616 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
of some Gephyrean worms. The spring has been marked by the extra- 
ordinary abundance of JBcilanus porcatus. Notable changes have also 
occurred in the Annelid fauna, and on the French coast there has been 
found Ampharete grubei, a northern species not yet met with on the coast 
of France ; and the same is true also of other Annelids and of rare Sea- 
anemones. Other species have appeared much later in the year than 
usual. 
Prof. Herdman’s Address.* — Prof. Herdman, as might be expected, 
gave an exceedingly interesting address as President of Section D, at 
the last meeting of the British Association. After referring to the fact 
that when the British Association met last at Ipswich the field naturalists 
who founded and established on a firm basis British marine zoology 
were all at work, he is led naturally to consider the results of the 
4 Challenger ’ Expedition. He points out that Dr. John Murray’s sum- 
mary of the results of that historic voyage has given definiteness of 
scope and purpose and a tremendous impulse to that branch of science, 
mainly zoological, which is coming to be called Oceanography. Oceano- 
graphy is the meeting-ground of most of the sciences, dealing as it does 
with botany and zoology, chemistry, physics, mechanics, meteorology, 
and geology, while it has an incalculable influence upon man, his distri- 
bution, characteristics, commerce, and economics. With some temerity, 
Prof. Herdman ventures to differ from Dr. Murray’s generalisation that 
it is the mud-line, or a line at a depth of about one hundred fathoms, 
that is the great feeding ground, and the place where the fauna is most 
abundant. Murray’s mud-line has, in his view, a present and a historic 
importance which can scarcely be surpassed in the economy of life on 
this globe. Prof. Herdman thinks, however, that Murray’s opinion as 
to the distribution of animals in regard to the mud-line is not entirely 
in accord with the experience of specialists, and is not based upon 
reliable statistics. He would rather consider that there are more 
species and more individuals in shallower waters, and that the deep mud 
has a poor fauna. There can be no doubt there is a considerable amount 
of evidence in favour of his own and against Murray’s views. After 
some paragraphs on Bionomics and the use of the marine laboratory, 
Prof. Herdman concluded with some remarks on oysters and their rela- 
tion to typhoid fever. 
Plankton of Deep-Water. f — MM. L. Boutan and E. P. Racovitza, 
using an enlarged modification of Chun’s apparatus, have corroborated 
his results, and proved the existence of a deep-water plankton off 
Banyuls and Villefranche. Horizontal variations are due to currents, 
vertical variations to diurnal and seasonal variations of temperature. 
Prof. De Lacaze-Duthiers in an appended note cites the capture of ten 
specimens of the large carnivorous Centrophorus granulosus as evidence 
that the depths investigated are rich in life. 
Proof of the Necessity for the Inheritance of Acquired Characters.* 
Dr. W. Haacke finds the necessity referred to in his conception of the 
organism as an equilibrated system. He finds a striking corroboration 
* Nature, lii. (1895) pp. 494-501. f Comptes Rendus, cxxi. (1895) pp.174-7. 
X Biol. Centralbl., xv. pp. 710-12. 
