June 7, 1900J 



NA TURE 



i3i 



("oMMRMiNC. upon Mr. Southerdcn's letter on " Carbon 

 Didxide in ihe Breath," published in Nature tor May 24 

 (p. 21), Mr. K. .\. Parkyn writes to direct attention to the 

 well-recognised fact that the presence of 006 per cent, of 

 carbon dioxide in the atmosphere need not be injurious, 

 but that the gas is generally found in bad company, for 

 an increase of carbon dioxide is almost invariably accom- 

 panied by a corresponding increase of organic impurity. 

 In other words, the importance attaching to the rise of 

 carbon dioxide to 006 per cent, is a true indication of Ihe 

 vitiation of the air by organic matter given out during 

 respiration. 



.\ COMMUNICATION' from the Zi-ka-wei Observatory, near 

 Shanghai, informs us that the great San Francisco earth- 

 c|uake was registered by the seismographs there. The 

 shocks were fairly strong, and they lasted a little more 

 than ih. 34ni. The first preliminary tremors, transmitted 

 through the mass of the globe, began at qh. 35m. os. p.m. 

 Chinese coast time. The first large waves, travelling along 

 llir crust, on an arc of a great circle, were felt at 

 uh. 55ni. 54s. The last waves of. decreasing amplitude 

 lilt their trace at tub. 31m. 35s. p.m., and the last slight 

 movements of the ground died away at iih. 9m. 44s. p.m. 

 .\pril 18. These records should be of service in deter- 

 mining the velocity of propagation of the seismic undula- 

 tions by connecting them with observations of the exact 

 minute and second of the occurrence at San Francisco. 



.Mr. Charles Van Norden, writing from East Auburn, 

 California, U..S.A., says that he was on the fourth floor 

 of the Palace Hotel, San Francisco, on April 18, when the 

 disastrous earthquake occurred. The movement seemed 

 from south to north, and the rocking of the massive walls 

 of the hotel was so violent that its continuance even for 

 a few seconds seemed impossible. To Mr. Norden, who 

 was in bed, the motion seemed like that of a small rowing 

 boat on a choppy sea. The shock occurred at 5.13 a.m., 

 :ind at b a.m. Mr. Norden had left San Francisco by the 

 firry boat for Oakland. While sitting on the deck of the 

 ferry boat, looking at the many fires gathering together in 

 a great conflagration, he noticed a thunder-cloud — a white, 

 cumulous mass, dark at the bottom — hanging over the city. 

 The morning was clear and mild for San Francisco, and 

 no other cloud was in sight. None of the descriptions of 

 the catastrophe mentions this feature, and Mr. Norden is 

 curious to know if other observations were made of it. 



.\n excellent little resumi, by Mr. D. J. Scourfield, of 

 the leading features and possible developments of Mendel's 

 law of heredity appears in the Proceedings of the South 

 London Entomological and Natural History Society for 

 1005-6. Other articles are devoted to the British plume- 

 moths, the lengthened pupa-stage of certain Lepidoptera, 

 and notes on Hawaiian entomology. 



The contents of the Sitsungsberichte iind Ahhandiungcii 

 of the Dresden Isis for the second half of 1905 include an 

 article by Prof. O. Drude on the meaning and scope of 

 the term oecology (iikologie), or the manifestations of plant 

 and animal life in regard to the struggle for space (or 

 existence) in connection with climate and other external 

 influences. Mr. H. Engelhardt contributes an illustrated 

 article on the Tertiary flora of Chili. 



.\ STRIKING instance of increased patronage due to the 

 .idoption of " popular prices " is recorded by Captain 

 Stanley Flower in his report of the Giza Zoological Gardens 

 for the past year. By the reduction of the gate-money the 

 number of visitors to the garden leaped up from 64.711 in 

 NO. I 9 ID, VOL. 74] 



the previous ye;ir to 177,587, an excess of 112,87b ovci 

 any other year. The receipts showed, however, but a com- 

 paratively small increase — ;£rE.i402 against ;£7E. 1388 ir» 

 1904. The stock of animals has been largely increased, 

 and a notable new feature in the gardens is the formation 

 of an extensive enclosure, where a number of the larger 

 birds of the Nile Valley are allowed to roam at com- 

 parative liberty. 



Old churchwardens' accounts of various Bedford.shire 

 parishes have been utilised by Mr. J. Steele-Elliott, for an 

 article which appears in the May number of the Zoologist. 

 to afford information with regard to the fauna of the county 

 during the last two and a half centuries. The entries 

 cited refer to sums paid for the destruction of "vermin." 

 The absence of mention of birds of prey is noticeable, as 

 is the infrequent occurrence of rats, but special interest 

 attaches to certain entries referring to martens. Polecats 

 were evidently once abundant, and it is curious to note the 

 persistent war waged against the hedgehog — probably on 

 account of its supposed milk-sucking propensities. Mr. 

 Heneage Cocks refers, in the saine issue, to an artificial 

 cave at Park Place, Remenhani, Berks, which forms the 

 abode of a number of bats, some belonging to rare species, 

 including Myoiis bechsteini. 



We have received seven parts (Nos. 1448, 1449, and 1452 

 to 1456) of the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, 

 which include descriptions of Japanese Hyinenoptera and 

 of South American geometrid moths and grasshoppers, as 

 well as of two American river-mussels ; fully illustrated 

 notes on molluscs of the family Pyramidellid;E from Japan, 

 America, and the intermediate areas ; a synopsis of 

 Japanese sturgeons ; and an account of the osteology of 

 the creodont carnivorous mammals of the genus Sinopa. 

 The latter genus, which occurs in the Lower and Middle 

 Eocene of North .\merica, according to Mr. W. D. 

 Matthew, may be regarded as an extremely primitive form, 

 with cheek-teeth of the opossum-type, from which have 

 been evolved the more specialised Cynohyanodon, Pterodon, 

 and Hyasnodon of the Oligocene. Japanese sturgeons are, 

 it appears, represented only by two species. Of the 

 Pyramidellidee, Messrs. Dall and Bartsch name a number 

 of new species, and also figure others. 



The application of De Vries's mutation-theory to 

 molluscs forms the subject of an article by Mr. F. C. 

 Baker in the May number of the American Naturalist. 

 The shells selected for observation are fresh-water snails, 

 more especially Limnaja and Valvata, the former of which 

 is well known to be an exceedingly variable or " unstable " 

 type. Series of specimens of Limnjea from particular 

 localities are figured to exhibit the range of variation, 

 which is so great that the extreme forms, if isolated, 

 would be allowed specific rank. Special attention is 

 directed to the sudden development of an apparently new 

 species in a newly-formed pond in the United States. 

 While the mutation-theory seems to account more satis- 

 factorily than any other for these variations, the authcft- 

 deprecates haste in applying a hypothesis founded upon 

 plant-variation to animal life. In the same issue Dr. 

 E. A. Andrews discusses the mode in which American 

 crayfish of the genus Cambarus lay their eggs. The first 

 process is the careful cleansing of the lower surface of the 

 body preparatory to the e.xtrusion of a glairy substance 

 from the " cement-glands " in which the eggs are after- 

 wards laid. During oviposition the female lies supine and 

 externally inert, but after this occurs a long, rhythmic 

 alternation of poses connected with the fastening of the 

 eggs to the abdominal appendages. 



