October 8, 1896J 



iV.-J TURE 



551 



presented by Admiral Sir M. CulmeSeyniour, Bart., K.C.B. ; 

 a Kite (Mih'iis iilinus), Britisli, presented by Mr. E. A. Wilson ; 

 a Iledtjehog (£»-»/;<j«HJ sp. ?) from the Erkomit Hills, Eastern 

 Soudan, presented by Mr. j. U. Coxen ; a King Tarrakeet 

 (Aprosmiitus scapiilatiis) from Australia, presented by Mrs. 

 Lyons ; three Chameleons ( Channrleon vti/garis) from North 

 Africa, presented by Mr. E. Palmer ; two Moorish Tortoises 

 ( TcsliiJo tiiaiirUanica) from North Africa, presented by Mr. A. 

 I. .\itchinson ; two Black Tortoises ( Tisliido carhonaria) from 

 Granada, W. I. , presented by Mr. Thomas Ottway ; seven 

 Vtti.\\nco\ts[,Glareolapralincola), European, deposited ; a Levail- 

 lant's Amazon (Chrysalis lex'aillanti) from Mexico, a Yarrell's 

 Curassow (Crax (ariiiicnlala) from South-east Brazil, a long- 

 tailed Glossy Starling (/,<zw///or«/j .<-««•«.() from West Africa, pur- 

 chased ; an .Vsiatic Wild Ass {Equus onager), a Great Kangaroo 

 {.Va, nipus gigaiiUiis), born in the Gardens. 



OUH ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



CoMF.T GlACOBlNl. — Our previous ephemeris of this comet 

 was inclusive up to October I. A Centralstelle Circular gives us a 

 continuation of this ephemeris, based on new elements (Sep- 

 tember 5, 8, II) calculated by Dr. H. Kreutz. 



Comet Sperra. — With regard tn ihe comet, information 

 about which was communicated by a Science Observer Special 

 Circular (No. 113), a Kiel Circular gives us an ephemeris which 

 I'rof. Lamp has calculated from new elements based on observa- 

 tions on September 6, 10, 13. Mr. Sperra describes this comet, 

 as he observed it on August 31, as a nebulous object west of 

 Zeta Ursa Major, an interval of an hour and a quarter showing 

 distinct motion. Mr. Brooks, who had had notice of this 

 discovery cm September 4, also found the comet. \'arious new 

 observed positions are given in Astronomisiheii Nachridileii 

 (No. 3379) by several observers. 



I'rol. Lamp's ephemeris is given below : — 



Oct. 6-5 

 IO-5 

 145 

 185 



R..\. 

 h. m. s. 



16 53 22 



17 II 36 



17 28 24 



17 43 56 



Decl. 



+ 43 596 

 41 447 

 39290 

 37 149 



log A 



0-2478 

 o 2569 



0-2671 

 0-2785 



0-6 

 06 

 0-5 

 0-5 



Prof. Ludwig Philipp v. Seidei.. — The current number 

 of Astronomisckcn Nachrichten contains a short obituar)' notice, 

 by Prof. Seeliger, of Prof. v. -Seidei, who died recently in 

 Munich, after a long illness. He was born in the year 1821 at 

 Zweibriichen, and studied in the universities of Kiinigsberg, 

 Berlin, and Giittingen, in which he attended the lectures of 

 Bessel, Jacubi, Dirichlet and Gauss, with the two former of 

 whom lie became intimately acquainted. Seidel's scientific 

 work was not only restricted to pure mathematics, but also 

 to .astronomy. In the former, his researches are well 

 known, and of great importance is his " Note iiber eine 

 Eigenschafl der Reihen, welche discontinuirliche Functionen 

 darstellen,'' which contains a beautiful and important conception 

 of regular and irregular convergence in the theory of series. He 

 lof>k no small part in Jacobis well-known work on the secular 

 perturbations of the major planets, in which he undertook the 

 computations of extensive numerical results. Jacobi's pro- 

 posal of obtaining by successive approximations the numerical 

 solution of a system of normal equations of several unknowns, 

 was further worked out in detail and extended by Seidei him- 

 self. No less interesting are the optical works Seidei completed 

 in conjunction with Herrn C. \. Steinheil ; among these may 

 be mentioned his numerous ilioptical investigations, which 

 marked a distinct progress in this direction. These and other 

 researches were of great importance in connection with Stein- 

 hcil's photometric investigations. 



NO. 1406, VOL. 54] 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 

 SECTION I. 



I'lIYSIOl.OCY. 



Opening AnnREss BY W. H. Gaskei.i., M.D., LL.D., F.R.S.^ 

 President of the Section. 



When I received the honour of an invitation to preside at 

 the Physiological Section of the Briti.sh Association, my thoughts- 

 naturally turned to the subject of the Presidential Address, and 

 it seemed to me that the traditions of the British Association, as 

 well as the fact that a Physiological Section was a com- 

 paratively new thing, both pointed to the choice of a 

 .subject of general biological interest rather than a special 

 physiological topic ; and I was the more encouraged to choose 

 such a suliject because I look upon the growing separation 

 of physiology from morphology as a -serious evil, and detri- 

 mental to both scientific subjects. I was further encouraged 

 to do so by the thought that, after all, a large amount of the 

 work done in physiological laboratories is anatomical — either 

 minute anatomy or topographical anatomy, such as the tracing 

 out of the course of nerve-fibre tracts in the central and peri- 

 pheral nervous system by physiological methods. Such methods 

 require to be supplemented by the morphological method of 

 inquiry. If we can trace up step by step the increasing com- 

 plexity of the vertebrate central nervous system ; if we can 

 unravel its complex nature, and determine the original -simpler 

 paths of its conducting fibres, and the original constitution of 

 the special nerve centres, then it is clear that the method of 

 comparative anatomy would be of immense assistance to the 

 study of the physiology of the central nervous system of the 

 higher vertebrates. So also with numbers of other physio- 

 logical problems, such as, for instance, the question whether all 

 muscular substances are supplied with inhibitory as well as 

 motor nerves ; to which is closely allied the question of the 

 nature of the mechanism by which antagonistic muscles work 

 harmoniously together. .Such questions receive their explana- 

 tion in the researches of Biedermann on the nerves of the 

 opening and closing muscles of the claw of the crayfish, as soon 

 as it has been shown that a genetic relationship exists between 

 the nervous system and muscles of the crayfish and those of the 

 vertebrate. 



Take another question of great interest in the present day, 

 viz. the function of such ductless glands as the thyroid and the 

 pituitary glands. The explanation of such function must depend 

 upon the original function of these glands, and cannot, tfiere- 

 fore, be sati-sfactory until it has been shown by the study of 

 comparative anatomy how these glands have arisen. The 

 nature of the leucocytes of the blood and lymph spaces, the 

 chemical problems involved in the assigning of cartilage into its 

 proper group of mucin compounds, and a number of other 

 questions of physiological chemistry, will all advance a step 

 nearer si>lution as soon as we definitely know from what group 

 of invertebrates the vertebrate has arisen. 



I have therefore determined to choose as the subject of my 

 address "The Origin of Vertebrates," feeling sure that the 

 evidence which has appealed to me as a physiologist will be ol 

 interest to the Physiological Section ; while at the same time, 

 •as I have invited also the Sections of Zoology and Anthropology 

 to be present, I request that this address may be considered as 

 opening a discussion on the subject of the origin of vertebrates. 

 I do not desire to speak ex cathedrA, and to suppress discussion, 

 but, on the contrary, I desire to have the matter threshed out 

 to its uttermost limit, so that if I am labouring under a delusion 

 the nature of that delusion may be clearly pointed out to me. 



n he central pivot on which the whole of my theory turns is 

 the central nervous system, especially the brain region. There 

 is the ego of each animal ; there is the ma-ster-organ, to which 

 all the other parts of the body are subservient. It is to my 

 mind inconceivable to imagine any upward evolution to be 

 associated with a degradation of the brain portion of the 

 nervous sy.stem. The striking factor of the ascent within the 

 vertebrate phylum from the lowest fish to man is the steady 

 increase of the size of the central nervous system, especially of 

 the brain region. However much other parts may suffer 

 change or degradation, the brain remains intact, steadily 

 increasing in power and complexity. If we turn to the inverte- 

 brate kingdom, we find the same necessary law : when the 

 metamorphosis of an insect takes place, when the larval organs 

 are broken up by a proce'ss of histolysis, and new ones formed, 

 the central nervous system remains essentially intact, and the 



