44 



NATURE 



[July 8, 1909 



on July 12, by 

 air-ship and its 

 of science have 

 physics of the 

 Assmann, Hergi 

 lectures and pri 

 first number of 

 a contraction of 



Major V. Parscval, who will describe his 

 potentialities ; many other well-known men 

 also fixed the dates of their lectures. The 

 upper air will be discussed by Profs. 

 ;esell, Suring, and others. A list of the 

 izes already arranged is published in the 

 the exhibition journal lla, this title being 

 Internationale Luftschiffahrt Ausstellung. 



We are indebted to the author, Dr. K. J. Bush, for a 

 copy of notes on the molluscan family Pyramidellidje, pub- 

 lished in the June number of the American Journal of 

 Science. These notes may be regarded as in some degree 

 supplemental to the article on the same group contributed 

 by Mr. P. Bartsch to vol. xxxiv. of the Proceedings of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History. 



The crinoids of the family Comasteridje undergo re- 

 vision at the hands of Mr. A. H. Clark in No. 1685 of 

 the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, no fewer 

 than five new genera, of which three are based on new 

 species, being named and described in the course of the 

 paper. The communication relates, to a great extent, to 

 material collected by the Albatross. 



PoLYCH^TOUS annelids from Monterey Bay and San 

 Diego, California, are discussed by Dr. J. P. Moore in 

 the June issue of the Proceedings of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the collections on which 

 the paper is mainly based having been obtained from San 

 Diego in 1902 and 1903, and from Monterey Bay in 1903 

 and 1904. The total number of species mentioned is sixty- 

 four, of which twenty-one are believed to be new to science. 

 Many other forms doubtless remain to be described, as at 

 both localities collecting was almost entirely restricted to 

 inter-tidal limits, although a few hauls were made with 

 the dredge. 



Darwinism looms large in the June number of Neiie 

 Weltanschauung, in which the opening article is devoted 

 to a biography of Dr. August Weismann, accompanied by 

 an excellent portrait of that distinguished biologist and 

 evolutionist. There is also a notice of an interesting 

 Darwin exhibition recently opened at Carlsruhe, and 

 arranged by Prof. Walther May. The exhibits are divided 

 into three sections, one historical and biographical, the 

 second theoretical, and the third bibliographical. In the 

 first are included a series of pictures illustrative of the life 

 of Darwin and of the influence of the environment on the 

 organism, while the second is devoted to pictures and 

 specimens illustrative of Darwin's observations and teach- 

 ing. 



The fresh-water crustaceans of Algeria and Tunis form 

 the subject of the first paper in the June number of the 

 Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, this communica- 

 tion being based on the collections made by the author, Mr. 

 Robert Gurney, in February and March, 1906. Although 

 the Algerian fresh-water crustaceans have been better 

 worked out than those of any other part of Africa, the 

 author finds that even here our knowledge is far from 

 complete, while still more remains to be done in Tunis, 

 especially in the Tell, or coast-district. A very large 

 number of species were collected, of which several are 

 described by the author as new, the ostracods being 

 omitted and reserved for a future communication. Perhaps 

 one of the most interesting of the forms discovered during 

 the visit is the malacostracan Cirolana foutis, described 

 by the author in the Zool. Anzeiger for 1908 on the evidence 

 of three examples found under stones at the mouth of a 

 spring near Biskra. 



NO. 2071, VOL. 81] 



As the result of a biological survey of the Belgian coast 

 undertaken by the Royal Museum of Natural History of 

 Belgium, Mr. G. Gilson, the director of that establish- 

 ment, has been enabled to describe a new and interesting 

 parasite which in autumn frequents the nursing-chamber 

 of the females of the schizopod crustacean Gastrosaccus 

 spinifer. Seeing that the schizopod occurs in great 

 swarms at some distance from the shore, it is a matter 

 for surprise that the discovery of the infesting parasite 

 should have been so long delaj'ed, especially as the latter 

 is of relatively large size. The parasite is itself a crus- 

 tacean, referable to the group of epicarids, a section of 

 isopods which have become degraded in accordance with 

 the requirements of a parasitic existence. Although 

 nearly related to Dajus, Mr. Gilson is of opinion that the 

 new species should represent a genus by itself, and accord- 

 ingly proposes the name Prodajus ostendensis'. The 

 paper, of which we have received a separate copy, is pub- 

 lished in vol. xliii., pp. 19-92, of the Bulletin scientifiquc 

 de la France ct de la Belgique. 



A corv of the Milroy lectures on disinfection and dis- 

 infectants, delivered by Prof. R. Tanner Hewlett, and re- 

 printed from the Lancet, has been received. In these three 

 lectures Prof. Hewlett decided not to deal with the details 

 of the various methods of practical disinfection, for these 

 are to be found sufficiently described in every text-book of 

 hygiene ; he has rather set himself to discuss the scientific a I 

 principles embraced in the practice of disinfection. He T I 

 first refers to the natural processes which reduce or destroy 

 specific micro-organisms, such as dilution (by air, water, 

 &c.), sunlight, desiccation, filtration (as in soil) ; he then 

 turns to the defensive mechanisms with which nature has 

 endowed the human body ; and after making a brief refer- 

 ence to the application of internal disinfectants, he passes . 

 to a consideration of the disinfection of the infectious 

 material outside the body. References are made to school 

 disinfection, the requirements of an ideal disinfectant, the 

 nature of the processes of disinfection, and the standardisa- 

 tion of disinfectants on the basis of their germicidal values. 

 During the past few years much controversy has arisen 

 upon the value of various methods of gauging the relative 

 germicidal powers of disinfectants, and although advance 

 has been made, we are still some distance from the goal 

 of a satisfactory scientific method; it is important that " 

 this matter should be placed upon a sound basis, for, as 

 Prof. Hewlett points out, the use of a disinfectant M 

 engenders a sense of security which, in the case of an I 

 inefficient one, is unreal, and may lead to disastrous results. 

 The market is flooded with inefficient disinfectants, and 

 there is at present no legal restraint upon their sale. 



We have been favoured with the report of the director 

 of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon, covering the re- 

 ports of the various subordinate officers connected with the 

 gardens. Dr. Willis refers very hopefully to the introduc- 

 tion of American machinery for tilling the ground, owing 

 to the success attending the trial at the experiment station 

 in the north of the island. The growth there of Ceara 

 rubber has been excellent, and in consequence nurseries of 

 Manihot dicholoina have been formed. The Government 

 chemist, Mr. M. K. Bamber, gives some particulars of 

 analyses of young and old cacao leaves. In the young 

 leaves potash and phosphoric acid accumulate to the extent 

 °f 35 P^i" cent, and 10 per cent, respectively, but very 

 small quantities are present in old leaves, which contain 

 a large amount of silica combined with lime and magnesia. 



Mr. N. N. Woronichin, who has been studying the dis- 

 tribution of the algx in the Black Sea, communicates a 



