634 
NATURE 
| AuGuST 5, 1915 

graphers of the insect world, denies intelligence even 
to the Digger Wasps, and to the Termites of Ceylon— 
at the end of all his amazing observations he says, 
“Tls ne savent rien de rien.” I prefer to go back 
exactly half a century to when Philip Henry Gosse, 
F.R.S., than whom no keener observer of marine 
organisms ever lived, said, ‘‘The more I study the 
lower animals, the more firmly am I persuaded of the 
existence in them of psychical faculties, such as con- 
sciousness, intelligence, and choice, and that even in 
those forms in which as yet no nervous centres have 
been detected.’’*® A distinguished critic, Dr. Chalmers 
Mitchell, tells me that I might as well claim intelligence 
and purpose for such plants as the Tragopogons, the 
seeds of which are fitted with a parachute, which enables 
them to travel to new pastures. I almost wonder that 
I am not accused of agreement with the whimsical 
suggestion of Samuel Butler, who looked forward to 
the day when we should see little engines playing 
about the doors of the engine sheds, whilst the parent 
engine smoked peacefully inside. I refuse to admit 
that the seed parallel has any bearing upon the case. 
I am dealing with the utilisation of independent 
materials collected by the Fora- 
minifera for a specific purpose. In 
the case of the seeds it is a develop- 
ment of a useful integral part and 
a consequent ‘‘survival of the fit- 
test ’’—but if a bean in the kitchen- 
garden were to attach to itself the 
parachute of a Tragopogon and fly 
over the wall when in danger of its 
life at the hands of the cook, that 
would be an exercise of purpose and 
intelligence comparable with the 
phenomena which I have exhibited 
this evening. 
An evolutionary cycle is ex-hypo- 
thesi continuous, and I refuse to 
allow a consistent evolutionist to pos- 
tulate a discontinuity in his evolu- 
tionary cycle—he cannot at some un- 
known point introduce into his bio- 
plasm an outside and novel influence 
to which he gives the name of ‘ In- 
telligence.”’ I claim that every 
living organism living an_ in- 
dependent existence of its own 
is endowed with the measure of intelligence requisite 
to its individual needs. 
We must accumulate facts, we must assimilate 
phenomena, we must strive after a comprehension of 
motive forces. To quote Prof. MacBride once more: 
““The use of hypotheses which assist in binding 
together the facts observed in the behaviour of living | 
things, and in elucidating the laws which govern 
them may be regarded as neither vitalistic nor 
mechanistic, but as plain common-sense applications 
of the indicative method. In this way only it seems to 
me we shall ever make progress with ‘explanations’ 
of the phenomena of life, for all ‘ explanation ’ in the 
last resort consists merely in putting together similar 
things.77*7 
But to arrive at a conclusion we must study the life- 
history of these lowly organisms, which, as Prof. 
Verworn has said, seem to be especially provided for 
the biologists, since of all living creatures they are 
nearest to the origin of life. We must not merely 
collect and classify them like postage stamps. The 
study of the Foraminifera has been grievously afflicted 
with a tendency to lie upon a platform between two 
46 P. H. Gosse, ‘‘ A Year at the Shore,” p. 247. London, 186s. 
47 E. W. MacBride, in Narure, vol. xciv., p. 304, November 19, 1914. 
NO. 2388, VOL. 95] 
points, on one of which sits the invalided Man of 
Science who, forbidden by his doctor to work, has 
| bought a pound of the comfit known to our youthful 
taste as *‘ Hundreds and thousands,’ and who employs 
his time sorting out the red, the white, and the blue, 
setting aside as new species those globules which have 
been damaged in the process of manufacture—and on 
the other of which sits the Grammarian, whose sole 
| regret upon his deathbed was that he had not devoted 
the whole of his life to the dative case. 

GEOGRAPHY OF BRITISH FISHERIES. 
ie a paper entitled “Geography of British 
Fisheries,” published in the Geographical Journal 
for June, Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner discusses the deep- 
| sea fishing industry, trawling, and drifting, which 
| has an annual value of upwards of fifteen million 
| pounds. The main points of the paper are here sum- 
marised. 
There are about 3000 first-class fishing vessels, of 
which the trawlers work from the White Sea to the 
| Moroccan coast, wherever depths of fewer than 200 


Fic. 1.—Aberdeen Fish Wharf. 
fathoms are found. Off Spain, Portugal, and Morocco 
their existence depends on the limit of territorial 
waters not being increased beyond three miles. What 
Prof. Gardiner is more especially concerned with are 
the habits of the fishes, their growth and reproduc- 
tion, in so far as they are affected by the physical con- 
ditions of the waters in which they live. It is this 
correlation of habits with physical conditions that is 
essentially the geography of living animals. Not only 
have the adult fish to be considered, but also their 
eggs, their larval stages, and the eggs, young, and 
adults of all the lower animals and plants on which 
they feed. 
Currents merit particular attention, for the eggs and 
(or) young of practically all our food fishes are 
passively distributed by their agencies. Currents are 
best ascertained by regular observations on the tem- 
perature and salinity of the fishing waters, which are 
divided into oceanic and coastal zones, the former with 
relatively uniform conditions, the latter subject to 
great seasonal changes. A further division is into 
Atlantic and Arctic regions, our edible fish all belong- 
ing to the former, and following its waters in the 
summer as they push back the Arctic ice. There is, 
however, considered to be an intermingling of boreal 

