( 28 o ) 
[April, 
NOTES. 
Dr. W. B. Carpenter, F.R.S., in a Leisure delivered at the 
Royal Institution, January 23rd, maintained, in accordance with 
Prof. Geikie, that the present Continental ridges have probably 
always existed in some form, and that the present deep Ocean- 
basins likewise date from the remotest geological antiquity. He 
considers it, however, possible that at some period a band of 
connection may have existed between Europe and America, and 
that New Zealand, Tasmania, and South America may have 
been linked together by ridges of dry land, whilst Madagascar 
may have been joined in a similar manner to the African conti- 
nent, and even with Asia. He does not consider that there is 
satisfactory evidence for the supposed continent Atlantic being 
between Africa and America. 
On March 4th Mr. G. J. Romanes, F.R.S., delivered a Ledture 
in the Glasgow City Hall on “ Mental Evolution.” He urged 
that the burden of proof lay with those who maintain that the 
human mind has not been evolved, but has been produced in an 
exceptional manner. He considered that the theory of Evolution 
had nothing to fear and everything to hope from the advance of 
psychological science. 
Mr. E. D. Cope delivered last autumn a most interesting Lec- 
ture before the California Academy of Sciences, on the Modern 
DoCtrine of Evolution. Whilst accepting the theory in its 
widest sense, and admitting Natural Selection as a vera causa , 
he contends that “ Selection ” and “ Survival ” do not go to the 
root of the matter, i.e., the origin of the fittest. 
A Mr. T. Warren O’Neill, of the Philadelphia Bar, has pub- 
lished a “ Refutation of Darwinism,” and meets himself with a 
neat refutation in the “American Naturalist.” The author be- 
lieves that the present condition of animals is one of degrada- 
tion from a state of original perfection, which has been brought 
about by the severity of the struggle for existence. The reviewer 
shows that this view, be it true or false, leaves the origin of 
species untouched, whilst palaeontology shows no evidence ot 
that primitive physiological integrity which Mr. O’Neill assumes. 
Count d’Ursel, in a recently published work on South America, 
asserts that in Bolivia, Peru, Chili, La Plata, and Brazil, he has 
met with an inseCt which after its death is transformed into a 
plant. He describes and figures this creature as a thick, hard 
grub, with distinft articulations. When about to die it buries 
