599 
NATURE 
| APRIL 18, 1907 
TYhe iniuties produced seem to be more nearly akin to 
those described as lightning strokes in the open field. 
The irregularities of the surface of the land in the 
immediate district are very slight, and owing to the 
difficulty that lightning has in striking down upon a 
smooth plane surface, the boring of a hole in the ground 
some 2 feet in diameter and 18 inches deep has directed 
attention to this particular discharge by reason of its 
unusual character. There was no evidence of fused silica 
near this hole. 
Tue Port Erin Biological Station has never been more 
fully used by workers in marine biology than during the 
Easter vacation. From the last week in March 
throughout April, systematic collecting at 
investigations in the laboratory have been actively 
pursued by as biologists as can be comfortably 
accommodated. the first half of April 
twelve investigators occupied seats in the laboratory, and 
about the middle of the senior students 
came in addition. The researchers include Prof. B. Moore 
(biochemistry), Dr. H. Roaf (physiology of crustacea), 
Mr. J. Pearson (cancer), Mr. R. D. Laurie (biometrics), 
Mr. W. J. Dakin (Pecten), Prof. Herdman, Mr. Wollaston, 
and Mr. Gunn, all from Liverpool University; Prof. 
Hickson, Mr. Chaffers, and Mr. Whitnall, from the 
Victoria University of Manchester; Mr. Unwin, from the 
University of Leeds; and Mr. Chadwick, the resident 
naturalist. Plankton collections, both surface and deep, 
are being taken periodically, at stated localities, over a 
limited area for statistical purposes, from the S.Y. Lady- 
bird, and the usual sea-fish hatching and distribution of 
larval plaice is in progress. 
Dr. B. GLanvitt Corney, chief medical officer of the 
Government of Fiji, directs our attention, in a letter re- 
ceived from Fiji, to an instance of poisoning by turtle’s 
flesh which occurred at a village in the island of Vanua 
Levu, Fiji. The turtle was cooked immediately after being 
killed, and no question of unfitness for food through 
putrescence arises; indeed, neither the history of its 
capture and preparation for the oven, nor of the symptoms 
which supervened after its ingestion, points in any way to 
poisoning by ptomaines. The indications were, on the 
other hand, that the turtle itself had become poisoned 
before its capture, presumably through having consumed 
some unaccustomed article of diet on the reefs. That 
something was wrong with the turtle before it was caught 
seems certain, as the men who captured it are reported 
to have discussed the question as to whether it was fit 
to be eaten. Dr. A. W. Campbell, district medical officer 
and magistrate of the locality near where the poisoning 
occurred, reports the history of the attacks as follows :— 
Severe headache and vomiting, abdominal pain; diarrhoea 
not marked. So far as could be ascertained, in several 
cases an interval of seventy-two hours intervened between 
the ingestion of the turtle and the first symptom, and in 
most cases there was an interval of twenty-four hours. 
Some four or five days after the attacks began, ulceration 
of the lips, tongue, cheeks, and fauces occurred, and 
every one of the cases seen was so affected. Abdominal 
pain was not marked in the later stages. Twenty-five 
deaths in all were attributed to poisoning by the turtle’s 
flesh. 
present 
onwards 
and 
sea 
many 
During ten to 
month a dozen 
THE fourth part of vol. v. of the Annals of the South 
African Museum contains a paper by Mr. S. Schenkling | 
on new beetles of the family Cleride, and a second, by 
Mr. P. Cameron, on parasitic Hymenoptera. 
NO. 1955, VOL. 75] 
A DEFINITE mode of measuring the fossze in the interior 
of the human skull forms the subject of a paper by Mr. 
A. Hrdlicka, published as No. 1521 of the Proceedings of 
the U.S. National Museum. Such measurements are of 
considerable importance in estimating brain-volume, even 
in cases where the brain itself is available, the weight of 
that organ. tending to alter the shape of its lower surfaces 
when removed from the skull. 
WE have received copies of severai parts of vol. xvi. 
of the Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. 
Louis, published at various dates during 1906. The first 
of these is devoted to an account of the celebration of the 
fiftieth anniversary of the first meeting of the academy. 
Land-snails from Michichan form the subject of a paper 
by Mr. F. C. Baker, while Mr. R. J. Terry describes the 
nasal skelton ofthe salamander Amblystoma punctatum, 
and Mr. S. Weller discusses the fauna of the Palaeozoic 
Glen Park limestone. 
‘In their report for the year ending June, 1906, the 
trustees of the Australian Museum record their opinion 
that collections made in New South Wales ought not to 
be permitted to pass out of the country, especially when, 
by a simple process of combination amongst the State’ 
departments interested, the collections in question could 
be acquired at a reasonable cost and subdivided amongst 
the various metropolitan and country museums. It is also 
stated that until the museum is enlarged no further 
progress can be made in the exhibition of specimens to 
the public. 
AmoncG the contents of part iii. of the third volume of 
the quarterly issue of Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collec- 
tions, reference may be made to a paper by Prof. Theodore 
Gill on various non-European representatives of the carp 
family (Cyprinide). One of the most remarkable features 
in the distribution of the group is the total absence of 
barbels (Barbus), which are so numerous and so widely 
spread in the Old World, from North America. This 
feature, coupled with the peculiarities of the North 
American cyprinid fauna generally, is held by the author 
to afford a strong argument against the inclusion of the 
northern portions of the three northern continents in a 
single zoological region. It is noteworthy, however, that 
an approximation to Old World types is met with among 
the cyprinid fauna of the Pacific slope of North America 
which is lacking in that of the opposite side of the 
continent. Shs 5 ; 
From a distributional point of view, great interest 
attaches to the description by Prof. Al. Mrazek, of Prague, 
in the Sitzungsberichte der kgl. Bohm Gesellschaft der 
Wissenschaften: for 1906 of a member of the group of 
flat-worms known as the Temnocephalide, from Monte- 
negro. These worms, which are parasitic on fresh-water 
crayfish and crabs, have hitherto been known only from 
tropical and subtropical countries, such as Australasia, 
Malaya, Madagascar, India, Chili, and Brazil, and the 
occurrence of an outlying form in the Palzarctic area is 
therefore very remarkable. There are, however, other 
features in the fauna of Montenegro which indicate that it 
is of a somewhat abnormal type. The host of the worm 
is the crustacean Atyaéphyra desmaresti, a species with a 
rather wide distribution in the south of Europe. The 
locality where the worm was found is the delta of the 
river Morata, which discharges into the lake of Scutari, 
and on this ground-the name Scutariclia didactyla is pro- 
posed for the new form, which is regarded as generically 
distinct from Temnocephala. To the same issue Prof. 
