X)a. 6, 1881] 



NATURE 



543 



dthei- knowu body. Herr Eder regards the photo-chemical 

 decomposition of silver broaiide as the result of partial reduction 

 with loss of bromine. 



THE GERMAN ASSOCIATION 



THE flfty-fom-th meeting of the Association of German 

 Naturalists and Physicians was held at Salzbu'-g on Sep- 

 tember 18-24. The number of Members and Associates in 

 attendance was 760. There were also present Foreign Members 

 from Switzerland, the Netherlands, Russia, Denmark, and 

 Japan. The first general meeting, on Sunday, September 18, was 

 opened by the First Secretary, Dr. Giinthner (Salzburg), who 

 in his hearty a'1dre« of welcome mentioned the fact that Salz- 

 burg \ias the last retirement of the celebrated physician and 

 naturalist, Theophras'us Paracelsus. After short addresses given 

 by the Governor and Burgomaster, Prof. Pettenkofer (Munich) 

 read a paper " On the Soil and its Connection with the Health 

 of Man." He pointed out that it was previou-ly believed that 

 the state of the air and water exerls an imporlant influence upon 

 the origin and propagation of epidemics, but this view could not 

 be proved by experiments recently made. The contamina- 

 tion of air and water is caused by products of decomposition of 

 bodies putrefying on or in the soil. The progress of epidemic 

 diseases, especially of cholera, is influenced mainly by the soil. 

 The immunity of special localities against cholera is shown 

 by the example of Lyons, which, notwithstanding communi- 

 cation with infected places, remained free from cholera, 

 though filtered Rhone water was used there. Versailles and 

 Salzburg also were exempt from this disease. It is now ge .e- 

 rally assumed that cholera is due to the action of schizomycetes, 

 which develop at localities where the soil is impregnated with 

 decomposing organic bodies. The contamination is drawn up 

 by diffusion thr ugh the porous sod into the interior of houses, 

 wliere it bee imes dangerous to the health of man. 



On Monday the work of the sections was c immenced. There 

 were twenty-three sections, eleven of them medical. On Tuesday 

 an excursion was made to Keichenhall (Bavaria), with its salt- 

 mines, where the Congress was addressed by Graf Pestallozza. 

 On Wednesday the second general meeting was held. Prof. 

 Weismann (Freiburg-im-Breisgau) read a paper on the duration 

 of life. After enumerating many examples of longer and 

 shorter duration of life among animals, he pointed out that size, 

 con.stitution, temper, sex, and growth are not critical for the 

 duration of life. In general the duration of life of an individual 

 represents the minimum of time necessary to insure the existence 

 of the species ; it is governed by adaptation and heredity. 1 he 

 death caused by wasting and consumption of the cells, of which 

 the (animal) body is compostid, is the result of adaptation. The 

 capacity of unlimited life has been lost, since it has become use- 

 less. There is no death at the divi-ion of lower animals 

 (Amoeba). In higher animals the propagating cells are separated 

 from the somatic cells ; only the former pre-erve unlimited pro- 

 ductiveness. The limitation of individuals in time .and in space 

 is based on the same principle. At the same meeting Prof. 

 Mejners (Vienna) gave an address on the laws which govern 

 human thoughts and actions. In the concludon of his very 

 interesting discourse, in which he mainly dealt with feelings, 

 sensations, and the experiments of Munk and Gol'z, he expressed 

 the opinion that the phenomena of bodies do not disclose to us 

 their essence, and that there is only a j henomenon of freedom 

 of will. Eisenach (Thuringia) was chosen as the town in which 

 the fifty-fifth meeting of the Association should be held. 



On Thursday an excursion was organised to Zell-am-See. 

 On Saturday the third general meeting was held. Prof. Oppolzer 

 (Vienna) read a paper on the question : Is Newton's law of 

 gravitation sufiicient for the explanation of the motion of 

 heavenly bodies? Are there rea-ons for regarding it only as ap- 

 proximately true ? In consideration of the theories of the moon, 

 of Mercury, and of Encke's comet, he cannot find the the:)ries 

 based on Newton's law in its present form sufficient, but it 

 would suffice under the (hypothetical) assumption of a cosmic 

 matter surrounding the sun. After an address given by Dr. 

 Kirschensteiner (Munich), on Theophrastus Bombastus Para- 

 celsus, the sitting was closed by Dr. Giinthner. We give a list 

 of the papers read in the sections of Natural Science. 



Section II. Physics : Walter (Tarnowitz), on the molecular 

 kinetic laws of specific heat and the heat of vaporisation of 

 bodies in different states ; Sacher (Salzburg), on a direct 

 measure of the attfaction between earth and a determined 



electric current ; Kurz (Augsburg), on dispersion of light and 

 meaiuring the index of refraction; SpiJrer (Potsdam), results 

 obtained by observations of the sun; Grunmach (Berlin), on 

 the electro-magnetic rotation of the plane of polarisation of 

 radiant heat; Grunmach (Berlin), comparisons of mercury- 

 thermometers with air-thermometers ; Sacher (Salzburg) demon- 

 strated some new physical experiments relating to the theory of 

 the formation of the earth (balls of sulphm- and spermaceti with 

 crater-formations) ; Waltenhofen (Prague) spoke on his apparatus 

 for demonstration of the different action of hoU:iw and solid 

 electro-magnets ; GUather (Ansbach), on the parallelogram of 

 forces. 



Section III. Chemistry: Briihl (Lejiberg), on the connection 

 between the optic and thermic properties of liquid organic 

 bodies ; Erauner (Prague), contributions to the chemistry of the 

 rare earihs, and on the progress of the system of periodicity of 

 elements ; Schwarz (Gratz), short communication on the prepa- 

 ration of nearly perfect alum-cubes by a new method ; Zorn 

 (Heidelberg), on hyponitrous acid; Bernthsen (Heidelberg), on 

 the n^meuclature of the proper derivates of carbonic acid, taking 

 special notice of isomers. 



Sections IV. and V. Geology, mineralogy, palaeontology, 

 geography: Bernath (Budapest), on the mineral waters of 

 Hungary ; Giimbel (Munich), on the geological structure of 

 the Untersberg (near Salzburg); Hauer (Vienna) presented a 

 new geological map of Montenegro (designed by E. Tietze) ; 

 Zittel (Munich), on Spongia; as rock-forming materials, and on 

 Plicatocrinui ; Baltzer (Zurich), on curved strata ; Neumayer 

 (Vienna), on fresh-water Conchylia from China ; Alth (Krakau), 

 on the Jm-assic formation of Niczniow ; Hauer (Vienna), on the 

 Arlberg; Tschermak (Vienna), on the definitijn of species in 

 minerabgy ; Hoernes (Gratz), on earthquakes in general; 

 Woehner (Vienna), on the earthquake of Agrim ; Richter 

 (Salzburg), on observations made at the Obersalzbach glacier ; 

 Doelter (Gratz), on the Cape Verde Islands ; Diicker (Biicke- 

 burg) on the occurrence of petroleum in Northern Germany. 



Section VIII. Botany: Kraus (Triesdorf), communications 

 on the sap-pressure of plants; De Bey (Aachen), repirt on five 

 new and peculiar genera (Conifers;) of the Aachen chalk-fljra; 

 Holzner (Weilienslephan), on agroi-tological theses; Ilildebrand 

 (Freiburg-im-Breisgau), some observations on the flowering and 

 the fruits of plants ; Woronin (St. Petersburg), contribution to 

 the knowledge of Ustilaginea; ; Kirclmer (Ilohenheim), on the 

 longitudinal growth of plants. 



Sectnns VIII. and IX. Zoology, cojiparative anatomy, 

 entomology: Troschel (Bonn), classification of Gastropods; 

 Fraisse (Leipsic), on cell-division and free nucleus-formation ; 

 Weidersheim (Freiburg), on the genesis of Jacobson's organ ; 

 Grobben (Vienna), on the variation of generations of Doliolum. 



BIOLOGY AS AN ACADEMICAL STUDY^ 

 I. 



TT is told of the late Dr. Norman Macleod that, on paying his 

 ■'■ first visit in his first parish, he was peremptorily desired to 

 sit down and "go over the fundaaientals." I feel that some 

 such demand may, not unreasonably, be made of me to-night, 



Kive-and-twenty years ago one's position in this respect would 

 have been a comparatively easy one, for then biology may be 

 said to have had no "fundamentals" at all. In spite of the 

 labours of Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck, the great 

 bulk of naturalists at that time believed in the immutability of 

 species ; as a natural consequence botany and zoology remained 

 mere " classificatory sciences," and the extraordinary facts of 

 comparative anatomy, of embryonic development, of geographi- 

 cal distribution, of palaeontology, were incapaple of rational 

 explanation. Indeed, cl.issification itself was nothing more than 

 a logical expression of likenesses and unlikenesses, and was devoid 

 of ail real meaning. 



But with the publication of the "Origin of Species," in 1859, 

 a belter day dawned for biology. The whole history of science 

 has been a succession of attempts to bring group after group of 

 natural phenomena within the scope of some natural law ; and 

 Charles Darwin's great service to science lies in the fact that, 

 although not himself the discoverer of the doctrine of descent, 

 he succeeded, by the immense array of well-arranged facts and 

 sound generalisations contained in his epoch-naking book, in 



' Inaugural Lecture delivered in th» University Library, May 2, i88r, by 

 T. Jefiery Parker, B.Sc, Lond., Professor of Biology in the University of 

 Ota go. 



