NOTES 449 



Museum (Nat. Hist.), London; Dr. W. T. Caiman. British Museum (Nat. 

 Hist.), London ; Lord Carmichael of Skirling ; Sir Charles Eliot, 

 K.C.M.G., The University, Hongkong (now His Britannic Majesty's 

 Ambassador, Tokyo) ; Mr. H. C. Robinson, Director of Museums, Federated 

 Malay States ; Professor F. Silvestri, Laboratorio di Zoologia Generale, 

 Portici, Italy ; Dr. A. Oka, Zoological Laboratory, Kotoshihan Gakko, 

 Tokyo ; Dr. R. Koehler, Lyon, France ; Dr. H. A. Pilsbry, Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. 



The first three gentlemen have since left India, and have now been added 

 to the roll of non-resident Honorary Correspondents. 



In the Records of the Indian Museum, vol. xviii, is a short note by 

 Tokio Kaburaki, on the " Horse-leech," Limnatis Nilotica, which in the 

 process of being swallowed whilst people are drinking infected water, fixes 

 itself to the mouth, throat, and nasal cavities of man and beast. Kaburaki's 

 material was obtained at Quetta, Baluchistan, through Dr. Annandale. The 

 leeches were got in the throat of an Austrian prisoner, who had been brought 

 from Persia : he had sucked up six leeches whilst drinking from dirty pools 

 in Persia. The six leeches had stuck in the back of his throat for eight days. 



In the same Records, Dr. Annandale gives some notes on the aquatic fauna 

 of Seistan. In his hurried journey across the desert of Seistan and the Afgan- 

 Perso-Baluch frontier, he cursorily examined the desert springs for animal 

 life. Only three species of molluscs were found : Melanoides, Gyraulus, and 

 Covhicula. Such molluscs showed very little structural response to their 

 environment. Of insects, a mosquito larva was commonest, and sometimes 

 Corida occurred. Ostracods (Crustacea) sometimes swarmed in these desert 

 springs, and one leech, Limnatis Nilotica, was noted. 



Mr. T. Southwell, in the " Reports," records the first occurrence of a larval 

 cestode in the umbrella of a jelly-fish. The latter was a Rhizostomous medusa 

 {Acromitus rabanchatu) collected from near Barkuda Island in Lake Chilka. 

 These undoubted plerocercoid larvae may have come to that position acci- 

 dentally, and Mr. Southwell regards their occurrence in Medusce as representing 

 a cul-de-sac in their life-history. 



We can recommend two books to readers interested in general science. 

 The first of these is Einstein the Searcher, His Work Explained from Dialogues 

 with Einstein, by Alexander Moszkowski, translated by Henry L. Brose, 

 Methuen & Co., London, 192 1. The work is rather Boswellian and scarcely 

 belongs to the English world, immersed as it is in business, games, and politics, 

 but rather to another world, namely, that of the Old Germany of Goethe and 

 the philosophers and men of science. It is refreshing to turn from our puerile 

 literature of the day to people who discuss with interest and intelligence 

 matters of more general importance than business, games, and politics. 



Whatever branch of study he may be engaged in, the scientist is very 

 probably a fisherman, and will welcome the fine scholarly book by Mr. William 

 Radclifie on Fishing from the Earliest Times, admirably reviewed by the 

 Rev. Donald Macrae on page 496. The work must have cost years of labour, 

 and is a valuable addition to the world's stock of learning. It is also very 

 amusing from end to end. There is a plate of Poseidon, Heracles, and Hermes 

 fishing, taken from a lethykos of about 550 B.C. These worthies are dressed 

 in archaic Greek costume, at a time when they wore more clothes than they 

 did later. Evidently Mercury has taken out the other two fishing and is 

 acting as gillie, because he holds something like a gaff and is pointing into 

 the stream. Neptune and Hercules are seated on rocks opposite to him. 

 The former has brought up with his trident a small fish at which he is evidently 

 not pleased (it appears to be a kelt), while Hercules is enthusiastic over a 

 six-foot rod and (evidently) a worm ! Fancy Hercules descending to worm- 

 fishing 1 



