304 
NATURE 
[JANUARY 28, 1904 
enteric fever and other illness are caused by the consump- 
tion of shell-fish which have been exposed to sewage con- 
tamination. Of the remedies suggested, the opinion is 
expressed that no general enactment as to the treatment of 
sewage before its discharge into tidal waters or as to the 
seizure of unwholesome food would meet the necessities of 
the case, but that the remedy must be sought in connection 
with the waters, foreshores, pits, ponds, and layings them- 
selves. It is considered that the only way in which the 
evil can be effectively dealt with is by placing tidal waters 
under the jurisdiction of some competent authority, and 
conferring on that authority power to prevent the taking 
of shell-fish for human consumption from any position in 
which they are liable to risk of dangerous contamination, 
and to enforce restrictions as regards pollution and as 
regards the waters, beds, &c., in which shell-fish are 
fattened or stored. At the end of the report several pages 
are devoted to a consideration of the bacteriological methods 
employed in the examination of shell-fish. It is stated that 
Dr. sclouston, the bacteriologist to the Commission, has 
examined more than 1000 oysters, some taken from the 
purest waters in the country, and has found that nearly all, 
from whatever laying, contain the Bacillus coli. Doubt is 
therefore raised as to the value that may attach to the 
B. coli test, and it is considered that further research is 
necessary in order to establish a bacteriological standard 
of purity. 
In the December issue of the Proceedings of the American 
Academy (vol. xxxix., No. 10) Mr. F. C. Carlton records 
the results of experiments with regard to the cause and 
nature of the periodical colour-change in the skin of the 
Florida chameleon-iguana (Anolis carolinensis). The 
extreme variations in the colour of this lizard are dark 
brown and pea-green, the former (in captive specimens at 
any rate) assumed in daylight and the latter at night. The 
brown condition is produced by the migration of pigment- 
granules from the centre to the terminal branches and pro- 
cesses of the “‘ melanophores,’’ the green stage, which is 
one of rest, being the result of the withdrawal of the same 
granules to the centre of the latter bodies. In three funda- 
mental points the colour-change differs from that of the 
true chameleons. 
“ce 
Tue November (1903) issue of the American Naturalist 
contains the second of the series of articles on the adapt- 
ations of mammals to particular modes of life, the present 
section, by Mr. L. I. Dublin, dealing with arboreal types. 
With the exception of the Monotremata, all the terrestrial 
orders have arboreal representatives, the number of such 
forms being greatest in the Chiroptera (where all adopt this 
mode of life) and Primates, and least in the Ungulata, 
where there are only the tree-hyraces. Arboreal mammals 
may be divided into two main groups, in the first of which 
terrestrial progression is retained in a greater or less degree, 
while in the second it is wholly lost. Among the modifi- 
cations for this kind of life, in addition to those of the feet 
and tail, the author specially notices the frequent increase 
of the number of the vertebra, and the development of 
dermal spines and scales, as in the Anomaluride and 
Gymnura, which aid in climbing. The inclusion of the 
latter genus among arboreal mammals appears to indicate 
some new information in the possession of the author. 
Tue Journal of the Royal Statistical Society for December 
31, 1903, contains an important paper on the metric 
system by Mr. Alexander Siemens, together with a re- 
port of the discussion. It is illustrated by tables show- 
NO. 1787, Vol. 69] 
ing the trade of metrical and non-metrical countries for 
the year 1900, that year marking a culminating point in 
most countries. Mr. Siemens puts forward powerful argu- 
ments in favour of adopting the metric system, and con- 
cludes by saying that ‘‘ it is quite certain that the action 
of Great Britain in this matter would immediately be 
followed by Greater Britain, the United States, and Russia, 
so that international unity of weights and measures would 
become an accomplished fact for which James Watt started 
his agitation 120 years ago.”’ 
We have received the ‘‘ Naturalist’s Directory ’’ for 
1904-5 from Mr. L. Upcott Gill, by whom the annual is 
published. It gives the names and addresses of naturalists, 
natural history agents, societies, field clubs and museums 
of the British Isles, and the information has been corrected 
to the present date. 
Dr. A. Lawrence Rorcu writes to correct the following 
mistakes made by him in his letter on ‘‘ The Unusual Sky 
Colours and the Atmospheric Circulation,’’ published in 
Nature of December 24, 1903 (p. 173). In the first para- 
graph, line twenty-four, for ‘* southern ’’ read ‘‘ northern,”’ 
and in the second paragraph, line eight, for “‘ unlike ’’ read 
like: 
” 
Tue new edition of Hazell’s ‘‘ Annual ’’—that for 190q4— 
is the nineteenth issue of this valuable book of reference. 
As usual, the alphabetical arrangement is adopted, but this 
year many of the separate entries of former years have been 
collected in the form of more complete articles. Thus the 
information given respecting scientific societies and the 
advances made in various branches of scientific knowledge 
during 1903 is brought together in a convenient manner 
in some thirteen successive pages. A complete index much 
assists reference to the large amount of statistical and other 
information given in the volume. 
~ Tue Natural History Society of Northumberland, 
Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, held a conversazione on 
January 19 at the Hancock Museum, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 
Experimental and lantern demonstrations in a variety of 
subjects were given during the evening. These and the 
exhibitions included :—the inactive atmospheric gases; their 
spectra and some of the apparatus used in determining 
their physical properties, by Sir William Ramsay; objects 
illustrating certain properties of the emanations of radium, 
by Sir William Crookes; the bactericidal emanations from 
radium, by Mr. Henry Crookes; models of turbine 
machinery from the Parsons’ Marine Steam Turbine Co., 
Ltd., and many others. The meeting was an excellent in- 
dication of the interest in scientific research which exists in 
this northern district. 
In the Sitsungsberichte of the Vienna Academy of 
Sciences Dr. Langstein gives an account of his researches 
on the carbohydrates of serum-globulin. The experiments 
establish the fact that d-glucose is one of the primary de~- 
composition products of blood-globulin, and the existence 
of a close relationship between albumen and glycogen is 
shown. Reference is made to the possible connectior 
between the observed facts and the abnormal physiological 
processes taking place in cases of diabetes. 
IN a paper entitled ‘‘ An Enquiry into the Working of 
Various Water-softeners,’’ read before the Institution 
of Mechanical Engineers on December 18, 1903, Messrs- 
Stromeyer and Baron describe and illustrate by means of 
diagrams seventeen continuous water-softeners. Analyses 
