438 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 196. 



arising in connection with variation, inher- 

 itance and selective destruction among ani- 

 mals, and spoke of the results already ob- 

 tained in this direction (especially by Mr. 

 Francis Galton and Professor Karl Pear- 

 son in the treatment of variation and in- 

 heritance. This aspect of zoological prob- 

 lems received a good deal of attention at 

 Bristol. Dr. Galton and Professor Poulton 

 read papers which bear upon it. 



The President of Section E (Geography) 

 was Colonel George Earl Church, and the 

 subject of his address was ' Argentine Geog- 

 raphy and the Ancient Pampean Sea.' He 

 aimed to show that the Plata drainage area 

 was in a recent geological period much 

 more extensive than it is to-day ; that its 

 most northern limit was 10° 44' south lati- 

 tude, and that nearly the entire waters 

 which now unite to form the Madeira 

 river, the main affluent of the Amazon, 

 once flowed southward into a Pampean Sea, 

 which penetrated 1,400 miles inland, north 

 to almost 19° south latitude. Incidentally 

 Colonel Church dealt with various topics 

 of interest in connection with the past and 

 present hydrography and physical geog- 

 raphy of South America. Among other 

 points he maintained that a great ancient 

 lake (115,000 square miles) was formed in 

 the valley of the Beni and Mojos after the 

 latter was cut off from its southern connec- 

 tion with the Pampean Sea. The sensation 

 in this Section was the account which M. 

 de Rougemont gave of his 30 years' resi- 

 dence among the savages of central Austra- 

 lia. 



The President of Section F (Economical 

 Science and Statistics), Dr. J. Bonar, in his 

 address dealt with ' Old Lights and New in 

 Economic Study;' according to the program, 

 Mr. G. E. Davies, of Bristol, was expected 

 to read a paper on ' Sugar in Bristol ;' Mr. 

 J. O. Galloway, of Manchester, on ' Ship- 

 ping Rings and Corners ;' Mr. A. L. Bowley 

 on 'Wages;' Professor A. "W. Flux on 



'Saving and Spending;' Miss Clara Collet 

 on ' Expenditure of Middle Class Working 

 Women;' Mr. H. H. Vivian on 'Labor 

 Copartnership ;' Mr. L. L. Price on ' The 

 Bimetallic Ratio ; Mr. C. S. Loch on ' Poor 

 Law;' Mr. E. Cannon on 'Municipal En- 

 terprise ;' and Mr. G. Pearson on ' Electrical 

 Enterprise and Municipalities.' 



Section G (Mechanical Science) was pre- 

 sided over by Sir John Wolfe-Barry, K.C.B., 

 F.R.S., who in his address touched upon 

 the growth of British shipping and the re- 

 cent and future demands for dock accom- 

 modation throughout the kingdom, with 

 some reference to the city of Bristol in this 

 connection. He also adverted to the neces- 

 sity of further facilities for experimental 

 research and to the work of the committee 

 which has recently been sitting, on the 

 nomination of government, in order to in- 

 quire into and report on the establishment 

 of a national physical laboratory. In the 

 general proceedings of the Section there were 

 one or two interesting discussions. 



The President of Section H (Anthropol- 

 ogy) was Mr. E. W. Brabrook, C.B., and the 

 main subject of his address was the unity 

 of the anthropological sciences. In the 

 treatment continuity is assumed, and Mr. 

 Brabrook gave a practical turn to anthro- 

 pology hy suggesting an ethnographical sur- 

 vey of the Empire. The President's ad- 

 dress was followed by a number of papers 

 on folk-lore and comparative mythology. 



Section I (Physiology) was combined with 

 Section D (Zoology). Section K (Botany) 

 was presided over by Professor F. O. Bower, 

 F.R.S., the subject of whose address was 

 the homology of the members of the plant 

 body at large, but with special reference to 

 that question of homology involved in the 

 alternation of generations in green plants. 

 The position arrived at was that the facts, 

 such as those relating to recently-discovered 

 anomalies, are in accord with a theory of 

 antithetic alternation. In the sectional 



