126 



NATURE 



[Dfc. 1 6, 1875 



details given about Ch. pluinnlcc, Cohn, the interesting 

 question turns up as to what these Chytridia really are. 

 Magnus treats them as a family of Alg;c ; Henfrey always, 

 we believe, regarded them rather as the products of 

 diseased protoplasm, if not modifications of the antheri- 

 dial structures of some of the Confervoids. Their appa- 

 rently common occurrence on Floridese as well as on 

 Confervoids, ought to enable this question to be definitely 

 answered. Magnus is satisfied that the so-called Anthe- 

 ridea of Callithamnion dispar figured by Harvey in Tab. 

 227 of the " Phycologia Australica," are only Chytridia ; 

 certainly the figures represent a very antheridium-like 

 structure, and the original dried specimen from which 

 the figure was drawn is marked "fruit of an abnormal 

 character," and on examination proves rather to favour 

 Magnus's view. 



Algologists, especially those engaged with the descrip- 

 tion of marine Algae, have been rather neglectful of 

 describing the minute details to be met with in the struc- 

 ture of the cells of Algaj. The arrangement of the cells, 

 inter se, is necessarily studied, as on it the classification 

 of the group depends ; but the appearance and arrange- 

 ment of the cell-contents will, we think, prove to be of as 

 much importance in the investigation of the marine Algas 

 as it has proved to be in that of the unicellular fresh- 

 water forms. 



Adolf Schmidt, of Aschersleben, describes the Dia- 

 tomacere met with ; there are three plates representing 

 134 forms or portions thereof. These are apparently pho- 

 tographs from drawings of the author. 



The zoological results are given in eleven memoirs, 

 with eight plates, 



F. E. Schulze describes the Rhizopods and Coelen- 

 terata ; O. Schmidt the Sponges ; K. Mobius and 

 Biitschli the Echinoderms ; K. Mobius the Vermes and 

 Copepods ; Kirchenpauer is to describe the Bryozoa, C. 

 Kupfter the Tunicata, Metzger and H. A. Meyer the Mol- 

 lusca, Metzger the Crustacea, and Mobius and Heincke 

 the Fishes. 



A long list of Foraminifera is given. H. B. Brady's 

 papers on the synonymy of this group do not appear to 

 have been consulted ; an apparently new species of 

 Gromia, about 8mm. in length, is described and figured. 

 Some minute and doubtful-looking forms are described 

 and figured as Psaimnosphccra fusca, n. g. et sp., Stortho- 

 sphocra albida, n. g. et sp., and Asterodisais arenacens 

 n. g. et sp. 



Several new genera and species of Sponges are de- 

 scribed and figured by O. Schmidt. 



Among the Ccelenterates a new species of Aglaophenia 

 {A. moebii) is figured and described, and Kophobelemiion 

 Leiickartii is figured from a perfectly fresh specimen. 



No very rare species among the Echinoderms is cata- 

 logued, and some common forms are absent. 



Of the Vermes, seventy-six species of Annelida, fourteen 

 of Turbellarea, five of Gephyrea, two of Ch^etognatha, and 

 one Leech are enumerated. Although some of the species 

 were collected off the very shores of Scotland, yet 

 Macintosh's works on the British Nemertians seem to have 

 been overlooked in the determination of the species. A 

 remarkable new form near Phascolosoma is described as 

 Crystallophrison nitens. Almost the whole body is thickly 

 encircled with colourless shining scales. The scales are 



somewhat wedge-shaped, with the narrow edge imbedded 

 in the skin. This new species was dredged off the Silver 

 Pit on the edge of the Dogger Bank. Further investiga- 

 tion may cause this species to be relegated to the Echino- 

 derms. Three new species of worms are described. 



The Second Part, containing the remaining orders, has 

 just been published, and shall be reviewed in a second 

 notice. To the British naturalists these Reports will be 

 most valuable, but their form of publication may cause 

 them to be easily overlooked ; we have therefore noticed 

 them somewhat in detail. E. P. W. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



The Origin of the Snn^s Heat and the Chemical Constitu- 

 tion of the Matter of his System. (Troy, N.Y., 1875.) 



The author's name does not appear on the title-page of 

 this pamphlet, so that it was not till we had inflicted our- 

 selves with its contents that we discovered at the end the 

 signature William Coutie. The author, judging from the 

 present production, is referable to that class of visionary 

 speculators which includes among its numbers circle, 

 squarers, seekers for perpetual motion, and those who 

 perform what we may call arithmetical juggles with the 

 atomic weights of the.chemical elements. First comes a 

 preface containing an extract from Priestley's narrative of 

 the discovery of oxygen to which we shall again refer ; 

 after which follows a page headed " From the Acid Rela- 

 tions of the Elements" 1871, from which we select the 

 two first paragraphs : — *' I have now examined all the 

 well-known elements with so much care that I cannot 

 believe any general mistake possible, and find they are 

 all compounds of hydrogen and three others whose 

 weights are exact multiples of the weight of hydrogen. 

 It is probable, therefore, they are all hydrogen ; but 

 before saying more I would request the aid of your 

 skill in proving the above by experiment or the favour 

 of your remarks so that I may correct errors or make 

 the subject more clear or complete." We now lay 

 before our readers the state in which Mr. Coutie leaves 

 the question of the origin of the sun's heat. After 

 demonstrating to his own satisfaction that none of the 

 existing hypotheses are sufficient to account for this 

 supply of heat, the author makes a series of statements 

 leading up to the following conclusion, which must be 

 allowed to speak for itself : — " As the energy of the earth 

 in its orbit is 26,900 miles, and the reversing force of 

 gravity in a year is four times greater, or 107,600 miles, 

 and the energy required to melt ice 142^° X 772 feet 

 = 20 miles, the reversing of its motion- by gravity, if con- 

 verted into heat, would melt the weight of itself of ice 

 5,380 times a year, and would melt a mass of ice equal to 

 the mass of the sun in 60 years, or in the same time the 

 whole known heat of the sun would. But if the sun's 

 heat IS the direct result of this action, the total heat of 

 the sun ought not to be the equivalent of the reversed 

 energy of the earth, but ought to be the equivalent of the 

 whole system ; but it is the equivalent of the earth's 

 energy in orbit. We have therefore found what we 

 sought for, and, as usual in such cases, it is not as we 

 expected, and if we had hit it exactly, we would have 

 found ourselves as far as ever from the end of that chain 

 which stretches across infinity. We therefore withdraw 

 our surmises and leave it as it is to the labours of others." 

 The next section treats of " the nature and relations of 

 the chemical elements," the research (?) which has led 

 to the results announced having been undertaken be- 

 cause the atmosphere of the earth mainly consisting 

 of nitrogen the author determined to find out what 

 nitrogen was " with a view of finding the process by which 

 the system is formed." It is probably out of respect for 



