October 13, 1898] 



NA TURE 



585 



forms of echinoid larvae. Mr. J. Parkinson worked at the 

 variation of species of Canihim, Donax, and Tellina. The 

 object of Mr. Vernon's interesting work was to determine how 

 the nitrogenous matter excreted by marine animals into the 

 water is removed, and what parts the various forms of vegetable 

 life and other agencies play in the process. Bacteria are of 

 importance. It was found that the pipes conducting the water 

 from the reservoirs to the rooms were coated internally with a 

 layer of bacterial slime, and that in its passage along these pipes 

 the water underwent considerable purification. Probably in 

 marine aquaria a more powerful purifying influence than the 

 bacterial is exerted by the diatoms and minute algae. 



An interim report was presented by the Committee on Bird 

 Migration in Great Britain ; and the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing 

 discussed the report of the International Zoological Congress on 

 Nomenclature. 



The final report of the Oyster Committee was presented by 

 Prof. W. A. Ilerdman, who gave an account, illustrated by 

 lantern slides, of the chief conclusions arrived at. The report 

 ends with the following recommendations : — 



(a) That the necessary steps should be taken to induce the 

 oyster trade to remove any possible suspicion of sewage con- 

 tamination from the beds and layings from which oysters are 

 supplied to the market. This could obviously be effected in 

 one of two ways, either (i) by restrictive legislation and the 

 licensing of beds only after due inspection by the officials of a 

 Government Department, or (2) by the formation of an associ- 

 ation amongst the oyster-growers and dealers themselves, which 

 should provide for the due periodic examination of the grounds, 

 stores and stock, by independent properly qualified inspectors. 

 Scientific assistance and advice given by such independent in- 

 spectors would go far to improve the condition of the oyster beds 

 and layings, to reassure the public, and to elevate the oyster 

 industry to the important position which it deserves to occupy. 



{b) Oysters imported from abroad (Holland, France, or 

 America) should be consigned to a member of the Oyster 

 Association, who should be compelled by the regulations to 

 have his foreign oysters as carefully inspected and certificated 

 as those from his home layings. A large proportion of the 

 imported oysters are, however, deposited in our waters for such 

 a period before going to market that the fact of their having 

 originally come from abroad may be ignored. If this period of 

 quarantine were imposed upon all foreign oysters, a great part 

 of the difficulty as to inspection and certification would be 

 removed. 



(r) The grounds from which mussels, cockles and periwinkles 

 are gathered should be periodically examined by scientific inspec- 

 tors in the same manner as the oyster beds. The duty of providing 

 for this inspection might well, we should suggest, be assumed by 

 the various Sea Fisheries Committees around the coast. 



Dr. H. Lyster Jameson exhibited examples of a race of pro- 

 tectively coloured mice that inhabit a sandy island in the Bay of 

 Dublin, known as the North Bull. A considerable percentage 

 of these mice are distinctly lighter in colour than the ancestral 

 type ^^Mus musculus, Linn.). Every possible intergradation, 

 however, occurs between the typical house mouse and the palest 

 examples. Mr. Jameson considers the marked predominance ol 

 sand-coloured examples as due to the action of natural selection. 

 The hawks and owls, which frequent the island and hunt by 

 " sight," are the only enemies the mice have to compete against, 

 and they most easily capture the darkest mice ; that is to say, the 

 mice that contrast most strikingly with the colour of the sand ; 

 and thus by the weeding out of the dark-coloured examples a 

 protectively coloured race is becoming established, which, how- 

 ever, has not yet settled down into the comparative stability 

 which usually characterises species. 



A reference to old charts and Parliamentary papers has shown 

 that this island first came into existence about a century ago ; 

 consequently it is in this case possible to fix a time limit within 

 which the race in question has been evolved. 



Monday, September 12. — The Section opened with an interest- 

 ing account, by Prof Poulton and Miss C. B. Sanders, of an 

 experimental inquiry into the struggle for existence in certain 

 common insects. A large number of lepidopterous pupce were 

 exposed under various conditions at Oxford, in Switzerland, and 

 in the Isle of Wight, in order to test by experiment the amount 

 of destruction by birds and other enemies, and also to determine 

 ^hat amount of protection was afforded by coloration. The 

 results showed that there is a heavy_death-rate in the pupal con- 

 dition, and apparently that there is a greater destruction of pupas 

 at Oxford than in Switzerland. An interesting discussion fol- 



NO. 151 I, VOL. 58] 



lowed, in which Sir John Lubbock, Prof. Lankester and Prof. 

 Meldola took part. Miss Sanders described and demonstrated 

 with specimens the actual details of the experiments and 

 observations. 



Prof. Lloyd Morgan followed with a paper on animal in- 

 telligence as an experimental study, which dealt largely with the 

 results of Mr. Thorndike's experiments in America with cats. It 

 was shown that the cats, in opening the doors of ingeniously 

 devised cages, learned gradually by experience, and were not 

 able to profit by imitation. This performance of purposive acts, 

 learned as the result of chance experience, was characterised 

 as intelligent in contradistinction to rational. Prof. Morgan ex- 

 pressed the opinion that without the record of the genesis of an 

 intelligent action observation and anecdote of animal intelligence 

 are of little importance ; and in answer to Sir John Lubbock, 

 and others who spoke in the discussion, he stated that the 

 advantage of simple experiments, such as those of Thorndike, 

 over observations, is that the results can be readily expressed in 

 curves. 



Dr. A. J. Harrison read a paper on his own observations in 

 the Clifton Zoological Gardens, on the so-called fascination of 

 snakes. The animals dealt with were pythons, both adult and 

 young ; and it was shown that in captivity, at least, there was 

 no evidence that they possessed the power of fascinating their 

 living prey, such as hens, ducks and rabbits. 



Prof. O. C. Marsh gave a paper on those families of the 

 Dinosauria, which he has called Sauropoda — such as Ceteo- 

 saurus and its allies— upon which he has a memoir ready for 

 publication. 



Dr. Masterman read a paper by Prof. Mcintosh on the 

 scientific experiments to test the effects of trawling in the waters, 

 of Scotland from 1886 to 1897. The areas dealt with were St. 

 Andrews Bay, the Firth of Forth, and the Moray Firth, and- 

 Prof. Mcintosh gave his reasons for dissenting from the con- 

 clusion drawn from the work of the Fishery Board for Scotland, 

 that the closure of areas against trawlers had led to an increase 

 in the fish population. 



The remaining papers were :— A new theory of retrogression^ 

 by Mr. G. A. Reid ; the structure of nerve cells, by Dr. G. 

 Mann; and a circulating apparatus for use in researches on 

 colour physiology and other purposes, by Messrs. F. W. Gamble 

 and W. F. Keeble. 



Tuesday, September 13. — The following papers were taken : — 

 Mr. R. I. Pocock, on musical organs in spiders ; Dr. A. T. 

 Masterman, on the origin of the vertebrate notochord and 

 pharyngeal clefts; Prof. Ch. Julin, on " Le developpement du 

 coeur chez les Tuniciers — quelques considerations sur la phylo- 

 genie des Ascidies simples" ; Mr. W. E. Hoyle, on Dr. Field's 

 card-catalogue of zoological literature ; Mr. F. A. Bather, on 

 the classification of the Pelmatozoa ; Prof. A. B. Macallum, on 

 the detection of phosphorus in tissues ; and two reports of Com- 

 mittees, one on the physiological effects of peptone and its pre- 

 cursors when introduced into the circulation, and the other or\ 

 the exploration of caves in the Malay Penin.sula. 



Prof. Julin in his paper dealt with the formation of the heart 

 from the epicardium and its homology with the stolon. He 

 showed reasons for regarding Distaplia as a central form linking 

 the other compound ascidians to the simple ascidians through, 

 the Ciavelinidae. 



The Peptone Committee report that their experiments make 

 it appear probable that peptones and albumenoses are not 

 wholly foreign substances to the circulating blood. It is, how- 

 ever, uncertain to what extent any given substance introduced 

 into the circulation is again recoverable from the urine, and how 

 long such substances can retain their identity after being so- 

 introduced. Anti-peptone seems to remain in the system to a 

 much greater extent than any of the other substances employed. 



As Section I did not meet this year, but was supposed to be 

 incorporated with D, several of the papers and reports — such as 

 the one last mentioned — were of a physiological nature. 



GEOGRAPHY AT THE BRITISH 

 ASSOC I A TION. 

 HTHE Geographical Section at Bristol was as a rule well 

 -*■ attended, and on one occasion crowded ; but, as happens 

 too frequently, the audience had a tendency to vary inversely 

 as the scientific value of the communications submitted to it. 

 Yet on the whole the twenty-five papers read were of high 

 quality, and some of them represented original work in research 

 as well as in travel. The President, Colonel Geotge Earl 



