November 30, 191 1] 



NATURE 



00 



show that among the issue of consanguineous marriages 

 the death-rate of persons under twenty years old is consider- 

 ably higher than the normal ; (3) the evidence that the 

 marriage of cousins is more likely to lead to albinism, deaf- 

 mutism, and insanity among the offspring appears to be 

 conclusive. 



In No. 42 of Scientific Memoirs by Officers of the 

 ' Medical and Sanitary Departments of the Government of 

 India, Major Rost and Captain Williams contribute the 

 results of their own researches to the much discussed 

 question of the cultivation of the leprosy bacillus. 

 A"^liough this organism has long been known and seen in 

 tissues of lepers, all attempts to grow it had until 

 ntly proved unsuccessful ; and even now considerable 

 Dticism is felt as to the identity of the bacteria isolated 

 h the actual causal agent of the disease. The authors 

 ribe the organism which they obtained from cases of 

 leprosy, and the effect produced on patients by vaccines 

 prepared from it. In No. 41 of the same Scientific 

 Memoirs Captain MacGilchrist considers, as the basis of 

 original experimental work, the suitability of different pre- 

 parations of quinine in medical practice. Attention is paid, 

 in the main, to the solubility and absorbability of the 

 different salts, and the various modes of administering 

 them. 



The thirtieth Bulletin of the Sleeping Sickness Bureau 

 contains an account of the intracellular phase of the rat- 

 trypanosome, Trypanosoma lewisi, in its development in 

 the rat-flea, recently discovered by Minchin and Thomson. 

 This phase was found in fleas from twelve to thirty-six 

 hoiu's after they had fed on the blood of an infected rat, 

 '■' appears to represent the first stage in the develop- 

 ...jutal cycle of the trypanosome in the flea. The trypano- 

 somes .penetrate into epithelial cells of the flea's stomach, 

 p''»\v very large, and divide into a number of trypanosomes 

 normal size. The daughter trypanosomes are usually 

 t .^iit in number. They are formed by division of the 

 parent body within its own periplast ; the flagellum of the 

 parent is retained and moves actively until nearly the last 

 moment, when it disappears, and the body becomes 

 spherical and tense, and bursts suddenly, setting free the 

 daughter trypanosomes in the cytoplasm of the host-cell, 

 whence they find their way out singly into the lumen of 

 the stomach. 



' !:rtain small aurochs' skulls from the diluvial deposits 

 ilelgium are described by Mr. R. v. d. Malsburg as a 

 s.o-ealled new species, under the name of Bos (urus) 

 minutus, in Bull. Internat. Ac. Cracovie, 191 1, No, 5. 

 Unless, however, the term urus be used in a generic sense, 

 it would seem that a subspecies is intended. Under various 

 forms, the author considers this Bos minutus to be the 

 connecting link between the typical aurochs (which is re- 

 garded as the descendant of the Indian B. namadicus) and 

 modern cattle. 



We have to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of a 

 catalogue of the exhibits in the British section of the Inter- 

 national Shooting and Field Sports Exhibition, held at 

 V'ienna last year. The British section, it will be remem- 

 bered, was in the hands of the Government, and the 

 catalogue is therefore issued — after the usual delay — by the 

 official publisher. The book is well got up and well illus- 

 trated, and the section on big game — which forms the 

 bulk — will possess a permanent value as the first attempt 

 (unfortunately incomplete) at a list of the big-gamo. fauna 

 of the British Empire. 



In the Annals of the Transvaal Museum for July, 191 1, 

 Mr. J. Hewitt produces evidence to show that the maxillary 

 bone of the viperine skull is more probably derived from the 

 NO. 2196, VOL. 88] 



corresponding element of the proteroglyphous than ot the 

 opisthoglyphous section of colubrine snakes; in other 

 words, that the Proteroglypha, rather than the Opistho- 

 glypha (to which that position is assigned in the British 

 Museum Catalogue of Snakes), have the stronger claim to 

 be regarded as the ancestral stock of the vipers. The 

 evidence derived from snake-venom seems to lend support to 

 this view. In a second article (in Dutch), Dr. E. C. N. 

 Hoepen describes a new generic and specific type of stego- 

 cephalian from the presumably Permian strata of Senekal, 



j Orange River Colony, under the name of Myriodon 



I senekalensis. 



I To Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift for November 5 

 j Dr. Otto Wilckens contributes an article on the extinction 

 j of animal groups during geological history, in which special 

 j attention is directed to ammonites, dinosaurs, and trilo- 

 bites. Whether these groups — like the ammonites at the 

 j close of the Cretaceous — became completely wiped out by 

 some general cause (e.g. over-specialisation), or whether, 

 as Dr. Steinmann believes, they developed into new forms, 

 is a question which is argued at some length. In the case 

 of the ammonites the author is apparently inclined to favour 

 the view that they may have become modified into Argo- 

 nauta and the other octopods, although he rejects Stein- 

 mann 's theory that dinosaurs developed into great flightless 

 birds, that were exterminated by men, or that the " enalio- 

 saurians " gave rise to whales and dolphins and ptero- 

 dactyles to bats. 



To The American Naturalist for November Mr. H. A. 

 Allard contributes the second part of his account of the 

 behaviour of bees when visiting the blossoms of cotton- 

 plants. These bees were, of course, usually in the habit 

 of visiting the ordinary American cottons, the flowers of 

 these being furnished with certain nectaries which are 

 absent in Asiatic cottons. When the insects came to fields 

 where American and Asiatic cottons were growing side by 

 side, they visited both indiscriminately, but when they 

 alighted on Asiatic flowers they quickly perceived their 

 error, and departed. " These visits of the bees to the 

 outer basal portion of the Asiatic cotton-blossoms indicate 

 that the visual powers alone were employed throughout 

 the process." On the other hand, it is considered probable 

 that bees ascertain the whereabouts of cotton fields by their 

 sense of smell, a large area of cotton in flower giving off 

 a distinct odour on a fine day. 



The Tertiary giraffes of India form the subject of a 

 monograph by Mr. Guy Pilgrim, published in the Palaeonto- 

 logia Indica (new series, vol. iv.. No. i). Years ago Mr. 

 Lydekker, in face of the opposition of the late Piof. 

 Rutimoyer, asserted that Sivatherium and its allies wcm' 

 undoubtedly giraffoids. Now that his views are definitely 

 accepted, the list of Siwalik representatives of the group is 

 a long one ; and Mr. Pilgrim has done well in bringing the 

 available information up to date. Following the moderii 

 fashion, he divides the Siwalik species into brachycephalic 

 and dolichocephalic types ; and he has likewise been enabled 

 to throw considerable light on the respective geological 

 horizons of the various forms. The most generalised 

 Siwalik representatives of the group are described by the 

 ■ nifiir.,- under the name Progiraffa, but as one of them was, 

 ime, called Propakeomeryx by Mr. Lydekker, the 

 ;,,,L.. designation is clearly entitled to stand. Whether it 

 be in error or by design that some of the lower jaws are 

 figured with the teeth pointing downwards, the effect is 

 decidedly bad. 



The identification of the mosses collected on the Scottish 

 Antarctic expedition having been entrusted to M. Jules 

 Cardot, his report, received in separate form, is published 



