April 6, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



tion of urea, he says, " As urea is highly soluble, it is never spon- 

 taneously deposited. It varies in amount with different diseased 

 conditions : e.g., in febrile and inflammatory affections it is in- 

 creased in the forming stage, and diminished in that of defervesence ; 

 in diabetes mellitus and simplex it is excessive in the urine ; while 

 in acute yellow atrophy of the liver it may be entirely absent. In 

 acute and chronic Bright's disease there may be a decided falling- 

 off from the healthy proportion, causing a lower specific gravity. In 

 such cases there is more or less danger of uraemia." These clinical 

 notes are well and concisely written, and increase the value of a 

 book which is in all other respects excellent. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 Dr. Emil Bessels, the eminent Arctic explorer, died suddenly 

 on Saturday, March 31, at Stuttgart. His death was reported here 

 on Monday, but not confirmed until Wednesday. He was well 

 known to American scientists, as he lived in Washington after his 

 return from the ' Polaris ' expedition, of which he was a member. 

 He died while in his native country, where he was about to publish 

 a number of works. 



— The incessant endeavors of the Providence Franklin Society 

 to organize a geographical survey of the State of Rhode Island have 

 at last been successful. The 'Legislature of that State has voted a 

 sum of five thousand dollars for a topographical survey, and ap- 

 pointed a commission of three to contract for and superintend the 

 work. Prof. Winslow Upton, Mr. Mills, and David W. Hoyt were 

 appointed commissioners. 



— Th. Macfarlane, in the third 'Bulletin of the Laboratory of 

 the Inland Revenue Department of Canada,' comments upon the 

 adulteration of coffee in Canada. Among eighty-five samples col- 

 lected in various cities of Canada, only forty-four, or fifty-two per 

 cent, were genuine, while the rest were to a greater or less extent 

 mixed with chiccory and roasted grain and peas. Among the 

 samples occurred some described as " chiefly roasted grain with 

 chiccory and a little coffee." As these samples were bought by 

 revenue officers, it is probable that in reality the percentage of 

 adulterated coffee is still greater than the above figures indicate. 



— Dr. Gotz Martins of the University of Bonn publishes a lecture 

 upon the aims and results of experimental psychology, in which he 

 makes a high claim for the admittance of this science to an ac- 

 knowledged place upon the curriculum of every university. The 

 immediate occasion of the address was to arouse an interest in this 

 line of research among the members of the university at Bonn, and 

 to urge the establishment of a laboratory where Professor Lipps, 

 the well-known psychologist, and himself, can have the opportunity 

 of contributing to the advance of this growing science. There are 

 several indications that the leading educational institutions of this 

 country will advocate a similar department in the near future. 



— The Imperial Observatory of Rio de Janeiro plans the publica- 

 tion of a universal dictionary of climatology. For this purpose, the 

 director, Mr. L. Cruls, has prepared and sent out a circular solicit- 

 ing information from all official and private sources as to the 

 climatic elements of places at which observations have been or are 

 being carried on. A table is attached to the circular, in which the 

 results of observations are to be inserted. The mean temperatures 

 of the months of the year, the mean maxima and minima, humidity, 

 days and amount of precipitation, cloudiness, frequency of gales, 

 days of frost, prevailing winds, the absolute maxima and mini- 

 ma, the mean annual barometric pressure, and the mean annual 

 oscillation of the latter, are the points on which information is 

 solicited. 



— Last summer Prof. B. W. Evermann of the State Normal 

 School, Terre Haute, and Prof. O. P. Jenkins of De Pauw Univer- 

 sity, spent their vacation at Guyamas, Mex., on the Gulf of Califor- 

 nia, collecting fishes. They packed their specimens and shipped 

 them for home, but they did not arrive until recently, having been 

 lost somewhere. Professors Evermann and Jenkins will arrange 

 the collection this summer, and prepare the results of their work 

 for publication. 



— In Science for March 9, p. 119, 1st column, 5th line from bot- 

 tom, for ' homogeneous ' read ' homonymous,' for ' image ' read 

 'images,' and for 'it' read 'they.' 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 Dr. Ed-ward Tyson and the Doctrine of Descent. 



One of the things most strongly emphasized by the recent pub- 

 lication of Charles Darwin's letters is his conscientious recognition 

 of the claims of others to the first discovery of either the law of 

 descent with variation or the principle of natural selection. The 

 pains he took to prefix to the later editions of his work on the origin 

 of species an historical sketch, is evidence of his earnest desire to 

 do full justice to all previous explorers in his field. He, however, 

 did not consider it incumbent on him to look beyond the narrow 

 circle of those who had distinctly and explicitly expounded a doc- 

 trine of derivation. Nevertheless, for the future historian of scien- 

 tific belief, the mere foreshadowings and beginnings of the modern 

 idea of the origin of species, which Darwin set upon a firm basis 

 of inductive proof, cannot but have an enduring interest and im- 

 portance. 



In this view of the matter, I feel that I may perhaps claim space 

 in your journal to call 'attention to the work and writings of a man 

 who does not seem to have been mentioned heretofore in connection 

 with this subject, but who undoubtedly had at least a vague pre- 

 sentiment of the coming theory of the descent of man, derived from 

 anatomical investigations, which, even at the present time, would 

 probably be regarded as skilful and exact. I refer to Dr. Edward 

 Tyson, fellow of the Royal Society and of the College of Physicians,, 

 and otherwise distinguished in his day as a man of learning and 

 ability, who published, in 1699, his treatise entitled ' Orang-Outang , 

 sive Homo Sylvestris ; or the Anatomy of a Pygmie compared 

 with that of a Monkey, an Ape, and a Man! 



It is pleasing to observe in this book not only the carefulness 

 with which Dr. Tyson traced the differences and resemblances 

 between the parts and organs of the little monkey brought to him 

 from Africa and the homologous parts in the higher primates, par- 

 ticularly man, but also the ingenuity and insight with which he 

 drew inferences, which, if freed from the repressing influences of 

 the seventeenth century, we can hardly doubt would have extended 

 to the clear discernment and acceptance of the general law of devel- 

 opment. The details of his anatomical comparisons there is not room 

 for here ; but some of his theoretical views may, I think, be referred 

 to without exceeding proper limits. 



In the first place, he seems to have perceived, though dimly, the 

 main basis of evolution ; for, amongst other similar reflections, he 

 says, " I find there are intermediate Species of Beings between 

 Vea^etables and Animals, as the Zoophyta ; the History of which I 

 could extreamly desire might be given us ; and cant but think that 

 regularly in compiling a History of A)ti?nals, one should commence 

 from them ; and amongst these, no doubt, but that there are several 

 degrees of Perfection, till we come to what might be properly called 

 an Animal." And in another place, with still more particularity,, 

 he tells us, " Tis a true Remark, which we cannot make without 

 Admiration ; That from Minerals to Plants ; from Plants to Ani- 

 mals ; and from Animals to Men; the Transition is so gradual, 

 that there appears a very great Similitude, as well between the 

 meanest Plant, and some Minerals ; as between the lowest Rank of 

 Men, and the highest kind of Animals. The Animal of which I 

 have given the Anatomy, coming nearest to Mankind ; seems the 

 Nexus of the Animal and Rational." 



As if it were not enough to thus skirt along the edge of the doc- 

 trine of derivation, our author appears to have actually had a pro- 

 phetic eye upon the great leader in the scientific renaissance of the- 

 nineteemh century, when he exclaims that " it would be the Per- 

 fection of Natural History, could it be attained, to enumerate and 

 remark all the different Species, and their Gradual Perfections 

 from one to another." And with the same irresistible impulse 

 which Darwin possessed, to philosophize as well as observe, he 

 further on explains with reference to his own comparative survey 

 of his pygmy with a monkey, an ape, and a man, that, " by viewing 

 the same Parts of all these together, we may the better observe 

 Nature's Gradation in the Formation of Animal Bodies, and the- 

 Transitions made from one to another." 



It is interesting to observe, also, that Dr. Tyson not only antici- 

 pated, in a measure, the rriethodsand conclusions of the Darwinian, 

 period, but even, in some cases, made use of the very terms and 



