Sept. 17, 1874] 



NATURE 



413 



address on Friday had dispersed, it seemed as if the room would 

 have been left to anatomists and physiologists ; but the arrival of 

 blacksmiths, who began to erect a large black canvas, attracted 

 popular interest, and the visitors who flocked in were rewarded 

 by hearing and seeing Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins discuss tlie true 

 character of the so-called clavicles of Iguanodon. His account 

 of the difficulty he experienced in building his model with these 

 bones in the position at first assigned them by Prof. Owen, of his 

 finally hanging them up in front of it to be fitted in after each 

 spectator's taste, and of the shameful destruction of the results of 

 his skill and labour at New York, was no less graphic than the 

 illustrations with which he proceeded to cover the canvas, show- 

 ing the great reptile in every posture which would consist with 

 the disputed bone; being clavicles, ossa pubis, or marsupial 

 bones. Mr. Hawkins advocated the last as the true character ; 

 but though in the discussion which followed, some anatomists 

 were disposed to admit this approximation of the highest of 

 reptiles to the marsupial (or rather to the monotreme) mammals, 

 others refused to admit any reason for rejecting the identification 

 of the bones in dispute with the long bird-like ossa pubis of allied 

 reptilian forms, which was made several years ago by Prof. 

 Huxley. So at least the professor himself must have thought, 

 for he only appeared at the conclusion of the discussion in time 

 to hear Mr. Balfour's remarkable paper On the Driidctpmcnt of 

 Sharks. This will doubtless appear ehewhere in full. It was 

 crowded with facts, well observed, well stated, and well illus- 

 trated ; and will prove of first-rate importance, not only for 

 ichthyology but for the general doctrines of vertebrate develop- 

 ment. Of many new facts ascertained, perhaps the most startling 

 is the development of the notochord by direct cellular prolifera- 

 tion from the hypoblast. Whether it will ultimately be found 

 that this is its normal mode of formation among Vertebrata, or 

 that it may be developed from different layers in different animals, 

 the effect of this observation will be almost equally important. 

 Those anatomists who examined the beautiful series of sections 

 on which Mr. Balfour founded his conclusions were satisfied of 

 the accuracy of his histological facts. Prof. Huxley congratulated 

 the author of the paper in terms of high commendation, though 

 he inchned to believe that the apparent development from the 

 lower embryonic layer might really be a secondaiy process. 

 Mr. Lankester and Dr. Foster spoke of the service rendered to 

 biology by Dr. Dohrn's Institute at Naples, where Mr. Balfour's 

 observations were made, an institute to the success of which the 

 British Association had the honour to contribute. 



The following paper by Prof. Redfern, On FivJ in Plants and 

 Animals, has been well reported in the British Midiial Journal 

 for August 29, p. 2S5. It was illustrated by a striking series of 

 specimens of plants growing on different soils, and the laws of 

 nutrition in organised beings generally were applied with great 

 force to the practical question of the food of the labouring classes 

 in the north of Irehnd. Well delivered, and clearly expressed, 

 it appeared to be understood as well as applauded by a full 

 audience. 



The first paper read in the department on Monday was by 

 Prof. Macalister, On the Tongue of the Great A nieater, including 

 an account of its enormous retractde muscles and of the salivary 

 glands. In a discussion which followed, reference was made to 

 the original dissection of Myrniecophaga by Prof. Owen, and 

 also to the observations of M r. Flower on the same parts, of 

 which a summary was published in the Medical Times and 

 Gazette of last year. 



The next pajier, by Dean Byrne, was an attempt to connect 

 the functional development of thought with the structural de- 

 velopment of the brain, in their gradual evolution throughout 

 the Vertebrata, as well as in their growth from the infant to the 

 adult. Many interesting facts of animal psychology were re- 

 lated, and many acute comments offered, but unfortunately the 

 works from wliich the author drew his facts of anatomy, patho- 

 logy, and development were either antiquated or otherwise im- 

 perfect representations of the present state of knowledge on the 

 points in question. 



Though the jiaper which followed was also by an outsider, 

 the Professor of Chemistry in Edinburgh has had the ad- 

 vantage of a medical training, and his anatomy and histology 

 were as accurate as his physics. Nothing could be more interesting 

 than the way in which Dr. Crum Brown described the methods 

 he employed to ascertain the exact position of the semi-circular 

 canals of the car, and the experiments he made on the sense of 

 rotation. The substance of the communication will be found in 

 the last number of the Journal of Anatomy and physiology. 

 Notnithstanding some criticians offered by Mr. Charles Brooke 



on the acoustics of the paper, both its anatomical facts and its 

 conclusion as to the function of the canals appeared to find 

 general acquiescence ; and this research may be regarded as 

 another proof of how rich a field lies on the border-ground between 

 the artificial territories into which we have divided the world of 

 science. 



Before the department rose. Dr. Caton exhibited a new 

 adaptation of a microscope on the Hartnack model, for the 

 purpose of examining the tissues in living mammals. It was a 

 cheaper, and, as the author believed, a more readily applicable 

 modification of the apparatus exhibited by Professors .Strieker 

 and .Sanderson, at the Edinburgh meeting of the Association. 



Prof. Huxley opened the last day of session with an account of 

 his recent observations on the development of the Columella 

 aicris in Amphibia. While fully confirming the position of the 

 quadratum (or malleus) in the mandibular arch of vertebrates, 

 and of the incus in the hyoidean, these investigations appear to 

 show conclusively that in the amphibian, at least, the columella 

 (or stapes) begins as an outgrowth from the periotic capsule, and 

 is therefore unconnected with any visceral arch ; although, as the 

 speaker was careful to state, it might yet be possible that the 

 hyoid arch had, at a very early period, left some of the 

 tissue of its topmost extremity adherent to the ear-capsule, and 

 that this might afterwards give rise to the stapes. In the absence 

 of Mr. Parker there was no one competent to criticise the paper 

 from personal knowledge ; but a word dropped as to the many 

 changes in the accepted homologies of the ossicula auditus, 

 elicited a masterly and characteristic exposition of the series of 

 new facts, and the modifications of theory they have led to, from 

 Reichert's first observations down to the present time. The 

 embryonic structures grew and shaped themselves on the board, 

 and shifted their relations in accordance with the views of 

 successive observers, until a graphic epitome of the progress of 

 knowledge on the subject was completed. 



Mr, Lankester's paper which followed was also embryological. 

 He described his observations on the develo]iment of the eye of 

 Cephalopoda, made like those of Mr. Balfour in the Dohrn In- 

 stitute at Naples. After correcting several of the statements 

 made in text-books on the authority of Prof. KoUiker, the 

 author pointed out the relation of the eye in the Dibranchiata to 

 the less specialised organ of Nautilus, and showed how the 

 ontogenesis of this structure in the highest mollusk corresponds 

 with its gradually increasing complexity from its first appearance 

 in the group, thus meeting one of Mr. Mivart's objections. 



The session was appropriately concluded by a paper from the 

 President, describing experiments made several years ago on the 

 efifects of ozone. The animals used were rabbits, and Prof. 

 Redfern found them much less injuriously affected by breathing 

 highly oxygenated air than has lieen supposed, while ozone in 

 moderate amount ('4 per cent, and upwards) proved rapidly 

 fatal, producing spasms, and death by apncea. The lungs were 

 found extensively emphysematous and congested, with engorge- 

 ment of the right side of the heart. 



Thus ended a busy and not uneventful meeting of the depart- 

 ment. Comparing it with recent years, the room was never so 

 crowded as it sometimes was at Bradford, nor so empty as it 

 usually was at Brighton and Edinburgh. The most import int 

 paper last year, that of Prof Burdon-Sanderson on the electrical 

 changes which accompany the contraction of Dlona;a, excited 

 little popular interest, and the discussions at Edinbursjh on 

 various points of Cetacean anatomy, though carried on by Turner, 

 Flower, Macalister, Struthers, and Murie, were caviare to the 

 general. This year a corresponding importance may be fairly 

 assigned to the embryological papers contributed by Prof. 

 Huxley, Rlr. Ray Lankester, Mr. Balfour, and Prof. Cleland. 

 With a fair proportion of more popular expositions, the solid 

 contributions which have been made during the last five or six 

 years should attract a more constant attendance of anatomists 

 i.nd physiologists to this dejiartment. There were several dis- 

 tinguished Irish members of the Association whose presence was 

 greatly missed at Belfast ; and considering its nearness to Scot- 

 land, there was a remarkable lack of representatives from the 

 northern universities. Apart from the intrinsic value of the 

 papers read, there is so much to be gained from personal contact 

 and discussion with men working at the same objects, that few 

 probably leel at the conclusion of a meeting that they have not 

 been rewarded fcir the sacrifice of time and convenience, and the 

 scientific value of the Association entirely depends on its jiower 

 of attracting those who are seriously engaged in the prosecu- 

 tion or communication of the subjects which form its several 

 branches. 



