June 8, 191 1] 



NATURE 



49: 



an inverse variation in the amount of cerebro-spinal fluid 

 present; and that the dura r.ijter does not vary in pro- 

 portionate volume with increasiog age, but remains con- 

 stant with a volume from about 4-5 to 5-5 per cent. 



I\ The Malaya Medical Journal for April (vol. ix., 

 part ii.) Mr. E. D. Whittle directs attention to what is 

 undoubtedly a description of sleeping sickness published in 

 172 1. It is by a surgeon of the Royal Navy named John 

 Atkins, who in that year sailed to the Guinea coast, and 

 subsequently published a book, "The Navy Surgeon," in 

 1732, which in an appendix contains a chapter on " the 

 sleepy distemper." This is probably the earliest account 

 of the disease that has yet been found. 



In the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for April 

 (xxii.. No. 241), Drs. Margaret and Warren Lewis record 

 experiments on the growth of embryonic chick tissues in 

 artificial media. The medium which gave the best results 

 consisted of a mixture of Ringer's saline solution with a 

 little agar and bouillon. In this a fragment of liver from 

 a nine-day-old chick embryo enlarged to four times the 

 original size in forty-eight hours, and the cells of the tissue 

 radiated and migrated into the media and showed all 

 forms of mitotic figures. 



In a lecture delivered to the Manchester Clinical Society 

 on the life-history function and inflammation of the 

 appendix (and now issued in book form), Mr. E. Comer 

 points out that appendicitis first became frequent in 

 America at a time more or 'less contemporaneous with the 

 preparation of flour in steel roller mills ; in England the 

 disease approximately dates from the introduction of this 

 milled American flour, and among the blacks in America 

 it similarly appeared when the milled flour became so cheap 

 that it was simpler for them to buy their bread than to 

 take the trouble to prepare their own. It is a curious 

 coincidence if nothing more. 



In a circular (No. no) issued by the United States 

 Department of Agriculture on food customs and diet in 

 American homes, the author. Dr. Langworthy, points out 

 how frequently erroneous statements regarding food and 

 diet are made. Thus it is commonly said that the Chinese 

 and other Oriental races live on a few handfuls of rice 

 a day. Actually, rice with them takes the place of wheat 

 with us as the chief source of starchy food, and is largely 

 supplemented with other Tood-stuffs. Likewise, if due 

 allowance be made for dilTerence of body- weight, the 

 American professional and business men and Japanese of 

 similar employment consume a diet very similar in amount 

 of protein and number of calories of available energy. 



In No. 1828 (vol. xl., pp. 429-33) of the Proceedings of 

 U.S. National Museum Mr. R. L. Moodie describes a 

 third specimen of a salamander {Eumicrerpeton parviim) 

 from the Carboniferous of Illinois in which the intestinal 

 tract is preserved. The new specimen is larger and more 

 developed than either of the other two. All three appear to 

 be females, and not one shows any traces of branchia;. 

 In the new specimen tlic intestine is longer and mor<! con- 

 voluted than in the others, lying in five longitudinal folds 

 and ending in a cloaca, near which are impressions of two 

 glands, provisionally regarded as the terminations of ovi- 

 ducts. Eumicrerpeton is a member of the Branchiosauria. 

 Mr. Moodie also describes a microsaurian from the same 

 formation, referred to the genus Amphibamus, as 

 A. thoracatus. 



A Nori: on the flowering of Davidia invoJucrata in 

 Messrs. J. Veitch's Coombe Wood nursery, conmiunicated 



NO. 2 17 1, VOL. 86] 



by Mr. W. J. Bean to The Gardener's Chronicle (May 27), 

 supplies some details regarding this unique monotypic 

 genus, which is placed in the same family with Nyssa, 

 but is not very closely related. The solitary pendulous 

 flower, produced terminally on the branch, has two showy 

 white bracts which subtend a conical receptacle bearing 

 numerous stamens; arising out of the centre of the 

 receptacle is an egg-shaped ovary surmounted by a few 

 apparently barren stamens and several stigmas. The tree 

 now flowering was raised from seed ten years ago, and 

 has meantime reached a height of 14 feet ; root pruning 

 in the winter of 1909 may have induced premature 

 flowering. 



A MEMORANDUM compiled by Mr. F. Booth-Tucker with 

 the object of promoting the more extensive planting of 

 Eucalyptus trees in India has been issued as Bulletin No. 21 

 of the Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa. Failure in 

 the past being attributed to the selection of unsuitable 

 species, the chief object is to provide a list of suitable 

 species and to indicate the conditions required individually. 

 The species amygdalina is strongly recommended, both on 

 account of its hardy nature and also for its economic value ; 

 globulus, the blue gum, requires a tolerably even climate 

 such as that of the Nilgiris ; marginata, jarrah, is only 

 suitable for humid regions near the coast ; goniocalyx is 

 recommended for general forest cultivation. 



In connection with the dispersal of fruits and seeds b> 

 ocean currents, the example most commonly quoted is thai 

 of the coconut, and the coconut palms growing on 

 Krakatau since the eruption are attributed to this agency. 

 This opinion has been previously combated by Dr. O. F. 

 Cook, and he returns to the same charge in a recent 

 number of the Contributions from the United States 

 National Herbarium (vol. xiv., part ii.). His evidence is 

 first directed towards refuting de Candolle's views pointing 

 to the original home of the plant in the Old World, and 

 controverting arguments, amongst others, are taken from 

 a manuscript published in 1625, and the description by Cieza 

 de Leon in the sixteenth century. Then, proceeding from 

 the fact that all other species of Cocos and all species 

 of closely allied genera are natives of South America, the 

 author submits the argument that the coconut palm is a 

 native of inland temperate plateau regions in South 

 America, for which contention notes and illustrations are 

 supplied of coconut palms growing in inland districts in 

 (iuateniala. 



Geographical distribution and morphological modifica- 

 tions developed in species of Pelargonium form tlic subject 

 of a pnjxr by Dr. R. Knuth published in Engler's 

 liotauis( he Jahrbiichcr (Beiblatt No. 103). The genus, 

 comprising about 250 species, is almost entirely confined 

 to Africa, where the chief centre of distribution lies in the 

 extreme south-west. Annuals are few in number and con- 

 fined to one .section ; they are characterised by having a 

 short .spur. Modifications are most pronounced in the 

 perennials, and are niostly of a xerophytic nature. A 

 siring of tuberous thickenings — starch storing — are 

 occasionally formed on the underground stem, and in 

 Pelargonium moniliforme several such nodosities lie one 

 above the other. In P. squamulosum an apparent collar 

 is produced by the shrinkage of the cortex. In other cases 

 the thickening occurs on the lower aerial portion of the 

 stem, as in the section Otidea, and serves for water 

 storage. Woody development of the pi-rioirs hnromf s most 

 evident when the blade falls away sts 



as a spine, as in P. spinosum. 



