_ 
Fune 9, 1870] 
NATURE 
113 
ovules of Conifers to be proved hy the anatomical structures of 
the organs on which they rest. He says that, as in normal 
Dicotyledons, the ovules are developed from, and continuous 
with, the margins of carpellary leaves, but these carpellary 
leaves are open, variously or imperfectly developed, and constt- 
tute solitary leaves on a secondary branch in the axil of the sub- 
tending bract, this secondary branch being arrested in its develop- 
ment, and the carpellary leaf facing the bract ; the paper is 
illustrated by a large number of diagrams. These two Memoirs, 
published simultaneously at St. Petersburg and at Paris, con- 
tain of course no reference to each other. How far each author 
may or may not have proved his case, I cannot now take upon 
myself to inquire into, Neither of them appears to have had any 
knowledge of the views of Professor Oliver, who in his review 
of Hooker’s Memoir on WWelwitschia (Nat. Hist. Review, 1863) 
suggests the analogy of the disputed organ with the axial de- 
yvelopments known under the name of floral discs. Both writers, 
however, confirm the anomalous structure of the flower in this 
great class of plants, and the position of the plants themselves 
In many respects intermediate between the higher Cryptogams 
and Dicotyledons, their connection with the former being clearly 
shown by the researches of Carruthers and other palzeontologists, 
and with Dicotyledons through Welwitschia by Hooker in his 
above-mentioned Memoir. 
Teratology is a subject which has again risen into importance, 
as aiding in the history of the variations worked upon by natural 
selection in the formation of species. There had always been 
a tendency to attribute monsters and prodigies, whether in the 
organic or the inorganic world, to an infraction of the laws by 
which natural phenomena are regulated, by the intermediate inter- 
position ad hoc of a supreme will for temporary motives inscrut- 
able to man, in which all that the man of science was called 
upon to do was to establish their authenticity, and detail their 
abnormities. This, however, was considered by D’Alembert as 
sufficient to constitute Teratology as one of the great branches 
of Natural History taken in its most extended sense ; for in 
his once celebrated ‘‘Systtme Figuré des Connaissance 
Humaines,” /istoire Naturelle has three great branches— 
Uniformité dela Nature, or the study of the laws which govern 
the organic or inorganic world, terrestrial and celestial ; Acarts 
de la Nature, the science of prodigies and monsters; and 
Usages de la Nature, or arts and manufactures. Jeremy Ben- 
tham, in his ‘‘ Essay on Nomenclature and Classification,” of 
which [ published a French edition now nearly half a cen- 
tury since, strongly criticised such a classification, ‘‘ by which 
a middle-sized man is placed in one niche, a tall man and a 
short man together in another.”* Mr. Galton however, in 
his recently published interesting researches on Hereditary 
Genius, shows us, after Quetelet, that even in this respect 
the laws which govern the deviations from the average height 
of man, both aboye and below that average, are uniform 
under similar conditions, and may well be studied together. 
We may not, indeed, with D’Alembert, combine the history 
of animal and vegetable monstrosities with that of mineral 
monsters and celestial prodigies (whatever these may be) ; but 
the course which Biology has taken in the last few years has 
shown the necessity of accurately investigating in each branch 
all observed departures from what appears to be the ordinary 
course, before the real laws of that ordinary course can be 
ascertained, A work, therefore, in which these observed aber- 
rations are carefully collected, tested, and methodised, cannot 
fail to be of great use to the physiologist, and such a work 
with regard to plants, the want of which, brought down to 
the present state of the science, I alluded to in my Address 
of 1864, has now been provided for us by Dr. Masters, in 
his ‘‘ Vegetable Teratology,’’—a work which we should 
especially like to see deposited in local libraries at home and 
abroad, to which observers resident in the country could have 
ready access. Monstrosities or deviations from the ordinary 
forms in plants are comparatively rare and evanescent ; they 
can be best observed in their fresh state, and often require 
watching in the course of their development. Country resi- 
dents have the best means of doing so, and to them it is very 
important to have a systematic work at hand by which they 
can ascertain whether the aberration they have met with is one 
well known or of frequent occurrence, or whether it presents 
any new feature, adding another item to our store of data, and 
therefore requiring closer observation and accurate record, 
* Essay on Nomenclature and Classification, or Chresstomathia, part ii. 
1817, p. 157, French Edition, 1823, p. 48, 
In making use, however, of Teratology in explanation of 
structure and affinities, great care is required. Itis not every one 
who can handle these phenomena with the tact of a Darwin. 
In the course of my systematic labours I have met with several 
instances where teratologists have been led into conclusions which 
have proved to be far wide of the truth, owing to their having 
confined themselves to teratology to the neglect of homology and 
organogeny. ‘This importance of teratological facts to the 
physiologist who is able duly to appreciate their bearing, andthe 
discredit cast on their study owing to their misuse in hasty and 
incautious speculations, are alluded to in Dr. Masters’s Intro- 
duction. But beyond some explanations of causes suggested by 
the bringing togethera series of facts showing a physiological 
connection with each other, and with more normal formations, he 
enters little into the various questions the solution of which has 
been more or less attempted by the aid of teratology. These 
questions, indeed, could not have been discussed without fully 
working out on each occasion normal organogeny, development, 
and homology, and thus leading him far beyond the object of 
the present work, which was to present to the future physiologist 
such a digested record of facts as should best show their relative 
bearing to each other, to normal conditions, and to any observed 
causes of disturbance. This object appears to have been well 
fulfilled, and the method adopted by the author probably the best 
suited to the purpose. A classification, founded upon the nature 
of the causes inducing the several changes, might, indeed, as he 
observes, have been theoretically the best, but is wholly imprac- 
ticable until these causes shall have been satisfactorily ascer- 
tained. For the inquiry into these causes this teratological digest 
supplies a record of one class of facts, a necessary one, but only 
one of many classes on which it must be founded. 
G. BENTHAM 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
Sournal of the Chemical Society, April 1870, This number 
contains a ‘‘ Note on some Reactions of Alcohols,” by Mr. E. 
T. Chapman, The author finds that on distilling with caustic soda 
a mixture of the rotating and non-rotating amylic alcohols to 
dryness, the distillate contains a larger proportion of the rotating 
alcohol than the original liquid ; and, on adding water to the 
residue of sodic amylate and distilling the alcohol which passes 
over with the water is almost free from the rotating variety. A 
repetition of the process renders it quite pure. He also finds 
that repeated treatment of the rotating alcohol by caustic soda 
converts it into the non-rotating. On treating amylic alcohol to 
which about 24 per cent. of water was added with a quantity 
of sodium just sufficient to decompose the water, and distilling, 
water first passed over, followed by amylic alcohol; sodic 
amylate almost free from caustic soda remaining in the retort ; 
showing that the sodium replaces the hydrogen of the alcohol in 
preference to that of the water. Again, on distilling a solution 
of caustic soda in amylic alcohol, water passed over with the 
alcohol, the residue being sodic amylate.—‘‘ Note on the 
Organic Matter contained in Air,” by Mr. E. T, Chapman, 
Several methods were tried for collecting the organic 
matter from the air before estimating its quantity. Passing 
the air through water in a Liebig’s potash apparatus, or 
even in a tube with twenty-five bulbs, did not fix the whole of 
the organic matters, Cotton wool and gun-cotton failed on 
account of their invariably containing nitrogenous bodies, which 
vitiated the results ; the condensation of steam in the air and 
washing with fine spray were better, but not satisfactory. Filter- 
ing the air through asbestos paper succeeded very well, but the 
asbestos, was difficult to manage. The process finally adopted 
was to pass 100 litres of air through a quantity of finely 
powdered and moistened pumice stone, placed on a piece of 
wire gauze, fixed on the wide end of a funnel; distilling the 
pumice with dilute potassic hydrate and potassic permanganate, 
and determining the quantity of ammonia in the distillate by 
Nessler’s test. In crowded rooms and near an untrapped sink, 
the air was found to contain organic bases as well as ammonia, 
100 litres of air from crowded rooms contained quantities of 
nitrogenous substances, producing from 0’02 to 0°35 milli- 
grammes of ammonia.—Then follows a lecture by Dr. Glad- 
stone on ‘‘ Refraction equivalents,” which has already been noticed 
in these columns, The number concludes with a long paper 
by Dr, Thudichum on ‘‘ Kryptophanic acid, the normal free acid 
of Human Urine.” From the analysis of the salts it appears te 
be a dibasic acid of the formula C; Hy N O, or a tetrabasic 
acid containing Cy) Hyg Ng Oj, My 
