34 



NATURE 



[September 2, 1920 



1 



Experimental Cell Studies. 



N an experimental study of cell and nuclear divi- 

 sion, especially in vxcia jaba, Sakamura (Journ. 

 Coll. Sci., Imp. Lniv. Tokyo, vol. x.xxix., article iij 

 has made an important contribution, parucularly witn 

 rej^ard to the lactors that may inliuenco tne form, 

 size, and number of the chromosomes. He hnds, in 

 agreement with most previous investigators, that 

 k. faba has twelve chromosomes, the eanier counts 

 of fourteen being due to a constriction which appears 

 constantly at a certain point on the longest pair of 

 chromosomes. Two other species of Vicia have 

 fourteen chromosomes, three have twelve, while 

 V. untjuga is tctraploid, having twenty-four. 



The investigations ot Nemcc and others in 

 chloralising root-tips and studying the effects on 

 mitosis and the multiplication of chromosomes have 

 been considerably extended, including treatment with 

 benzene and chloroform vapour, ether, carbon dioxide, 

 high temperature, electric currents, Rontgen rays, 

 plasmolysis, and infection by the Nematode worm 

 Heterodera. The chromosomes often shorten and 

 thicken under this treatment, irregular mitoses occur, 

 and frequently the number of chromosomes is multi- 

 plied, but there is no evidence of later reduc- 

 tion divisions in somatic tissues. Irregular reduction 

 divisions in the pollen formation were also obtained 

 by similar treatment. 



A study of the chromosomes of wheat gives very dif- 

 ferent results from those of previous investigators. Triti- 

 cum monococcum ia found to have fourteen chromo- 

 somes (2 X ), four derivatives of Emmer wheat are 

 found to have twenty-eight (4 x ), while three descen- 

 dants of Dinkel wheat have forty-two (6x). This is 

 a confirmation of the view that T. monococcum is the 

 most primitive, while T. vidgare belongs to the most 

 advanced, type — a view which is supported also by 

 the phytopathological studies of Wawiloff, the sero- 

 logical tests of Zade, and the evidence from sterility 

 of the various hybrids as obtained by Tschermak. 

 The fundamental importance of cytological studies of 

 agricultural plants is thus apparent. R. R. G. 



University and Educational Intelligrence. 



Cambridge. — Mr. H. H. Brindley, St. John's Col- 

 lege, has been re-appointed demonstrator of biology 

 to medical students; Mr. J. T. Saunders, Christ's 

 College, demonstrator of animal morphology ; and 

 Mr. J. Gray, King's College, demonstrator of com- 

 parative anatomy. Mr. E. J. Maskell, Emmanuel 

 College, has been apfwinted to the Frank Smart Uni- 

 versity studentship in botany. 



Graduate research studentships at Emmanuel Col- 

 lege have been awarded to E. J. Maskell for research 

 in plant physiology, to C. H. Spiers for research in 

 stereochemistry, and to G. L. Jones for research in 

 Celtic and Prankish institutions. 



Dr. Griffith Taylor, at present physiographer in 

 the Commonwealth Weather- Service, Melbourne, has 

 been appointed to a specially created position of 

 associate professor of geography in the University of 

 Sydney. He will take up the duties of his new posi- 

 tion in the early part of 192 1. 



A REUNION of old students of the Royal College of 

 Science, London, will be held on Tuesday, Septem- 

 ber 14, at 7 p.m., at the Imperial College Union, 

 Prince Consort Road, South Kensington, London, 

 S.W.7. The president, Sir Richard Gregory, will take 

 the chair at 8 p.m., and Prof. H. E. .Armstrong will 



NO. 2653, VOL. 106] 



deliver an address entitled " Pre-Kensington History 

 of tfve Royal College of Science and the University 

 Problem." 



The issue ot the Lancet for .August 28 is a medical 

 students' guide for the session 1920-21. The various 

 curricula are described in detail, and under 'their 

 respective headings the necessary information con- 

 cerning the facilities for medical study offered at the 

 different teaching centres of the United Kingdom is 

 given. The regulations for the examinalions, both 

 preliminary and professional, at these centres are set 

 out so that the student desiring to obtain a medical 

 degree from a university or a diploma from any 

 medical corporation may ascertain the course of 

 clinical instruction and the conditions under which 

 submission for examination is allowed. The metro- 

 politan medical schools and hospitals are grouped 

 under the University of London ; similarly, all hos- 

 pitals in direct connection with provincial universities 

 arc described under the appropriate university. Fin- 

 ally, an account is given of the conditions under 

 which commissions can be obtained in the Navy, 

 Army, .Air Force, Indian, and Colonial Medical 

 Services. 



We have just received a " Handbook of Lectures 

 and Classes for Teachers," issued by the Loudon 

 County Council. The range of subjects offered is very 

 wide, and all the courses will be conducted bv experts. 

 Under the heading of geography, lectures will be given 

 on physical geography, the use of instruments, and 

 regional and historical geography — a course which 

 will e.xtend over two years. In addition, there will 

 be lectures on the past and the future of the great 

 towns of the world, and one lecture on regional sur- 

 vevs. In the department of mathematics the teaching 

 of arithmetic, of mensuration and geometry in junior 

 schools, and of elementary mathematics w-ill be dealt 

 with in five courses of lectures during the year. 

 Science will be represented by courses of lectures on 

 modern theories of time, space and matter, psycho- 

 analvsis, psvchologv, elementary astronomy, the 

 special senses. exf)erimental investigation of children; 

 the industries of the Stone age, insects in relation to 

 agriculture and disease, and laboratory arts, and there 

 will be one lecture on insects as disease-carriers. As 

 usual, there will be a course of single lectures on special 

 subjects : Prof. J. N. Collie will lecture on the rare 

 gases in the atmosphere ; Prof. A. Fowler on recent 

 developments in astronomy; Prof. A. Keith on the 

 antiquity of man ; Prof. R. Biffen on agricultural 

 botany ; Dr. Bateson on the heredity of sex : Dr. 

 Forster on chemical technologv; and Sir W. H. Bragg 

 on the romance of science. The lectures will be open 

 to all teachers emploved either within or outside the 

 administrative countv of London. Full directions for 

 the application for tickets of admission will be found 

 in the handbook. 



Societies and Academies. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, .August 9. — M. Henri Deslandres 

 in the chair. — A. Blondel : A new optical or electrical 

 apparatus for the measurement of oscillations of 

 velocity and angular deviations. The method is based 

 on the registration on a photographic film moving at 

 a uniform rate of the angular displacements of a 

 disc carrying a series of equidistant slits, the disc 

 being attached to the axis of the machine under 

 examination. .An application of the method to the 

 studv of an internal-combustion engine is given. — 

 M. Petot : Extract from a letter to M. .Appell con- 



