470 



NA TURE 



[September i6, 1897 



The Centipede-Whale. 



Besides the passage in Aelian about the Scolopendra cetus, 

 quoted in your paper of September 9 by Mr. Minakata, there are 

 epigrams of Theodoridas of Syracuse, and Antipater of Sidon 

 (third and second centuries B.C.), referring to something of the 

 sort. Aristotle's marine Scolopendra — a small animal — is, of 

 course, not in point. W. F. Sinclair. 



102 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, S.W., September 10. 



NOTES. 

 On the formation of the British Section of the Pasteur Inter- 

 national Memorial, the Secretary, Prof. Percy Frankland, 

 F.R.S., forwarded a circular to India, and invited admirers 

 of Pasteur there to form an Indian Section for the collection of 

 contributions. Surgeon Major-General Cleghorn, who under- 

 took the secretaryship of this section, has now transmitted a list 

 of subscribers together with the substantial sum of 442/. 17^-. ^d. 

 to be sent on to Paris. Amongst the centres which have for- 

 warded contributions we find Bengal, Madras, Bombay, the 

 Punjab, Central India, Central Provinces, North-west Provinces 

 and Oudh, Assam, Burma, Rajputana, Berar, and Baluchistan ; 

 thus indicating how widely appreciated the services of Pasteur 

 are in our Indian Empire. 



Referring to the ascent of Mount St. Elias, which was 

 accomplished by the Duke of the Abruzzi (Prince Louis of 

 Savoy) and his companions on July 31, the New York Nation 

 remarks : — The two facts of special significance to which the 

 dispatches announcing Prince Louis' success call attention are : 

 the determination of the mountain's altitude, and the demon- 

 stration that it is not of volcanic origin, but simply a mass of 

 elevated and partially upturned sedimentary strata, largely 

 fossiliferous in character. The altitude, as computed by the 

 mercurial barometer, is 18,060 feet, a result surprisingly in 

 accord with the determination, by angle measurement, of Prof 

 Russell, who obtained " 18,100, plus or minus a probable error 

 of 100 feet." Earlier measurements of the mountain ranged 

 from less than 13,000 feet (La Perouse, in 1786) to approxi- 

 mately 19,500 feet (Dall, 1874). It is probably safe to accept 

 the present measurement, which places St. Elias — barring a 

 possible excess in favour of the neighbouring Mount Logan — 

 as the second mountain in point of elevation on the North 

 American continent, the place of honour belonging to the 

 Citlaltepetl, the Star Mountain — better known as the Peak of 

 Orizaba — of Mexico, to which the determinations of Heilprin 

 (1890, aneroid), Scovell (1891, triangulation), and Kaska (1897, 

 mercurial barometer) give 18,2(3)00 feet. The non-volcanic 

 nature of Mount St. Elias had already virtually been deter- 

 mined by Prof. Russell, but it will be a satisfaction to geologists 

 to know that Prince Louis' studies of the mountain for the 

 4000 feet left untouched by Russell confirm this investigator's 

 general conclusions. 



Mr. J. E. DuERDEN, Curator of the Jamaica Institute 

 Museum, has sent us a short account of the researches in marine 

 biology carried on this year at Port Antonio by students of the 

 Johns Hopkins University, under the direction of Prof. J. E. 

 Humphrey. A number of important investigations were ad- 

 vanced, and the material collected by the party will, no doubt, 

 form the basis of important contributions to natural history. 

 Prof. J. E. Humphrey studied and collected material in con- 

 nection with the structure and development of plants of various 

 groups. — Dr. F. S. Conant visited Jamaica this year to con- 

 tinue investigations begun by him last summer upon the Cubo- 

 medusa, a rare group of jelly-fish of which two species have 

 been found in extraordinary abundance in Jamaican waters. — 

 Dr. H. L. Clark continued the work which he began last 

 summer on the Echinoderms (star-fish, sea-eggs, sand-dollars, 

 NO. 1455. VOL. 56] 



sea-cucumbers, &c.) of the island, giving especial attention to 

 the Holothurians or ' ' sea-cucumbers " — forms of life which are 

 very abundant around Jamaica. — Mr. Sudler, who was also a 

 member of last year's party, continued the collection of material 

 exhibiting the metamorphosis, or changes during the life-history, 

 of Lucifer, one of the small Crustacea which shows some very 

 important developmental features. — Mr. Grave worked upon the 

 sea-stars oc Ophiurians, and collected twelve or more species, 

 only five of which have been previously recorded from Jamaica. 

 The eggs of one of the species were artificially fertilised in the 

 laboratory, and a complete series of the embryos, from the single 

 cell to the fifteen-day Pluteus stage, has been preserved and will 

 be further studied. — Mr. E. N. Berger devoted his time mostly 

 to the Insects, Arachnids (spiders, scorpions, &c.), and Myria- 

 pods (centipedes and millipodes), paying special attention to the 

 pseudoscorpions. The pseudoscorpions are small animals, the 

 largest collected not measuring over three-sixteenths of an inch 

 in length. A few specimens of a second species of pseudo- 

 scorpion, smaller and more active than the first-mentioned, were 

 collected. One interesting point determined is the building of 

 a small nest from fragments of rotten wood, the nest being 

 evidently Hned by the animal with a fine silk when about to shed 

 its skin. The embryo lies as if dead in this little nest, and after 

 a time emerges with its appendages of a very pale green, which 

 later turns to the normal brown. Little is known of the de- 

 velopment of the pseudoscorpions, and it is expected that the 

 material collected will aid in throwing some light on the group. 

 — Mr. Duerden devoted himself to the Actiniaria in furtherance 

 of the work already carried out on the south side of this island. 

 A new species oi Bunodeopsis was discovered, several previously 

 obscure species were recovered, and a supply of embryological 

 material preserved for further research. 



With the foregoing account of this summer's work in the 

 Johns Hopkins marine laboratory, comes to us the news 

 of the death of Prof. Humphrey, who was in charge of the 

 students at Port Antonio. Prof. Humphrey was only a little 

 over thirty years of age, but his scientific works had stamped 

 him as a botanist of much promise. He was associate professor 

 of botany at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. He 

 graduated at Harvard University some years ago, taking the 

 degree of Sc.D. It is significant of the position he held in the 

 estimation of his American colleagues, that he formed one of the 

 Botanical Commission which lately visited Jamaica to determine 

 the best site for a botanical station. A few years ago he paid a 

 visit to the island in connection with the Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity, to investigate the fauna. During the recent sojourn, 

 which has ended so disastrously, he devoted himself principally 

 to collecting embryological material for the benefit of his students 

 at Baltimore, and especially material of the shell-boring algse 

 in reference to which he had already published his researches. 

 His death will be deeply regretted in the botanical world. 



From an obituary notice in the Lancet we have obtained the 

 following particulars of the work of Dr. J. Braxton Hicks, 

 F.R.S., whose death we announced last week. Dr. Hicks was 

 born in 1823. He obtained the M.D. of the University of 

 London in 1851, and in the following year was elected a Fellow 

 of the Linnean Society. Ten years later he was elected to the 

 Fellowship of the Royal Society. To medical and scientific 

 journalism Dr. Braxton Hicks was a valued and voluminous 

 contributor ; he also published many papers in Italian, 

 American, and Australian medical journals. From his boyhood 

 upward he was a devoted student of natural science, and he 

 published a number of papers on original subjects in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Royal Society. Among these may be noted 

 " Eyes of the Invertebrata " and " Supplementary Forces con- 

 cerned in the Circulation of the Uterus," To the Transactions 



