 Fuly 9, 1885) 
resident of Japan, that he is now on a voyage from that country 
to Australia and New Zealand, and that it must, therefore, in 
the ordinary course of things, be some months before he can see 
and reply to the correspondence in question. In the meantime, 
it may not be amiss to point out that the capital of Japan is 
about 12,000 miles from the learned societies of Europe and 
their Proceedings, and that there, as described, a man must be 
content to work with what he finds at his hand; there are no 
great public libraries in which we can find out readily what has 
been done before in any particular field. Mr. Stevenson’s paper 
appears to have been published twenty years ago, and the 
chances are that it never, from that time to the present, reached 
the East. That it never came to the knowledge of ‘‘the B.A. 
man” will be readily believed by the many readers of NATURE 
who know what a careful and conscientious worker that man is. 
Besides, unless it be presumptuous in an unscientific person to 
say so, the learned Professor’s solitary premiss does not at all 
support his amiable conclusion. If he will again examine the 
letters, to the publication of which he appears to have given his 
consent without a clear notion of what he was doing, he will 
doubtless perceive that one man may carry out experiments 
in Japan in 1884 without knowing that similar experiments had 
been carried out by another man in England in 1864 ; and when 
Prof. Piazzi Smyth has reached this point, it may occur to him 
that the tone and expressions of his letters, so far as they refer 
to the gentleman in Japan, require more consideration than they 
received when they were penned. 
It should also be added that these experiments with regard to 
buildings in earthquake countries form only one of a long series 
of investigations which the gentleman in question has for years 
past been pursuing over the whole domain of seismology. Most 
of his numerous papers on this subject have been noticed from 
time to time in NATURE. M. 
Gray’s Inn, July 3 
On the Occurrence of Lumpenus lampetriformis and 
Gadiculus argenteus off Aberdeen 
I RECORDED and figured in the Proceedings of the Zoological 
Society for 1884 the first species of Lumpenus lampetiformis 
obtained in Great Britain. It was a male 10.7 incbes long, cap- 
tured trawling by Prof. McIntosh, fifteen miles off St. Abb's 
Head. On June 20 I received a letter from Mr. Sim, of Aber- 
deen, inclosing a sketch of a fish which had become entangled 
in the net of a steam trawler, and which specimen he was good 
enough to forward for my inspection. It is a female of the same 
species 8°6 inches in length, in which the caudal fin differs from 
that of the male example in that its form is lanceolate. The 
second specimen, which I received at the same time from Mr. 
Sim, was that of a Gadiculus argenteus, Guichenot, which was 
cast up on the beach after a slight storm on April 13, 1885. To 
this latter fish a considerable amount of interest attaches itself. 
Pertaining to a genus whose habitat is considered intermediate 
between the littoral and deep-sea zones, I haye been in doubt 
whether it has or has not been previously obtained off our 
shores. Couch labelled a fish of this species from the Porcupine 
Expedition as Macrourus linearis, and which is in the British 
Museum collection. Of it he wrote as follows :—‘* Much 
resembling a whiting, but shoiter in proportion to its depth and 
with a much larger eye. Caught from a depth of 183 fathoms, 
muddy ground, 54° to’ N. and 10° 59’ W. Length about 
6 inches ; no barb ; the head short, eye large, mouth capacious, 
teeth small, dorsal fins three, anal two, tail a little concave, 
colour in spirit pale yellow. If we can suppose that a whiting 
can live at such a depth, we can suppose also that the eye might 
become larger and the body rather shorter, proportionally, but 
otherwise it is a distinct species and yet nearly alike ; but from 
a latitude, and especiclly the longitude, it is scarcely a British 
sh. 
Ishould have deemed a fish from such a spot undoubtedly 
British, but as I was not quite sure whether Mr. Laughrin, who 
had been in charge of the fish collection in the Porcupine Expe- 
dition, might not have inadvertently mixed up Mediterranean 
forms with those from higher latitudes, and as Gadiculus 
argenteus originally was obtained from the coast of Algiers, I 
wrote to him on the subject. However, he would only reply 
that ‘*I do not think he [Mr. Couch] had any of the Mediter- 
ranean fish ; I cannot rememter, it is so long ago.” It is very 
interesting being able, after so many years’ interval, to adduce 
corroborative evidence as to this fish being entitled to a position 
in the British fish fauna, the Porcupine specimen having been 
NATURE 
223 
obtained on the west coast of Ireland, Mr. Sim’s on the east 
coast of Scotland. The specimen is 3°3 inches in length, 
D. 11/13/15, A. 16/16, L. 1. 56. There is a dark spot at the 
base of the anterior rays of the first and second dorsal fins. 
Cheltenham, July 4 FRANCIS Day 
Swallows 
If ** E. H.” will take down a swallow’s nest (Aérundo urbica) 
directly after the young brood has left it, he will find the lining 
swarming with two species of active insects altogether out of 
proportion as to size of the swallow on which they are parasitic. 
At the same time also the nest contains numerous ovate pup 
as black as jet, evidently the offsprings of the insects which, if 
kept during the winter following, will develop into wonderfully 
active wingless ago, which, when liberated, are difficult to 
capture and kill. These are the gnats, &c., to which ‘‘ E. H.’s” 
informant alluded, but they approach in size nearer to sheep 
lice. Under the microscope they are interesting objects. Circu- 
lation can be watched, and in addition to a peculiarly-formed 
head, pointed rudimentary wings can be seen in shape much like 
the swallows. It appears to me that swallows do not hatch 
their parasites on their bodies, but incubate them in the lining 
of their nests; but a high degree of heat is not necessary to 
develop the pupa. In my opinion there is no design or inten- 
tion on the part of the swallow to breed or cultivate parasites for 
consumption during migration. The life of the parasite depends 
on the existence of the swallow, and not the swallow upon the 
parasite. At the present time I haye nests in the corners of my 
windows, and when the migratory season arrives I can safely 
rely upon a collection of insects ané pupa from them which I 
would gladly send to any of your readers who care to write for 
them about the middle of autumn. Wan. Watts 
Piethorn, Rochdale, July 4 
SWALLOWS are infested by at least three genera of parasitic 
two-winged insects, Ornithomyia, Stenopteryx, and Oxypterum. 
Figures of these flies may be found in F. Walker's ‘‘ Insecta 
Britannica Diptera,” vol. ii. Tab. xx. OS: 
Heidelberg, Germany, July 4 
“The Evolution of Vegetation” 
As the science of botany is interesting to many people accord- 
ing as it throws light on biological questions, perhaps just now, 
while the Darwin Memorial is still fresh in your mind, you will 
allow one of the many to make known a want by inserting this 
letter in your paper. 
Prof. Bower, in his article, NATURE, vol. xxxi. p. 460, seems 
to tell the young botanist to go to the other side of the globe in 
order to find fresh fields of labour. This sort of work, I should 
think, is very much needed ; but if Prof. Bower or some other 
master in the science would publish his views relating to the 
evolution of vegetation, perhaps another motive would be added 
for the enterprise. I hope I am not asking too largely, though 
aware that men who have won good reputations may hesitate to 
print their theories. Yet a Parker has given us ‘‘ Mammalian 
Descent,” and, what he bas done to teach us in one direction, 
surely some one else will in another. 
On pp. 4 and 5, ‘‘Mammalian Descent,” we are told that 
there are three groups of workers all labouring to build up the 
truth as it is in Darwin—the zoologists, the palzontologists, 
and the embryologists. Now there are some botanists who 
would gladly make a fourth group if a teacher would arise to 
direct them where and how to work, even if that work was with 
the zoologists in the land of the Monotremes or at home with 
the embryologists watching the development of plants, though 
the plants were of cellular tissue only. 
I do hope that I have not written to you in vain. 
Bradford, June 23 J. CLAYTON 
Foul Water 
ALLOW me to call attention to the fact every year—generally 
some time in May—the sea-water on this coast becomes in a 
condition that fishermen call ‘‘ foul.” It is due to the presence 
of enormous quantities of gelatinous masses of small size and * 
spherical, cylindrical and irregular forms, in which nucleated 
granules are imbedded. After immersion, even for a few seconds, 
ropes, nets, &c., feel as if they had been dipped in thin glue. 
