242 



NATURE 



[July 22, 1875 



entitled "Birds of the North-west, .from the pen of Dr. Elliott 

 Coues," There are no illustrations. 



We are glad to see that among the Supplementary Estimates 

 just issued is a re-vote of 1,000/. for the Sub-Wealdeu Explora- 

 tion. 



On Tuesday, the inaugural meeting of the Royal Archaeolo- 

 gical Institute took place at Canterbury. 



A FINE male Chimpanzee, which has cut its front permanent 

 incisors and its anterior true molars, has just been presented to 

 the Zoological Society by Captain Lees, Governor of Lagos, 

 West Africa. 



The recently issued part of Dr. H. G. Bronn's Thierreich 

 contains an account of the lower jaw and the teeth in the 

 different orders of the Mammalia, together with numerous 

 excellent outline drawings of the skulls of the same groups. 



Messrs. Longmans are preparing for publication, in three 

 volumes, copiously illustrated, a treatise on galvanism and 

 electro-magnetism, by Prof. Gurtav Wiedemann, translated from 

 the second German edition, with the author's sanction and co- 

 operation, by G. Carey Foster, F.R. S., Professor of Physics in 

 University College, London. 



The same publishers will issue in the autumn, a text-book of 

 Telegi-aphy, by W. H. Preece, C.E., and J. Sivewright, M.A., 

 forming one of their series of "Text-books of Science." 



Among the works Mr. John Murray will publish during the 

 ensuing season, the following will probably be found of interest 

 to our readers : — " Habits and Movements of Climbing Plants," 

 by Charles Darwin, F.R.S. — "Eastern Seas, Coasts, and Har- 

 bours," being the cruise of H.M.S. Dwarf in China, Japan, 

 Formosa, and Russian Tartary from the Corea to the River 

 Amur, by Commander B. W. Bax, R.N. This book will be 

 illustrated by a map and engravings. — "A School Manual of 

 Modern Geography," edited by Dr. William Smith. — "A 

 Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Second Expedition to 

 Africa ; the Zambezi, Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, with illustra- 

 tions." — A new edition, being the twelfth, of Sir Charles Lyell's 

 "Elements of Geology," in two octavo volumes; and "A 

 Natural History of Mammals, including Man," by Prof. St. 

 George Mivart, F.R.S., forming the first part of an introduction 

 to Zoology and Biology. 



In yesterday's Times will be found an extremely interesting 

 account from Australia of a Frenchman, Narcisse Pierre Peltier, 

 of about thirty years of age, who has been living for seventeen 

 years among the savages of Night Island, off the north-east 

 coast of Queensland, in lat. 13° 10' S., long. 143° 35' E. 

 He was left on the island by some shipwrecked sailors when 

 twelve years old, was treated kindly by the savages, and soon 

 became identified with them in every respect. He is recovering 

 rapidly the use of his mother-tongue both in speaking, reading, 

 and writing, though he still retains some marked characteristics 

 of savage life. He has given much information concerning the 

 ribe among whom he lived so long ; their language does not 

 seem to have anything in common with the Malay or with any 

 of the Papuan dialects. If judiciously treated, Narcisse might 

 be made to yield valuable material to the anthropologist. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during 

 the past week include two Suricates {Suricata zenik) from South 

 Africa, presented by Mr. F. Ward ; two Golden Eagles {Aquila 

 chrysactos) from Scotland, presented by Lord Lilford ; a Chinese 

 Water Deer {Hydropotes inermis) from China, a Sumatran 

 Rhinoceros {Rhinoceros sumairensis) from Malacca, two Scarlet 

 Ibises (^Ibis rubra), a West India Rail {Aramides cajyennensis), a 

 Common Boa {Boa constrictor), a Tuberculated Lizard {Iguana 



tuberculata) from South America, deposited ; three Spotted 

 Tinamous {Nothura maculosa) from Buenos Ayres, and two 

 Guiana Partridges {Odontophorus guianensis) from Guiana, re- 

 ceived from Southampton ; a Black-billed Sheathbill {Ckionis 

 minor) from the Kerguelen Island, purchased ; a Collared Fruit 

 Bat {Cynonycteris collaris), born in the Gardens. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The Quarterly yournal of Microscopic Science may, at the 

 present time, be looked upon as the representative of the most 

 modem phase of biological thought. The current number 

 contains articles of much more than ordinary importance. The 

 first is by Mr. F. M. Balfour, being " A comparison of the early 

 stages in the Development of Vertebrates." The plate which 

 accompanies the memoir is coloured in a particularly instructive 

 manner, which illustrates the ultimate destination of the different 

 elements of the cellular layers of the blastoderm. Mr. Balfour's 

 observations are in favour of the blastopore becoming neither the 

 mouth nor the anus of the adult animal, but of its cicatrix being 

 a weak spot at which one or the other may subsequently be more 

 easily formed than elsewhere. The gap between the observed 

 structure of the developing amphibian and selachian is made more 

 simple by the introduction of a hypothetical intermediate form in 

 which the segmentation cavity is represented as if "it were sunk 

 down so as to be completely within the lower layer cells," a con- 

 dition not quite easy to comprehend. Many other very im- 

 portant theoretical points are discussed in this particularly 

 interesting paper. — The second paper is a reprint from the Privy 

 Council Reports, of Dr. Klein's observations on the pathology 

 of sheep-pox. — Mr. W. H. Jackson describes and figures a new 

 Peritrichous Infusorian, named Cyclochaeta spongilla, found in a 

 sponge from the river Chirwell. — Mr. A. A. W. Hubrecht of 

 Leyden makes ' ' some remarks about the minute anatomy of 

 Mediterranean Nemerteans," including notes on the dermal 

 tissues, nervous system, &c., of species of Meckelia, Folia, 

 Lineus, Ommatoplea,axidi.Drepanophorus{xi.g.) — Prof. Lankester 

 publishes in full his observations read before the Linnean Society, 

 " On some points in the structure of Amphioxus, and their 

 bearing on the morphology of vertebrata." The exact homology 

 of the atrial chamber and of the perivisceral cavity in the 

 Lancelet has been a fruitful source of discussion, and Prof. 

 Lankester's study of the question throws considerable additional 

 light on the subject. The conclusions to which his investiga- 

 tions lead are "first that the peritoneal cavity of the vertebrate 

 is the same thing as the coelom of the worm and of Amphioxus ; 

 second, that the earlier vertebrate ancestors (represented in a 

 degenerate form by Amphioxus) developed epipleura, which 

 coalesced in the median line postorally to form an atrium ; 

 third, that whilst Amphioxus retains this atrium in functional 

 activity, the other vertebrata have lost it by the coalescence of its 

 outer and inner bounding wall, respectively epipleura and soma- 

 topleura j fourth, that whilst the indications of the earlier histo- 

 rical steps of this process are suppressed in all craniate vertebrata 

 at present investigated, yet the Elasmobranchs do continue to 

 present to us an ontogenetic phase in which the somatopleura and 

 the epipleura are widely separated ; thus enclosing between them 

 an epicoel (the atrium of amphioxus)." — Mr. F. R. Lewis writes 

 on Nematode Haematozoa in the dog, closely allied to Filaria 

 sanguinolenta, found in the walls of the aorta. These are 

 figured, as are the parts of Amphiporous spectabilis and other 

 Nemerteans, described by Dr. M Tntosh in considerable detail. 

 — There is an admirable paper by Prof. Thiselton Dyer, con- 

 taining a review of the various modes of sexual reproduction 

 known among Thallophytes, with a sketch of the classification 

 of that section of Cryptogams — including Algse, Lichens, Fungi, 

 and Characeae — recently proposed by Prof. Sachs. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 

 Geological Society, June 23.*— Mr. John Evans, V.P.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — On the superficial geology of the Central 

 Region of North America, by Mr. G. M. Dawson, Geologist 

 to H. M. North American Boundary Commission. 



Physical Geography of the Region. — The region under con- 

 sideration is that portion of the great tract of prairie of the 

 middle of North America from Mexico to the Arctic Sea, which 

 * Continued from p. 221. 



