April 26, 1906] 



NA TURE 



615 



Office. The only charge now made is for the actual cost 

 of the telegrams, and the success of the work is judged, 

 as proposed in the German scheme, by the returns made 

 by the recipients themselves. From the last published 

 annual report (1904-5) we see that the total and partial 

 success of the forecasts amounted to 92 per cent, for the 

 country generally, and that 58 per cent, were completely 

 successful. 



The Bulletin of the Italian Meteorological Society is now 

 issued in two-monthly parts, and includes original con- 

 tributions and monthly results of observations at a con- 

 siderable number of stations. The issue for February- 

 March contains an interesting account of the ascents of 

 two unmanned balloons in August last, near Treviso, 

 Venice, in both of which readings were obtained at alti- 

 tudes exceeding 10,000 metres. The first important in- 

 version of temperature, amounting to 6° C, was experi- 

 enced between 10,000 metres and 10,385 metres, on 

 August 4, notwithstanding the fact that a few hours 

 previously a very violent thunderstorm occurred at the 

 station. The second ascent was made on August 30, at 

 the time of the solar eclipse ; the inversion of temperature 

 was not so marked as in the previous case, but amounted 

 to 3 C. between the heights of 18,000 metres and 20,000 

 metres. The exact altitude of the inversion during this 

 ascent is somewhat uncertain, as the barometric trace was 

 partially obliterated by the peasants who picked up the 

 records. Thunderstorms were also prevalent about twelve 

 hours prior to the time of this ascent. The discovery of 

 such inversions of temperature is known to be one of the 

 most interesting results connected with the recent explor- 

 ations of the upper air. 



To vol. xxvi., part iv., of Notes from the Levdcn 

 Museum, Dr. H. VV. van der Weele contributes three 

 papers on Malay Neuroptera, the most important of these 

 ■dealing with the representatives of the family Sialidae. 

 Among other notes, Dr. J. G. de Man discusses and re- 

 describes certain Malay crustaceans of the genus Palaemon, 

 while Dr. R. Horst describes a parasitic copepod crustacean 

 of the genus Penella infesting a large fish from the 

 Moluccas. 



A hand-list of Philippine birds has been drawn up by 

 Messrs. R. C. McGregor and D. C. Worcester, and pub- 

 lished at Manila by the Bureau of Government Labor- 

 atories. A slip inserted within the cover announces that 

 the publication of the Bulletins of the Bureau has been 

 discontinued, and that in their place will be issued a new- 

 serial, the Philippine Journal of Science, while the Bureau 

 itself becomes the Bureau of Science of the Philippine 

 Islands. 



The January issue (vol. x., part i.) of the Transactions 

 of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society con- 

 tains a report of the president's address at the annual 

 meeting in October last, in which attention is directed to 

 the decadence of artistic feeling and good taste in the 

 design and execution of architectural and kindred objects 

 in and around Leicester. The contents include a paper 

 by Mr. J. R. Plant on the geological history of molluscs, 

 and a second, by Mr. H. Donisthorne, on Isle of Wight 

 beetles. 



No. 1442 of the Proceedings of the U.S. National 

 Museum is devoted to notices of the type specimens of 

 Ordovician and Silurian Bryozoa collected and described 

 by Mr. U. P. James. These fossils, which came from the 

 Cincinnati group, are mostly in the Walker Museum at 



NO, 1904, VOL. 73] 



Chicago, although some are preserved at Washington. 

 According to the author of the paper before us, Mr. R. S. 

 Bassler, the original determinations were for the most part 

 erroneous. Descriptions of new South American moths, by 

 Mr. W. Schaus, of Twickenham, form the subject of 

 No. 1444 of the same serial. 



The life-history of the North American cave-salamander, 

 Spelerpes maculicaudus, by Messrs. A. M. Banta and 

 W. L. McAtee, forms the subject of No. 1443 of the Pro- 

 ceedings of the U.S. National Museum (vol. xxx., p. 67). 

 This handsome salamander appears to be confined to the 

 Mississippi valley, where, although commonly found in 

 caves, it may occasionally be met with in woods. When 

 in caves, it is generally to be found at no great distance 

 from the entrance, usually but little beyond the twilight 

 zone. For breeding purposes, however, these creatures 

 penetrate deeper into the recesses of the caves, where the 

 larvae are produced ; such full-grown larva; as are met with 

 in the open country having probably been washed out by 

 freshets. Within caves the adult salamanders are usually 

 to be found in crevices or upon rock-shelves. 



The March number of the Museums Journal contains an 

 account, bv Dr. W. E. Hoyle, of the new zoological 

 institute at Breslau ; while Prof. J. T. Wilson's paper on 

 the Australian Museum, Sydney, which was read last 

 vear at the Worcester conference, is printed in full. In 

 another article it is stated that Mr. E. Lovett, of Croydon, 

 has fcrmed a large collection of manufactured objects 

 which he is desirous of using as the basis of a " Folk 

 Museum." A schedule is given of the collection of appli- 

 ances and allied objects used by primitive man, arranged 

 to illustrate the evolution of idea, form, and design, with 

 the amount of superficies required for their proper display 

 in a museum. 



In parts i. and ii. of vol. xxxv. of Gegenbaur's Morpho- 

 logisches Jahrbuch, Prof. B. Hatschek, of Vienna, com- 

 mences a series of studies on the theory of the primitively 

 segmental structure of the vertebrate skull, dealing in this 

 instance with the anterior extremity of the spinal neural 

 svstem of the lancelet. Dr. Fleischmann's series of papers 

 on the morphology of the cloaca and related organs in the 

 amniote vertebrates is continued by Messrs. H. Dimpfl 

 and J. Schwarztrauber, who respectively discuss these struc- 

 tures in the guinea-pig and the sheep. In a long paper 

 Mr. G. Ruge brings to a conclusion an elaborate series of 

 studies of the external form of the liver in the Primates, 

 dealing in this instance with the monkeys of the Cerco- 

 pithecus group. As might have been expected, these dis- 

 play a very generalised character in respect to this organ, 

 which is markedly different from that of the anthropoid 

 group. Among other papers on vertebrate morphology is 

 one by Mr. H. Braus on the question whether the form- 

 ation of the skeleton is dependent on the muscular layer, 

 and a second, by Prof. G. Jelgersma, on the origin of the 

 vertebrate eye. For the conclusions in both these cases 

 we must refer our readers to the original papers, as they 

 are too long to be given here. 



The authors of a forthcoming monograph upon 

 " Eclipse " — the famous racehorse — ask us to announce 

 that they would be very glad to be informed of any refer- 

 ences to this celebrated horse in contemporary literature ; 

 to his breeder, the Duke of Cumberland ; to his purchaser, 

 Wildman ; and to his subsequent owner, Dennis O 'Kelly. 

 The monograph will be as completely illustrated as possible 

 from contemporary paintings and engravings and other 

 sources, and will contain detailed photographs of the 



