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NA TURE 



[February 25, 1909 



acknowledged the compliment. Subsequently a resolution 

 ■was adopted congratulating Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, 

 O.M., on the completion last year of fifty years from the 

 simultaneous publication by the Linnean Society of the 

 papers by Darwin and himself, in which the influence of 

 variation and natural selection in the development of species 

 was described. 



In Nature of January 28 reference was made to the 

 earthquake which was recorded by seismographs in India, 

 Europe, and South .\frica on January 23. Its origin was 

 provisionally placed in western central -Asia, but now proves 

 to have been further south, in the Luristan district of 

 Persia, about two days' journey from Burujird, where fifty 

 villages are said to have suffered and 5000 lives to have 

 ■been lost. This earthquake illustrates the difficulty which 

 ■sometimes arises in fixing an origin from distant records ; 

 the European and Indian records gave a locus in the form 

 ■of a band running about north-north-eastwards through the 

 ■country east of the Caspian Sea, but did not permit of 

 fixing it more closely. The Cape of Good Hope record 

 should have supplied the data for doing this, as the observa- 

 tory lies almost on the continuation of this locus, but that 

 the earthquake, being no greater than that of Messina, the 

 first tremors failed to impress themselves on the seismo- 

 graph ; this loss of the commencement of the disturbance 

 made it impossible to determine the exact situation of the 

 origin, and suggested that it was not, as has actually 

 proved to be the case, at the nearest end of the strip of 

 country indicated by the Indian and European records. 



The Nineteenth Century for February contains a paper 

 ■by Dr. C. Davison on the Messina earthquake, illustrated 

 by two sketch-maps, one showing the principal isoseismal 

 lines of the earthquake, the other the seismic zones of 

 southern Calabria, as delineated by Dr. M. Baratta. The 

 places that were partly or entirely destroyed lie within 

 three nearly circular curves, the most important including 

 Messina, Reggio, and Pellaro, and having its centre 

 beneath the Straits of Messina, the others in the neigh- 

 bourhoods of Palmi and Montelcone respectively. The 

 total area of these curves is estimated at about 500 square 

 miles, and the disturbed area, including the portion covered 

 by the sea, at about 150,000 square miles. The recent 

 earthquake, like those of 1783 and 1905, was thus poh'- 

 centric. In 1905, as in 1908, the different centres (namely, 

 those near Palmi, Monteleone, Nicastro, Cosenza, and 

 Bisignano) were in action simultaneously, or nearly so. 

 In 1783 they came into action successively, the first great 

 shock taking place in the Palmi zone, the second in that 

 ■of Scylla, the third in the Monteleone zone, the fourth, as 

 recently, in the Messina zone, the fifth in the Monteleone 

 zone, and the sixth in the Girifalco zone. In other earth- 

 quakes single centres appear to have been in action, the 

 Palmi zone in 1894, the Monteleone zone in 1659, the 

 Nicastro zone in 163S, the Cosenza zone in 1854, and the 

 Bisignano zone in 1836. Thus there appear to be several 

 more or less detached centres of maximum disturbance, 

 though their simultaneous activity in 1905 and 1908 in- 

 dicates that there must be some deep-seated connection 

 between them. 



Sever.\l reports of scientific interest were referred to in 

 the report of the council of the Institution of Mechanical 

 Engineers, presented at the annual general meeting on 

 Friday, February 19. Since October, 1907, an investiga- 

 tion for the Alloys Research Committee has been in pro- 

 gress in the metallurgical department of the National 

 Physical Laboratory on the ternary alloys of copper- 

 • aluminium, and a report dealing with copper-aluminium- 



NO. 2052, VOL. 79] 



manganese is expected shortly. The results of the pro- 

 longed sea-water corrosion tests, which have been carried 

 on at Portsmouth Dockyard on the specimens of copper- 

 aluminium alloys, referred to in the eighth report, will 

 be published with the ne.xt report of the committee. The 

 research in connection with gas-tightness and steam-tight- 

 ness of metal castings is being continued at the University 

 of Manchester. The three new subjects selected for in- 

 vestigation in accordance with the vote of the members, 

 referred to in the last annual report, have received atten- 

 tion during the year. A comprehensive report upon the 

 transfer of heat across metallic surfaces in contact with 

 water and with gases will shortly be brought before the 

 institution for reading and discussion. Reports are also 

 being prepared upon the features of refrigerating 

 machinery in which further investigation is needed, and 

 the action of steam passing through nozzles and steam 

 turbines. 



We have received a newspaper cutting containing the 

 report of the Port Elizabeth Museum for 1908, from which 

 we learn that great efforts are being made by the president 

 to develop that institution, especially from the point of 

 view of local education. These endeavours are, however, 

 considerably hampered by lack of sufficient financial re- 

 sources. Several important additions were made to the 

 collections during the year. The number of visitors who 

 passed the turnstiles was considerably less than in 1907. 



In the February number of Naturen Dr. L. Stejncger 

 adduces further evidence in favour of the theory of the 

 existence, at a comparatively recent date, of a land-bridge 

 between Scotland and Scandinavia. This evidence is 

 mainly based on the distribution of the species, or races, of 

 charr (Salvelinus), which is illustrated by a map. 

 Salvelinus alpinus is considered to be common to western 

 Scandinavia and Scotland, while in eastern Scandinavia we 

 have the typical S. salvelinus of the Alps. Iceland is the 

 home of S. nivalis, while further north occur 5. insularis 

 and 5. stagnalis. Lapland is the home of an intermediate 

 forifi known as S. salvelino-stagnalis, while another 

 annectant type, S. alpino-stagnalis, occurs in Greenland. 



Having completed the investigation of the degenerate 

 eyes of the Australian marsupial mole (Notoryctes), Miss 

 G. Sweet has directed her attention to those of the African 

 golden moles (Chrysochloris), the results of this later study 

 being published in vol. liii., part ii., of the Quarterly 

 Journal of Microscopical Science. In the Chrysochloridae 

 the eye has sunk only into the dermis, where it is sur- 

 rounded by the hair-roots ; but • the eye-muscles have dis- 

 appeared, as has the vitreous humour, while the lens and 

 iris are very degenerate. The optic nerve is retained in 

 some instances and lost in others. Despite its compara- 

 tively superficial position, the eye is not visible externally ; 

 the loss of the eye-muscles is an unusnal feature. That 

 the eye, even were the cleft at the proper angle for 

 admitting light-rays, is quite useless for vision is certain, 

 and it is improbable that it is capable of detecting even 

 degrees of lignt. 



Great interest attaches to a paper by Mr. G. R. Wieland 

 in the February number of the American Journal of Science 

 on the structure of the Cretaceous marine turtles of the 

 ProtostegidaD, since the facts therein adduced go a long 

 way, at any rate in the author's opinion, to solve the 

 problem of the relationship of tlie leathery turtle (Dermo- 

 chelys) to ordinary turtles (Chelone). These turtles, as 

 represented by Protostega and Archelon, attained gigantic 

 dimensions, and, in accordance with the needs of a pelagic 



