ytme 26, 1879] 



NA TURE 



197 



is well-defined, the body being flattened, whilst the posterior 

 edges of the cephalothorax are prominent and somewhat hooked. 

 The feet number five pairs, and are setose. No external ovisacs 

 exist, and the antennae are of simple conformation. Under the 

 microscope the intestinal canal, filled with brownish matter, is 

 seen to pulsate in rhythmical fashion. The abdomen is apparently 

 composed of some four joints, and is terminated by two long 

 caudal bristles. The eye is single, median, and red-coloured. 

 In the absence of more definite characters, I should feel inclined 

 to allocate the form near the genus Alteutha, of Baird, from the 

 hooked character of the cephalo-thoracic edges. It differs from 

 Alteidha, however, in the absence of the characteristic hooked 

 edges of the fourth somite of the abdomen. The sudden appear- 

 ance of myriads of these creatures in the tanks may probably be 

 attributed to the recent favourable temperature ; the eggs of the 

 adults having lain dormant, as do the cyclops themselves, 

 through the winter. 



In the tanks are shown at present several large specimens of 

 the lump-sucker (Cycloptents lumpus). These fishes, as is well 

 known, adhere by means of their sucker (formed by the modified 

 ventral fins) to fixed objects. Watching a lump-sucker firmly 

 attached to the glass of the tank, the idea occurred to me that 

 the sucker may have been developed by natural selection, as a 

 useful adjunct to the breathing-movements of the fish. When 

 fixed, the fish appears to be perfectly at ease, and to breathe 

 more fully and strongly than when swimming. The movements 

 of the opercula, or gill-covers, when the fish was attached, were 

 specially strong, as compared with their motion in the act of 

 swimming. In a large-headed and heavy-bodied fish like 

 Cyclopterus, any aid given to the respiratory movements would 

 be a clear gain to the animal ; and from a habit simply of resting 

 on an object so as to afford leverage and play to the gills, the 

 comparatively useless ventral fins may have become specially 

 modified as a disc of attachment. The development of the 

 sucking-disc and enlargement of the branchial cavity would thus 

 ■pcoae&A. pari passu, and by natural selection the present exagge- 

 rated features of both organs would be attained. It would be 

 interesting to know whether the history of cyclopterous develop- 

 ment might or might not confirm these suggestions. The lump- 

 suckers have spawned in our tanks, but unfortunately there has 

 been no attempt on the part of the males to fertilise the ova. 



Edinburgh, June 14 Andrew Wilsou 



Snails v. Glowworms 



Some years ago I brought' three glow-worms from Wales to 

 London, and at night I put them on the grass, when all showed 

 their lights ; but on looking for them a short time after, one had 

 nearly disappeared, and on searching for it my hand came 

 against something cold, and on taking it to the light I found it 

 was a snail — one of those which just now are very common — 

 about I J inches long by \ inch diameter, and of a sandy colour. 

 The brute had swallowed the 'glow-worm, and I could see the 

 light shniing inside ! 



As there are no glow-worms in this part of the country, I 

 wish some one who has the chance would try the experiment 

 again, by placing a glow-worm and a snail near to each other, 

 and report the result. R. S. Newall 



Ferndene, June 22 



Oxygenated Rain 



^ This morning I have read Mr. .Solly's note on this subject. 

 Yesterday, June 21, we had a thunderstorm, and while looking 

 at the lightning I noticed that the rain falling on the window- 

 glass had what I first thought were small particles of hail in the 

 drops ; but on magnifying it I found that the opacity was caused 

 by a number of very small air-bubbles, which soon disappeared. 



These drops fell during the shower, and only for an interval 

 ivhich I think did not exceed ten seconds, for I had only time 

 to take the magnifier out of my pocket and observe a few drops, 

 after which no more fell which contained air-bubbles. 



One flash of lightning left a track which lasted about five 

 seconds, and gradually faded. This was also observed by one 

 of my family who was observing at a distance of i.coo feet 

 from where I wa;. R. s. N. 



Butterfly Swarms 

 The swarms of butterflies alluded to in Nature, vol. xx. 

 p. 183, have been observed in various localities of Switzerland — 



Lausanne, Merges, the foot of the Jura, &c. The passage lasted 

 a long time, from one to four hours, on June 9 ; the species 

 was Vanessa cardui. By comparing the hours and dates of the 

 appearance in the various localities, I am convinced that it is 

 simply due to the extraordinary local fecundity of this species, 

 and not to a migration of butterflies from Africa or the shores 

 of the Mediterranean, as various French and Swiss journals 

 have supposed. F. A. Forel 



Morges, Switzerland, June 23 



Meteor 



I SAW a bright meteor at Bath last night. It flashed into 

 sight at a spot some 10" to the south of Arcturus at 10.38 p.m. 

 The duration of its visibility was between two and three seconds, 

 the direction of its path very nearly north-east to south-west, its 

 brilliancy quite that of one of the so-called "fire-balls" in 

 pyrotechnic displays. It travelled through about 25° of arc, 

 leaving a very faint trail, which however disappeared almost 

 immediately. What struck me as particularly i-emarkable about 

 the meteor was the decided bluish-green colour of its light. 



June 19 C. Armbruster 



JOSEPH WILSON LOWRY, F.R.G.S., __ 



ip\EATH has just erased another well-known name 

 ■*--' from the roll of workers on the Geological Survey 

 of Great Britain, that of J. W. Lowry, the eminent en- 

 graver whose map?, sections, and plates of fossils form 

 so interesting a part of the records of this important 

 branch of the scientific public service. 



Joseph 'Wilson Lowry was the only son of 'Wilson 

 Lowry, F.R.S., and Rebecca Lowry, well known as a 

 mineralogist some seventy years ago ; he was born Octo- 

 ber 7, 1803. His father was the leading architectural 

 and mechanical engraver of his time, and he trained up 

 his son to follow his own pursuits. From his early youth 

 his father's house was the resort of men of high intellec- 

 tual culture, and his mother's pursuits leading her also to 

 associate with the scientific men of the day, what wonder 

 that young Lowry early imbibed his parent's tastes and 

 became an ardent lover of all natural history studies and 

 pursuits, an accomplished draughtsman, and a well- 

 informed scientific man. 



His first practical effort was directed to the construc- 

 tion of a model in plaster of the Isle of Wight, geologi- 

 cally coloured, and divided transversely so as to give a 

 section (also geologically coloured) through the centre of 

 the island. 



His pursuit of natural science led him early in life to 

 become acquainted with John Phillips, at that time keeper 

 of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society's Museum in York, 

 and later on, when Assistant-General Secretary of the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science, or 

 when associated with De la Beche on the Geological 

 Survey, or when Professor of Geology in Oxford, until 

 his death. Prof. Phillips remained the sincerely attached 

 friend of J. \V. Lowry. 



Lowry's first important work as an engraver was the 

 execution of the plates for the "Encyclopaedia Metro- 

 politana." He also executed for Sir John Rennie a 

 series of plates of London Bridge. For many years Mr. 

 Lowry prepared all the engravings for Scott Russell illus- 

 trative of wave-lines and the contours of ships. Mr, 

 Lowry designed and executed numerous maps and charts 

 for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the 

 illustrations for Weale's Scientific Series, the atlas of 

 maps published by the Dispatch newspaper, the first really 

 cheap and good atlas ever produced. 



The plates illustrating Phillips's "Geology of York- 

 shire," and many other scientific works, were engraved 

 by Mr. Lowry. 'We are also indebted to him for the ex- 

 cellent series of Natural History Charts of British Fos- 

 sils, stratigraphically arranged,' British Tertiary Fossils, 

 Recent and Fossil Crustacea, by Dr. H. Woodward and 

 J. W. Salter, &c. (Stanford's). 



