228 



KNOWLEDGE, 



[October 1, 1898. 



might be sought in rocks older than the Permian, perhaps 

 in Silurian or Devonian strata. 



Prof. Osborn said that in order to clear the way for a 

 successful attack upon the difficult problem of the origin 

 of mammals, it was necessary first to reject the hypothesis, 

 brilliantly formulated by Huxley in 1880, of a genetic 

 succession between Monotreme, Marsupial, and Placental 

 types, since neither paleontology nor comparative anatomy 

 supported this view. He concluded by saying that for 

 further developments of the problem we must probably 

 look to the rich fauna of the Karoo beds of South Africa. 



A discussion followed, in which Profs. Marsh, Haeckel, 

 Adam Sedgwick, Hubrecht, and Newton took part. 



In the afternoon in the Senate House, the honorary 

 degree of Doctor of Science was conferred on the 

 following: — H. P. Bowditch, A. Dohrn, A. Milne- Edwards, 

 C. Golgi, E. Haeckel, A. A. W. Hubrecht, H. Kronecker, 

 W. Kiihne, and S. J. Marey. 



Dr. Sandys, the Public Orator, in the speeches in which 

 he introduced the above-named, adopted the reformed pro- 

 nunciation of Latin, which was greatly appreciated by the 

 large number of International visitors in the Senate House. 



We have not space here to print the speeches in extemo. 



Dr. Sandys referred, amongst the zoologists, to Prof. 

 Milne-Edwards as not only the first president of such 

 gatherings as these, but even their instigator and parent. 



Prof. Haeckel was referred to as not only an indefatigable 

 investigator of the minute forms of marine animal life, but 

 also as a daring propounder of an imposing theory, through- 

 out which he had endeavoured to trace the origin of 

 animal life from its remotest source. 



Prof. Hubrecht was introduced as a man who, born among 

 the Batavian fields, and gifted with the happiest of disposi- 

 tions, has won the hearts of all. There is scarcely a nation 

 in Europe whose language he has not claimed for his own ; 

 added to this, he has collected for accurate investigation 

 those most minute and microscopic sea monsters (if I may 

 use the expression) which are designated Nemertea. If we 

 may believe the Greek poets, those great beasts are, at all 

 events, sufficiently ancient in origin and worthy of notice. 

 I need hardly say, that Nereus himself was vriaepr/js ra 

 xa'i i/TTio.- (truthful and gentle), while Proteus, yipuiv .lAio? 

 vrjnipTi]s, " The old man of the sea who never told a lie." 

 However this may be, in extolling a man by whom those 

 marine monsters in all the various forms they assume have 

 been most veraciously described, nothing is easier than to 

 apeak the truth, nothing pleasanter than (to quote Homer) 

 yrjixcprio. ^u9t/o-ao-3ai. 



Friday, August 26th. 



Prof. Haeckel read an extremely interesting paper on 

 " The Descent of Man.' He said that the uionophyletic 

 origin of all mammalia from the Monotremata upwards to 

 Man is at present no more a vague hypothesis, but a posi- 

 tively established fact. All the living and extinct mammalia 

 which we know are descended from one single ancestral 

 form, which lived in the Triassic or Permian period ; and 

 this form must be derived from some Permian, or perhaps 

 Carboniferous, reptOe (alUed to the Progonosauria and 

 Theriodontia), and the latter from a Carboniferous amphi- 

 bian (Stegocephalia). These latter are descended from 

 Devonian fishes, and these again from lower vertebrates. 

 Much more difficult is the question of the origin of the 

 great vertebratt-stem, and its descent from invertebrates. 

 But these questions are not so important as the fact that 

 Man is a member of the primate-order (Linnc), and that 

 all primates descend from one common stem (Huxley). 

 Zoology may be proud to have proved this fact, based on 

 the theories of Lamarck (1809) and of Darwin (1859). 



Several other papers were read during the day, amongst 



which was one by Sir Herbert Maxwell on " Eecent Legis- 

 lation on Protection of Wild Birds in Great Britain," in 

 the course of which he pointed out the necessity of inter- 

 national protection as the only efficient safeguard against 

 the diminution of a great many of our migratory birds. 



On Saturday morning, August 27th, a general meeting 

 was held, at which it was decided that the fifth Congress 

 should be held in Germany in 1901. The members of the 

 Congress then adjourned to London, to attend a reception 

 by the President and Council of the Zoological Society at 

 the gardens in the afternoon and a reception by Sir .John 

 Lubbock at the Natural History Museum in the evening. 



On Monday a good number availed themselves of the 

 Hon. Walter Rothschild's invitation, and spent an enjoyable 

 and profitable day at Tring. 



On Tuesday about forty members of the Congress jour- 

 neyed to Woburn Abbey, at the invitation of His Grace the 

 Duke of Bedford, and spent a delightful day in inspecting 

 his magnificent collection of deer, yaks, zebras, and other 

 wild animals. 



THE GREAT SUNSPOT AND THE AURORA. 



By E. Walter Maunder, f.r.a.s. 



IT is almost two years since the occurrence of a most 

 remarkable sunspot, a series of photographs of 

 which were published as the astronomical plate in 

 Knowledue for November, 1896. That group was 

 remarkable as being the longest connected stream 

 of spots observed on the sun during the present quarter of 

 a century. It was no less remarkable that so great an 

 outburst should take place at a time when the mean solar 

 activity had already much declined. Three years had 

 passed since the maximum, and in the ordinary course the 

 minimum was expected in four years more. Since then 

 the further decline iu the solar activity has been marked 

 enough. The number of days on which the sun has been 

 wholly free from spots has increased rapidly, and yet now, 

 as if on purpose to entirely upset all our conceptions, we 

 have a fresh solar storm on a scale that would be note- 

 worthy even at the time of full maximum, two years after 

 the group we have just referred to, five years after the 

 maximum, and w'hen, according to rule, we have barely 

 two more years to wait for the minimum. 



Our present group was one of an entirely different order 

 to that of two years ago. It probably might have been 

 observed as a notch on the limb of the sun on the after- 

 noon of Friday, September 2nd. By the following 

 morning it was well within the limb, a single large spot, 

 of area of nearly one thousand four hundred millions of 

 square miles, with dark nucleus, and lying amongst long 

 ridges of bright facula?. By Sunday, September Ith, it 

 was sufficiently advanced on the disc to show some of its 

 peculiar beauties with distinctness. The details which 

 perhaps drew most attention were the long tongues of 

 bright matter which invaded the spot from without. The 

 northern edge of the principal umbra, which was very 

 dark, was fringed with such tongues, and a brilliant one 

 invaded it on the south preceding side. This latter tongue 

 had adopted a most curious form by the following day. 

 A double spear of light pierced the darkness of the umbra 

 to its centre, and was then bent obUquely backwards. On 

 this day, Monday, the first elements of a following stream 

 of spots were seen, which increased rapidly day by day up 

 to the 10th, grouping themselves on the 8th and 9th, 

 principally in two very complex clusters. Wednesday, 

 September 7th, showed a great increase in the following 

 spots, and the bright photospheric matter appeared mixed 



