214 YEAE-BOOK OF FACTS. 



result of an enormous series of antecedent changes of form, the whole 

 of which are perhaps for ever hidden from us in the abyss of pre- 

 geologic time." — Illustrated London News. 



THE HUMAN COMPLEXION. 

 A communication has been made by M. Abbadie to the Professor of 

 Natural History of the Museum of Paris (M. Quatrefages), declaring 

 the Complexion of the Human Race to be entirely dependent on the 

 mode of nourishment ; that he has beheld in Nubia whole races of 

 negroes who, from the entire use of animal food, present as fine a 

 carnation as the inhabitants of southern Europe. In Algeria it has 

 long been the subject of remark that the butchers, generally negroes 

 of Kalu, are as fair in complexion as the European settlers, although 

 still preserving their woolly hair. 



METHODS IN ZOOLOGY. 



Professor Agassiz, in speaking to the American Association of 

 Methods in Zoology, has said that the progress of natural science 

 does not depend so much on our information as upon the methods in 

 which this information is considered and combined. The results of 

 our investigations are acceptable and satisfactorily proved when they 

 stand the tests of criticism. Unhappily the devotees of natural his- 

 tory, still lingering upon the search for facts, have not yet been 

 willing to submit their facts to the tests by which they should be 

 judged. It is the great misfortune of American naturalists that 

 there is so much upon this continent that has not yet been described ; 

 all their efforts are directed to discoveries and descriptions, in the 

 belief that in this way glory and fame are only to be obtained. 

 There was a time when this plan was right ; now we want something 

 more. We want to arrive at a clearer insight into the foundations 

 of relationship. We must have the means of ascertaining whether 

 our facts are worthy of preservation and record. In some depart- 

 ments of zoology the proper standard has already been obtained. 

 Thus, since the investigations of Germans, transplanted into France 

 and thence into England, there is nobody who does not understand 

 that vertebrates are so different from other classes of animals, that 

 there is no genetic connexion between them. He recalled the dis- 

 i Kutween vertebrates and articulates, to show that their 

 structural elements are entirely different. Professor Agassiz took up 

 tin' Radiates, and illustrated upon the blackboard an exact system to 

 which all animals, supposed to be radiates, may be referred as a test. 

 He does net e msidi r the mouth of radiates as corresponding to the 



mouth <>f other animals, but only an opening in the cavity of the 

 body, no way analogous to the months of other animals. They are 

 often i dual, but they cannot be compared to a sphere be- 



cause their centre of structure is n< >t the centre of motion, He gives 



names to the two axes of the animals ; that around which the motion 

 of the animal occurs is the actinal axis ; its main pole the actinal, 

 and I 1 pole. The diameter in the direc- 



tion of the motion he calls the OOsliacaJ diameter, and that at right 



