Afay 12, 1887] 



NATURE 



47 



.eerii, since they are being rapidly destroyed by the natives, 

 'heir cultivation has already been commenced by the Dutch, 

 at not a day too soon, as the trees take at least twenty years 

 re they are productive and valuable. — Mr. Patrick Geddes read 

 paper on the nature and causes of variation in plants and 

 nimals. The fact of organic evolution is no longer denied, but 

 s physiological factors have not yet been adequately analyzed. 

 iven those who regard natural selection as at once the most 

 nportant and the only ascertained factor of the process admit 

 biat, such an explanation being from the external standpoint — 

 hat of the adaptation of the organism to survive the shocks of the 

 nviionment — stands in need of a complementary explanation 

 .'hich shall lay bare the internal mechanism of the process, i.e. 

 lot merely account for the survival, but explain the origin, of 

 ariations. The relative importance of the external and internal 

 xplanations will, moreover, vary greatly in proportion as varia- 

 ions are found to be " spontaneous," i.e. in any direction indiffer- 

 ntly, or "determinate,' i.e. in some given direction continuously. 

 Avoiding any mere postulation of an "inherent progressive 

 endency," common to both pre- and post-Darwinian writers, 

 he definite analysis of the problem starts with that conception 

 )f protoplasm which is the ultimate result of morphological 

 nd physiological analysis, viz. to interpret all phenomena of 

 orm and function of cells, tissues, organs, and individuals alike 

 n terms of its constructive and destructive ("anabolic and 

 ;atabolic ") changes. While the external or environmental expla- 

 lation of evolution starts with the empirical study of the effect of 

 mman selection upon the variations of animals and plants 

 inder domestication, the internal or organismal one as naturally 

 ommences with the fundamental rhythm of variation in the 

 owest organism in nature. It also investigates the nature of 

 he simple reproductive variation upon which the origin of 

 pecies as well as individuals must depend, before attempting 

 hat of individual variations. The interpretation of all the 

 phenomena of male and female sex as the outcome of katabolic 

 md anabolic preponderance is shown largely to supersede the 

 iurrent one of sexual selection, and in some cases at least that 

 jf natural selection, e.g. the specially important one of the origin 

 Df such polymorphic communities as those of ants and bees. In 

 fuch cases natural selection acts not as the cause of organic 

 bvolution, but as the check or limitation of it, and acquires 

 mportance rather as determining the extinction than the origin 

 ^f species. The process of correlation, especially that between 

 ndividualization and reproduction, is mooted by the author, and 

 ts application to the origin and modification of flowers, &c., 

 jutlined. A discussion is given of the embryological and patho- 

 'ogical factors of internal evolution, with an application of the 

 vhole argument to the construction of the genealogical tree of 

 slants and animals. — A report on the Gephyreans of the Mergui 

 \rchipelago, by Prof. Emil Selenka, of Erlangen, was read ; 

 his communication dealing chiefly with a technical description 

 )f species. 



Zoological Society, April 28.— Fifty-eighth Anniversary 

 Meeting.— Prof. Flower, LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the 

 :hair. —Many members of the Council and other Fellows of 

 he Society were present. After some preliminary business, the 

 ■eport of the Council on the proceedings of the Society during 

 ;he year 1886 was read by Mr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S., Secretary 

 :o the Society. It stated that the number of Fellows on 

 [anuary i, 1887, was 3146, showing a decrease of 47 as com- 

 pared with the corresponding period in 1886. The total receipts 

 for 1886 had amounted to £'2,S,']'&^ os. 4c/., showing a decrease 

 jf £12 9J-. 9*/. as compared with the previous year. This 

 ilight decrease was mainly due to the falling off of the number 

 jf Fellows, and consequently of the receipts for subscriptions. The 

 balance brought from 1885 was ;^972 %s. id., making a 

 total of ;^26,7S9 8j. 3af. available for the expenditure of 1886. 

 The ordinary expenditure for 1886 had been ^^24, 438 17^. gd. 

 Besides that, an extraordinary expenditure of ;i^i29 l^s. had 

 been incurred, which brought up the total expenditure for 

 the year to £2^,s6'?> 12s. ^d. The usual scientific meetings 

 liad been held during the session of 1886, and a large number 

 of valuable communications had been received upon every 

 branch of zoology. These had been published in the annual 

 volume of Proceedings for 1886, which contained 716 pages, 

 illustrated by 60 plates. Besides this, five parts of the twelfth 

 volume of the Society's Quarto Transactions had been issued, 

 thus making up all the arrears in this branch of the publications. 

 A new edition of the Library Catalogue had also been prepared 

 ind issued. The Society's library now contained about 15,000 



separate volumes. The " Zoological Record," which consisted of 

 an annual volume containing a summary of the work done in 

 the various branches of zoology in each year, would in future 

 be published by the Society under the superintendence of a 

 committee of the Council appointed for the purpose, and edited 

 by Mr. F. E. Beddard, Prosector to the Society. The visitors 

 to the Society's Gardens during the year 1886 had been 

 altogether 639,674. The corresponding number in 1885 was 

 659,896. A slight alteration in the arrangements for the Davis 

 Lectures on zoological subjects had been made for the present 

 year. Mr. F. E. Beddard, Prosector to the Society, had been 

 appointed Davis Lecturer, and had commenced a course of ten 

 lectures on the Classification of Vertebrate Animals. The 

 lectures were a continuation of a series given last year in con- 

 nexion with the London Society for the Extension of University 

 Teaching. The number of animals in the Society's collection 

 on December 31 last was 2609, of which 777 were mammals, 

 1429 birds, and 403 reptiles. Amongst the additions made 

 during the past year, 15 were specially commented upon as of 

 remarkable interest, and in most cases as representing species 

 new to the Society's collecti in. About 30 species of mammals, 

 20 of birds, and 3 of reptiles had been bred in the Society's 

 Gardens during the summer of 1886. The report concluded 

 with a long list of the donors and their various donations to the 

 Menagerie during the present year. — A vote of thanks to the 

 Council for their report was then moved by the Hon. J. S. 

 Gathorne-Hardy, M.P., seconded by Mr. H. Berkeley James, 

 and carried unanimously. The report having been adopted, the 

 meeting proceeded to elect the new members of the Council 

 and the Officers for the ensuing year. The usual ballot having 

 been taken, it was announced that Sir Joseph Fayrer, K.C.S.I., 

 F.R.S., Mr. John P. Gassiot, Col. Tames A. Grant, C.B., C.S.I., 

 F.R.S., Prof. A. Newton, F.R.S., and Mr. Joseph Travers 

 Smith, had been elected into the Council in place of the 

 retiring members ; and that Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R.S., had 

 been re-elected President, Mr. Charles Drummond, Treasurer, 

 and Dr. Philip Lutley Sclater, F.R.S., Secretary to the 

 Society for the ensuing year. The meeting terminated with 

 the usual vote of thanks to the Chairman, proposed by Sir 

 Joseph Fayrer, K.C.S.I., and seconded by Mr. Herbert Druce, 

 and carried unanimously. 



Chemical Society, April 21. — Mr. William Crookes, 

 F.R. S., President, in the chair. — The following papers were 

 read : — The atomic weight of gold, by Prof. T. E. Thorpe, 

 F. R.S., and Mr. A. P. Laurie. — The atomic weight of silicon, by 

 Prof. T. E. Thorpe, F.R.S., and Mr. J. W. Young.— Note on 

 substitution in the benzene nucleus, by Dr. H. Foster Morley. 

 — Reply to the foregoing note, by Prof. Henry E. Armstrong. 



Royal Microscopical Society, April 13. — Rev. Dr. 

 Dallinger, President, in the chair. — Mr. T. C. White exhibited 

 a series of photomicrographs which he had recently taken, show- 

 ing the result of the method of cutting ofT some of the superfluous 

 light by means of a sliding diaphragm so as to be able to admit just 

 enough to bring out the detail and nothing more. The specimens 

 shown were printed on Eastman's bromide paper instead of silver 

 paper which he found brought out the character of the detail 

 very much better. — Mr. F. R. Cheshire called attention to some 

 specimens of bees, known as "fertile workers." It was gener- 

 ally well known that in the bee-hive all the eggs were usually 

 laid by the queen, and in her absence no ovipositing occurs 

 until they have taken some of the eggs remaining in the hive, 

 and by a special feeding of the larvae have been able to produce 

 fresh queens. If, however, it should happen that in a hive 

 which has lost its queen there are not eggs available for this pur- 

 pose it was found that some of the workers under some special 

 circumstances which could not be very clearly explained, became 

 capable of laying eggs, but that such eggs produced drones 

 only. These bees M'ere known as fertile workers, and though 

 there could be no doubt as to their frequent existence, they were 

 very difficult to catch, owing to their being the same in appear- 

 ance as the ordinary workers. He now exhibited two of these 

 fertile workers having the ovaries drawn out of the bodies and 

 attached to the stings and abdominal plates so as to show that 

 they really were workers. There was a remarkable peculiarity 

 to be observed in connexion with the ovarian tubes of these 

 insects — every ordinary worker possessed an undeveloped ovary 

 which it was very difficult both to detect and dissect, but when 

 under the influence of some stimulus the worker became fertile, 

 a number of points began to appear in the tubes which afler- 

 , wards became developed, and it would seem that the eggs were 



