4o6 



NA TURE 



[June 3. 1909 



and laryngology ; (i6) otology (this section forming also 

 the eighth International Otological Congress) ; (17) 

 stomatology; (18) hygiene and immunity; (19) juridical 

 medicine ; (20) military and naval sanitary services ; and 

 (21) maritime medicine and tropical diseases. There will 

 he six general meetings of the congress, when the follow- 

 ing subjects will be dealt with. Dr. G. Baccelli, of Rome, 

 will discourse on heroic medicine ; Dr. E. F. Bashford, 

 of London, on cancer ; Dr. M. Gruber, of Munich, on 

 inheritance, selection, and hygiene ; Dr. R. Kutner, of 

 Berlin, on the post-graduate instruction of medical men, 

 his address being given at the request of the central com- 

 mittee of Prussian post-graduate instruction ; Dr. A. 

 Laveran, of Paris, on tropical medicine; and Dr. J. Loeb, 

 •of Berkeley, on artificial parthenogenesis and its bearing 

 upon the physiology and the pathology of the cell. The 

 first issue of the Journal of the congress will give par- 

 ticulars as to the place, the day, and the time of each of 

 these meetings. The executive committee of the congress 

 has also arranged general meetings for the discussion of 

 the reports and communications dealing with the subjects 

 of appendicitis and immunity. It is interesting to note 

 that 408 addresses and 781 communications, covering 

 ■every branch of medical science, had been received at the 

 time of the publication of the circular we have received 

 from Budapest. The oftice of the congress is viii., 

 Esterha^y-utcza 7, Budapest, Hungary. 



To Messrs. John Wheldon and Co., of Great Queen 

 Street, we are indebted for a copy of a catalogue of 

 works and papers on vertebrates, exclusive of birds, 

 marine biology, &:c., including selections from several 

 libraries. 



In the thirty-seventh annual report of the board of 

 directors of the Zoological Society of Philadelphia refer- 

 ence is made to the good results which have attended 

 the testing with tuberculin of each monkey received at 

 the gardens before its entrance to the quarantine-room. 

 There has been no death from tuberculosis among the 

 monkeys exhibited since October, 1907, and the results of 

 the experiment justify the belief that, apart from an 

 occasional sporadic instance, the disease can be held in 

 check, and the heavy mortality due to this cause finally 

 stopped. 



To the May number of the Zoologist Captain S. S. 

 Flower contributes a list of the known zoological gardens 

 of the world; the total number recorded is 154, of which, 

 however, a few appear to have been closed, . while in- 

 formation is required concerning a few others. Of exist- 

 ing establishments of this nature, the oldest appears to 

 be the Imperial Menagerie at Schonbrunn, Vienna, which 

 was founded in 1752, the next in point of seniority being 

 the menagerie at Madrid, dating from 1774, and the third 

 that of Paris, founded in 1793. 



From the report of the director of the Field Museum 

 ■of Natural History, Chicago, for 1908, we gather the 

 great progress that has been made in that museum (in 

 common with other institutions of a like nature in the 

 United States) in the mounting of groups of animals for 

 public exhibition. During the year groups of wood- 

 chucks (marmots), musk-rats, and six of fishes have been 

 added to the exhibition series in the Field Museum. The 

 larger fish-groups are set up in cases 6 feet long by 

 20 inches in height and width, the specimens being 

 mounted to give the effect, so far as possible, of live 

 fishes under natural conditions. 



NO. 2066, VOL. 80] 



A REVisio.s of the mice of the American . genus Pero- 

 myscus, by Mr. W. H. Osgood, forming No. 28 of the 

 " North American Fauna," now in course of issue by the 

 U.S. Biological Survey, affords an instructive example of 

 the elaborate and detailed manner in which that survey 

 is being carried out. In this respect it is safe to say 

 that it has no rival in any part of the world. We have 

 only to look at the coloured map serving as a frontispiece, 

 and illustrating the distribution of the races of Pcromyscus 

 maiiictdatiis and its relatives, to realise the detailed nature 

 of the survey's operations, and the enormous amount of 

 collecting and technical work involved. Whether the game 

 is really worth the candle need not now be discussed, and 

 we may be content with congratulating Mr. Osgood and 

 his co-labourers on the manner in which they have carried 

 out their task, which is even now declared to be not finally 

 completed. The members of the genus Peromyscus, 

 commonly known as vesper-mice and white-food mice, 

 include a vast number of species ranging over almost the 

 whole of North .America, and wonderfully numerous in 

 individuals, and the group is therefore specially fitted for 

 the study of the numerous problems connected with dis- 

 tribution, variation, and the limitations and intergradations 

 of species and races. 



Two articles have lately appeared in the Fortnightly 

 Review under the title of " Suggestions for a Physical 

 Theory of Evolution." The arguments of the writer are 

 vitiated throughout by his implied assumption that the 

 importance of the environment in evolution lies in its 

 supposed power of directly inducing variation. The 

 selective function of surrounding circumstances is passed 

 over, and no serious attempt is made to deal with the 

 essential differences that exist between somatic modifica- 

 tion and variation properly so-called. The author com- 

 mits himself to a " photographic " theory of the pheno- 

 mena of mimicry and protective resemblance, ignoring the 

 formidable difficulties that stand in the way of such an 

 explanation. His treatment of this subject does not argue 

 an adequate knowledge of the facts which he is endeavour- 

 ing to explain. 



America is by no means behindhand in celebrating the 

 centenary of Darwin's birth. The April issue of the 

 Popular Science Monthly is entirely devoted to a series of 

 articles and addresses inspired by this occasion. Dr. 

 H. F. Osborn leads the way with an excellent and 

 appreciative lecture on the life and works of Darwin, in 

 which, however, he avows opinions as to " directed 

 variation " which would not have been acceptable to the 

 object of his eulogy. Estimates of the influence of 

 Darwin's worlc in the fields of zoology, botany, and 

 geology are contributed by Dr. H. C. Bumpus, Dr. N. L. 

 Britton, and Prof. J. J. Stevenson. Prof. T. H. Morgan's 

 essay, " For Darwin," bases Darwin's claim to the grati- 

 tude of posterity chiefly on his method of investigation. 

 This is inadequate; Darwin's preeminence consists in the 

 revolution he has been the means of effecting in every 

 department of thought ; his method alone would not have 

 singled him out from other great men. The substitution 

 of the dynamic for the static conception of nature, of 

 which Darwinism is at once a cause and a symptom, is 

 well brought out by Prof. W. M. Wheeler, while the 

 strength and nobility of Darwin's character and the dis- 

 tinctive features of his career and its results find a fitting 

 interpreter in Prof. R. M. Wenley. The intensely interest- 

 ing addresses given by Dr. A. R. Wallace and Sir Joseph 

 Hooker at the Linnean Society's celebration, held last 

 July, are added; and the record is completed by the inser- 



