March 2, 191 1] 



NATURE 



21 



the water. A second similar experiment gave corroborative 

 results. In addition, Dr. Houston on several occasions 

 drank half a pint of the water after the twenty-third day 

 without ill effect ! In another experiment water was 

 inoculated with the typhoid bacillus derived from the same 

 source, but cultivated for several generations on artificial 

 media. The organism in this case was isolated up to the 

 sixth week after inoculation into the water. The con- 

 clusion, therefore, is that " uncultivated " typhoid bacilli 

 rapidly perish in raw river water, and that even a week's 

 storage of raw river water is an enormous protection 

 against typhoid infection from such a source. 



In the Museums Journal for January Dr. R. F. Scharff, 

 of the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, describes a 

 dry system of macerating bones for use as exhibits. 

 Formerly this was effected in water tanks, which proved 

 so offensive on sanitary grounds that it was necessary to 

 discontinue their use. Dr. Scharff has now discovered that 

 the object can be satisfactorily attained by covering the 

 bones with dry sea-sand, the bacteria almost wholly per- 

 forming the work of maceration. Small skeletons are 

 enclosed in boxes filled with sand, and the task of re- 

 arranging the bones when they are clean is thus greatly 

 facilitated. 



In Novitates Zoologicae for December, 1910, vol. xvii., 

 p. 445, pis. viii., ix., the Hon. Walter Rothschild gives 

 coloured plates of the sea-elephants of Guadaloupe Island 

 and the Falklands. The former is identified with the 

 typical Juan Fernandez sea-elephant described by Linnaeus 

 as Phoca Jeonina, which appears to make periodical migra- 

 tions from that island to Guadaloupe and back. Despite 

 the much greater length of the proboscis in the males of 

 the Juan Fernandez as compared with the Falkland animal, 

 the author points out that other forms indicate a transi- 

 tion in this respect between the extremes, and he therefore 

 proposes to regard all the local forms as races of a single 

 species. This is, perhaps, the most satisfactory con- 

 clusion of a problem which has given rise to a considerable 

 amount of discussion and confusion. 



The former existence of one imported giant land tortoise 

 in Ceylon has long been known to naturalists, but it is 

 remarkable that it should have been left to a casual corre- 

 spondent of an English journal to supply evidence of the 

 occurrence of a second. The first specimen, according to 

 a letter from Mr. Pearson, director of the Colombo 

 Museum, in SpoUa Zeylanica for December, 19 10, was 

 found in Colombo when Ceylon was first occupied by the 

 British in 1796. It was then living in the grounds of a 

 villa called Uplands, in Mutwall, near Colombo ; in 1894 

 it was removed to the Victoria Park, where it survived 

 only a week. It is now preserved in the Colombo Museum, 

 and is identified by Mr. Pearson with Testudo gigantea 

 of Aldabra. The length of the shell is 40 inches. In 

 Country Life of July 9, 19 10, appeared a photograph of a 

 giant tortoise living at Matara, near Galle, taken by Mr. 

 Stanley Mylius, which is reproduced by Mr. Lydekker in 

 an article on giant tortoises in Science Progress for 

 October, 1910. That specimen, which is referred to 

 T, gigantea, the author thought might be distinct from 

 the Colombo tortoise, and that it is so is indicated at the 

 close of Mr. Pearson's letter. In Mr. Lydekker 's article 

 the length of the shell is given as 53^ inches, and it may 

 be that this refers to the Matara specimen, in regard to 

 which Mr. Pearson hopes to obtain further information. 



Recent observations by Prof. S. O. Mast (Journ. Exper. 

 Zaol., vol. ix., No. 2) on the reactions of Amoeba proteus 

 NO. 2157, VOL. 86] 



to light show that a sudden and sharp increase of light 

 intensity causes retardation or cessation of movement ; if 

 the intensity be maintained constant for a few moments, 

 the movements of the Amoeba begin again. A gradual 

 increase in intensity produces no response, so that the 

 reaction to light depends primarily on the rate of change- 

 of intensity. Blue rays (430-490 fji/j.) are nearly as efficient 

 as white light in producing reactions, but violet, green, 

 yellow, and red produce only slight effects. The author 

 suggests that, as other organisms respond most definitely 

 to light of other colours — violet, green, yellow, or red — it 

 is probable that different photo-chemical changes are 

 associated with the reactions to light in different 

 organisms. Prof. Mast has given, in the Psychological 

 Bulletin, vol. vii., pp. 267-80, an abstract of literature, of 

 the year 1909, on the behaviour of lower organisms, in- 

 cluding a summary of the discussion on the subject of 

 tropisms by Messrs. Bohn, Loeb, Jennings, and Darwin 

 at the International Congress of Psychology, held at 

 Geneva. 



The Zentralblatt fiir Physiologie (Bd. xxiv.. No. 17) is 

 almost entirely occupied by an excellent summary, extend- 

 ing over fifty-two closely printed pages, of the numerous 

 papers read before the eighth International Congress of 

 Physiologists, held at Vienna on September 27-30 last. 

 The number also contains three short original contribu- 

 tions. In the first of these Fr. Kutscher gives the results- 

 of his examination of the aqueous extract of mushrooms^ 

 which he found to contain arginin, choHn, betain, and a 

 hitherto unknown base, the formula of which is similar to 

 that of histidin, with the addition of three methyl groups ; 

 but the organic bases form only a very small portion of 

 the extract, the physiological action of which depends on 

 other substances present. T. Kinoshita concludes, after a 

 series of analyses, that normal, fresh human urine con- 

 tains only a trace of trimethylamine, but, on standing, this- 

 substance is formed during some fermentative process. 

 E. Berlin describes a new synthesis of 7-homocholin, start- 

 ing from )3-aminopropylalcohol. Issued with this part of 

 the Zentralblatt is a further portion (pp. 177-317) of the 

 Bibliographia Physiologica (third series, vol. v., Nos. 3, 4), 

 prepared by the Concilium Bibliographicum in Zurich, 

 which, with the two preceding parts, contains the titles of 

 papers published in 1909. These are arranged in the usual 

 sections, according to the subjects of which they treat, and 

 there is, at the end, an author-index to the contents of 

 the whole volume. 



To the Transactions and Proceedings of the Perthshire 

 Society of Natural Science for 1909-10 (vol. v., part ii.) 

 Mr. R. Dow contributes a life of David Douglas, of 

 Scone, who introduced into Great Britain no fewer than 

 seven species of American conifers, among which Abietia 

 Douglasi, although originally discovered in Nutka Sound 

 during Vancouver's voyage round the world, was named in 

 his honour. Douglas was born at Old Scone in 1799, 

 and, after being employed at the Glasgow Botanical 

 Gardens, started in 1824 on a botanical expedition to the 

 banks of the Columbia River and the neighbouring dis- 

 tricts. Thence he travelled southwards to California in 

 183 1, and two years later left America for the Sandwich 

 Islands, where he died, as the result of an accident, ir» 

 1834. In 1847 a monument was erected to his memory 

 by public subscription in Scone churchyard. Although 

 they were not introduced into Great Britain until con- 

 siderably later. Sequoia sempervirens and S. gigantea (the 

 so-called Wellingtonia) were practically discovered by 

 Douglas, the notices of them by Archibald Menzies in 1795 

 and 1796 being very imperfect. 



