2;8 



NATURE 



[July 23, 1908 



micro-organisms found in the throats of patients suffering- 

 from scarlet fever. (2) An investigation of protracted and 

 recurrent infection in diphtheria. This will be undertalcen 

 bv Dr. Theodore Thomson and Dr. C. J. Thomas. The 

 liacteriological part of the investigation will be undertaken 

 bv the Lister Institute. (3) An investigation of protracted 

 and recurrent infection in enteric fever. This will be under- 

 taken by Dr. Theodore Thomson, in conjunction with Dr. 

 Hedingham, of the Lister Institute. (4) Investigations by 

 Dr. \V. G. Savage into the presence of paratyphoid bacilli 

 in man, the differentiation of streptococci in goats, and 

 the bacteriological measurement of pollution of milk. 

 (5) h statement of the results of the bacteriological ex- 

 amination of more than 7,000 samples of milk from different 

 parts of the country, made by Prof. Del^pine. (6) An in- 

 vestigation into files as carriers of disease, by Dr. 

 'Copeman,, F.R.S., with the co-operation of Prof. Nuttall, 

 F.R.S. (7) An inquiry into the condition of flock beddings, 

 Ijv Dr. Farrer. The bacteriology and biology of bedding 

 (especially in relation to vermin), which will be under- 

 taken in connection with this inquiry, will be superintended 

 bv Prof. Nuttall. (8) A statistical inquiry into the social 

 incidence of disease will also be begun, the prevalence of 

 varicose veins and of hernia under different social condi- 

 tions forming the first .subject of inquiry under this head. 

 This will be undertaken by Dr. Basil Cook. Announce- 

 ments of further investigations for the current year will 

 Ije made at a later date. 



The Fourth International Fishery Congress will be held 

 under the presidency of Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus at Wash- 

 ington, D.C., U.S.A., on September 22-26, to deliberate 

 on important mattei-s relating to fishing and fish culture, 

 and to submit propositions for the benefit of the fisheries 

 to Governments and to State, provincial, and local author- 

 ities. The congress will be organised and conducted in 

 conformitv with the decisions for the regulation of the 

 international fishery congresses decreed in Paris in igoo. 

 The membership will consist of Government, State, and 

 provincial representatives, delegates from home and foreign 

 societies, corporations, invited persons, and persons who 

 express a wish to take part in it. In response to invita- 

 tions from the United States Government, twelve national 

 Governments have signified already their intention to be 

 represented officially, and delegates have been appointed 

 bv the governors of many of the States of the Linited 

 States. Very few nations have indicated formally their 

 inability to participate officially, and the congress promises 

 to be really representative in character. Among the im- 

 portant subjects to be discussed may be mentioned : com- 

 mercial fisheries ; matters affecting fishermen and the fish- 

 ing population ; legislation and regulations relative to 

 fishing, fish culture, pollution of waters, and obstruction 

 of waters ; international matters affecting fisheries ; aqui- 

 culture ; acclimatisation ; fishways and fish ladders ; bio- 

 logical investigation of the waters and their inhabitants ; 

 -diseases and parasites of fishes, crustaceans, molluscs, and 

 other water animals ; and angling and sport fishing. Suit- 

 able arrangements will be made for the entertainment and 

 instruction of the members in Washington and at the 

 other places visited, and an opportunity will be given 

 ■for visits to places of general interest. All communications 

 and inquiries before September 20 should be addressed to 

 Dr. Hugh M. Smith, the secretary-general of the congress, 

 'Bureau of Fisheries, Washington, D.C. 



The morphology and physiology of the gephyreans of 

 the family Priapulida: are discussed by Mr. L. A. 

 .Moltschanov in a paper published in the June issue of the 



NO. 2021, VOL. 78] 



Bulletin of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg. The 

 author regards the genus Priapuloides as intermediate 

 between Priapulus and Halicryptus. 



Richard Carew (1555-1620) forms the subject of the 

 second instalment of " Early British Ornithologists," by 

 Mr. W. H. Mullens, now being published in British Birds. 

 In connection with this we may perhaps be permitted to 

 direct attention to the inconvenience of that title as the 

 designation of a serial. In quoting we refer, for instance, 

 to Mullens, British Birds, vol. ii., p. 42, while we should 

 in like manner refer to Yarrell, British Birds, vol. i., 

 p. 10. Who is to know in such cases whether it is to the 

 serial or to a separate work that the quotation refers? 



A SECOND report on the copepod crustaceans of the 

 Irish Atlantic slope, by Mr. G. P. Farran, has just been 

 issued in " Scientific Investigations, Irish Fisheries," for 

 1906, No. ii. The list given is mainly the result of a 

 number of deep-water tow-nettings taken in 1904-5, and 

 may be regarded in the main as a contribution to our 

 knowledge of the plankton of the zone between 600 and 

 1000 fathoms. No. viii. of the same issue is devoted to 

 reports concerning the obstacles to the ascent of young 

 eels up the Irish rivers and the illegal capture of the fry. 



The Royal Scottish Museum has issued a general guide- 

 book to the collections, at the price of one penny. Con- 

 sidering that it comprises only 63 pages and includes the 

 artistic, ethnographical, natural histpry, and technical col- 

 lections, the notices of each group are necessarily of the 

 briefest. Although the type of the main text is small — 

 too small, we think, for a number of persons who ought 

 to avail themselves of the guide — the " catch-words " are 

 printed in heavy block type well calculated to attract the 

 attention of the reader. 



We are indebted to Mr. L. M. Lambe for a copy of a 

 paper from the first volume of the third series of the 

 Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada on the 

 remains of a new type of crocodile from the Cretaceous 

 formation of the Judith river. This crocodile, for which 

 the barbarous name Leidyosuchiis canadensis is suggested, 

 is a broad-nosed form recalling Diplocynodon, but w'ith 

 the splenial included in the short mandibular symphysis, as 

 in some of the Goniopholididie. Possibly it may be a 

 direct descendant of the latter — an idea supported by the 

 fact that several members of the Judith river fauna present 

 a Jurassic fades. 



The ninetieth volume of the Zcitschrift fUr ivissenschaft- 

 liche Zoologie is published in a single issue of 677 pages, 

 with 43 plates, of which several are coloured. All the 

 eighteen papers are devoted to invertebrates. Among these, 

 special reference may be made to one by Mr. F. Blochmann 

 on the taxonomy and geographical distribution of 

 brachiopods. The paper is illustrated with a large map, in 

 colour, showing the distribution of Liothyrina, a genus 

 most numerously represented in the neighbourhood of the 

 Gulf of Mexico on the one side of the Atlantic, and the 

 Spanish and north-west African coast, together with the 

 Mediterranean, on the other. This distribution seems to con- 

 firm the theory of the existence until comparatively recently 

 of a belt of shallow water across the mid-.^tlantic. Further, 

 the distribution of this and other genera indicates, in the 

 author's opinion, the existence during Tertiary times of 

 a communication between the Atlantic and the Indian 

 Ocean by way of the isthmus of Suez. 



The results of a number of experiments with regard 

 to the inheritance of colour and the head-crest in canaries 



