November 14, 191 2] 



NATURE 



the fine sharp points of the majority suggested their 

 use for some such purpose as tattooing. Mr. Sutcliffe 

 replied to these objections as follows : — (i) That, from 

 the analogy of other Neolithic implements, such as 

 hammers and axes, in which the use of a wooden haft 

 was postulated, though traces of such a haft were 

 seldom found, the objection on this ground failed; 

 (2) that in his experience 46 per cent, of the flints 

 were blunted and worn ; and (3) they were much more 

 numerous than one would expect tattooing implements 

 to be. 



The Smithsonian Institution has just issued three 

 papers describing further new material col!r.-ted during 

 the biological survey of the Panama Canal zone, in- 

 cluding new insects, mammals, and birds. This sur- 

 vey was inaugurated in 1910 and carried on for two 

 seasons. Early this year Mr. E. A. Goldman, of the 

 Biological Survey, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 

 went to Panama for the second time and made addi- 

 tional collections of mammals. The collection of 

 natural history specimens, which includes some 800 

 birds and 595 mammals, indicates that the fauna of 

 eastern Panama is South American in its general 

 characteristics. The new birds of the region have 

 been described by Mr. E. W. Nelson in a pamphlet 

 entitled " Descriptions of New Genera, Species, and 

 Subspecies of Birds from Panama, Colombia, and 

 Ecuador." Many of the specimens were collected by 

 Mr. Goldman, who seems to have been the first 

 zoological collector to have penetrated the forests about 

 Mount Pirri and its bordering lowlands. Here many 

 birds and mammals not before known from Panama 

 were taken, a number of whicTt were also new to 

 science. Several species of South American animals 

 appear to reach their northern limit at this point, 

 being unknown in the Canal zone and the adjacent 

 territory, although only about 150 miles distant. Mr. 

 J. R. Malloch, of the Bureau of Entomology, Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, has written a technical descrip- 

 tion of three new species of Diptera from Panama. 

 The three papers just issued are Publications Nos. 2 141 

 to 2143 in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 



A RECENT number of the "Annals of Tropical Medi- 

 cine and Parasitology" (vol. vi., No. 3) contains a 

 memoir by Drs. J. G. Thomson and J. A. Sinton on 

 the morphology of Trypanosoma ganibiense and T. 

 rhodesiense in cultures, with a comparison between 

 the cultural forms and those known to occur in the 

 natural development that takes places in the tsetse-fly 

 (Glossina palpalis). The life-history of these trypano- 

 somes in culture-tubes was found to be similar to that 

 which occurs in the gut of the insect-host. An in- 

 teresting parallel with the natural development was 

 further shown in the fact that the cultures of the 

 trypanosomes -quickly lose their infectivity, and after 

 the third day are not infective to rats by intra- 

 peritoneal injection. In the cultures the trypanosomes 

 di not regain the infectivity which in tsetse-flies they 

 acquire again by passing into the salivary glands of 

 the fly. The authors found no evidence of a sexual 

 cycle, although the so-called "male" and "female" 

 forms are present in the cultures. 

 NO. 2246, VOL. go] 



From a small guide-book compiled by Mr. T. 

 Sheppard, we learn that the town of Scunthorpe, Lin- 

 colnshire, situated in the heart of the ironstone dis- 

 trict, possesses a small museum, which is specially 

 devoted to local paleeontology, antiquities, and natural 

 histor\'. The guide contains illustrations of ironstone 

 fossils, prehistoric implements, and ancient Roman 

 vases. 



From the report of the Inspector of the Eastern 

 Sea Fisheries for the year ending September 12, it 

 appears that during the period under review not only 

 has the catch been for the most part unsatisfactory — 

 largely owing to bad weather — but that on the Norfolk 

 and Suffolk coast foreign trawlers are alleged to have 

 approached too near the land, while on the Lincoln- 

 shire coast several steam-trawlers are stated to have 

 run the risk of being caught at work within the 

 territorial limit. As complaints are rife — as, for in- 

 stance, at Torbay — with regard to the depletion of 

 fisheries by our own trawlers, it is only justice to our 

 fishermen that they should be adequately protected 

 from foreign poaching. 



The first volume of the second series of the Memoirs 

 of the American Museum of Natural History com- 

 mences with a description by Prof. H. F. Osborn of 

 the skull of the gigantic theropod dinosaur Tyranno- 

 saurus rex, from the Upper Cretaceous of Montana, 

 together with notes on the skulls of Allosaurus and 

 the Theropoda in general. The skull of Tyranno- 

 saurus, which is furnished with a formidable armature 

 of teeth of the megalosaurian type, is not only the 

 largest in the theropod order, but, speaking generally, 

 is also the most powerful and massive among reptiles 

 as a whole ; this may be verified by the inspection of a 

 cast exhibited in the fossil reptile gallery at the 

 Natural History Museum. A noteworthy feature is 

 the fusion of the vomers into a single diamond-shaped 

 plate, articulating posteriorly by a long style with the 

 pterygoids, since a practically identical structure exists 

 in the ostrich group. As an adaptive modification 

 correlated with the powerful dentition, attention is 

 specially directed to the antero-posterior shortening of 

 the skull and the reduction of the number of pairs of 

 teeth from twenty (in Allosaurus) to sixteen. This 

 abbreviation of the skull is paralleled among modern 

 cats and certain extinct dog-like carnivores. The 

 homology of certain bones of the theropod skull is also 

 discussed. In a second article in the same issue Prof. 

 Osborn describes in detail, with photographic illus- 

 trations, the skin of the iguanodont dinosaur Tracho- 

 don annectans, from the Upper Cretaceous of 

 Wyoming, as preserved in a "mummified" skeleton. 

 Since reference was made last year in Nature to a 

 preliminary account of this wonderful specimen, fur- 

 ther notice is unnecessary. 



We have received four parts of the zoological reports 

 on the collections made by the Duke of Orleans in his 

 Arctic expedition on the Belgica in 1907. ("Campagne 

 Arctique de 1907." Due d'Orl^ans. Bruxelles : C. 

 Bulens, 1911-12.) The Siberian Sea, along the coast 

 of Nova Zembla, has not been much explored, and 

 these handsomely got-up volumes contain manv in- 



