228 
NATORE 
[JANUARY 3, 1907 
take place very shortly, as some marked advance may 
surely be expected when the results of the experiments of 
two such investigators as Prof. Slaby and Mr. Paulsen 
become fully known. 
Tue recent experience of the London County Council 
tramways under Arctic conditions has not strengthened the 
arguments of those sections of the public and engineers 
who are all for the abolition of the overhead system in 
Granted that 
the conditions which caused the serious interruption of 
favour of the underground conduit system. 
traffic last week are not usual and were not expected, it 
is still hard to account for the unpreparedness of those in 
charge of the London County Council tramways. In happy 
contrast to this comes the news of the capabilities of the 
overhead system in Liverpool, where not only was the 
service maintained without mishap, but the trams were of 
great assistance in clearing away the snow by drawing 
trollies of salt over the city, thus enabling the salt to be 
distributed rapidly, and making it easy work for the fire- 
men to wash down the streets afterwards. Wolverhampton 
also suffered by not having an overhead system of tram- 
ways, and the service had to be discontinued. We have 
not yet heard of any case where an overhead system of 
tramways in England has failed owing to the recent snow, 
so that, at a time when the telegraph wires are being 
broken down by snow and by the force of the gales we 
have been experiencing Jately, it speaks well for modern 
overhead tramway practice that it should have passed 
through the ordeal so successfully, and once again helps to 
prove that the supposed dangers and disadvantages of the 
overhead system are more fancied than real. 
A CORRESPONDENT, writing from Torbay, states that on 
December 29, 1906 (full moon), and more particularly on 
December 30, from 10 p.m. to 11.30 p.m., she observed a 
remarkable lunar halo. The moon appeared in the centre 
of a pellucid patch of sky enclosed by, the halo, which 
measured at least four times the moon’s apparent diameter, 
and in this clear sky, as in a mirror, our correspondent 
saw a reflection of the moon. 
Mail 
discussed 
WeE learn from the Pioneer that the Dooars’ 
Planters’ Association recently the subject of 
malaria and black-water fever. The meeting viewed with 
great concern the alarming prevalence of malaria and 
black-water fever in the western Dooars, and was of opinion 
that all possible steps should be taken to inquire into these 
diseases with a view to check them. The association is 
convinced that the report of the commission on malaria 
to the Royal Society, dated 1902, goes to the root of the 
evil, and that the Anopheles mosquito, which is found in 
large numbers in the Dooars, is the cause of the preva- 
lence of malaria and black-water fever, and that no time 
should be lost before tackling the question scientifically. 
As a preliminary, the Indian Tea Association of Calcutta 
and London is to be asked to move in the matter, and the 
association will also address the local Government and the 
Government of India on the subject, the 
Government through the Tea Association. 
and Home 
THE most important item in the November (1906) issue 
of the Victorian Naturalist is a paper by Prof. Baldwin 
Spencer on emu remains from King Island, Bass Strait- 
Definite information as to the former existence of an emu 
on this island is to hand; and, since the bones recently 
discovered indicate a bird of smaller size than Dromaeus 
ater of Kangaroo Island, the name D. minor is proposed 
for the new species. 
NO. 1940, VOL. 75| 
We have to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of part ii- 
(vol. i.) of the new journal Experimentelle Beitrage sur 
Morphologie, published at: Leipzig, and edited by Mr. 
Hermann Braus, of Heidelberg. In the first article Mr. 
O. Bender describes a case of ‘‘ hypermelism’’ in an 
edible frog, in which the abnormality takes the form of 
an additional hindlimb, and discusses the morphological 
conclusions to be drawn therefrom. The second article, by 
the editor, is devoted to the mode of development of the 
fore-limb “and operculum in the larva of the fire-bellied 
toad (Bombinator). 
’ 
“Some Problems of the Sea’’ forms the title of the 
presidential address delivered by Prof. Herdman to the 
meeting of the Liverpool Biological Society held on 
October 26, 1906. After alluding to the frequent periodical 
local variation in the constituents of the plankton and the 
endeavours which have been made to ascertain the actual 
or relative numbers of organisms inhabiting a given area 
in the sea, the president proceeded to institute a com- 
parison between the littoral fauna of Ceylon and that of 
the Maldive Archipelago. In explanation of certain differ- 
ences of these two faunas, it is suggested that it may be 
easier for a shallow-water, non-pelagic species to reach 
Australia from India by way of Malaysia rather than cross 
the open sea separating Ceylon from the Maldives. 
Tue first part of the sixth volume of Annotationes 
Zoologicae Japonensis opens with an account of a new 
Japanese salpsid, provisionally referred to the genus 
Cyclosalpa, by Mr. W. E. Ritter. Although only a single 
specimen, taken in Suraga Bay, is forthcoming, this is 
amply sufficient to demonstrate the marked distinctness of 
the new form. Until examples of the aggregate generation 
are available, the full affinities of the species cannot be 
determined. Its most obvious features are the straight 
intestine, the great number of the muscle-bands, which 
exceed those of all other forms except one Salpa, and the 
fact that many of these bands extend right round the body. 
In the latter respect the new form tends to minimise the 
differences separating the Doliolide from the Salpide. 
The other papers in the same issue deal respectively with 
Japanese butterflies, cockroaches, and ascidians. 
S1NcE very little is known in regard to the segmentation 
of the ovum among mammals, workers in embryology 
should welcome a paper by Mr. M. Kunsemiiller in the 
Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie, vol. \xxxv., 
part i., on this stage of development in the hedgehog. 
Comparisons are made between the segmentation in this 
species and other mammals in which it has been observed. 
A second article in the same issue deals with the early 
stages in the development of the grass-snake, from the first 
appearance of the pro-amnion to the close of the amniotic 
stage. The paper ends with a résumé of the present state 
of our knowledge of snake-development, which is still very 
imperfect. Regeneration in polychaete worms forms the 
subject of the third article, by Mr. P. Ivanoff, of St. 
Petersburg. Apparently the article was written previous 
to the issue of Nusbaum’s paper on regeneration in Nereis 
in vol. Ixxix. of the same journal, but its publication was 
delayed by the necessity of translation. Some of the 
author’s conclusions have thus been anticipated. Among 
other curious examples of regeneration, Mr. Ivanoff mentions 
one case in which an annelid developed a complete func- 
tional head at each extremity of the body. In the fourth 
article Mr. F. Vejdovsky resumes his discussion of the 
hzemaccele theory, as illustrated by the vascular system of 
worms. 
