38o 



NATURE 



\_Feb. 1 6, I 



A THIRD edition of Mr. John Venn's "Logic of Chance" 

 (Macmillan) has just been issued. The work has been re- 

 written, but the author explains that the alterations he has made 

 do not imply any appreciable change of view on his part as to 

 the foundations and province of probability. In the preface 

 Mr. Venn mentions that he is engaged in preparing a work on 

 inductive logic. 



The scientific writings of Jean Mery (1645-1722) have been 

 brought together in a work edited by M. L. H. Petit, Assistant 

 Librarian to the Medical Faculty of Paris. The work contains 

 many contributions to biology which have not hitherto been 

 generally known. 



Tome hi., Cahier i, of the "Memoires de la Societe des 

 Sciences Physiques et Naturelles de Bordeaux," is devoted to a 

 full bibliography of the r function. 



We have received the Annuaire de V Observatoire Royal de 

 Bruxelles for 1888, this being the fifty-fifth year of its publica- 

 tion. It contains the usual astronomical tables and data for the 

 current year, and a mass of meteorological, geographical, finan- 

 cial, and other statistics. There is a complete list of the asteroids 

 and comets discovered in the past year, with the elements of 

 their orbits, and there is also an account of the state of solar 

 activity in 1886. The tables of units and physical constants 

 have been considerably extended, and a detailed account of 

 electrical and magnetic measurements has been added. In 

 addition there are, as usual, several scientific papers by the 

 officials of the Observatory. M. Folic gives an account of his 

 further investigations into the movements of the earth's axis, 

 and in a subsequent article M. Niesten applies the correction for 

 diurnal nutation to the various and widely differing determina- 

 tions of the annual parallax of 7 Draconis ; the value obtained 

 is -t-o""o86. The important series of barometric observations, 

 extending over a period of fifty years, are discussed at great 

 length, and illustrated by diagrams. 



Mr. John Heyvvood, of Manchester and London, has 

 issued a little book called " Flower- Land," by the Rev. R. 

 Fisher. It is written in a simple style, and will no doubt be 

 useful as an introduction to botany for children. 



The Perthshire Society of Natural Science has begun to 

 issue Transactions and Proceedings. We have received the 

 first part of the first volume. It contains notes on some rare 

 birds lately placed in the Society's Museum, by Colonel H. M. 

 Drummond Hay ; mnium riparium, by R. H. Meldrum ; some 

 localities for Perthshire plants, by R. H. Meldrum ; origin of 

 the interbedded and intrusive volcanic rocks of Kinnoull Hill, 

 by H. Coates ; and the flora of the Woody Island, by W. 

 Barclay, 



Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co. will publish 

 immediately, in the "International Scientific Series," Sir J. 

 William Dawson's new book entitled " The Geological History 

 of Plants." 



"A History of Photography," by Mr. W. J. Harrison, will 

 shortly be published. It is. intended to serve as a practical 

 guide to photography, and as an introduction to its latest 

 developments. 



A work containing a full account of the volcanic eruptions for 

 the last sixty-four years on the island of Hawaii has been printed 

 and will shortly be published in the city of Honolulu. The 

 author is Mr. William Lowthian Green, at present Prime 

 Minister of the kingdom of Hawaii, whose work on ' ' The 

 Vestiges of the Molten Globe " appeared in England some years 

 ago, and has since attracted the attention of M. Lapparent and 

 other Continental geologists. Mr. Green's new work will contain 

 a complete tabular statement of the eruptions, and a map of the 

 island of Hawaii. 



Mr. Edgar Thurston, Superintendent of the Government 

 Central Museum, Madras, has printed a list of fishes obtained 

 during a residence of three weeks at Rameswaram Island, which 

 is separated on the one hand from the Indian continent, and on the 

 other from the Island of Manaar, by an interrupted ridge of rocks 

 known as Adam's Bridge. The fish-fauna of the coral reefs of this 

 island stands out in striking contrast with that of other places 

 on the Madras coast. "Coral Fishes," j.^. brightly coloured 

 fishes — Chcetodon, Platyglossus, Heniochus, Pseudoscarus, &c. — 

 abound round the reefs, and feed either on the small delicate 

 marine Invertebrata which swarm on the living corals, or, if 

 their teeth are adapted for the purpose, on the hard calcareous 

 substance of the corals. The bright colouring of the fishes is 

 explained by Mr. Thurston on the well-known principle that 

 " the less the predominant colouring of any creature varies from 

 that of its surroundings, the less will it be seen by its foes, the 

 more easily can it steal upon its prey, and the mote it is fitted 

 for the struggle for existence. " Conspicuous by their abundance 

 are several species belonging to the family Sclerodermi, includ- 

 ing Batistes (lile-fish), whose jaws are armed with teeth well 

 suited for breaking off pieces of hard coral, or boring holes into 

 the shells of the Mollusca, on the soft parts of which they feed. 

 The file-fishes are said to destroy an immense number of mol- 

 lusks, thus becoming most injurious to the pearl-fisheries. 

 Present, too, in great numbers are several species of the family 

 Gymnodontes : Tetrodons (globe fishes), including the beauti- 

 fully marked little Tetrodon margaritiferus , and Diodons, which 

 have a very bad reputation among the natives as being very 

 poisonous. 



It is generally supposed that the Ainos of Yezo are amongst 

 the disappearing races of the earth, and that they are "fast 

 dying out," as the phrase usually runs. This appears to be an 

 error, for according to a communication on the subject in the 

 Japan Weekty Mail, from Mr. Bachelor, during the past fifteen 

 years there has been little, if any, diminution in their number, 

 which he puts down, so far as the Island of Yezo is concerned, at 

 from 1300 to 1600 souls. Actual detailed statistics respecting 

 the numbers of the Ainos do not appear to be given in the 

 Japanese censuses, but official statistics do exist for certain Aino 

 settlements since 187 1, which may be taken as an index. These 

 show an increase of 129 persons in sixteen years, although, by a 

 careful examination of the data, it appears that one village not 

 included in the earlier was given in the later years. In 1871, 

 there were 665 males, 639 females, and 260 huts ; in 1886, the 

 numbers were 691, 742, and 318 respectively. These figures, 

 making every reasonable allowance, show at least that there is 

 good ground for doubting whether the Ainos are dying out, in 

 Yezo at least, as rapidly as it is the fashion to assume that they 

 are. 



The seventh annual meeting of the members of the Sanitary 

 Assurance Association was held at their offices, S Argyll Place, 

 Regent Street, on Monday. Prof. Roger Smith presided, and 

 expressed his satisfaction at the continued prosperity of the 

 Association. 



In the footnote in Nature, December 15, 1887, p. 152, 

 second column, line 5 from foot, /^r Careton read Cureton. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Common Boa {Boa constrictor) from South 

 America, a Royal Python {Python regius), two West African 

 Pythons {Python sebce) from West Africa, an Indian Python 

 {Python molurus) from India, presented by Mr. Leopold Field ; 

 a Griffith's Fox {Canis griffithi) from Persia, two Cockateels 

 {Calopsitta nova-hollandia) from Australia, deposited ; a Pluto 

 Monkey {Cercopithectis pluto) from West Africa, an Antarctic 

 Skua {Stercorarius antarcticus) from the Antarctic Seas, received 

 in exchange. 



