13° 



NATURE 



[October 17, 1918 



ted that the key to the understanding «1 these 

 dive , , pidi mics is to be found in the descrip- 



tion by Willis in 1661 of an "epidemical feavour, 

 chiefly inf us to the brain and nervous stock." 

 This i considered in the next lecture on Thurs- 



day, October 17, at 5 p.m. (n Chandos Street, W.i, 

 ree). 



A Committee has been appointed i>\ Mr. Walter 

 Long .to investigate the available sources of ripply of 

 alcohol, with particular reference tp its manufacture 

 from materials other than those which can he used 

 for food purposes, the method and cosl "I such manu- 

 facture, and the manner in which alcohol should be 

 used for power purposes. The members of the Com- 

 mittee are as follows: Sir Boverton Redwood, Bart. 

 (chairman); Major Aston Cooper-Key, C.B. (Home 

 Office); Mr. Arnold Philip, Admiralty chemist (Ad- 

 miralty); Mr. II. F. Carlill (Industrial Power and 

 Transport Department, Hoard of Trade); Prof. C. 

 Crowther (Hoard oi Agriculture and Fisheries); Dr. 

 J. H. Hinchclifl (Department of Agriculture and 

 Technical Instruction, Ireland) (Irish Office); Sir 

 Frederick Nathan (Ministry of Munitions); Mr. H. W. 

 Garrod (Ministry of Reconstruction); Sir H. Frank 

 Heath, K..C.B. (Scientific and Industrial Research 

 Department); Sii Frederick \V. Black, K.C.B. ; Prof. 

 Harold R. Dixon, F.R.S.; Brig.-Gen. Sir Capel 

 Holden, K.C.B., F.R.S. ; Dr. W. R. Ormandv; Mr. 

 E. S. Shrapnell-Smith,. C.B.E. (Deputy Director of 

 Technical Investigations in II. M. Petroleum Execu- 

 tive); and Mr. Horace Wyatt (Imperial Motor Transport 

 Council). Mr. Shrapnell-Smith will act as secretary 

 to the Committee, and all communications should be 

 addressed to him at the office of H.M. Petroleum 

 Executive, \2 Berkeley Street, W.i. 



We regret to notice the announcement of the death 

 in France of Lieut. P. M. Chadwick, R.E. Lieut. 

 Chadwick was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ellis Chad- 

 wick, of Parkstone, Dorset, and after a successful 

 career at the City of London School and the Imperial 

 College of Science and Technology, graduated B.Sc. 

 in engineering. He then became in succession an 

 articled pupil of Mr. Bailey Denton, assistant to 

 the chief engineer of the new docks at Southampton, 

 a lecturer at the City and Guilds Technical 

 College, Finsbury, and finally a lecturer in civil 

 ngineering in Birmingham University. At Bir- 

 gham, under the direction of Prof. F. C. Lea, he 

 a critical examination of experimental data on 

 the action of centrifugal pumps, and in a paper (pub- 

 lished in Engineering) he attempted to express the 

 results in the form of a characteristic equation. This 

 I for him the James Forrest medal and the 

 Millet prize of the Institution of Civil Engineers and 

 the sil medal of the Birmingham Society of En- 

 gineers hen proceeded to an original experi- 



mental in. inn of the pressures in centrifugal 



pumps will ji , i of testing the theory, embody- 



ing the results 1 a thesis for which he was awarded 

 the degree of M.Sc. in Rirmingham University. At 

 the outbreak of war he joined the Birmingham Uni- 

 versity O.T.C., anil in 10,15 was given a commission 

 in the East Angli; ional Engineers. He saw- 



service with the 54th Division in Gallipoli, and later 

 in France. 



The Tokyo Societ} of Naval Architects has recently 



(July, [918) published th( id part of Mr. Shinji 



Nisnimura's "Study of the \ncienl Ships of Japan." 

 It deals with the Hisago-Bune 1 gourd ship." From 

 a comparative study of Japanese and Korean myths 

 ds, and of the survival ol thi use of the 

 gourd 1;\ . t lain women who fish F01 ' ■ ar-shells " 



:555, vol. 102] 



on the coasts of Korea, Japan, anil Chyqi-jyn Island, 

 Mr. Nishimura arrives at the conclusion that in ancient 

 times gourds were used as floats l>\ swimmers and 

 for rendering rafts buoyant. He 'insists upon the 

 essentia] identity of these practices with the customs 

 which still persist upon certain of the rivers of India 

 and Mesopotamia, and suggests that the Japanese and 

 Korean "gourd ship" is ih, Far Eastern modification 

 of a device originally invented upon the hanks of the 

 Tigris and Euphrates. The influence of Indian and 

 Egyptian methods of shipbuilding in eastern Asia has 

 lone been recognised; and ii is of special interest 



I" not, that Bab Ionia has added a definite contribu- 

 tion to this easti rly drift of sea-borne culture. 



A "rad in 1 aeroplane" was described by Drs. 



Nemirowski and Tilmant before the Academy of 

 Medicine of Paiis at a meeting on September 3. It 

 contains three places for the pilot, surgeon, and radio- 

 grapher, and is vided with a generator for Rontgen- 



rays, one operating-table for operations performed 

 with the aid of I he rays, surgical instruments, and 

 medicaments. The "Aerochir," as ii is called, is 

 intended to ll\ over the lines of action, ready to alight 

 and render tiist aid to the wounded. The- invention 

 should hi' invaluable, provided, however, that it is not 

 regarded lev the- enemy as a target for his lire-. 



In continuation of his "Studies in Paleopathology," 

 Prof. Roy L. Moodie cites numerous cases in which 

 the- condition known medically as opisthotonos appears 

 to have set in at the time of death of fossil verte- 

 brates (American Naturalist, vol. Hi., p. 3S4, [918). 

 Some very familiar specimens, such as the Berlin 

 Archaeopteryx and the one complete example of 

 Compsognathus, are included. The tetanic spasm has 

 given "a peculiar curve to the backwardly bent neck " 

 in these and other cases. The whole attitude of 

 Osborn's Struthiomimus altus in the American 

 Museum, including the contracted toes, provides a 

 powerful example of this contention. The author 

 urges that while some cases may merely represent 

 the final struggle before the moment of death, others 

 strongly suggest a cerebro-spinal or other intra- 

 cranial infection. 



It is well known that the late Prof. Adam Sedgwick 

 held somewhat unusual views with regard to what is 

 commonly known as the "cell theory," and that these 

 views were largely derived from his own investigation 

 of the early development of Peripatus capensis. He 

 maintained that in the young embryo the cell- 

 boundaries were not properly defined — in fact, that tin 

 embryo formed a kind of syncytium with embedded 

 nuclei. The precise knowledge which we already pos- 

 sessed of the segmentation of the egg and the forma- 

 tion of the germinal layers in other animals, even 

 at the time he wrote, rendered it highly improbable 

 that Peripatus formed an exception to the general 

 rule; and Miss Edith H. Glen has rendered good 

 service in demonstrating that Sedgwick's observations 

 were inaccurate, and that, by appropriate methods, 

 cell-boundaries can be demonstrated in the early 

 embryo of Peripatus capensis as in other cases. Miss 

 Glen's paper, published in the Quarterly Journal of 

 Microscopical ■ !,u,e (vol. Ixiii., part 2), also refutes 

 S.dgwick's views as to the nature of the nephridia in 

 Peripatus, and confirms tin- statement of Kennel that, 

 as in tin- Annelids, they are of ectodermal origin. 



In vol. lxvii. of the Archives Italiennes de Biologie 



Majoi (a nielli, director of the psycho-physiological 

 label atoi v at Padusr, gives an interesting account of 

 the- methods employed by the Italian authorities in 

 the selection of aviators. \. regards the psycho- 



