228 



NATURE 



[April 21, 1910 



investigate special earthquake regions within the national 

 domain ; (d) to cooperate with other scientific bodies and 

 organisations and individual men of science in forwarding 

 the development and dissemination of seismological know- 

 ledge. The society also favours the organisation of this 

 bureau under the Smithsonian Institution, with the active 

 cooperation of other scientific departments of the Govern- 

 ment. 



In the death of Sir Walter Palmer, Bart., on April 16, 

 at fifty-two years of age, the cause of higher educa- 

 tion has suffered a heavy loss. Nowhere will that 

 loss be felt more grievously than at Reading, for to 

 Sir Walter Palmer more than perhaps to any other 

 individual the University College of that town owes its 

 origin and rapid development. Largely to his initiative 

 was due the merging, some twenty years ago, of the 

 University Extension Centre and the School of Science 

 and Art into one institution, which has become the flourish- 

 ing University College of to-day. The number of the 

 benefactors of higher education in this country is not 

 large. The institutions which they aid make heavy claims 

 upon them, claims, not only on their wealth, but also on 

 their time. That these claims are met unfailingly by men 

 like Sir Walter must rejoice the hearts of those who 

 believe that, " after bread, education is the first need of 

 a people." From 1897 to 1903 Sir Walter was chairman 

 of council, and in that capacity received the Prince of 

 Wales on the occasion of the opening of the new college 

 buildings in 1898. After his resignation of the chairman- 

 ship he remained a member of council and of the academic 

 board. His deep and abiding interest in education was 

 not confined to Reading ; and the work done by him in 

 London — he was a member of the Senate of the University 

 of London — is widely known and appreciated. 



The Liverpool Marine Biological Station at Port Erin 

 has been very fully occupied with workers during the 

 present spring vacation. In the month from the middle 

 of March more than forty senior students and professional 

 biologists, representing six or seven universities, have 

 occupied work-places. Amongst these may be mentioned 

 Mr. Walter Tattcrsall (development of Littorina), Dr. 

 Henderson (development of plaice), and two senior 

 students, all from the University of Manchester ; Dr. 

 Stuart Thomson (Alcyonaria), from Bristol University ; 

 Mr. W. J. Dakin (memoir on Buccinum), from Belfast 

 University; Mr. W. Riddell (plankton). Dr. J. Pearson 

 (memoir on skate), Mr. Douglas Laurie, Prof. Herdman 

 (plankton), and about twenty-five senior students from the 

 biological departments of Liverpool University ; Prof. Cole 

 and three senior students from Reading ; two from Cam- 

 bridge, one from Birmingham, and a few others. Every 

 work-place is now occupied, and an extension of the 

 laboratory accommodation is urgently required. Work at 

 sea, from the S.Y. Ladybird, is being carried on actively. 

 The plankton on the surface of the Irish Sea is at present 

 very abundant, and all the nets are giving large hauls. 

 The vernal increase in phyto-plankton (such as diatoms) 

 made its appearance this year between March 22 and 26, 

 an unusually early date. Last year the phyto-plankton 

 was not present in quantity (more than a million per 

 fifteen minutes' haul of standard net) until April 19; in 

 1908 it began about the middle of April (from April 13 

 onwards), and in 1907 the maximum covered the last 

 week of March and first fortnight of April — apparently 

 the present season is more like 1907 in this respect than 

 the two intermediate years. In the fish-hatchery the pre- 

 sent season has been a late one, but in other respects is 

 satisfactory. The spawning of the parent plaice (about 

 NO. 2 II 2, VOL. 83] 



400 adult fish) in the pond began on February 14, but the 

 numbers of fertilised eggs produced remained low until 

 March 7, since when they have been spawned in abund- 

 ance, the maximum on one day being 634,000, on April 12. 

 The total number of eggs skimmed from the pond, to 

 April 16 inclusive, is above 8J millions, and the number 

 of larval plaice set free in the open sea, to April 15, is 

 3,365,000. The spawning is still in progress, and will 

 I)robabIy continue for several weeks. 



Dr. Knut Stjerna, a promising anthropologist of Upsala, 

 whose death, we regret to learn, occurred at an early age 

 ^n November last, contributed to the January-February 

 number of L' Anthropologic an elaborate paper entitled 

 " Les Groups de Civilisation en Scandinavie a I'Epoque des 

 St^pultures k Galerie." He recognises the remains of three 

 races in this region : — first, the east and north were 

 occupied by a race of fishermen and hunters, who retained 

 much of the Palaeolithic culture, and were connected across 

 the Aland Archipelago with the people of east and south- 

 east Europe ; secondly, the Danish islands and the adjoin- 

 ing mainland were colonised by a people skilled in bee- 

 culture, who possessed a regular type of weapons, and 

 traded in the North Sea ; lastly, there was on the west a 

 foreign race, emigrants from Central Europe, possessi-ig 

 a civilisation which at the close of the period of the gallery 

 tombs had begun to assert its influence on the adjoining 

 Scandinavian races. 



The question of the origin and distribution of the cross- 

 bow in India presents an interesting problem. Mr. G. 

 Forrest, in the National Geographic Magazine for 

 February, under the title of " The Land of the Cross- 

 bow," describes its use by a people whom he calls the 

 " Lissoos " in the Upper Salwin valley in Burma. The 

 bow is made of wild mulberry, with a span of 5 feet 

 and a pull of 35 lb. ; the stock is of wild plum wood, the 

 string of plaited hemp, and the trigger of bone ; the 

 arrows are made of split bamboo, 16 or 18 inches long, 

 and poisoned with aconite. Sir J. G. Scott describes a 

 similar weapon in use among the Lashis or Yawyins and 

 the Kachins. It is not mentioned by Messrs. Skeat and 

 Blagden as in use among the Pagan races of the Malay 

 Peninsula. Mr. Thurston, in his recent work on the 

 "Castes and Tribes of South India," says that he found 

 a weapon of this type in use among the Ullddans, a wild 

 tribe of Travancore, for shooting fish, and a specimen of 

 the weapon, now in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, 

 was picked up among the Korwas, a wild tribe in Central 

 India, south of the river Son. The Ullddans seem to 

 speak of it as the Firingi (Frank or European) weapon, 

 but it is diflScult to suggest any route by which it could 

 have reached the Burmese tribes. Being an obvious 

 development of the common bow, it may have been 

 independently invented by them. 



At the end of an account of the birds obtained during 

 the Alexander expedition to Alaska in 1908, Dr. J. 

 Grinnell, in vol. v., No. 12, of the University of California 

 Zoological Publications, directs attention to the tendency 

 to melanism among the avifauna of the district. In this 

 respect Alaskan birds resemble those from other regions 

 with a heavy rainfall and damp climate. The melanism, 

 there and elsewhere, cannot be directly attributed to the 

 heavy precipitation, nor, in the author's opinion, to the 

 humidity and paucity of light, but the true cause of the 

 phenomenon is not at present apparent. 



We have to acknowledge the receipt of the volume of 

 the Sitzungsberichte der k. Bohm. Ges. der Wissen- 

 schaften for 1909, and among the contents we may refer 



