JuLy 2, 1914] 
A very interesting exhibition of African big-game 
trophies, organised by Country Life, was opened on 
June 25 at the Royal Water Colour Society’s Gallery, 
5a, Pall Mall East, and will remain open until July 11. 
The total number of exhibits is 312, the greater 
portion of which are antelopes, the remainder com- 
prising a couple of East African giraffe heads, some 
elephant tusks, a few rhinoceros heads, and heads of 
wart-hog, ibex, wild sheep, etc. The specimens are 
arranged, in the main, in zoological order, and are 
grouped, as a rule, in species, without recognition of 
races, and without scientific names, the same plan 
being followed in the catalogue. It is, however, diffi- 
cult to understand why Diggle’s hartebeest, which is 
but a local race of the tora, is widely separated from 
the typical race of that species, while the Sudani race 
of the bohor reedbuck, which is so remarkably different 
from the typical form of that species, is not distin- 
guished from the latter. A similar remark is applic- 
able to the separation of Buffon’s kob from the white- 
eared kob, both these being merely races of a single 
variable species; it also applies, in a less degree to 
the sundering of the red lechwe from Mrs. Gray’s 
black lechwe. As regards the trophies themselves, 
they include some of the finest representatives of their 
respective kinds, the gems of the whole series being 
perhaps three magnificent sable antelope skulls, each 
with horns of more than 60 in:,-and in one case 
reaching 623 in. in length. Especially fine, too, are 
three heads of the giant eland of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, 
and a bongo head, in spite of its somewhat battered 
condition, is of special interest on account of its un- 
usually dark colour, which is doubtless an indication 
of age. A western hartebeest head is noticeable for 
the great development of a light spectacle-mark, re- 
calling that of Hunter’s hartebeest. A number of 
other interesting specimens well deserve mention, but 
limitations of space prevent more than directing atten- 
tion to the magnificent series of East African buffalo- 
heads. The exhibition reflects great credit on. its 
organisers, although if might have contained a few 
more ‘‘ records.” 
On Friday last a demonstration of Williams’s Fire- 
damp Indicator was given at the Hotel Cecil. Instru- 
ments for detecting firedamp have been based on two 
broadly different principles. Some have depended 
upon the physical properties of the gas, in particular 
on its density, but these have suffered from want of 
sensitiveness and also from actual error unless the 
carbonic anhydride present is absorbed. <An_ instru- 
ment of this class, in which the musical notes emitted 
by two pipes, one containing normal air and the 
other the air of the mine to be tested, but with the 
heavy and disturbing CO, removed, which gave rise 
to beats in the presence of a notable quantity of 
firedamp, has recently attracted some attention in 
Germany. The other class depends upon the heat of 
combustion of the gas present when helped by extra- 
neous heating. This system is the more satisfactory, 
as there is so much more available and possible éffect. 
A highly satisfactory instrument of this class was 
“made about 1877, invented by E. H. Liveing, the 
well-known mining engineer; but. though it would 
NO. 2331, VOL. 93| 
NATURE 
461 
certainly show the presence of } per cent. firedamp, 
while 3 per cent. was highly conspicuous, and _ it 
required nothing more than the turning of a handle 
to operate it, colliery engineers and proprietors at the 
time did not in general care to have it about the mine. 
The instrument invented by Mr. Williams belongs to 
this general class, but Prof. S. P. Thompson’s report 
does not indicate that progress has been made in the 
direction either of simplicity or of delicacy. Shortly, it 
depends on the excess of temperature set up in one of 
two little balls of porous material containing platinum 
black, which are heated by an electrical current, and 
one of which is exposed to the air of the colliery. 
This one becomes the hotter of the two, and the 
excess of temperature is determined by electrical 
means. If, when the instrument is manufactured, it 
is found to work in an easy and satisfactory manner, 
it is to be hoped that the thirty-seven years which 
have elapsed since the construction of the Liveing 
instrument will have brought about some change in 
the attitude of those whom it is hoped to benefit. 
THE question of the admissibility of evidence in 
criminal cases to prove the facts of detection of crime 
by bloodhounds has been at last raised in the Courts 
of Law. In a case before the High Court, Allahabad, 
reported in the Pioneer Mail of May 22, evidence 
was called to show that a cap and turban were 
found in the room of a murdered woman, and on 
these being shown to the dog, he guided the police 
to the house of the accused. The counsel for the 
defence objected to the admission of this evidence, 
on the ground of the impossibility of cross-examining 
the animal. This question was not actually decided; 
but the judge remarked: ‘‘I feel no hesitation in 
saying that the employment of trained intelligence 
of an animal of this description as an aid to detective 
work should, so far as possible, be confined to the 
detection of crime or the tracing down of an individual 
whose whereabouts are unknown, rather than for 
probative purposes. If the court is asked at the trial 
to draw inferences of vital importance from the con- 
duct of an animal, it then becomes necessary that 
the court should have before it expert evidence of the 
very best description.in order that it may feel justified 
in drawing them with certainty.” 
IN a paper recently read before the Royal Anthropo- 
logical Institute, Profs. Seligmann and Parsons dis- 
cussed a skeleton from one of the Cheddar caves dis- 
covered by the late Mr. R. C, Gough in 1877, and 
associated with bones of extinct animals, including 
bear, hyzena, bison, rhinoceros, and Irish elk. Stone 
implements found close to the skeleton are recognised 
by M. Breuil as belonging to the Magdalenian cul- 
ture, the latest stage of the Paleolithic period. The 
prognathism of the skull is slight, and the Cheddar 
man did not possess the beetling brows of the Mous- 
terian period. He seems to belong to the River-bed 
race, but this race is at present indistinguishable to 
the anatomist from the Neolithic people who, at a later 
period, buried their dead in the long barrows. - 
THE committee of the Castle Museum, Norwich, in 
their report for 1913, records a most successful year, 
the attendance and gate-money being remarkably 
