on the really practical results obtained in the manufacture of peat-coke, power-gas, and moss-litter. They point out the agricultural capabilities of decomposed black peat soils in Maine (p. 57), and the use of dried peat as an auxiliary fertiliser in composts with barnyard manure, and they especially urge the introduction of air-dried peat as an absorbent in stables and as a deodoriser. Descriptions of special bogs follow, accompanied by neat maps in the text. These bogs have been tested with an ordinary ship-auger (p. 60), fixed on 21 feet of -inch gas-pipe, and an improved form is described, by which, as in many soil-testers, samples can be still more safely collected at any particular depth. The bogs in Maine appear rarely to be 30 feet deep. As is customary in publications of the United States Geological Survey, sufficient explanations are given of technical terms to enable any intelligent citizen to utilise this handy and scientific treatise.

In the case of the Canadian Survey, general principles have been dealt with in the earlier memoir to which we have referred, and the present bulletin describes in considerable detail certain bogs which possess commercial possibilities, and which lie not far from Ottawa. Lines were run across the bogs, usually 1000 feet apart, and drillings were made in each of these lines at intervals of 500 feet. The samples thus collected were often put together in groups, as representing, when combined, certain areas of the bog: but special local features of interest were noted wherever necessary. An ingenious system of lettering on the maps shows the character of the peat at each point, and its relative suitability for moss-litter or for fuel. The Canadian mode of gathering is by breaking up the surface of the bog so as to promote air-drying, and then stripping off this surface-layer. The bog is thus in most cases worked horizontally, and not vertically, as in Europe. The large scale of the maps inserted in the bulletin, and the completeness of the descriptions, remind one of the fine old bog-survey of Ireland published some eighty years ago, which still remains a standard work of reference. The peat industries of Canada, like those of the United States, are still mostly in an experimental stage, and little more can be said of those organised from time to time in Ireland. Meanwhile, in Europe, at any rate, the humble tiller of the soil, with his old-fashioned hand labour, continues quietly to remove the peat, in which he possesses a clean and economic fuel.

G. A. J. C.

AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE

THAT

SUDAN.

HAT the study of anthropology is of great scientific and practical importance has been acknowledged of late years by various Governments within the Empire. Our readers will remember that the Indian Government assisted Mr. A. R. Brown in his investigation of the Andamanese, and the Ceylon Government two years ago invited Dr. C. G. Seligmann to study the Veddas. The Anglo-Egyptian Administration, as is well known, fully recognises the far-reaching interest which attaches to the natural and human history of Egypt and the Sudan, and directly and indirectly it has done a great deal to extend our knowledge of the meteorology, geology, geography, zoology, botany, and archæology of these regions. In continuance of that enlightened policy, arrangements have been made to organise an ethnographical survey of the Sudan. Those in authority realise that it is impossible to educate or govern a people without some knowledge of their psychology, and no mere facility with their language will suffice without

a knowledge of native customs, ceremonies, ideas, and ideals. Especially is it necessary to record the unwritten laws and usages which regulate private and public life and to appreciate the safeguards for personal and social morality which occur in every community. The native conceptions of the relation of the individual to his fellow and of the authority of the head of the local state are very different from those of Europeans, and it would be disastrous suddenly to break up the structure of native society, to weaken authority, or to promulgate revolutionary ideas. It is also recognised by the Sudan Government that failure in the past has been due to lack of scientific knowledge, and they seek to avoid mistakes in the future by acquiring that knowledge upon which a firm and just administration alone can rest.

In the spring of last year the Sudan Government stated that they were prepared to contribute a sum of money sufficient to enable anthropological investigations to be undertaken in the Sudan for at least two years (a part of this sum is set aside for the publication of the results), and Dr. and Mrs. Seligmann were appointed to conduct these investigations. At that time the Seligmanns were still in Ceylon, and as it would take them several months to work up their field-notes, the Sudan expedition was postponed till this year. The Seligmanns leave England on November 2nd, and will proceed with as little delay as possible to investigate the Dinkas and Shilluks in the Upper Nile Province. Probably they will also study the pagan Nubas of Southern Kordofan, and possibly some other tribes as well.

Those who are conversant with recent anthropological literature are fully aware of the competence of Dr. Seligmann to undertake this work. It is significant of the times that Mrs. Seligmann is officially recognised as a co-investigator with her husband. Judging from what Mrs. Seligmann did in Ceylon, there is no doubt that this enlightened new departure of the Sudan Government will be fully justified. During a part of the time that the Seligmanns are in the field they will be accompanied by Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, who will thus be enabled to compare from personal knowledge the systems of kinship and the sociological conditions of Papuans, Melanesians, Polynesians, and Todas with those of various North Sudanese tribes.

Dr. Seligmann hopes to initiate an anthropometrical survey of the Sudan during the work of the following season. A. C. HADDON.

NORTH SEA FISHERY INVESTIGATIONS.' HE Blue-book before us, which has recently been Tissued by the North Sea Fisheries Investigation Committee, completes the second report of the Marine Biological Association on the investigations which they have been conducting in the southern part of the North Sea and in the English Channel, in connection with the international investigations of the fisheries of northern Europe.

A memoir by Mr. J. O. Borley describes the experiments which have been made on board the s.s. Huxley in order to determine the probability of survival of trawl-caught fish if they are returned to the sea. From the point of view of the fishery legislator this is a matter of considerable importance, since the probable effect of any law regulating the size at which fish might be placed on the market would depend very largely upon whether or not fish below the legal size, which had been caught in the trawl,

1 North Sea Fisheries Investigation Committee. Second Report (Southern Area) on Fishery and Hydrographical Investigations in the North Sea and Adjacent Waters, 1904-5. Part ii. Pp. v+345; 8 plates. (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1909.) Price 8s. 9d.

would survive if returned to the sea. The experiments were conducted with both otter- and beamtrawls, and show that fish from long hauls of the trawl are much less likely to survive than those from short hauls, and that the otter-trawl, which is now practically exclusively used by steam trawlers, inflicts much more serious injury on the fish than does the beam-trawl. The effect of exposure of the fish on the deck of the vessel for different periods of time has also been studied.

high salinity entering the Channel from the south

west.

The volume, as a whole, contains a large mass of data of the greatest importance for the solution of many of the problems dealing with marine life, and more particularly with the natural history of fishes. It must be borne in mind, however, that it is essenti ally a contribution of data to the much wider and more comprehensive scheme of investigation which is being carried out in connection with the International Council, and not until the whole work which the various countries have done has been brought together and the results duly correlated can the full fruit of these researches be gathered.

DOUBLE-STAR STUDIES.1

than the females.

The report on records of catches furnished by the captains of Lowestoft sailing-trawlers, which is written by Miss R. M. Lee, shows the value of such records provided by fishermen in supplementing and extending the work done by the scientific steamers. The area worked over by the Lowestoft men corresponds roughly with the southern bight of the North Sea. The analysis of the figures, which Miss Lee has been able to make, indicates that in the northern part of this region plaice occur in maximum quantity by weight during the summer and in minimum quantity during the winter months. In the southern part of the area, on the other hand, the maximum is in winter and the minimum in summer, whilst in the intermediate region there are maxima in spring and autumn. These records, therefore, clearly confirm the southward migration of plaice for the purpose of spawning in winter, which marking experiments in this part of the North Sea had already foreshadowed.

An account of the hydrographical investigations in the English Channel for the years 1904-5 is contributed by Mr. D. J. Matthews, and is illustrated by a series of very valuable plates, which set forth the results in graphic form by means of coloured charts and sections. The importance of these hydrographical investigations in the English Channel in connection with the problems of North Sea fisheries can scarcely be exaggerated, since the Atlantic water which reaches the southern area of the North Sea comes practically exclusively by way of the English Channel. In both the years 1004 and 1905 the salinities in the English Channel reached a maximum in the early months of the year, and fell to a minimum in the summer. The evidence indicates, further, that the movements of the water were more frequent and rapid in 1904 than in 1905. Special attention was given to the conditions prevailing at the mouth of the English Channel, where the two conflicting currents already demonstrated in 1903 were again encountered, a low salinity current flowing southwards from the Irish Channel across the mouth of the English Channel, and a current of

star measures made at the Potsdam Observatory by Prof. Lohse, the director, during the period 1899 to 1908 is given in Publication No. 58 of the Observatory. Prof. Lohse employed a refractor made by Schroeder about twenty-five years ago. The objective is eleven inches, and the flint is dark green. It may be described as a good instrument, but not of the highest quality. Nevertheless, we notice that Prof. Lohse was able to secure measures of some difficult pairs, notably & Equulei, Pegasi, and Sirius. The filar micrometer has one fixed and one movable thread. Generally the power employed was 550, but occasionally one of 800 was used. The power ordinarily used with the Greenwich 28-inch refractor is 670, and occasionally 1120. Setting out with a definite programme, he chose a working list of 166 double stars made up of known binaries and others of interest, and during the nine years he was making measures of these systems he collected those made by other observers, and hence was in a position to make a useful discussion of his results.

The present volume is therefore divided into two Part i. contains the measures made at portions. Potsdam, and part ii. their discussion in combination with measures made since the discovery of each pair. Prof. Lohse uses the method of Zwiers to determine his orbits, and discusses altogether thirty. The actual elements arrived at in most cases differ little from previous orbital elements, and do not call for special remark, except, perhaps, in the cases of 7 Cassiopeia and 70 Ophiuchi. The apparent orbit given for n Cassiopeia does not seem the most suitable, and brings out a period of 345 years, or 100 years larger than that generally accepted. In the case of 70 Ophiuchi, Prof. Lohse has done a good piece of work in attacking one of the anomalies often found in double-star orbits. It is found that the differences between the computed and observed positions of the companion tend to periodicity. This may be due to some fault in the gravitational theory, to errors due to personality, or to the effect of some disturbing body. The binaries Herculis and 70 Ophiuchi are excellent examples of this, and Prof. Lohse, who favours the personality explanation, has taken great pains to compute the relative areas swept out by the companion to 70 Ophiuchi every six months, and obtains figures in agreement with those deduced by quite independent methods. He is, however, unwilling to admit the reality of the figures, and remarks that by a judicious selection of observations the deviations from the law of equal areas may be reduced. This is the method advocated by Prof. Burnham, but it is not easy to

1 Publikationen des Astrophysikalischen Observatoriums zu Potsdam, No. 58. Zwanzigsten Bandes, Erstes Stück. Doppelsterne von O. Lahse (Director). Pp. 168. (Potsdam, 1908; in Kommission bei W. Engelmana in Leipzig.)

Harvard, and also spent some time in study at European

The following predicted places for 1910'0 for a few of the more interesting binaries may be found useful:

THE third International Congress of Physiotherapy will be held in Paris on March 30 to April 2, 1910. The congress is to be divided into seven sections.

A PRIZE of 160l. has been awarded to M. W. Haffkine by the Paris Academy of Medicine for his work on inoculation against cholera.

THE Bradshaw lecture of the Royal College of Physicians of London will be delivered on November 2 by Prof. J. A. Lindsay, who will take as his subject Darwinism and medicine. The FitzPatrick lectures will be delivered by Sir T. Clifford Allbutt, K.C.B., F.R.S., on November 4 and 9. The subject will be Greek medicine in Rome.

THE Société d'Hygiène de l'Enfance of Paris, we learn from the Lancet, is offering prizes for essays on the punishments of children. The essays, which must be original, and written in French, German, English, Italian, or Spanish, will be received by the society not later than December 31 next. The papers are to become the property of the society, which reserves the right of selecting from them material for a pamphlet.

ACCORDING to the Times, the exhibit of British chemical industries at next year's International Exhibition at Brussels promises to be of great interest and importance. It is stated that the new exhibitions branch of the Board of Trade is already experiencing some difficulty in providing for the requirements of would-be exhibitors, although the area originally allotted to the exhibit has been largely added to.

PRIZES to the value of 1500l. are offered by the National Medical Academy of Mexico for work on typhus fever. Of the sum named, 1000l. will be awarded to the discoverer of the cause of typhus, or of a curative serum, and 500l. to the investigators whose work is judged most useful in helping towards such discovery. The competition is international, but all essays must be written in Spanish. They can be received up to February 28, 1911.

THE annual "Fungus Foray of the Essex Field Club will be held on Saturday, October 30, at High Beach, Epping Forest, under the direction of Mr. George Massee, of the Kew Museum. Botanists wishing to attend should apply for programmes to Mr. W. Cole, the Essex Museum of Natural History, Romford Road, Stratford, Essex.

THE death is announced of Prof. J. Scott, author of various text-books on farm engineering, and formerly professor of agriculture and rural economy at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.

THE death is reported, in his sixty-third year, of Dr. Irving Stringham, professor of mathematics in the University of California since 1882. He was a graduate of

DR. GEORGE E. POST, whose death was recently reported at the age of seventy, was for many years head of the Medical College established at Beirut, Syria, by the American Presbyterians. He was the author of several medical and scientific text-books in the Arabic language, as well as of a flora of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt in the same tongue. His "Plantæ Postianæ " was written in He conLatin and French, and published at Geneva. tributed also to the leading English and American Biblical dictionaries a large number of articles on the flora of Bible lands. In recognition of his work at Beirut Dr. Post received decorations from the Turkish and German Governments.

Science reports the return of the Peabody Museum Expedition, which for the past three years has been exploring the headwaters of the Amazon River in the interior of Peru and Bolivia. The primary object of the expedition was the study of the native tribes of those regions, but, incidentally, collections were made in natural history; meteorological observations were taken, and topographical work was done. A map of the entire region, based on traverses and astronomical observations, was made for the Peruvian Government.

DR. ALLAN KINGHORN has been sent by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to West Africa to investigate sleeping sickness there, with the view of recommending measures for the prevention of the spread of the disease into certain of the British West African colonies. Dr. Kinghorn recently returned from north-east Rhodesia and Central Africa, whence he was sent with Mr. R. E. Montgomery by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to prosecute inquiries into sleeping sickness, and has just completed a report, with Mr. Montgomery, of the Zambezi Sleeping Sickness Expedition.

THE following courses of free public science lectures are announced for delivery in the Manchester Museum :-some forms of vegetation, by Prof. F. E. Weiss, on November 6, 13, and 20; some problems of embryology, by Prof. S. J. Hickson, F.R.S., on January 8, 15, and 22; and the structure of a crystal, by Sir T. H. Holland, K.C.I.E., F.R.S., on February 5, 12, and 19. In addition to the foregoing, Prof. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., has begun the delivery of a course of twelve short addresses on geological subjects on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

WE learn from the Revue scientifique that the Institute of France has received a gift of 50,000 francs from M. Patouillard to found two Montyon prizes, one literary and one scientific, of equal value. The latter is to be reserved for some man of science distinguished in electricity chosen by the Paris Academy of Sciences. From the same source we learn that Dr. Von Brunck, formerly director and a member of the committee of management of the Badische Anilin," has made a gift of 50,000 marks to the Munich Academy on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of his entry in the industry.

66

A MEETING was held on October 13 at Christiania to consider plans for the proposed Zeppelin Polar Expedition, at which, the Times reports, Prof. Hergesell explained the object of the expedition, which, as at present planned, will last one Arctic summer. It will not be undertaken until the development of the airship has given it an effective scope of 2500 kilometres, or a journey of three

or four days without landing. The pioneer expedition may be expected to take place in two or three years' time. Meanwhile, a ship will proceed next summer to Spitsbergen to make preliminary investigations for the purpose of discovering suitable airship anchorages. During 1911 an airship will make long experimental cruises over the sea from a port on the north coast of Germany. In 1912 two airships will proceed to Spitsbergen and establish a central station, equipped with wireless telegraphy, in Cross Bay. The second airship will remain in

reserve.

THE Royal Scottish Museum has recently acquired by purchase the well-known collection of Scottish Carboniferous fossils formed by Mr. James Neilson, Glasgow. This collection contains more than twenty thousand specimens, among which are many type-specimens of lamellibranchs and brachiopods, which have been figured in the publications of the Palæontographical Society and elsewhere. These are remarkable for their wonderfully perfect state of preservation, many of them showing delicate internal structures, such as the spires of Spirifer. The collection also contains Gyracanthus spines, of remarkable size, and other valuable fish fossils, including the unique Cladodus neilsoni (Traquair). Some time must elapse before the specimens can be arranged for exhibition, but, in the meantime, facilities will be given, so far as possible, to experts who wish to study the collections.

A REUTER message from Simla states that the Imperial Malaria Conference, which has finished its sittings, has drawn up a series of conclusions and recommendations under the following heads, among others :-(1) The appointment by the Government of India of a scientific investigation committee, to be linked up with special organisations for dealing with malaria in each province, the investigations to be specially directed to (a) the distribution of malaria in India; (b) the epidemiology and endemiology of the disease; and (c) the actions of quinine and other remedies for malaria. (2) Practical measures, including (a) the extirpation of anopheles, regarding which further investigation is recommended in order to discover how this can be done at a reasonable cost; (b) minor drainage operations, which are recommended when they are certain to be effective; (c) the restriction of wet cultivation near towns when the lands cultivated are known to be a source of anopheles; (d) the introduction of fish into tanks and other collections of water; and (e) the oiling of small collections of water which cannot be filled up. (3) (a) On the suggestion of the president of the conference, Sir Herbert Risley, it is recommended that committees of officials and non-officials, directed by the elected members of the new councils, be formed to spread among the people knowledge regarding malaria and the measures which it is possible to take against it; (b) it is also recommended that the subject be taught in the schools. (4) Local Governments should be invited to make annual assignment of funds for malaria investigation and prevention.

an

THE project of organising and bringing into existence in 1911 a Scottish Exhibition of National History, Art and Industry" is rapidly taking shape. The object primarily aimed at is to aid, and finally complete, the raising of a fund for the endowment of a chair of Scottish history and literature in Glasgow University; but, according to the Engineer, the executive council is considering a scheme of exhibits which takes account of the following: that there should be a collection of exhibits showing the varied nature of Scotland's industries and of those carried

:

on by Scotsmen in the colonies and abroad, and that in many industries a contrast should be made between the old and the new; that there should be an electricity exhibit, dedicated to the memory of Lord Kelvin; that there should be a shipbuilding and marine engineering exhibit of a historical nature, showing the development of steam navigation in its home on the Clyde; that the river Kelvin should be taken advantage of to represent historic episodes in Scottish life and industry; that the colonies, so largely peopled from Scotland, be invited to tell of the progress of

the Scot abroad.

an

DR. L. A. BAUER informs us that the magnetic survey vessel, the Carnegie, arrived at Falmouth on October 14, twelve days after leaving St. John's, Newfoundland. Magnetic observations were secured every day except one. The Carnegie will remain at Falmouth until the end of this month. Having completed the harbour observations and the tests ashore of the instrumental constants, the Carnegie, under the command of W. J. Peters, who was in charge of the Pacific Ocean vessel, the Galilee, from 1906-8, will go to Madeira, returning to New York, viå Bermuda, about March 1 of next year. The September number of Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity contains account of the launch of the Carnegie at Brooklyn in June last, and her departure on this her first-cruise to Newfoundland, Hudson Straits, and England. There is a further article, by Mr. J. Craig, jun., on the non-magnetic gas engine with which the vessel had to be provided to enable her to continue her voyages when the wind was not strong enough for sailing. It appears that the cheapest power plant would have been a gasoline engine, but that the cost of maintenance would have been greater than for a gas-producer plant, which was finally selected as best. The material used in construction was mainly manganese bronze, a few of the valves being the only parts of steel or nickel-steel. The engine is of the four-cylinder type, and resembles the regular Craig air-starting engine.

THE second Model Engineer Exhibition is now being held at the Royal Horticultural Hall, and will remain open until October 23. The opening ceremony was performed by Sir Hiram Maxim on October 15, and the appropriateness of the selection of this distinguished experimenter in aviation is evident from the very large number of model aeroplanes exhibited. These constitute a special competition class, in which there are more than fifty entries. Many of the designs are original, others are copies of well-known successful types, and we noticed some in which was the workmanship excellent. Considerable variety is shown in the selection of the material for the supporting surfaces; generally fabric is employed, but others having wooden, aluminium, and mica planes are to There is also a very fine collection of steam and An other engines, model yachts, and electro motors. interesting feature of the exhibition is the completely in equipped model engineering workshop operation. Several firms also show their specialities in machine tools, &c., for model-making. Perhaps the most noteworthy advance in model work recently has been in connection with model motor-boats. At the time of the first exhibi

be seen.

tion, in 1907, the speed record was 8.76 miles per hour; the present record is above 15 miles per hour, a result which is very creditable to the ability of amateur engineers.

PROF. C. LOMBROSO, professor of criminal anthropology and psychiatry in the University of Turin, died on October 19 at seventy-three years of age. From an interesting notice of his work and career in the Times of

October 20 we derive the following particulars as to his work and career. After graduating at Padua he went for some time to Paris and Vienna to continue his studies. At the very outset of his medical work he was attracted by nervous and mental diseases, and while still a student he published two treatises, one on "Insanity in Antiquity and the other on “The Insanity of Cardan (the sixteenthcentury mathematician). In the latter essay he first advanced the theory of the relation between genius and crime, which was to form the chief purport of his later work. While serving as a surgeon in the army his attention was attracted at Calabria by the diversity of type exhibited by the soldiery, who were drawn from all parts of Italy. He conducted a series of studies, which he endeavoured to make the basis of an anthropological chart of Italy. He measured and examined no fewer than 4000 individuals, and gained an invaluable experience, which stood him in good stead in his subsequent criminological investigations. The removal of his regiment to Pavia, a university town, gave Lombroso an opportunity of continuing his study of nervous diseases at the district asylum, but his military superiors did not look with favour on these scientific labours; difficulties were placed in his way, and Lombroso finally determined to leave the army. Shortly after, he was appointed professor of psychiatry at the University of Pavia at a small salary. He prepared a short inaugural address entitled "Genius and Insanity," in which all the main ideas of his magnum opus were outlined. In 1872 he made a discovery which proved to be of considerable scientific and economic importance. He noted the fact that a large number of the inmates of the asylum were suffering from "pellagra," a curious disease, which first affected the skin and afterwards attacked the brain and nervous system. Lombroso discovered that the disorder was to be traced to a poison contained in diseased maize. Upon his appointment to the chair of psychiatry at Turin Lombroso continued his criminological studies.. He was the first to apply the anthropometric method to the study of criminology, and his collection of skulls was unique. He showed that the overwhelming majority of criminals suffered from some form or other of nervous disease. These views are embodied in his great work entitled "L'Uomo Delinquente, published in 1889. Lombroso had a somewhat similar theory for the existence of genius, which he declared was a form of larvate epilepsy; this somewhat fantastic thesis was presented in his "L'Uomo di Genio," which has been translated into several languages.

IN Witherby's British Birds for October Messrs. W. Davies and F. Coburn record the breeding, during the past season, of the marsh-warbler in Worcestershire. The nest was attached to the stems of cow-parsnip and nettles. Mr. Coburn was of opinion that this was the first record of the breeding of the species, but, as the editor points out, a pair nested in the valley of the Avon in 1892.

THE Selborne Magazine for October opens with a short biography, accompanied by a portrait, of Sir Joseph Hooker. In connection with the discovery of fossil bones near Crayford, referred to in the report of the Selbornian excursions, the editor will perhaps permit us to point out that no such species as Canis domesticus is known to science, and that none of the bear-skulls found in English Pleistocene deposits belongs to the American Ursus horribilis.

AT the conclusion of a paper on the birds of the mountains of the Malay Peninsula, published in vol. ii., No. 4, of the Journal of the Federated Malay States Museums,

Mr. H. C. Robinson expresses the opinion that the fauna is of Indo-Malay origin, and that the species have spread in comparatively recent times north-west from the Sunda islands rather than south-east from Burma. Secondly, that the mountain-fauna is composed of a continental and a Sumatran element, and that the connection with the mountain-fauna of Burma is remote. On the other hand, there appears to be evidence of a recent land-connection with Sumatra, and also that the southern portion of the peninsula has been disconnected from the land to the north.

CONSIDERABLE interest attaches to the discovery of large quantities of shells of the pearl-mussel (Unio margaritifer) in gravel of apparently Pleistocene age in the Thames near Mortlake. Messrs. J. W. Jackson and A. S. Kennard, who record the fact in the October number of the Journal of Conchology, state that at the close of the Pleistocene period the land stood at a much higher level than it does to-day, and the Thames was then a quick-flowing stream in a deep and narrow gorge. . . The cause of the extinction of the species is explained by the fact that as the land sank the river became more sluggish, and silt and mud commenced to accumulate. Such conditions would prove highly detrimental to its welfare, and the species soon ceased to exist."

TAKING as his text the apparent fact that a nematode worm effects an entrance into the swim-bladder of rainbowtrout by burrowing through the intestinal wall, and thereby likewise permits the entrance of bacteria, Dr. A. E. Shipley, in the September issue of the Journal of Economic Biology, brings forward additional evidence in support of his view that the appendix vermiformis is a functional, and not a decadent, organ, and that appendicitis is probably due to the presence of entozoa. Messrs. Berry and Lack are cited as evidence in support of the contention that the appendix is a functional lymph-gland, and the author expresses his disbelief in the existence of any functionless organs. The remarkable increase of appendicitis in modern times is attributed by him to the practical cessation of the administration, from time to time, of vermifuges, and certainly no other satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon has been given. If this suggestion be substantiated, it tends to prove that our forefathers were not such fools as we often imagine.

THE importance and interest of large and properly classified and arranged collections of photographs-whether these subjects be nature or art-were emphasised by Sir Martin Conway at the Museums' Conference recently held at Maidstone, and his address is published in full in the September number of the Museums Journal. Many difficulties must be encountered in forming extensive collections of this nature; but, provided the necessary funds are available, they are not insurmountable, and Sir Martin urges that series of photographs relating to particular subjects ought to be collected by the various museums in the country. If private collectors would also devote themselves to photographs, a system of exchanges could probably be established which would greatly facilitate matters.

THE common fresh-water Hydra was one of the first subjects upon which the experimental zoologist exercised his special genius. More than a century and a half ago Trembley demonstrated the remarkable power of regeneration of lost parts which this little animal possesses, and not a few experimenters have followed in his footsteps. Of late years there has been quite an outburst of activity in this direction, and some highly remarkable results have been obtained. The latest contribution is a paper, by Miss