270 
SCIENCE. 
further conclusion, that this can only be done by such an 
accurate imitation of a disabled bird as shall deceive the 
enemy into a belief in the possibility of capture. And 
lastly, there are all the powers of memory and the qualities 
of imagination which enable good acting to be performed. 
All this reasoning and all this knowledge is certainly in- 
volved in the action of the bird-mother, just as certainly as 
reasoning and knowledge of a much prolounder kind is in- 
volved in the structure or adjustment of the organic ma- 
chinery by which and through which the action is itself 
performed. 
There is unquestionably a sense, and a very important 
sense, in which all these wonderful operations of instinct 
are “ automatic.” The intimate knowledge of physical and of 
physiological laws — the knowledge even of the mental qual- 
ities and dispositions of other animals — and the processes of 
reasoning by which advantage is taken of these, — this knowl- 
edge and this reasoning cannot, without manilest absurdity, 
be attributed to the birds themselves. This is admitted at 
least as regards the birds of the present day. But surely the 
absurdity is quite as great if this knowledge and reasoning, 
or any part of it, be attributed to birds of a former genera- 
tion. In the past history of the species there may have been 
change — there may have been development. But there is 
not the smallest reason to believe that the progenitors of any 
bird or of any beast, however different in form, have ever 
founded on deliberate effort the instincts of their descend- 
ants. 
\fo be Continued .] 
PROFESSOR JAMES C. WATSON. 
Professor James C. Watson, Director of the Observatory 
of the University of Wisconsin, died at Madison, Wis., on 
the morning of November 23, after an illness of but three cr 
four days. 
Professor Watson was born on January 28, 1838, and was 
therefore nearly 43 years of age. He graduated at the 
University of Michigan in 1857, remaining there as instruc- 
tor and Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy till 1863, 
at which time he was made Director of the Ann Arbor 
Observatory. He held this position till 1878, when he accepted 
the Directorship of the Washburn Observatory at Madison. 
He made observations upon the total solar eclipse of 1869 
in Iowa, and that of 1870 in Sicily ; and in 1874 had charge 
of the very successful American Expedition, which ob- 
served the transit of Venus at Peking, China. In 1870 he 
received the Lalandegold medal from the French Academy 
of Sciences, for his various astronomical works and dis- 
coveries. His most elaborate writings are : A PopularTreatise 
on Comets (i860) and Theoretical Astronomy , relating to the 
Motions of the Heavenly Bodies revolving around the Sun in 
accordance with the Law of Universal Gravitation , with 
Numerical Examples and Auxiliary Tables { 1S68). In addi- 
tion to these, he has published from time to time, in Gould's 
Astion. Journ., Astron, Nach., Am. Journ. of Sci., etc., short 
papers relating, for the most part, to the discovery and ob- 
servations of asteroids, and the computations of comet 
orbits. For several years he gave especial attention to the 
search for asteroids, and in this work was eminently suc- 
cessful, discovering, in all, twenty-one of these bodies, be- 
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MICROSCOPISTS- 
(From advanced sheets of American Naturalist A®* December; Micros- 
copical Department under ihe direction of Dr. R. H. Ward.) 
Probably no thoughtful person who attended both meet- 
ings this summer, the American Society of Microscopists 
at Detroit, and the Subsection of Microscopy, A. A. A. S., 
at Boston, failed to notice the nearly equal division of 
strength between the two conventions. The personal at- 
tendance at the meetings was about equal, though mainly 
of different individuals ; the number of papers read was 
precisely the same, and it is only fair to say that in interest 
and importance they were very evenly divided. It is obvi- 
ous that if the strength of the two meetings could 
have been combined in one, the result would have been 
far more adequate and satisfactory. This reflection has 
derived force from the well known fact that in the Mic- 
roscopical Congress at Indianapolis, nearly half the voices 
were in favor of joining with the A. A. A. S., instead of 
forming a separate society, the latter course being adopted 
in the critical vote by a majority of one. From first to last, 
it has been of great and conceded importance to combine 
all our strength in one enterprise ; but the obstacles which 
originally rendered this impossible, still remain, and it is 
evident that indiscreet controversy might increase and per- 
petuate the difficulties it was designed to remove. It would 
be absurd to ask persons, accustomed to attend the meet- 
ings of the great society, and highly valuing its opportuni- 
ties for intercourse with leading minds in various depart- 
ments of science, to abandon that for any narrow organiza- 
tion, however attractive might be its field. On the other 
hand the new society could not profitably be united with 
the old, as has been proposed, without a more cordial and 
general support of such a procedure than could at present be 
hoped for. The subordination to greater interests, which 
would be encountered in uniting with the great society 
would be more than counterbalanced, in many minds, by 
the social and scientific advatages gained ; and the fact that 
many of the papers read would be excluded from the Pro- 
ceedings by a necessity which admits only contributions 
new to science, would be of little consequence, since popu- 
lar papers gain an earlier and a wider distribution through 
the popular journals; but a more serious difficulty arises 
from the localities in which the meetings of the A.A. A.S., are 
sometimes held. The large and powerful society can afford 
to appoint meetings, not unfrequently, for the sake of culti- 
vating local interest in science, in localities which would 
be unavailable for the microscopical meetings. A joint 
meeting at Boston would have given a large increase of vi- 
tality ; the same will not be equally true of all other locali- 
ties. 
If for these or any other reasons, it should be impractica- 
ble to combine the two societies at present, the greatest ad- 
vantages would doubtless be secured by such a policy as 
would show, on both sides of the question, a reasonable 
and considerate regard for the interests of the other. The 
very large minority at Indianapolis acquiesced in the forma- 
tion of a new society with the understanding that the times 
and places of meeting were to be so chosen as to best ac- 
commodate those who might wish to attend both. This pol- 
icy, if fully carried out, would not prevent meeting at the 
same place when expedient, and would not require it when 
some other correlated place would be advisable. It would 
give 'many of the advantages of union, with entire freedom 
from its difficulties. It is the least that could in reason be 
asked, or that could in common courtesy be granted, as a 
means of securing a cordial and harmonious support for the 
new society. 
tween the years 1S63 and 1877. At the time of his death, 
Professor Watson was engaged in building and equipping 
one of the finest observatories in America. The meridian 
circle, which is to contain several new features suggested 
by himself, is now in the hands of the Clarks, and will not 
be finished, probably, for nearly a year. Other instruments 
of the highest order are either already mounted and in 
operation, or are in course of completion. Careful prepa- 
rations had been made also for a systematic search for the 
planet Vulcan, a problem in which Professor Watson was 
deeply interested. W. C. W. 
The first number of a periodical, devoted to the sub- 
ject of instruments, will be issued January 1, 1881. It 
will be published in Berlin under the name of the “Zeit- 
schrift lur Instrumentenkunde,” and will be prepared by 
a board of twenty-one editors, including the most noted 
instrument makers of Europe and representatives of 
different branches of science in which instruments of 
precision are employed. Such a periodical is greatly 
needed, and the names of the editors are a guarantee of 
its success. O . S. 
