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"The brightest only of the three lines usually present was certainly seen. The second line is probably also present. I suspected a faint continuous spectrum at the preceding edge of No. 386" (the f nebula).

TRANSITS OF JUPITER'S SATELLITES.

Dec. 4th. II. shadow in transit, 6h. 2m. to 8h. 51m. II. egress, 6h. 15m.-7th. I. ingress, 7h. 54m.-9th. I. shadow egress, 6h.-11th. II. ingress, 6h. 4m., shadow ditto, 8h. 39m. -16th. I. shadow in transit, 5h. 37m. to 7h. 56m. I. egress, 6h. 42m. IV. will be in transit while the planet is visible.-21st. III. shadow ogress, 7h. 45m.-23rd. I. ingress, 6h. 21m., shadow, 7h. 33m.-28th. III. egress, 7h. 16m.29th. II. shadow egress, 6h. 1m,

OCCULTATIONS.

Dec. 8th. B.A.C. 830, 6 mag. 8h. 2m. to 8h. 10m.-9th. f Tauri, 4 mag. 3h. 18m. to 3h. 43m.-11th. 130 Tauri. mag. 8h. 49m. to 9h. 24m.-13th. 5 Cancri, 6 mag. 11h, 29m. to 12h. 31m.-28th. B.A.C. 7097, 6 mag. 3h. 49m. to 4h. 49m.

6

TERMITES, OR WHITE ANTS, IN INDIA.

BY CAPT. R. C. BEAVAN, C.M.Z.S.

In a tropical climate like that of India, it is well known what numbers of destructive creatures, of all sorts and kinds, are rapidly generated in the warmth, and prove, more especially to the naturalist, a source of the greatest trouble and annoyance. Amongst the worst of these may perhaps be classed the Termites, or White Ants; and I propose to give a short account of what seems to be a beneficent provision of nature in the process by which at times they are nearly annihilated. Working in the dark as they do, and always hidden under cover, for they invariably form an exterior tunnel of mud under which to operate when they find it necessary to cross some hard substance that they cannot penetrate (such as iron, or the brick walls of one's house), it is not easy to imagine how they can possibly

be got at or destroyed by their natural enemies; nor, indeed, could they, were it not for the fact that, at a certain stage of existence, the majority of them are obliged to leave their secure underground retreats, and to take to the winged state. It is generally of a dry, calm evening,* frequently after rain, that from various crevices in the walls or stone flooring of the verandah myriads of unwinged white ants are seen to issue, as if forming both the escort and advanced guard of the grand army which, provided with wings, are about to follow. The toads, Bufo melanostictus, and frogs (Sp. incog. nobis) are on the look out for the former, and immediately congregate near the spot. Again and again is the tongue darted out, at every sweep clearing off several; and there they will stay and continue to feed, until their bloated appearance proclaims that they are full to repletion; when, suddenly, out come the winged host, which, rising with fluttering wings into the air, are met by birds and bats innumerable, and few escape. the occasion referred to, we noticed the following birds of some twelve different species making sad havoc amongst the winged white ants which were rising from our verandah. Usually rather wild, on this occasion they were perfectly fearless and tame; and the perpetual snap-snap of their beaks whilst hovering in mid-air, and the sudden disappearance of every white ant that rose beyond a certain height from the ground, was a curious sight to see. The birds observed on this occasion were:-1st, the black-headed oriole, Oriolus melanocephalus; 2nd, the common king crow, Dicrurus macrocercus; 3rd, the tree-pie, Dendrocita rufa; 4th, the magpie robin, Copsicus santaris; 5th, actually a small owl not usually diurnal in its habits, Athene Brahma; 6th, the common babbler (or "seven brothers" of the natives, because they generally associate in that number), the Malacocircus terricolor of naturalists; 7th, the scarlet-vented bulbul, Pycnonotus pygæus; 8th, the common grey-necked crow, or jackdaw of India, Corvus splendens; and we think we also observed the green bee-eater, Merops viridis; whilst higher up in the air might be seen the common pariah kite, Milvus govinda, and the Brahmin kite, Haliastur Indus, swooping down on those unfortunates which escaped the birds at lower elevations. In addition to these may be mentioned the common Indian swift, Cypselus affinis, and, in fact, all birds which feed on insects would, we imagine, readily do the same. As it gets dark, the ants increase in number, and the birds, already filled to repletion, gradually go off to their roosting-places, and it seems as if they (the ants) were going to escape after all. But just at this moment another more terrible enemy makes * The following notes were made at Barrackpore, on the 8th November, 1864.

its appearance. The air is suddenly filled with bats of all sizes; backwards and forwards they shoot without any intermission, and so eager are they in pursuit of their prey that we have frequently caught them in a butterfly net by simply holding it out from the top of the house. As may be imagined, these foes grant but little quarter, until the whole winged cloud of white ants is totally annihilated. Scarcely one has escaped to found a new colony; and, as night closes over the scene, they seem to be aware that wings are after all of little

use.

Another note regarding them. We have frequently, of an evening, observed what seemed to be water-beetles in our tank and others in the neighbourhood. They kept spinning round and round like a Catherine-wheel, disturbing the water within a radius of fourteen inches. Occasionally one was taken down by a fish, or the species of skipping-frog, so ably described by Dr. Adams in his "Naturalist in India," page 16, would suddenly rush out from the bank, seize one, and devour it. Determined to secure one of these beetles, one evening, for our English correspondents, and being, moreover, rather puzzled as to why we only saw them spinning round of an evening, we made a capture, and, to our no small disgust, discovered that they were only winged white ants which had fallen into the water. The reason they are only seen of an evening is of course explained by the fact that white ants only come out in the winged state during that time.

LITERARY NOTICES.

THE DARWINIAN THEORY OF THE TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES, EXAMINED BY A GRADUATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. (Nisbet and Co).-Cambridge has not been successful with her “Graduate" who wrote this silly and impudent book. He has learnt nothing of the art of thinking, though he has made some progress in the trick of logic chopping, and in no part of his volume do we trace any symptom of his understanding the theory he undertakes to confute, and if, as we believe, he deserves to escape from the charge of wilful misrepresentation, his acquittal will be founded upon the evidence that he does not know enough of scientific facts and arguments to be competent to give an intelligible and accurate account of any important scientific work. His book begins with a statement purely and obviously erroneous, that "in Mr. Darwin's theory the idea of design in every form of organic life is steadfastly denied, and it is asserted that all existing plants and animals have been produced by slow changes, without any plan or intention, from some antecedent forms." This wrongheaded passage may perhaps be considered as tantamount to the assertion that there can be no plan or design in the creation of plants and animals subject to modification under fixed laws, for that is all that Darwinism implies. The "Graduate" is not original in this illogical notion, he has simply followed the practice of a class of persons who continue to find heresy in all science they do not understand, and who appeal-as the Graduate does-to what they term " common sense," as a convenient substitute for the accurate knowledge they have not the inclination or the capacity to acquire. Darwin's view on this subject is plain from the concluding remarks of his well-known work, in which, alluding to his theory, he says "there is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or one, and that while this planet has gone cycling on, according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning, endless forms, most beautiful, and most wonderful, have been, and are being evolved." The theory of Darwin rests upon probabilities, which may be strengthened or overthrown, but whatever its ultimate fate in the belief of mankind, it does not touch the question of design or no design, in the manner supposed by the "Graduate," because no amount of action through secondary causation can render less probable the existence of a primary cause. On the contrary, if the operation of those forces, which are called secondary causes, can be shown to have led to harmonious and admirable results through long cycles of ages, the quantity of evi dence in favour of plan and design is largely increased. An atheistic philosophy, no doubt, requires some physical theory of the production of organized beings, and it may, though not necessarily, adopt a scheme of development and hereditary succession with variation. If an animal sprang suddenly out of the earth, or were formed by a rapid concourse of atoms before our eyes, the spectacle, though contrary to experience, would not, in reality, be more won

derful than the methods of production we are accustomed to by the development of a minute germ, nor could its appearance be a greater proof of design.

A good deal of the "Graduate's" logic chopping is devoted to an attempt at showing that Mr. Darwin admits the existence of species as permanent entities, while he is arguing against them. Quoting a plain passage, in which Mr. Darwin speaks of the more permanent varieties leading to sub-species, and species, he exclaims, "Well, then, permanency is, by Mr. Darwin's own showing, the attribute of species," although the passage in question contains no word to that effect, and the whole tenor of Mr. Darwin's book is to show that what are called species are subject to change. This shallow, flippant mode of treating a grave subject would have justified our taking no notice whatever of the "Graduate's" book, but although thoughtful arguments against Darwinism would be valuable contributions to a very difficult discussion, and would be welcomed by thinkers on both sides, it is time to put a stop to mere impertinence on such important themes.

In page 57 the "Graduate" gives a conspicuous instance of his habitual, though we have no doubt unintentional misrepresentation. Speaking of a well-developed tail-an organ he might possess with advantage, if it were prehensile enough to grasp an argument, or an idea-he exclaims "How formed? By natural selection, of course, for the theory allows no other formative power." Had he looked at, and been capable of understanding, a sentence in the "Origin of Species," 8th edit., p. 91, he would not have made this blunder, and probably would not have written his book.

At the place cited, Darwin says:-" Several writers have misapprehended, or objected to the term natural selection. Some have even imagined that natural selection induces variability, whereas it implies only the preservation of such variations as occur and are beneficial to the being under its condition of life." In page 115 the "Graduate" exclaims with that amusing self-confidence which crass ignorance permits to grow in egotistical minds, "Let, then, Mr. Darwin say what he likes, when animals cannot anywhere be discovered before a certain point in the geological series, it will be believed that their non-appearance is owing to their non-existence, and it will also be believed that when we first find them in a certain geological formation, that they then first began to exist. This is the opinion of a crowd of other geologists, and is the deduction of common sense"! These things will no doubt be "believed" by those who have been erroneously led to suppose that geologists have been able to examine a complete series of strata, corresponding with the successive groups of organized beings which have existed upon the earth. Students, however, who have had any opportunity of acquiring scientific knowledge on this subject, will be aware that the geological record, as at present known, consists only of imperfect fragments of a gigantic work, of which the missing chapters appear to have been much longer than those which have been recovered, and they will, instead of falling into the errors of the “ Graduate,"

VOL. XII.-NO. V.

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