CONTENTS OF No. LVI. ART. 1. OUR SIX-FOOTED RIVALS II. THE ATMOSPHERE CONSIDERED IN ITS GEOLOGICAL RELA- 456 III. ON SCIENTIFIC METHOD. By M. M. Pattison Muir, F.R.S.E. 476 IV. CORNISH CHINA CLAY. By James Quick. .500 V. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PHENOMENA OF ONTOGENESIS IN 512 NOTICES OF SCIENTIFIC WORKS. Darwin's "The Effects of Cross- and Self-Fertilisation in the Darwin's "The Various Contrivances by which Orchids are Fertilised by Insects." Williams's "Through Norway with Ladies." Hobson's "The Amateur Mechanics' Practical Handbook." Unwin's "The Elements of Machine Design: an Introduction to the Principles which Determine the Arrangement and Proportions of the Parts of Machines, and a Collection of Rules for Machine Design." 532 536 537 543 Nicholson's "The Ancient Life-History of the Earth, a Comprehensive Outline of the Principles and Leading Facts of Paleontological Science." 543 544 Crespigny's "A New London Flora, or Handbook to the Botanical . PAGE 548 Smith's "Ferns, British and Foreign; the History, Organography, Classification, and Enumeration of the Species of Garden Ferns, with a Treatise on their Cultivation." . 549 "Narrative of the North Polar Expedition. U.S. Ship Polaris, 552 Verifier's "Scepticism in Geology, and the Reasons for it." 559 Bosanquet's "A Treatise on the Trisection of an Angle of Thirty 560 SCIENTIFIC NOTES. Including Proceedings of Learned Societies at Home and Abroad, and Notices of Recent Scientific Literature. THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. OCTOBER, 1877. I. OUR SIX-FOOTED RIVALS. ET us suppose that, having no previous acquaintance with the subject, we were suddenly informed, on good authority, that there existed in some part of the globe a race of beings who lived in domed habitations, aggregated together so as to form vast and populous cities, -that they exercised jurisdiction over the adjoining territory, laid out regular roads, executed tunnels underneath the beds of rivers, stationed guards at the entrance of their towns, carefully removed any offensive matter, maintained a rural police, organised extensive hunting expeditions, at times even waged war upon neighbouring communities, took prisoners and reduced them to a state of slavery,—that they not merely stored up provisions with due care, to avoid their decomposition by damp and fermentation, but that they kept cattle, and in some cases even cultivated the soil and gathered in the harvest. We should unquestionably regard these creatures as human beings who had made no small progress in civilisation, and should ascribe their actions to reason. If we were then told that they were not men, and they were in some places formidable enemies to man, and had even by their continued molestations caused certain villages to be forsaken by all human occupants, our interest would perhaps be mixed with some little shade of anxiety lest we were here confronted by a race who, under certain eventualities, might contest our claim to the sovereignty of the globe. But when we learn that these wonderful creatures are insects some few lines in length our curiosity is cooled; we are apt, if duly guided by dominant prepos sessions, to declare that the social organisation of these beings is not civilisation, but at most quasi-civilisation,— that their guiding principle is not reason, but "instinct," VOL. VII. (N.S.) 2 H or quasi-intelligence, or some other of those unmeaning words which are so useful when we wish to shut our eyes to the truth. Yet that ants are really, for good or evil, a power in the earth, and that they seriously interfere with the cultivation and development of some of the most productive regions known, is an established fact. A creature that can lay waste the crops of a province or sack the warehouses of a town has claims upon the notice of the merchant, the political economist, and the statesman, as well as of the naturalist. Many observers have been struck with the curious mixture of analogies and contrasts presented by the Annulosa and the Vertebrata. These two classes form, beyond any doubt, the two leading subdivisions of the animal kingdom. To them nineteen-twentieths of the population of the dry land, both as regards individuals and species, will be found to belong, and even in the world of waters they are largely represented. At the head of the Vertebrata stands the order of the Primates, culminating in man. At the head of the Annulosa the corresponding place is taken by the Hymenopterous insects. It is very remarkable-as first pointed out, we believe, by Mr. Darwin-that these two groups of animals made their appearance on the earth simultaneously. But along with this analogy we find a contrast. Man stands alone among the Primates as a socially organised being, possessing a civilisation. Among the Hymenoptera the lead is undoubtedly taken by the ants, which, like man, have a brain much more highly developed than that of the neighbouring inferior groups. But there is no one species of ant which enjoys a pre-eminence over its congeners anything at all approaching in its nature and extent to man's superiority over the gorilla or the mias. What may be the cause of this contrast we know not. Perhaps it is merely due to the tendency of the Annulosa to branch out into a scarcely numerable host of forms, whilst the vertebrate structure, less plastic, lends itself more sparingly to variation. Perhaps, on the other hand, lower human or higher ape-forms than any now existing have been extirpated, as the traditions of many ancient nations would seem to admit. At any rate, whilst the superiority of the ants as a group to the remaining Hymenoptera, to all other insects, and to the rest of the annulose "sub-kingdom" is undisputed, we are unable to decide which species of ant is elevated above the rest of the Formicide family. Possibly more extended and more systematic observations may settle this interesting question. According to our present knowledge the claims |