316 
NATURE 
[ Fan. 20, 1870 
or in the form of myriads of separate organisms, as the globi- 
gerine and ventriculites of the chalk. ‘lhe rhizopods, like the 
corals of a shallower zone, form huge accumulations of carbonate 
of lime, and it is probably to their agency that we must refer 
most of those great bands of limestone which have resisted time 
and change, and which come in here and there with their rich 
imbedded lettering, to mark, like milestones, the progress of the 
passing ages.” 
The following passage, referring to another aspect of the 
question, was published in the 114th Number of the ‘‘ Proceedings 
of the Royal Society” :— 
““The vitreous sponges along with the living Rhizopods and 
other Protozoa which enter largely into the composition of the 
upper layer of the chalk-mud, appear to be nourished by the 
absorption through the external surface of their bodies of the 
assimilable organic matter which exists in appreciable quantity 
in all sea-water, and which is derived from the life and death of 
marine animals and plants, and, in large quantity, from the 
water of tropical rivers. One principal function of this vast 
sheet of the lowest type of animal life, which probably extends 
over the whole of the warmer regions of the sea, may possibly 
be to diminish the loss of organic matter by gradual decomposi- 
tion, and to aid in maintaining in the ocean the ‘balance of 
organic nature.’ ” 
t cannot at present enter into detail, as the whole subject of 
the conditions of life at great depths will be fully discussed in the 
second part of the preliminary report to the Royal Society on 
the Porcupine Expedition. I may mention, however, that the 
much more extended researches of the past summer have in- 
creased our confidence in the general accuracy of our former con- 
clusions ; while careful analyses by the physicists who accompanied 
the expedition have proved the existence in the water-at all 
depths of a very appreciable and tolerably constant proportion 
of organic matter in a condition suitable for assimilation by 
animal organisms. WYVILLE THOMSON 
January 7 
My friend Mr, J. Gwyn Jeffreys informs me that he is not 
answerable for the postscript to his letter, a sentence in which I | 
noticed in a letter published by you in the last number of 
Navrure. Will you kindly insert this statement. 
Lee, January 10 P, Martin DUNCAN 
[The postscript was editorial, and so appears on the face of it.] 
NOTES 
Ir was announced by Mr. Lockyer at the meeting of the Royal 
Astromonical Society, on Friday last, that the great refractor of 
25 inches aperture, constructed by the Messrs. Cooke, of York, 
is so near completion that it will be erected in the observatory 
prepared for it at Gateshead early next month. 
of this magnificent 
endowed science, marks an epoch in astronomy. 
The completion 
instrument, with which Mr. Newall has 
Mr. Newall 
has in fact done what the French Government has already done, 
and what our Government ought to haye done; he has furnished 
observers with an instrument capable of grappling with the 
physical problems which have now to be solyed—one on a level 
with our present requirements ; and we doubt not that when it is 
once at work, the wish of its owner, that science may be ad- 
yanced by it, will be amply fulfilled. 
WE are informed that the Senate of London University have 
proposed to establish a Faculty of Science. 
Tue last number of the journal of the German Chemical 
Society contains a biographical sketch of the late Professor 
Graham, in which his scientific merits are more fully analysed 
than in the interesting sketch lately published by Professor Wil- 
liamson in the columns of Narure. Professor Hofmann, the 
author of the German biographical notice, has added a photo- 
graph of the late Master of the Mint, and an autographic copy of | 
a letter of particular interest to the society. It runs as follows ; 
“4, Gordon Square, London, Dec. 28, 1868. My dear Hof- 
mann,—I am much gratified by the receipt of your kind letter, | 
and have since receiyed the official intimation of my clection as 
an honorary member of the Berlin Chemical Society oyer which | 
j 
you preside, which I esteem a high compliment: and _ great 
honour. I have written a line to Messieurs the secretaries in 
acknowledgment, which I beg you to forward to them. There 
is a communication of mine before the Royal Society at present, 
which I believe will amuse you, or at least the hardiesse of the 
thing will surprise. What do you think of Hydrogenium, a white 
| magnetic metal of the specific gravity 2?—I remain, dear Hof- 
mann, sincerely yours, THOs. GRAHAM.’’—On Saturday, 
January 8, this society gave a dinner to Professor Hofmann, 
on his retiring from the presidency. The presence of a 
great number of the celebrities of the town added to the 
significance of this meeting. Professor Magnus (who acted as 
chairman on the occasion), Dove, Virchow, Rose, Dubois-Ray- 
mond, Kronecker, Curtius, and others, as also some of the 
Ministers of State, the American Ambassador (Mr. Bancroft), 
&c., honoured the meeting with their presence, and partly with 
their speeches. A great number of the foreign members sent 
messages from England and France, or from distant parts of 
Germany. The following telegram was received from M. Dumas, 
at Paris: —‘‘ Félicitations et yoeux! Longue prospérité a la 
societé! Longue vie a Hofmann! Votre féte est la féte de 
famille des chimistes du monde entier, qui tous l’admirent et 
Yaiment.” A photolithograph representing’ Dr. Hofmann, the 
discoverer of compound Ammonium, as Jupiter Ammon, sur- 
rounded by a halo of Aniline colours, was distributed and 
explained by the artist, and a hymn to Aniline, composed for 
the occasion, gave a humorous tone to the latter part of the 
festival. 
ALL readers of the ‘‘ Origin of Species” are aware that the 
theory now universally (and rightly) known as ‘‘ Darwinian,” 
was independently conceived and thought out by a naturalist 
who knew nothing of Darwin’s views of the operation of natural 
selection, and who was at that time thousands of miles away 
from England. The English public are therefore not likely to 
forget that to Mr, Alfred Wallace, as well as to Mr. Darwin, 
belongs the distinction of having discovered ‘‘a new idea, a new 
genus of thought.” In Germany, where Darwinism has. excited 
such profound interest, the claims of Mr. Wallace have been 
somewhat overlooked by the distinguished men who have ex- 
pounded the theory of natural selection. This has now been 
rectified by the publication of a pamphlet entitled ‘‘ Charles 
Darwin und Alfred Russell Wallace,” in which Dr, A. B. Meyer 
reprints the papers by which the theory was first made known ; 
narrates the circumstances of their publication ; and gives slight 
sketches of the lives of their authors. Dr. Meyer adds to these 
biographical sketches, lists of the writings of their subjects. Such 
lists are sometimes not brought down to so late a date as they 
should be; -but in the case of Mr, Wallace, so far is this from 
being the case, that we see noted as published in the pages of 
Nature an article on Geologic Time, which we regret to say we 
have not yet been able to lay before our readers, owing to the — 
extraordinary pressure upon our columns. 
PROFESSOR MAYER was elected, at the meeting of the French 
Academy on January 10, a correspondent of the section of 
Physics in place of the late Prof. Matteucci. Of 47 votes, Prof. 
Mayer received 40; of the remainder, 5 were given to Prof. 
Kirchhoff, and 1 each to M. Angstrom and Sir W, Thomson, 
We are indebted to the Reve des Cours Scientiigues for the fol- 
lowing information with regard to vacancies in the lists of corre- 
sponding members of the various sections of the Paris Academy of 
Sciences. The Astronomical section has four corresponding 
members to replace, namely, Enke, Admiral Smyth, Petit, and 
Valz; but as the most recent vacancy occurred so long ago as 1867, 
it is probable that the section considers that the number of places 
for corresponding members exceeds that of the foreign and pro- 
vincial astronomers worthy of the honour, In the Physical 
section, into which, as our readers are aware, Prof. Helmholtz of 
