February 20. 1902] 



NA TURE 



their nests, which is to be continued later. In a second, Mr. 

 J. C. M'Lean accounts for the appearance of the swamp-hen, or 

 bald coot, in localities in New Zealand where it was previously 

 unknown, by the clearance and drainage of many of its former 

 haunts. 



In the Report for 1901 on the Lancashire Sea- Fisheries Labor- 

 atory at Liverpool and the Sea-Kish Hatchery at Piel, Prof. 

 W. A. Herdman directs attention to the urgent need on the 

 Lancashire coast of a special steam vessel for the purpose of 

 scientific and statistical work. The Fisheries Branch of the 

 Irish Agricultural Department has now such a steamer working 

 under the direction of a scientific adviser ; and if similar investi- 

 gations could be undertaken on the opposite side of the channel, 

 and the two vessels worked on a common programme. Prof. 

 Herdman is of opinion that " this most definitely circumscribed 

 area of the British seas would be adequately investigated." It is 

 earnestly to be hoped that the necessary funds may be obtained 

 without difficulty. The general work of the laboratory has been 

 carried on with success. .-Vt the Piel hatchery attention was 

 confined during the year to the flounder, but in the current 

 year more attention is to be devoted to the incubation of the 

 eggs of the plaice. Appe nded to the Report is an account of 

 the morphology and life history of the plaice, by Messrs. Cole 

 and Johnstone, forming No. 8 of the L.M.B.C. Memoirs. 

 This appears to be the most elaborate account of any single 

 species that has hitherto been published, and reflects the greatest 

 credit upon its authors, who have devoted two ^ears to their 

 task. The plaice, which is one of the most important of the 

 British food-fishes, is a local and sedentary type on which the 

 effects of e.-icessive fishing would be almost sure to make them, 

 selves felt, and it has been the subject of more than one (Govern- 

 ment investigation. The importance of a full knowledge of the 

 structure and habits of this fish, such as the authors give us, can- 

 therefore, be scarcely overestimated. Much is to be hoped from 

 the experiments in hatching and rearing the eggs and fry of the 

 species alluded to above, for, as Prof. Herdman well observes, 

 hatching and rearing are the real objects of institutions like the 

 one under his direction, " And scientific men who have 

 charge of fish-hatcheries svill not be content till they have suc- 

 ceeded in rearing into young fish, at a reasonable cost, a suffi- 

 ciently large proportion of the fry which they can now hatch 

 from the eggs by the million.' 



We have recently noticed Mr. D. G. Elliot's " List of the 

 Land- and Sea-.Mammals of Xorth America," published at 

 Chicago (Nature, January 9). Since then we have received a 

 copy of another work on nearly the same subject, prepared by 

 Messrs. M iller and Rehn and issued by the Boston Society of 

 Natural History. It is entitled "Systematic Results of the 

 Study of North .\merican Land Mammals to the Close of the 

 Year 1900," and embraces a larger area than .Mr. Elliot's list, 

 as it includes in North America the whole of the continent down 

 to the isthmus of Panama and the West India Islands. It also 

 serves to show, even mote plainly than Mr. Elliot's list, the 

 enormous additions lately made by the active zoologists of the 

 United .States to our knowledge of the North American 

 mammal-fauna. Whereas Mr. True in 18S5 only included 

 about 400 species in his summary of this mammal-fauna, the 

 authors of the present work enumerate no less than 1450 species 

 and subspecies. Whatever may be the opinion of other 

 naturalists about the status of some of these species and sub- 

 species, all will allow that Messrs. Miller and Rehn have 

 furnished us with a very useful summary of the results of the 

 study of the North .\merican mammals during the past fifteen 

 years. 



A WORK on " Meteorologische Optik," by I'rof J. M. 

 Pernter, is in course of publication by Herr W. Braumiiller, of 



JJO. 1686, VOL. 65] 



Vienna and Leipzig, and the first part has been received. 

 Prof. Pernter has given so much attention to the physical side 

 of meteorology, and the analysis of optical phenomena, that his 

 complete work ought to be of great interest. The part of the 

 subject already treated is too general to admit of review, and 

 we propose to defer our notice of the work until the whole of 

 the parts have been published. 



A SECOND edition of Prof. J. M. Coulter's inspiring little 

 text-book entitled " Plant Relations : a First Book of Botany," 

 has been published by Messrs. Hirschfeld Brothers. "The 

 chapters dealing with plant societies have been revised both in 

 text and illustration, but otherwise few alterations have been 

 made. As remarked in the review of the first edition (March 8, 

 1900, vol. Ixi. p. 442), the book is an interesting and refreshing 

 little manual, which ought to receive the attention of the teacher 

 as well as the pupil. It should be of real service as a guide to 

 nature-study. 



With the laudable object of bringing science and scientific 

 principles into every-day life and thought, a society has been 

 formed and has issued a journal under the title of Life. The 

 organisation at present has no name and its only designation is 

 "our Society." A useful department of the journal is that in 

 which advice is given as to the choice of books on various 

 branches of science. There is an article on medical training 

 and ideals, one on science and art in literature, and a third on 

 the inaccuracies of the Old Testament — a subject which is 

 perhaps better left alone by a society which hopes for success. 

 The journal is edited by the secretary, Mr. R. .\. Buddicom, 

 17 Craven Hill Gardens, Hyde Park, London, W., to whom all 

 communications should be addressed. 



The Transactions of the Epidemiological Society (new series, 

 vol. XX. 1900-1901) show that the Society is doing much to 

 encourage the scientific study of disease. Dr. P. Manson, in a 

 paper on some problems of tropical epidemiology, describes the 

 work which has been done to establish the connection between 

 mosquitoes and malaria, and suggests directions of further 

 development. Why is it that Samoa, to take an instance, is 

 free from malaria, while Mauritius has the disease present ? The 

 answer is probably that there is some organism in Samoa which 

 is fatal to the malaria-bearing mosquito — Anopheles — while in 

 Mauritius the insect can flourish ; but the reasons for such 

 differences are not clearly understood, and a systematic inquiry 

 must be made before the conditions inimical to Anopheles can 

 be exactly known. Similar remarks apply to diseases other 

 than malaria; and Dr. Manson points out that expeditions 

 to discover the causes and remedies of such diseases are 

 even more necessary than expeditions to determine points of 

 geological or geographical interest. Another paper in the 

 volume is on plague in the nineteenth century, by Dr. A. K. 

 Chalmers, who gives particulars of the outbreak of plague in 

 Glasgow. Rats were plentiful in the affected houses, but they 

 appeared to have escaped infection. Nearly three hundred rats 

 were examined, but nothing suggesting plague was found. 

 These results were in marked contrast with those described by 

 Dr. Tidswell, of Sydney, at the close of Dr. Chalmers' paper. 

 The facts obtained at Sydney showed conclusively that the 

 plague was tran.smitted by fleas from infected rats. Among 

 other papers we notice one on the diagnosis of pl.ague, by 

 Dr. E. Klein, F.R.S., which has already appeared in Nature 

 (vol. Ixiv. p. 91) ; soil and typhoid fever, by Dr. J. T. R. 

 Davison ; and principles determining the geographical distribu- 

 tion of disease, by Dr. L. W. Sambon. .\ portrait of the late 

 Prof. Max von Pettenkofer, of Munich, forms the frontispiece of 

 the volume, and an obituary notice of this eminent investigator 

 appears among the contents. 



