August 6, igoS 



NA TURE 



325 



average stature of Europe. It is to be feared this esti- 

 mate, based on somewhat small numbers, is too 

 favourable. The impression gained on returning to 

 England after a tour in Scandinavia is scarcely that 

 of the superiority of the English physique. The prob- 

 able explanation is that the majority of the recorded 

 observations in this couniry has been made in rural 

 districts, while the actual majority of the population 

 has been subjected to urban influences. 



During the last few years a large number of 

 measurements of children in our large towns have 

 been made in connection with the study of school 

 hygiene, and afford data for comparison with the 

 series obtained in Stockholm by Axel Key, and it may 

 be noted that at all school ages the Swedish children 

 show a distinct superiority both in stature and 

 weight. Indeed, the British children present averages 

 verv nearly the mean between the Swedish and Italian 

 averages, which would agree well with the view that 

 both Teutonic and Mediterranean races are represented 

 among the present-day English in about equal propor- 

 tions. 



."X final feature of great interest recorded in Dr. 

 Deniker's work is the distinct increase in stature 

 which has taken place during the last half-century 

 among several of the European oopulations, chiefly 

 those which have narti.cipated in the general amelior- 

 ation of social conditions and improvements in hvgiene 

 without being to a great extent subjected to urbanis- 

 insr influences. 



Further investigations into national phvsique are 

 urgentlv needed from the economic and public health 

 standpoint, as well as to elucidate the problems of the 

 svstematic nnthropologist. It is to be honed that in 

 time a detailed survey of this connlrv m.-i\' be under- 

 taken, and that the results mav be available for sub- 

 sequent volumes of Dr. Deniker's comprehensive and 

 illuminating work. 



ARTHUR LISTER. F.RS. 



BY the death of Mr. .\rthur Lister, F.R.S., which, 

 as announced in our issue of July 23, took 

 place at his residence at Leytonstone, Essex, on 

 Sunday, July 20, the science of cryptogamic botany 

 has sustained a severe loss. The deceased gentleman, 

 who was a J. P. for his native county, was the son 

 of the late Mr. J. Jackson Lister, F.R..S., of Upton. 

 Essex, where he was born in the year 1S30. He was 

 a brother of Lord Lister, and in 1S55 married 

 Susanna, daughter of the late Mr. William Tindall, 

 of East Dulwich. From an early period of his career 

 Mr. Lister devoted himself to the study of the 

 Mvcelozoa, a group formerly classed with the 

 funguses, but now, largely owing to his researches, 

 allowed to rank as a group of equal value by itself, 

 characterised specially by the peculiar mode of de- 

 velopment of its members. In addition to numerous 

 separate papers on the subject in the journals of 

 various scientific societies, Mr. Lister wrote the valu- 

 able " .Monograph of the Mycetozoa," published in 

 i8q4 as one of the well-known British Museum 

 catalogues. Since the date of its appearance this 

 rhick green volume, which is illustrated by a large 

 number of plates and rext-figures in black and white, 

 remained the standard work on the subject. Bv the 

 lapse of time it had, however, as a matter of course, 

 become out of dale, and, until incapacitated by failing 

 health, Mr. Lister, aided by his daughter, was 

 ent>:iged on preparing a new and enlarged edition. 



The issue of this work, as we have been kindly 

 informed by the keeper of the botanical deoartment 

 of the Museum, will not be stopped bv the demise of 



NO. 2023, VOL. 78] 



th-' senior author, Miss Lister having undertaken the 

 task of bringing it to completion single-handed. The 

 new edition will be far. superior to its predecessor in 

 the matter of illustrations, these including a number 

 of plates reproduced by the three-colour process from 

 Miss Lister's sketches. 



In addition to cataloguing the species in the 

 Museum collection, Mr. Lister gave in the original 

 edition of this work a valuable account of mycetozoan 

 development and physiology. Mr. Lister joined the 

 Linnean Society so long ago as 1S73, serving on the 

 council from i8qi to i8g6, and as a vice-president 

 during the last year of this term of office. In 1898 

 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. 



NOTES. 



0.\ .■\ugust 5, 1858 — fifty years ago — the work of lay- 

 ing the first Transatlantic cable was completed, and tele- 

 graphic communication was established between Great 

 Britain and .America. .\s is well known, the cable failed 

 to transmit after a few weeks, but the practicability of 

 connecting the two countries electrically had been demon- 

 strated, and the jubilee of this enterprise cannot be passed 

 without a word of congratulation. 



CocNT Zeppelin started in his airship from Friedrichs- 

 hafen at 6.45 a.m. on .August 4, and after passing over 

 Bale, Strassburg, and Karlsruhe, reached Mannheim at 

 2.40 p.m. A descent was made near Oppenheim at 

 6 p.m., and the journey was continued at 10.15 p.m. The 

 airship passed over Mainz at ii.o p.m., and then headed 

 up the Rhine for the homeward journey, reaching Mannheim 

 at 1.45 a.m. on .August 5, Eppingen at 4 a.m., and Stutt- 

 gart at 6.20 a.m., where, according to the latest telegrams, 

 it broke away from its moorings and caught fire during 

 a storm, and disappeared into the air. Count Zeppelin 

 being safe. 



The Paris correspondent of the Times reports that the 

 Russian Government has offered a prize of 50,000 roubles 

 (^oool.) for a flying machine competition which is to take 

 place next year at St. Petersburg between July i and 

 .August 15. 



The annual meeting of the Frenth .Association for the 

 Advancement of Science was opened at Clermont Kerrand 

 on August 3, when the gold medal of the association was 

 presented to Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S. 



The President of the Board of Trade has appointed 

 Lord Rayleigh, P.R.S., Prof. J. J. Thomson, F.R.S., Dr. 

 R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., Sir John Gavey, C.B., and 

 Mr. A. P. Trotter to be the British delegates to the Inter- 

 national Conference on Electrical Units and Standards 

 which is to assemble in London on October 12. Mr. 

 W. Duddell, F.R.S. , and Mr. M. J. Collins, of the Board 

 of Trade, will act as secretaries to the British delegates, 

 and Mr. F. E. Smith and Mr. C. W. S. Crawley as 

 assistant secretaries. 



.At the meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 

 Monday, July 20, Dr. R. H. Traquair, F.R.S., vice- 

 president, in the chair, the following prizes were presented 

 in accordance with the award of the council : — (i) the 

 Keith prize for the biennial period 1905-7 to Dr. .Alexander 

 Bruce, for his paper entitled " Distribution of the Cells 

 in the Intermedio-lateral Tract of the Spinal Cord," pub- 

 lished in the Transactions of the society within the period ; 

 (2) the Neill prize for the triennial period 1904-7 to Mr. 

 Frank J. Cole, for his paper entitled " A Monograph on 

 the General Morphology of the Myxinoid Fishes, based 



