524 



NA TURE 



[September 26, 1895 



and has been described by Prof. N'ehring, of Berlin, under the 

 name M. Ruffii. The new species is intermediate in many 

 of its characters between the Irish elk and the fallow deer 

 (Dama vii/garis). It appears to have lived during the first 

 interglacial epoch, while the Irish elk flourished at a somewhat 

 later geological period. It may possibly, therefore, be regarded 

 as the ancestor of the latter type. The antlers of M. /Cii^i 

 have fewer " points " or processes than those of .1/. hibernuiis : 

 and, although the skull of the animal was as large as or even 

 larger than that of .1/. Ai/vritims, the antlers were markedly 

 smaller and diverge<l from one another much less widely than 

 in the case of the latter species. A restoration of the animal 

 accompanies Prof. Nchrings description in If'i'/i/ mid Hiind for 

 July 19, 1895. From this picture the differences between this 

 new species and .1/. hibcrniius may be at once detected. 



So.ME important experiments of great practical interest have 

 just been published by Dr. Breslauer on the antiseptic properties 

 possessed by disinfectants mixed with different fats in the shape 

 of ointments. As long as fourteen years ago Koch pointed out 

 that carlKilic acid combined with olive oil or " carbolised oil," 

 contrary to the prevailing impression, possessed no antiseptic 

 properties. Dr. Breslauer has extended these experiments to an 

 exhaustive examination of viirious disinfectants, such as carbolic 

 acid, corrosive sublimate, boric acid, nitrate of silver, &c. , in 

 combination with oil, va.seline, fat, lanolin anhydricum, lanolin, 

 and unguentum leniens. It was found that the degree of anti- 

 septic power possessed by the disinfectant depended, in a very 

 remarkable manner, upon the particular diluent employed, and 

 that in all cases the best antiseptic results were obtained with 

 disinfectants in combination with lanolin or unguentum leniens. 

 Thus in a series of experiments on the antiseptic effect produced 

 by adding five per cent, of carbolic acid to various substances, it 

 was ascertained that the Staphylococcus fyogenes aureus was still 

 living after being immersed in carbolised oil for three days, in 

 carbolised vaselin it survived one day, in fat four hours, in 

 lanolin anhydricum two hours, in lanolin thirty minutes, and in 

 unguentum leniens twenty minutes. Similar results were ob- 

 tained not only with other bacteria, but also with different disin- 

 fectants. Dr. Breslauer has also exan>ined the bactericidal 

 properties of other ointments in frequent use, such as unguentum 

 zinci, unguentum cinereum (benzoatum), and unguentum pre- 

 cipitatuin album, and whilst the two latter were found to be 

 possessed of highly antiseptic properiies, the former cxerci.sed no 

 perceptible effect whatever. In employing ointments it would 

 appear, therefore, ailvisable to use the disinfectant selected in 

 combination with lanolin or unguentum leniens instead of sup- 

 plying vaseline, oil, or other fats, the addition of the latter, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Breslauer, serving only to reduce the antiseptic 

 action of the disinfectant. This subject is curir)usly one which 

 has had, so far, hardly any attention bestowed upon it, and with 

 the exception of some experiments by (iottstein, published in 

 1889, and, still more recently, an inipiiry by Ludwig Bach into 

 the antiseptic effect of various eye ointments. Dr. Brcslauer's 

 communication seems to be the only one which has appeared. 



We have recently received two new parts of the Indian 



'■' ■/'!, from the Trustees of the Museum, being vol. iii. 



V Part 4 is devoted to an account of the insects and 



I att.ick the tea-plant in India, and includes full de- 



iid. in miTit ciscs, good figures of the principal insects, 



1 uially of their parasites also. The 



re important plant-feeding orders ; 



''Ul ■• lu us remarkable is the very large numt)cr of 



/•«'/'•' '' ^r'- injuririm to the tea-plant, as compared 



with oititi III.. ,,nly three Ixetles arc mentioned, 



belongini.' to tht /,-, Clirysomclid,r, and Curcu/ionidtc 



NO. 1352, VOL. 52] 



respectively ; as against nineteen Lepidoptera Heterocera of 

 various families. The pamphlet concludes with a practical 

 appendix on insecticides. It must not, however, be supposed 

 that a treatise of seventy p.Tges can possibly exhaust the subject 

 of the enemies of any particular plant, especially when they are 

 discussed in detail. .\ glance at the most important European 

 book on entmological botany (Ivaltenbach's " Pflanzenfeinde'") 

 is sufficient to show us that many plants are attacked by 

 hundreds of different species of inserts : and if this is the case in 

 Europe, it cannot but be true to a still greater extent in tropical 

 countries. But foitunately insects arc not ahv,-iys uniformly 

 abundant. They are aftecled by variations of the season : 

 parasites, and many other influences which are more or less 

 obvious to us ; and it is only occasionally that one or other of 

 the numerous species which feed upon any given plant becomes 

 sufficiently abundant to cause any serious injury to it. The 

 other number of the Indian Mustum iVolcs before us (pan 5) 

 is more varied in its contents. It contains an account of the 

 progress of entomology in the Indian Museum, from 1S84-1S94, 

 by Mr. E. C. Cotes; some short papers by different entomo- 

 'ogists on Indian Diplera and Rhynchota, and a series of 

 miscellaneous notes on insects of all orders, by Mr. Cotes. 

 This part is not only illustrated, like the other, by numerous 

 woodcuts, but also contains three well-executed plain plates. 



TilREl! important papers by Prof. E. D. Cope, and two by Prof. 

 W. B. Scott, make up, with seven plates, the part recently dis- 

 tributed (vol. ix. part 4) of the fournal of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia. Prof. C,>p3 treats of new and little 

 known P.il.xi/Loic and .Mesozoic fishes, and describes Cyphornis — 

 an extinct genus of birds. The genus is established on a species of 

 bird represented by the superior part of a tarsometatarse, 

 obtained by Dr. G. M. Dawson from a bed of indurated greenish 

 clay of unknown age from Vancouver Island. The bird a|ipears 

 to possess real affinities with the Steganopodes, combined with 

 affinities to more primitive birds with a simple hypotarsal 

 structure. " The presumed aftinity with the Steganopodes," 

 remarks Prof. Cope, " indicates natatory habits, and probable 

 capacity for flight. Should this power have been developed in 

 Cyphornis m ignus, it will have been much the largest bird of 

 flight thus far known." .-Vnother paper by Prof. Cope is on 

 extinct Bovidic, CanidiC and Felidit, from the Pleistocene of 

 Southern Kansas and Western Central Oklahoma. Prof W. 

 B. .Scott's memoir on the structure ami relationships of Ancodus 

 supplements the extensive investigations of Kowalevsky and 

 Filhol by giving an account of the American species of that 

 genus, and by showing the points of resemblance and differences 

 between the approximately conlempuraneous species of Ancodus 

 in America and Europe. Prof. Scott concludes his v.aluable paper 

 as follows : — " With the facts at present known, all seem to 

 point to the origin of Ancodus in the Old World and its migra- 

 tion to .\merica, in the interval between the Eocene and the 

 Oligoccnc (Uinta and White River), yet until the .\mericatl 

 artiodiictyls from the middle and upper Eocene arc far better 

 known than at present, such a conclusion cannot be regarded as 

 final." The second paper by Prof. Scott deals with the osteology 

 of Hyicnodon — a genus described by him in 1S77, so far as the 

 materials then available would permit. The I'rincetowii ex- 

 pedition of last year resulted in the collection by Mr. Hatchet of 

 several more or less complete skeletons representing a number 

 of specici. These specimens of Hyxnodon enabled Prof. Scott 

 to supplement the earlier account with the present p.»per, in 

 which is given a restoration of the skeleton of the very curiou* 

 and remarkable animal with which it deals. 



Messrs. Rowi.ANt) Ward and Co., of Piccadilly, are send- 

 ing out invitations to naturalists to inspect a mounted example of 

 the White Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros simus) from Zululand. The 



