456 



NATURE 



[February i, 191 2 



«xperim<.-nts to the wclfart- of mankind, and the great 

 Having of hinnan and animal life and health which is 

 already du«r to them. During the pant year the society 

 gained kkk) new memb«'rs and associates, and formed ten 

 new brnnc'lv's. It now has 5o<io members and associates. 

 The following pamphlets and leaflets have been published 

 during the year :— (i) '* A Question of Ethics "; (a) " Ex- 

 periments during iQio"; (3) "The Facts of the Case"; 

 (4) " The Saving of Human Lives " ; (5) " The Rockefeller 

 Institute"; (<>) "The Case presented by Antivivi- 

 sectionists " ; (7) " Recent Surgical Progress "; (8) " Anti- 

 vivisection Shops"; (9) "Tuberculosis"; (10) "Sleeping 

 Sickness"; (n) "Annual Report, Balance Sheet, and List 

 of Members and Associates." A book is in the press giving 

 a full risumi of the evidence before the Royal Commission ; 

 it will be published within a few weeks after the publica- 

 tion of the final report of the Royal Commission. It is 

 hoped that many readers of Nature will become members 

 or associates of the society, and will help its useful work. 

 The honorary secretary, Mr, Stephen Paget, 21 Ladbroke 

 Square, London, W'., will be glad to answer every inquiry, 

 to send literature to applicants for it, to receive names for 

 membership or associateship, and to make necessary 

 arrangements for .addresses and lantern-lectures in London 

 or elsewhere. 



In the January issue of The Quarterly Keview Sir K. 

 im Thurn describes the social and economical condition of 

 the Crown Colony of Fiji, with special reference to the 

 question of imported labour. He concludes that the British 

 islands in the western Pacific, with a few negligible excep- 

 tions already annexed to the Dominions of Australia and 

 New Zealand, form one growing Crown Colony, widely 

 isolated from all others, and lying adjacent to these great 

 Dominions. There are, he believes, good reasons why 

 these islands should not be immediately annexed to either 

 of these Dominions. But it is time that efforts should be 

 made to advance their growth and development, so that 

 they may be fitted ultimately to join the future United 

 Dominion of .Australasia, which is destined to represent the 

 British Kmpire in the western Pacific. 



The Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society commences in 

 part ii., vol. v., the publication of an important socio- 

 logical report on the Gypsy problem, being a State paper 

 compiled in 1900 by Mr. \. TreslefT, secretary of the com- 

 mittee appointed in Finland to consider the laws and rela- 

 tions of the Government with these people. Mr. TreslefT, 

 provided with recommendations from the Czar, visited 

 many parts of Europe and made personal inquiries into 

 th- condition of these nomads and the legislation affecting 

 them. The question, one of no ordinary difficulty, is dis- 

 cussed by a capable and impartial official, and will be of 

 much value to all who are interested in the problem. The 

 Journal has done good service by bringing it, in a transla- 

 tion prepared under the writer's supervision, before the 

 British public. 



In the January issue of Man Mr. C. VV. Hobley 

 describes a remarkable collection of protective charms 

 obtained from an old elephant hunter at Ukamba, British 

 East .\frica. Various kinds of powder eaten before a 

 hunting expedition make the sportsman's aim straight ; 

 another is a whip, which on such occasions is cracked 

 seven times " for good luck " ; and two twigs bound 

 together, if bitten after mentioning the animal which the 

 hunter wishes to capture, secure success, and are also 

 useful in winning a suit in the court of the Elders. 

 .Another charm is used when a new village is being 

 founded ; if the owner walks with it round the proposed 



NO. 2205, VOL. 88] 



site, no beaiits of prey will pasii the charmed circle, the 

 trade of manufacturing these charms must be profilalile, 

 .1* their price ranges from Rs. 35 and five goals for (lie 

 magic powder d<»wn to smaller numbers of these animaK 

 for the cheaper varieties. 



We have on several previous occasions made allusion lo 

 the valuable work issued from the medical radiographic 

 department of Guy's Hospital, in which, by the X-ray 

 method after a bismuth meal, kinks and similar disorders 

 in the intestinal tub*,- can be detected. The most r<-cent 

 of these papers, from the pen of Dr. A. C. Jordan (Pror. 

 Roy. .Soc. .Med., ion, vol. v., p. 9), deals with the subject 

 more fully, and is illustrated by a number of excellent 

 skiagrams. The intestinal stasis produced by kinks leads 

 to a well-recognised chronic illness, which makes life 

 unendurable. It can be remedied by a radical cure spoken 

 of as " short circuiting." This consists in dividing the 

 lower end of the small intestine and attaching it to the 

 rectum. The cases recorded show most gratifying results. 



To the Transactions of the Buchan Club for 1910-11 

 Mr. VV. Taylor contributes a list of the cetaceans recorded 

 during the last forty years on the east coast of Scotland. 



TtiE exhibition illustrating the animals, plants, and 

 minerals mentioned in the Bible, which was opened last 

 summer at the Natural History Museum, has been so 

 much appreciated by the public that it is to be maintained 

 for some time longer. .\ new edition of the guide-book to 

 this exhibition contains certain emendatif)n'. nn tlio nricina! 

 text. 



SoMK interesting particulars with regard to the distribu- 

 tion of the minute aquatic crustaceans of the genus Apus 

 in eastern Asia are recorded by Messrs. H. J. Walton and 

 S. Kemp in the Records of the Indian Museum of 

 December, 19 n (vol. vi., part 5). Sporadic instances of 

 the occurrence of representatives of the genus have been 

 recorded previously in the Himalaya near the sources of 

 the Sutlej, in Baluchistan, in the salt lakes of the Tibet 

 plateau, and in China. The new records add the Buland- 

 shahr district of the United Provinces of India and thf 

 Banihal district of Jamu, lying to the south of the main 

 Himalayan axis, to the range of the genus. The speci- 

 mens from both these areas, all of which were females, 

 appear referable to the European .4. cancriformis. In the 

 Jamu district these crustaceans are asserted to be injurious 

 to newly sprouting rice, but, as Mr. Kemp observes, thi'^ 

 indictment requires investigation. 



Considerable economic importance attaches to the 

 announcement by Dr. J. Stafford, in the January number 

 of The American Saturalist, that he has discovered the 

 later stages of the free-swimming larva of the Canadian 

 oyster, which had long formed a gap in the developmental 

 history of these molluscs. It is now shown that the larva: 

 continue to exist as such in the neighbourhood of the 

 oyster-beds for two or three weeks longer than was 

 previously known to be the case before they finally settle 

 down as spat at an age of three or four weeks after 

 fertilisation. The late larvae were taken in plankton-nets, 

 and for the future can readily be recognised. This will 

 render it practicable to determine the exact date at which 

 " cultch " should be laid down for the reception of the 

 spat. From his own observations Dr. Stafford is led to 

 believe that cultivation of the Canadian .Atlantic oyster 

 {Ostrea virginica) in the Pacific would prove profitable. 

 The author has discovered that the British Columbia O. 

 lurida differs from the Canadian and resembles the Euro- 

 pean species in being hermaphrodite. 



