376 
NATURE 
| FEBRUARY 14, 1907 
the leading energy of modern society. To-day no nation 
can hope to have any success which has not adapted science 
to its own life. The necessity of adapting scientific methods 
to practical life has become more and more imperative, 
and it is, in fact, the secret of success of any nation to 
understand the scientific method of organisation thoroughly. 
TuHE October (1906) issue of the Proceedings of the 
Philadelphia Academy contains the second instalment of 
a paper by Mr. H. W. Fowler on heterognathous fishes 
(Astyanax and its allies) One new species is made the 
type of a new genus, while several previously known forms 
are referred to new subgenera. 
Tue third and fourth parts (issued together) of the 
eighty-fifth volume of the Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche 
Zoologie appeal solely to specialists, the early stages in the 
development of the ovum in the hedgehog and the form- 
of the primitive streak in the yolk of the tern 
forming the subject of two articles, while the third is 
devoted to the turbellarian worms of the Bernese Ober- 
land. 
ation 
To the January number of the Entomologist’s Monthly 
Magazine Lord Walsingham contributes a further instal- 
ment of his account of Algerian Microlepidoptera, mainly 
based on specimens in his own collection; while in both 
the January and the February issues the Hon. Charles 
Rothschild describes new British fleas. A new lantern-fly 
(Fulgoridze), bamboos at Darjiling in such 
numbers as to be termed ‘‘a pest,’’ forms the subject of 
a note by Mr. W. L. Distant in the earlier of the two 
numbers, 
infesting 
In No. 1505 of the Proceedings of the U.S. National 
Museum (vol. xxxii., p. 1) Mr. W. M. Lyon describes and 
figures a specimen referred, to the typical race of the 
bonte-quagga (Equus burchelli), now nearly, if not com- 
pletely, extinct. It was purchased in 1855 from Messrs. 
Barnum, Bailey, and Hutchinson, and is now mounted in 
the National Museum. In some details of colouring it 
differs from the type-specimen figured by Gray, and in 
this respect comes nearer to one in the Bristol Museum. 
No, 1502 of the same publication is devoted to an account, 
by Mr. Lyon, of mammals from Butam Island, Rhio 
Archipelago, while in No. 1503 Messrs. Eigenmann and 
Bean discuss a collection of Amazonian fishes. 
WE have received a separate copy of a paper by Mr. 
G. M. Thomson on the marine fish-hatchery and_bio- 
logical station at Portobello, originally published in the 
Transactions of the New Zealand Institute for 1905- 
Special attention is, it appears, being directed to the life- 
history of the more important New Zealand food-fishes, 
many of which have, unfortunately, usurped names—such 
as brill, flounder, sole, and lemon-sole—properly pertain- 
ing to European species. Some years ago an attempt was 
made to introduce the European lobster into New Zealand 
waters, but without success. At the date of writing the 
author states that arrangements were being made for a 
fresh consignment of these crustaceans, which it was pro- 
posed to introduce into situations better suited to their 
requirements. 
ACCORDING to Fisheries, Ireland, Sci. Invest., 1905, No. 8, 
1907 (this, by the way, being the unsatisfactory abbrevi- 
ation given of an exceedingly cumbrous and inconvenient 
title), the season 1905-6 was a most successful one as 
regards the hatching of salmon and trout, the total out- 
put being 6,827,750 salmon, trout, 
NO. 1946, VOL. 75 | 
5£2,000 white and 
381,000 brown trout fry, the last estimate being, however, 
probably far below the actual output. As regards salmon 
fry the output exceeds the previous record season by 
about one million, (this excellent result being, as usual, 
mainly due to the hatching stations at Lismore and Black- 
castle. Although io record is given (being probably 
impossible to obtain) as to the percentage of this fry which 
attains maturity, it seems likely that something has been 
done to increase this percentage by the greater attention 
now paid to the proper planting of the fry. Recent 
observations have shown that both salmon and trout fry 
require food at an earlier stage (long before the absorp- 
tion of the yolk-sac) when artificially hatched than when 
naturally reared, and it appears that hitherto the import- 
ance of transferring the alevins into suitable waters so 
soon as they require adventitious nutriment has not been 
sufficiently recognised. 
Tue Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for 
January (xviii., No. 190) contains an interesting article 
by Mr. A. W. Meyer on some characteristics of the 
medicine in Shakespeare, with a useful bibliography. 
Tae Sanitary, Maritime, and Quarantine Council of 
Egypt has published a volume of scientific reports by the 
members of its medical staff, and edited by the president, 
Dr. Ruffer. It includes several valuable papers on cholera 
vibrios and the diagnosis of cholera, on agglutinins, hamo- 
lytic and hcemosozic sera, nephritis, &c. 
THE papers in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology 
for January (xli., part ii.) are of a technical nature. 
Among others, Mr. D. E. Derry describes certain pre- 
dynastic Egyptian tibia showing flattening for which it 
is difficult to account; Prof. Symmers writes on accessory 
coronary arteries; and Dr. T. Lewis discusses the inter- 
pretation of sphygmographic tracings. 
A VALUABLE bulletin, compiled by Dr. G. F. White, and 
entitled *‘ The Bacteria of the Apiary, with Special Refer- 
ence to Bee Diseases,’’ has been received (technical series, 
No. 14, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Entom- 
ology). It summarises the characters of various bacteria 
which have been isolated, both from normal and from 
abnormal bees. In America, ‘‘ foul-brood’’ appears to be 
a disease different from the European one, and to be due 
to a bacillus (B. larvae) distinct from the B. 
Cheshire and Cheyne. 
alvei of 
WE have received a reprint of an article by Mr. P. D. 
Strachan . on undulant (Mediterranean) fever in South 
Africa, showing that this disease is widely distributed in 
that part of the world. The majority of those who had 
suffered from the fever used goats’ milk, and in several 
instances the blood and milk of some of the goats agglu- 
tinated the M. melitensis. The researches of the Mediter- 
ranean Fever Commission have shown that in Malta the 
goats are frequently infected and transmit the microbe in 
their milk, and Mr. Strachan’s investigations in South 
Africa thus help to strengthen the view that the disease 
is mainly conveyed to man by the milk ef infected goats. 
Uxper the title of ‘‘ Competition in the Production of 
Raw Silk,’’ Mr. S. Ito has written a valuable treatise on 
the economics of the silk industry, published as vol. ii., 
part iv., of the Journal of the Agricultural College, 
Sapporo, Japan. Commencing with the early records of 
cultivation in China and its subsequent extension to other 
countries, the writer proceeds to contrast the conditions 
