2 34 



NATURE 



[October 28, 1915 



system wherever possible, and always to champion it ; 

 to use the simplest of English weights and measures 

 and in cases of uncertainty to specify the unit ; and 

 further, to avoid, when addressing an English audi- 

 ence, the use of denominations of weights and 

 measures not likely to be understood. 



The civil engineering profession, and especially that 

 section of it connected with river training and coastal 

 defence work, will learn with regret of the death, at 

 theageof eighty-three, of Mr. W. H. Wheeler, formerly 

 of Boston, Lines, but latterly residing at Bromley, 

 Kent. He practised for many years in the district 

 bordering on the Wash, and became an authority on 

 the drainage of fens and low lands, and the regulation 

 of estuary channels, as also on coastal phenomena 

 generally. His " History of the Fens of South Lin- 

 colnshire " is, perhaps, his best known work ; it was 

 first published in 1868, and was reissued as a second 

 edition in 1897. Other volumes which followed were 

 "Tidal Rivers: their Hydraulics, Improvement, and 

 Navigation," in Longmans's Civil Engineering Series, 

 1893; "The Sea Coast: (i) Destruction, (2) Littoral 

 Drift, and (3) Protection," 1902; a "Practical Manual 

 on Tides and Waves," 1906; and " Thu North Sea: 

 Physical Characteristics, Tides, Currents, and 

 Fishery," 1908. His pen was very prolific, and he 

 contributed a great number of papers to professional 

 societies and articles to technical journals, as well as 

 to our own columns, all bearing on the branch of work 

 which he had made peculiarly his own, and on which, 

 despite inevitable occasional divergences of opinion 

 from professional colleagues on controversial matters, 

 he was ever listened to with attention and respect. He 

 was elected a member of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers in 1867, and was the recipient of a Telford 

 premium from that body. 



A FEW further particulars are available as to the 

 recent long-distance tests in wireless telephony in the 

 United States to which reference was made in Nature 

 of October 7 (p. 155), but no data have yet been dis- 

 closed concerning the type of apparatus employed in 

 the tests. The transmitting apparatus was installed 

 in the U.S. Government wireless station at Arlington, 

 while receiving sets only were used at Mare Island 

 and Pearl Harbour stations. The distance between 

 Arlington and Mare Island is about 2500 miles, and 

 between Arlington and Pearl Harbour 4900 miles. 

 The conversation was overheard at several points, 

 including Darien, Panama, a distance of more than 

 2000 miles from the transmitting station. The tests 

 are the outcome of many years of painstaking experi- 

 ments. Early in the spring of this year the system 

 had been developed up to a point where good results 

 were secured over a distance of 250 miles, employing 

 for the aerial an experimental tower erected at Mont- 

 auk Point, Long Island, and a small tower at Wilm- 

 ington, Del. This was followed by tests between 

 Montauk Point and St. Simons Island, Ga., a distance 

 of 1000 miles. No novel features are claimed for the 

 system, which is said to be simply the perfection of 

 existing methods. Further and extended trials under 

 varying conditions are necessary, however, before we 

 can state with tolerable certainty whether, the problem 

 NO. 2400, VOL. 96] 



of long-distance wireless telephony has been satisfac- 

 torily solved. 



The Trustees of the National Museum, Melbourne, 

 have issued a second and revised edition of the " Guide 

 to the Ethnological Collections," compiled by Dr. 

 Baldwin Spencer. The older specimens are largely 

 due to Mr. Brough Smith, but they have been largely 

 increased by those made by Dr. Spencer and the late 

 Mr. Gillen in the course of their famous journeys 

 among the Arunta and other tribes. A short introduc- 

 tion gives the latest views on the ethnology of the 

 continent. Specially remarkable are the rare speci- 

 mens illustrating religious usages, totemism, initiation 

 ceremonies, and the like. The handbook, which is 

 well illustrated, will be indispensable to all students 

 of the Australian aborigines. 



Mr. Morten P. Porsild, writing from Disco, 

 Greenland, has published a valuable monograph entitled 

 "Studies on the Material Culture of the Eskimo in 

 West Greenland." He adopts the scientific method 

 of discussing in the case of each implement the object 

 aimed at in its construction ; the mode of use in 

 order to attain this object; how its form is adapted 

 to its use ; how far the nature of the material has 

 influenced its form. He points out that the study of 

 Eskimo culture is specially useful for comparison with 

 that of the European Stone Age people. He concludes 

 that this culture developed in the Arctic area without 

 anj^ borrowing from foreign civilisations, except in the 

 case of the bow and arrow. He finds that the types 

 of the kayak have a regional distribution similar to 

 that of the Greenland dialects. Many implements 

 are for the first time described, and these notes serve 

 to modify certain current theories. He warns museum 

 collectors against the purchase of so-called "models," 

 and he remarks that though faked antiquities are 

 very rare, yet they may be sometimes met with. 



Of pelagic Annelids, the Alciopidee and the Tomo- 

 pteridas, not a single species has hitherto been obtained 

 from Japanese waters. Mr. Akira Izuka is therefore 

 to be congratulated on having, in the course of his 

 researches, brought to light no fewer than nine species 

 belonging to these families. Three of the species 

 thereof are new to science. He describes his captures 

 in the Journal of the College of Science of the Imperial 

 University of Tokio (vol. xxxvi., art. 5). 



According to Dr. J. H. Vernhout, in the July issue 

 of Zoologische Mededeelingen (the organ of the 

 Natural History Museum of Leyden), the parasitic 

 Petricola pholadiformis . one of the " Venus-shells," 

 recently introduced into British waters with American 

 oysters, has also appeared on the Dutch coast. In 

 addition to cases he has already recorded he now adds 

 to this list Flushing, Isle of Walcheren, eastern 

 Schelde, Zandvoort, and Terschelling. The introduc- 

 tion of American oysters into British waters has not 

 proved an unmixed blessing. For another parasitic 

 mollusc, Crepidula fornicata, the " slipper-limpet," one 

 of the Capulidae, introduced inadvertently into the 

 Whitstable oyster-beds has now become a pest. 

 Furthermore, it is slowly spreading round the coast. 



