January 6, 1898 J 



NATURE 



229 



and the posterior part of another. Both of these were forwarded 

 to Dr. Scharff, who decided that they evidently belonged to 

 horses, but to specimens of very small dimensions — certainly 

 not larger than an ass. The skulls were discovered, when 

 making a drain in Major Moore's property near Naas (Co. 

 Kildare), resting on the gravel beneath the bog. The remains 

 therefore probably belong to wild horses, which are known to 

 have inhabited Ireland as contemporaries of the Irish Elk. 

 Dr. Scharff points out that all the remains of the wild horse 

 hitherto discovered in Ireland, viz. in Shandon Cave and many 

 Pleistocene deposits, point to the fact that it was of small 

 stature. 



An interesting glimpse of Huxley's home-life is given in the 

 Century Alagazine, by his son Mr. Leonard Huxley, and it 

 reveals another aspect of his gentle and loving character. After 

 his retirement in 1885, the extra leisure permitted his affection for 

 children to have full play. Of one of his grandsons, Julian, he 

 was very fond, and the following incident shows how he would 

 give rein to his humour and wisdom to please a child. Julian 

 had been reading the "Water Babies," wherein fun is poked at 

 his grandfather's name among the authorities upon water babies 

 and water beasts of every description. The book is illustrated 

 by a picture showing Huxley and Owen examining a bottled 

 water baby under big magnifying glasses, so Julian thought he 

 would consult his grandfather upon the matter. He therefore 

 wrote : " Dear Grandpater — Have you seen a water baby ? Did 

 you put it in a bottle ? Did it wonder if it could get out ? Can 

 I see it some day?" Julian's interrogations are worthy of a 

 Huxley, and this is the reply they received : " My dear Julian, 

 I never could make sure about that water baby. I have seen 

 babies in water and babies in bottles ; but the baby in the water 

 was not in a bottle, and the baby in the bottle was not in 

 water." Other stories are told to illustrate Huxley's sympathies 

 with, and tenderness to, the little ones. As is well known, cats 

 were great favourites with him. Like Mahommed who, rather 

 than disturb his cat, cut off the sleeve of his robe on which it 

 had gone to sleep, Huxley would not turn a cat out of his study 

 chair, but would himself sit in a less comfortable seat and leave 

 the cat in peace. At Eastbourne he gave most of his time to 

 gardening, and all through the last years of his life the garden 

 and the flowers were his greatest source of pleasure. 



We learn from the Annual Report of the Director of the 

 Royal Alfred Observatory at Mauritius, for the year 1896, that 

 a new series of publications has been commenced ; a separate 

 volume, entitled " Mauritius Magnetical and Meteorological 

 Observations," will contain the daily, monthly and annual values 

 of the principal elements, and will be substituted for the various 

 tables which have hitherto appeared in the Mauritius Blue Book. 

 The rainfall was 18 "58 inches above the average for the last 

 twenty-two years. After heavy floods in February (25 94 inches 

 in four days), followed by excessive rain during a severe thunder- 

 storm on May 7, severe droughts were experienced between 

 September and December. An examination cf the diurnal 

 variation of rainfall for 1888-96 shows a double oscillation, the 

 maxima occurring at 4h. a.m. and 3h. p.m., and the minima at 

 loh. a.m. and 8h. p.m., these hours corresponding nearly to the 

 epochs of minimum and maximum barometric pressure. The 

 mean temperature was nearly normal, being only o°'3 below the 

 average. As usual the logs of ships arriving at the island were 

 copied, so far as the observations related to the Indian Ocean. 

 Photographs of the sun were also taken daily, when the weather 

 permitted, and these have been forwarded to the Solar Physics 

 Committee. 



A USEFUL series of records of the Hereford earthquake of 

 December 17, 1896, as it affected the county of Hertford, is 

 contained in a paper by Mr. H. G. Fordham {Hertfordshire 



NO. I 47 I, VOL. 57] 



Nat. Hist. Soc. Trans., vol. ix., 1897, 'pp. 183-208). In his 

 summary of the observations, Mr. Fordham notes that the 

 earthquake was felt more or less distinctly over the whole 

 county, though it was naturally more marked on the west side 

 than on the east. There is no clear difference in its recorded 

 effects at places situated at different altitudes and on different 

 rock-formations. While there is a general agreement as to the 

 swaying or rolling character of the movement, there is a conflict 

 of evidence as to accompanying sound. In a large number of 

 cases, a rumbling sound is recorded ; but, on the other hand, 

 some very competent observers speak positively as to the 

 absence of noise. There is the usual diversity in the personal 

 impressions with regard to the direction of the movement, with 

 a balance of numbers, however, in favour of a movement 

 along a west and east line. 



The lately issued sixteenth volume of the Bulletin of the 

 United States Fish Commission contains an excellent report 

 on the Russian Fur Seal Islands, prepared by Mr. Leonhard 

 Stejneger, of the U.S. National Museum, which should be 

 studied by every one interested in the question. Mr. Stejneger, 

 who has visited the Commander Islands twice — first in 1882-83 

 in the palmy days of the fur seal industry, and again in 1895 

 during its decline and fall, and who is a well-known expert on 

 the subject, comes to the conclusion that the only measures 

 likely to stop the ultimate destruction of the fur seals of these 

 islands is the " total and absolute prohibition " of pelagic 

 sealing in the North Pacific for at least six years, and, after that 

 period, the total prohibition of pelagic sealing within a zone of 

 150 miles from the islands. These measures would, no doubt, 

 be effectual if they could be carried out, and would be much for 

 the benefit of the Russian Seal-skin Company, which holds 

 the lease of the islands ; but Mr. Stejneger does not explain 

 how it is proposed to stop seal-catching in the free and open 

 ocean, nor whether the Russian Company, to which the benefit 

 would accrue, is prepared to pay for it. 



Mr. J. Cosmo Melvill has reprinted from the Journal of 

 Conchology his presidential address upon the principles of 

 nomenclature and their application to the genera of recent 

 Mollusca. It contains an historical sketch of the subject as 

 regards pre-Linnrean authors which will be useful, if, as we 

 understand, nomenclature is to be one of the subjects for 

 discussion at the meeting of the International Zoological 

 Congress at Cambridge in August next. Mr. Melvill gives 

 also a useful list of genera of marine Gastropods about the 

 names of which some differences of opinion have existed, and 

 indicates those which he thinks ought to be adopted. 



It is well known to psychologists that some persons experience 

 a sensation of colour in association with certain sounds, the 

 colour seen being definite and invariable for the same sound. 

 Dr. W. S. Colman describes a number of these cases of colour- 

 hearing in the Lancet (January i ). Cases of this kind usually 

 fall into two groups. In the first there is a crude colour sensa- 

 tion, often very beautiful, associated with certain sounds such 

 as each of the vowel sounds, musical notes, or particular musical 

 instruments. The appearance is usually that of a transparent 

 coloured film similar to a rainbow in front of the observer, but 

 not obscuring objects. In the second group there are colour 

 sensations whenever letters or written words (symbols of sound) 

 were spoken or thought of, so that when a word is uttered the 

 subject visualises the letters, each having a distinctive tint. A 

 study of the subject leads Dr. Colman to regard the phenomena 

 as " associated sensations " analogous to the cutaneous sensation 

 of shivering in certain parts of the body, varying in different 

 individuals, which is experienced at the sight or thought of an 

 accident, or at the sound of the squeak of a slate-pencil. The 

 tints excited are very definite and characteristic, each for its own 



