December 26, 1912] 



NATURE 



469 



factory basis of a station at Braemar, with Mr. A. M. 

 Sliirran as principal observer. Observations were 

 originally established there under the direction of the 

 late Prince Consort ; a continuous series exists for the 

 period 1856-1905. The Registrar-General for Scot- 

 land has been supplied regularly with monthly and 

 quarterly reports from the office of the society, and 

 also, direct from the observers in eight of the large 

 towns of Scotland, with the daily observations of 

 temperature and rainfall required for his weekly 

 reports. The Meteorological Office in London has 

 received direct from the observers at certain stations 

 dailv observations of temperature, rainfall, and, in 

 some cases, sunshine for its Weekly Weather Reports. 

 The council regrets to report a shrinkage in the 

 membership of the society, due largely to the deaths 

 of subscribers of long standing. A shrinkage in 

 membership implies a reduction of income, and but 

 for a considerable demand for the society's publica- 

 tions, there would have been a serious deficit for the 

 financial vear ending June 30 last. The expenditure 

 of the society has been reduced to the lowest possible 

 limit, but it will exceed the income for the current 

 year unless there is a large accession of new mem- 

 bers. The council has lodged an application with the 

 Registrar-General for Scotland for a grant sufficient 

 to defray the entire cost of the reports supplied to him 

 by the society. Mr. J. Mackay Bernard has been 

 elected president for the coming year. 



Prof. H. H. W. Pearson, of the South African 

 College, Cape Town, sends us a copy of a letter from 

 The Cape Times of October 29 last, wherein the Hon. 

 A. Wilmot, formerly a member of the Cape Legisla- 

 tive Council, describes the appearance from the deck 

 of ss. Dover Castle, then in the southern portion of 

 the Gulf of Guinea, of an object regarded as " the 

 head and neck of a monster — seemingly a serpent — 

 extending at least fourteen feet above sea-level. Mr. 

 Wilmot saw this object, as it pursued its way through 

 the water, six times in the space of about two minutes ; 

 and it was independently noticed once or twice by 

 several persons on board. The day, October 17, was 

 exceedingly clear, and, according to Mr. Wilmot, " it 

 is preposterous to talk of five independent witnesses 

 being imposed upon by mistaking porpoises, a flight 

 of sea-birds, seaweed, or cane for the sea monster 

 they undoubtedly did see at a distance estimated at 

 one and a half miles." In the face of this testimony 

 no one will deny that something strange to the pas- 

 sengers, but interpreted as the head and neck of a 

 serpent, was observed by them on the occasion men- 

 tioned. But since there is neither sketch nor detailed 

 description of the apparition to help in determining 

 to what class of the animal kingdom it belonged, 

 we venture to suggest that it may have been the 

 upraised tentacular arm of a large kind of pelagic 

 squid swimming near the surface. These arms are 

 long and flexible, and expand somewhat abruptly at 

 the end into an enlargement which at a distance might 

 be mistaken for the head of a snake attached to a 

 slender neck. The size of the object observed is no 

 obstacle to this suggested explanation, since the ten- 

 tacular arms of some of these gigantic squids reach 

 a length of about thirty feet. 

 NO. 2252, VOL, 90] 



Among the Bulletins of the Philosophical Society of 

 the University of Virginia there appeared in July, 

 1912, a paper by Mr. H. E. Jordan, entitled "Studies 

 in Human Heredity." The characters dealt with are 

 left-handedness, pulmonary tuberculosis, cancer, 

 hermaphroditism, onyxis (ingrowing toe-nails), 

 nephritis, and melancholia. The method of study is 

 the collection of pedigrees, on which a Mendelian 

 interpretation is put with rather too great readiness. 

 It is to be regretted that some care was not taken 

 to describe the actual condition found in each indi- 

 vidual. This lack of definite information is particu- 

 larly noticeable in the case of left-handedness, which 

 occupies more than half the paper. Left-handedness 

 occurs in a variety of forms, and it would have added 

 much to the value of the pedigrees if the author had 

 noted, wherever possible, in what manner it was 

 exhibited. Among the left-handed acquaintances of 

 the present writer one used to write left-handed, but 

 pla3'ed games right-handed; in the majority this con- 

 dition is reversed. One was in his early childhood so 

 apt with left hand that he learnt to write with it, and 

 then, having acquired the art of writing clearly and 

 well, he appeared to forget it again; his letters 

 became more and more unformed and slovenly in 

 appearance, until, at the age of six and a half, it was 

 thought better that he should commence again with 

 his right hand. Would Mr. Jordan class all these 

 cases indiscriminately as left-handed? 



To The Field of December 14 Mr. Pocock con- 

 tributes a note, with an illustration, of two long-beaked 

 spiny anteaters now on exhibition in the Zoological 

 Society's Gardens. They form, apparently, part of a 

 consignment of eight recently brought bv Mr. Paul 

 Kibler from the Charles Louis Mountains of Dutch 

 New Guinea. In commenting on the height at which 

 the body is carried above the ground — a feature in 

 which these anteaters differ from the ordinary species 

 —Mr. Pocock states that the pose of the limbs should 

 be compared with that of tortoises rather than with 

 that of elephants. The author quotes a letter from 

 the Hon. Walter Rothschild relative to the five races 

 by which the long-beaked species is locally represented 

 in New Guinea. 



In the November issue of the Journal of the East 

 Africa and Uganda Natural History Society reference 

 is made to a decrease in the membership of the society 

 and the lack of sufficient literary matter for the 

 journal, of which only two numbers are in the future 

 to be issued annually. Such want of support is to 

 be deplored, especially in a country so rich in natural 

 history subjects as Uganda. In an article on early 

 man Mr. C. W. Hobley observes that while stone 

 implements are common in Egypt and Cape Colony, 

 they are relatively rare in B.E. Africa; and suggests 

 that this may be due to the sparse population of the 

 country in prehistoric times, when volcanic action 

 appears to have been rife. Most of the implements 

 hitherto found are of a crude type ; and if it be true, 

 as some suppose, that Africa was the cradle of the art 

 of working in iron, this industry may have crushed 

 out of existence the manufacture of stone implements, 

 which consequently never attained the beauty and 

 finish characterising those of Neolithic Europe. 



