Nov. I, i88S] 



NATURE 



vas writing it, Prof. Huxley's obituary notice of Mr. Darwin came 

 into my bands. I read it with the Iceenest pleasure, as everyone 

 must ; and I pointedly referred to it with a pardonable anxiety 

 that a piece of work perhaps one of the most remarkable that 

 ever came from that admirable literary workshop should attract 

 a wider attention than from its mode of publication it might 

 possibly receive. Personally, with regard to indifferent varia- 

 tions, I am a Utile disposed lo think that Mr. Huxley is inclined 

 to make too great concessions. I quite admit that correlated 

 variation does give rise to a large class of non-significant 

 characters. But I feel more and more that natural 

 selection is a very hard taskmaster, and that it is down very 

 sharply on structural details that cannot give an account of 

 themselves. I doubt if there is much room in Nature for in- 

 different variations ; and even correlated variations must be 

 anchored, as it were, to an adaptive variation which has to bear 

 the brunt of the maintenance of the whole correlated train. 



W. T. Thiselton Dver. 

 Royal Garden?, Kew, October 26. 



Electro-Calorimetry. 



In a paper read at the British Association meeting at Bath, 

 Messrs. Stroud and Haldane Gee describe the method used by 

 them for heating the liquids under experiment. Will you allow 

 me to point out that the series arrangement of the coils is elec- 

 trically in unstable equilibrium, since any difference of tempera- 

 ture between the baths causes less power to be spent in the 

 cooler one, thus tending to increase the difference. With the 

 coils in parallel less power is spent in the hotter bath, but the 

 method is still imperfect from the want of equality of heating at 

 vUfferent temperatures. 



Coils may, however, be so arranged as to completely overcome 

 these defects in an otherwise very simple and convenient appara- 

 tus. In the figure let A and B represent the two baths and the 



coils therein, each bath being heated partly by a series coil 

 of r„, partly by a parallel coil of R„. All four coils should be 

 made of the same metal. 



The necessary relation between R and r to secure equal heating 

 may be found by writing '^ ^^"^ '" ^ = ^J^^ Jn_B^^.j^g^^ 



d 9 d d 



^ is the difference of temperature between the baths. When 

 . orked out this gives R = 4r ; a result which is obviously true 

 jvided the coils have only a small temperature coefficient. 



Sydney Evershed. 

 2 Victoria Mansions, S. W., October 10. 



The"Tamarao" from Mindoro (Philippine Islands). 



I HAVE only just seen, in Natcjre of August 16 (p. 363), Dr. 



Sclater's communication of Prof Sleere's letter concerning the 



i^covery of a new species of Anoa (A. mindorensis) in the 



hmd of Mindoro. I beg to say that I forwarded a note on this 



perfectly-known animal, whose native name is Tamarao (not 



Tamaron" as far as I know), to the Zoological Society of 



>ndon, and the note was printed in the Proceedings of the 



.-society for 1878, pp. 881-82, under the title, •* Letter concerning 



the sui^posed existence of the Anoa {Anoa depressicornii) in the 



Philippines." Since then. Dr. Hoffmann, formerly Assistant at the 



Royal Zoological Museum of Dresden, has published the results 



•of his investigations on a skull of the Tamarao, which has 



belonged to the Dresden Museum since 1878, and which was 



brought by Prof. Semper from his travels in the Philippines 



(see Abhandl. uud BeruhU d. k. Zooi. tind Anthr. Ethnogr. 



Museums zu Dresden, 1886-87, No. 3, p. 26 et seq., Plate 6, a-/). 

 He proves, by a comparison of this skull with the skull of Anoa 

 from Celebes, and with buffalo skulls from the Philippines and 

 elsewhere, that this Tamarao has nothing to do with the genus 

 Anoa, but is a true buffalo, viz. either Bubalus indicus, Riit., or 

 an undescribed variety of this species, or, perhaps, a new species 

 of Bubalus. Between these alternatives we were unable to decide 

 from the single skull in our hands, which, besides, is not that of a 

 full-grown animal. If Prof Steere be right in asserting that 

 there exists a true Anoa in Mindoro. I can only conclude that 

 the skull brought by Prof Semper as that of the Tamarao of 

 Mindoro, is not the true Tamarao. 



R. Museum, Dresden, October 17. A. B. Meyer. 



Pallas's Sand-Grouse {Syrrhaptcs paradoxus). 



It is obvious that this bird no longer appears to come nmch, 

 if at all, under observation in Europe, although it was reported 

 from almost every part during the months from April to June 

 (see Meyer and Helm, Om. Jalireibericht der Beobachtung- 

 stationen im Konigrdck Sachsen, iii. p. 1 1 7 et seq ), and even later. 

 I suppose nearly all the specimens have flown into the sea, 

 and been drowned there. As regards its former appearances in 

 Europe, a specimen of Syrrhaptes paradoxus is said to have been 

 killed near Grenzdorf, in Silesia, about four years ago ; and it 

 is also said to have been observed near Sagan, in Silesia, in the 

 years 1874-78 ; and in the year 1883 near Miinster, in West- 

 phalia. Whether these reports are authentic, I, of course, 

 cannot say, the specimens not being in my hands. 



R. Museum, Dresden, October 17. A. B. Meyer. 



The Species of Comatulae. 



The writer of the notice of vol. xxvi. of the Challenger 

 series, which appeared in Naiure of October ir (p. 561), 

 remarks that the total number of living species of Comatulae is 

 given on p. 383 as 180, but that from the distribution list itself 

 there would seem to be 188 species, and he adds that "possibly 

 the seven additional species of Antedon and the one species of 

 Actinometra named but not described may account for this 

 discrepancy." If he will look at the list again he will find that 

 though it contains the names of 8 MS. species, three of 

 them belong to Actinometra and only five to Antedon. These, 

 however, do not account for the apparent discrepancy, which is 

 due to the fact that eight species are dimorphic, so that their 

 names appear twice over, as is fully explained in the systematic 

 tables on pp. 54, 58. 



It will, of course, be understood that these lists only contain 

 the names of such species as have yet been baptized, some few 

 having received names before they could be described, on 

 account of their serving as hosts to Myzostomida, which have 

 been reported on by Prof von Graff. But some time must 

 unfortunately yet elapse before it becomes possible to make out 

 a complete systematic and distribution list of all the Comatula- 

 species which are still awaiting description in various Continental 

 Museums. Some very interesting forms were obtained by the 

 German ship Gazelle and by the Italian cruiser Vettor Pisani. 

 Prof. Semper's Philippine collection, which contains several 

 unusually fine individuals, is as yet undescribed, and I know of 

 many other new types from various localities. At present, 

 however, the fine collections made by the Blake in the Carib- 

 bean Sea during the years 1877-79 ^^^ occupying most of my 

 little working time, and they well repay investigation. 



Eton College, October 26. P. Herbert Carpenter. 



Voracity of tne Haddock. 

 A S.MALL haddock {Gadus u-glejinus), alive when purchased 

 on the fish quay this morning, was so much distended that 

 curiosity prompted an investigation of the cause. In the stomach 

 were found fourteen young whiiini; (C merlangus) from 4 to 

 5 inches long, and a small crab {Carcinus mwnas), with hard 

 carapace, about i inch in diameter, all quite fresh, and digestion 

 barely commencing. The haddock was 17 inches long, and 

 weighed, when gutted, 26 ounces. The weight of the young 

 fry and crab was 6.\ ounces, or almost one quarter of the 

 weight of the fish. Doubtless this record is often beaten in the 

 deep, though the evidence of so healthy an appetite among fishes 



: is not often so apparent. Chas. O. Trechmann. 



j Hartlepool, (October 30. 



