254 



NATURE 



{Jan. 25,1872 



Intelligence is a conservative principle, and always will direct 

 effort and use into lines which will be beneficial to its possessor. 

 Thus we have llie source of the fittest — i.e., addition of parts by 

 increase and location of growth force directed by the will — the 

 will being under the influence of various kinds of compulsory 

 choice in the lower, and inielligent option among higher animals. 

 Thus intelligent choice may be regarded as the originator of the 

 fittest, while natural selection is the tribunal to which all the re- 

 sults of accelerated growth are submitted. This preserves or 

 destroys them, and determines the new points of departure on 

 which accelerated growth shall build. 



Acceleration under tht influence of effbrt accounts for the 

 existence of rudimenlal characters. Many other characters will 

 follow at a distance, ihe modifications proceeding in accordance 

 with the laws here proposed, and retardation is accounted for by 

 complementary or ab>oluLe loss of growth force. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 



Royal Society, January 18. — " Investigations of the Currents 

 in the Strait of Gibraltar, made in August 1S71," by Captain 

 G. S. Nares, R. N., of H. M. S. SluariMta-, under instructions from 

 Admiral Richards, F. R.S., Hydrographer of the Admiralty. 



Geological Society, Jan. 10. — Mr. Joseph Prestwich, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. " On Cyclostignia, Lepidodendron, and 

 Knorria I'rom Kiltorkan." By Prof. Oswald Heer. In this 

 paper the author indicated the chaiacters of ceitain fossils from 

 the yellow sandstone of ihe South of Ireland, referred by him to 

 the above genera, and mentioned in his paper " On the Carboni- 

 ferous Flora of Bear Island," read before the Society on Novem- 

 ber 9, 1870 (see Q. J. G S. vol. xxvii. p. i). He distinguished 

 as species Cyclostignia kiltorkcnsc, Haught., C. ininntuiii (Haught.), 

 Knorria actcnlnris, Gopp. s^x. Baityana, and Lcpidodciidyon ]\-l- 

 theimianum, Stcrnb. — Mr. Carruthers was glad that he had 

 made the observations which he did on Prof. Heer's former 

 paper, as it had caused the Professor to give the reasons on which 

 his opinions were based. He was doubtful whether the success 

 which had attended Prof. Heer's determination of species from 

 leaves jusiified the application of the same principles to mere 

 stems. He could not accept the difference in size or distance of 

 leaf-scars as a criterion of species, inasmuch as they were merely 

 the result of the difference m the age arid size of the parts of the 

 plants on which they were observed. Even Prof. Heer himself 

 had united together specimens presenting greater differences in 

 this respect than those which he distinguished. He considered 

 Cyclostignia kiltorkcnsc, C. miiuiliim, an I Lcpidodcn.irofi J 'cl- 

 thcimiauKin to be founded on diffeient parts of one species. In 

 the Kiltorkan fossils the outer surface of the original stems was 

 often broken up into small fragments, the phyllota.\y on which 

 proved them to be portions of large stems, and not entire 

 branches. As to Knorria^ it was certainly the interior cast of 

 the stem of Lepidodendron^ with casts of the channels through 

 which the vascular bundUs passed with some cellular tissue to tne 

 leaves ; and the specimen figured showed that it belonged to a 

 branch similar to that represented as C. miiiiituin. lie con- 

 sidered that the four supposed species belonging to three genera 

 were only different forms of the same plant. — " Notes on the 

 Geology of the Plain of Marocco, and the Great Ailas." By Mr. 

 George Maw. The author described first ihe characters pre- 

 sented by the coast of Marocco, and then the phenomena ob- 

 served by him in his progress in;o the mteiior of the country and 

 in the Atlas Chain. The oldest rocks observed were ranges of 

 metam a^hic rocks bounding the plain of Marocco, interbcdded 

 porphyr tes and the |>orphyritic tuff^ forming the backbone of 

 the Atlas Cliain, and the Mica-schisis of Djeb Tezah in the 

 Atlas. At many points in the lateral valleys of the Atlas almost 

 vertical grey shales were crossed ; the age of these was unknown. 

 Above ihese comes a Red Sandstone and Limestone series, 

 believed to be of Cretaceous age, and beds possibly of Miocene 

 age, which occupied the valleys of the Atlas and covered the 

 plain of Marocco, where vestiges of them remain in the form of 

 tabular hills. The probat.le age of these beds was determined 

 on the evidence of fossils. I he author noticed the sequence of 

 denuding and eruptive phenomena by which tlie arrangement 

 and distribution ol these rocks has been modified, and described 

 the more recent changes rcsultirg in the fornration of enormous 

 boulder beds flanking thg northern escarpment of the Atlas 

 plateau, and of great moraines at the heads of the valleys of the 



Atlas, both of which he ascribed to glacial action. An elevation 

 of the coast line of at least seventy feet was in<iicated by rai^ed 

 beaches of concrete sand at Mogador and e'sewhere, and ihe 

 author considered that a s'i|jht subsidence of ihe coast was now 

 taking place. The .surface of the plain of Marocco was descri'->ed 

 as covered with a tufaceous crust, probably due to the drawing 

 up of water to the surface from the subjacent calcareous strata 

 and the deposition from it of laminated carbonate of lime. Mr. 

 Ball, as an Alpine traveller who had also visited the Atlis in 

 company widi Dr. Hooker and Mr. Maw, offered a few remarks. 

 The plain of Marocco was not, in his opinion, a level, but an 

 inclined plane, rising gradually in height up to the foot of the 

 mountain, so that the base of the boulder ridges was at some 

 height above the level of the plain near Marocco. He did not 

 think that the boulder deposiis could be safely attributed to 

 glac ers, but thought rather that they had been carried into and 

 deposited in a shallow sea. He thought also that Mr. Maw had 

 somewhat over-estimated the thickness of some of the boulder 

 deposits ; and though there was one instance of an undoubted 

 moraine in one of the higher valleys of the Atlas, yet he could 

 not agree in the view that the glaciation of the Atlas was general. 

 He could not accept such a great th'ckness of beds as that repre- 

 sented by the vertical shales in Mr. Maw's section. Prof Ram- 

 say was pleased that the author, though giving so many interest- 

 ing details, had not assigned any definite age to many of the 

 beds. He agreed with him as to the cause assigned for the great 

 tufaceous coating of the country. He had already assigned the 

 same cause for the existence of certain saline beds, and would 

 attribute the existence of the great coating of gypsum at shght 

 depth below the surface of the Sahara to the same cause. As 

 to the existence of moraines, he was not surprised to find them 

 in the Atlas, as they were alieady known in the mountains of 

 Granada. As to the escarpments, it was now well known that, 

 as a rule, they assumed a direction approximately at right angles 

 to the dip of the strata ; and he felt inclined to consider that the 

 bulk of the mounds at the foot of the escarpment of the Atlas 

 were rather the remains of a long series of landslips from the 

 face of the cliffs than to an accumulation of moraine matter. 

 Mr. D. Forbes commented on the similarity of the rocks to those 

 of the Andes in South America. In the Andes the porphyritic 

 tuffs appeared to belong to the Oolitic age ; and the igneous 

 rocks associated with them were of the same date. He thought 

 that, so far as the author's observations had gone, the structure 

 of the Atlas was much the same as that of the Andes. Mr. 

 W. W. Smyth mentioned that in the district to the east of tlie 

 Sierra Nevada, in the south part of Spain, where there was great 

 summer heat, and also heavy occasional rainfall, the same tufa- 

 ceous coating as that observed in Marocco was to be found. He 

 had bten led to much the same conclusion as to its origin as ihat 

 arrived at by Mr. Maw. The upper part was frequently brec- 

 ciated, and the fragments re-cemented by carbonate of lime. 

 Mr. Seeley, though accepting Mr. Etheridge's determination as 

 to the Cretaceous age of the fossils if found in England, could 

 not accept it as conclusive in the case of fossils from Marocco. 

 The genius Exogyra, for instance, which ranijes through the 

 Secondary to existing seas, might well belong to some other age ; 

 and even the fussils presumably Miocene might, after all, date 

 from some other period. Mr. Maw, in reply, stated that he 

 agreed with Mr. Ball as to the rise in the .Marocci plain as it 

 approached the Atlas, having taken it in one direction at 400 feet 

 in 25 miles. He pointed out the resemblance between the 

 moraines in the valley of the Rhone and those which he re- 

 garded as such on the flanks of the Atlas. As a proof of their 

 consisting of transported blocks, he mentioned the fact that ihe 

 Red Sandstone rock of which they were composed did not occur 

 in the adjacent escarpments, but was not to be found within 

 seven or eight miles There was, moreover, a mixture of different 

 materials in the mounds. 



Linnean Society, January 18.— Mr, Bentham, president, 

 in the chair, "On the Anatomy of Liniulns polypkcmus," by 

 Prof Owen (continued). The author resumed and concluded the 

 reading of this memoir. The nervous system of Limuhts ap- 

 peared to have occupied most attention, and was described in 

 detail. From the fore part of the ce^ophageal ring, answering 

 to the brain, were sent off the "ocellar," "ocular," "antennu- 

 lar," and -'antennal " nerves ; the latter supplying the second 

 pair of articulate limbs— the homologues ot the "external an- 

 tenna;" ol higher Crustacea. From the post- or sub-cesophageal 

 part of the ring, proceeded large nerves to the four succeeding 

 pairs of limbs ; and also smaller nerves, having distinct origins, 



