6o4 



NATURE 



[October i8, 1900 



by the contents of certain letters published in Mr. Paget's book. 

 These letters, addressed to several of Her Majesty's Ministers, 

 threatened, in no unmistakable terms, should these officials not 

 become anti-vivisectionists, to use against them at the next 

 election organised opposition, which would probably prevent 

 them being returned to Parliament by their respective constitu- 

 encies. To what extent this has actually been done we have no 

 means of knowing, but our attention has been drawn to a letter 

 in the North Down Herald and County Down Independent in 

 comparison with which the diatribes of Mr. Coleridge sink into 

 insignificance. The interest, however, of Miss Margaret 

 Alder's letter does not centre in its actual abuse, but in the 

 fact that she places vivisection first among various causes 

 which have rendered Englishmen " fit to kill, murder and rob 

 the peaceable and pious people of South Africa." This con- 

 clusion possibly explains why during the past few months many 

 physiologists — even those whose problems lie, for the most part, 

 outside the field of actual animal experiments — have received 

 daily papers and magazines in which attention has been 

 directed by means of blue pencil to letters and articles in which 

 the ingenuity of the pamphleteer has been used to distort the 

 aims and results of the physiologist. Henceforth the anti- 

 vivisectionist societies, one and all, had better be known under 

 their true colours. They are not honest organisations sustained 

 by conscientious thinkers, or even artistic sentimentalists, but 

 pigmy political cliques for turning the trend of political opinion 

 one way or another. 



The lecture session at the Imperial Institute will be opened 

 on October 29 with a lecture entitled " The Federal Family," 

 by Sir John A. Cockburn, K.C. M.G. This lecture is the first 

 of a special series of eight illustrated public lectures, relating 

 to the Australasian Colonies, to be given on Monday evenings 

 before Christmas. The remaining lectures will be as follows : — 

 "Golden Victoria, its scenery, geological features, and mines," 

 by Mr. James Stirling ; "Western Australia in 1900," by Mr. 

 George Berry ; " The coal resources of Victoria," by Mr. 

 James Stirling ; " The work of the Queensland weather bureau, 

 in its relation to the natural resources and commerce of 

 Australasia," by Mr. Clement L. Wragge ; " The Australian 

 Alps, scenery, native vegetation, and mineral wealth," by Mr. 

 James Stirling ; " New Zealand," by Mr. J. Carthcart Wason ; 

 *' Sunny Tasmania for English Invalids," by the Hon. Sir Philip 

 Oakley Fysh, K.C. M.G. 



An important addition to the British Museum (Natural 

 History) has just been made in the form of mounted specimens 

 of two beautiful antelopes from the swamps of the White Nile, 

 belonging to species hitherto very imperfectly represented in 

 the collection. They are, in fact, the first complete specimens 

 of their kind which have ever been exhibited in England. The 

 species are Cobus viaria and C. leiicotis, both remarkable for 

 their sable hue (at least in the males), relieved by white on the 

 ears, and also the elegant and peculiar curvature of their heavily 

 ringed horns. Of the former species the Museum possessed 

 the heads of a male and female presented by the late Consul 

 J. Petherick in 1859, which are in such a bad condition that 

 they have not been exhibited to the public for several years, 

 while the latter was best represented by a stuffed head (also the 

 gift of the same gentleman), which is, however, so faded that its 

 true colours are completely lost. For the new specimens (which 

 have been set up by Rowland Ward) the Museum is indebted 

 to Captain Dunn, now stationed, we believe, at Omdurman, 

 by whom they were presented. Acknowledgments are, how- 

 ever, also due to Captain Stanley Flower, by whom the skins 

 Were brought to this country. The specimen of C. leucotis is 

 exhibited in the case devoted to new acquisitions, but, on 

 account of its larger size, the example of C. inaria is placed 

 NO. 16 1 6. VOL. 62] 



in the case in the West Corridor which will eventually form 

 the home of both. 



The meteorological subcommittee of the Croydon Micro- 

 scopical and Natural History Club has just published its report 

 for the year 1899. It contains valuable information relating to 

 the daily and monthly rainfall statistics for eighty stations in 

 Kent and Surrey, together with notes relating to the tempera- 

 ture and weather for each month, by Dr. F. C. Bayard, the 

 hon. sec. of the subcommittee. The observations show that 

 the deficiency of rainfall throughout the district was about two 

 inches. The deficit does not appear very large, but some tables 

 showing the total departures from the average during the last 

 ten years reveals a serious state of things. For Greenwich, for 

 instance, the departures from the average of eighty years show 

 a deficit of twenty- eight inches, which is practically three inches 

 above a year's average rainfall. And again, for Surbiton, on 

 the western side of the club's district, the departures during the 

 same period show a deficiency of I9'5 inches, compared with 

 an average of forty years, or a deficiency of practically only five 

 inches below the average rainfall for a year. 



The report on the administration of the Meteorological De- 

 partment of the Government of India in 1899-1900 has appeared 

 in the same form as in previous years ; the first part gives a 

 general account of the results of the more important sections of 

 the work of the department, and the second part gives the usual 

 details of administration, chiefly in the form of tables. Seismo- 

 logical observatories have been established at three stations. The 

 international and special cloud observations referred to in 

 previous reports will be shortly published, with a brief dis- 

 cussion. The arrangements for registration of snowfall in the 

 mountain districts and the measurement of rainfall continue to 

 form an important part of the work of the Indian Meteorological 

 office ; monthly returns from 2300 rainfall stations were published 

 during the year. The storm- warning work was carried out 

 satisfactorily ; ample and timely warning appears to have been 

 given of all the more important storms. The special warnings 

 of floods also appear to have given general satisfaction. 



The current issue of the National Geographic Magazine 

 contains an article, illustrated by diagrams, on " The West 

 Indian Hurricane of September 1-12, 1900," by Prof. E. B. 

 Garriott, of the U.S. Weather Bureau, and another by Mr. W. 

 J. McGee, entitled " The Lessons of Galveston." The Lessons 

 in question are four in number, three of which are physical and 

 one is human. The former are as follows : — i. The danger of 

 building on sand, Galveston being founded on a sand-bank ; 

 2. " The bank on which Galveston was built is something more 

 than a simple heap of silicious grains and dust ; it is a record of 

 past wave work ; " and " it is the duty of the nature student to 

 interpret natural records and guard against the building on the 

 storm records." Lesson 3 is that of coast subsidence, and, in 

 the opinion of the author, " it is the business of the geologist to 

 detect and weigh the evidences of subsidence or elevation of 

 coasts, and to estimate the rates of movement for the guidance of 

 local residents and investors, and it behoves such citizens to 

 avail themselves of the scientific researches." 



To the Journal of the Franklin Institute, Mr. Lewis M. 

 Haupt, an American engineer of reputation in matters relating 

 to river training and harbour work, contributes a paper dealing 

 with the present condition of the navigation in the lower reach 

 of the Mississippi, in which he advocates that the principle of 

 reaction jetties should be applied for dealing with the contem- 

 plated improvement of the South-west Pass. The Mississippi 

 affords an outlet into the Gulf of Mexico for 15,000 miles of 

 navigable waterways. In the delta the main stream divides into 

 three principal branches, and although the water is of great 



