DECEMBER 3, 1896] 
NATURE 
109 
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Marquis of Tweeddale) said, if the funds permitted, the claims of 
Edinburgh would probably be considered by the Committee. 
Subscriptions will be invited to carry out these resolutions. 
Dr. BAUMANN, whose death we announced last week, was 
professor of medical chemistry at the University of Freiburg in 
Baden. He was (says the Zamcet) the son of a chemist, and 
served the full period of a pharmaceutical apprenticeship, after 
which he entered the Technical College of Stuttgart in order to 
complete his studies in chemistry, physics, and natural science. 
In Tiibingen, where he went to take his diploma, the celebrated 
physiologist, Hoppe-Seyler, recognised the great talent of the 
young man, and not only made him his assistant, but when Prof. 
Hoppe-Seyler had been elected to the professorship at the Uni- 
versity of Strassburg in Alsace, in 1872, Baumann accompanied 
him thither. In 1879 he was made director of the chemical 
department of the new Physiological Institute of Berlin, and in 
1882 he became ordinary professor of medical chemistry in Frei- 
burg, where he remained till his death on November 2. Prof. 
Baumann’s work included researches on the subject of meta- 
bolism and on cystin. He was the discoverer of the specific 
action of sulphonal and trional, and also of the presence of 
iodine in the thyroid gland, this last being one of his latest and 
most notable achievements. He was only forty-nine years of 
-age at the time of his death. 
Mr. S. STAINER sends us a further communication on his 
observations of swallows at Southampton, up to the end of 
November. He saw these birds on twelve separate days, from 
November 6 to November 25, the highest number (ten) occurring 
on November 12, and the lowest (one) on November 25. The 
weather for the first three weeks of last month was very mild, 
and it is suggested that during that period the insects upon 
which swallows feed were present in the air. The east wind, 
which prevailed during the last week of the month, may have 
so reduced the food supply as to force migration upon the birds. 
Ar the Royal Societies Club on Monday, Dr. John Murray, 
F.R.S., editor of the ‘* Cha//enger Reports ” and naturalist on the 
expedition, was presented by the contributors to the various 
sectional reports, with an album containing their portraits. 
‘The album is a very handsome volume bound in morocco, with 
illuminated address and dedication plate designed by Mr. Walter 
Crane. It contains eighty-six portraits. The *motzf of the 
design adopted for the cover is deep-sea and other animals 
collected by the expedition. The chair was taken by Sir 
Clements Markham, K.C.B., F.R.S. (President of the Club), 
and the presentation made by the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing, 
SBR: 9: 
ALL who have attempted to determine a miscellaneous 
collection of fossils from any geological formation have soon 
discovered the difficulty of affixing correct names to all the 
specimens, and if they have been doing this work with the object 
of publishing some paper, either dealing with the stratigraphy of 
a district, or attempting to correlate geological horizons in 
different parts of the world, they have probably given the task 
up in despair. A few, no doubt, have been fortunate in 
possessing friends, whose knowledge of particular groups of 
fossils could be drawn upon. But it is not always that one 
knows the best person to apply to, or that one can be certain of 
a favourable reception. Natural Sczence, in its December 
number, has published a list of twenty-six specialists who are 
willing to determine various groups of fossils from various 
strata, when requested to do so for purposes of publication, and 
this enterprising action will doubtless be welcomed by many 
4ocal geologists. We hope that this list is only a first instal- 
anent, for there certainly appears to be a large number of groups 
No. 1414, VOL. 55] 
of fossils in which no one is prepared to pose as an authority. 
We should have thought that some one might have been 
found for the trilobites, the belemnites, or the palaozoic 
brachiopods. Obviously, if any one wishes to take up the 
study of some special division of paleontology, he need not 
be deterred by the lack of an opening. 
THERE has recently been launched in France a novel kind of 
vessel, named the Zrvwest Bazin, after the name of the inventor. 
This vessel, which is only a large model, is intended to demon- 
strate the feasibility of driving steamers through the water at high 
speeds without increasing the engine power, and consequently 
the quantity of coal required beyond practical mercantile limits. 
The inventor considers that it is possible, with vessels designed 
on his principle, measuring between 400 and 500 feet in length, 
to realise, with a consumption of 800 tons of coal, a speed of 
thirty knots, which means that the voyage from this country to 
America could be accomplished in 100 hours. As a comparison 
with this, vessels of the type of the Campanta use between 
3000 and 4000 tons of coal to attain a speed of twenty-two knots, 
and if this speed were increased to thirty knots, there would be 
required for each voyage 70,000 tons. This result is to be 
attained by constructing the vessel on a series of large hollow 
wheels or rollers, which are to be made to revolve. In the 
model there are three rollers on each side, the vessel itself being 
carried on a framework resting on the axles of the rollers. 
The rolling motion of these wheels offers much less resistance in 
displacing the water than the propulsion of a fixed body through 
it. The rotation of the floating wheels has the effect of trans- 
forming fixed into moving elements, each point of which flies 
before the resistance of the water in proportion to the advance of 
the float, the resistance consequently becoming lessened. By 
experiments, M. Bazin has shown with small models that when 
a vessel, designed on his principle, is moved through the water 
with the rollers fixed, it will be brought up by an object of 
sufficient size floating on the water coming in contact with the 
rollers. Whereas, when the rollers are made to revolve, it will 
pass over the obstacle without loss of speed, the obstruction 
sinking in the water and returning to the surface after the roller 
has passed. The possibility of building a roller-ship has been 
practically demonstrated. It remains yet to be seen what the 
effect will be as to speed and other conditions. 
Ir is a popular idea that the seeds of many plants pass 
unharmed through the digestive canal of birds, and, being voided 
with the excrements, reach the ground in a peculiarly favourable 
condition for germination ; and this is generally believed to be 
especially the case with the mistletoe, the seeds, in this case, 
being deposited on the branches of the tree on which the 
mistletoe is parasitic. Ina paper contributed to the Transactions 
of the Linnean Society, Mr. F. W. Keeble shows that this is at 
all events not universally the case with the Loranthacee, 
especially with the Cingalese species of Loranthus. The species 
of this genus with tubular flowers which are natives of Ceylon 
are ornithophilous, the bird most effective in their pollination 
being a honey-bird, a species of Nectarinia. In the large- 
flowered species, the buds remain closed ; but, when tapped, the 
corolla-lobes fly open with an explosion, and the pollen is 
scattered. The closing of the flower-buds appears to serve the 
purpose of protecting the pollen against rain, while the violent 
expulsion of the pollen aids in its carriage by the visiting birds, 
their beaks being frequently found to be covered with pollen 
after visiting the flowers. When the fruit is ripe, the bird eats 
the succulent portion only, wiping out the seeds with its beak 
on to a branch of the tree, to which they thus become attached 
by their viscid coating. If swallowed, the seeds are found to 
be digested and destroyed. 
