102 NOTES AND COMMENTS [February 



gated by Dr. Cornet of Mods and Professor Stainier. There will also 

 be special monographs descriptive of different districts of the territory. 

 The first instalment of this great and important work has just 

 appeared, and further issues are promised at intervals of about three 

 months. The part now before us is the first fasciculus of Bou- 

 lenger's description of the fishes of the Congo, a handsome quarto with 

 nine plates, most of them folded and representing the animals of the 

 natural size. The extraordinary fishes of the family Mormyridae are 

 here treated with a wealth of illustration hitherto unattained, greatly 

 extending our knowledge both of genera and species. No less than 

 three genera and nineteen species are added to those already known. 

 These fishes seem to seek their food either in mud or in crevices 

 between rocks (unfortunately Mr. Boulenger gives us no information 

 as to the circumstances of life of any of them) ; hence they exhibit 

 most remarkable modifications of the curved and elongated rostrum 

 which bears the small mouth at the tip. The preliminary labelling of 

 these strange animals having been accomplished, biologists will now 

 await with great interest some scientific observations on the phenomena 

 they present for study. The other fasciculus published is botanical. 



The Evolution of Immunity. 



According to Dr. Albert Eeibmayr, it is one of the functions of the 

 physician to exorcise the evil spirits of anxiety and pessimism, and 

 this is the aim of his last pamphlet, " Die Immunisirung der Familien," 

 Leipzig unci Wien, 1899. It is " ein Wort zur Beruhigung," a 

 protest against " ghosts." His argument is not a novel one, but it is 

 powerfully stated. It is this. Morbid conditions and tendencies are 

 inherited, but relative immunity is also inherited, and the struggle is 

 between them. In the course of natural selection, keenest during the 

 early years of life, the less immune tend to be eliminated, and the 

 standard is thus raised. But in this struggle the most momentous 

 factor is in the external conditions of function and environment, for 

 if these favour the morbid inheritance the organism has to fight a 

 battle with two fronts which is seldom hopeful. The families which 

 lay themselves open to this double struggle tend to be eliminated, 

 especially on the male side, for the females, who often live a more 

 natural life, and are more enduring, may keep up the strain of immu- 

 nity. It may be recalled that in Ehrlich's experiments on immunity 

 to ricin poisoning in mice, it was only through the females that 

 any hint of inherited (?) immunity was detected, the relative large size 

 of the ovum, with its affectable non-idioplasmic material, having perhaps 

 to do with this. 



It may be said, then, that there are two main prophylactic pro- 

 cesses — (a) the increase of constitutional immunity in the course of 



