I20 



NATURE 



[October i, 19 14 



development for marine service. Mr. Richardson has 

 also been awarded the institution medal for the same 

 paper. 



The Board of Trade has arranged for a Commission 

 consisting of representatives of the Board of Trade, 

 the Timber Trade Federation of the United Kingdom, 

 and the Mining Association of Great Britain, to pro- 

 ceed to Canada and Newfoundland in order to inquire 

 into the possibility of opening up new sources of sup- 

 plies of mining timber for use in the coal mines of 

 Great Britain. Inquiries on the subject should be 

 addressed to Mr. C. F. Rey, Board of Trade, Queen 

 Anne's Chambers, Westminster. 



lllE death is reported of Dr. W. L. Dudley, a pro- 

 minent American chemist. He was born in Kentucky 

 in 1859, and was professor of chemistry and toxicology 

 at Miami Medical College, Ohio, from 1880 to 1886. 

 In the latter year he was appointed to the chair of 

 chemistry in Vanderbilt University, where in 1895 he 

 became dean of the medical department also. He 

 was secretary to the inorganic chemistry section of 

 the St. Louis Congress in 1904, and U.S. Commis- 

 sioner to the London Congress of Applied Chemistry 

 in 1909. Dr. Dudley had devised an important pro- 

 cess for working and electroplating with iridium. 



The war is likely to lead to some readjustment of 

 the trade of the world. The Decimal Association 

 points out in a letter we have received that if British 

 manufacturers are to secure any of the trade which 

 Germany has hitherto carried on with neutral coun- 

 tries, they must be prepared to adopt metric measures 

 of weight, and so on. The association will be glad to 

 help manufacturers and merchants who need assist- 

 ance, and, if there is a demand, to arrange lectures 

 under the auspices of chambers of commerce during 

 the coming winter. Communications should be ad- 

 dressed to the secretary of the association at Finsbury 

 Court, Finsbury Pavement, London, E.C. 



The death occurred, on September 20, of Mr. 

 William Ascroft, of Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, in his 

 eighty-second year. Mr. Ascroft was responsible for 

 the six beautiful crayon sketches of twilight effects 

 published by the Royal Society in the report on the 

 eruption of Krakatoa in August, 1883. In the Novem- 

 ber following, the extraordinary twilight glows in the 

 British Isles commanded general attention, and their 

 probable connection with the Krakatoa outburst was 

 pointed out. Mr. Ascroft made his drawings on the 

 bank of the Thames, a little west of London, on the 

 evening of November 26, 1883. They represented the 

 grand general colouring of the western sky from 

 shortly after sunset (3h. 57m. p.m.) to the final dying 

 out of the afterglow at about 5.15 p.m. 



In the September issue of Man, Mr. W. N. Beaver 

 discusses the eating of human flesh in the western 

 division of Papua. A long experience of almost every 

 district of British Papua inclines him to believe that 

 while ritual or ceremonial does in many cases form 

 the prime reason for cannibalism, in by far the greater 

 number of cases human flesh is eaten because it is a 

 food and is liked. The practice, however, is not 

 NO. 2344, VOL. 94] 



habitual, but sporadic. It is said that snake-eaters 

 are always cannibals. This is not a certain fact in 

 Papua, but it is certainly a coincidence that the 

 majority of snake-eating tribes in the island are also 

 cannibal. 



In Man for September Mr. J. P. Johnson describes 

 a collection of pygmy implements from Western 

 Australia in the Perth Museum, and others from 

 Eastern Australia in the Sydney Museum. Like those 

 from South Africa, he regards them as merely diminu- 

 tive forms or varieties of what French archaeologists 

 term the Audi, Chatelperron, and Gravette pointes 

 or couteaux. These are characteristic of the Aurignaco- 

 Magdalenien specimens of north-western Europe 

 where the crescent is absent, and are prominent in the 

 Capsian specimen of Sicily where the crescent is 

 present. In Australia, however, they do not appear 

 to be associated with scrapers as in Europe and South 

 Africa. 



About 1830 some Chinese and Malay convicts con- 

 fined in the jail at Mahableshwar, the chief hill station 

 of the Bombay Presidency, are supposed to have intro- 

 duced the cultivation of the strawberry, which has 

 now become a flourishing industry. The attempt to 

 introduce plants from Saharanpur failed, and the 

 present stock was obtained from Bangalore, where its 

 previous history is unknown. Though they are good 

 and command a ready sale, the berries are capable of 

 much improvement. Dr. W. Burns, economic 

 botanist to the Government of Bombay, who gives a 

 valuable account of the industry in vol. ix., part iii., 

 of the official Agricultural Journal of India, believes 

 that if new stock can be introduced from Europe and 

 America, there Is hope of the production of high-class 

 fruit in large quantities in the Yenna Valley. 



It is satisfactory to observe that many field clubs 

 and local natural history societies are devoting atten- 

 tion to the preparation of a flora of the districts in 

 which they operate. The Leicester Literary and 

 Philosophical Society, in its Transactions, vol. xviii., 

 for 19 14, recently published, describes the work that 

 is being carried on by their initiative. Many impor- 

 tant discoveries, such as Ceratophyllutn subtnersum, 

 Rumex piilcher, besides cryptogams, have been made. 

 Negotiations with the Uppingham and Rutland 

 Natural History Societies have resulted in an arrange- 

 ment to include Rutland in the Leicestershire work. 

 So far as the original survey on ecological lines is 

 concerned, the general editor has now defined the 

 main lines of vegetation, and has recorded them on 

 the 6-in. maps. An appeal for assistance from local 

 workers has met with active support. 



In the notice of the recovery of the type specimen 

 of Pliolophus viilpiceps in our issue of September 17 

 it should have been stated that Messrs. Flower and 

 Garson (Cat. Osteol. Mus., R. Coll. Surgeons, part ii., 

 p. 380, 1884) were the first to suggest the identity of 

 Pliolophus with Hyracotherium. 



According to an article contributed to a Maltese 

 journal of July 23 by Mr. G. Despott, of the Natural 

 History Museum, Malta, the cetacean alluded to in 



