972 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 286. 



various stages whieli exist in the lower an- 

 imals, so have the activities of man also 

 had a history. The'germs of his doings are 

 to be found, perhaps all of them, among the 

 lower animals. The social instinct, the 

 home-building instinct, the instinct to care 

 for the young, and how many others do we 

 find in the lower animals. That these ac- 

 tivities of the lower animals have given rise 

 to those of man there seems little room to 

 doubt. Just as the structure of man must 

 be viewed against a background formed of 

 the structures of lower animals, in order 

 that it may be understood, so must man's 

 activities be viewed against the back- 

 ground formed of the activities of lower 

 animals. 



Zoologists are only slowly coming to rea- 

 lize this fact, and in the study of variation 

 and its causes, in the study of the relation 

 between the animal and its environment, in 

 the study of ecology, or experimental zo- 

 ology, we see evidence of this realization. 



In this movement, indeed, the popular 

 interest and the popular wisdom find their 

 justification. In so far as zoology affords 

 an explanation of the origin of human ac- 

 tivities, it becomes important in the conduct 

 of life, in so far it justifies itself in the eyes 

 of the people. Zoology is now passing rap- 

 idly out of the ultra morphological and 

 ultra systematic phase, into a phase where 

 it will concern itself more with the activi- 

 ties of living animals and with the relation 

 of these to the environment. 



In these matters it will again appeal to 

 the popular interest. Students from our 

 colleges and universities when they have 

 quitted the laboratory will no longer feel 

 themselves strangers to nature. When they 

 go among the people they will stimulate 

 the study of a rational natural history. 



From this cause and from the final lapse 

 of the now nearly extinct opposition of the 

 church we may expect a popular revival of 

 interest in natural history subjects. In- 



deed, the introduction of nature study into 

 our schools, the increasing number of popu- 

 lar books and magazine articles on natural 

 history indicate that this revival is already 

 at hand. 



In the days before Darwin natural history 

 societies contributed no inconsiderable part 

 to the advancement of the sciences of zool- 

 ogy and botany. This they did through 

 their collections and through the discovery 

 by their members of new species, new local- 

 ities and hitherto unknown habits of ani- 

 mals. May not the revival of popular in- 

 terest which seems to be at hand again 

 contribute to the advance of zoology ? Ob- 

 servations on the daily life of animals, on 

 their distribution and variations, on related 

 subjects, may be made without the elabor- 

 ate equipment of laboratory and library 

 that is necessary for morphological work. 

 Such observations are well possible to iso- 

 lated members of a society like this one, 

 and carefully made and well thought out, 

 become real contributions to our science. 



Jacob Eeighard. 

 Univeesity of Michigan. 



THE STEAM-IVRBINE. 



An apparently important, and to the 

 writer, at least, new, fact in the operation of 

 the steam-turbine is revealed by experi- 

 mental investigations in progress for some 

 time past in the laboratories of Sibley Col- 

 lege, with both saturated and superheated 

 steam. Contrary to the usual theory of 

 that apparatus, it is found that a very sub- 

 stantial gain may be had by the use of su- 

 perheat, not only in efficiency but also in 

 capacity. 



The steam-turbine is not subject to that 

 form of waste known as ' initial ' or ' cylin- 

 der ' condensation which adheres to every 

 piston-engine as a consequence of the large 

 fluctuations of temperature which accom- 

 pany the variations within the cylinder be- 



