a scientific association. 



Two of the most interesting excursions were devoted to 

 agriculture — one to the experimental grounds established by M. 

 Marey, one of the most active correspondents of the Academy of 

 Sciences, with a view to destroy phylloxera, and the other to the 

 School of Agriculture directed by M. Camille Saint Pierre. This 

 school, established with the help of the General Council only a 

 few years back, has already reached a high point of prosperity. 

 Its reputation is so high in the Mediterranean regions that the 

 Greek Government is sending there a number of pupils at its own 

 expense. 



The Sericicultural Station has been placed under the direction 

 of "iA. Maillot, a pupil of M. Pasteur at the Normal School of 

 Paris, w ho has already instructed ninety-two persons in the difficult 

 art of observing silkw orms' eggs with microscopes. 



At the Viticultural Station American vines, insecticide, and all 

 the proposed means of destroying phylloxera are being studied. 



All the pupils of the Normal School for public teachers, are 

 attending a course of lectures in that establishment, so that the 

 teachers of the young Herault peasants will have a scientific 

 knowledge of new methods proposed for scientific agriculture of 

 the region. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Atnen'can Jomtial of Science aiid Arts, August. — This number 

 opens with the first portion of a paper by Mr. i&pham, on terminal 

 moraines of the North American ice-sheet.- — Prof. Kimball de- 

 scribes experiments with regard to the effects of magnetisation 

 on the tenacity of iron and on the flexure of a soft iron bar. 

 Inter alia, he proves that a soft iron bar has its tenacity increased 

 about nine-tenths of i per cent, by magnetising it to saturati n. 

 — Prof. Hilgard calls attention to some points in connection with 

 the loess of the Mississippi valley, which seems to render the 

 MaX\2.n. hypothesis untenable regarding that and similar deposits 

 elsewhere ; the hypothesis, viz., that the true loess is always a 

 subaerial deposit, formed in a dry central region, and that it 

 owes its structure to the formative influence of a steppe vege- 

 tation. — Dr. Cutter describes his method of micro-photography 

 with ToUes's ^Jj-inch objective. — Prof. Peirce demonstrates the 

 value of M. Fayc's proposal of a method of swinging pendulums 

 for the determination of gravity, and Mr. Hodges offers some 

 considerations on the size of molecules, arising out of the con- 

 version of water into steam, and the combining effect of platinum 

 on hydrogen and oxygen. — Among other topics treated are the 

 geology of A'irginia, the discovery of a new group of carboni- 



