398 NATURAL SCIENCE. 



July, 



Tokio University having proved a successful and flourishing institution, the Japanese 

 Government is turning its attention to the subject of national museums. In noticing 

 this, the Birmingham Post comments on the increasing tendency to use the English 

 language for scientific publications of international interest, and refers to the publi- 

 cations of the Tokio University and to certain serials of Sweden, Norway, and 

 Holland as being in that language. The Tokio University publishes both in English 

 and in the vernacular, and both series have been seen at the Natural History 

 Museum. The wise plan of publishing abstracts of lengthy papers in some generally 

 understood language, such as German or French, has for long been followed by the 

 Russian and Hungarian scientific journals, while many papers published originally 

 in Polish are later on printed again in German. Unless this were done, the task of 

 reading the numerous memoirs on certain subjects would be a hopeless one, and 

 much valuable information would be useless, except to a few, the knowledge of three 

 to five Western European languages being a fair accomplishrnent for the average 

 scientist. 



There has lately been established "The Institution of Mining and Metallurgy," 

 the temporary offices of which are situated at iS Finch Lane, E C. Its object is the 

 general advancement of Mining and Metallurgical Science, and it comprises four 

 classes — Honorary Members, Members, Associates, and Students. With exception of 

 the Honorary Members, all must be engaged in practical Mining or Metallurgical 

 pursuits, or be about to enter the profession as students. The general plan of the 

 new Institution corresponds with that of the Institute of Civil Engineers, and it 

 is intended that it should take a corresponding position so far as concerns mining 

 engineers. A number of the Associates of the old Royal School of Mines have 

 joined this new body, one of them, Mr. George Seymour, M.Inst.C.E., has been chosen 

 President, while Professor A. K. Huntington, Mr. Edward Riley (long associated 

 with the late Dr. Percy), and others form the Council. 



The second Conversazione of the Royal Society was held on the 15th June. 

 The exhibits included many illustrative of Natural Science. Perhaps the most 

 interesting of these were the rats and rabbits of Professor Romanes, which showed 

 the results of crossing various breeds. The experiments made " prove the error of 

 those writers who assume that an act of fertilisation consists in the male and female 

 elements intimately blending together, after the manner of a mere mechanical 

 mixture, so that the offspring always presents characters more or less intermediate 

 between those of its parents. In many cases this does happen, but in many other 

 cases the admixture of hereditary elements is by no means intimate — those derived 

 from the father and mother appearing to remain respectively grouped together," 

 with the result that the offspring show a strong resemblance to one or other of the 

 parents alone. Professor Seeley showed the skeleton of Cynognathus crateronotus, 

 a new theriodont reptile from the Karroo Rocks of South Africa. The special 

 nterest of the animal consists in the remarkable mammalian type of parts of its' 

 osteology. Dr. Hicks exhibited the mammoth remains recently found in the north- 

 west of London. Mr. Cunningham's specimens and apparatus used in the experi- 

 ments on the artificial pigmentation of the lower side of fiat-fishes (see Natural 

 Science, p. 191), were shown by the Marine Biological Station. The remarkable 

 non-venomous South African Snake {Dasypeltis scabra), whose food consists 

 entirely of eggs, was exhibited by the Zoological Society. The egg is unharmed 

 in the mouth of this snake ; but by the muscular contraction of the gullet it 

 is forced against and cut open by a saw-like row of gular teeth, which are 

 formed by the inferior processes of the neck vertebrae. The hard shell is rejected 

 by the mouth in the form of a pellet. The red pigment, Turacin, containing 7 per 

 cent, of copper, which Professor Church has recently found in the wing feathers of 

 the Musophugidee, or plantain eaters, was shown. Insects were also represented by 

 cases of Lepidoptera in illustration of mimicry, shown by Professor Stewart, and by 

 Mr. Poulton's Photo-micrographs illustrative of the mode in which the scales have 

 disappeared from the transparent wings of certain moths. Of the botanical 



