124 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



appear to me to be constant and good varieties. 

 If the word " variety " means a constantlj'-repeated 

 form deviating from a recognized type, and so has 

 received a name for identification, I presume our 

 "Superior Scientist" knows what he means by 

 "saving the mark," for few other people seem to 

 understand him. 



I do not think it would become me to offer in 

 these pages anything like an apology to the 

 " Superior Scientists " for my small attempts to 

 assist in unravelling such an intricate question as 

 the cause of variation; nor for the "meaningless 

 •record of variations, mis-called ' varieties,' " which 

 "afford a kind of small beer to many collectors^." 

 I would, however, venture to remind them that out 

 of such small beer has been built up the great 

 theory of evolution and constant development or 

 deterioration of every living plant and animal. It 

 was from such evidence as this that the late Charles 

 Darwin founded his book on the " Origin of 

 Species " ; as evinced by his numerous references to 

 such records. Could Mr. William Bateson have 

 written his fine work on the "Materials for the 

 Study of Variation ' ' without reference to records 

 of others ? Some of them were doubtless thought 

 " meaningless " at the time of publication by the 

 " Superior Scientists," though when collated and 

 discussed in conjunction with other records by a 

 master in science like Mr. Bateson, these freaks 

 assume a very different aspect. We have seen in 

 our own life-time, and in this country, some types 

 begin to vary, and continue to do so until the type 

 we knew so well at first has become nearly lost, 

 while the variety is now as common as our first- 

 known type. I firmly believe that had Julius Caesar 

 had a skilled naturalist attached to his expedition 

 when he invaded these islands, and that good Roman 

 had remained to correctly describe our fauna, we 

 should now puzzle over many of his descriptions. 

 If such changes happen as we have ourselves 

 seen to take place in our own short life-time, 

 what might we not expect to have occurred 

 in a couple of thousand years, during the 

 progress from primeval forests to our present 

 highly-cultivated and drained country. Our Roman 

 naturalist would at the time have been accused of 

 chronicling very small beer, but assuming his work 

 to have been correct, its present value would have 

 been inestimable. 



The chief danger of such remarks as those by 

 the " Superior Scientist," is that the covert sneer 

 contained in them may deter young naturali=ts 

 from pursuing lines of thought and investiga- 

 tion which are really unworked, and thus we get 

 " no forrarder." When I first commenced to 

 collect lepidoptera in 1857, and for nearly thirty 

 years later, it was the custom of the "superior 

 entomologist" to sneer at British butterflies and 

 their collection. The effect was, for all that 



time we depended almost entirely on foreigners 

 for descriptions of their larvae, and there was not to 

 my knowledge a single person in Britain investiga- 

 ting their life-histories, excepting Messrs. Hellins 

 and Buckler, and then only for purposes of figuring 

 the larvae for a book. After Mr. Scudder's really 

 scientific work appeared on some North American 

 butterflies, I never failed, as editor of the "Entomo- 

 logist" and privately, to point out our ignorance of 

 our native species. It was I who urged Messrs. 

 Hawes and Frohawk and others to take up the 

 subject, with the result that a butterfly was added 

 to our fauna, and there remains very few native 

 species which have not been described and figured 

 from the eggs, through all their stages, by English 

 students, to whom the foreigners have now to turn. 



What does our "Superior Scientist" desire? 

 The extinction of the field-naturalist and the estab- 

 lishment of the "closet" micro-anatomist, whose 

 first object appears to be to turn into a maniacal 

 creator of new terminologies ? If so, let him take to 

 heart Mr. W. T. Thiselton Dyer's observations made 

 last year at Ipswich, before the Botanical Section 

 of the British Association. The fact is, there is 

 ample room for both the field-naturalist and the 

 scientific biologist, neither of whom can afford to 

 sneer at the other. Had it not been for the large 

 number of the public who took a dilettantic 

 interest in "Natural History" as collectors, and 

 the consequent pressure which after many years 

 they indirectly brought to bear on public opinion, 

 "the powers that be" of the Natural History 

 Department of the British Museum might still 

 have been housed in a basement in Bloomsbury, 

 crying piteously for a new home at South Kensing- 

 ton. We could point to others, students of less 

 popular sciences, who now bewail the absence of 

 Government help simply because there is an absence 

 of popular interest in their particular studies. 



If our " Superior Scientist" will favour us with 

 his views on these questions more fully, he will 

 find a courteous welcome to our pages ; and though 

 I have had my tilt at him in return for his notice, 

 he must understand I consider his remarks to be 

 intended in all good nature. 



COLD AND HUNGER. 



"/~^OLD and hungry" is a much-used phrase, 

 ^^ but its full meaning has perhaps never 

 before been properly understood ; for we now learn 

 that cold of a certain intensity can produce hunger 

 of an extremely healthy description. The well- 

 known M. Raoul Pictet, of Switzerland, was 

 making experiments on a degree of cold con- 

 siderably lower than any which occurs naturally 

 on the globe, and he found that at temperatures 

 between no and 150 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit) 

 no covering of any description such as is ordinarily 



