NA TURE 



lDecember 24, 1908 



stomach. The coarse fish — bleak, burbot, pike, 

 bream, ruff, and lamprey — were found to be much 

 less harmful, and roach and perch quite innocent of 

 spawn-eating. 



In an exhaustive account of the herring collection 

 at the Goteborg Museum, Hjalmar Broch gives an 

 analysis of 354 specimens according- to locality, size, 

 age, sex, and maturity, accompanied by a brief dis- 

 sertation upon fish-scale investigation by means of 

 which not only age, but also, in the case of the herring, 

 racial characteristics can be determined. The same 

 writer reports upon the distribution and age groups 

 of Gadidse, Pleuronectidas, Homarus, &c., in the Gull- 

 mar Fiord. 



Questions of wider interest than Baltic Sea biology 

 are touched upon in an appendix which sets forth the 

 scheme, recommended by the Swedish members of the 

 International Council for the Investigation of the Sea 

 at their meetins::: in Liibeck in 1906, for the establish- 

 ment of an international agreement for the purpose 

 of protecting and increasing the plaice stock of the 

 North Sea and neighbouring seas. According to the 

 present state of this fishery, and in the light of the 

 knowledge of the life-history of the plaice, which the 

 current researches have already afforded, it is stated 

 that there is a need for the regulation of fisheries by 

 international agreement, based upon scientific in- 

 vestigations, hydrographical and biological, as well as 

 statistical. A size-limit below which plaice should be 

 forbidden to be landed is the essential remedy recorn- 

 mended, and it is suggested that a progressive limit 

 from 28 to 33 cm. should be agreed upon as the 

 standard for nlaice caught by deep-sea fishing, while 

 coastal fisheries should have their special limits 

 according to local conditions. The volume concludes 

 with an appreciative review of the work done by 

 those participating in the International Fishery In- 

 vestigations, and suggestions as to the trend of future 

 researches. A. E. H. 



AY)rt".s-. 



The council of the Rontgen Society has now decided 

 to act upon the advice of the committee appointed in 1906 

 to consider the possibility of preparing a standard for the , 

 measurement of radio-activity. This committee recom- 

 Tiiends that " The 7-ray ionisation from i mg. of pure 

 radium be regarded as a standard, and called a unit of 

 radio-activity." The council has deputed Mr. C. E. S. 

 Phillips to prepare a set of three substandards of RaBr,, 

 and these are now maturing. By the kind cooperation of 

 Prof. E. Rutherford, comparison will be made with a 

 specimen of the purest RaBr, at the Victoria University, 

 Manchester. The quantity of radium in other specimens 

 will be capable of accurate measurement by comparison 

 with the substandards. It is anticipated, therefore, that 

 by this means the exact description of medical, physical, 

 or other work with radium will be facilitated, and that 

 the possibility of fraud in the sale of expensive radium 

 preparations will be eliminated. The council proposes to 

 lend the substandards to any competent person desiring to 

 measure the amount of radium in his possession, or to 

 arrange for authoritative tests to be made. For further 

 particulars application should be sent to the honorary 

 secretary of the Rontgen Society, at 20 Hanover Square, 

 London, V\'. 



A FORTNIGHT ago a disastrous railway accident happened 

 in Algeria, and on Saturday last the sad news was 

 announced that the Englishman killed had been identified 

 as Mr. Joseph Lomas, the lecturer in geology at Liver- 

 pool University. Mr. Lomas was a well-known British 



NO. 2043, VOL. 79] 



geologist, and was a specialist on Triassic geology ; he 

 was making a visit to southern Algeria on behalf of the 

 committee of the British Association appointed at Dublin 

 to investigate the desert deposits of the Biskra oasis in 

 reference to the origin of the New Red Sandstone. Mr. 

 Lomas received his chief scientific education at the Royal 

 College of Science, and in 1884 or 1885 settled at Liver- 

 pool as one of the peripatetic science masters of the Liver- 

 pool School Board. He soon joined the Liverpool Geo- 

 logical Society and the Liverpool Marine Biological Com- 

 mittee, and gradually took a leading place among the 

 naturalists of that city. He was president of the Liverpool 

 Geological Society in 1896-8, and was recently re-elected 

 for a second term of office, that he might be its president 

 at the approaching jubilee of the society. Though he re- 

 tained his position under the Liverpool School Board and 

 local education committee, he was appointed in 1887 special 

 lecturer in geology in Liverpool University, and though 

 never on the regular staff, he was responsible for the 

 university teaching in physical geography and geology. 

 He was for nine years one of the secretaries of the geo- 

 logical section cf the British Association, and was the 

 recorder for the last two meetings ; his trustworthy service 

 and never-failing tact will be greatly missed from that 

 section. After his appointment at Liverpool he began 

 work on the marine Bryozoa of that district ; he dis- 

 covered the presence of calcareous spicules in the Cteno- 

 stomata, and was thus led to the suggestion that that 

 group was descended from Bryozoa with a well-developed 

 skeleton. He also prepared a valuable report on the floor 

 deposits of the Irish Sea. Subsequently, he worked mainly 

 at the Trias ; he made many interesting additions to our 

 knowledge of the system, and inspired much of the work 

 upon it by the members of the " Trias Committee." He 

 was an enthusiastic champion of the desert origin of the 

 English New Red Sandstone, and defended that theory in 

 papers in the Transactions of the Liverpool Geological 

 Society and the Geological Magazine. He was also keenly 

 interested in glacial geology, and made several visits to 

 Switzerland to study existing glaciers. His tragic and 

 early death will be mourned by the wide circle of British 

 geologists who knew his lovable character and his sound 

 and suggestive scientific work. 



By the will of the late Lord Rosse, the sum of 1000/. 

 is bequeathed to the science schools fund of Trinity 

 College, Dublin. The famous Rosse telescope and all Lord 

 Rosse's scientific instruments, apparatus, and papers are 

 left to his sons in order of seniority successively, whom 

 failing, to his brothers successively, whom failing, to the 

 Royal Society, London ; 2000/. is left upon trust for the 

 upkeep of the telescope. 



The Convocation week meeting of the American Associa- 

 tion for the -Advancement of Science and affiliated societies 

 will be held in Baltimore from December 28 to January 2. 

 On January i a celebration will be held of the one 

 hundredth anniversary of the birth of Darwin and of the 

 fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the " Origin of 

 Species." The celebration will consist of a morning and 

 afternoon programme of addresses by prominent naturalists, 

 to be followed by a dinner in the evening, at which further 

 addresses will be delivered. 



The Home Secretary has appointed a Departmental 

 Committee to inquire into the sufficiency of the existing 

 regulations relating to the storage, use, and conveyance 

 of petroleum spirit, and to report what further precau- 

 tions, if any, are in their opinion desirable as tending to 

 diminish the dangers attendant thereon. The committee 



