774 



IIKFOIIT — 1H84. 



Hiiiu'rviMion, Ah num by fact it iouwly arnm^riiifj^ tbo means at Iiiy tlinpiiHal, in 

 accordance wifli liis iiocd.M and taslcx, institutes Hv-lcins of artiliciiil co-ofdiim'i:,u 

 8() (111) Hpontancous atljustineiit of orpmic activities in snlijection to and conl'inuiiy 

 ■with prevailing,' correlated tondoncie.s and reiiuirements constitutes a .H}>t«ni of 

 natural co-ordination. 



In tho elaborate establislimenf of specific orj^anic jjroducts nat nral co-ordiiiali m 

 performs (lie two distinct thou^'h coinpleineiital ollice-i of a directive and a selective 

 function, the former detenniiiin;j: eaeli temjiorarv >1e]) in tlie process, tlit Li'iii 

 decidin)^ which, out of many jiossi I ile courses, will be |ieriiiaiien11y or sui-cessivelv 

 adopted. In a (!■ pendent evolving system, with iibiindant accoinmoduf ions, pro. 

 visions, and protection, it, might remain a mailer of indillereiice what number and 

 kind of forms were ]iroduced, as all would ln^ alike jiri'sei'ved ; each succi'fdii:!' 

 •jihaso being simply a. direct product of antecedent stages, without the intervention 

 of any subsequent eliminating process. 



lltM'o the principles of co-onliiiation could only have directivo HCO])e ; but in 

 a circumscribed station, with limited MU]))>lie.s and liability to invasion, as souii af 

 the rate ol' production would exceed the means of supiiorl, co-ordination -would 

 assunu! a selective >-(/7c, submitting the various coinpetitdrs for the dilleivnt avaii- 

 a)>lt) positions to prescribed tests, accepting such as would conform with requiivd 

 standards, and rejecting all relatively unsuitable or incompetent ones. ( )rgani.satii)n 

 seems to have been planned and conducted according to some such meth(jd mid 

 design; \{h potenlialities constituting an incalculalde fund of transmutable and 

 genetic material, aflordiiig the priiicipli- of co-onUnalion enormous resources whua'- 

 on to operate, so as to render possible the nalisation of results jn-actically incon- 

 ceivable. Such being, ajipareiitly, the simjile natural means and metliod.- 

 employed in elaborathig all the wonderfully complex and iliversiiied ]>roduc1d oi 

 organic evolution, the iirimordial germ or germs ha\ ing virtually involved not only 

 all past, present, and future developmental achie\ emeiits, but also a practically 

 infinite store of unrealised possibilities; tlu; principle of co-ordination Milnnittinj: 

 originally indefinite jiotentialities to definite arrangements of facilities and restraints; 

 thus directing the course of development into innumeralde special clianiicls', and 

 from the multifaricnis types evolved .^^electing such as iirovisionally conform with 

 llieir various conventional reiiuiremeiits ; while (he marvellous ])rogres8 revealed in 

 the past history of these operations afl'ords most encouraging assurance nf incon- 

 ceivably higher realisations in the future course towards the relatively njiproxim- 

 able, though perhaps n 'ver absolutely attainable, state of ultimate universid 

 perfection. 



II 



SUBSKCTIOX OP PllVSIOLOGY. 



1. Oil' the Coa<julatio)i of Blood. 

 Bii Professor H. N, Mautin and W. H. Howell. 



The blood of the Slider Terrapin, a turtle easily obtainable in Baltimore, had 

 been used for a number of experiments, the object of which was to determine 

 whether the views entertained by Ilammersten or by Schmidt were most reliable. 

 The general conclusions went to show that the views of Ilammersten were more in 

 accordance with the results of these observers. 



2. On the Blood of Liraulug Polyphemus. By Francis Gotch, B.Sc, 

 and JcsKPH P. Laws, F.C.S. 



Comparatively few observations have previously been made on the blood of tlie 

 Vmg crah {Litnuiuspolyphemus), the most important being those of Genth.' The 

 fact wfiich his researches brought out — namely, that the blood contained a com- 



* Genth, Annalen dcr Chemie und Pharmadc, 1852, p. 68. 



