fULY IO, 19 1 j] 



NATURE 



481 



tares, salinities, and direct-current measurements 

 made from ten vessels which were anchored for 

 fourteen days (June 1 to 14, 191 1) in a series of 

 positions in the North Sea, selected with the view 

 of studying- the principal currents. A repetition 

 ol observations of this character from time to time 

 as opportunity offers cannot fail to give informa- 

 tion of the utmost value. 



The plankton bulletin is composed entirely of 

 tables, recording the species found in samples 

 taken during the years iqoS to 191 1 ; and from the 

 number of records given it is evident that this side 

 of the investigations has recently received far less 

 attention than was formerly given to it. This is 

 probably due to two causes. In the first place, 

 the amount of time which is necessarily consumed 

 in examining and recording a large series of plank- 

 ton samples is very great indeed, and in the second 

 place a doubt exists in many minds as to whether 

 any very useful results will accrue from an in- 

 definite continuation of work on the plan which 

 up to the present has been followed. VVhat seems 

 to be required at the moment in plankton work 

 is more freedom and liberty to the individual 

 worker to devise and test new methods of quantita- 

 tive investigation, which may eventually enable 

 a trustworthy estimate of the annual and seasonal 

 fluctuations to be arrived at by some means less 

 open to criticism on the ground of trustworthiness 

 and at the same time not so prohibitively laborious 

 as the enumeration method of the Kiel school of 

 workers. 



For investigations on the minutest plankton 

 forms — the nannoplankton of Lohmann — the 

 enumeration method will doubtless have to be 

 retained, and the plan for the preservation of 

 s amples for this purpose, described by Gran in 

 Publications de Circonstance, No. 62, marks a 

 useful step in advance. The method consists in 

 adding to samples of sea-water, taken with a 

 water-bottle from known depths, a small quantity 

 of Flemming's strong solution. The samples may 

 be kept in this way for many months, and, without 

 any attempt at washing out the Flemming's solu- 

 tion, portions of the sample can be centrifuged, 

 the minute plankton forms which are thus separ- 

 ated out being identified and counted under the 

 microscope. 



Vol. xiv. of the Rapports et Proces-Verbaax 

 contains a number of papers of great interest deal- 

 ing with investigations of food fishes. Dr. P. 

 P. C. Hoek reports on the Clupeoids (other than 

 the herring), Prof. D'Arcy Thompson on the later 

 stages of the Gadoids, Dr. Masterman on the later 

 stages of the Pleuronectidse, and Dr. Johansen on 

 the eggs, larvae, and later stages of Pleuronec- 

 tida; from the Baltic. Dr. Ehrenbaum contri- 

 butes a summary of a more extensive report 

 which he is preparing on the mackerel, which 

 not only brings together previous work, but 

 also gives much new information on the habits 

 and life-history of this important fish, at the 

 same time making it clear that much further 

 investigation is necessary. He points out amongst 

 other tilings that little or nothing is known of 

 NO. 2 2<So, VOL. 91] 



the small adult stages of this common fish, which, 

 in spite of extensive fishing with nets that certainly 

 ought to capture them, have rarely been taken, 

 and then only in very small numbers. 



Finally, the volume contains a useful report by 

 Dr. Redeke on the present condition of our know- 

 ledge of the races of marketable fishes, in which 

 the importance of further researches into this 

 subject is made clear. 



The International Council publishes as a separate 

 volume what is described as a "preliminary brief 

 summary" of the first part ol Prof. Heincke's 

 general report upon investigations on the plaice. 

 This first part is entitled "Plaice Fishery and 

 Protective Measures," and from the proces- 

 verbaux of the meeting held in Copenhagen in 

 September, 1912, we learn that the summary was 

 then laid before the council and referred by it 

 to a special committee. The latter committee was 

 not, however, prepared to adopt immediately the 

 recommendations made by Prof. Heincke, and the 

 matter was further deferred. 



These recommendations, put forward in a some- 

 what tentative way, comprise the imposition upon 

 an international basis of a size-limit for plaice, 

 below which the fish may be neither landed nor 

 sold. It would appear that the great destruction of 

 immature plaice which now takes place could only 

 be effectively stopped if this size-limit were fixed 

 at 25 to 26 cm. Such a high limit would, however, 

 mean the immediate ruin of many inshore fisheries 

 carried on by sailing trawlers. As most of these 

 vessels on the continental side land their plaice 

 alive, Prof. Heincke suggests that a lower size- 

 limit of 22 or 23 cm. might be allowed for fish 

 which are so landed. It must be pointed out, 

 however, that this would not meet the difficulty 

 in English ports such as Lowestoft and Ramsgate, 

 where a size-limit of 25 or 26 cm. would probably 

 mean the ruin of the trawling industry. Prof. 

 Heincke emphasises the fact that the introduction 

 of a size-limit would, in the first instance, be in 

 the nature of an experiment, and that it is not 

 possible to say beforehand with any certainty 

 exactly what effect it would have on the fishery. 

 The problem is, in fact, a much more complex 

 one than it at first sight appears to be. A con- 

 sideration of the present preliminary report rather 

 suggests that the International Council has not 

 yet had that problem adequately laid before it in 

 all its numerous aspects and in a sufficiently com- 

 prehensive way. The council would scarcely at 

 present be justified in proposing restrictions which 

 would certainly, in the first instance, injure very 

 seriously the livelihood of many owners and fisher- 

 men who are dependent upon the smaller boats. 



AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES AND 



1 OLLEGES. 

 'pHE seventh annual report of the president 

 and treasurer of the Carnegie Foundation 

 for the Advancement of Teaching bears ample 

 witness to the stimulating powers which come 

 from the wise administration of an income of 



