( 3°6 ) 
| May, 
NOTES. 
In a paper on the History of the Solar System, communicated 
to the Royal Astronomical Society by Mr. G. H. Darwin, F.R.S., 
the author concludes that the orbits of the planets round the sun 
can hardly have undergone a sensible enlargement from tidal 
friction since these bodies attained a separate existence. He 
holds that his investigations show no grounds for the rejection 
of the nebular hypothesis. 
Dr. A. Wilson, F.R.S.E., in a paper read before the Royal 
Institution, contended that the original condition of organisms is 
“ colonial.” The universal segmentation of the egg is a proof 
of this inference, and the development of new forms by this so- 
called process, in Gregarinae, &c., supports this conclusion. The 
lower we proceed in the scale of being the more marked is the 
tendency to form “ colonial ” organisms. Arrest of develop- 
ment, by causing an organism to cease progressing at a segre- 
gated stage, will tend to produce a “ compound ” and “ colonial ” 
constitution. The plant world is colonial in its highest types. A 
tree is in many respects as markedly colonial as a volvox. The 
highest animals exhibit lingering traces of an originally colonial 
nature in their histological composition. The tendency of life- 
development is towards concentration and the conversion of the 
colony into the individual. It is suggested that the theory and 
idea of an originally colonial constitution may explain the exist- 
ence, in man and higher animals, of tribal and family associa- 
tions. The semi-independent action of many parts of the higher 
brain receives an explanatory hint as to its cause from the idea 
of an originally independent and colonial constitution. 
Dr. Beale’s attack upon Darwinism, delivered on resigning the 
presidency of the Royal Microscopical Society, will not be printed 
for distribution as is usual on such occasions. 
The said Microscopical Society has become the subjedt of 
comment in connection with the Quekett Medal Fund, and the 
rejection of the offer of a Fellow to found two annual medals, 
one for improvements in the microscope, and the other for micro- 
scopical research. 
In the “Archives de Biologie ” (Belgian) M. Jules McLeod 
gives an interesting account of the poison-apparatus of spiders. 
According to “ Forest and Stream ” oysters are sometimes 
rendered dangerous and various fishes are poisoned by the dis- 
charge of poisonous gases from the bed of the sea. 
