180 The Meeting of the British Association at York. 
Miss Stopes replied to her critics, pointing out that it is not 
necessary to suppose the presence of goniatites in the roof always 
led to the formation of coal-balls, while the fragments formed by 
the breaking of a basement-bed of peat might form the starting- 
points for the concretions. 
Professor Potonie read a paper on the “ Origin of Coal ” in which 
he showed the close parellelism between the different kinds of coal 
and the different conditions of modern peat-formation. 
Discussion on “The Nature of Fertilization.” 
The second discussion, on “ The Nature of Fertilization,” was 
held jointly with Section D, in the large Lecture-Theatre, at 
Bootham School. Though many able speakers took part, the 
discussion suffered, to some extent, from the danger already alluded 
to, the difficulty of focussing the interest in the case of a very wide 
topic with numerous aspects and embracing varied details. Few’ 
of the speakers really discussed the nature of fertilization, they 
mostly spoke of various details which they had been working at, or 
which happened specially to interest them. Discussion or debate, 
properly so-called—the clash of minds—can hardly be said to 
exist when this course is followed. 
Mr. V. H. Blackman opened with an admirably thought out 
paper, in w’hich he showed that two advantages may be attributed 
to “ gametic union ”—“ rejuvenescence and the union of two lines of 
descent.” It is probable that both are important, but neither can 
be considered as universally applicable, in the first place because 
there are several groups which show no gametic union, and in 
the second because of the very close relationship of the fusing 
nuclei in a large number of organisms—particularly in many plants. 
The observations of Maupas and of Calkins, seem to establish the 
reality of rejuvenescence. In regard to the union of the character 
of parents, the theory of the autonomy of the chromosomes has 
recently gained ground, and Montgomery’s view that in synopsis the 
maternal and paternal chromosomes are united in pairs is now 
generally accepted, particularly since it is in general accord with 
the results of Mendelian inheritance. Interaction between the 
conjugating chromosomes may take place, and the nature and 
extent of this is a problem to be determined by the results of 
observations on heredity. 
