Vol. XXn, No. 6.J 



POPULAE SCIENCE NEWS. 



91 



and does not believe that this fauna is the remnant 

 of that of a continent formerly in communication 

 with Europe. His work will certainly prove a 

 very interesting one. 



M. Wasserzug, one of Pasteur's assistants, 

 who died some days ago, much to the regret of 

 those interested in bacteriology, has recently pub- 

 lished a good paper, in the Annales de I'Instilut 

 Pasteur, on the variations, morphological and func- 

 tional, of different species of bacteria. He has 

 seen that certain functions may be experimentally 

 abolished, such as the chromatic function, and fully 

 believes that permanent variations might be in- 

 duced, and, in fact, different species created, with 

 the aid of time, if bacteria were to be submitted 

 to the influence of peculiar media. It is a very 

 probable fact, indeed, and an interesting one. The 

 experiment is worth trying; and it is a pity M. 

 Wasserzug, quite a young man, should have died 

 while engaged in these interesting pursuits. 



A NEW professorship is to be soon created in the 

 venerable Sorbonne, in the Faculty of Sciences, 

 that will cause many to shriek in despair. It is 

 the professorship of philosophical biology, which 

 is to be offered to Professor Giard, and devoted to 

 the study of zoological doctrines, and more espe- 

 cially of Darwinism. To many zoologists of the 

 old school, Darwinism is a frightful nightmare, and 

 their execration is in advance promised to all who 

 follow Darwin. But they are not eternal; and it is 

 certain, that, notwithstanding the efforts made by 

 many of these older zoologists to keep Darwinism 

 in the dark, all the young men are Darwinians. 

 Professor Giard is quite a Darwinian stricto sensu, 

 but does not admit the vagaries of the ultra Dar- 

 winians. His intention is to study Darwinism 

 especially in the light of embryology. The new 

 professorship will be created on the proposition of 

 the Paris Municipal Board, which lias voted the 

 necessary funds. Professor Giard will also have one 

 or two assistants and a laboratory. It is but time 

 that France, the mother of Lamarck and Geoft'roy 

 Saint-Hilaire, should have a professorship of Dar- 

 winism, as is the case in England, (iermany, etc. ; 

 and it is high time, also, that the general public 

 should be no longer deluded concerning Darwinism 

 by the ignorance or ill will of the official peda- 

 gogues. So many and complete .stupidities have 

 been said by some of them on the matter, that it 

 is necessary that some answer should come and put 

 things straight, — a very difficult thing sometimes, 

 when one considers how easily errors and false- 

 hoods become accredited. These are innumerable 

 concerning Darwinism. It has been discussed by 

 any amount of persons who had not the slightest 

 idea of the real aim and purport of Darwin's views, 

 and had never read his works; it is time it should 

 be explained 'by persons who have read and learnt, 

 and are able to give a candid and competent 

 opinion. 



Some interesting books have been published of 

 late. Among them I will only notice the principal. 

 There is Professor Emile Blanchard's La Vie des 

 Hires animes. Professor Blanchard is now an old 

 man, whose life, entirely and untiringly devoted to 

 science, has been a long study of animal life and 

 forms, and more especially of insects, whose anat- 

 omy and habits he has well studied; so well, indeed, 

 that his eyes are almost lost, owing to a continu- 

 ous use of the microscope. He has, nevertheless, 

 courage and will enough to continue his work, and 

 the book we are speaking of is his last contribution 

 to science. Professor Blanchard has at all times 

 been a decided adversary of the evolution theory 

 and of the Darwinian views on the origin of spe- 



cies, and in his recent book he comes out as strong 

 as he can against them. His work is an interest- 

 ing one, surely, but it is not enough abreast with 

 the positive facts of science to prove very convin- 

 cing to competent naturalists. He wholly ignores 

 the embryological arguments in favor of Darwin- 

 ism, and takes no notice of paleontological evi- 

 dence, and sums up his objections in requiring 

 evidence of the transformation of any given spe- 

 cies into another one, well recognized as such. Such 

 evidence is not yet very abundant, certainly ; but 

 there are facts which are of great interest as bear- 

 ing on the point in discussion. Schmankevitsch 

 showed, some years ago, that a crustacean, 

 Artemia salina, can be easily transformed into the 

 species known as Artemia Milhausenii, and recipro- 

 cally, merely by subtracting or adding salt to the 

 water in which these species live. It is merely the 

 constancy of the external conditions of life, as 

 Professor Semper says, thi greater or less saltness 

 of the water, which in one case determines the char- 

 acter of Artemia Milhausenii, and in another that 

 of A. salina. But Schmankevitsch has been able 

 to push the experiment farther on, and, by adding 

 fresh water, has been able to transform A . salina into 

 a new genus, — the genus Branchipus. Such facts 

 are of utmost importance, and we regret that Pro- 

 fessor Blanchard has overlooked or ignored them 

 in his book. His work is very pleasantly written, 

 and is the fruit of a long personal experience, but 

 does not take notice enough, it seems to us, of the 

 experience of others. Among the other books, one 

 will notice the second volume of the Etudes ex- 

 perimentales et clinir/ues sur la Tuberculose. This 

 periodical is continuing its usual work, and con- 

 tains many interesting papers on the different 

 methods of treating tuberculosis, or on the experi- 

 ments which may conduce to a rational treatment 

 thereof, especially to an anti-tubercular vaccina- 

 tion. Some of the contributions are of little value, 

 their authors having no personal experience in 

 chemical and physiological researches, and confin- 

 ing themselves strictly to clinical work ; but, upon 

 the whole, the Etudes are very valuable indeed. 

 Concerning tuberculosis, we will also note the 

 appearance of Cornile Ilerard and Ilanat's La 

 Phthisie pulmonaire. It is a good book, embody- 

 ing all that is at present known concerning the 

 question. Messrs. Beauregard and Galippe's Guide 

 pratique pour les travaux de Microyraphie is a sec- 

 ond edition of a good book ; and M. Piderit's La 

 Mimique et la Physiognomonie (translated from the 

 German) will prove useful to artists, psychologists, 

 and physiologists likewise. H. 



Pakis, April 21, 1888. 



THE OLDEST ROCKS. 



Oldest of all the formations known to geol- 

 ogists, and representing perhaps the earliest rocks 

 produced after our earth had ceased to be a molten 

 mass, are the hard, crystalline, and much contorted 

 rocks named by the late Sir W. E. Logan, Lauren- 

 tian, and which are largely developed in the north- 

 ern parts of North America and Europe, and in 

 many other regions. So numerous and extensive, 

 indeed, are the exposures of these rocks, that we 

 have good reason to believe that they underlie all 

 the other formations of our continents, and are 

 even world-wide in their distribution. In the lower 

 part of this great .system of rocks, which, in some 

 places at least, is thirty thousand feet in thickness, 

 we find no traces of the existence of any living 

 thing on the earth. But, in the middle portion of 

 the Laurentian, rocks are found which indicate 

 that there was already land and water, and that 

 the waters, and possibly the land, were already ten- 

 anted by living beings. The great beds of lime- 



stone which exist in this part of the system furnish 

 one indication of this. In the later geological for- 

 mations the limestones are mostly organic ; that 

 is, they consist of accumulated remains of shells, 

 corals, and other hard parts of marine animals, 

 which are composed of calcium carbonate, which 

 the animals obtain directly from their food, and 

 indirectly from the calcareous matter dissolved in 

 the sea- water. In like manner, great beds of iron 

 ore exist in the Laurentian; but in later forma- 

 tions the determining cause of the accumulation of 

 such beds is the partial deoxidation and solution 

 of the peroxide of iron by the agency of organic 

 matter. Besides this, certain forms known as 

 Eozoon Canadense have been recognized in the 

 Laurentian limestones, which indicate the presence 

 at least of one of the lower types of marine ani- 

 mals. Where animal life is, we may fairly infer 

 the existence of vegetable life as well, since the 

 plant is the only producer of food for the animal. 

 — Sir William Dawson, in Popular Science 



Monthly. 



—* — 



[Specially reported for the Popular Science News from the 

 Obeervatory of the College of New Jersey.] 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA FOR JUNE, 



1888. 



The Planets. — Mercury is an evening star, com- 

 ing to greatest elongation on June 12, when it will 

 be 24° east of the Sun. It will probably be visible 

 in the western sky, near the horizon, soon after 

 sunset on any clear evening during the first half of 

 the month. Venus is still a morning star, but is 

 very close to the Sun, and is not in good position to 

 be seen. It will be in superior conjunction with 

 the Sun on July 11. Mars is still in pretty good 

 position for observation, but is rapidly increasing 

 its distance from the Earth ; its distance at the end 

 of the month being one and one-half times what it 

 was at opposition in .\pril. It is in the constella- 

 tion Virgo, is moving eastward, and at the end of 

 the month is nearly due north of Spica (Alpha 

 Virginis). It is on the meridian at 8 p m. on June 

 1, and at GA. ZOm. p.m. on June 30. Jupiter ri.ses 

 earlier than during ^lay, and is getting into good 

 position for observation in the evening, rising be- 

 fore sunset. It is on the meridian at a little after 

 11 P.M. on June 1, and at about 9 p.m on June 30. 

 It is about 1° 30' west of the second-magnitude star 

 Beta Scorpii on June 1, and moves westward 3° 

 during the month The following eclipses of Jupi- 

 ter's satellites are visible in the United States dur- 

 ing the month. The phenomena all take place 

 near the planet on the upper right-hand quadrant, 

 as seen in an inverting telescope, and are all reap- 

 pearances, except one for the third satellite, where 

 both disappearance and reappearance can be seen. 

 D denotes disappearance, and R reappearance. 

 Times are Eastern standard. 



I. R. June 1, 8h. 18m. p.m. 



II. H. June 6, 8h. 48m. P.M. 



I. R. June 7, 3h. 43ra. a.m. 



I. R. .June 8, lOh. 12m. p.m. 



II. R. June 13, llh. 25m. P.M. 



I. R. June 14, 5h. 38m. a.m. 



I. R. June 16, 12h. 6m. a.m. 



II. R. June 21, 2b. Im, A.M. 



I. R. June 23, 2h. Im.A.M. 



I. R. June 24, 8h. 29m. p.m. 



III. D. June 25, lOh. 14m. p.m. 



III. R. June 25, llh. 59m. p.m. 



II. R. June 28, 4h. 38m. a.m. 



I. R. June 30, 3h. 55m. a.m. 



Saturn is still to be seen in the western sky in 

 the evening; but the Sun is rapidly approaching it, 

 and by the end of the month the planet sets a little 

 less than two hours after the Sun. Uranus is in 

 the constellation Virgo. On June 6 Mars passes 

 47' to the north Early in July Uranus is in quad- 

 rature with the Sun. Neptune is a morning star, 

 very close to the Sun. 



The Constellations. — The positions given hold 

 good for latitudes differing not many degrees from 

 40° north, and for 10 p m. on June 1, 9 p.m. on 

 June 15, and 8 p.m. on June 30. Bootes is in the 

 zenith; Libra is on the southern meridian, about 



