OcToBER 9, 1913] 
NATURE 
Tue Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has issued 
a ‘Horses (Importation and Transit) Order of 1913” 
in accordance with powers conferred by the Diseases 
of Animals Acts, 1894 to 1911. The Order came into 
force on October 1; it provides for the proper ac- 
commodation of horses, asses, and mules on all 
vessels on which such animals are carried to or from 
any port in Great Britain, and for the proper con- 
struction of railway trucks used for conveying such 
animals in Great Britain. Provision is made for the 
proper feeding and watering at places of unloading 
and during transit. It is made illegal to convey any 
horse, ass, or mule by boat or train if, in the opinion 
of an inspector of the Board and notified by him, the 
animal cannot, owing to infirmity, illness, injury, 
fatigue, or any other cause, be so carried without un- 
necessary suffering. .The above regulations, together 
with instructions as to disinfection, &c., have all been 
provided for by previous Orders, which have been 
revoked and re-enacted in the present Order. The 
principal reason for the present Order is to provide 
the following most necessary amendment, namely, 
that horses, asses, and mules brought to Great Britain 
from abroad are required henceforth to be accom- 
panied by a veterinary certificate of freedom from 
symptoms of glanders (including farcy), epizootic 
lymphangitis, ulcerative lymphangitis, dourine, horse- 
pox, sarcoptic mange, psoroptic mange, influenza, 
ringworm, or strangles, instead of as heretofore from 
symptoms of glanders (including farcy) only. 
WE have to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of 
a pamphlet issued by the Department of Lands and 
Survey, Victoria, on ‘various methods of destroying 
rabbits and other ‘‘ vermin” employed in that colony, 
and also containing the regulations with regard to 
fences of wire-netting. 
Tue National Equine Defence League has issued a 
fourth edition of a pamphlet on docking and nicking 
horses. The fact that Parliament has passed a law, 
to come into operation on January 1, 1915, making 
the practice of ‘docking "’ horses illegal, and that the 
purchase of docked remounts for the army is to be 
discontinued as soon as practicable, seems to render 
the pamphlet somewhat superfluous—at any rate, in 
this country. 
WE have been favoured with an extract from Neue 
Weltanschaung for 1913, Heft 913 (pp. 321-332), in 
which Dr. W. Breitenbuch directs attention to the 
fact that the present year is the jubilee (fiftieth year) 
of Prof. Ernst Haeckel’s work on evolution. The 
article includes a chronological account of the learned 
professor’s studies during that long period, with brief 
notes on the numerous memoirs and works which have 
made his name famous. 
To the series of biographical memoirs issued by the 
National Academy of Sciences, Washington, Prof. 
H. F. Osborn has contributed an exceedingly interest- 
ing account of the life and work of Prof. Joseph 
Leidy, the founder of vertebrate palzontology in 
America, and the last great naturalist of the type 
‘who made the entire subject of zoology their study, 
and published papers and works of permanent value 
NO. 2293, VOL. 92| 
175 
in almost every branch. That such encyclopzdic 
knowledge and broad grasp of the whole field of 
natural history can, as his biographer remarks, never 
reappear, is a matter for regret, as. the specialised 
lines on which zoology is now, from necessity, studied 
cannot fail, in many cases at any rate, to result in 
narrowness of view. Although his study of the 
rhizopods was sufficient of itself to establish a great 
reputation, Leidy will chiefly be remembered as a 
palzontologist, and especially by his descriptions of 
Poébrotherium and the so-called oreodonts, or 
“ruminating hogs,’’ which paved the way for the dis- 
covery of the phylogeny of the camels and other 
artiodactyle ungulates. 
To vol. vii., part 2, of Annotationes Zoologicae Japon- 
enses Mr. B. Aoki contributes a list of Japanese and 
Formosan mammals. The island of Saghalien is also 
stated to come within the scope of the list, but no 
mention is made in the introduction that Korea 
is likewise included, although in the text we 
find (p. 272) a Korean shrew. On the _ other 
hand, Korea is not in the range of the tiger 
(p. 312), although the animal abounds in that country. 
The total number of forms, inclusive of subspecies, is 
197. If trustworthy, the identification of three foxes 
with American, rather than with Asiatic or European, 
races is of considerable interest; but it may be noted 
that one of these races—the black or silver fox (Vulpes 
pennsylvanicus argentatus)—is not recognised as such 
in Mr. G. S. Miller’s list of North American mam- 
mals (1912). In a footnote on p. 317 ‘ Arctocyonide"’ 
should be ‘‘Arctoidea+Cynoidea.’"’ Mammals _col- 
lected in Korea form the subject of an article by 
Messrs. Allen and Andrews in Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. 
Hist., vol. xxxii. (pp. 427-36). In connection with the 
above may be noted a paper by Messrs. Jordan and 
Thompson on fishes from the island of Shikoku, 
Japan, published as No. 2011 of the Proceedings of 
the U.S. National Museum. 
Tue Proceedings of the South London Entomo- 
logical and Natural History Society for the past year 
contain matter of much interest, and give proof of 
continued activity on the part of the members of this 
well-known association of naturalists. Mr, A. E. 
Tonge’s presidential address, delivered at the begin- 
ning of the present year, includes some excellent 
observations on the external characters of British 
lepidopterous ova. Mr. R. Adkin’s communication on 
the subject of varietal names is marked by strong 
common sense, and the same may be said of his paper 
on the labelling of entomological specimens—a matter 
that was often neglected by the naturalists of a former 
generation, to the detriment of many results of their 
labours. Mr. A. E. Gibbs’s paper on the genus 
Ccenonympha gave occasion for some interesting ex- 
hibits of the local variation to which species of that 
genus are subject. A useful account, well illustrated 
by photographs and drawings, of the British species 
of Forficulodea is contributed by Mr. W. J. Lucas. 
Perhaps the most important of the papers printed in 
extenso is Mr. C. J. Gahan’s excellent memoir on 
mimicry in the Coleoptera. The author is a well- 
known authority on this order, and the great extent 
