June 30, 1904] 



NATURE 



In the Ottawa Naturalisi for May, Mr. L. M. Lambe 

 ■describes the phalanges of the nianus of OniiDiomiinus 

 altiis, which evidently had long and sharp claws. He 

 considers that this dinosaur was capable of rapid motion 

 m pursuit of prey, and had the power of tenaciously grasp- 

 injj with its fore limbs. 



To vol. XV., part ii., of the Proceedings of the Royal 

 Physical Society of Edinburgh, Mr. N. .■\nnandale com- 

 municates the first instalment of a series of papers on the 

 zoology of the Faeroes, dealing in this instance with the 

 land and fresh-water molluscs, isopods, and insects, eaCh 

 group being treated by a specialist. 



From the Field Columbian Museum we have received 

 publications of the geological series, vol. ii. In No. 3 

 Dr. S. W. Williston gives a detailed description of the 

 skeleton of the American pterosaur Nyctosaurus gracilis, 

 •which was formerly regarded as Pteranodon, and in Xo. 4 

 Mr. E. S. Riggs gives a description and restoration of the 

 ■dinosaur -Apatosaurus (formerly Brontosaurusl. Mr. 

 Riggs remarks that there is a striking similarity between 

 liis figure and the original restoration of the genus by 

 Marsh. Later on Marsh, evidently dissatisfied with its pro- 

 portions, inserted additional vertebrae and ribs, and other- 

 ■wise modified the skeleton, almost to the extent now- 

 rectified bv the evidence since acquired. 



The whole of the seven articles in the first part of 

 vol. vi. of the Bulletin of the College of Agriculture at 

 Tokyo University are from the pen of Prof. C. Sasaki, all 

 but one dealing with insects of commercial value, more 

 especially silk-producing moths. Special interest attaches 

 to the description, illustrated with two coloured plates of' 

 the adult insect and larva, of native methods of rearing 

 the fine Vamamai moth (Antheroea yamamai). Five of the 

 other papers treat of various races of silkworms and different 

 modes of feeding them, while the sixth is devoted to the 

 life-history of the wa.\-producing coccid Ericerus pela. In 

 the eighth and last paper the author describes a new field- 

 mouse, under the name of .4rt'ii;o/<i hatenedsumi, which 

 appears to be the Japanese representative of .4. (or Microtus) 

 sitbterranciis. 



A xfMBER of experiments have been carried out bv 

 Konradi on the duration of life of pathogenic bacteria in 

 water (Ccntr. f. Bakt., xxxvi.. No. 2, p. 203). These show 

 that the anthrax bacillus, the Micrococcus pyogenes aureus, 

 and the typhoid bacillus may ultimately displace the 

 ordinary bacterial forms of water and survive for a long 

 period, anthrax for 3j years, the M. aureus for as long as 

 545 days, and the typhoid bacillus for more than 500 days, 

 their pathogenic properties still being retained. 



Prof. Ling.ard raises the question whether the Piro- 

 plasma higeminum, the parasite of Texas fever of cattle, 

 can find a habitat in the human subject {Centr. f. Bakt., 

 xxxvi., No. 2, p. 214). He describes a case in which a 

 native cattle attendant staying near bovines, the subjects 

 of Texas fever, developed an illness partly malarial, but 

 partly, perhaps, due to infection with the Piroplasma, 

 the special symptoms being continued remittent fever un- 

 aftected by quinine, ha^moglobinuria, and the presence in 

 the blood of parasites similar to the Piroplasma. 



Prof. Grindley and Mr. Mojonnier, of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, have published the results of 

 experiments on the losses occurring during the cooking of 

 meat {Bulletin No. 141). The chief loss in w^eight during 

 tlie boiling, saut^ing, and panbroiling (cooking in frying 

 NO. 1809, VOL. 70] 



pan without fat) of meats is due to removal of water. In 

 the roasting of meats, the loss is due to both water and fat. 

 When beef is cooked in water, 3-25-i2^67 per cent, of niuo- 

 genous matter, 0.6-37-4 per cent, of fat, and 200-67-4 per 

 cent, of mineral matter of the uncooked meat are found in 

 the broth. In roast meat the loss is much less, o-2S-4^5 per 

 cent, of the nitrogenous matter, 4^5-57^S per cent, of the 

 fat, and 2-47-27.2 per cent, of the mineral matter being 

 found in the dripping. As a rule, the larger the piece of 

 meat cooked by boiling or roasting, the smaller is the re- 

 lative loss. Panbroiling seems to be the mode of cooking 

 that occasions the least loss. .\ statement which will 

 cause surprise to some is that beef which has been used 

 for the preparation of beef-tea or broth has lost comparatively 

 little in nutritive value, though much of the flavouring 

 material has been removed. 



The Geological Survey in Ireland has just issued a 

 memoir on the geology of the country around Belfast, with 

 a speciallv prepared one-inch map of the district colour- 

 printed to show the various drift deposits and solid strata 

 where these appear at the surface. On the margin of the 

 map are engraved and coloured two longitudinal sections to 

 explain the general structure of the country — a useful 

 feature, which serves to render this excellent map more 

 intelligible to the uninitiated. The memoir and map are 

 the work of Messrs. G. W. Lamplugh, J. R. Kilroe, 

 A. McHenry, H. J. Seymour. \V. B. Wright, and H. B. 

 Mufl'. The description of the older rocks, from the 

 Ordovician (or Lower Silurian) series to the Tertiary 

 basalts, is based largely on the previous work of the 

 Survey, supplemented by the information published by 

 private workers. The drifts, on which the field-staff was 

 speciallv engaged, are very fully described, and in the 

 explanation of their mode of origin reasons are given for 

 rejecting the marine theory and for adopting the land-ice 

 theorv. There is much, however, of practical as well as of 

 scientific interest in this volume ; agricultural geology is 

 especially dealt with, and there are notes on water supply, 

 house sites, building materials, &c., records of deep 

 borings, petrographical notes on the igneous rocks, and a 

 bibliography. 



It may be said that the .\ustrian Empire covers a wide 

 field ; but its manifold activity in matters of geological 

 research is none the less remarkable, .\mong recent 

 memoirs received by us are two by Dr. W. Teisseyre on the 

 north-eastern foreland of the Karpathians {Verhandlungen 

 der k.k. geol. Reichsanstalt, 1903, pp. 289-308, and 

 Beitrdge sue Paldontologie und Geologic Osterreich- 

 Ungarns, Bd. xv., 1903, pp. 101-126). In these the author 

 traces the influence of older movements, and of the result- 

 ing crust-blocks, on the present structure of the Podolian 

 lands, and seeks to reconstruct the country as it was, firstly, 

 at the time of the Cenomanian marine transgression, and, 

 secondlv, at the opening of the Miocene period. In so 

 doing, he is led to regard an anticlinal mass in Podolia, 

 upheaved in Upp^r Jurassic times, as a somewhat belated 

 offshoot of the Triassic folds of the Sudetic. Dr. Tietze's 

 report on the work done by the Geologische Reichsanstalt 

 in 1903 (Verhandlungen, 1904, pp. 1-44) describes the dis- 

 tribution of the field-surveyors, and the visits undertaken 

 to other lands, .\mong the papers issued under his 

 energetic guidance in 1903, we note F. Kerner's description 

 of the " Fenster, " or pseudo-inliers, of the Mosor Planina, 

 where little patches of Eocene Flysch appear in the floor 

 of hollows excavated naturally through Cretaceous lime- 

 stone. Other evidence is forthcoming to show that the 

 latter series has been thrust over the former. W. Hammer 



