654. KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



my, presented to the British Museum by Sir G. Wilkinson, and estimated to be 

 near 3,000 years old. " And again, " Count Sternberg and others are said to 

 have succeeded in germinating wheat taken from an Egyptian mummy, but only 

 after having soaked it in oil." 



After mentioning some failures to revive seeds that had lain long dormant, 

 Mr. Johnson adds: "The fact appears to be that the circumstances under 

 which the seed is kept greatly influences the duration of its vitality."' The fol- 

 lowing item I find in my scrap-book, but the authority for the statements made 

 is lost; " Seeds found with the coins of the Emperor Hadrian in an ancient bar- 

 row in England, and a heliotrope from a Roman tomb 1,500 years old and more, 

 vegetated and grew vigorously. The same was the case with wheat, rose and 

 clover seeds found with an Egyptian mummy, and Indian corn from a Peruvian 

 mummy 1,200 years old." An anonymous writer gives an account of the drain- 

 ing of a bog on the estate of a gentleman in Scotland about the year 1820. The 

 drain had to be cut through a ridge to the depth of forty feet. At the bottom of 

 this and extending out under the bog was a stratum of sandy soil. In this were 

 found buried acorns of the black oak species. These, on being brought up to 

 the surface where they were subjected to the influence of light and warmth, gei- 

 minated and grew. 



Black oak logs had occasionally been found buried in the bogs in that re- 

 gion, but none had been known to exist on the estate in question for 300 years. 

 Had these acorns been buried in some convulsion of nature, or during a change 

 of land in that vicinity and lain for ages retaining their germinative power till 

 accidentally thrown out to grow ? Who can tell us ? Or shall we take that easy 

 method of avoiding all intellectual toil by discrediting the whole narrative. 



The Scientifie American is authority for the statement that, " In the course of 

 late explorations in the ancient ruins of Egypt, General Anderson, an English 

 traveler, found enclosed in a sarcophagus beside a mummy, a few dry peas, 

 which he preserved carefully and, on his return to Great Britain, planted in the 

 rich soil of the Island of Guernsey. The see.d germinated, and soon two little 

 plants appeared, from which at maturity sufficient peas were gathered to plant 

 quite a large tract of ground in the following season." 



I close by simply asking, are all these statements and authorities to be set 

 aside only because they do not agree with our opinions ? or shall we accept them 

 as facts that can be overthrown only by positive disproof? 



PROFESSOR MEEHAN ON EVOLUTION. 



Professor Thomas Meehan, in response to the invitation extended him at the 

 Cincinnati Meeting to address the Biological Section on this occasion spoke on 

 " Variations of Nature, and Their Bearing on the Doctrine of Evolution and the 

 Theory of Natural Selection." He premised that the Doctrine of Natural Selec- 

 tion as propounded by Mr. Darwin could not be controverted in so far as the 



