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NA TURE 



September 12, 1901 



several museums with unique objects of the most interesting 

 description, for almost every excavation brings to light some- 

 thing not heretofore found. I have examined many prehistoric 

 sites, but have never seen one so extensive and varied in its 

 results as this. Extensive tracts are yet untouched. . . . Over 

 114 acres are now reserved, but the remains extend even beyond 

 that area. It would require several years' steady work to com- 

 pletely explore the place. That this is by far the most important 

 and extensive prehistoric burial place as yet discovered in 

 Madras, I can certainly state." Some eighteen hundred curious 

 objects in bronze, iron and pottery, as well as seven pure gold 

 oval-shaped ornaments, have already been unearthed. 



The Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, according to the 

 Railway and Engineering Review^ has recently constructed, 

 and commenced using, a car specially adapted for the distribu- 

 tion of live fish to waters along its lines. The interior of the 

 car is arranged with a series of galvanised iron tanks to hold 

 from 1000 to 1500 fish. At one end of the car is an upper and 

 lower berth, like those in a Pullman car, to accommodate two 

 men. Ice for keeping the water at a certain temperature is 

 carried in two compartments built for this purpose and holding 

 about one ton each. Arrangements have been made for re- 

 plenishing the water in the tanks, en route, by attaching a hose 

 to any of the hydrants at stations on the road. 



The Museum of the Literary and Philosophical Society of 

 Hull has recently been taken over by the Corporation, and one 

 of the first results is a note ( Yorkshire Naturalist for August) 

 by the Curator (Mr. T. Sheppard) on the type skeleton of Sib- 

 bald's rorqual, which forms one of the treasures of the collection. 

 The animal to which this skeleton belonged was stranded in the 

 Humber so long ago as 1S35. 



The September issue of the Entomologist' s Monthly Magazine 

 contains the commencement of a series of articles on the insect 

 fauna of the Balearic Islands, mainly based on collections made 

 by Prof. Poulton and Messrs. Pocock and Thomas of the British 

 Museum. Prof. Poulton himself contributes the introduction to 

 the series, and he is followed by Mr. E. Saunders, who de- 

 scribes the bees, wasps, and their allies. In Majorca much of 

 the original insect fauna appears to have been exterminated by 

 agriculture, although much of interest will, it is hoped, still be 

 found. In Minorca, where cultivation is not carried on to such 

 an extent, insect life is probably much richer. 



The polychsetous annelids of the Puget Sound region form 

 the subject of a communication by Mr. H. P. Johnson published 

 in vol. xxix. (No. 18) of the Proceedings of the Boston Natural 

 History Society. Including two species from British Columbia 

 sent by Prof. Herdman, the collection at the author's disposal 

 comprises fifty-one species (many of which are new), classed in 

 thirty-four genera. Nearly all the forms were collected between 

 tide-marks, and only one is common to the Japanese coast. 

 This latter fact is not surprising when it is borne in mind that 

 the Puget Sound fauna is boreal, while the forms collected in 

 Japan pertain to the Indo-Pacific fauna. 



Some time ago Prof. E. B. Poulton .announced in these 

 columns (vol. Ix. p. 591) the discovery of two species of peripatus 

 in the Siamese Malay States, this being the first record of the 

 occurrence of this group on the Asiatic mainland. These two 

 new forms, together with a third from Selangor, are described 

 by Mr. R. Evans in the August number of the (^/mr/cr/yyOT/rKa/ 

 of Microscopical Science. This description has involved a 

 reclassification of the group (Onychophora), and the author 

 proposes the new generic title Eoperipatus for the Malayan 

 (inclusive of the Sumatran) forms. Curiously enough, these are 

 more nearly related to the Central American than to any other 

 members of the group, although they are connected to a certain 

 NO. 1663. VOL. 64] 



extent with the African forms through a species which is now 

 assigned to a second new genus (Mesoperipatus). It is con- 

 cluded that the birthplace of this very archaic group was 

 probably Africa. In another article in the same journal Mr. 

 S. B. Mitra, of Calcutta, discusses the function of the so-called 

 "crystalline style" of the bivalve molluscs. After reviewing 

 previous theories, the author comes to the conclusion that this 

 remarkable rod-like body (which in the common pond-mussel 

 is three-fourths the entire length of the animal) really acts as a 

 digestive ferment whose function is to convert starch into sugar. 



The services which anthropometry renders to physical educa- 

 tion are dealt with by Major Dr. Paul Godin in the Bulletins et 

 Mimoires de la Societe d'Anthropologie de Paris (5' serie, 

 tome ii. 1902, fascic. 2, p. no), whose paper is fortified by 

 numerous tables and graphic curves. 



The development of illumination, or rather the evolution of 

 artificial illumination, is the subject of a short paper by Mr. 

 Walter Hough in the American Anthropologist (N.S., vol. iii. 

 1901, p. 342), in which he epitomises the stages in the develop- 

 ment of the candle and of the lamp. It is only comparatively 

 recently that the latter has improved beyond a very simple and 

 inefficient contrivance ; at present the destiny of illumination is 

 in the hands of the investigator and inventor. 



Under the title of " Les Peuplades de Guinee " {Revue 

 Scientijiqite, 4" Ser. T. 16, No. 8, p. 233), M. A. Vergely gives 

 an account more particularly of the Soussous (Susu), who he 

 thinks have been greatly calumniated. He describes their 

 appearance, mental traits, clothing, mode of life, morality, and 

 other social characteristics, and contrasts with them the FouUas 

 (Fulah) ; the former are true negroes, the latter are Hamites. 

 This comparison of two very different people living under the 

 same conditions is very suggestive. 



There have been several theories for the origin of the word 

 " Surrey." Mr. T. le Marchant Douse, in the Home Counties 

 Magazine (vol. iii. No. 11, July 1901, p. 198), follows up the 

 suggestion of Kluge, and produces an array of evidence that 

 supports his contention that it means the land of the South 

 Rige, who are identified with the Rugii of Tacitus. The oldest 

 known habitat of the Rugi was by the mouth and lower course 

 of the Oder, probably to the east of it. Very early in our era 

 the Goths wholly or in part dispossessed them ; some migrated 

 southward, others westward and north-westward, and it is ex- 

 tremely probable that the Baltic Rugi in the fifth century joined 

 other adventurers, but under their own chief or king, and settled 

 in England. Surrey continued to be called a ' ' kingdom " long 

 after it had ceased to have a king to itself. Eastry, near Sand- 

 wich in Kent, is now a large village and parish, but was 

 formerly a town and district ; in a charter of 78S this is spoken 

 of as " the district of the Eastriges." 



In the current number of the Bulletins et Memoires de la Soc. 

 d' Anthropologic de Paris (5« serie, tome ii. 1902, fascic. 2) there 

 are two illustrated papers, by Dr. Atgier, on deformed heads of 

 living subjects : the one is a case of oxycephaly or acrocephaly and 

 the other of scaphocephaly. The discussions on these cases is as 

 important as the original papers. M. Pelletier proposes (p. 188) 

 a new method of obtaining the cubic index of the skull. It is 

 sometimes impossible to measure the cubic capacity of a skull 

 by the ordinary methods, and always to do so in the case of the 

 living, so recourse has to be made to an estimation of the capa- 

 city from certain measurements. Those in vogue are the glabella- 

 occipital length, the greatest breadth and the basio-bregmatic 

 height. The author proposes the ophryo-occipital length, the 

 greatest breadth and the auriculo-bregmatic height ; for, as he 

 justly observes, these can also be made approximately on the 

 living. We are glad to find that the auricular height, which has 



