SCIENCE 



Editoeial Committee : S. Newcomb, Mathematics ; R. S. Woodward, Mechanics ; E. C. Pickering, 



Astronomy; T. C. Mendenhall, Physics; E. H. Thueston, Engineering; iRA Remsen, Chemistry; 



J. Le Conte, Geology; W. M. Davis, Physiography; O. C. Marsh, Paleontology; W. K. 



Brooks, C. Hart Merri am. Zoology ; S. H. Scudder, Entomology ; N. L. Britton, 



Botany; Henry F. Osborn, General Biology; H. P. Bowditch, Physiology; 



J. S. Billings, Hygiene ; J. McKeen Cattell, Psychology ; 



Daniel G. Brinton, J. "W. Powell, Anthropology. 



Friday, November 20, 1896. 



CONTENTS: 



On Modification and Variation: C.Lloyd Morgan.. 733 



Nature Study and Intellectual Culture : John M. 

 Coulter 740 



The Fate of a European Bison Herd : Gerrit S. 

 Miller, Jr 744 



Dentition of Lemurs and Systematic Position of Tar- 

 sius: H. F. 745 



Current Notes on Physiography : — 



Origin of the Laurentian Biver System ; The Earth- 

 quake Wave in Japan ; Geographical Bihliography 

 for 1895; Notes: W. M. DAVIS 747 



Current Notes on Meteorology : — 



Climate and Man; Kite Meteorology: R. DeC. 

 Ward 749 



Current Notes on Anthropology : — 

 A German Anthropological Society ; Early Mediter- 

 ranean Culture : D. G. Brinton 750 



Astronomical Notes : H.J 751 



Scientific Notes and News : — 



Science, Democracy and the University ; A cademic 

 Freedom, in Russia ; Systematic Zoology ; General.. 751 



University and Educational News 757 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Age of the pland Series: Lester F. Ward. 

 TJie Date of Publication : E. D. Cope. Glaciers 

 in the Montana Rockies : L. W. Chaney, Jr. 

 International Cooperation in Aeronautics : W. DE 



FONVIELLE 757 



Scientific Literature : — 



The Life and Letters of John Romanes; Beard 

 on Certain Problems of Vertebrate Anatomy : C. S. 

 Minot. Kemp^s Handbook of Rocks: Frank 

 D. Adams. PrantVs Lehrbuch der Botanik : 

 Charles E. Barnes 762 



Scientific Journals : — 



Tlie American Chemical Journal: J. Elliott 

 Gilpin 766 



Societies and Academies : — 



The American Chemical Society : DURAND Wood- 

 man. The Torrey Botanical Club : H. H. RusBY. 

 The Academy of Science of St. Louis : Wm. Tre- 

 LEASe. Texas Academy of Science 767 



New Books 768 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 

 for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J. 

 McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y. 



ON MODIFICATION AND VARIATION* 

 Up to a date still comparatively recent, 

 the transmission to offspring, in greater or 

 less degree, of those modifications of habit 

 or structure which the parents had acquired 

 in the course of their individual lifetime, 

 was generally accepted. Lamarck is re- 

 garded as the intellectual father of the trans- 

 missionists. In his ' Histoire Naturelle ' he 

 said: " The development of organs and their 

 power of action are continually determined 

 by the use of these organs." This is 

 known as his third law. In the fourth he 

 insisted on the hereditary nature of the 

 effects of such use. ^' All that has been ac- 

 quired, begun or changed," he said, '' in 

 the course of their life is preserved in re- 

 production and transmitted to the new in- 

 dividuals which spring from those which 

 have experienced the changes." 



Darwin accepted such transmission as 

 subordinate to natural selection, and at- 

 tempted to account for it by his theory of 

 pangenesis. According to that hypothesis 

 all the component cells of an organism 

 throw off minute gemmules, and these and 

 their like, collecting in the reproductive 

 cells, are the parental germs from which all 

 the cells of the offspring of that organism 

 are developed. This theory, here given in 

 briefest outline, came in for its full share of 



* Being a chapter from a forthcoming work on 

 Habit and Instinct communicated at the request of 

 Prof. Henry F. Osborn. 



