142 , NATURE 
[June 8, 1899 
luculentius? Quis clarius illustravit raram sollertiam qua 
minuta animalium genera, vel ut compares alliciant vel ut 
infestas hostium incursiones arceant, nunc colores mutare, nunc 
novum aliquod simulacrum assumere, nunc etiam sexum men- 
tiri videantur ? Quae quidem omnia si primo visu parvi mo- 
menti esse habeantur, eadem, nisi magnopere fallor, oculis 
subjecta fidelibus et summa accuratione tractata, immane quan- 
tum prosunt ad intimas vitae leges enodandas. Quae cum ita 
sint, haud dubitarem eruditissimi auctoris C. Plinii Secundi 
verba citare de insectorum corporibus scribentis : ‘*In his tam 
parvis atque tam nullis quanta vis, quae ratio, quam inextric- 
abilis perfectio ! ... Sed turrigeros elephantorum miramur 
humeros, taurorumque colla et truces in sublime jactus, tigrium 
rapinas, leonum jubas, cum rerum natura nusquam magis quam 
in minimis tota sit ; et in contemplatione naturae nihil possit 
videri supervacuum.”’ 
Praesento vobis ornatum et excultum virum Ronaldum 
Trimen, quiet ipse ‘‘ Naturalis Historiae Libris ” tam laudabile 
incrementum addidit, ut admittatur ad gradum Magistri in 
facultate Artium, honoris causa. 
CAMBRIDGE.—Mr. W. Chawner, Master of Emmanuel Col- 
lege, is to be Vice-Chancellor during the ensuing academical year. 
Mr. R. C. Punnett, of Caius College, has been nominated to 
occupy the University table atthe Marine Biological Laboratory 
at Plymouth. 
The Chemical, Pathological, and Anatomical Laboratories 
will be open during the ensuing Long Vacation, and a number of 
special courses of instruction will be given in July and August. 
The electors to the new chair of Agriculture are the Right 
Hon. W. H. Long, Mr. A. E. Shipley, Dr. D. MacAlister, Prof. 
Liveing, Sir J. H. Gilbert, Prof. Foster, Prof. 
Marshall Ward, and Sir Walter Gilbey. 
Ir is satisfactory to know that the value of 
scientific education and research in agriculture is 
becoming more and more recognised by foremost 
agriculturists. Mr. Boyd-Kinnear refers to these 
matters in a contribution to the Morning Post, 
and to the lack of interest taken in them by 
British farmers. He points out that a knowledge 
of the scientific principles of agriculture is of 
-fundamental importance, and that what should 
be taught in our schools are the sciences on 
which farming rests—physics, chemistry, mech- 
anics, and the physiology of plants and animals. 
The sound remark is made that for a farmer to 
work without this kind of knowledge, is much 
the same as if a doctor were educated by being 
shown cases in a hospital before he had learned anything 
of anatomy or the nature of drugs. In order to know agri- 
culture, it is necessary to understand first of all the elements 
and the action of the soil and the air, and the operations 
of life. But all that the most learned in science know of these 
things is infinitely small compared with the amount that is yet 
unknown. There is, therefore, urgent need, not only for teach- 
ing what is known, but also for learning more. That is, we 
ought to have both schools where the fundamental sciences 
which agriculture involves are taught, and also institutions for 
further research into the secrets yet undiscovered. 
Referring to agricultural research stations, Mr. Boyd-Kinnear 
remarks :—In all countries but England these are provided and 
liberally maintained by the State. In Germany there are, and 
‘have been for the last half-century, no fewer than sixty-seven 
agricultural teaching and research stations. France has fifty- 
three, Austria thirty-five, and even Russia has fourteen, The 
other European States, including countries which we call so 
backward as Spain and Portugal, have sixty-one among them. 
The United States have fifty-four, these being supported by the 
individual States; Canada has several, while Brazil, Japan, 
and Java have each one! England has—none! none, that is, 
with State endowment. During the last few years, the County 
Councils of Sussex, Yorkshire, Bucks, and Durham have estab- 
lished teaching colleges, but without any adequate provision for 
research. There are also the privately-conducted colleges of 
Cirencester, Downton, and one or two others, while the half- 
century of inquiries conducted by Sir John Lawes is deserving 
of grateful acknowledgment. But isolated and private effort is 
wholly inadequate to meet the want, or even to direct public 
attention to it. 
NO. 1545, VOL. 60] 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 
Royal Society, May 4.—‘‘ An Observation on Inheritance 
in Parthenogenesis.” By Ernest Warren, D.Sc., University Col- 
lege, London. Communicated by W. F. R. Weldon, F.R.S. 
If the hypotheses of Weismann on heredity and variation be 
founded on fact, then it should follow that offspring produced 
by parthenogenesis should exhibit little or no departure from 
their parthenogenetic mother. 
It appeared an easy investigation to test this supposition by 
direct measurement. For this purpose, Daphnia magna (Straus) 
was chosen. 
On twenty-three Daphnia, the following measurements were 
made : (1) the length of the protopodite of the second antenna 
of the right side (c D see Fig.), and (2) the total length of the 
body (A B). The first -dimension was expressed in thousandths 
of the second, because these animals (like very many inverte- 
brates) continue to grow throughout life. The broods, amount- 
ing in all to ninety-six young, produced by the twenty-three 
mothers (themselves originating by parthenogenesis), were 
similarly measured. 
The children of the same parthenogenetic family were now 
seen to vary considerably. A correlation table between the 
mothers and offspring was prepared, and from it the coefficient 
of correlation was found to be “466. The standard deviation 
(S.D.) of an array of offspring was 5°22 thousandths of the 
body length : if we express it as a kind of coefficient of variation 
S.D. of array 
we have = XeTOO| —- 300. 
Mean of all the offspring 
Thus 2 parthenogenesis there is very considerable variability 
among the offspring, but whether there is less or more than in 
sexual reproduction the present measurements do not show. 
Dr. Galton and Prof. Pearson have shown that in Basset 
hounds, stature in man, &c., the correlation between father or 
mother and offspring approaches the theoretical value *3, while 
between mid-parent and offspring it approaches "424, and the 
coefficient of regression of offspring on mid-parent is about *6. 
Here, in the Daphnia, the coefficients of correlation and 
regression were respectively "466 + ‘054 and ‘619 + ‘OSI. 
Thus it would seevz as though in the matter of inheritance a 
parthenogenetic mother acts as a mid-parent. The subject, 
however, requires much further elucidation, and the hypothesis 
is about to be tested on ancther parthenogenetic animal. 
Geological Society, May 24.—W. Whitaker, F.R.S., 
President, in the chair.—The President called attention to the 
issue of vol. iii. of Hutton’s ‘* Theory of the Earth,” and said 
that the thanks of the Fellows were due to Sir A. Geikie for 
having edited and annotated most carefully this work. The 
volume was printed from a previously unpublished manuscript 
which had been for many years in the possession of the Society : 
its contents were extremely interesting, and it supplemented 
the previous volumes by the inclusion of an index to the whole 
of the work, prepared by Sir A. Geikie.—Prof. Seeley exhibited 
a cast from a footprint obtained by Mr. H. C. Beasley from the 
Trias at Stourton. The impression is about 14 inch long, and 
nearly as wide. The cast has been treated by oblique 
illumination, so as to display its osteological structure by means 
of the shadows thus thrown. All the claws are directed out- 
wards, as in a burrowing animal. The form of the foot 
- “ee 
