ing link_, not between men and apes, which
they have generally given up, but between vertebrate and invertebrate
animals. So that the famous ascidian mollusc, with a semi-vertebral
larval stage, which nourished in the writings of Darwin and others, is
no longer needful. The fossil referred to is an ancient fish-like worm,
or worm-like fish, to which the name of Entomicthys amphisoma has been
provisionally given. It is still more remarkable than the amphioxus or
lancelet, which has been long known.

By the improved methods of measuring both space and time in practical
astronomy, it has been rendered nearly or quite certain that our earth
is gradually approaching the sun; and that the same is true of all the
other planets. Small as the rate of this approach is, it is enough to
confirm the belief of Sir William Thomson and others in the 19th
century, that our solar system is constructed for finite (not, as
Laplace and Lagrange thought, infinite) duration; the whole economy of
planets will at last run down like a clock, and all the elements will be
melted together with fervent heat.

Among the leading discoveries of the year is that of the long-looked-for
third moon of the extra-Neptunian planet. The name of that planet
itself, although it has been known since 1885, is not yet finally
settled. Some call it Pluto; others Terminus; it being almost certainly
the outermost body of our solar system.

A good observation of the intra-Mercurial planet Vulcan was made from
Mount Everest some weeks ago, by the Hindu astronomer-imperial on duty
there.

Of the _corona_ seen around the sun during eclipses, the tendency now
seems to be to return to the explanation long ago proposed and
discarded; that it is neither telluric, _i.e._ produced by our
atmosphere, nor, strictly or only, solar; but mainly _selenic_; that is,
caused by the rays of the sun being _diffracted_ around the edge of the
moon intervening between us and it. The different appearances of the
corona as seen from different places on the earth are thus accounted
for, as well as their diversity during different eclipses, by the
irregularities upon the lunar surface.

A fine chemical advance has been made in the laboratory of the
University of Vienna, in the manufacture, from strictly _inorganic_
materials, and at very moderate and remunerative cost, of the alkaloids
quinia, strychnia, atropia, morphia, and others. No chemist, however,
has yet made a single speck of albu