654 



NATURE 



[October 2,^, 1890 



■dietary vary to some extent at different places and at different 

 seasons. These observations will ujtimately demonstrate what 

 •organisms are valuable as fish-foods and what are not ; the pro- 

 portion in which the various vertebrates compose the dietary of 

 fishes ; and the possibility of introducing a valuable food-fish, 

 such as the English sole, in places where it is absent or scarce. 

 They will also show in what way the organisms forming the food 

 of fishes may be protected and improved. 



In a Report on the spawning and spawning-places of 

 food-fishes, Dr. Fulton describes the results of the observa- 

 tions made during the year, many thousands of fishes having 

 been examined on board the Garland all along the coast, and the 

 duration of their spawning period in most instances determined. 

 The duration of the spawning period varies much in different 

 fish, and in some cases fully-grown adults appear not to spawn 

 every year. The majority of the food-fishes congregate at the 

 spawning time in immense shoals on the east coast at grounds 

 lying from about eight to above twenty miles from shore in what 

 may be termed the extra-territorial spawning zone. The young 

 fishes are not, as a rule, found at the place of spawning, the 

 •floating pelagic eggs being carried by the currents chiefly shore- 

 wards. Dr. Fulton gives reasons for the belief that the selection 

 of a particular offshore ground for spawning depends upon the 

 set of the surface currents at the spawning season, these carrying 

 the floating eggs during their development to the zones where 

 food for the young fishes is abundant and shelter most readily 

 secured. 



Prof. W. C. Mcintosh has made an elaborate study of the 

 pelagic fauna of St. Andrews Bay, of which the second part, 

 dealing with the distribution of the invertebrate organisms which 

 form the food of many larval and other fishes, is now given. 



Prof. Mcintosh has also, in another paper, described the ova 

 of the food-fishes and the larval and post-larval stages obtained 

 in the Garland's tow- nets at various parts of the coast. These 

 include the ova or larvae of plaice, lemon-sole, flounders, dabs, 

 cod, haddocks, ling, whitin^j, &c., and they constitute an indis- 

 pensable part of the general study of the reproduction of the 

 food-fishes. 



Mr. Thomas Scott, in his valuable additions to the fauna of 

 the Firth of Forth, gives a list of 80 species of organisms, not 

 previously recognized as belonging to that locality. Some of 

 these are for the first time recorded from the east of Scotland ; 

 some are new to Britain, and a few new to science. This paper 

 is illustrated by two plates. 



Mr. Scott, in his Report on the invertebrate fauna of inland 

 waters, gives the result of the first investigations into the in- 

 vertebrate organisms present in Scottish lochs and inland waters 

 ever carried on in this country. 



Dr. Fullarton's paper on the development of the clam is one 

 which would hardly have found acceptance in any scientific 

 journal. Had text and plates been submitted to the judgment of 

 a skilled investigator, there would have been little or nothing of 

 either for publication, as both display gross inaccuracy. There 

 are many very remarkable statements in this paper, and the 

 author naively describes as normal, phenomena whose patho- 

 logical nature the merest tyro ought to be able to recognize. 



Dr. John Beard, in his paper (illustrated by three plates) on 

 the development of the common skate, gives the result of the 

 study of this subject, on which very little has been written, 

 though the skate is one of the most common elasmobranch fishes 

 of our seas. The development of the embryo as it lies within 

 its "purse" at the bottom of the seas occupies probably nine or 

 ten months, being more rapid in summer than in winter. The 

 •eggs may be deposited throughout the year, but chiefly in March 

 and April. Dr. Beard furnishes minute descriptions of the egg- 

 cases or " purses" of the various species of skates and rays, and 

 of the various stages in the development of the embryo. He 

 discusses the function of the temporary external gills, so charac- 

 teristic in advanced stages of development ; and, in opposition 

 to other authorities, he gives good reason for the belief that they 

 are purely respiratory in function, and are adapted to the special 

 conditions under which the developing embryo is placed. 



Dr. Fulton, in his paper on the proportional numbers and 

 sizes of the sexes among sea-fishes, gives the results of his 

 inquiries, based upon the examination of 12,666 fishes. Females 

 are, as a rule, more numerous than males ; the female is also as 

 a rule larger, but the male is the larger among the cod, haddock, 

 and a few other fishes. 



Among the "Notes and Memoranda" will be found Mr. 

 Scott's hybridism among fish, the account of ingenious and in- 



teresting experiments made on board the Garland on the arti- 

 ficial fertilizing of the ova of certain species of sea-fishes with 

 the milt of other species sometimes widely separated zoologically. 

 Dr. Fulton sends interesting notes on the reproduction and 

 migrations of the common eel, and on the presence of anchovies 

 in Scotch waters. Regarding the former paper, it should be 

 remembered that a German zoologist recently obtained a conger- 

 eel at Zanzibar with eggs ten times the size of those here 

 described. There is nothing really remarkable in the reproductive 

 organs of the eel obtained at Howietoun, eels with eggs as large 

 being very often caught. It has usually been estimated that the 

 eel produces five millions of ova. The number is here increased 

 to upwards of ten millions, and the method by which this was 

 counted is not given. There is a lamentable looseness in quoting 

 literature, even that of British zoology. We are told that Myxine 

 is a protandric hermaphrodite, and that this was discovered 

 by Nansen. As a matter of fact, the discovery was made by a 

 Scotch naturalist (Cunningham), and within a short distance of 

 Edinburgh. If Nansen's paper had been read as well as quoted, 

 this misstatement would not have been made. 



Section C contains notes on contemporary work relating to 

 fisheries in this and other countries. We note that no mention 

 is made, however, of the very important " Plankton " expedition 

 of Germany of last year, which is the more to be wondered at as 

 interesting accounts of the expedition have been published in 

 Germany. 



It is much to be regretted that the Fishery Board Bill of last 

 year did not become law. The conduct of scientific investiga- 

 tions might then have been placed in different hands, with the 

 result, among other things, that properly-organized scientific 

 work would have been carried on by a thoroughly competent 

 scientific staff, and the Government grant of ;^2000 a year use- 

 fully and judiciously expended, instead of being, as at present, 

 frittered away because the dominant clique of the Fishery Board 

 do not know what to do with it. The Scientific Department 

 of the Fishery Board needs reorganization quite as much as the 

 Fishery Board itself. Under the control and direction of the 

 leading Scottish biologists, some adequate return ought to be 

 made for the nation's money. To do this, however, the work 

 must be properly planned and directed, and moreover the work- 

 ing of the different investigations given only to men who really 

 understand their subject. Government has been asked, and is 

 asked in the present Report, to furnish increased funds. We 

 hope and believe that the authorities will be wise enough to 

 stay their hand til! they can reorganize everything connected 

 with the Fishery Board. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Mr. Love, St. John's, and Mr. Coates, 

 Queens', have been appointed Moderators, and Mr. Wallis, 

 Corpus, and Mr. Burnside, Pembroke, Examiners for the next 

 Mathematical Tripos, Part I. 



Mr. L. Fletcher, Keeper of Minerals at the British Museum, 

 and Mr. H. P. Gurney, of Clare College, are nominated 

 Examiners in Mineralogy for the Natural Sciences Tripos. 



Mr. H. M. Stanley was, on October 23, admitted to the 

 honorary degree of LL.D. 



The following communications were made to the Cambridge 

 Philosophical Society at the annual general meeting on October 

 27 : — The President, the origin and early years of the Society ; 

 Mr. C. Chree, on the vibrations of some simple systems ; Dr. A. 

 Gamgee, on the principle on which Fahrenheit constructed his 

 thermometrical scale ; Mr. H. J. Sharpe, on liquid jets. 



The Harkness Scholarship for Women, tenable at either 

 Girton College or Newnham College, Cambridge, is to be 

 awarded triennially to the best candidate in an examination in 

 geology and palaeontology, provided that sufficient proficiency 

 is shown. The candidates must be resident members of Girton 

 or Newnham College, in their first or second term. The Scho- 

 larship will be of the value of about ^35 a year for three years. 

 The next award will be made in 1891. The examination will 

 be held at Cambridge in the Michaelmas Term, and the award 

 will be made on or before November 15, 1891. The intended 

 range of examination is indicated by the following schedule : — 

 General physical geography ; such geological phenomena as are 

 matters of common observation ; the principal agencies which 

 change or modify the earth's surface and the life on it ; outlines 



NO. 1096, VOL. 42] 



