NA TURE 



[June 21, 1906 



comfortable and steady steamer. The permanent staff on 

 board should consist at least of the director, doctor, photo- 

 grapher, two stenographers, who should also be typists, 

 and, if possible, an artist. Accommodation should be 

 provided for a number of investigators, but these would 

 not necessarily form part of the permanent staff. They 

 would be conveyed to the district which they were to study 

 and be removed therefrom when it was time to leave. 

 The director would arrange with each investigator when 

 the vessel would return, and the investigator would be left 

 with all the apparatus, food, and trade that he required. 



The general routine should be as follows : — an anthropo- 

 logical investigator would be expected to work on the 

 general lines laid down by the director. When the vessel 

 returned, all those on board would be required to help the 

 investigator according to their several abilities ; the ex- 

 pedition photographer would be placed at his disposal, and 

 dances and ceremonies would also be kinematographed. 

 The investigator would orally amplify his rough notes and 

 dictate them to the stenographers, and, so far as possible, 

 all notes should be typed in duplicate before the departure 

 of the investigator, and a revision made of them before 

 finally leaving the spot. 



The foregoing remarks apply to anthropological investi- 

 gators, but suitable arrangements could be made for geo- 

 logical, geographical, botanical, or zoological investigators ; 

 equal facilities should be given to American and foreign 

 students ; investigators should be of either sex. 



It is only by an expedition of this kind that the anthro- 

 pology of Melanesia can be studied as a whole and in 

 detail. It would be an expensive undertaking, but the 

 results obtained would amply justify the expenditure of 

 time, labour, and money, and the data so obtained would 

 constitute a mine of information for the present and future 

 generations of students of man. 



In the discussion which followed. Sir George Goldie, 

 the president of the society. Dr. Herbertson, Mr. Chis- 

 holm. Dr. .Seligmann, Mr. J. L. Myres, Mr. S. H. Ray, 

 Mr. X. W. Thomas, Captain Wilson Barker, Major 

 Darwin, Colonel Church, and the chairman. Sir Thomas 

 Holdich, gave their cordial support to the proposed scheme. 

 Several practical difficulties were pointed out, but none 

 of them was insuperable. Some useful suggestions were 

 also made. More than one speaker recognised 'that an 

 expedition of this kind would serve as a valuable oppor- 

 tunity for increasing geographical, oceanographical, and 

 meteorological knowledge. 



DESTRUCTION OF ANIMALS IN AUSTRALIA. 

 T N the course of his address to the annual meeting of the 

 Linnean Society of New South Wales, held on 

 March 2S, Mr. T. Steel, the president, alluded to a proposed 

 method of destroying rabbits bv means of an infectious 

 disease, the precise nature of which is not yet disclosed. 

 The idea, it appears, originated in Paris, and since the 

 necessary funds have been subscribed by stock-owners 

 and agriculturists, it is proposed to commence the experi- 

 ment on a sinall island selected for the purpose. After 

 discussing the arguments for and against the proposal, the 

 president considered it highly undesirable that any such 

 disease should be wilfully communicated to any species of 

 animal, by means of which it might be disseminated 

 throughout the country. As to the extermination of the 

 rabbit, that is considered an impossible contingency ; but 

 means ought, and can, be found to keep the species in 

 check without recourse to infectious diseases, which may be 

 a danger to the community. 



In the course of the same address Mr. Steel alluded to 

 the necessity of special efforts if the native Australian fauna 

 and flora are to be saved from destruction. Poison spread 

 for rabbits is responsible for the destruction of a large 

 number of indigenous mammals and birds, while, sad to 

 relate, there are Europeans who will deliberately shoot 

 down such harmless and peaceful creatures as the koala, or 

 native bear, for the sake of so-called sport. Shooting 

 domesticated sheep, it is remarked, would be equally 

 worthy of such sportsmen. 



NO. I912, VOL. 74] 



A very similar note of alarm is sounded in the April 

 issue of the Victorian Naturalist in the course of an account 

 of a recent excursion by the members of the Field 

 Naturalists' Club to the reserve for wild animals at Wilson's 

 Promontory. Here the chief destruction is caused by half- 

 wild dogs, which are not true dingoes, but the produce 

 of a cross between the latter and dogs escaped from the 

 fishermen of the district. If these pests are not soon ex- 

 terminated there will be little hope of preserving any 

 indigenous terrestrial animals in the reserve. With regard 

 to the reserve itself, it is mentioned as a subject for 

 regret that the whole area is cut off from the sea by a 

 narrow strip of land which ought certainly to be added to 

 the protected zone. If this were done, and certain neigh- 

 bouring sawmills abolished, the reserve would probably 

 flourish, provided it were separated from the mainland by 

 a dog-and-rabbit-proof fence, and certain indigenous 

 animals turned in from the adjacent districts. We wish 

 every success to the movement. 



ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY QUATER- 

 CENTENA R V CEL EBRA TIONS. 



A CTIVE preparations are being made in connection with 

 ■^ the quatercentenary celebrations of the University of 

 Aberdeen, and the new buildings at Marischal College, 

 which His Majesty the King is to open in the last week 

 of September, are approaching completion. The hand- 

 some new block — " a dream in granite " — which completes 

 the quadrangle includes new class-rooms and laboratories 

 for physiology, geology, and agriculture ; new rooms for 

 education, medicine, modern languages, &c. ; a new library 

 for scientific literature, and new offices. 



.^mong the distinguished guests who have accepted 

 the Universitv's invitation are: — Lord Avebury, Sir Robert 

 Stawell Ball', Prof. A. H. Becquerel, Prof. Behring, 

 Sir William Broadbcnt, Sir Jas. Crichton Browne, Mr. 

 Thomas Bryant, Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Mr. W. S. 

 Bruce, of the Scotia, Mr. James Bryce, M.P., Sir William 

 Crookes, Dr. Casimir De Candolle, Prof. Watson Cheyne, 

 Prof. Yves Delage, Dr. Anton Dohrn, Sir Michael Foster, 

 Sir Joseph Fayrer, the Duke of Fife, Sir Edward Fry, Dr. 

 R. T. Glazebrook, Prof. A. Giard, Mr. Jonathan Hutchin- 

 son, Prof. Stanley Hall, Prof. Harald H6ffding, Mr. R. B. 

 Haldane, M.P., Prof. F. Hueppe, Prof. Jensen, Prof. 

 Joseph Larmor, Sir Norman Lockyer, Prof. Lombroso, Sir 

 .Alfred Lyall, Dr. Donald Macalister, Major P. A. 

 MacMahon, Signor Marconi, Prof. MendeMeff, Prof. 

 Menschutkin, Prof. Alexander Macalister, Prof. A. B. 

 Macallum, Sir Alexander C. Mackenzie, Prof. Hugo 

 Munsterberg, Sir John JIacFadyean, Prof. Middleton, Prof. 

 Mahaffy, Sir John Murray, Prof. Wilhelm Ostwald, Sir 

 William Ramsay, Sir Henry Roscoe, Major Ronald Ross, 

 Field-Marshal Earl Roberts, Sir James A. Russell, Dr. 

 D. H. Scott, Dr. J. Hutchison Stirling, Dr. William 

 Somerville, Prof. W. R. Sorley, Prof. Stirling, Mr. Thomas 

 Shaw. M.P., Lord Mount-Stephen, Prof. J. J. Thomson, 

 Dr. Thoinas E. Thorpe, Prof. W. A. Tilden, Prof. G. D. 

 Thane, Prof. Henrv Turner, Prof. Giuseppe Veronese, Dr. 

 J. A. Voelcker, Prof. Paul Vinogradoff, Prof. J. W. Wijhe, 

 Prof. Weichselbaum, and Sir John Williams. 



The following among other universities, colleges, and 

 learned societies are to be represented by delegates : — 

 University College, Bristol, Principal C. Lloyd Morgan ; 

 University of Cambridge, Dr. Henry Jackson, Dr. James 

 Adam, and Mr. W. L. Mollison ; University College, 

 Cardiff, Dr. E. H. Griffiths; Trinity College, Dublin, 

 Dr. .Anthony Traill ; Royal Society of Edinburgh, Lord 

 MacLaren ; Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and St. 

 .Andrews ; University of Leeds, Dr. Bodington ; Royal 

 Society of London, Sir .Archibald Geikie ; British Academv, 

 Dr. j'. A. H. Murray ; Royal College of Physicians, Sir 

 R. D. Powell ; Royal College of Surgeons, Mr, Edmund 

 Owen ; Universitv of Manchester, Dr. A. Hopkinson ,- 

 University of Oxford, Dr. W. M. Merry, Prof. Henry 

 Goudy, and Prof. Arthur Thomson ; University of Wales, 

 Principal H. R. Reichel ; R. Accademia dei Lincei, Rome, 

 Prof. Lanciani. 



