October 21, 1909] 



NA TURE 



495 



October 20 we derive the following particulars as to his 

 work and career. After graduating at Padua he went for 

 some time to Paris and Vienna to continue his studies. At 

 the very outset of his medical work he was attracted by 

 nervous and mental diseases, and while still a student he 

 published two treatises, one on " Insanity in Antiquity " 

 and the other on " The Insanity of Cardan " (the si.Kteenth- 

 century mathematician). In the latter essay he first 

 advanced the theory of the relation between genius and 

 crime, which was to form the chief purport of his later 

 work. While serving as a surgeon in the army his atten- 

 tion was attracted at Calabria by the diversity of type 

 exhibited by the soldiery, who were drawn from all parts 

 of Italy. He conducted a series of studies, which he 

 endeavoured to make the basis of an anthropological chart 

 of Italy. He measured and examined no fewer than 4000 

 individuals, and gained an invaluable experience, which 

 stood him in good stead in his subsequent criminological 

 investigations. The removal of his regiment to Pavia, a 

 university town, gave Lombroso an opportunity of con- 

 tinuing his study of nervous diseases at the district asylum, 

 but his military superiors did not look with favour on these 

 scientific labours ; difficulties were placed in his way, and 

 Lombroso finally determined to leave the army. Shortly 

 after, he was appointed professor of psychiatry at the 

 University of Pavia at a small salary. He prepared a 

 short inaugural address entitled " Genius and Insanity," 

 in which all the main ideas of his magnum opus were 

 outlined. In 1872 he made a discovery which proved to 

 be of considerable scientific and economic importance. He 

 noted the fact that a large number of the inmates of the 

 asylum were suffering from "pellagra," a curious disease, 

 which first affected the sliin and afterwards attacked the 

 brain and nervous system. Lombroso discovered that the 

 disorder was to be traced to a poison contained in diseased 

 maize. Upon his appointment to the chair of jTsychiatry 

 at Turin Lombroso continued his criminological studies. 

 He was the first to apply the anthropometric method to the 

 study of criminology, and his collection of skulls was 

 unique. He showed that the overwhelming majority of 

 criminals suffered from some form or other of nervous 

 disease. These views are embodied in his great work 

 entitled " L'Uomo Delinquente," published in 1889. 

 Lombroso had a somewhat similar theory for the exist- 

 ence of genius, which he declared was a form of larvate 

 epilepsy; this somewhat fantastic thesis was presented in 

 his " L'Uomo di Genio," which has been translated into 

 several languages. 



In VVitherby's British Birds for October Messrs. W. 

 Davies and F. Coburn record the breeding, during the 

 past season, of the marsh-warbler in Worcestershire. The 

 nest was attached to the stems of cow-parsnip and nettles. 

 Mr. Coburn was of opinion that this was the first record 

 of the breeding of the species, but, as the editor points out, 

 a pair nested in the valley of the Avon in 1892. 



The Selbonic Magazine for October opens with a short 

 biography, accompanied by a portrait, of Sir Joseph 

 Hooker. In connection with the discovery of fossil bones 

 near Crayford, referred to in the report of the Selbornian 

 excursions, the editor will perhaps permit us to point out 

 that no such species as Cams domeslicus is known to 

 science, and that none of the bear-skulls found in English 

 Pleistocene deposits belongs to the American Ursus 

 horribilis. 



.At the conclusion of a paper on the birds of the moun- 

 tains of the Malay Peninsula, published in vol. ii.. No. 4, 

 of the Journal of the P'oderatcd Malay States Museums, 

 NO. 2086, VOL. 81] 



Mr. H. C. Robinson expresses the opinion that the fauna 

 is of Indo-Malay origin, and that the species have spread 

 in comparatively recent times north-west from the Sunda 

 islands rather than south-east from Burma. Secondly, that 

 the mountain-fauna is composed of a continental and a 

 Sumatran element, and that the connection with the 

 mountain-fauna of Burma is remote. On the other hand, 

 there appears to be evidence of a recent land-connection 

 with Sumatra, and also that the southern portion of the 

 peninsula has been disconnected from the land to the 

 north. 



Considerable interest attaches to the discovery of large 

 quantities of shells of the pearl-mussel (Unto margaritifer) 

 in gravel of apparently Pleistocene age in the Thames 

 near Mortlake. Messrs. J. W. Jackson and A. S. Kennard, 

 who record the fact in the October number of the Journal 

 of Conchology, state that " at the close of the Pleistocene 

 period the land stood at a much higher level than it does 

 to-day, and the Thames was then a quick-flowing stream 

 in a deep and narrow gorge. . . . The cause of the 

 extinction of the species is explained by the fact that as 

 the land sank the river became more sluggish, and silt 

 and mud commenced to accumulate. Such conditions 

 would prove highly detrimental to its welfare, and the 

 species soon ceased to exist." 



Taking as his text the apparent fact that a nematode 

 worm effects an entrance into the swim-bladder of rainbow- 

 trout by burrowing through the intestinal wall, and thereby 

 likewise permits the entrance of bacteria, Dr. A. E. 

 Shipley, in the September issue of the Journal of Economic 

 Biology, brings forward additional evidence in support of 

 his view that the appendix vermiformis is a functional, 

 and not a decadent, organ, and that appendicitis is prob- 

 ably due to the presence of entozoa. Messrs. Berry and 

 Lack are cited as evidence in support of the contention 

 that the appendix is a functional lymph-gland, and the 

 author expresses his disbelief in the existence of any 

 functionless organs. The remarkable increase of appendi- 

 citis in modern times is attributed by him to the practical 

 cessation of the administration, from time to time, of 

 vermifuges, and certainly no other satisfactory explanation 

 of the phenomenon has been given. If this suggestion be 

 substantiated, it tends to prove that our forefathers were 

 not such fools as we often imagine. 



The importance and interest of large and properly 

 classified and arranged collections of photographs — whether 

 these subjects be nature or art — were emphasised by 

 Sir Martin Conway at the Museums' Conference recently 

 held at Maidstone, and his address is published in full in 

 the September number of the Museums Journal. Many 

 difficulties must be encountered in forming extensive collec- 

 tions of this nature ; but, provided the necessary funds 

 are available, they are not insurmountable, and Sir Martin 

 urges that series of photographs relating to particular 

 subjects ought to be collected by the various museums in 

 the country. If private collectors would also devote them- 

 selves to photographs, a system of exchanges could probably 

 be established which would greatly facilitate matters. 



The common fresh-water Hydra was one of the first 

 subjects upon which the experimental zoologist exercised 

 his special genius. More than a century and a half agO' 

 Trembley demonstrated the remarkable power of regenera- 

 tion of lost parts which this little animal possesses, ancf 

 not a few experimenters have followed in his footsteps. 

 Of late years there has been quite an outburst of activity 

 in this direction, and some highly remarkable results have 

 been obtained. The latest contribution is a paper, by Miss 



