496 



NA TURE 



\Oct. 4, 1877 



Even those most tender and most beautiful features of the 

 human mind, which we principally glorify in poetry, we find 

 already formed in the animal kingdom. Have the intense 

 maternal love of the lioness, the touching matrimonial 1 ove of 

 parrots ("inseparables"), the sacrificirg faithfulness of the dog 

 not been proverbial for ages? The most roble feelings 

 of compassion and love, which determine actions, ore here as 

 with man, nothing but ennobled instincts. In connection with 

 this conception, the ethics of the evolution doctr'ne need not look 

 for new maxims, bat reduce the very old commands of duty 

 to their natural scientific base. Long before the origin of all 

 church religion these natural commands of duty ruled the lawful 

 living together of mankind as well as of social animals. Church 

 religion ought to profit by this significant principle, not to combat 

 it ; for the future does not belong to that theology which 

 conducts a fruitless battle against the victorious doctrine of 

 evolution, but to that one which takes possession of it, recognises 

 and uses it. 



Therefore, far from fearing a shaking of all valid moral laws, 

 and an obnoxious emancipation of egotism by the influence of 

 the evolution doctrine upon oar religious convictions, we, on the 

 contrary, expect from it a reasonable confirmation of the moral 

 doctrine on the unshakable basis of firm natural laws ; for 

 with the clear conception of our true position in nature, anthro- 

 pogeny opens to us at the same time an insight into the necessity 

 of our very old precepts of social duty. Henceforth practical 

 philosophy and pedagogics will, like theoretical general science, 

 deduce their most important maxims, not from supposed revela- 

 tions, but from the natural principles of the doctrine of evolution. 

 This victory of monism over dualism opens to us the most hopeful 

 prospect for an infinite progress of our moral as well as of our 

 intellectual development. In this sense we greet the evolution 

 doctiine of to-day, as recently founded by Darwin, as the most 

 important impulse of the whole of our pure and applied sciences. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Oxford. — The Oxford University Commissioners having 

 decided upon suspending two out of the three fellowships now 

 vacant at All Souls' College, only one fellow will be elected in 

 November. 



Bristol. — The introductory lectures at the opening of Uni- 

 versity College, Bristol, commence on the gth inst. Prof. Letts 

 opens the chemistry class on the loth with an address on " Old 

 and New Views on the Nature of Matter," and Prof. S. P. 

 Thompson the class of experimental physics on the 12th, with 

 an address on "The Methods of Physical Science." The 

 evening classes will be opened about a week later. Mr. J. F. 

 Main, B.A., D.Sc, Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, has 

 been appointed Lecturer in Mathematics and Applied Mechanics. 



Leeds. — The Yorkshire College, as it is now called, has 

 published a neat cilendar of about 100 pages in the orthodox 

 grey colour characteristic of similar publications. The calendar 

 contains all needful information on the organisation and business 

 of the College, which now possesses six chairs, representing the 

 main departments of science and literature, besides a chair of 

 civil ard mechan-cal engineering and one of textile industries. 

 Judging from the course of study laid down for each class, and 

 from the reputation of the professors, a high-class liberal educa- 

 tion is now within easy reach of all Yorkshiremen. The calendar 

 includes a prospectus of the Leeds' School of Medicine. For 

 the coming session a much extended system of outside lecturing 

 is announced, especially the arrangement made with the Gilchrist 

 Trustees, through their secretary, Dr. W. B. Carpenter, F.R.S., 

 by which some cf the college professors will deliver four series 

 of "Science Lectures for the People" in Leeds, Bradford, 

 Halifax, and Keighley. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 

 Entomological Society, September 5. — Prof. J. O. West- 

 wood, M. A., president, in the chair. — Mr. F. Smith exhibited, 

 on behalf of Mr. G. A. J. Rothney, a remarkably fine collec- 

 tion of Hyraenopteia from Calcutta. Among them were several 

 new species of Ccrceiis and a few new species of Apida:. — Mr. 

 McLachlan exhibited drawings with details of Himantcptertis 

 fuscinervis, an extraordinary insect from Java, described by 

 Wesmael, in 1836, as belonging to the Lepidoptera. Dr. 



Hagen transferred the genus to the Neuroptera, in 1S66, but 

 Mr. McLachlan had recently examined the unique specimen 

 in the Brussels Museum, and had decided that it was truly lepi- 

 dopterous. Mr. McLachlan also exhibited leaves of a large 

 species of Ati'r from trees growing in a garden in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Brussels. Almost every leaf had been mined by 

 the larva of a small saw-fly (Pkyllotoma aceris), a species occur- 

 ring in England. This insect only appeared in the locality 

 mentioned last year, and yet was found by Mr. McLachlan in 

 enormous numbers. — Prof. Westwood exhibited specimens of 

 a minute Hymenopteron from Ceylon allied to the British 

 Afymar puh/iel/iis. — Prof. Westwood also exhibited males and 

 females of the rare beetle Narycms smara^dtihis, from India. 

 This insect had remained almost unknown since the time of its 

 description by the exhibitor in 1S42. — Mr. James Wood-Mason, 

 of the Calcutta Museum, exhibited the two sexes o^ I'hyllolhclvs 

 IVestU'Codi (Maiitidic), which species was remarkable on account 

 of the presence of a large frontal horn in the female not 

 represented in the male. — Mr. Wood- Mason also exhibited a 

 beautifully-executed drawing ot a stridulating spider (lify^ale 

 ityidiilans) in a stridulating attitude, and likewise specimens of 

 stridulating scorpions, from India. Mr. Mason also handed to 

 the president for identification, an liomopterous insect with what 

 appeared to be the larva of some case-bearing lepidopterous 

 insect attached to it. — Mr. P. Wormald exhibited, on behalf of 

 Mr. Pryer, a small collection of Chinese Lepidoptera. — Mr. G. 

 C. Champion exhibited some rare beetles from Aviemore, 

 Invernesshire ; among them a new British Longicorn, Pachyla 

 Sixmaculata. — Mr. J. Jenner Weir mentioned a case of parthe- 

 nogenesis in Lasiocampn quercus which had recently come under 

 his notice. — The president read a letter from Ilerr Grevelink, of 

 the Hague, relating to the insect which destroys the West Indian 

 cocoa-nut trees (Aleyrodes cocoii], — The Secretary e.xhibited a 

 Longicorn beetle, which had been forwarded frcjm Birkenhead 

 by Mr. David Henderson. — Mr. J. W. Slater read a paper 

 entitled " Vivarium Notes on some Common Coleoptera." 



GOTTINOEN 



Royal Academy of Sciences, April 23. — The dates of 

 Genesis, by M. Oppert. 



April 30. — Celebration of the centenary of Gauss's birthday. 



May 5. — On the mutual relations of magnetising force, tem- 

 porary and permanent magnetism, by M. Fromme. — P^xperiments 

 on the apparent attraction and repulsion between bodies moving 

 in water, by M. Schiotz. — On the same, by M. Bjerknes.^ 

 Experimental investigation on the resistance of flames to the 

 galvanic current, by M. Hopper. 



July 7. — Demonstration of a tangent multiplier constructed 

 on a new principle, by M. Riecke. — Remarks on some transform- 

 ations of surfaces, by M. Enneper. — On the border-angle of the 

 expansion of liquids on solid bodies, by M. Quincke. — On 

 geometrical extensions of the Bezout fundamental law, by M. 

 Schubert. — On the structure and systematic position of the genus 

 Carludovica, by M. Drude.— Communication on the pyro- 

 electricity of tourmaline, by M. Hoppe. 



CONTENTS Page 



MiCKOSCOPiCAL Petkogeaphv. By Prof. Akchibald Geikie, F.R.S. 473 



Our Book Shelf ; — 



" Results of tfieAralo-Casplan Expedition' 474 



Letters to the EniTOR : 



Urticating (Irgans of Plananan Worms.— H. N. Moselev ... 475 



TheSatellitesof IVIars.— Rev H. G. Madan 475 



On t)ic Coming Winter.— Prof. PlAZZi Smvth, F.R.S 47.S 



The Austr.ilian Monotremes.— Dr. George Bennett ... . 475 

 Aie there no Boulders in Orkney and Shetland ?— David Milne 



Ho.ME 17'' 



Fertlli^ation of Flowers by Birds.— A. H. Everett 47" 



Heat Phenomena and Muscular Action.— A. R. MoLlsoN ... 477 



Does Sunshine Extinguish Fiie?-Di-. CM. INGLEBY .... 477 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The Approaching Opposition of Iris 477 



The Outer Satellite of Mars 477 



Binary Stars '„ " " ' "., *''% 



Prop. Adams on Leverriek s Pi.anetarv Theories. II. . . . . 47^ 



The Glandular Origin of Contagious Diseases. By Dr. B. \v. 



Richardson, F.RS 1^^ 



iNTRODticTION AND SUCCESSION OfVeRTEDEATK LiFE IN AMERICA, 



111. By Prof. O. C. Marsh 4*9 



The German Association at Munich ;' r,' r" '•'-'' 



The I-'kesent Position of the Evolution Theory. By Frol. 



Haeckel I^^ 



University and Educational Intelligence ' • 496 



Societies and Academies 4&o 



