27a NATURAL SCIENCE. April, 



Our animated contemporary, La Revue Scientifiqtie, is instituting a 

 reform in French orthography. We always imagined that the 

 orthography of the French language had been settled once for all by 

 the Academie Fran9aise. The Revue, however, has certainly laid its 

 finger upon some weak points. It proposes in future to write " ph " 

 as " f," and to change the " x " of the plural into " s," except in those 

 cases where the singular noun itself ends in " x," but it does not feel 

 that it has yet sufficient support for the changing of " y " into " i " in 

 those cases where it has the equivalent sound. 



//2«;m;«7_)' for February contains a useful list of rare birds killed 

 in Great Britain last year, compiled by J. Collinson. 



From the Geological Institute of the University of Upsala, we 

 have received vol ii. part 2, of its Bulletin. This contains Carl 

 Wiman's valuable paper " Ueber die Graptoliten," the chief results 

 of which were kindly summarised by him for the readers of Natural 

 Science, September and October, 1896. An equally important 

 paper in this volume is that by J. G. Andersson on the Cambrian and 

 Silurian phosphoritic stones of Sweden. In this the distribution, 

 relations, and origin of all phosphoritic nodules and beds is fully 

 described and discussed on the evidence of personal observation in 

 the field and laboratory. The illustrations are specially commendable. 



A criticism of Mr. Andersson's paper, and a consideration of the 

 occurrence of phosphorites generally, by Herman Hedstrom, has 

 just appeared in the Fovhandlingav of the Geological Society in Stock- 

 holm (vol. xviii., pp. 560-620). 



The " Psychological Index " just issued by the Psychological Review 

 is not only published in the Annee Psychologique, where it will have the 

 co-operation of N. Vaschide in the preparation of French titles, but 

 has also entered into co-operation with the Zeitschvift fiiv Psychologie u. 

 Physiologic dev Sinnesorgane, exchanging the titles of papers with that 

 publication, and thus making both more complete. 



The Antananarivo Annual is rapidly assuming importance as a 

 scientific journal. No. 20, for Christmas, i8g6, being pp. 385 to 512 

 of vol. v., contains numerous interesting articles, some of them, it is 

 true, reprinted from other sources, some translated into Eng'ish. 

 The original ones are : " From Fort Dauphin to Fianarantsoa," by 

 E. F. Knight ; " Malagasy Plant-Names " ; " Notes on some Mada- 

 gascar Spiders and their protective Resemblances," and " The 

 Mammals of Madagascar," by Rev. J. Sibree ; some notes on Mada- 

 gascar geology, by Rev. R. Baron ; " The ' Mohara ' or War-Charm 

 of Imerina," and " By-gone Ornamentation and Dress among the 

 Hova Malagasy," by Rev. W. J. Edmonds; " Ohabolana, or Wit 

 and Wisdom of the Hova of Madagascar," by Rev. J. A. Houlder ; 

 " The Zanakantitra Tribe," by H. E. Clark ; " A Native Malagasy 

 Lyric," by Rev. W. F. Cousins ; " A Taifasy Village," by Rev. C. 

 Collins ; " Lanihay, in North-East Madagascar," by H. Hanning. 

 The London agents for the Annual are Messrs. John Haddon & Co., 

 Salisbury Square. 



New Serials. 



We have received the first number, issued on the ist of March, of 

 the Revue Diplomatique et Coloniale, receuil bi-mensuel de politique cxtcrieuve, 

 published at the. office of the Revue Rose and the Revue Bleuc, 19, rue 

 des St. Peres, Paris. The yearly subscription for the postal union is 

 12 francs 50. We presume that this review, though dealing chiefly 

 with political questions, has been sent to us on account of its contain- 

 ing an article by Prof. Marcel Dubois, entitled " Science et Pro- 



