the civilised world which are being wrought by their practical applications to the cheapening of paper, and to improvements of the automatic printing-press, which, combined with the linking together of all parts of the earth by a network of telegraphic communications, put it in the power of even the poor of the realm to read daily the news of the world, and for a few shillings to provide themselves with library of classical works. a Of scarcely less educational influence upon the public mind are the new methods of photography and mechanical reproduction, by which pictures of current events and the portraits of those who are making contemporary history, and also copies of the world's masterpieces of painting and of sculpture, are widely disseminated with the cheap newspapers and magazines among the mass of the people.

Golden will be the days when, through a reform of our higher education, every man going up to the universities will have been from his earliest years under the stimulating power of a personal training in practical elementary science; all his natural powers being brought to a state of high efficiency, and his mind actively proving all things under the vivifying influence of freedom of opinion. Throughout life he will be on the best terms with nature, living a longer and a fuller life under her protecting care, and through the further disclosures of herself, rising successively to higher levels of being and of knowledge.

The importance to every man of a practical acquaintance with elementary science is obvious. Would it be thought possible that any nation could act so absurdly as to teach its children other languages, and leave them in complete ignorance of the tongue of the land in which they would have to pass their lives? Would it not then be incredible, if it had not become a too familiar fact, that the public schools have, until recently, excluded all teaching of the science of nature from their scheme of studies, though man's relation to nature is more intimate than to his fellow countryman? We live, move, and have our being in nature; we cannot emigrate from it, for we are part of it. Yet our higher education leaves men, who in other directions are well informed, much as deaf-mutes in the presence of nature. They do not hear her most imperative warnings, and can only get on haltingly in their everyday intercourse with the natural forces to which their lives are subjected, by means of the arbitrary signs of empirical custom. The recent introduction of some amount of science-teaching in our higher schools is quite inadequate, alike in kind and in degree. It can be only through a reform of the scheme of their examinations by the universities that we can hope to see science take the equal part with the humanities in general education to which she is entitled.

Two faculties of the mind which it is of the highest importance, especially in early youth, to enlarge and develop by exercise are wonder and imagination. Under the ordinary premature language-teaching of the grammar schools, even the wonder and imagination natural to young minds become so stunted in their growth as to remain more or less dormant throughout life. On the other hand, natural science brings them into full activity and greatly stimulates their development. Nature's fairy tales, as read through the microscope, the telescope, and the spectroscope, or spelt out to us from the blue by waves of ether, are among the most powerful of the exciting causes of wonder in its noblest form; when free from terror it becomes the minister of delight and of mental stimulation.

And surely the master-creations of poetry, music, sculpture, and painting, alike in mystery and grandeur cannot surpass the natural epics and scenes of the heavens above and of the earth beneath, in their power of firing the imagination, which, indeed, has taken its most daring and enduring flights under the earlier and simpler conditions of human life when men lived in closer contact with nature and in greater quiet, free from the deadening rush of modern society. Of supreme value is the exercise of the imagination, that lofty faculty of creating and weaving imagery in the mind, and of giving subjective reality to its own creations, which is the source of the initial impulses to human progress and development, of all inspiration in the arts, and of discovery in science.

Further, elementary science, taught practically with the aid of experiment during a boy's early years, cannot fail

to develop the faculty of observation. However keen in vision, the eyes see little without training in observation by the subtle exercise of the mind behind them. From the humblest weed to the stars in their courses, all nature is a great object-lesson for the acquirement of the power of rapid and accurate noting of minute and quickly-changing aspects. Such an early training in the simpler methods of scientific observation confers upon a man for life the possession of an inexhaustible source of interest and delight, and no mean advantage in the keen competitions of the intellectual activities of the present day.

Training in the use of the eyes develops, at the sam time, alertness of the intelligence, and suppleness of the mind in dealing with new problems, which, in after life. will be of great value in facing unforeseen difficulties o all kinds, which are constantly arising.

Science, practically taught, does more, for, under the constant control of his inferential conclusions by the un bending facts of direct experiment, the pupil gradually acquires the habit of reasoning correctly from the observ ations he makes. In particular, he learns the most precie lesson of great caution in forming his opinions, for he find how often reasoning, which appeared to him to be flawless was not really so, for it led him to wrong conclusions Further, from the constant study of nature, the studen comes so to look at things as almost unconsciously t discriminate between those which are essential and the which are only accidental, and so, gradually, to acquir the faculty of classing the facts of experience, and putting them in their proper places in a consistent syste or theory. Are there any other studies, it may be aske by which, in the same time, a young mind could deve an equally enlarged capacity for correct reasoning an acquire so wide an outlook? Yet, notwithstanding th immense intrinsic value of its teaching, science is but er of the studies which are necessary for a wide and liber education. Intellectual culture, or, in other words, t whole mind working at its best, requires, besides the trai ing of all its powers harmoniously by the study of natur an acquaintance with many other kinds of knowledg especially of human history and the development of hura thought, and of the human arts. Humanistic studies a experimental science are equally essential, and, indee complement each other. Either alone leaves the m unequally developed, and its whole attitude one-sided, a so produces a narrow type of mind, which is incapable taking a wide view even of its own side of thought, a has but little sympathy with any subject outside it.

Improved methods of teaching the classical languag which would permit of the beginning of the study of the at a later age, would leave ample time for an early traini in experimental science, which must soon come to recognised as an essential part of all education.

In future, no grammar or higher school should be c sidered as properly provided for unless furnished with necessary apparatus for teaching experimentally the fun mental principles of mechanics, physics, and biology. T pupils should have the use of a small astronomical telescor and of microscopes for biological work. Such apparal and instruments can now be purchased at a very small co Clearly, it is only by such a widening of the gene education common to all who go up to the universiti before specialisation is allowed, that the present " between scientific students careless of literary form, a classical students ignorant of scientific method filled up, and the young men who will in the future ti an active part in public affairs, as statesmen and leaders thought, can be suitably prepared to introduce : encourage in the country that fuller knowledge and appre ation of science which are needed for the complete char of the national attitude on all science questions, which absolutely necessary if we are to maintain our high posit and fulfil our destiny as a great nation.

can

nds high among the great philosophical chemists of the - century. As early as 1856 he published his own consion that paramagnetic elements have, in general, aller molecular volumes than diamagnetic elements, and firmed Avogadro's view that electropositive elements e larger molecular volumes than electronegative ones, h of them results specially interesting in connection h modern views of molecular structure. At that time had already assimilated and utilised the views of urent, Gerhardt, and Williamson on molecular constitu1, which made such slow progress in general. Since n, in the words of Dr. Thorpe (NATURE, June 27, 1889), There is, in fact, no section of chemical science which has not enriched by his contributions "-mineralogy, emical geology, organic chemistry, the nature and instrial importance of petroleum, but, above all, physical mistry and chemical philosophy.

Quoting again from Dr. Thorpe :- "His Principles of emistry,' published in 1889, and repeatedly reprinted, is veritable treasure-house of ideas, from which investigators ve constantly borrowed suggestions for new lines of search. This book is one of the classics of chemistry; place in the history of science is as well assured as the er-memorable work of Dalton." In the course of its eparation he developed the great generalisation known as e periodic law of the elements, with which his name will er remain most closely associated, especially as a weapon predicting new elements, and for which he has received e Davy medal of this society, as also have Newlands d Lothar Meyer for their independent advances in the me direction.

This law has changed the face of chemistry by impartg to the study of its numerous independent elements that se inter-connection which is a characteristic of advanced ysical theories.

Royal Medals.

A Royal medal is awarded to Prof. John Henry Poynting, R.S., on account of his researches in physical science, ially in connection with the law of gravitation and the ories of electrodynamics and radiation.

Prof. Poynting is distinguished both in theoretical and >erimental physics. His memoir, Phil. Trans., 1884, On the Transfer of Energy in the Electromagnetic ld," contains the fundamental proposition which is now versally known as Poynting's theorem. It was followed Phil. Trans., 1885, by a paper On the Connection Ween Electric Current and the Electric and Magnetic luctions in the Surrounding Field," which works out current circuit on the supposition of motion of what now called Faraday tubes. These papers served greatly elucidate Maxwell's theory, and give a representation of [physical nature of the electric field which is now widely ised. His long-continued experimental and theoretical arches on the constant of gravitation and on the mean sity of the earth are reported in a paper in the Phil. Rs. 1892, and in the Adams prize essay for 1893. sely related to this subject is an experiment in search directive action of one quartz crystal on another, Phil. .. 1899, which, though leading to a negative result, model of the application of refined methods to a sical research of great delicacy. His recent paper, Trans., 1903, 'On Radiation in the Solar System, Effect on Temperature, and its Pressure on Small es." is of great interest and significance in cosmical ics. He is the author of various theoretical papers on sicochemical subjects, such as change of state and otic pressure, which are conspicuous for originality of eption and clearness of exposition.

he other Roval medal is awarded to Prof. Charles Scott rington, F.R.S., for his work on the central nervous em, especially in relation to reflex action.

of. Sherrington has published a series of important rs upon the structure and function of the brain and al cord. In the earlier of these he chiefly investigated Course of the several groups of nerve fibres by means he degeneration method. Passing from the study of ture to that of function, he discovered that removal efore brain causes a widespread rigidity of certain les, which he called decerebrate rigidity. In the state cerebrate rigidity, the ordinarily observed reflexes of

the body become profoundly altered, and a study of the normal and abnormal reflexes led him to the observation that contraction of one muscle is commonly associated with inhibition of its antagonist. Upon this he formulated the law of the reciprocal action of antagonistic muscles, which is now accepted as of fundamental importance in the coordination of muscular movement. A further study of reflex actions led him to lay down certain general principles with regard to them. One principle deserves especial mention, namely, that hurtful stimuli applied to the skin produce a different form of reflex from that given by stimuli which are not hurtful. This has served as a basis for further investigation on the character of the nerve impulses conveyed by different nerve-endings, on the course taken by the impulses, and on their central connections.

In recent years a considerable amount of work has been done in mapping out the areas of the skin supplied by each of the cranial and spinal nerves. This work, essential both to physiology and to clinical medicine, received its chief impetus and most weighty contribution from the careful and detailed observations of Prof. Sherrington.

The researches of Prof. Sherrington and Dr. Grünbaum, on the localisation of the excitable areas in the cortex of the cerebral hemispheres in the higher apes, have resulted in placing the "motor area in this animal entirely in front of the central sulcus. The result is now generally accepted as true also for the brain of man-a point of great importance in the surgery of the brain.

Prof. Sherrington's researches have dealt with a number of subjects cognate with that of the central nervous system. He has shed light on questions connected with the afferent nerves of skeletal muscle, the efferent nerves of the arrectores pilorum and of the cranial blood-vessels, the innervation of various viscera, the trophic centre of the fibres of the roots of the spinal nerves, the knee jerk, and with the physiology of vision.

Davy Medal.

The Davy medal is awarded to Prof. Albert Ladenburg, on account of his researches in organic chemistry, especially in connection with the synthesis of natural alkaloids.

Thirty years ago, when the validity of Kekulé's famous formula for benzene was the subject of much discussion, Ladenburg was the first to prove, by laborious research, the important proposition that the six hydrogen atoms in the hydrocarbon are similarly situated and discharge the same functions, and hence that three, and only three, di-substitution derivatives can exist.

He has also devoted many years to the study of the natural alkaloids. This pioneer work, attended by many experimental difficulties, was rewarded by success in the synthesis, for the first time in 1886, of an optically active compound identical with the alkaloid coniine existing in the hemlock plant. Since that time he has largely added to our knowledge of the chemistry of hyoscyamine, atropine, and other alkaloids of the mydriatic class.

Hughes Medal.

The Hughes medal is awarded to Prof. Augusto Righi, for his experimental researches in electrical science, including electric vibrations.

Prof. Righi has been for many years a prominent and active worker in the sciences of light, electricity, and magnetism.

Among the subjects which have engaged his attention are the Hall effect, and the change of electric conductivity of bismuth in a magnetic field. At an early period he carried out an elaborate investigation on the reflection of light at the surface of a magnetised body, repeating and extending Kerr's observations with more powerful apparatus; in particular, he showed how the amount of the rotation of the plane of polarisation depends upon the wave-length of the light.

A valuable series of papers related to phenomena produced by the ultra-violet rays, including the first discovery of the discharge of negative electricity from a freshly polished zinc surface under their influence. He has also investigated the potential in the neighbourhood of the kathode in a Crookes's tube, and made many experiments on the spark discharge in gases and the action of the Röntgen rays.

His work on electric radiation has been collected in a book, "L'Ottica delle oscillazioni elettriche," Bologna, 1897. He rendered fundamental service to exact experiment on this subject by simplifying the practical conditions of the problem; and he applied his improved apparatus to numerous investigations on the behaviour of electromagnetic waves, of short and therefore manageable wavelength, under very varied conditions, on their absorption, polarisation, reflection and refraction, and on the behaviour of dielectrics in the field of radiation. This work entitles him to a high place among those who developed the lines of experimental investigation opened up by the great discoveries of Hertz.

More recently he has contributed substantially to the study of the phenomena of radio-activity and the related ionisations.

THE DEATH-KNELL OF THE ATOM.1 Old Time is a-flying; the atoms are dying; Come, list to their parting oration:"We'll soon disappear to a heavenly sphere On account of our disintegration.

"Our action's spontaneous in atoms uranious Or radious, actinious or thorious :

But for others, the gleam of a heaven-sent beam Must encourage their efforts laborious.

"For many a day we've been slipping away

While the savants still dozed in their slumbers; Till at last came a man with gold-leaf and tin can And detected our infinite numbers."

Thus the atoms in turn, we now clearly discern,
Fly to bits with the utmost facility;
They wend on their way, and in splitting, display
An absolute lack of stability.

'Tis clear they should halt on the grave of old Dalton On their path to celestial spheres;

And a few thousand million-let's say a quadrillion— Should bedew it with reverent tears.

There's nothing facetious in the way that Lucretius
Imagined the Chaos to quiver;

And electrons to blunder, together, asunder,
In building up atoms for ever!

NOTES.

W. R.

THE Hayden memorial gold medal has been awarded by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia to Mr. C. D. Walcott, director of the U.S. Geological Survey, in recognition of the value of his individual contributions to geological science.

THE University of Basle, to which the late Prof. Dr. Georg W. A. Kahlbaum was attached for nearly twenty years, has received the sum of 100,000 francs from the mother of the deceased professor. Further, Prof. Kahlbaum's scientific library and physical instruments are also to be handed to the university.

FROM Berlin we learn, according to the ChemikerZeitung, that the German State grant for the support of scientific, technical, and similar undertakings is to be increased by 115,000 marks. The sum of 179,500 marks is to be spent upon increasing the accommodation for the permanent exhibition devoted to the interests of the working classes; 120,000 marks to be a first instalment for an 1 Sung at the Chemical Laboratory dinner at University College, November 17.

investigation of sleeping sickness; 30,000 marks to be devoted to the development of the Starkstrom-laboratory of the Reichsanstalt; 43,850 marks to be contributed to the kite station on Lake Constance for experimental investigations of the higher air strata.

THE annual conference of the Pharmaceutical Society will be held in Birmingham in the week beginning July 23. 1906.

FOR the erection of a monument to Franz Reuleaux in the Charlottenburg Technical School, an appeal for subscriptions has been issued by the engineering department of the school.

MR. F. W. DYSON, F.R.S., chief assistant, Royal Observatory, Greenwich, has been appointed Astronomer Royal for Scotland, and also professor of practical astronomy, Edinburgh University, in succession to the late Dr. Cope land.

AN exhibition of electrical, optical, and other physical apparatus has been arranged by the Physical Society, anu will be held on Friday evening, December 15, at the Royal College of Science, South Kensington. Admission will be by ticket only.

IT is reported, Science says, that the Mexican Astronomical Society has awarded the prize offered by the Bishop of Leon for some notable astronomical discovery to Prof. W. H. Pickering, of Harvard College Observatory, for the discovery of the tenth satellite of Saturn.

AN archæological museum, which will devote special attention to Indo-Chinese matters, has been established w the French Government at Pnompenh. The museum wil be under the scientific control of the École française d'Extrême-Orient, the chief of the archæological department of which school will act as director of the new museum. A DESCRIPTION is given in the Engineer of December of some interesting machine-tools, formerly the property of James Nasmyth, lately placed on view in the southern Although galleries of the Victoria and Albert Museum. associated primarily with the invention of the steamhammer, James Nasmyth did valuable work in the improvement of machine-tools.

AN extensive landslip has occurred in the Danish island of Möen, destroying part of the beautiful scenery along Lille Klint. From the beach, steep slopes of Boulder-clay, thickly wooded, rise about 250 feet. The right bank of the valley from Liselund Chateau, and the coast-cliff for some 400 yards to the south of it, in all some fifteen twenty acres of woodland, are described as having sunk bodily. The sea had been encroaching, but underground water is regarded as the cause.

A Times correspondent reports that a local Greek newpaper publishes details of the earthquake of November > which caused great damage to the various monasteries of Mount Athos. The shocks, which were extremely violent occurred in the night. None of the monasteries escaped without serious injury. The shocks were not confined t the colony of monks. At Caryes the post-office, the police station, and other public buildings have been ruined, az! at Cassandra, Jerissos, Gomate, and other villages with r the districts affected the churches and many houses ha been destroyed.

IN the course of a lecture delivered at the Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne, on December 2, the He C. A. Parsons, F.R.S., dealt with the application turbines to Atlantic passenger steamers, and described th

recent trials of the Cunarder Carmania with turbine engines, and her sister ship, Caronia, with reciprocating engines, the latter being one of the most economical vessels ever built. The Carmania beat the Caronia by one knot, and was at least 16 per cent. more economical than her sister vessel driven by reciprocating engines. The Carmania is the first example on so large a scale, and it may be reasonably expected that improvements in detail will increase still further the excellent results she realised.

MAJOR MOODIE, Governor of Hudson Bay, has received a communication, dated May 22 last, from Captain R. Amundsen's Norwegian Expedition to the North Pole. The Gjoa, with the expedition on board, spent last winter in Simpson Strait, King William's Land, 400 miles north ef Fullerton. Captain Amundsen dispatched letters from Fullerton in November, 1904, reporting the expedition well, but short of dogs. The messenger reached Governor Moodie's headquarters on March 18 of this year, and on March 26 he started back with ten dogs. The messenger reached Captain Amundsen's party on May 22, and then returned to Fullerton with a second letter. This reported that the observations of the party had been conducted undisturbed since the establishment of the magnetic station in October, 1903.

Ar a meeting of the council of the Invalid Children's Aid Association, held last week, Sir William Broadbent delivered an address on the tuberculous children of the metropolis, in which he pointed out that while consumption, the most prevalent form of tuberculous disease, has steadily diminished year by year for the last thirty years, there has been no corresponding diminution in the deathrate of tuberculous affections specially incident to infancy and early childhood. He strongly urged the establishment of country and sea-side homes where delicate children in the pre-tuberculous stage, or those actually suffering from tuberculosis, could receive the benefits of the open-air treatment. After alluding to the sanitary defects of tenements in which the poor too often have to live, he pointed out that the greatest safeguard against tuberculosis in early Fie, and against infantile mortality generally, is that the child should be suckled by the mother.

THE Council of the Iron and Steel Institute has arranged hat the annual general meeting of the institute shall be beld in London on May 10-11, 1906. In place of the usual lumn meeting, a joint meeting with the American Institute of Mining Engineers will be held in London on July 2-28. It is intended during the week following to give the American visitors an opportunity of seeing some of te iron-making districts. It is anticipated that the visiting party will include many of the leading ironmasters who entertained the Iron and Steel Institute in America in 1800 and 1904. The Lord Mayor of London has consented to act as chairman of the London reception committee, and to give an evening reception at the Mansion House.

LECTURES on agricultural subjects are given in connection with the County Technical Laboratories, Chelmsford, on Friday afternoons, which is the market day of the town. The lectures last about half an hour, and are intended for farmers and others interested in agriculture. A discussion follows the lecture. The subjects for the December meetings, with the lecturers dealing with them, are as follows:-The field culture of the potato, by Mr. A. Steel; England as a producer of sugar from homegrown sugar beetroot, by Mr. Sigmund Stein; some agricultural facts and figures, by Mr. R. H. Rew. This excellent plan of making it easy for farmers to hear of

the results of modern agricultural research deserves to be successful, and could be adopted with advantage in other agricultural centres.

Ar a general monthly meeting of the members of the Royal Institution, held on Monday, special thanks were returned to Dr. Ludwig Mond, F.R.S., for his donation of 500l. to the fund for the promotion of experimental research at low temperatures. It was announced that the managers had elected Prof. W. Stirling Fullerian professor of physiology. The following are among the lecture arrangements at the Royal Institution before Easter :A Christmas course of six illustrated lectures, adapted to a juvenile auditory, by Prof. H. H. Turner, on astronomy; Prof. E. H. Parker, three lectures on impressions of travel in China and the Far East; Prof. William Stirling, six lectures on a physiological subject; Dr. J. E. Marr, three lectures on the influence of geology on scenery (the Tyndall lectures); Mr. Benjamin Kidd, two lectures on the significance of the future in the theory of evolution; Mr. Francis Darwin, three lectures on the physiology of plants; Prof. B. Hopkinson, three lectures internal combustion engines; Mr. J. W. Gordon, two lectures on advances in microscopy; and Prof. J. J. Thomson, six lectures on the corpuscular theory of matter. The Friday evening meetings will commence on January 19, when Prof. J. J. Thomson will deliver a discourse on some applications of the theory of electric discharge to spectroscopy. Succeeding discourses will probably be given by Prof. S. P. Thompson, Mr. H. F. Newall, Mr. W. C. D. Whetham, Dr. R. Caton, Dr. Hutchison, Sir Andrew Noble, Bart., Prof. P. Zeemann, Mr. W. B. Hardy, and others.

on

THE Russian physiologist, Prof. Iwan Michaelowitsch Ssetschenoff, emeritus professor of the University of Moscow, who died on November 15, was born in 1829. He first attended an engineering school in St. Petersburg, but subsequently took up medicine, and, after passing his final examination in Moscow in 1856, studied for some time in Germany. By his interesting paper on brain reflex he first attracted the serious attention of his colleagues of the Medico-chirurgical Academy in St. Petersburg, in which he was appointed an assistant professor of physiology in 1860, but on account of the strict censure to which his further work was submitted, Ssetschenoff published the results of his scientific investigations in Germany. A pupil of Du Bois-Reymond, Helmholtz, Hoppe-Seyler, and Ludwig, he always remained in direct connection with European scientific circles. The greatest services which Ssetschenoff rendered to science lie in the province of physiological chemistry, as, for instance, his works on the absorption of carbon dioxide by the blood. A complete list of his numerous researches would clearly testify to his many-sidedness and breadth of view. Moreover, he earnestly endeavoured to popularise his special science to the Russian mind by presenting it in an easily intelligible form in such well written and well reviewed works as his “Physiological Studies," Physiology of the Vegetable Processes," Psychological Studies," &c. In 1870 Ssetschenoff was appointed professor of physiology in the University of Odessa, and in 1876 to a similar post in St. Petersburg, which he held until 1889. He then went to Moscow, where he first acted as privatdocent and afterwards (1891) as professor, retiring in 1896.

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IN the second part of his article on the histology of cartilage and kindred tissues, published in vol. lxxx., part ii., of the Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie, Mr. J. Schaffer discusses these structures in the hag-fish (Myxine), with special reference to the cranial skeleton of that genus, adding an appendix on the cartilage of the

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lampreys. The organisation of the "bear-animalcules," or Tardigrada, those microscopic creatures found in damp moss and the gutters of roofs, forms the subject of an article by Mr. A. Basse; while the third and last communication is the first portion of a memoir by Mr. S. Hlava on the Radiata, the author dealing in this instance with the anatomy of Conochiloides natans.

IN an important article on the cranial nerve-components of the lamprey (Petromyzon), published in Gegenbaur's Morphologisches Jahrbuch, vol. xxxiv., part ii., Mr. J. B. Johnston shows that the general arrangement is similar to what obtains in fishes, although with certain markedly primitive features. As the result of a study of the visual organs of the ascidians of the Salpa group, Mr. W. Redikorzen arrives at the conclusion that the primitive chordates possessed a series of paired organs of this nature extending from the head to the tail-one pair to each bodysegment. Moreover, the pineal eye was certainly in the first instance a dual structure, but later its two elements coalesced and subsequently degenerated. This segmental ocular type has entirely disappeared from vertebrates, and is now represented only by traces among the lower groups. The other papers in the same issue include one by Mr. T. Mollison on the dorsal gland of Dendrohyrax, and a second by Mr. J. Böhm on the reproductive organs of the sheep.

IN the November issue of the Zoologist Mr. G. Renshaw resumes his interesting series of "obituaries" of exterminated animals, dealing in this instance with the Réunion starling, the sole representative of the genus Fregilupus. Easily recognised by its parti-coloured plumage and long crest, this bird was probably discovered by Flacourt in the middle of the seventeenth century. In the early part of the last century it was abundant, but in 1833 had become extremely scarce, and by about 1860 had probably ceased to exist even in its last refuge in the interior of the island. Twenty-one skins, of which one is in the Natural History Museum (although not shown to the public), and two skeletons, of which one is at Cambridge, are all the relics of this interesting species Mr. Renshaw can identify. In another paper Dr. J. Murie discusses the flying-fish captured in September last in a back-water connected with the Medway estuary. It is believed to belong to Exocoetus lineatus, a species not previously recorded as an occasional straggler into British waters.

THE almost complete shell of a large Cretaceous turtle from Kansas has afforded Mr. G. R. Wieland the opportunity of enlarging our knowledge of the extinct genus Toxochelys, his communication on the subject being published in the November issue of the American Journal of Science. The structure of the shell agrees with that of certain extinct representatives of the Chelonida (Lytoloma), but the skull approximates to that of the Chelydridæ. That the genus should be classed with the true turtles the author is convinced, although he believes the limbs to have been independently modified for swimming. The most interesting part of the paper relates, however, to certain bony elements overlying the junctions between the neural bones of the carapace, and it is suggested that these, which may have been more extended in other types, may represent the mosaic-like shell of the leathery turtles (Dermochelyidae). If this suggestion be well founded, the puzzle of the origin of the carapace of Dermochelys will be practically solved.

THE Comptes rendus of the zoological congress held at Berne last year contains the full report of a series of experiments undertaken by Mr. H. Piéron with the view of ascertaining the seat of the recognition-sense among ants.

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The theory of a language-sense "resident in the antennæ is rejected by the author, to some extent on the ground that these organs are employed in feeling objects of every kind, animate and inanimate. On the other hand, it is inferred that these organs are endowed with an olfactory sense, on which depends mutual recognition among ants. As is well known, ants not only of different species, but of different communities of the same species, display marked hostility to one another. By making an infusion of ants of one particular community, and anointing the neuters of another community with this infusion, it was found that in most instances the hostile ants thus treated were not attacked by the members of the community from which the infusion was made, this immunity from attack lasting only so long as the influence of the infusion persisted. On this and other experiments of a kindred nature But to connect the author's conclusions are mainly based. these experiments with the antennæ, an ant was deprived of those appendages, when it was found to attack friends and foes alike. Mr. Piéron has also favoured us with a copy of another paper, from the Bulletin de l'Institut psychologique for 1904, on the role of the muscular sense in determining orientation among ants.

THE experimental station at Peradeniya, Ceylon, has rapidly grown into public favour, and large numbers of agriculturists visit the station to get practical lessons in their craft. From the annual report of the controller, Mr. H. Wright, published as vol. iii., No. 10, of the Circulars of the Royal Botanic Gardens, it will be seen that a considerable amount of time has been devoted to the subject of green manures. While the first object consists in growing a crop to turn into the soil, the additional advantage possessed by leguminous plants of fixing free nitrogen has led to their almost exclusive use. In a tropical country green manures also prevent erosion of the soil by heavy Crotarain and the baking of the surface by the hot sun. laria striata is strongly recommended for tea estates, since it produces a heavy crop. A plant of a different kind is the thornless dadaps, Erythrina lithosperma, from which cuttings five feet long planted in the rainy season gave a substantial yield. The Pondicherry variety of groundnut has also proved useful.

In the report of the director of the Mineralogical Survey contained in the Ceylon Administration Reports much valuable information is given by Mr. A. K. Coomaraswamy and Mr. James Parsons regarding the occurrence of corundum, of minerals containing rare earths, of precious stones, of crystalline limestone, of mica, and of graphite. With the aid of numerous illustrations, interesting descriptions are also given of the native Sinhalese manufacture of iron and steel, and of the washing of gem-bearing gravels. The minerals containing rare earths have been derived from intrusive granite rocks. Thorianite containing more than 70 per cent. of thoria and 12 per cent. to 15 per cent. of uranium oxide occurs in moderate quantities near Kondrugala. The whole amount obtained hitherto is less than 30 cwt., and it is doubtful whether any very extensive deposit occurs. Thorite, allanite, and minerals of the samarskite group have also been found. The gems met with are transparent and well coloured varieties of corundum, spinel, zircon, tourmaline, topaz, garnet, chrysoberyl, cordierite, amethyst, felspar, and beryl. Many of these are exhibited in the mineral gallery of the museur attached to the survey, and the director is making strenuous endeavours to get together a thoroughly representative collection which can always be consulted by visitors to Ceylon.