122 
NATURE 
a 
[Fune 11, 1885 
Royal Society, for the purpose of considering what further 
steps should be taken towards the same end. 
It was resolved to invite subscriptions, with the view of 
erecting a statue of Mr. Darwin in some suitable locality ; 
and to devote any surplus to the advancement of the bio- 
logical sciences. 
Contributions at once flowed in from Austria, Belgium, 
Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, 
Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, 
the United States, and the British Colonies, no less than 
from all parts of the three kingdoms ; and they came from 
all classes of the community. To mention one interesting 
case, Sweden sent in 2296 subscriptions “from all sorts 
of people,” as the distinguished man of science who trans- 
mitted them wrote, “from the bishop to the seamstress, 
and in sums from five pounds to two pence.” 
The Executive Committee has thus been enabled to 
carry out the objects proposed. A “ Darwin Fund” has 
been created, which is to be held in trust by the Royal 
Society, and is to be employed in the promotion of bio- 
logical research. 
The execution of the statue was entrusted to Mr. 
Boehm ; and [ think that those who had the good fortune 
to know Mr. Darwin personally will admire the power of 
artistic, divination which has enabled the sculptor to place 
before us so very characteristic a likeness of one whom 
he had not seen. 
It appeared to the Committee that, whether they 
regarded Mr. Darwin’s career or the requirements of a 
work of art, no site could be so appropriate as this great 
hall, and they applied to the Trustees of the British 
Museum for permission to erect it in its present position. 
That permission was most cordially granted, and I am 
desired to tender the best thanks of the Committee to 
the Trustees for their willingness to accede to our wishes. 
I also beg leave to offer the expression of our gratitude 
to your Royal Highness for kindly consenting to represent 
the Trustees to-day. 
It only remains for me, your Royal Highness, my Lords 
and Gentlemen, Trustees of the British Museum, in the 
name of the Darwin Memorial Committee, to request you 
to accept this statue of Charles Darwin. 
We do not make this request for the mere sake of 
perpetuating a memory ; for so long as men occupy them- 
selves with the pursuit of truth, the name of Darwin runs 
no more risk of oblivion than does that of Copernicus or 
that of Harvey. 
Nor, most assuredly, do we ask you to preserve the 
statue in its cynosural position in this entrance-hall of 
our National Museum of Natural History as evidence 
that Mr. Darwin’s views have received your official sanc- 
tion ; for science does not recognise such sanctions, and 
commits suicide when it adopts a creed. 
No; we beg you to cherish this Memorial as a symbol 
by which, as generation after generation of students of 
Nature enter yonder door, they shall be reminded of the 
ideal according to which they must shape their lives, if 
they would turn to the best account the opportunities 
offered by the great institution under your charge. 
The following reply was made by H.R.H. the Prince of 
Wales : — 
PROF. HUXLEY AND GENTLEMEN,—I consider it to be 
a high privilege to have been deputed by the unanimous 
wish of my colleagues, the Trustees of the British Mu- 
seum, to accept, in their name, the gift which you have 
offered us on behalf of the Committee of the Darwin 
Memorial. The Committee and subscribers may rest 
assured that we have most willingly assigned this honour- 
able place to the statue of the great Englishman who has 
exerted so vast an influence upon the progress of those 
branches of natural knowledge the advancement of which | 
is the object of the vast collections gathered here. It 
has given me much pleasure to learn that the memorial 
has received so much support in foreign countries that it 
may be regarded as cosmopolitan rather than as simply 
national ; while the fact that persons of every condition 
of life have contributed to it affords remarkable evidence 
of the popular interest in the discussion of scientific 
problems. A memorial to which all nations and all 
classes of society have contributed cannot be more fitly” 
lodged than in our Museum, which, though national, is 
open to all the world, and the resources of which are at 
the disposal of every student of nature, whatever his 
condition or his country, who enters our doors. 
CLAUS’S “ELEMENTARY TEXT-BOOK OF 
ZOOLOGY” 
Elementary Text-Book of Zoology. Special Part: Mol- 
lusca to Man. By Dr. C. Claus. Translated and 
edited by Adam Sedgwick, M.A., Fellow and Lecturer 
of Trinity College, Cambridge, with the assistance of 
F. G. Heathcote, B.A., Trinity College, Cambridge: 
(London: W. Swan Sonnenschein and Co., 1885.) 
Cl feasts first 109 pages of this volume are devoted to the 
Mollusca and Tunicata, and the remarks offered in 
NATURE (vol. xxxi. p. 191) in criticism upon Vol. I. apply 
equally well here. 
The information imparted is fully up to date, and the 
Tunicate section may be taken, on the whole, as a type 
of that well-balanced and succinct writing indispensable 
in a work of this order. 
The unqualified statement on p. 9 that the mollusca 
are “bilaterally symmetrical” is unfortunate, and typical 
ofa general insufficiency and sketchiness, evident through- 
out the entire work, in the diagnoses given of the great 
groups. No better instance of this can be quoted than 
those relating to the birds and mammals, where characters 
so vitally important as the modes of articulation of the 
jaw-apparatus upon the skull are omitted, and, although 
mentioned elsewhere, are inserted without-that emphasis 
demanded of frimda facie characters applicable to both 
the living and extinct forms. 
It is disappointing to find the invertebrate digestive- 
gland still spoken of as a “liver,” no mention being made 
of the researches of Weber, Barfurth, and others, into it 
structure and functions. It is highly desirable ina book 
of this kind that any statements made concerning animals, 
such as are likely to fall into the hands of the averag: 
student, should be absolutely reliable. It cannot b 
said (p. 52) that the shell of Aplysia is “covered 
by two lobes of the foot,” and the beginner would soon 
find that Limax and Arion are not the only common 
Gasteropods in which the pedal gland is present, while 
