February 3, 1898J 



NA TURE 



3'9 



the Linnean Society of London, who has carried it out 

 with conspicuous success. Society and Journal have 

 thus become more and more closely connected, and to 

 what extent may be gathered from the fact that of the 

 thirty-three papers which make up the body of the first 

 two parts of the new series, fifteen were read at the 

 Society's meetings. Of these, the papers by Prof. D. 

 J. Cunningham and Dr. Elliot Smith on the anatomy of 

 the cerebral cortex and fornix stand pre-eminent, as im- 

 portant communications by leading investigators, who 

 with Symington and others have kept this rapidly de- 

 veloping department of laborious research fully abreast of 

 the continental standard set by von Kdlliker, Edinger, 

 Ziehen, and those who have followed in the wake of 

 Golgi and y Cajal. Dr. Elliot Smith's monographs are 

 indispensable to the comparative neurologist, and they 

 amply fulfil the expectation raised by his early in- 

 vestigations in Australia, and justify the graceful com- 

 ment paid by Sir W. Turner at the summer meeting of 

 the Anatomical Society, held in Dublin in June last, at 

 which one was hurriedly read. Beyond this, the second 

 issue in the new series of the Journal is especially note- 

 worthy for a paper by Prof Symington upon the thymus 

 gland m Marsupials, about which little indeed is known, 

 and for the first part of one by Dr. D. A. Welsh upon the 

 parathyroid glands, both being exceedingly welcome now 

 that current work upon the ductless- and blood-glands 

 is revolutionising our knowledge and conceptions of these 

 remarkable organs. Noteworthy also is the completion 

 in the same part of a lengthy treatise by Dr. W. 

 McDougall upon a theory of muscular contraction, since 

 by comparison with a remarkable paper by Prof Ruther- 

 ford, side by side with which it has for the most part 

 appeared, it opens up fresh themes for controversy upon 

 this interminable topic, which show at least that the last 

 word has not been written concerning it, and that there 

 is sore need of its attack on other than morphological 

 lines. Returning to the first part, we note a paper by 

 Mr. F. J. Cole on the urinogenital system of the male 

 guinea-pig, which for thoroughness of investigation and 

 exhaustive literary research is worthy the standard he 

 adopted in a recent paper on the nervous system of the 

 chimaeroids, and the very interesting announcement by 

 Prof Disse, of Marburg, that the olfactory nerve fibres in 

 the chick arise from cells situated in the epithelium of 

 the olfactory pit, and by Prof Leboucq, of Ghent, that 

 in the full-grown foetus of a Vespertilio the fourth digit 

 of the manus is tetraphalangeate. 



Of the remaining papers one only calls for special 

 comment, viz. that " On the anatomy oi Macropus ru/us" 

 by Prof Bertram Windle and Mr. F. G. Parsons, since 

 it reveals some strange contradictions both within its 

 own limits and by comparison with the afore-mentioned 

 paper by Symington. It contains a great deal by way of 

 careful and detailed anatomical description which, in 

 correlation with similar papers which its authors have 

 published elsewhere, ought to be of service for reference. 

 Under the heading " Digestive System," however, they 

 have described and figured the liver on one page as 

 destitute of a left central lobe, the lobe present on that 

 side being regarded as a left lateral, while on the very 

 next page the latter is said to be absent. Their first con- 

 clusion is based on the relationships of the falciform liga- 

 ment, unquestionably the only structure of real morpho- 

 logical value for the purpose, and they introduce some 

 pertinent criticism of the methods of other anatomists. All 

 the more remarkable, therefore, their account of certain 

 glands, as said to exist in the "foetus" (strictly a pouch 

 specimen). On p 132 there is given a processed illustra- 

 tion, little resembling anything in nature, with an ac- 

 companying description of glandular structures regarded 

 as "sublingual" and "extra-salivary." That the former 

 are merely the ordinary sub-maxillary glands, there seems 

 no manner of doubt. Concerning the latter, we are 



NO. 1475. VOL. 57] 



assured that " histological examination proved that they 

 were salivary in nature." Great though the backward 

 extension of the salivary glands in some mammals, 

 nothing at all approximate to the remarkable condition 

 here alleged has hitherto been observed, and sufficient is 

 recorded by the authors of the detailed relationships 

 of the so-called "extra salivary" glands to render it 

 tolerably certain that they are but cervical thymus, 

 a conclusion borne out by the authors' confession that 

 they "did not succeed in tracing the termination of 

 their ducts," and by comparison of the descriptions and 

 figures of the neck glands in M. giganteus given by 

 Symington, as he justly points out (p. 283). The brief 

 statement which we cite concerning the histology of these 

 glands is wholly insufficient. If they be really salivary, 

 for so extraordinary a condition at least a figure and full 

 details of microscopic sections should have been fur- 

 nished in absolute proof While we await with interest 

 further investigation as to the real nature of these, we 

 cannot allow the statements concerning the liver to pass 

 without further comment. Leading anatomical journals 

 other than that now under review might be cited 

 in which inaccuracies unpardonable at times appear. 

 Authors, when inexperienced, will write extraordinary 

 things ; experienced authors still more extraordinary. 

 And surely the rendering of Nathusius's well-known name 

 (p. xxix. Suppl.) as " Nathenius," is a matter which the 

 editors, if not the author, should not have allowed to 

 pass. The first two parts of the new issue of the Journal, 

 as a whole admirable and encouraging, give excellent 

 promise for the future, if only the conductors will declare 

 themselves responsible editors and a proper coordination 

 between authors and editors be assured. 



GEOLOGY AND SANITARY SCIENCE} 



T^HIS memoir is a new departure on the part of the 

 -^ Geological Survey, being devoted only to applied 

 geology, to questions which have for a long time caused 

 the flow of a steady stream of inquirers to Jermyn Street. 

 It shows how useful is some knowledge of geology to 

 the proper understanding of many matters that are ever 

 cropping up, privately in such things as the choice of a 

 site for a dwelling, and publicly in such as water-supply 

 for a district. 



The extent of the district treated is shown by the 

 excellent chromolithographed map, and may be under- 

 stood from the following list of the border-towns, with 

 London in the centre :— Chesham, Amersham, Beacons- 

 field, Windsor, Guildford, Dorking, Reigate, Sevenoaks, 

 Gravesend, Billericay, Chipping Ongar, Epping and St. 

 Albans. The colours differ largely from those used on 

 the Survey maps, and the map differs from the lately 

 issued Index Map (on the same scale, four miles to an 

 inch) in showing the various divisions of the Drift ; so 

 that there are thirteen colours, besides a blank for 

 Alluvium. 



A short description is given of the general structure of 

 the London Basin, with parts of its borders, and then 

 (pp. 7-25) a more detailed account of the beds dealt 

 with, from the Made Ground of London down to the 

 Hastings Beds of the Weald ; thus going a little beyond 

 the area of the map, on the south, in which the last 

 are not shown. These are grouped, not in the usual 

 geologic way, but according to character ; all gravels 

 and sands being under one heading, all clays under 

 another, with an intervening "mixed sub-soils" for 

 those divisions that decline to be distinctly one thing 

 or another. Under each of the many sub-headings 



1 " Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Soils and Sub-soils from a 

 Sanitary Point of View ; with especial reference to London and its 

 Neighbourhood." By H. B. Woodward. Large 8vo. Pp. vi + 58 ; folding 

 geologic map (13 colours). 



