All extinct Paridigitata follow the first or inadaptive mode of reduction, whilst all living genera follow the second. Did the former not become extinct because of their incapacity to adapt themselves to altered circumstances, and the latter survive from being able to adapt themselves more fully to those circumstances? From an examination of fossil remains, it is found that the Paridigitates, of the genus Hyopotamus, were Selenodonta of the inadaptive line of descent, inheritance in them being stronger than modification. Among the Bunodonta following the inadaptive method, the old representatives are but little known, Listriodon and Elotherium being the most certain, and the latter apparently didactylate. Following the adaptive method, among the Selenodonta are Charotherium, Paleochorus, and the Swine, and the culminating or most reduced stage is not yet reached among the Suina, but it is certainly the direction in which they tend. Among the Bunodonta there is great difficulty in tracing the line of descent whence originate the Ruminantia. From the existence of Hyamoschus we may predict that they were originally tetradactylate, and there are many other intermediate condi ions, as Tragulus and Gelocus. 'Magnetic Survey of Belgium in 1871." By Rev. S. J. Perry. The magnetic observations which furnished the results contained in this paper were made during the Autumn months of 1871. The instruments used and the methods adopted were almost identical with those employed in previous magnetic surveys of France. The dip was observed by Mr. W. Carlisle, magnetic assistant of Stonyhurst Observatory, and the rest of the observations were taken by the Rev S. J. Perry. This new series of determinations of the terrestrial magnetic elements was rendered the more necessary, as preceding observers had chosen very few stations in Belgium, and as the curvature of the isodynamics and isoclinals in Dr. Lamont's maps of Belgium, Holland, and North-west Germany, indicated a very cons derable disturbing cause in the first-named country. The values obtained in 1871 are a strong confirmation of the suspicions of irregularity, to which former observations had given rise. For although the lines of equal dip, declination, and horizontal force bear a sufficiently close resemblance to those of neighbouring countries, there is evidence of much disturbance; and when the valves of the dip and horizontal force are combined, the isodynamics show clearly that the coal-measures, which stretch completely across the south east portion of Belgium, exercise a strong disturbing influence. This local magnetism might be incapable of producing more than a decided curvature of the isodynamics of an extended tract of country; but when all the stations of observation are situated within narrow limits, the perturbation completely masks the normal direction of the lines. The following is a complete list of the magnetic elements observed at the different stations, and reduced to the common epoch of January 1, 1872. Mr. Henry W. Piers, late acting curator of the South African Museum, Capetown, containing remarks on a specimen of the Chimera australis.-Mr. E. Blyth exhibited and made remarks on some Tiger Skins from India, Burmah and Siberia.-A communication was read from Mr. R. Meldola, containing remarks on a certain class of cases of variable protective colouring in insects. -A communication was read from Mr. G. Gulliver, F. R.S., containing a series of measurements of the Red Blood Corpuscles of various Batrachians.-A paper was read by Dr. A. Günther, F.R.S., containing an account of certain species of Reptiles and Batrachians, obtained by Dr. A. B. Meyer in Celebes and the Philippine Islands.-A communication was read from Mr. A. G. Butler, containing a monographic revision of the genera Zephronia and Sphærotherium of the sub-order Myriopoda, together with descriptions of some new species of these genera. A communication was read from Mr. G. French Angus, containing descriptions of eight species of Land and Marine Shells from various localities.-Messrs. P. L. Sclater and Osbert Salvin read the sixth of a series of papers on Peruvian Birds, collected by Mr. H. Whitely, in the Andes of Peru. The present communication contained an account of eighty species, collecte principally at Cosnipetz, in the province of Cuzco.-A communication was read from Mr. H. Whitely, containing notes on the Humming Birds collected and observed by him in the Andes of Peru. -A communication was read from Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., on the genus Ocadia, which he considered should be referred to the family Bataguridæ. Chemical Society, February 6.-Dr. Williamson, F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair.-A communication was made by Dr. H. E. Armstrong "On the action of Sodium on Aniline."A paper on " Anthrapurpurine," by Mr. W. H. Perkin, was then read by the author. Anthrapurpurine is a colouring matter which accompanies alizarine in the crude "artificial alizarine, now so largely manufactured and employed in dyeing instead of madder. Like alizarine it is capable of imparting brilliant and fast colours to cloth mordanted with alumina or iron.-A paper was also read by Dr. C. R A. Wright on "Isomerism in the terpene family of hydrocarbons." In it he gives an account of his experiments with oil of nutmegs and oil of orange-peel. Anthropological Institute, Feb. 4.-Col. A. Lane Fox, vice-president, in the chair.-Mr. W. L. Distant read a paper on the inhabitants of Car Nicobar." The people of Car Nicobar are taller than the average Malay, and darker in the colour of the skin. Their faith in a good spirit is slight, and in an evil spirit, which is invested with a personality, is strong. Their honesty is so well known that traders at once deliver their stores on the promise of these islanders to pay the necessary number of cocoanuts in return; and the promise is always fulfilled. They take but one wife, and adultery is severely punished.—A paper by Mr. J. E. Calder was read on the extirpation of the native tribes of Tasmania." The author who had had the advantage of above forty years' experience of the Tasmanians, entered very fully into their physical and mental characteristics, habits, customs, and modes of warfare, and the causes which led to the rapid extinction of all the tribes. They were intelligent, capable of considerable culture, and showed every disposition to become civilised; but the abundant supply of food induced indolence, which, together with the sudden and violent change of habit from savage to civilised life was one of the chief causes of extinction. The chairman announced the appointment of a Committee of Psychological Research. Entomological Society, January 27, Annual Meeting.Professor Westwood, president, in the chair. Statement of treasurer's account for 1872 read, and report of council.-Professor Westwood was re-elected as president for 1873, Messrs. S. S. Saunders, G. H. Verrall, C. O. Waterhouse and J. J. Weir, new members of council; Mr. McLachlan as treasurer; Messrs. F. Grut and G. H. Verrall, secretaries, and Mr. E. W. Janson as librarian. he president delivered an address on the progress of entomology during the past year. Geologists' Association, Feb. 7.-The Rev. T. Wiltshire, M.A., the retiring president, in the chir. -Henry Woodward, F.G.S., was elected president for 1873; and Robert Etheridge, F.R.S.. Prof. Morris, F.G.S., James Thorne, F.S. A., Messrs. W. and the Rev. T. Wiltshire, M. A., vice-presidents. Hislop, J. L. Lobley, and A. Bott were re-elected treasurer, honorary secretary, and honorary librarian respectively. The report for the year 1872 shows the association to be in a flourishing state, and was unanimously adopted. MANCHESTER Literary and Philosophical Society, Dec. 24, 1872. -The president, Dr. J. P. Joule, F. R.S., drew attention to the increasing number of cases of hydrophobia. There was every reason for believing that this dreadful disorder was communicated from one animal to another by a bite, and seldom, if ever, was spontaneously developed. Inasmuch therefore as the effects of a bite nearly always occurred within four months, it would only be necessary to isolate all dogs for that period in order to stamp out the disease. That was the opinion of Dr. Bardsley, whose elaborate paper will be found in the fourth volume of the Memoirs of the Society, and probably gave rise to the practice of confining dogs at certain periods of the year, which has unfortunately been rendered to a great extent nugatory in consequence of having been only partially adopted. SCALE T b Jan. 7. The president referred to the great loss which the Society had experienced by the death of one of its most distinguished honorary members, Dr. Rankine; called away in the prime of life, his loss is one of the most severe that could have befallen science.-Mr. William H. Johnson called attention to the action of sulphuric and hydrochloric acids on iron and steel. If after immersion for say ten minutes in either of these acids a piece of iron or steel be tested, its tensile strength and resistance to torsion will be found to have diminished. Exposure to the air for several days, or gentle heat will, however, completely restore its original strength. Prolonged immersion in acid has a tendency to produce a crystalline structure in even the best wrought iron. January 21.-The president explained a simple apparatus by means of which a very high degree of rarefaction of air could be produced with much facility, and which might in some circumstances be found preferable to the common airpump or even the Sprengel. It consists of a glass funnel a surmounting a globe b, from the lower part of which a tube c descends to a jar of mercury d. The tube in connection with the receiver to be exhausted, is furnished with a vulcanised india. rubber plug which fits into the neck of the funnel. In using the apparatus the stopcock f is shut and the funnel filled with mercury. Then by lifting the tube e with its plug, the mercury fills the globe b and the pipe c. The tube e is then replaced, and the stop-cock being opened, the mercury descends in c, emptying the globe. By returning the mercury into the funnel by means of a pump, or more simply, by lifting the jar d, the process is repeated until the requisite degree of rarefaction is produced. a PARIS Academy of Sciences, Jan. 27.-M. de Quatrefages, president, in the chair.-M. A. Trecul read the second part of his paper on the carpellary theory of the Papaveraceæ. This portion of the paper treats of Glaucium and Eschscholtzia.-M. Boussingault read a note on alimentary substances preserved by cold. The author exposed several articles of food to a temperature of - 20° for several hours in closed flasks; this was in 1865. The substances are now perfectly sound and free from putrefaction. -M. Th. Lestiboudois read the continuation of his paper on the structure of the Heterogena.-M. Marès read a note on the vine sickness characterised by Phylloxera. The paper was referred to the commission on that subject.-A letter from M. I. Pierre on the determination of the boiling point of liquid sulphurous anhydride was then read. The method consists in introducing a thermometer, through a pierced cork, into a thin tube containing the anhydride. Another hole in the cork holds an exit tube; the apparatus is then suspended in the air, the SO, begins to boil, and the thermometer is then read. -M. Faye presented M. Heis's "Atlas cœlestis novus," and made some quotations from it on the number of stars visible to the naked eye; the author can see many stars put down by other astronomers as of the 7th or 8th magnitude.-M. L. d'Henry read a paper on the use of the mono-chromatic The sodium light in observing the tints of litmus in alcalimetry. author finds that this reaction is much more easily seen by the yellow light.-M. Ch. Valson sent a note on the modulus of refrigerating power in saline solutions. -MM. C. Friedel and R. D. Silva sent a note on a new tertiary alcohol, &c.; M. H. Joulie a note on the commercial estimation of nitrates; and MM. Gayon one on the spontaneous alteration of eggs: the author finds the putrid eggs full of vibriones; he intends to seek for the origin of these bodies.-M. Gréyhant sent a note on the estimation of carbonic oxide combined with hæmoglobin.-M. F. Pisani sent a paper on the analysis of Jeffersonite from New Jersey, and on the analysis of Arite from Mount Ar (Basses Pyrénées).-M. S. Chautrain sent a paper on the reproduction of eyes in the crayfish. The author has cut out the eyes of the crustacean, and finds that they grow again in about eleven months. DIARY THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13. ROY AL SOCIETY, at 8.30.-On Curvature and Orthogonal Surfaces: Prof. SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES, at 8.30.-On a Brass Bowl of the 11th century: ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, at 8. - Anniversary. ROYAL INSTITUTION, at 9.-On Recent Progress in Weather Knowledge: R. H. Scott. QUEKETT CLUB, at 8. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17. LONDON INSTITUTION, at 4.-Physical Geography: Prof. Duncan. COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, at 4.-Osteology and Dentition of Extinct Mammalia, with their Geological and Geographical Distribution, &c.: Prof. Flower (Hunterian Lectures) TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18. ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, at 8.-Note on the Macas Indians: Sir John Lubbock, Bart.-On the Relation of the Parish Boundaries in the South ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY, at 8.30.-Report on the Hydroida collected during East of England to Great Physical Features: William Topley. the Expeditions of H.M.S. Porcupine: Prof. G J. Allman.-On Egithognathous Birds: W. K Parker.-Notes on the Anatomy of the Binturong (Arctictis binturong): A. H_Garrod. ROYAL INSTITUTION, at 3.-Forces and Motions of the Body: Prof. Rutherford. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19. SOCIETY OF ARTS, at 8. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1873 Session of Parliament, to make provision for the preservation of certain national monuments, which has now been read a first time. The means adopted for dealing with THE PRESERVATION OF OUR NATIONAL this somewhat difficult subject appear to us well calculated for producing the desired result, and in a manner which even those who consider they have a right to destroy any monuments on their own property, cannot but regard as equitable. The conservation of monuments such as barrows, dolmens, menhirs, earthworks, stone-circles, &c., is placed by the Bill under the charge of a body of Commissioners, consisting of the Inclosure Commissioners, the Master of the Rolls, the Presidents of the Societies of Antiquaries of London and of Scotland, the Keeper of the British Antiquities at the British Museum, and three other Commissioners to be nominated by the Crown. Under their We have only to refer to any archæological work which treats of our cromlechs and dolmens, and other megalithic monuments, to see at once how fearfully many of them have been mutilated, if they have not been absolutely destroyed within the last century or two. The disappear-charge are placed certain monuments specified in a Scheance of the monolith near Kit's Coty House, which, though fallen in Stukeley's time, was still there to mark what was then known as the general's grave; the hopeless confusion into which the "Countless Stones," also near Aylesford, have been thrown; the cairns within the circle, known as Long Meg and her Daughters, which, since Camden's time, have vanished, while the Daughters appear to have been reduced in number from 77 to 68; the double row of immense stones near Shap, the destruction of which has been so great that a village has been almost entirely built out of their remains ;-these are but a few examples of this kind culled at random from Fergusson's Rude Stone Monuments." It was, moreover, only last year that a portion of Avebury, a monument perhaps only second in importance to Stonehenge, was threatened, and was only saved for posterity by the public-spirited liberality of Sir John Lubbock, who purchased the site. With barrows and earthworks the destruction has been equally rapid, though less noticed. We have, however, seen an expostulation in the Times on the subject of the vallum of an ancient circular camp being converted into bricks, and the threatened destruction of Cæsar's Camp at Wimbledon is still a matter of public interest. It is, perhaps, rarely the case that these monuments are destroyed in a merely wilful manner; it is usually from economical motives. The barrows offer a mound of soil well adapted for being carted away to give a top dressing to some neighbouring field, and there is also the secondary advantage, that their site, after the removal of the mound, offers no impediment to the passage of the plough. The stones of the megalithic monuments offer supplies of material both for the purposes of building and the repair of the neighbouring roads. As it was with "the Egyptian mummies, which Cambyses or Time had spared and which Avarice now consumeth," so it is with these rude monuments of our forefathers. When the belief was strong that "Mizraim cured wounds," there was some excuse for "mummies becoming merchandise," and "Pharaoh being sold for balsams;" but to dress our fields with the sepulchral mounds of our predecessors, and to break up their monuments for the repair of our barns and roads, seems to us what Sir Thomas Browne would have stigmatised as a worse than "irrational ferity." It is with a view to preventing such barbarisms that Sir John Lubbock has introduced a Bill in the present No. 173-VOL. VII. dule attached to the Bill; but, with the consent of the Treasury, other monuments of a similar kind may, at any future time, be brought under their control. When once this has been done, any injury or damage to the monuments will be treated as a malicious injury and become penal, unless the written permission of the Commissioners has been obtained, or they have declined to purchase either the monument itself, or a power to restrain the owner or occupier of it from injuring it during a certain period of years. Powers are given to the Commissioners to purchase the freehold, or other estate, in any monument and rights of way for the public to it, as well as to exercise the power of restraint from injury. The amount of compensation to be awarded under either head is to be determined under the provisions of an already existing Act of Parliament; but in all cases the consent of the Treasury will be necessary before there can be any outlay of public money. These are the main provisions of the Bill, but the necessary clauses with regard to notices, powers of access, conservation of monuments, and other matters, have not been omitted, and have evidently been carefully considered. The Schedule attached to the Bill is at present apparently undergoing revision, but about eighty of the principal prehistoric monuments of the United Kingdom are already specified. It appears to us that it would be wise for the local societies in our different counties to furnish Sir John Lubbock with catalogues of the principal monuments in their respective districts, such as in their opinion ought to be placed under the protection of the Commissioners, so as to make the list as complete in the first instance as possible, and avoid the necessity of making continual additions to it. The mere fact of a barrow, dolmen, or camp, being thought of sufficient importance to be cited by name in an Act of Parliament would tend to raise it in the respect of the inhabitants of the surrounding country, and in most cases suffice to preserve it from wanton injury. The general spread of education will also do much to encourage a regard for our national antiquities, of which, notwithstanding neglect in the past, we have still a fair number to show. Let us do what we can to preserve them ere it be too late, and not let posterity charge the present generation with neglect, should at some future time a greater interest arise in these relics of a dim past, and it then be R found that of monuments now extant all that can be said pointing out that the cardinal fact brought to light when will be "Etiam periere ruinæ." In France it is certainly the case that where a building or other ancient structure is "classé comme monument historique," it is regarded with some degree of pride and affection by those who live near it, and the necessary expenses for the preservation of such monuments do not appear to be grudged. In this country, also, what small expense the Treasury might incur in the defence and preservation of our national monuments would, we are sure, be cheerfully met; but we are inclined to think that it will only be in rare and exceptional cases that any outlay whatever, beyond, perhaps, the expense of a few notices, will be necessary. Among the multitude of private Bills brought in at the commencement of a Session, it is not always that the doctrine of the "survival of the fittest" applies. In this instance, however, we trust that the Bill will be exposed to neither neglect nor mishap. It is supported by members on both sides of the House; it does not appeal to Party, but to the patriotism of the whole nation, and it is brought in under the auspices of a member whose reputation as an archæologist, though great throughout the country, is exceeded by his popularity as the author of the most successful measure of private legislation in modern times-the Bank Holiday Act. HERBERT SPENCER'S PSYCHOLOGY The Principles of Psychology. By Herbert Spencer. Second Edition. (London: Williams and Norgate.) I. To give readers some idea of the contents of a good book is very often the most useful thing a reviewer can do. Unfortunately that course is not open to us in the present instance. The subject is too vast. We cannot exhibit the grandeur; we can only in a few general phrases express our admiration of the profound, allembracing philosophy of which the work before us is an instalment. The doctrine of evolution when taken up by Mr. Spencer was little more than a crotchet. He has made it the idea of the age. In its presence other systems of philosophy are hushed, they cease their strife and become its servants, while all the sciences do it homage. The place that the doctrine of evolution has secured in the minds of those who think for the educated public may be indicated by a few names taken just as they occur. Mr. Darwin's works, the novels of George Eliot, Mr. Tylor's "Primitive Culture," Dr. Bastian's "Beginnings of Life," and Mr. Bagehot's "Physics and Politics," have almost nothing in common but the idea of evolution, with which they are all more or less imbued. In a word we have but one other thinker with whom in point of influence on the higher thought of this, and probably of several succeeding generations, Mr. Spencer can be classed it does not need saying that that other is Mr. J. S. Mill. As we cannot present such an outline of Mr. Spencer's system of psychology as would make it generally intelligible, the purpose of directing attention to the work will perhaps be best served by selecting as the subject of remark one or two points to which the presence of the controversial element may lend a special interest. After nervous action is looked at entirely from the objective point of view, is, that the amount and heterogeneity of motion exhibited by the various living creatures, are greater or less in proportion to the development of the nervous system, Mr. Spencer comes to the vexed question of the relation between nervous phenomena and phenomena of consciousness. This is a subject about which in its more subtle aspects there is much uncertainty and some confusion of thought. It may be taken as established that every mode of consciousness is a concomitant of some nervous change. Given certain physical conditions accompanied by a special state of consciousness, and there is every reason to believe that physical conditions in every respect identical, will always be attended by a similar state of consciousness. This, and not more than this, we think, was intended by Mr. Spencer in his chapter on Estho-physiology. Nevertheless, several able men have, it would appear, been led to suppose that he countenances a kind of materialism (not using the word to imply anything objectionable, for why not be materialists, if materialism be truth ?), which forms no part of his philosophy. To give precision and emphasis to what we say, we would take the liberty to refer to the position taken up by Dr. Bastian in his remarkably able and` important work on the " Beginnings of Life." The expression that definitely raises the issue of which we wish to speak, and which at the same time fixes Dr. Bastian to a view not in harmony with the teaching of Mr. Spencer, is the following:-"We have not yet been able to show that there is evolved, during brain action, an amount of heat, or other mode of physical energy, less than there would have been had not the Sensations been felt and the Thoughts thought;" but he believes that this is the case. Our present object is not so much to show that here speculation has got on a wrong track, as that, if we understand Mr. Spencer, it is not his opinion that anything of this kind takes place; though certainly some ambiguous phrases might be held to convey this meaning. We have mentioned the significant fact that the size of the nervous system holds a pretty constant relation to the amount and heterogeneity of motion generated. The implication is that none of the motion evolved during nervous action disappears from the object world, passes into consciousness in the same sense that physicists speak of momentum passing into heat; that whether consciousness arise or not, there will be for the molecular motion set up in the nerve substance, exactly the same mechanical equivalents. Whether, for example, those ganglia that in the body of each one of us are employed in carrying on what we call reflex action, are so many distinct seats of consciousness, like so many separate animals, an idea for which much has been said, or whether the nervechanges that go on in these ganglia have no subjective side; in either case the objective facts will remain the same. If consciousness is evolved, it is not at the expense of a single oscillation of a molecule disappearing from the object world. No doubt it is hard to conceive consciousness arising in this apparently self-created way; but if any suppose that by using phrases that would assimilate mind to motion they ease the difficulty, they but delude themselves. It is as easy to think of consciousness arising out of nothing, if they will, as to conceive it as manufactured out of motion; that is to say, the one and the other proposition are alike absolutely unthinkable. On this point Mr. Spencer writes, "Can we think of the subjective and objective activities as the same? Can the oscillations of a molecule be presented in consciousness side by side with a nervous shock, and the two be recognised as one? No effort enables us to assimilate them. That a unit of feeling has nothing in common with a unit of motion, becomes more than ever manifest when we bring the two into juxtaposition." Mr. Spencer's idea is that feeling and nervous action are two faces of the same ontological something,-a view that prohibits the notion of the one passing into or being expended in producing the other. The conclusion is that the transformations of physical energy remain unaffected by the presence or absence of consciousness. Psychology has as yet been made a serious study by only a few individuals. Accordingly it is only the more striking and easily grasped peculiarities of Mr. Spencer's system that can be referred to with advantage. Of these the most imposing, and the one of which the educated public have already a slight second-hand acquaintance, is the doctrine that the brain and nervous system is an organised register of the experiences of past generations, that consequently the intelligence and character of individuals and of races depend much more on this, on the experiences of their ancestors, than on their individual experiences. The flood of light thrown by this conception on so many things previously dark and unfathomable, its power of bringing about harmony where before there was nothing but confusion and unsatisfactory wrangling, ought to have been sufficient to have secured it a universally favourable reception. This, however, has not been the case, and partly, perhaps, because of the very merits that recommend it. It may be that veterans who have won their laurels on, say, the battle-field of innate ideas, love the old controversy, and are not anxious to learn that both sides were right and both wrong. Moreover, it is the misfortune of this important addition to psychology, that it shows that previous workers in this field of inquiry nave at times been labouring in the dark to solve problems like in kind with the famous difficulty of accounting for the supposed fact, that the weight of a vessel of water is not increased by the addition of a live fish. For instance, should Mr. Spencer be right, the celebrated theory of the Will, elaborated by Prof. Bain, the able representative of the individual-experience psychology, becomes a highly ingenious account of what does not happen. Thus, the new doctrine can be accepted only at the expense of giving up much of what has hitherto passed for mental science. The following sentences will serve to indicate Mr. Spencer's position: "The ability to co-ordinate impressions, and to perform the appropriate actions, always implies the pre-existence of certain nerves arranged in a certain way. What is the meaning of the human brain? It is that the many established relations among its parts stand for so many established relations among the psychical changes. Each of the constant connections among the fibres of the cerebral masses, answers to some constant connection of phenomena in the experiences of the race." "Those who contend that knowledge results wholly from the experiences of the individual, ignoring as they do the mental evolution which accompanies the autogenous development of the nervous system, fall into an error as great as if they were to ascribe all bodily growth and structure to exercise, forgetting the innate tendency to assume the adult form." "The doctrine that all the desires, all the sentiments, are generated by the experiences of the individual, is so glaringly at variance with facts, that I cannot but wonder how anyone should ever have entertained it." The circumstances which account for the existence of the individual-experience psychology, and which enable it still to hold out as a rival of the more advanced form that Mr. Spencer has given to the science are these: (1) the immaturity of the human infant at birth; (2) the lack of precise knowledge with regard to the mental peculiarities of the lower animals ; (3) the still popular notion that the human mind does not resemble the mental constitution of the animals, that it is of a different order. Of course this last is now-a-days little more than a popular superstition, nevertheless it can be taken advantage of; and an argument to the effect that the mental operations of the animals are, to all appearance, so very different from the workings of the human mind, that they can supply nothing more than a worthless, if not a misleading analogy, has a very specious and scientific look about it, in the eyes of those who are not very well acquainted with the subject. Our ignorance of animal psychology may be still more boldly drawn on in defence of the theory under consideration. With a hyper-scientific caution, its advocates refuse to take into account anything (incompatible with their theory) concerning any one species of animal that has not been proved by a very overwhelmingly large number of very accurate observations. And they find it possible to maintain that it still remains unproved that any species of animal possesses either knowledge or skill not wholly acquired by each individual. A better acquaintance with the mental peculiarities of the animals is certainly a desideratum, and we hope that this rich field of investigation will not long remain uncultivated. In Macmillan's Magazine for this month there is an account of a series of observations and experiments on young animals by the present writer, which, unless they can be discredited, may reasonably be expected to go far to establish the fact of instinct, the fact of innate knowledge and unacquired skill; in other words, the phenomena on which the experience-psychology, minus the doctrine of inheritance, can throw no light whatever. Now, had not Mr. Darwin banished from every scientific mind the hypothesis of the miraculous creation of each distinct species of animal just as we see it, with all its strange organs and, to most people, still stranger instincts, the presumption against a system of human psychology that not only can give no account of the most striking phenomena in the mental life of the animals, but which strongly inclines those who hold it to pronounce such phenomena incredible, might not have been so apparent. But in the present state of our scientific knowledge, such a psychology, professing to be a complete system, is self-condemned. In its fundamental principles the science of mind must be the same for all living creatures. Further, if man be, as is now believed, but the highest, the last, the most complex product of evolution, a system professing to be an analysis and exposition of his mind, yet confessing itself in |