246 



The Scottish Naturalist. 



structure, functions and diseases. From the time of Hipparchus 

 {circa 600 B.C.), if not long before, it had been universally recog- 

 nised that hereditary diseases are difficult to cure ; and the in- 

 fluence which the hereditary transmission of disease exercises on the 

 duration of life is an important element in the valuation of lives 

 by insurance companies. The learned President, in this most in- 

 teresting address, went on to explain what he called the physical 

 basis of heredity, instancing the most recent investigations into 

 the beginning of life in the invertebrate as well as in the verte- 

 brate sub-kingdoms. This, he said, had established the important 

 fact that animal life arises from the fusion of two minute particles 

 — one from either parent. The starting point of each individual 

 organism is therefore the segmentation of the muscles. He went 

 on to show how it is thus conceivable that " like begets like," and 

 that this physical continuity carries with it certain properties, which 

 cause the offspring not only to reproduce the bodily configuration 

 and family likeness in form and features, but also a correspondence 

 in temperament and disposition, and in the habits and modes of 

 life ; he further alluded to the well-known theory of Pangenesis, 

 provisionally put forward by Darwin to explain the same facts : 

 and then went on to kinship and heredity ; how varieties arise ; 

 consanguinity and the transmission of characters ; forming one of 

 the most far-reaching, learned, and interesting papers read at the 

 Newcastle meeting of the British Association. 



At 3-30 p.m. of the same day, Sept. 12th, was held the first 

 meeting of the Delegates of Corresponding Societies in the new 

 Assembly Rooms, under the presidency of Sir Francis Galton. 

 Thirty-four societies were represented, of which twenty-four were 

 English, six Scotch, two Irish, one Welsh, and one Isle of Man. 

 The Chairman said it must be satisfactory to the Delegates, and to 

 the Societies represented by them, to find by the utility of their 

 proceedings and the business-like way in which they were con- 

 ducted, that they were gradually growing into an important and 

 integral part of the British i\ssociation. He thought that, in order 

 to save time, the Report of the Corresponding Societies Committee 

 to the General Committee should be held as read, (approved), and 

 he would at once invite the Delegates to make any statement re- 

 specting the work done by the Committees appointed last year, or 

 in connection with other subjects referred to in the Report. He 

 begged them clearly to understand that no paper could be accepted 



