498 



NA TURE 



[March 27, 1902 



Our contemporary the Electrical Review of New York 

 celebrated on February 15 the [twentieth anniversary of its 

 publication. The greater part of a special issue is devoted to 

 retrospective articles on the development of the different 

 branches of the industry during the past twenty years. A 

 facsimile reproduction of the first page of the first number shows 

 that the original title of the journal was the Nc-v York Kevitw 

 of the Telegraph and Telephone., which suflicienlly indicates the 

 position of electrical engineering at that time. In 1882 the 

 incandescent lamp was only just developed to a practical article ; 

 towards the end of the.year the first central generating station 

 was opened by Mr. Edison in New York. The first attempts 

 at electric traction were just being made, and industrial electro- 

 chemistry had not advanced further than electroplating and a 

 little copper lefining. It has become, perhaps, hackneyed to 

 remark on the rapid development of electrical engineering, but 

 it is pleasant to be reminded occasionally in so striking a fashion 

 how very great the rapidity has been. One of the most inter- 

 esting features of the issue under consideration is the reproduc- 

 tion of engravings from early numbers showing some of the first 

 commercial machines, and the comparison of these with the 

 process blocks of the enormous engines and dynamos now in 

 use. Altogether we can congratulate the paper on a very 

 attractive and instructive number. 



Owing to recent excavations in Hull, a large number of 

 seventeenth century tobacco pipes have been discovered ; these 

 have been figured and desciibed by Mr. T. Sheppard, the curator 

 of the Hull Museum, in one of the useful penny guides, to 

 another of which, on an ancient model of a boat, we drew atten- 

 tion a short time ago. This handbook will prove of value, as 

 little is known about early clay pipes and their makers. 



I.\ the thirty-fifth report on the Peabody Museum of American 

 Archaeology and Ethnology of Harvard University, we have a 

 very satisfactory record of the research and field work accom- 

 plished during the year 190C-01. There were seven expeditions 

 during that period to various parts of North and Central 

 America for the purpose of studying languages, customs and 

 archeology, and one graduate has done some valuable work 

 in Syria. The collections have increased so greatly that the 

 existing museum accommodation is quite inadequate ; doubtless 

 this will soon be remedied, as wealthy Americans are always 

 ready to help deserving institutions that do their best. 



We have often drawn attention to the valuable Bulletins of 

 the Madras Government Museum, and the current number 

 (vol. iv. No. 2) fully sustains the reputation of the series. Mr. 

 Edgar Thurston demonstrates an unexpected occurrence of 

 brachycephaly among certain Dravidian tribes in the Bellary 

 district of the Madras Presidency, where 37 '8 per cent, (among 

 419 subjects examined) have a cephalic index of above 80, the 

 average being 78 '9 as opposed to an average index of 73 S in 

 the southern districts of the Presidency. We are pleased to find 

 that Mr. Thurston will now study this problem. Mr. T. Kanga 

 Rao is the author of an interesting paper on the Yanadis of the 

 Nellore district (see p. 437), which was written as a thesis for 

 tlje M.A. degree examination of the Madras University ; in this 

 recognition of tthnolcgy the Madras University is in advance of 

 those in the mother country. Among the " Miscellanea" are 

 notes en the couvade, albinos, earlh-eating, weighing beams, 

 and other matters of interest pertaining to the ethnology of 

 southern India. 



No. 6 of the Sitziw^sberichle of the Vienna Academy for 1902 

 contains an abstract of the third part of Franz Baron Nopesa's 

 work on the dinosaurian remains from Siebenburgen. This 

 fasciculus is devoted to the description of the skull of the iguano- 

 dont known as Mochlodon, and al;o of dermal plates described 

 NO. 1 69 I, VOL. 65] 



under the name of Onychosaurus. In a second communication 

 the author discusses certain European Cretaceous armoured 

 dinosaurs, such as .Struthiosaurus, Acanthopholis and Pola- 

 canthus, which he believes to be closely related to the remarkable 

 horned Ceratopsidse of North America. 



It is most satisfactory to learn, from an article contributed to 

 the March number of the Zoologist by Mr. John Gurney, that 

 spoonbills are making the mud-flats of Breydon Broad, Norfolk, 

 their regular summer resort, from two to four of these beautiful 

 birds having frequented this locality from the early part of April 

 till the end of July. An avocet was also seen there on one occa- 

 sion. These gratifying results are entirely due to protection \, 

 but Mr. Gurney adds that "unless the Breydon Wild Birds' 

 Protection Society receives more pecuniary support than it has 

 had in the past, it will be unable to continue to carry on its good 

 work." In a rich county like Norfolk there ought to be no 

 difficulty in obtaining the necessary funds. Out of the fifteen 

 Spanish bustards turned down near Thetford in 1900, only two 

 pairs remain, and these wandered on one occasion nearly as far 

 as Newmarket. Among rare birds recorded in Norfolk during 

 the past year, Mr. Gurney mentions the golden oriole, orange- 

 legged hoby, woodchat, roller, Tengmalm's owl and Caspian 

 tern. , 



In his address to the thirteenth annual meeting of the Asso- 

 ciation of Economic Entomologists, held at Denver, Colorado, 

 in August last (of which a report appears in Bulletin No. 31 

 of the Entomological Division of the U.S. Department 0/ 

 Agriculture), Mr. G. P. Gillette took for his subject the life- 

 history of the codling-moth. One of his objects was to show 

 the imperfection in our knowledge of the history of even the 

 most common insects; and since, next to the "two-lined 

 locust," the codUng-moth is the species which occasions the 

 greatest loss to cultivators in Colorado, the importance of a full 

 knowledge of its habits can scarcely be overrated. Until quite 

 recently, entomologists held the belief that the moth lays its 

 eggs in the calyces of apples ; the fruit-growers knew this to be 

 an error, and in consequence have, unfortunately, somewhat lost 

 confidence in the work of the Division. A special subject of 

 investigation has been the number of broods annually 

 produced by this insect. In Colorado, where the species is 

 definitely known to be double-brooded, the habits of the 

 moth are probably very different from tiiose in the more eastern 

 districts, and one of the main objects was to determine whether 

 in the warmer parts of the country, where more tender fruits 

 are grown, the annual number of broods might not be greater. 



Messrs. Bi.ackie and Son contemplate a re.issue of 

 Kerner's "Natural History of Plants," a work which in its 

 English form is identified with the name of Prof F. W. Oliver. 

 The new edition, which will be issued at a considerably reduced 

 price, will be substantially a reprint of the original English 

 edition, with a few necessary alterations and corrections. 



The "Class List and Index of the Periodical Publications in 

 the Patent Othce Library," lately published by the Patent 

 Office (Bibliographical Series, No. 5), is a well-arranged cata- 

 logue of journals, reports and other periodical publications of 

 interest to students of pure and applied science. The reports 

 of scientific and polytechnic societies and the scientific and 

 technical journals are subdivided locally ; they are also classified 

 according to subjects. There are in the list 2563 works, dis- 

 tributed under 356 classes and representing about 39,6So 

 volumes. 



Two catalogues of scientific apparatus which have recently 

 been received show that the needs of teachers and investigators 

 of physical science are well supplied by instrument makers. One 



