412 



NATURE 



[l-EBKUARV 3, 1910 



there are signs of the place becoming very popular, more 

 than 1 100 visitors having been admitted on a single day. 

 The magnificent colours of many of the fish, in particular, 

 form a most attractive display. The exhibits include sea- 

 snakes (Enhydrina and species of Distira), and among the 

 fish species of the following : — Ginglymostoma, Stego- 

 stoma, Chiloscyllium, Mur^na, Arius, Therapon, Serranus, 

 Lutjanus, Myripristis, Trachynotus, Pterois, Caranx, 

 .■\ntennarius, Heniochus, Julis, Teuthis, Balistes, Tetrodon. 

 The invertebrates comprise cuttle-fish, holothurians, 

 Tiermit-crabs (Clibanarius, &c.), swimming-crabs (Scylla 

 and Neptunus), lobsters (Panulirus), prawns (Penaeus), &-c. 

 All the specimens have been taken on the Madras coast 

 within a few miles of the aquarium. 



IXDIAN MUSEUM PUBLICATIONS. 

 A CCORDING to the report for igoS-g, the organisation 

 ■^ of the Indian Museum has been in need of reform, 

 and the views of the trustees in this respect are shared by 

 the Government of India. The trustees have accordingly 

 " accepted the Government of India's proposals as regards 

 fresh legislation whereby a re-organisation of the museum 

 may be effected. The two main principles that they have 

 Tiad before them in the suggestions they have made to the 

 Government as regards this new legislation have been (i) 

 that each section of the museum should be under proper 

 expert management, and (2) that the heads of the different 

 sections should be e.v officio trustees themselves. They 

 ■believe that the new .^ct which it is proposed to introduce 

 shortly, and of which they have received a draft, will 

 •enable them to give effect to these principles. 



" The trustees have also to express their gratitude to 

 the Government of India for the support given them in 

 their proposals regarding an increase in the scientific staff 

 and in the pay of the superintendent of the natural history 

 section. They are of the opinion that the alterations sanc- 

 tioned in these respects will not only enable them to retain 

 the services of their officers in a w.ay that has not proved 

 possible in the past, but will also increase the utility of 

 the museum in many directions. . . . They note with satis- 

 faction the increase, not only in the collections, but also in 

 the scope of the scientific work accomplished by these 

 means ; but they are convinced that only a permanent re- 

 organisation of the staff such as has now been rendered 

 possible will enable the museum to maintain and expand 

 its work as a centre of zoological work both purely scien- 

 tific and directly practical." 



No. 3 of the second volume of " Memoirs of the Indian 

 Museum " is devoted to a description, by Dr. R. E. Lloyd, 

 ■of the deep-sea fish caught by the R.I. M.S. ship Investi- 

 gator during the present century. Colonel Alcock's cata- 

 logue of the deep-sea fish taken by the same vessel during 

 last century was published ten years ago, and the present 

 memoir includes notices of such forms as have been named 

 since that date, together with the descriptions of five new 

 genera and species. Four of the new genera appear to be 

 •nearly allied to previously known tvpes, but the small, 

 tadpole-like Lit>aroides beauchampi differs from other deep- 

 sea Cyclopterida; (misprinted Clycopteridne in the memoir) 

 by the possession of a diphycercal tail and small pelvic 

 fins not fused into a sucker. The memoir concludes with 

 a notice of supposed evidence of mutation in a small 

 pediculate fish of the genus Malthopsis from the .Andamans. 

 These fishes were taken from four separate but not very 

 distant stations in the .Andamanese Sea, where thev appear 

 to form distinct communities ; they include five types 

 differing from one another in the relative breadth of the 

 disc and the form and arrangement of the dermal ossicles. 

 These differences can scarcely, liowever, be regarded as of 

 specific value, while as two or more types occur at each 

 station they obviously do not indicate local races. 



The trustees have sanctioned the publication of an anno- 

 tated list of the Asiatic beetles in the collection of the 

 Indian Museum, under the editorship of the superintendent 

 of the natural history section, of which the first part, deal- 

 ing with the tiger-beetles (Cicindelinje), has been issued. 

 The text is in somewh.at small type, and it is unfortunate 

 that the specific names are printed in italics similar to 

 those used for the publication-references. Moreover, the 

 references are not free from misprints, as witness Deutshe 

 NO. 2I0I, VOL. 82] 



on p. g, while to others than specialists such references 

 as Jahrb. (p. 10) and " Eiit." (p. 12) are meaningless. 



The third part of vol. iii. of " Records of the Indian 

 Museum " contains a large number of papers dealing 

 mainly with invertebrates, and especially insects. Dr. 

 .■\nnandale has, however, a note on lizards from Travan- 

 core, in which reference is made to colour-changes in 

 Charasia blanfordiana, a relative of the well-known Calotes 

 versicolor. The lizards of this genus appear to take the 

 place in India occupied in the Himalaya, and Asia and 

 Europe generally, by Agama. The colour-changes do not 

 seem always for the purpose of concealment, as the author 

 has seen a specimen temporarily pale in colour basking on 

 a red mud-wall, and a second in full sunshine on a black 

 rock. Other specimens, on the contrary, in similar situa- 

 tions, were more in harmony with their surroundings in 

 the matter of colouring. 



MENDELEEFF'S LIFE AND WORK.' 

 T^O many of the present generation of English chemists 

 the commanding, patriarchal figure of Mendel^eff 

 was quite familiar. Though his several visits to London 

 were often connected with official business of the Russian 

 Government Department of Weights and Measures, of 

 which he wis the chief oflicial during the later years of 

 his life, he came several times with more purely scientific 

 objects. In i8Sg the occasion of his presence in London 

 was the Faraday lecture, which he had been invited to 

 give to the Chemical Society, but which, owing to a 

 sudden and urgent recall to his home, he was unable to 

 deliver in person. His last appearance in this country was 

 in November, igo5, when the Copley medal was awarded 

 to him by the Royal Society. 



The Chemical Society can see his face no more, and all 

 that it can now do is to inscribe high on its roll of 

 honour the name which, more than any other, will be for 

 over associated with the development of the great 

 generalisation known as the periodic system of the 

 elements. 



Dmitri Ivanovitsch Mendel^eff " was the fourteenth and 

 youngest child of his p.trcnts, Ivan Pavlovitsch and Maria 

 Dmitrievna, ni?e Kornileff. His father, a former student 

 of the Chief Pedagogic Institute of St. Petersburg, obtained 

 the appointment of director of the gymnasium at Tobolsk, 

 in Siberia, where he met Maria Dmitrievna, who became 

 his wife. After a few years at Tobolsk he was transferred 

 10 school directorships in Russia, first at Tambov and 

 afterwards at Saratov ; but in order to satisfy the ardent 

 wish of his wife, he took advantage of an opportunity of 

 e.xchange, by which he became once more director of the 

 college at Tobolsk, and the family returned to Siberia. 

 Here on January 27, 1S34 (O.S.) was born Dmitri Ivano- 

 vitsch, the youngest son. Soon after his birth the father 

 became gradually blind from cataract in both eyes, and 

 was obliged to resign, the whole family, including eight 

 children, having to subsist on a small pension of 1000 

 roubles (about looZ. per annum). The mother, Maria 

 Dmitrievna, belonged to the old Russian fainily Kornileff, 

 settled at Tobolsk. They were the first to establish in 

 Siberia the manufacture of paper and glass. In 1787 the 

 grandfather of Dmitri opened at Tobolsk the first printing 

 press, and from 17815 produced the first newspaper in 

 Siberia, the Irtysch. The glass works were situated in 

 the village of .\remziansk, a short distance from Tobolsk. 



There can be no doubt the mother was a woman 

 possessed of remarkable vigour of mind, who exercised 

 great influence over her children. Her activity and 

 capacity are further Illustrated by the fact that when her 

 husband became blind she revived the business of the glass 

 works, and carried it on until after his death from con- 

 sumption in 1847. 



1 The M-Tideleeflr Memoral Lecture delivered before the Chem'cal 

 Soriety on October 21, igoo, hy Sir William A. Tilden, F.R.S. Abridged 

 from the Journal of the Society for December, 1Q09. 



2 For many of the details of Mendelijer? career and of his home life the 

 writer is indebted to the family chroni'-le compiled, soon a^te' t'is death, bv 

 h's niece, N. I. Giibkina (>i/e Kapiistina). and pubHshed in «t. Petersburg, 

 also to pamphlets bv A. ArchantteUky and P. J Robinowitsi-h. He also 

 desires to cypress his thanks to' Mr. D. V. 'iquier. of St. Petersburg, as 

 well as to several Russian friends, for valuable assistance in translation. 



