; 4 8 



NA TURE 



[February 8, 1906 



The inaugural meeting of the Mining and Geological 

 Institute of India was held at Assansol on January 16. A 

 brief account of the origin and objects of the institute was 

 given by Mr. W. H. Pickering, chief inspector of mines, 

 to whom, with Mr. T. H. Holland, F.R.S., director of 

 the Geological Survey, the institute owes its inception. 

 The object of the new society is the promotion of the study 

 of all branches of mining methods and of mineral occur- 

 rences in India, with a view to disseminate information 

 obtained for facilitating the economic development of the 

 mineral industries of the country. Mr. Holland was elected 

 president, and in his presidential address, we learn from 

 the Pioneer Mail, he pointed out the true relations between 

 the science of geology and the art of mining. He dwelt 

 upon the advancement made in recent years in scientific 

 mining, particularly emphasising the need of cooperation 

 in publishing the results of practical and scientific investi- 

 gations. On the following day the meeting was closed by 

 a banquet, when Sir Andrew Fraser expressed the hope 

 that the institute would succeed in bringing the officers of 

 the geological department, inspectors of mines, and also 

 ex officio honorary members, into touch with the practical 

 men belonging to the mining community. 



During his Administratorship of Dominica and of the 

 Leeward Islands, Mr. Hesketh Bell has been very actively- 

 engaged in an inquiry which has served to show that the 

 West India islands are not so frequently visited by 

 disastrous hurricanes as has been generally believed, and 

 that the Press reports of the occurrences are almost in- 

 variably greatly exaggerated. Tropical hurricanes are 

 annual phenomena in the south-western portion of the 

 Atlantic, but it is only when the centre of one passes over 

 or close to an island that much damage is done on land. 

 Mr. Bell has found that between 1S00 and 1875 the British 

 islands in the Leeward group were visited by only seven 

 hurricanes. As the popular error on this subject, and the 

 highly coloured accounts of the disasters, militated 

 seriously against agricultural enterprise in the islands- 

 having proved powerful factors against the investment of 

 capital, and rendering it difficult for landowners to raise 

 loans, save on very onerous terms — Mr. Bell has submitted 

 the whole of the facts to a leading London firm of in- 

 surance brokers, and the result has been the completion 

 of a scheme of hurricane and volcanic eruption insurance 

 for the West Indies, the rates quoted being 30s. per cent, 

 on buildings, cultivations, and crops of all kinds, except 

 bananas (the ratio of risk in this case not being yet 

 ascertained), and 10s. extra per cent, for risks against 

 volcanoes. The huts and small tenements of the very 

 poor are not included in the scheme. These fragile struc- 

 tures, naturally, are the first to go down before the storm, 

 but they are easily re-erected. Properly worked and sup- 

 ported, the scheme should result in a decided reduction in 

 the loss from hurricanes, and the islands generally should 

 benefit from the greater confidence and sense of security 

 of investors. 



Mr. L. M. Lambe has sent us a copy of a paper on 

 new species of tortoises, referable to the living genus 

 Testudo and the extinct Baena, from the Oligocene of the 

 Cypress Hills, Assiniboia. The original paper is published 

 in the Ottawa Naturalist for January. 



The two articles forming the contents of the third part 

 of vol. lxxx. of the Zeitscluift fiir wissenschaftliche 

 Zoologie are of a nature which appeals to the specialist, 

 and are too technical even to be summarised in our columns. 

 In the one Mr. D. Tretjakoff treats of the front half of 

 NO. 1893, VOL. 73] 



ih.' eye of the frog and its development, while in the 

 second Messrs. Otto and Tonniges discuss the develop- 

 ment of the pond-snail commonly known as Paludina 

 vivipara. 



We have received an advance copy of the report of the 

 Yorkshire Naturalists' Union for 1905, in which the 

 appointment of Mr. W. E. Clarke, of the Edinburgh 

 Museum, as president for the current year is announced, 

 i ne union is in a flourishing condition, and carrying on 

 its work with the usual vigour. Ornithologists will be 

 pleased to learn that arrangements have been made for 

 the publication, in two volumes, of a work on the birds 

 of Yorkshire, at the price of one guinea to subscribers. 



In a pamphlet issued by the Government Press at 

 Calcutta, Mr. E. P. Stebbing describes certain bark-boring 

 beetles which are inflicting much damage on the pine- 

 forests of the Zhob district of Baluchistan. Chief among 

 these is a species of the genus Polygraphus, which is 

 described as new under the name of P. trenchi. Large 

 numbers of dead and dying pines are to be seen in the 

 forests, and it is considered probable that they are on 

 the increase. 



The mode in which lungless (and gill-less) salamanders 

 breathe forms the subject of investigations undertaken by 

 Miss Seelye on Desmognathus fuscus, the results of these 

 being published in a recent issue (vol. xxxii., No. 9) of 

 the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History. 

 From this it appears that respiration is effected by means 

 of the combined action of the mucous membrane of the 

 pharynx and oesophagus, regulated by breathing movements 

 of the nose and mouth, and of the skin. 



A copy of the " Naturalists' Directory " for 1906-7 has 

 been received. While its usefulness cannot be denied, this 

 little work stands in sore need of editing. To mention only 

 a few instances, we find the names of the late Lieut. - 

 General MacMahon, Dr. W. T. Blanford, and Mr. H. B. 

 Medlicott figuring in the list of geologists (Dr. Blanford 

 also in the zoological list), while the Duke of Bedford is 

 referred to merely as an " F.L.S.," instead of as president 

 of the Zoological Society. Expert assistance should be 

 engaged before another edition is issued. 



The habits and distribution of the "false scorpions," 

 Pseudoscorpionidee, and more especially those of the species 

 Chelanops oblongus, are discussed bv Dr. Berger in 

 vol. vi. of the Ohio Naturalist, the paper being reprinted 

 as a Bulletin of the Ohio University. A figure and de- 

 scription of the curious " moulting-nests " of Chelanops 

 are given. These, it seems, are not constructed by the 

 female parent for her entire brood, but are made singly 

 by each immature individual when the time for changing 

 its coat arrives. 



Development and embryology from the evolutionary 

 standpoint form the key-note of the contents of the first 

 number of Biologisches Cenlralblatt for the current year, 

 Mr. F. Dahl contributing a paper on the physiological 

 importance of breeding-selection in its widest sense, as 

 exemplified by spiders of the family Lycosidae, while Mr. 

 R. Kossmann emphasises the importance of favourable 

 variations in influencing breeds and species, and Mr. 

 Henriksen, in the first part of a dissertation on develop- 

 ment from the functional point of view, urges that every- 

 thing in nature tends towards a state of equilibrium 

 peculiar to itself. In the last named article the author 

 states he will " endeavour to show that the theory of the 

 structure of germ-plasm [proposed] by Weismann is un- 



