June 9, 192 1] 



NATURE 



469 



The greater part of the skull and neck, with a nearly 

 complete shoulder-girdle, of a new Plesiosaurian from 

 the Wealden of Berwick, Sussex, has just been added 

 to the exhibited series of fossil marine reptiles in the 

 ideological department of the British Museum 

 (Natural Histor\'). The specimen was found in a 

 hard nodule in the pit of the Cuckmere Brick and 

 Tile Co., and was presented to the museum by the 

 managing director, Mr. Stanley Tooth. It represents 

 a small reptile, about 6 ft, in length, and is of great 

 interest as probably being a freshwater species. Just 

 as among existing Cetacea the river-dolphins are 

 generally smaller than the marine porpoises, so among 

 the extinct Plesiosauria the freshwater forms may 

 have been smaller than those living in the sea. In 

 the structure of its shoulder-girdle the new^ species 

 resembles the early Jurassic Plesiosaurs more closely 

 than those of later Jurassic times. It, therefore, 

 seems to have been an out-of-date survivor preserved 

 by such an isolated mode of life as a freshwater habit 

 would allow. The shoulder-girdle is uncrushed, re- 

 taining its original shape, and showing that the reptile 

 was round-bodied, not depressed like a turtle. 



The Rhodesia Museum, Bulawayo, being in urgent 

 need of a new exhibition gallery, has been promised 

 loooZ. by the Rhodes Trustees, and Sir Otto Beit 

 has promised 250/., provided the sum of 750Z. be sub- 

 scribed by the public. By the end of 1Q20 486^, had 

 been subscribed, and the museum committee now 

 appeals for further donations. 



We are glad to see that the Museums Journal is 

 not fulfilling its threat to appear only quarterly instead 

 of monthly, though it has overcome a temporary diffi- 

 culty by an .April-May number. In this Dr. Hecht, 

 of the Nancy museum, makes some suggestions for 

 co-operation between French and British curators, 

 which should bear fruit when the Museums Associa- 

 tion meets in Paris next month. One is that 

 examples of the rings attached to migrating birds 

 should be shown in the museums of the Continent, so 

 that visitors to them may become aware of their 

 meaning. 



The report of the South .African Museum for 

 1920 records the death of the old Seychelles tortoise 

 known as "Peter," It proved to be a female. So 

 long ago as 1834 she had reached a gigantic size, but 

 how old she then was is not known. One of the Cape 

 tortoises belonging to the museum had reached a great 

 size in 1843, and still fulfils the objects of her sex, 

 .Among much other interesting matter in this report, 

 Dr, Peringuey adduces fresh evidence that the stone 

 querns of the Bushmen were not for grain, but were 

 grinding mills for crushing ore. The craft of these 

 .African smiths, however, never enabled them to make 

 so much as an iron hammer or to dispense with the 

 use of stone implements. 



The Journal of the Royal Society of Arts for May 13 

 contains a paper by Sir James Cantlie describing 

 Thomson's machine for armless men in whom the 

 amputations are so high that it is impossible to fit 

 artificial limbs. The apparatus consists of a table 

 under which are pegs which are worked by the toes. 

 NO. 2693, VOL. 107] 



These actuate rods and levers which communicate 

 movements to rods above the table, which constitute 

 artificial "arms" by means of which all kinds of 

 instruments may be grasped and worked. The 

 patient is thus able to use a spoon, knife, and fork, 

 drink from a cup, pick up a cigarette from the table, 

 place it in his mouth, open an ordinary box of 

 matches, strike a match, and light the cigarette, write 

 with pen or pencil, typewrite, turn over the leaves 

 of a book, play draughts, wash and dry his face and 

 neck, etc. The condition of the armless is indeed 

 pitiable, and the inventor deserves the greatest com- 

 mendation for the design and construction of this 

 ingenious machine. 



In the Gardens' Bulletin, Straits Settlements 

 (vol, ii,, Nos, 9-1 1, 1921), Mr. T, F, Chipp publishes 

 a list of the fungi of the Malay Peninsula, which 

 it is hoped may facilitate the work of mycologists 

 engaged on the study of plant diseases and lead to 

 a more detailed systematic study of Malayan fungi. 



Several papers dealing with the fungus flora of 

 South Africa appear in the Transactions of the Royal 

 Society of South Africa (vol, viii,, part 4, 1920, and 

 vol, ix,, part 2, 192 1), Miss Ethel Doidge contributes 

 a revision of the native species of a family of moulds 

 (Microthyriaceae) which are abundant on the leaves of 

 plants in humid wooded districts. Descriptions, and 

 in many cases figures, are given of the species, a 

 large proportion of which are new to science. In a 

 second paper Miss Doidge describes in detail the 

 method of attack and nutrition of the tropical genus 

 Meliola, which occurs on shoots and leaves of forest 

 trees and shrubs. The fungus is shown to be a true 

 parasite, sending penetrating suckers through the epi- 

 dermis of the host, blocking up the stomata, and 

 causing considerable disorganisation of the cells, Mr. 

 Paul van der Bijl describes for the first time a fungus 

 {Ovulariopsis papayae) which attacks the pawpaw 

 plant along the coast of Natal, forming a powdery 

 covering on the under-face of the leaves. 



The Liverpool Geological Society has done well in 

 publishing in its Proceedings (vol, xiii,, part i., 1920) 

 a translation, somewhat abbreviated, of Dr, A. 

 Heim's paper "The Weight of Mountains," The 

 original appeared in the Annual of the Swiss Alpine 

 Club for 1918, and the illustrations are now repro- 

 duced. The map shows the variation of gravity 

 throughout Switzerland from what is regarded as 

 the normal value, and is based on results recently 

 obtained with the seconds pendulum for a large 

 number of localities. The measurements are recorded 

 as if values below the normal were due to an excessive 

 thickness of rock underlying the station with a specific 

 gravity of 24, and curves are drawn representing these 

 thicknesses at 100-metre intervals. Lines of normal 

 gravity-effect (o) occur on the south side of the Black 

 Forest and north of the Lago Maggiore. Between 

 these regions the lines are approximately parallel with 

 the strike of the Alpine folding, and the gravity-defect 

 runs up to — 1600 in the Engadine and to — 1450 on 

 the southern flank of the Rhdne Valley near Visp, 

 Dr, Heim regards the Alpine mass as floating, partially 

 submerged, in a plastic " sima " underlayer, into which 



