82 



NATURE 



[July 21, 1910 



In a paper recently read before the Royal Society of Arts 

 (see p. 58), Captain A. J. N. Tremearne discusses tlie origin 

 of tliat rcmarliable African race, the Fiilah or Filani. The 

 view which he finally adopts is that the tribe arose some- 

 where in the Central Sudan from the union of Berber 

 males with negro women ; that with this mixture of race 

 a mixed dialect came into use, combining Berber, Arabic, 

 and Bantu elements. In process of time this mixed race 

 separated from the Berbers and formed various groups, one 

 going east and south, and becoming the Wahuma, another 

 migrating west to Morocco, and a third, moving south, be- 

 came the Fans. The quasi-Semitic origin of the tribe has 

 produced a spirit of nationality, and some of their legends 

 now connect them with a Jew or .^rab progenitor. Sx 

 present they form the aristocracy of the Hausa States in 

 North British Nigeria and in French territory to the south 

 and west, their head being the Emir of Sokoto. They are 

 a people with great possibilities, and will doubtless take a 

 high place in West ."Vfrica when once they frankly accept 

 British and French supremacy. 



The Glastonbury Antiquarian Society has arranged for 

 the publication of a work containing a full description of 

 the excavations at the Glastonbury lake-village, by Mr. 

 .Arthur Bulleid and Mr. H. St. George Gray, with an 

 introductory chapter by Dr. R. Munro. The work will 

 also contain reports on the human and animal remains, 

 bird bones, botanical specimens and seeds, and metal, by 

 Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., Dr. C. \V. Andrews, 

 F.R.S., Mr. Clement Reid, F.R.S., and the late Dr. J. H. 

 Gladstone, F.R.S. The Glastonbury lake-village is re- 

 garded by archjeologists as of primary importance in the 

 history of pre-Roman Britain, giving as it does a vivid 

 picture of native life before the arts of Rome penetrated to 

 the west of England. The village is of the crannog type, 

 the habitable area of about 33 acres, originally in the 

 middle of a mere, including some eighty dwellings sur- 

 rounded by a border-palisading. The occupation of this 

 area continued long enough to allow 5 feet of peat to 

 accumulate in some parts during the occupation. The 

 village had its origin in the early Iron age, and has con- 

 tributed largely to our knowledge of the arts and industries 

 of late Celtic times. The editors hope to be able to 

 publish vol. i. of the work upon the excavations before the 

 close of 1910. Vol. ii. will follow as soon as possible after 

 vol. i., and probably within eighteen months. The work 

 will resemble somewhat in style that of General Pitt- 

 Rivers 's " E.xcavations in Cranborne Chase." Any in- 

 quiries regarding the work should be sent (with stamped 

 addressed envelope) to Mr. H. St. George Gray, Taunton 

 Castle, Somerset. 



The Dominion Museum at Wellington has issued a 

 hand-list of New Zealand birds, including stragglers, and 

 the first and second parts of a hand-list of New Zealand 

 Lepidoptera. 



We have received a copy of vol. vi.. No. 9, of the 

 University of California Publications in Zoology, contain- 

 ing a preliminary report, by Mr. G. F. McEwen, on the 

 hydrographical work carried on by the Marine Biological 

 Station at San Diego. Work of this nature was the 

 main reason for the foundation of the Marine Biological 

 Association of San Diego, but various causes prevented 

 its being taken up in earnest until the summer of 1908, 

 when the writer of the report before us became a member 

 of the staff of the station, whose duty it should be to take 

 charge for some portion of the year of water-investigations. 

 The work of 1908 consisted of determinations of the 

 NO. 2125, VOL. 84] 



temperature and density of the waters of the Bay of 

 La Jolla and the ocean, the area covered lying between 

 33° 20' and 32° 30' N. lat., and extending from the coast 

 to 118° 30' long. In addition to this, two trips were 

 made to the Cortez Banks, and a third to a point some 

 distance south of Cerros Island. The methods of. work 

 and some of the results obtained are recorded in the report. 



Some remarkably fine skeletons of plesiosaurians from 

 the Upper Lias of Holzmaden are described by Dr. E. 

 Fraas, of Stuttgart, in vol. Ivii. of the Palacontographia. 

 The author directs attention to the rarity of plesiosaurian 

 remains in the German Lias as contrasting strongly with 

 what obtains in the corresponding English formation. The 

 latter indicates that these saurians were relatively 

 abundant in the Liassic seas, although they did not, in all 

 probability, congregate in such large shoals as the 

 commoner species of ichthyosaurs. The majority of the 

 English specimens come, however, from the Lower Lias 

 of Lyme Regis, Street, and Charmouth, an horizon re- 

 presented by a different type of strata at Holzmaden. Dr. 

 Fraas refers his specimens to Plesiosauriis giiUelmi- 

 imperatoris, first named by Prof. Dames in 1895, and to a 

 new species of Thaumatosaurus, which it is proposed to 

 call T. victor. So perfect are the remains that they admit 

 of restored figures of the skulls of both species being given. 

 r. victor was about 10 feet in length, with a relatively 

 small head, short and thick neck, very plump body, slender 

 and nearly equal-sized paddles, and a very short and 

 powerful tail. 



In the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for June 

 (xxi.. No. 231) Dr. Corson contributes an interesting bio- 

 graphy of Sir Charles Bell, who did so much to elucidate 

 the structure and functions of the nervous system, and 

 whose " .Anatomy of Expression in Painting " has remained 

 a classic. Dr. Walker describes glandular structures 

 hitherto supposed to form part of the prostate gland in 

 rats and guinea-pigs, which, however, differ entirely in 

 structure from the latter, and the secretion of which 

 coagulates the secretion of the seminal vesicles when mixed 

 with it. This coagulation is produced by a very minute 

 quantity of the secretion, i part to about 21,000 parts of 

 the secretion of the seminal vesicles being sufficient to pro- 

 duce the reaction. The active principle presumably belongs 

 to the class of ferments. 



It is a pleasure to note the excellent manner in which 

 the natural history of the American State of Connecticut is 

 being worked up, and the results recorded in a series of 

 pamphlets entitled " Bulletins of the State Geological and 

 Natural History Survey of Connecticut." Five geological 

 and five botanical bulletins have been issued, the last 

 (No. 14) being devoted to a catalogue of flowering plants 

 and ferns. A committee of six members of the Connecti- 

 cut Botanical Society is responsible for the work, which 

 has been compiled with great care. The list enumerates 

 1481 native and 461 introduced species, besides which 286 

 varieties and forms are recognised. The Cyperacere, 

 Graminea), and Composite stand out as the largest 

 families. Aster is the largest genus, and also one of the 

 most interesting, as the native species include such useful 

 horticultural types as laevis, novae-angliae, novi-belgii, 

 cricoides, longifolius, and the rare concinntis ; Solidago, 

 another large genus, also provides the original types of 

 some garden plants. The critical genera, Crat^Egus and 

 Rubus, contribute to the size of the rose family, and the 

 number of Violas is remarkable. Among the ferns, eight 

 species of Isoetes and six of Botrychiurn are recorded. 



