1895.] Scientific News. 1047 
fection of the organic forms of the world. One of the most note. 
worthy features of the book will be Professor Cope’s attempt to show 
that every variation of organic beings has been produced by a direct 
efficient cause, and is not the result of chance—a consideration which 
Darwin overlooked. , Professor Cope also discusses the part which 
consciousness has played in the evolution of living forms. His book 
will be a storehouse of evolutionary facts and discussions, especially 
from the paleontological point of view and undoubtedly the most 
complete handbook of the purely mechanical theory of evolution which 
exists. The original illustrations will be numerous and valuable. 
(Pages, circa 550. Price, $2.00.) 
Course in Embryology.—Professor Charles S. Minot will give, 
at the Harvard Medical School, Boston, a course intended for persons 
who wish to make a special study of vertebrate or human embryology. 
This course is open to registered students of the graduate department 
of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and will be offered hereafter also 
as a special course to graduate students of the medical school. 
This course will extend through the entire year, but in two parts of 
one term each. The resources of the Embryological Laboratory in 
apparatus and material render it possible to offer unusually favorable 
opportunities for both general study and special research. ‘The course 
is arranged for those who, as morphologists, anatomists and practition- 
ers, wish to give the principal part of their time for one or more school 
terms to the subject. It will cover the whole field of embryology, in- 
cluding the genital products, the theories of heredity and sex, the 
formation of the germ-layers, differentiation of the organs, the history 
of the placenta and the general morphology of vertebrates and of man. 
Most of the work will be done by the student in the laboratory, but 
there will also be formal lectures. Students taking this course will be 
expected to devote to it not less than eighteen hours a week. 
Persons wishing to take this course should enter the university as 
graduate students under the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, but those 
who have a medical degree may enter as graduate students of the med- 
ical school. In the latter case, the fee for one term is $75.00, for two 
terms $125.00. 
Applications should be addressed to Dr. Charles S. Minot, Harvard 
Medical School, Boston, Mass. 
Prizes of the Belgian Academy of Sciences, Letters and 
Fine Arts.—The following announcement in regard to the prizes 
offered by the Academie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux- 
