November 1, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



mi 



the five continents. Without speculating 

 about its future, we may admire the sim- 

 plicity of its grammar and the terseness and 

 conciseness of style bj' which so many of its 

 scientific worthies have distinguished them- 

 selves. We are very pleased to see so 

 many of its representatives in our midst 

 and I feel sure that they will largely con- 

 tribute to the success, both of this and of 

 many future International Zoological Con- 

 gresses. 



And now I propose to give you all the 

 most hearty iveleome to Holland I 



Auf Ihr wolil, meine Herren. 



Je vous souhaite la bienvenue a vous tons 

 et je bois au succes du prochain troisieme 

 Congres International de Zoologie. 



MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16TH. 



The Congress was formally opened by an 

 address from the Minister of the Interior, 

 M. van Houten, honorary President of the 

 Congress, which was responded to by the 

 President, Dr. Jentink, Sir William Flower 

 on behalf of Great Britain, Professor A. 

 Milne Edwards for France, Baron E. de 

 Selys de Longchamps for Belgium, and Dr. 

 C. W. Stiles for the United States. Profes- 

 sor Weismann was then called upon and 

 delivered a long and formal address, the 

 publication of which will be awaited with 

 great interest. He defended the principle 

 of natural selection and developed certain 

 new ideas complementary to this principle. 

 Darwin and Wallace have proved the exist- 

 ence of selection between individuals, and 

 Roux has shown that there is a struggle be- 

 tween the constituent parts of each organ- 

 ism. This struggle is of the highest impor- 

 tance for the life of the organism and, a 

 fortiori, for the existence of the species. It 

 is necessary, in the third place, to call at- 

 tention to what the speaker has named ger- 

 minal selection. The smallest vital units, the 

 biophors and determinants, of which, ac- 

 ording to his ideas, all living organisms 



are formed, are in more or less favorable re- 

 ciprocal conditions. It is just this which 

 gives us the key to the fact that useful vari- 

 ations are always presented when selection 

 requires them. The direction in which 

 variations develop is determined by their 

 utilitJ^ Here is an automatic mechanism 

 which determines that useful variations 

 shall be protected from their incipient stages, 

 and under the sheltering mantle of individ- 

 ual selection these variations attain com- 

 plete development. This dominant idea 

 was supported bj' numerous examples taken 

 from organisms which are advancing, as 

 well as from those which are retrograding. 

 The principle of Panmixia is thus logically 

 completed and it becomes possible to ex- 

 plain why harmonious variations in differ- 

 ent parts of the organisms are produced 

 simultaneously. 



Professor R. Blanchard reported on be- 

 half of the committee that the prize insti- 

 tuted by the Emperor of Russia had been 

 awarded to Dr. R. T. Scharff, of Dublin. 



The following gentlemen were appointed 

 permanent secretaries of Sections : Section 

 I., Professor J. van Rees, Amsterdam; Sec- 

 tion II., Dr. C. L. Reuvens, Leyden ; Sec- 

 tion III., Professor J. F. van Bemmelen, the 

 Hague; Section IV., Professor G. C. J. Vos- 

 maer, Utrecht; Section V., M. H. P. Nier- 

 strasz, Utrecht ; Section VI. , Professor M. 

 C. Dekhuyzen, Lej-den. The presidents of 

 Sections were changed at each meeting. 

 At 2.30 P. M. the Sections held their first 

 meetings and were classified as follows : I. 

 General Zoology. Geographical Distribu- 

 tion (including extinct faunas). Theory of 

 Evolution. II. Classification and Distribu- 

 tion of recent and fossil Vertebrates. III. 

 Comparative Anatomy of recent and extinct 

 Vertebrates. Embryology. IV. Classifi- 

 cation and Distribution of recent and ex- 

 tinct Invertebrates. V. Entomology. VI. 

 Comparative Anatomy and Embryology of 

 Invertebrates. This arrangement is re- 



