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NATURE 



[January 19, 191 1 



In a recent number (December, 1910) which has reached 

 «us of the Leipzig Neue Weltanschauung Prof. Max Kasso- 

 -witz, of Vienna, criticises the views of those biologists 

 who consider that the main cause -of the origin of species 

 is to be found in natural selection. His objections are all 

 tolerably familiar. He points out, for example, that the 

 analogy from artificial selection is not complete. The 

 breeder selects characters from motives of curiosity and 

 the like, not because they are useful to the form dealt 

 with, but because they are useful or interesting to him- 

 self. Moreover, in order to maintain his artificially pro- 

 •duced race, he has to exercise a far more rigid selection 

 than can take place in nature. When left to themselves, 

 such strains rapidly revert. The Lamarckian explanation 

 must be resorted to, not merely for the atrophy and dis- 

 appearance of disused organs, but also for the enhanced 

 •development of frequently used parts. Evidence of this is 

 afforded by Darwin's comparison of the wing and leg 

 bones of tame and wild ducks. If it is once admitted, 

 the author remarks, that the changes produced by use or 

 disuse can pass over to the offspring by means of the 

 germ-plasm, there is no further reason for doubting the 

 •general transmissibility of acquired characters or the 

 influence of this principle on every change that takes place 

 in the course of the development of species. Natural 

 -selection, he declares, has not hindered the peculiar 

 susceptibility of mankind to certain forms of disease. In 

 these cases the working of a Lamarckian factor can be 

 traced, not of the nature of Darwin's pangenesis, to which 

 there are obvious objections, but more probably a circula- 

 tion of specific atom-complexes derived from the dis- 

 integration of protoplasmic molecules. Prof. Kassowitz's 

 contentions have been heard before, and abundantly 

 answered. Had he taken into account the results of 

 Mendelian research, it is plain that some of them would 

 never have been advanced. The concluding argument of 

 his paper, on the subject of disease toxins, is ingenious, 

 "but unconvincing. 



A REVIEW of the development of the Ligulataj, i.e. the 

 ■genera Selaginella and Isoetes, communicated by Dr. G. 

 Ritter to Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift (December 

 II, 1910), traverses the investigations by Bruchmann into 

 the various modifications of the prothalli and embryo in 

 ■Selaginella, and describes similar stages in Isoetes. 



The list of seeds of hardy herbaceous plants, shrubs, and 

 trees available for exchange with botanic gardens and 

 regular correspondents, annually published by the director 

 of Kew Gardens, has lately been issued in the usual form 

 as Appendix i to the Kew Bulletin, 1911. The list is a 

 short one, presumably reflecting the past unfavourable 

 season, during which the gentians and cotoneasters have 

 yielded the best results. 



A SKETCH of the flora of the Samoa Islands is con- 

 tributed by Dr. F. Vaupel to Engler's Botanische Jahr- 

 biicher (Beiblatt, No. cii.), with reference to his collections 

 of plants gathered chiefly on the island of Savaii. The 

 flora falls into the Melanesian division of the Malayan 

 region while showing affinities with the floras of Australia 

 and New Zealand. In common with other insular floras 

 •cryptogams are abundant, and the ferns supply 200 species 

 as compared with 600 flowering plants. Two of the most 

 typical are Angiopteris evecta and the small tree-fern 

 Todea Fraseri ; Tmesipteris tannensis, two species of 

 Psilotum, and Botrychium daucifolium are reckoned among 

 the rarer pteridophyta. A unique feature of some of the 

 lagoons is the thick growth of Acrostichum aureum along- 

 side the brackish water, and a peculiar vegetation, consist- 



No. 21-:, ":l. S^^ 



ing of a tangle of Gleichenia dichotoma, Pteris heterophylla, 

 and Imperata arundinacea penetrated by masses of 

 Lycopodiutn cernuum, covers the tufa soil on the plateaux. 

 Among phanerogams, the orchids are well developed, also 

 the dicotyledonous genera Psychotria, Cyrtandra, an! 

 Elatostemma. 



Bulletin 124 of the West Virginia Experiment Station 

 deals with factors influencing the vigour of incubated 

 chickens. Incubators operated without moisture gave 

 rather better results than those where moisture was sup- 

 plied, but the author is not prepared to assert that the 

 difference is real. Indeed, this old controversy whether a 

 moist or a dry atmosphere should be maintained in an 

 incubator has not yet been satisfactorily settled. It has 

 been suggested that the chick embryos have a certain 

 power of adapting themselves to different degrees of 

 humidity during their development. 



The Bulletin de la Socidtd d' Encouragement pour 

 rindustrie nationale (No. 9) contains an interesting report, 

 by M. Maurice Alfassa, on economic imperialism in Great 

 Britain, in which he deals fully with the efforts now being 

 made to promote cotton growing within the British 

 Empire and to study the problems to which it gives rise. 

 He advises that our African experiments should be closely 

 watched, as some of the conditions are not dissimilar to 

 those obtaining in the French African possessions, and 

 considers that if it is worth our while to try to raise 

 our own cotton it is equally worth while for France. 



The current number of the .igricultural Journal of 

 India (vol. v., part iv.) is up to its usual level of interest, 

 and contains several well-illustrated articles dealing with 

 native agricultural practices, and with possible improve- 

 ments on them. Mr. Keatinge gives a well-written 

 account of the rural economy of the Bombay Deccan, both 

 in its western part, where there is a moderate rainfall and 

 a certain amount of irrigation, and where, consequently, 

 good garden crops can be grown, and in its eastern por- 

 tion, where a heavy black soil occurs, but rainfall and 

 irrigation are both deficient ; here the typical crops are 

 jowari and cotton. The population naturally follows the 

 water supply ; in the western part it is not uncommon to 

 find the cultivator living on his holding and working 

 industriously at it ; in the eastern part, however, the 

 cultivators' Houses are confined to the villages on account 

 of the public wells, and much less work is done on the 

 fields. A description is given in another article of the 

 new agricultural college at Coimbatore, Madras, and Mr. 

 Gammie reproduces the paper on cotton cultivation 

 India that he presented to the Brussels Congress last Ma 



The monthly meteorological chart of the North Atlant 

 Ocean for January, issued by .the Deutsche Seewart 

 explains the good use made of radiotelegraphy for d 

 seminating weather and storm-warning notices to vessels 

 and small craft in the North and Baltic Seas, (i) The I 

 wireless station at Norddeich follows its time signal ' 

 ih. p.m. by a short summary received from the Seewa: 

 of the weather conditions over Europe at 8h. a.m., wi; 

 forecasts for the above-mentioned localities. (2) Wh' 

 necessary, storm-warnings are sent to the same station, 

 and are received by vessels having wireless apparatus and 

 repeated by them by means of day and night signal - 

 (3) Storm-warnings are also sent by the Seewarte to i' 

 fishery cruiser in the North Sea, and repeated by ordina: 

 signals by day, and at night by searchlight, for the bene:, 

 of fishing-boats. (4) Storm-warnings intended only for the 

 Baltic coast are disseminated in a similar manner by the 

 wireless station at Biilk. 



