306 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1026 



In reply to some remarks made by mem- 

 bers, Dr. Leidy said he could not admit the 

 doctrine of spontaneous generation,^^ but 

 rather modifications in the essential conditions 

 of life favorable to the development of differ- 

 ent and always preexisting germs derived from 

 a parent. 



It is but natural that these researches should 

 lead to a discussion of the hypothesis of spon- 

 taneous generation and the origin of species. 

 On these further researches I should like to 

 dwell, bearing, as they do, upon the germ 

 theory, but I fear I have already taxed your 

 patience, so I must forbear. 



From these published researches, in any his- 

 torical review of the history of bacteriology, 

 the usual accepted date of Davaine's designa- 

 tion of the vegetal nature of these organisms, 

 VibriOj Spirillum, 1859, should be moved back 

 at least another decade to 1849. 



Joseph Leidy, Jr. 



SOUTS AFMICAN ASSOCIATION FOB THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE^ 



The twelfth annual session of the South 

 African Association for the Advancement of 

 Science was held in Kimberley, Cape Province, 

 during the week commencing Monday, July 6, 

 under the presidency of Professor E. Marloth. 

 There was the usual round of festivities and 

 of visits to places of scientific or historic 

 interest. The papers read numbered between 

 forty and fifty. Dr. A. Ogg, professor of 

 physics at Rhodes University College, Gra- 

 hamstown, in his presidential address to Sec- 

 tion A, dealt with some of the ideas in physical 

 science which are under discussion at the pres- 

 ent time in the light of recent research, and 

 sought to bring under review some of our 

 fundamental notions or principles, having re- 

 gard to the fact that what mathematicians and 



12 For experiments in eonneotioii with the 

 theory of spontaneous generation, see " Flora and 

 Fauna within Living Animals," Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, 1851, et al., published lectures before 

 students of medical department, University of 

 Pennsylvania, 1858 and 1859. 



1 Abridged from a report in Nature. 



physicists have long considered well established 

 is now being uprooted and replaced by non- 

 Nevrtonian mechanics based on the principle 

 of relativity. In Section B the presidential 

 address was given by Professor G. H. Stanley, 

 of the Transvaal School of Mines and Tech- 

 nology, whose subject was "A Decade of 

 Metallurgical Progress on the Witwatersrand." 

 The greatest advances during the last ten 

 years, he said, were in improving methods of 

 carrying out the various stages of the extrac- 

 tion processes, the essentials remaining un- 

 changed. In Section 0, comprising the bio- 

 logical sciences and agriculture, the presiden- 

 tial address of Professor George Potts, of Grey 

 University College, Bloemfontein, dealt with 

 rural education. An evening discourse was 

 delivered in the Kimberley City Hall by 

 Professor E. H. L. Schwarz, on the Kimberley 

 diamond pipes, the history of their discovery, 

 and their relation to other South African 

 volcanic vents. This lecture, like Professor 

 Marloth's address as president of the associa- 

 tion was illustrated by many lantern slides. 

 The numerous slides exhibited by Professor 

 Marloth were all hand colored, and constituted 

 the most excellent collection representative of 

 Soiith African indigenous flora ever exhibited. 

 At the conclusion of the president's address. 

 Dr. Cravirford, the association's senior vice- 

 president, handed to him the South Africa 

 medal (instituted by the British Association 

 in 1905 in commemoration of its visit to South 

 Africa during that year) and grant of £50 

 which had been conferred upon him in recog- 

 nition of his eminent services to botanical 

 science in South Africa during the last thirty 

 years. 



PACIFIC FISBEBIES SOCIETY 



On March 11 a meeting of those interested 

 in the upbuilding and perpetuating of the 

 great fisheries of the Pacific slope was held in 

 Seattle, Wash., and it was decided to form a 

 temporary organization of a society to be 

 known as the Pacific Fisheries Society, and to 

 hold a meeting later in the year for the pur- 



