October io, 19 12] 



NATURE 



169 



■ The Home Secretary has appointed a committee to 

 inquire and report as to the precautions necessary in 

 the use of celluloid in manufacture and the handling^ 

 and storage of celluloid and celluloid articles. The 

 members of the committee are : — The Earl of Ply- 

 mouth (chairman); Prof. J. J. Dobbie, F.R.S., prin- 

 cipal Government chemist ; Captain M. B. Lloyd ; Mr. 

 H. M. Robinson, Deputy Chief Inspector of Fac- 

 tories ; and Mr. E. O. Sachs, chairman of the execu- 

 tive of the British Fire Prevention Committee. 



We notice with regret the announcement of the 

 death on Sunday, October 6, at seventy-six years of 

 age, of Prof. W. W. Skeat, professor of Anglo-Saxon 

 in the University of Cambridge, and of world-wide 

 distinction among philologists. In his early years he 

 showed talent in mathematical studies, and he took 

 his degree at Cambridge in the Mathematical Tripos, 

 where he was placed as fourteenth Wrangler in 1858. 

 After a few vears spent in country curacies, he re- 

 turned to Cambridge in 1864, and was appointed a 

 mathematical lecturer at his own college, Christ's. 

 He then commenced the etymological studies repre- 

 sented in the long series of publications upon the 

 English language which forms an imposing monument 

 to his knowledge and industry. 



The third International .\rchaeological Congress was 

 opened in Rome on Wednesday, October 9. We learn 

 from The Morning Post that no fewer than twenty- 

 four Governments are officially represented, but the 

 British Government is absent from the list, though 

 one department — the Board of Education — is repre- 

 sented by Dr. Ashby, the resident director of the 

 British School at Rome. British universities and 

 other learned societies, however, are well represented. 

 The congress will be divided into twelve sections, 

 according to subjects. Among the themes to be dis- 

 cussed are : — The Iron age in Italy, the prehistoric 

 civilisation of Sardinia, the monuments of Egypt and 

 Asia, Minoan civilisation, the origins of Etruscan cul- 

 ture, the territories of the old Italian cities, Roman 

 epigraphy, riumismatics, the roads of the Roman 

 Empire, and the question of archaeological biblio- 

 graphy. 



An interesting and important step towards 

 systematised nature-protection has been taken by the 

 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. This is 

 the taking over of the remarkable Somerset headland, 

 Brean Down. For permission to establish this 

 sanctuary the society is indebted to the wisdom of 

 the Somerset County Council, the action of which mav 

 well form a precedent for county councils throughout 

 the kingdom. The society has the "shooting rights," 

 and has appointed a watcher, but the general main- 

 tenance of the place will depend largely on the support 

 given to the society. Subscriptions for this or other 

 work of the society may be sent to the secretary, 25 

 Queen .Anne's Gate, S.W. The joint action of local 

 governing bodies, of protection societies, and of pri- 

 vate individuals is the kind of method that should 

 succeed in this country. " Our Dumb Friends' 

 League " will hold a meeting at the Whitehall Rooms 

 on October 15, at which Mr. James Buckland, the 

 promoter of the Plumage Bill, Colonel Sir Mark Lock- 

 XO. 2241, VOL. 90] 



wood, M.P., and Mr. George Greenwood, M.P., will 

 speak. The Ranee of Sarawak will preside. Brean 

 Down is a bare grassy promontory Vk-ith broken cliffs. 

 It is well known to botanists as a habitat of the white 

 rock rose. Its chief bird — there are three specially 

 protected--is the beautiful sheldrake. Of the other 

 two, the raven has built here for fifty years. Lately 

 the peregrine, so often found near the raven, has 

 established itself. Mr. Harry Cox, to whose zeal the 

 new sanctuary mainly owes its institution, last year 

 rescued the only young one. Kingfishers, sparrow- 

 hawks, daws, kestrels, shrikes, linnets, rock-pipits, 

 and wheat-ears are also natives. 



Three important plaster casts have been added to 

 the exhibition of fossil reptiles in the department of 

 geology in the British Museum (Natural History). A 

 copy of the skull of the gigantic carnivorous dinosaur, 

 Tyrannosaurus rex, is interesting for comparison with 

 the fragmentary' remains of Megalosauria found in 

 England. The original specimen was obtained bv the 

 American Museum of Natural History from the Uppe' 

 Cretaceous (Laramie Formation) of Montana, U.S.A., 

 and as it measures no less than 4 ft. in length, the 

 carnivore to which it belonged would be able to prey 

 on the contemporaneous herbivorous dinosaurs, 

 Trachodon and Triceratops. A copy of the skeleton 

 of a pterodactyl, with large slender teeth, lately dis- 

 covered bv Mr. B. Hauff in the Upper Lias of Wiir- 

 temberg, shows again how completely developed were 

 the flying reptiles even in the early part of the 

 Jurassic period. A cast of a nearly complete skeleton 

 of the Permian labyrinthodont, Archegosaiirus 

 decheni, in the museum of the Prussian Geological 

 Survey at Berlin, is a useful acquisition in view of 

 the researches now in progress concerning the origin 

 of reptiles and their connection with amphibians. 



By the tragic death of George Herbert Grosvenor, 

 who was drowned at Polzeath on September 4, whilst 

 endeavouring to save the life of a friend, biology has 

 lost one of the most promising of her younger 

 workers. After a brilliant career at Harrow, Mr. 

 Grosvenor was elected to a biological exhibition at 

 New College, Oxford, subsequently taking a first in 

 his Final School. Elected to the Oxford table at 

 Naples, he confirmed, by a brilliant piece of work, 

 Strethill Wright's almost forgotten suggestion that 

 the nematocysts of .•Eolids were derived from their 

 prey. His work was awarded the Rolleston prize in 

 1904. On his return to Oxford he became busily 

 engaged in founding a new school of economic ento- 

 mology, and with his characteristic thoroughness had 

 acquired a wide knowledge of insects. His regular 

 work left him but little time for research, though 

 it is hoped that the results of some of his investiga- 

 tions may yet be published. Of his great personal 

 charm this is not the place to speak. He combined 

 an exceptional power of concentration and clearness 

 of thought with a singularly modest and retiring dis- 

 position, and his loss will be long and deeply felt bv 

 those whose good fortune it was to be his associates. 



The statue of Captain James Cook presented to the 

 town of Whitby by the Hon. Gervase Beckett, M.P., 

 which was unveiled on October 2, will be welcomed 



