May 31, 1894] 



NATURE 



II I 



and furniture of the house. Many other customs are described 

 by Dr. Browne, and his notes on the legendary lore of the 

 islands will be read with interest. The Dublin Anthropological 

 Laboratory is to be commended for extending its work by these 

 local investigations. 



The description of the external anatomy of the brain of a 

 Chinaman, contributed to the current number (part Ixv. ) of 

 Brain, by Mr. C. H. Bond, is noteworthy, for only seven 

 Chinese brains had previously been reported upon. Several 

 Idecided differences from what is looked upon as the normal are 

 pointed out as existing in the Chinese brains. First of these 

 stands out a greater prominence given to furrows running trans- 

 versely as compared to those in the antero-posterior direction. 

 As to convolutional complexity, the Chinese brains were up to 

 the normal standard, and in the frontal lobes rather beyond the 

 average. The weight of the brain studied by Mr. Bond was 

 1182 grammes, that is, 176 grammes less than the weight of an 

 average male adult brain. The proportion of the cerebral 

 hemispheres to the cerebellum was as 5 is to i. In the case of 

 the average man the proportion is 81 to i, and for the chim- 

 panzee it is 55 to I. It is pointed out that if the brain Inves- 

 igated was at all typical of the race to which it belonged, then 

 the small size and weight of the cerebrum as compared to the 

 :erebellum is a jjoint worthy of special emphasis. The num- 

 ber which includes Mr. Bond's description also contains the 

 presidential address to the Neurological Society, delivered by 

 Dr. D. Kerrier, F.R.S., last January, his subject being " Recent 

 Work on the Cerebellum and its Relations." 



The current number of the Journal tie I'hysiqtie contains a 

 jliscussion of ihe metals suitable for the manufacture of standards 

 |)f length, from the pen of M. C. E. Guillaume. Those of 

 ridio-platinum, originally proposed by M. H. Sainte-Claire 

 Seville, have fulfilled all expectations as regards durability, but 

 he price of the metals brings the cost of a metre rule up to 

 ibout £i,oo. The conditions to be fulfilled are a com- ! 

 )aratively low price, hardness and good polish, constancy 1 

 >f length at a certain temperature, power of resisting moisture , 

 ind ordinary laboratory chemicals, and, for large rules, a high | 

 nodulus of elasticity. The condition of constancy excludes all 

 dioys containing zinc. The metals studied by M. Guillaume 

 vere nickel, white bronze, aluminium bronze, and phosphor 

 >ronze. Ferro-nickel, although much lessoxidisable than steel, 

 ind harder and twice as rigid as bronze, could not be used 

 iwing to its feeble resistance to the action of water. Bars of 

 he above four metals were submitted to repeated heating in 

 team and cooling. A comparison with standard No. 17 of the 

 ^Conservatoire gave a shortening of o'3 ju (thousandths of a mm. ) 

 n the case of nickel, the amounts for the bronzes being 2, 5, 

 ind - 0'3|U respectively. The nickel .was lengthened to the 

 ame amount by magnetisation. Phosphor and aluminium 

 ironze were l)l.ickened by the steam, and are therefore not 

 aitable. White bronze (consisting of 35 parts nickel to 65 

 larts copper) was found suitable for engraving a scale on, 

 hough it might be attacked by traces of sulphur or chlorine. 

 Contact with mercury only leads to amalgamation after several 

 lOurs, thus showing a great superiority to silver. Nickel is, on 

 he whole, the most suitable metal. But it is difficult to obtain 

 lars of the commercial metal free from numerous small punctures. 



ntil this difficulty is surmounted, an alloy of equal parts of 

 lickel and copper may render good service at moderate cost. 



'The Dangicrs oi- Milk" is the title of a useful little 

 rticle in the April number of Modern Medicine and Bacterio- 

 ogical Kevie-M. Whilst the boiling or Pasteurisation of milk is 

 dvocated, it is pointed out that too much reliance must not be 

 ilaced on this treatment as regards the entire removal of germs 

 cabling the milk to be kept for any considerable lime before 



NO. I 2S3, VOL. 50] 



use. Spores of bacilli may still be present, which, after some 

 hours, may develop to such an extent that the bacilli may be- 

 come so numerous as to render it acid and unfit for consump- 

 tion. It is suggested that people entrusted with the feeding of 

 infants on cow's milk should be supplied with litmus paper, by 

 which the acidity of the milk should be tested before use. An 

 interesting account will also be found in this number of a paper 

 by Dr. Ledoux-Lebard, on the action of light on the diphtheria 

 bacillus, .\m0n5jst the conclusions arrived at by the author, we 

 read that whilst the direct rays of the sun arrest the develop- 

 ment of these germs, and sterilise the culture medium in a few 

 days, diffused light has no bactericidal action on diphtheria 

 bacilli in neutralised bouillon, but has a markedly deleterious 

 action on them when immersed in distilled water. Hitherto it 

 has been found that micro-organisms are less sensitive to light 

 in water than in culture media, but possibly Dr. Lebard's 

 results may be explained by the fact that he used distilled 

 water, which is well known to act prejudicially in itself on 

 many bacteria. 



On the occasion of the celebration, last May, of the 150th anni- 

 versary of the foundation of the American Philosophical Society, 

 Mr. S. H. Scudder presented a paper entitled " Tertiary Tipu- 

 lidae, with special reference to those of Florissant, Colorado." 

 This important memoir has now been issued separately, and it 

 will direct attention to the remarkably well preserved and 

 numerous remains of insects, found at I'lorissant, in a lake 

 deposit supposed to be of Oligocene age. Several hundred 

 specimens of the family of "Crane-flies" or "Daddy 

 I^ong-legs" have been collected there, and the nine finely 

 drawn plates which accompany the paper completely represent 

 many species. It is remarked that previous illustrations 

 of fossil Tipulida; rarely represent more than the wings, so 

 that, merely as illustrations of fossil remains, Mr. Scudder's 

 plates far surpass all that have gone before. The new forms 

 described in the memoir number twenty-nine species of ten 

 genera of Limnobina;, and twenty-two species of five genera 

 of Tipulidss. No such extensive addition to tertiary Tipulida; 

 has been made since Loew first indicated the riches of the amber 

 fauna of Europe. A careful study of the remains leads the 

 author to several conclusions, some of which can be expressed as 

 follows; — (I) The general facies of the Tipulid fauna of the 

 western territory is American, and agrees best with the fauna of 

 about the same latitude in America. (2) AH the species are 

 extinct, and though the Gosinte Lake and the ancient lacus- 

 trine basin of Florissant were but little removed from each other, 

 and the deposits of both are presumably of Oligocene age, not 

 a single instance is known of the occurrence of the same species 

 ir. the two basins. (3) No species are identical with any of the 

 few European tertiary Tipulida;. (4) Of the fifteen genera 

 described, eight are not yet recognised among the living, tliest 

 genera including about one-third of the species. (5) With one 

 exception all the existing genera which are represented in the 

 American tertiaries are genera common to the north temperate 

 zone of Europe and America, and are generally confined to these 

 regions. 



The second part of " The Natural History of Plants," from 

 the German of Prof. Kerner, by Dr. F. W. Oliver, has just 

 been published by Messrs. Blackie and Son. 



The report of the Trustees of the South .Xfrican Museum for 

 the year 1893 has been distributed. The accessions to the col- 

 lection during the year included 367 new species, of which two 

 were mammals, eight reptiles, three fishes, six molluscs, and 

 348 insects. 



The paper on "The Genesis of the Chalk," read by Dr. 

 W. F. Hume before the Geologists' Association in Januaiy 



