640 
might be found in the division of all papers for Section A into 
two classes—papers that are generally intelligible and papers 
that are not—and in relegating the latter class only to sub- 
sectional meetings. It is not impossible that this might have 
beneficial results in more ways than one. 
The address of the chairman, Prof. Schuster, has already been 
printed in full. His criticisms of mere routine observation 
raised an interesting discussion, in which the meteorologists re- 
served their defence. 
Among the papers submitted to the subsection were several of 
general interest. Major S. G. Burrard, R.E., described the 
difficulties which are caused in the Geodetic Survey of India by 
the attraction of the mass of the Himalayas and the Thibet 
plateau, and by the existence of an underground chain of exces- 
sive density which runs across India. Contrary to the opinion 
that was held until a few years ago, it now seems certain that 
the plumb-line is deviated over the whole of India, and that all 
astronomical latitudes may be in error by a number of seconds 
of arc. The Government of India and the staff of the Survey 
must be congratulated on their good fortune in being confronted 
with problems of such interest and importance. Prof. Turner 
described an attempt made at Oxford to verify the suggestion 
put forward by Sir David Gill that the bright stars, as a whole, 
are rotating relatively to the fainter stars. From the Oxford 
astrographic catalogue plates he finds distinct evidence of such 
an effect, but with a sign opposite to that found by Gill in the 
southern hemisphere. 
The feature of the meeting on September 16 was an exhibi- 
tion of photographs from the Yerkes Observatory. Mr. Ritchey 
has made a most interesting set of pairs of photographs-of star 
clusters, made respectively with a 2-foot reflector and with the 
40-inch visual refractor fitted with a colour screen used in con- 
tact with isochromatic plates. With the latter, the densest parts 
of the clusters are beautifully resolved and measurable. The 
photographs of nebulz made with the 2-foot are unsurpassed ; 
and it is remarkable how, though nearly all the detail which 
they show caz be found on the photographs taken at Crow- 
borough and Daramona and Greenwich, the general effect is in 
some cases quite different. Mr, Percival Lowell sent three 
papers, one describing a scheme for sending expeditions in 
search of good ‘‘seeing.”” Mr. S. A. Saunder discussed the 
possibility of changes in the surface of the moon, and: urged 
the need of cooperation in the work of describing minute detail. 
Mr. W. E Wilson reported failure in his search for Forbes’s 
hypothetical extra-Neptunian planet, and showed a bolometer 
mounted equatorially for measuring solar radiation. 
Other papers read at the meetings of the subsection have 
already been mentioned in NATURE in the notes of mathe- 
matical and physical papers. AL ROSE 
ZOOLOGY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 
ON September 11, in addition to the reports of committees, a 
: short series of fisheries papers was taken :— 
(1) Prof. McIntosh, who was prevented from being present, 
sent a detailed paper discussing British fisheries investiga- 
tions and the international scheme, which was read in 
abstract to the meeting by Mr. W. S. Green, Chief Inspector 
of Fisheries for Ireland. He showed the necessity for improved 
statistics and for a careful survey of the off-shore and in-shore 
fishing grounds. He considered that hydrographical work 
occupied too prominent a position in the international scheme 
and that other more important points in connection with the 
distribution of fish have been omitted. (2) Mr. W. Garstang 
then read a statement as to the proposed programme for the 
international investigation of the North Sea, as passed at the 
recent meeting of delegates at Copenhagen. He stated that in 
his opinion all the investigations thought desirable by Prof. 
McIntosh and other critics were included in the Christiania 
scheme, and that that scheme was going to be carried out 
practically unchanged. He explained that the Government 
had had to adopt hydrography as a part of the proposed pro- 
gramme, although its importance in connection with English 
fishery interests might be doubtful. Finally, he urged the 
advantages of international cooperation. (3) Dr. Noel Paton, 
who was prevented from being present, sent a paper criticising 
the methods proposed in the international scheme, and throwing 
doubt upon the accuracy and value of results based upon such 
methods. Dr. Masterman, Dr. Mill and others spoke in the 
NO. 1721, VOL. 66] 
NATURE 
[OcToBER 23, 1902 
discussion which followed. (4) Mr. J. Stuart Thomson had a 
paper on the scales of fishes as an index of age. 
The following were the reports of committees submitted to 
the Section :— 
(1) ‘* Migration of Birds,” mainly the work of Mr. W. Eagle 
Clarke on the fieldfare and the lapwing. (2) ‘‘ Naples Zoo- 
logical Station,” containing reports on work by Mr. E. S. Good- 
rich, Mr. N. Maclaren, Miss A. Vickers and Dr. R. N. 
Wolfenden, in addition to the usual statistics from the station. 
(3) ‘Plymouth Marine Laboratory,” with a short report from 
Mr. H. M. Woodcock. (4) ‘‘ Index Animalium.” Vol. i. of 
this work, by Mr. Sherborn, will be issued in October. (5) 
“ Plankton Investigation.” (6) ‘‘ Zoology of Sandwich Islands.” 
(7) ‘*Millport Marine Zoological Station.” And (8) ‘Coral 
Reefs of the Indian Region.” Mr, Stanley Gardiner reports 
considerable progress with the publication of his results. 
The forenoon of September 12 was devoted toa series of papers, 
by Prof. Herdman and those who are helping him to work out 
his results, on the fauna and flora associated with the pearl oyster 
banks in the Gulf of Manaar. First, Prof. Herdman gave a 
general account, illustrated by the lantern, of his recent expedi- 
tion to Ceylon, with a description of the pearl fisheries. Then 
followed :—Mr. A. O. Walker, on the Amphipoda, Mr. 
I. C. Thompson, on Indian Ocean Copepoda, Mr. W. E. 
Hoyle, on the cuttlefishes, and Mr. J. Lomas, on the 
marine deposits dredged by Prof. Herdman. Prof. Dendy, 
Mr. Stanley Gardiner and others took part in the discussion 
that followed. The remaining papers before the Section that 
day were:—(t) Prof. Cleland, on a hitherto unrecorded 
element in the occipital bone of seals. (2) Prof. Poulton, 
on the habits of the predaceous flies of the family Asilidze, 
with exhibition of specimens. (3) Prof. E. W. MacBride read 
a paper on some new points in the development of Achinus 
esculentus. He stated that in order to obtain successful cul- 
tures of the larvee it was necessary to use perfectly ripe parents 
and to supply the growing larvee with an abundance of sea water, 
frequently changed. He pointed out that many cultures on 
which important conclusions were based were made under 
insanitary conditions. The cavity of the blastula was at first 
filled with a thick proteid solution which became thinner as 
development advanced, and this thinning was possibly connected 
with the infolding processes in the wall, by means of which the 
organs of the larva were built up. The larva showed its 
relationship to Tornaria by the three-fold division of the body 
cavity on each side and by a larval brain, which was situated at 
the front end and was independent of the ciliated band. The 
development of the nerve-ring of the Echinus from the floor of 
an ectodermic pit was described. A false floor formed over this 
by the meeting of interradial ridges gave rise to the buccal 
membrane of the adult. The masticatory apparatus was derived 
from five pocket-like outgrowths of the left posterior body 
cavity. Finally, the blood system was a remnant of the proteid 
contents of the blastoccele added to by exudation from the cells 
of the alimentary canal. (4) Dr. A. T. Masterman exhibited a 
series of wax models illustrating the transition from larva to 
adult in Crzbrel/a oculata. The main points brought out were 
the complete bilaterality of the larva, the sinistral asymmetry 
followed by axial symmetry converting the larva into adult, and 
the absence of any true metamorphosis. The changes in the 
body cavities were shown to agree with the results of Goto for 
Asterina and Asterias, and to differ from those of MacBride. 
(5) Dr. J. Hume Patterson gave an important communication, 
on the causes of salmon disease—a bacteriological investi- 
gation, in which he showed that if a sound salmon is placed in 
water with Saprolegnia there is no result, and that the fungus 
is effectual only after a preliminary softening of the skin by the 
action of a bacillus which he had succeeded in isolating and 
cultivating. 
On Monday, September 15, the following papers, &c., were 
taken :— 
(1) Prof. Howes exhibited, on behalf of Mr. J. P. Hill, of 
Sydney, photographs of the first segmentation stages of the 
zygote of the native cat (Dasyurus) up to the period of first 
formation of the endoderm. A 16-celled stage was described, at 
which the embryo-cells are arranged in a couple of annuli, and 
later a stage suggestive of over growth of a yolk by the ectoderm. 
Selenka’s blastopore stage was shown to be conspicuous, and in 
one example the endoderm appeared to arise from a single cell 
at the point of closure of the blastopore, after the manner of that 
of Didelphys. Mr. Hill has succeeded in obtaining microscopic 
