452 
NATURE 
[DeceMBER 18, 1913 
For the case of light reflected from the inside of 
the glass plate the evidence to be obtained from 
colour is too vague to admit of definite statements. 
I have not therefore attempted it. 
Brown University, Providence, U.S.A. 
Car. Barus. 
Fractured Flints from Selsey. 
I Am astonished to read in the abstract of the Pro- 
ceedings of the Geological Society of London, No. 947, 
giving an account of the meeting held on November 
19. 1913, the following statement :— 
“Prof. Sollas exhibited a series of specimens to 
illustrate the production of ‘rostro-carinate’ forms 
of flint by natural agencies. . . . The great majority 
were obtained by Mr. E. Heron-Allen from the beach 
of Selsey Bill, and it was to these that attention was 
especially directed. If they were all of human work- 
manship—Sir E. Ray Lankester’s contention—there 
would be no difficulty in accounting for the characters 
which they possess in common.” 
I do not know whether Prof. Sollas is responsible 
for these words or not. But, in any case, I must 
state in the most unqualified way that they contain 
an assertion which is absolutely contrary to fact. I 
have never published any “‘contention’’ about flints 
from Selsey Bill, excepting a brief description in my 
paper in the Phil. Trans., Series B, vol. 202 (read on 
November 16, 1911), of one large rostro-carinate im- 
plement and one large pyramidal hammer-stone from 
that locality. To this brief description follows the 
remark : ‘‘ Other specimens of a less decisive character 
have been found.” 
The assertion that it is my contention that any of 
the flints (much less ‘‘all”’?) obtained by Mr. Heron- 
Allen, which I have examined, excepting the two 
briefly described by me, are of human workmanship 
is the creation of Prof. Sollas’s imagination. I should 
be glad if Prof. Sollas would state where and when 
I have been guilty of the contention which, according 
to the Geological Society’s report of his communica- 
tion, he does not hesitate to attribute to me. I, of 
course, do not suppose that Prof. Sollas attributes 
a rash ‘“‘contention ’’ to me in order that he may have 
the satisfaction of showing it to be rash, and such 
as to render what I really have said unlikely to be 
well founded. At the same time, I think I am entitled 
to call upon Prof. Sollas either to cite ‘‘chapter and 
verse’’ in which I have made the specific contention 
which he supposes I have made, or to express some 
regret for a misrepresentation which I can only 
account for by a regrettable lapse of attention on his 
part in the conduct of an important scientific dis- 
cussion. E, Ray Lanxester. 
December 3. 
I HASTEN to express my extreme regret at having 
attributed to Sir E. Ray Lankester an opinion which 
he does not hold. 
In the quotation he gives from his paper in the 
Philosophical Transactions, Sir E. Ray Lankester 
omits the concluding sentence, ‘‘I hope to publish 
figures of the Selsey Bill specimens at no distant 
date." I understood this (naturally it seems to me) 
to apply to all the specimens, and thus concluded that 
the difference between the more and the ‘Tess 
decisive ’’ was not so important as, upon the omission 
of the concluding sentence, it appears to be. 
When [ selected from Mr. Heron-Allen’s collection 
some of his best specimens, by no means all, he 
assured the that they had been examined by Sir E. 
Ray Lankester, and pronounced by him to be of 
human workmanship, a judgment which appeared 
to me so natural and consistent with Sir E. Ray 
NO. 2303, VOL. 92] 
Lankester’s point of view that no suspicion of a 
misunderstanding crossed my mind. Had I been in 
doubt I should have taken the precaution to ascertain 
from Sir E. Ray Lankester his opinion beforehand. ~ 
I am glad that Sir E. Ray Lankester acquits me 
of any intentional unfairness. I thought, and still 
think, that of the alternatives I proposed, the one 
I unfortunately attributed to him was the more logic- 
ally defensible, but in this again I may be mistaken: 
I have written to the secretary of the Geological 
Society requesting him to correct my statement and 
to add an expression of my regret to be published in 
the Quarterly Journal of the society. 
December 7. W. J. SOLtas. ” 
The Structure of the Atom. 
I concur with Prof. Rutherford (Nature, December 
II, p. 423) that the work by Moseley in the current 
number of the Philosophical Magazine, which was 
not published, and was quite unknown to me when 
I wrote my letter (NATURE, December 4, p. 399), is an 
important independent confirmation by new physical 
methods of van der Broek’s suggestion. As, however, 
in a paper published eight months previously (Jahr. 
Radioaktivitat und Elektronik., 1913, X., 193), 1 had 
represented in a diagram the places in the periodic 
table from uranium to thallium, with the mass as the 
ordinate and the charge as the abscissa, showing that 
there is unit difference of charge between successive 
places, I wish to take exception to Prof. Rutherford’s 
statement ‘‘that the strongest and most convincing 
evidence’ in support of van der Broek’s hypothesis 
will be found in Moseley’s paper. The view had 
already been far more simply and convincingly estab- 
lished from the chemical examination of the properties 
of the radio-elements, notably by A. Fleck in this 
laboratory. Moseley’s conclusions are a welcome con- 
firmation, by an independent method, for another part 
of the periodic table. It can only be described as the 
strongest and most convincing evidence if the prior 
chemical evidence is altogether ignored. 
FREDERICK SODDY. 
Physical Chemistry Laboratory, University of 
Glasgow, December 12. 
The Occurrence of Pilchards in the Eastern Half of 
the English Ghannel. 
Ir is now generally recognised by those who have 
been interested in the question, that the inshore migra- 
tion of pilchards in the western fishery area during 
the summer and autumn of the present year, has 
presented certain features, which may possibly be 
attributed to somewhat unusual conditions of food 
supply and other determining factors. It is therefore 
a matter of some importance to note that according 
to the statement of local fishermen, occasional catches 
of some thousands of pilchards have been made in 
drift nets off Brighton, Ramsgate, Deal, &c., for 
several months past. : 
In the early part of September we examined at 
Brighton some specimens taken from a catch of about 
four thousand, and now within the past fortnight, by 
the courtesy of Mr. E. W. Cowley. the superintendent 
of the Brighton Marine Aquarium, we have been 
enabled to ascertain that the fish were still present in 
the same area. For according to the statement of 
this gentleman a catch of three thousand was made 
by a local drifter about two miles off Brighton on 
November 27, three specimens of which we examined 
and found to be males with generative organs in 
“‘half-ripe ’’ condition. Haro_pD SwitHINBANK. 
G. E. BuLien. 
London, December to. 
