324 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 61. 



plan of reducing the number of courses neces- 

 sary to a degree from eighteen to sixteen, but 

 it was rejected by the overseers. 



Converse College established about five 

 years ago at Spartanburg, S. C. , has received a 

 gift of $70,000 from Mr. D. E. Converse, to- 

 gether with $30,000 given by the citizens of 

 Spartanburg, S. C. 



At a meeting of the Council of the University 

 of the City of New York, the University 

 medical faculty reported in favor of extending 

 the course for degrees of doctor from three to 

 four years. The Council approved a plan for a 

 College Close which includes an inner court 

 measuring about 250 feet in width by 300 feet 

 in length. Fronting upon this, five residence 

 halls and a dining hall will be built. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESPONDENCE. 



KEW'S DISPERSAL OF SHELLS. 



Editor of Science : In the review of Kew's 

 Dispersal of Shells by Dr. Packard, the reviewer 

 points out certain omissions which could not 

 have been overlooked by Mr. Kew if he had 

 taken the trouble of consulting either Gould or 

 Binney in the original. For a volume of the 

 International Series the book is amazingly pro- 

 vincial. I do not wish by this expression to 

 gainsay its value; it is an exceedingly valuable 

 collection of notes, memoranda and isolated 

 items referring more particularly to the dis- 

 persal of shells in England. Dr. Packard has 

 inadvertently overlooked a very important omis- 

 sion in there being no reference to the dispersal 

 of Litorina litorea from its centre at Halifax, 

 Nova Scotia (where it was first introduced from 

 the other side of the Atlantic) along the shores 

 of the Bay of Chaleur, and southward to New 

 York and beyond. In Science News for 1879 

 Mr. Arthur F. Gray called attention to the suc- 

 cessive occurrence of this species as it spread 

 southward along the coast. Professor Verrill in 

 the American Journal of Science, for Sept. , 1880, 

 records his observations regarding the dispersion 

 of this species. In the Essex Institute Bulletin 

 for 1880, in a paper on the Gradual Dispersion 

 of Certain Mollusks in New England, I pre- 

 sented a map of the New England coast and 

 upon this was marked chronologically the dates 



of the appearance of this large and conspicuous 

 moUusk as it found its way south. In this pa- 

 per I showed what a barrier Cape Cod offered 

 for some years. My last find was at Glen Cove, 

 Long Island. In the same paper I called at- 

 tention to the dispersion of Pupa muscorum 

 (badia, of Adams) from its first place of observa- 

 tion in Vermont, into various parts of New 

 England. I think Binney was wrong in believ- 

 ing that Helix hortensis was introduced into 

 New England since the advent of the European. 

 I have discovered Helix hortensis on islands in 

 Casco Bay, buried in the lowest deposits of 

 shell heaps containing bones of the Great Auk. 

 The occurrence of this species in such positions 

 could not be accounted for by supposing that 

 the creature had burrowed down to the lowest 

 level of the deposits, for the mass was too com- 

 pacted to admit of this explanation. I have 

 found them under stones resting on the primi- 

 tive surface of the ground associated with other 

 species found only in hard wood growths, and 

 now coniferous trees only abound in these 

 places. It is certainly extraordinary that this 

 species is only found living on the outer islands 

 of New England — its habits being entirely dif- 

 ferent in this respect from its English relative. 

 Edward S. Morse. 

 Salkm, February 18, 1896. 



'scientific materialism.' 

 Editor of Science : A few remarks on the 

 article ' Scientific Materialism ' in Science, 

 February 14th, may not be out of place. 



It seems a case of ' reversion ' to speak of 

 ' energy ' as something distinct from force, or 

 rather from definite forces. Energy apart from 

 force is inconceivable. To quote Lewis' ex- 

 ample, we might as well speak of ' cellarity, ' 

 as something apart from cellars ! 



The definite forces with which science deals 

 are, as every one knows, simply modes of mo- 

 tion. Hence Helmholtz, Tait, Romanes and 

 most modern students have regarded matter, 

 atoms, molecules, all as but expressions of mo- 

 tion, and to be analyzed by the three primary 

 laws of motion and the theorems derived from 

 them. Of course this leads inevitably to a 

 strictly mechanical conception of phenomenal 

 existence. 



