JUNE 25, 1914] 
NATORE 
430 
excellent work, and to the part it played in putting 
into a commercial form the crude ideas of the pure 
physicist in developing new instruments. Mr. Horace 
Darwin, chairman of the company, in responding, 
remarked that it aimed at turning out not only well- 
finished instruments, but also instruments that would 
last owing to good design. In referring to the presi- 
dent of the society, Mr. Darwin directed attention to 
the remarkable succession of professors at the Caven- 
dish Laboratory, namely, Clerk Maxwell, then Lord 
Rayleigh, and now Sir J. J. Thomson. He concluded 
by thanking the master and fellows of St. John’s 
College for permitting the lunch to be held in the hall. 
After a reply by Dr. G. D. Liveing, the members 
visited some of the colleges and proceeded to the 
Cavendish Laboratory, where Sir J.J. Thomson read a 
paper on the production of very soft Rontgen radia- 
tion by the impact of positive and slow kathode rays, 
and Mr. F. W. Aston read a paper on the homo. 
geneity of atmospheric neon. This was followed by 
tea by invitation of Sir Joseph and Lady Thomson, 
and experimental demonstrations in the laboratory. 
Dr. Wo rpacH and Mr. Binger describe two new 
spirochete organisms (S. elusa and S. biflexa) from 
pond-water. The former was cultivated in hay infu- 
sion; it is very minute, and is filterable through a 
Berkefeld filter (Journ. Med. Research, vol. xxx., 
No. 1, 1914). 
BuLtetTIn No, 92 of the U.S. Department of Agri- 
culture gives an account of experiments by Dr. White 
on the destruction of germs. of __ infectious 
bee diseases by heat. Temperatures of 63° C. 
for European foul brood, 98° C. for American foul 
brood and 58° C. for sacbrood and Nosema disease, 
with an exposure for ten minutes, were found effec- 
tive. These data may be of practical service in pre- 
venting the ravages of these diseases. 
In the Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture 
in India (Veterinary Series, vol. ii., No. 3, 1914) Major 
Holmes details tests of the curative value of iodine 
and of carbolic acid on haemorrhagic septicaemia and 
rinderpest, two important cattle diseases, in which the 
mortality is about 90 per cent. Iodine treatment 
reduced the mortality in haemorrhagic septicemia to 
about 50 per cent., and in rinderpest to about 67 per 
cent. Of ten rinderpest animals treated with carbolic 
acid, three survived, a mortality of 70 per cent. 
Potassium permanganate was found to have no cura- 
tive value in either disease. 
In the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science 
for June (vol. Ix., part 2), Prof. Arthur Willey gives 
a description of the blastocyst and placenta of the 
beaver, having been fortunate enough to obtain much 
younger stages than any hitherto known. In the same 
number Prof. G. C. Bourne describes a remarkable 
new type of Alcyonartan, to which he gives the: name 
Acrossota liposclera. The specimen was collected by 
Prof. Willey near British New Guinea, and differs 
from all other known Alcyonarians in the possession 
of simple, unbranched tentacles. The tentacles are, 
however, always eight in number, and in other respects 
NO. 2330, VOL. 93] 
also the species is typically Alcyonarian. A new 
family, the Acrossotidz, is proposed, and placed in the 
order Stolonifera of Hickson. 
EXcELLENT photographs illustrative of the breeding 
habits of the pratincole and the Kentish plover form 
one of the striking features in the June number of 
Wild Life. 
WE are indebted to Dr J. Ritchie for a copy of an 
article in the May number of the Scottish Naturalist 
on early references to the occurrence of four-horned 
sheep in Scotland. The earliest of these is in a work 
on Scottish affairs by Bishop Leslie, published in 
Rome in 1578. 
TuHE care of home aquaria is one of two titles given 
to a small illustrated pamphlet by Dr. R. C. Osburn, 
published by the New York Zoological Society. In 
the United States small aquaria, both marine and° 
fresh-water, appear to be much more common at the 
present day than they are in this country; and the 
tract is intended for the use of beginners in the cult. 
Dr. Osburn emphasises the importance of a proper . 
balance between animal and vegetable life in the tank, 
and, when this is established, the harmfulness of 
frequent change of the water. 
Mr. O. A. M. Hawxegs has devoted a large amount 
of time and labour to the study of the relative lengths 
of the first and second toes of the human foot, from 
the point of view of occurrence, anatomy, and here- 
dity, the results of which are published, with a 
number of sciograph and other illustrations, in the 
April number of the Journal of Genetics. Three chief 
types are noticeable, in the first and most common 
of which the ‘‘great” toe is longer than any of the 
others; in the second type the maximum length occurs 
in the second toe, while in the third, and rarest, type, 
the first and second toes are equal in length and longer 
than any of the other three. 
At the Monaco International Zoological Congress 
it’ was resolved that a certain number of well-known 
generic names of animals which, on grounds of priority 
or for other reasons, are liable to replacement, might 
be submitted to the International Commission on 
Nomenclature for retention by ‘fiat.’ A list—signed 
by Messrs. K. Andersen (Denmark), E. Lénn- 
berg (Sweden), A. Cabrera (Spain), R. Lydekker 
(England), P. Matschie (Germany), O. Thomas 
(England), and E. L._ Trouessart (France)—of 
sixteen mammalian names recommended for con- 
servation in this manner has now been 
up with the yiew of presentation to the com- 
mission. The scheduled names are Anthropo- 
pithecus (chimpanzi), Cercopithecus (guenon monkeys), 
Chiromys (aye-aye), Ccelogenys (paca), Dasypus 
(six - banded  armadillos), Dicotyles  (peccaris), 
Echidna (spiny ant-eater), Galeopithecus (flying- 
lemur), Gazella (gazelles), Hapale (marmosets), Hippo- 
tragus (sable and roan antelopes), Lagidium (moun- 
tain chinchilla), Manatus (manatis), Nycteris (certain 
African bats), Rhytina (Steller’s sea-cow), and Simia 
(orang-utan). Hyrax (rock-conies) might well have 
been added. It is to be hoped that not only will the 
commission issue the “fiat,” but that naturalists will 
drawn 
