December 19, 1907] 



NA TURE 



155 



Diligence and energy were his principal characteristics 

 from the time when he entered Harvard Observatory, as 

 a junior, fifty years ago, until he retired from the honoured 

 position of professor of astronomy in 1901. The greater 

 part of his work, however, was accomplished at Wash- 

 ington, and it is difficult to say what department of astro- 

 nomy he did not enrich. He was one of the earliest to 

 appreciate the value of the observations of Mars as a 

 means for deriving the solar parallax, and he took part 

 in solar eclipse expeditions for physical work on the sun. 

 His observations of planets, whether for position or for 

 surface detail, were frequent and accurate. He was an 

 industrious observer of double stars, and his work on 

 stellar parallax, as well as in the determination of the 

 relative positions of stars in clusters, is well known. On 

 the theoretical side of astronomy he contributed papers on 

 the secular perturbations of the planets, the computation 

 of orbits, and many similar problems. As a geodetist, the 

 value of his work in the determination of longitudes and 

 on the employment of the occultation method has long 

 been recognised. His career was that of a typical prac- 

 tical astronomer, and the recognition of his work was 

 shown by his election into many learned societies. He 

 was both gold medallist and foreign associate of the Royal 

 .Astronomical Society. 



The subject of river pollution from the naturalists' 

 point of view was introduced by Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., 

 at a largely attended conference meeting, convened under 

 the auspices of the Essex Field Club, and held in the 

 Municipal Technical Institute, Stratford, on Saturday, 

 December 14. The Mayor of West Ham was in the chair 

 at the beginning, and subsequently the president of the 

 Essex Field Club (Mr. Miller Christy). Among other 

 speakers upon the subject were Mr. E. B. Barnard, M.P. 

 (chairman, works committee, London Water Board), Mr. 

 David Howard, J. P. (past-president Society of Chemical 

 Industry), Dr. Parsons (Local Government Board), Sir 

 ."Mexander Pedler, K.C.I.E., F.R.S. (hon. secretary, British 

 Science Guild), Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B.', F.R.S. 

 (president Chemical Society, and chairman Royal Com- 

 mission on Sewage Disposal), Dr. Sanders (medical officer 

 of health, county borough of West Ham), Dr. Sommer- 

 ville (lecturer on public health. King's College, London), 

 and Dr. J. C. Thresh (medical officer of health, Essex 

 County Council). At the close of the meeting the follow- 

 ing resolution was moved by Sir Alexander Pedler, 

 seconded by Mr. E. B. Barnard, carried unanimously, and 

 ordered to be transmitted to the Local Government Board 

 and the British Science Guild : — " That this meeting, 

 having heard the expert testimony of many qualified 

 speakers interested in the improvement of the state of our 

 rivers, streams, and water-ways, it is of opinion that legis- 

 lative action is urgently needed, and would regard with 

 satisfaction the creation of a central authority under 

 Government for dealing with the general question of water 

 supply throughout the kingdom, as well as with the dis- 

 posal of sewage and of effluents from factories; such 

 . central authority to be given power to apportion expendi- 

 ture on sewage treatment or other necessary work of 

 purification amongst the communities deriving benefit from 

 such expenditure." 



British Birds for November contains an excellent por- 

 trait of the late Mr. Howard Saunders to illustrate an 

 obituary notice by .Mr. .Abel Chapman. The portrait is 

 also published separately by Messrs. Witherby and Co., 

 price IS. 6d. The other contents include a paper by Dr. 

 E. Hartert on races of birds peculiar to the British Islands,, 

 NO. 1990, VOL 77] 



and a note by Mr. N. F. TicehurSt on the capture in 

 Romney Marsh of a specimen of the .'\merican sandpiper, 

 Ereuitetes pusillus, this being apparently the first record of 

 the species in Europe. 



To the Times of December 14 Sir T. Digby Pigott 

 communicates an account of a luminous bird — believed to 

 be an owl — recently seen at night in Norfolk. The idea 

 that the " powder-down " patches of certain birds are 

 luminous has been held, we believe, in America, but is 

 generally discredited by ornithologists. The circumstantial 

 account of the Norfolk bird may, however, lead to a re- 

 consideration of the evidence, although we cannot admit 

 that the name Strix fiammea has anything to do with the 

 alleged phenomenon, as it almost certainly refers to the 

 colour of the feathers of the back. The story that the 

 heron emits a phosphorescent light in order to attract fish 

 also seems "shaky," seeing that the bird is diurnal in 

 habits. 



At the close of a paper published in the November issue 

 of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science on the 

 muscles of the head in birds (as exemplified by the domesti- 

 cated fowl) and reptiles, Prof. H. F. Edgeworth attempts 

 to formulate the leading anatomical features of the common 

 ancestor of those two groups. The list is too long and 

 too technical to be quoted here, but it may be noticed 

 that in certain respects the author finds that birds have 

 more in common with chelonians than with any other 

 group of reptiles. " These features of resemblance suggest 

 at first sight a very distant chclonian relationship for 

 birds, but are in reality very ancestral traits, which are 

 also present in embryonic stages of other sauropsidan 

 groups. The secondary fixation of the pterygo-quadrate 

 and atrophy of the elevator of the pterygoid process, which 

 occur in Chelonia, are strongly marked differences from 

 birds." 



In connection with the preceding note, reference may 

 be made to a paper by Dr. W. Sippel on the structure of 

 the roof of the mouth in birds and mammals, published 

 in vol. xxxvii., parts ii. and iii., of Gegenbaiir's Morpho- 

 logisches Jahrbiich. The greater portion of the paper is 

 devoted to the soft-parts of the palate, and it is shown 

 at the conclusion that in homologising the constituent 

 elements of this region in birds and reptiles several mis- 

 identifications have been made by previous workers. The 

 long, posteriorly widened median slit in the palate of the 

 bird does not, for instance, represent the secondary 

 choans, but rather the orbito-subchoanal cleft. The paper 

 concludes with a comparison of the bones of the palate in 

 reptiles, birds, and mammals, as illustrated by the monitor, 

 the duck, and the dog, and here, too, some important 

 differences distinguishing this region in the three classes 

 are indicated. 



In the December number of the Popular Science Monthly 

 Prof. Bashford Dean gives his impressions of the chief 

 museums of Asia, as gathered during a recent eastern 

 tour. Among the institutions referred to is the Raffles 

 Museum and Library at Singapore, of which the author 

 writes in terms of high commendation, the Colombo 

 City Museum, the Madras Museum, and the Indian 

 Museum, Calcutta. Dr. Willey's arrangement of groups 

 of animals to give an adequate idea of the wild life of 

 Ceylon is regarded as one of the great features of the 

 Colombo Museum, while, under Mr. E. Thurston's 

 administration, the institution at Madras is described as 

 one of the most successful of its kind in India. The 

 Calcutta establishment must, however, stand at the head 



