January 6, 1910] 



NATURE 



289 



Testing Materials, and was recently elected president of 

 the international society of a similar name. 



Through the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Wickham 

 Boynton, the collection of birds formed by the late Sir 

 Henry Boynton, which for many years has been exhibited 

 in the large room at Burton Agnes Hall, has been placed 

 in the Municipal Museum at Hull. As all ornithologists 

 are aware. Sir Henry's collection of birds, principally 

 obtained by his own gun, was one of unusual interest and 

 importance, and contains many great rarities. There are 

 above 200 cases in all, and besides being valuable by 

 reason of the scarcity of the specimens, the collection is 

 interesting from the fact that in many cases both sexes 

 of birds are represented, and in some instances there are 

 also the young. Each case has been exceedingly well set 

 up, and the whole forms a collection such as is rarely 

 seen together. In addition to this, the Hull Museum has 

 also recently acquired the collection of birds (about seventy 

 cases) formed by Mr. Riley Fortune. This collection 

 consists princiaally of Yorkshire specimens, and fortunately 

 serves well to fill in the gaps in Sir Henry Boynton 's 

 collection. These, together with the Pease collection 

 already in the museum, will enable the authorities at Hull 

 to have a display of birds such as will be difficult to 

 surpass in any northern museum. 



The President of the Local Government Board has 

 appointed Dr. Eastwood, one of the pathologists of the 

 Royal Commission on Tuberculosis, an additional medical 

 inspector of the Board, with the special view of his under- 

 taking pathological investigations. Provision also has been 

 made for the necessary assistance and laboratories. The 

 immediate object will be to apply to public health work 

 the important results obtained by the Royal Commission 

 on Tuberculosis, and thereby to ensure the freedom of 

 important foods from the infection of this disease. It is 

 intended also to investigate the similar problems which are 

 constantly arising in connection with other infectious 

 diseases. These investigations will be concerned chiefly 

 with current doubtful points in regard to disease. The 

 new work thus inaugurated by Mr. Burns will include 

 inquiry as to the pathological methods of diagnosis of 

 disease already utilised in the public health work of many 

 sanitary authorities. It is expected that by interchange 

 of information good work will be encouraged and extended, 

 and that coordination and standardisation of the bacterio- 

 logical methods of diagnosis of disease will be secured. 



The weekly returns of the Registrar-General show that 

 in 1909, taking the returns for the fifty-two weeks ending 

 with Christmas Day, the total deaths in London were 

 70,988. This is 3883 fewer deaths than the average for 

 the previous five years, but it is 2353 more than in 1908, 

 which, so far, is the healthiest year on record ; the year 

 which has just closed is, however, the second healthiest 

 on record. The deaths in London for the respective 

 quarters were 23,761, 16,917, 13,727, and 16,583 ; the 

 rates per annum for every 1000 persons living were, for 

 the respective quarters, 19-7, 14-0, 11-4, and 138. For the 

 urban districts represented by the seventy-six great towns 

 of England and Wales, the death-rates for the several 

 quarters were i8-8, 14-5, 11-9, and 14-1. 



We have received a copy of a paper by Messrs. H. B. 

 Torrey and F. L. Kleeberger, issued in the zoological 

 series of the University of California Publications, on 

 three new species of the actinarian genus Cerianthus from 

 southern California. 



NO. 2097, "^OL. 82] 



We have to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of the 

 report of the Clifton College Scientific Society for 1908-g, 

 this being the first printed report issued by that body for 

 the last two-and-twenty years. The resumption of the 

 issue will, it is hoped, enable members to keep more 

 readily in touch with the work of sections other than 

 those in which they are specially interested. 



To the first part of Sitzungsherichte der Niedcrrhein. 

 Ges. f. Naiur- und Heilkunde in Bonn for 1909, Prof. G. 

 Steinmann contributes an illustrated paper on the problem 

 of ammonite-phylogeny, as exemplified, in this instance, by 

 the genus Heterotissotia. It is concluded that, in place of 

 being a member of the " Circumnodosi " group, Hetero- 

 tissotia is really related to the Triassic Ceratites, of which 

 it is to be regarded as the Cretaceous descendant. Accord- 

 ingly, the original view of von Buchs as to the existence 

 of Cretaceous as well as Triassic Ceratites is maintained 

 by the author to be valid. 



In Proineiheus of December 8, 1909, Drs. P. and E. von 

 Bass, in the course of an article on the origin of the 

 upright po"ure in man, assert that the ancestors of the 

 human race used their canines for tearing the hide and 

 flesh of the animals -on which they fed (how these animals 

 were killed is not explained), but that when they learnt to 

 employ mussel-shells or fiint-flakes for this purpose, their 

 tusks, as being no longer necessary, rapidly degenerated. 

 On the other hand, in a recent article in the Daily Tele- 

 graph, Sir E. R. Lankester has expressly stated th.at 

 ancestral man never used his tusks for rending flesh. 

 Whom are we to believe ? 



In the issue of the Yorkshire Weekly Post for December 

 18, 1909, the natural history correspondent refers again 

 to the killing of birds for the sake of ascertaining whether 

 they have been ringed, quoting as instances a heron shot 

 in Cheshire and a black-headed gull in Lancashire. The 

 heron, he remarks, is protected in Cheshire, as in most 

 other counties, so that the slaughter was illegal as well as 

 unnecessary. In the case of a robin ringed at Glasgow, 

 and picked up dead at the same place a few months later, 

 he asks if there is any use in the ringing of such birds. 



From the evidence of actual specimens and information 

 obtained by Mr. Rothschild from his agents in California, 

 Mr. Lydekker announces in the Field of December 25, 

 1909, that the so-called Californian elephant-seal to which 

 Gill applied the name Macrorhinns angiistirostris appears 

 to be identical with M. leoninus, as typified by the speci- 

 mens obtained by Lord Anson on Juan Fernandez, and 

 named by Linnaeus. The seals formerly inhabiting 

 Guadalupe Island and the Californian coast are stated 

 to migrate southwards after the breeding-season, and 

 probably cross the equator. M. leoninus is characterised 

 by the comparatively long snout of the old bulls, whereas 

 in the Falkland, Crozet, and Macquarie sea-elephants, 

 hitherto identified with leoninus, this appendage is shorter. 

 These southern sea-elephants should be known as Macro- 

 rhintis falclandicus or patagonicus, unless the earlier 

 Morunga] or its original and still more barbarous form 

 Mirounga, be preferred. 



The vascular anatomy of mammals forms the subject 

 of the two articles in the November (1909) 'ssue of the 

 Anaiomieal Record, Messrs. Schulte and Tilney discussing 

 in the first the means by which the venous blood is re- 

 turned to the heart, with especial reference to the iliac veins, 

 while in the second Mr. C. B. Coulter describes the early 

 stages in the development of the aortic arches in the cat, 

 more particularly with regard to the existence of a fifth arch. 



