430 
make a point of accepting the names thus legalised. 
In many instances their rejection.involves the trans- 
ference of names from one genus to another (as, for 
instance, Simia from the orang-utan to the chimpanzi, 
and Cynocephalus, so long used for the dog-faced 
baboons, to the flying-lemur), which is the worst of 
all evils in zoological nomenclature. Echidna will 
have to be disused in ichthyology. 
AMONG recent additions to the Natural History 
Branch of the British Museum, the following speci- 
mens are of general public interest :—The skeleton of 
the thoroughbred stallion, ‘‘St. Simon,” presented by 
the Duke of Portland, which is not yet on exhibition, 
but is, we understand, to be placed alongside the 
skeleton of his son, ‘‘ Persimmon,” presented by his 
late Majesty King Edward VII. ‘St. Simon” was 
foaled in 1881, and was never beaten on the Turf. 
Another highly interesting skeleton is that of the 
Egyptian Eocene two-horned ungulate, Arsinoé- 
therium, which has just been set up in the fossil 
mammal gallery. As a matter of fact, this skeleton is 
a restoration in plaster, but as nearly all the elements 
have been modelled from actual bones, it is practically 
as good as if an original. As mounted, the skeleton 
is about 113 ft. in length from the muzzle to the root 
of the tail, a striking feature being the very wide 
interval between the limbs of opposite sides. The 
precise affinities of this strange beast are still un- 
known. In the upper mammal gallery the attention 
of the public has been riveted on a gigantic specimen 
of the eastern race of the gorilla (Anthropopithecus 
gorilla beringeri), from the neighbourhood of Lake 
Tanganyika, recently presented by the Rowland Ward 
Trustees. In addition to its huge size, this race is 
characterised by the great development of long black 
hair on the head, shoulders, and buttocks, and the 
restriction of the grey band on the back to the loins. 
On entering the museum the visitor should inspect a 
segment of the trunk of a fossil conifer from the Trias 
of Arizona, presented by Mr. Arthur Pearson, and 
placed by one of the pillars on the right side of the 
hall. This specimen, which weighs about 23 tons, 
has an adventitious interest on account of the brilliant 
colours presented by the silicified wood, as is admir- 
ably shown in the polished upper surface. 
THE report of the Sonnblick Society for the year 
1913 contains, in addition to the usual meteorological 
observations at the summit of the Sonnblick, Salzburg 
(3105 metres), and at other alpine stations, two papers 
of considerable interest. The first deals with the force 
of gravity on the Sonnblick, and with general con- 
siderations on the earth’s gravity, by Major L. Andres. 
It was intended that General v. Sterneck, who was 
greatly interested in the subject, and had made numer- 
ous determinations in various parts, and had also 
designed a simple, portable pendulum instrument, 
should superintend the work, but this was prevented 
by his death in 1910. The second paper relates to 
recent scientific research at the Hochobir Observatory 
(2043 metres) in connection with the determination of 
the effect of difference of height on the magnetic 
elements, and with experiments on atmospheric elec- 
tricity. Good results are here being obtained with 
NO. 2330, VOL: 92] 
NATURE 
[JUNE 25, 1914 
| pilot balloons, which can be followed to very great 
| 
| 
“articles on 
acuvaty ‘by Prof. . J. de 
heights, owing to the clearness of the air. 
SINCE 1783 there has been no great eruption of the 
Asama-yama, and chief volcano of Central Japan, 
though the minor explosions and frequent earth- 
tremors of the last few years seem to point to an 
approaching period of activity. During the summer 
months the tremors are recorded at the observatory of 
Yuno-taira, which lies 1900 ft. below the summit on 
the south-west slope of the mountain. Prof. Omori, 
who has studied these records (Bull. Imp. Earthq. 
Inv. Com., vol. vi., 1914, pp. 149-226), shows that 
the tremors belong to two classes. Those of the first 
group (1065 in number, of which one in six were 
sensible) consist of quick vibrations, are generally of 
short duration, and never occur during eruptions. The 
tremors of the second group (1688 in number) consist 
of slow and always insensible movements, which are 
of comparatively long duration, and invariably accom- 
pany eruptions. In 1911 the average daily number 
of tremors was eight, and in 1912 eleven. 
La Société BELGE DE RADIOLOGIE has issued (L. 
Severeyns, Brussels, price 6 francs) a _ series of 
the medical applications of  radio- 
Nobele, University of 
Ghent, MM. Paul Giraud, Jacques and Gaston 
Danne, and Dr. Henri Coutard, of the Laboratoire de 
Radio-activité de Gif, prés Paris, entitled ‘‘ Conferences 
de Radiumbiologie; faites a 1’?Université de Gand en 
1913.”’ The publication deals chiefly with the work 
at M. Danne’s private laboratory at Gif, and is pro- 
vided with numerous illustrations of the laboratory 
and the various apparatus there employed. A number 
of sufficiently striking illustrations, in M. Giraud’s 
article, show the healing of various growths success- 
fully treated with radium. Dr. Coutard contributes 
a very full and valuable bibliography dealing with the 
biological side of radio-activity, which occupies sixty 
pages. 
In the Verhandlungen of the German Physical 
Society for May 15. Dr. E. Gumlich describes a modi- 
fication of the isthmus method of testing the magnetic 
qualities of iron in fields of the order of 7500 gauss, 
which has been found to work very well at the Reichs- 
anstalt. The specimen to be tested consists of a 
cylindrical rod 06 cm. diameter, 35 cm. long, which 
passes through the 0-6 cm. diameter central holes in 
two soft iron cylinders of 2-5 cm. outer diameter and 
17 cm. length. Between the two cylinders the testing 
coils, 1.2 cm. wide, are placed. These coils are wound 
in four layers, so that from the throw given by a 
ballistic galvanometer connected either to the inner 
layer or to two consecutive layers in opposition, the 
induction or the magnetising field outside the specimen 
can be determined. A slight modification of the 
arrangement allows transformer sheet to be tested in 
the same way, the magnetising coil necessary to pro- 
vide the magnetic flux through the yoke connecting 
the two cylinders in either case being comparatively 
small. 
WE learn from the Engineer for June 19 that a 
very large installation of Humphrey gas pumps has 
been ordered by the Egyptian Government for the. 
