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NA TURE 



[August 25, 1898 



LETTERS ^ TO THE EDITOR 

 [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous cominunications.l 



What is "Anlage"? 



The necessity of finding an adequate translation of this in- 

 dispensable German expression becomes more, rather than less, 

 pressing as time goes on. To be obliged, on every occasion, 

 to write "Anlage" in inverted commas, is a standing testimony 

 to the deficiency of our scientific nomenclature, and a constant 

 offence to our aesthetic susceptibilities. It is true that there are 

 other terms which have been spasmodically employed to convey 

 the conception contained in "Anlage." But these terms are 

 either inadequate, unsightly or inaccurate. " Forecast " is 

 inadequate, "fundament" is unsightly, while " rudiment" is 

 inaccurate. I will not insist further upon the impropriety of 

 the use of the words " forecast " and " fundament," but will pro- 

 ceed to explain why, in my opinion, "rudiment" is an in- 

 accurate rendering of "Anlage " It is not so much that an 

 " Anlage" of an organ is not a " rudiment" of that organ, as 

 that the rudiment of an organ is generally something different 

 from its "Anlage." 



This point is best illustrated by considering a .somewhat ex- 

 treme case, or at least one which is a matter of common observ- 

 ation. The budding limbs of the embryo of a quadrupedal 

 vertebrate are rudiments of the pentadactyle appendages which 

 have their origin in the internal " Aniagen " of those structures. 

 Thus the "Aniagen " are aggregations of embryonic cells which, 

 by their growth and division, give rise to rudiments, and the 

 latter, in their turn, give rise to the finished organs. So that, 

 far from being identical with an " Anlage," a rudiment arises 

 from an " Anlage," and is the middle stage in organogeny. 



As the organs of the animal body are built up of tissues, and 

 these of cells, so, in their development, they spring from rudi- 

 ments, and these from " Aniagen." 



This analogy may be represented as follows : — 



Anatomy. \ Development. 



Organs — tissues — cells. | " Aniagen " — rudiments — 



I organs. 



In some cases, no doubt, it would not be necessary to make a 

 fine distinction between "rudiment" and "Anlage," but in 

 others it is undoubtedly necessary ; and it is for such cases that 

 one has to be prepared with a suitable technical term. 



The essentials of a good term are that it should be new, precise 

 and Latin. 



The word that commends itself to me as being at once 

 accurate and well-sounding is primordium, and I trust some of 

 your readers will criticise it whether favourably or unfavourably. 



The conception embodied in the word "Anlage" recurs so 

 frequently in our science, that it seemed of sufficient importance 

 to invite attention to the matter in the columns of Nature. 



New Museums, Cambridge, Arthur Willey. 



August 16. 



"Animal Intelligence." 



In a review of my monograph on "Animal Intelligence," in a 

 recent number of Nature, Mr. Lloyd Morgan credits me with 

 upholding the theory that we have sensations caused by out- 

 going currents which innervate muscles, and with depending on 

 that theory in some of my own statements about the nature of 

 animals' consciousness. A careless and ambiguous sentence of 

 mine was responsible for this. I believe with Mr. Morgan that 

 the feelings which go with innervations of the muscles are due 

 to currents coining back from the muscles or joints and tendons, 

 and do not think that any of my conclusions in any way involve 

 an acceptance of the other theory. Such sensations due to 

 return currents (together with the images built up from them) 

 were just what I meant by the phrase which he quotes, " the 

 consciousness accompanying a muscular innervation apart from 

 that feeling of the act which comes from seeing oneself move, 

 &c." It was because I presupposed general agreement in ac- 

 cepting the return-current theory that I was so careless as to 

 leave the obvious ambiguity. Edward L. Thorndike. 



Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A., August 3. 



NO. 1504, VOL. 58] 



I NEED hardly say that I sincerely regret the unwitting mis- 

 representation of Mr. Thorndike's meaning. But I may be 

 alldwed to add, in self-defence, that the " careless and ambiguous 

 sentence" forms part of the definition of " impulse," and that 

 the exclusion of " feeling one's own body in a different position, 

 &c.," is emphasised by italics. I am glad to find that Mr. 

 Thorndike's interpretation and my own are thus yet more closely 

 in accord than I supposed, and shall look forward to more 

 experiments and further discussion in the field of "Animal 

 Intelligence" from him. C. Lloyd Morgan. 



A Tooth of Hybodus grossicornis from the Inferior Oolite. 



Some time ago I -found in one of the lowest strata of the 

 Inferior Oolite, a tooth of the Hybodus grossicornis. The bed 

 occurred at Haresfield Beacon, near Gloucester. The following 

 section of this hill is given by Mr. E. Witchell, of Stroud : — 



Freestone : Ferruginous concretionary marl, i foot 6 inches ; 

 ferruginous brown hard sandstone, 8 feet ; oolitic ferruginous 

 bed, 2 feet ; Cephalopoda beds, 2 feet 6 inches. 



Below these beds are the Cotteswold Sands, resting upon 

 Upper Lias. The tooth was found in the freestone bed, the 

 characteristic fossils of which are Ostrea, Lima, Terebratula,. 

 various small Gasteropoda and Crinoids 



The species of the fossil has been kindly determined by Prof. 

 Newton. Thos. Beacall. 



Quedgeley, Gloucester, August 19. 



Iridescent Clouds. 



Your correspondent Mr. W. Larden, writing on the subject 

 of solar halos (p. 344 ), referred also to rose-crimson and green, 

 colours on clouds. It is quite unnecessary to be at 6000 feet 

 altitude to observe iridescent clouds, for we do so frequently 

 here during the summer months, at about 350 feet above sea- 

 level. They appear generally about an hour before sunset 

 and cease at sunset, and we always look out for them when 

 seeing the suitable kind of delicate cirrus cloud in fine wavy 

 fleecy streaks in the sky near the sun at the right hour ; and' 

 are generally rewarded by the sight of the exquisite rose and' 

 green ripples of nacreous brilliancy, affording a striking contrast 

 to the ordinary sunset colouring. E. Armitage. 



Dadnor, Herefordshire, August 16. 



Distant Thunderstorms affecting Flowers. 



At Malvern we felt none of the thunderstorms of Thursday,. 

 August 18, and the following night ; but some freshly-cut sweet 

 peas shrivelled, and did not recover their beauty until the morning 

 of the 19th. The nearest storms must have been at Cardiff and( 

 Bristol. Rosemary Crawshay. 



INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF 

 ZOOLOGISTS. 



'X'HE Fourth Internationai Congress of Zoology,. 

 -^ which opened at Cambridge on Tuesday morning,! 

 August 23, promises to be the most successful meeting 

 yet held. This is the first occasion that the Congress- 

 has met in England, and the proportion of English 

 members assembled to extend a welcome to the foreign 

 zoologists is, as it should be, considerable. The Congress 

 is a triennial one, and has already met at Paris, Moscow 

 and Leyden. The increasing popularity with which the 

 meetings are regarded by zoologists may be gauged by 

 the progressive increase in the number of members 

 attending. Only sixty members were present at the 

 Paris Congress in 1889, 120 at Moscow, and 200 at 

 Leyden ; the number participating at the present meet- 

 ing has already exceeded 280. Among the distinguished 

 visitors present are Dr. Anton Dohrn (Naples), Prof. E. 

 Ehlers (Gottingen), Prof. L. von Graff (Graz), Prof. 

 Haeckel (Jena), Prof E. L. Mark (Cambridge, Mass.),. 

 Prof. O. C. Marsh (New Haven), Prof. A. Milne-Edwards 

 (Paris), Prof. K. Mitsukuri (Tokyo), Prof. Ramsay- Wright 

 (Toronto), Prof. W. Salensky (St. Petersburg), Prof. F. E. 

 Schulze (Berlin), and Prof. J. W. Spengel (Giessen).. 

 Much disappointment is felt at the absence through ill 



