1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 293 



had attacked, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society ; and 

 four months later the University recognised his scientific attainments 

 by electing him superior beadle of divinity. But he died soon after, 

 of pleurisy supervening on asthma, on June 30, 1709, being but 49 

 years of age. 



Lhwyd was no mere cataloguer of fossils as curiosities ; he 

 recognised their true nature. " Many fossils which from long 

 centuries ago down to the present day have been regarded as 

 minerals, proclaim their animal origin if examined more closely : 

 this I specially assert of the Asteria, Encrinus, and Entrochus, which 

 I am wont to contend are nothing other than the petrified ossicles 

 of sea-stars." As to his drawings, we have the opinion of an expert 

 in Mr A. C. Seward's recently issued volume on " Fossil Plants " : — 

 " The oldest figures of fossil plants from English rocks which are 

 drawn with any degree of accuracy are those of Coal-Measure ferns 

 and other plants in an important work of Edwo,rd Lhwyd." Eor all 

 this, Lhwyd did not arrive at true geological conceptions ; he argued 

 to excellent purpose against the diluvial origin of fossils, but in a 

 letter to John Eay he suggested that they might have developed 

 from germs brought up by vapours arising from the sea. At the 

 same time, he insisted on the tentative nature of the suggestion, 

 saying, " For hypotheses I have cared the less, as I have always 

 loved natural history the more." He was, in short, an insatiable 

 collector of facts, and capable of using his wide knowledge acutely in 

 destructive criticism of contemporary hypotheses ; but he knew too 

 much to think that he could himself put forward a satisfactory 

 explanation. 



The Cause of Sunstroke 



The current physiological theory of the existence in the body of a 

 heat-regulating nervous centre is often supported by reference to 

 the phenomena of sunstroke. The theory accordingly suffers by a 

 remarkable paper on the etiology of sunstroke in a recent number of 

 the British Medical Journal, in which Dr Luigi Sambon practically 

 destroys all faith in the physical cause of that malady. Dr Sambon 

 points out that two different conditions are often classed together as 

 " sunstroke," and that these must be clearly distinguished before any 

 progress can be made in understanding the genuine sunstroke. Thus 

 he holds that many reported cases are only due to syncope. When 

 these and other analogous cases are eliminated there remains a 

 thermic fever, which Dr Sambon attributes to a specific organism, 

 and for which he adopts the older name of " siriasis." This theory 

 is startling, but Dr Sambon adduces convincing evidence in its sup- 

 port. He shows that it is a disease with definite symptoms and a 

 definite geographical distribution. That it is not due to the excessive 



