SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 269 
sands upon thousands of specimens, all exhibited in a uniform manner and 
placed like soldiers at a review.” 
Are Vibriones Anrmals ? — This cpiestion has been lately answered in the 
negative. M. Davaine, with whose beautiful memoir on the development of 
the oyster every naturalist is familiar, has turned his attention to the subject 
of the characters of vibriones. He states that these organisms are not to be 
considered as belonging to the Protozoa, or lowest division of the animal 
kingdom. These beings have no organisation connected with either locomo- 
tion or digestion. They are perfectly homogeneous throughout ; their two 
extremities are so much alike that it is impossible to distinguish head from 
tail, and their progression is effected indifferently by either end of the body, 
showing that there is no functional distinction between the two. From their 
different characters it is evident that the vibriones approach the filamentous 
confervee, and this relation is furthermore borne out by their chemical com- 
position. M. Davaine operated on them with various reagents, and invari- 
ably obtained the same results as when he experimented on confervee de- 
developed in the same medium as the vibriones. The essential peculiarity 
of the latter, therefore, as distinguished from the confervee, is the power of 
locomotion, but there is no proof of their animality, inasmuch as the diato- 
macea and many other of the lower vegetables possess this property. M. 
Davaine has also found that individuals structurally alike were, nevertheless, 
physiologically different, and lived in different media. This fact, however, 
was pointed out before the appearance of M. Davaine’s paper by Mr. Henry 
J. Slack, F.G.S., a gentleman well known for his pursuit of microscopical 
studies. — Bee for M. Davaine’s memoir, Comptes Penclus, October 10th. 
The Variation of Species . — A rather interesting paper upon the “ Intro- 
duction of Species ” was read, last season, before the Natural History Society 
of Halifax, Nova Scotia, by Dr. Gilpin. His remarks Avere chieffy confined 
to a description of the species of wild horse inhabiting Sable Island, on the 
south-east coast of Nova Scotia. These horses were originally introduced 
from England some hundred and fifty years ago, and as they have been 
affected by the natural condition of life, they have reproduced the wild horses 
from which our ordinary horses were derived, and this the writer of the 
memoir considers to be an argument against the Darwinian theory. With- 
out pausing to show how feeble is the foundation which such an objection 
possesses, we give the writer’s conclusion, which is pretty nearly as folloAvs : — 
The present race of horses in this island has descended from two or three 
individuals originally introduced, which having been left to themselves, and 
having folloAved the laws of natural selection, have produced offspring, having 
the habits and manners of the tarpany, or only stock of wild horses now 
existing in the world. In regard to their form they differ in some respects 
from the tarpany, though agreeing Avith them in size, hairy head, and thick 
coat. But, although differing from them, they have in a Avonderful manner, 
reproduced forms of whose early existence we only know from the sculptures 
of Nineveh and the friezes of the Parthenon, where we find the low stature 
contrasted by the tall rider, the abundant tail and mane either cropped 
or tied and plaited to prevent its encumbering the rider, the hairy 
jowl, the horizontal head, the short and cock-thrappled neck, and 
in some figures the short croup and Ioav tail. We find, too, their 
