i6 



NATURE 



{Nov. I, 1888 



the skin, which I was first inclined to ascribe to a secretion 

 of the cutaneous glands. 



This curious modification of the posterior bristles has 

 an evident relation to the habits of these creatures. All 

 observers, from the time of Gilbert White onwards, have 

 ^noticed that earthworms constantly, at night and in 

 wet weather, lie outside their burrows with only the 

 extreme end of the body fixed in the hole ; when 

 alarmed they dart back with great rapidity. Now it 

 ds quite clear that this movement depends upon the fact 

 that the bristles at the posterior end hold that part of the 

 body firm while the anterior part is being retracted. 

 Probably the alternate arrangement of the bristles in 

 UrochcEta and in the Bermuda worm (which is a close 

 ally of Urochccta, if not a species of the same genus) are 

 tiseful to the worm in performing such rapid movements, 

 inasmuch as they permit of a firmer hold of the ground. 

 When these bristles become strong hooks, as in the 

 Bermuda worm, the stability of the hinder end of the 

 body must be enormously increased. 



I have, however, no information as to the habits of 

 these worms, so that I can only suggest a possible 

 ■explanation of the presence of these remarkable hooks. 

 Fr.ank E. Beddari). 



NOTES. 

 Our readers will be glad to hear of the safety of Prof. A. C. 

 Haddon, of the Royal College of Science, Dublin, who recently 

 started for Torres Straits. He writes, under date September 9, 

 Tcporting himself in good health, and well pleased with both the 

 •climate and his reception. If he is carrying out his original 

 programme, he should be now busy among the islands in the 

 middle of the Great Barrier Reef to the west side of the straits. 

 His captures already embrace several new Actiniae and some 

 probably new Nudibranchs ; and he is also at work upon the 

 habits and placentation of the Dugong. He is much in- 

 terested in the natives, and struck by the alarming rapidity 

 of their decrease and modification. They are fast dying 

 out, and their customs with them, and the information to be 

 obtained from the younger men concerning the doings of their 

 forefathers is so unsatisfactory that Prof. Haddon is losing no 

 opportunity of studying the anthropology of the islanders and 

 of collecting material in illustration thereof. 



It is understood that Prof Giard is about to be appointed 

 immediately to the new Professorship of Evolution des fitres 

 Organises in the Sorbonne. His lectures will begin this month, 

 and the first course will deal with embryological phenomena in 

 relation to the Darwinian theory. 



La Nature (October 20) prints an interesting article, by Dr. 

 Camille Viguier, on the Zoological Station at the town of 

 Algiers, the only institution of the kind which has yet been 

 established on the southern coast of the Mediterranean. Eight 

 years ago, when schools of law, science, and literature were 

 formed at Algiers, Dr. Viguier resigned an educational office he 

 held in France, in order to associate himself with the new 

 Algerian schools, in the hope that he might be permitted to 

 create a marine laboratory. This hope has been fulfilled, and, 

 although the site has some disadvantages, he is, upon the whole, 

 satisfied with the opportunities of research which have been pro- 

 vided for him. He calls especial attention to the fact that it is 

 not necessary for naturalists to go to Algiers to profit by the 

 institution. Those who write to him will receive, as soon as 

 circumstances permit, and prepared in accordance with their 

 directions, any animals that can be procured at Algiers. 



The Trustees of the British Museum have appointed Mr. 

 Alfred Barton Rendle, late Assistant Demonstrator of Botany, 

 Cambridge, an assistant in the Department of Botany at the 



Natural History Museum, in the vacancy occasioned by Mr. 

 H. N. Ridley's taking the oflice of Director of the Botanical 

 Gardens at Singapore. 



Mr-. H. Bury, who has recently been elected to a Natural 

 Science Fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, began 

 the study of biology at Eton, and obtained a First Class 

 in the Natural Science Tripos of 1885 (Pr.rt T.), having pre- 

 viously gained a Foundation Scholarship at Trinity College. 

 He spent the winter of 1886-87 ^t the Naples Zoological 

 Station, and the results of his work, which has added much to 

 our knowledge of the development of Comatula, have been 

 recently published in the Philosophical Transactions, with five 

 illustrative plates. He returned to Naples at the beginning of 

 the present year to study the larvae of other Echinoderms, and 

 his observations will be published in an early number of the 

 Quar/erly Journal of Microscopical Science. 



The Princess Louise will open the Durham College of Science, 

 Newcastle, on Monday next, November 5, at 12 o'clock. 



It is reported from India that Mr. Griesbach, the geologist of 

 the Indian Survey, sent for a time to Afghanistan at the request 

 of the Ameer, has been compelled by the rebellion of Ishak 

 Khan to postpone his geological exploration north of the Hindu 

 Kush, and to remain at Cabul. 



According to Allen's Indian Mail, it is the intention of the 

 Government of India to utilize the services of Mr. J. Duthie. 

 Hitherto that gentleman has confined his botanical researches to 

 Northern India, but it is now proposed that his sphere shall 

 include not only the whole country but also regions beyond 

 the Indian frontier. Accordingly he was sent with the Black 

 Mountain Expedition. 



The British Consul at Costa Rica, in the course of his last 

 annual report, states that a National Museum has been established 

 at San Jose, and several valuable collections of Indian relics, 

 birds, insects, plants. Sec, have been presented or purchased. It 

 is intended that in course of time it shall contain specimens of 

 all the natural products of the country. A national publication 

 and exchange office has also been opened, and all countries are 

 invited to exchange periodicals and publications with Costa Rica. 



According to a Reuter's telegram from New York, dated 

 October 29, two slight shocks of earthquake had occurred at 

 New Bedford, Massachusetts. 



In the Report of the Committee of Council on Education in 

 Scotland for the past year we find that while 1595 schools taught 

 history and geography only fifty-nine took up elementary science. 

 Strange to say, agriculture is not taught in any of the Scotch 

 training colleges. In the secondary schools, what are called the 

 University subjects — that is to say, Latin, Greek, and mathematics 

 — are very well taught, particularly mathematics. The Technical 

 Schools (Scotland) Act of 1887 has opened, says the Report, to 

 School Boards a new field of operations in regard to a branch 

 of education to which public attention has of late been very 

 closely directed. Only very few schools appear to intend 

 to take action under the Act, chiefly, no doubt, because the 

 Boards are opposed to any increased expenditure. Technical in- 

 struction is already given in many of the higher schools. The 

 Report recommends managers of schools in which it is proposed 

 to give technical instruction to secure, if possible, the co- 

 operation of local manufacturers, and to combine with other 

 Boards as pointed out in the Act of 1887. 



The recent meeting of the Congress of American Physicians 

 and Surgeons at Washington seems to have been a great success. 

 It lasted three days, Dr. John Shaw Billings acting as President. 

 Science considers that the meeting marked a new departure in 

 national gatherings of American medical men. " It was a con- 



