April 6, 1899] 



NA TURE 



549 



With all these theories hefdre us, these currents and counter- 

 currents in evolutional thought bearing us rapidly along, at 

 times perhaps carrying us somewhat out of our depth, the cc^n- 

 clusion of the whole matter is that in the present state of zoology 

 it will be wise to suspend our judgment on many theoretical 

 matters, to wait for more light, and to confine our attention 

 meanwhile to the observation and registration of facts, to 

 careful experiments, and to repeated tests of mere theoretical 

 assumptions. 



Meanwhile we may congratulate ourselves that we have been 

 born and permitted to laliour in this nineteenth century, the 

 century which in zoological science has given us the best years 

 of Lamarck's life, a Cuvier, a Uarwin, a Von Baer, an Owen, 

 an Agassiz, a Haeckel, a Spencer, and a Huxley — the founders 

 of modern zoology — who have sketched out the grander features 

 of our science so completely, that it will, perhaps, be the work 

 of many coming years to fill in the details. 



Prof. Packard discussed in detail the geological causes of 

 variation and of the extinction and renewal of species, but space 

 cannot, unfortunately, be found to reproduce this portion of 

 his address. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Prof. W. M. Davis, who now holds the chair of Physical 

 Geography in Harvard University, has been elected Sturgis 

 Hooper professor of geology in the same university. 



Under the will of the late Mr. Vincent Stuckey Lean, 

 the Trustees of the British Museum receive 50,000/., to be 

 devoted to the improvement and extension of the library and 

 reading-room of the Museum. 



The Technical Education Board of the London County 

 Council has awarded one of its commercial scholarships to 

 Mr. W. AL Poole, of Magdalen College, Oxford, who is an 

 assistant-master of the Merchant Taylors' School. The scholar- 

 ship is of the value of 1 50/. , and will enable Mr. Poole to 

 proceed to some of the commercial colleges in foreign coun- 

 tries and study their method of commercial teaching. 



The agricultural experiments carried out by Prof William 

 Somerville in the counties of Cumberland, Durham, and 

 Northumberland, and the Durham College of Science, New- 

 castle-upon-Tyne, should prove of distinct benefit to agriculture 

 in the North of England. The work is done in connection with 

 the County Councils of the counties mentioned, and it forms a 

 most valuable branch of technical education. The seventh 

 annual report just issued contains accounts of numerous field 

 experiments, the results of which are of scientific as well as 

 practical value. Satisfactory evidence of interest in this phase 

 of technical education is shown by the fact that a great demand 

 has arisen in the county of Durham for lectures explanatory of 

 the experimental results. Investigation has thus been the 

 means of quickening an interest in the science of agriculture. 



At the ninth meeting of University Extension and other students 

 to be held in Oxford from July 29 to August 23, a number of lec- 

 tures will be given to illustrate, as far as possible, the more re- 

 markable contributions to .science during the period 1837 to 1S71. 

 Prof. Francis Gotch, F.R.S., will deal with the physiology of 

 sensation; Prof. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., will deal with the 

 modes in which the colours, markings, and attitudes of animals 

 are of value for the struggle of life ; Prof. W. J. Sollas, F". R.S. , 

 will lecture on the geology of Oxford ; Prof. H. A. Miers, 

 F. R.S., will lecture on the growth of a crystal; Mr. G. C. 

 Bourne and Mr. A. W. Brown will deal with the growth of the 

 living organism ; Dr. Arthur Ransome, F.R.S., will lecture on 

 hygiene ; Mr. G. J. Burch on wireless telegraphy ; Mr. H. N. 

 Dickson on the influence of climate ; and Dr. Reginald Farrar 

 on anthropology. There will also be classes in geology (with 

 field excursions conducted by Prof. Sollas), and in' biology. 



The London County Council has delegated to its Technical 

 Education Board such new powers and duties as it has acquired 

 by receiving recognition under Clause vii. of the Directory of 

 the Department of Science and Art (see p. 49S). The Board is 

 communicating with the various schools and institutions which 

 are in receipt of grants both from the Board and from the 

 Department, with a view to making the necessary arrangements 



NO. 1536, VOL. 59] 



for carrying out the provisions of Clause vii. The new Board 

 recently appointed consists of twenty representatives from the 

 London County Council, three from the London School Board, 

 two representing the City Parochial Charities Foundation, three 

 appointed by the City and Guilds of London Institute, three 

 from the London Trades Council, and one each from the Incor- 

 porated Association of Headmasters and the National Union of 

 Teachers. There are in addition two co-opted members. The 

 Board have decided to introduce some important changes into 

 the regulations for intermediate county scholarships, and the 

 alterations will take effect in the examination to be held in 

 June, 1900. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American /otirnal of Sficnit', March. — Studies in the 

 Cyperacese, by T. Holm, lliis article deals with the genus 

 Lipocarpha, formerly regarded as a species of Hypitlyptum. — 

 The constitution of the ammonium-magnesium phosphate of 

 analysis, by F. A. Gooch and Martha Austin. The presence of 

 ammonium chloride or other ammonium salt is necessary in the 

 precipitation of manganese as the ammonium-manganese phos- 

 phate by microcosmic salt, in order that the precipitate may have 

 the ideal constitution NHjMnPOj. Further research shows 

 that the chemical constitution of the precipitate rather than 

 mechanical contamination and varying solubility may be respon- 

 sible for observed variations in the weight of the residue derived 

 by the ignition of the similar salt of magnesium NH^MgPO^, 

 precipitated by an excess of a soluble phosphate from the 

 solution of a magnesium salt. — The crystal symmetry of the 

 minerals of the mica group, by T. L. Walker. The examin- 

 ation of crystals not only by the goniometer, but also by the 

 etching progress, and as regards their optical, electric, thermal 

 and cohesive properties, has had the effect of a widespread"* 

 degradation of crystals from systems of higher to systems of 

 lower degree of symmetry. This tendency is especially shown . 

 by minerals of the mica group. Biotite, phlogopite, rubellan 

 and lepidolite are not monoclinic but triclinic, while muscovite 

 is either monoclinic, or, if it be triclinic, it is so very finely 

 polysynthetically twinned that we cannot find a triclinic indi- 

 vidual large enough to respond to the optical or etching method. 

 — Imperfectly known and new Actinians, by A. E. Verrill. 

 The specimens described include a new genus Phelliopsis^ 

 having a general appearance and habit resembling I'hellia, and 

 two new species, Anthopleiira japonica and Bunodaclh nianiii. 

 — Some American fossil Cycads : Part i. , the male flower of 

 Cycadeoidea, by G. R. Wieland. The living Cycads constitute 

 one of the most ornate and characteristic orders of plants, and 

 occupying, as they do, a position on the border-land between , 

 the higher Cryptogams and the lower Phanerogams, their ances- 

 tral relationship is of considerable interest. The author has 

 examined a collection of rare fossils from the Rocky Mountains, 

 now in the museum of Yale University. The results strengthen 

 the belief that the relation between Ferns and Cycads must have 

 been a very close one. — Footprints of Jurassic Dinosaurs, by O. 

 C. Marsh. One of the most interesting geological discoveries 

 during the past season in the Black Hills region was a locality 

 of footprints made by Dinosaurian reptiles in deposits of Jurassic 

 age. These footprints are the first found in American Jurassic 

 strata. They are all tridactyle, of large size, and were evi- 

 dently made by some of the great Dinosaurs known to have lived 

 during Jurassic time. — A new Kansas meteorite, by H. L. Ward. 

 This meteorite was found in Ness County, and weighs 4i7grms. 

 It no longer has the usual black crust. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, March 2. — " On Hydrogen Peroxide as the 

 active Agent in producing Pictures on a Photographic Plate in 

 the Dark." By Dr. W. J. Russell, V.P.R.S. 



In previous papers the author has been shown that certain 

 bodies are able, in the dark, to act on a photographic plate and 

 produce a picture. The present communication shows that in 

 all the cases which have been examined, and probably in all 

 others of a similar kind, the action which occurs is due directly 

 or indirectly to the presence of hydrogen peroxide. 



