June 8, 191 6] 



NATURE 



309 



Education Board of the London County Council in 

 1903, and has been under the consideration of com- 

 mittees and sub-committees of the Council ever since. 

 Both the Council and the various Government depart- 

 ments which have been approached in the matter admit 

 its urgency, but the sum of 40,000/. necessary for 

 carrying out the scheme has not been provided by 

 either authority. As the scheme, if carried out, would 

 establish an institute in Clerkenwell which would 

 benefit the optical industries, both locally and through- 

 out the kingdom, there seem strong reasons fcfr 

 making the appeal for funds over a wide area. 



An article under the title of "Air Navies of the 

 Future" appears in the Fortnightly Review for June. 

 It consists mainly of a discussion as to the likely 

 developments in our air services in the near future. 

 As is usually the case in such articles, the discussion 

 is highly imaginative, and belongs rather to the realm 

 of speculation than to that of science. The scientific 

 statements are indeed often incorrect, as, for example, 

 the statement that the velocity of shrapnel bullets and 

 pieces of steel falling from a height of 20,000 ft. will 

 be very high, and that such fragments will be highh' 

 dangerous in consequence. As a matter of fact, the 

 limiting velocity of such bodies will rarely exceed 

 500 ft. per second, and the velocity on reaching the 

 earth will be very nearly the same for all heights 

 above 5000 ft. The one point of real interest in the 

 article concerns the practicability of building very 

 large aeroplanes ; the writer contemplates one of 

 240-ft. span. There is certainly nothing inherently 

 impossible in the building of such a machine, but it 

 opens up a whole series of new difficulties, both aero- 

 dynamic and constructional. It seems unlikely that 

 such aeroplanes will be built for use in the present 

 war. The great majority of present machines are less 

 than two tons in weight, and the five-ton aeroplane 

 has yet to become common. It would seem that the 

 best course to pursue is to concentrate on the con- 

 struction of moderately large machines, say about five 

 tons total vveight, before attempting anything ap- 

 proaching a Zeppelin in carrying capacity. 



In monograph vol. xii., No. i of the University of 

 California Publications in American Archaeology and 

 Ethnology, Mr. E. W. Gifford discusses the composi- 

 tion and age of some Californian shell-mounds. More 

 than half their contents consist of moUuscan shells, 

 the remainder being bones, charcoal, ash, and other 

 substances. The presence of large quantities of oyster 

 shell {Ostrea lurida) points to the similarity between 

 the conditions at the time of their growth and those 

 of modern times. The writer enters into an interest- 

 ing discussion of the age of these mounds, based 

 largely on the assumed numbers of the population 

 during the period of their construction. The result is 

 that the age of one mound, that of Emer}'ville, appears 

 to be from 3700 to 3300 years. The puzzle of their age, 

 he observes, "requires for its solution every scrap of 

 information bearing on the mounds. A knowledge of 

 shell-mound composition, of population, of artifacts, 

 of skeletal remains, of environment, or of food alone 

 will not solve the problem. The proper combination 

 of all these is necessary to gain the end." 



Dr. Giuseppe Despott, in the Zoologist for May, 

 deplores the destruction of bird-life which has been 

 taking place in Malta during the last few years. Five 

 or six species are now in imminent danger of exter- 

 mination. The number of both licensed and un- 

 licensed sportsmen and fowlers is so large that very 

 few chances of breeding are afforded to any of the 

 resident species. Such a thing as a " close season " 

 is unknown in Malta, yet, remarks the author, for 

 some species at any rate, this is " a consummation 

 devoutly to be. wished." 



NO. 2432, VOL. 97] 



The Scientific Australian for March gives a brief 

 j account of the new Zoological Gardens in Sydney, 

 j which are now nearing completion. About sixty acres 

 I of land, lying between the main arms of Sydney Har- 

 j hour, have been devoted to this purpose. The site 

 t secured is not only one of great natural beauty, it affords 

 I also peculiarly suitable conditions for its purpose, 

 I since it comprises rocky, sheltered slopes and gullies 

 I covered with natural trees, scrub, and undergrowth. 

 I The housing of the animals will be on a generous 

 I scale and in conformity witji the most recent standards 

 I — that is to say, there will be no cages in the ordinary 

 I sense, bars being replaced by deep trenches. The 

 I birds, of course, are an exception to this rule, but 

 I since the aviaries provided allow of full powers of 

 j flight, and reproduce the natural conditions of the 

 j occupants, so far as is possible, this exception is of 

 no moment. A number of photographs afford an 

 insight into what has been done. One of these, the 

 elephant-house, is distinctly disappointing, the out- 

 door area being but a concrete yard provided w-ith a 

 bath in the form of a huge tub placed in the sur- 

 rounding trench, and having its rim studded with 

 spikes. This is, to say the least, inartistic. 



Drs. VVatkins-Pitchford, A. J. Orenstein, and 



W. Steuart have conducted a preliminary inquiry into 



the prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis among the 



natives working in the mines of South Africa. The 



conclusions arrived at are : — (a) That the disease in its 



open, or communicable, stage is far less prevalent 



amongst natives actually working on the mines than 



has been hitherto supposed ; only one case, out of 400- 



examined, has been detected, (b) That the problem 



: of the control of the disease is not so formidable as- 



; has been anticipated, and that its total eradication 



from the mines, therefore, appears to be a feasible 



I proposition, (c) That although 107 natives were 



I examined whose term of employment underground 



I exceeded two years only one was found with marked 



I X-ray signs of silicosis apparently uncomplicated by 



j tuberculosis; it seems, therefore, fair to surmise that 



I marked silicosis is at least not more prevalent than 



j pulmonary tuberculosis. Various recommendations 



are made for the prevention of the disease {Medical 



Journal of South Africa, 19 16). 



The fossil remains discovered at Piltdown are being 

 closely studied and debated by American anatomists. 

 Dr. Smith Woodward recognised that anthropoid char- 

 acters were ven,* clearly marked in the mandible, 

 which he ascribed to Eoanthropus. Prof. Waterston 

 (Nature, November 13, 1913, p. 319) directed attention 

 to the close resemblance of the skiagram of the 

 Piltdown mandible to that of a chimpanzee, and re- 

 garded it as incompatible with the skull. That also 

 is the opinion which Mr. Gerrit Miller, jun., has 

 formed (Smithsonian Misc. Coll., 1915, vol. Ixv., 

 No. 12) after a systematic comparison of casts of the 

 Piltdown fossils with corresponding bones of men and 

 anthropoid apes contained in the National Museum 

 of the United States. Mr. Miller regards the mandible 

 as that of a chimpanzee which had its habitat 

 in England during the Pleistocene epoch, and makes 

 it the type specimen of a new chimpanzee species 

 which he names Pan veins, a procedure which has 

 been already questioned by Dr. Chalmers Mitchell 

 (Nature, December 30. 1915, p. 480). Dr. Wm. King 

 Gregory, of the American Museum of Natural Histor\- 

 (Amer. Mus. Journal, 1914, vol. xiv., p. 189), regard's 

 the canine tooth, not as a right lower, but as a left 

 I upper member of the dental series, an opinion accepted 

 I by Mr, Miller. At a recent meeting (Januarv 24. 

 I 1916) of the Odontological Section of the Roval Sociefrv 

 j of Medicine, Mr. W. Courtney Lyne made an elaborate 

 analysis of the canine tooth, and gave as his opinion 



