March 6, 19 19] 



NATURE 



Land, which appeared in many maps in about 

 lat. 74° N., long. 140° W., does not exist. 



Prof. Andrew Melville Paterson, who died after 

 a brief illness on February 13 at the age of fifty-six, 

 held a conspicuous place amongst modern British 

 anatomists. Graduating in medicine at Edinburgh 

 University in 1883, Prof. Paterson served his 

 anatomical apprenticeship as a demonstrator in 

 the dissecting-rooms of Edinburgh University 

 under Sir Wm. Turner, and afterwards in Owen's 

 College, Manchester, under Prof. Morrison Watson. 

 In 1888 he was invited to become the first 

 occupant of the chair of human anatomy in 

 University College, Dundee, and after labouring there 

 for six years was elected to the Derby chair of anatomy 

 in the University of Liverpool, a position which he 

 occupied with distinction until his death. His intense 

 public spirit led him to offer his services to the 

 Medical Department of the War Office soon after the 

 war commenced, and there is no doubt that his 

 arduous duties as Assistant Inspector of Militarv 

 Orthopadic Hospitals were accessory to his sudden 

 and premature death. As an anatomist Prof. Pater- 

 son will be remembered for his contributions to our 

 knowledge of the basal pattern in which nerves are 

 distributed to the body, and particularly to the limbs, 

 of vertebrate animals. That was the subject which 

 first attracted his attention ; his investigations led 

 him on to an examination of the segmental character 

 of the vertebrate body, particularly the variations 

 which attend the segmentation of the sacral region. 

 Most of his researches were published in the Journal 

 of Anatomy and Physiology — now the Journal of 

 Anatomy — but his monograph on "The Human 

 Sacrum " appeared in the Transactions of the Royal 

 Dublin Society (vol. v., 1893). In 1903, as a Hun- 

 terian professor at the Royal College of Surgeons of 

 England, Prof. Paterson gave a series of lectures on 

 "The Morphology of the Sternum," which was pub- 

 lished in book form in the following year. In these 

 lectures he maintained that the sternum must be 

 regarded as a derivative, not of the ribs, but of the 

 shoulder-girdle. He was also the author of several 

 brochures on anatomy and embryology, as well as a 

 contributor to standard text-books on human anatomy. 

 Some of the essays which he printed for private cir- 

 culation were pieces of real literature. 



Mr. E. H. Stenning, King William's College, Isle 

 of Man, sends a description of a brilliant auroral 

 display seen there on February 27. The luminous 

 areas appeared at about 8.30 p.m., and increased in 

 intensity until 10.10 p.m. They took the form of 

 two large parallel arcs, extending across the northern 

 sky. The brighter of the two bands, the inner, was 

 so bright that no star appeared to shine through it. 

 It was separated from the outer arc by a broad black 

 band. The inner band seemed to be of fixed intensity, 

 but the outer varied incessantly. In altitude the 

 highest portion of the outer band was well above the 

 central star of Cassiopeia, and the brightest portion 

 of the band was about 4° below the lower stars of 

 this constellation (10.10 p.m.). The luminosity of the 

 outer band faded rapidly, beginning from the ends, 

 and at 10.45 could not be seen. The inner band was 

 still visible, though faintly, at 11. 15. 



Influenza has again further increased in severity 

 over the British Isles, and the Registrar-General's 

 return for the week ending Februar\' 22 shows that 

 the deaths in London and in the ninety-six great 

 towns of England and Wales were more than double 

 those of the preceding week. In London (county) the 

 deaths from influenza were 653, which is greater 



NO. 2575, VOL. 103] 



than in any week since that ending December 7, and 

 the deaths in the ninety-six great towns were 3046. 

 The deaths from influenza in London had risen from 

 13 per cent, of the deaths from all causes in the 

 preceding week to 2$ per cent, in the week ending 

 February 22. The deaths are still highest at the 

 ages from twenty to forty-five, being 44 per cent, of 

 the total, and there is some increase m the percentage 

 of deaths above sixty-five years. Out of 12,939 deaths 

 in London from influenza during the last twenty 

 weeks there have been 5987 deaths at the ages twenty 

 to forty-five, which is 46 per cent, of the total deaths 

 from the epidemic. At the ages up to five years there 

 were 12 per cent, of the total deaths, at five to 

 twenty years 16 per cent., at forty-five to sixty-five 

 years. 17 per cent., at sixty-five to seventy-five years 

 6 per cent., and above seventy-five years only 3 per 

 cent. 



Mr. J. Reid Moir describes in the February issue 

 of Man a remarkable piece of carved chalk recently 

 found by the Hon. R. Gathorne-Hardy in his park at 

 Great Glemham House, Saxmundham, Suffolk. The 

 specimen, measuring 4^ in. by 2| in. by 2| in., is of 

 a dull white colour, and has sandy material embedded 

 in the interstices. It is believed that it was brought 

 to the surface by the action of rabbits, the burrows of 

 which are very numerous at Great Glemham. Mr. 

 Moir believes that, in its outline, the piece of chalk 

 bears a very close resemblance to the outline of the 

 mammoth {E. primigenesis), with which the scientific 

 world has become familiar by an examination of car- 

 casses of this animal found in the frozen ground of 

 Siberia, and by drawings and outlines upon bone and 

 other materials discovered in the Aurignacian and 

 later Palaeolithic deposits in France and elsewhere. 

 The specimen certainly exhibits many remarkable 

 points of resemblance to the mammoth, but the ques- 

 tion remains whether these resemblances may not be 

 accidental or the result of weathering. It may be 

 advisable to await further examination by experts 

 before we express a decided opinion upon this remark- 

 able discovery. 



We have received a copy of the first issue of the 

 Balkan Review, which is to be published monthly by 

 the Rolls House Publishing Co. at the price of is. 3d. 

 The editor is Mr. Crawford Price. The review aspires 

 to cultivate financial and commercial relations between 

 Britain and the Balkans, and to act as an organ of 

 liaison between the West and the East. Its scope 

 covers social, political, historical, and geographical 

 aspects of Balkan lands. "While supporting the 

 existing entente between Greece, Serbia, and 

 Rumania, we shall hold the door ever open for the 

 admission of a regenerated and reformed Bulgaria." 

 The first number contains several interesting articles, 

 including one on the Jugo-Slavs and another on the 

 group of islands known as the Dodecanese. 



Though for skeletonising purposes the use of the 

 tryptic digestion process has loiig been known, the 

 method does not appear to have been much used in 

 Eng:land. Miss Kathleen F. Lander directs attention 

 to its great value in the Museums Journal for Feb- 

 ruar\-. She finds that half a gram of trypsin in 

 a litre of water makes the best solution, and to this 

 is added a pinch of sodium bicarbonate to ensure 

 alkalinity. If allowed to digest at a temperature of 

 37"^ C, the preparation of a skeleton can generally 

 be completed within twenty-four hours. The method 

 is superior to maceration in warm water only Ln so 

 far as rapidity of action is concerned, and it is cer- 

 tainly costly. Trypsin — sold by Messrs. Burroughs 

 and Wellcome — costs 505. per ounce, and the solu- 



