from the belief that methods which involve working at high temperatures are necessarily inaccurate; but the school of Ste. Claire-Deville has shown that they are not, and there are signs among us that our traditional love for the study of metals is reviving. Of course it cannot be that chemists and physicists are afraid "that science will be degraded by being applied to any purpose of vulgar utility," for I trust that I shall at least have shown that the empire over matter, and the true advancement of science, which I suppose is the object of all research, may be as certainly secured in the field of metallurgy as in any other. PROF. WEISMANN'S " ESSAYS." PROF. WEISMANN'S suggestions are, with reason, universally recognized as being most important and valuable; nevertheless certain questions treated of by him seem to me to require further solution, and at present to constitute difficulties which oppose themselves to an entire acceptance of his hypotheses. Death in the Metazoa is, according to him, due (new translation, Clarendon Press, p. 21) to the cells of their tissues having ceased to be able to reproduce themselves in "the limitation of their powers of reproduction." Such a cessation may be an inevitable result of an excessive amount of work or efficiency on their part, and "the advantages gained by the whole organism" might, as he says (p. 61), more than compensate for the disadvantages which follow from the disappearance of single cells." But granting all this, how did such a process begin? Some Metazoon must have been the first to die through this failure of reproduction in its component tissue-cells. Yet if the Protozoa were, and are (as Prof. Weismann represents), naturally immortal, the first Metazoa must have been entirely composed of immortal cells, and therefore themselves potentially immortal. Granted that cellaggregations become every now and then accidentally dissolved, that would be "accidental death." Why should natural death arise, and, if it did, what advantage could ensue from the failure of cell-reproduction? It could not benefit the race, because as yet there was no race, but only individual clusters of naturally immortal cells which had happened to divide imperfectly. The Professor tells us (p. 29) it is "conceivable that all cells may possess the power of refusing to absorb nutriment, and therefore of ceasing to undergo further division." But how and why should a cell begin, for the very first time, to practice this abstinence? That it should do so, is, of course, like many other things "conceivable," but to my judgment it does not appear credible. Of course when once we have a race of mortal organisms propagating by germ cells, it is easy enough to understand how such a race would be benefited by the death of the "useless mouths" belong ing to it, and therefore by the cessation of the tissuereproduction which leads to such death. The difficulty lies in the natural death of the very first Metazoa which ever lived. Here, as in so many cases, it is "the first step" which tries us. How, from this perennial race of microscopic immortals, are we to obtain our first Metazoon naturally mortal? By the hypothesis, each component cell consists of a form of protoplasm which has the power of growing and dividing. It is not easy to see how the mere coalescence of such cells can lead any one, or any set, of such cells to acquire an altogether new power-that of reproducing the whole complex organism of which it has come to be a part? The Professor tells us (p. 27) that probably "these units soon lost their primitive homogeneity. As the result of mere relative position, some of the cells were especially fitted to provide for the nutrition of the colony, while others undertook the work of reproduction." Referring to Magosphæra planula, he says (p. 75): "Division of labour would produce a differentiation of the single cells in such a colony: thus certain cells would be se: apart for obtaining food and for locomotion, while certain other cells would be exclusively reproductive." But how can the fact of a cell happening to fall into a position "especially fitted" for the performance of a certain function, lead to its performing this function? Supposing that the physical influences of the environment have modified the arrangement, or cohesion, size, or number of molecules in a cell, or modified their molecular motions, how can such influences give it a power, not of reproducing its thus "acquired" characters, or the characters of the cell before it becomes thus differentiated, but of reproducing the whole organism whereof it forms a part? Is it credible that any impacts and reactions thus occasioned should produce so marvellous a result? I do not know any phenomena in Nature which could warrant us in entertaining such a belief. Of course, if we were dealing with races of creatures sexually reproduced, it is conceivable enough that, out of multitudinous, indefinite, minute accidental changes in the arrangements of the molecules of their germs, favourable arrangements might be selected in the struggle for life But we are here concerned with nothing of the kind, but with the first appearance of the earliest Metazoa repro duced. If we meditate on the conditions affirmed by the Professor to have produced that origin, it will, I think. be clear that no hypothesis suggested by him will answer the question how any of the cells of the first coheren' colonies came to reproduce, not such cells as their ances tors (or, rather, the earlier living portions of their very selves) had by countless processes of fission produced. but a whole "cell-colony," such as that whereof they had, by the hypothesis, for the first time come to form a part. With respect to the immortality of Monoplastides and the question of death generally, he (the Professor) makes various remarks which do not appear to be satisfactory The process of spontaneous fission, he says (p. 25"cannot be truly called death. . . Nothing dies, the body of the animal only divides into two similar parts possessing the same constitution." Where such a perfect similarity exists we may say not only that there is no death, but also that there is no birth. In some of the Monoplastides, how ever, the relationship between parent and offspring does exist, but this, of course, need not necessarily involve death; as we see in higher species and in our own. But the fact that death does not take place during, or soon after, fission, does not prove that death never naturally occurs at all, and that the cell can balance its metabolism indefinitely. Very likely it may be able so to do, but this can hardly be affirmed to be an absolute certainty. What may be certainly affirmed is that reproduction by fissior does not entail death to the degree that sexual reproduction entails it. But reproduction by gemmation may equally fail to entail death; as we see in the parthenogenet. Aphis and many Hydrozoa. In Euglypha we can, as Prof. Weismann admits (p. 64) recognize the daughter cell (which is for a time without a nucleus, and we also find a very marked distinction between the segments of transversely dividing Infusorians. where one has to form a new mouth and the other a new anus. After all that can be urged, then, in contrasting the multiplication by fission of Monoplastides with reproduc tion in the life cycle of Polyplastides, there seems to me to be more of a true reproductive process in the former than the Professor is disposed to allow. In some Helizae and Ciliata we have all the complexity of indirect nucleus division by karyokinesis, while in Euglypha we have ce!! division without any antecedent separation of the nucleus into two parts. Of course it is easy enough to understand how a mere augmentation in bulk may overcome cohesion, how internal molecular arrangement may cause cleavage along definite lines, and, perhaps, even how such cleavage may be insured through an increase of mass in proportion to a relatively diminishing surface nutrition. But such a division would be much simpler than a process of karyokinesis, and certainly than the formation of a new mouth and a new anus. Here there is no question of a part (p. 73) growing "to resemble the whole," comparable to the regrowth, by crystallization, to replace a fragment broken irum a crystal. We have a whole which divides itself in such a way as to initiate and carry out a progressively increasing difference-a difference between the two parts dividing, and a difference (but a different kind of difference) between each such part and the previously existing whole. Passing from the consideration of the immortality of Monoplastides to the mortality of Polyplastides, I cannot see my way to accept the Professor's definition (p. 114) of death: "An arrest of life, from which no lengthened revival, either of the whole or any of its parts, can take place," nor can I agree to his assertion (loc. cit.) that death" depends upon the fact that the death of the cells and tissues follows upon the cessation of the vital functions as a whole." If we cut up a Begonia plant or a Hydra into small parts, such an individual Hydra or begonia cannot surely be considered as still alive, because fresh Hydra or Begonia may spring from such fragments. Similarly with higher organisms, it would be preposterous to say that a man was not dead because a post-mortem, inferior kind of life-such as can alone be manifested in very lowly structures-was still persisting in the cells of his tissues! No doubt, as the Professor says, we cannot have death without a corpse, but the tissues and cells of the corpse may still retain a certain sort of life without the corpse being any the less a corpse on account of that cir cumstance. But if life of some sort may be, as we agree, affirmed of such cells, can we deny it absolutely (since no one comprehends it) even to the molecules of the cells? But body-tissues of lower Vertebrates may retain such life for a very long time. If, then, such a Vertebrate be devoured by another animal, who would venture to affirm that it is impossible that some of the micellæ or tagmata, or at least the molecules of some of the cells of the creature devoured may not pass, while still retaining a sort of life, into the Issues of the devourer? Even tagmata must be small enough to traverse the tissues, and can the possibility that they may enter into their composition while still living be dogmatically denied? May we not affirm the certainty of the death of the animal devoured till we are sure of the impossibility of the survival of any of the molecules of its cells? No doubt the Professor would refer us to Magosphæra as presenting phenomena (so far as regards its cells) which support his view. He says (p. 126):-" The dissolution of a cell colony, with its component living elements, can only be death in the most figurative sense, and can have nothing to do with the real death of the individuals; it only consists of a change from a higher to a lower stage of individuality. . . . Nothing concrete dies in the dissolution of Magosphæra; there is no death of a cell colony, but only of a conception." But surely it cannot be the same thing "to exist in a coherent anterrelated mass bound together by a common jelly," and **to exist in separate parts, living independently without interrelations, and not bound together by a common jelly." If there is here "death of a conception," there must be an external objective death corresponding therewith. Magosphæra is a very lowly organism, and its life can be very little better than that of a Monoplastid, because its structure is very little more complex. It is not wonderful, then, that there is very little difference between its existence and the existence of its post-mortem surviving cells. Yet the difference must be allowed to be, however diverse in degree, like that in the higher animals. Let us suppose that half a dozen higher animals could be so divided that no two cells remained in contiguity, yet that every cell could retain a post-mortem life such that by reuniting they could build up other individuals. Would it be reasonable to affirm that the higher animals thus segmented had not been killed, or that when their cells had reunited-possibly in very different combinations-the individual animals were the same ones as before? An extreme illustration often best seems to bring out the force and significance of a principle. The Orthonectides, referred to (p. 126) by the Professor in controversy with Götte, hardly illustrate the question here discussed, but we note with much interest and satisfaction that he is inclined to regard them as arrested larvæ, Leuckart having found them greatly to resemble the new-born young of Distoma, as Gegenbaur has found that the Dicyemids are like a stage in the development of the Platyhelminthes. If this interpretation is, as it probably is, correct, we have here an interesting example of what we find in such Batrachians as Axolotl and Triton alpestris. I am inclined to look at Menobranchus, Proteus, and Siren as larval forms which have now altogether ceased to assume what was once the adult stage of their existence.2 Prof. Weismann's hypothesis concerning heredity is certainly the best which has yet been proposed, but I have not met with any reference to that proposed by Sir Richard Owen forty years ago.3 It is now out of date, and his references are not of course expressly to "germplasm," but to the contents of germ-cells. Nevertheless, there is an undeniable resemblance between the two hypotheses, and any interested in Prof. Weismann's would do well to read over Owen's small volume on the same problem. But the complexity of Prof. Weismann's hypothesis is such as to approach, if it does not even exceed, that of pangenesis itself He tells us (p. 191): "Every detail of the whole organism must be represented in the germ-plasm by its own special and peculiar arrangement of the groups of molecules," and (p. 146) that "the number of generations of somatic cells which can succeed one another in the course of a single life, is predetermined in the germ." Moreover none of these circumstances can be explained by any difference of quality, but must be exclusively due to the size, number, and arrangement of the component parts. Now, if we consider what must be the complexity of conditions requisite to determine once for all in the germ the precise number of all the succeeding cells of epithelial tissue, including every one of the rapidly succeeding cells of glandular epithelium, and every blood corpuscle of the whole of life to necessitate also every modification of structure which may successively appear in polymorphic organisms, which change again and again profoundly between the egg and the imago; to arrange, at starting, the successive very complex changes of arrangement which must be necessary to build up reflex mechanisms | "Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Leberegels," Zool. Anzeiger, 1881, P. 99. In this connection may be noted a passage which occurs on p. 266 of Prof. A. C. Haddon's excellent introduction to the study of embryology. Sollas is there quoted as saying that a longer mature life is possessed by those forms which are "saved from the drudgery of a larval ex.stence." It would be interesting to know whether Rana opisthodon is longer lived than its congeners, s nce it has no tadpole stage of life. There we See his work "On Parthenogenesis" (Van Voorst, 1849). read: Not all the progeny of the primary impregnated germ-cell are required for the formation of the body in all animals. Certain of its derivative germ-cells may remain unchanged and become included in the body which has been composed of their metamorphosed and diversely combined or confluent brethren; so included, any derivative germ-cell or the nucleus of such may commence and repeat the same processes," &c. (p. 5). At p. 68 he speaks of "the retention of some of the primary germ-vesicles Finally, on p. 72, he says:- How the retained spermatic force operates in the formation of a new germ-process from a secondary, tertiary, or quaternary derivative germ-cell or nucieus, I do not profess to explain; neither is it known how it operates in developing the primary germ mass from the impregnated germvesicle of the ovum. In both we witness centres of repulsion and of attraction antagon z'ng to produce a definite result." 4 P. 101, where the existence of "quality" is denied. capable, not only of compelling complex instinctive constitution." A better illustration of the Professor's coaception would seem to be that of an army very complexly organized sending off successively regiments of different kinds, but always retaining in the centre a few men of all arms, and always being recruited by rustics (the food of the germ-plasm), who become organized by the centra. reserve of all arms retained for that purpose. But how, according to this or any other conceivable illustration, are we to understand the germ-plasm becom ing simplified by forming tissues and organs, and then regaining its complexity so as to be able to effect the various reparative growths which constantly take place after non-fatal injuries? Or if we are to deem that the germ-plasm only regains a portion of its complexity-one portion in one place, another in another-how can we conceive of the germ-plasm being so divided that each part of the body has just that portion of germ-plasm which is needed for its reproduction, in spite of that being the very portion which we might expect to have been exhausted, since it is it which has built up that part of the body. This, however, is, after all, only a portion of the difficulty Moreover, all these processes of succession, profrom complication, necessarily involved in Prof. Weis-gression, simplification, and possible recomplication, of mann's hypothesis of germ-plasm. For we have to consider the germ-plasm itself, must, according to the hypothesis, the modifying effect on the germ-plasm produced by its have been laid down and necessitated in the first original effecting those developmental changes which it is its collocation of the molecules of the germ. This seems to own business to effect. After speaking of the great me to exceed the bounds of credibility,1 complexity of the germ-plasm in higher animals, he goes on (p. 191) to say: "This complexity must gradually diminish during ontogeny, as the structures still to be formed from any cell, and therefore represented in the molecular constitution of the nucleoplasm, become less in numbers; . . . the complexity of the molecular structure decreases as the potentiality for further development also decreases, such potentiality being represented in the molecular structure of the nucleus." According to the hypothesis, the whole organism at every stage of its existence is but a collocation of molecules of different sizes most complexly arranged. Amongst them, during development, are the portions of germplasm, everywhere building up the increasingly complex structures of the developing body, while they themselves are simultaneously decreasing in complexity of composition. Now, it seems somewhat difficult to conceive of such a mass, which may thus be said to both decrease and increase simultaneously in complexity, both centripetally and centrifugally, and yet to preserve its complexity both centrally and sporadically, as must be the case in order to effect sexual reproduction and such repair of tissues after injury, as the organism may be capable of. Prof. Weismann continues :-"The development of the nucleoplasm during ontogeny may be, to some extent, compared to an army composed of corps which are made up of divisions, and these of brigades, and so on. The whole army may be taken to represent the nuceloplasm of the germ-cell: the earliest cell-division (as into the first cells of the ectoderm and endoderm) may be represented by the separation of the two corps, similarly formed, but with different duties and the following cell-divisions by the successive detachment of divisions, brigades, regiments, battalions, companies, &c.; and as the groups become simpler so does their sphere of action become limited. It must be admitted that this metaphor is imperfect in two respects: first, because the quantity of the nucleoplasm is not diminished, but only its complexity; and, secondly, because the strength of an army chiefly depends upon its numbers, not on the complexity of its " Prof. Weismann sees clearly enough the fatal complexity of the parallel hypothesis of Nägeli, who would explain all this by "conditions of tension and movement.' "How many different conditions of tension," our author remarks (p. 182), "ought to be possessed by one and the same idioplasm, in order to correspond to the thousand different structures and differentiations of cells in one of the higher organisms? In fact, it would be hardly possible to form even an approximate conception of an explanation based upon mere conditions of tension and movement.' But if the hypothesis of germ-plasm be deemed one involving too much complexity for belief that is, if the conditions supposed by it are deemed inadequate to explain the results of sexual ontogeny-the hypothesis seems vet more unsatisfactory with respect to processes of reparative growth and reproduction by gemmation. This is a subject the Professor has not yet expressly treated, and therefore some suggestions with respect to its difficulties may be welcome to him, as showing what elucidations some minds seem to require. He, however, tells us (pp. 197, 211, and 322) that such processes of growth are due to the presence of germ-plasm, and of course not so to hold would be to abandon his hypothesis. It is, however, difficult to understand how we can thus account for the reproduction of a human elbow with a joint structurally and functionally much as the old one (see " On Truth," pp. 170-171). Are we to understand that germ-plasm in all its complexity was there? If so, is it universally dif fused through the organism as well as present in the sexual glands, and why does it not produce rather an embryo than an elbow-joint? If not, how comes it that the germplasm present happened to have the complexity needed to effect that which was, anatomically and physiologic ally, effected? With respect to germination generally, the Professor says (p. 322):-"The germ-plasm which passes on into a budding individual, consists, not only of the unchanged idioplasm of the first ontogenetic stage (germplasm), but of this substance altered so far as to corre spond with the altered structure of the individual which arises from it, viz. the rootless shoot which springs from the stem or branches. The alteration must be very slight, and perhaps quite insignificant, for it is possible that the difference between the secondary shoots and the primary plant may chiefly depend upon the changed conditions of development, which takes place beneath the earth in the latter case and in the tissues of the plant in the former." The term "Zielstrebig," as one used to denote a practically teleological process which is not really teleological, is a remarkable example of the made in which we are led to regard the invention of a new name as an explanation, 2 The remarkable readiness with which the fertile mind of Prof. Weismana excogitates hypotheses on hypotheses to explain away difficulties is rather remarkably shown by the way in which he tries to obviate the objection to his view as to parthenogenesis, which arises from the fact that in the bes the same egg will develop into a drone or not, according as it has or has not been fertilized. This would seem to emphatically contradict his doctrine, that the one cause of parthenogenesis is the greater amount of germ-plasm which exists in parthenogenetic eggs than in ordinary ones. He meets this by sug gesting (p. 237) that if the spermatozoon reaches the egg it may, under the stimulus of internal causes, grow to double its size, thus obtaining the dimensions of the segmentation nucleus." What may not be thus explained! Surely this is a very inadequate and even misleading statement of the matter. It is surely inconceivable that a portion of protoplasm should be affected in these diverse but most definitely diverse ways by the environment of earth and plant-tissues respectively. The radicle and plumule are formed (e.g. in the bean) while still surrounded by the tissues of the parent plant, but no radicle is formed in a growth by gemmation. Even if in all cases a radicle was formed, which radicle became largely developed under the stimulus of earth-environment, it would be difficult to understand why it should atrophy or metamorphose itself within those very plant-tissues under the influence of which it was itself first formed. Again, as regards the Begonia leaf, if it is such germplasm as Prof. Weismann conceives of, which determines the development of such a leaf into a plant, what can be supposed to make it different from the germ-plasm of the seed? However complex may be the germ-plasm of Begonia, it must be a definite complexity. The germ-plasm cannot be simultaneously built up in two different ways. molecular arrangement which compels growth from a seed cannot possibly be the same as a molecular arrangement which compels growth from a leaf. The initial stages of the two processes are quite different. But a Certainly the influence of the environment is sometimes very surprising; but these surprising results hardly, at least at first sight, seem to harmonize with Prof. Weismann's views. Thus the effect of the movements of the young of Cynips, newly hatched from an egg deposited in the tissues of a plant (p. 302), is to cause it to produce a gall-a result "advantageous to the larva but Bot to the plant." It causes "an active growth of cells" around the larva, much to that larva's advantage. Now surely it is too much to ask us to believe that the germplasm of the plant, in the first instance, before even, say, a single Cynips had visited it, had in the complex collocation of its molecules, an arrangement such as would compel the plant which was to grow from it, to grow these cells and form a gall as just mentioned.1 However this may be, the production of the gall is certainly a curious effect of the action of the environment on an outgrowth from germ-plasm, conceived of as Prof. Weismann conceives of it. tions gains new characters which are propagated by seed, he explains (p. 433) by a modification of germ-plasm thus induced. But such an admission is enough to satisfy much of what is demanded by those who assert the inheritance of acquired characters. After all, such an inheritance must be due to the soma, since it is only through it that the germ-plasm can be modified. If this effect on the germ-plasm itself is thus cumulative, may it not be partly due to a cumulative effect on the soma which transmits to the germ-plasm the actions which modify the latter? Can this be declared to be absolutely impossible? Anyhow, it is plain that effects of the environment on Polyplastides may be transmitted to succeeding generations. There are, however, still more striking phenomena amongst mammals which do not seem to accord with Prof. Weismann's theories. I refer to the production of offspring which resemble not their father, but the father of preceding offspring—as in the well-known case of Lord Zetland's brood mare, and the puppies of thoroughbred bitches which have once been coupled with a mongrel. How can the germ-plasm_of the first father have been acquired by the offspring of a subsequent father? I have ventured to propose these questions, which must of course have occurred to many other naturalists, feeling sure that Prof. Weismann will be glad to have his attention drawn to a few points, a further explanation of which seems necessary for the acceptance of his most interesting hypotheses. September 2. ST. GEORGE MIVART. NOTES. THE Medals of the Royal Society have this year been awarded as follows:-The Copley Medal to the Rev. Dr. Salmon, F.R.S., for his various papers on subjects of pure mathematics, and for the valuable mathematical treatises of which he is the author; a Royal Medal to Dr. W. H. Gaskell, F.R.S., for his researches in cardiac physiology, and his important discoveries in the anatomy and physiology of the sympathetic nervous system; a Royal Medal to Prof. Thorpe, F.R. S., for his researches on fluorine compounds, and his determination of the atomic weights of titanium and gold; and the Davy Medal to Dr. W. H. Perkin, F. R.S., for his researches on magnetic rotation in relation to chemical constitution. Intimation has been received at the offices of the Royal Society that the Queen approves the award of the Royal Medals. We regret to learn that another officer of the Geological Mr. Survey of India has fallen a victim to the Indian climate. E. J. Jones, who joined the Survey in 1883, died of dysentery at Darjiling on October 15, at the age of thirty. Mr. Jones was an Associate of the Royal School of Mines, and having also studied chemistry at Zürich and Würzburg, he was a valuable member of the Survey, to the publications of which he contributed several geological and chemical papers. But the question of the actual or possible influence of the environment suggests some further difficulties which can hardly fail to occur to any critical reader of what Prof. Weismann says concerning the inheritance of acquired characters. Although he absolutely denies that changes induced in the soma by the action of the environment, can be transmitted to a succeeding generation, he yet allows (p. 98) that the germ-plasm itself may be modified through the action of the environment on the soma increasing its nutrition, and such modifications, on his hypothesis, would be inherited. But if it is true, as stated, that oysters transported to the Mediterranean become rapidly modified, that the Saturnia imported to Switzerland from Texas become modified so as to transmit new characters in one generation, and that cats in Mombas, turkeys in India, and greyhounds in Mexico, To add to the many obligations under which he has laid Camhave also been modified, their modifications being trans-bridge University, Prof. Sidgwick has offered to give £1500 missible, it is very difficult to understand how such changed climatic conditions, or increased or diminished nutrition, could change the molecular structure of the germ-plasm in such a way as to compel the production in a second generation of modifications either so induced in the soma of the first, or of a nature appropriate to the conditions presented by a changed environment. That the wild pansy does not change at once when planted in garden soil, and yet in the course of genera * It would be very interesting to know how natural selection" (to the action of which, as everybody knows, Prof. Weismann constantly appeals) could have caused this plant to perform actions which, if not self-sacrificing (and there must be some expenditure of energy), are at least so disinterested. No doubt the Professor has an hypothesis to produce, though he only says (p. 392) here that "it would be out of place to discuss here the question." towards the completion of the new buildings urgently required for physiology, on condition that the work is undertaken forthwith. The Financial Board has accordingly recommended a scheme by which this can be effected. The alliance between mental science and physiology which this gift represents is a bright feature of Cambridge studies at present. extraordinary piece of good fortune. The sum of £100,000 has THE University of St. Andrews is to be congratulated on an been bequeathed to it by Mr. David Berry, who died last September. Mr. Berry was a native of Cupar, Fife, and in 1836. went to Australia, where he ultimately inherited the estate of his brother, Dr. Alexander Berry. The latter had been a student of the St. Andrews University, and at the time of his death it was understood that he had left an unsigned will bequeathing a quarter of a million to his alma mater, but giving permission to his brother David to carry out the provisions as he might think proper. The legacy will not come into the possession of the University until 1894. In addition to the botanical appointments named last week, the following are announced from Russia :-Prof. Faraintzin having resigned his post of Professor of Botany in the University of St. Petersburg. Prof. Borodin has been appointed in his place. M. W. Palladin succeeds the late Prof. Pitra as Professor of Botanical Anatomy and Physiology in the University of Charkow; and is himself succeeded in the Botanical Chair in the Agricultural Academy at Nowo-Alexandria by M. Chmielewski. M. W. Rothert has been appointed Lecturer on Botanical Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Kasan. A IN the November number of the Kew Bulletin a curious correspondence is printed which illustrates very well the nature of some of the duties undertaken by the Kew officials. Towards the end of December 1876, Dr. Hooker received from the Colonial Office a letter inclosing a despatch in which the Governor of Labuan suggested that it might be well to promote in Labuan the cultivation of the African oil palm. long correspondence followed, the result of which was that full and accurate information as to the palm oil industry was obtained from the Gold Coast, and transmitted to Labuan. Palm oil nuts were also obtained, and in due time planted in the fertile island of Daat, where no fewer than 700 healthy trees were soon raised. It recently occurred to Mr. Thiselton Dyer to make inquiry as to the later history of this interesting experiment. A despatch from the Acting Governor of Labuan to the Colonial Office, dated August 1, 1889, and forwarded to Kew, closes the correspondence. It is as follows:-"As reported in Mr. Treacher's despatch No. 72, of August, 26, 1878, it appears that 700 of these palms were raised in the island of Daat, and in due time produced nuts. No attempt, as far as I am aware, was ever made to manufac ture any oil from the nuts, and last year the palms were all removed to make room for cocoa-nut trees. Daat, a dependency of this colony, is private property, and I venture to suggest that, should any further information be required by Mr. Thiselton Dyer, he should apply to the owner, Dr. Peter Leys, who is now in England, and who would no doubt be glad to supply it. The experiment, so far as I am in a position to judge, was a success." THE authorities of the Royal Gardens, Kew, are always glad to aid any dependency of the Empire in introducing and establishing any new plant which promises to serve as the foundation of a new industry. The documents relating to the oil palm in Labuan show how much work may be involved in the carrying out even of a simple scheme of this nature, and how disappointing the results may be. "The enterprise," says the Bulletin, "is suggested; it is considered; a plan for carrying it out has to be matured; all the necessary incidental information has to be collected; and then the plan is carried into execution. Sometimes it fails the first time, and then a second attempt has to be made, and so on till success is secured. All that then remains is to wait for the result; and this, in any appreciable shape, will in most cases not be reached for years. But in the interval Governors and officials change. It may be, though it is not always so, that the ardour with which the experiment was launched evaporates with the individual whom it inspired. A new Colonial Government régime may regard with apathy and even hostility the work of its predecessor, and the whole enterprise may fail into oblivion till some chance inquiry on the same subject leads to the digging out of the 6's of papers containing its record from the Kew archives." THE remaining contents of the Kew Bulletin relate to Pay! loxera regulations at the Cape, Ramie or Rhea, and the collecting and preserving of fleshy Fungi. THE Manchester Field Naturalists' Society has formed a special committee, with Mr. Leo Grindon, the President of the Society, as botanical referee, and Mr. C. J. Oglesby, as convener, for the purpose of determining which trees, shrubs, and flowers will succeed in the squares and streets of the city. The opinion prevails that, notwithstanding the unfavourable clima: conditions, several forest trees, climbers, and hardy plants won': grow if special care were taken in planting and tending them. The planting of the quadrangle at Owens College, of the infirmary esplanade (in the centre of the town), and of seven!i churchyards, has been attended with success. THE following money-grants have been lately made by the Berlin Academy of Sciences :-£75 to Prof. Brieger, for continuation of his researches on the ptomaines; £60 to Dr. Krabbe, for investigation of the Cladoniacea of the Hartz; £30 to Dr. von Dankelmann, for utilization of meteorologica observations at Finschhaven in New Guinea; £20 to Dr Assmann, for measurements of air-temperature on the Santis: £100 for publication of Prof. G. Finsch's work on Torpedine ~; £50 for publication of a memoir by Dr. Heiden, on the development of Hydrophilus piceus; £100 to Dr. Strehlmann, ir Zanzibar, for prosecution of his faunistic researches in East Africa; £125 to Prof. Lepsius, of Darmstadt, for preparation of his geological map of Attica; £50 to Prof. Conwentz. for investigation of silicified wood in the island of Schonen: £75 to Dr. Fleischmann, of Erlangen, for researches in development; and the same to Dr. Zacharias (Silesia), for micro-faunistic studies. THE first meeting of the one hundred and thirty-sixth session of the Society of Arts will be held on Wednesday, November 20, when the opening address will be delivered by the Duke of Abercorn, Chairman of the Council. Before .Christmas there will be four ordinary meetings, in addition to the opening meeting. The following arrangements have been made:November 27, Dr. J. Hall Gladstone, F.R.S., "Scientific ani Technical Instruction in Elementary Schools"; December 4, Dr. Armand Kuffer, "Rabies and its Prevention"; December 11, Mr. H. Trueman Wood, "The Paris Exhibition"; December 18, Sir Robert Rawlinson, "London Sewage." A NOVEL and interesting application of science to art may now be seen at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition, where M Watts Hughes shows specimens of what she calls "* VOLE figures" (Catalogue, No. 723). These are practically Chladinis figures produced in a viscid medium. Semi-fluid paste is spreal on an elastic membrane stretched over the mouth of a receiver. A single note "steadily and accurately sung " into the receiver throws the paste into waves and curves. The patterns for me! are either photographed immediately after production, or are transferred as water-colour impressions while the membrane is still vibrating. Fanciful names, e g. “wave, line, flower, tree, fern," are given to these; the effect, especially in transparencies, is very beautiful. Some of the forms would repay the study of physicists as well as of artists; the most interesting are perhaps the "daisy forms," in which we are told that "the number of petals increases as the pitch of the note which produces them rises." The apparatus employed is not exhibited, and the descriptive label is not very clear, but we understand that Mrs. Hughes would be most pleased to explain the matter to anyone scienti fically interested in it: her address is 19 Barnsbury Park, N. |