testimonial was a letter in which were set forth in pretty full detail the labors of Dutch naturalists before Darwin's time and since in propagating views akin to those known as "Darwinian." The first name mentioned in the letter is that of Dr. J. E. Doornik, who in 1816 went out to Java, and spent the remainder of his life in India. In his published works he held that the various modifications in which life was revealed in consecutive times originated from one another. Doornik had no influence on the thought of his time, however, and his theories were forgotten. In 1849 was published a Dutch translation of the "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation." This work was coldly received by the representatives of natural science in the Netherlands, but found favor with the general public, and reached a third edition. Of the few Dutch scientific men who early recognized the importance of the theory of development two are named—F. C. Donders and P. Harting. The former in 1848 expressed the opinion that in the gradual change of form consequent upon change of circumstances may lie the cause of differences which we are wont to designate as species; and the latter in 1856 expressed similar views.
While visiting Utrecht in 1858, Sir Charles Lyell called the attention of the professors of the university to a paper by Wallace, in the Journal of the Linnæan Society, and announced as forthcoming a work by Darwin ("The Origin of Species") which could not fail to make some noise. Harting soon after declared himself a partisan of the development hypothesis, and in this he was followed by another professor in the same university (Utrecht), Miguel, Professor of Botany. In the mean time "The Origin of Species" had been translated into Dutch by F. C. Winkler. The Darwinian views were now enthusiastically adopted in the Netherlands, especially by the younger scientific men, under the lead of Emil Selenka, then Professor of Zoölogy at Leyden. Gröningen and Amsterdam were not tardy in following the lead of Utrecht and Leyden; in short, the Darwinian theory of development was very generally accepted throughout the Netherlands, and Dutch translations were published of "The Descent of Man" and "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals," both by Dr. Hartogh Heys van Zouteveen. In his reply to this letter, Mr. Darwin expresses his "obligation for the very interesting history contained in it of the progress of opinion in the Netherlands with respect to evolution, the whole of which is quite new to me."
Ignorant Enterprise.—The black-slate beds of Pennsylvania have again and again lured sanguine coal-hunters to loss of time, labor, and money. In that State it is the black slate that plays the "will-o'-the-wisp" to the eager searcher after hidden wealth; elsewhere it is iron pyrites being mistaken for gold, or quartz for diamonds; and where natural deposits of wealth are out of the question, men dig into the ground in search of treasure supposed to have been buried by famous buccaneers or noted misers. Prof. Persifer Frazer lately told, at a meeting of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, the story of one of these searchers for mineral wealth. A farmer of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, had a dream, in which he became aware of the existence of a "treasure" in a certain field. On repairing to the spot he began to dig, and "at the first stroke of the spade," as he says, "black dirt was turned up, and at a short distance below the surface coal was found equal," in the opinion of persons supposed to be experts, "to the best Lykens Valley coal." To work the vein, a tunnel 330 feet long was cut at considerable cost. The "coal" was sent to Prof. Frazer for analysis; it was pronounced to be black slate, with a small percentage of carbon, and that chiefly graphite. It is one of the principal objects of a geological survey to save people from making mistakes like this of the Franklin County farmer.
Production of Near-Sightedness in Schools.—The effects of school-life, in producing near-sightedness in the pupils, have for some time been made the subject of systematic study by Dr. C. R. Agnew, of New York. In a recent address before the Medico-Legal Society, he stated the results of an investigation made in various schools of Cincinnati, New York, and Brooklyn. The number of students examined was 1,479, of
