82 



NATURE 



\May 25, 1876 



infested by them. 2. D. lancea and D. campula have each only 

 once before (forty and twenty years respectively) been seen by 

 any observer, and in either case from a different kind of whale. 

 3. The localities whence hosts and the Entozoa have been pro- 

 cared being situated regionally thousands of miles apart. 4. 

 Verification of statements based on prior limited data. 5. The 

 completion of our knowledge respecting the morphology and ar- 

 rangement of all their more important internal organs. Tne author 

 went on to generalise regarding the aberrance of host not pro- 

 ducing departure of parasitic type, the relative periodic frequency 

 and effects of such lowly organisms in wild and domestic 

 animals, and the close alliance of the Planarians to the forms 

 treated. — Mr. W. T. Thiselton-Dyer read a paper on the genus 

 Hooiia, with a diagnosis of a new species. lie distinguishes 

 three forms, viz., //. Gordoni, II. Currori, and//. Barklyi, and 

 shows that in certain respects the genus Decabelore presents a 

 close alliance. In the peculiarities of structure and recognition 

 of parts of the floral envelope of Hoodia the author holds opinions 

 diverging from those of Mr. Bentham, who previously had but a 

 limited opportunity of examining this rare and interesting group 

 of African plants. — Mr. W. Duppa Crotch read a paper 

 on the migration and habits of the Norwegian Lemming. 

 Specimens belonging to him and Mr. A. E. Alston, illus- 

 trated certain moot points in the economy of these animals. — 

 The Kev. M. J. Berkeley communicated a report on the fungi 

 collected in Kerguelen I-ilmd, riuring the stay of the Transit of 

 Venus Expedition of 1874-5. ^^''^ section of the Cryptogamic 

 flora of the island appears to be poorly represented, in so far 

 as number of species is concerned. — A note on Arctomys 

 dichrous, an oddly-coloured kind of Marmot inhabiting Cabul, 

 by Dr. J. Anderson, was announced. 



Geological Society, May 10.— Prof. P. Martin Duncan, 

 F.K.S., president, in the chair. — W. Borrer, James I'Anson, 

 John William Jair.es, Mark Stirrup, and Charles Wilkinson were 

 elected Fellows of the Society. — The following communications 

 were read : — On some fossil reef-building corals from the 

 Tertiarj' deposits of Tasmania, by Prof. P. Martin Duncan, 

 F. R.S. The species described by the author were Hdiastraa 

 tasmaw'enns, sp. n., Thamnastr(Ta sera, sp. n., and a second 

 species of Thamnnstvcra. Both these genera are composed of 

 reef-building corals, and the species here described undoubtedly 

 belonged to that category. They required the natural conditions 

 peculiar to coral-reefs. The author noticed the facts as to the 

 distribution of land and water in the Australian region in Lower 

 Cainozoic times, which are revealed by the deposits belonging 

 to that age, and indicated that although the insular distribution 

 of the land may have been unfavouraole to the growth of coral- 

 reefs, the existence of a suitable sea-temperature in the latitude 

 ot Tasmania is insufficiently explained. A single relic of the old 

 reef-building corals survives on the shores of Tasmania in the 

 Echinopora rosiilaria, I^am., but all the other forms have died 

 off. The coral isotherm would have to be 15° lat. south of its 

 present position to enable reefs to flourish south of Cape Howe, 

 and this could be caused only by a change in the arrangements 

 of land and sea, and in the jio«ition of the polar axis. The 

 author indicated the general arrangements of land which seemed 

 to have prevailed, and noticed that at that period and even 

 earlier the coral isotherm of 74° reached fully 25* north of its 

 present position in the portion of the globe antipodean to Tas- 

 mania ; but it would seem to require more than mere geographi- 

 cal changes to account for the existence of important reefs in 

 western, central, and southern Europe and in Tasmania synchro- 

 nously. The flora underlying the marine Cainozoic deposits of 

 Victoria indicate tropical conditions, as do the Echinodermata 

 of the succeeding strata (described in the following paper). The 

 fossil plants of the Arctic regions, from the Carboniferous to the 

 Miocene epoch, give evidence of the existence of higher tempera- 

 tures and of other conditions of light than those now prevailing, 

 but were the polar axis at right angles to the plane of the ecliptic, 

 and were there no greater node than at present, there would be 

 equal day and night at all points. The difficulty is to account 

 for the piesent position of tiie axis on this supposition ; but the 

 author suggested that the great subsidences of Miocene lands, 

 the formation of the southern ocean, and the vast upheavals ot 

 northern areas at the close of the Miocene epoch, may have 

 sufficed to produce the present condition of things. — On the 

 Echinodermata of the Australian Cainozoic (Tertiary) deposits, 

 by Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S. In this paper, afttr 

 noticing the history of our knowledge of Australian Tertiary 

 Echinida, the author gave a list of the species at present known. 



amounting in all to twenty-three, and described the following as 

 new species : — Leiocidaris australice, Temnechivus lincatus, Arach- 

 noides Loveni, A. elongaius, Rhynchopygiis dysasteroides, Echi- 

 nobrissiis australice, Holdsier aiisti-alitT, Maretia anomala, Enpa- 

 tagtis rotundus, and E. Lauhd. The author remarked upon the 

 characters and synonymy of the previously known species, his 

 most important statement being that the so-called genus Hemi- 

 patagus is in reality identical with the recent genus Loz'enia, 

 Gray, as clearly shown by fine specimens in his possession. The 

 most marked genera of the existing Australian fauna are not 

 represented, but are replaced by numerous Spatangoids ; three 

 species, however, are identical ; but two of these have a very 

 wide range. Of the remainder, nine are allied to recent Aus- 

 tralian species, mostly from the north of the continent ; six are 

 allied to European and Asiatic Cretaceous forms ; five are 

 closely related to Nummulitic types ; and one species appears to 

 belong to a peculiar genus, namely, Paradoxechimis noviis, 

 Laube. — On the Miocene fossils of Haiti, by Mr. R. J. Lech- 

 mere Guppy, F.L.S. 



Anthropological Institute, May 9. — Col. A. Lane-Fox, 

 president, in the chair. — In a paper, with copious tables, under 

 the title of Prehistoric names of weapons, Mr. Hyde Clarke 

 traced an early chapter in the history of culture, showing that 

 the names of weapons and tools were widely distributed among 

 the aborigines of Africa, Asia, Australia, and America. He 

 illustrated the archreological relation to the stone age by citing 

 conformities between axe and knife and stone. In Africa, 

 where stone weapons are so far as is known rare, the evidence 

 of names is strong in affirmation of its having passed through 

 a stone epoch. — Canon Rawlinson read a paper on the ethno- 

 graphy of the Cimbri. There were two theories respecting 

 their origin — the one that they were Germans, the other that 

 they were Celts. The evidence on both sides was slight, and 

 very nearly balanced. The majority of the early writers were 

 in favour of the Celtic view. Cresar, who pronounced the 

 Cimbri to be Germans, may not have met with any of pure 

 blood. Much would depend on the meaning of the term yellow 

 hair, and the reason for the employment of Celtic spies in the 

 Cimbrian camp. The name Cimbri has so near a resemblance 

 to .Cymry (the l> in Cambria ^being a usual Roman addition), 

 that this was perhaps as good evidence as any in favour of the 

 Celtic affinities of the race. On the whole Canon Rawlinson 

 inclined to this view.- — A short communication from Prof. Lubach, 

 des'zribing the " Hunebedden," or stone monuments in Holland, 

 was reid by the Director, Mr. E. W. Brabrook. 



Entomological Society, May 3. — Sir Sidney Smith Saun- 

 ders, C. M.G., vice-president, in the chair. — M. Jules Lich- 

 tenstein, of Montpelber, was balloted for and elected a foreign 

 member. — The Rev. J. Hellins sent for exhibition various British 

 I^epidoptera, recently submitted to M. Guenee for his opinion 

 and determination. One of the most important was a Noctiia, 

 bearing some resemblance to Xanthia ferruginea, not known to 

 M. Guenee, taken at Qucenstown, flying over bramble blossoms, 

 in July or August, 1872, by Mr. G. F. Mathew ; it was pIso 

 unknown, as European, to Dr. Standinger. — Mr. Distant ex- 

 hibited a series of six examples of the butterfly, Ithomca tittia, 

 Ilewitson, from Costa Rica, showing a very considerable varia- 

 tion in markings to which the species is evidently liable. He 

 also communicated some remarks on the Rhopalocera of Costa 

 Rica, with descriptions of species not included in the Catalogue 

 of Messrs. Butler and Druce, published in the " Procesdtngs of 

 the Zoological Society "for 1874. — Mr. Douglas exhibited speci- 

 mens of the Corozo Nut {P/iyfelephas macrocarpa), the vegetable 

 ivory of commerce, of wlfich the interiors were entirely eaten 

 away by a species of Caryoborus (one of the Bnichides). A 

 specimen of the beetle was shown, with nuts, from the London 

 Docks, which had been recently imported from Guyaquil. — The 

 Secretary read a letter he had received from the Foreign Ofiice 

 Department, enclosing a dispatch from her Majesty's Minister 

 at Madrid, relative to the steps taken to check the ravages of the 

 locust in Spain. It appeared that considerable apprehension was 

 felt in many parts of Spain that the crops of various kinds would 

 suffer greatly this year from the locust, and the Cortes had already 

 voted a large sum to enable the Government to take measures to 

 prevent this calamity, and by a Circular addressed to the Provincial 

 Governors by the Minister of "Fomento," published in the 

 Official Gazette, they were directed to make use of the military 

 forces stationed within their respective districts to aid the popu- 

 lation in this object. It was stated that thirteen provinces were 

 threatened with this plague. 



