468 



NATURE 



[August 3, 19 16 



a frequent contributor to, the Journal de ConchyliO' 

 logic, from vol. xHi., 1894, to the date of his death. 



We have just learned that Dr. Francesco Bassani, 

 professor of geology in the University of Naples, died 

 at Capri on April 26 last. He was bom near Vicenza 

 on October 29, 1853, and graduated in the University 

 of Padua. After studying vertebrate palaeontology at 

 Paris, Munich, and Vienna, he eventually became 

 professor at Naples in 1887. He devoted himself es- 

 pecially to the study of fossil fishes, and published 

 numerous important memoirs on the fossil fishes of 

 Italy. With the aid of many devoted pupils he en- 

 riched the geological museum of the University of 

 Naples until it became one of the greatest collections 

 of fossils in Italy; and during the failing health of his 

 latter years he never lacked willing helpers in the 

 continuation of his researches. One of his most dis- 

 tinguished pupils, Prof. G. de Lorenzo, has contri- 

 buted an appreciative notice of the professor, with a 

 portrait and list of his writings, to the Rendiconti of 

 the Royal Academy of Naples (May-June, 1916). 



We have received from Prof. A. Cushieri a copy 

 of his oration delivered at the funeral of the late Mr. 

 Napoleone Tagliaferro, who was for many years 

 director of public instruction in Malta. Mr. Taglia- 

 ferro, who died in October, 1915, was a most active 

 supporter of the scientific exploration of the Maltese 

 Islands, and his loss is mourned by many friends in 

 Britain as well as in his native land. He laboured 

 much in making known the dolmens and other pre- 

 historic monuments of Malta, and took part in many 

 excavations of the caves which were inhabited by 

 early man. He also helped to make the Valetta 

 Museum worthy of the Maltese University. 



In a paper read before the Indian Section of the 

 Royal Society of Arts on June 1 Prof. Wyndham Dun- 

 stan summarised the work which the Imperial Insti- 

 tute has done for India, more especially during the 

 thirteen years in which the institute has been a 

 Government establishment. The work may be classi- 

 fied under three heads. First, there has been organised 

 for public exhibition a collection of articles represent- 

 ing important raw materials produced in the depend- 

 ency, with illustrations of the chief industries, tabular 

 information, and diagrams respecting Indian trade and 

 commerce, and maps, pictures, and photographs of the 

 cities and industries concerned. All important exhibits 

 are provided with descriptive labels, which enable the 

 visitor at once to gain general knowledge of the 

 sources and uses of the materials shown ; these in- 

 clude, for example, fibres, teas, silks, opium, lac, 

 metals, and minerals. Secondly, valuable work has 

 been done by the Scientific and Technical Research 

 Department, including special investigations upon the 

 constituents of Indian drugs, oils, foodstuffs, and 

 minerals. These researches were carried out with the 

 view of promoting the utilisation of Indian raw mate- 

 rials in British manufactures, and were often supple- 

 mented by technical trials on a commercial scale under- 

 taken in conjunction with trade experts or manufac- 

 turers. Among examples mentioned in some detail 

 are researches upon opium, podophyllum, aconite, 

 henbane, and datura ; tanning materials and leather ; 

 turpentine and rosin ; Burma beans ; various textile 

 and other fibres ; coals, and. thorium minerals. Finally, 

 there has been established a Technical Information 

 Bureau, the functions of which are to collect, collate, 

 and distribute published information respecting the 

 production and industrial uses of raw materials. This 

 branch has been increasingly patronised by merchants, 

 Tianufacturers, and producers, and has gradually come 

 to be recognised as a sort of general " clearingJiouse " 



NO. 2440, VOL. 97I 



for information of the character indicated. That there 

 is room for India to contribute more largely in the 

 future to the Empire's resources of raw materials is 

 instanced by particulars given respecting cotton, copra, 

 hides, beeswax, thymol, and potash supplies. 



An article of general interest has lately been pub- 

 lished, in the Lancet, on some of the wounded in the 

 battle of Jutland Bank. It gives great and well-deserved 

 praise to Sir Almroth Wright's plan for the treatment 

 of septic wounds, not by antiseptic dressings, but by 

 continuous saline irrigation. The action of the saline 

 fluid not only washes out the interstices of the wound, 

 but promotes the outward flow of lymph, which car- 

 ries out of the wound the causes of its infection. This 

 method, founded on an immense amount of scientific 

 research, has given admirable results in the war, and 

 the national debt of gratitude to Sir Almroth Wright 

 Is larger than ever. But while we praise his work we 

 must not be led Into the folly of befitting that of Lister. 

 To be able to prevent an accidental wound, already 

 infected, from going septic — that was Lister's achieve- 

 ment in 1865, and the world's gratitude to him Is 

 everlasting. To be able to make, in the operations 

 of surgery, a deep extensive wound, exposing freely 

 any cavity of the body, and to know that the whole 

 wound would heal rapidly and painlessly, from end to 

 end, under a single dressing, left untouched until the 

 wound was healed — that was Lister's achievement in 

 the years after 1865. In the multitude of wounds 

 there are thousands of opportunities for Wright's 

 method, and there are thousands of opportunities for 

 Lister's method, with those modifications which have 

 since 1865 been found valuable. Nothing could be 

 less logical, or less practical, than to represent these 

 two methods as hopelessly at strife ; each has its worth 

 for the saving of limbs and lives. 



Mr. R. E. Nicholas, hon. curator of the Tudor 

 House Museum, Southampton, has published a "Re- 

 cord of a Prehistoric Industry in Tabular Flint at 

 Brambridge and Highfield, near Southampton " (Too- 

 good and Sons, Southampton). He carefully describes 

 the sites with explanatory diagrams, and devotes no 

 fewer than forty-one plates to illustrations of the flints, 

 which are photographed or drawn in a most effective 

 manner. The modes of chipping of the specimens are 

 remarkably varied, and in an appended note Dr. 

 Robert Munro expresses the opinion that the industry 

 represents the transition period between the Palaeo- 

 lithic and Neolithic civilisations. He compares the 

 undoubtedly worked flints with those found at CIss- 

 bury, in the Oban caves, and in the shell mounds of 

 Oronsay. Such discoveries appear to be rare along 

 the south coast of England on account of Its sub- 

 mergence in post-Glacial times. 



The great sea-serpent was observed on June 14 by 

 a Swedish officer. Major O. Smith, in Lllla Vartan, 

 a small tract of water not far from Stockholm, con- 

 nected with the Baltic. "At 2.25 p.m.," he says, "we 

 suddenly observed a movement on the water like a 

 choppy swell, not more than 100 metres from us. 

 Elsewhere the water surface was smooth, without 

 boat or anything that could cause such a movement 

 in the water. Observing more closely, we each of 

 us saw a very distinct head, like a huge serpent head, 

 somewhat elongate, larger than a man's head, and 

 behind it a long, serpent-like body with a length of 

 about 25 metres. One wave or hump followed the 

 other, ten or more in number. Towards the hinder 

 end a larger part of the body was raised above the 

 water. For more than a minute we could observe this 

 peculiar creature. It swam at a speed of about two 

 knots. I have seen both porpoises and whales, and 



