Most of the following essays have appeared in the pages of the Quarterly Review , and I am greatly indebted to the editor and to the proprietor of that periodical for permission to reprint them. The article on ‘The Infinite Torment of Flies’ is an address I delivered before the British Association at Pretoria in 1905, and the eighth essay appeared in Science Progress . As far as possible I have tried to avoid the use of long words, and thus escape the censure of recent critics in the Times ; but

‘Report to the Government of Ceylon on the Pearl-Oyster Fisheries of the Gulf of Manaar.’ By W. A. Herdman, F.R.S. Parts I. and II. Published by the Royal Society. London, 1904. ‘On the Origin of Pearls.’ By H. Lyster Jameson. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1902. ‘Aus den Tiefen des Weltmeeres.’ By C. Chun. Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1900. ‘Tierleben der Tiefsee.’ By O. Seeliger. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann, 1901. ‘Report of the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger .

The first recorded attempt to sound the depths of the ocean was made early in the year 1521, in the South Pacific, by Ferdinand Magellan. He had traversed the dangerous straits destined to bear his name during the previous November, and emerged on the 28th of that month into the open ocean. For three months he sailed across the Pacific, and in the middle of March, 1521, came to anchor off the islands now known as the Philippines. Here Magellan was killed in a conflict with the natives. The recor

To contemplate all the legislation concerning English sea-fishing and the administration of this vast industry during the last century is alike to bewilder the reason and to fatigue the patience. The industry is an enormous one, and of the utmost value to the dwellers in these islands. At the present time there are over 27,000 vessels, manned by more than 90,000 seamen, fishing from the ports of Great Britain. They land over 900,000 tons of fish, worth some £10,000,000, during the year. In addit

another which lived some three months and then succumbed. It is only fair to say that the dam of the latter, who was only three years old when the hybrid was born, had been much weakened by attacks of the strongylus worm, and that she was the victim of close inbreeding. Both the zebras and the hybrids which have been under observation at Penycuik show a remarkable capacity for recovering from wounds. Accidental injuries heal with great rapidity. On one occasion the surviving twin was discovered

Je suis chimiste, je fais des expériences et je tâche de comprendre ce qu’elles disent. — Pasteur. As one walks down the Rue des Tanneurs, in the small provincial town of Dôle, where the main line from Paris to Pontarlier sends off a branch north-east towards Besançon, a small tablet set in the façade of a humble dwelling catches the eye. It bears the following inscription in gilt letters: ‘Ici est né Louis Pasteur le 27 décembre 1822.’ Pasteur came of the people. In the heraldic meaning of the

It has been said that one-half the mortality of the human race is due to malaria. This may very well be an exaggeration, but there can be little doubt that, of all the ills that flesh is heir to, malaria is the most deadly, and exercises the most profound influence on the distribution and activities of man. It will be seen later that the disease is most rife where the densest populations are found, and the mortality of such a closely crowded area as India gives some idea of the enormous loss of

The last few years of the nineteenth and the first few years of the present century are marked in the annals of medicine by a great increase in our knowledge of certain parasitic diseases, and, above all, in our knowledge of the agency by which the parasites causing the diseases are conveyed from host to host. Chief among these agencies in carrying the disease-causing organisms from infected to uninfected animals are the insects, and, amongst the insects, above all the flies. Flies— e.g. , the c

And Moses said, Behold, I go out from thee, and I will entreat the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, to-morrow. — Exodus. It is one of those facts which not unfrequently occur in science that we know less about the life-history and habits of the commonest insects than we know about scarce and remote species. For instance, the life-history of the common house-fly, one of the most widely distributed insects in the world, is as yet very i