776 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. in. No. 73 



to the expedition is being planned by Dr. Rosz- 

 kowski and Prince O. Hajdukievicz, who are 

 both studying at Stockholm. If thirteen volun- 

 teers come forward, it is proposed to hire a 

 steamer to accompany the ' Virgo,' which leaves 

 Gothenburg with Andree on May 1. After 

 visiting Spitzbergen and the Norsk-oar, this 

 steamer will return to the north of Norway to 

 observe the solar eclipse." 



An editorial article in the London Journal of 

 Education calls attention to the lack of psycho- 

 logical laboratories in England as compared 

 with America, and emphasizes the fact by spell- 

 ing ' psychological ' ' pyschological ' through- 

 out. 



farlane, Dr. J. W. Harshberger, Prof. W. P. 

 Wilson, Prof Byron D. Halsted, Dr. M. E. 

 Pennington, Prof. William Freer, Prof. W. O. 

 Atwater, Dr. F. G. Benedict and Prof. Light- 

 ner Witmer. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



Me. Thomas McKean has offered to give 

 $100,000 to the University of Pennsylvania 

 upon condition that $1,000,000 be collected. 

 Mr. McKean, who is a trustee and an alumnus 

 of the University, gave $50,000 about a year 

 ago. 



Me. Ohaeles M. Dalton has given the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology $5,000 

 for a scholarship in chemistry for graduate 

 students. Preference will be given to those 

 undertaking chemical research applicable to tex- 

 tile fabrics. 



Real estate and securities valued at $215,- 

 000 have been presented to the Northwestern 

 University by William Deering, of Evanston, 

 who had previously given the University about 

 $200,000. 



Mr. and Miss Houghton, son and daughter 

 of the late William S. Houghton, of Boston, 

 trustee of Wellesley College, have given $100,- 

 000 for a chapel to be erected in memory of 

 their father. 



The fourth summer meeting, conducted by 

 the American Society for the Extension of Uni- 

 versity Teaching, will be held in the buildings 

 of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadel- 

 phia, July 6-31, 1896. Botany, chemistry and 

 psychology are especially well represented, five 

 courses being offered in botany and four each 

 in chemistry and in psychology. The lecturers 

 include Dr. B. L. Robinson, Dr. John M. Mac- 



DIS0U88I0N AND COBBESPONDENCE. 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ANOMALIES. 



At a recent meeting of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History I remarked on the want of a 

 satisfactory explanation of certain anomalies 

 that it is the fashion to crudely class as rever- 

 sions. I referred to the occasional appearance 

 in man of some peculiarity of a lower form, 

 which is in no conceivable line of human descent. 

 I pointed out further that these anomalies were 

 not only very numerous, but included features 

 of the most diverse groups. To account for 

 them by inheritance we must assume that they . 

 existed in a common ancestor of man and of the 

 animal in which they are normal, with the- 

 astounding consequence that this primitive 

 form, instead of being comparatively simple, 

 must have been a perfect museum of anatomical 

 curios, which is directly contrary to the prin- 

 ciple of evolution. I failed to receive any in- 

 formation, and indeed did not expect any, for I 

 have talked on this question with many, and 

 have written and spoken publicly on it before. 

 Testut's great work on muscular anomalies is a 

 case in point; the author seems to be perfectly 

 satisfied that he has accounted for a variation if 

 he has shown it to be normal in some animal, 

 no matter which. If I remember rightly, 

 Gegenbaur, at the time, commented on this- 

 point, hinting that Testut's explanation needed 

 to be explained. Within a few years the difii- 

 culty has been more frankly acknowledged. 

 Thus in the Robert Boyle lecture delivered two 

 years ago. Prof Macalister said: "I cannot see 

 that when one finds in the limb of a kangaroo 

 or of a sloth, or in the face of a horse, a certain 

 form of muscle like one which occurs as an 

 anomaly in man, we must therefore conclude 

 that its human occurrence must necessarily be 

 due to atavism. Indeed the more I survey the 

 catalogue of such parts the more I am impressed 

 with the failure of the method as a scientific 

 mode of accounting for these anomalies, while at 

 the same time I am filled with admiration at 



