February-March), which was chiefly devoted to showing that the views of Mr. Francis Galton, and of Mr. Bateson in his book on "Discontinuous Variations," are erroneous; and that such variations, which are usually termed "sports," and in extreme cases "monstrosities," do not indicate the method of evolution. Darwin gave special attention to this view, and finally rejected it; and I think I have shown why it is not effective in nature. It is a view which is continually cropping up as if it were a new discovery, and a Dutch botanist, De Vries, has recently written a large work claiming that new species are produced in this manner, through what he terms "mutations." It was therefore important to show that all such methods are fallacious, and that owing to the constancy, universality, and extreme severity of elimination through survival of the fittest, such large and abrupt variations, except through some extraordinary and almost impossible concurrence of favourable conditions, can never permanently maintain themselves.

Another article (in the October issue of the same Review) on "The Expressiveness of Speech" develops a new principle in the origin of language, and brought me a holograph (and partly unintelligible) letter from Mr. Gladstone, expressing his concurrence with it. I also brought out a new edition of my "Miracles and Modern Spiritualism," containing two new chapters, and a new preface giving a sketch of the changes of opinion on the subject during the preceding half century.

In July I went with my friend Mr. William Mitten for a short botanizing tour in Switzerland. We walked a good deal of the time, and I thus had a further opportunity of examining glacial phenomena. We went to Lucerne, whence we ascended the Stanzerhorn by the electric railway, and found a very interesting flora on the summit. Then to the head of the lake, and to Goschenen, whence we walked to Andermatt; then over the Furca pass to the Rhone glacier, staying two days at the hotel; then over the Grimsel pass, where we greatly enjoyed both the flowers and the wonderful indications of glacial action, especially on the slope down to and around the Hotel Grimsel, where we stayed the night. The valley

down to Meiringen was excessively interesting, being iceworn everywhere. We stayed an hour at the fine Handeck cascade, and then, with the help of a chaise, into which two ladies hospitably received us, got on to Meiringen. Here we stayed two days, exploring the gorge of the Aar and the wonderful rock-barrier of the Kirchet, visited the Reichenbach falls, and had an excursion to Brunig, where, in some hilly beech woods, we were greatly pleased to find the beautiful Cephalanthera rubra in fair numbers and in full flower. This is one of the rarest of British orchises, having been found only at long intervals in Gloucestershire and Somersetshire. I remember, I think about fifty years ago, seeing a newly gathered specimen exhibited at the Linnean Society. Other orchises which occur at similar long intervals are the beautiful ladies slipper (Cypripedium calceolus) in some Yorkshire woods, and the strange goat-orchis (O. hircina) in copses in Kent and Suffolk. In all these cases, no doubt, the plant persists in the respective localities, but is accidentally prevented from flowering, or requires some specially favourable seasons which only recur at long intervals. We then went on to Lauterbrunnen and the Wengern Alp, where we stayed two days, botanizing chiefly among the woods and slopes near the Trummetthal. We were, however, so dreadfully persecuted by swarms of blood-sucking flies, which filled the air and covered us in thousands, piercing through our thin clothing, that we returned home some days earlier than we had intended.

In 1896 I wrote three articles. "How best to model the Earth," in the Contemporary Review (May), was a discussion of the proposal by Elisée Reclus to erect an enormous model of the globe, about four hundred and twenty feet in diameter, giving a scale about one-third smaller than our ordnance maps of one inch to a mile. It was to be modelled in minute detail on the convex side, and would therefore require to be completely covered in by a building nearly six hundred feet high, and would need an elaborate system of platforms and staircases in order to see it, while only a very small portion of it could be seen at once, and accurate photographs could only be taken of very small areas.

My proposal was to adopt the plan of Wyld's great globe in Leicester Square, many years ago, giving all the detailed features on the inside surface, while the outside could be boldly modelled in some indestructible material to show all the chief physical features, which might also be coloured in fresco as naturally as possible, and would then be a grand object seen either near or at a distance, while a captive balloon would afford a splendid view of the polar regions and of all parts of the northern hemisphere. The numerous advantages of this plan are explained in some detail, and I have little doubt that it will be realized (perhaps on half the scale) some time during the present century. The article is contained in the second volume of my "Studies."

I also wrote an article on "The Gorge of the Aar and its Teachings," as serving to enforce my papers on the "Ice Age and its Work" three years before. But my most important scientific essay this year was a paper I read to the Linnean Society on "The Problem of Utility." My purpose was to enforce the view that all specific and generic characters must be (or once have been) useful to their possessor, or, owing to the complex laws of growth, be correlated with useful characters. It was necessary to discuss this point, because Mr. Romanes had unreservedly denied it, and Professor Mivart, the Rev. Mr. Henslow, Mr. Bateson, and others, had taken the same view. I endeavoured to show that the problem is a fundamental one, that utility is the basic principle of natural selection, and that without natural selection it has not been shown how specific characters can arise. By specific is, of course, meant characters which, either separately or in combination, distinguish a species from all others, and which are found in all, or in the great bulk, of the individuals composing the species; and I have shown that it is for want of clear thinking and accurate reasoning on the entire process of species formation that the idea of useless specific characters has arisen (see "Studies," vol. i.).

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I also reviewed Copes' "Primary Factors of Evolution" and Dr. G. Archdall Reid's "Present Evolution of Man in Nature (April 16), and wrote a long letter in Nature

(January 9) on "The Cause of the Ice Age," pointing out the extreme complexity of the subject, and the fallacy of discussing the problem as if it were merely one of the amount of sun-heat received in different latitudes under differing degrees of eccentricity, as several eminent mathematicians had done. In the same issue Sir Robert Ball pointed out the same fallacy; and this affords a good illustration of the fact that specialists are usually not well fitted to arrive at the true explanation of great natural phenomena which are highly complex in their nature, and which require the consideration of a great variety of physical forces and laws in order to arrive at their causes. It is for this reason that Mr. Croll's theory is so much more satisfactory than any of the modern substitutes for it. His views were, however, spread over many different periodicals, and are often rather obscure and disconnected, while few of his recent critics appear to have studied the whole of them. I venture to think that my chapter viii. of "Island Life" gives the best connected and systematic statement of Croll's views which are to be found, and that the further explanations of essential points, and some modifications in detail, render it the completest and most rational theory which has yet been set forth. Being myself a mere outsider, neither a geologist nor a mathematician, and only an amateur physicist, none of the writers on the subject appear to have read my chapter, since I have never seen it referred to. Yet it appeals throughout to astronomical, physical, geographical, and meteorological facts, showing their actions and reactions on each other, and how they co-operated to produce the glacial epoch, as they now co-operate to bring about the strikingly contrasted climates of the eastern and western shores of the North Atlantic, and the still more striking contrasts of the Arctic and Antarctic regions.

During this summer I was invited by Dr. H. S. Lunn to go with him and his party to Davos for a week early in September, and to give them a lecture on Scientific Progress in the Nineteenth Century. As I had never been in this part

of Switzerland I accepted the invitation, and had a very pleasant time. My companion on the first part of the journey was Mr. Le Gallienne, and at Basle we were joined by Dr. and Mrs. Lunn and others. At Davos we were a large party in one of the best hotels, and our special party, who sat together at meals, included the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes and the Rev. H. R. Haweis, both talented and witty men, whose presence was enough to render almost any party a brilliant success. Mr. Price Hughes was, I think, without exception, the most witty man and one of the best companions I ever met. At breakfast and dinner he was especially amusing and brilliant, ranging from pure chaff with his old friend Dr. Lunn to genial wit and admirably narrated anecdotes. He often literally kept the table in a roar of laughter. But this was only one side of his character. He was a Christian and a humanitarian in the best sense of the words. I saw a good deal of him in private, and we often walked out together, at which times we discussed the more serious social problems of the day; and he gave me details of his rescue work in London which were in the highest degree instructive, showing that even those who are considered to be the most degraded and irreclaimable can be reached through their affections. Their degradation has usually been brought about by society, and has been intensified into hate and despair by the utterly unsympathetic and cruel treatment of our workhouses and prisons. Mr. Price Hughes gave me an account of one of these cases- -a woman who had reached the uttermost depths of drunkenness and vice, and who was besides so violent that it was dangerous to approach her. Knowing her case, a lady who was one of Mr. Hughes' chief helpers in his rescue work went to the prison to receive her on her discharge, and begged to be allowed to go to her cell and take her with her. She was assured it was not safe, that she would be instantly attacked, and perhaps seriously injured. But the lady insisted, and at length was allowed to try, with several of the strongest female warders at hand to assist or rescue her from one whom they described as an utterly irreclaimable wild beast. Mrs. entered without