I04 



NA TURE 



[November 26, 1908 



A'OTJiS. 



Dr. S. F. Harmer, F.R.S., has been appointed, subject 

 to confirmation, keeper in zoology at the British Museum 

 (Natural History), South Kensington. Dr. Harmer has 

 been superintendent of the Museum of Zoology at Cam- 

 bridge since January i, i8g2. He is a fellow of University 

 College, London, and lecturer in natural sciences at 

 King's College, Cambridge. Dr. Harmer is joint editor 

 of the " Cambridge Natural History," and he has written 

 numerous scientific papers dealing mainly with the 

 Polyzoa. He has also done much to elucidate the affini- 

 ties of the obscure organism Cephalodiscus with some of 

 the more' primitive members of the great group Chordata, 

 which includes the vertebrates. He was president of the 

 zoological .section of the British Association at the recent 

 meeting in Dublin, and is a past-president of the Museums 

 Association. 



It is' announced by the Daily Chronicle that the Nobel 

 prize for medicine will this year be divided between Prof. 

 Metchnikoff, assistant director of the Pasteur Institute of 

 Paris, and Dr. P. Ehrlich, director of the Royal Institute 

 of Experimental Therapeutics at Frankfurt-on-Main. 



Mr. N. W. Thomas has been selected by ths Secretary 

 of State for the Colonies to conduct an investigation into 

 the laws and customs of the native tribes of southern 

 Nigeria. The tribes to be studied are, in the first instance, 

 those of the old kingdom of Benin, but it is probable that 

 the inquiry will be continued and include the natives of 

 the other West African colonies in addition. Mr. Thomas 

 is leaving to take up his duties in a few weeks. 



The jubilee of the Geologists' .Association will be cele- 

 brated on Friday, November 27, by a conversazione at 

 University College, Gower Street, W.C. A number of 

 interesting objects will be exhibited, and short lectures 

 will be given by Prof. E. J. Garwood, on " In the Hima- 

 layas around Kangchenjunga," and by Mr. G. W. Young, 

 on " Reminiscences of Association Excursions." 



By the will of the late Prof. H. C. Vogel, who died 

 in August, 1907, the Berlin .\cademy of Sciences has re- 

 ceived, we learn from the Revue scicntifique, a legacy of 

 17,000 marks for the purpose of awarding medals intended 

 to encourage research work in astrophysics and spectrum 

 analysis. From the same source we note that a prize of 

 2500 marks has been awarded to Prof. Abegg, of Breslau, 

 for his physicochemical studies of gallium. 



The first general meeting of the Concrete Institute was 

 held on November iq at the Royal United Service Institu- 

 tion, Westminster. Sir Henry Tanner, I.S.O., principal 

 architect to H..M. Office of Works, a vice-president of the 

 institute, occupied the chair. The institute started with 

 100 founders, and now has a list of more than 300 

 members. The Earl of Plymouth is the first president of 

 the institute, the objects of which may be summarised as 

 follows : — to advance the knowledge of concrete and re- 

 inforced concrete, and direct attention to the uses to which 

 these materials can be best applied ; to afford the means 

 of communication between persons engaged in the design, 

 supervision, and execution of works in which concrete 

 and reinforced concrete are employed (excluding all ques- 

 tions connected with wages and trade regulation) ; to 

 arrange periodical meetings for the purpose of discussing 

 practical and scientific subjects bearing upon the applica- 

 tion of concrete and reinforced concrete, and to conduct 

 such investigations and to issue such publications as may 

 be deemed desirable. In a preliminary statement, Mr. 

 Edwin O. Sachs, chairman of the e.sff-utive, said it is 

 KG. 2039, VOL. 70] 



hoped that British public authorities concerned may find 

 it advisable to contribute in some way towards the expense 

 of the research work necessary in connection with concrete 

 and reinforced concrete. In America the United States 

 Government has already contributed 25,000/. for research 

 work in this direction, while the German authorities have 

 contributed 20,000/. towards research in reinforced concrete 

 alone. Mr. C. F. Marsh, assistant engineer to. the Metro- 

 politan Water Board, then read a paper on the composition 

 and uses of plain and reinforced concrete. 



The habits and bodily pose of the sauropod dinosaurs, 

 and more especially Diplodocus, form the subject of a very 

 interesting paper by Dr. O. P. Hay in the October issue 

 of the American Naturalist. In place of being mammal- 

 like in carriage, the author is of opinion that these reptiles 

 were built more like crocodiles, and, instead of walking, 

 were consequently able only to crawl on land, and thai 

 perhaps slowly and laboriously. On the other hand, they 

 were eminently amphibious, and capable of swimming 

 easily. The great weight — some twenty tons — of these 

 creatures would, according to Dr. Hay, inevitably lead to 

 their being mired if they walked on land in quadruped- 

 fashion, while the idea of their raising themselves on the 

 hind-limbs is regarded as preposterous. Their food doubt- 

 less consisted of floating, and perhaps also submerged, 

 water-plants, the latter of which could be readily reached 

 by means of the long neck. In the case of Diplodocus, 

 with its weak teeth, the chief nutriment mav have been 

 fontied by masses of floating alga of the Chara type. 



Dr. Hav communicates a second paper on dinosaurs to 

 the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, in which 

 he deals with the carnivorous group, discussing the 

 nomenclature of certain forms, and directing special atten- 

 tion to the skull-structure of Ceratosaurus nasiconiis. 



We have to acknowledge the receipt of a large 

 budget of papers published in the Proceedings of the U.S. 

 National Museum. In one of these (No. 1635) Mr. J. O. 

 Snyder describes a number of new fishes from Japan and 

 the Riu-kiu (Liu-kiu) Islands, while in a second (No. 



1643) he discusses two rare Californian fishes. .American 

 moths form the subject of papers by Mr. A. Busck (No. 



1644) and Mr. W. D. Kearfott (No. 1649), the mosquitoes 

 of tropical .America are discussed in No. 1632 by Messrs. 

 Dyar and Knab, and new neotropical Acrididse are 

 described by Dr. J. A. G. Rchn in No. 1650. Crinoids 

 form the subject of two contributions (Nos. 1634 and 1636) 

 by Mr. A. H. Clark, in the first of which the axial canals 

 of recent pentacrinids are discussed, while the arm-joints 

 of that group and the comatulids are considered in the 

 second. 



The greater portion of Naturen for November is taken 

 up with a memoir of the great pioneer geologist Leopold 

 von Buch, with special reference to the fact that the pre- 

 sent year is the centenary of the completion of his visit 

 to Scandinavia. Von Buch, who was born in 1774, spent 

 two years in a geological exploration of Norway, bringing 

 his tour to a close on November 12, 1808, on which day he 

 left the country. 



Horse-breeding in .America forms the subject of an 

 article by Mr. J. G. .Speed in the November number of the 

 Century Illustrated Magazine. Special attention is 

 directed to the Denmark and Kentucky breeds, the latter 

 being regarded as unusually well fitted for campaigning 

 purposes, for which it is now generally admitted that 

 the English thoroughbred is unsuited. The paper is illus- 

 trated by portraits of a number of notable horses. 



