124 

NATURE 
[APRIL I, 1915 

the able and unwearving assistant of her distinguished 
husband, the late Sir William Huggins, and was 
definitely associated with him as joint author of 
numerous original papers on astrophysical subjects. 
Among the investigations in which she took special 
part were those relating to the spectrum of the great 
nebula in Orion, the photographic spectra of Uranus 
and Saturn, absorption bands in the spectrum of Mars, 
the spectrum of Nova Aurige, and the spectra of 
Wolf-Rayet stars. In laboratory work she collaborated 
in investigations of the effect of density on the in- 
tensities of the H and K lines of calcium, of the 
modifications of the magnesium line 4481 under 
different experimental conditions of the spark dis- 
charge, and in photographic studies of the spectrum 
of the spontaneous lumi.‘cus radiation of radium. 
Lady Huggins was also joint author of the well- 
known ‘Atlas of Representative Stellar Spectra” 
(1899), which includes the later work of the Tulse 
Hill Observatory, and a general discussion of the 
problem of stellar evolution; initial letters and other 
drawings by Lady Huggins add much to the beauty 
and interest of this volume. She also acted as joint 
editor of ‘‘The Scientific Papers of Sir William 
Huggins,” published in 1909. In recognition of her 
valuable services to astrophysics, Lady Huggins was 
elected an honorary member of the Royal Astro- 
nomical Society in 1903. 
Tue death is announced, after a short but painful 
illness, of Prof. Eberhard Fraas, curator of the geo- 
logical section of the Royal Natural History Museum, 
Stuttgart. Prof. Fraas, who was born in 1862, was 
the son of Prof. Oscar F. von Fraas, whom he suc- 
ceeded in the curatorship at Stuttgart in 1897. He 
was a student of Prof. Karl A. von Zittel, of Munich, 
and devoted his special attention to vertebrate 
paleontology. His first important work was a memoir 
on the Labyrinthodonts of the Swabian Trias, pub- 
lished in the Palaeontographica in 1889. This was 
followed in 1891 by a separate volume on _ the 
Ichthyosauria from the Jurassic of Wurtemberg. In 
1894 he first announced Mr. B. Hauff’s remarkable 
discovery of the integument and fins of Ichthyosaurus, 
and during following years he described several fossil 
fishes and reptiles obtained by Mr. Hauff from the 
Upper Lias of Holzmaden. As a curator of the Royal 
Museum, Prof. Fraas made a special effort to collect 
systematically the fossil reptiles from the quarries 
in the Triassic sandstones round Stuttgart, and met 
with great success. He not only discovered unusually 
fine examples of Dinosaurians and Crocodilians of 
known species, but also obtained several new skeletons 
throwing light on the ancestry of the Chelonians. 
Most of this collection still awaits detailed description. 
Prof. Fraas also interested wealthy friends in the 
Tertiary mammalia of Egypt, and among the speci- 
mens obtained was the skull of the most primitive 
Iknown whale, which he described in 1904 under the 
name of Protocetus atavus. He showed that this 
skull was intermediate between that of ordinary early 
toothed whales and that of the early land carnivores 
(Creodonta). In 1907 ill-health, caused him to visit 
German East Africa, and while there he discovered 
NO. 2370, VOL. 95] 



the first remains of the gigantic Cretaceous dinosaurs, 
which have subsequently proved to exceed in size even 
the largest of the dinosaurs known from . North 
America. Prof. Fraas’s excellent scientific work will 
remain-as a permanent memorial of his acumen and 
industry. 
Tue large Australian collections of stone implements 
are little known to ethnographers. During the recent 
visit of the British Association, Miss A. C, Breten 
carefully examined the local museums, and in Man 
for March she gives an account of them. The finest 
collection, that at Melbourne, has been carefully 
arranged by Messrs. A. S. Kenyon and D. J. Mahony, 
who will, it may be hoped, publish an account of it. 
Their researches tend to show that, as in other coun- 
tries, the cowp de poign, once invented, was never 
forgotten. As other forms became known, all con- 
tinued in use together until something more serviceable 
was introduced. 
THE question has often been asked: Was there an 
earlier race in occupation of the area in Africa at 
present held by the Bantus? In Man for March Mr. 
W. H. Beech reports that in the Kikuyu country 
some ancient pottery has been found, said to be the 
work of a people called Gumba, who displaced the 
Maithoachiana, cannibal dwarfs. These Miatho- 
achiana are now believed to be earth-gnomes, skilled 
in the art of iron-working. Mr. Beech, with some 
amount of plausibility, suggests that they were pos- 
sibly Bushmen, Pygmies, or both, and that they were 
a local indigenous race of the Stone age, who used 
the flint implements often found in the Kikuyu coun- 
try. The Gumba are said to have made pottery and 
to have taught the Kikuyu the art of smelting. They 
may have been pre-Bantu Hamite invaders; but of 
this there is no evidence, and the legend may tend 
to show that the first discovery of iron was made in 
Africa. 
Irish Gardening for March, 1915, contains several 
useful horticultural papers. One on the different 
species of Hamamelis, or witch hazel, hardy in the 
British Isles, is appropriate as these interesting shrubs 
from China and Virginia are so valuable in the 
garden in full flower in mid-winter. Hamamelis 
mollis, from China, with its fragrant flowers, is the 
most beautiful species. H. virginiana, from eastern 
North America, was introduced so long ago as 1736, 
and is further of interest since witch hazel snow or 
hazelene snow is prepared from an extract of the 
bark. 
THE annual note on the ornamental waterfowl at 
Kew is always of interest, since so many species 
breed there in captivity. In 1914 the following birds 
were reared :—Carolinas; mandarins; common, red- 
crested, white-eye pochards, and tufted ducks; com- 
mon sheldrake; Brazilian, common, and Chilian teal; 
bar-headed, white-fronted, and other geese; and a 
black-necked swan. Several geese having been 
destroyed by a badger which took up its abode in the 
gardens it was decided to dig him out and deport 
him. When digging him out, his earth was found to 
be carpeted with bluebell leaves and flowers, and 
many shovelsful were thrown out. ; 
