1 62 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[July, {904. 



Australia. The first writerstated that these saurians abounded 

 on that island continent ; this was derided by a second, who 

 asserted that alligators were confined to America. A third 

 correspondent correctly pointed out that an alligator is also 

 found in China, but made the absurd mistake of asserting that 

 the Australian representatives of the crocodilian order belong 

 to the genus 1 omistunui, represented solely by Schlegel's 

 gharial of Borneo and Malacca. The strange thing about dis- 

 cussions of this nature is that people will rush into print with- 

 out consulting some standard work on natural history (such as 

 the " Royal Natural History"), or, still better, the invaluable 

 series of British Museum "Catalogues," which, although they 

 afford an absolute mine of authentic information, seem to be 

 quite unknown to the amateur zoologist. It should, however, 

 be mentioned that the term "alligator" has a double signation 

 — a popular and a technical— either of which isperfectly legiti- 

 mate. In the popular sense it is applied to all the broad- 

 nosed crocodilians (in the same manner as rooks are generally 

 called crows), in the zoological sense it is confined to two or 

 three species of the former, respectively inhabiting North 

 America and China, unless, indeed, the caimans of South 

 America are included under the same title. 



* * * 



Some Giant Fossil Reptiles- 

 One of the most gigantic of known fossil reptiles has been 

 hitherto so generally known as Bvontosaurus that it is somewhat 

 a shock to find that this term, according to Mr. E. S. Biggs, of 

 the Field Museum at Chicago, must give way to the earlier 

 Apniosaurus. Of this monster, which attained a total length 

 of something like sixty feet, two practically complete skele- 

 tons are known, one of which is preserved in the Field 

 Museum, and the other in the Museum at Yale College. Of 

 not less interest are the skeletons of giant toothless ptero- 

 dactyles (Ptcranodon and Nyctosaurus) which have been 

 recently set up in American museums, some of these having a 

 span of wing of fully fifteen or sixteen feet. The former 

 type, which by some authorities is believed to have had a 

 curious backward prolongation of the skull, is also peculiar 

 in possessing a ring of bones in the eye, like birds. Ptero- 

 dactyles probably seized and held their prey solely by their 

 beak or jaws, but some of those dinosaurs, or giant land 

 reptiles, which habitually assumed the upright posture seem 

 to have used their fore-limbs for this purpose. For in- 

 stance, the relatively small Oinilliomimiis alius appears to 

 have raced after its prey, which was firmly gripped by the 

 long and powerful claws of the front paws. 



* * * 



A Horn Exhibition. 



At the exhibition of sporting trophies recently held at 

 Berlin, the number of specimens of deer antlers displayed was 

 very great ; many of them being remarkable for their large 

 size or symmetry of form. Kaiser Wilhelm was one of the 

 exhibitors. Medals were offered for the finest specimens. 



* * * 



Sale of Great Auk's Egg. 



A fine specimen of the egg of the great auk was sold the 

 other day at Stevens's auction rooms for two hundred guineas, 

 or two-thirds the price realised by an example sold a few years 

 ago. In 1S38 this egg was bought for £2. while in 1S69 it was 

 sold for £b^. In 1898, after it had long been supposed to be 

 broken, it was found among the effects of the daughter of the pur- 

 chaser. In connection with this subject, it may be mentioned 

 that a number of skulls and other bones of the great auk have 

 been recently discovered in an old rubbish heap at Caithness: 

 one of the skulls being now exhibited in the Geological De- 

 partment of the Natural History Museum. 



* * * 



Papers Read. 



At the meeting of the Zoological Society held on May 17th, 

 there was exhibited, on behalf of the Duke of Bedford, a sketch 

 of a hind and fawn of Pere Davids deer {Ehiphurns tlaviJinnus) 

 from Hainan — a species previously believed to be now repre- 

 sented only by specimens living in European menageries. The 

 fifth of Sir C. Eliot's scries of articles on the naked-gilled 

 molluscs of Zanzibar and East Africa was read; as was also a 

 p;iper by Mr. Boulenger on a tree-frog from British Guiana 

 which carries its eggs on its back. Mr. B^ddard contributed 



notes on the anatomy of certain snakes belonging to the 

 python family; and Dr. G. S. Brady furnished an account of 

 water-fleas and other minute crustaceans collected in Natal. 



• • « 



Flying Fish. 



" Quill Pen " writes from Las Palmas : " In your number 

 for April I notice a note on flying fish. I have, during the 

 last year or two, frequently watched them as opportunity 

 offered in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and at times 

 followed the flight of one through a glass, and am inclined to 

 think the 'wings' may occasionally be used as organs of 

 flight. When using them as such the fish appears to assume 

 a more vertical position, resuming the horizontal position 

 again when using them as .i parachute. I have seen this ver- 

 tical position assumed twice during a flight, in both of which 

 progression appeared to be aided by distinct movement of 

 the wings." 



The Nautilus a.nd Flying Fish. 



Mr. George Hcnslow writes: "In a note on p. 68 of the 

 April number are some remarks upon these creatures. I 

 watched both as carefully as possible through an opera glass 

 on board ship, and the appearance of the Nautilus at a 

 distance was that of a white, square sail above the water. As 

 the vessel approached, the ' sail ' turned out to be the shell 

 seen endwise. How any motion of the expanded fins of the 

 flying fish may be effected, it was not possible to observe ; but 

 the fish can do more than skim in a straight line. They can 

 rise over an approaching wave, and dart to the side if neces- 

 sary. 



REVIEWS OF BOOKS. 



The Analysis of Colour. — The value of Professor A. G. Green's 

 "Systematic Survey of the Organic Colouring Matters" 

 (Macmillan) resides in its completeness and its terseness. It 

 is not a book to be read in an armchair by the pleasant light 

 of the study lamp: but a manual of severe facts, formulie, and 

 symbols which present to the chemist, the manufacturer, the 

 calico printer, the dye merchant, and the patent agent every 

 accessible means of reference to the composition of the vast 

 array of synthetic colouring matters that are sweeping away, 

 by virtue of their cheapness, the vegetable dyes. If we say 

 sweeping away, instead of " swept away," it is because, as 

 Professor Green reminds us, the sharp line of demarcation 

 between the artificial and the natural organic dye-stuffs can 

 no longer be maintained; and the artificial production of 

 indigo and the new synthetic products in other groups of 

 colouring matters are tending still further to obliterate the 

 distinction. If, indeed, one general conclusion emerges salient 

 from the tables and records of the organic colouring matters, 

 it is that there is no finality in the chemistry of colour. The 

 volume before us consists of two parts, in the first of which 

 Professor Green deals with the raw and intermediate products 

 of artificial colour manufacture, extending them so as to 

 include the most recent methods and material ; and in the 

 second of which he edits a dictionary of the colouring matters, 

 based on the German tables of Drs. Schultz and Julius, which 

 indicates as briefly as is compatible with clearness the com- 

 mercial and scientific names, the empirical and constitutional 

 formuljE, the methods of preparation and employment, the 

 patents, and the literature of each colouring matter. The 

 first volume on these lines was published ten years ago. Since 

 that date 59 of the 454 colouring matters then described 

 have become obsolete. On the other hand, 300 new colouring 

 matters have been added. These figures do not exhaust, 

 even in a numerical sense, the change and development in 

 colour manufacture. Another 16 must be added to the 

 695 artificial colours to embrace those which are in a tran- 

 sitional state, between the employment of natural dyes and 

 the supersession of such d)'es by new syntheses. But beyond 

 and above these facts is the far more important one that in 

 the manufacture of colour, no patent, no discovery, confers 

 lasting profit on its discoverer or owner. A discovery in 

 industrial chemistry is like a message sent by wireless tele- 

 graphy ; it can be tapped by any scientist in the neighbour- 

 hood who is provided with the appropriate apparatus. 



