270 



NA TURE 



[December 30, 1909 



together and held so by a deposit of empty gelatinous egg- 

 capsules, forming together a thick jelly. After oviposition 

 the nest is closed with a similar mass of empty capsules, 

 so that in a well-made nest not a single egg is exposed to 

 the light and air. — Miss Ruth M. Harrison and Miss 

 Margaret Poole : Madreporaria collected by Jas. J. 

 Simpson and R. N. Rudmose-Brown from the Mergui 

 Archipelago, Lower Burma, and from the Kerimba Archi- 

 pelago, Portuguese East Africa. — F. E. Beddard : 

 (i) Some notes upon Boa occidentalis and Boa (Pelophilus) 

 madagascariensis ; (2) notes upon the anatomy of monkeys 

 of the genus Pithecia. — G. A. Bouleng^er : The ophidian 

 genus Grayia. A contribution to the revision of the genus 

 made necessary by an increased knowledge of African 

 snakes. 



Linnean Society, December 16. — Prof. E. B. Poulton, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — Rev. T. R. R. 

 Stebbing; : (i) Report on the Crustacea Isopoda and 

 Tanaidacea collected by Mr. Crossland in the Sudanese 

 Red Sea ; (2) Isopoda from the Indian Ocean and British 

 East Africa. Among the Red Sea species, the most 

 interesting -novelty is one named Lanocira latifrons, in 

 allusion to the peculiar widening of the frontal process. 

 In British East Africa, Wasin has yielded a new genus and 

 species meriting the significant appellation Kalliapseudcs 

 makrothrix, which may be rendered in the vulgar tongue 

 as the " long-haired beauty of the Apseudidae. " The 

 species is remarkable for the extensive fringes of feathered 

 setae on the mandibles, maxillipeds, and first gnathopods, 

 as well as for the short, round-ended finger of its second 

 gnathopods. In the Stanley Gardiner collection the new 

 species Apanthura xenocheir is unique within its own 

 family in the structure of the hand and finger of the first 

 gnathopods. The new genus and species Pontdgelos 

 aselgdkeros, of the family Eurydicidae, from Mauritius, 

 displays a prolongation of the first antennfe hitherto un- 

 exampled in that family. Several new species and a new 

 genus of Epicaridea, isopods parasitic on other crustaceans, 

 are described from specimens transmitted by Miss M. J. 

 Rathbun, who had extracted them with great care from 

 the crabs of the Stanley Gardiner Expedition. In one 

 instance it proved that the maternal pouch of the parasite 

 was occupied, not by the usual enormous mass of eggs, 

 but by another parasite, probably itself an epicaridean, 

 though strangely metamorphosed. — Prof. G. H. Car- 

 penter ; Pycnogonida from the Red Sea and Indi.iTi 

 Ocean, collected by Mr. Cyril Crossland. — R. Shelford : 

 A collection of Blattidae preserved in amber, from Prussia. 

 — A. W. Waters : The Bryozoa from collections made by 

 Mr. C. Crossland, part ii., Cyclostomata, Ctenostomata, 

 and Endoprocta. The collections dealt with only contain 

 sixteen species, and these are nearly all known from the 

 Mediterranean, while nine are British. In this and the 

 previous paper ninety-nine Red Sea species and varieties 

 are referred to ; of these, thirty-four are known from the 

 Atlantic, twenty-six from British seas, thirty-nine from the 

 Mediterranean, thirty-four from Indian and neighbouring 

 seas, seventeen from Crossland's Zanzibar collection, eight 

 from Japan, thirty-five from Australia. The classification 

 of the Ctenostomata is examined, and it is considered that 

 the group Stolonifera of Ehlers must be divided into 

 Vesicularina and Stolonifera. In the first there is usually 

 a moderately thick, erect stem from which the zooecia arise 

 directly, and they all have gizzards, an organ not general 

 in the Ctenostomata and probably confined to this group. 

 In the Stolonifera as now reduced there is a delicate creep- 

 ing rhizome expanding at intervals, and from these places 

 the zooecia arise, usually in pairs. There is no gizzard. 

 The gizzards of the Vesicularina usually have a large 

 number of sharp and irregular teeth surrounded by a band 

 of strong muscles, but in Cryptopolyzoon the gizzard has 

 but two teeth with nearly flat edges, called grindstone 

 teeth. 



Dublin. 



Royal Irish Academy, December i-^. — Dr. F. A. 

 Tarleton. president, in the chair. — Prof. G. A. J. Cole : 

 The " Picture Rock " or " Scribed Rock " near Rath- 

 mullan, in the county of Donegal. Attention has been 

 directed to this rock on account of the supposed resemblance 

 of the markings on its surface to casts of the footprints 

 of animals. It proves to be a weathered face of spheroidal 

 NO. 20Q6, vol. 82I 



diabase (epidiorite), in which prisms of hornblende have 

 developed from the two primary series of joints, and have 

 spread inwards into the rock on either side. The portions 

 of the rock which are thus strengthened to resist denudation 

 stand up like the walls of boxes round about the residual 

 cores of the spheroids, with a deeply weathered interval 

 between them and the spheroids. — Prof. A. W. Con>May : 

 The motion of an electrified sphere. The problem of the 

 distribution of electricity on a moving spherical conductor 

 was treated, the velocity varying in any manner and the 

 spliere having rotation. Two types of functions, called 

 harmonicoid functions, were introduced, and by their aid 

 a method of approximation to any degree of accuracy was 

 obtained. The stability of the charge was found to be 

 decreased. In quasi-stationary motion with a uniform field 

 of force the distribution remains uniform if there is no 

 Newtonian mass, but, if there is, a " cosine " distribution 

 is produced, the extent depending on the Newtonian mass. 

 In all cases the total masses transverse and longitudinal are 

 the same as if the charge were uniform and rigidly 

 attached to the sphere. A conducting electron will have 

 the same dynamical properties as an Abraham electron of 

 the same size and charge. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Blood-sucking Flies. By E. A. M 24I 



A New Textbook of Palaeozoology. By Dr. Ivor 



Thomas 242 



Chemistry in Court. By C. Simmonds 242 



The Morphia Habit 243 



School Gardens. By Dr. E. J. Russell 243 



Electric Motors. By Prof. Gisbert Kapp 244 



Our Book Shelf;— 



Scales : " Practical Microscopy. An Introduction to 



Microscopical Methods " 245 



Stanton : " Erosion of the Coast and its Prevention " 245 



HouUevigue : " The Evolution of the Sciences " . . 245 



Forbes: " History of Astronomy." — W. E. R. . . 245 



Ramaley : " Wild Flowers and Trees of Colorado " . 246 

 Belloc : "The Historic Thames"; Thomas: "The 



Heart of England " 246 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Are the Senses ever Vicarious? — Hugh Birrell ; 



Edward T. Dixon 246 



The Coloration of Birds' Eggs.— A. R. Horwood . 247 

 The Capture and Training of Wild Animals. (Illus- 

 trated.) By R. L 247 



The Sexto-Decimal Year of British Calendars. By 



Rev. John Griffith 248 



Marine Investigations in Norway 249 



The Survey of India. By E. H. H 250 



Nigeria and its Plants 250 



Eugenics, Mendelism, and Biometry. By E. H. J. S. 251 



Dr. Shelford Bidwell, F.R.S 252 



Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe 253 



The Natural History Museum 254 



Notes 256 



Our Astronomical Column :— 



Halley's Comet, igoq. 259 



An Interesting Sun-spot 259 



Periods in the Variation of Latitude 259 



The Planet Venus 260 



Suggested Observations of Halley's Comet . . . 260 



The Headmasters' Conference. By G. F. D. . . . 262 

 Water Supply in the United States. (Illustrated.) 



By B. C 262 



Some Recent Work on Tropical Medicine .... 263 



Production and Utilisation of Molasses . . . . 264 

 The Australian Association for the Advancement 



of Science. By Prof. A. Liversidge, F.R.S. . . . 264 

 Epidemic Disease among the North American 



Indians 266 



Optical Activity with no Asymmetric Atom . . . 266 



Technical Education in Manchester 267 



On the Invention of the Slide Rule. By Prof. F. 



Cajori 267 



Masonry Arches. By T. H. B 268 



University and Educational Intelligence 268 



Societies and Academies 269 



