swer? Or suppose we accept the doctrine of evolution and natural selection—does that, when we come right down to the facts as revealed in these 15,000 forms of fishes and all other organic forms, solve all the difficulties for us, or enable us to solve them? Does evolution alone enable us to account for the wonderful diversity of form, to say nothing of the scarcely less wonderful diversity of size, among these numerous vertebrates—especially when we remember that thousands of the most diverse forms have always been under essentially the same physical conditions?
Is there any rational explanation that we can yet give of such a form and structure as those exhibited in the torpedo (Fig. 4), in the sawfish and the hammer-head shark (Fig. 7), the chimæra (Fig. 9), the remora (Fig. 25), or the lamprey (Fig. 31)?
Is it not true that we have much yet to learn before we can give a satisfactory explanation of the wonderfully diverse forms in the animal kingdom, or even in a single group like that of fishes?
| THE OBSERVATORIES OF ITALY.[1] |
By Professor G. RAYET.
IN the course of my journey in Italy, I visited successively the observatories of Palermo, Naples, Rome (that of the Roman College as well as that of the Capitol), Florence, Bologna, Modena, Padua, Milan, and Turin, remaining some time at each. There are thus no less than ten observatories in Italy, three times as many as in France; and from the proceedings of the Congress of Astronomers at Palermo[2] it appears that it is the intention of the Government to maintain all of them, each one being devoted, however, to a different branch, so as to fulfill the various needs of astronomical science, now become so complex.
Of these observatories, only that of Naples has a considerable number of assistants, and in no one is the work done under rigid regulations; each astronomer devotes himself, according to his predilections, to a special subject; emulation and the desire to make a name in science produce a continuity of effort the result of which has in
- ↑ Prof. Rayet, of Marseilles, has recently been deputed, by the Minister of Public Instruction of France, to visit the various observatories of Italy, and to report upon them. His report is published in the Archives des Missions Scientifiques, 3me, série tome iii., p. 529. As this work is not generally accessible, and as almost nothing is known in this country of the important steps now taking in Italy, it is believed that the following abridgment and translation of this report will be of value.-Editor.
- ↑ See Appendix to vol. iv. of the "Memoirs of the Society of Italian Spectroscopists," p. 37, et seq.
