9IO 



NATURE 



[December 22» 1923 



.1 them, 



\M itc at 



wliic h discoveries are now Ix h 



chuuges are Jwinj? brought ab(j;. I. ::... I'l 

 in a generation. ' 



A r a recent tnectiii^; of tlie Zoological Society, Mr. 

 K. I . (itinther exhibited some vertebrae of a marine 

 [iirassie cnKodile, Steiieosaurua, which were marked 

 on the ii!< N uitli (bscoloiired grooves apparently due 

 to coi I l)lood-ve88els. In a letter to the 



y? '■ ' " he reportf^l ♦••>♦ » dissection 



ot 1 1:) of a II rocodile by 



M: K 11 i.iiiiM- ii.i'i confirmed im ■ i m .i, and he 

 .ii::'.;i-^|ci 1 til, it the uniiMi.il iii.irkiii'.;^ \\\.\\ li.i\('been 



pr.HliK cd 1>\ sonir ( ;il( itii .itioii of tlie arteries due to 

 a ,nonl\ condition, peril, ips m old age. As the 

 appearances are almost niiii|iir, Mr. Gunther has 

 presented one of tlu- xertehr.e to the Geological 

 Department of the British Museum, where it is now 

 exhibited. The discovery led Prof. Elliot Smith, in 

 a letter to the Times of December 12, to recall observa- 

 tions of blood -stains on human bones from Egypt 

 and Nubia, from 4000 to 5000 years old, made by 

 Prof. Wood Jones and liimself. In a subsequent 

 letter to the Times, Mr. KlIiI .Moir advises caution 

 in interpreting red or brown stains on fossil bones as 

 marks of blood, most of these being evidently due 

 to the deposit of oxides of iron by percolating water. 



Thic Library of the Chemical Society will be closed 

 for the Christmas holidays from Monday, December 

 24, until Thursday, December 27, inclusive. 



Sir Charles Sherrington has received an official 

 communication from the Institut de France informing 

 him that he has been elected a corresponding member 

 of the Section of Medicine and Surgery of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, in succession to the late Sir 

 Patrick Manson. 



The Christmas Juvenile Lectures at the Royal 

 Institution, " Concerning the Nature of Things," to 

 be delivered by Sir William Bragg, commence on 

 Thursday, Dec. 27, at 3 o'clock. Succeeding lectures 

 are on Saturday, Dec. 29, Tuesday, Jan. i, Thursday, 

 Jan. 3, Saturday, Jan. 5, and Tuesday, Jan. 8. 



The Board of Trade announces that by virtue 

 of the Importation of Plumage (No. 2) Order, 1923, 

 the green (or Japanese) pheasant (Phasianus versi- 

 color), order Galliformes, and the copper pheasant 

 {Phasianus Soemmerringi), order Galliformes, have 

 been removed from the schedule to the Importation 

 of Plumage (Prohibition) Act, 1921. The importa- 

 tion of the plumage of the above-mentioned birds 

 will, therefore, not be permitted without licence 

 on and after January i, 1924. 



The Illustrated London News of December 15 

 publishes an account by Mr. R. C. Andrews of the 

 discovery of eggs of deinosaurs in the Cretaceous 

 rocks of Mongolia, with excellent photographs of 

 some of the specimens. To emphasise the fact that 

 at least one egg attributed to a deinosaur has been 

 known for many years, it also publishes a photograph 

 of fragments of this egg which have long been in the 

 British Museum. The earlier specimen was found 



NO. 2825, VOL. 112] 



with part of the skeleton of Hypselosaurus in .m 

 Upper Cretaceous formation in Provence, Fram 

 and the outer surface of the shell is tuberculated hi 

 that of the new eggs. 



1 )ii folloum^^ (oniinittee has been appointed !■ 

 t d Academy to investigate the quality of 



aterials and the various methofls of cleaning 



old pictures: Sir .Aston W'chl. >r) 



Mr. ('•. ('lausen, Mr ( >li,inno: 



Sir llerlxrt f.ickson, Sir Artlnir ^ 



Scolt, Mr ( I ( ross, |)r. W W i 



Morrell, Mr .\ llcaton, Mr I' 1 



Batten. ,ind .Mr. !■ . \: J.k k^on 



In the iiotKc of a " SI ii-ntilK iiomI" m \ 

 of Septemi)ir i, p i,^i>, .Mr. II. (• WilU a.i-, inrutioncti 

 as the first to exploit in ini.rjin.it )■. • !;••:, iturc the 

 idea of liberating the enc; 

 W. A. Osborne, of the ' 

 tliinks this is incorrei t, nwl 



" I should not be snrpnx-d n • .;; 



of the possibiUty of iiiilo( king a* -'d 



in ' The Crack of Doom,' by the late Mr. Robert 

 Cromie. This stor\' was published in 1895 ^y E)'gby 

 Long, and shortly , is a cheap reprint appeared 



from the house of .\ 



A SERU s of articles on the reconstruction of Tok\o 

 has recently appeared in the Times (December i-*. 

 13, and 15). The total value of the houses destroyed 

 in the city is estimated at about 146 million pounds, 

 the number of houses lost being 224,567, of which 

 more than 97 per cent, were burnt. According t^ > 

 Prof. Ichikawa, fire broke out after ♦t^'- <;.rtlum .1,. 

 in the building adjoining the Unr 

 The water supply had alrea ' .inougn 



every effort was made to - rooms, 



the fire swiftly penetrated into them, the destruction 

 of the library and the greater part of its contents 

 being the work of a few moments. 



The Prince of Wales has consented to become the 

 first member and president of the Fellowship of tlie 

 British Empire Exhibition, a non-party organisation 

 which has been formed to promote Empire unity. 

 The subscription for membership, two guineas, 

 entitles the member to a certificate of membership, 

 a badge, and a season ticket to the Exhibition at 

 Wembley. The funds thus raised are to l>e de\i)tecl 

 to scholarships for universit}' or techiuc. n. 



each of the value of 1000/. No details ai., ,k>>^ .. of 

 the conditions of awards e.xcept that candidates 

 must be citizens of the British Empire and either 

 members of the Fellowship or nominated by members. 

 In accepting the presidency of the Fellowship, the 

 Prince expresses the hope that its programme of 

 Imperial education and settlement scholarships will 

 plav a valuable part in promotine: knowledge of the 

 Empire. 



In addition to the letter from Dr. H. H. Mills. 

 printed in last week s N.\ri.RE. page 865. we ha\e 

 received several others in which diflferent views 

 are expressed upon Mrs. Hertha Ayrton's scientilic 

 work and influence from those given by Prof. Henry 

 E. Armstrong in the obituary notice which appeared 



