4i6 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Oct. 19, i5 



solubly connected ; that the mind does not act ab extra, 

 but is an integral and essential part of the organic whole." 

 He admits that we are still in the dark about origins. 

 Elimination originates nothing. Selection originates 

 nothing. We are thrown back upon variation, bodily 

 and mental, as the origin. But how originates this 

 variation ? In response to surrounding conditions. 

 True ; but how ? 



Mr. A. J. Harrison, M.B., furnishes a paper on " Seals 

 and their so-called Ballast Bag." He proves that the 

 alleged " ballast-bag " is merely the stomach, and he 

 gives us very satisfactory evidence that the stones 

 swallowed are not to serve as ballast, but to aid in the 

 comminution of the food in the stomach. " Seals seize 

 their prey greedily, and swallow it rapidly, their 

 trenchant teeth not being adapted for much mastication ; 

 but the presence of a number of round smooth bodies 

 in the stomach, such as these pebbles, would assist very 

 materially in breaking up the food." 



" The Crossing of Ferns," by Colonel Arthur M. Jones, 

 is also an important paper as containing definite evidence 

 on the fertility of hybrids. It was indeed pronounced 

 "an established fact" by Sir Joseph Hooker in a letter 

 to Mr. E. J. Lowe, written in 1884. The latter gentle- 

 man succeeded in raising a hybrid between Polystichum 

 angulare and P. aculeatum. The hybrid has been proved 

 by Col. Jones and others to be easy of reproduction from 

 spores. 



At a meeting of the Entomological Section of the Society 

 there was exhibited a hermaphrodite specimen of 

 Odonestes potatoria, one side being male and the ether 

 female. The contrast between the two antennae was 

 remarkable. We find, however, no indication that the 

 insect was dissected. Another exhibit was a hybrid 

 between two well-known hawk-moths, Smerinthus populi 

 and S. Ocellatus. 



The Midland Naturalist. September, 1888. 



This issue contains a very interesting paper by the 

 Rev. H. H. Slater, entitled " Insularity," though its 

 bearings would scarcely be inferred from the title. It 

 is substantially a condemnation of that peculiarity among 

 our naturalists which we have elsewhere felt bound to 

 protest against as the " British mania." Our readers 

 are, of course, aware that a multitude of ornithologists, 

 entomologists, and botanists confine their collections and 

 their studies to the fauna and flora of the United King- 

 dom. For a British or alleged British specimen of some 

 rare bird, or egg, or insect, they are willing to pay con- 

 siderable prices, whilst an identical specimen, caught or 

 found on the other side of the Channel, they will scarcely 

 accept as a gift. It has often been shown that no 

 similar feeling prevails in any Continental country. A 

 French entomologist may be exceedingly careful to put 

 on recor.l the locality of any specimen which comes into 

 his hands, but he will not attach a higher value to it 

 for having been caught in France rather than in Belgium, 

 Germany, Switzerland, Italy, or Spain. It has also been 

 pointed out that this same craving for British speci- 

 mens is one of the main causes contributing to the 

 extirpation of our finest birds and insects. 



Mr. H. H. Slater argues against the British mania on 

 the ground that Great Britain does not form anything 

 like a natural zoological or botanical region. Had Britain 

 been separated from the Continent by a deep sea, as is 

 Madagascar from Africa, we should have had an inde- 

 pendent fauna and flora the peculiarities of which, in 



contrast to those prevailing on the European mainland, 

 would probably have been most instructive. The author 

 adds, most justly : " We should undoubtedly have a far 

 higher claim to the possession of true scientific know- 

 ledge if we were to confine our attention to one moderate- 

 sized genus of mammalia, birds, insects, mollusca, or 

 plants, and work out the distribution of that genus in 

 the world zoologically (or, in the case of plants, botani- 

 cally) and palasontologically, and familiarised ourselves 

 with every member of that genus, its area, economy, 

 habits, and uses, than by ever so general a study of the 

 whole class as exemplified only in Britain." 



Will any of the younger naturalists included among 

 our readers take this advice ? 



The author asks, further, why, in these days of easy 

 and cheap travelling, we hear of so few botanical, ento- 

 mological, and geological trips on the Continent ? We 

 might further ask, why do the multitudes, whom busi- 

 ness or pleasure call to the Colonies, not do something 

 there for natural science ? 



Forest Culture and Eucalyptus Trees. By Ellwood 

 Cooper. San Francisco : Cuberry and Co. 



This little work consists of several district portions, 

 very unequal in their value. The author's lecture on 

 the cultivation of the Eucalyptus, in California, may be 

 of great interest to the inhabitants of the United States, 

 but will excite little curiosity elsewhere. At the same 

 time we cannot help asking whether the sanitary value 

 of these trees is quite as high as is popularly supposed. 



It is said that the experiment tried in the Pontine 

 Marshes has given very doubtful results. 



The three essays, or lectures, delivered by Baron 

 Miiller, F.R.S., the Government Botanist for Victoria, 

 one on " Forest Culture in its Relations to Industrial 

 Pursuits," another on the " Application of Phytology to 

 the Industrial Purposes of Life," and the third on 

 " Australian Vegetation," are of great importance, es- 

 pecially as in their original form they are not easily met 

 with. We have never seen the policy, or rather, the 

 necessity of maintaining the forests enforced at once so 

 practically and so philosophically. The two other 

 lectures show the resources and the capabilities of 

 Australia, and explain how they may be developed. 



The concluding portion of the book, an account of the 

 Santa Barbara College, in California, derives its sole and 

 slender connection with the rest of the contents from the 

 circumstance that Mr. Ellwood Cooper delivered his 

 lecture on the Eucalyptus before this college. 



oi papers, Hectare*, etc* 



YORKSHIRE ASSOCIATION OF SANITARY 

 INSPECTORS. 

 At the quarterly meeting held Sept. 27th, at Bradford, 

 Mr. William Warner (Nottingham) read a paper on 

 " Destructors and Refuse Furnaces," in which he said the 

 development of this burning method had been no easy 

 matter, and at the present time it had to fight many 

 severe battles. If they analysed the opposition in the 

 council chamber, at public meetings, or in the House of 

 Commons, they could not find any just or reasonable 

 cause to stop its progress ; indeed, a careful study of 

 the points raised would show to the unprejudiced mind 



