October 27, 192 1] 



NATURE 



289 



currency, notwithstanding the obvious technical ob- 

 jections to such a view. Similar oil finds have been 

 reported before in this country. In that near Peter- 

 borough a few years ago, leakage from surface 

 -tores was ultimately held to account for the 



discover}-." At Bosham, on the other hand, we 

 are informed that there are no likely stcM-es near at 

 hand from which the oil could have been derived by 

 leakage, and this has done much to inspire the pre- 

 vailing optimism with regard to the occurrence. Our 

 only comments at this stage are : first, the possibility 

 of floating oil on the water of Bosham Creek (a tribu- 

 tary of Chichester Harbour) in these days of oil-fired 

 ships is not to be passed over, and the well may quite 

 conceivably have suffered contamination from this 

 source ; secondly, Bosham itself is situated on the 

 chalk, here brought to the surface by the Portsdown 

 anticline ; one does not usually associate oil and chalk, 

 in fact the only f>ossible oil-bearing horizon here (and 

 that an extremely unlikely one) is the Kimjueridge 

 Clay, which lies at far too great a depth to be 

 taken into serious consideration. The anticline, while 

 structurally favourable from the point of view of oil 

 accumulation, is scarcely likely to lead anyone but the 

 ■ get-oil-an\"where " fraternity astray. Its occurrence 

 at the same point as this supposed oil find is merely 

 one of those strange coincidences which are absolutely 

 devoid of significance. 



I\ a Chadwick public lecture delivered on October 20 

 on the subject of " Plant Diseases and their Relation 

 to Diseases in Man," Prof. V. H. Blackman said 

 that the plant pathologist is faced by the very wide 

 range in the degree of association of the host and 

 the parasitic organism. At one extreme there is the 

 condition where the fungus is almost purely super- 

 ficial and the injurious effect is mainly indirect ; at 

 the other extreme there are associations of host and 

 fungus, known as symbiosis, in which association 

 benefits both the organisms. Between these two 

 extremes there are all degrees of association of the 

 two organisms. Plant-cells, when once penetrated, 

 are almost always killed, and plants generally depend 

 for immunity from disease on their capacitv to keep 

 the parasite out or to render it harmless by enclosing 

 it within layers of cork. The immunity of certain 

 wheats from rust disease has, however, been shown to 

 be due to the " hyper sensitiveness " of the tissues, 

 which succumb so rapidly to the attack of. the fungus 

 that the parasite is starved. It is only in cases of 

 symbiotic association that there has been observed 

 any digestion of the invading organism comparable 

 with phagocytosis in animals ; in the orchids also 

 there is evidence that plants once infected are immune 

 from further attack. No production by the attacked 

 plant of lethal substances comparable with antitoxins, 

 bacteriolysins, etc., have been observed, so the possi- 

 bility of artificial immunisation of plants by the use 

 of vaccines or sera would seem to be ver\- unlikely. 

 Apart from the difficulty of distributing such vaccines 

 to the various organs, the growing plant is continually 

 producing new organs which would require immunisa- 

 tion. Since disease is abnormal physiology, little 

 further progress will be made in the elucidation of the 

 NO. 2713. .VOL. 108] 



nature of plant diseases without further knowledge 

 of the normal physiological processes of the associated 

 organisms. 



On the occasion of the Prince of Wales's recent 

 visit to the .Australian Commonwealth, he was pre- 

 sented by the State of Queensland with a gold- 

 mounted casket of Queensland beanwood containing 

 a collection of the gemstones for which the State is 

 famous. In the Queensland Naturalist (vol. 3, No. i) 

 Mr. B. Dunstan, the Government geologist, de- 

 scribes the twenty-nine stones in the collection, giving 

 the details of the provenance of each, and a general 

 account of their properties and distribution through- 

 out the State. 



The Museums Journal for October contains a 

 paper by Mr. L. H. Weston Klingender — who until 

 the outbreak of war was curator of the Goslar 

 Museum — on the organised co-operation of museums 

 in Germany. There has long been talk in our own 

 country of a closer union between the larger and 

 smaller museums, and this interesting article should 

 be of practical use to those who are considering such 

 a scheme. The number also contains an appreciative 

 notice of the late Dr. Henry Woodward from the 

 museum point of view, and a critical but friendly 

 account of the .Association generale des Conser\-ateurs 

 des Collections publiques de France. 



Ix Science Progress for Januar\" last the case for 

 the inheritance of acquired characters was presented 

 by Prof. E. W. MacBride. The challenge thus thrown 

 down has been accepted by Mr. Julian S. Huxley, 

 who states with considerable force in Science Pro- 

 gress for October the case for the chromosome theory 

 of heredity advocated by Prof. Morgan and his school. 

 Mr. Huxlev summarises the evidence on which the 

 theory is based and the bearings of recent work on 

 the hypothesis, and points out certain implications of 

 the theory which are not usually dealt with in the 

 text-books. He is in whole-hearted agreement with 

 Prof. Morgan, and believes that his theor\' of heredit>- 

 is the only one which allows of the synthesis into one 

 harmonious whole of the many, and apparently anta- 

 gonistic, results of recent wcM-k in genetics, cytolog)", 

 and experimental physiology and zoology. 



The Journal of Pomology (vol. 2, No. 4, .August, 

 192 1), published by Messrs. Bunyard, Maidstone, con- 

 tains the reproduction of a very scarce work entitled 

 "The Orchard and Garden," published anon>-mously 

 in 1602. For many years only one copy w-as known 

 to exist, that being in the Cambridge University 

 Library, but recently a second copy came to light, 

 and was secured for the Lindley Librarv* of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society. The importance of choosing 

 suitable scmI and locality is emphasised, and grafting 

 is treated at considerable length, both from like to 

 like and "with contrary- kindes." .Among the divers 

 sicknesses which affect the trees are canker and all 

 kinds of caterpillars ; for the former excision is recom- 

 mended, for the latter diligent searching for the eggs 

 which "lie hidden in a cobbwebbe," which should be 

 burned, for "the fire consumeth all things." In a 



