October 14, 1909] 



NA TURE 



461 



Keith and S. G. Shattock. This year's course is to begin 

 to-morrow. It will be open to all practitioners and medical 

 students on presentation of their cards. 



The first monthly general meeting of the new session 

 of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers will be held 

 to-morrow, when a paper will be read by Prof. W. E. 

 Dalby entitled " Heat Transmission." It will be remem- 

 bered that in igo6 the members of the institution decided, 

 by vote, that the subject of heat transmission was suitable 

 for further research, and Prof. Dalby has therefore, at 

 the request of the council, collated in an appendix to his 

 paper information already published relating to the transfer 

 of heat across metallic surfaces in contact with water and 

 with gases. 



The syllabus of the first half of the :37th session of the 

 Medical Society of London has reached us, from which we 

 learn that on October 25 a paper is to be read by Dr. 

 F. W. Hewitt on the need for legislation in regard to 

 anjesthetics, and the lines upon which it should take 

 place. Subsequent papers will be read by Prof. Arthur 

 Keith and Dr. James MacKenzie. The Lettsomian lectures 

 will be delivered on February 7 and 21 and March 7 by 

 Dr. J. S. Risien Russell, on the cerebellum and its 

 affections. 



According to the Lancet, a new edition of the catalogue 

 of the pathological section of the Museum of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons of England is to be prepared by Prof. 

 S. G. Shattock, with the assistance of Mr. Alban Doran ; 

 a new edition of the catalogue of the Entozoa, by Dr. 

 R. T. Leiper, is also in preparation. 



Notice is given of the holding, in June and July, 1910, 

 of an International Agricultural Exhibition at Buenos 

 Aires. Communications respecting the exhibition should be 

 addressed to the secretary, 316 Florida, Buenos Aires. 



The inaugural meeting of the China Philosophical 

 Society was held at Tientsin on September 18, under the 

 presidency of the president of the Pei Yang University 

 (Mr. Wang Shoh Lian), who, in the course of his address, 

 pointed out the importance of the existence of such a 

 society in the present stage of China's development, when 

 wpstern learning is being spread over the Empire. The 

 possibilities before the society are unlimited, as all branches 

 of science and art present practically untouched ground, 

 and it can do much to build up the new learning, to foster 

 and organise research, to unite Chinese and foreign students 

 in a common cause, and help these to understand each 

 other better ; to assist in the introduction of foreign 

 methods and in the adaptation of these, and yet to pro- 

 tect and retain those older methods which are threatened 

 with extinction. After the delivery of the address referred 

 to, papers were read by Dr. G. Purves Smith, on agri- 

 cultural possibilities of North China, and Dr. Wu Lien 

 Teh, on a striking example of scientific farming in Chihli. 



We learn from the Times of October 1 1 that the ship- 

 ments of salmon ova to New Zealand in the early part 

 of this year have, so far, proved highly successful. Of 

 the first consignment of some half-million eggs from Scot- 

 land and Ireland, only about 56 per cent, died on the 

 voyage out. The second consignment consisted partly of 

 English and partly of German eggs ; the latter had to be 

 re-packed in London, and about 78 per cent, of them 

 perished on the voyage to New Zealand, while of the 

 former only about 1-7 per cent, failed to reach their 

 destination in safety. On their arrival in New Zealand 

 the eggs were immediately sent to the hatcheries, where 

 NO. 2085, VOL. 81] 



they commenced hatching out within a few hours of their 

 arrival. There is clearly no difficulty about transporting 

 salmon eggs to New Zealand in good condition. The 

 difficulty is to rear the young fish after hatching. Hitherto 

 all attempts to do this have failed in New Zealand, and 

 we shall be much interested to hear what happens in the 

 present instance. If they can once get established, there 

 seems no reason why the salmon should not thrive in 

 New Zealand as well as the trout, the acclimatisation of 

 which has long since been successfully accomplished. 



The exploration of the fauna and flora of the waters 

 of Lake Tanganyika has been carried out with important 

 results during the last ten years owing to the efforts of 

 Sir Ray Lankester. He obtained funds from the Govern- 

 ment grant committee of the Royal Society, in the first 

 instance, in 1895, which were employed in sending Mr. 

 J. E. S. Moore on a preliminary expedition. The results 

 obtained were so promising that in 1899 Sir Ray 

 Lankester collected from those interested in the great 

 lake and in African natural history a special fund amount- 

 ing to more than 4700!. for further exploration, and 

 obtained the assistance of a committee of naturalists in its 

 administration. Mr. Moore was sent on a second expedi- 

 tion, well equipped and furnished with funds for the 

 hiring of a steamer which had been placed on the lake 

 bv some enterprising pioneers. On Mr. Moore's return a 

 third expedition was entrusted to Dr. W. A. Cunnington, 

 of Christ's College, Cambridge, who has given special 

 attention to the alga; and the smaller invertebrates of the 

 lake. The money collected by Sir Ray Lankester has 

 now been all spent, and an account rendered to the sub- 

 scribers, together with a list (a copy of which we have 

 received) of the numerous important publications on the 

 fauna and flora of Lake Tanganyika, written by various 

 experts who have undertaken the study of the collections 

 brought home by Mr. Moore and by Dr. Cunnington. 

 The most extensive results are those published by Mr. 

 Boulenger, in five separate memoirs, on the fishes, which 

 include a vast number of new species and genera ; 

 Mr. Moore's publications on the new gastropod molluscs 

 and the anatomy of many of them, and on the reproduc- 

 tion of the fresh-water jelly-fish, Limnocnida ; papers on 

 the Crustacea, by Messrs. Cunnington, Caiman, G. O. 

 Sars, and Stebbing, and on the botanical collections by 

 Dr. Rendle and Prof. G. S. West. All the collections 

 have been placed in the Natural History Museum, although 

 the trustees did not in any way contribute to the expenses 

 of the expedition, which was a purely individual enterprise 

 cairied out by Sir Ray Lankester when director of the 

 natural-history departments. It now remains for Dr. 

 Cunnington to give a clear and concise illustrated account 

 of the natural history of Lake Tanganyika so as to embody 

 the results of all this recent investigation in a readable 

 foim, with indication to the reader as to where he ni;iy 

 find the various scattered memoirs in which the detailed 

 descriptions are published. 



Part iii. (June) of the Ceylon Marine Biological Reports 

 is devoted to an account, by Messrs. T. Southwell and 

 J. C. Kerkham, of an inspection of certain pearl-banUs 

 situated between Dutch Bay Point and Negombo, which 

 are at present under the control of the Ceylon Govern- 

 ment. The inquiry was conducted by the Ceylon Company 

 of Pearl Fisheries, Ltd., which at present holds the main 

 fisheries in Ceylon ; and the chief results seem to be that 

 these southern banks are exposed to the continuous in- 

 fluence of adverse surface-currents, and that the natuie 

 of the sea-bed is less well adapted for oyster-culture than 

 is the case in the leased beds. Further, the close pru\iniily 



