NOVEMBER 5, 1897. ] 
and but three small gifts. President Schurman’s 
report, extending to 57 pages, is followed by ap- 
pendices filling 117 pages, which give reports 
from other executive officers, the courses and 
attendance, and the publications by the Uni- 
versity officers. 
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
ORGANIC SELECTION. 
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: It seems to me 
that Professor Poulton’s conclusion of the very 
interesting discussion on ‘ Organic Selection,’ 
published in Scrmnce, October 15th, involves a 
serious confusion of ideas. He advocates the 
theory that natural selection confers on organ- 
isms the power of reacting adaptively to exter- 
nal forces. It is easy to conceive the effect of 
natural selection on an organism, assuming that 
the power of adaptation pre-exists ; but it is in- 
comprehensible that any amount of adyanta- 
geous crossing should give the power of adapta- 
tion itself to an organism that does not already 
haveit. Professor Poulton’s arguments against 
that power being a property of a living organ- 
ism are, I think, inconclusive. He dwells on 
the remarkable fact that physical forces awake 
responses which have to do with organic rela- 
tions; but what of it? This shows only how 
powerful the tendency is. Itis clear that any 
substance, animate or inanimate, reacts accord- 
ing to its own nature. If you drop a lighted 
match on to a pile of shavings, or on gun- 
powder, or into water, or on to a dog, cer- 
tain pretty definite phenomena will occur in 
each case; yet the stimulus is the same ; the 
recipient only is different. Jn the three earlier 
cases the results will be physical ; in the case 
of the dog we reach the sphere of sensation. 
If the experiment be performed on a man we 
involve the moral sphere also, as he will either 
swear or refrain from swearing. 
THomMAS DwiGuHrT. 
ANATOMICAL DEPARTMENT, 
HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL, 
October 20, 1897. 
A GASOLINE LAUNCH FOR FIELD WORK. 
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: Last winter sev- 
eral papers and magazines, including SCIENCE 
(Vol. V., No. 119), noted the fact that I 
SCIENCE. 
703 
was constructing a gasoline launch for facilita- 
ting the study of paleontology and stratigraphic 
geology at Cornell University. Feeling that the 
results of this undertaking have been satisfac- 
tory in every way, and may be of interest to 
other investigators and teachers, I take pleasure 
in furnishing the following notes: First, as to 
what has been accomplished during the summer 
with this launch ; second, why a naptha or gaso- 
line launch is preferable to one propelled by 
steam. 
July and August were spent on along voyage 
from Ithaca to lower Chesapeake Bay and re- 
turn, going via Erie Canal, Hudson River, Rari- 
tan River and Canal, Delaware River, Delaware 
and Chesapeake Canal, Chesapeake Bay and its 
many inflowing rivers. The special object of 
this expedition was to collect large quantities 
of Eocene and Miocene mollusea from Maryland 
and Virginia. Four students and myself con- 
stituted the party. During September a shorter 
excursion was made along the Erie Canal to 
Troy, N. Y., where Archean, Cambrian, Ordo- 
vician, Silurian ‘and Devonian outcrops were 
visited, either as they were found along the canal 
or at no great distance to the north or south. 
During term time the launch is being used for 
taking classes to fossiliferous outcrops along 
Cayuga Lake. 
Now, a word as to why gasoline is preferable 
to steam : ‘ 
1. Cost.—(a) Any well constructed boat 30 
feet long, with a 6-horse power gasoline engine 
will run 800 miles on two barrels of oil; cost 
about $9.00 on an average, 7. e., a little over a 
cent a mile; (b) while on government waters no 
licensed engineer or pilot is required. Witha 
few days’ practice, under the direction of one ac- 
quainted with the engine, one learns his engine 
thoroughly and can as easily go up the Potomac 
to Washington as navigate his own mill-pond. 
2. Freedom from government inspection. 
3. There being no boiler or fire, the boat is 
light, roomy and cool. é 
4. When stopping at an outcrop no gasoline 
is being used. The whole machine isat a stand- 
still, dead. But to start up and get under full 
speed requires less than a minute. 
There are many other interesting points that 
ought to be touched on here, but space will 
