x 
May 16, 1912] 
WE have received a report to the London School 
of Tropical Medicine on dysentery in Fiji during the 
year 1910, by Dr. P. H. Bahr, who was sent out 
specially to investigate the disease by funds gener- 
ously provided by Lord Sheffield and Mr. E. W. 
Blessig. The disease in Fiji is of bacillary origin, 
and a number of varieties of the dysentery bacillus 
were isolated. Evidence is adduced that the housefly 
is the principal agent in its spread. Treatment with 
a polyvalent anti-dysentery serum seemed to give the 
best results. The report is a very valuable one, and 
is well illustrated. 
Ever since 1857 British coleopterists have been on 
the look-out for Claviger longicornis, a species not 
uncommon in ants’ nests on the Continent. Certain 
beetles taken in Oxfordshire in 1906 prove, according 
to Mr. J. J. Walker, in the May Entomologists’ 
Monthly Magazine, to belong to the missing species. 
Tue migratory British species of Salmo—in other 
words, salmon and trout—form the subject of a very 
fully illustrated article by Mr. Boulenger in The Field 
of May 4. Figures are given of the age-phases and 
the adults of the two sexes of both species at different 
seasons, and likewise of some of the supposed local 
species of the trout. 
AccorpDING to the third part of the Bergens Museum 
Aarbok for 1911, Norway experienced fourteen shocks 
of earthquake during 1910. The most severe was that 
of July 26, which was felt from Gildeskaal to Mo 
in Rauen. Four occurred in the earthquake district 
in Nordre Bergenhus Amt, on the west coast, another 
four in the disturbed district between, southern Sgndre 
Bergenhus Amt and Ryfylke in Stavanger Amt, two 
in the northernmost seismic area, and the remainder, 
which were all local, in districts usually free from 
disturbance. 
In The Field of May 4 is recorded the birth of an 
Indian elephant calf at Copenhagen on April 6th, 
this being the offspring of the same parents which 
produced a calf in 1907. It is the third recorded 
instance of such an event in Europe. In the case of 
the first Copenhagen calf the gestation period was 
twenty-three and in the second twenty-one months. 
Both calves showed black bristles on the back, but 
not apparently the coat of fine hair which was present 
in the calf born in London in 1903, the skin of which 
is mounted in the Natural History Museum. 
Dr. Mark JANSEN has published, in a brochure 
entitled ‘“‘Achondroplasia: its Nature and its Cause” 
(Leyden: E. J. Brill, Ltd., 1912), the results of his 
studies on the phenomena exhibited by human dwarfs. 
He suggests that these phenomena may be due in 
part to abnormally high amnion pressure during 
certain stages of development, which may disturb the 
nutrition and growth of part of the foetus without 
interfering with the normal development of other 
parts of the body. He also discusses the influence 
of the pituitary body and the phenomena of 
acromegaly. 
Tue April number of the Quarterly Journal of 
Microscopical Science (vol. lvii., part iv.) contains im- 
portant additions to our knowledge of two of the 
smallest and at the same time most interesting groups 
NO. 2220, VOL. 89] 
NATURE 
275 
of the animal kingdom. Mr. E. S. Goodrich gives a 
full account of the anatomy of the worm WNerilla 
antennata, hitherto regarded as a small Polychete, 
and shows that it is really an Archiannelid. It occu- 
pies a central position amongst the somewhat hetero- 
geneous members of that group, which it thus serves 
to bind together, and at the same time it in some 
measure bridges over the gap which separates the 
Archiannelida from the more highly organised Poly- 
cheta. Mr. C. L. Boulenger describes a new species 
of fresh-water medusa, Limnocnida rhodesiae, from 
Rhodesia. This form, which is very closely related 
to the well-known Limnocnida tanganicae, of Lake 
Tanganyika, was discovered by Mr. R. H. Thomas, 
in a tributary of the Hunyani River, which itself 
flows into the Middle Zambesi. 
AN important contribution towards a complete flora 
of the Chinese Empire has been published in the 
Kew Bulletin, Additional Series, No. 10, by E. T. 
Dunn and W. J. Tutcher, the former and present 
superintendents of the Botanical and Forestry De- 
partment at Hongkong. This consists of an account 
of the flowering plants, ferns, and fern-allies of 
Kwangtung, the southernmost province of China, 
and of Hongkong itself. The short introduction to 
the flora deals with the climate, geology, and ecology 
of the area. This is followed by a key to the natural 
orders, which is skilfully worked out, and will prove 
of great use to students of general systematic botany 
apart from its special purpose—that of enabling col- 
lectors in China to determine their plants. Keys are 
also given to the genera of each order and to the 
species of each genus, and the bulk of the work is 
occupied by an enumeration of the species. The 
price of this Flora, which contains 370 pages, is 
4s. 6d. 
Dr. C. E. Moss, curator of the Cambridge Univer- 
sity Herbarium, who some time ago published a 
critical account of the British oaks, has just contri- 
buted to The Gardeners’ Chronicle (Nos. 3718-3720) 
a much-needed revision of the British elms. After a 
critical discussion of the various species, varieties, and 
hybrids of the: genus as represented in Britain, the 
author gives a concise key and conspectus of these 
forms. Of the five species noted, the Wych Elm 
(Ulmus glabra), the Smooth-leaved Elm (U. nitens), 
and the Small-leaved Elm (U. sativa) are regarded 
as being indigenous, while the English Elm (U. 
campestris) and the Cornish Elm (U. stricta) are not 
indigenous. Of the two U. glabra x U. nitens 
hybrids, the Dutch Elm (x hollandica) and the Hunt- 
ingdon Elm (xvegeta), the former appears to be 
native in some localities. The Jersey Elm is described 
as a new variety (U. stricta, var. sarniensis, Moss). 
The articles are illustrated by photographs of her- 
barium specimens, and will undoubtedly be of great 
assistance to field botanists in the determination of 
the British elms, which have for so long remained 
in almost hopeless confusion. 
WE have received, by the courtesy of the director, 
an advance copy of No. 1 of the new issue of the 
Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, the publication of 
which has been undertaken by Mr. John Murray. The 
