176 



NATURE 



\y^ 



7. 187: 



less ones be diverse without any strongly preponderating element, 

 it is impossible to foresee the character of the embryo, just ns it 

 is impossible to foresee the cliaracter of a handful chosen from 

 an urn containing a mixed assemblage of variously coloured bills. 

 But if they be not diverse, then the embryonic elements will be 

 a tnie sample of the structureless ones, the conditions of putily 

 of blood are fulfdled, and the offspring will resemble its parents. 



We also sec, in the process by which the embryonic elements 

 are obtained, how the curious phenomenon may occur of inhei it- 

 ance occasionally skipping alternate generations. The more that 

 has been removed from the structureless group for the supply of 

 the embryonic (which as we I'.aveseen, in a nearly sterile destina- 

 tion) the less remains for the latent group, too little, it may lie, 

 to assert it.self by that, the only prolific, line of transmission. In 

 the supposed case it would recuperate itself during the succeed- 

 ing generation, where the elements in question will have re- 

 mained wholly latent, owing to their insignificance in the struc- 

 tureless stage of that generation, \\'hich would be sufficient to 

 secure any portion of it from selection for the embryonic form. 



It is in the stage of development where 1 presume those in- 

 fluences to come in, which cause domesticated animals, when 

 turned loose, to become feral. No variety can be stable unless 

 the conditions of development concur to maintain the structure- 

 less stages ol consecutive generations in an unchanged fonn. It 

 is clearly of no avail to a breeder to obtain a stock by continued 

 and careful selection, that shall conform to a desired type, if 

 the animals be afterwards reared under other conditions, liy 

 which the subsequent stages, both latent and patent, shall be 

 modified. 



Lastly, it is in the process of selection of elements, both latent 

 and patent, from the adult parents for the structureless stage of 

 the next generation, where I suppose the curious and unknown 

 conditions usually to occur, through which a change in the habits 

 of life, after the adult age has been reached, is apt to produce 

 sterility. I may be permitted to remark, hypothetically, that 

 this view appears to be corroborated by the fact, that many 

 grains of pollen or many spermatozoa are required to fertilise 

 each ovum, because, as it would seem, each separate one does 

 not contain a sufficiently complete representation of the primary 

 elements to supply the needs of an individual life, and that it is 

 only by the accumulation of several separate consignments (so to 

 speak) of the representative elements, that the necessary variety 

 is ensured. I argue from this that there is a tendency to a large 

 individual variation in the constituents of each grain of polltMi, 

 or spermatozoon, and, by analogy, that there is a similar though 

 smaller tendency in each ovum. Also, that changes in the haliits 

 of life may increase this variation to a degree that involves 

 sterility. 



One result of this investigation is to show very clearly that 

 large variation in individuals from their parents is not incom- 

 patible with the strict doctrine of heredity, but is a consequence 

 of it wherever the breed is impure, I am desirous of applying 

 these considerations to the intellectual and moral gifts of the 

 human race, which is more mongrelised than that ot any other 

 domesticated animal. It has been thought by some that the 

 fact of children frequently shcj\\ing marked individual variation 

 in ability from tliat of their parents, is a proof that intellectual 

 and moral gifts are not strictly transmitted by inheritance. My 

 arguments lead to exact'y the opposite result. I show that their 

 great individual variation is a necessity under present conditions, 

 and I maintain that results derived from large averages are all 

 that can be required, and all we could expect to obtain, to prove 

 that intellectual and moral gifts are as strictly matters of in- 

 heritance as any purely physical qualities. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 

 Chemical Society, June 20. — Dr. Frankland, F.R.S., pre- 

 sident, in the chair. The president announced that Mr. H)de 

 Hills had given ten guineas to the fund for promoting original 

 research, and promised to further increase the donation by ten 

 guineas for each ninety subscribed for the same purpose. — Mr. 

 H. Deacon, on "Deacon's Method of Obtaining Chlorine, as 

 Illustrating some Principles of Chemical Dynamics." The pro- 

 cess consists in passing a heated mixture of air and hydrochloric 

 acid over sulphate of copper, or over pieces of pumice or brick 

 saturated with the same. He finds that the action is essentially 

 a surface action, and that there is a certain comparatively small 

 range of temperature, between the critical limits of which tlie 

 percentage of hydrochloric acid decomposed varies greatly. The 



velocity with which the mixed gases pass over the surface of the 

 active material also causes considerable variation in the compa- 

 rative amount of chlorine prod 'ced. 



BOOKS RECEIVED 



English. — As Regards Protopl-asm, new edition : J. H. Slirlins (Long- 



American. — The Periodic Law : Rev. G. A. Leakin. 



Foreign.— Rendiconto deirAccademia delle Scienze fislchc et mattma- 

 tiche. Naples, i862-iS5y (through Williams and Nurgate) —Compendium der 

 physiologischen Opuk lur Medicincr u Physiker : Ur. H. Kaiser. 



PAMPHLETS RECEIVED 



English.— How Fishes Breathe : J. C. Gallon.— Influence of Colloids on 

 Inorganic matter ; W. Ord. — The Jidinburgh Sixpenny 410. Atlas ; W. and 

 A. K. Johnston— The Insulation of St. Michael's Mount: \V. Pengdly.— 

 The Sidereal and Solar Systems : C. C Clarke.- The Influence of Human 

 Progress on Medical Education : W. Aitken.— Influence of Vaccination, itc, 

 on Mortality from Small-Po.4 : R. Grieve, M.D.— London Students' Ga- 

 zelle, May.— Annual Address to the Linnean Society: G. Bentham. -Trans- 

 actions of^ the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society, 1872, — Meetings 

 of the Newcastle-on-Tyne Chemical Society, 1871-2. — Journal of ihe Iron 

 and Steel Institute, vol. i No. 2. — Report of the Astronomer Royal to the 

 Board of Visitors — Quarterly Journal of the Meteorological Society, vol. i. 

 No. 2. — Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, No. 10. — Proceedings of the 

 Geologists' Association, vol, ii. No. 5. — Tenth Annual Report of the Birming- 

 ham Free Libraries Committee, 1S71. — Report of Wigan Field Naturalists' 

 Society, 1S70-72. — Quarterly Weather Report of the Meteorological Oflice, 

 Oct. to Dec. 1870.— Devon and E.\eter .Albert Memorial Museum School 

 of Science and Art : Report for 1S72. — Transactions of the Institute of Engi- 

 neers in Scotland.— Report of Bury Natural History Society, 1872.— Un 

 Phonic Coast Fog-Signals : A Beazeley.— E.\amination of the recent Attack 

 upon the Atomic Theory: R. W. Atkinson. — The Mining Review, vol. i. 

 No. 8. 



American and Colonial. — The American Practitioner. May 1S72. — Re- 

 ports ol the Mining Suiveyors and Registrars. Victoria. — Report on the Opera- 

 tions of the Trigonometrical Survey of India, 1S70-71 : Major Montgomerie. 



— Second Annual Report on the injurious and beneficial Insects of Massachu- 

 setts : A. S. Packard.— Historical Sketch of the Public Ledger oi Philadel- 

 phia: E. H. Munday. — Monthly Record of Observations in Meteorolog>' and 

 Terrestrial Magnetism: R. J. 'Ellery. — The Projected Science Association 

 for the N.-itives of India, Mahendra la '1 Sircar, M.D,— Report of Progress 

 of Commission of Foreign F'orests, Victoria, 1S71. — Report of the Entomo- 

 logical Society for Ontario for 1871.— The School Laboratory, vol. ii.. No. i. 



— the .Sun and the Phenomena of the Almosphere: Prof. C. A. Young.— 

 Fourth Annual Report on the noxious and beneficial Insects of Missouri : C. 

 V. Riley. 



Foreign.- Atti della reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1S71.— Forme delle Pro. 

 tuberanze regioni del magnesio e del ferro suUa superficie del Sole : P. 

 Tacchini.' — Memorie della Societa degli spettroscopisti Italiana, No 4. — 

 Bulletins de la Socicle d' Anthropologie, Aug. et Sept. 1871. — Indice degli 

 autori e delle materie della gazetta chimica Italiana, vol. i. — Contribution a 

 une histoire ge'nerale et Encyclopcdiquedes Sciences : T. Wechinakof. — La 

 Eelgique hortico le , Mai et J uin.— Osserv.azione dell' Eclisse totale : Prof. L. 

 Respighi.— Sull' ultima Eclisse del 12 Dec, 1871 : L. Respighi.— The Quar- 

 terly German Magazine, No. 1, for 1872. 



DIARY 



THURSDAY, June 27. 



Society of Antiquakies, at 8.30. — Origin of the word Coach: A. Gold- 



smid. — On the Ruins of 'Torre Abbey. Miscellaneous Antiquities : Sir W. 



FRIDAY, l\iK-s.^%. 

 Quekett Microscopical Club, at 8. 



MONDAY, July i. 

 Entomological Society, at 7. 



TUESDAY, July 2. 



Society of Biblical ARCHyEOLOov, at S.30 — On Israel in Egpyt : Pr. H. 



Haigh— On the Mazzarolh of Job XXXVIII : Henry Fo.v Talbot, F.R.S. 



— On the Use of the Papyrus among the Accadians : Rev. A. H. Sayce — 



On the Economic Botany of the Bible : James Collins. 



CONTENTS Page 



The Tide and the Treasury 157 



Public Health in Ameeica J58 



Our Book Shelf 159 



Letters to the Editor: — 



The Total Eclipse in Java.-Prof. Oudemans 160 



'the Great Storm of June iS (With Diagram) —Dr. C. M. Incleby 161 



Spectrumof Lightning.— Dr. J. P. Joule, F.R.S. ; H. R. Procter 161 



Water Analysis. — J. Alfred Wanklvn 161 



Parasite of the Beaver. — J. Le Co.\te 162 



Vespertilio — T. H. Pott.s 162 



Originof Cyclones.— J. J. MuRi-HY, FG.S 162 



The Population of the Philippine Islands. By Dr. Adolf 



Bernhard Mayer 162 



Mineral Springs of Shana near Trebizonde. By W. Gifford 



Palgrave, F.R.G.S 163 



The Dispersion of Seeds by the Wind 164 



Lvell's Principles of Geology tU'itlt IUiistratio>is\—'Y. McK 



Hughes, F.G.S 165 



Notes 168 



Atoms and Molecules. By Samuel D. Tillman, LL D. . . . 171 



Blood Relationshii'. By Francis Galton, F.R.S 173 



Societies and Academies 176 



Books and Pamphlets Received 176 



Diary 176 



