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 during those two months. The plan is intended to accommodate the large number of persons of all ages who feel the desirableness of an outline acquaintance with geology, and who might be able to devote two months to the study, while their convenience does not permit them to lake an entire geological course, or to keep the study in hand six months or a year. Simultaneously with the elementary course, two advanced courses will be set on foot during the months named; one of these courses will be Lithological, and the other Paleontological. Prof. Alexander Winchell will have the general direction of this special school of geology, with numerous assistants, among whom are Prof. James Hall, Prof. Burt G. Wilder, and Prof. Edward D. Cope. The school opens on Tuesday, January 25th.

The Value of Vivisection.—The question of vivisection was the subject of an address by Dr. William Rutherford, at the last meeting of the British Medical Association. Physiology, he observed, is an experimental science. Apart from experiments which are the result of artifice, disease and accident are constantly bringing about conditions which partake of the nature of experiments, and are sometimes of great physiological significance. Still, this teaching of disease and accident leads us but a short way, and the pursuit of physiological truth by their aid is often an uncertain, devious, and complicated method. Dr. Rutherford effectively contrasted the very imperfect and indirect theoretical method of physiological instruction in the past with that by demonstration and experiment in the present time. No one can doubt for a moment that the reasoning, critical faculties are truly educated where men are trained to see and examine for themselves the experimental evidence on which physiological knowledge rests. Dr. Rutherford holds that definite, critical knowledge of animal mechanism cannot be attained unless students be shown experiments on living animals.

Prolific Peaches.—At a meeting of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Mr. Meehan exhibited some branches of peach, in which the young fruit were in twos and threes from one flower. They were from the Chinese double-flowering kind. He remarked that, as is well known, plants with double flowers are rarely fertile. Either the stamens are wholly changed to petals, or the less vital conditions which always accompany this floral state are unequal to the task of producing perfect pistils. Vitality, however, he observed, is more or less affected by external conditions, independently of the mere structure of organs, and this was well illustrated by the remarkable fertility of the peach last season. This abounding vitality had evidently extended to the double peaches, and had influenced the development of the female organs to an unusual extent. These facts have an interest in botanical classification. Lindley removed the cherry, plum, peach, and their allies from the Rosaceæ, chiefly because they had but a single free carpel, and grouped them as Drupaceæ. The production of two and three carpels in this case shows the true relation, and it might be of use to those interested in "theories of descent."

Stability of Chinese Civilization.—In accounting for the wonderful cohesion of the great Chinese Empire, the Prussian traveler Von Richthofen says that the causes of this phenomenon are manifold. First, the pitiless extermination of such tribes as the Man-tse. Then the complete fusion of uncultured races with the civilized Chinese, from which has resulted an homogeneous people, with one language, the same manners, and the same traditions. But above all stands the fact that Chinese civilization is indigenous. In Europe, civilization is the result of the efforts of several nations, and has been attained only at the cost of much strife and sacrifice, one people transmitting to another its hard-earned advantages. But in China civilization was developed in more orderly fashion, and is the product of the genius of a single people. The Chinese have very rarely come in contact with neighboring peoples, nor have they borrowed from the Hindoos any thing save Buddhism, and that has certainly been of no advantage to the nation. For 4,000 years they have faithfully preserved the religious and political principles set forth in the decrees of the Emperor Yan, and, though again and