904 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
10. That the deposits at present forming on the outer slopes of 
reefs in depths down to 100 fathoms consist largely of coral debris, 
Foraminiferous tests, especially Orbitolites , the joints of the calcareous 
alga Halimeda opuntia , and portions of Nulliparae. Similarly 
composed deposits have been found in other regions of coral reefs 
in the same situation. A rock of this composition is one of the 
commonest types of coral limestone (so called) in the Solomon 
Group. 
4. The Eggs and Early Stages of some Teleosteans. By 
J. T. Cunningham, Esq. 
5. The Reproductive Organs of Bdellostoma, and a Teleostean 
Egg from the West Coast of Africa. By the Same. 
6. A Synthetic Outline of the History of Biology. 
By Patrick Geddes. 
To appreciate the present position of biological science, it is 
necessary to have a clear conception of the history. For this, 
abundant historical materials are indeed available, and reach their 
highest level in the standard works of Sachs* and Carus.f Such 
detailed histories, however, produce, by their very completeness, a 
measure of embarrassment. Moreover, the existence of numerous 
distinct lines of research, often equally prominent at the same time 
and in the same work, is apt to obscure the fact that the science has 
really had a simple and natural evolution. What the student 
demands is not so much any detailed chronological survey, hut 
rather a sketch which will show how the whole system of modern 
biology, with its increasingly exhaustive analysis of detail, lies 
within a few essential lines of research, as laid down by a definite 
succession of original thinkers. This has already been done for 
the morphological aspect of the science in the author’s article 
“Morphology,” in the Encyclopaedia Britannica , and for the phy- 
siological side more recently in Dr Michael Foster’s article “ Phy- 
* Geschichte der BotaniJc. f Geschichte der Zoologie. 
