FOSSILS AND BACKBONED ANIMALS 35 



Discourse " On Natural History, as Knowledge, Discip- 

 line and Power," given at the Royal Institution, 

 February 15, 1856 (Proc. Roy. Inst., ii, 1854-8, pp. 

 187-95. Sci. Mem., i, xxix, p. 305). His position 

 briefly was that palaeontology is independent of the 

 Cuvierian principle of physiological correlation or co- 

 adaptation of organs, and is essentially the method of 

 agreement. Utilitarian explanations of structure are also 

 put out of court in somewhat summary fashion, an attitude 

 which Darwinian principles have since rendered untenable 

 in large degree. In the discourse, for instance, we read : 

 " Who has ever dreamed of finding an utilitarian purpose 

 in the forms and colours of flowers . . . ? " Yet every 

 biologist now knows that Christian Konrad Sprengel gave 

 good reasons for such a belief in his famous book. Das 

 Entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur im Bau uttd in der Befruch- 

 tung der Blumen, published at Berlin, 1793, ^ book for 

 too long entirely forgotten. 



Of other scientific papers bearing date 1 856, we have 

 the following : — 



1 . " Observations on the Structure and Affinities of 

 Himantopterus " (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xii, 1856, pp. 34-7. 

 Sci. Mem., i, xl, p. 445). — -The paper describes a member 

 of an ancient extinct group which finds its nearest living 

 allies among the king-crabs. 



2. " Further Observations on the Structure of Appendi- 

 cularia flabellum (Chamisso) " (Q. J. Micros. Sci., iv, 1 856, 

 pp. 181-91. Sci. Mem., i, xli, p. 449). — This is a most 

 valuable extension of a communication read before the 

 Royal Society in 1851 upon a remarkable type of free- 

 swimming Ascidian (cf, p. 13). 



3. " Note on the Reproductive Organs of the Cheilos- 

 tome Polyzoa" (op. cit., iv, 1856, pp. 191-2. Sci. 

 Mem., i. xlii, p. 461). — Here we have a short contribu- 



