August 20, 1891] 



NA TURE 



387 



phenomena, are now at last being taken under the wing of 

 science after long ridicule and contempt. The phenomenon of 

 crime, the scientific meaning and justification of altruism, and 

 other matters relating to life and conduct, are beginning, or 

 perhaps are barely yet beginning, to show a vulnerable front 

 over which the forces of science may pour. 



Facts so strange that they have been called miraculous are 

 now no longer regarded as entirely incredible. All occurrences 

 seem reasonable when contemplated from the right point 

 of view, and some are believed in which in their essence are still 

 quite marvellous. Apply warmth for a given period to :i 

 sparrow's egg, and what result could be more incredible or 

 magical if now discovered for the first time. The possibilities 

 of the universe are as infinite as is its physical extent. Why 

 should we grope with our eyes always downward, and deny the 

 possibility of everything out of our accustomed beat. 



If there is a puzzle about free-will, let it be attacked ; puzzles 

 mean a state of half-knowledge; by the time we can giasp 

 something more approximating to the totality of things the 

 paradoxity of paradoxes drops away and becomes unrecognizable. 

 I seem to myself to catch glimpses of clues to many of these old 

 questions, and I urge that we should trust consciousness, which 

 has led us thus far ; should shrink from no problem when the 

 time seems ripe for an attack upon it, and should not hesitate to 

 press investigation, and ascertain the laws of even the most 

 recondite problems of life and mind. 



What we know is as nothing to that which remains to be 

 known. This is sometimes said as a truism ; sometimes it is 

 half doubted. To me it seems the most literal truth, and that 

 if we narrow our view to already half-conquered territory only, 

 we shall be false to the men who won our treedom, and treason- 

 able to the highest claims of science. 



I must now return to the work of this Section, from which I 

 have apparently wandered rather far afiield, further than is 

 customary — perhaps further than is desirable. But I hold that 

 occasionally a wide outlook is wholesome, and that without such 

 occasional survey, the rigid attention to detail and minute 

 scrutiny of eveiy little fact, which are so entirely admirable and 

 are j-o rightly here fostered, are apt to become unhealthily dull 

 and monotonous. Our life-work' is concerned with ihe rigid 

 framework of facts, the skeleton or outline map of the universe : 

 and, though it is well for us occasionally to remember that the 

 texture and colour and beauty which we habitually ignore are not 

 therefore in the slightest degree non-existent, yet it is safest 

 speedily to return to our base and continue the slow and labori- 

 ous march with which we are familiar and which experience has 

 justified. It is because 1 imagine that such sy.-tematic advance 

 is now beginning to be possible in a frtsh and unexpected 

 direction that I have attempted to direct )our attention to a 

 subject which, if my progiiostications are correct, may turn out 

 to be one of special and peculiar interest to humanity. 



THE LATE PROE. MARTIN DUNCAN, F.R.S. 

 '\\1 E have already announced the death of this well- 



** known geologist ; and now give a brief account 

 of his services to science. 



As a Fellow of the Royal, Linnean, Geological, and 

 Microscopical Societies, and for some time President of 

 the two last-named of these, it goes without saying that 

 his attainments were of no mean order. Educated for 

 the medical profession at King's College, London, he 

 matriculated at the London University in 1841, taking 

 honours in anatomy and physiology in 1844, and the 

 degree of Bachelor of Medicine in 1846, in which year 

 also he qualified as a Member of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons. His early life was passed at Rochester with 

 Dr. Martin, and at Colchester, where he was in practice 

 for some years, and where he so won the esteem of all 

 who knew him that he was elected Mayor of that city. 

 Fascinated with the study of geology, and impressed with 

 the idea that to make any mark in the scientific world a 

 man should take up some spccialite, he not only obtained 

 a broad grasp of his favourite subject, but devoted him- 

 self especially to a study of fossil corals andechinoderms, 

 on which subjects at intervals he published numerous 

 valuable memoirs. Indeed, for many years, and up to 



NO. I 138, VOL. 44] 



within a comparatively short period of his death, he con- 

 tinued to work at his special subject, and contributed 

 many important papers to the Annals and Magazine of 

 Natural History, the Journal of the Geological Society, 

 the Geological Magazine, Quarterly Journal of Micro- 

 scopical Scieme, the Philosophical Transactions and Pro- 

 ceedings of the Royal Society, the Proceedings and 

 Transactions of the Zoological Society, and the Journal 

 of the Linnean Society. 



He soon found that residence out of London, away 

 from scientific societies and important works of reference, 

 was a great obstacle to work, and that if he was to make 

 any real progress with his special studies it was absolutely 

 necessary for him to seek some appointment in the metro- 

 polis. Fortunately for him, as it happened, the Chair of 

 Geology at King's College became vacant, and he was 

 appointed to fill it. This at once gave him the oppor- 

 tunity he had so long hoped for, and the preparation of 

 his lectures proceeded side by side with much useful work, 

 which, by degrees, he found time to publish. Such, for 

 exaiTiple, was his account of the Madreporaria collected 

 during the expedition of H.M.S. Porcupine, which ap- 

 peared in the Transactions of the Zoological Society 

 (Part I, vol. viii. p. 303, &c., and Part 2, vol. x. p. 235, 

 &c.) ; his description of deep-sea and litoral corals from 

 the Atlantic and Indian Oceans (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1876, 

 p. 428, &c.) ; and his important revision of the Echinoidea, 

 printed in the Journal of the Linnean Society, of which it 

 occupied four numbers. 



This was all strictly scientific work, but by no means 

 represented all that he accomplished. As a popular ex- 

 ponent of the teaching of geology and zoology, especially 

 in regard to the lower forms of life, he published many 

 excellent articles which were designed to awaken an in- 

 terest in subjects little investigated, though well worthy 

 of attention. 



Lucidly written and full of facts, these articles were at 

 once instructive and suggestive, and from a teachers' 

 point of view did more to educate youthful naturalists 

 and encourage research than any of his more scientific 

 papers, which, being of a more technical character, were 

 less acceptable to the majority of readers because less 

 intelligible to them. 



Of this class were his articles on " Corals and their 

 VoXs^^'s,'" {^Intellectual Observer, 1869, pp. 81-91,241-50, 

 with two coloured plates) ; " Studies amongst Amcebae" 

 {Popular Science Review, 1877, with two plates), and 

 " Notes on the Ophiurans, or the Sand and Brittle Stars" 

 {Popular Science Review, 1878, with a plate). 



His attention, however, was not confined to inverte- 

 brate zoology or geology. In 1878 he commenced the 

 publication, in six volumes quarto, of a popular " Natural 

 History," which had the merit of being written by a 

 number of able specialists upon a comprehensive plan 

 under his direction, and, while taking upon himself the 

 laborious duties of editor-in-chief, he contributed many 

 of the sections himself. Thus, while securing the co- 

 operation of such well-known zoologists as the late Prof. 

 W. K. Parker, the late Mr. Dallas, Prof. Seeley, Prof. 

 Boyd Dawkins, Dr. H. Woodward, Dr. Murie, Mr. H. 

 W. Bates, and Mr. R. B. Sharpe, he himself undertook 

 the preparation of the articles on Apes and Monkeys, 

 Lemurs (part), Edentata, Marsupialia, Reptilia, and Am- 

 phibia. He also wrote the introduction to the Inverte- 

 brata, and the articles Vermes, Zoophytes, and Infusoria 

 which appeared in the last volume, published in 1883. 



For an excellent summary of marine zoology, in which 

 the appearance, structure, and habits of such animals 

 and plants as may be found upon our coasts are well 

 described, the reader may be referred to a little volume 

 by Dr. Duncan, entitled " The Sea shore." It forms one 

 of a series of " Natural History Rambles," issued a few 

 years since by the Society for Promoting Christian 

 Knowledge, ar.d, for the amount of information which it 



