512 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES 
RELATING TO 
ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY 
(principally invertebrata and cryptogamia), 
MICBOSCOPY, Etc. 
Including Original Communications from Fellows and Others .* 
ZOOLOGY. 
VERTEBRATA. 
a. Embryologry.f 
Darwin, and after Darwin.J — The third volume of the late Mr. 
Romanes’ valuable work, edited by Prof. Lloyd Morgan, deals with 
isolation and physiological selection. It may be a fitting tribute to the 
author to print his twelve general conclusions, viz. : — • 
“ (1) Natural Selection is primarily a theory of the cumulative deve- 
lopment of adaptations wherever these occur; and therefore is only 
incidentally, or likewise, a theory of the origin of species in cases where 
allied species differ from one another in respect of peculiar characters, 
which are also adaptive characters. 
(2) Hence it does not follow from the theory of Natural Selection 
that all species — much less all specific characters — must necessarily 
have owed their origin to Natural Selection ; since it cannot be proved 
deductively from the theory that no * means of modification ’ other than 
Natural Selection is competent to produce such slight degrees of modi- 
fication as go to constitute diagnostic distinctions between closely allied 
species ; while, on the other hand, there is an overwhelming mass of 
evidence to prove the origin of c a large proportional number of specific 
characters ’ by causes of modification other than Natural Selection. 
(3) Therefore, and upon the whole, as Darwin so emphatically held, 
* The Society are not intended to be denoted by the editorial “ we,” and they do 
not hold themselves responsible for the views of the authors of the papers noted, 
nor for any claim to novelty or otherwise made by them. The object of this part of 
the Journal is to present a summary of the papers as actually published , and to 
describe and illustrate Instruments, Apparatus, &c., which are either new or have 
not been previously described in this country. 
f This section includes not only papers relating to Embryology properly so called, 
but also those dealing with Evolution, Development, and Reproduction, and allied 
subjects. 
} ‘ Darwin, and af':er Darwin. An Exposition of the Darwinian Theory and a 
Discussion of Post-Darwinian Questions.’ By the late George John Romanes. 
Yol. iii. London, 1897, viii. and 181 pp. 
