December 28, 191 1] 



NATURE 



287 



twelve must die, and these figures may be regarded 

 IS probably below the mark where food is abundant. 



The relative prolificacy of the rodents as compared 

 with many of the carnivora which feed upon them 

 does not come within the scope of Dr. Mitchell's paper, 

 but it is a remarkable instance of the interrelation of 

 the system of life upon our planet that those which 

 are preyed upon should be on the whole more prolific 

 than those which prey. 



Possibly the shortest-lived mammals are to be found 

 amongst the shrews, of which a solitary individual is 

 tabled in Dr. Mitchell's records as having survived 

 captivity for one month. Shrews are extremely diffi- 

 cut to keep alive under artificial conditions, and 

 evidence has lately been produced to suggest that, in 

 the case of the two commoner British species, the 

 average duration of life is only about a year, but, 

 since shrews are amongst the most prolific of mam- 

 mals, this short period is more than sufficient for the 

 maintenance of their numbers. 



It appears that there is no rule which can be laid 

 down in advance to govern the probable length of 

 life of any given species. Size has very little to do 

 with it, although in the same group the larger usually 

 live longer than the smaller. The climate from which 

 a bird or mammal comes has the smallest possible 

 relation to its viability in captivity ; in fact, not nearly 

 so much influence as the nature of the cages, or en- 

 closures, which the captive animal is to occupy, since 

 Dr. Mitchell shows that a system of combining free 

 access to open air with suitable dry shelters of small 

 size offers the most ideal conditions for the health 

 of captive animals. Strange to say, it is not animals 

 from the tropics that suffer most from the London 

 climate, but those from the Arctic, which seem to 

 find a difficulty in altering the rhythm of their moults. 

 Those from south temperate regions are even in a 

 worse plight, since they haye to face the fact that 

 the conditions of winter and summer are reversed in 

 the northern hemisphere. 



A remarkable suggestion of Dr. Mitchell's is that 

 animals from thickly populated countries are on the 

 whole more difficult to keep alive in captivity than 

 those from regions where men are less known. This 

 applies especially to British birds, and Dr. Mitchell 

 suggests that their lower viability in captivity in 

 England, as compared with that of their immediate 

 allies from any other part of the world, is probably 

 due to their intolerance of man, without which un- 

 fortunately they would not have been able to main- 

 tain their existence as wild creatures. 



NOTES. 



Thk iiiff tintj of the All-India Malaria Committee of the 

 novernment of India af Bombay in November last marks 

 1 revolution in Indian sanitation. For years past the 

 <i revolution in Indian sanitation. For years past the 

 nothing but quinine prophylaxis against malaria, and have 

 not encouraged, or have even discouraged, mosquito- 

 reduction— alarmed, apparently, at what appeared at first 

 •ight to be the cost of the latter measure. Owing, how- 

 ver, to constant discussions (in which Nature has taken 

 r -"• --'.thrr spirit has now shown itself. The confer- 

 a series of resolutions in which mosquito- 

 "''^1' '- at last recommended for India — years after 



regularly employed elsewhere. This ultimately 

 formation of a genuine sanitary service for the 

 whole of India on the lines recently suggested by Sir R. 

 Ross, Colonel King, and Dr. SIi " , The Times, and 



with the enthusiastic medical '^ i< h ih, Govern- 



ment has at its command we may expect great results in 

 time. The Indian Press deals at length with the matter, | 

 NO. 2200, VOL. 88] 



It iKIS 



means 



and the Madras Mail remarks: " It is just fourteen years 

 since Sir Ronald Ross, working in India— at Secundera- 

 bad— discovered the method of transmission of the malaria 

 parasite from man to man by the anopheline mosquito. 

 Malaria causes more sickness and mortality than any other 

 disease^ in India ; yet, knowing all about its method of 

 transmission for the last fourteen years, what has been 

 done in the interval in the way of practical application of 

 the knowledge furnished by Sir Ronald Ross? Nothing! 

 Verily, a prophet is without honour in his own country. 

 There is hardly another country but has something to show 

 —often most brilliant results. Now that the admission has 

 been made that India has hitherto been on the wrong 

 track, we again express the hope that something of a 

 practical nature will shortly be done to mitigate the 

 ravages of malaria in this country." 



Mr. George R. M. Murray, F.R.S., who died at Stone- 

 haven on December i6, at fifty-three years of age, joined 

 the Department of Botany of the British Museum in 1876, 

 after having spent some time in de Bary's laboratory at 

 Strassburg. He thus started his work at the museum 

 well equipped for the study of the fungi. Murray 

 approached with characteristic enthusiasm the task assigned 

 to him by his chief, Mr. Carruthers, of building up the 

 cryptogamic herbarium. There in the great collections, 

 especially of fungi and algae, lies the chief record of his 

 work for nearly thirty years. His earlier work was on the 

 fungi, but later he turned to the alga2, and in association 

 with younger workers whom he had attracted to the 

 museum, published a series of papers on the structure and 

 affinities of certain genera. A number of these papers were 

 brought together in the " Phycological Memoirs," which 

 he edited (1892-5). In 1895 was published his " Introduc- 

 tion to the Study of Seaweeds," and in the same year he 

 succeeded Mr. Carruthers as keeper of the Department of 

 Botany. He next turned his attention to marine plankton, 

 and accumulated a large amount of material, much of 

 which he collected himself on various excursions on or 

 across the Atlantic. He embarked on this new work with 

 his usual energy and enthusiasm, but his scientific career 

 was abruptly ended by a breakdown in health that necessi- 

 tated his retirement. Murray's work was not limited to 

 official duties. As a young man he was known as an 

 able teacher and lecturer. He was for some time lecturer 

 in botany at St. George's Hospital, and later at the Royal 

 Veterinary College ; and in conjunction with A. W. 

 Bennett he brought out a text-book on cryptogamic botany. 

 He was secretary to a committee which organised useful 

 work of botanical exploration in the West Indies, and for 

 some sessions he worked hard for his section at the British 

 Association meetings. Until his health failed he was a 

 keen supporter of the Linnean Society, serving on the 

 council almost continuously from 1883 to 1900. He was 

 elected into the Royal Society in 1897. 



The Board of Trade has been informed that the twelfth 

 International Navigation Congress will be opened nt Phila- 

 delphia on May 23, 1912, under the patronap 

 Taft. Further particulars, including the con 

 which persons or corporations may partiiip.ii m ih ■ con- 

 gress, can be obtained from Lieut. -t'ulonrl Saiidford, 

 gineral secretary of the congress, The Bourse, Room 344, 

 Philadelphia, P. A. (U.S.A.). 



The death is announced, in his fifty-.- "f Mr. 



J.im.'^ Aitchison, who founded th- ' "i srs. 



Aiit iiiMiii and Co., opticians, about uiry 



ago, and as one of the fm ' f the Uptu did 



much to promote study rch amon;; ^ of 



