568 



NATURE 



[October 8, 1903 



We who attempt to read the records of the rocks may 

 be tempted to magnify the importance of the work, but I 

 do not hesitate to add that botanists as a whole have but 

 half realised the fact that the study of living plants alone 

 supplies but a portion of the evidence bearing on problems 

 of plant-evolution. To ignore the facts that may be gleaned 

 from the investigation of extinct types is like attempting 

 to draw up a genealogy by merely questioning an individual 

 without consulting the documentary evidence of registers 

 and other chronicles. 



Each successive stage through which the organic world 

 has passed contains some relics of a preceding age ; in 

 comparing the chalk with the calcareous ooze now accumu- 

 lating on the bed of the Atlantic, Carpenter expressed the 

 partial agreement between the two deposits by saying that 

 we are still living in the Cretaceous period. Dr. Moore's 

 recent researches, demonstrating a striking resemblance 

 between many of the molluscs of Lake Tanganyika and 

 fossils preserved in the sediments of Jurassic seas, led him 

 to describe some constituents of the fauna of this inland 

 lake as so many "lingering shadows of the past," while 

 Tanganyika itself is a dwindled remnant of a Mesozoic sea. 

 Similarly our modern vegetation differs enormously from 

 that of the Mesozoic era, yet in the sago-palms of the 

 Tropics and in species of Malayan ferns we recognise proofs 

 of the continuity of plant-types through successive ages. 

 One stage is superseded by another, but some characteristic 

 elements of each period persist into the next, carrying on 

 the traditions of the past and demonstrating the futility of 

 our system of classification, a system in which we express 

 the limitations of our knowledge, as we suit our con- 

 venience, by dividing into periods the history of geological 

 and organic evolution. 



" It is only our ignorance that fixes a limit, as the mist 

 gathered round the mountain's brow makes us fancy we are 

 treading the edge of the universe." 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



In connection with the Technical Education Board of 

 the London County Council, a course of ten free lectures 

 to teachers on " Animal Life in a Freshwater Aquarium " 

 will be given by Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S., at the Horni- 

 man Museum on Saturday mornings, at 11.30, from 

 October 10 to December 12. Tickets of admission may be 

 obtained from the Clerk of the London County Council, 

 County Hall, Spring Gardens, S.W. 



A COURSE of eight lectures on " The Relation of the 

 Composition of the Plant to the Soil in which it Grows " 

 will be given at the Chelsea Physic Garden by Mr. A. D. 

 Hall (director of the Rothamsted Experimental Station) on 

 Tuesdays from October 13 to December 8, in connection 

 with the University of London. The lectures are addressed 

 to advanced students. Two courses of lectures on advanced 

 physiology will be given at the university during the 

 present session. Commencing on October i6. Dr. F. W. 

 Mott, F.R.S., will lecture on " The Structure and Function 

 of the Cerebral Cortex," and on October 20 Dr. Buck- 

 master will lecture on "The Blood." On October 13 Dr. 

 A. D. Waller will lecture on " The Anaesthetic Action of 

 Chloroform and Ether." Admission to the lectures is by 

 ticket, to be obtained from the Academic Registrar. 



The Act of Parliament under which the University 

 College of Liverpool, hitherto associated with Owens 

 College, Manchester, and Yorkshire College, Leeds, in 

 Victoria University, begins its independent existence as the 

 University of Liverpool, came into operation on October i. 

 This charter, which was obtained last July, provides that 

 all the courses shall be open to women. Lord Derby is 

 the first Chancellor and Principal Dale the Vice-Chancellor, 

 and the university possesses a strong staff. Chairs 

 have recently been endowed in tropical medicine, bio- 

 chemistry, and electrotechnics, besides additions to other 

 teaching resources. It is anticipated that the existence of 

 the new university will greatly stimulate the work in the 

 secondary a well as other schools. 



NO. 17 7 1, VOL. 68] 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, September 28. — M. Albert Gaudry 

 in the chair. — The myelocytes of the olfactory bulb, by 

 M. Johannes Chatin.— Remarks by M. Alfred Picard on 

 the " Rapport g6n^ral administratif et technique sur 

 1 'Exposition universelle Internationale de 1900." — On a 

 combination of aluminium sulphate with sulphuric acid, 

 by M. E. Baud. By the action of sulphuric acid upon 

 bauxite, aluminium hydrate, or aluminium sulphate, a com- 

 pound possessing the composition AL03.4SO,.4H20 is 

 formed, which dissolves very slowly in cold water. It is 

 analogous to the ferrisulphuric acid of M. Recoura. — On 

 the nitrosite of pulegone, by M. P. Genvresse. Pulegone, 

 dissolved in petroleum ether, and saturated with either 

 nitrogen peroxide or nitrous fumes from starch and nitric 

 acid, gives a nitrosite, CioHj^.N^O,, the properties of which 

 are described. — On the production of sulphuretted hydrogen 

 by extracts of organs and albumenoid materials in general, 

 by M. Emm. Pozzi-Escot. Yeast extract, treated with 

 sulphur, gives rise to a considerable quantity of sulphuretted 

 hydrogen ; if the extract is boiled for a short time before 

 adding sulphur, no sulphuretted hydrogen is evolved. From 

 this it is concluded that the reaction is of a diastatic nature. 

 — On the phagocytic resorption of unutilised genital pro- 

 ducts in Echinocardium cordatum, by MM. Maurice 

 Caullery and Michel Siedlecki. — On the formation of the 

 eg^ and the 'multiplication of an antipode in Juncus and 

 Luzula, by M. Marcellin Laurent. — The morphological 

 variation in the leaves of the vine following grafting, by 

 M. A. Jurie. The experiments described show the great 

 variability of certain morphological characters in the leaf 

 of the vine under the influence of grafting. — On the re- 

 lations between the structure of the French and Swiss Alps, 

 bv M. Kilian. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Military Topography. By T. H. H 545 



Nature Study as a School Subject. By A. D. H. . 546 

 Our Book Shelf:— 



" Ergebnisse der Physiologic" 547 



Voigt : " Thermodynamik " • 547 



Alison and Clark: "Arithmetic for Schools and 



Colleges."— G. M. M 547 



Morel: " Les Materiaux artificiels" 547 



Letters to the Editor :— 



Expansion Curves. {With Diagram.) — Prof. J. 



Perry, F.R.S 548 



Botany in Boy's' Schools. — H. J. Glover 548 



Radium and the Cosmical Time Scale. — W. B. 



Hardy 548 



Loss of Weight of Musk by Volatilisation.— F. R. 



Sexton 548 



Condensation Nuclei. By C. T. R, Wilson, F.R.S. 548 

 The Geology of Austria-Hungary. By Prof. Gren- 



ville A. J. Cole 550 



Notes 551 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The Rotation of Saturn 554 



The Broadening of Spectral Lines 554 



The Spectrum of Hydrogen 554 



The Orbit of I Bootis 555 



Opening of the Medical Schools 555 



The British Association 556 



Section K.— Botany. — Opening Address by A. C. 

 Seward, F.R.S., Fellow and Tutor of Emmanuel 

 College, late Fellow of St. John's College, 

 Cambridge ; Lecturer on Botany in the University, 



President of the Section. {With Maps.) 556 



University and Educational Intelligence 568 



Societies and Academies 568 



