50 



NATURE 



[March 21, 1918 



reduce the close season for coarse fish by one month. 

 Lord Buckmaster also referred to the general neglect 

 of the culture of fresh-water fishes other than Sal- 

 monidae. Little had been done in addition to the imposi- 

 tion of close times. The question of the destruction of 

 fish by seagulls ought to be considered ; steps should be 

 taken to prevent pollution, as, for instance, that of fish- 

 ing waters by tar from roads, and the whole question of 

 the development of the fresh-water fisheries, from both 

 the practical and the scientific viewpoints, ought to 

 be considered in the interest of the food supply of the 

 country. 



At the general meeting of the British Ornitho- 

 logists' Union, held in the rooms of the Zoological 

 Society of London, on March 13, Dr. W. Eagle 

 Clarke, keeper of the Natural History Department of 

 the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, was elected 

 president in succession to Col. Wardlaw Ramsay. As 

 a leading authority upon bird-life. Dr. Clarke's writ- 

 . ings, especially upon migration, and his activities on 

 the late British Association Committee on Bird Migra- 

 tion, and on the Government Departmental Com- 

 mittee of the Home Office at present having under 

 revision the Wild Birds' Protection Acts, are well 

 known. It is perhaps less well known that under his 

 care the exhibited collection of British birds in the 

 Royal Scottish Museum has become second to none 

 in the kingdom, and that his forthcoming edition of 

 Yarrell's "British Birds," vi^hich will make a special 

 feature of immature plumages and of migration, pro- 

 mises to be one of the most comprehensive guides to 

 the avifauna of the British Isles. 



The Revue ginirale des Sciences for February 15 

 contains an obituary notice by M. A. Boularic of Prof. 

 G. Meslin,- director of the Physical Institute of the 

 University of Montpellier, who died on January 11. 

 Prof. Meslin was born at Poitiers in ,1862, and after 

 studying at the Ecole Normale Superieure became a 

 secondary-school teacher. In 1890 he took his doctor's 

 degree, and became lecturer at the University of Mont- 

 pellier, and in 1904 director of the Physical Institute. 

 His pleasant voice and his clear way of presenting his 

 facts made his lectures fascinating both to his students 

 and to the general public. His principal scientific work 

 was optical ; his paper on the reflection of light from 

 the surfaces of thin metal films, and his modifica- 

 tion of Billet's bi-lens experiment to produce semi- 

 circular fringes, are probably best known. He took 

 charge of two solar eclipse expeditions, and proved 

 that there is no elliptical polarisation in the light of 

 the solar corona. Some of his most recent work was 

 on magnetism, and his numerous results for the mag- 

 netic susceptibilities of para- and dia-magnetic metallic 

 salts are of great value. 



News has just reached us of the death of Miss B. Lind- 

 say, on December 16 last, at Onchan, Isle of Man, who 

 may well rank as one of the women pioneers in morpho- 

 logical studies. Miss Lindsay's career as an investi- 

 gator started with certain research work in connection 

 with the embryology of the chick — work undertaken at 

 the suggestion of Dr. H. F. Gadow. Later she compiled 

 her " Text-book of Zoology," and afterwards two volumes 

 in Newnes' "Useful Story Series," one on "Aoimal 

 Life," the other on "The Microscope." Although 

 rather inclined to abstract speculation, Miss Lindsay 

 was yet very matter-of-fact, and methodical in her work. 

 To put her work on the breastbone of birds upon a 

 broader basis than the "everlasting chick," she col- 

 lected numbers of seabirds' embryos at the Isle of Man, 

 and a fine series of ostrich embryos. She was the first 

 to show that ostriches are descended from birds 

 possessed of the full power of flight. Her little text- 

 book must have made many friends, because it is a 



NO. 2525, VOL. lOl] 



sensibly, partly humorously, written introduction for 

 those who take an interest in what have since become 

 known as Nature-studies. It was while she was living 

 at St. Andrews and working at the Gatty Marine 

 Laboratory that Miss Lindsay had the opportunity of 

 carrying out those investigations with regard to mol- 

 luscs that she had long wished to conduct. Of her own 

 time and labour she was generous in the largest degree, 

 aVid she will be long remembered by those she lived 

 amongst for her many thoughtful and kindly acts. 



Geologists who are interested in the unique collec- 

 tion of Silurian fossils in the Ludlow Museum will be 

 glad to learn that the Ludlow Natural History Society 

 has received a bequest of 2oo2. under the will of the 

 late Mrs. Agnes Mary White. Mrs. White was the 

 daughter of Mr. Humphrj Salwey, one of the most 

 active geologists in the Ludlow district during the 

 middle of last century. 



Eggs of an extinct ostrich are already known from 

 the surface deposits of northern China. One specimen 

 from Yao Kuan Chang, fifty miles south-west of Kal- 

 gan, was obtained by Harvard University in 1898, and 

 another specimen from the banks of the Yellow River 

 in Honan was acquired by the American Museum of 

 Natural History last year. Mr. Harold M. Clark, 

 of Wuan, Honan, now writes to the North China 

 Herald that eggs of this kind are not uncommon in 

 his neighbourhood, and are washed out of the river 

 banks by floods. They seem to occur in the same 

 manner as the eggs of ^pyornis on the shores of lakes 

 in Madagascar The Chinese eggs are about 7 in. in 

 length, and thus scarcely larger than those of an 

 average ostrich. No bones of the birds which laid the 

 eggs have hitherto been noticed in the same deposits'. 



Mr. J. Reid Moir has contributed to the Proceed- 

 ings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology (vol. xvi., 

 part ii.) a valuable summary of our present knowledge 

 of ancient flint implements in Suffolk. The paper is 

 illustrated with a series of effective diagrams of typical 

 implements of each successive period, and as nearly all 

 stages are represented in Suffolk it becomes a useful 

 work of reference of more than local interest. There 

 may still be differences of opinion as to the rudely 

 chipped flints which are ascribed to the handiwork of 

 Pliocene man, but the arguments for their age and 

 present interpretation are very clearly stated. We can 

 only hope that before long Mr. Moir's persistent re- 

 searches may be rewarded by the discovery of human 

 remains of the same antiquity. In Suffolk, as in other 

 western European localities, the finely worked Acheulean 

 implements are certainly older than the less skilfully 

 made chipped flakes of the Mousterian type. 



Sir Thomas Holland, in his presidential address 

 at the Chemists' Conference at Lahore, reported in the 

 Pioneer Mail for January 18, laid down a far-reaching 

 programme of research — the possibility of preparing in 

 India chemicals used in textile and other industries; 

 of other chemicals now imported but capable of local 

 production ; advice to firms and the undertaking of 

 research for which their own staffs have not the time or 

 facilities ; preparation of supplies for medical services ; 

 systematic investigation of raw materials of probable 

 economic value ; and the publication of results when pos- 

 sible. This means the appointment of a large scientific 

 staff, and there can be no doubt that as one result 

 of the war and the obstruction of sea communications 

 the Government of India will devote increased attention 

 to the development of Indian manufactures. 



The Pioneer Mail of January 11 announces that 

 much progress has been made in supplying the Indian 



