Marcu 21, 1912] 
annual meeting (sectional or otherwise) in the more 
populous Indian towns where papers may be read and 
discussed, the proceedings to be published in the form 
of an annual report. Details are to be arranged at 
an early meeting in Calcutta. In a circular asking 
for cooperation and support for the proposal, Profs. 
P. S. MacMahon (Lucknow) and J. L. Simonsen 
(Madras) remark :—‘‘We realise that the future of 
science in India depends upon the adequacy of the 
practical training which students receive in college 
laboratories, and, furthermore, that nothing is better 
calculated to increase its efficiency than the inculca- 
tion of research as the ultimate purpose of all scien- 
tific knowledge. It is unnecessary to point out how 
many and varied are the problems awaiting solution 
and how intimately the social and economic future of 
India is bound up with the successful application of 
scientific methods to all the activities, whether 
agrarian or industrial, of the community. We cordi- 
ally invite the participation of Indian men of science, 
convinced in the belief that in such measure as it is 
accorded the objects of the society shall more nearly 
approach fulfilment and its usefulness and perman- 
ence be assured.”’ 
To The Museums Journal for March, Dr. Ernst 
Hartert communicates an illustrated account of the 
additions and alterations to Mr. Rothschild’s museum 
at Tring. 
WirnHersy’s British Birds for March contains an 
account of the life and writings of Thomas Muffett, 
an English physician and ornithologist, who died in 
1604, by Mr. W. H. Mullens, who originally con- 
tributed it to the publications of the Hastings and St. 
Leonards Natural History Society. Muffett’s chief 
ornithological work, ‘‘ Health’s Improvement,” which 
treats primarily of food, is ascribed to the year 1595, 
but is known by a posthumous edition published in 
1655. The author was acquainted with more than 
one hundred kinds of British birds. 
In his report for 1911, Captain Stanley Flower 
states that in October of that year the menagerie at 
Giza and the aquarium at Gezira contained 1761 
specimens, representing 4o1 different forms of animals, 
this being the largest stock hitherto maintained at 
any one time. It is stated that the widely distributed 
tropical aquatic aroid plant, Pistia stratiotes, which 
had disappeared from Egypt for more than a century, 
has been rediscovered in the Delta by Prof. G. 
Schweinfurth. Specimens have been introduced into 
the Giza Gardens. 
Wuen the South American marsupial genus 
Caenolestes was established in 1895 by Mr. O. Thomas 
it was referred to the diprotodont section of the order. 
In 1909 Miss P. H. Dederer pointed out that it showed 
so many polyprotodont resemblances as to preclude its 
reference to the former group, and it was accordingly 
made the type of a new suborder, Paucituberculata. 
Dr. R. Broom (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, vol. 
XXXVi., Pp. 315) disputes this view, and regards the 
diprotodont lower dentition (like the front teeth of the 
aye-aye) as of no taxonomic importance, and con- 
sequently includes the genus in the Polyprotodontia, 
NO. 2212, VOL. 89] 
NATURE 
67 
regarding it as a specialised relative of the American 
opossums. 
In the Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucester- 
shire Archeological Society, vol. xxxiv., part i., for 
igtt, Mr. J. E. Pritchard announces the discovery in 
a Bristol excavation of the skull of an ancient type of 
horse. Prof. J. Cossar Ewart, on examination of the 
specimen, reports that it belongs to a small, slender- 
limbed horse or pony of the ‘plateau’ type. 
Slender-limbed horses of an apparently similar class 
occurred as a wild species during Pliocene times in 
Italy and France, and others lived in Europe during 
the Neolithic, Bronze, and La Tene periods. Re- 
mains of similar horses have been found in Kent’s 
Cavern, Torquay, and a nearly complete skeleton of 
this ‘* plateau ’’ type was found in the Roman fort of 
Newstead, near Melrose. An example of the same 
kind, unearthed by the Rev. Dr. Irving at Bishop’s 
Stortford, was described by him at the last meeting 
of the British Association held at Portsmouth. 
The Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science for 
February (vol. Ivii., part iii.) contains a _ useful 
| account by Miss Freda Bage of the histological struc- 
ture of the retina in the lateral eyes of Sphenodon 
(Hatteria). She finds that the retina agrees closely 
in structure with that of other reptiles, and that the 
sense cells consist of cones only, which may be either 
single cones or double cones. The structure of these 
cones is very complex, and is described in detail. 
THREE years ago considerable interest was aroused 
among students of reproduction problems by Dr. 
Guthrie’s ‘announcement that he had succeeded in 
transplanting ovaries from black to white hens, and 
vice versa, with certain interesting effects on the off- 
spring. The experiments have been repeated by 
C. B. Davenport, of the Carnegie Institution at 
Washington’s station for experimental evolution, and 
published in The Journal of Morphology (vol. xxii., 
No. 1), but no evidence could be obtained that the 
engrafted ovary ever became functional. It was con- 
| cluded that regeneration of the extirpated ovary took 
place, followed by the production of abundance of 
eggs. 
FROM an announcement in The Journal of the 
Board of Agriculture (vol. xviii., No. 8) we learn that 
the Board has arranged for the continuation of the 
experiments carried on privately for many years by 
Mr. Elliot at Clifton-on-Bowmont. The soil is poor, 
very stony, and liable to deteriorate unless skilfully 
managed. Owing to its dryness, it suffers severely 
from drought; it can, in fact, by no ordinary system 
of farming be made profitable. Mr. Elliot’s method 
was to plough up the herbage and to sow a new lot 
| of plants capable of resisting drought; after many 
trials a mixture was devised suited to the conditions, 
and also bringing in profit. It contains cocksfoot, 
fescue, tall oat grass, and such drought-resisting 
plants as yarrow, kidney vetch, chicory, and burnet. 
After four or five years this mixture can be followed 
by arable crops. If the scheme proves profitable on 
further investigation, it will be of great value in 
| agriculture. 
