574 



NA TURE 



[April ii, 1901 



it follows that the problem of n bodies does not admit of any 

 forms of motion absolutely stationary beyond the particular 

 solutions of Laplace, in which th€ bodies rotate uniformly, main- 

 taining an invariable (plane or rectilinear) configuration. On 

 the other hand, the chief problems of ordinary dynamics con- 

 form to the property in question. 



We learn from the April number of the Entomologisls' 

 Monthly Magazine that the late Mr. Lennon's collection of 

 British Coleoptera has found a permanent home in the Edin- 

 burgh Museum of Science, and Art. Its richness may be 

 gathered from the circumstance that the number of species from 

 the Solway district alone is estimated at more than twelve 

 hundred. 



In addition to several papers dealing with abnormalities in 

 human anatomy and others on ethnology, the Proceedings of the 

 Anatomical and Anthropological Society of the University of 

 Aberdeen for 1899- 1900 contains an abbreviated report of a 

 lecture delivered before the University by Dr. A. Keith, on the 

 relations of man to the higher Primates. The lecturer expressed 

 his opinion that the gorilla and chimpanzee are co-descendants 

 of an early Miocene anthropoid, for which the name Protro- 

 glodytes was suggested. It was estimated that more than five 

 million years have elapsed since the separation of the human 

 stock as a distinct form. 



The osteology of the woodpeckers forms the subject of a 

 paper by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt in the October-December issue 

 of the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. As 

 the result of his investigations, the author concludes that these 

 birds are more nearly related to the Passeres than to any other 

 group, and that both are probably divergent branches of a 

 single ancestral stock. In a second communication to the same 

 journal. Dr. Shufeldt treats of the« skeleton of the owls, and 

 arrives at the conclusion that there is no marked affinity between 

 that group and the diurnal birds of prey. Rather, he thinks, 

 there is a relationship, although a remote one, between the owls 

 and the nightjars, the South American oil-bird (Steatornis) and 

 the Australasian Podargus being the members of the latter 

 group in which the evidence of strigine affinities is most 

 conspicuous. 



The journal last quoted also contains an interesting com- 

 munication by Mr. R. H. Mathews, dealing with the origin 

 and customs of the Australian aborigines. It is argued that 

 the Australians reached their present home by way of the 

 Malay Islands, but that the immigration has taken place at 

 more than one epoch, the later immigrants being of a higher 

 grade than their predecessors. The earlier immigrants are 

 considered to have been of the Melanesian type, and their un- 

 modified descendants were the now extinct Tasmanians. The 

 later invaders, on the other hand, never reached Tasmania, 

 which had, at the time of their arrival, become insulated. 

 "There is nothing unreasonable," adds the author, "in the 

 assumption that these invaders and the native tribes of the 

 southern portion of India are the descendants of a common 

 stock — the Australians, owing to their long isolation, having 

 retained the primitive character of their Neanderthaloid 

 ancestors, while the later Indian tribes have attained a higher 

 grade of evolution." Possibly this may be the real solution of 

 an extremely puzzling ethnological problem. 



The Century Magazine for April contains an excellent and 

 fully illustrated popular account, by Dr. L. O. Howard, the 

 chief entomologist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, of 

 the recent investigations connecting the propagation of malaria 

 with mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles. The author first of 

 all dwells upon the great prevalence of malaria in certain parts 

 of the world. Although in temperate regions the mortality 

 from this disease is not high, in one year in the United States 



NO. 1641, VOL. 63] 



the deaths due to malarial fever were 3976 per 100,000, and in | 

 a later year 2673 P^f 100,000. In Italy the average death-rate i 

 from this cause is 15,000 annually, while in India five million \ 

 deaths were ascribed to "fever" in 1892, and in Italy two 

 million persons suffier annually in one way or another from 

 malaria. The malaria-producing species are then described, 

 after which comes a description, with illustrations, of the 

 development of the malaria-parasite in the red blood corpuscles 

 and in the body of the Anopheles mosquitoes. The article con- 

 cludes with a brief reference to the evidence now being collected 

 to connect yellow fever with a mosquito. Instead of belonging 

 to Anopheles, the suspected insect pertains to the genus Culex 

 (or perhaps represents a genus by itself) ; and it is considered 

 probable, if the suspected connection between this insect and 

 yellow fever be verified, that the fever germ will prove to be a 

 protozoon, that is to say, an animal, and not a bacterion or 

 vegetable organism. The experiments in question were made 

 during last summer and winter by the U.S. Army surgeons in 

 the hospitals at Cuba ; and they tend to show with a reasonable 

 degree of certainty that mosquitoes which have bitten patients 

 suffering from yellow fever may, and do, convey the disease by 

 biting healthy persons. 



We have received the annual report of the Indian Museum, 

 Calcutta, for the year ending March 31, 1900, and are pleased to 

 learn that considerable progress has recently been made in the 

 development of that institution. Owing to the removal of the 

 offices of the Geological Survey to another building, four ad- 

 ditional galleries are available for exhibition, and the super- 

 intendent, Major Alcock, reports that three of these have been 

 already opened to the public. They have respectively been 

 filled with reptiles, fishes and insects, arranged with special 

 regard to the requirements of the student of the Indian fauna. 

 The transfer of these specimens has allowed a much-needed 

 expansion of some of the other groups. A very large proportion 

 of the work of the staff has, indeed, been devoted to the im- 

 provement and rearrangement of the exhibition series, which, 

 as the superintendent remarks, is that portion of the museum 

 whereby progress is gauged by the public, and where the 

 influence of the museum is most exerted. It may interest 

 museum officials in this country to learn that most of the fishes 

 in the Indian Museum are now coloured in imitation of their 

 natural tints and that a large proportion of the reptiles and 

 amphibians are represented by coloured clay models. Almost 

 the only thing that Major Alcock has to lament is the circum- 

 stance that the post of naturalist to the surveying ship was 

 vacant during the greater part of the year, in consequence of 

 which the ' museum's list of acquisitions fell much below the 

 normal. 



The second part of a bibliography, guide and index to bac- 

 teriological literature, belonging to vol. i. (Bacteria) of "The 

 Scientific Roll " has been received. The magazine, which is 

 conducted by Mr. Alexander Ramsay, contains lists of papers 

 published from 1876 to 1892 (both inclusive), arranged in each 

 year alphabetically accordmg to authors' names. 



A NEW edition (the third) of Mr. W. W. Rouse Ball's inspir 

 ing " Short account of the History of Mathematics" has bee 

 published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Ltd. The wor 

 originally appeared in 1888 and was described in detail in these 

 columns (vol. xxxix. p. 265). The present edition has been_ 

 revised but not materially altered. 



Four parts of the first volume of Proceedings of the Unl 

 versity of Durham Philosophical Society, containing paper! 

 brought before the Society in the years 1896-1900, have been 

 received. As a record of the Society's contributions to know 

 ledge during the first four years of its existence, the Proceedingi 

 are very creditable. Many of the papers contain the results « 



Ji 



