December 25, 1902] 



NATURE 



183 



History of its Fauna." In a previous essay, the author has 

 adduced evidence to show that Celebes should be referred to the 

 Oriental rather than to the Australasian region, the Moluccan 

 Channel, and not the Macassar Strait, forming the division 

 between the two areas. In the present communication, he 

 endorses the opinion that marsupials and monotremes reached 

 Australasia from Asia. According to the author's view, in 

 pre-Tertiary — very likely Cretaceous — times Australia was 

 united by land with Asia. A Euro-Asiatic fauna inhabited this 

 land, from which during the Eocene a southern portion was cut 

 off by partial submergence, this southern portion being the 

 modern Australia and New Guinea, the home of monotremes, 

 marsupials and ancient forms of other groups, such as casso- 

 waries and birds-of-paradise, while widely distributed specialised 

 types are wanting. Northwards extended a coral-sea, in the 

 islands of which dwelt primitive rodents, insectivores and other 

 ancient groups, with perhaps cuscuses. During the Miocene, 

 great changes of level took place in the Archipelago, which 

 attained its present form in the Pleistocene. Celebes was insu- 

 lated early, Java late. Intermittent land-connections took 

 place, which allowed of periodical immigrations of Asiatic forms 

 from one side and of Australian types from the other. The 

 question is left undecided whether the cuscuses of the Austro- 

 Malay islands are remnants of the primitive Euro-Asiatic fauna 

 or later immigrants from Australia. The suggestion is also 

 made that the Australian and Philippine rodents are relicts of 

 the original pre-Tertiary fauna, although it is admitted that the 

 specialisation of Hydromys is against this. The author fails to 

 see any evidence in favour of a former connection of Australasia 

 with either South America or Antarctica. 



The Rev. George Grenfell, of the Baptist Missionary Society, 

 has constructed a map of the Congo River between Leopoldville 

 and Stanley Falls from running surveys made during 1SS4-S9 

 in the steamers Peace and Goodwill. The map is in ten 

 sections, two on a sheet, and the five sheets are published in a 

 convenient case by the Royal Geographical Society. A reprint 

 of Mr. Grenfell's article, "The Upper Congo as a Waterway," 

 which was printed in the Geographical Journal for November, 

 1902, accompanies the map and serves the purpose of explana- 

 tory notes. 



The "Englishwoman's Year Book and Directory, 1903," 

 shows in a most convincing manner the ever-increasing 

 part that women are taking in the work of the world. 

 The editor has again obtained able assistance in the pre- 

 paration of many of the sections, those dealing with science, 

 medicine and education being typical instances. The original 

 work in science done by women workers, a list of colleges 

 where women may study, the names of women holding college 

 appointments, and a list of scientific societies of which women 

 may be members, aie some of the subjects included in the science 

 section. 



The issue for 1903 of the well-known annual biographical 

 dictionary, " Who's Who," is considerably larger than previous 

 editions though all the preliminary tables which have appeared 

 in former years have been removed, except that enumerating the 

 members of the Royal family and the obituary for the year 

 ending September 30, 1902. As usual, prominence is given to 

 the biographies of men who have distinguished themselves in 

 various branches of science, whether pure or applied, and the 

 information is generally trustworthy as well as interesting. The 

 annual is one of the few which can justly be termed indis- 

 pensable books of reference. 



A TRANSLATION, by Prof. J. D. Everett, F.R.S., and Miss 

 Alice Everett, of Dr. H. Hovestadt's "Jena Glass and its 

 Scientific and Industrial Applications," which was reviewed in 

 our issue for December 20, 1900, has been published by Messrs. J 



NO. 1730, VOL. 67] 



Macmillan and Co., Ltd., at 15s. net. With a view to make 

 the book as clear as possible to English readers, the translators 

 have given the spirit rather than the letter of the original, and 

 they have, in cases where it seemed desirable, added brief 

 explanations, which are always distinguished from the text. 

 Some few matters of subordinate interest have been condensed. 

 The details of an important application of science to industry 

 will, by the aid of this translation, now be accessible to British 

 students and opticians unfamiliar with the German language. 



The permanent seismological commission appointed two 

 years ago by the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Peters- 

 burg has recently issued its first report, a quarto volume of more 

 than two hundred pages. Most of the papers are written in 

 Russian, and only one of these is accompanied by a summary in 

 French. Several communications deal with the foundation of 

 the International Association of Seismology at Strassburg in 

 1 901 ; in others, Prof. Lewitski describes experiments with simple 

 seismoscopes and with seismographs the movements of which 

 are registered mechanically. The president of the commission 

 considers the theory of the horizontal pendulum and Mr. B. 

 Galitzin that of other seismographs, the latter erroneously 

 attributing Darwin's biSlar pendulum to Davison. General 

 Pomerantzeff contributes an examination of the seismogram 

 traced at Strassburg on June 24 1901, and concludes that it is 

 extremely difficult to explain the oscillations of horizontal 

 pendulums during earthquakes either by tilts of the ground or 

 by horizontal displacements alone, although they might be 

 produced by a combination of such movements. 



A special report on the mineral waters of Kansas has been 

 made by Mr. E. H. S. Bailey, with the assistance of Messrs. 

 E. B. Knerr, Crane and McFarland, for the University Geo- 

 logical Survey of Kansas, which is conducted under the 

 authority of the Board of Regents of the University of Kansas. 

 The volume runs to 343 pp. and is divided into two parts ; 

 the former provides a discussion of the subject of mineral 

 waters in general, while the latter arranges and classifies those 

 of Kansas and supplies full analyses of a great number of 

 samples of them. Many illustrations and one or two maps add 

 to the value and interest of the report. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 

 Comet 1902 d. — Herr M. Ebell has calculated the following 

 elements for this comet from observations made on December 3 

 (Konigsberg), December 5 (Hamburg, two observations) and 

 December 7 (Heidelberg) : — 



T = 1903 April 19-441 Berlin M.T. 



o> = 51 5l m 2] 



ffi = 112 549 I j 

 1 = 42 10-5 J 

 log// = o- 1 7344 J 



-1902 



The ephemeris which accompanies these elements estimates that 

 the brightness of the comet on December 31 will be 2 '4, its 

 brightness on December 2 being taken as unity. 



The Algol Variable R.V. (13, 1902) Lyr.e. — In Cir- 

 cular No. 66 of the Harvard College Observatory, Prof. 

 Pickering gives the results of an examination of some of the 

 Draper memorial photographs in regard to the new Algol vari- 

 able, R.V. Lyne, recently discovered by Mr. Stanley Williams. 

 From a photograph taken July lid. i8h. om., 1893, a correction 

 of +4I1. or - 2h. to Mr. Williams's ephemeris is obtained, but 

 which of these values is the right one Prof. Pickering has not yet 

 been able to determine. 



Proper Motion and Parallax of Nova Persei. — In the 

 Astronomische Nachrichlen (No. 3S34), Herr Asten Bergstrand 

 details the observations he has made in order to determine the 

 proper motion and the parallax of Nova Per;ei. 



Using the aslrographic refraclors of the Upsala Observatory, 

 Herr Bergstrand has obtained eighteen negatives of the Nova 



