December 31, 1914] 



NATURE 



487 



Kent's Cavern, and under these influences he found 

 his interests and attention directed towards natural 

 science. In 1872 he was elected a member of the 

 Torquay Natural History Society, and for the rest 

 of his life he gave that institution his enthusiastic 

 support, serving for long on the committee and as 

 president for the years 1879-81. He was closely asso- 

 ciated with the Kent's Cavern explorations, and his 

 familiarity with details and parts rendered him the 

 best fitted man then living to conduct the Geologist's 

 Association through the cavern on its visit to Tor- 

 quay in 1901. Mr. Hunt's fondness for sailing led to 

 his striking out a line of investigation that put his 

 yacht to scientific use by exploring the inshore sea 

 bottom with dredges and studying the action of shore 

 waves and currents. This he followed up by con- 

 structing experimental tanks, and his researches were 

 recognised by practical engineers dealing with the 

 problems. His literar}' contributions to science are 

 mainly included in the Transactions of the Devon- 

 shire Association, which contain thirty papers by him. 

 More communications in number are contained in the 

 Geological Magazine, and he also contributed to the 

 Linnean Society's Journal. 



M. RoMAiN Rolland's eloquent appeal now appears 

 in pamphlet form — "Above the Battlefield" (Cam- 

 bridge: Bowes and Bowes; price 6d. net). Its main 

 thesis should be interesting to scientific readers, since 

 it is an indictment of European leaders of thought for 

 their attitude to war in general and the present war 

 in particular. War, he assumes, is a catastrophic 

 calamity to civilisation and the race; "it is always the 

 octopus sucking the best blood of Europe"; "is there 

 no end to this bloody and puerile sport, in which the 

 partners change about from century to century — no 

 end, until the whole of humanity is exhausted 

 thereby?" Many who might protest are apt to listen 

 to "the old refrain of the herd that makes a god of 

 its feebleness . . . ' the fatality of war is stronger 

 than our wills.'" But "there is no fatality! The 

 only fatality is what we desire; and, more often, too, 

 what we do not desire enough." Leaders of thought, 

 guardians of the pillars of knowledge which support 

 the fabric of culture, "did not desire war. . . . What 

 then did they do to prevent it? What are they doing 

 to put an end to it?" Some are passive, but the 

 majority are active, " stirring up the bonfire, each, one 

 bringing his faggot." In this "epidemic of homicidal 

 fury ... all the forces of the spirit, of reason, of 

 faith, of poetry, and of science, all have placed them- 

 selves at the disposal of the armies in every State. 

 There is not one amongst the leaders of thought in 

 each country who does not proclaim with conviction 

 that the cause of his people is the cause of God, the 

 cause of liberty, and of human progress. And I, too, 

 proclaim it." 



The great photographic collections of the National 

 Geographic Society of Washington have again been 

 utilised for a valuable topical issue of the National 

 Geographic Magazine for November, which is occu- 

 pied by a paper under the title of "Young Russia — 

 The Land of Unlimited Possibilities," by Mr. G. H. 

 Grosvenor. The sketch of Russian history-, ethnology, 

 NO. 2357, VOL. 94] 



geography, and industrial resources is slight, but 

 pleasantly written. The feature of the number is 

 one hundred admirable photographs, of which seven- 

 teen are in colour, which represent various phases of 

 city and village types, religion, art, and scenery, with 

 groups of the many races included in the empire. 



Of the two chief articles in the December issue of 

 the American Naturalist, one, by Prof. J. H. Morgan, 

 relates to the failure to produce mutations in Droso- 

 phila by means of ether, while the other, by Prof. 

 J. S. Dexter, is devoted to the analysis of a case of 

 continuous variation in the same genus. 



A THIRD contribution to the account of the Long 

 Island fauna and flora, now in course of publication 

 in the Science Bulletin of the Brooklyn Institute, 

 forms the contents of vol. ii.. No. 3, of that serial. 

 In this part Dr. F. Overton treats of the frogs and 

 toads, which include ten species, referable to five 

 genera and four families. 



The December number of the Irish Naturalist is a 

 very thin one; containing, in addition to notes, re- 

 views, etc., only an article by Mr. E. M. Barrington 

 on the migration of wrens, in which it is shown that 

 numbers of these apparently poor flyers regularly 

 cross the Channel twice a year. The fact being 

 established that the species is a constant migrant leads 

 the author to ask how it comes about that local races 

 have been established in St. Kilda and the Faroes. 



Wild Life continues to appear regularly, albeit with 

 a certain reduction in the number of pages, despite 

 the fact that both the editor, Mr. Douglas English, 

 and his collaborator, Mr. W. R. Knight, are serving 

 their King and country, the former as a subaltern 

 in the ist Surrey Rifles, and the latter as a private 

 in the ist Batt. H.A.C. In the December issue Mr. 

 Russell Roberts concludes his realistic account of the 

 black rhinoceros ; among bird-photographs the most 

 striking is one of a flock of black-headed gulls on 

 the wing, by Mr. H. B. Macpherson. 



For some time past, as we learn from the report 

 of the council for 1913-14, the Natural History Society 

 of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-on-Tyne 

 has been endeavouring to raise a sum of 25,000?., to 

 form an endowment for the upkeep of the Hancock 

 Museum, which is at present a heavy drain on the 

 general fund. Between 3000/. and 4000Z. (including 

 loooZ. from Lord Joicey, the president) had been 

 raised, when the outbreak of the war put a stop to 

 the project, at any rate for the present. The most 

 important addition to the museum during the period 

 under review is a magnificent collection of tropical and 

 subtropical butterflies, made by Dr. Eltringham, with 

 special reference to mimicry. A part of this series 

 has been placed on exhibition, and the rest retained 

 in the original cabinets. 



To the first half of the Bergens Museum Aarbok 

 for 1914-15 Dr. A. Brinkmann communicates the 

 description of a new genus and species of nemertine 

 annelids, based on a male and female dredged in 

 May, 19x4, in the North Sea, at a depth of between 

 1000 and 1200 metres. The new genus belongs to the 



