90 
NATURE 
[Mov. 18, 1869 
PHYSIOLOGY 
Kinship of Ascidians and Vertebrates 
THE number of Max Schultze’s Archiv (y. 4), just published, 
contains a letter to the editor from Prof. Kupffer, of Kiel, in 
which that distinguished embryologist asserts that he has been 
studying the early history of a species of Phallusia, and that his 
results in large measure agree with those of Kowalevsky touch- 
ing the startling vertebrate features of the early condition of these 
invertebrata. He reserves for the present the details about the 
exact formation of the nervous system, but quite confirms the 
fact of the existence of a notochord. He says: “ At this stage 
one could not imagine a more beautiful model of a vertebrate 
embryo, with the neural tube on one side of the axis and a visceral 
tube on the other.” He, moreover, describes in his species of 
Phallusia the neural tube as not merely an almost spherical vesicle, 
but as prolonged in the form of a fine hollow thread into the tail 
above the notochord or axis. He promises full details shortly, 
and we hope to be able to return to this most important 
matter. —M.F. 
* Tue Chloral controversy seems likely to terminate. Pure 
chloral, M. Bouchut informs us, is really a good anzesthetic. 
On the other hand, M. Laborde says that its frequent administra- 
tion is attended with danger. Chloral, if mixed with blood 
outside the body, yields no chloroform until traversed by a current 
of air. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
Ethnological Society, November 9.—This society held its 
first meeting for the present session at the rooms in St. Martin’s 
Place. Professor Huxley, the President, occupied the chair. 
After some remarks by Colonel Lane Fox, the honorary secretary, 
on the Megalithic Monuments of Stonehenge, Mr. Gardner, of 
H.M. Consular Service, China, read a paper before the Society, 
on the Chinese People, Government, &c. The point on which 
Mr. Gardner laid most stress—in fact, the leading idea of the whole 
paper—seemed to be the tenacity with which the Chinese ‘had 
pg the usages of antiquity, and the skill with which they 
had adapted them to the exigencies of modern times. They 
retain, according to him, the patriarchal theory of government, 
but make it suitable for an empire of 400,000,coo human beings. 
And if we allow that the ideographic form of writing is the most 
ancient of all, then the Chinese, in this nineteenth century, 
preserve an older principle of expressing thought than is to be 
found in the most ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics extant, and yet 
no language in the world is more capable of finding appropriate 
terms for the latest discoveries in mental and physical science, 
and the newest inventions of art. Mr. Gardner pointed out some 
analogies which he fancied existed between Chinese, Egyptian, 
and Hebrew, leaving it to philologists to decide whether these 
supposed coincidences were fortuitous, or a confirmation of the 
theory set forward by Hunter and others, of the original unity of 
the Aryan and non-Aryan languages. In the Chinese religion, Mr. 
Gardner stated, that whatever might be the nominal creed of 
individuals, or even masses, ancestral worship (undoubtedly the 
most ancient form of religious cult) as an act of devotion is most 
universally practised in the present day. Underlying all religious 
forms and creeds, Mr. Gardner stated, was an idea, more or less 
vague, of one Supreme Being; but he did not express an opinion 
as to whether this idea is a legacy of ancient times, or one of 
modern development. Besides this leading idea, Mr. Gardner 
gave a long account of the Chinese social institutions and 
benevolent societies: these latter are somewhat remarkable, and 
though not general enough in their organisation to refute the 
prevailing idea that the enthusiasm of humanity is peculiar to 
Christianity, tend to show that the Chinese are more philanthropic 
than any other heathen nation, Mr, Gardner also read some 
notes, and gaye some anecdotes of personal experience to eluci- 
date his main theories. In conclusion, if Mr. Gardner is correct 
in his premises, we see no reason to doubt his conclusion, that 
when the theory of division of labour shall be put in practice with 
regard to races as well as individuals, the Chinese will play an 
important part in the world’s history as ethical philosophers, 
merchants, mechanics, and labourers ; but that they are unfitted 
for rulers, soldiers, or the higher walks of art, and will not tend 
to advance physical or mechanical science. 
The President referred to the similarity between certain Chinese | 
customs and those of the Polynesians ; such as the exclusion of a 
word occurring in the name of a great chief. In like manner, the 
prohibition of marriage between persons of the same surname is 
a custom common to the Chinese and the Australians. In con- 
cluding the discussion, he alluded to the popular but erroneous 
notion that the Chinese were modified Mongols, and pointed to 
the fact that, although both had long black hair on the head, and 
only scanty hair on the face, yet the Chinese had a long skull, 
with prominent brow-ridges, whilst the Central Asiatic had a 
broad skull, deficient in brow-ridges.—Captain Sherard Osborn 
advocated the introduction of railways and the opening of mines}; 
and pointed to the many other adyantages which the Chinese 
would receive from their intercourse with Europeans.—The 
Rey. Prof. Summers, Dr. Hyde Clark, Dr. Leitner, and others, 
took part in the discussion. 
Additional interest was given to the meeting by the presence 
of the Yarkandi brought to this country by Dr. Leitner, the only 
native of Yarkand who has ever visited Europe. 
Geological Society, November 10.—Prof. T. H. Huxley, 
LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the chair. Mr, E. Hartley, of 
the Geological Survey of Canada, Montreal, was elected a Fellow 
of the Society. The following communications were read :— 
“ Australian Mesozoic Geology and Palzontology,” by Charles 
Moore, Esq., F.G.S. The author referred to the observations 
of Professor M ‘Coy and the Rey. W. B. Clark, on the occurrence 
of fossils of Mesozoic age in Australia, and then proceeded to 
notice the species which he had obtained from that region. 
Fossils of Mesozoic type occur both in Western Australia and 
Queensland, but the specimens have hitherto been found in 
apparently drifted blocks, and nothing is known of the bedded 
rocks from which they are derived. The author stated that the 
Australian Mesozoic fossils agree, not only in genera, but also in 
many cases in species with British forms ; and he gave a list of 
species from Western Australia, identical with British species, 
from the Middle and Upper Lias, the Inferior Oolite, and the 
Cornbrash. Of the fossils from Queensland also, many are said 
to be identical with, or very nearly allied to, British species, but 
the author regards the general type of the Queensland remains as 
referring them to the Upper Oolite. A gigantic species of 
Crioceras is regarded by the author as possibly indicative of the 
occurrence of Neocomian deposits in Australia. The fossil 
evidence upon which Professor M ‘Coy inferred the occurrence of 
the Muschelkalk in Australia, was said by the author to be 
nugatory, his supposed A/yophoria proving to be a 7vigonia nearly 
allied to 7: gibbosa of the Portland Oolite, and his doubtful 
Orthoceras a small Serpula. The author had found no indications 
of the existence of Triassic or Liassic deposits in Queensland. 
The blocks from Western Australia, referred by the author to the 
Middle Lias, contain Myacites Liassianus (Quenst.), and are quite 
as highly ferruginous as the English Marlstone. The spectes 
identified by the author with British Oolitic species would indicate 
a range from the Inferior Oolite to the Cornbrash ; the author 
suggests that the species may have had a longer range in time in 
Australia than in England, or that the subordinate divisions of 
the Oolite were not clearly marked in the Australian Mesozoic 
deposits. He is inclined to refer the fossils to the period of the 
Inferior Oolite. .The author inferred from the occurrence of 
these Mesozoic fossils in drifted blocks, at the two extremities of 
Australia, separated by 38° of longitude, that an enormous 
denudation of rocks of the secondary series has taken place over 
a considerable part of Australia. Descriptions of a great number 
of new species were appended to the paper. 
“On a Plant- and Insect-bed on the Rocky River, New South 
Wales,” by Charles Moore, Esq., F.G.S. The organic remains 
noticed by the author were found by him in a small block of 
chocolate-coloured, micaceous, laminated marl, obtained from a 
bed about ten feet thick, at a depth of 100—r110 feet, in the 
auriferous drifts of Sydney-flats, on the banks of the Rocky 
River. The author found the leaves of two forms of Dicotyle- 
donous plants, fragments of a flat narrow leaf, which he refers to 
the Conifers, a seed-vessel, and the impressions of several seeds. 
The insect-remains consist principally of the elytra of beetles, 
among which Buprestidz appear to predominate. The vegetable 
remains seem to indicate that the deposit is of Tertiary age. 
Prof. I. Rupert Jones mentioned the discovery of a large 
Crioceras in the Jurassic beds near Port Elizabeth.—Mr. W. Boyd 
Dawkins suggested that we had hardly a right to apply the 
European standard in judging fossils from all parts of the world, 
and doubted whether, if these fossils were examined from the 
