NOTES 4S7 



In the Zoological Laboratory, Trinity College, Dublin, a special depart- 

 ment has been created for the study of diseases of bees. The diagnosis and 

 field work is in the hands of Lieut. -Col. C. Samman, and investigation on 

 the embryology and pathology is being undertaken by Prof. J. Bronte 

 Gatenby. 



In the presidential address of E. J. Allen to Section D of the British 

 Association at Hull, mention is made of an extraordinary fact with regard 

 to synthetic sea-water. Such sea-water will not allow the growth of various 

 low marine organisms unless a small quantity of natural sea- water is added. 

 The exact significance of this is difi&cult to ascertain, but in it there may be 

 the nucleus of a great discovery. 



In another part of this journal we have printed a review of Prof. John- 

 stone's book entitled The Mechanism of Life. It is a book something apart 

 from the course of ordinary zoology, and our review has been made by Mr. 

 R. A. P. Rogers, a mathematician and philosopher (page 499). 



We have received from the Director of the Zoological Survey of India 

 a further instalment of the capital Records and Memoirs of the Indian Museum. 

 There is an interesting paper on the " Fauna of an Island in the Chilka Lake." 

 There are also a number of important entomological papers ; Dr. Annandale 

 continues his contributions on the fresh-water molluscs of the Indian 

 Empire. In another volume of the Records, Dr. Stanley Kemp has given a 

 large number of notes on the Crustacea Decapoda in the Indian Museum, 

 while Seymour Sewell and Annandale have published a paper on the 

 hydrography and fauna of Rambha Bay, which forms the south-western 

 extremity of Chilka lake. 



In the Ohio Journal of Science Stephen R. Williams, of the Department 

 of Zoology, Miami University, gives some interesting details of the un- 

 hindered growth of the incisor teeth of the Woodchuck. 



The left lower incisor grew in a regular curve up to the eye, ploughed 

 through the eye, and blinded it. It can be seen that the direction of growth 

 was changed into a section of a larger circle as the end of the tooth slid 

 backward along the frontal bone. The continuous curving growth of the 

 tooth was not to be resisted by bone, however, and so the point of the tooth 

 perforated the skull a short distance behind the eye socket, and is said by the 

 preparator to have penetrated the brain also. 



This perforation of the skull and brain must have been some time before 

 the animal's death, for the last visible part of the tooth is sheathed with a 

 connective-tissue envelope probably continuous with the periosteum of the 

 skull through which the tooth passed. How far into the brain the tooth 

 penetrated can never be determined. The whole socket of the eye was a 

 suppurating mass when the animal was killed. 



How did the animal get any nourishment at all ? The bodies of the 

 upper and lower incisors fixed side by side seem to make entrance of food 

 into the mouth absolutely impossible. At all events, it is quite certain 

 that the animal was unable to hibernate because it had not accumulated 

 enough fat for that purpose. 



Among the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. vii, Alexander 

 Wetmore has published a paper on the body temperature of birds. As 

 in the case of most mammals, the temperature of the female bird was found 

 to be slightly higher than that of the male of the same species. This appUed 

 throughout with only few exceptions — for example, in the case of the great 

 blue heron, the male was one degree higher in temperature. Both the 

 mammals and the birds possess a heat-regulating mechanism for keeping the 

 body temperature constant. The author does not seem to have entered into 

 the physiological basis of this mechanism, though even in the case of the 

 mammals a knowledge of this subject is far from being on a satisfactory basis. 



With reference to the diurnal rhythm of body temperature which has 



30 



