496 



NATURE 



[June 24, 1909 



Three interesting sections then follow on protozoal 

 investigations, largely carried out on the floating 

 1,'boratory; on the lielminthes collected in the Sudan; 

 -Mid on the reptiles and poisonous snakes. In the 

 i;iiter we note that the author speaks of " saliva " in 

 connection with the fluid ejected by the spitting cobra 

 (Xaja nicricollis). The writer has often made these 

 cobras spit on to the fflass roof of their cage, but never 

 could convince himself that the secretion came from 

 the fangs. The expectoration, on drying, gives a white 

 |)Owder, whereas snake-venom is usually a pale 

 yellow. The report by the economic entomologist is 

 especially interesting, recording as it does the mis- 

 deeds of such pests as the cigarette beetle, that cats 

 cayenne pepper ; the white ants, that eat leather camel- 

 liags — though they will not touch green Willesden 

 canvas, " Solignum " also appearing to be an abso- 

 lute preventive against them — the teredo, that attacks 

 the timber in Port Sudan ; the horn beetle, the enemy 

 of the sportsman and trophy hunter ; the clothes-beetle, 

 the weevils, the cotton boll-worms, and the locusts, 

 veritable plagues of Egypt. 



A complete list of Sudanese mosquitoes, including 

 several new species, is contributed by Theobald. 



In an article on the healing art as practised by the 

 Dervishes, the following effective method of amputa- 

 tion is described : — " The limb is stretched out of an 

 opening in the wall or out of a window, and it severed 

 with one stroke of a sharp sword, the stump being 

 then plunged into boiling oil to stop the bleeding." 

 The native belief that the wearing of high pattens is 

 a protection against guinea-worm should be noted by 

 those investigating the mode of entry of this crippling 

 parasite. The physical characters of the Nilotic 

 Negroid tribes, based on the work of the late Dr. 

 Pirrie, forms a fascinating section, and " the call of 

 Africa " is insistent on every page. 



The work concludes with chemical investigations 

 into the food-stuffs and very interesting work on the 

 gums. We have said enough, perhaps, to give a slight 

 idea of the interest and value of this report, not only 

 to the scientific, but also to the general reader, and we 

 lieartily congratulate the director and his collaborators 

 on the result. It is a magnificent volume, profusely 

 illustrated, but it is just to this magnificence that we 

 venture to raise objection. Its price and bulk will 

 deter many from purchasing it to whom it would be of 

 value. We think it might be possible to issue the 

 Avork in a number of sections, medical, entomological, 

 ethnological, &c., otherwise we are afraid that the 

 next volume may be twice as bulky and twice as ex- 

 pensive. J. W. W. S. 



THE DARWIN COMMEMORATION AT 

 CAMBRIDGE. 



THE celebrations in commemoration of the cen- 

 ten.iry of the birth of Charles Darwin and of 

 the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of " The 

 Origin of Species '' are being held at Cambridge this 

 week. The programme commenced on Tuesday, June 

 22, with a reception of delegates and other invited 

 guests by the Chancellor of the University, Lord 

 Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., in the Kitzwilliam ^luseum. 

 By the kind permission of the master and fellows of 

 Peterhouse, the college gardens were accessible from 

 the museum. On the following day, Wednesday, 

 there was a presentation of addresses by delegates of 

 universities, colleges, academies, .and learned societies 

 in the .Senate House. .After an address by the 

 Chancellor, and the presentation of delegates and 

 addresses, there were a few short speeches. During 

 the afternoon visits were made to the various colleges, 



NO. 2069, VOL. 80] 



and these were followed by a garden party, given by the 

 master and fello.vs of Christ's College, in the college 

 grounds. In the evening a banquet was held in the 

 new e.\aminaiioii hall; after which the master and 

 fellows of Peiiibroke College gave an at home in the 

 college hall and gardens. To-day (Thursday), the con- 

 cluding day ol (he celebration, honorary degrees are to 

 be conferred upon some of the delegates in the Senate 

 House; the Rede lecture is to be delivered by Sir 

 .'Vrchibald (icikie, president of the Royal Society, upon 

 "Darwin as Geologist"; and a garden party is to 

 be given at Trinity College by members of the Darwin 

 family. 



The delegates upon each of whom the degree of 

 Doctor of Scii.nce honoris causa is to be conferred 

 are : — Prince Roland Bonaparte, member of the Paris 

 .\cademy of Sciences; Edouard van Beneden, professor 

 of zoology at Li^ge; Geheimrat Hofrat Biitschli, pro- 

 fessor of zoology and pala'ontology at Heidelberg; 

 Robert Chodat, professor of botany at Geneva; Francis 

 Darwin, F.R.S., honorary fellow of Christ's College, 

 and formerly reader in botany ; Karl F. Goebel, pro- 

 fessor of botany at Munich; Ludwig von Graff, 

 professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at the 

 University of Graz. and president-elect of the Inter- 

 national Zoological Congress which meets at Graz 

 next year; Richard Hertwig, professor of zoolog\- and 

 comparative anatomy at ^lunich ; Harold HolTding, 

 professor of philosophy at Copenhagen; Jacques Loeb, 

 professor of physiology in the University of Cali- 

 fornia ; Edmond Perrier, a member of the Institute of 

 France, distinjjuished by his able organisation of the 

 Natural History Museum of Paris, over which he 

 presides ; Gustav Albert Schwalbe. professor of 

 anatomy at Strassburg; Hermann Graf zu Solms- 

 Laubach, professor of botany at Strassburg; Clement 

 TimiriazelT, professor of botany in Moscow ; Frantisek 

 \'ejdovsky, professor of zoology- in the Bohemian 

 University of Prague; Max Verworn. professor of 

 physiology at Gottingen ; Hermann ^"ochting, pro- 

 fessor of botany at Tubingen ; Hugo de Vries. 

 professor of lx)tany at Amsterdam ; Charles Doolittle 

 Walcott, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution at 

 Washington ; Edmund Beecher Wilson, professor of 

 zoology in Columbia University, New York ; and 

 Charles Rene Zeiller, professor of palaeobotany in the 

 Ecole des Mines, Paris. 



During ilic celebration there was an exhibition of 

 portraits, books, and other objects of interest in con- 

 nection with Darwin, in the old library of Christ's 

 College. The exhibition will remain open until the 

 end of this week. .All the many objects exhibited are 

 directly connect.^d with Charles Darwin or his 

 ancestors. In the outer room are all the important 

 portraits m.ide of Charles Darwin during the time he 

 lived. Of these mention should be made of the 

 painting by Sir W. B. Richmond. K.C.B., which 

 shows Darwin in his LL.D. gown, lent by the uni- 

 versity; the u ell-known portrait by the Hon. John 

 Collier, showini,' Darwin in his long black cloak and 

 holding hiv h.it in his hand, lent by the Linnean 

 Society of I.nndon ; and the well-known profile by 

 W. W. Oulr---, a replica of which hangs in Christ's 

 College Hall, lent by W. E. Darwin. The larger 

 portraits al-o include two of Mrs. Charles Darwin, by 

 C. Fairfax Murrav; one of Robert Waring Darwin, 

 father of the naturalist; and others of Darwin's 

 ancestors, .iniciii^'st them the paintintj of his grand- 

 father, Era>nius Darwin, by J. Writrht, of Derbv. 

 Two crayon ^ketches of Darwin in middle life, by .S. 

 Laurence; w.it'r-colour drawintjs of Down, and of 

 various scen^ -. roiinected with the voy.ige of H.M.S. 

 liraglc, are iKa represented here, together with the 

 instruments u^< d by Darwin on board the Beagle, and 



