answered on purely geological grounds, within not very wide limits of probability. If, for example, we ask how far to the eastward the known coalstrata may extend under the Vale of York, a reasonable answer is furnished by Mr. Hull and the Government Commission. The whole great coal deposit, extending from Bradford to Nottingham, passes under the magnesian limestone, and may be found for at least a few miles in breadth within attainable depths. It passes under a part of the Vale of York, probably south of the city. But before attempting to give a practical value to this opinion, it may be well to remember that, fully tried, the experiment would be too costly for individual enterprise, while if successful it would benefit more than a county; and that not only a large outlay must be provided for it, but arrangements made for persevering through several years in the face of many difficulties, and perhaps eventual disappointment. Still, sooner or later the trial must be made, and geology must direct the operation."

In a paper on the ethnology of Yorkshire, Dr. John Beddoe made some amusing practical observations. He said, "The breadth of the head is on the average somewhat greater in Yorkshire than in other parts of Britain; so we are informed by the hatters. In this the natives of Yorkshire agree with those of Denmark and Norway, who have rather broader heads than those of Sweden and of Friesland. As to the colours of the eyes and hair, the latter is on the whole lighter in Yorkshire than in most parts of England, but dull rather than bright shades prevail. In the east, at Whitby, Bridington, and Beverley, in Teesdale and Middle Airedale, light hair is particularly abundant; in Craven, as might have been expected, it is less so. As to the stature and bulk of the people, he had much and accurate information, through the kindness of numerous observers, some of them of repute as naturalists. The general result is," said Dr. Beddoe, "that in the rural districts they are remarkably tall and stalwart, though not, except in parts of the west, so heavy as their apparent size would indicate; but that in the towns, and especially in Sheffield, they are rapidly degenerating; and he concluded from the Haworth report that the same is the case in the manufacturing villages. In few parts of Britain does there exist a more clearly marked moral type. To that of the Irish it has hardly any affinity; but the Scotchman and the Southern Englishman alike recognize the differences which distinguish the Yorkshire character from their own, but are not so apt to appreciate the numerous respective points of resemblance. The character is essentially Teutonic, including the shrewdness, the truthfulness without candour, the perseverance, energy, and industry of the Scotch, but little of their frugality, or of the theological instinct common to the Welsh and Scotch, or of the imaginative genius, or the more brilliant qualities which sometimes light up the Scottish character. The sound judgment, the spirit of fair play, the love of comfort, order, and cleanliness, and the fondness for heavy feeding are shared with the Saxon Englishman; but some of them are still more strongly marked in the Yorkshireman, as is also the bluff independence a very fine quality when it does not degenerate into selfish rudeness. The aptitude for music was remarked by Giraldus Cambrensis seven centuries ago; and the taste for horseflesh seems to have descended from the old Norsemen, though it may have been fostered by local circumstances. The mind, like the body, is generally very vigorous and energetic, and extremely well adapted to commercial and industrial pursuits, as well as to the culti

vation of the exact sciences; but a certain defect in imaginative power must be admitted, and is probably one reason, though obviously not the only one, why Yorkshire until quite modern times was generally behindhand in politics and religion, and why the number of her sons who since Cadmon have attained to high eminence in literature is not above the average of England." Professor Allman delivered an address on the present aspects of biology and the method of biological study. He dwelt at length on the doctrine of evolution, because it has given a new direction to biological study, and must powerfully influence all future researches; and whether we do or do not accept it as firmly established, it is at all events certain that it embraces a greater number of phenomena and suggests a more satisfactory explanation of them than any other hypothesis which has been yet proposed. He did not, however, wish to shut his eyes to difficulties in the way of accepting it when carried to the extreme length for which some of its advocates contend, and he regarded as the chief of these the unbroken continuity of inherited life which it necessarily requires through a period of time whose vastness is such that the mind of man is utterly incapable of comprehending it. But even though we admit all these difficulties, it still remains as a working hypothesis, which, like certain algebraic fictions, may yet be of inestimable value as an instrument of research. For as the higher calculus becomes to the physical inquirer a power by which he unfolds the laws of the inorganic world, so may the hypothesis of evolution, though only an hypothesis, furnish the biologist with a key to the order and hidden forces of the world of life; and what Leibnitz and Newton and Hamilton have been to the physicist, is it not this which Darwin has been to the biologist? But even accepting as a great truth the doctrine of evolution, he would not attribute to it more than it can fully claim, for there remains a residual phenomenon still, unaccounted for. No physical hypothesis founded on any indisputable fact has yet explained the origin of the primordial protoplasm, and, above all, of its marvellous properties, which render evolution possible-in heredity and in adaptivity, for these properties are the cause and not the effect of evolution. For the cause of this cause we have sought in vain among the physical forces which surround us, until we are at last compelled to rest upon an independent volition, a far-seeing, intelligent design. Science may yet discover, even among the laws of physics, the cause it looks for, but all this is only carrying one step back in the grand generalization. All science is but the intercalation, each more comprehensive than that which it endeavours to explain, between the great primal cause and the ultimate effect.

In the Geographical Section Mr. Clements Markham strongly advocated further Arctic exploration with Government aid. The event, he said, which, during the present year, has added most powerfully to the arguments in favour of an Arctic Expedition by way of Smith Sound, is the news of the remarkable success of Captain Hall's Expedition. That intrepid explorer sailed in a wooden river gun-boat of 387 tons, without the aid of naval discipline or of experienced officers, and with a crew consisting partly of Esquimaux and their wives. Yet, during the month of August, 1871, he sailed up the long strait or channel, the entrance to which is alone called Smith Sound, and reached a latitude of 82° 16' N. This is the most northern point that any vessel has ever yet reached. Here the little steamer was beset, but there was a water horizon to the north-east,

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and this point had been attained without check or obstacle of any kind Captain Hall died during the winter, and has the glory of finding a final resting-place in the midst of his discoveries. A current of about a knot an hour carried the vessel out into Baffin's Bay, and disasters followed, which are exclusively referable to the organization of the expedition, and would no have occurred to a ship commanded by naval officers and manned by man-ofwar's men. On this point, after the experience of the " Polaris," Mr. Robeson, the American Secretary of the Navy, is fully in accord with all English Arctic authorities. He says, "There is little of either success or safety in any trying, dangerous, and distant expedition which is not organized, prosecuted, and controlled under the sanctions of naval discipline. voyage of the "Polaris" is very encouraging. We know now that a mere river steamer of small power passed up Smith Sound, without any check, for a direct distance of 250 miles. If she could make such a voyage without difficulty, it may fairly be anticipated that a properly equipped expedition, consisting of powerfully-built steamers thoroughly adapted for ice navigation, would do more. Another most important feature in this voyage is the fact that the "Polaris" was safely drifted out into Baffin's Bay from a high northern position in the strait. This proves that the current keeps the ice in motion, and carries it south, thus preventing any long interruption of navigation. A third feature in the voyage of the Polaris" is that at the winter quarters in 81° 38′ N. the climate was milder than it is further south, and animal life abounded, including musk oxen. This account corroborates that of Dr. Hayes, who was able to supply his men with plenty of fresh provisions in the less hospitable region near the entrance of Smith Sound, A Government Expedition, with properly organized hunting parties, will thus be able to obtain considerable supplies of fresh meat, and thus add to the prospect of keeping the men in health and vigour. These considerations add force to the already convincing arguments in favour of Arctic exploration by a naval expedition. All disasters of late years have been due to expeditions being equipped by private persons without proper means, and without the advantage of naval discipline. Thus none of the brave Americans who have attempted to explore Smith Sound have even been sailors, and Dr. Kane's vessel was so badly equipped that his crew was actually living on salt meat. But, in a well-supplied vessel, under naval auspices, the Arctic regions have proved to be of all seas visited by men-of-war the most healthy. It is to increased knowledge in naval hygiene, to the attention paid to the cleanliness, warmth, and ventilation of the ships, to the good quality of the provisions, and, above all, to the preservation of discipline and cheerfulness among the crews, that this immunity from sickness is due. In ten expeditions engaged in the search for Sir John Franklin, out of 1878 men the percentage of deaths was only 1.7. This is lower than on any other naval station, and proves that the risk from climate and accidents, which is run during an Arctic Government Expedition, is not greater than that which the "Challenger" will incur during her cruise round the world.

The subject of the origin of life, which came prominently into notice in our last year's scientific summary, was taken up by Professor B. Sanderson, who read a paper entitled "Remarks on Professor Huizinger's Experiments on Spontaneous Generation." He said the controversy upon Dr. Bastian's celebrated infusions had now waxed so warm that the advocates upon each

side had received distinguishing names, the party of Dr. Bastian being termed heterogenists, and the opponents of his theory physiologists. The former were continually making new experiments, and the låtter were continually showing that the proofs derived from those experiments would not hold water. He was ready to admit that Bastian had produced bacteria from infusions of turnip and cheese exposed to a temperature of 212° Fahrenheit; but he had already published experiments, undertaken by himself, which proved if the boiling of the liquids were made to occur under pressure, that on cooling no trace of living matter occurred in the liquids after standing even for months. Huizinger-who was a disciple of Bastian on this question-had experimented upon another mixture consisting of peptone, a substance prepared by the action of albumen on gastric juice, and another mixture intended to be more stable than cheese, which Dr. Bastian used. Instead of flasks with capillary necks, he employed porous porcelain plate as stoppers in his flasks, the object being to exclude all germinal matter and yet allow air to enter. He found that after boiling these infusions for ten minutes, and then allowing them to stand for two or three days, a plentiful crop of bacteria was always produced. The author had now submitted the mixtures mentioned by Professor Huizinger to the same test that he had applied to Dr. Bastian's mixtures-namely, boiling under pressure and he had found again that no bacteria was produced; and to confirm his observation he had added a drop of distilled water—which was well known to contain bacteria-to one of the infusions, and in a quarter of an hour a plentiful crop resulted, proving that the liquid was quite capable of supplying the nourishment necessary for bacteria, had they been generated. He was far from agreeing with those who looked upon the believers in spontaneous generation as scientific heretics, but he was compelled to say that, so far as his experiments had gone, spontaneous generation had not been proved.

Of all the papers read before the British Association this year, none were more important than that of Professor Ferrier, on the localization of the functions of the brain. He pointed towards the realization of a surmise which men of science had long cherished, though mistaken modes of verifying it had been from time to time attempted. Almost from the time when it was established that the brain, as a whole, is the organ of feeling, of thought, and of voluntary motion, it became manifestly probable that each of these functions has its especial seat in the nervous tissue, and that their partial operations might also be localized in a similar manner. On this question, however, the researches of anatomists were almost wholly fruitless. They showed that the brain consisted of two kinds of material- -a grey substance, which was found spread over the surface of the hemispheres, and collected here and there into masses in the interior, and a white substance, fibrous in its character, which lined the grey matter of the hemispheres, and surrounded the masses within. A variety of evidence, partly experimental, partly derived from the actions of the lower animals, and partly from the observation of disease, proved that only the grey matter originated action, and that the function of the white fibres was to establish communication between different parts of the whole. Between nervous action and electricity there is a resemblance nearly approaching to identity, and the grey matter was early compared to a galvanic battery and the white to the conductors proceeding

from it. In the lower animals, as they rose in the scale of intelligence, the brain was found to become larger relatively to the bulk of the body, and also more complicated in structure; and an increased amount of superficial grey matter was gained by the surface being intersected by deep grooves, which marked out convolutions of corresponding prominence. In man the whole bulk of the brain, the complexity of its several parts, and the size and definite character of the convolutions reached their highest point; and in all these particulars, as a general rule, cultivated races and gifted individuals were believed to surpass savage races and the ordinary mass of mankind. At this point, however, inquiry was arrested; and a German anatomist, who devoted thirty years of his life to the dissection of human brains in the hope of throwing some light upon the functions of their several parts, committed suicide in his laboratory in despair at the fruitlessness of his researches. Dr. Gall in this country, and Spurzheim in Germany, attempted to find the solution of the problem in another way, by tracing out some relation between the shape and development of the brain, as exhibited by the shape and development of the head, and the varieties of individual capacity and character. They started with the assumption that clever men have not only fully-developed heads, but also fully-developed foreheads; and they placed the "intellectual qualities " in the front portion, the "moral qualities" in the middle portion, and the "animal propensities" towards the back of the head. Their mistakes and contradictions became notorious, however, and Lord Jeffrey's articles in the Edinburgh Review for the time extinguished its pretensions. A revival took place about five-and-twenty or thirty years ago, and the theory was again much discussed till it received its coup de grâce at the hands of Dr. Carpenter, who showed, in an elaborate essay-first, that the configuration of the outside of the skull bore no necessary relation to that of the brain; secondly, that in ascending the animal scale the first appearance of the hemispheres of the brain was as a rudiment of the anterior lobes, that the middle and posterior lobes were gradually superadded, and that the latter attained their full development only in man; so that the hypothesis that the anterior lobes were the seats of the intelligence and the posterior lobes of the animal propensities was one which could not be sustained; thirdly, that the phrenologists, in their professedly complete system, left out of account more than half of the grey matter that of the opposed surfaces of the two hemispheres, and that of the base of the brain. Dr. Carpenter then put forward his own view, which was that the masses of grey matter towards the base of the brain were the centres of sensation and motion, that the hemispheres were the organs of thought, and that in this capacity they did not act in isolated portions, but as a whole. This view was maintained by many ingenious arguments, and for a long time it commanded the general assent of physiologists. Of late years, however, much attention has been directed to the parts which have been found diseased after death in persons who have exhibited definite symptoms during life; and in this way evidence of the localization of function in different portions of the hemispheres has gradually been accumulated. M. Broca announced that, in a disorder called aphasia, or loss of the memory and power of utterance of words, a certain convolution of the left side was frequently affected; and Dr. Hughlings Jackson has been able on several occasions to predict from symptoms the precise situation of morbid action. Still, in many instances, the ordinary