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poison-organs are probably only used for defence. They are formed, however, on the very same type as are the poison fangs of vipers. Unlike the latter, however, they are not modified teeth, nor are they situated within the mouth as they always are in poisonous serpents.

A Frog (Pelobates fuscus) which is common in France (and which is interesting on account of the form of its skull hereafter to be pointed out), though really harmless enough, has a singular power of making itself offensive. Both males and females of this species utter a kind of croak, and both, if their thigh is pinched, produce a sound like the mewing of a cat. At the same time they emit a strong odour, which is like that of garlic, and becomes stronger as the animals are more disturbed. This emission not only affects the sense of smell, but even makes the eyes water as mustard or horseradish does.

This singular power, together with the acrid secretion of the toad, are the nearest approximation to venomous properties possessed by any members of the order, no toad-not even the giant of the order Bufo agua-being really poisonous.

A small Frog, by no means uncommon in France and Germany (Alytes obstetricans) has a very singular habit. The female lays its eggs (about sixty in number) in a long chain, the ova adhering successively to one another by their tenacious investment. The male twines this long chaplet round his thighs, so that he acquires the appearance of a courtier of the time of James I. arrayed in trunk hose or puffed breeches. Thus encumbered, he retires into some burrow (at least during the day) till the period when the young are ripe for quitting the egg Then he seeks water, into which he has not plunged many minutes when the young burst forth and swim away, and he, having disencumbered himself of the remains of the ova, resumes his normal appearance.

numerous shallow, round impressions, to which a part of the ova still adhered." He concludes that "it is more than probable that towards the spawning time the skin of the lower parts becomes spongy, and that, after having deposited the eggs, the female attaches them to it by merely lying over them." "When the eggs are hatched the excrescences disappear, and the skin of the belly becomes smooth as before. Even in the highest class of animals (Mammalia) we are familiar, in the Kangaroo and Opossum order (Marsupialia), with a special external receptacle (the marsupial pouch) for the protection and secure development of the young; but nothing of the kind exists amongst birds or reptiles. In fishes, however, the male of the little Sea-horse (Hippocampus) is provided with a ventral pouch in which the eggs are sheltered, and the same class presents us with a mode of carrying the eggs still more bizarre than that of Alytes obstetricans just related. In the fish Arius fissus the male actually carries about the ova in the mouth, protected by the jaws, till relieved of the inconvenience by the hatching of the young fry.

A South African Toad (Dactylethra capensis) is interesting, as we shall hereafter see, on account of certain anatomical points in which it agrees with Pipa, and differs from all other Anoura. No interesting facts, however, are known as to its habits.

Another noteworthy form is the Mexican Rhinophrynus dorsalis, the exceptional characters of which are the tongue, which is free in front instead of behind, and the enormous spur-like tarsal tubercle.

The

Almost all Frogs and Toads pass the first stages of their existence in water, going through a free, tadpole stage, and all are more or less aquatic when adult. The only exceptions are Pipa, Nototrema, Opisthodelphys, and the Hylodes before referred to. Very many kinds, Certain Frogs (forming a very large group) are termed however, are, when adult, inhabitants of trees. Tree-frogs, from their adaptation to arboreal life by means question may suggest itself to some, "Are there any of the dilatation of the ends of the digits into sucking discs, which can be said in any sense to be aërial animals ?" by which they can adhere to leaves. One of them, the Birds are almost all capable of true flight, as also are common green Tree-frog (Hyla arborea) is spread over those aerial existing beasts the Bats, and as were those Europe, Asia, and Africa, in the same manner as R. escu- extinct reptiles the Pterodactyles. Certain squirrels and lenta, except that it is not found in the British Isles. A opossums can take flitting jumps by means of an extenfew toads also have the tips of their digits similarly di- sion of the skin of the flank, and a similar, though much lated. Such, e.g., is the case in the genera Kaloula of greater extension, supported by elongated freely ending India, and Brachymerus of South Africa. ribs, is found in the little lizards (Draco) called Flying Dragons.

The female of a peculiar American Tree-frog (Nototrema marsupiatum) has a pouch extending over the whole of the back and opening posteriorly. Into this the eggs are introduced for shelter and protection. A dorsal pouch also exists in the allied American genus, Opisthodelphys. An American species of Hylodes has the habit of laying its eggs in trees singly in the axils of leaves, and the only water they can obtain is the drop or two which may from time to time be there retained.

A still more remarkable mode of protecting the egg is developed by the Great Toad of tropical America (Pipa americana). In this case the skin of the females' back at the laying season thickens greatly and becomes of quite a soft and loose texture. The male, as soon as the eggs are laid, takes them and imbeds them in this thick, soft skin, which closes over them. Each egg then undergoes its process of development so enclosed, and the tadpole stage is, in this animal, passed within the egg, so that the young toads emerge from the dorsal cells of the mother completely developed miniatures of the adult. As many as 120 of these dorsal cells have been counted on the back of a single individual.

The only instance of a similar cutaneous modification is that pointed out by Dr. Günther in the skin of the belly of the Siluroid fish, Aspredo batrachus. Here he found that "the whole lower surface of the belly, thorax, throat, and even a portion of the pectoral fins, showed

*See Catalogue of the fishes in the British Museum, vol. v. p. 268.

The class of Fishes supplies us, also, with an example of aërial locomotion in the well-known Flying Fish.

We

Since, then, every other class of vertebrate animals (Beasts, Birds, Reptiles and Fishes) presents us with more or fewer examples of the aerial species, we might perhaps expect that the Frog-class would also exhibit some forms fitted for progression through the air. cannot say with certainty that such is the case; but Mr. Alfred Wallace, in his travels in the Malay Archipelago, encountered in Borneo a Tree-frog (Rhacophorus) to which he considers the term "flying" may fairly be applied, and of which he says, it "is the first instance known of a flying-frog." Of this animal he gives us the following account:

"One of the most curious and interesting creatures which I met with in Borneo was a large tree-frog which was brought me by one of the Chinese workmen. He assured me that he had seen it come down, in a slanting direction, from a high tree as if it flew. On examining it I found the toes very long and fully webbed to their extremity, so that, when expanded, they offered a surface much larger than the body. The fore-legs were also bordered by a membrane, and the body was capable of considerable inflation. The back and limbs were of a very deep shining green colour, the under surface and the inner toes yellow, while the webs were black_rayed with yellow. The body was about four inches long, while the webs of each hind foot, when fully expanded, covered

a surface of four square inches, and the webs of all the feet together about twelve square inches. As the extremities of the toes have dilated discs for adhesion, showing the creature to be a true tree-frog, it is difficult to imagine that this immense membrane of the toes can be for the purpose of swimming only, and the account of the Chinaman that it flew down from the tree becomes more credible."

The great group of Frogs and Toads, rich as it is in genera and species, and widely as it is diffused over the earth's surface, is one of singular uniformity of structure. The forms most aberrant from our type, the common frog, have now been noticed, except that perhaps the maximum respectively of obesity and slenderness may be referred to. In the former respect the Indian Toad Glyphoglossus may serve as an example, and for the latter may be selected Hylorana jerboa.

ST. GEORGE MIVART

(To be continued.)

the miocene of the Rhine basin, a formation, it will be remembered, in which several of the animals of the Red Crag bone-bed occur. It is, however, of larger size than that species, the teeth are larger, both absolutely and relatively to the cranium, and certain other differences occur, though the imperfect nature of the materials makes exact comparison of fossils only known from fragments not altogether easy or satisfactory. Believing, however, that it does not belong to either the above-mentioned, or any other of the hitherto described species of Halitherium, the specific name of H. canhami was proposed. It should be mentioned that there are six teeth in the maxillary or molar series on each side, all present at the same time, the first two with single roots, the third with two roots, and the last three with three roots, precisely resembling in form those of the molar teeth in the existing Manati.

A FOSSIL SIRENIAN FROM THE red crag MR

OF SUFFOLK

AT T the opening meeting of the Geological Society, Prof. Flower communicated a description of a fine fragment of a skull of an animal of the order Sirenia, which is of great interest as affording the first recorded evidence of the former existence of animals of this remarkable group in Britain. The specimen forms part of the very rich collection of Crag fossils formed by the Rev. H. Canham, of Waldringfield, near Woodbridge. It was found in the so-called " coprolite" or bone-bed at the base of the Red crag, and presents the usual aspect of the mammalian remains from that bed, being heavily mineralised, of a rich dark brown colour, almost black in some parts, with the surface much worn and polished, and marked here and there with the characteristic round or oval shallow pits, the supposed Pholas boring.

The fragment consists of the anterior or facial portion of the cranium which has separated, probably before fossilisation, from the posterior part at the fronto-parietal suture, and in a line descending vertically therefrom. This portion has then been subjected to severe attrition, by which the greater part of the pre-maxillary rostrum, the orbital processes of the maxillaries, and other projecting parts have been removed. In consequence of this, what may be called the external features of the skull, which are especially necessary to determine its closer affinities, are greatly marred, though enough remains of its essential structure to pronounce with confidence as to its general relationship to known forms. Fortunately, the whole of the portion of the maxillæ in which the molar series of teeth are implanted is preserved; and though the teeth have fallen from the alveoli in the front part of the series, and in the posterior part are ground down to mere stumps, so that the form of the crowns cannot be ascertained in any, many important dental characters may still be deduced from the number, form, size and position of the sockets and roots that remain.

As the intensely hard, ivory-like rostra of the ziphioid Cetaceans, the tympanic bones of the Balanidæ, and the teeth of terrestrial mammals almost alone remain in these deposits to attest the former existence of their owners; it is, doubtless, to the extreme massiveness and density of the cranial bones, as characteristic of the order Sirenia, that we owe the preservation of so large a portion of the skull under the very unfavourable conditions to which it, in common with the other fossils of the formation, must have been exposed.

After a comparison of the characters of the cranium with those of the several existing and extinct members of the order, Prof. Flower referred it to the genus Halitherium, and showed its relationship to H. Schinzi of Kaup from

ON THE STICK-FISH (Osteocella septentrionalis) AND ON THE HABITS OF SEA-PENS R. COOTE M. CHAMBERS has most kindly presented to the British Museum a specimen of the Stick-fish, from English Bay, Burrard's Inlet, British America. The specimen was placed alive, immediately it was caught, into a tin tube, filled with a solution of arsenic and salt.

Mr. Chambers observes that the Stick-fish are only to be found in Burrard's Inlet, English Bay, British Columbia. "It has only one bone in it, and appears to live on suction, and is a great prey to dogfish." Further: "I would mention that in summer only can they be caught. They are found to the least depth of from 30 to 40 fathoms, they move about rapidly in the water, and when brought to the surface, move for a few seconds like a snake, then make a dart as swift as lightning, and disappear."-July 23, 1873.

Unfortunately the specimen did not arrive in a good state for exhibition. The greater part of the animal portion had been washed off, probably by the motion of the solution during the transit; only about a foot of the flesh, which was loose on the axis, and the thick, swollen, naked, club-shaped base without polypes remained; but it was in a sufficiently good state to afford the means of determining its zoological situation and of examining its microscopical and other zoological characters.

Mr. Chambers' specimen is the animal of the axis, or stick, that I described as Osteocella septentrionalis (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1872, lx. p. 406), and it proves that the axis belongs to a kind of Pennatula, or Sea-pen, nearly allied to the long Sea-rushes named Pavonarius quadrangularis, found on the West Coast of Scotland, and is evidently the same animal as Pavonaria blakei, described by R. E. C. Stearns. The idea of its being a fish, which seems so generally entertained by the people of British Columbia, is clearly a mistake, though one of the observers sent a figure of the Sea-pen, with mouth and eyes like an eel (!), which is copied in NATURE, vol. vi. p. 436.

Osteocella.-The complete polype-mass very closely resembles Pavonaria quadrangularis, as figured by Johnston ("British Zoophytes," t. xxxi.), from Prof. Edward Forbes' drawings; but the animal is entirely destitute of calcareous spicules, and the axis is cylindrical, hard, and polished.

Two days after I received this specimen, I received by post Mr. Stearn's description of the Stick-fish (Pavonaria Blakei), from the San Francisco Mining ana Scientific Press, August 9, 1873.

The description of Mr. Stearn, made from a fresh animal, need not be repeated; but as he does not mention the microscopic structure, I sent a fragment of Mr. Chambers' specimen to Mr. Carter to be examined, who kindly writes :-"The fragment arrived safely, although

the Post-office tried to crush the box to the thickness of silver-paper. The bit contains no spicules, nothing but a mass of contorted tubes filled with small nuclei like ova. "The nuclei are about 1-600th of an inch in diameter, and I suppose they are in tubes. The part you sent was boiled in Liquor potassæ; that is how the structure alone came out, but there were no spicules in it, examined in this way or in water alone, but many fat globules, and a few sheaf-shaped calcareous concretions, common in all preparations of animal matter."-September 5, 1873.

The habits of Pennatulida are very imperfectly known and not at all understood. Dr. Johnston observes in the "British Zoophytes," vol. i. p. 160, that the fishermen believe that the common Sea Pens, which they call Coxcombs, are fixed to the bottom with their ends immersed in the mud." The Virgularia mirabilis are believed by the fishermen to have one end erect in the mud, and Pavonaria quadrangularis, according to Profesor Forbes, "lives erect, its lower extremity, as it were, rooted in the slimy mud at a depth of from twelve to fifteen fathoms." Mr. Darwin, who observed a species on the coast of Patagonia, which he called Virgularia patagonica, says: "At low water hundreds of these zoophytes may be seen projecting like stubble, with the truncate end upwards a few inches above the surface of the muddy sand. When touched or pulled they suddenly drew themselves in with force so as nearly or quite to disappear. By this action the highly elastic axis must be bent at the lower extremity, where it is naturally slightly curved, and I imagine it is by this elasticity alone that the zoophyte is enabled to rise again through the mud."

Bohadsch, as quoted by Johnston, says that the Pennatula swim by means of their pinna, which they use in the same manner that fishes do their fins. Ellis says: “It is an animal that swims freely about in the sea, many of them having a muscular motion as they swim along." And in another place he tells us, that "these motions are effected by means of the pinnules or feather-like fins, these are evidently designed by nature to move the animal backwards and forwards in the sea, consequently to do the office of fins." Mr. Clifton describes the Australian species as swimming rapidly in shallow water; and the American naturalists all seem to agree that the Stick Fish, Osteocella septentrionalis of Burrard Inlet, which has only a slight crest of polyps, and not pinne, or fins, as Ellis calls them, swims about like a fish, and is eaten by the dog-fish.

There seems to be no doubt that the Sea-Pens and SeaRushes do live in groups together, erect, and sunk in the mud, and that they are sometimes found swimming free in the sea, but the question is, are the free specimens those that have been disturbed by the waves and currents, and do they afterwards affix themselves in the mud, or are they vagrant specimens that live for a time and then die or are eaten by fish, their struggling being mistaken for swimming? Dr. Johnston observes, that when the SeaPens are placed in a basin or plate of water, he never observed a change of position, but they remain in the same place and lie with the same side up or down just as they have been put in. That is my own experience even when they are placed in a deeper vessel, but this may arise from the animal having lost part of its vitality before it was taken.

It may be useful to give the synonyma of these animals. Osteocella, Gray, Cat. Pennatulidæ, 1870, p. 40. Ann. and Mag. Nat Hist. 1872, ix. p. 405.

Pavonaria, sp. Stearns, Mining and Scientific Press. San Francisco, Aug. 9, 1873.

Verillia, Stearns, Californian Acad. Sci., Aug. 18, 1873. 1. Osteocella cliftoni, Gray, Cat. Pennatulidæ, 1870, p. 40; Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1872, ix. p. 406.

Hab., Western Australia (G. Clifton, Esq.), B.M. 2. Osteocella septentrionalis, Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1873, ix. p. 406 (style only).

"New Marine Animal," Sclater, Brit. Assoc., Aug. 20

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1872; NATURE, vol. vi. p. 436 (with figure of fish, of which it is said to be the notochord).

"Axis of Pennatulid," H. N. Moseley, NATURE, Sept. 26, 1872, vol. vi. p. 432.

"Pennatulid," Dawson, NATURE, Oct. 24, 1872, vol. vi. p. 516; Whiteaves, Nat. Hist. Soc. Montreal, 1872. "New Alcyonoid," Stearns, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., Feb. 1873, v. part 1, p. 7.

Pavonaria blakei, Stearns, Mining and Scientific Press, San Francisco, Aug. 9, 1873.

Verrillia blakei, Stearns, Proc. Acad. Cal. Acad. Sci., Aug. 18, 1873.

Hab., Gulf of Georgia, Barraud's Creek, near New Westminster, Washington Territory: Herd, Claudet, Doane, Stearns, Chambers. Fraser's River: Dick and Nelson. B.M.

Mr. Stearns's paper in the Proceedings of the Californian Academy of Sciences is a reprint of the paper in the San Francisco Mining and Scientific Press, with a few additions, and the addition of a new sub-genus, Verrillia, although he quotes Osteocella.

Since I have seen the proof of this paper, the Hon. Justice Crease has informed me that he has forwarded to me a series of the animals of Osteocella, and also an account of the animal from an examination of fresh examples by Dr. Moss; the latter has arrived, and I communicated it on September 25 to the Zoological Society; it is illustrated by figures. J. E. GRAY

THE RELATION OF MAN TO THE ICESHEET IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND

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N the interesting review of Sir Charles Lyell's "An2, Mr. A. R. Wallace mentions the fact that "there is as yet no clear evidence that man lived in Europe before the Glacial Epoch, and even if he did so, the action of the ice-sheet would probably have obliterated all records of his existence." The fact was true when it appeared, but both the fact and the remark which follows it, may now have to undergo considerable modification. The Committee for the Exploration of the Victoria Cave, near Settle, Yorkshire, assisted by a grant from the British Association, have just made a discovery which may prove to be of the greatest importance not only to the geologists of Europe, but to all those who take an interest in the origin and early history of man.

In May 1872 the Committee were exploring a bone bed in the cave, which occurred at a considerable depth beneath other deposits. It was full of hyæna-dung, broken bones, and teeth. A quantity of these were sent to Mr. Busk for determination, and he kindly returned the following list :— Elephas primigenius Ursus spelaus Ursus priscus Hyæna spelaa

Rhinoceros tichorinus Bison

Cervus elaphus

These are well known to represent the fauna of the river gravels in the south of England. Among them was a bone which puzzled even Mr. Busk, and he has only now given his mature and definite opinion on the subject. He writes: "The bone is, I have now no doubt, human ; a portion of an unusually clumsy fibula, and in that respect not unlike the same bone in the Mentone skeleton." When Mr. Busk has taken some time to consider the question there are few scientific men who will dispute his verdict. The occurrence of the bones of man with this group of animals is a new fact for this part of the kingdom, but one that might be expected from a similar co-existence in the south of England, in Kent's Cavern, Wookey Hole, and elsewhere.

But at Settle this discovery possesses a far greater

interest from the evidence there of the relation of these. animals and man to the great ice-sheet. This hyænabed dips into the cave, and has been worked only a short distance from its mouth; but at the mouth itself, vertically under the farthest projection of the overhanging cliff, lies a bed of stiff glacial clay containing ice-scratched boulders. This bed dips outwards at an angle of about 40°, and evidently lies on the edges of the beds containing man and the older mammals. It has been suggested that it may have fallen from the cliff above, and therefore may not necessarily have come into its position in glacial times, but, on a careful consideration, this is quite impossible. Upon it lies a great thickness of talus or scree, which is made up of fragments of limestone split off from the cliff above by the frosts of successive winters. If all this were now removed it would be barely possible for the glacial drift to fall from the cliff above to its present position, but if all the talus were restored to the cliff, of which it forms the waste, such a fall would be impossible. It is quite clear, from the waste of the cliffs which has taken place since the glacial drift came where it now lies, that the cliff then projected many feet farther out and would prevent such a fall.

A strong argument lies also in the fact that the loose talus all lies above the drift and is quite free from mud, whereas all the deposits below it are heavily charged with it, and the mud is just such a fine impalpable stiff mud as would result from the grinding of glaciers and the flow of glacier water. It seems probable that the drift is really the remnant of a moraine lateral or profonde, left here by a glacier or an ice-sheet, and that the remains of the older mammals and of man disinterred from beneath it are of an age at any rate previous to the great ice-sheet of the Irish Sea basin. But there is another line of argument which tends to the same conclusion. Three years ago it was believed by most geologists that the fauna here disinterred had never existed in this particular area-and why? because their remains had never been found in any of the river deposits of the district. It was supposed that the great extension of the ice prevented their migration hither. It is clear, now that we have found these remains in caves, that they must have peopled the northern district at one time as thickly as they did the south of England, where their bones are so common in river gravel. But their remains in the northern district occur now only in caverns, and have been removed from the open country. When we compare this removal of the mammoth-fauna over certain districts with the presence of evidence of land glaciation on a great scale, we begin to see that they bear a definite relation to one another, and that the ice-sheet was the great "besom of destruction" which swept away all remains of the older inhabitants from those portions of the country adjacent to the great ice centres.*

Again, there is another matter relating to this question which has hardly received the attention which it deserves. This is the complete absence of palæolithic implements and the fauna which is usually associated with them in the river gravels of the south,over co-extensive areas of the north of England, indicating the removal of paleolithic man from those areas by the ice-sheet. If I am not much mistaken, this discovery at Settle may have an important bearing in several ways. It will carry back the proofs of the antiquity of man to a time previous to the ice sheet, that is to interglacial if not to preglacial times. It will corroborate the opinions expressed by Mr. Godwin Austen, Mr. James Geikie, and others, that the older valley gravels of the south of England are not of an age subsequent to the Till of the North. And it will give some support to the views of Messrs. Searles Wood and Harmer, that the Till of the north west of England, though older than the great submergence, is probably of younger date than the greater part of the drifts of the east coast.

*Geological Magazine, vol. x. p. 140.

The Cave Committee will continue their work with redoubled vigour. It is much to be hoped that the scientific public will come to their assistance, and not let the expense of the undertaking fall, as now, almost entirely on the district of Craven.† R. H. TIDDEMAN

A

ATLANTIC FAUNA

AST May the s.s. Hibernia belonging to the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, was despatched to repair the French Atlantic Cable, in which a fault was indicated some 200 miles from Brest. A brief account of some of the animal forms obtained by me in that expedition may not be without interest to some of the readers of NATURE.

To Mr. R. London, superintending the expedition, I am greatly indebted for the many facilities that he afforded me, of obtaining specimens of the deep-sea fauna. The first cast was made about 100 miles nearly due west of Brest, at a depth of 83 fathoms. Here we found numerous valves of Pecten, a fine Ophiocoma, with rays nine inches in length, which when handled broke itself into numerous fragments, Echinus lividus, Spatangus purpureus, &c. Ät the surface we obtained by means of a towing-net a great abundance of a minute Entomostracous crustacean of a greenish-blue colour, with deep sapphire eyes, a Cydippe, two species of Idotea and Polybius Henslowii.

On the Atlantic cable, which was raised to the surface at a point 112 miles west of Brest, were found numerous shells of a small boring mollusc, one of the Pholadida, apparently Xylophaga. The outer covering of the cable, consisting of tarred manilla hemp, was perforated in many places by the round holes which they had formed and in which their shells were found. In places they had penetrated the outer covering, and had passed between the iron wires to the gutta percha core, in which they had made numerous shallow indentations, but in no case had they penetrated this to any depth. This cable, it will be remembered, was laid in 1869.

We now steamed about 87 miles westward to the edge of the Little Sole Banks, where the water deepens from 90 to 480 fathoms within a distance of a few miles. Here the cable was again hooked and brought to the surface from a depth of about 300 fathoms. Adhering to its surface was a species of Pycnogonum in great abundance. The specimens lived for some time after being brought to the surface, and moved about sluggishly.

A few bright red anomourous crustaceans were also obtained. These were very active, and lived for some days in a bucket of water.

They had, while in confinement, a peculiar habit of drawing their claws over their head, antennæ, and eyes, which suggested the idea that they were confused and dazzled by the extraordinary amount of light to which they were exposed.

A species of Tubularia of great beauty grew abundantly in clusters on the cable, and throve well in confinement. The cable was thickly overgrown with Sertularias of various species, moored to which by their hinder legs a species of Caprella, diabolic in appearance, but sluggish and inactive in nature, abounded.

A few miles farther westward the cable was raised from a depth of 480 fathoms. Sertularias, Tubularias, Caprella, &c., were still abundant; but the Pycnogonum was conspicuous from its absence.

In the recent expedition in which the Great Eastern and Hibernia have been employed in endeavouring to repair the Atlantic Cable of 1865, the natural history results have been much more meagre. Perhaps the most interesting objects obtained are some fragments of rock,

+ Messrs. Birkbeck and Co., Craven Bank, Settle, have kindly consented to receive subscriptions,

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PROF. SYLVESTER has recently made a discovery which is likely to create some interest, not only amongst mathematicians, but also amongst mechanicians and instrument-makers. By means of a sort of lazy tongs he has succeeded in converting spherical motion into plane motion, a result, we believe, hitherto looked upon as unattainable. This discovery will form the subject of a communication which Mr. Sylvester is announced to lay before the London Mathematical Society at its Annual General Meeting on Thursday next (November 13).

THE two gentlemen recently elected to Science-Fellowships at Oxford, are remarkable instances of success attending most irregular and unusual undergraduate careers. Mr. Yule was at one time a boy at Magdalen College School, he obtained the Brackenbury Scholarship for Physical Science at Balliol College, but was obliged to throw it up after a short time, on account of his failure to pass the classical examinations of the University. He bethought him of the more merciful ordinances of the sister University, and having obtained a Scholarship at St. John's College, Cambridge, proceeded on his undergraduate course unchecked by the lessened barrier of the previous examination. After being placed senior in the Natural Sciences Tripos, he returns to Oxford, we may hope bringing treasures from the East-and at any rate ready to use his vote for the improvement of the Oxford Examination Statutes. Mr. Macdonald is an individual who has come as near as is possible to achieving the feat of being in two places at one time. In fact, theoretically, he has been in two places at one time. He had the great courage and energy whilst holding a position in the Education Office, to enter as an Undergraduate at Merton College, and by consent of the College authorities he kept his term by sleeping in Oxford, which place he left every morning during term, so as to be at his official post, returning in the evening in time for hall dinner. His office-holidays he employed in practical work in the Oxford laboratories, whilst analytical chemistry had to be studied in his own sitting-room, converted for the time into a workshop. Such a history makes it very certain that the examination system has not failed at Merton College to secure at any rate a most worthy recipient of the fellowship.

THE election to the two vacant Fellowships at Merton College, took place on Oct. 30, when the choice of the electors fell upon Mr. John Wesley Russell, Lecturer of Balliol College, as Mathematical Fellow; and Mr. Archibald Simon Lang Macdonald, Commoner of Merton College, as Natural Science Fellow. Mr. Russell was placed in the first class in Mathematics under Moderators, in Trinity Term, 1871; and Mr. Macdonald in the first class in Natural Science at the final examination, in Michaelmas Term, 1871.

WE are glad to be able to add St. John's College, Cambridge, to the list of those which have opened their Fellowships to Students of Natural Science. Since 1868, the College has given Exhibitions yearly, and Foundation Scholarships since 1870, for the encouragement of a knowledge of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. On Monday last the Master and Seniors, in proof of their desire to place the Natural Sciences on the same footing as Classics and Mathematics, elected one of their scholars, Mr. A. H. Garrod, B.A., who was a Senior in the Natural Science Tripos of 1871, to a Fellowship.

ABOUT the end of January 1874, there will be an election to a scholarship in Natural Science at Exeter College, Oxford, can

didates for which will be examined in biology, chemistry, and physics. Candidates are not expected to exhibit special knowledge of more than one of the above subjects, and preference will be given to a candidate who excels in biology, or one of its branches. The candidate selected will have to satisfy the college that he has sufficient classical and mathematical knowledge to pass responsions. There is no limit of age disqualifying candidates for this scholarship. The scholarship is of the annual value of Sol., tenable for five years from matriculation. The scholar elected will have the use, during term, of a place in the histological laboratory of the college. For further information application should be made to Mr. E. Ray Lankester, Natural Science Lecturer, Exeter College.

MR. CHARLES J. F. YULE, of St. John's College, Cambridge, wishes us to state that he is not "the Cambridge B.A." whose letter appeared in last week's number.

AT the Commitia, held on Thursday, October 30, at the Royal College of Physicians, Dr. Robert Druitt was elected a Fellow of the College. The president announced that the Harveian Oration in the ensuing year would be delivered by Dr. Charles West. The Gulstonian Lectures will be delivered by Dr. J. F. Payne; the Croonian Lectures by Dr. Murchison; the Lumleian by Dr. Sibson.

WE regret to record the death, on Oct. 24, of Dr. Crace Calvert, F.R.S., F.C.S. The illness which caused it was contracted at Vienna, whither he had gone to act as juror in the International Exhibition. The Journal of the Society of Arts furnishes some particulars concerning the work of Dr. Calvert. As an analytical chemist his renown was European. He left England as a youth to pursue his education in France, and in the schools of that country secured many honours by the awards which he obtained. He subsequently pursued the study of chemistry, and was appointed assistant chemist at the Gobelin works, under his learned master, Chevreul. Soon after his return to England, he commenced reading a series of papers before the Society of Arts on chemistry applied to industry. At a later date, when the Society of Arts proposed to establish Cantor lectures, he gave the proposition his hearty support, and delivered two courses of lectures on 66 'Chemistry applied to the Arts." He also delivered courses on "Synthesis and the Production of Organic Substances," on "Aniline and Coal Tar Colours," and on "Dyes and Dye-stuffs other than Aniline." In 1846 he settled in Manchester, and was soon after appointed Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution there. He was also for some time a lecturer at the Manchester School of Medicine. His connection with the Manchester Sanitary Association led him to hygienic investigations—one of the principal results of which was a patent for the application and preparation of carbolic acid. In scientific circles great interest attached to Dr. Calvert's protoplasmic investigations, some of the results of which were communicated in a paper read at the meeting of the British Association in Edinburgh some years ago, and afterwards published in the Transactions of the Royal Society. Dr. Calvert was a Fellow of the Royal Society of England, a Fellow of the Chemical Society, and an honorary Fellow of the Chemical Society of Paris. He was also a member of the Royal Academy of Turin, and of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg.

THE death is announced of Prof. J. A. F. Breithaupt, of Freiberg, the well-known Mineralogist, on October 22, at the age of 82 years.

Ocean Highways announces the death from scurvy on the Novaya Zemlya Coast, of the distinguished Norwegian Arctic Explorer, Captain Sivert Tobieson.

AT the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society last Monday, Sir Bartle Frere, the President, said that, though there

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