November 9, 1905J 



NA TURK 



experimental botanical gardens, there is a whole class of 

 important questions dealing with the mineral, vegetable, 

 and animal products of the country which is practically 

 left to private individuals for solution. 



Sir Frederick Treves gave the opening address of the 

 winter series of the Edinburgh Philosophical Institutioa 

 on October 31, Lord Rosebery presiding. Sir Frederick's 

 subject was " disease " ; he said that the common con- 

 ception of disease is that it is a calamity, and its end 

 destruction, whereas disease is one of the good gifts, for 

 its motive is always benevolent and protective. He demon- 

 strated his proposition by a number of instances, showing 

 that the phenomena of disease always tend to recovery 

 and repair, though he acknowledged that in the case of 

 malignant disease the assertion could be made that there 

 "was nothing good in it, to which no answer could at 

 present be given. 



Mr. L. W. Lambe, of the Geological Survey of Canada, 

 has favoured us with a copy of a paper, from the Trans- 

 actions of the Royal Society of Canada, on species of 

 Hyracodon and the ancestral horse-like genus Mesohippus 

 from the Oligocene of the Cypress Hills, Assiniboia. 



No. 3 of the Brooklyn, N.Y., Mu;evm News records 

 improvements and additions to the central and children's 

 museums in that city. A special feature is the collection 

 •of insects in the children's museum, this group being re- 

 garded as a peculiarly suitable one for infantile study 

 owing to the number of its representatives and their 

 adaptations to different modes of life. 



Part v. of the first volume of the Records of the 

 Albany Museum contains papers on Hymenoptera by 

 Messrs. Cameron and O'Neil, and two on fossil reptiles 

 and fishes by Dr. R. Broom. Several new generic types 

 of fossil reptiles are described, but their affinities are for 

 the most part doubtful ; the one fossil fish recorded is 

 referred to the European ganoid genus Ccelacanthus. 



An elaborate account of the alimentary tract of the 

 mosquito is contributed by Mr. M. T. Thompson to the 

 Proceedings of the Boston (U.S.A.) Society of Natural 

 History, vol. xxxii., No. 6. The ordinary gnat (Culex 

 pipiens) and two other species of the same genus afforded 

 material for the investigation, Anopheles not being 

 sufficiently abundant. 



The contents of Biologisches Centralblatt of October 15 

 include an article by Mr. H. Kranichfeld on the probability 

 of the preservation and continuity of favourable variations 

 in animals, with arithmetical calculations ; a second (to 

 be continued), by Mr. K. C. Schneider, on the elements 

 of comparative animal physiology ; and a third (likewise 

 not completed) on "neurons," or nerve-fibrillae, by Dr. 

 Max Wolff, of Jena. 



In the October issue of the American Naturalist Prof. 

 B. M. Davis continues his detailed account of the structure 

 of the vegetable cell, while Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell 

 furnishes a diagnosis of the bees of the genus Diadasia, 

 and Dr. H. W. Shimer describes a variety of the brachio- 

 pod Terebratalia transversa from Alaska, remarkable for 

 the extreme thickness and rugosity of the shell, its abraded 

 umbo, and the presence of a small perforation on each side 

 of the aperture for the pedicel. 



The latest issues of the Proceedings of the U.S. Nat. 



Museum include a list of American cochlidian moths, with 



descriptions of new genera and species, by Mr. H. G. 



Dyar ; and descriptions of new South American moths, by 



NO. 1880, VOL. 73] 



Mr. W. Schaus, of Twickenham. The latter comprises no 

 less than 479 species regarded as new, many of them 

 indicating previously unknown generic types, one of th= 

 latter being designated Rothschildia, in honour of the 

 owner of the Tring Museum. 



The October issue of the Zoologist contains a summary 

 of the results of last season's sealing in Newfoundland 

 waters by Mr. T. Southwell, of Norwich. It is very 

 interesting to note that, owing to a postponement of the 

 date for taking the young, the product of a given number 

 of seals has exceeded that yielded by the same number 

 last year by no less than 779 tons. That seals are still 

 abundant is evident from the statement that one of the 

 vessels came upon a " patch " of some 600,000, of which 

 only a few could be killed. These northern harp-seals are 

 stated to differ from those killed further south. 



To vol. xxvi., No. 3, of Notes from the Leyden Museum 

 Dr. Jentink contributes an important and well illustrated 

 paper on the wild swine of the Malay Archipelago. In 

 the author's opinion all these pigs are indigenous, and each 

 island form represents a distinct species, the long-snouted 

 Sus oi of Sumatra thus being distinct from the Bornean 

 Sus barbatus. Dr. Jentink appears to be unaware that 

 Mr. Lydekker, on the evidence of photographs sent by 

 Dr. H. N. Ridley, recorded in the Field for last year the 

 existence of a representative of this long-snouted group in 

 the Malay Peninsula. 



Mr. J. Wimmer, of Vienna, has sent us a copy of a 

 " booklet " of sixty-four pages by himself entitled 

 " Mechanik der Entwicklung der tierrischen Lebewesen," 

 published at Leipzig by Mr. J. A. Earth. In this work the 

 author discusses, with the aid of diagrams and mathematical 

 formulas, the mechanical adaptations of animals of all 

 classes to the conditions of their existence, and in relation 

 to their modes of progression. One chapter is devoted, for 

 instance, to the mechanics of the external form of the 

 body, a second to those of its internal structure, and a 

 third to those of the movements of the limbs. The work 

 appears to be a concise summary of all the essential facts 

 connected with the subject. 



Nature-study on the part of children formed an essential 

 feature in a paper on local museums (and the discussion 

 which followed) read at the Worcester conference of the 

 Museums Association, as reported in the October issue 

 of the Museums Journal. While it was generally agreed 

 that the proper function of local museums is to exhibit 

 local faunas, floras, and antiquities, some difference of 

 opinion was expressed as to whether it is desirable to enlist 

 the serVices of children in making such collections, one 

 speaker strongly disapproving of any encouragement being 

 given to children to collect. The discussion also took into 

 consideration the question as to whether museum curators 

 should be called upon to assist in teaching, but the general 

 opinion was that if any such instruction was demanded 

 from them it should be confined to educating the teachers. 



In part xii. of the report of the Danish Biological 

 Station to the Board of Agriculture, Dr. C. G. J. Petersen 

 discusses the question whether plaice undergo their whole 

 development, from egg to adult, in the open parts of the 

 Baltic Sea. It is well known that the pelagic < tigs of the 

 plaice are shed between November and April (most of 

 them in the depth of the winter), and also that the fry 

 are pelagic until such time as they become unsymmetrical, 

 when they seek the warm shallow water of flat sunny 

 shores, this taking place in that part of the Baltic known 

 as the Skaw during May and June. It has been found, 



