July 



898] 



NATURE 



283 



and is well worthy of a place in the series in which it is 

 published. 



The monc^raph has, therefore, a double interest. It makes 

 known to us an important coral fauna, and the descriptions are 

 arranged on a scheme which has all the attractiveness of daring 

 and revolutionary change. The authoress distributes the 

 .Stramberg corals among 128 species and 41 genera, which 

 are grouped into nine families. And it is by the constitution 

 of these families that Miss Ogilvie's classification will be 

 judged. 



The first family is the Amphiastrreidre, of which the typical 

 genus Amphiastraa was founded by Etallon for a Kimmeridgian 

 coral that presents some points of resemblance to the Rugosa. 

 Koby has described a series of Jurassic genera allied to 

 Amphiastriva. He placed them in the Rugosa, but made no 

 attempt to formulate a definite family for their reception. Miss 

 Ogilvie has now taken this step, which will probably receive 

 unanimous approval, although whether all the eleven genera 

 are correctly assigned to it is open to doubt. Let us take, for 

 example, the genus Deiidrogyra, of which the type species is the 

 recent West Indian coral D. cyltndrus, Ehr. We fail to. see in 

 that coral any of the primitive characters of AtnphiastrcEa. 

 Dendrogyia has a columella, and the corallites are separated by 

 bands of exotheca. The new species which Miss Ogilvie refers 

 to Dendrogyra has no exotheca separating the corallites, and 

 there is no columella shown in the figures (PI. xvi. Fig. 3, 3a, 

 4, 4a), although "eine Art von Saulchen" is mentioned in the 

 description. Miss Ogilvie remarks the near affinity of Dendro- 

 gyra and Euphyllia ; and if those genera be closely related to 

 her D. sinuosa, then we can only conclude that the fossil is no 

 special ally of Amphiastnea. 



The next family is the Turbinolidce, represented by the 

 genera Epistnilia and Pleurosmilia. Of the former Miss Ogilvie 

 has seen six Stramberg specimens, which are referred to three 

 species. Both the genera are transferred to the Turbinolidis 

 from the very original view, that a diminished development 

 of endotheca goes on pari passu with a stronger development 

 of " wall." Miss Ogilvie retains throughout von Heider's 

 terms Eutheca and Pseudotheca, and this family illustrates the 

 difficulties they occasion ; thus it is stated (p. 134) that the 

 subfamily Trochosmilins; have " aechte theca vorhanden," 

 whereas Epistnilia, the second genus placed in it, is stated 

 (p. 141) to have a *' Pseudotheka." The retention ol Epis- 

 niilia is a step of doubtful value, for there seems good reason 

 to regard the genus as founded only on a worn, weathered 

 Montlivaltia. But according to Miss Ogilvie's scheme Epis- 

 milia and Monliivaltia are placed far apart, and separated, in fact, 

 by four families. One of the intermediate families is the Pocil- 

 ioporida', the most novel feature in which is the inclusion 

 there of the genus Siephanocania. Pocillopora has well 

 developed tabuli, rudimentary septa, no pali, and massive 

 ccenenchyma. Stephanocania, on the other hand, has no tabuli, 

 well-developed septa, exceptionally distinct pali, and there is 

 often no ccenenchyma or exotheca between the corallites. Miss 

 Ogilvie may perhaps be using the name Siephatiocania in some 

 new sense ; for she elsewhere remarks, "it is doubtful whether 

 they {Astroca-nia and Stephanocacnia^ are represented in recent 

 seas" {Phil. Trans., vol. 187, p. 307). But Stephanocania 

 was founded on the common living West Indian coral S. 

 intersepta. 



The next family is the Madreporid?e represented only by 

 Thamnaraa. In the corals of that genus the septa are pali- 

 sades of irregular, separate, vertical rods, connected by hori- 

 zontal, synapticular platforms. Miss Ogilvie describes the 

 septa of Madreporida; as " bilaterally or radially arranged, 

 compact ; sometimes represented by a series of horizontal 

 spines projecting inwards from the wall." If Thamnaraa is 

 to be retained in the Madreporid.x- the family characters must 

 be changed. Thamnaro'a appears to represent one of the 

 extreme types of the septal structure seen in the genus Micro- 

 so/ena, which Miss Ogilvie leaves in the Fungidic. To separate 

 Thamnaraa from Microsolena. and ally it to the compact- 

 septumed Madrepora is one of the changes which prejudices the 

 principles upon which the proposal is based. 



It may be objected that these criticisms are mere details. 

 Fiut it is by such details that works as the present can best be 

 tested. There is no need here to rediscuss the principles, as 

 that has been previously done by Bourne and Bernard. The 

 value of the present work is that it gives us a chance of 

 examining the results to which the principles lead. Although 



NO. 1499, VOL. 58] 



the results may not all be accepted, students of the Madre- 

 poraria will be grateful to Miss Ogilvie for this solid addition to 

 the mass of knowledge of Mesozoic corals. Her reshuffling of 

 the genera is useful and suggestive, for it brings together corals 

 usually placed at the opposite ends of the group, and renders 

 necessary the close comparison of genera which otherwise no 

 one would have thought of comparing. Thus the work is of 

 value not only as the description of many new and interesting 

 corals, but as it leads to the re-examination of forms previously 

 known from a fresh point of view, a labour which is always 

 profitable. J. W. Gregory. 



UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.^ 

 HTHE Johns Hopkins University, which has done me the honour 

 ■*• to ask me to say a few words on this occasion, is, although 

 already distinguished, a new and young university. I can 

 remember well its beginning, and as Dr. Oilman has hinted, I may 

 claim to have taken some small part in its birth. When I moved 

 in 1870 from London to Cambridge, I took with me a bright lad 

 of whose ability and industry I had already taken notice. At 

 Cambridge be became my right-hand man, and I had some hopes 

 that I should long have his help ; but President Oilman appeared 

 upon the scene, and his influence was so strong that I felt that 

 my own interests were not to be considered, and that I ought to 

 send that favourite across the waters to occupy the first chair of 

 Biology in this new university. Although the memories of him 

 whom I need scarcely name, Henry Newell Martin, are tinged 

 with melancholy, still I feel that this university must always look 

 back with pride and affection on the work which he has done in 

 this country, and in this affection and pride I claim a small share 

 for myself. 



Your university is a new one. I come from a very old one ; one 

 which was founded six hundred years ago, which has lived 

 through all those centuries, and which, though it has some of the 

 charms, has also some of the evils of antiquity. The traditions 

 of the past weigh heavy upon us. When we attempt 

 to stretch our limbs to meet the new needs of new times 

 we find some old written law, some well-established prejudice, 

 some vested interest preventing our full development. You are 

 a new university ; and although I have purposely refrained from 

 refreshing my mind as to the exact status of your regulations, and 

 as to how far you may have already entangled yourselves in the 

 toils of enactments, still I will take it for granted that you differ 

 from us in the freedom with which you can move forward towards 

 the needs of the coming times ; and I think perhaps I could not 

 do better at the present moment than to use the opportunity 

 offered me to take my old university as a text, and to draw from 

 it and its history some few plain reflections which I hope may be 

 practical and useful with regard to the conduct of universities. 

 Allthough I understand that I have been especially invited by the 

 medical faculty, I will take leave to treat only of general things, 

 since the welfare of the medical faculty is bound up in that of the 

 whole university. 



The morphologists tell us we can learn much by studying the 

 embryo, and something perhaps may be learned by looking back 

 at this old University of Cambridge in the days of long ago— in 

 the days when it too was a relatively young university. Things 

 were very different then from what they are now. The dimly 

 lighted streets or alleys in which the students lived were an 

 emblem of the whole university. There was little outward show 

 of glory then ; there were no beautiful buildings, few books, and 

 each student's duty was, in part, to listen to the lecture, to the 

 reading of something which was written, but whjich he could not 

 see with his own eyes. In spite of all these dTIficulties there 

 were certain features of the university of that time which I trust 

 I may say have been, with some little wavering here and there, 

 maintained since, and which I cannot help thinking have con- 

 tributed in very large measure to make it what I may venture to 

 call it, a famous and great university. 



One of the most striking features of the attitude of both 

 students and teachers at that early time was that they recognised 

 in the training of the university a preparation for practical life. 

 There were at that time three main occupations in which learning ' 

 was of practical use ; and in correspondence to those three 

 occupations there were established the three great faculties of the 



' Address delivered at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 

 October 11, 1897, hy Dr. Michael Foster, Sec.R.S. (Reprinted from the 

 Bulletin of the John^ Hopkins Hospital April. 



