056 



NATURE 



[July 22, 1920 



Prof. Stephenson's paper " On a Collection of Oligo- 

 chaeta from the Lesser-known Parts of India and from 

 Eastern Persia " (Memoirs Indian Museum, vol. vii.) 

 is very informative. The known Oligochaeta, about 

 150 before 1883, were about 1000 species in 191 1. To 

 these Prof. Stephenson adds 24 species and 5 varieties, 

 modestly remarking: "It can scarcely be said, how- 

 ever, that the results of the present investigation 

 include anything of the first order of importance ; it 

 is now too late to expect it." One of the new species, 

 t^ais gwaliorensis , is about one-tenth of an inch long 

 and one-hundredth of an inch broad, yet in an earlier 

 paper the author shows this brevity far outdone by 

 Annandale's Chaetogaster spongillae. Among very 

 much larger forms the systematist may note that Prof. 

 Stephenson here makes his Eutyphoeus Kempi a 

 synonym of Eutyphoeus chittagongicinus , Michaelsen, 

 and that author's bengalensis a synonym of his species 

 Waltoni in the same genus. So lately as 1893 

 "absence of branchiae" was included in the defini- 

 tion of the Oligochaeta. Now, not only does 

 Branchiura Sowerbyi, Beddard, have, as its generic 

 name implies, gills on the tail end, but Prof. Stephen- 

 son also finds a species of Branchiodrilus, " a Naid 

 worm with gills remarkably like those of Branchiura, 

 but on the anterior part of the body." 



The twenty-eighth Report, for the year 1919, on the 

 Lancashire Sea-Fisheries Laboratory contains a note 

 by Mr. A. Scott upon a midwinter invasion of the 

 Barrow Channel by an immense swarm of the 

 phosphorescent iiagellate Noctiluca and the Cteno- 

 phores Pleurobrachia and Beroe. On December 16, 

 1919, Mr. Scott made one of his routine visits to the 

 sandy mud-flats between tide-marks, and found that 

 the area — 500 yards wide and 1000 yards long — be- 

 tween Roa Island and Foulney appeared as if it had 

 been thickly sprinkled with glass marbles. These were 

 the Pleurobrachia, many of them of large size (22 mm. 

 high), and mingled with them were stranded Beroe. 

 At the water's edge was a brick-red, oily-looking zone 

 6 in. to 12 in. wide, and the water in the creeks was 

 covered by a similar oily layer, which on examination 

 proved to be composed of Noctiluca. Twenty-four 

 hours later the area was again examined, but only 

 one Pleurobrachia was found, and there was no Nocti- 

 luca in the plankton. It is quite unusual to find an 

 abundance of Noctiluca and Ctenophores in this area 

 in midwinter. Noctiluca has been abundant on 

 former occasions along the coasts of North Wales 

 and Lancashire, but hitherto only in the period between 

 the beginning- of August and the end of September. 



The " Reports for the Year 1919 on the Science 

 Museum and on the Geological Survey and the 

 Museum of Practical Geology " (H.M. Stationery 

 Office, 1920, price 3d.) are accompanied by a map 

 showing the grouping of institutions devoted to educa- 

 tion and research in the great quadrangle between 

 Cromwell and Prince Consort Roads, South Kensing- 

 ton. The Science Museum has gone into temporary 

 occupation of part of the eastern block of new build- 

 ings while this block is being completed, the galleries 

 thus occupied being left in an unfinished state until 

 a second move onward can be made. The' arrange- 

 NO. 2647, "^OL. 105] 



ment is a testimony to the energetic and necessary 

 expansion of the collections, which now include an 

 aeronautical division. The report on the Museum of 

 Practical Geology refers to the congestion of its col- 

 lections, which have been largely increased by the 

 groups of materials of economic importance brought 

 together in recent years. There is no reference, how- 

 ever, to any scheme of extended buildings. The pub- 

 lication of maps and memoirs has been maintained at 

 a high level, and it is interesting to note how the 

 public demand shows an enormous and intelligent pre- 

 ference for the "drift" series of colour-printed maps 

 as against those showing the "solid " geology only. 



The Geological Survey of Scotland has issued the 

 fourth of its series of memoirs dealing with the de- 

 tailed economic geology of the central coalfield of 

 Scotland, the present volume being devoted to Area 

 VI., which forms a block near the centre of the field 

 and includes the districts of Rutherglen, Hamilton, 

 and Wishaw. This is naturally an area of very great 

 economic importance, and comprises some of the most 

 productive portions of the Scottish coalfield. A valu- 

 able feature of the publication is the series of sections 

 obtained from borings and sinkings, which have been 

 printed on separate sheets ; it may perhaps be regretted 

 that the scale selected is somewhat minute. It need 

 scarcely be said that the geological relationships of the 

 coal seams and of the various economic minerals met 

 with in the field are described in full detail, and that 

 the memoir, together with the revised maps which it 

 is intended to accompany, will be of the greatest value 

 to mining engineers whose professional work lies in 

 that area of the Scottish coalfield. 



A REPORT on the weather experienced at Falmouth 

 Observatory has recently been issued by the Observa- 

 tory Committee of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic 

 Society. The observatory is closely associated with 

 the Meteorological Office, and many of the records for 

 Falmouth appear in the several reports of the Office, 

 which probably is sufficient reason for the small 

 amount of work done actually at the observatory. 

 Funds available at the spot are clearly limited, and 

 the staff is, consequently, small. Pressure, tempera- 

 ture, and rainfall results in the report are compared 

 with the means of the forty-five years 1871 to 1915, 

 whilst in the Meteorological Office publications the 

 records are compared with the new normals for thirty- 

 five years, 1881 to 1915. Probably in course of time 

 general uniformity in this respect will be adopted. 

 The mean air temperature for November was a record 

 for cold, and its minimum, 26° F., was the coldest 

 for the year. The total rainfall for the first six months 

 of the year was 589 in. greater than for the last six 

 months, which is a reversal of the ordinary rule. 

 October was a record for dryness, rainfall measuring 

 1-62 in. Bright sunshine had an average record for 

 the year of 48 hours per day. October had 158-9 

 hours, which is a record for that month ; the extreme 

 range of the totals for October is 776 hours, not 

 69-2 hours, as stated in the report, for which result 

 19 19 was overlooked. The table of sea temperatures 

 from observations made in the harbour and the com- 

 parison with air temperatures is of considerable 

 interest, but the differences from the air of the maxi- 



