JANUARY 17, 1907] 
NATURE 
279 
Ir is with regret that we have seen the announcement 
of the death of Mr. T. R. Dallmeyer, who was for many 
years the managing director of the celebrated firm of 
J. H. Dallmeyer. He was the son of Mr. J. H. Dallmeyer, 
and grandson of Andrew Ross, and to a worthy degree 
carried on the work of these pioneer opticians. Mr. 
Dallmeyer designed several lenses and other photographic 
apparatus, but is best known as the inventor of the tele- 
photographic lens. Although it was found not to be an 
absolute novelty, its introduction as a practical photo- 
graphic instrument was due to him. He also worked out 
a modified combination for small cameras, the ‘‘ Adon,”’ 
which about doubles the linear measurement of the image 
without any loss of rapidity or need for focussing. In 
passing away at so early an age as forty-seven, the optical 
and photographic world loses one from whom they seemed 
to have good reason to hope for much further service. 
THE metric system is to be adopted at the works of 
Kynoch (Ltd.). Mr. Arthur Chamberlain, chairman of the 
company, has made a statement explaining that it is in- 
tended to carry out the whole of the clerical work, relating 
to interior economy, in metric units. The clerical work 
relating to customers will only be shown in metric units 
so far as these measures are already in use with their 
customers carrying on business; in countries that have 
already adopted the metric system. We learn from the 
Times that Mr. Chamberlain says the change will neither 
be expensive nor difficult. Weights expressed in British 
units will be translated into kilograms, and the cost into 
decimals of a pound sterling. This will be done by simple 
reference to a card of equivalents. Thereafter in all its 
processes through the works an article will remain as so 
many kilograms at a decimal of a pound sterling per kilo. 
In this way the cost of every article will be traced through 
all its processes in metric units and decimals of an English 
pound, but the selling price so arrived at will be changed 
into English currency. The total cost of the introduction 
of the new methods of calculation is estimated at 4 per 
cent. of a year’s profits. The saving, on the other hand, 
on clerical labour will repay this in the first year. It will 
be seen that, so far from asking the clerks to learn any- 
thing fresh, they will only be invited to forget old troubles. 
CarpirF has given a lead to the rest of Wales by the 
establishment of a public observatory. Eleven years ago 
a suggestion was made in a local journal that a public 
telescope would be a most desirable acquisition. Following 
on this, Mr. Franklen Evans, J.P., a well-known local 
man of science, offered to the town his 12-inch reflector 
and sidereal clock, the offer being made through Mr. 
Arthur Mee, the then president of the Astronomical Society 
of Wales. Various difficulties stood in the way, and it 
was not until a couple of years ago that one of the coun- 
cillors—Mr. J. A. Kidd—took the matter seriously in 
hand, and succeeded in rousing his colleagues to carry it 
through. In the meantime, the donor of the instrument 
had passed away. When, however, the council really 
moved, it made up for previous indifference. The telescope 
was put in thorough repair, and a suitable house built for 
it on Penylan Hill, which lies to the north-east of Cardiff, 
and is 250 feet above sea-level. In the final arrange- 
ments invaluable assistance was rendered by Mr. Albert 
Taylor, H.M.I.S., who resides at Cardiff, and has had great 
practical experience in the construction and use of tele- 
scopes. The observatory, which was formally opened by 
the Lord Mayor, is controlled by a committee of which Mr. 
Kidd is chairman, and consisting of city councillors and 
NO. 1942, VOL. 75] 
members of the Astronomical Society of Wales. The tele- 
scope is clock-driven, and an attendant has been instructed 
in its manipulation and use. An illustrated descriptive 
pamphlet has been prepared by Mr. Mee, and large numbers 
of people are visiting the observatory and the 
heavens through the telescope. 
viewing 
StapHiLinip beetles, chiefly American, form the subject 
of part vi. of vol. xvi. of the Transactions of the St. 
Louis Academy of Science. The author, Mr. T. L. Casey, 
takes occasion to mention that throughout the work he 
employs the term ‘‘ America’’ as equivalent to the United 
States. 
Loncicorn beetles from Selangor and Perak, described 
by Mr. C. J. Gahan, of the British Museum, and a con- 
tinuation of Mr. H. C. Robinson’s synopsis of the birds 
of the Malay Peninsula, constitute the zoological contents 
of No. 4 of the first volume of the Journal of the Federated 
Malay States Museums. 
Ix the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum 
(No. 1428, vol. xxxi., pp. 575-612) Mr. W. M. Lyon de- 
scribes a collection of mammals from the small islands of 
Banka, Mendanao, and Billiton, lying between Sumatra 
and Bcerneo. Although many are described as new, nearly 
all are closely allied to well-known species, and none is 
of special interest. 
Parts ii. and iii. of vol. xxxvi. of Gegenbaur’s Morpho- 
logisches Jahrbuch are entirely devoted to the comparative 
anatomy of the Primates, Mr. G. Ruge dealing with the 
characteristics of the liver throughout the order, while 
Dr. H. Bluntschli discusses the femoral artery in the lower 
catarrhine monkeys. Both papers are of a highly technical 
character, and of interest chiefly to specialists. 
We have received a copy of an illustrated ‘* Handbook 
to the Perthshire Natural History Museum and Brief Guide 
t>» the Animals, Plants, and Rocks of the County.’’ The 
Perthshire Museum, as is well known, sets an admirable 
example to other institutions of the same nature in devoting 
its attention to the local natural history, and in issuing 
this ‘‘ Guide” (at the price of 3d.) it will afford valuable 
assistance to local observers and collectors. 
In the December (1906) issue of the American Naturalist 
Prof. H. F. Osborn completes his elaborate survey of the 
causes which have been most conducive to the extinction 
of the larger mammals. As the result of this survey it is 
concluded that such extinction cannot be attributed to any 
one general cause. Indeed, the chief induction which can 
be drawn from the investigation is that when the numbers 
of a species have been seriously reduced from some chief or 
original cause, various other destructive causes come into 
action, thus producing a cumulative effect which may lead 
{o complete extinction. In fact, from weakening its hold 
upon life at one point, an animal species becomes subject 
to attack at many other points. 
To the January number of the Naturalist the Rev. 
O. P. Cambridge communicates a note on the power 
possessed by certain spiders of the family Salticida of 
changing the colour of the large pair of eyes on the fore- 
head. Some time ago Mr. W. W. Strickland, of Singa- 
pore, announced the occurrence of this phenomenon in two 
species of Attis spiders from Java, stating that he believed 
such a change to be unknown in any other creature. Mr. 
Cambridge points out that Mr. Strickland’s observations 
were long ago anticipated, in the case of other species, 
by the late Mr. J. Blackwall. The same issue contains a 
