February 28, 1901] 



NATURE 



425 



cephalopod is accordingly considered to be descended from a 

 coiled Clymenia-like ancestor. 



We have received the South- Eastern Naturalist for 1900. 

 In addition to several papers, it contains an account of the 

 congress of the South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies, 

 held at Brighton in June under the presidency of Prof. Howes. 

 Bird protection was one of the subjects discussed, in connection 

 with which the president CKpressed^his opinion that the present 

 unsatisfactory state of affairs is largely due to the apathy of 

 local authorities in putting enactments in force. 



The systematic position of the sand-grouse forms the subject 

 of a paper, by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, in the January number of 

 the American Naturalist. It is concluded that these birds 

 form a subordinal group intermediate between the pigeons and 

 the game-birds. In the same serial Mr. G. H. Parker discusses 

 certain tortoises with abnormally formed horny shields, in which 

 correlated abnormalities likewise occur in the underlying bony 

 plates. And he is led from this association to conclude that in 

 the primitive chelonians each plate was covered by its own 

 proper shield, as in the case of the glyptodons of South America. 



To the February number of the Zoologist Mr. G. Renshaw 

 contributes an account of all the known specimens, whether 

 alive or dead, by which the quagga has been or is represented 

 in menageries or museums. About ten living examples of this 

 extinct equine appear to have been exhibited from time to time 

 in menageries. Three skins, a skeleton, and two skulls repre- 

 sent the animal in the United Kingdom, in addition to which 

 two other skeletons have been stated to be those of quaggas. 

 Continental museums are more fortunate, possessing among 

 them, in addition to several skeletons and skulls, no less than 

 eleven mounted skins, one of which is that of a foetus. In the 

 South African Museum this once abundant species is represented 

 only by a foal. A skeleton at Philadelphia, said to be that of a 

 quagga, completes the list of known remains. The author states 

 his belief that the skin and skeleton in the British Museum 

 belong to an individual which died in the Zoological Gardens 

 previous to 1838, in reality they were not acquired till 1864. 



In the Journal de Physique for January, M. E. Mathias 

 applies Weierstrass's signs to determine the mutual induction of 

 two parallel circular currents. The advantage of this method is 

 that it enables the potential energy to be expressed as a function 

 of the radii and distance apart of the circuits in a rapidly con- 

 verging series. 



Mr. Gilbert Newton Lewis suggests a new conception of 

 thermal pressure and a theory of solutions in the Proceedings of 

 the American Academy (xxxvi. 9). The theory, according to 

 which the thermal pressure of any phase is equal to the pressure 

 which the substance would exert if under the same conditions as 

 a perfect gas, suggested itself in the consideration of certain 

 remarkable general laws which treat of heterogeneous equili- 

 brium in which the several phases are subject to different 

 pressures. The same assumption is alone sufficient, according 

 to the author, to explain all the laws of dilute solutions. The 

 relations of Mr. Lewis's theory to the theory of van der Waals 

 are also discussed. 



The January number of La GSographie contains a paper by 

 Dr. A. G. Nathorst, of Stockholm, on the distribution of the 

 wolf and the musk-ox in high northern latitudes, and especially 

 in Eastern Greenland. Count Henri de la Vaulx contributes a 

 paper on his journeys in Patagonia. 



The new number of the Mitteilungen aus den deutschen 

 Sthutzgebieten is devoted to an account of the work of the 

 German members of the British and German Boundary Com- 

 mission between Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika. There are 



NO. 1635, VOL. 63] 



special reports, on the astronomical and geodetic work, by 

 Dr. E. Kohlschlitter, and on the country and people, by Captain 

 Herrmann. Four sheets of an excellent map on a scale of 

 I : 100,000, by the members named and Lieut. Glauning, accom- 

 pany the reports. 



The Eighth Annual Report (for 1899) of Dr. S. Calvin, the 

 State Geologist, forms vol. x. of the Iowa Geological Survey. 

 It contains a useful index geological map of the State ; a report 

 on the mineral production, which includes coal, clay, stone, 

 gypsum, and lead, zinc and iron ores ; and sundry geological 

 reports. Mr. Stuart Weller deals with the succession of fossil 

 faunas in the Kinderhook Beds at Burlington. These faunas 

 exhibit a gradual transition from those with Devonian to those 

 with Carboniferous characters. The Devonian element is for 

 the most part exhibited by the pelecypods, while the brachiopods 

 ars usually Carboniferous in aspect, and there is an overlapping 

 and intermingling of these forms. The geological reports deal 

 very fully with different counties in Iowa. 



In the 'Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological Society 

 (vol. viii. part iv., 1900) we find an interesting address by 

 Prof. W. A. Herdman on "The Geological Succession of 

 Morphological Ideals." Referring to the many distinct groups 

 of animal life found in the Lower Cambrian rocks, and which 

 are usually taken to indicate that " we are already pretty far up 

 in the history of evolution, and very far in time from the 

 primitive fauna," he expresses the opinion "that the first differ- 

 entiation of the great groups of invertebrates may have taken 

 place very rapidly in pre-Cambrian times at the surface of 

 the sea amongst soft-bodied pelagic animals." He then 

 discusses the chief faunas of the Palaeozoic rocks, pointing out 

 the successive organic types which dominate as " representatives 

 of the ideals which Nature seemed striving to attain in the 

 successive geological periods." 



The observatory on Mount Etna, being situated at a height 

 of 2950 metres, at the foot of the central crater and only 300 

 metres below the summit, it has been assumed that the ground 

 on which it is built must be almost continually in a state of 

 tremor. To show how unfounded the supposition is, Messrs. 

 A. Ricco and L. Franco have made a comparative study of the 

 tromometric records from the observatory there and from that 

 at Catania, the instrument employed being the normal tromo- 

 meter \\ metres long, and the readings being taken six times a 

 day for nearly eight years. In 46 per cent, of the observations 

 on Etna, and in 62 per cent, of those at Catania, the tromo- 

 meter was found to be in motion. The higher figure at 

 Catania is partly due to the influence of external agents ; for, 

 ,when the sea is rough, the tromometer there is never still, while 

 on the mountain it is unaffected. Also, taking only those 

 observations made when the wind was strong, or very strong, 

 the tromometer on Etna was in motion in 59 per cent, of all 

 such cases, and that at Catania in 94 per cent. On the other 

 hand, when there was little or no wind and the sea was nearly, 

 or quite, smooth, the corresponding figures are 38 for Etna and 

 69 for Catania. 



The fifth part of "Zoological Results based on Material 

 from New Britain, New Guinea, Loyally Islands and Else- 

 where, collected during the years 1895-1897," by Dr. Arthur 

 Willey, has been published by the Cambridge University Press. 

 The work will be brought to a conclusion by the publication of 

 one other part in the course of the present year, and when it 

 appears the six parts will be reviewed together. 



Three new volumes in Ostwald's series of " Klassiker der 

 exaktenWissenschaften," published by Mr. Engelmann, Leipzig, 

 have been received. No. 114 contains letters and other 

 communications written by Volta in 1792-1795 upon the subject 



