652 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



A valuable paper by Dr. A. D. Imms (Transactions of the Royal Society 

 B. 361, 1919), has just come into our hands. The writer of this interesting 

 paper has studied the biology of Archotermopsis, one of the most primitive 

 of living Termites. Dr. Imms believes that polymorphism is not adequately 

 explained as being the direct or indirect effect of special nutrition. 



In the latest numbers of the Transactions of the Royal Society, Dr. D. M. S. 

 Watson has published several of his analyses of the origin and evolutionary 

 changes of certain groups of fossil vertebrate animals. These papers will 

 form a valuable contribution to our knowledge of Vertebrate Palaeontology. 



We acknowledge the receipt of six parts of the Memoirs of the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal, containing the " Zoological Results of a Tour in the Far 

 East," edited by Dr. N. Annadale, F.A.S.B. The main object of Dr. Anna- 

 dale's tour was to obtain material for comparison with the fauna of Indian 

 fresh-water lakes and lagoons ; Japan, the Kiang-su Province of China, and 

 the Malay Peninsula were visited. Great activity has been exhibited by 

 Dr. Annadale and his associates in the working out of the material procured. 

 Lake Biwa in Japan, as might be expected from its geographical position, 

 seems to be (so far as the Mollusca are concerned) the meeting-place of two 

 lines of migration, one from the North, the other from the South. The 

 Oligochaeta have been treated by Prof. Stevenson, Hirudinea by Dr. A. 

 Oka, of Tokyo ; three of the Hirudinea were of special interest, one (Ancyrob- 

 della biwx) is a curious Glossiphonid, much resembling an Ichthyobdellid in 

 external appearance. Annadale's work on the molluscan fauna of Tai-Hu, 

 or Great Lake (Kiang-su), is of much interest. The Mollusca found are peculiar 

 for the fact that they are small in size, and have a strong estuarine element 

 in their composition. Other parts of these volumes have been taken by 

 Dr. Prashad (Echiuroids), Dr. Chopard (Orthoptera), Dr. Kemp (Crustacea), 

 Dr. Annadale (Sponges), and Sir Ch. Eliot (Mollusca, Nudibranchiata), etc. 

 We believe that Dr. Annadale's expedition has been very useful and successful. 



As is well known, before the war, British optical firms imported most 

 of their glass from Germany. The declaration of war on August 4 threw 

 our optical manufacturers on their own resources, and we owed our success 

 in the making of optical glass largely to the enterprise of Messrs. Chance 

 Bros., of Birmingham. The end of the war now brings new conditions ; 

 optical glass is no longer needed in large quantities, and as the amount of 

 optical glass in any one instrument is quite small, it is doubtful whether it 

 will pay large firms to undertake small meltings and to undertake the neces- 

 sary research. Dr. W. E. S. Turner pointed out at the Symposium of Micro- 

 scopical Societies, which met at the Royal Society on January 14, that the 

 obvious remedy lies in the use of the joint resources of the British Optical 

 Instrument Manufacturers' Research Association, under Sir Herbert Jackson, 

 and of the Department of Glass Technology in the University of Sheffield. 

 We hope that this suggestion of Dr. Turner will be carried into effect. 



We note also that several British firms have undertaken the manufacture 

 of dyes and stains suitable for delicate histological and cytological work. 

 We trust that the heads of our University and other laboratories will note 

 this, and see that every encouragement is given to this new departure. We 

 have ourselves tried some British acid fuchsin, and found it to be perfect 

 even for staining such difficult objects as the Mitochondria 



Dr. Ruggles Gates recently gave a paper at the Linnea** Society entitled, 

 " On the Existence of Two Fundamentally Different Types of Characters 

 in Organisms," which cannot fail to interest those who are concerned in any 

 way with Evolution and Heredity. The point of view resulting from modern 

 work on mutation and Mendelism is frankly antagonistic to the views of 

 palaeontologists and anatomists, and others who deal with orthogenesis and 

 the inheritance of acquired characters. Dr. Gates suggests that higher 

 organisms exhibit two contrasted types of characters, which differ funda- 



