)7o 



NA TURE 



[May 27, 1905 



fqual I in both cases ; and to this may be added that the 

 vast array of organic compounds are mostly of complicated 

 constitution, and must necessarily have high vapour 

 densities. E. P. Perman. 



University College, Cardiff, May 15. 



" Blowing " Wells. 



Mr. S. H. Long, the writer of the letter on " blowing " 

 wells in Nature of May 20, should refer to an article on 

 " The Movement of Air in Fissures and the Barometer " 

 (Nature, vol. xxvii., 1883, p. 375), in which phenomena 

 similar to those observed by him are described in the case 

 of several wells in different parts of England. 



12 Marloes Road, W., May 21. A. Strahan. 



NATURAL HISTORY IN INDIA. 



THE annual report of the natural history section 

 of the Indian Museum for 1907-8 repeats the 

 usual complaint that " lack of trained officers has 

 again retarded progress," and the complaint is justi- 

 fied by the information that the trained staff — for 

 a section thai includes zoology, archaeology, and 

 numismatics — consisted of one permanent officer and 

 one assistant engaged for a term, with a few casual 

 assistants and humbly remunerated clerks, and a 

 couple of Bengali students to help them. In plain 

 language, this big assemblance of a stafY, when 

 measured by European standards, comes to but one 

 man with life-interest at stake. 



From this statement of the case it might be 

 thought that a museum of natural history situated 

 in the capital of the Indian Empire must be one 

 of the many blessings of western civilisation that 

 the oriental mind regards with pious indifference. 

 But no; when we turn to an interesting appendix 

 we learn that the " number of visitors to the museum 

 during the 237 days on which the institution was 

 open to the public was 580,161, or a daily average 

 of 2447." 



Or it might be supposed that zoology is a subject 

 of little or no consequence to the w'elfare of our 

 Indian Empire. Again, no. If it be called to mind 

 that the majority of our fellow-subjects in India are 

 directly dependent for their very lives upon crops 

 that are ravaged by every sort of insect-pest, and 

 that diseases carried by animals of manv kinds, and 

 diseases caused by divers, parasitic animals and 

 animalcules — not. to speak of death by snake and 

 beast. of prey — account for about 75 per cent, of the 

 mortality , of the population, and for no one knows 

 what percentage of the mortalitv of stock, it c;in 

 hardly be said that the study of zoology is a matte/ 

 with which India has no concern. No; the only 

 possible conclusion is that the Indian Government, 

 humane, just, and intelligent as it undoubtedly is, 

 resembles all- other administrations of the Bi-itis'i 

 pattern, in its stolid indifference, not merely to natural 

 science in the abstract, but even — and that is, indeed, 

 hard to comprehend — to the pocket value of natural 

 science. 



But what it lacks in official thews and sinews 

 the museum — thanks to the moving energv, the 

 trained ability, and the wonderful versatilitv of its 

 superintendent, Dr. Annandale — makes up in spirit, 

 and nowhere is this more clearlv shown than in its 

 published output of research. 



Publications now before us include parts ii. to iv. of 

 the second volume of the " Records " and the third 

 part of the " Memoirs," these containing papers by 

 twenty-six authors, many of whom are European 

 specialists. 



One of the most striking and original features of 

 these inuseum records is that, besides paying the 

 attention justly due to such orthodox museum, topics 

 NO. 2065, VOL. 80] 



as vertebrates, moUusca, insects, Crustacea, &c., 

 they take thought of many small things that in many 

 museums are regarded as somewhat off the beaten 

 track — such as fresh-water polyps and polyzoa and 

 plankton. 



The series of reports on the fauna of brackish 

 ponds is of great interest, for we are here on that 

 jjlastic ground whence the fresh water receives its 

 recruits from the stragglers of the sea. Solutions 

 of several little problems depend upon careful observa- 

 tions, continued through the whole round of seasons, 

 of the fauna of a definite delta station, such as are 

 now being carried on and recorded by Dr. Annan- 

 dale. An interesting item in this latest series of 

 reports is Mr. T. R. R. Stebbing's account of an 

 amphipod, a species of Grandidierella, the only con- 

 gener of which inhabits a closed lagoon six miles 

 from the west coast of Madagascar ; here we get a 

 peep at one of the pitfalls vyhich this kind of study 

 fences off. 



Equally interesting are Dr. Annandale's reports 

 upon the fresh-water fauna of the Indian continent 

 — a subject which, outside vertebrate limits, has 

 hitherto hardly been touched. 



A paper upon the fresh-water fauna of a district 

 of Tibet has also the charm of novelty, and Captain 

 F. H. Stewart, who, in the course of other (official) 

 duties, collected the material for it, deserves much 

 credit for making such good use of an exceptional 

 opportunity. The collection includes Hydra fusca 

 from an altitude of 15,000 feet, and much lake- 

 plankton which, as would be expected, is practicallv 

 identical with that of northern Europe, except in the 

 case of the ostracods. 



Among other papers, that of Captain W. S. Patton, 

 upon the differential diagnosis of Cimcx lectularius 

 and Cimcx rotundatus, must be mentioned, by reason 

 of the part played by the latter species in the dis- 

 semination of the microparasite of the insidious 

 disease, kdla azdr. 



The part of the memoirs in review is devoted to 

 the earthworms of India, and consists of a systematic 

 monograph by Dr. VV. Michaelsen, and anatomical 

 descriptions of certain aquatic forms bv Major 

 Stephenson. The value of Dr. Michaelsen's mono- 

 graph is somewhat difficult to estimate. The 

 systematic part of it, which includes a concise index 

 of all the Indian species of oligochfetes known, is 

 undoubtedly a most useful piece of work, althougli 

 in some places it is marred by an unfortunate con- 

 troversial tone. But that part of it which deals 

 with geographical distribution can scarcelv be meant 

 to be taken seriously, especiallv as it completelv 

 ignores the comprehensive and critical work accom- 

 plished in this field by that eminently judicial and 

 preeminently qualified naturalist, the late Dr. W. T. 

 Blanford. 



To say that well-established facts relating to the 

 present geographical distribution of animals must 

 be taken into consideration in reconstructing the con- 

 figuration of the land in former geological epochs is 

 to state a proposition to which no reasonable geologist 

 will object. But to make the unqualified assertions, 

 as Dr. Michaelsen does, that the " endemic terres- 

 trial oligochajtes give us one of the best documents 

 for the geological history of a country," and that 

 " the recent geographical distribution and the rela- 

 tions between the different groups " (of land oligo- 

 chsetes) " enable us to determine the different paths 

 of the former migrations, and thence the configura- 

 tion of land and sea in former periods " is to put 

 oneself out of court. It is unprofitable to criticise 

 conclusions deduced from such a sweeping major 

 premise. 



