Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 65.djvu/573

Rh less continuously in action throughout the world as a whole. Their operations, in fact, arc essential to the existence of a land surface, for in their absence all rocks projecting above the sea would be worn away, and the globe would become enveloped in one continuous ocean. Notwithstanding these facts, and though they have been the object of prolonged study, no theory as to the cause of the movements has commanded universal acceptance. While some hold that the shrinking of the globe by cooling and the efforts of the crust to adapt itself to the shrinking interior are the prime causes, others maintain that the scale on which folding and overthrusting in the crust have taken place is out of all proportion to the shrinking that can be attributed to such a cause. During the meeting the collections of fossils and rocks in the new Sedgwick Museum, adjoining the hall in which the section's proceedings took place, were open and largely visited by members.

Questions of heredity and experimental breeding were prominent in the proceedings of Section D as w T ell as in the president's address. Exhibits were included, thus Miss Saunders showed a selection of stocks; Mr. Bateson, fowls and sweet peas; Mr. Darbishire, mice; Mr. Hurst, rabbits; Mr. Staples-Browne, pigeons; Mr. Doncaster, the Aleraxas moth; Mr. Locke, maize; and Mr. Biffers, wheat. Professor H. F. Osborn gave a lantern lecture on the evolution of the horse, and Professor J. C. Ewart and Professor W. Ridgeway described their investigations on the same subject. Professor Ewart's Celtic ponies, to which allusion was made, were on view in the court adjoining the Sedgwick Museum of Geology. Professor E. B. Poulton, of Oxford, delivered an address on the mimetic resemblance of Diptera for Hymenoptera, and Professor Gary N. Calkins, of Columbia University, one on the germ of smallpox. Other subjects having medical as well as strictly zoological interest were accounts of miner's worm and cancer research. Professor C. S. Minot, of Harvard University, read papers on regeneration, telegony and the Harvard embryological collection.

Before the Geographical Section there were several popular illustrated lectures, one on the work of the Scottish Antarctic Expedition, by Mr. W. S. Bruce, its leader; one by Mr. Silva White, on the unity of the Nile Valley, and one by Dr. Tempest Anderson, on the Lipari Islands and their Volcanoes.

The next section in the alphabetical order. Economic and Social Science, also contained a good many popular addresses and papers. The topic for special discussion was the housing of the poor by municipalities, but free trade and protection were naturally prominent in view of the present national interests.

The sections for engineering and physiology were the most technical in the character of their discussions. In the latter Sir John Burdon-Sanderson opened an important discussion on oxidation and functional activity, or the relation between oxygen and the chemical processes of animal and plant life. Experimental psychology was included under physiology. In botany Professor H. Marshall Ward and Professor Jakob Eriksson, of Stockholm discussed recent work on the biology of the fungi, especially the uredineae, and Dr. F. F. Blackman gave an account of his experimental researches on the assimilation and respiration of plants. In a paper of general interest Lord Avebury discussed the forms of stems of plants, showing that they anticipated engineering work in the economical use of the strength of materials.

The establishment of a Section of Education has added considerably to the popular interest of the meetings. Among the subjects under discussion were school leaving certificates; the national and local provisions for the training of teachers, and manual instruction in schools. Discussions took place on the reports of committees; one