medially. The vertical diameters of the sides differ, the inner 

 being much greater, and both are concave. A strong foramen 

 pierces the shaft just within the point of junction of the inner and 

 medial free extremities. 



Measurements. m. 



Transverse diameter of proximal end of tarsometatarsus . . .100 



Antero-posterior do. (partly inferential) 070 



Interval between penetrating foramina on anterior face shaft . .017 



i Long diameter 050 



Median distal condyle < Vertical diameter 048 



(Transverse diameter 040 



5 Long diameter 037 

 Vertical diameter 040 

 Transverse diameter . . . .031 



The large size and wide separation of the penetrating foramina, 

 and the thin internal edge with sutural articular facet, distinguish 

 this form as distinct from any of the genera of Struthionidse and 

 Dinornithidse. It is therefore named Diatryma gigantea. 



On the Theory of Evolution. — Prof. Cope gave a history of the 

 progress of the doctrine of evolution of animal and vegetable 

 types. While Darwin has been its prominent advocate within 

 the last few years, it was first presented to the scientific world, in 

 a rational form, by Lamarck of Paris, at the commencement of 

 the present centuiy. Owing to the adverse influence of Cuvier, 

 the doctrine remained dormant for half a century, and Darwin re- 

 suscitated it, making important additions at the same time. Thus 

 Lamarck found the variations of species to be the primary evi- 

 dence of evolution by descent. Darwin enunciated the law of 

 " natural selection" as a result of the struggle for existence, in 

 accordance with which " the fittest" only survive. This law, now 

 generally accepted, is Darwin's principal contribution to the doc- 

 trine. It, however, has a secondary position in relation to the 

 origin of variation, which Lamarck saw, but did not account for, 

 and which Darwin has to assume in order to have materials from 

 which a " natural selection" can be made. 



The relations exhibited by fully grown animals and plants with 

 transitional or embryonic stages of other animals and plants, had 

 attracted the attention of anatomists at the time of Lamarck. 

 Some naturalists deduced from this now universally observed 

 phenomenon, that the lower types of animals were merely re- 

 pressed conditions of the higher, or in other words, were embry- 

 onic stages become permanent. But the resemblances do not 

 usually extend to the entire organism, and the parallels are so 

 incomplete, that this view of the matter was clearly defective, and 

 did not constitute an explanation. Some embryologists, as Lere- 

 boullet and Agassiz, asserted that no argument for a doctrine of 

 descent could be drawn from such facts. 



