448 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



on ionising and radiating potentials. The monograph forms a most admirable 

 survey of the subject, and can be obtained from the National Research Council, 

 Washington, D.C., price $i. The other Bulletin is interesting as presenting 

 the evidence relating to modern views of the size of our galactic system. 

 Dr. Curtis still maintains the dimensions assigned some twenty years ago by 

 Newcomb and others, i.e. that the diameter is probably not more than 30,000 

 light years and the thickness not more than 5,000 light years, while Dr. 

 Shapley considers that these numbers should be 300,000 and 30,000 respec- 

 tively. Space does not permit of the long abstract which would be necessary 

 to give an equitable summary of the two theses, but the question seems to 

 hinge (i) on a correct estimate of the distance of any one star cluster ; (2) on 

 the nature of the spiral nebulae, since the " island universe " theory of their 

 structure seems to require the smaller estimate of the dimensions of our 

 galactic system. 



Christian Champy, the well-known French histologist, has lately carried 

 out a remarkable experiment on male newts. These were starved in spring 

 at the usual time of most active sperm-formation. Such " starvation- 

 castrated " newts were found to have their testes completely degenerated 

 into a band of fat containing a few indifferent germ-cells. 



When these individuals were fed up next year, they were found to take on 

 the secondary sexual characteristics of the female triton, and their gonads 

 changed into an ovary-like structure containing true ovocytes. 



Intestinal myiasis in man is fairly rare, but a case came under our notice 

 quite recently. A general practitioner brought to the laboratory a number 

 of maggots which had been passed by a child which had suffered from no 

 outward symptoms. These maggots were found to be the larvae of some 

 muscid (probably C. vomitaria). They had probably been introduced into 

 the child's system by its eating maggoty food. The larvae easily withstand 

 the small percentage of HCl in the digestive juices, and after passing from 

 the stomach would become " acclimatised " to the conditions in the intestine. 

 The doctor who found this case said that in thirty years' practice he had 

 never met with a similar occurrence. 



The Report on the Zoological Survey of India for the years 1917-20 has just 

 been issued by Dr. N. Annandale, Director. Those of us who have watched 

 the activities of the Zoological Survey of India, as evinced by the many splendid 

 contributions in the Records of the Indian Museum, have been forced to 

 admire both the efficiency of the Director and his staff and the enthusiasm 

 which must inspire these men. The staff at present consists of Dr. Annan- 

 dale, and Drs. Kemp, Sewell, Chandhuri, and Prachad. 



In October igi8 the Government of India decided to offer to a limited 

 number of distinguished zoologists or anthropologists who had rendered 

 special service to the Zoological and Anthropological Section of the Indian 

 Museum or to the Zoological Survey of India, the title of Honorary Corre- 

 spondent, Zoological Survey of India. The following is a list of the first 

 appointments made : — 



Resident in India 



Dr. J. R. Henderson, CLE., Superintendent, Government Museum, 

 Madras ; Lieutenant-Colonel J. Stephenson, CLE., I.M.S., Principal, Govern- 

 ment College, Lahore ; Mr. T. Southwell, Director of Fisheries, Bengal, 

 Bihar and Orissa. 



Non-Resident 



Lieutenant-Colonel A. W. Alcock, F.R.S., CLE., London School of Tropical 

 Medicine ; Lieutenant-Colonel H. H. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S., Godalming, 

 Surrey ; Mr. J. G. Arrow, British Museum (Nat. Hist.), London ; Mr. H. 

 Balfour, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford ; Dr. G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S,, British 



