522 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



us that change has always been in regular lines, and in co-ordinate directions 

 which no accident has been able to permanently .turn aside. Just as in the birth 

 of animals, we find, that however powerful may be some external law of nutrition, 

 which, acting on the primary cell of the individual decides the sex, yet we see 

 that no accident has been able to disturb the proportion of the sexes born, which 

 has always been, so far as we know, nearly equal. So in the birth of species, 

 making all allowances for the operation of environment, the primary plan has 

 been in no serious wsy disturbed; we have to grant something to environment 

 ir the production of new forms, but only as it may aid in innate power of change, 

 ready to expend itself on action as soon as the circumstances favor such develop- 

 ment — circumstances which after all have very little ability to determine what 

 direction such change shall take. 



We know that distinct forms do spring through single individuals from seed, 

 and that after battling successfully with all the vicissitudes of its surroundings, a 

 new form may succeed in spreading, through the lapse of years or ages, over a 

 considerable district of country. But the idea that always and in all cases species 

 have originated in this manner, presents, occasionally, difficulties which seem 

 insurmountable. In the case of the similarity between the flora of Japan and that 

 of the eastern portion of the United States, we have to assume the existence of a 

 much closer connection between the land over what is now the Pacific Ocean, in 

 comparatively modern times, in order to get a satisfactory idea of the departure 

 of the species from one central spot ; and to demand a great number of years for 

 some plants to travel from one central birthplace before the land subsided, carry- 

 ing back species in geological time further, perhaps, than mere geological facts 

 would be willing to allow. But if we can see our way to a belief that plants may 

 change in a wide district of country simultaneously in one direction, and that 

 these changes once introduced, be able to perpetuate themselves till a new birth- 

 time should arrive, we have great advancement towards simplifying things. — 

 Froceedings of Philadelphia Academy of Science. 



ASTRONOMY. 



SUN AND PLANETS FOR JANUARY, 1885. 



W. DAWSON, SPICELAND, IND. 



About an hour before New Year's the Sun is in Perigee, its nearest 

 point to the Earth, when its R. A. is i8h. 48m.; and declination 22° 00' S. 

 Thus it has started northward and the days are growing longer. Spots on the 

 Sun have broken out considerably since their disappearance November 8th, On 

 the 14th of November there were five groups and fifty spots. December 2d four 



