'56 



NA TURE 



[June 15, 1905 



Prof. Arthur Thomson, Dr. A. Keith, Dr. \V. H. R. 

 Rivers, Dr. R. Murray Leslie, Prof. \V. Gowland, Mr. 

 J. Gray, and Mr. T. Athol Joyce. 



The committee of the Privy Council appointed to con- 

 sider and determine certain points in connection with the 

 establishment of a National Museum and National 

 Library in Wales has decided that the two institutions 

 should be separate, the National Museum to be established 

 at Cardiff and the National Library at .Aberystwyth. The 

 support, local and otherwise, offered by Cardiff for the 

 foundation and maintenance of the museum and library 

 included : — (i) four acres at Cathays Park (20,000!.) ; 

 (2) collections in municipal museum and art gallerv 

 (38,000?.); (3) a capital sum of (7500!.); (4) public subscrip- 

 tions amounting at present to (32,500!.) ; (5) a \d. rate 

 under Museums and Gymnasiums Act, i8qi (1940/.); and 

 (6) collections of books in municipal library (81,766 volumes 

 and 91 18 prints, drawings, &c,) (30,000/.). 



Dr. Henry de Rothschild (says the Paris correspondent 

 of the Chemist and nniggist) has recently offered two 

 prizes for competition which will be awarded next year. 

 The first one is a prize of 200!. for the best work on the 

 subject of the best alimentary rations of a child from its 

 tiirth until the age of two years. The second one is a 

 prize of 120!. for the best study on the supply of milk 

 to a big city (hygiene, technology, transport, legislation, 

 sale, &c.). These prizes may be divided should the jurv 

 of award consider it advisable. The competition is open to 

 foreigners, and papers should be sent in before June i, 

 1906. The secretary is M. C. Nourrv, 49 rue des Saints- 

 P^res, Paris. 



It was mentioned last week that the U.S. Weather 

 Bureau is taking up the discussion of meteorological 

 observations from the point of view of their relations to 

 solar physics. The programme of the bureau with regard 

 to the coordination of solar and terrestrial observations is, 

 it may be noted, on the lines of the resolution of the 

 Southport meeting of the International Meteorological 

 Committee, which constituted a commission for the express 

 purpose of that coordination. The commission held its 

 first meeting at Cambridge last year, and will meet again 

 at Innsbruck in September. Prof. Bigelow is one of the 

 members, and there is no doubt that the work in this 

 direction of the Washington Weather Bureau will be 

 carried out in cooperation with the commission. 



The provisional programme drawn up and circulated 

 by Prof. Hildebrandsson for the meeting of the Inter- 

 national Meteorological Committee, referred to in the 

 preceding paragraph, is mentioned in Syinons's Meteor- 

 ological Magazine (May). Among the subjects put 

 forward for discussion are suggestions for improving 

 observations which may be used for the comparison of 

 phsnomena over wide areas, especially with regard to 

 noting the exact time of observing each instrument, re- 

 ducing observations to standard conditions, and the like. 

 Attention is to be directed to the Very important question 

 of the causes and the prognostics of widespread heavy 

 rains, the importance of which as affecting floods is 

 naturally felt much more on the Continent than in our 

 country of mild extremes. Prof. Pernter is to suggest a 

 more precise classification of meteorological stations accord- 

 ing to the equipment and the nature of the observations 

 carried on. The question of the possibility of extending 

 the use of wireless telegraphy for obtaining reports from 

 the eastern .Atlantic, and many others on which an inter- 

 national understanding is desirable, will be taken up. 

 NO. 1859, VOL. 72] 



.A LARGE portion of the March issue of the Proceedings 

 of the Philadelphia Academy is occupied by the first por- 

 tion of a paper by Mr. H. A. Pilsbry on the terrestrial 

 molluscs of the south-western United States. 



In the American Geologist for April Mr. L. M. Lambe 

 describes in detail, with an excellent figure, the structure 

 of the cheek-teeth of a Canadian representative of the 

 genus Mesohippus, one of the forerunners of the horse. 



The Perthshire Museum, which from the very beginning 

 of its existence has devoted its energies to the illustration 

 of the biology and physiography of the district, has just 

 published an illustrated hand-book to the collection, which 

 forms a short but excellent guide to the animals, plants, 

 and rocks of the county. This is as it should be, and the 

 museum is to be heartily congratulated on the line it has 

 taken up. 



In the Johns Hopkins University Circular. No. 5, Mr. 

 K. .A. Andrews discusses the so-called annulus centralis of 

 the crayfishes of the genus Cambarus, and confirms the 

 view that its function is to serve as a sperm-receptacle. 

 It is, however, further shown that this structure, which 

 is common to all the members of the genus in question, 

 and is unknown in other crayfishes, is essential to repro- 

 duction, and if eliminated would lead to the extinction 

 of the group. In the same issue Mr. R. E. Coker dis- 

 cusses Dr. H. Gadow's theory of orthogenetic variation 

 among tortoises and turtles, and comes to the conclusion 

 (from the examination of a very large number of speci- 

 mens) that it is not confirmed by the evidence available. 



FisHER.MKN and fishmongers in Illinois appear to have 

 been aware for some time of the existence of a shovel- 

 beaked sturgeon belonging to a species unknown to science. 

 Eight specimens of this white sturgeon, as it is called by 

 the local fishermen, have, however, recently come under 

 the observation of Messrs. Forbes and Robinson, by whom 

 the species is described as the representative of a new 

 genus, under the title of Parascaphirhynchus alhiis, in 

 the Bulletin of the Illinois laboratory of Natural History 

 (vol. vii., art. 4). Its uniformly light colour, long small 

 eye, long and narrow snout, bare under-parts, small and 

 numerous plates, and superior number of ribs differentiate 

 it sharply from the common shovel-beak or " switch-tail " 

 (Scaphirhynchus platyrhynchus). About one specimen in 

 500 of the sturgeons taken at Grafton, Illinois, belongs to 

 the new species. 



The occurrence of a layer of mesodermic tissue in the 

 anterior part of the head of embryos of the laughing- 

 gull forms the subject of an elaborate article by Mr. H. 

 Rex in parts ii. and iii. of vol. xxxiii. of Gegenbaur's 

 Morphologisches Jahrbuch. The occurrence of mesoderm 

 in this part of the head of sauropsidan embryos is, it 

 appears, a comparatively new discovery, and the laughing- 

 gull was selected as a good subject for further investi- 

 gations concerning this feature. Three articles, two by 

 .Mr. G. Ruge and one by Mr. P. Bascho, in the same 

 issue are devoted to the discussion of the nature of certain 

 alleged vestiges in man of the pannicuhis carnosus of the 

 lower mammals, such as the musculus sternalis, and the so- 

 called achselbogen. Much turns on whether the former of 

 these muscles constitutes a superficial branch from the 

 upper layer of the pectoral muscles, or whether it has no 

 genetic connection therewith. The view that the struc- 

 tures in question are really functionless representatives of 

 a skin-muscle is supported. In a fifth article Mr. E. 

 Goppert discusses the last part of Dr. Fleischmann's studies 

 on the cranial skeleton of the Amniota. 



