September 29, 192 1] 



NATURE 



163 



The objects of the meeting are to bring together public 

 officials, engineers, business men, and others who are 

 interested in securing for the United States and 

 Canada the benefits of the general use of the metric 

 system and to utilise the information thus gained in 

 guiding the metric movement. So far as possible the 

 papers to be presented will outline the steps which 

 would be necessary to make the suggested change in 

 industry and the law. The Britten-Ladd Metric Bill now 

 before the United States Congress will be among the 

 subjects discussed. Suggestions and queries should 

 be sent to the American Metric Association, 156 Fifth 

 Avenue, New York City. 



The following committee has been appointed by the 

 Medical Research Council, in consultation with the 

 Ministry of Health, for the investigation of the causes 

 of dental decay :^Prof. W. D. Halliburton (chair- 

 man), Mr. N. G. Bennett, Mr. L. Colebrook, Dr. 

 J. M. Hamill, Sir Arthur Keith, Mrs. E. Mellanby, 

 Mr. J. H. Mummery, and Mr. C. J. Thomas. Dr. 

 J. M. Hamill is the secretary of the committee. 



A CONV^ERSAZIONE of the Royal Microscopical Society 

 will be held at the Mortimer Halls, Mortimer Street, 

 London, W.i, on Wednesday, October 5, from 7.30 

 to 10.30 p.m. 



The Harveian oration of the Royal College of 

 Phvsicians of London is to be delivered at 4 o'clock 

 on Tuesday, October 18, by Dr. H. Spencer. 



One modern school of anthropologists explains the 

 origin of civilisation as starting from Egypt. It is 

 therefore important to investigate how far this dis- 

 semination of culture can be recognised in Africa 

 itself. At the Edinburgh meeting of the British Asso- 

 ciation the question was considered in a paper on 

 "Egyptian Influence on African Death Rites," by 

 Mr. T. F. Mcllwraith. He found, particularly on 

 the Guinea coast and in the Congo Valley, cases of 

 desiccation of the corpse, delayed interment without 

 the use of preservatives, burial in coffins decorated 

 with anthropomorphic figures, and statues intended 

 to house the soul or to serve as effigies on the grave. 

 The fact remains that these analogies to Egyptian 

 culture are found in West and Central Africa, not in 

 the nearer regions of the east and south. This, he 

 suggested, could be explained by seafarers from Egypt 

 founding a centre on the Congo coast, whence 

 elements of Egyptian civilisation penetrated inland 

 or by overland influences, which had been wiped out 

 by later intrusions of pastoral peoples. 



Ix connection with Mr. A. E. Harris's letter on 

 Ceratium furca (Nature, September 8, p. 42), sug- 

 gesting that this organism may be moving inland, 

 Mr. J. W. Williams, of Bewdley, Worcester, writes 

 to say that he and Mr. H. Weaver have found the 

 curious organ-pipe diatom Bacillaria paradoxa, Gmel., 

 in abundance in the Staffordshire and Worcestershire 

 Canal at Stourport and in Wilden Pool ; Mr. Weaver 

 has also found the organism in Charlton Pool and 

 Hartlebury. Mr. Harris states that for a number of 

 years Bacillaria paradoxa has been recognised as a 

 constituent of the fresh-water algae of the dykes and 

 NO. 2709, VOL. 108] 



drains of the north-east and east of England, 

 although its normal habitat is in salt or brackish 

 water. That it has been found in districts hitherto 

 unexplored is not necessarily proof that it is actually 

 advancing inland. 



Some interesting observations on two British 

 mammals form the subject of notes in the Irish 

 Naturalist for September. Mr. A. W. Stelfox reccM-ds 

 his observations on a curious flight made one evening 

 in July by a hairy-armed bat (Nyctalits Leisleri). The 

 bat made an upward and zigzag flight into the air 

 and continued its ascent until out of sight. Mr. C. B. 

 Moffat, commenting on this note, states that he has 

 witnessed similar ascending zigzag flights on the 

 part of the same species of bat on three occasions, 

 and is of opinion that the animal, which, by reason of 

 its early and short period of flight, must live on day- 

 flying insects,* hopes by its ascending flight to find 

 clearer air and a more abundant supply of insects. 

 In the second note Mr. A. Sheals supplies evidence to 

 show that squirrels, contrary to prevailing belief, bring 

 forth their voung quite early in the year. Mr. Moffat 

 endorses Mr. Sheal's opinion in a commentative note, 

 and remarks that there is reason to believe that the 

 young squirrels born about midsummer or later are 

 second broods. 



Mr. R. I. PococK writes on otters in the September 

 issue of Conquest. His article is prefaced bv a 

 general consideration of amphibious mammals, with 

 special reference to those characters acquired 

 indejjendently by species, wholly unrelated to each 

 other, which have adopted the amphibious habit, 

 such as the quality of the fur, the strengthen- 

 ing of the " whiskers " of the upper lip, and a general 

 form of body so built as to offer the least possible 

 resistance to water. Dealing specially with otters, the 

 author notes their world-wide distribution and uni- 

 formity in character, due to their habit of entering 

 the sea to fish and their ability to travel along the 

 waterways of the world. Mr. Pocock throughout the 

 article brings out in an interesting manner the corre- 

 lation of structure with habit. Some otters, like the 

 African otter, have given up aquatic life, and, in con- 

 sequence, the bristles on the upper lip have lost much 

 of their stiff'ness and the webs on the feet are reduced 

 in size. The true sea or fur-bearing otter is of special 

 interest in this connection. Compared with fresh- 

 water otters it has a shorter tail, smaller and more 

 delicate fore-paws, and very large flipper-like hind- 

 paws. This is correlated with a general habit of 

 swimming mainly with its hind limbs and the absence 

 of any need for rapid movement through the sea on 

 account of its independence of swift-swimming fishes 

 as food. It feeds mainly on mussels and other shell- 

 fish, crabs, and sea-urchins. The article concludes 

 with a consideration of the affinities of otters. Mr. 

 Pocock supports the generally accepted view that 

 otters are related to the martens, and may be described 

 with considerable truth as aquatic, fish-eating martens. 



An- illustrated account of the trials of the motor 

 tanker Conde de Churruca appears in the Engineer • 

 for September 16, This vessel was constructed bv 



