March 14, 19 18] 



NATURE 



29 



Barcelona, is the president for 1918, and the Rev. 

 •R. P. Longinos Nav^s, S.J., the secretary. The 

 I society will deal with insects and the other arthropods 

 usually studied with them from every point of view, 

 both purely scientific ^nd economic. Except from July 

 to September, it will hold a monthly meeting for the 

 reading and discussion of papers, and each meeting 

 will be followed by the issue of a small Boletln. We 

 jhave just received the first part of this publication 

 |<Nos. I and 2, January, 1918), which contains the 

 rules of the society, the first list of members, and a 

 portrait of the president. Following this preliminarv 

 matter there is the first instalment of a catalogue of 

 the Coleoptera of Spain, by the Rev. Jos6 Marfa de la 

 Fuente. We congratulate our Spanish colleagues on 

 .the marked increase of activity in the pursuit of 

 ^natural science in their country during recent years, 

 * md add our best wishes for the success of the impor- 

 ^tant new society. 



A COPY of the annual report for the year 1917 of 

 [the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, New 

 [Zealand, has been received. During the year the 

 [presidential address on some questions of efficiency 

 ;was given by Mr. L. Birks, and the following lectures 

 were delivered :— Prof. H. B. Kirk, "The Fly Nuisance 

 land its Control"; Prof. J. Hight, "Science and 

 Economics"; and Prof. W. P. Evans, "Some Poison 

 Gases." In April, by request of the local Commis- 

 jsioner of the National Efficiency Board, members of 

 *the council of the institute waited on him and discussed 

 [matters relative to national efficiency. Another ques- 

 !tion which has engaged the attention of the council 

 (is the proposal made by the " Scientific and Industrial 

 [^Research Committee " of the New Zealand Institute 

 :to recommend the establishment of a national "Board 

 of Science and Industry." The council criticised some 

 features of the scheme, and trusts that the proposal 

 'will materialise, and that art institution of great 

 ; national value will result. The sum of iioZ. allotted 

 by the New Zealand Institute to members of the Philo- 

 sophical Institute was received. Considerable progress 

 has been made in the investigation of the phosphate 

 rocks of Canterbury by Messrs. R. Speight and L. J. 

 Wild. Certain preliminary work has been done on 

 the other investigations, viz. "The Deterioration of 

 Apples in Cold Storage" and "The Electrical Preven- 

 tion of Frosting in Orchards." 



"At a certain sitage of social evolution," says Sir 

 James Frazer in his artic'e entitled "The Killing of the 

 Khazar Kings," in the December (19 17) issue of Folk- 

 lore, " not a few races appear to have been in the 

 habit of putting their kings to death, either at the end 

 of a fixed term, or on the failure of the king's health 

 and strength, or simply whenever a great public 

 calamity, such as drought or famine, had befallen the 

 country." Among tribes which have practised this re- 

 markable form of limited monarchy must now be 

 included the Khazars, or Khozars. For some 900 

 years this now almost forgotten tribe, from their home 

 in the spurs of the Caucasus and along the western 

 shore of the Caspian — called after them the Sea of the 

 Khazars — played a great part in history on the Euro- 

 pean-Asian borderland. It is certainly remarkable that 

 a people which had reached such a high level of civilisa- 

 tion and culture should have practised legalised regi- 

 cide. But the evidence collected by Sir James Frazer 

 from a very wide survey of medieval literature leaves 

 no doubt on the matter. This survey of an almost 

 unknown tribe is a contribution to anthropology of 

 permanent value. 



In the American Museum Journal for December last 

 Mr. Roy C. Andrews gives an admirable summary of 

 the results of his expedition to Yunnan on behalf of 



NO. 2524, VOL. lOl] 



the American Museum of Natural History. Herein 

 he gives a valuable account of the habits of the goral 

 and serow, of which but very little is known. These 

 animals are rare in museum collections, so that he is 

 not unnaturally proud of the fact that he has secured 

 for his museum thirty-two gorals of at least two 

 species, and seven serows of three species, forming a 

 series the like of which is to be found in no other 

 museum in the world. A large series of a shrew-like 

 animal, of the genus Hylomys, extremely rare in col- 

 lections, constituted the most striking of the additions 

 to the smaller mammals made by the expedition. A 

 number of remarkably fine photographs add immensely 

 to the value of this contribution. 



The insect pest known as Icerya purchasi, originally 

 a native of Australia, according to a report reprinted 

 in the Pioneer Mail for November 24 from the Agricul- 

 tural Journal of India, has now acquired a firm footing 

 in Ceylon. It is especially destructive to citrus trees, 

 but it may be found on other trees and plants, includ- 

 ing the pomegranate, grape, rose, castor, mulberry, 

 apple, peach, apricot, fig, walnut, willow, pepper, and 

 potato. The adult female is about one-fifth of an inch 

 in length and rather less in breadth, and is of a brown» 

 reddish, or blackish colour, the body being overlaid by 

 a large, white-fluted, cottony mass, in which the eggs 

 are laid. In view of the great damage done to orange- 

 groves in the United States, the Government sent 

 a man of science to Australia, and the result was that 

 a number of small red and black ladybird beetles 

 (Novius cardinalis) were carried to California, where 

 they speedily multiplied and dealt effectively with the 

 Icerya. The Government of India is now undertaking- 

 inquiries to prevent the entry of the pest into that 

 country. 



Of the great memoir on 'Hawaiian and Other 

 Pacific Echini," begun in 1907 by Alexander Agassiz 

 and H. Lyman Clark, three parts were published by 

 the joint authors, and, with a fourth part by Dr. 

 Clark, composed vol. xxxiv. of the Memoirs of the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology. Two further parts- 

 by Dr. Clark have now completed the work (Memoirs^ 

 vol. xlvi., Nos. I and 2). Of these, the fornier deals 

 with the suborder Clypeastrina, or shield-urchins, and 

 the systematic descriptions are preceded by a general 

 discussion. Dr. R. T. Jackson has given reasons for the 

 belief that the clypeasti oids were derived from a group 

 of regular urchins of which the Arbaciidae are modern 

 representatives. Dr. Clark, however, points out that, 

 in the perforation of their tubercles and the structure 

 of their pedicellariae, they more closely resemble the 

 Saleniidee. The final part of the memoir consists of 

 200 pages and eighteen plates devoted to that large 

 assemblage of much-modified urchins known as 

 Spatangina, or heart-urchins. This is believed to in- 

 clude forms derived from at least two, and possibly 

 four, distinct stocks. Dr. Clark does not, however, 

 attempt to represent this in his classification. There 

 is a discussion of the various structures used in classi- 

 fication, such as pedicellariae and fascioles, but as 

 regards the latter Dr. Clark does not make use of the 

 important study published by B. Hoffmann in the 

 Palaeontologische Zeitschrift, 19 14. The present 

 memoir adds one more to the valuable and admirably 

 produced zoological publications arising out of the 

 cruises of the U.S. Fish Commission steamer Alba- 

 tross, and Dr. Lyman Clark is to be thanked and con- 

 gratulated on completing his important share of the 

 work. 



A REPORT on the work of the Imperial Institute for 



South Africa, presented to the Committee for the 



i Union of South Africa and Rhodesia at its last meet- 



' ing, includes an interesting reference to the possible 



