January ii, 191 2] 



NATURE 



;55 



0/ executive committee. Sir Alfred Pearce Gould, 

 K.C.V.O. ; honorary general secretary. Dr. \V. P. Herring- 

 ham. Tlie presidents of sections are as follows : — 

 (i) Anatomy and embryology, Prof. Arthur Thomson, 

 (ii) Physiology, Prof. E. A. Schafer, F.R.S. (iii) General 

 pathology and pathological anatomy, Mr. S. G. Shattock ; 

 .Subsection, chemical pathology. Dr. F. Govvland Hopkins, 

 F.R.S. (iv) Bacteriology and immunity. Prof. G. Sims 

 VVoodhead. (v) Therapeutics (pharmacology, physio- 

 therapy, balneology), Sir Lauder Brunton, Bt., F.R.S. 

 (vi) Medicine, Sir William Osier, Bt., F.R.S. (vii) 

 Surgery, Sir William Watson Cheyne, Bt., C.B., F.R.S. ; 

 Subsection A, orthopaedics, Mr. Robert Jones ; Subsection 

 B, anaesthesia, general and local. Dr. Dudley W. Buxton, 

 (viii) Obstetrics and gynaecology, Sir Francis H. Champ- 

 neys, Bt. (ix) Ophthalmology, Sir Henry Swanzy. (x) 

 Diseases of children, Dr. Eustace Smith. (xi) Neuro- 

 pathology, Sir David Ferrier, F.R.S. (xii) Psychiatry, 

 Sir James Crichton-Browne, F.R.S. (xiii) Dermatology 

 and syphilography. Sir Malcolm Morris, K.C.V.O. (xiv) 

 Urology, Prof. E. Hurry Fenwick. (xv) Rhinology and 

 laryngology. Prof. St. Clair Thomson, (xvi) Otology, Mr. 

 Arthur Cheatle. (xvii) Stomatology, Mr. Morton A. 

 Smale. (xviii) Hygiene and preventive medicine. Dr. 

 Arthur Newsholme. (xix) Forensic medicine. Prof. Harvey 

 Littlejohn. (xx) Na%-al and military medicine, Sir James 

 Porter, Bt., K.C.B. (.xxi) Tropical medicine. Sir 

 David Bruce, C.B., F.R.S. (xxii) Radiology, Sir J. 

 Mackenzie Davidson. 



To the current issue of The Popular Science Monthly 

 Prof. W. E. Ritter, scientific director of the San Diego 

 Marine Biological Station, contributes an article deahng 

 with the duties to the public of research institutes in pure 

 science. He urges that an institution of pure science 

 should be one the primary aim of which is to extend the 

 bounds of man's knowledge of nature in a specified field, 

 and to show something of the significance of the new 

 knowledge for the higher life of mankind. Not only, he 

 insists, must research institutes add to knowledge, but 

 they must show " in language comprehensible to the gener- 

 ally but non-technically educated members of the com- 

 munity something of the meaning of this knowledge for 

 human beings in both the physical and the spiritual 

 aspects of their natures." Prof. Ritter's view is that re- 

 search institutions, as institutions, ought to hold them- 

 selves obliged, from time to time, to give out in a form 

 readily accessible to and comprehensible by the rank and 

 file the results of their most significant achievements. So 

 far as work accomplished in biology is concerned, this 

 popular instruction, it is urged, should be given by pro- 

 fessed biologists constantly occupied with the first-hand 

 gathering of data, with the making and testing of hypo- 

 theses, and with the submitting of results to fellow-workers 

 for criticism and verification. 



Is "A l-'irst Study of Inheritance in Epilepsy" 

 (Eugenics Record Office, Bulletin No. 4, Cold Spring 

 Harbor, N.Y., November, 191 1) Prof. Davenport and Dr. 

 David Weeks discuss an important collection of material 

 bearing on this point. The data consist of the pedigrees 

 of inmates of the New Jersey State Village for Epileptics 

 at Skillman, N.J., obtained at the cost of much care and 

 labour by visiting the homes of the patients and interview- 

 ing their parents or other relatives and physicians. The 

 authors conclude that epilepsy and feeble-mindedness 

 behave as Mendelian recessive characters, and state : " it 

 appears, consequently, that when both parents are epileptic, 

 both feeble-minded, or one epileptic and the other feeble- 

 NO. 2202, VOL. 88] 



minded, all the offspring will be either epileptic or feeble- 

 minded." We note, however, that in a table facing the 

 page on which this statement is made a mating is recorded 

 in which the two children of a feeble-minded father and an 

 epileptic mother are both normal. Another conclusion is 

 worthy of special reference, namely, that " provided 

 marriage matings continue as at present and no additional 

 restraint is imposed, the proportion of epileptics in New 

 Jersey would double every thirty years." 



To the Journal of the Ipswich Field Club for October. 

 191 1, Mr. Alfred Bell contributes an article on the zones 

 of the East Anglian Crags, in the course of which a 

 number of the molluscs are described as new. The Coral- 

 line Crag is divided into a Gedgravian and a Boytonian 

 zone, of which the latter forms a transition into the over- 

 lying Waltonian of the Red Crag. Lists of the faunas of 

 the Boytonian zone and of the so-called box-stones ar.' 

 given. The author disputes the opinion that the majoritv 

 of the mammalian remains are older than the Crag itself, 

 but considers that the cetacean remains, more especialh 

 those of beaked whales, form an exception in this respect. 

 It is difficult to see the force of this, as all the Crag 

 cetaceans are essentially of a modern type. 



When the modern type of shorthorn cattle was produced 

 by careful crossing and selection, no attention was paid to 

 the superficial character of colour, so that in this respect 

 the breed is mongrel, and in consequence it is a general 

 belief that the colour of the progeny of any particular pair 

 cannot be predicted with anything approaching certainty. 

 Consequently, the inheritance of coat-colour among short- 

 horns forms a problem of great difficulty. It has, how- 

 ever, been taken up by Mr. H. H. Laughlin, of the 

 Carnegie Experimental Evolution Station at Cold Spring 

 Harbour, and the results of his investigations are pub- 

 lished in The American Naturalist for December, 191 1 

 (vol. xlv., p. 405). These are so complex that it is 

 impossible to give a summary within the limits of our 

 space, although it may be noted that when white short- 

 horns are crossed with white park-cattle the calves are in- 

 variably white. This indicates that the white of park- 

 cattle — although by no means all white — is dominant, park- 

 cattle having, it is believed, formed part of the stock from 

 which the modern shorthorn was evolved. 



The extermination of the big-game fauna of German 

 East Africa forms the leading theme in Naturwissenschaft- 

 liche Wochenschrift for December 17, 191 1, Prof. Fritz 

 Behn, who has recently returned from a journey in that 

 province, devoting the whole of a long article to this sub- 

 ject, and Prof. C. G. Schillings supporting his arguments 

 from his own experience. The subject is also touched 

 upon in a third article, by Dr. F. Doflein, on sport and 

 science in the German colonies, where emphasis is laid 

 on the remarkable fact that the prolonged British occupa- 

 tion of India has not resulted in the extermination of .-x 

 single indigenous species of animal. The rapidity with 

 which the big-game fauna of German East .Africa is beinj^ 

 wiped out presents a marked contrast to the condition^ 

 obtaining in the adjacent British Protectorate, where the 

 establishment of game-reserves, the restrictions in regard 

 to the number of animals shot by sportsmen, and the pro- 

 hibition of the export of undersized ivory, horns, and skins 

 work wonders. In the German Protectorate the work of 

 destruction is mainly carried on by Boers and professional 

 hunters, and not by the casual sportsman. Unless steps 

 are taken promptly to check the slaughter, there will ere . 

 long be no game to protect. 



