34° 



SCIENTIFIC NKWS. 



[April 13, 1 8 



or spokes, which are at right-angles to each other. The 

 cones are attached to the arms in such a way that the 

 centre of the base of each is equidistant from the centre 

 of the spokes, so that when in the current the base of 

 the cone above the axis is towards the current, and the 

 apex of the cone is diametrically opposite. At the 

 axis of the system is a small shaft, and by a worm on it 

 differential wheels c are turned, and in this way the 

 revolutions are registered. 



Below the rudder is a compass bowl d, and a device by 

 which the needle can be lifted and clamped at any time. 

 The rod/ performing this runs through the stem on which 

 the rudder swings, and attached to the same rod is a 

 system of levers g, which is fixed to the rudder and 

 clamps its motion in a notched ring h surrounding the 

 rudder. Attached to the levers are two horizontal 

 wings or fins k, so arranged that, when the instrument is 

 moving upward through the water, the pressure of the 

 water on them clamps the rudder in the notched ring, 

 and lifts the compass-needle, thus fixing the angle 

 between the rudder and needle, and it remains fixed as 

 long as the instrument has an upward motion. Above 

 the rudder is a small propeller /, arranged in such a way 

 that it will give downward motion to its shaft when the 

 meter has upward motion. The shaft moves through 

 the centre of the rudder-shaft, and communicates by a 

 small stem to the fins and levers described. The office 

 of this propeller is to lock the fins after they have already 

 clamped the needle and rudder. 



The whole arrangement is said to have worked well, 

 the propeller locking when pulled through a distance of 

 15 fathoms at good speed. The apparatus is enclosed 

 in a strong metal frame, which is hung in trunnions m, 

 so that, by attaching a weight at its lower end «,it remains 

 in a vertical position. In order to prevent the appara- 

 tus being swept astern by the force of the current, it was 

 guided by a strong wire, which was sunk by means of 

 weights, and kept in a suitable position by being attached 

 by a line to the ship's anchoring rope. 



The most serious difficulties with the meter were 

 owing to the rusting of the compass-needle, although it 

 was gold-plated, silver-plated, and covered with shellac. 

 The needle became pitted, and lost its directive force 

 somewhat, and this was corrected by remagnetising it by 

 means of a dynamo machine on board the vessel. Much 

 trouble was also caused by sea-nettles, with which at 

 times the Gulf Stream abounds. In appearance these 

 nettles are like sewing-silk, and if one of them became 

 attached to the registering gear its motion was re- 

 tarded. 



It will be seen that Lieutenant Pillsbury exercised 

 much ingenuity in the apparatus and working arrange- 

 ments he devised, and those who care to know all the 

 details of this interesting expedition cannot do better 

 than read the whole of his report. 



■ ♦^>»^'^5<f-» • 



STRUCTURE AND PURPOSE. 



T T may some day be admitted that the greatest of all 

 the great qualities of Charles Darwin was his dis- 

 tinct realisation of the fact that animals and plants are 

 actually alive. Of course we knew it before — in a cer- 

 tain sense ; it was one of those imperfectly apprehended 

 ideas, of which we scorn to be reminded, but which are 

 not efiectively our own. How men used to talk in the 



old days (say before i860) of affinity and adaption ! 

 " Affinity " had detached itself from blood relationship ; 

 " adaption " had come to mean something which chiefly 

 concerned men — most of all, men seated in professors' 

 chairs or standing in pulpits. With Darwin came the 

 impulse which has effectively taught us to regard 

 animals and plants as things with a life and interests of 

 their own — with what we must call their delights and 

 their hardships : things capable of struggle and victory 

 and defeat. It was really about this that mankind 

 wanted to know, all the time that they were being put 

 off with systems of classification and theories of mor- 

 phology. 



It is perhaps a bold thing to say that some of our 

 most honoured and successful workers in biology have 

 never, even down to this day, felt the influence of this 

 productive conception. We doubt whether 'Herbert 

 Spencer has ; we doubt (and tremble as we doubt) 

 whether Huxley has. The eloquent, fearless, and lumi- 

 nous Huxley, the originator of so many fruitful inquiries, 

 the man who, above all others, won the popular mind to 

 consider with attention The Origin of Species — does he 

 not look upon animals mainly as material for dissection 

 or morphological geaeralisation ? If we say this, it is 

 only to add instantly that two convictions, deeply 

 planted, if not instinctive, give permanent worth to 

 all Huxleys writings — a sense of duty towards mankind, 

 and a sense of the historical value of facts. But how 

 slight and occasional are his attempts to realise nature 

 from any but the student's point of view. In his 

 deservedly popular book on the crayfish, we have indica- 

 tions of real desire to penetrate the inner world of one 

 living thing ; but it is with an effort that he maintains the 

 attitude, and he soon slips away into the well-accustomed 

 paths of morphology. 



Of the true spirit of the naturalist, born to observe 

 living things and to read a life-history in slight external 

 marks. White, of Selborne, is our purest, though by no 

 means greatest, example. Conrad Sprengel had the 

 same inspiration. Charles Darwin, among many still 

 higher gifts, possessed this one to the full. Such 

 insight into the living world exists unalloyed in many a 

 schoolboy or rough country fellow ; but in the end it is 

 too often overpowered by neglect, or deliberately 

 quenched by the spelling-book and Latin grammar. 

 Whenever care is taken that the genuine and in-born 

 love of living things shall get training and due recogni- 

 tion, natural history will grow apace. 



We are far from maintaining that system and mor- 

 phology are valueless. They are not only profitable, 

 but indispensable. But they are not the highest. It is 

 not for these that the genuine enthusiasm of the instinc- 

 tive naturalist can be roused. They are helps to a 

 higher and more stimulating study. They are to live 

 natural history what grammar is to literature. 



How can we indicate with any degree of precision the 

 difference which appears to us so vital ? Let us sup- 

 pose that the seeds of plants are in question. One set 

 of men will proceed very systematically, creating new 

 and carefully-defined technical terms, and spreading a 

 sort of logical net, so wide and so fine that no seed can 

 fail to be entangled somewhere. If we question these 

 investigators about a peculiar seed which happens to 

 interest us, they will perhaps tell us that it is " solitary 

 by arrest, with facial hilum, the embryo being curved 

 round a starchy albumen." These and the like 

 characters tell us as much as can be gathered from a 



