FIG. 4.-Femora and Fibula of Ceteosaurus. Scale, one-tenth. The left-hand figure represents the specimen found in 1848: the right-hand figure that found in 1868; in the middle a small fibula found in 1848 is shown. have been furnished by the neighbourhood of Oxford, and which are preserved in a museum which is worthy of an old and wealthy University. The description of the Megalosaurus, and especially of the Ceteosaurus, is a most valuable addition to Palæozoology. We owe to Prof. Huxley the clue to the right interpretation of the bones of both these animals, and the right definition of the whole group of Deinosauria, or Ornithoskelida, to which they belong, as being intermediate in character between the struthious birds and the reptiles. To this 148 FIG. 5.-Head of Megalosaurus. Scale, one-tenth of nature. Restoration of the head and lower jaw, of which, however, only the anterior portions are known. These are shaded. The type of Varanus is followed in general, but the postorbital arrangement is different, the bony circle there being completed from considering iguana and other lizards with some eye to crocodile. The length of head as thus drawn (thirty-nine inches) is less than that usually allowed (five feet). The posterior part of the maxillary bone is separated from the orbit, notwithstanding its smooth, apparently free edge, by an intervening continuation of the jugal. This may be objected to. The nasal cavity is supposed to be divided by a median ridge (the single nasal continuous with the intermaxillary bone) into two openings, as in some of the monitors. The intermaxillary bones, which originally included four teeth each, appear united to the maxillary in this adult specimen. kind of animal to which it belongs. The massive anchylosed sacrum of five vertebræ, and the whole arrangement of the pelvic arch, as well as the peculiar form of The specimens which are preserved in the Oxford Prof. Museum, and which have been figured by Phillips, afford a very complete idea of the creature. The magnificent upper maxillary described by Prof. Huxley in the "Geological Journal," enables the front portion of the cranium to be restored with considerable certainty, and the accompanying woodcut (Fig. 5) may be taken to represent the entire head. The premaxillaries of the Megalosaurus from the Oxford clay, in the collection of Mr. James Parker, are traversed by foramina which may indicate the presence of a small horny beak, or snout. The arrangement of the shoulder girdle may be seen in Fig. 6, in which I = Scapula; 2 = Coracoid; and 3=Humerus, as well as that of the pelvic arch and hind leg (Fig. 1), and the comparison of the two diagrams, will show the enormous disproportion of the hind to the fore limb in respect of size. All these three figures are drawn to one-tenth of natural size, and enable us to realise the form of one of the most remarkable of the fossil reptiles. The recent discovery of a nearly perfect skeleton by Mr. James Parker establishes the fact that some, at least, of the opistho-cœlian vertebræ, on which the genus Streptospondylus has been based by Prof. Owen, belong really to this animal. In point of time, the Megalosaurus lived from the Liassic to the Wealden age, and was one of the most formidable inhabitants of the great Mesozoic continent. The pains and labour which Prof. Phillips has bestowed in collecting and putting together the fragments and disjecta membra of the animal, and the careful criticism to which he has subjected each bone, render this portion of the work peculiarly valuable. Nor is the chapter on the most gigantic of the fossil reptiles, the Ceteosaurus, inferior in interest to that which relates to Megalosaurus. The bones discovered in the Great Oolite at Enslow Bridge, near Oxford, in 1870, settled for ever all doubt as to the animal having been aquatic or terrestrial. The scapula (Fig. 3) and the ilium (Fig. 2) resemble in general outline those of Megalosaurus, and show that the animal belongs to the same Deinosaurian class, although "its fore limbs are more crocodilian," and "its pelvic girdle more lacertian." And the evidence offered by the articular ends of the bones of the extremities being adapted for movement in particular directions, the possession of large claws, and the hollowness of the long bones, indicate that it was of terrestrial, and not, as its name seems to imply, of marine habit. It may, however, have been, as Prof. Phillips suggests, "a marsh-loving or river-side animal." Its gigantic size may be gathered from the fact that one of the femora measures no less than 64, and a humerus 51'5 inches (Fig. 4). Nor is there evidence wanting as to its diet. From the mutilated fragment of a tooth in the Oxford Museum, Prof. Phillips infers that its possessor lived on vegetables, since it resembled "that of an iguanodon in general shape (as far as can be known, one edge being broken), with a similar sweep of the concave surface seen in the diagram, and corresponding alternation towards the edge. The edge is not serrated, but the striæ of accretion are so arranged as to suggest that it may have been." The truth of this conclusion is proved by the subsequent discovery of a nearly perfect crown by Mr. Burrows, one of my students, in the Enslow Quarry, which has very much the appearance of a young tooth. It presents the serrations which have been worn away in the specimen above described, and bears out completely Prof. Phillips's description. I have chosen merely these two animals as illustrating the subject-matter of the book, which is in every sense worthy of the high reputation of its author. W. B. D. PARTHENOGENESIS AMONG THE LEPI THE DOPTERA HE part of the Archives Néerlandaises, published by the Societé Hollandaise des Sciences à Harlem, for 1870, contains the results of some very interesting experiments undertaken by M. H. Weijenbergh, jun, on the above subject, one fraught with considerable interest to others besides entomologists. By Parthenogensis is meant the power that is possessed by females of producing eggs endowed with vitality, and from which young ones are produced, without impregnation taking place on each occasion. This subject has been extensively treated by von Siebold in his "Wahre Parthenogenesis bei der Schmetterlinge und Bienen," Leipzig, 1856, but confirmatory and new investigations were much needed. Those of M. Weijenbergh were conducted with every possible care and precaution, so that they can be relied upon. In the autumn of 1866 he saw a male and female of the species Liparis dispar together, and some days afterwards he saw in the same place a great quantity of the eggs, about 500 in number. In order to leave the rearing of these to natural processes, as far as possible, he left them exposed all the winter in the open air, and in April 1867, he removed them into his house. Before the end of the month the caterpillars had successively made their appearance. These were regularly fed, and by the middle of July each of the chrysalides which had been formed during June gave birth to a perfect butterfly. It was easy, with a little practice, to distinguish the sexes whilst in the caterpillar state, and all the males were removed as far as possible, and the females were placed in a box closed to all access from without. So successfully was this separation of the sexes effected, that only one male butterfly made its appearance among the females; and, as these had been successively removed to a third closed box as soon as they escaped from the chrysalis state, it was only necessary to sacrifice the three or four females which were in the box at the time. In all, about sixty females were obtained, to which there was absolute certainty that no male could by any possible chance have had access. Of 149 these, two-thirds laid eggs in the autumn,—some, one, two, or three eggs only; others as many as ten or twenty, but yet even at the most not one-twentieth of the eggs of their mother. The other one-third laid no eggs at all. In all about 400 eggs were collected, which were removed and carefully packed up till April 1868, when a large number of little caterpillars were seen. These were immediately placed on leaves in a large glass vase and watched carefully. It was easily to be seen that this batch of caterpillars possessed far less vitality than those of the previous year. A large number of the eggs dried up and were worthless, some fifty caterpillars alone appearing, and of these only about forty survived to become chrysalides. From these, by the end of July, twentyseven butterflies made their appearance. The same precautions having been taken as before, the number of females was found to be fourteen. Of these, when again there had been no possibility of male access, one half laid no eggs, the remaining half, however, laying in all a fair number. As in previous years, these were removed and left all the winter carefully packed up, till, in April 1869, three years after the commencement of the experiments, young caterpillars again made their appearance. From these, strange to say, the number of butterflies obtained was in excess of those obtained in the previous year. The number of females as compared with males, was almost the same, in contradiction to the results of other investigators, which had indicated the probability of the ratio of the males to the females greatly increasing with each additional year. The eggs laid by the females of this year, carefully isolated as before, were packed up during the winter, but when examined in the spring of last year, 1870, no caterpillars made their appearance, the eggs became shrivelled up, and the experiment was at an end. There is every reason to believe that it was most carefully conducted, and that every regard was paid to strict accuracy during the whole three years or more that the experiment was being carried on. The results amount to these : (1.) Aug. 1866, eggs laid by impregnated female; April 1867, caterpillars appear; and, in July, perfect butterflies. (2.) Aug. 1867, eggs laid by females of this year without impregnation; April 1868, caterpillars appear, and, in July, perfect butterflies. (3.) Aug. 1868, eggs laid by females of this year without impregnation; April 1869, caterpillars appear, and, in July, perfect butterflies. (4.) Aug. 1869, eggs laid by females of this year without impregnation; April 1870, no results-the eggs all dried up. Thus, after the first impregnation of the female in the autumn of 1866, three successive broods of caterpillars and, ultimately, of butterflies made their appearance; and four successive times were eggs laid without further impregnation, in three of which they proved endowed with vitality. It would take a long series of experiments, each conducted with the same care as this, before an average could be drawn to determine the limit of this strange reproductive power. These experiments are so easily performed, and yet so valuable when accurately made, that a wide field is opened to those who do not care to undertake long and elaborate scientific investigations, and to such we most cordially commend them. Their value, as bearing on the theories of spontaneous generation, is very great, as there is much apparent probability that this power of Parthenogenesis will increase as we descend in the scale of life just as it decreases as we ascend. By its aid many phenomena, now apparently very strange and perplexing, will be found to be but obeying one great and universal law of nature, which becomes less visible the higher we ascend in the scale of life, but yet never ceases. In conclusion, it may be stated that this power of Paithenogenesis has been found in many species of butterflies, and also among bees; and M. Weijenbergh, at the end of his interesting paper, gives a list of the seventeen RESULTS OF SANITARY IMPROVEMENT IN WE subject is quoted as follows in the India Office report The municipal authorities of Calcutta and their officers have set an example of enlightened administration and effective expenditure to other Indian municipalities, which it is hoped will be followed. There are indeed few cities anywhere which can show so much good work done in so short a time and with such promising results for the future." The laws of nature are the same everywhere, Calcutta has in times past suffered as London used to do from fatal fevers and bowel diseases, and there is now every prospect that a few years of active work will remove this stigma from the capital of the East, as it has been removed from the metropolis of the British Empire. NOTES Most HEN a great public work is being done, it is a duty to call attention to it. In March 1862, Prof. Longmore, of Netley, who had acted as Sanitary Officer during the Mutiny at Calcutta, gave the following evidence before the Royal Commission on the sanitary state of the Indian Army:-"As regards the chief part of this extensive city (Calcutta)—that inhabited by the native popu lation-the pestilential condition of the surface-drains and THE following telegrams respecting the Total Eclipse of yards, and many of the tanks among the huts and houses, Dec. 12 have been received since our last :-" From the would not be credited by any one who had not been among them." In the" Report on Sanitary Improvements in India Governor of Ceylon to the Earl of Kimberley, dated, Coup to June 1871," recently printed by the India Office, is lombo, Dec. 12, 10.45 A.M. :-'A telegram from Jaffna states given a table showing that the cholera mortality in Cal- that splendid weather prevailed during the eclipse. cutta had, for twenty years preceding 1861, averaged nearly satisfactory and interesting observations have been made." 5,000 deaths per annum. In 1860 the cholera deaths were 'Mangalore, Dec. 16.-The eclipse observations have been 6,553, and in 1866 they were 6,823. About this latter date very successful. The extension of the corona above hydrogen works of drainage and water supply were commenced and apparently small. Five admirable photographs have been have been gradually extended. Water is taken from the taken." From Mr. Davis, photographer to the English Eclipse Hooghly and thoroughly filtered-it is then conveyed in Expedition, through Lord Lindsay :-"Mangalore, Baikul.pipes 123 miles in length to a reservoir in Calcutta and Five totality negatives; extensive corona; persistent rifts; slight thence distributed. The whole population had this benefit external changes.' The French Academy of Sciences has reconferred on them in the beginning of 1870, from which date the use of foul tank and river water was discontinued. ceived from M. Janssen the following telegraphic despatch, dated Octacamund, December 12, 5b. 20m.:-"Spectre de la Couronne attestant matière plus loin qu'atmosphère du Soleil." The drainage works are as yet confined to the southern districts, the sewage from which is conveyed to an outfall at the Salt Lake, and will be passed over a square mile of reclaimed land there, for irrigation of crops. The mortality from cholera in 1870 was 1,563, and the general mortality has fallen year by year with the extension of the works. Last year (1870) the death-rate was 23'4 per 1,000, considerably less than half what it was in 1865. WE can hardly credit the report which has just reached us that the Treasury has, at the last moment, declined to sanction the expenditure of public money on the publication of the Eclipse Reports of 1860 and 1870. We understand the combined report is now nearly ready, and both Parliament and the nation are entitled to receive a statement of the manner in which the public money has been expended. There are innumerable cases which may be cited as precedents for the publication of similar documents by the Government; as, for example, the Survey of Sinai, and the annual Greenwich Reports of Observations. After the Government has so generously granted money for recent scientific observations, we can hardly believe that the At a Social Science meeting held in Calcutta last March, a native physician, Dr. Chuckerbutty, gave his experience of the sanitary results as follows:-"I am in the habit of visiting, in the pursuit of my profession, the houses of the rich, as well as of the poor, in both divisions of the town, and I frankly confess that in the southern division, wherever the drainage works have been brought into play, the dwellings even of the humblest cottagers are in an infinitely better sanitary state than the mansions of the richest mil-spirit of parsimony will so far prevail at the last moment as lionaires in the northern division where the drainage operato mar, in this manner, the services it has performed towards tions have not been extended. Before the completion of the Science. water-works and the partial operation of the new drainage works, the mortality in Calcutta from dysentery, cholera, and fever, was most appalling. In 1865 dysentery was so common and fatal that sloughing cases of it were of daily occurrence. Such cases are now rarely to be seen. My annual share of cases of cholera in the Medical College Hospital before the completion of the new water-works was about 700, and I declare to you that, during the last eight months, I have scarcely had a dozen cases of that disease. Fever, too, has decreased during the same period in a like manner." The actual deaths from cholera in April, May, and June, of the present year were 85, 29, and 26, respectively. After such results as these, we need not feel surprised that the Justices of Calcutta, a large proportion of whom are enlightened native gentlemen, decided unanimously last August to extend the drainage works all over the city; notwithstanding the opposition on purely theoretical grounds of certain British medical officers who ought to have known better, to the use of ordinary house drainage for Indian houses. The opinion of the Army Sanitary Commission on this THE death is announced on October 10, in Nicaragua, of fever, of Dr. Berthold Seemann, one of our most enterprising travellers and naturalists. Born at Hanover in 1825, Dr. Seemann was, in 1846, appointed naturalist to H.M.S. Herald, in its survey of the Pacific, during which voyage he had the opportunity of exploring, more thoroughly than almost any other European, the Pacific countries of South America and the Isthmus of Panama. In the same vessel he subsequently visited the Arctic regions, and the "Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald," by Sir John Richardson and Dr. Seemann, is an important contribution to the natural history of previously littleknown regions, the portion contributed by the latter comprising an account of the flora of Western Eskimo-land, north-western In 1860 he was sent by the English Government to the Fiji Mexico, the Isthmus of Panama, and the island of Hong-Kong. Islands, then lately acquired, and on his return published two works, one containing a narrative of his mission, the other, under the title of "Flora Vitiensis," a history of the vegetable productions of the islands. Since 1864, he has been greatly interested in the mining capabilities and other resources of the various states of Central America, and has spent much of his time there in the interest of different trading communities, and in promoting the route across the Isthmus. Dr. Seemann is the author of several popular botanical works in German and English, and has been since its foundation, Editor of the Journal of Botany, British and Foreign. PROF. SEDGWICK'S appeal for subscriptions from members of the University of Cambridge, to enable him to purchase the valuable collection of fossils belonging to Mr. Leckenby, has resulted in the collection of the sum required, 800l. Arrangements have been made for the completion of the purchase, and it is expected that in a few weeks Mr. Leckenby's valuable collections will be deposited in the Cambridge Geological Museum. This prompt and liberal response to the touching appeal of the venerable Professor demonstrates the regard in which he is universally and deservedly held by the members of the University. THE following is the result of the examination for the Natural Science Tripos at Cambridge :-First Class-Garrod, John's; Lydekker, Trinity; Lewis, Downing; Warrington, Caius. Second Class-W. Edmunds, John's; Fox, Peter's; Read, John's; Owen, Downing; Everard, Trinity; Maudslay, Trinityhall; Brewer, John's; Buddon, John's; Wigan, Trinity; Blunt, John's. The following acquitted themselves so as to deserve ordinary degrees :-Burrows, Caius; Murphy, John's; Phelps, Sydney; Pittman, Corpus; Wakefield, Caius. In the second class Fox and Reed are bracketed, also Brewer, Buddon, and Wigan. NEXT term, Mr. Ruskin, Slade Professor of the Fine Arts at Oxford, will deliver a course of lectures on "The Relation of Natural Science to Art." J.P.E. THE Government is advertising the appointment, by open competition, of a clerk to the Curator of the Royal Gardens at Kew, and of a second assistant in the Herbarium. The salaries commence at 100l. and 60%. respectively, and the specified age is in one case from 20 to 30, and in the other from 18 to 30. The examinations will take place on January 16. THE following lectures have already been delivered this winter at Manchester, as Science Lectures for the People :-The first on November 3 on "Yeast," by Prof. Huxley; November 10 "Coal Colours," by Prof. Roscoe ; November 16, "The Origin of the English People," by Prof. A. S. Wilkins; November 24, "The Food of Plants," by Prof. Odling; December 1, "The Unconscious Action of the Brain," by Dr. Carpenter. These lectures are always well attended, but since they are all reported and printed at the low price of a penny each, they appeal to a much wider circle than most of a similar character. This is the third year of these Science Lectures. The lectures for this session and those of past years are published by John Heywood, Deansgate, Manchester. JPE THE Pall Mall Gazette states that the approaching 400th anniversary of the birth of Copernicus has revived a contest of long standing between Poland and Germany, each of which claims the great astronomer as a son. The Germans argue that he was a German because he was born in Thorn, which at the time of his birth was under German rule; to which the Poles reply that Thorn was then really a Polish town, having been separated from Poland only seven years before; that his father and mother were Poles; that when he studied at Padua he enrolled himself among the students of the Polish nationality; and that throughout his life he gave constant proofs of his attachment to Poland and her King. Poland has always honoured Copernicus as one of her greatest men. A statue of him was erected by national subscription many years ago at Warsaw, and there are two others at Cracow, besides which numerous Polish medals and books have been issued in celebration of his memory. The anniversary above mentioned will be celebrated on the 19th of February, 1873, and great preparations are already being made at Posen for the occasion. The "Society of the Friends of Learning" in the old Polish city held a meeting the other day, at which it was decided, on the motion of a Polish clergyman, Canon Polkowski, to offer a prize for the best life of Copernicus, comprising the results of the latest investigations on the subject, and to publish it in the Polish, French, and German languages. WITH a view towards the completion of the collection of water colour paintings illustrating the history of that art, Mr. William Smith, Vice-President of the National Portrait Gallery Trustees, has allowed Mr. Redgrave, R.A., the Inspector-General for Art, to select from his choice and valuable collection as many rare specimens as, in Mr. Redgrave's judgment, would illustrate the early period of the art. The works selected by Mr. Redgrave have been presented by Mr. Smith to the nation. IT has been arranged that the new machines for printing, composing, and distributing type, which have been recently perfected at the Times printing office, shall be completely exhibited in working at the London International Exhibition of 1872. The power of rapid production by these several means is probably threefold in advance of any existing modes of printing. The Mail newspaper will be printed three times a week, and if possible the daily supplement of the Times. THE third part of Mr. W. H. Baily's "Figures of Characteristic British Fossils, with Descriptive Remarks," has just been published. Part 4, which will complete the first volume, is in progress; each part consists of ten beautifully-executed plates, and the text is interspersed with many woodcuts. These latter are chiefly of recent forms. The figures are for the most part original, and this little work most worthily fills up a blank in biological literature. FROM the commencement of November till December 12, a period of six weeks, the temperature at London was below the average, with the break of only a single day. The tables forwarded weekly by Mr. Glaisher to the Gardener's Chronicle show the average depression during the whole of that period to have amounted to as much as 65 F. below the mean of the last fifty years, the minimum being on December 8, when the thermometer fell to 18°6, and the temperature of the twenty-four hours was 19°3 below the mean. Throughout France the month of November was very severe, the mean temperature of the month having been lower only four times during the last century. According to statistics presented to the Academy of Sciences by M. Ch. Sainte-Claire Deville, the thermometer fell as low as 11°3 C. (11°7 F.) at Montargis on December 3, while even at Marseilles the remarkably low temperature (for that latitude) of -2°5 C. (27°5 F.) is recorded on November 23. During the present month the frost is stated to have been still more severe in France and Italy, where much snow has fallen at Rome; and the unusual depression appears to have extended to North America. THE Smithsonian' Report, 1869, contains an account of the eruption of the Volcano of Colima in June 1869, by Dr. Charles Sartorius. The height of the volcano is 11,745 feet, and it had re mained in repose since the last eruption in 1818. On June 12, 1869, dense smoke issued from the crater, and violent detonations were heard. On the 13th smoke and stones were ejected from the crater, and a "glowing upheaval" of the surface was seen. It was visited on June 15, when it was found that an upheaval of some 114 feet by 754 feet had taken place, forming a flattened arch. The appearance was that of a wild mass of volcanic redhot rocks heaped one upon another, and constantly in motion, not unlike freshly-burned lime when sprinkled with water. rocks which rolled down were, on cooling, of a grey colour. A piece broken off rang like glass, and was vitreous and porous. The |