WEIGHTS

and Measures were originally derived from the common objects in use c.g. the palm, the foot, the cubit (or lower arm) so too a ‘yard* was literally ‘any walking-stick,’ and; a 4 gallon r was 4 any ordinary pot-bellied jug,’ a ‘ furlong’ was ’ any ordinary furrow long,' etc. Henry VII. made a standard yard of? ’arliaraent A was lost in the fire of 1834, and had to be replaced. cubic 4 foot ’ of water weighed a talent, and as the ‘foot’ varied a little in size, the talent.varied also. The Alexandrine silver talent was divided into sixty parts, and each part weighed ilb., and what 1 we lb. now weight of £ silver was the original form of he was appointed physician to the Arch-Duke Stephen of Austria, and this appointment gave him time for zoological study, the first result of which was his treatise on "The Development of the Diptera.” He so injured his sight by his close microscopical work that he had to abandon it, and turned his attention to the variability of organism, studying specially caterpillars and other insects which exhibit metamorphosis. The results appeared (in English) in 1882 under the title of “Studies in the Theory of Descent.” But his famous work is his 44 E ays on Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems,’’ in which he answers the question: 44 How is it that a single cell of the body can contain within itself all the hereditary tendencies of the whole organism?" He denies that characteristics acquired by the individual are transmitted to offspring, and that death is a primary attribute of living matter. The Protozoon, or one-celled organism, multiplies ad infinitum by sub-division, in which there is no proce analogous to death. There is unlimited persistence of the individual. Death is the penalty paid for complexity of structure. Heredity is secured by the transference from one generation to another of a definite chemical and molecular substance and variations are due to sexual conjugation, not; to environment nor to use or disuse of organs.