Page images
PDF
EPUB

times as surprising and swiftly various as that of the Eocene Mammalia. We presume that the Stormberg series must then include the whole of the Trias, and not merely the Rhætic, as Feistmantel and Seward have proposed. The consideration of this and similar questions is made far more interesting by the appearance of Dr. Corstorphine's address on the history of stratigraphical investigation investigation in South Africa ("Report of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science," 1904, p. 145), to which is appended a table showing the classifications of various authors, starting with the brilliant and perceptive work of Bain in 1856.

66

Prof. R. Broom has provided Mr. Rogers with a chapter on the Karroo reptiles, in which the early carnivorous types, Elurosaurus, Lycosuchus, &c., are separated from the Theriodonts as Therocephalia.' The pose given to the skeleton of Pareiasaurus in Fig. 18 is more erect than that at present adopted in the British Museum. The well known work of Prof. H. G. Seeley is mentioned later in the bibliographical appendix.

Mr. Rogers, quoting the view of Mr. Kitchin, who compares the fossils with those of similar beds in India, does not allow the presence of Jurassic strata in the Uitenhage series, so that the Jurassic system may be represented merely by the underlying unconformity (compare p. 408). The perforation of the Stormberg and preceding rocks by the diamantiferous volcanic pipes occurred, in all likelihood, in Lower Cretaceous times. The bending up of the strata round these vents presents us with a curious reminder of the old "crater of elevation" theory. Denudation has attacked the surface of the interior of the colony "uninterruptedly from the close of the Stormberg period (Rhætic) to the present day," and the folded belt of the south seems to have furnished a fairly complete barrier against inroads of the Cretaceous sea (p. 414). A useful chapter on the geological features to be observed along the main lines of railway concludes this compact and highly attractive handbook. GRENVILLE A. J. COLE.

NA

THE NAUMANN FESTIVAL AT CÖTHEN. AUMANN is but a name to nine out of ten British ornithologists, and the proportion of them who have held in hand a volume with that name on the titlepage must be smaller still. Yet it was borne by two men who, taking them all round, were the most practical ornithologists that ever lived, for their personal knowledge of the birds of Central Europe was not exceeded by that of any of their contemporaries, and it may be fairly doubted whether any of their successors, vastly improved as are the modern means of acquiring such knowledge, have attained to the like acquaintance. The elder Naumann, Johann Andreas, seems hardly ever to have quitted the little village of Ziebigk, near Cöthen, in the duchy of Anhalt, where he was born in 1744, the son of a small landed proprietor, to whose estate he succeeded. He has left a curious autobiographical sketch, which was prefixed to the first volume of the edition of the joint work of himself and his son, Johann Friedrich, published in 1822. If ever a man devoted himself to the observation and study of birds it was this Johann Andreas, who from his boyhood passed days and nights in this sole pursuit. How he found time to take a wife-for he tells us that he often forgot his dinner-is marvellous; but marry he did, and had three sons, the eldest, Johann Friedrich, already named, born in 1780, and two others; one of them, Carl Andreas, born in 1786, became a fair assistant to his father and brother, without, however, publishing anything on his own account. The father

[ocr errors]

brought up these three boys to follow his own tastes and live his own life. A gun was put into their hands as soon as they could hold it, they were made familiar with every device for catching birds, and they were also taught to draw. In this last respect the eldest attained so much proficiency that by the time he was fifteen he had executed a great number of drawings of birds, which the father proceeded to have engraved on copper and to publish in folio form. The work thus produced proves to be one of the rarest in ornithological literature, if literature it may be called, seeing that not a word of letterpress accompanied the plates. Whether a complete set of them exists anywhere is uncertain, and Dr. Leverkühn's labours seem to show that not quite a dozen more or less imperfect copies are known, though there is no room here for bibliographical details. The next thing the father did was to bring out in small octavo the first volume of what was called "A Detailed Description of the Forest-, Field-, and Water-birds of the Principality of Anhalt and the Neighbouring Districts." This appeared in 1797, and was illustrated by coloured figures by the son Johann Friedrich. Some of them are reproductions of those in the older series, but the style of drawing was manifestly improved, and, moreover, went on improving as the work itself did, for it quite outgrew the bounds of its native principality, and the fourth and last volume, published in 1803, appeared as "The Natural History of the Land- and Water-birds of Northern Germany and the Adjoining Countries." This was followed by a series of eight supplements, the last of which came out in 1817. A remarkable feature of this work is its extreme simplicity and truth, and the absence of all scientific pretence. There is not even a Latin name in it! Yet there was no attempt by "writing down" to gain popularity, and whether it became popular is doubtful. All that can be said is that copies are now not easily to be had. In England when a man tries to do a thing of this kind we know too well what is generally the lamentable result. He makes a fool of himself on almost every page; but this is just what Johann Andreas did not. He wrote with quiet dignity from his own knowledge, and his knowledge was sound. There was no need for him to borrow from anybody else.

The father's work being thus successfully concluded, the son, Johann Friedrich, lost no time in bringing out a new edition of it, and it is on this edition that the latter's fame rests, and rests securely. The preface i dated 1818, and some copies of the first volume are said to bear 1820 on the title-page. Doubtless it was then ready for publication, though for some reason it seems to have been delayed for a couple of years. Twelve volumes (parts they are called) appeared at long intervals, the last in 1844, and it may be truly averred that for completeness nothing like them exists in any language. They continue the same simple and direct style of the father's work; but the son willingly cited other authors and showed that he had read them. He also extended his area of observation, journeying to Jutland in the north and to Hungary in the south, beside voyaging to Heligoland-the ornithological peculiarities of which he was the first to detect. Moreover, he discovered that anatomy was not to be neglected, and accordingly each genus as he treated of it had prefixed to it a brief account of its internal structure, and to this end he had the good fortune to obtain the services of Christian Ludwig Nitzsch, who carried on this portion of the work until his death in 1837, when his place was taken by Rudolf Wagner. Two years after the work was ended the author began a supplement, which had not proceeded far when he died, in 1857, and this was left to be completed by two of his friends, the late Prof. J. H. Blasius and Dr. Eduard Baldamus.

Carefully elaborated as this great work had been, its information had, of course, fallen behind the times, and

a natural desire was expressed for a new edition. The first part of this appeared in 1897, under the general editorship of Dr. Carl R. Hennicke, of Gera, who has been assisted by a company of thirty-six coadjutors, comprising the chief ornithologists of Central Europe, and to celebrate the recent completion of this grand undertaking in ten folio volumes a Naumann-Feier is to be held at Cöthen on Sunday, May 14, under the direction of Dr. Jacobi von Wangelin, of Merseburg, and Prof. Rudolf Blasius, of Brunswick, the presidents respectively of the German Bird Protection Union and the German Ornithological Society. The business of the day is announced as of the simplest character, just as one may suppose would be consonant with the wishes of the men to be honoured an inspection of the Naumann collections, now housed in the ducal palace, a pilgrimage to the graves of the Naumanns at Ziebigk, their old abode, on which a laurel wreath will be laid, and a visit of respect to the daughter-in-law of Johann Friedrich, a return to Cöthen for a festival dinner-that is all. Who will attend I know not, but assuredly every German ornithologist will be present in the spirit, and my chief object in writing these lines that British ornithologists should sympathise with their German brethren on the occasion. Making every allowance for the ordinary Englishman's linguistic deficiencies, it is not to the credit of our predecessors in this country, though there are many of whom we may be justly proud, that until the year 1850 not one of them seems ever to have heard of the Naumanns and their incomparable works. It was Mr. G. R. Gray who, in a British Museum catalogue, first cited that of Johann Friedrich, and then merely on nomenclatural grounds. It was there that I first met with its title, and I lost no time in seeking the work in the library of Cambridge University. Words fail me to express the delight with which I looked into one volume after another of this huge store of information, or the admiration with which I regarded its unpretentious but exquisitely exeruted plates. That was nearly five-and-fifty years ago, but much as the study has since advanced, the opinion I then formed I hold now, that for fulness of treatment, perspicuity, and general accuracy, the work of Johann Friedrich Naumann has not been surpassed.

Willingly would I dwell longer on the subject, but I think I may have said enough, though I must add that for many of the details above given I am indebted to two articles by Dr. Lindner published in "Die Schwalbe "of Vienna for 1894 (Nos. 7 and 8), and still more to Dr. Paul Leverkühn's excellent biographical preface to the first volume of the recent edition already mentioned, which has been separately printed, "Biographisches über die Drei Naumanns " (Gera-Untermhaus: 1904). Later still that gentleman has come into possession of much of Johann Friedrich's correspondence, which it is sincerely to be hoped he will find the means of publishing, as it can hardly fail to be of great interest. ALFRED NEWTON.

DR. J. E. DUTTON.

IT Tis with deep regret that we announce the sudden death of Dr. Dutton (Walter Myers Fellow) at Kosongo, in the Congo, on February 27, while actively engaged in the investigation of trypanosomiasis and tick fever.

The expedition which Dr. Dutton was leading was a very completely equipped one, and commenced work in the Congo in September, 1903. It consisted originally of Drs. Dutton, Todd, and Christy, and was subsequently joined by Dr. Inge Heiberg. The Belgian Government erected a special hospital for them, and placed every possible facility at their disposal both for investigation and travelling. Whilst conducting the

investigation and mapping the distribution of sleeping sickness and tick fever, they travelled several thousand miles by river and road, and reached a station beyond Stanley Falls.

In the death of Dr. Dutton, not only have the Tropical School and the University of Liverpool lost a brilliant graduate, but medicine has lost one of its most promising men, a man who, although only twenty-nine years of age, had already won a recognised position throughout the scientific world. Educated at the King's School, Chester, Dr. Dutton proceeded to the University of Liverpool, where he rapidly made his way to the front. In 1897 he was appointed to the George Holt fellowship in pathology, a post which has had a marked effect in stimulating men to devote time to research and in supplying able investigators in tropical medicine. In 1900 he commenced the study of tropical medicine under the leadership of Dr. Annett, and together with Dr. Elliott, of Toronto University, he proceeded to Nigeria in order to study the habits of the Anopheles and the most effective measures of prevention of malaria. In 1901 he proceeded alone to the Gambia, and drew a comprehensive and useful antimalarial report which has proved of the greatest service to the colony. It was during this expedition that he identified in the blood of the patient shown to him by Dr. Forde, of Bathurst, the trypanosome which he described and named as Trypanosoma gambiense.

Having established the presence of the trypanosome in man, Dr. Dutton immediately set off on another expedition to ascertain how far it was distributed in the native population. This expedition_formed the basis of his first trypanosomiasis report (Senegambia, 1902).

66

[ocr errors]

The first progress report of the Congo expedition was published in 1904; this has been followed by others, including the description of the " Congo Floor Maggot, by Drs. Dutton, Todd, and Christy, and the Cerebro-spinal Fluid in Trypanosomiasis," by Dr. Christy; "A Comparison of the Animal Reactions of the Trypanosomes of Uganda and Congo Free State Sleeping Sickness with that of Trypanosoma gambiense," by Drs. Thomas and Linton; "Two Cases of Trypanosomiasis in Europeans," by Drs. Dutton, Todd, and Christy; and " Supplementary Notes on the Tsetse-flies," by Mr. E. E. Austen. More recently Dr. Dutton wrote an interesting paper on the "Intermediary Host of the Filaria cypseli " (the filaria of the African swift), in which he described the intermediate host as a louse (subfamily Leiothinæ) in the abdominal cavity of which he observed the various stages of the development of the filaria. He showed that the infection was probably spread by the birds eating the infected lice.

Toward the end of 1904 the investigators had reached Stanley Falls, and quite independently Drs. Dutton and Todd verified the discovery of the cause of tick spirillum fever in man made a few weeks previously by Milne and Ross in the Uganda Protectorate; but, furthermore, they were able to transmit the disease to monkeys and rabbits by means of the bite of the infected tick. They were able to make post mortem examinations on cases of the fever, in the course of which Dr. Dutton contracted the disease by a post mortem wound and Dr. Todd an abortive attack apparently directly through a tick bite. From this fever they recovered, in Dr. Dutton's case after four typical relapses. Their researches into the relationship between the infection in man and the tick were so far advanced that they were able to prepare a report which is due by the next mail. In the meantime, they have given an account of an experiment in which tick spirillum fever has been conveyed to a monkey by the bites of young ticks during the first feed after hatching from the ova of naturally infected adults.

NOTES.

THE gentlemen's soirée of the Royal Society will take place at Burlington House on Wednesday next, May 17.

IN a murder trial concluded last week, a finger mark left by one of the prisoners upon a cash-box tray at the shop where the crime was committed was used for purposes of identification. An inspector gave evidence that there were 80,000 or 90,000 sets of finger prints in the finger print department of Scotland Yard, and that he had never found two such impressions to correspond. The right thumb print of one of the prisoners agreed in twelve characteristics with an impression made with perspiration upon the cash-box tray, and therefore gave corroborative evidence of identity. It is probable, as Mr. Galton pointed out some years ago, that no two finger-prints in the whole world are so alike that an expert would fail to distinguish between them. The system was largely used in India by Sir William Herschel nearly fifty years ago, and was found by him to be most successful in preventing personation, and in putting an end to disputes about the authenticity of deeds. He described his methods in these pages in 1880 (vol. xxiii. p. 76); and in the previous volume (vol. xxii. p. 605) Mr. Henry Faulds referred to the use of fingermarks for the identification of criminals. There is no doubt as to the value of this system of identification, which was described in the pages of NATURE long before its practical applications had been realised, and we regret that anything should have occurred to throw discredit upon it. It appears from the reports of the trial referred to that a person who professed to be properly qualified wrote to the Director of Public Prosecutions, and also to the solicitors for the defence, offering to give evidence an expert on the finger impressions, although he had not seen the impressions. It is not to be wondered at that Mr. Justice Channell should denounce such action in strong language, and whether the jury agreed with him or not-that the witness was "absolutely untrustworthy "-they no doubt considered that evidence which could be given on either side could not be of much importance. From the scientific point of view, we regret that a method which is associated with the names of men of such scientific eminence as Sir William Herschel and Mr. Francis Galton should be brought into disrepute. Finger prints are not only of value for personal identification, but also for hereditary investigations, and any action which produces comments like those made by Mr. Justice Channell is to be deplored, because it tends to shake the confidence of men in methods which rest on secure scientific foundations.

as

THE Council of the Linnean Society of New South Wales has appointed Mr. Harald I. Jensen to be the first Linnean Macleay fellow.

THE Athenaeum announces the death of Prof. Otto Struve, who succeeded his father as director of the Nicholas Central Observatory at Pulkowa in 1861.

Science announces that Prof. L. Warren, for twenty-seven years professor of mathematics at Colby College, died on April 21, at the age of sixty-nine years.

THE Times understands that the trustees of the British Museum have expressed their willingness to receive carefully selected phonographic records of the voices of distinguished living men. The records will be for posterity only, and will in no circumstances be available for contemporary use.

PROF. E. B. FROST has been appointed director of the Yerkes Observatory by the trustees of the University of Chicago, in succession to Prof. G. E. Hale, who now gives his whole time to the establishment of the new Solar Observatory of the Carnegie Institution at Mt. Wilson, California.

A PARTY of zoological students from the Birkbeck College spent part of the Easter vacation trawling, dredging, and shore collecting at West Mersea, on the Essex coast. Although the temperature was very low for the time of year, many specimens were collected, and much experience was gained.

A REUTER Correspondent at Bombay reports that a severe earthquake occurred at Bandar Abbas on April 25. Five shocks were experienced during the afternoon, and shocks have been occurring daily since. Sarn, a town west of Bandar Abbas, is reported to have suffered severely.

THE death is announced, in his eighty-eighth year, of Colonel N. Pike, known for his contributions to the natural history of birds, reptiles, and amphibia. For several years Colonel Pike held the post of American consul in the Island of Mauritius, and during this time he collected extensively the local fauna and prepared from the living specimens many coloured drawings. His most extended work was his " Sub-Tropical Rambles in the Land of the Aphanopteryx."

A REUTER telegram from Christiania reports that the Belgica, with the members of the Duc d'Orléans's Arctic Expedition on board, left Sandefjord on May 6 for Bergen, where the duke will embark. From Bergen the Belgica will go to Spitsbergen, Greenland, and Shannon Islands, where the Duc d'Orléans intends to visit the depôts of the Ziegler Expedition. His intention is to bring the members of that expedition back with him on the Belgica, and he hopes to return to Ostend in September.

THE Rome correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette states that it is again proposed to affix a marble tablet to the Villa Medici, which is French property, to remind passers by and posterity that Galileo was kept prisoner there from June 24 to July 6, 1633. Italy has already erected a small monument to Galileo at the very door of the villa, with the following inscription :-" The neighbouring palace, which belonged to the Medici, was the prison of Galileo Galilei, guilty of having seen the earth revolving round the sun."

THE anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical Society will be held on Monday, May 22. The annual conversazione will be held in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, on Tuesday, June 27. In place of the annual dinner of the society this year, a banquet in honour of the retiring president, Sir Clements R. Markham, K.C.B., will be held on the evening of the anniversary meeting, May 22, at the Hotel Metropole.

THE Paris correspondent of the Times remarks that about 150 physicians and surgeons have arrived there from England, many of them with their wives and families, to return the visit which the French doctors paid to London last year. The formal reception took place last night at the Sorbonne. During the stay of the English medical men, besides the many attractive excursions and social entertainments arranged in their honour, every facility is to be given them for inspecting the hospitals.

IN proposing the toast of " The Japan Society at its annual dinner on May 3, Sir Frederick Treves referred to the medical and surgical ability of the Japanese. Nothing

astounded him more, he said, in his recent visit to Japan than the way in which the Japanese have inquired into the medicine and surgery of the western world and the marvellous thing they are making out of it. It is difficult to credit the astonishing advance made by the Japanese in medical equipment in time of war. Many of the problems which have been the terror of war in European countries the Japanese are solving or have solved. British troops enter a war with many determinations-one of which is to have to per cent. of sick, and they get it. The Japanese are quite content with 1 per cent. of sick, and they get it. The Japanese have all the qualities of a surgeon. They have infinite patience and infinite tenderness. Sir F. Treves is confident that not many years hence there will be seen in Japan one of the most progressive schools of medicine the world has ever known.

THE annual congress of the South-eastern Union of Scientific Societies will be held at Reigate on June 7-10 inclusive, under the presidency of Prof. Flinders Petrie, F.R.S. Among the papers to be contributed are the following: Mendel's Law," Miss Saunders; "Botany of Reigate District," Messrs. R. H. Welchman and C. E. Salmon; "Local Orchids," Dr. Hodgson; "Eggs of Lepidoptera," Mr. Tonge; "The Law of Treasure Trove in Relation to Archæological Research," Dr. William Martin; "The Land and Fresh-water Shells of S.E. England," Mr. A. Santer Kennard. There will be excursions to Worth Church; Gatton; Mr. Maw's observatory, Outwood; Reigate Castle; Mr. Brown's Atherfield clay pit, &c. The Mayor of Reigate will give a reception on Friday, June 9. The congress secretaries are Mr. G. E. Frisby, Redhill, and Mrs. Taylor, Clear's Corner, Reigate, from whom all information can be obtained.

DURING the forthcoming eclipse of the sun, on August 30, aeronautical ascents will be made at Paris, Burgos, Prague, and very likely in Algeria. It is intended to study the variations, not only of the temperature of the air in the shade and in the sun, but also the solar radiation at several altitudes. If it is possible to take aërial photographs of the corona from the balloons it will be done at Burgos, and possibly at Wargia. M. Trépied, director of the Algiers Observatory, has left for Guelma, on a railway 36 miles south-west of Bona, and really a desert oasis. The sky is anticipated to be quite clear at that place, as at the end of August northerly breezes, which are very frequent on the coast, are hardly to be felt in the Sahara. The Algerian eclipse observatory will be housed in the French public school. For the last twenty years a weather bureau has been established in Algeria, and is situated on the terrace of the City Hall. The establishment is connected by telegraph with forty stations, which are sending regularly each morning observations used in the reduction of the warnings and forecasts.

is incomplete and one-sided, and the greatest classical scholar, if he know nothing of the world we live in, is but a half-educated man after all. Sir James Crichton Browne spoke of the value of the society's work from the point of view of mental health, while Sir John Cockburn urged the usefulness of that study of nature which is not rigidly scientific. Among the many exhibits of natural history and antiquarian interest was some honey gathered by bees in the "East End." This was shown by the Stepney Borough Museum, and it is practically certain that it was derived from sugar on the ships in the London Docks, a mile from the hive.

THE Belgian Royal Academy has issued the following lists of prize subjects for 1905 and 1906 :--for 1905, in mathematical and physical sciences, on the combinations formed by halogens; on physical, particularly thermal, phenomena accompanying dissolution; on linear complexes of the third order; and on the deviation of the vertical treated from the hypothesis of the non-coincidence of the centres of mass of the earth's crust and nucleus. In natural sciences, on the function of albuminoids in nutrition; on the reproduction and sexuality of Dicyemidæ ; on the silicates of Belgium; on the formations of Brabant between the Bruxellian and the Tongrian; on certain Belgian deposits of sand, clay, and pebbles; on the sexuality of the individuals resulting from a single ovum in certain dioecious plants; and on the development of AmphiOxus. For 1906 the subjects in mathematical and physical sciences are on critical phenomena in physics; on n-linear forms (n>3); on thermal conductivity of liquids and solutions; and on the unipolar induction of Weber. In natural sciences, on the Cambrian series of Stavelot; on the effect of mineral substances on the assimilation of carbon by organisms; on the effects of osmotic pressure in animal life; on the tectonic of Brabant; on the soluble ferments of milk; and on the physiological action of histones. The essays for 1905 and 1906 are to be sent in by August 1 of the respective years, and the prizes range from 241. to 40l. in value. In addition, prizes bequeathed by Edward Mailly and in memory of Louis Melsens are offered under the usual conditions for astronomy and

applied chemistry or physics respectively.

THE Codling-moth forms the subject of Bulletin No. 222 issued by the entomological division of the Michigan AgriThis insect is a cultural College Experiment Station. serious enemy to fruit-growers in the district, and the author, Mr. R. H. Pettit, has carefully worked out its life-history and devised effective means for its destruction.

Ar the first congress of the Association of Economic Biologists, held in Birmingham University on April 19-20, Mr. A. E. Shipley directed attention to the circumstance that bacteriological and parasitical science is unrepresented on the committee appointed by Parliament to inquire into the nature of grouse-disease. The president, Mr. F. V. Theobald, emphasised the importance of closer study of the aphids affecting cultivated plants in this country, while parasites in the liver of swine, the porosity of wood, the injuries inflicted on plants by spring-tails, and ticks and fleas as conveyers of disease formed the subjects of other communications.

LORD AVFBURY delivered his presidential address at the soirée of the Selborne Society on May 3. In the course of his remarks he referred to the animated discussion which took place recently in the newspapers as to whether Greek should be a compulsory subject in university examinations -which is euphemistically termed “maintaining the Greek basis of education against the material tendencies of the present day." It is not we, he continued, who wish to pit ARTICLE NO. 4 of vol. xx. of the Journal of the College Greek grammar against nature-study. Greek-even a little of Science of Tokyo University is devoted to the descripGreek-is very useful. But nothing was said, Lord Ave- tion of the spoon-worms (Gephyrea) of Japan, and is illusbury contended, about science being a compulsory subject-trated by one coloured and three black and white plates. which alike from a practical and an educational point of The author, Mr. I. Ikeda, states that hitherto only four view is even more important. Education without science species of these worms appear to have been recorded from

Japanese waters, and of one of these no specimens have come under his notice. From a study extending over several years, he has been enabled to add 34 additional species to the fauna, thus bringing the number up to 38. Of the 34, no less than 24 appear to be new forms, all of which are provisionally referred to previously known generic types, although there are grounds for considering that some of those included in Thalassema might advantageously be assigned to a new genus.

SOME excellent photographs of Australian bird-life are reproduced in the March the number of Victorian Naturalist, among which may be specially mentioned a group of young diamond-birds (Pardalotes) and a nestling bronze-cuckoo in the act of ejecting the rightful occupant of the nest in which it was hatched. "When discovered, the nest contained two young birds. The cuckoo, blind, featherless, and apparently not more than a day old, struggling till it got beneath its victim, gradually lifted it to the edge of the nest, resting at intervals, all the while balancing the resisting nestling in the hollow between the wings immediately at the back of the neck. Slowly and relentlessly it pushed the unfortunate wren over the side. . . . The young wren was replaced in the nest half a dozen times, but always with a like result until the cuckoo was thoroughly exhausted."

Two interesting Antarctic organisms obtained during the Scotia Expedition are described in the Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, vol. xvi., No. 2. In the first article, by Dr. J. Rennie, are discussed a number of isolated tentacles of a zoophyte belonging to the group Siphonophora. The specimens are barely sufficient for definite identification, but appear to indicate a type allied to the Mediterranean Apolemia, which attains a length of two or three yards. Mr. T. V. Hodgson, in the second communication, describes a five-limbed seaspider (Pycnogonida) distinct from Pentanymphon antarcticum recently described on the evidence of a Discovery specimen. With the assistance of Dr. Calman, of the British Museum, the author has been enabled to identify the Scotia pycnogonid with Decalopoda australis, an almost forgotten generic type described so long ago as 1837. The occurrence of two five-limbed pycnogonids in the Antarctic is, in view of the absence of this type from all other seas, very remarkable.

MR. F. FLETCHER, Deputy Director of Agriculture, Bombay Presidency, is the author of a small volume, published at Bombay, entitled "Notes on some Egyptian Insect Pests." In the autumn of 1901 the author, it appears, was engaged to teach agricultural entomology to the students at the Khedivial Agricultural School, Giza, and found himself seriously hampered in his task by the fact that practically nothing was known with regard to the insects which are harmful to the Egyptian agriculturist. Accordingly, during a two years' sojourn in the country, Mr. Fletcher set himself to study such insects whenever opportunity occurred, and the present booklet" is the result. It contains an introduction showing the position of insects in the animal kingdom, followed by a short summary of the life-history and structure of insects in general, after which comes an account of the species forming the proper subject of the " notes." The publication seems admirably adapted to the needs of those for whom it is intended.

46

THE catalogue forming appendix ii. to the Kew Bulletin of books and pamphlets added to the library of the Botanic Garders during the past year has been received; as usual,

the printing is confined to one side of the paper only, in order that, if desired, the separate titles may be cut out.

THE collection of phenological records by teachers and pupils of schools in Nova Scotia has been proceeding for some years, and the number of schools sending in lists has been increasing. The data supplied by about 300 selected schedules in 1903 have been utilised for the compilation of phenochrons or average dates for different regions of the province, and these have been tabulated in vol. part xvi., of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada.

X..

SINCE the year 1900, a gooseberry mildew, Sphaerotheca mors-uvae, which appears to have been introduced from the United States, has been observed in Ireland and Russia. Mr. E. S. Salmon, who reported the first appearance in Ireland, and has since notified the spread of the disease, announces in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society (vol. xxix.) its continued increase in these countries. The yellow varieties seem to suffer most. Spraying checks the fungus, but the only effectual remedy is to burn all the diseased bushes. Mr. Salmon contributes also to Annales Mycologici an account of a disease observed on plants of Euonymus japonicus in the south of England and elsewhere caused by an oidium or conidial stage of one of the Erysiphaceæ.

HERR PAUL GROSSER has recently visited and described the site of the Tarawera eruption of 1886, in the north island of New Zealand (“Vulkanologische Streifzüge im Maoriland," Verhandlungen des naturhistorischen Vereins der preuss. Rheinlande, 1904, pp. 37-58). He lays stress on the linear grouping of the eruptive centres, the ashcones of which are almost as contiguous as pearls on a string. A fine photograph is given of a crater exploded through rhyolite on Ruawahia, with basaltic ashes covering the country above. Incidentally, Herr Grosser examined the ground affected by the Port Nicholson earthquake of 1855, which is described in the later editions of Lyell's Principles of Geology"; and he adds the interesting detail that the elevation of the floor of a lagoon by two metres enabled it to be successfully drained into the sea, a work previously attempted, but abandoned.

THE shoal-water deposits of the Bermuda banks are described by Mr. H. B. Bigelow (Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sciences, xl., No. 15). The oceanic character .of Bermuda, due to its great distance from the neighbouring continent, prevents its receiving much foreign detritus, and its submarine deposits are almost wholly local. The great bulk of these is calcareous, with some spicules of siliceous organisms. True coral sand is absent; indeed, there is a great rarity of coral fragments, for although corals flourish on the reefs, they do so in a subordinate manner. The Bermuda plateau is of interest in illustrating the growth of a limestone island where reef-building corals are of slight importance. The organisms chiefly active in the formation of the shell-sands are corallines, molluscs, tube-building worms, millepores, and foraminifera. Algæ probably form the greatest mass of the sand. White marls are described as due to the slow trituration of windborne material. There are also limited areas of blue mud. This seems to be of terrigenous origin, being the fine detritus washed down by rain from the calcareous hills, with vegetable matter.

To the March number of the American Naturalist Dr. A. Hollick contributes a paper on the occurrence and origin of amber in the eastern United States. Although amber has for many years been known to occur in several

« PreviousContinue »