September 26, 1912] 



NATURE 



distribution peculiarities of the earth-worms of 

 Africa and adjoining regions, showing, amongst 

 other things, the intimate faunistic relationships 

 (involving, of course, continuous land surface at 

 one timej between Spain, SjTia, and Persia, and 

 again between Sardinia, Sicily, and Tunis; 

 between all equatorial or tropical Africa (Sene- 

 ganibia to Abyssinia and Mocambique), and — it 

 might be added in a lesser degree — Guiana and 

 Brazil ; and the very separate and peculiar char- 

 acter, from an earth-worm point of view, of Mada- 

 gascar and the southern extremity of Africa, both 

 of which constitute very distinct regions in the 

 character of their earth-worms. So far as our 

 knowledge yet extends, the most interesting and 

 richly endowed earth-worm region in Africa is 

 round about Ruwenzori, between the west coast of 

 \'ictoria Nyanza and the north coast of Tan- 

 ganyika. 



In the article on birds, the survey of all well- 

 known collections is somewhat incomplete, very 

 little reference being made to the reports on the 

 collections made by the writer of this review in 

 Uganda and on Ruwenzori. (In his general sum- 

 mary of the results of the expedition, the Duke 

 Adolf Friedrich attributes the discovery of the 

 Okapi, not to the writer of this review, but to 

 Lieutenant Eriksson ; the true facts of the case 

 ha\'e been so well stated in M. Jules Frnipont's 

 monograph on the Okapi that it is not necessary 

 to repeat them here.) Several mistakes are made 

 in the spelling of names of non-German authori- 

 ties and certain place-names. This article, how- 

 ever, like some which have recently appeared in 

 the 7bw, emphasises the remarkable beauty and 

 strangeness in coloration of the Central African 

 shrikes (Malaconotus) and the tree hoopoes 

 (Scoptelus). The most striking species of Scop- 

 telus has been named after the Duke Adolf 

 Friedrich. 



H. H. JOHN'STON. 



NOTES. 

 Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., 



has been elected an honorary fellow of the Royal 

 Society of South Africa. 



A memorial to Lord Lister is to be established at 

 University College Hospital, where Lister was a 

 student. \ special committee has been formed under 

 the presidency of the Duke of Bedford, president of 

 the hospital, with Sir John Tweedy, consulting oph- 

 thalmic surgeon, as hon. treasurer of the fund. The 

 exact nature of the tribute will be largely decided by 

 the amount of the subscriptions received, but it has 

 been suggested that either a bust or a tablet should be 

 placed in both the hospital and the college. It is 

 understood that the memorial will be local in character, 

 and only those who have been in some way connected 

 with University College or the hospital are being asked 

 to subscribe. 



A NEW case has just been arranged in the Geological 



Department of the British Museum (Natural History) 



to illustrate the characteristic coral of each of the 



successive layers or zones in the Carboniferous Lime- 



NO. 2239, VOL. 90] 



stone of the Avon Gorge, Bristol, as determined by 

 Dr. Arthur Vaughan. The actual fossils and photo- 

 graphs of the cliff-sections are explained by accom- 

 panying diagrams, prepared by Mr. W. D. Lang. It 

 appears that the successive faunas, including the corals, 

 are not directly derived from each other on the spot, 

 but represent a series of migrations. Dr. Vaughan 

 has presented to the museum the whole of the collec- 

 tion of corals on which his well-known researches were 

 based, and this gift has been supplemented by another 

 from Dr. Albert Wilmore, illustrating similar re- 

 searches undertaken by him in the Carboniferous Lime- 

 stone of Yorkshire. 



The Geological Department of the British Museum 

 (Natural History) has also recently received a valuable 

 gift of Wealden fossils from the Revs. P. Teilhard 

 and F. Pelletier, S.J., who made the collection during a 

 four years' residence near Hastings. A large proportion 

 of tlie specimens are small teeth from bone-beds which 

 had previously been very little examined, and among 

 them is the unique mammalian tooth described under 

 the name of Dipriodun valdensis by Dr. Smith Wood- 

 ward in 19U. There are numerous teeth of the dwarf 

 crocodile Theriosuchus, which has hitherto been known 

 only from the Purbeck Beds. The series of plant- 

 remains is also important and will shortly be described 

 by Prof. A. C. Seward in a communication to the 

 Geological Society. 



Mr. William H. Hogg having been appointed an 

 inspector under the Board of Agriculture for Scotland, 

 the post of resident manager of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society's Experimental Farm at Woburn has become 

 vacant. Applications for the appointment are to be 

 made to the secretary of the society, at i6 Bedford 

 Square, London, W.C., not later than Saturday, 

 November 2. 



Prof. Kaui Pearson has recently addressed two 

 lectures to the medical profession. One, entitled 

 "Eugenics and Public Health," was delivered at the 

 York Congress of the Royal Sanitary Institute, and 

 the other, "'Darwinism, Medical Progress and Eu- 

 genics," before the West London Medico-Chirurgical 

 Society as the "Cavendish Lecture." In both the 

 importance of statistical training is insisted on in 

 dealing with the data collected in the Public Health 

 service, and also in deciding the method for their 

 collection. Instances are given of the kind of errors 

 which may be or have been made and can only be 

 ■avoided by the application of the requisite knowledge 

 and experience. The matt t is one of urgent public 

 importance, as social legislation of a kind that is 

 difficult to repeal may be based on conclusions such as 

 Prof. Pearson here criticises in his usual clear and 

 forcible style. 



A VOLUME entitled "Problems in Eugenics" 

 (London : The Eugenics Education Society, 1912, pp. 

 490) contains the majority of the papers read before 

 the recent International ' Congress in Eugenics, to- 

 gether with translations into English of those which 

 were written in other languages. Such contributions 

 as were sent in too late for inclusion in this volume 

 are to be published in a supplement, which will con- 



