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In the October number of the Astrophysical Jour nal, Herr A. Nippoldt, of the Potsdam Magnetic Ob servatory, criticised a recent paper t)y Father Cortie on "The Solar Prominences and Terrestrial Magnet ism." The latter had endeavored to show that the eclipse spot group of 1901, if it may be so called, by far the largest spot group of the year, had no effect upon terrestrial magnetism. Herr Nippoldt claims that a small but evident disturbance did take place during the passage of the spot. He is also emphatic that we have no right to assume that no disturbance has taken place unless magnetic stations near the pole have exhibited no deviations from their normal curve. He insists that there should be no kind of statistical definition of the idea of disturbance, that the maxi mum amplitude can hardly be usable to decide wheth er or not a curve is disturbed, and that we may repre-sent the nature of the effect of the solar action upon terrestrial magnetism as a sort of relay action--"the strength of the releasing solar activity need not have a definite relation to the strength of the magnetic storm." He therefore desires to substitute for the statistical method the investigation in detail. Berlin, says Knowledge, possesses a successor to the late lamented chimpanzee Consul, in the shape of Con sul II., of which the following account has been pub lished: Recently Consul II. appeared before a meeting of the German Psychological Society, and was the sub ject of a lecture by the eminent psychologist. Prof. HirschlafE. The ape stood on the platform beside the lecturer in a smoking jacket, top hat, black trousers, boots, and shirt. Prof. Hirschlaff gave Consul an ex cellent character. He has good manners, is of a friend ly disposition, and manifests symptoms of what would be called in human beings a loving nature. He has no objection to the vicinity of dogs, cats, or snakes, but is afraid of horses. No traces are seen in Consul of any special liking for women and soldiers. Like most apes ho delights in children, but evinces an abhorrence of dolls, of which he can make nothing, r,.nd retires van quished from their presence. If Consul is tickled he sometimes shrieks with laughter. When punished he acts like a child, holding his hands before hid face. If discovered at anything he is forbidden to do he as sumes hypocritically an innocent demeanor, which is distinctly human. He is restless, and cannot sit long in one position. With an excellent memory, he is yet incapable of expressing his wants either by gestures or sounds. He cannot be taught to whistle, nor does he understand human speech. All he can comprehend is the tone of a voice or the rhythm of words; and he can not be taught to reckon. Although Prof. Hirschlaff said that the psychological abilities of Consul are sepa rated from those of human beings by a wide gulf, it' is interesting to note how many complicated actions he can comprehend with the intellectual powers he pos sesses. The description ( in the Annals and Magazine of Nat ural History) of a new species of those strange worm like burrowing amphibians generally known as c cil-ians, but which may be better designated in popular zoology as snake-salamanders, would scarcely seem at first a subject for notice in this column; but, as a mat ter of fact, this particular case has a very wide and important interest. The species in question, which comes from Kacher district of Assam, is described by Major Alcock under the name of Herpele fuUeri; and it is in regard to the peculiar geographical distri bution of the genus that the interest of the new dis covery lies. With the addition of the new species, the genus Herpele is represented in India, Panama, and West Africa; and, as Major Alcock remarks, such a dis tribution in the case of a worm-like burrowing group appears altogether inexplicable on the theory that con tinents and ocean-basins are permanent, or, indeed, anything like permanent. On the other hand, the dis-tribution of Herpele, together with that of certain sub-littoral hermit-crabs, which is curiously similar, affords strong support to the now, generally accepted view that India and Africa were connected by land at a compara-tively recent, epoch of the earth's history (that is to say, within the lifetime of an existing highly special ized genus)'. The two insi;ances also add. one more link to the chain of zoological eyijlelice which apparently points to a former land connection between Africa and South America across the Atlantic. The Indo-African connection, which is, supported by geological as well as by zoological evidence, would explain the presence of c cilians in the. Seychelles as well as. the absence of the above-mentioned littoral hermit-crabs from the east coast of Africa. The alternative view to the trans-Atlantic connection between West Africa and America (apart from one by way of the Pacific) would be that these snake-salamanders traveled from a common northern home down the Eastern and Western Hemi spheres, but this seems almost incredible.
