March 23, 19 16] 



MATURE 



93 



Vertebrate skeletons, which have much more numerous 

 md tangible characters, and approach senilit}' in more 

 ,'aried ways, should attord a clearer view of general 

 )rinciples. 



Even among vertebrates the evidence that most con- 

 ;erns the geologist is not always easily interpreted, 

 ^or instance, the Sparassodonta and horned tortoises 

 )f the Argentine Tertiary are so closely similar to the 

 existing Thylacines and the fossil Miolania of Aus- 

 ralia, that they are still sometimes quoted as proving 

 he former existence of an Antarctic continent uniting 

 lie South American and Australian regions. On the 

 )ther hand, they may be merely survivors of cosmo- 

 Kjlitan races at the two extremes of their former 

 ange, with certain inevitable (but not altogether 

 limilar) marks of senility. In making comparisons, 

 ndeed, it is no longer enough to distinguish the funda- 

 nental and merely adaptive characters of animals ; 

 t is also essential to note separately those characters 

 vhich depend on the early, mature, or senile position 

 )f the particular animals in the evolving series to 

 vhich they belong. 



Hitherto there seems to be only one case in which 

 we have enough materials for forming a judgment as 

 whether a fundamental advance may occur more 

 han once. Mammal-like reptiles are abundant in the 

 Permian of North America and in the Permian and 

 Frias of South Africa and other parts of the Old 

 iVorld. Recent studies have shown that all specialisa- 

 :ions in the North American forms are in the direction 

 if higher reptiles, while all those in the South African 

 forms are in the direction of mammals. Hence, 

 although there is evidence of two possible sources 

 3f mammals, only one appears to have produced 

 iiem. 



Among advances of lower degree, the origin of the 

 Tionkeys or lower Anthropoidea may be considered, 

 [t is agreed that they arose from the Lemuroidea 

 R'hich were almost universally distributed over the 

 ?reat continents at the beginning of the Tertiary era. 

 They seem to have evolved separately in America and 

 in the Old World, but the two series are very sharply 

 distinguished, although they form one zoological " sub- 

 )rder." When isolated on the island of Madagascar, some 

 3f these same animals acquired a few peculiarities of the 

 American, others of the Old World Anthropoidea, but 

 never really advanced beyond the Lemuroid stage, 

 merely becoming senile just before their extinction. 

 Hence, the Lemuroidea evolved in three different ways, 

 and the resulting groups are very^ easily distinguished. 



The study of the Tertiary Ungulata is especially 

 important, because most of the groups arose either in 

 North .America or in the Old World, which were 

 united and separated several times. It seems clear 

 that, although each group probably originated but once 

 in one particular area, its members soon diverged into 

 several independently evolving series, each imbued 

 with some definite impulse or momentum towards 

 siJecialisation in the same way in the course of geo- 

 logical time, only at different rates. There were thus, 

 for example, several distinct lines of horses and rhino- 

 ceroses, but all from the same source. 



It is now well known that the characteristic South 

 American Tertiary Ungulates arose in an isolated 

 area, and many of their specialisations are curiously 

 similar to some of those observed among European 

 Eocene and Oligocene Ungulata which soon proved 

 abortivp or " inadaptive." Thev are, however, bv no 

 means identical. 



While so many changes have occurred during the 

 evolution of the vertebrates, the persistence of char- 

 acters and the strength of heredity- in numerous cases 

 are still as perplexiner as they were when Huxley 

 first directed special attention to "persistent types." 

 NO. 2421, VOL. 97] 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Ca-MBridge.— Mr. A. V. Hill, Humphrey Owen Jones 

 lecturer in physical chemistr}-, and Mr. J. E. Davey 

 have been elected fellows of King's College. 



Mr. F. P. White, St. John's, has been elected to an 

 Isaac Newton studentship for three years, and Mr. H. 

 Jeffreys, St. John's, has^ been, re-elected to a student- 

 ship for an additional year. The Allen scholarship for 

 research in scientific subjects has been awarded to Mr. 

 Franklin Kidd, St. John's. 



LoNDO.N.— Prof. H. Jackson, of King's College, suc- 

 ceeds Prof. A. W. Crossley as one of the representa- 

 tives of the faculty of science on the Senate. 



The report of the Militarj- Education Committee for 

 1915 has been presented to the Senate. It states that 

 the number of members of the Universit},- of London 

 O.T.C. during the training year ended September 30 

 was 2209, of whom 1068 proceeded to commissions 

 during that year. Up to the end of 1915, 2228 cadets 

 or ex-cadets of the contingent had been granted com- 

 missions. Of these eighty-six had fallen in the war, 

 and the honours and distinctions gained were one 

 V.C., twenty-five military crosses, sixty-three men- 

 tions in despatches (four mentioned twice), and one 

 Medaille Militaire. In addition, 273 commissions had 

 been granted to graduates and students (other than 

 cadets or ex-cadets), and these officers had gained 

 four military crosses and ten mentions in despatches. 

 Since the outbreak of war, eight monthly courses had 

 been held in the officers' school of instruction in 

 connection with the contingent, and more than 90G 

 officers had passed through the school. Lists of 

 officers who have fallen in the war and have gained 

 distinctions are printed as appendices to the report. 



Oxford. — The Herbert Spencer lecture was delivered 

 on March 15 by Prof. J. Mark Baldwin. Taking for 

 his subject " The Super-State and the * Eternal 

 Values,'" Prof. Baldwin spoke of the distinction, on 

 one hand, between instrumental and eternal or abso- 

 lute values, and, on the other, between individual and 

 super-individual values. Pointing out that these dis- 

 tinctions are not peculiarly German, he went on to 

 show that with the advent of the present war it became 

 evident that in the German conception the State is 

 not a vehicle of simply individual or instrumental 

 value. It is, according to the Grermans, the expres- 

 sion of the full national will ; it is value per se, sum- 

 marising in itself the two super-individual values. The 

 monarch symbolises this ; no concession to the popular 

 will is possible under such a conception, but the 

 populace may be the recipient of free gifts from the 

 State. Natural selection, or the survival of the fittest, 

 is recognised, as, for example, in the victory of Turks 

 over Arabs in the thirteenth century, or of Rome over 

 Greece. Germany recognises two kinds of fitness — 

 military efficiency and organisation. The spiritual and 

 ethical weapon is wielded by the State alone. Militar\- 

 necessity knows no moral law ; " might is right," i.e. 

 super-individual might makes individual right. The 

 obser\'ance of treaties is subordinate to the needs of 

 the State; to be qnce a German is to be always of 

 super-individual value ; " Deutschland iiber Alles." So 

 much for the German ideal. The opposed point of 

 view makes itself felt in various domains, as in that 

 of naturalisation, where the experience of the ^..'-r 

 has proved that documentary evidence is useless; in 

 that of arbitration; and in that of cultural -.dations 

 between peoples. In fine, Germany says that the 

 nation is instrumental to the State ; the democratic 

 belligerents opposed to Germany hold that the State 



