April 19, 1888] 



NATURE 



583 



the following list of injuries which occurred during the years 

 1878-86. It must, however, be understood that this is not to 

 be regarded as a complete list of the accidents which occurred, 

 for during the years 1878-80 I was nearly always travelling 

 about, and was therefore unable to collect information of a 

 satisfactory character. 



Captain Casati reports — 



1886 



Neolopo (Monbuttu).. 

 Djuaia (Unyoro) 



Man badly burnt. 



Woman killed. 



One man killed ; one burnt — 



died in two days. 

 Tree felled near observer's 



house. 



These cases were all observed in our stations, with the excep- 

 tion of two — one occurring in Wandi, in December 1882, and 

 one in Redjaf, in November 1886. They all took place in the 

 rainy, that is to say, in the cooler season. From the list you 

 will see that two or three times every year we suffer some 

 damage from lightning- strokes. It therefore does not appear 

 that these accidents are so rare , as Herr von Danckelman 

 supposes, at least in this part of Africa, and if travellers 

 do not report such accidents, it is probably because of their 

 short stay in definite places. I noticed, in Schvveinfurth's " Im 

 Herzen von Africa," i. pp. 345-46, that six women were killed 

 by a single flash of lightning. I may be also permitted to 

 remark that in Unyoro and Uganda, countries which have a 

 greater elevation than our own, the frequency of destructive light- 

 ning-strokes is much greater. Uganda is the only country 

 boasting of a lightning-conductor. Mr. A. M. Mackay has 

 erected one there, to protect King Mwanga's palace. Monbuttu, 

 too, although having a lower elevation than Uganda and Unyoro, 

 is celebrated for the frequency of accidents caused by lightning. 



In more northern latitudes — namely, at Fashoda, Khartum, 

 and Berber — destructive lightning-strokes are nearly unheard of, 

 whilst in Sennar they are not altogether infrequent. 



It is curious to notice that the Sudan Arabs have firmly con- 

 ceived the idea that with every flash of lightning a piece of 

 meteoric iron is thrown to the earth. They believe that who- 

 ever is able to secure such a piece of iron has gained a great 

 treasure, because they think that swords and knives made 

 out of it can never be surpa sed in quality, and that their 

 possession gives immunity from danger in battle, and affords 

 protection against lightning-strokes. Sheik Nasr, who is the 

 Chief of the Takkala Mountains, is said to have resisted all 

 Egyptian attacks, and pieserved his and his people's independ- 

 ence, on account of his possession of such a sword. Another 

 superstition is, that fire kindled by a flash of lightning cannot 

 be extinguished until a small quantity of milk has been ponred 



over it. There seems to be some connection between these 

 beliefs, inasmuch as water is believed to spoil meteoric iron : 

 when working it, the blacksmith uses milk instead of water. 



Emin Pasha. 



An " Instructive " Bibliography of the Foraminifera. 



U.NUER the title of "The (!) Bioliography of the Foramini- 

 fera," a remarkable production was published by Mr. Anthony 

 Woodward in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Geographical 

 a)id Natural History Survey of Minnesota (St. Paul, 1886), and 

 the work has lately been followed by a supplement — one of a 

 series — in ihe Journal of the New York Microscopical Society for 

 January 1888. Had the compiler not issued this supplement, 

 previous criticisms might have sufficed, but, as he has again 

 produced an extraordinary and untrustworthy list, it is incumljent 

 on us to bring the work and its demerits before the notice of those 

 whi may be tempted to expect good results from using it. 



"The"' Bibliography, as it first appeared, occupied some 

 120 pages of the Minnesota Report, and it was hailed with some 

 satisfaction. When put to the test, however, it was found to be 

 absolutely untrustworthy — dates, pages, volumes, and other im- 

 portant details being incorrect. It therefore became necessary for 

 the worker to see and examine every unknown or new entry, and 

 to correct when necessary. The result fully justified this labour, 

 for the whole thing was soon found to be comparatively useless 

 in its uncorrected condition. To begin with, it was evident from 

 the number and nature of the typographical errors that the 

 proofs had not been corrected. Apart from this, however, there 

 are more serious defects, for which excuse must be difficult. The 

 compiler uses freely Mr. Brady's excellent bibliography appended 

 to the Challenger Report on the Foraminifera, but he does more 

 ^he reproduces in his lists precisely the same printers' errors that 

 appeared in Brady I It is therefore evident that the American 

 compiler neither saw the books he entered in his lists, nor 

 troubled to verify the entries. Here are a few examples :— 



P. 251. — Terquem's papers on the Foraminifera of the Oolitic 

 series. " Pt. i, in ihe Bulletin de la Scc. d'Histoire Nat. du 

 Dep. de la Moselle, 1868 ; the remainder published by the author." 

 Some of these "remainder" were published in the Mem. Ac. 

 Itnfi. Metz, and it is so stated on the separate copies. 



P. 271. — Neugeboren, J. L. Bericht zu den in den Jahrg. 

 LII. und LIH., &c. This is nonsense, it was a printer's error 

 for I., II., and HI. In the same entry Brady gives a wrong 

 volume ; Woodward does the same ! 



P. 224.— Reade, J. B. Mr. Brady gives a wrong date ; Mr. 

 Woodward copies him, and does the same. 



The names of authors form another stumbling-block. Some of 

 these are positively offensive. 



P. 196. — Karrer, F., L. F. Pourtales, &c. Two papers, both 

 on the same page in Brady. The paper quoted should read. 

 Pourtales, L. F. 



P. 218.— King, Wm. This is true, but if the paper had been 

 consulted, the compiler would have found that the Foraminifera 

 were described by Jones, T. R., in King, Wm., &c. 



P. 225. — Seguenza. This paper was written by Brady on 

 Seguenza's genus ! 



P. 226. — Stewardson, G. This author is probably Dr. George 

 Stewardson Brady, F. R. S. ! 



P. 227. —Thompson, W. Sir C. Wyville Thomson is con- 

 fused with a somewhat obscure author of fifty years ago. 



P. 266. — Jozsef-tol, S. Can one believe that this is the 

 compiler's serious attempt at Dr. Jozsef Szabo, of Budapest ! 



In all these cases, and numerous others besides, it would have 

 been to the compiler's credit if he had placed " [not seen] " at the 

 end of his entry, for it is surely far worse to acknowledge 

 acquaintance with papers, and to quote them thus carelessly, 

 than to have never seen them at all. 



The next offence is the frequent duplication of entries. The 

 following examples will suffice : — 



Pp. 228, 229.— Wallich on the Radiolaria as an order of the 

 Protozoa. A reference to the Pop. Sci. A'ev. would have shown 

 this. 



P. 244.— Leymerie, Mem. sur le terrain a Nummulites, &c. 

 Again a reference would have shown these entries to be the 

 same. 



P. 268.— Koch, Ueber einigen, &c. The same remark applies 

 to this as to the last, and indeed to all similar carelessnesses. 



The quotation of notices of papers from various scientific 

 journals, unaccompanied by references to the original places of 



