_ Fepruary 17, 1923] 
coloured cartoon by Cruikshank entitled ‘‘ The Cow- 
Pox Tragedy” only serves to remind us that the 
_Jennerian method has survived the foolish and often 
_ venomous attacks made upon it for a century and 
_ more. 






SEVERAL important Dinosaurian remains have 
lately been added to the collection exhibited in the 
Department of Geology in the British Museum 
(Natural History). A pelvis and tail of Trachodon, 
obtained by Mr. C. H. Sternberg from the Upper 
Cretaceous of Wyoming, U.S.A., have been mounted 
for direct comparison with the corresponding remains 
of Iguanodon from the Wealden of Sussex. The 
snout and jaws of a large Megalosaurian (Gorgosaurus), 
_ found by Mr. W. E. Cutler in the Upper Cretaceous 
of Alberta, Canada, have been placed close to the 
cast of the skull of Tyrannosaurus. The unique skull 
_of Megalosaurus, discovered some years ago by Mr. 
F. L. Bradley in the Great Oolite at Minchinhampton, 
Gloucestershire, has been given by him to the Museum 
_ and is also now exhibited. It shows the bony core 
of a horn on the nose as in the American Jurassic 
_Ceratosaurus. An interesting pelvis and femur of a 
small Megalosaurian found by Mr. S. L. Wood in the 
Lower Lias of Barrow-on-Soar, Leicestershire, and 
given by him, have also been mounted in the same 
case. 
Tue Decimal Association directed attention recently 
to the handicap imposed on foreign trade by the 
confusion which at present exists owing to the differ- 
ence—amounting to twenty per cent.—between the 
Imperial and the American gallons, the former having 
the capacity of 277-2 cubic inches while the latter is 
the old wine gallon of 231 cubic inches. The Associa- 
tion therefore suggested that the British and American 
Governments should abandon their existing gallons 
and adopt the international litre as the common unit 
of capacity (100 litres are equal to 22 Imperial gallons). 
Anglo-American uniformity and a common basis for 
all international trade in liquids would thus be secured 
simultaneously. In this ‘connexion it is interesting 
to note that the American Metric Association at its 
annual meeting on December 30 passed the following 
_ resolution: ‘‘ Be it resolved that the American 
Metric Association heartily approves the recommenda- 
_ tion for the immediate adoption of the litre as the 
common unit of capacity, believing that this step will 
| not only facilitate trade between the two countries, 
but will also constitute a common basis for inter- 
national trade and good-will; and it respectfully 
q urges the British and American Government Depart- 
ments, manufacturers, and merchants to effect this 
desirable reform.”’ 
y 
On February 17 occurs the bicentenary of the birth 
of the German astronomer Johann Tobias Mayer, 
who from 1754 to 1762 superintended the observatory 
at Géttingen. Mayer began life in a cartographer’s 
office in Nuremberg, where he made improvements 
in map-making. His scientific work led to his 
appointment first to the chair of mathematics in 
Géttingen University, and then in 1754 to the charge 
NO. 2781, VOL. 111] 
a 
NATURE 
-and northern Burma. 
231 
of the observatory, which had just been furnished 
by George II. of England with a fine mural quadrant 
by Bird. Mayer’s fame rests mainly on his lunar 
Tables, which were compared with the Greenwich 
observations by Bradley and Mason. Mayer died in 
1762, and after his death a revised set of tables was 
sent by his widow to the British Government, who 
awarded her 3000/., this being a part of the 20,000/, 
offered in 1713 for a method of determining the 
longitude at sea. His ‘‘ Theory of the Moon” and 
his Tables were published in London in 1770 under 
the editorship of Maskelyne. He also made investiga- 
tions on eclipses, colours, the motion of the stars, 
refraction, and terrestrial magnetism. His star cata- 
logue was revised by Baily in 1830 and again by 
Auvers in 1894, while in 1881 Klinkerfues published 
a reproduction of Mayer’s fine map of the moon 
which for a century had remained unsurpassed. 

A CABLEGRAM from Calcutta to the Times announces 
the return of Mr. Kingdon Ward from a journey of 
eleven months in south-western China, Chinese Tibet, 
Mr. Ward left this country 
early last year and first visited Mili in western 
Szechuan, where he found evidence of former glacia- 
tion, which he has already described in the Geo- 
graphical! Journal. His effort to proceed from Mili 
directly westward was frustrated by the disturbed 
condition of the country, and he returned south 
to Likiang and went north-westward to Atuntze. 
Thence he crossed passes between mountains, which 
he reports as ranging from 20,000 to 25,000 feet in 
height, along the Burmese-Yunnan frontier, between 
Major Bailey’s route into Assam and that of , Prince 
Henri d’Orleans from Tasa on the Salween into Burma. 
According to suggestions previously made by Mr. 
Ward the mountains of the Irrawadi-Salween divide 
are still rising, so that their glaciers are expanding 
instead of being on the wane as farther to the east. 
Apparently, however, in this area the glaciers have 
also decreased in size. Mr. Ward’s observations on 
the structure of these mountains will be of special 
value. His primary work is botanical, and he has 
discovered remarkable new species of rhgdodendron 
and primula. Mr. Ward passed a little south of the 
area which, according to Mr. Forrest, was the original 
centre of distribution of the rhododendron. A fuller 
account of Mr. Ward’s discoveries will be awaited 
with great interest. 
A GREAT submarine earthquake occurred in the 
Pacific Ocean on February 3. As a first approxima- 
tion, Prof. Turner locates the epicentre in lat. 50° N., 
long. 170° W., or about two hundred miles south of 
the Aleutian Islands. He remarks (Times, February 
6) that other earthquakes occurred in the neighbour- 
hood of this origin on January 30, 1914, and February 
20, 1916. At Washington, D.C., and Fordham 
University (New York) the recording pointers of 
seismographs were thrown off the drums, indicating 
that the earthquake was one of unusual violence. 
Seismic sea-waves of considerable size swept over the 
ocean. At Hilo, in the Hawaiian Islands, which is 
about 2080 miles south of the origin, the waves were 
