June 29, 1882] 



NA TURE 



209 



the circuit being closed when the weight dips in the mercury, 

 with effects as above. 



The Societe Nationale d'Acclimatation de France, at its 

 Annual General Meeting, lately held in Taris, awarded a medal 

 of 1 he first class to Mr. J. E. Harting, F.L.S., for his mono- 

 graph on "Ostriches," and his recently-published work on 

 " Extinct British Animals." 



We are glad to learn that the Geographical Society have 

 fi.ially resolved to make further use of the services of Mr. 

 Joseph Thomson in the work of African exploration. The 

 region to be explored by Mr. Thomson is that around Mount 

 Kilimanjaro, about which our knowledge is so meagre. Mr. 

 Thomson will set out in the beginning of next year. 



We have received a copy of an interesting address by Prof. 

 F. W. Ilutton of Canterbury College, New Zealand, on " Biology 

 in an Arts Curriculum." The author takes as his subject the 

 principle of selection, ai.d after briefly explaining its importance 

 in biology, proceeds to argue that it is of not less importance in 

 psychology and sociology. The analogues, or rather parallels, 

 which he draws are thoughtful and interesting, as the following 

 examples will show : — " Either from transmission, or from early 

 association, every man has a number of opinions common to the 

 nation and to ihe class in life to which he belongs, which may 

 be called his inherited opinions ; but as his reasoning powers 

 develop, these opinions are subject to variation. The variations 

 may be owing to original ideas arising in his mind we know not 

 how, like the variations of structure in animals ; or they may be 

 due to education, that is, to coming into contact with other 

 minds, cither personally or through books ; and it must be 

 noticed that, unlike structural variations, these mental variations 

 may be produced at any time in a man's life, and may or may 

 not remain constant. Physical transmission is not necessary ; 

 mental transmission from mind to mind diffuses a variation 

 rapidly through all the individuals, and con-equently it is not 

 necessary for the action of selection that the originator of an 

 iirproved mental variation should have any bodily offspring. 

 When mental variations compete with one another, selection 

 constantly acts on them through the agency either of utility or of 

 sympathy." Similarly in Sociology Prof. Hulton shows that 

 the principle of selection is all-important, and therefore that the 

 political constitution which best admits of variation within due 

 limits, or is most flexible, is most likely to survive in a struggle with 

 other tolitical constitutions. Hence, he maintains, the growing 

 tendency of Monarchies to supplant Despotisms, and of Republics 

 to supplant Monarchies ; also of the progress of parliamentary 

 forms of government — parliamentary discussion being but the 

 principle of selection applied to political ideas. The parallels 

 thus drawn between the principle of selection in biology and its 

 operatic hi in psychology and sociology, are well presented ; but 

 they are clearly in no way closely analogous to the survival of 

 the fittest among organisms. There is just such a resemblance 

 as there is in the case to which Prof, ilutton alludes of the 

 analogy between the biological and the social organism, and 

 which, as he truly observes, is incomplete and apt 10 be mis- 

 leading. " Indeed, it would not be difficult to find in this 

 analogy as many discrepancies as likenesses. What, f L .r instance, 

 in the organisation of an animal answers to the professors of 

 theology, medicine, or law? What to prisons and reforma- 

 tories?" fitc. So, we think, in the principle of selection, 

 although there is a general resemblance in its operation in 

 biology and in psychology or sociology, the resemblance is 

 nevertheless only general, and may not be pressed too far. 

 Thns, the single fact noticed by the author that variations of 

 ideas may propagate themselves without the aid of heredity, is 

 alone sufficient to constitute an immense difference between the 

 two classes of cases — the biological and the sociological — and it 



is further evident that in biology there is nothing corresponding 

 to individual judgment, which is the most important agent in 

 selecting variations of ideas. 



In the current number of the Journal of Forestry is an excel- 

 lent article on Epping Forest, in which the natural beauties of 

 this well-known resort <are faithfully portrayed. It is to be 

 hoped that in the discussion that has raged and is still raging as 

 to the management of Epping Forest under its new superin- 

 tendent, the aim of Parliament for its preservation "in its 

 natural aspect as a forest " will not be lost sight of. In the 

 words of the writer of a paragraph on the subject in the same 

 number of the Journal of Forestry, we repeat that " it is a forest 

 that the public want, and not a gigantic park or tea garden." 



It is well known that of late a good deal of attention has been 

 devoted in America to the manufacture of sugar from the 

 Sorghum. In connection with this subject a letter has recently 

 been published in the New York Daily Tribune from Prof. 

 Silliman, in which he gives a detailed account of the value of the 

 most important varieties. There seems to be a great future in 

 America for the Sorghum as a sugar producer. 



The discussion of diurnal ranges of temperature having shown 

 to Dr. Woeikof (Izvestia of the Moscow Society of Naturalists 

 for 1881) how much they depend upon the topographical con- 

 ditions of different stations, he discusses in the last number of 

 the Journal of the Russian Chemical and Physical Society the 

 influence of the same conditions on the average temperatures of 

 winter and on the deviation from average temperatures, especially 

 during anti-cyclones. Comparing the observations at different 

 Swiss stations, he finds that the annual range of temperatures 

 does not always diminish with the height of the station ; it is 

 less on isolated mountains, but it is greater in high valleys when 

 they are wide. Diseasing further the differences of temperature 

 in valleys and on isolated mountains, he shows how the tempera- 

 ture of the air in the former is often much colder than on the 

 mountains, as well in Switzerland as on the Caucasus, and in 

 Eastern Siberia ; and he concludes that the map of isotherms, 

 recently published by Dr. Wild in his great work "On the 

 Temperatures in the Russian Empire," does not give a true idea 

 of the distribution of winter-temperatures, especially in Siberia ; 

 most of the stations of this country being situated in valleys, 

 where the temperature is lowered during the winter by typo- 

 graphical conditions, the isotherms for January occupy altogether 

 a too southern position on this map. Thus, for instance, the 

 January isotherm of -31 which passes through the Voznesensky 

 gold-mine, is lower by 7 3- 2 than the true temperature for this 

 place, and by 10 'I if the necessary reduction to the sea-level be 

 taken into account. 



On the 14th inst., at 2 p.m., a severe earthquake was felt at 

 the town of Lulea. in Sweden (65 1 40' N., 22 7' E.). The 

 shocks, which were several, were felt within a radius of thirty-six 

 miles, doors being thrown open, flower-pots turned over, Sec, 

 through the tremor of the earth. 



M. Brazza has delivered in the large hall of the Sorbonne a 

 lecture on his discoveries i,i the Ogowe, and his efforts to esta- 

 blish a regular commuuicatiou between the Ogowe and Con^o 

 through a land district. These efforts have proved successful. 



The frequent observations of the mirage in the south and 

 central part of Sw-eden is very remarkable. From time to time 

 we are told that whole .landscapes, cities, and castles, with 

 moving objects, have been observed reflected on the sky for 

 hours, and ve again learn that a similar display of the forces 

 of Nature was seen one afternoon last month over the lake of 

 Orsa, in a remote part of Dalcarlia, lat. 61°, which is stated to 

 have reflected a number of large and small steamers, as if plying 

 on the lake, and from whose funnels even the smoke could be 



