762 



NATURE 



[November 24. 1923 



In the case of petroleum, (ormed from the same 

 raw material, in itself extremely variable, other 

 subsequent variables enter ; one is the extreme 

 delicacy and susceptibility of both the forming and 

 formed petroleum to ever-continuous changes of 

 temperature and pressure within the earth's crust : 

 and the other is that petroleum can in general 

 defmitely be proved to have migrated at least several 

 thousand feet, and during this process it may undergo 

 chemical alteration, especially during contact with 

 catalysers. In forming oil in the laboratory the 

 principal variables at the disposal of the chemist are 

 temperature, pressure, and catalysers ; by varying 

 these he obtams widely differing products from the 

 same organic matter. In Nature, with infinite time 

 added to the list of variables at present known, we 

 seem to me to be not only fully justified but utterly 

 unable to avoid expecting an almost infinite variety 

 of petroleums. 



I believe it has now been recognised that cholesterol 

 and phytosterol are not necessarily any criterion as 

 to animal or vegetable origin, since both can be made 

 from a number of raw materials. 



It is difficult to limit remarks on a subject so wide 

 and important, but in conclusion I should like to 

 make one further comment. Petroleum in the 

 making at surface has been mentioned in various 

 parts of the world, but these reports are frequently 

 due to faulty observation or untenable hypotheses, 

 and Djebel Zeit, Egypt, is no exception. I think 

 all geologists are agreed that tlie oil there is, at 

 latest, Miocene, and most probably of Cretaceous age, 

 and that its presence in the corals is due to submarine 

 and shore seepages, some of the oil from which lodged 

 in the porous corals, and that on the local evidence 

 it cannot possibly be explained by formation in situ. 



G. W. Halse. 

 Abbey Buildings, 8 Princes Street, 



Westminster, S.W.i, November 2. 



The Ralline Genus Notornis, Owen. 



The ralline genus Notornis was established by Sir 

 Richard Owen in 1843 ^upon a series of bones sent 

 him from New Zealand by the late Mr. Walter Mantell, 

 in one of the earlier consignments of Moa bones 

 discovered in the sand-dunes where the Maoris feasted. 

 Owen designated his type species Notornis Mantelli. 

 In the course of determining a collection of ornitho- 

 logical remains from turbaries, caves and kitchen 

 middens from New Zealand and the Chatham Islands, 

 containing many relics of those birds, I was be- 

 wildered, a few days ago, by discovering that this 

 long-established genus had been boldly superseded by 

 Messrs. Mathews and Iredale in their beautiful work 

 on the " Birds of Australia," by the new generic 

 designation, Mantellomis — one of the numerous topsy- 

 turvies their volumes contain. 



In 1843 Notornis was supposed to be an entirely 

 extinct rail. After the lapse of many decades, how- 

 ever, more than one specimen has been obtained in 

 the flesh, an example of which, known to zoology for 

 some thirty years as Notornis hochstetteri of Meyer, is 

 now preserved in the Dresden Museum. This speci- 

 men was dissected by that distinguished biologist, the 

 late Prof. Jeflfery Parker, who found it, in its osteo- 

 logical details, so closely affine to N. Mantelli as to 

 cause him (as he told me) much doubt as to its 

 differing in any character from Owen's species. The 

 authors above cited have now renamed the Dresden 

 specimen Mantellornis hochstetteri for the sole reason 

 that Owen's genus was founded on fossil bones — 

 after all not really fossil. It must now be equally 



NO. 2821, VOL. I 12] 



legitimate for the next daring Neozealandian sy8> 

 tematist to follow this example and assign a new 

 l^enus. say Ircdalornis, to the Apteryx bones occurring 

 m New Zealand pleistrM-cne and more recent deposits, 

 and in caves and ' ovens, the minutest ana- 



tomical details of \\ '• with those of the Kiwis 



living within sight 01 nic scenes in which their very 

 own parents perished — a violent breach of the Rules 

 of Nomenclature not less unscientific than the sub- 

 stitution of Mantellornis for Notornis. 



It seems to he coming to this, if we are to be 

 guided by these extremist authorities on nomen- 

 clature, that the very .same creature is to !>«' .-I'.sii'ned 

 to one genus when it is studied from thr nd 



to another when (found alive) it is studi* the 



outside. Against such absurd genus-makmg — than 

 which no more glaring example has stircly been 

 perpetrated in any reputable zoo! aion — 



1. for one, desire to enter my > .-st, in 



the interests of biological science, and agamst the . 

 confusion that must inevitably result if such pro- ' 

 cedure, as is described in this letter, is to be followed. 



Henry O. Forbes. 



Redcliffe. Beaconsfield, Bucks. 

 October 28. 



Dr. Jesse W. Lazear and Yellovv Itiver. 



The stor>' of the death of Lazear as commonly tol<l 

 is that mentioned in Nature of October 27. p. 631, 

 namely, that he " allowed himself to be bitten h\- 

 mosquitoes that had fed on the blood of yellow fe\-er 

 patients." It may, however, be worth while to state 

 that the mosquito-bite which killed him was inflicted, 

 not experimentally, but by a " wild mosquito " in 

 the ward in which he was working (September 1900). 

 This was told to me in Panama in 1904 by Dr. T. C. 

 Lyster, who was actually with Lazear when the insect 

 bit him on the hand ; and Lazear then remarked, " I 

 wonder whether this creature is infected " — or words 

 to that effect. It was Dr. J. Carroll, who had been 

 previously, and experimentally, infected by mosqui- 

 toes fed on yellow-fever patients ; but he recovered. 

 Nevertheless, Lazear's case was almost as good as an 

 experimental one. The whole heroic story will be 

 found set forth in Dr. Howsird A. Kelly's" Walter 

 Reed and Yellow Fever " (The Norman, Remington 

 Company, Baltimore), and is given briefly in my 

 Memoirs, p. 425. Ronald Ross. 



Life History of the Ephemeridae. 



I HAVE been aisked by a French observer, M. A. 

 Gros of Marigny (Jura), France, if I can put him into 

 touch with entomologists interested in the Ephem- 

 eridae. M. Gros is the author of an illustrated 

 brochure, " Etudes sur les premiers etudes des 

 eph^m^res du Jura fran^ais," which deals mainly 

 with Ecdyonurus forcipula of Central Europe — not. 

 I believe, found in the rivers of the British Isles. 

 M. Gros Would prefer to correspond in French if 

 possible. He appears to have established some inter- 

 esting facts, which may help us in our endeavours 

 to transplant water-flies from one river to another. 

 So many causes are denuding our rivers of their 

 natural supplies of Ephemeridae, etc.. that it is most 

 important to introduce fly from other waters if 

 possible. It has been done, at least temporarily, in 

 a few instances. R. B. Marstox, 



Editor, Fishing Gazette. 



19 Adam Street, Strand, 



London, W.C.2. 



October 29. 



