196 



NATURE 



[August 10, 191 i 



the vocables in Melanesia for which we have discovered 

 Polynesian affinities are found to carry that affinity back 



o In. Inn Hi " ready to pronounce the decree of 



Divorce upon Malay ami Polynesian." Other judges of 

 Indonesian will scarcely concur in this judgment. 



It is impossible in the limits of this notice to give an 

 adequate exposition of the value of Mr. Churchill's book to 

 the student of Oceanic linguistics and ethnology. It is not 



inly suggestive of points for discussion, but provides also 

 material upon which the argument may be based. There 

 is a bibliographical appendix, two maps, and a useful index. 



Sidney H. Ray. 



SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS IN THE UNIVERSITY 



OF OXFORD. 

 'T'HE annual report of the delegates of the University 

 ■*■ Museum, lately published, contains a very complete 

 record of the scientific work done in the several depart- 

 ments of the museum during the year 1910. In the 

 department of physiology, special attention is directed to 

 the establishment of an advanced practical course in 

 physiological optics, under the direction of Prof. Gotch 

 and Dr. Burch. A considerable amount of the requisite 

 apparatus was made in the laboratory workshop. Prof. 

 Arthur Thomson (human anatomy) announces that instruc- 

 tion in physical anthropology has now been systematically 

 organised. The report of the Linacre professor of com- 

 parative anatomy (Prof. Bourne) also shows much evidence 

 of steady progress. The list of additions to the collection 

 is a long one, and numerous important memoirs have 

 been published by members of the department during the 

 past year. 



Prof. Poulton submits a lengthy and interesting account 

 of the work done in the rooms assigned to the Hope pro- 

 fessor of zoology. A very fine collection and library of 

 Oriental and British entomology, chiefly Hymenoptera, 

 was presented by Mr. G. A. James Rothney ; and other 

 important accessions were received from numerous donors, 

 among whom were Mr. Herbert Druce, Commander J. J. 

 Walker, Mr. J. H. Watson, Mr. S. A. Neave, Mr. W. A. 

 Lamborn, and the Hon. Walter Rothschild. Special atten- 

 tion is directed to bred specimens received from Mr. A. D. 

 Millar, of Durban, which prove that the conclusion tenta- 

 tively arrived at by Mr. G. A. K. Marshall in 1902, that 

 Eitralia mitna and E. wahlbergi are dimorphic forms of 

 the same species, is in accordance with the fact. The 

 collection of British Rhynchota, Hemiptera, and Homo- 

 ptera belonging to the late Edward Saunders, and pre- 

 sented by the professor and Dr. G. B. Longstaff, is 

 described as one of the most important additions ever 

 made to the British collection in the department. Among 

 the original memoirs published by workers in the depart- 

 ment are Mr. H. Eltringham's important monograph on 

 African mimetic butterflies and Mr. R. Shelford's contri- 

 butions to the Genera Insectorum. 



Noteworthy additions have been made to the anthropo- 

 logical collections contained in the Pitt-Rivers Museum. 

 The energy of the curator, Mr. H. Balfour, who has paid 

 three special visits to the Victoria Falls of the Zambezi,- 

 has resulted in the acquisition of a far more complete 

 collection representing the archaeology of that region than 

 anywhere else. Other important accessions have 

 •come in from the Belgian Congo, British East Africa, 

 West Africa, the Dordogne, and the Isle of Wight. In 

 the department of experimental philosophy, Prof. Clifton 

 reports that an extension of the laboratory is absolutely 



ary, tl nly alternative being to restrict the numbei 



of students. 



The report of the Wykeham professor of physics (Prof. 

 Townsend) records the transference of the laboratory furni- 

 ture and apparatus from the temporary quarters in the old 

 museum to the fine new building provided by the generosity 

 of the Drapers' Companv. The new premises have been 

 found to be excellently adapted for giving practical instruc- 

 tion, and also for research work. In the department of 

 nistry, Prof. Odling notes the starting of a new course 

 of advanced practical organic chemistry under Dr. 

 Chattaway, and the publication of several important 

 memoirs dealing with researches conducted in the chemical 



SO. 2l80, VOL. 87] 



laboratory. These include Dr. Chattaway 's work on 

 chlorine, Mr. Marsh's on the solution of haloid double- 

 salts in organic solvents and on the halogen derivatives of 

 camphor, and also the investigations by Mr. Lambert and 

 his pupils on the wet oxidation of metals. The report 

 mentions that as a result of the work still in progress, it 

 is hoped later to establish sufficient facts to warrant putting 

 forward a modification of the present views on the sub- 

 ject of the corrosion of metallic iron. 



A valuable consignment of rocks and fossils has been 

 sent to the geological department from Peru, where Mr. 

 J. A. Douglas is engaged in using the excellent oppor- 

 tunities for geological study now being afforded by several 

 important railway cuttings. The expenses of the investiga- 

 tion are being borne by Mr. W. E. Balston, University 

 College, and the consignment that has been already re- 

 ceived is the first of many that may be expected as a result 

 of Mr. Douglas's labours. Besides the usual field-work 

 conducted by Prof. Sollas in the country about Oxford, an 

 excursion, attended by sixteen students, was made to the 

 Siebengebirge and the Eifel. Much work has been done 

 by Miss Byrne and others on the rearrangement of the 

 collections. A long series of specimens illustrating the 

 history of the pleistocene epoch is in course of arrange- 

 ment, and the work is rapidly approaching completion. 



Like other heads of departments, the professor of rural 

 economy (Prof. Somerville) finds himself somewhat em- 

 barrassed for want of room. The laboratories of botany 

 and chemistry included in his department have been taxed 

 to their utmost capacity to provide accommodation for the 

 students. For the needs of the department of mineralogy, 

 provision has been made by the allotment of a portion of 

 the northern room of the old Radcliffe library, lately occu- 

 pied by the Wykeham professor of physics. Many additions 

 are recorded to the collections of specimens and the stock 

 of apparatus, and some important researches have been 

 carried on by Prof. Bowman, his pupils, and assistants. 



A remarkable feature in many of the departmental reports 

 that have now been briefly noticed, is the great and grow- 

 ing need of still further accommodation if the requirements 

 of both teachers and students are to be satisfactorily met. 

 Much has already been done; all departments alike fell 

 the same tale of great and increasing activity in scientific 

 work. Much still remains to do; but the document before 

 us gives good hope for the future, for it contains abundant 

 evidence that the ancient University of Oxford is becoming 

 more and more alive to its responsibilities in the matter of 

 scientific progress, as regards both teaching and research. 



ADVANCES IN REPTILIAN PALJEONTOLOi ,\ . 

 T N the July number of The American Naturalist Dr. 



O. P. Hay reopens the discussion with regard to the 

 position of the limbs in Diplodocus and other sauropod 

 dinosaurs, criticising the views of those who assert that 

 these reptiles carried themselves in elephantine fashion, and 

 maintaining his own opinion that the general pose was more 

 after the crocodilian style. In regard to what may be 

 called the elephant pose, it is pointed out that since a 

 straight femur appears to have characterised the 

 Proboscidea from the beginning, its occurrence in the 

 modern representatives of the group may be regarded as a 

 primitive feature, rather than an adaptation to the support 

 of great bodily weight. At the conclusion of his argu- 

 ments with regard to the pose of the sauropods, Mr. Hay 

 expri is to whether the erect bird-like posture 



attributed to the carnivorous dinosaurs of the Jurassic is 

 really true to nature. "The extraordinary development of 

 the pubic bones of Aristosaurus, the expanded and anky- 

 losed distal ends of which reached nearly half-way to the 

 forelegs, seems to me to indicate that these animals, when 

 in repose, had a prone position, resting much of the vveighl 

 ,111 the pubes, and that when running their legs straddled 

 , onsidei ably." 



In reference to the opinion of Dr. Matthew that S 

 pods were too bulky to have lived on land, it i- added that 

 " the law to which he gives expression does, of course, 

 pre cribe a limit to the *ize an animal can attain, but who 

 determined what that limit is?" 



!.. vol. vii., part 4. of the Annals of the S. African 



