270 



SCIENCE. 



further conclusion, that this can only be done by such an 

 accurate imitation of a disabled bird as shall deceive the 

 enemy into a belief in the possibility of capture. And 

 lastly, there are all the powers of memory and the qualities 

 of imagination which enable good acting to be performed. 

 All this reasoning and all this knowledge is certainly in- 

 volved in the action of the bird-mother, just as certainly as 

 reasoning and knowledge of a much profounder kind is in- 

 volved in the structure or adjustment of the organic ma- 

 chinery by which and through which the action is itself 

 performed. 



There is unquestionably a sense, and a very important 

 sense, in which all these wonderful operations of instinct 

 are " automatic." The intimate knowledge of physical and of 

 physiological laws — the knowledge even of the mental qual- 

 ities and dispositions of otheranimals — and the processes of 

 reasoning by which advantage is taken of these, — this knowl- 

 edge and this reasoning cannot, without manifest absurdity, 

 be attributed to the birds themselves. This is admitted at 

 least as regards the birds of the present day. But surely the 

 absurdity is quite as great if this knowledge and reasoning, 

 or any part of it, be attributed to birds of a former genera- 

 tion. In the past history of the species there may have been 

 change — there may have been development. But there is 

 not the smallest reason to believe that the progenitors of any 

 bird or of any beast, however different in form, have ever 

 founded on deliberate effort the instincts of their descend- 

 ants. 



[To be Continued.} 



PROFESSOR JAMES C. WATSON. 



Professor James C. Watson, Director of the Observatory 

 of the University of Wisconsin, died at Madison, Wis., on 

 the morning of November 23, after an illness of but three cr 

 four days. 



Professor Watson was born on January 28, 1838, and was 

 therefore nearly 43 years of age. He graduated at the 

 University of Michigan in 1857, remaining there as instruc- 

 tor and Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy till 1863, 

 at which time he was made Director of the Ann Arbor 

 Observatory. He held this position till 1878, when he accepted 

 the Directorship of the Washburn Observatory at Madison. 

 He made observations upon the total solar eclipse of 1869 

 in Iowa, and that of 1S70 in Sicily ; and in 1874 had charge 

 of the very successful American Expedition, which ob- 

 served the transit of Venus at Peking, China. In 1870 he 

 received the Lalandcgold medal from the French Academy 

 of Sciences, for his various astronomical works and dis- 

 coveries. His most elaborate writings are : A Popular Treatise 

 on Comets (i860) and Theoretical Astronomy, relating to the 

 Motions of the Heavenly Bodies revolving around the Sun in 

 accordance with the Law of Universal Gravitation, with 

 Numerical Examples and Auxiliary Tables (1S68). In addi- 

 tion to these, he has published from lime to time, in Gould's 

 Astioti. Jotim., A stron, A'aeh.,Am. Journ. of Set., etc., short 

 papers relating, for the most part, to the discovery and ob- 

 servations of asteroids, and the computations of comet 

 orbits. For several years he gave especial attention to the 

 search for asteroids, and in this work was eminently suc- 

 cessful, discovering, in all, twenty-one of these bodies, be- 

 tween the years 1863 and 1877. At the lime of his death, 

 Professoi Watson was engaged in building and equipping 

 one of the finest observatories in America. The meridian 

 Circle, which is to contain several new features suggested 

 by himself, is now in the hands of the Clarks, and will not 

 be finished, probable, foi nearly a year. Other instruments 

 best ordei are either already mounted and in 

 operation, or are in course of completion. Careful prepa- 

 rations had been made also for a systematic search for the 

 planet Vulca.i, a problem in which Professor Walson was 

 deeply interested. 



THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MICROSCOPISTS- 



(From advanced sheets of American Naturalist, for December ; Micros- 

 copical Department under jhe direction of Dr. R. H. Ward.) 



Probably no thoughtful person who attended both meet- 

 ings this summer, the American Society of Microscopists 

 at Detroit, and the Subsection of Microscopy, A. A. A. S., 

 at Boston, failed to notice the nearly equal division of 

 strength between the two conventions. The personal at- 

 tendance at the meetings was about equal, though mainly 

 of different individuals ; the number of papers read was 

 precisely the same, and it is only fair to say that in interest 

 and importance they were very evenly divided. It is obvi- 

 ous that if the strength of the two meetings could 

 have been combined in one, the result would have been 

 far more adequate and satisfactory. This reflection has 

 derived force from the well known fact that in the Mic- 

 roscopical Congress at Indianapolis, nearly half the voices 

 were in favor of joining with the A. A. A. S., instead of 

 forming a separate society, the latter course being adopted 

 in the critical vote by a majority of one. From first to last, 

 it has been of great and conceded importance to combine 

 all our strength in one enterprise ; but the obstacles which 

 originally rendered this impossible, still remain, and it is 

 evident that indiscreet controversy might increase and per- 

 petuate the difficulties it was designed to remove. It would 

 be absurd to ask persons, accustomed to attend the meet- 

 ings of the great society, and highly valuing its opportuni- 

 ties for intercourse with leading minds in various depart- 

 ments of science, to abandon that for any narrow organiza- 

 tion, however attractive might be its field. On the other 

 hand the new society could not profitably be united with 

 the old, as has been proposed, without a more cordial and 

 general support of such a procedure than could at present be 

 hoped for. The subordination to greater interests, which 

 would be encountered in uniting with the great society 

 would be more than counterbalanced, in many minds, by 

 the social and scientific advatages gained ; and the fact that 

 many of the papers read would be excluded from the Pro- 

 ceedings by a necessity which admits only contributions 

 new to science, would be of little consequence, since popu- 

 lar papers gain an earlier and a wider distribution through 

 the popular journals ; but a more serious difficulty arises 

 from the localities in which the meetings of the A. A. A. S., are 

 sometimes held. The large and powerful society can afford 

 to appoint meetings, not unfrequently, for the sake of culti- 

 vating local interest in science, in localities which would 

 be unavailable for the microscopical meetings. A joint 

 meeting at Boston would have given a large increase of vi- 

 tality ; the same will not be equally true of all other locali- 

 ties. 



If for these or any other reasons, it should be impractica- 

 ble to combine the two societies at present, the greatest ad- 

 vantages would doubtless be secured by such a policy as 

 would show, on both sides of the question, a reasonable 

 and considerate regard for the interests of the other. The 

 very large minority at Indianapolis acquiesced in the forma- 

 tion of a new society with the understanding that the times 

 and places of meeting were to be so chosen as to best ac- 

 commodate those who might wish to attend both. This pol- 

 icy, if fully carried out, would not prevent meeting at the 

 same place when expedient, and would not require it when 

 some other correlated place would be advisable. It would 

 give many of the advantages of union, with entire freedom 

 from its difficulties. It is the least that could in reason be 

 asked, or that could in common courtesy be granted, as a 

 means of securing a cordial and harmonious support for the 

 new society. 



W. c. w. 1 



The first number of a periodical, devoted to the sub- 

 ject of instruments, will be issued January 1, 1881. It 

 will be published in Berlin under the name of the " Zeit- 

 schrift fiir Instrumentenkunde," and will be prepared by 

 a board of twenty-one editors, including the most noted 

 instrument makers of Europe and representatives of 

 different branches of science in which instruments of 

 precision are employed. Such a periodical is greatly 

 needed, and the names of the editors are a guarantee of 

 i'.s success. O . S. 



