September 22, 1910] 



NATURE 



;7i 



sole survivor of the tribe, and from a male member of 

 a neighbourinfj S^oup who was well acquainted with their 

 languafje and customs. They seem never to have 

 assimilated their culture to that of the neighbouring 

 powerful Huba tribe, and it has been suggested, with some 

 degree of probability, that they were a branch of the 

 Shastan stock, which advanced from the north in a south- 

 westerly direction, and with which they exhibit in their 

 mythology certain resemblances. All the scanty available 

 information about their culture and language has now been 

 adequately collected by Mr. Dixon. 



.Messrs. Dulau .\xd Co., Ltd., have published in the 

 series of Drapers' Company Research Memoirs a study 

 of the mortality of the tuberculous in relation to 

 sanatorium treatment, by Mr. \V. Palin Elderton and Mr. 

 ■S. J. Perry. The method adopted is to compare the 

 number of deaths observed amongst the tuberculous with 

 the number that would be expected on the basis of the 

 English life-table (i) for patients of certain sanatoria, 

 (2) for Pollock and Williams's cases, which were 

 observed before the days of sanatorium treatment. The 

 authors show that the mortality of tuberculous patients 

 who are undergoing or have undergone treatment is much 

 heavier than that of the general population, and the 

 mortality even of the apparently cured cases is about twice 

 as heavy. The mortality of sanatorium patients does not 

 show any improvement on that of Williams and Pollock's 

 cases, but comparison is difficult, owing to the way in 

 which the older figures were given. It is precisely this 

 comparison, however, which is of importance. The fact 

 that the mortality of sanatorium patients is greater than 

 that of the general population has no bearing on the real 

 question at issue, for even a perfect cure of tuberculosis 

 could surely not be expected, as an incidental result, to 

 turn a weakling into a strong man, nor to render the 

 iuortality of the highly selected population in question the 

 same as that of the population at large. 



Is the repmrt of the Warrington Museum for the year 

 ending on June 30 last, attention is directed to the large 

 number of donations received, which included 2436 speci- 

 mens, as against 1645 in the previous twelvemonth. 



In the September number of the Selborne Magazine Mr. 

 K. G. Woodd states that an additional protected area for 

 birds has recently been established by the County Council 

 in east Sussex. The area extends from Eastbourne to 

 Hastings, and inland so far as Lewes, and within these 

 limits such birds and their eggs as specially need protec- 

 tion have been scheduled. 



We have received the report of the Sarawak Museum 

 for 1908-9, in which it is announced that Mr. J. Hewitt 

 has been succeeded as curator by Mr. J. C. Moulton. 

 Collecting expeditions have been made to neighbouring 

 districts, which resulted in the addition of interesting 

 specimens, and a catalogue of the birds in the collection 

 was completed during the period under review. 



The International Commission on Zoological Nomen- 

 clature has issued through the Smithsonian Institution 

 (Publication No. 1938) a series of twenty-five opinions in 

 regard to matters of dispute in nomenclature. .Among 

 many cases, it will perhaps suffice to mention that the 

 committee are in favour of retaining the generic name 

 Simla for the orang-utan. 



The Entomologists' Monthly Magazine for September 



contains a beautifully cojoured plate of nine species of 



rare British beetles, all of small size, .\ccording to the 



authors — Messrs. Champion and Lloyd — of the accompany- 



NO. 2134, VOL. 84] 



ing notes, one of the most interesting of these is the species 

 named by Dr. Sharp Eudectus whitei, of which the single 

 known example was captured by its describer on the 

 summit of Ben-a-Bhuid, Braemar, in the summer of 1871. 



A useful catalogue of Danish zoological literature, com- 

 piled by Mr. Svend Dahl, has been published by J. B. 

 I.ybecker at Copenhagen under the title of " Bibliotheca 

 Danica, 1876— 1906." It comprises 262 pages of text, of 

 which 180 are devoted to a list of authors and their works. 

 The manner in which this list is arranged is, however, 

 difficult to understand, as the names are given neither in 

 alphabetical order nor according to date of birth. A 

 specific and subject index to the various papers and books 

 occupies 68 pages, and the volume concludes with an 

 index of authors. 



To vol. xii., part ii., of the Proceedings and Trans- 

 actions of the Nova .Scotian Institute of Science, Prof. 

 G. H. Perkins communicates a fully illustrated memoir 

 on cetacean remains from the superficial deposits of 

 Canada. The main object of the communication is a 

 skeleton in the museum at Halifax, discovered about 1873 

 on the Jacquet River, New Brunswick, which is identified 

 as that of a narwhal (^Monodon tnonoceros). Other skele- 

 tons, respectively in the museums of MacGill University, 

 .Montreal, and Montpelier, belong to the white whale 

 described by Thompson as Delphinaptertis vermontaniis. 

 Whether this is more than a large race of the existing 

 I), leiicas the author is doubtful. 



The third number of vol. ii. of the Journal of the 

 College of .Agriculture, Imperial University of Tokyo, is 

 devoted to entomological subjects, such as Japanese 

 .Arctiana;, Panorpid>-e, and Mantispid^, mainly of interest 

 to specialists. Mr. R. Inoue communicates, however, a 

 paper on experiments with silkworms, in which the 

 quantity of mulberry-leaves consumed by the larvae at 

 different periods of their existence is recorded. Other 

 experiments show that " carbon dioxide, even when pure, 

 has no influence upon the silkworms, and does not act as 

 poison : but when the worms are reared in air containing 

 more than 5 per cent, of the gas they lose their appetite, 

 and their growth is more or less retarded, especially in the 

 earlier stages." 



.Some interesting observations on the eyes of trilobites 

 are published by Prof. C. D. Walcott in a paper on 

 Olenellus and other genera of the Mesonacid?e (forming 

 the sixth of a series on Cambrian geology and palaeonto- 

 logv), published as No. 6 of vol. liii. of the Smithsonian 

 Miscellaneous Collections. Dr. Lindstrom expressed the 

 opinion some years ago that all Cambrian trilobites were 

 blind, as he was unable to detect eyes on the upper surface 

 of the cephalon. Such eyes have, however, been detected 

 in one of the American forms by the author, and show the 

 facetted outer surface. It is also suggested that macuU-c 

 may occur on the under surface — hypostoma — of the 

 Mesonacidje, as these have been detected by Lindstrom in 

 other types. After quoting Prof. A. Agassiz to the effect 

 that trilobites are frequently found lying on their backs, 

 and that young king-crabs (Limulus) often swim and feed 

 in an inverted position. Prof. Walcott suggests that " in 

 all probability the eyes of the hypostoma were of service 

 when the trilobite was lying on its back on the sand or 

 mud, and it was on this account that they were thus 

 developed. It is highly probable that the adult trilobite 

 crawled about the bottom and did not swim freely in the 

 water to the extent that it would be necessary for it to 

 see the bottom. Its habits must have been very much like 

 those of Limulus when in search of food." 



