2/6 



NATURE 



[July 20, 1905 



made for the improvement of existing laws upon the 

 subject in all countries, and attention directed to the 

 alterations which would be necessary for putting the 

 suggestions into effect. The papers, which may be in 

 English, French, or German, must reach the Inter- 

 nationales Arbeitsamt by the end of the present year. 



We learn from ha Nature that the annual prize of the 

 French Society of Civil Engineers has been awarded for 

 1905 to two men of science — to M. Alphonse Tellier for 

 his researches on motor navigation, and more particularly 

 for his memoir on " Les canots automobiles a grand 

 Vitesse," and to M. J. Rey for his memoir on " Les 

 turbines ii vapeur en g^ni^ral, et plus particuliferement sur 

 les turbines du syst^me Rateau et leurs applications." 

 The .■\lphonse Couvreux prize has been awarded to M. F. 

 Arnodin for his work on trans-shipping bridges. The 1905 

 Giffard prize will be postponed until 1908. 



At the annual distribution of prizes at Guy's Hospital 

 Medical School last week the new Gordon Museum of 

 Anatomy and Pathology was open to inspection. The 

 museum is, it will be remembered, the gift of Mr. Robert 

 Gordon, who at the distribution of prizes was presented 

 by the governors and medical staff with a replica in silver 

 of the statue of Thomas Guy in the hospital square, 

 together with a bound memorial volume signed by the 

 Prince of Wales and all the members of the governing 

 body. The specimens in the museum now number upwards 

 of 12,000, and their re-arrangement and classification will, 

 it is hoped, be completed within the next few months. 



Prof. A. Penxk contributes an account of the progress 

 made in the organisation and execution of the map of the 

 world on a scale of i : 1,000,000 to the Zeiischrift of the 

 Berlin Gesellschaft fiir Erdkunde. It appears that up to 

 March of this year the four chief organisations— French, 

 German, British, and Indian— had completed 69 sheets out 

 of 437 planned. A sketch map shows the sheets completed 

 and in preparation. 



The Canadian Department of Marine and Fisheries has 

 recently published a valuable paper by Dr. W'. Bell Dawson 

 on the currents at the entrance of the Bay of Fundy and 

 on the steamship routes in its approaches off southern Nova 

 Scotia. The results are based on observations made by 

 the tidal and current survey in 1904, and show that the 

 movements of water are chiefly tidal in character, there 

 bemg no marked general movement in any one direction. 



The report on the census of the Philippine Islands, taken 

 m March and April, 1902, has recently been issued. It 

 consists of four volumes, comprising three thousand pages, 

 and is freely illustrated with statistical maps and diagrams. 

 An excellent summary of this report, which includes papers 

 on the climate and resources of the islands besides other 

 statistical information, appears in the Bulletin of the 

 American Geographical Society for May, from the pen of 

 Mr. Henry Gannett. 



Almost from time immemorial, in a zoological sense, the 

 South American electric eel has been regarded as the type 

 (and sole representative) of the genus Gymnotus, as G. 

 electricus, and it is thus named in the" Cambridge Natural 

 History." In a paper on the Gymnotidje published in the 

 Proceedings of the Washington Academy (vol. vii., p. 159), 

 Messrs. Eigenmann and Ward revive, however, an old 

 proposal that the Gymnotus carapus of Linnasus should 

 be taken as the type form, and the electric eel referred 

 to a genus apart. They even go so far as to exclude the 

 latter species from the Gymnotidse altogether — a proceed- 

 NO. 1864, VOL. 72] 



ing which forcibly recalls the well-known saying with 

 regard to the play of Hamlet. This is, indeed, in our 

 opinion, one of those cases in which, whatever may be 

 original rights in the matter, everything is to be gained 

 by adhering to established practice. In the text the authors 

 define the different genera they include in the Gymnotidse, 

 describing some of these for the first time. 



In another issue of the serial last quoted (Proc. Wash- 

 ington Acad., vol. vii., pp. 27-157) Mr. \\". F. Allen records 

 observations on the blood-vascular system in the fishes 

 of the group Loricati, that is to say, those constituting the 

 families Scorpsenidae, .Anoplopomatidse, Hexagranimidje. 

 and Cottidse. In view of the circumstance that it is at 

 present impossible to determine whether certain features 

 in the circulatory system of these fishes are primary or 

 secondary, no inductions are drawn from the observations 

 with regard to the classification of the group. Neverthe- 

 less, it is suggested that the blood-vascular system may 

 eventually prove to have a value in the classification of 

 families and genera, although it would be useless in the 

 case of species. 



We have received a copy of a circular issued by the 

 Concilium Bibliographicum of Zurich in regard to a 

 proposed physiological bibliography. A card catalogue of 

 literature of this description was commenced on July i, 

 in cooperation with the Zentralblatt fiir Physiologic, and 

 the support of all interested in the matter is requested. 

 To aid the scheme a committee was appointed at the 

 sixth International Physiological Congress held at 

 Brussels, the names of the members of which are given 

 in the circular. 



The annual report of the Selborne Society, published in 

 the July number of Xatiire Notes, points to a flourishing 

 condition of that body, although more members are re- 

 quired if its work is to be still further developed. Mr. 

 W. M. Webb has accepted the office of hon. treasurer, vice 

 Mr. R. M. Wattson, retired. Special attention is directed 

 in the report to the preservation and protection of places 

 of antiquarian interest or natural beauty in the neighbour- 

 hood of London. Among these, the proceedings of the 

 London County Council in attempting to " beautify " 

 Golder's Hill are criticised. " What is required is to 

 leave the place more alone, and so to give nature a chance 

 in it. Efforts to make things appear rustic almost in- 

 variably end by making them look artificial, and this is 

 especially the case at Golder's Hill." 



In our notice of Sir C. Elliot's description of the nudi- 

 branchs of the Scottish Antarctic Expedition the number 

 of species should have been given as six in place of two. 

 Four of these species are new, two, as stated in the 

 original notice, forming the types of as many new genera. 



In a brief note published in the .itti dei Lincei for 

 June 3 Prof. Cuboni notifies the appearance in the island 

 of Sardinia, in the district of Sassari, of a peculiar and 

 little known disease of the olive. This disease, which is 

 known in Italian as " Brusca," entirely despoils the plant 

 of its leaves and fruit, and is associated with the fungus 

 Stictis Panizzei. This fungus has an altogether remark- 

 able history. It was first observed and studied by De 

 Notaris near San Remo in 1S42, and twenty years later it 

 was found at Spezia. Between the years 1863 and 1899 

 no mention is to be found of its occurrence, but it suddenly 

 reappeared in 1899 in the neighbourhood of Lecce, causing 

 great damage to the olives of the district. The study of a 

 fungus for which apparently very special conditions of 

 growth are necessary seems likely to give results of par- 

 ticular interest in vegetable pathology. 



