6o8 



NATURE 



[October 20, 1904 



It is announced in the Times that the Secretary of State 

 for India has appointed an expert committee to assist in 

 and supervise the preparation of an abridged and revised 

 edition of the " Dictionary of Indian Economic Products," 

 by Sir George Watt, the editor of the original work, which 

 was issued in seven octavo volumes, with index, between 

 1889 and 1893. The new edition will be compressed, into 

 two volumes, and care will be taken to give the latest 

 figures and information available in respect to the products 

 described, and to their commercial development. Special 

 facilities have been afforded for Sir George Watt to carry 

 on the work of revision at Kew, and Sir W. Thiselton-Dyer, 

 director of the Royal Botanic Gardens there, is chairman 

 of the committee, the other members being Mr. T. W. 

 Holderness, secretary nf the Revenue and Statistics Depart- 

 ment, India Office ; Prof. Wyndham R. Dunstan, director 

 of the Imperial Institute; and Mr. J. S. Gamble, late of 

 the Indian Forest Department. 



A SECOND conference of local authorities, owners of fore- 

 shore, and others interested in the defence of the coast 

 against the encroachment of the sea in the counties of 

 Norfolk and Suffolk was held at the Guildhall, Norwich, 

 on October 15, for the purpose of considering the report 

 of the committee appointed by the previous conference. Dr. 

 H. B. Walker, mayor of Lowestoft, presided. The report 

 stated that the Ciovernment had been asked to adopt 

 promptly such measures as would preserve the sea coasts 

 from waste and provide a more equitable adjustment of the 

 financial burden which now pressed exclusively upon the 

 immediate frontagers. Mr. Nicholson (town clerk of 

 Lowestoft) said that the Board of Trade had declined to 

 appoint an engineer to make inquiries. A resolution was 

 adopted in favour of communicating with other authorities 

 in Great Britain whose districts abut upon and are liable 

 to erosion by the sea, and with members of Parliament re- 

 presenting such districts, to ascertain how far they would 

 cooperate in an application to the Government to accede to 

 the recommendations contained in the report. 



It is reported that the Antarctic relief ship Morning has 

 brought home a considerable collection of natural history 

 specimens which will supplement those obtained by the 

 Discovery. A considerable amount of dredging was 

 accomplished on the Mornitjg, so that the collection consists 

 chiefly of marine invertebrates. As she is an Admiralty 

 ship, all the specimens collected will doubtless be handed 

 over to the British (Natural History) Museum, where the 

 Discovery collections have already been received. 



In the 7ns/; Naturalist for October Mr. D. R. P. Beres- 

 ford records the discovery in Ireland of a second nest of 

 the Continental wasp, Vespa riifa austriaca ; the first was 

 found in 1902. 



In his report for 1003 (issued in the Circulars of the Royal 

 Botanic Garden) the Government entomologist for Ceylon 

 refers with satisfaction to the appreciation of the efforts of 

 his department to aid cultivators in freeing their plant- 

 ations from the attacks of noxious insects. The report deals 

 largely with those affecting the tea-plant. 



The contents of part i. of the second volume of the 

 quarterly issue of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 

 include a continuation of Messrs. Ulrich and Bassler's 

 revision of the Palaeozoic Bryozoa ; a paper by Miss E. 

 \\'ood on Devonian crinoids, with descriptions of new genera 

 and species ; and a review of the triton and frog-shells by 

 Mr. W. H. Dall, in which several new subgeneric names are 

 proposed. 



NO. 1825, VOL. 70] 



The Society for the Protection of Birds has issued as a 

 leaflet an abbreviation of an admirable article by Mr. W. P. 

 Pycraft on the manufacture and sale of the so-called 

 " osprey " plumes, which recently appeared in Knowledge 

 and Scientific News. In the October number of Bird Notes 

 and News the society directs attention to the marked de- 

 crease in the number of swallows visiting this country and 

 the Continent during the last few years. The scarcity is 

 attributed to the capture of these birds for their plumage 

 and for the table, and it is suggested that extensive netting 

 must take place at both migrations, though where this 

 occurs has not been ascertained. 



According to the report of the Manchester Museum for 

 1903-4, it appears that the most important acquisition re- 

 ceived by the museum during the period under review is 

 the Cosmo Melville herbarium, which was presented by the 

 chairman of the committee. The contents of this collec- 

 tion, stated to be the only private one of which the limits 

 extend beyond the Paln:'arctic region, are estimated to 

 number more than 40,000 species. It is incidenudly 

 mentioned that the skin of Napoleon's Arab charger 

 "Marengo," which is reported to have been lately dis- 

 covered in a cellar at the Louvre, was formerly in the 

 Manchester Museum. The skeleton is, we believe, in the 

 United Service Museum. 



The latest of the series of handbooks to the contents of 

 the Horniman Museum at Forest Hill, issued by the London 

 County Council, relates to the fresh-water aquariums and 

 vivariums. In these receptacles are exhibited a large 

 number of the common British invertebrates, together with 

 a selection of fishes, reptiles, and amphibians. The descrip- 

 tions of the various species grouped are written, as a rule, 

 in language which can be well understood by the ordinary 

 reader ; we may point out, however, that if it is necessary 

 to explain a term like " Porifera " it is equally necessary 

 to do the same in the case of one like " unicellular " 

 (p. 4), the meaning of which, we venture to think, will not 

 be comprehended by i per cent, of the visitors to the 

 museum. 



In the October issue of the Journal of Conchology Mr. 

 A. J. Jukes-Browne refers to the dissatisfaction which 

 exists among many naturalists on account of the sweeping 

 changes proposed in zoological nomenclature by a strict and 

 slavish adherence to the rule of priority. He points out that 

 no less than a dozen familiar names of molluscan genera 

 would have to be changed if those used in a certain obscure 

 work be admitted. The evil is a very real one, and we refer 

 to two points in connection with it. In the first place we 

 notice that in the main only systematic naturalists adopt 

 the proposed changes, anatomists, physiologists, &c., 

 adhering to the old names ; this at once introduces a dual 

 system of nomenclature, which is much to be deprecated. 

 Secondly, it may be admitted that to specialists the changes 

 in nomenclature in their own particular groups are not very 

 serious, as they ought to be able to keep abreast of 

 them; but to "all-round" naturalists such changes are 

 very serious indeed. An authoritative conference on the 

 subject is urgently needed. 



In the Revue ginerale dcs Sciences (September 30) 

 M. Ernest Fourneau describes the chemical constitution of 

 the chief local anesthetics, .such as cocaine, eucaine, &c., 

 and discusses the nature of the chemical groups and their 

 arrangement on which analgesic action seems to depend. 



We have received Mr. W. Martindale's price list of 

 drugs, chemicals, surgical instruments, &'C. The catalogue 



