June 8, 191 1] 



NATURE 



491 



Prof. A. Willey, F.R.S., of McGill University, Mon- | 

 treal, has directed our attention to the inclusion in his 

 article " Amphioxus " in the eleventh edition of the 

 ■ Encyclopaedia Britannica " of two cuts (Figs. 2 and 3) 

 which, though described there as "original," and there- 

 fore inferentially as drawn by himself, are really repro- 

 duced from Sir E. Ray Lankester's article " Vertebrata " 

 in the ninth edition. We understand that these illustra- 

 tions of amphioxus were added to Dr. Willey 's article 

 without his knowledge by the editor of the zoological 

 section of the eleventh edition, in accordance with his 

 scheme for the reorganisation of the whole series of 

 articles; but, by an oversight, the description "original" 

 was not altered to " Lankester," as it should have been. 

 We have received a letter from the editor-in-chief regretting 

 the error, which will now be corrected, and making it clear 

 that Dr. W'illey himself is not responsible for what m\ght 

 appear to ignore the original work of another distinguished 

 zoologist. 



The fine collection of African birds formed by the late 

 Mr. Boyd Alexander, and bequeathed by him to the 

 Natural History Museum, has now been handed over to 

 that institution by his executor, Mr. Robert Alexander. 

 The collection includes the birds obtained by Mr. Alexander 

 during his expeditions to the Cape Verde Islands, the 

 Zambezi and Kafue Rivers, the Gold Coast Hinterland, 

 and the Island of Fernando Po, as well as those secured 

 during the Alexander-Gosling expedition in 1904-7 from 

 the Niger to the Nile. The collection includes, also, all 

 the specimens obtained during his last journey to the 

 islands of San Thom6, Principe, and Annobon, in the Gulf 

 of Guinea ; on the Peak of Cameroon and mountains to 

 the north ; and in Wadai up to the time of Mr. Alexander's 

 death. This bequest to the Natural History Museum is 

 of great value, for it supplies beautifully prepared skins 

 and complete series of the avifauna of islands and 

 countries hitherto very imperfectly represented in the 

 national collection of birds. The present collection com- 

 prises nearly 4000 bird-skins, and includes the type-speci- 

 mens of no fewer than eighty species described for the 

 first time by the late Mr. Alexander in his papers published 

 in The Ibis and elsewhere. 



With the object of promoting and systematising chemical 

 work of general importance to all engaged in the develop- 

 ment of that science by research or by teaching, an Inter- 

 national Association of Chemical Societies has been formed 

 as the result of a conference of delegates from the chemical 

 societies of England, France, and Germany, held in Paris 

 on April 25 and 26. The three leading societies of the 

 countries named had been invited by the president of the 

 Chemical Society of France to cooperate in this movement 

 and to nominate delegates to represent their respective 

 societies at the inaugural meeting. The representatives of 

 the Chemical Society of London were Prof. P. F. Frank- 

 land (president), Prof. Meldola, and Sir Wm. Ramsay. 

 The Chemical Society of France was represented by Profs. 

 B^hal, Haller, and Hanriot, and the German Chemical 

 Society by Profs. Jacobson, Ostwald, and Wichelhaus. 

 With the exception of Prof. Meldola, who was unable to 

 attend, all the delegates were present at the opening meet- 

 ing, when the association was formally founded and the 

 statutes framed and adopted. From these statutes we 

 learn that the objects of the association are to be promoted 

 by the appointment of committees charged with the con- 

 sideration and investigation of questions submitted by the 

 council, by the publication of the results of such investiga- 

 tions, and by the holding of conferences and congresses. 



NO. 2 1 71, VOL. 86] 



It was decided at the opening meeting that the first 

 international committees should be appointed for dealing 

 with the questions of nomenclature in mineral and organic 

 chemistry, and with the unification of the modes of stating 

 physical constants. The next meeting of the association is 

 to be held in Berlin on April 13, 1912, with Prof. Ostwald 

 as president, and the 1913 meeting is to be held in Great 

 Britain. 



The death is announced, at seventy-two years of age, of 

 Dr. A. E. Tornebohm, the Swedish geologist. 



The twenty-second annual conference of the Museums 

 •Association will be held at Brighton on July 10-15 under 

 the presidency of Mr. H. M. Platnauer. 



The President of the Board of Education has appointed 

 Mr. H. H. Thomas to succeed Dr. J. S. Flett as petro- 

 grapher to the Geological Survey of Great Britain. 



Prof. Joh.annes Hartmann, professor of astronomy at 

 Gottingen and director of the University observatory 

 there, has been appointed, says Science, director of the 

 Argentine Observatory at La Plata. 



Mr. a. J. WiLMOTT, late scholar and Hutchinson student 

 of St. John's College, Cambridge, has been appointed an 

 assistant in the department of botany of the British 

 Museum (Natural History). Mr. Wilmott will devote him- 

 self especially to the European and British collections. 



Dr. Irving has found the remains of another horse at 

 I Bishop's Stortford. As the bones were lying under some 

 I 6 feet of peat along with those of a small ox of the Bos 

 I longifrons type, it may be provisionally assumed they 

 j belong to the Neolithic age. 



At the recent annual meeting of the Paris Society of 

 Friends of Science, Prof. M. L. Joubin, the general secre- 

 tary of the society, announced that during the preceding 

 year 80,000 francs had been distributed to men of science 

 and their families who were in need. 



There will be a meeting of the Biochemical Club at the 

 Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts, on 

 Saturday next, June lo. The director and staff of the 

 station have kindly consented to conduct members round 

 the various plots in the morning and in the afternoon. 

 The honorary secretary of the club is Mr. R. H. Aders 

 Plimmer, University College, Gower Street, W.C. 



The death is reported of Mr, Samuel Hubbard Scudder, 

 the veteran American naturalist, in his seventy-fourth year. 

 Nearly fifty years ago he was a museum assistant to Louis 

 .Agassiz. He subsequently held various posts in connec- 

 tion with the Boston Society of Natural History, the 

 Harvard University Library, and the U.S. Geological 

 Survey. He had a wide reputation as an entomologist, 

 particularly on .^cfOllnt of his numerous volumes on butter- 

 fiics 



In a I'-i'iit I'li'i HP i nc Tintt's, i'ufi. M.uius ll.iiu>g 

 directs attention to the fact that there is no provision 

 made in the new Copyright Bill in reference to reproduc- 

 tion on lantern-slides for teaching by recognised teachers. 

 He points out that an actual researcher is usually gratified 

 at the implied recognition of his work when it is utilised 

 by others, and that permission to copy the figures in 

 original papers is not, as a rule, asked for, save, perhaps, 

 as a matter of form. But with reference to standard text- 

 books there seems to be much doubt. Prof. Hartog asks, 

 " Would it not be possible to insert a clause specifying 

 that unless the right were expressly reserved, no prosccu- 



