September 30, 1920] 



NATURE 



155 



of human anatomy at Rome. Shortly afterwards 

 he concentrated his attention on the development 

 and anatomy of the Salpidse, discovering- many 

 new organs. His first paper on this group ap- 

 peared in 1875, and his last is in proof. Todaro 

 also published papers on the fertilisation and seg- 

 mentation of Seps chalcides. Being^ the first to 

 advocate the introduction of gymnastics in Italian 

 schools, he was elected president of the Italian 

 Gymnastic Federation, in which capacity he 

 delivered several inaugural discourses at meetings 

 and reunions. 



Among the many skippers and hunters of 

 northern Norway who have taken part in Arctic 

 exploration one of the best known was Hans 

 Christian Johannessen, whose death at Tromso 

 at the age of seventy-four is announced by the 

 Times. During his sealing and walrus-hunting 

 in the Barents Sea Capt. Johannessen many years 

 ago visited the little-known Wiche Islands to the 

 east of Spitsbergen and the coasts of North-east 

 Land. .At a later date he hunted off Novaya 

 Zemlya and Franz Josef Land, penetrating west- 

 ward to White Island and Spitsbergen. But Capt. 

 Johannessen 's principal work was in the naviga- 

 tion of the Kara Sea and the opening of a sea 

 route between Europe and Siberia. When Baron 

 Nordenskj61d sailed in the Vc'ga in 1878 to do the 

 North-East passage he was accompanied by the 

 small steamer Lena under the command of Capt. 

 Johannessen. Without the help of a pilot Johan- 

 nessen took the Lena safely through the difficulties 

 of the Lena delta, and ascended the river for more 

 than 1700 miles to Nyuiskaya, eventually return- 



ing to Yakutsk. This was the first steamer to 

 reach Siberia by this route. Johannessen returned 

 o\erland, and the Lena is still in service on the 

 river. Capt. Johannessen piloted many other 

 vessels through the Kara Sea to the Yenisei River. 

 In 1883, in the Nordenskjold, he rescued the crew 

 of the Dutch expedition in the Varna, crushed in 

 the Kara Sea. In the Gjoa, which he afterwards 

 sold to .Amundsen for his North-West passage ex- 

 pedition, Johannessen made many successful hunt- 

 ing- expeditions to the Far North. 



Dr. Duckworth gives in the September issue 

 of Man an account, with a full catalogue of his 

 writings, of the eminent Italian anthropologist, 

 Major-Gen. Ridolfo Livi, whose death on 

 April 12 last was a serious loss to science. Gen. 

 Livi is best known by his great work, " .Anthropo- 

 metriaMilitare," published in 1896-98, which deals 

 mainly with the question of physical development 

 in relation to fitness for military service. He was 

 also author of a manual of anthropometry of wide 

 scope and originality, and of a treatise on domestic 

 slavery in Italy in medieval times. Gen. Livi died 

 at the age of sixty-three, his degrees in medicine 

 and surgery being taken in 1878, when he entered 

 the Army. He .served in the African campaign of 

 1887-88 as well as in the recent war, holding at 

 the time of his death the rank of major-general, 

 to w^hich he was promoted in 1917. 



We much regret to announce the death on 

 September 27, at fifty-seven years of age, of Mr. 

 D. H. Nagel, Vice-President and Senior Tutor 

 of Trinity College, Oxford. 



Notes. 



A SPECIAL conference has been called together by 

 the Royal Society to consider the future of the Inter- 

 national Catalogue of Scientific Literature. The con- 

 fcrence held its first meeting at Burlington House on 

 September 28, Sir Joseph Thomson in the chair. The 

 following is the list of delegates : — Sir David Prain, 

 Sir .Arthur Schu.ster, Mr. J. H. Jeans, Prof. H. K. 

 Armstrong, Dr. F. A. Bather, and Dr. P. C. Mitchell, 

 repros<'nting the Royal Society; Prof. M. Knudsen, 

 Denmark; M. .\. Lacroix, France; Dr. G. van 

 Rijnberk, Holland; Prof. R. Nasini and Comm.-Tng. 

 E. Mancini, Italy; Dr. H. Nsf^aoka, Japan; Mr. R. 

 Laachr, Norway; Baron .Alstromer, Sweden; Dr. H. 

 Eschcr, Dr. .M. Godet. and Dr. H. Field, Switzer- 

 land; Dr. R. M. Verkes, Dr. L. R. Dickson, Mr. 

 L. C. Gunnell, and Dr. S. I. Franz, l'.S..A. ; Sir 

 Henry Hayden and Dr. S. W. Kemp, Imlia; Sir 

 Thom.-is Muir, South Africa ; Sir Edward Parrott, 

 Queensland; Prof. E. W. .Skcats, Victoria; Mr. 

 C. B. Rushton, Western Australia; and Prof. .A. 

 Dendy, New Zealand. The delegates were the guests 

 of H.M. Government at a dinner .it the f'.nrlton 

 Hotel on September 29. 



We understand that Mr. Reid Moir, during his 

 investigations of the north-east const nf Norfolk, has 



NO. 26!;7. VOL. loGl 



made an important discovery in the neighbourhood of 

 Cromer. It appears that a flint-workshop site, 

 apparently of Early Chellian Palaeolithic age, occurs 

 at this place at an horizon referable to one of the 

 lower members of the Cromer Forest Bed series. 

 The site, though limited in extent, is very rich in 

 humanly fashioned flints, and Mr. Moir hopes in the 

 near future to exhibit and describe the large number 

 of specimens he has collected. 



The Minister of Health has appointed a Ccwn- 

 mittee to investigate and report on the causes of 

 blindness, including defective vision sufficient to im- 

 pair economic efficiency, and to suggest measures 

 which might be taken for the prevention of blindness. 

 The niembcrs of the Committw are: — .Mr. G. .H. 

 Roberts, .M.P. (chairman), Mr. Stephen Walsh, M.P., 

 .Mr. N. Bishop Harman, Dr. J. B. Lawford, Mr. G. F. 

 Mowatt, .Mrs. Wilton Phipps, Mr. J. II. Parsons (repre- 

 senting the Royal College of Surgeons), Dr. J. Taylor 

 (representing the Royal College of Phy»icians), Mr. 

 J. C. Bridge (representing the Home Office). Dr. .A. 

 Eicholz (representing the Board of Education), Mr. 

 J. S. Nicholson (representing the Ministry of Labour), 

 Mr. W. M. Stone (representing the .Scottish Office), 

 Mr. E. D. Macgregor (representing the .Ministry of 

 Health), and a representative of the Medical Rewarch 



