June 30, 1892] 



NATURE 



209 



Prof. Burt G. Wilder, M.D., of Cornell University, 

 sends us the following correction :— In a circular. "American 

 Reports upon Anatomical Nomenclature," issued last winter 

 by Prof, Wilder, as Secretary of the Committee of the Associa- 

 tion of American Anatomists.in the third paragraph of the third 

 page, the Chairman of the Committee of the Anatomische 

 Gesellschaft should be Prof. A. von Kblliker, and the Chairman 

 of the American division (appointed in 1891 by the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science) of the International 

 Committee on Biological Nomenclature should be Prof. G. L. 

 Goodale. Prof. Wilder desires to express his regret for the 

 errors, due in the one case to his own misapprehension, and in 

 the other to a clerical mistake. 



Under the title of "The Cambridge Natural History," 

 Messrs. Macmillan and Co. have in active preparation an im- 

 portant series of volumes on the Natural History of Vertebrate 

 and Invertebrate Animals, edited, and for the most part written, 

 by Cambridge men. While intended in the first instance for 

 those who have not had any special scientific training, the 

 volumes will, as far as possible, present the most modern results 

 of scientific research. Thus the anatomical structure of each 

 group, its development, palaeontology, and geographical dis- 

 tribution, will be considered in conjunction with its external 

 character. Care will, however, be taken to avoid technical 

 language as far as possible, and to exclude abstruse details which 

 would lead to confusion rather than to instruction. The series 

 will be under the general editorship of Mr. J. W. Clark, the 

 University Registrar, and Mr. S. F. Harmer, Superintendent 

 of the Museum of Zoology. The following writers are engaged 

 upon the groups which precede their names : — Mammals, Mr. 

 J. J. Lister ; Birds, Mr. A. H. Evans ; Reptiles a.nA Amphibia, 

 Dr. Gadow, F.R.S. ; Fish, Mr. W. Bateson ; Mollusca, Mr. 

 A. H. Cooke ; Polyzoa, Mr. S. F. Harmer ; Brachiopoda, Mr. 

 A. E. Shipley ; Insects, Mr. David Sharp, F.R.S. ; Myriapoda, 

 Mr. F. G. Sinclair ; Araehnoida, Mr. C. Warburton ; Crustacea, 

 Prof. W. F. R. Weldon ; Ccelenterata, Mr. S. J. Hickson ; 

 and Sponges, Dr. W. J. Sollas, It is hoped that some of the 

 volumes which are already far advanced may appear in the 

 course of next year. The series will be fully illustrated. 



The weather during the past week has been unsettled, but 

 considerably warmer generally. Towards the close of last week 

 solar halos were visible in the south, and a depression moved 

 along our west coasts in a north-north-easterly direction, accom- 

 panied by showers, while the daily temperatures reached upwards 

 of 70° in the inland parts of England. At the beginning of the 

 present week, a still further increase of temperature occurred, 

 the maxima exceeding 80° in the midland and eastern parts of 

 England, and fog became prevalent over the Channel and the 

 southern parts of England. The atmospheric conditions, which 

 during the greater part of the period were cyclonic, with 

 moderate or strong south-westerly winds, amounting to a strong 

 gale from the westward in Caithness on Monday, subsequently 

 became anticyclonic with light north-easterly and easterly winds 

 over England ; but on Tuesday evening a depression lay over the 

 mouth of the Channel, the conditions rapidly became more 

 unsettled, and a very severe thunderstorm occurred on that 

 night in London and the greater part of England, accompanied 

 by heavy rain. The Weekly Weather Report for the period 

 ending the 25th instant shows that the rainfall exceeded the 

 mean in nearly all districts ; in the eastern and southern parts 

 of England the excess was rather large. But reckoning from 

 the beginning of the year there was still a deficit in all districts, 

 although the amount was trifling in the north-east and north- 

 west of England. 



A NEW meteorological journal, entitled V Atmosphere, has 

 recently appeared in Paris. It contains several short original 

 articles and miscellaneous notes collected by the director of a 



NO. I 183, VOL. 46] 



private observatory, named Tour Saint- Jacques. At present 

 there is no such journal published in France, excepting the 

 ^«««aj>^ of the Meteorological Society, containing the papers 

 read by its members. The current number (No. 5) contains 

 an article on the optical phenomena of the atmosphere, by A. 

 Cornu, member of the Institute, and one on solar phenomena 

 and terrestrial magnetism, by E. Marchand, of the Lyons 

 Observatory. It also gives a list of the principal meteorological 

 papers published in recent serials. 



A SERIES of severe earthquake shocks is reported from 

 Guodolajara, Mexico. The first shock was felt last Friday 

 night, and lasted eighteen seconds. Windows were broken and 

 plastering cracked in numerous houses, and hundreds of panic- 

 stricken people took refuge in the streets until daylight. On 

 Saturday a second shock occurred, wrecking a number of build- 

 ings. Several persons were seriously hurt, but in no case are 

 their injuries expected to prove fatal. Several other shocks 

 have been felt since. The volcano Colima is said to be in a 

 state of much activity. Great volumes of sulphur, smoke, and 

 lava are issuing from the crater. 



A PAPER setting forth a proposal for a national photographic 

 record and survey, by Mr. W. J. Harrison, was lately read 

 before the Photographic Society of Great Britain, and has now 

 been issued separately. Mr. Harrison's idea is that a pic- 

 torial record of the present condition of the country should be 

 secured by photography, the work being accomplished by 

 professionals, individuals (amateurs), photographic societies, 

 and agencies under the control of the Government. In the 

 course of the paper he gives an interesting account of the way 

 in which the local photo-survey of Warwickshire is being 

 carried out. 



Anthropologists will read with interest some folk-songs 

 and myths from Samoa, printed in the new number of the 

 Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South 

 Wales (vol. xxv.). They are translated by the Rev. G. 

 Pratt, and introductions and notes are provided by Dr. John 

 Eraser. 



Prof. F. Starr will contribute to the July number of the 

 Popular Science Monthly an article on "Anthropological Work 

 in America." It will be accompanied by portraits of seventeen 

 American anthropologists. According to Science, the article 

 shows that " both in quality and amount, the work of Americans 

 in this field compares favourably with that of Europeans." 



A Society which may have opportunities of doing much 

 valuable work has been formed in Wellington, New Zealand. 

 It is called the Polynesian Society, "Polynesia" being 

 intended to include Australia, New Zealand, Melanesia, 

 Micronesia, and Malaysia, as well as Polynesia proper. The 

 President is Mr. H. G. Seth-Smith, chief judge of the native 

 land court, while the Queen of Hawaii is patron. We have 

 just received the first number of the Society's Journal, in which 

 there are papers on the races of the Philippines, by Eisdon 

 Best ; Maori deities, by W. I.. Gudgeon ; the Tahitian " Hymn 

 of Creation," by S. P. Smith ; Futuna, or Home Island, and 

 its people, by S. P. Smith ; Polynesian causatives, by E. T. ; 

 and the Polynesian bow, by E. Tregear. There is also a paper 

 giving the genealogy of one of the chieftainesses of Raroionga, 

 by a native of Raroionga. The original was written in 1857, 

 and is printed in the Journal, with a translation by Mr. Henry 

 Nicholas, and notes by the editors. The editors are of opinion 

 that the paper " apparently supports by direct traditional 

 testimony the theory propounded by Hale, and subsequently 

 advocated by Fornander, of the occupation of the Fiji Group 

 by the Polynesian race, and of their later migration eastward to 

 Samoa and the Society Group." 



