208 
(0.) 
(From The Depths of the Sea, by 0. W. Thomson, LL.D., &c., Regius 
Professor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh, &c.) 
“ I feel by no means satisfied that bathybius is the permanent form of any 
distinct living being. It has seemed to me that different samples have been 
different in appearance and consistence ; and although there is nothing at all 
improbable in the abundance of a very simple shell-less 4 moner ’ at the bottom 
of the sea, I think it not impossible that a great deal of the 4 bathybius ’ — 
that is to say, the formless protoplasm which we find fit great depths— may 
be a kind of mycelium, a formless condition connected either with the growth 
or with the decay of many different things (p. 415.) 
44 The German naturalists of the new school, in their enthusiastic adoption 
of the Darwinian theory of evolution, naturally welcome in these 4 moners ’ 
the essential attribute of the Urschleim — an infinite capacity for improve- 
ment in every conceivable direction .” (p. 409.) 
How is it, then, that they are contented to remain moners still ? 
(D.) 
The same apparently 44 structureless ” character distinguishes the bud. 
44 Le bourgeon, soit libre (embryon), soit fixe, n’est d’abord qu’une petite 
masse homogene, un globule de matiere seveuse, oil n’existe formellement 
aucun des organes qui un jour auront leurs fonctions speciales dans laplante. 
Sur le pourtour de ce globule, emergent bientot les feuilles, d’abord dans la 
meme simplicity d’ organisation. Puis a mesure que ces feuilles rudimentaires 
grandissent, un courant seveux se determine, se dessine dans chacune d’elles ; 
et apres lui, des courans lateraux, qui aboutissent a ce courant dorsal ; celui-ci 
se prolonge lui-meme dans le globule qui est la base commune de ces rudiments 
de feuilles.” — Bui. de la Soc. Botanique de France , 1867, p. 70. 
(E.) 
(From the Gazette des Tribunaux for March 2, 1870.) 
The affairs of M. Comte came into the French law courts after his death. 
I extract the following particulars, evidently authentic, from the speech of 
M. Griolet, avocat of Madame Comte : — 
44 M. Auguste Comte, who is now celebrated as the founder of a new 
system of philosophy, the positive philosophy, died at Paris, in the month of 
September, 1857 M. Comte has himself divided his life into two 
epochs, and his work into two parts. During the first of these eras he filled ? 
with distinction, different posts in the Ecole Polytechnique ; he created and 
