586 



JVA TO' AVI 



\ April 18. 1889 



rium, and were the subject of some very interesting notes 

 on their habits, prepared by Miss Agnes Crane, and 

 pubhshed in the Zoological Society's Proceeding?, from 

 which the following particulars are extracted : — 



" Lettuces and endives formed the favourite food of this 

 pair of Manatees ; six di^zcn of these vegetable?, weighing 

 30 pounds, being their average daily allowance. The male 

 would devour at a pinch leaves of the cabbage, turnip, and 

 • carrot. 15oth relished those of the dandelion and the sow- 

 thistle {Soiichus oleraccus). Some varieties of a common 

 river-weed were also taken ; b t this food was abandoned 

 on account of the leeches with which it was found to be 

 infested Sometimes the animals swim gently about, and 

 pursue the leaves floating on the water. At others, the 

 plants are seized in their mouths, drawn down, and eaten 

 under water, the hand-like fore-fins being employed in 

 separating the leaves The food is invariably swallowed 

 below the surface. The masticatory actions of the animal 

 have been so fully and accurately described by Prof. A. H. 

 Garrod,F.R.S. (Trans. Zool. Soc.,vol. x p. 137), that further 

 remark on that subject is unnecessary. The habits of the 

 animals in captivity, while affording occasional evidence 

 of the ease and rapidity with which they move in the 

 water, do not furnish much support to the views of their 

 capability of habitual active progression on land. Yet 

 it must be admitted that, supplied with a sufficiency of 

 nicely-varied food, they have no inducement to leave the 

 water, and that the construction of their straight-walled 

 tank precludes such efforts as a rule. The male, how- 

 ever, has recently been observed to make some slight 

 attempts at terrestrial movement, turning himself round 

 and progressing a few inches when his tank was empty. 

 With jaws and tail-fin pressed closely to the ground, the 

 body of the animal becomes arched, and is moved by 

 a violent lateral effort, aided, and slightly supported, by 

 the fore-paddles, which are stretched out in a line with 

 the mouth. But the effect of these very laboured efforts 

 was not commensurate with their violence ; in fact, their 

 relation to active locomotion may be compared to those 

 of a man lying prone with fettered feet and elbows tied to 

 side. Nor does the Manatee seem at all at ease out of 

 water, as he lies apparently oppressed with his own bulk, 

 while he invariably makes off to the deepest corner of 

 his tank directly the water is re-admitted. One point 

 may be regarded as definitely settled. Notwithstanding 

 the predilection they have evinced for land vegetables, 

 they never feed out of water. Food has been repeatedly 

 offered them, but it always remains untouched, although 

 readily devoured when the influx of water set the leaves 

 floating on the surface. Although it is po<;sible that the 

 animals can get out of water and remain so for a short 

 period, as they progress so slowly and do not feed out of 

 water it seems as though they must be acquitted of the 

 garden depredations and prolonged wanderings from their 

 native element with which they have been credited." 



The Manatee now in the Zoological Society's Gardens 

 has been placed in one of the large warm -water tanks in 

 the Reptile House, the corresponding tank on the opposite 

 side being occupied by a very fine specimen of the 

 Snapping Turtle {Macroclemmys tenimincki). 



After inspecting the Manatee, those who wish for more 

 information on the subject of the Sirenians should visit 

 the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, and 

 examine the splendid mounted skeleton of the Rhytina, 

 or Steller's Sea-cow — a recently extinct gigantic re- 

 presentative of the same order of mammals — in the 

 Pateontological Gallery. 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY SELECTED 



CANDIDATES. 



T^HE following fifteen candidates were selected on 



-*■ Thursday last by the Council of the Royal Society 



to be recommended for election into the Society. We 



print with the name of each candidate the statement of^ 

 his qualifications : — 



John Aitken. 1 



Tie is an accurate, successful, and highly inventive investigator ] 

 in Experimental Physics, and for the purpose of his investigations '^ 

 has designed and constructed many ingenious and valuable 

 pieces of apparatus. Has carried out a valuable and instructive 

 rese.irch res^arding the relations between fog and dust in air, and 

 in connection therewith has devised and used methods for count- 

 ing ihe number of dust particles in air. The results of his 

 works were given in numerous papers read by him before the 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh, and published in the Proc. a'ld 

 Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., during the years from 1S75 until the 

 present date. Received from the Rov. Soc. I'd in. the Keith 

 Prize for 1883-85, for a paper on "The Formation of Small 

 Clear Spaces in Dusty Air " (1884), being a continuation of the 

 subject of a former paper " On Dust, Fogs, and Clouds " (1880), 

 and for contributions on rtmospheric phenomena, the more im- 

 portant of these being a series of papers on " Thermometric 

 Screens" (1884-S7). 



Edward Ballard, M.D. (Lond.), 



Physician in H.M. Civil Service. Eminently distinguished 

 as an Investiga'or of Causes of Disease, and as a promoter of 

 scientific saniary administration. Has published, inter alia, as 

 follows: — On the Influence of "Weather and Season on the 

 Public Heahh, based on the Statistical Study of 272,000 Cases 

 of Sii-kness {1857-68) ; On Vaccination and its Alleged Dangers 

 (1868) ; A Local Outbreak of Enteric Fever traced to a Local 

 Distribution of Milk (1871) ; Keporls to the Local Government 

 Board, year by year, on particular inquiries, local, or more or 

 less general (1871-88). Of the latter the following may be 

 named :— The Effluvium Nuisances which arise in various manu- 

 facturing and other branches of industry, studied as to their 

 Effects on the Public Health, and as to their Preventability 

 (1876-78) ; various Studies of Outbreaks of Disease refeiable 

 to Articles of Food (1873, i88o-8b) ; Su vey of Ingland as to 

 the local Preparations against Chlorea (1885-86) : Studies of 

 the Causation of Epidemic Infantine Diarrhoea in England and 

 Wales (1882-88). 



Alfred Barnard Basset, M.A., 



Barrister-at-Law. Author of a treatise on Hydrodynamics, 

 in two volumes (1888) ; also papers in the Quart. Jonrn. 

 Math., Mess, of Math., Phil. M'g , Proc Lond. Math. Soc, 

 Proc.Camb. Phil. Soc, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc (1888), andJf?ier. 

 'Jonrn. Math. '\ hese papers treat of the Motion of Liquids 

 about Elliptic Cylinders, of Associated Functions and Spherical 

 Harmonics, of Electric Currents of a Sheet rotating in a Field 

 of Magnetic Force, the Potential of a Spherical Bowl, Motion 

 of a Liquid Ellipsoid and Stability of this Motio >, Motion of 

 two Spheres in a Liquid, Potentials of Circular Disks, Motion 

 of a Ring in a Liquid, Motion of a Sphere in a Viscous 

 Liquid, and the Steady Motion of an Annular Mass of Rotating 

 Liquid. 



Horace T. Brown, 

 F.C.S., F.I.C., F.G.S., Brewer. Distinguished as an investi- 

 gator of the Carbohydrates, and of the Phenomena of Fer- 

 mentation ; also on account of the services he has rendered in 

 introducing ,'cientific methods into the brewing industry. Author 

 of the following and other papers : — "On the Estimation of 

 Ammonia in Atmospheric Air" (Proc. Roy. Soc, 1870) ; " On 

 the Influence of Pressure on Fermentation " (Journ. Chem. Soc, 

 Part I., 1872, Part II., 1873); "On the Electrolysis of Sugar 

 Solutions" (/fe/., 1872). In conjunction with Mr. Heron: — 

 "Contributions to the History of Starch and its Transforma- 

 tions'' {ibid., 1879); "Some Observations on the Hydrolylic 

 Ferments of the Pancreas and Small Inte-line " (Proc. Roy. 

 Soc, 1880). In conjunction with Dr. Morris :— " On the Non- 

 crystallizable Products of the Action of Dia-ta?e upon Starch " 

 (lourn. Chem. Soc, 1885); "Determination of the Molecular 

 Weights of the Carbohydrates" {ibid., 1888). 



Latlmer Clark, 

 C.E., F.R.A.S., F R G.S., Elecrical Engineer. Past President 

 of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. Author of : — "De- 

 scription of the Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges ; " 

 chapter on "Tides of the Menai Straits," in E. Claik's book on 



