return of the glacial age. We may suppose an opposite case. The high plateau of Greenland might subside or be reduced in height, and the openings of Baffin's Bay and the North Atlantic might be closed. At the same time the interior plain of America might be depressed, so that, as we know to have been the case in the Cretaceous period, the warm waters of the Mexican Gulf would circulate as far north as the basins of the present American Lakes. . . . . The effects would be to enable a temperate flora to subsist in Greenland, and to bring all the present temperate regions of Europe and America into a condition of subtropical verdure.

....

Those who wish to become thoroughly acquainted with this subject should read Sir William Dawson's remarks in extenso. Further on, we learn something of the wide distribution and notable permanence of "our familiar friend the oyster." These creatures first appear in the carboniferous strata of Belgium and the United States of America; here they are few and small, but they culminate in the Cretaceous age. Sir William Dawson has found fossil oysters in Western Canada, in England, in the Alps, in Egypt, in Judea, on the heights of Lebanon: the species being different, yet very similar. The oyster is merely an example of many forms. These considerations "show that the forms of living things are more stable than the lands and seas in which they live." He seems to think the oyster may be a hard nut for evolutionists to crack—a point upon which we pronounce no opinion.

On the question of the geological permanence of the Atlantic Ocean, he is disposed to think that, as it probably existed in somewhat similar conditions in the very early ages of the earth's history, so it will remain as it is for ages to come; but he says the subject is "too much involved in uncertainty to warrant us in following it further."

Chemical Elements and "Protyle."-Among the addresses of the Presidents of Sections, one that attracted notice from men of science was that of Mr. Crookes in the Chemical Section.

For the most part highly technical, it requires a thorough know. ledge of chemistry to follow the thread of its argument properly. But we may briefly say that Mr. Crookes suggests a hypothesis that all the chemical elements, as we now know them, were perhaps evolved from some original primal matter which he calls protyle ["from po (earlier than) and in (the stuff of which things are made")]; he supposes the very beginnings of time, "before the earth was thrown off from the central nucleus of molten fluid, before even the Sun himself had consolidated from the original protyle." He imagines "an ultra-gaseous state," "a temperature inconceivably hotter than anything now existing in the visible universe." Then, as the temperature of the cosmic protyle was gradually reduced, what we now call elements came into existence, one after another— first hydrogen, or perhaps helium, then other less simple elements. He observes, however, that "this building up, or evolution, is above all things not fortuitous; the variation and development which we recognize in the universe run along certain fixed lines which have been preconceived and foreordained. To the careless and hasty eye

design and evolution seem antagonistic; the more careful inquirer sees that evolution, steadily proceeding along an ascending scale of excellence, is the strongest argument in favour of a preconceived plan." In another place, he makes this noteworthy remark:The epoch of elemental development is decidedly over, and I may observe that, in the opinion of not a few biologists, the epoch of organic development is verging upon its close." This was truly a thought-stirring address, and will doubtless give rise to much dis

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cussion hereafter.

Mr. G. Darwin on the Limits of Geological Time.-In the Department of Mathematical and Physical Science, Mr. George Darwin, one of the sons of the celebrated naturalist, occupied the chair, and delivered an address which deserves great consideration. It is an inquiry how far astronomy and physics generally are or are not at variance with geology, as to the date of existence of organic life on the earth's surface. He says:

Great as have been the advances of geology during the present century, we have no precise knowledge of one of its fundamental units. The scale of time on which we must suppose geological history to be drawn is important, not only for geology itself, but it has an intimate relation with some of the profoundest questions of biology, physics, and cosmogony.

It appears that the late Professor Phillips, judging from the evidence of strata alone, estimated the antiquity of life upon the earth as being possibly between thirty-eight and ninety-six millions of years [a tolerably wide margin]. Mr. Darwin proceeded to discuss the theory of Mr. Croll-to which we have alluded already in our remarks on Sir W. Dawson's address-and after observing that, if true, it would throw a light on geological time, he gave reasons for considering it very doubtful. He then went on to deal with Sir William Thomson's arguments for the limitation of the vast periods of time supposed by certain geologists to have elapsed. As the result of Sir W. Thomson's teaching,

it is now generally believed that we must look for a greater intensity of geologic action in the remote past, and that the duration of the geologic ages, however little we may be able mentally to grasp their greatness, must bear about the same relation to the numbers which were written down in the older treatises on geology, as the life of an ordinary man does to the age of Methusaleh.

And yet Mr. George Darwin is far from agreeing fully with Sir W. Thomson, whom, however, he calls his great master, and of whom he speaks with profound respect. He explains Sir William's three principal arguments for limiting geological time :-First, the gradual retardation of the earth's rotation on its axis by tidal friction, from which it is inferred that the consolidation of the earth took place much more recently than 1000 millions of years ago; and he gives his reasons for differing from the conclusions sought to be drawn. Secondly, the secular cooling of the earth; and here, while he admits the great force of Sir William's argument, he states that there are some elements of uncertainty which greatly modify his

acceptance of it. Still less can he follow Professor Tait, who cuts down the limit of time since the cooling of the earth to 10,000,000 years. The third argument, which Mr. Darwin thinks by far the strongest, "depends on the amount of radial energy which can have been given out by the sun," supposed to have been concentrated (in the distant past) from a condition of infinite dispersion. Sir William Thomson has calculated that probably the sun has not illuminated the earth for 100 millions of years-almost certainly not for 500 millions of years; yet even here he shows there is some uncertainty. On the whole, however, he says we are justified in following Sir William Thomson as far as this conclusion, arrived at by him, "the existing state of things on the earth, life on the earth, all geological history, showing continuity of life, must be limited within some such period of past time as 100,000,000 years." suspect that the figure last cited does not represent Sir William's final and matured opinion; for if it did, few modern geologists would complain of such a limit.

It was a matter of general regret that Sir W. Thomson was not present on this occasion to defend his position. Moreover, we could not help feeling somewhat disappointed that Sir Robert Ball (Astronomer Royal of Ireland), who was present, did not use the opportunity of saying a few words in support of his own opinion on one portion of the above-mentioned subject-as stated in his brochure entitled "A Glimpse through the Corridors of Time."

There were other Presidential addresses, involving various matters of interest, but our space does not allow us to dwell upon them. There were also important papers read, followed by discussions, in some of the sections.

In the Geological Section it was stated that a flint implement had been found in North Wales (appositely enough in Flintshire) embedded in a stratum evidently deposited before the last glacial period. This was relied upon as indicating the existence of man in Britain at that remote age; 100,000 years are imagined to have elapsed since the termination of the last glacial epoch, but it is to be remembered, in connection with what has already been stated with reference to Mr. Croll's theory, that the date of the glacial periods is involved in considerable doubt, so that, granting all that is alleged with regard to the flint implement, we must still remain uncertain how far it carries us back in point of time.

A paper was read in the Biological Section by Mr. Seebohm, controverting the views lately put forth by Mr. Romanes on the subject of physiological selection, and a discussion ensued. Mr. Romanes himself (as was the case with so many other leading biologists) was absent, and consequently unable to speak for himself. We think we are correct in stating that the general opinion was unfavourable to his theory. An additional weight was perhaps thrown into the scale of adverse opinion by an article from the pen of Mr. Wallace, which had just appeared in the September number of the Fortnightly Review. Mr. Wallace, as is well known, was one of the principal founders of the theory of Natural Selection, and

he is not disposed to surrender it even to the limited extent required by Mr. Romanes. One can scarcely help smiling at the style of argument sometimes used in defending the Darwinian theory; one of Mr. Romanes' difficulties is the "inutility of specific characters." Mr. Wallace is disposed to deny the fact, and seems to maintain that all such distinctive characters have some use; Mr. Darwin had allowed that the principle of protective colouring failed in the case of the rabbit, whose upturned white tail is conspicuous both to sportsmen and to beasts of prey. Mr. Wallace, however, replies that the white tail serves as a useful guide for one rabbit (and especially for the young) to follow another in a straight line to the burrow, when alarmed, in the dusk of the evening. On the general question at issue, we shrink from pronouncing an opinion; no one is qualified to do so without having a technical and experimental knowledge of biology. We incline, however, to think that the theory of Natural Selection has had a shake from which it will not recover. We will, however, hazard the following suggestion. If we consider that the idea of spontaneous generation (as it was once called), or abiogenesis, has been now exploded by the experiments of Pasteur and Tyndall, and that it is generally admitted that life never now arises excepting from previously living organisms, it is clear that there was once a time when a different law was in operation, and inorganic matter passed somehow into organic life. If this creative law (so to term it) once in force has now ceased to be so, probably other laws have also ceased to act, and the law which regulated the origin of species and of genera may now no longer exist. A remark (above mentioned) by Mr. Crookes points in this direction. If this be as we have suggested, it is in vain for biologists to attempt to explain by laws now in operation all the difficult problems presented by the facts of natural history, many of which carry us back to remote ages.

We should mention that an interesting communication was made to the Mathematical and Physical Section of the Association from the Grenada Eclipse Expedition, announcing that excellent photographs had been taken of the eclipse, and successful experiments made with the spectroscope.

In the non-scientific section of Economics and Statistics, Mr. Impey, the author of "Three Acres and a Cow," read a paper advocating his theory, and stating that it had been successfully reduced to practice, in the course of which he gave details. It should be explained that he does not demand necessarily that the occupier of the three acres should be the proprietor; but he does ask for the interference of the legislature to force landlords to let the land to occupiers of this class. A paper by Lady Verney, showing the miserable condition of many of the small proprietors on the Continent, especially in France, was read by her husband, Sir Harry Verney this lady having the good taste to abstain from putting herself forward on the platform to read her paper, as some other ladies do. The Chairman (Mr. Biddulph Martin) remarked, with great judgment, that the matter could not be entirely settled either

by the bright picture drawn of his experiment by Mr. Impey, or by the deplorable state of the peasant proprietors in Auvergne and elsewhere depicted by Lady Verney, to which latter, however, he could bear testimony from his own observation. But we thought an important contribution to the discussion was made by a gentleman present, a landed proprietor, who said he himself had tried the experiment of letting small portions of land, sometimes as much as five acres, and the result had been general failure.

We can see no objection to experiments of this nature being made by those who can afford to make them, and, indeed, we highly approve the attempt; but, on the other hand, we do strongly deprecate anything like compulsory interference on the part of the State. Other papers were read on co-operative farming and co-operative societies of workmen for manufacturing purposes, some of which are said to have been very successful.

The Association is to hold its meeting next year at Manchester, under the presidency of Sir Henry Roscoe, and we saw with pleasure that the Bishop of Salford is to be one of the vice-presidents.

F. R. W.-P.

Notes of Trabel and Exploration.

Brazilian Travel. The interior of Brazil, Mr. Wells* remarks, is less known than the interior of Africa. He has himself in his present work, done much to fill this gap in our knowledge, and his lively pages, with the dainty vignette illustrations that adorn them, make us tolerably familiar with the large section of the country traversed by him. We cannot say that the picture is an attractive one; nor does it give so large a promise of future capabilities of development as might have been looked for in this great intertropical region. Its general features are rolling downs with unproductive soil and sparse vegetation, intersected by heavily timbered river bottoms rendered unhealthy by malarious exhalations. The campos, or open scantily grassed plains, alternate with cerrado, a scrubby bush, which generally covers the crowns of the hills, while the course of the lesser watercourses may be traced in deep clefts on the wide plains and slopes. Agriculture is very backward, and little attempt seems to be made to increase the productiveness of the land. The fazendas, or farm-houses, are wretchedly comfortless structures, with walls that give free admittance to the chill damp of the night air, and roofs equally pervious to the

"Three Thousand Miles through Brazil." By James W. Wells, F.R.G.S. London: Sampson Low & Co. 1886.