512 
NATURE 
[Marcit 31, 1904 
the larynx is closed in the inspiratory phase, and parts of 
the transversalis and rectus abdominis are attached directly 
or indirectly to the pulmonary roots. 
Thus parts of the muscles of the amphibian trunk become 
inspiratory in action, for they contract during the inspiratory 
phase and tend by their contraction to enlarge the pulmonary 
space. If, then, the larynx were to be opened in this 
phase, air would be drawn within the lungs (regulated in 
its rate of inflow by the laryngeal, tracheal and bronchial 
musculature), and a thoracic type of respiration would be 
thus evolved. Thus the minor movements which occur in 
amphibians when the lungs are filled with air are evidently 
the precursors of the normal respiratory movements of 
reptiles, birds and mammals. 
One other point in connection with the respiration of the 
frog may be mentioned; it has not received the attention 
it deserves. The air which the frog breathes is a mixture 
of the air just expired with a fresh supply drawn within 
its mouth. Further, I believe it never empties its lungs 
completely in expiration. Thus the air within the lungs 
is always a highly impure air. That is also the case with 
the air within the pulmonary alveoli of mammals, birds 
and reptiles. The explanation I offer is that when air 
breathing vertebrates were evolved from water breathing 
forms, the oxygen of the atmosphere had to be diluted to 
a proportion more nearly corresponding with the amount 
held in water, to which the system of branchial breathing 
forms were adapted. A. KEITH. — 
London Hospital Medical College, E. 
Degradation of Elements. 
A STATEMENT reported as having been made by Sir 
William, Ramsay, that radium breaks down into helium, 
has been received with a chorus of wonder as something 
absolutely new. May I point out that in Nature, October 
10, 1889, p. 584, you have something very similar, in an 
account of some observations on gases in sealed tubes, 
communicated by the late Prof. Piazzi-Smyth to the British 
Association in 1889. 
The whole of the paper is astounding, stating as it does 
that many substances break down into hydrogen, but 
perhaps the most remarkable part is :—‘‘ Again, an iodine 
tube which had a comparatively large quantity of solid 
iodine granules introduced into, and sealed up in, its interior 
eleven years ago, and showed then a splendid spectrum of 
148 measured iodine lines, extending discontinuously from 
red to violet, and had nothing else save these very faint, 
puny images of the three principal lines of hydrogen— 
this tube, in 1889, has not a single iodine line now left; 
but its spectrum, which is now brighter than ever, is com- 
posed of nothing but hydrogen lines, so that the once solid 
iodine granules would seem to be partly changed into 
hydrogen, and partly deposited on the inside of the tube 
as a yellow haze, besides leaving a trifle of loose dust.”’ 
When in 1894 I saw this quoted in Preston’s ‘‘ Theory 
of Heat,’’ I thought it momentous, and wondered why it 
had not been followed up and more made. 
_ Some to whom I have mentioned it consider that it comes 
in the same category as the alleged complete metalepsis of 
manganese acetate communicated by Wohler to Liebig’s 
Annalen, vol. xxxiii. p. 308. S. H. Woo.tnouse. 
Parmiter’s School, Victoria Park, N.E., March 14. 
I otmixx it was generally believed that Prof. 
Piazzi-Smyth’s results were due to the iodine being 
absorbed by, and the hydrogen being evolved from, the 
electrodes. There are many other recorded transform- 
ations, among them Dr. Samuel Brown’s conversion of 
carbon into boron (or vice versd, I forget which). The 
difference between the more recent work and the earlier 
consists in the fact that the transformation of radium eman- 
ation into helium is accompanied by a great energy change, 
while we do not know that the former supposed transform- 
ations are. 
Although in all probability the result would be negative, 
the re-investigation of the old recorded cases is not to be 
discouraged. Witiiam Ramsay. 
University College, London. 
NO. 1796, VOL. 69] 
Remarkable Destruction of Birds in Cardigan Bay. 
Tue following incident, which has excited much interest 
here, seems to me to be of more than local interest, and to 
be worthy of record in the columns of NaTuRE. 
On Friday, March 18, many of my pupils in the Pwllheli 
County School, on returning from dinner at 2 p.m., in- 
formed me that ‘‘ hundreds and thousands’’ of birds— 
starlings, thrushes, blackbirds, woodcock and snipe—had 
just been cast upon the shore at high tide. 
Further, that, during the small hours of the morning, 
large numbers had fallen ‘‘ dead beat ’’ upon the deck of 
a vessel entering the harbour, and also that some had fallen, 
in a helpless and dying condition, among, and even upon 
the backs of, workmen employed at the granite quarries on 
the Gimblet Rock. At first I was naturally somewhat 
sceptical, but on inquiry in several quarters 1 found that 
my informants had correctly stated the case, and that large 
numbers of birds—all land-birds, be it noted—had been 
found all along the coast from a point some distance east 
of the town so far as Aberdaron, several miles to the west. 
The theories put forward to account for the occurrence were 
many and varied. Some held that electricity was to be 
held accountable—either the ordinary atmospheric sort or 
that uncanny variety manipulated by Mr. Marconi. Others 
suggested, in all seriousness, a special miraculous inter- 
vention of Providence, on the ground that the frost this 
year had not killed a sufficient number of the feathered 
tribe ! 
On the following day I visited the shore with the view 
of finding some clue to the mystery. I found enough to 
lead me to believe the following to be the simplest explan- 
ation. The warm weather and copious rains of the last 
few days must have melted large masses of snow on 
Snowdon and neighbouring ranges. This may have caused 
in some of the valleys opening out into Cardigan Bay a 
flood of sufficient magnitude to carry away bushes and 
trees on the banks of the swollen mountain torrents. 
Assuming this to have occurred during the night—moon- 
less, starless and possibly foggy—it is conceivable that birds 
roosting in the branches would cling to them and be carried 
out to sea. At dawn, finding themselves literally and 
metaphorically ‘‘ at sea,’’ the birds would fly hither and 
thither, and finally sink exhausted. A strong easterly breeze 
then prevalent would account for the rest. There was, in 
my opinion, abundant evidence of a flood. In addition to 
the birds (thrushes, starlings and blackbirds, according to 
my personal observations) lying about three feet, vertically, 
above the ordinary high-water mark—the Friday mid-day 
tide being a spring tide—I found many twigs and a few 
good-sized branches of alder and willow, besides a branch 
of a pruned apple tree. Several onions and some cabbages 
were lying at the same level as the birds, together with a 
square wicker basket with rope handles. The latter prob- 
ably indicate a flooded garden, which may enable us later 
to localise the flood. 
The main difficulty to my mind lies in the failure of the 
birds to leave their drifting perch before getting out to 
sea. Perhaps some readers of Nature better acquainted 
with bird life than myself may be able to throw light on 
this remarkable occurrence. 
C. W. Hersert GREAVES. 
The County School, Pwllheli, N. Wales, March 21. 
Distribution of the Nightingale. 
Tue fact that the distribution of the nightingale is re- 
stricted to the drier parts of these islands is well known, but 
the causes of this are obscure. If an excessive amount of 
rain be one of them, it is probable that last summer would 
have had the effect of reducing the number of young birds, 
and consequently of the immigrants of this spring: I 
should therefore be much obliged to any of your readers 
who live in a nightingale country if they will inform me 
towards May 1 whether they observe any difference in the 
number of these birds. 
I may mention that the nuthatch, a bird which, though 
not altogether migratory, has a similar range (I have never 
met with it in North Wales, where I lived many years), has 
disappeared from here entirely this winter, though it was 
abundant in former winters. ALFRED O. WALKER. 
Ulcombe, Maidstone, March 19, 
