180 
NARORE 
[ DECEMBER 20, 1906 
in comparison with considerations of durability. A light- 
ning conductor is expected to last for a long time, and 
iron is, unfortunately, too perishable for the purpose. As 
regards cost, an iron system, if of sufficient size to be 
fairly lasting, is more costly than an ordinary copper tape 
one. 
A LETTER in the Times reports the return of Dr. Stein 
from his second exploration of Chinese Turkestan. As 
before, he has combined careful surveys of the Chinese- 
Indian frontier with archeological work. His former 
surveys of the farther side of the Kuen-lun have been 
largely supplemented, and he has explored more ancient 
sites, revisiting also the Rawak Stupa, from which he 
obtained before such important archeological material. 
More ancient documents have been secured, and we await 
with interest his report, and hope that he will bring out 
another book describing his travels. This, though it will 
not possess the charm of novelty which distinguished his 
““Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan’’ (see Nature, vol. Ixx., 
p- 275), and made it one of the most important archzeo- 
logical publications of a decade, will still be most interest- 
ing as a sequel to his first work, and is sure to contain 
matter of the greatest importance. We greatly desire to 
hear more of the mighty Muztagh-ata, ‘‘ Ice-mountain 
Father,’’ and of the other Muztagh in the Kuen-lun, with 
the extraordinary eroded ranges of Yagan-dawan and the 
impassable gorges of the Yurung-kash, as well as of the 
ancient cities of Khotan with their sand-buried treasures 
of former civilisation. 
Rare birds observed at Rositten form the subject of 
notes by Dr. J. Thienemann in the June and October 
issues of Reichenow’s Ornithol. Monatsberichte. The most 
noteworthy is the Indian greenish tree-warbler, Phyllo- 
scopus (Acanthopneuste) viridans. 
Tue articles in the November issue of Naturen include 
one by Mr. N. J. Féyn on the Gyéa expedition under 
Amundsen for polar magnetic observation; a second, by 
Mr. C. F. Kolderup, on the San Francisco earthquake ; 
and a third, by Mr. J. A. Grieg, on animal groups in the 
Bergen Museum. The latter institution, it appears, has 
been endeavouring to imitate the régime inaugurated by 
Sir W. H. Flower in our own Natural History Museum, 
and the article contains reproductions from photographs 
of groups of birds and mammals amid their natural 
surroundings, which have been recently set up at Bergen. 
A Memoir by Prof. F. Toula on the dentition of Rhino- 
ceros (Ceratorhinus) hundseimensis forms article 2 of vol. 
xx. of the Abhandlungen der k.k. geol. Reichsanstalt, 
Vienna. This rhinoceros, which is regarded as a relative 
of the living R. sumatrensis, was first described in 1901 on 
the evidence of remains from Hundsheim, Altenburg, 
since which date additional material has been obtained. 
In describing the dentition in detail, the author refers to 
that of other European Tertiary species, several of which 
he splits up into new species and subspecies. The Rhino- 
ceros etruscus described by Prof. W. B. Dawkins from the 
forest-bed of Pakefield he makes, for example, the type 
of a subspecies, R. e. pakefieldensis. In giving the desig- 
nation R. megarhinus brachycephala to a Continental 
form, Prof. Toula seems to be unaware that, according 
to the rule adopted by zoologists, this name is preoccupied 
by R. mercki brachycephala, Schroder. 
We have to acknowledge the receipt of vol. v., part iii., 
and vol. vi., part i., of the Proceedings of the Rhodesia 
Scientific Association, published at Bulawayo. In addition 
NO. 1938, VOL. 75 | 
to Mr. F. White’s presidential address delivered on 
November 7, 1905, the former contains notes, by Mr. H. 
Marshall, on birds of the Zambezi valley; geological notes 
on Rhodesia, by Mr. C. E. Parsons; and petrographical 
notes on the oldest rocks of South Africa, by Mr. F. P. 
Mennell. The grasses of Rhodesia, by Mr. C. F. H. 
Monro, and the Amantabele and other tribes of Matabele- 
land, by Mr. H. J. Taylor, Chief Native Commissioner, 
form the chief subjects of the later issue. The ‘‘ black 
peril’? looms large in Mr. Taylor’s paper. The native, 
according to the author, has recently made rapid strides 
towards civilisation, and superstition is fast dying out. 
“His mind is becoming more expansive, and his object is 
to place himself by his own efforts, if possible, on an 
equal footing with that of the white man. There is a new 
era in the life of the native, and we are at the present 
time faced with the greatest political question of the day; 
all other questions sink into insignificance in comparison.’” 
Tue Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club for 
November (ix., No. 59), among others, contains a sug- 
gestive paper by Mr. J. Rheinberg on stereoscopic effect 
and the improvement of the binocular microscope, and a 
very useful non-technical summary of the Mendelian hypo- 
thesis, with bibliography and suggestions for experiments 
with microscopic organisms. 
Dr. H. G. Gaytorp, of Buffalo, details some remark- 
able facts suggestive of contagion among mice and rats 
arising from tumours believed to be cancerous (Brit. Med. 
Journ., December 1, p. 1555). A cage was discovered im 
which upwards of sixty cases of spontaneous tumours 
occurred among rats and mice kept in it in the course of 
three years. The fact that the location of the cage was 
frequently changed, and that the stock was entirely re- 
newed without permanent cessation in the occurrence of 
tumours, indicate that the cage itself was the source of 
infection. 
DurinG the last three or four years the view has been 
gaining ground that the spirillar microorganisms met with 
in certain diseases, and known as “‘ spirochzetes,”’ are 
protozoan, and not bacterial, in nature, and Schaudinn 
stated that they were probably a stage in the development 
of trypanosomes. Novy and Knapp, however, again re- 
assert the bacterial nature of these spirochaetes on the 
following grounds :—(1) they do not seem to divide longi- 
tudinally as do trypanosomes; (2) they multiply much more 
rapidly than protozoa usually do; (3) unlike trypanosomes, 
they are unaltered by dialysis against water; (4) they are 
less affected by heat, and have less avidity for air than 
trypanosomes; and (5) with spirochaetes a well-marked 
active immunity may be induced on inoculation (Brit. 
Med. Journ., December 1, p. 1573). 
In the Bulletin of the Imperial Botanic Gardens at St. 
Petersburg, vol. vi., part iv., Mr. N. Busch continues his 
letters from the Crimea describing the plants collected 
en route. Mr. W. I. Taliew, writing on the flora around 
Ssergatsch, a town in the Government of Nischny- 
Novgorod, notes the gradual immigration of steppe plants, 
and another ecological paper is contributed by Mr. B. 
Fedtschenko on the plant associations of the lake near 
Borowsk, indicating that it is an outlier of the more 
northern lakes. 
THE importance of forests in connection with the water 
supply of a country, inasmuch as they regulate the flow 
of rivers, prevent erosion, and help to conserve moisture, is 
now generally admitted. This subject is touched upon in 
