SEPTEMBER 25, 1913] 
The museum is to occupy the old palace known as 
the house of Don Diego Colon. The sum of 20,000 
dollars has been appropriated by the National Con- 
gress for repairing the building. 
TueErE is no doubt as to the efficiency of the radium 
emanations in the cure of certain forms of superficial 
cancer, ulcers, &c. It is now stated that the emana- 
tions of mesothorium, derived from the waste in the 
manufacture of incandescent gas mantles, possess 
similar properties, but in an enhanced degree, and 
efforts are being made to prepare a sufficient supply 
of the material so that a thorough trial of it may be 
made. 
WE notice with regret the death, on September 18, 
at eighty-five years of age, of Mr. Samuel Roberts, 
F.R.S., president of the London Mathematical Society 
from 1880 to’ 1882, and De Morgan medallist in 1896. 
Another well-known mathematician whose death, on 
September 19, is announced is Mr. John Greaves, 
bursar and senior mathematical lecturer at Christ’s 
College, Cambridge, and author of “A Treatise on 
Elementary Statics.”’ 
Tue death is announced, at the age of sixty-seven, 
of the eminent French surgeon, Prof. Antonin Poncet, 
who in 1882 was appointed to the chair of operative 
medicine at Lyons, and in 1895 was elected to the 
Academy of Medicine. He was the author of many 
medical works dealing with diseases of the bones, 
and was well known for his investigations into the 
cause of death of Napoleon, Richelieu, Rousseau, and 
many other famous men. 
Ir was briefly announced in our issue for Septem- 
ber 11, that the importation into the United States of 
the plumage of wild birds, raw or manufactured, save 
for scientific or educational purposes, is by the new 
Tariff Bill prohibited. We now learn from Mr. W. T. 
Hornaday, of the New York Zoological Park, that 
the prohibition movement was inaugurated and 
carried through by the New York Zoological Society 
and the National Association of Audubon Societies. 
It would be well if their example were copied in this 
and other countries. ; 
WE learn from The Pioneer Mail that Sir Aurel 
Stein, K.C.I.E., has been deputed by the Govern- 
ment of India, with the sanction of the Secretary of 
State, to resume his archeological and geographical 
explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China. 
For his journey to the border of Chinese Turkestan 
on the Pamirs Sir Aurel Stein is taking on this 
occasion a route which offers special interest to the 
student of the geography and history of the Hindu 
Kush regions. It leads through the Darel and 
Tangir territories which have not been previously 
visited by a European, and which only recent poli- 
tical developments have brought under British influ- 
ence. The Survey of India Department has deputed 
with Sir Aurel Stein his old travel companion Rai 
Bahadur Lal Singh, and a second surveyor to assist 
him by topographical work. 
As was announced in Nature of September 11, the 
eminent entomologist, Dr. Odo Morannal Reuter, of 
NO. 2291, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
105 
Abo, Finland, Emeritus professor of zoology at 
Helsingfors University, died on September 2 in his 
sixty-fourth year. As an entomologist Prof. Reuter’s 
name was known throughout the world as a leading 
authority on the Hemiptera-Heteroptera, whilst he 
was also a worker in the more obscure groups, the 
Collembola (spring-tails), Psocidaze and Thysanoptera 
(thrips). About five years ago it was learned from 
| Prof. Sahlberg that his colleague, O. M. Reuter, 
had been sadly stricken with blindness, yet, despite 
this great affliction, he plodded on with the aid 
of a secretary, and shortly before his death a 
work—so written—on the habits and instincts of 
solitary insects saw light at Stockholm. His work 
was characteristically thorough, and though his con- 
tribution to zoological literature numbered about 
480 publications, large and small, and included a 
number of works on animal psychology and practical 
entomology, he was also a writer on literary sub- 
jects and a poet of high attainments and merit. In 
this country he will be missed by many, and it is 
pleasing to know that the highest honour British 
entomologists can bestow—the honorary fellowship 
of the, Entomological Society of London—was con- 
ferred upon him in 1906. 
In vol. iii. of the publications of the Babylonian 
section of the University Museum of Pennsylvania 
Mr. J. A. Montgomery contributes an elaborate 
memoir on a collection of Aramaic incantation texts 
from Nippur. These bowls were found above the 
stratum of the Parthian temple, which was destroyed 
and became covered with sand, and was occupied by 
small ascetic communities of Jews and Mandzans, 
probably attracted to this deserted place by motives: 
of religious community life. They appear to date from 
approximately 600 A.p. The importance of the present 
discovery lies in the fact that this bow! magic is in 
part the lineal descendant of ancient Babylonian 
sorcery, while at the same time the unexpected result 
is arrived at that it takes its place in the great field! 
of Hellenistic magic which pervaded the whole of 
the western world at the beginning of the Christian 
era. The monograph is a scholarly piece of work, 
and will be indispensable to all students of Oriental 
magic. 
THe Reading University College Review for 
August, an attractive volume, includes an article on 
bovine tuberculosis in man, by Dr. Stenhouse 
Williams, which gives a good summary of the sub- 
ject. He concludes that the bovine type of tubercle 
bacillus is the cause of one-third of the cases of 
tuberculous disease other than the pulmonary at ages 
o-16 years, which corresponds to about 4000 deaths 
per annum in this country. 
To the July-August issue of Naturen Mr. P. A. Myen 
contributes an illustrated article on remains of the 
mammoth and the musk-ox in Norway, with a dis- 
cussion as to the horizons in which they respectively 
occur. 
WE have received a copy of a fifth edition of the 
late Mr. T. Southwell’s admirable guide to the 
Norwich Castle Museum, brought up to date by Mr. 
> F. Leney, the curator. Among the illustrations are 
