February 8, 1Q12] 



NATURE 



491 



ticular family or species, as the result of mechanical con- 

 ditions affecting the particular family or species in such a 

 way that the departure from the general reticular plan is 

 fixed and definite for the animal in question." 



The American Bison Society, in its fourth annual re- 

 port, 1910-11, has to deplore the loss of the services of its 

 president. Dr. W. T. Hornaday, who has been compelled 

 by pressure of other work to resign that position. He 

 has been elected the first honorary member of the society, 

 and is succeeded in the presidential chair by Prof. F. W. 

 Hooper. Despite a few mishaps, matters appear to be 

 going well with the survivors of the bison in its native 

 country, the total number of pure-bred animals being 2760, 

 against 2108 in 19 10 and 19 17 in 1908. Attempts to capture 

 the remnant of the Pablo herd in the Flathead country 

 for the Canadian Government have had to be abandoned 

 on account of the wild state of the animals, which have 

 become completely uncontrollable. The society is anxious 

 to establish a new herd in one of the Dakotas, preferably 

 South Dakota, which formed part of the headquarters of 

 the bison, and the proposal has been favourably received 

 by the secretary to the Federal Government. Efforts are 

 also being made with a view to the establishment of a 

 herd either in the Adirondack Range or in the new Hudson 

 River Park, New York .State. 



The horned lizards, or "horned toads," of California 

 and Nevada form the subject of an illustrated monograph 

 by Mr. H. C. Bryant in the Zoological Publications of 

 the University of California (vol. ix., No. i), which also 

 includes a survey of the whole group. In the second 

 edition of the British Museum " Catalogue of Lizards," 

 twelve species, all included in the genus Phrynosoma, of 

 these strange reptiles were recognised ; but Mr. Bryant 

 now admits sixteen, one of which, from the desert tracts 

 of the Gila and Colorado valleys, is made the type of a 

 separate genus, under the name Anoia maccalli, its claim 

 to this distinction being based on the length, smoothness, 

 and conical forms of the horns, the presence of three (in 

 place of one or two) rows of peripheral spines, the 

 flattened tail, and the existence of supratemporal openings 

 in the skull. Excellent figures show the specific variation 

 of the skull, which in its horn-sheathed spines exhibits a 

 remarkable parallelism to some of the dinosaurs. These 

 horns are considered to be for defensive purposes, serving 

 to frighten certain enemies, although it is scarcely conceiv- 

 able that they can be cflicacious in the case of rattle- 

 snakes, which are some of the worst foes. Some of these 

 lizards are viviparous, but others are oviparous, the eggs 

 being in the case of one species buried in the sand, although 

 in a second they are hatched almost immediately after 

 extrusion. Particulars are given with regard to the re- 

 markable habit possessed by these lizards of spurting jets 

 of blood from the eye, from which it appears that the 

 phenomenon is preceded by congestion of the upper eyelid, 

 from the under-surface of which the jet issues. 



Little information has hitherto been accumulated about 

 the composition of cow's milk in India. Messrs. Meggitt 

 and Mann have recently published in the Memoirs of the 

 Department of .Agriculture in India a number of analyses 

 which show that the milk contains a high percentage of 

 butter-fat, as much as 5 or 6 per cent., against a general 

 3 per cent, in England, but there is very great variation 

 even among animals of the same breed. Indeed, the whole 

 investigation emphasises the extremely unselected character 

 of the herds, and suggests possibilities of marked improve- 

 ment if selection is carried on over a suflicient time. 

 NO. 2206, VOL. 88] 



In the October (191 1) number of The South African 

 Journal of Science, the organ of the South African Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Juritz describes 

 the results of the chemical investigations he has made in 

 Cape Colony during the last twenty years or more. They 

 deal with waters, poisonous plants, soils, fertilisers, cereals 

 and other agricultural produce, and minerals, and afford 

 an admirable illustration of the way in which the chemist 

 can serve a new country. A short biography is given of 

 the late Dr. Bolus, who played so prominent a part in the 

 development of botany in Cape Colony. 



Of the many problems connected with soil fertility, few 

 are more important than those centring round soil erosion. 

 The causes and remedies are dealt with at some length by 

 Mr. M'Gee in Bulletin 71 of the United States Department 

 of .Agriculture, Bureau of Soils, where some admirable 

 photographs also are given showing the various types of 

 erosion. Whenever land is brought into cultivation and 

 then neglected, erosion is likely to be serious ; only when 

 the surface is covered with vegetation can it resist the 

 disintegrating effect of the rain. Very slight depressions 

 in the surface suffice to form a channel, which rapidly 

 widens and deepens, and before long attains considerable 

 dimensions. The remedies consist, therefore, in planting 

 the land and in terracing. 



A USEFUL article dealing with two prevalent diseases of 

 the potato plant is contributed by Mr. R. S. Home to 

 the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society (vol. 

 x\.\vii., part ii.). The author sifts carefully the conflict- 

 ing statements ranged round the lowly fungal organism 

 Chrysophlyctis endobiotica, producing a disease known 

 under the different names " tumour," " warty disease," 

 and " black scab," and contrasts the swellings induced by 

 it with the more pronounced canker caused by the 

 myxomycete Spongospora solani ; the latter disease Is 

 known as " corky scab," or " potato canker." The author 

 adopts the terms tumour and canker because they indicate 

 the actual nature of the diseases, which are, of course, 

 quite distinct from the potato disease due to Phytophlhora 

 infesians. Attention is also directed to a note by Mr. F. J. 

 Chittenden in the Journal discussing self-sterility of apple 

 trees, that is, the dependence of fruit formation upon 

 pollination of the flowers with pollen from another variety. 



In the January number of Peternuiiin's Mittcilungen 

 Prof. .'\. VVoeikow discusses the salinity of the oceans, and 

 in particular the greater salinity of the Atlantic Ocean as 

 compared with either of the others, and this in spite of th. 

 continental area which drains into the .Atlantic being far 

 larger than those which feed the Pacific and Indian 

 Oceans. He attributes the higher salinity of the Atlantic 

 to the large amount of water-vapour which is carried on 

 to the continents, which are of comparatively low altitude 

 where they front this ocean. A map of the salinity of the 

 oceans, the drainage areas supplying them, and the alti- 

 tudes of coast margins is included. 



In ///, Geographical Journal for January, Sir David 

 Gill, F.K.S., describes the 4-metre and a4-metre com- 

 parators which have been constructed for the Governinent 

 of India by the Cambridge Instrument Company under his 

 supervision. The former is for comparing all standards 

 of length u]) to 4 metres, and enables the determination of 

 their absolute coefficients of expansion by heat ; the latter 

 is designed for comparing the lengths of 24-metre invar 

 wires or tapes with a standard 4-metre bar. Unfortunately, 

 only a summary is given of the description of these 

 important pieces of apparatus, and no plans are included. 



