July i6:, tgoS] 



NA TURE 



251 



in fact, the appearance of a roof covered with over- 

 lappuig rounded tiles, with the triply-arranged bundles 

 of hair growing between each " tile." Moreover, when 

 seen in cross-section, the skin is observed to be thrown 

 into a series of ridges or steps, each of which repre- 

 sents the free edge of one of the " tiles." To explain 

 such a structure otherwise than as representing the 

 bed of a scaly armour seems impossible, or at all 

 events illogical, and we are accordingly compelled 

 to accept the author's view that the fox is descended 

 from scale-clad ancestors. No actual traces of scales 

 have been observed in any of the skins yet examined, 

 but Dr. Toldt suggests that such might be detected if 

 a large series of skins of young fo.x-cubs were 

 examined under proper conditions. 



Although no mention of this point is made by the 

 author of the paper referred to, the fox is just one 

 of those animals which might naturally be expected 

 to retain traces of its descent from reptilian ancestors. 

 There is good reason to believe that the extinct 

 mammal-like reptiles of South Africa were the im- 

 mediate forerunners of the primitive carnivora or 

 creodonts of the Tertiary period ; while it is certain 

 that from these latter are descended the modern car- 

 nivora, among which the fox, in common with the 

 other members of the dog tribe, is one of the most 

 primitive and least specialised representatives. 



JVOTE5. 



A STATUE to Bunsen, raised by public subscription, \\'iU 

 be unveiled at Heidelberg on August i. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death of Lord 

 Blythswood, F.R.S., at seventy-one years of age. 



Sir William H. White, K.C.B., F.R.S., has been elected 

 chairman of the council of the Royal Society of .^rts for 

 the ensuing year. 



Prof. George Hale, director of the Mount Wilson 

 Observatory, California, has been elected a foreign corre- 

 spondant in the astronomical section of the Paris .Academy 

 of Sciences in succession to the late Prof, .\saph Hall. 



Dr. Bouchard has been elected president of the Paris 

 .Academy of Sciences in succession to M. H. Becquerel, 

 who was recently appointed permanent secretary of the 

 academy. Prof. Emile Picard succeeds Dr. Bouchard as 

 vice-president. 



The congress of meteorologists representative of the 

 United Kingdom and of the British colonies and depend- 

 encies, which it was proposed to hold in Quebec in the 

 last week of this month, has been postponed until next 

 year. 



The well-known expert on turbines and hydraulic en- 

 gineering. Prof. A. Stodola, of the Ztirich Polytechnic 

 College, has been awarded the Grashof gold medal of the 

 Society of German Engineers. 



The council of the Society of Engineers and the council 

 of the Civil and Mechanical Engineers' Society have ap- 

 proved a scheme of amalgamation which is expected to 

 meet with the cordial support of the members of both 

 bodies. This is a welcome innovation in the policy of 

 technical societies, as of late years there has been a growing 

 tendency to form new societies, and the consequent over- 

 lapping of work has rendered bibliographical research in- 

 creasingly difficult. 



A thoroughly representative exhibition of mining 

 machinery was opened at Olympia by Lord Strathcona on 

 July II. An inte'-esting popular feature of the exhibition, 



NO. 2020, VOL. 78] 



which will remain open until July 31, is a series of realistic 

 scenes giving an excellent idea of the practical working 

 side of the Empire's mining industries. These scenes 

 represent prospecting for diamonds in South Africa, gold 

 mining in the Transvaal, alluvial gold mining in the 

 Klondyke, hydraulic gold mining in New Zealand, tin 

 mining, coal mining, granite quarrying, and Bath-stone 

 mining. 



In the House of Commons on July 8, .Mr. Dundas White 

 asked the Prime Minister whether the Government would 

 give facilities for the passing this session of the Daylight 

 Saving Bill, now entitled the Local Time (Great Britain 

 and Ireland) Bill ; and, if so, whether the Government 

 would propose amendments making clear that the adoption 

 of the proposed modification of time was not compulsory, 

 and substituting for the term local time some less 

 ambiguous term. In reply, Mr. Asquith said : — " The 

 Government have no intention of giving facilities for the 

 passing of the Daylight Saving Bill." 



In the Chancery Division of the High Court, Mr. Justice 

 Eve has just decided that china clay is a mineral within 

 the meaning of the Railway Clauses Consolidation .Act, 

 1845. The right to work china clay in some land pur- 

 chased by the Great Western Railway Co. was claimed 

 by the vendor to the company and owner of the adjoining 

 land. Notice of this claim' was given to the railway 

 company, which brought the action for an injunction to 

 restrain the owner from excavating the land near and 

 under their line in Cornwall to get china clay, on the 

 ground that the product obtained was not a mineral in 

 the sense of the Act of 1845. Mr. Justice Eve, however, 

 decided against this view, and gave judgment for the 

 defendents. A full report of the judgment appears in 

 Wednesday's Times. 



With a view to obtain accurate information regarding 

 the nature and extent of the damage done by rats in 

 the L'nited Kingdom, the committee of the Society for 

 the Destruction of A'ermin has prepared a schedule of 

 questions for wide distribution. It is desired to obtain 

 information from all persons who are in a position from 

 their own experience to give particulars concerning tem- 

 porary or permanent rat plagues, the damage done by 

 rats, the steps taken to prevent such damage, and the 

 results obtained. The secretary of the society, Mr. A. E. 

 Moore, 95 Wigmore Street, London, W., will be glad to 

 send a copy of the schedule of questions to any person 

 who is able and willing to send information. 



The Paris correspondent of the Times announces that 

 M. Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe has offered a new 'prize 

 of loooi. for the first aerial automobile apparatus, either 

 lighter or heavier than air, which will transport Com- 

 mandant Renard to England. If he is conveyed by an 

 automobile balloon, the descent must be made at Aldershot 

 Camp. If he goes on an aeroplane, however, it will only 

 be necessary to reach the English coast. From the same 

 source we learn that Commandant Renard, in some com- 

 ments on the recent exploits of Mr. Henry Farman at Issy 

 les Moulineaux and of M. Delagrange in Rome, referred 

 to the fact that both aeronauts have remained more than 

 fifteen minutes in the air, and remarked, " In less than 

 two years the distance traversed by an aeroplane has 

 passed from twenty-five metres — the famous preliminary 

 bound of M. Santos Dumont in October, 1906 — to nearly 

 twenty kilometres, a proportion of i to 800." .At that 

 rate, within two years it will be possible to make journeys 

 of twenty da3's without stopping. -At all events, there is 



