’ 
182 
NATURE 
| Fan. 5, 1871 

bottom of the deep sea, two different deposits are in pro- 
cess of formation side by side, each characterised by a 
distinct Fauna, and yet apparently produced under per- 
fectly similar conditions of land and sea, area, depth of 
water, &c. On investigating this curious result, how- 
ever, it was found that the temperature of the water circu- 
lating over these two areas is very different, and that 
this mere difference of temperature is capable of en- 
tirely changing the character of the fauna of the simul- 
taneously formed deposits. Thus an entirely new 
element is brought into geological speculations, since 
it is shown that at one and the same time strata 
may be accumulated containing widely different organic 
remains. In addition to this, they have shown that 
the calcareous deposit known to us as chalk is now 
being deposited all over the bed of the Atlantic Ocean, 
and there are many weighty reasons for believing that 
this deposit has gone on steadily ever since the time 
during which we imagined the cretaceous rocks of the 
world to have begun and ended. Many organisms for- 
merly supposed entirely extinct have been re-discovered 
in these deep-sea dredgings; and, in short, much ‘has 
been done to show that our past geological reasoning 
requires thorough and careful revision, Prof. Giimbel’s 
discovery of the existence of Bathybius and similar 
organisms at all depths, and stretching over an indefinite 
period of geological time, is of the greatest importance in 
relation to this subject. Prof. Agassiz, on the other side 
of the Atlantic, has published reports of the deep-sea 
dredging off the Florida Coast, and has stated that the 
results of his researches, and those of others, both English 
and Scandinavian, have convinced him that there is life 
all over the sea bottom, and that where evidence of marine 
life cannot be found, we are justified in calling in the 
agency of the sea to explain certain obscure facts. These 
conclusions cannot be without their important bearing on 
many commonly received geological theories.* 
In BOTANY many very careful series of observations have 
been made in the physiological department. Among the 
most important we may mention those of Prillieux and 
Duchartre in France, confirmed by Dr. M‘Nab in this 
country, that, contrary to the previously accepted hypo- 
thesis, plants do not absorb any appreciable amount of 
aqueous vapour through their leaves ; and those previously 
announced by M. Dehérain, that the evaporation of water 
from the leaves of plants is due to sunlight rather than to 
heat, and proceeds independently of the degree of satura- 
tion of the atmosphere. Much attention has also been 
paid in Germany, Italy, and England, to the fertile field of 
the phenomena of fertilisation, opened out by Mr. 
Darwin’s observations. 
In METEOROLOGY there is no great advance to chronicle. 
It still remains a Science without a head, a chaotic mass 
of facts with no definite order or arrangement ; for though 
many are working at this subject, and some valuable 
papers on the Origin of Winds and Storms have been 
published, still no definite progress can be ascertained. 
all over the British Isles in September and October, have 
directed public attention to those unmistakeably magnetic 
phenomena, and to the connection which exists between 
" During the past year all the most important papers on Deep-Sea Dredging 
have appeared in these columns, and we would refer our readers to Vol. i. 
Pp. 135, 165, 267, 6rz, 657 ; Vol. ii. pp. 257, 513 &e. 

their appearance, great magnetical perturbations, and 
large solar spots. They have been examined very fre- 
quently during the past year by means of the spectroscope, 
and there is distinct evidence of lines in the green and red 
portion of the spectrum, the latter presumably due to 
hydrogen. We would direct attention to our desire to 
publish a complete tabular list of the more remarkable 
meteorological phenomena of the past year, so as to be 
serviceable to observers in all parts of the world. To 
render this as perfect as possible, we would invite the 
kind co-operation of all those interested in the subject 
who can forward us any data. 
We cannot conclude without noticing how much 
Science has lost during the latter half of the year 
just ended by the fearful struggle that has taken place 
between France and Germany, where each nation has 
brought into requisition all the resources of Science 
only to inflict as much injury as possible on the other. 
For nearly six months we have witnessed the sad sight of 
workshops shut up, laboratories closed, universities and 
public schools wanting both professors and students, and 
the friendly emulation of similar tastes and pursuits turned 
to the fierce rivalry of the sword. Science will have to 
deplore the untimely loss of many of her most attached 
workers, and their country will have lost those who would 
in happier times have done her as much honour at home 
as they have shown bravery in the field. Whilst the 
French Academy, shut up in besieged Paris, has brought 
the art of ballooning to its present state of perfection, so 
that now it is used as a means of communication with the 
outside world, the result of the subtle strategy of the Ger- 
mans, and the scientific education they so generally possess, 
has been to give them advantages which have, to the pre- 
sent time, baffled their adversaries. J. JP 

THE INTELLIGENCE AND PERFECTIBILITY 
OF ANIMALS 
The Intelligence and Perfectibility of Animals from a 
Philosophic Point of View. With a few Letters on 
Man. By Charles Georges Leroy, partly under the 
pseudonym of “ The Naturalist of Nuremberg.” (Lon- 
don: Chapman and Hall, 1870.) : 

HESE Essays, written nearly a century ago, seem to 
have been intended chiefly as an answer to the 
doctrines of those French philosophers who maintained 
that animals were merely animated machines, or, as it 
was expressed by Buffon, that “the animal is a purely 
material being, which neither thinks nor reflects, but 
which nevertheless acts,” and that “the determining 
principle of the animal’s actions proceeds from a purely 
mechanical influence, absolutely dependent upon ils 
organisation.” Our author, on the contrary, maintains 
that the mental’faculties of animals are strictly compar- 
able with those of man; that they remember, combine, 
and reflect ; that they are capable of self-improvement ; 
: ' and even that they possess a true language fully adapted 
The splendid appearances of the Aurora Borealis, visible | 
to their needs. To support his views he gives what we 
may term a generalised life history of several animals, 
such as the wolf, fox, stag, fallow-deer, and roebuck, 
which his position of Ranger of Versailles and Marly gave 
him ample opportunities of studying. The chief fault of 
these interesting sketches is, that they detail hardly any 


