128 



NATURE 



[Dec. 6, 1883 



entirely hypotheiica! series of upward and downward 

 movements. These are unnecessary if we can be con- 

 vinced that coral-reefs grow up independent of terrestrial 

 movements, which may in one area be in an upward, in 

 another in a downward direction. From this point of 

 view the reefs stand up as the result of a complex series 

 of agencies, among which the more important are on the 

 one hand, the temperature, solvent power, currents, tides, 

 and waves of the sea, and on the other hand, the amount 

 and direction of tlie supply of pelagic food, the up- 

 building of calcareous deposits to the zone of reef builders, 

 the outward vigorous growth of the coral-masses and 

 their decay and death, and the solution of their skeletons 

 in the inner parts of the reefs. All these causes are 

 known and visibly active. Without the cooperation of 

 any other supposed or latent force they appear to be 

 entirel)' adequate to the task of building up the present 

 coral-reefs ot the oceins. Arch. Geikie 



D/^. JOHN LA WRENCE LECONTE 

 T NFORMATION has just been received in this country 

 ■*■ announcing the death of Dr. LeConte. He was born 

 in New York on May 13, 1825, and was the son of a 

 distinguished officer in the United States army, himself 

 an entomologist. He adopted the medical profession, 

 and during the secessionist war he entered as medical 

 officer of volunteers. The foregoing necessarily brief, 

 specially biographic account is chiefly derived fro.n infor- 

 mation furnished in Uimmock's "Special Bibliography 

 of American Entomologists, No. I." 



LeConte could have been only nineteen years old when 

 he published his first entomological paper on cei tain new 

 species of North American Coleoptera {PrOiCcdings of 

 the Academy of Natiiral Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. ii.). 

 From that time forward a continuous series of works 

 and papers on North American Coleoptera was pro- 

 duced by him until his death. He made a speciality of 

 Co/tv//d'r<z, and, with few e.\ceptions, all his writings were 

 devote! to that order of insects, and through his exertions 

 the beetles of the United States are now almost as well 

 known as are those of Europe. At the ti.ne of his death 

 his published papers must have been nearly 200. IVIore- 

 over he was the acknowledged authority in the United 

 States on all matters coleopterological, a position which 

 must naturally ha\ e caused him vast trouble and corre- 

 spondence, sometmies with inadequate results. Latterly 

 he worried greatly in company with Dr. G. H. Horn, of 

 Philadelphia, a worthy follower of his tutor and a worthy 

 successor. Their joint labours culminated tliis year, 

 when was published (" Smithsonian Miscellaneous Col- 

 lections," No. 507) a "Classification of the Coleoptera of 

 North .America," a volume extending to nearly 600 pages. 

 It is needless here to refer to the revolution this work 

 and other memoirs (chiefly by Dr. Horn) created in the 

 minis of coleopterists as to the sequence of main divi- 

 sions, &c. All workmg entomologists are sufficiently 

 alive to the importance of the new ideas put forth. In 

 fact this volume might have been considered a model of 

 a special monograph were it not for a somewhat crude 

 " Introduction " on insects in general that precedes the 

 systematic portion. 



In the present condition of entomological science in the 

 United States the loss of Dr. LeConte seems almost irre- 

 parable. He and his coadjutor. Dr. Horn, and one or 

 two o'.hers, stood almost alone amongst the prominent 

 American entomologists in holding no special official 

 position in connection with their subject. 



LeConte once made a lengthy stay in Europe, and was 

 well known personally in this country to all the prominent 

 Coleopterists. Moreover he was honorary member of 

 several of the European entomological societies, including 

 the Entomological Society of London ; his personal 

 friends in this country were numerous. Since the death of 



.Say (whose scattered works were carefully collated and re- 

 edited by the subject of this notice) entomological science 

 in America has not had to deplore so severe a loss, and 

 Say's death was not fraught with the same significance. 



R. McLACHLA^ 



THE LATE MR. DARWIN ON INSTINCT 

 A T the meeting of the Linnean Society this evening 

 -'*- (December 6) a highly interesting posthumous 

 paper on Instinct, by Charles Darwin, will be read 

 and discussed. We have been favoured with an early 

 abstract of the same, which we here present to our 

 readers. 



After detailing sundry facts with reference to the migra- 

 tory instincts of different animals, Mr. Darwin proceeds to 

 suggest a theory to account for them. '1 his theory is 

 precisely the same as that which was subsequently and 

 independently enunciated by Mr. Wallace in NATURE, 

 vol. X. p. 459. Thus, to quote from the essay : " During the 

 long course of ages, let valleys become converted into 

 estuaries, and then into wider and wider arms of the sea ; 

 and still I can well believe that the impulse [originally 

 due to seeking food] which leads the pinioned goose to 

 scramble northward, would lead our bird over the track- 

 less waters ; and that, by the aid of the unknown power 

 by which many animals (and savage men) can retain a 

 true course, it would safely cross the sea now covering 

 the submerged path of its ancient journey." 



The next topic considered is thit of instinctive fear. 

 Many facts are given, shoA-ing the gradual acquisition of 

 such instinctive fear, or hereditary dread, of man, during 

 the period of human observation. These facts led Mr. 

 Darwin to consider the instinct of feigning death as 

 shown by sundry species of animals when in the presence 

 of danger. Seeing that " death is an unknown state to 

 each living creature," this seemed to him " a remirkable 

 instinct," and accordingly he tried a number of experi- 

 ments upon the subject with insects, which proved that 

 in no one case did the attitude in which the animal 

 " feigned death " resemble that in which the animal 

 really died ; so that the instinct really amounts to nothing 

 else, in the case of insects at all events, than an instinct 

 to remain motionless, and therefore inconspicuous, in the 

 presence of danger. From the facts given with regard 

 to certain vertebrated animals, however, it is doubtful 

 how far this explanation can be applied to them. 



A large part of the essay is devoted to " Nidification 

 and Habitation," with the object of showing, by an accu- 

 mulation of facts, that the complex instincts of nest- 

 building in birds and of constructing various kinds 01 

 habitations by mammals, all probably arose by gradual 

 stages under the directing influence of natural selection. 



The essay concludes with a number of " miscellaneous 

 remarks " on instincts in general. First the variability 

 of instinct is proved by sundry examples ; next the fact 

 of double instincts occurring in the same species ; after 

 which, " as there is often much difficulty in imagining 

 how an instinct could first have arisen," it is thought 

 " worth while to give a few, out of many cases, of occa- 

 sional and curious habits, which cannot be considered 

 as regular instincts, but which might, according to 

 our views, give rise to such." Finally, cases of 

 special difficulty are dealt with ; these may be classi- 

 fied under the following heads: — (i) Simlar instincts 

 in unallied animals ; (2) dissimilar instincts in allied 

 animals ; (3) instincts apparently detrimental to the 

 species whi.:h exhibit them ; (4) instincts performed 

 only once during the lifetime of an animal ; (5) instincts 

 of atriflin.; or useless character; (5) special difficulties 

 connected with the instinct of migration ; (7) sundry 

 other instincts presenting more or less difficulty to the 

 theory of natural selection. 



The " Conclusion " gives a summary of the general 



