6qo 



NATURE 



[F EBRU ARY II, 1 9 1 5 



teresting to know if the great pathologist's explanation 

 was really the true one — or if such a variation of 

 brain capacity does occur among' normal individuals 

 of a native and untutored race. 



The Journal of Anatomy and Physiology for 

 January, 1915, contains a paper by Dr. R. J. Glad- 

 stone and Mr. Erichsen-Powell on manifestations of 

 occipital vertebras and fusion of the atlas with the 

 occipital bone in man. Four specimens of this varia- 

 tion are described, and its causes are discussed. 

 Speaking' generally, variation about a mean, with 

 compensatory changes in other regions of the body, 

 may be regarded as an established biological prin- 

 ciple, which governs or acts on this region, as well as 

 on growth and development in general. The authors 

 are inclined to regard the majority of the variations 

 in the occipito-atlantal region as largely attributable 

 to this cause. 



Messrs. F. Davidson* and Co., of 29 Great Port- 

 land Street, W., have sent us a descriptive pamphlet 

 of the " Davon " super-microscope. The idea of this 

 instrument was suggested by the principle governing 

 the micro-telescope (described by Prof. Boys in 

 Nature, January 22, 1914), which is that of providing 

 the microscope with an image in air of a distant 

 object, the air-image being magnified by the micro- 

 scop>e. This is accomplished by attaching a tube 

 carrying a stage and focussing screw to the condenser- 

 fitting under the stage of the microscope. The 

 primary microscope slides into this tube, and consists 

 of a tube with stops and an eyepiece and an inner 

 tube, also stopped, carrying the micro-objective ; this 

 performs the primary magnification of the object and 

 the image formed by the combination in air anterior 

 to the eyepiece is then magnified by the microscope, 

 to which it is attached, which is termed the 

 "secondary" In this way almost unlimited magnifi- 

 cation can be obtained, though, of course, resolution 

 is unaffected thereby. For photomicrography no long- 

 extension camera is required by this arrangement. 



A RECENTLY published number of the Annals of 

 Tropical Medicine and Parasitology (vol. viii., No. 3) 

 contains a memoir on sleeping sickness in the Eket 

 district of Nigeria, by Drs. Macfie and Gallagher. 

 An endemic focus of sleeping sickness of considerable 

 magnitude was found in this district, but the disease 

 is of a mild type, occurring chiefly in children; the 

 mortality is low, and spontaneous cures appear to be 

 frequent. The trypanosomes can be found in the juice 

 of the lymphatic glands, but have not been detected 

 in the peripheral blood; the parasites differ in some 

 respects, both in their morphology and pathogenic 

 reactions, from the typical Trypanosoma gamhiense, 

 and the authors regard them as a distinct species 

 (T. nigeriense, Macfie), characterised morphologically 

 by the occurrence of a small percentage of peculiar 

 diminutive stumpy forms. The infection is believed to 

 be carried by Glossina tachinoides. The memoir is 

 well illustrated, and in an appendix by Dr. Macfie it is 

 shown that T. pecaiidi, T. pecorum, and T. vivax are 

 transmitted also by G. tachinoides in the Eket district. 

 NO. 2363, VOL. 94] 



In another memoir in the same publication Dr. Macfie 

 describes various blood-parasites collected by him in 

 Nigeria. Amongst these are some organisms found in 

 the blood of guinea-pigs and resembling the organism 

 described by Seidelin from human blood under the 

 name Paraplasma flavigenum, which is alleged to be 

 the parasite causing yellow fever. 



According to a recent "count," as recorded in the 

 American Museum Journal for January, the total 

 number of fur-seals on the Pribilow Islands (where 

 slaughter is now prohibited) in 19 13 was 268,305 — a 

 large increase in the matter of "pups " over the pre- 

 ceding year. 



In the Victorian Naturalist for December last Mr. 

 J. A. Kershaw, curator of the Melbourne Museum, 

 recounts his experiences during a collecting trip to the 

 Claudie River district, in the north of the Cape York 

 Peninsula, Queensland. One of the incidents was a 

 brief sojourn on Lloyd Island, where the party was 

 much interested in the swarms of nutmeg-pigeons, 

 Blue Mountain parrots, and shining starlings, which 

 resort every evening to the island to roost, and return 

 at early dawn to pass the day on the mainland. 



Mr. J. R. Henderson's administration report of 

 the Madras ^Museum and Aquarium for the financial 

 year 1913-14 has been issued by the Educational De- 

 partment for that Presidency. A feature of the year's 

 work was formed by demonstrations in the museum 

 given to local schoolboys ; another series of demon- 

 strations being also arranged for teachers. Specimens 

 of three newly described Indian mammals were pre- 

 sented to the museum by the Bombay Natural History 

 Society. The Marine Aquarium maintained its popu- 

 larity, more than four thousand rupees being taken 

 at the toll-gates. A slime-head (Ophiocephalus) and 

 a ray (Trygon) bred during the year in the central 

 fountain. 



We are indebted to the author, Mr. J. A. Hutton, 

 for a copy of a report on salmon-netting in the Wye 

 during 1914, reprinted from the December issue of 

 the Salmon and Trout Magazine. There were expec- 

 tations that the season's catch would be exceptionally 

 good, but it proved very disappointing, the total num- 

 ber of fish being only 2842, as compared with 640S in 

 1913. The catch was, in fact, the smallest taken 

 since 1908. Since the resumption, after a three years' 

 interlude of netting in 1905, there have been great 

 fluctuations in the number of salmon annually netted 

 in the Wye. During the first four seasons the take 

 averaged 2330; in 1909 there was a rise to 4319, while 

 in the next three seasons the average fell to 3304, to 

 be succeeded, as already mentioned, by an unpre- 

 cedented increase to 6408 in 1913. 



With the assistance of the Imperial Institute efforts 

 are being made to create a market in the United 

 Kingdom for the ground nuts grown in India and 

 West Africa and their products — oil and feeding-cake. 

 The export of ground nuts combined amounted to 

 more than seven million cwts. in 1912, of the value 

 of nearly 4,000,000/., and hitherto France and Ger- 

 many have between them absorbed the greater part 



