Jan. 17, 1889] 



NATURE 



287 



Mathematical Society, January 10,— J. J. Walker, F.R.S., 

 Iresident, in the chair. — Mr. Basset made a few remarks on the 

 -toady motion and stability of dynamical systems. — Dr. Glaisher, 

 ! R.S., gave several forms of expression of Bernoulli's numbers 

 lived from the consideration of lemniscate function^. — The 

 osident (Sir J. Cockle, F.R.S., in the chair) read a paper on 

 .csults of ternary quadratic operators on products of forms of 

 any orders. — Mr. Jenkins communicated a note by Mr. R. W. 

 Christie on a theorem in combinations. 



Edinburgh. 



Royal Society, December 3, 1888.— A restatement of the 

 theory of organic evolution, by Prof. Patrick Geddes. In 

 the introduction to this paper Prof. Geddes gives to the four 

 customary divisions of biology more general meanings. He con- 

 siders that morphology, besides being a description of individual 

 forms, deals with specific and generic ones. Taxonomy is thus 

 the higher and more generalized morphology. Embryology in- 

 cludes the description of the development of species and genera 

 in addition to that of individuals. Morphology and embryology, 

 then, deal with the descriptions of the form, and the develop- 

 ment of the form, not only of individuals but of races. Similarly, 

 physiology is applied to the description of the functions of the 

 individual, and also to those of species, genera, and higher groups. 

 As the description of the relations of organs characterized the 

 physiology of the individual, so that of inteispecific adaptations 

 is the physiology of the race. As morphology and embryology 

 are related, so are physiology and aetiology. Etiology gives the 

 laws of variation of individual and race. It deals not merely with 

 functions in a balanced slate in the individual, and perfected 

 adaptation between races, but also with the origin of both of 

 these in the temperament of the unit organism, and of the sum of 

 organisms. This question has to be separated from the deeper 

 one of the origin of organismal temperament in the influence 'of 

 environment or otherwise. The following diagram shows these 

 relationships : — 



I'rom this division of the field of biology, a clearer and more 

 exact estimate of.Mr. Darwin's position can be had. It is plain 

 that the theory of natural selection, which Mr. Romanes rightly 

 describes as rather that of "the origin of adaptations," is part of 

 the higher physiology, or the relation of races to one another. 

 It is thought by many that Mr. Darwin dealt with problems of 

 ietiology — that he described the origin of the functions in the 

 individual. But he openly deferred the consideration of the laws 

 of variation, and confessed entire ignorance of them. He, indeed, 

 at different times, had two impressions of the import of natural 

 selection. Like others, he sometimes makes the mistake of 

 thinking that an account of adaptations, which species acquire, 

 explains their origin. At other times he clearly sees that there 

 must be. a science of variation — ansetiology — which shall tell of the 



origin of variations acted on by natural selection to form the raw 

 material of adaptations. Both pre- and post-Darwinian writers 

 have dealt with the explanations of variations as arising from 

 temperament. The former have theorized in a general way ; 

 the state of their knowledge not allowing them to prove that 

 variation is definite. This point of view must again be taken, and 

 all recent results read from it. The object of the present paper 

 is to show how this may be accomplished throughout the organic 

 world, as the author has already done in finding a definite ra/z(7- 

 «a;/^ of sex and reproduction. Prof. Geddes then took up the 

 matter in detail for the vegetable world, under such headings 

 as : inflorescence ; floral structure ; floral colour ; the antithesis 

 between floral and grassy types ; variations in the leaf ; thorns and 

 spines ; evergreens ; corelations between the reproductive and 

 vegetative systems. The classes of the animal kingdom were 

 treated seriatim, the definite lines of variation being traced from 

 the synthetic types in each. He next showed, and illustrated 

 with masses of detail, that throughout a great number of species 

 there are individuals with vegetative and others with reproductive 

 diathesis ; and similarly in every genus. Some species are more 

 vegetative, some more reproductive in character ; and so, further, 

 of orders and large groups. The vegetative or self-maintaining 

 activities are opposed to, and balanced by, the reproductive or 

 species-maintaining ones. The history of the individual life, or 

 of the development of the race, is a series of alternations between 

 predominating vegetation with subordinate reproduction, and 

 prevailing reproduction with diminished vegetation. The differ- 

 entiation of sex, the development ofparental care and of sociality, 

 are the most obvious results of the reproductive, the race- 

 maintaining diathesis ; and these play at least as important a 

 part in organic progress as struggle for individual advantage. 

 In conclusion, Prof. Geddes contrasted his own views of the 

 process of nature, as a materialized ethical process, with that 

 of Prof. Huxley, expressed in his Nineteenth Century article, 

 where he considers organic evolution an intellectual but not a 

 moral process. A second paper is to follow, carrying out the 

 argument into the ethical, social, and economic relations of 

 humanity. 



Berlin. 



Meteorological Society, December 4, 1888 — Dr. Vettin, 

 President, in the chair. — Dr. Andries developed an original theory 

 as to the constitution of the sun, by which he explained a large 

 number of phenomena. During the discussion which ensued, the 

 theory was attacked from various sides — Prof, von Bezold made 

 a report on Prof. Kiessling's book,'" Untersuchungen iiber die 

 Dammerungserscheinungen " ( *' Researches on the Phenomena of 

 Twilight "), after he had briefly alluded to the recent and more com- 

 prehensive work of the English Commission on the Krakatjib 

 eruption, which had appeared simultaneously with that of Prof. 

 Kiessling. He pointed out that these two works complement 

 each other, inasmuch as Prof. Kiessling had confined himself 

 entirely to the optical phenomena arising out of the eruption, 

 describing them fully, and illustrating them by physicil experi- 

 ments, while the Commission had dealt comparatively brirfly 

 with these phenomena. — Dr. Less spoke on falls of snow during 

 high temperatures. On the morning of November 20 the tempera- 

 ture was 9' C. ; it reached a maximum of a little over 1 1° between 

 9 and 10 a.m., and then fell irregularly with repeated showers of 

 rain to about 3° C. At 9.45 a.m., when the temperature was 

 above il°, one of the watchers in the Meteorological Institute 

 announced that he had observed some few flakes of snow falling 

 with the commencing rain. Since the speaker could not find 

 anybody from among his acquaintances who could confirm the 

 above observation, he addressed him-elf to the public at large by 

 means of the newspapers : he thus obtained very valuable and 

 reliable reports, not only from various parts of Merlin, but also 

 from outlying districts, of snow having fallen, either in solitary 

 large flakes or in larger quantities, at temperatures as high as 9° 

 to 11° C. Dr. I>ess had once before in this year (1888) observed 

 the same phenomenon, on May 8, when the temperature of the 

 air was 12' C. On going over the literature of this subject in the 

 synoptic weather reports for Germany for the years 1876 to 1888, 

 he came upon twenty-eight cases in which snow had fallen, 

 either in larger quantities or as solitary flakes, when the tempera- 

 ture was above 5^ C. He explained the formation of the snow- 

 flakes as the result of low-lying currents of air whose tempera- 

 tures were much lower than those at the earth's surface. Out of 

 the twenty-eight cases quoted above, eleven were accompanied 

 by marked and wide-spread thunder during ih^ ensuing twenty- 



