November 25. 1920} 



NATURE 



417 



wards in the hospital has been endowed by the Meso- 

 potamia Comforts Committee in recognition of the 

 services of Sir Stanley Maude, to whose memory 

 a mural tablet was unveiled. It is a pleasure to 

 record that Sir Patrick Manson, the " father " of the 

 school, was able to be present at the ceremony. 



Sir Charles Lvell in his "Antiquity of Man" 

 remarked that " neither need we despair of one day 

 meeting with signs of man's existence in the Cromer 

 Forest bed, or in the overlying deposits, on the ground 

 of any uncongeniality of the climate or incongruity in 

 the state of the animate creation with the well-being 

 of our species." Mr. J. R. Moir in a paper repub- 

 .lished from the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 

 of East .Anglia for 1919-20 (vol. iii., part ii.) describes a 

 series of humanly fashioned flakes found in the cliffs 

 and on the shore at Mundesley, Norfolk. Discoveries 

 of similar flakes were made by Mr. Lewis .Abbott in 

 1897 and by Dr. \V. L. H. Duckworth in 1911. So 

 far no human bones have been found in these strata, 

 but the author notes that the Mauer Sand in which 

 the famous Heidelberg mandible was found corre- 

 sponds in date of formation with the Cromer Forest 

 t>ed. 



The definition of the term " species " in biology 

 is a perennial source of discussion. Dr. J. Massart 

 considers that the Linnean definition — "the smallest 

 assemblage of organisms tliat resemble one another 

 more than they resemble others, and that transmit 

 their peculiarities to their descendants "—corresponds 

 neither to the Linnean species nor to the Jordanian 

 .species, but to the pure line of Johannsen. This last, 

 however, need not be propagated by self-fertilisation, 

 nor need the parents be homozygotes, for self- 

 .sterile and heterozygote Ijnes are known. Dr. 

 Massart illustrates his remarks by observations on 

 the ilex, in a single grove of which tree he claims to 

 have detected ihirty-two distinct lines. Clearly, as 

 he says, the systematist and the geographer must 

 content themselves for the present with Linnean, or 

 at the most with Jordanian, species. Dr. Massart 's 

 paper is published by the Belgian Academy (BmU. 

 Classe des Sciences, 1920, pp. 366-81). 



Thk Review of Applied Entomology, now approach- 

 ing the completion of its eighth volume, is a monthly 

 publication of widely recognised value. For the 

 mo<lest sum of tSs. per annum one is enabled to 

 keep abreast of ail published work in the agricul- 

 tural, medical, and veterinary aspects of the sub- 

 ject. Since the review was commenci-d an increasing 

 number of articles in out-of-the-way periodicals 

 have been abstracted, particularly thosr.. in the 

 Russian and Spanish languages. It may be 

 said that it is largely due to these abstracts that 

 the work of Russian economic entomologists is being 

 more wklely known in this country and America. 

 ' Economic " entomology is intcrprHcd in a liberal 

 sen>i.-, and no very hard-and-fast line of demarcation 

 i> Irawn between it and "scientific" entomology. 

 Ixr this rea-son the professedly scientific student 

 should not nejjioct to peruse the pages of thi.i valu- 

 able journal, for only by its means are many un- 

 familiar paRcrs. likely to be brought to his notice 



NO. 2665, VOL. ro6] 



The Volta Review, the Washington monthly devoted 

 to speech-reading, speech, and hearing, is printing and 

 issuing in the form of reprints a series of profusely 

 illustrated articles on the mechanism of speech by Dr. 

 E. W. Scripture, the author of the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion publication on " The Study of Speech Curves," of 

 "Elements of Experimental Phonetics," and other 

 related works. The series promises to be of great 

 interest to students of phonetics, to those with 

 normal hearing no less than to those who are handi- 

 capped in this respect. The voiced h of the Sanscrit 

 grammarians is not quite such a novelty in Europe 

 as would appear from p. 5 of the first article (July, 

 1920). Its existence in English was recognised by 

 David Lyle in his ".Art of Shorthand Improved" 

 (1762), and its claims, though denied by Whitney and 

 others, were fully admitted by Sweet. 



An address by Mme. Curie on the radio-elements 

 and their applications appears in the Revue Scien- 

 tifique for October 23. .After reviewing succinctly the 

 marvellous progress in the subject during the past 

 two decades, and the current views to which the study 

 of radio-active substances has led, reference is made 

 to their applications for the manufacture of luminous 

 compounds and in medicine. The first, though largely 

 developed during the war, are obviously of applica- 

 tion in innumerable ways for peaceful purposes 

 wherever the cost of the radio-active materials is not 

 prohibitive. In addition to the medical applications, 

 such as for the treatment of lupus and arthritis, 

 radium-therapy was during the war applied to the 

 treatment of unhealthy scars and wounds, healing 

 in numerous cases being assisted by irradiation. In 

 spite of the slowness of the progress so far made, 

 radium is regarded as a very powerful means of com- 

 bating cancer, the number of deep cancers success- 

 fully treated steadily increasing. It is important that 

 in all countries full use should be made of all re- 

 sources in radio-active materials. As possible new 

 sources the more active springs are referred to, one in 

 Italy being mentioned which gives about 30 millicuries 

 of emanation in 250 cubic metres of water daily. If 

 this could be separated it would prove of great service 

 in medicine. The proper utilisation of these resources 

 would be facilitated by the establishment of central 

 national institutions for pure researches in radios 

 activity in connection with an industrial laboratory 

 for the treatment of large quantities of materials, and 

 a section devoted to radium-therapy and its teaching. 

 In conclusion, a strong plea for such an institute is 

 made for France which shall be worthy of the country 

 and its capital. Hitherto the requirements of medical 

 men and physicists hav.- been too iv liiMvely con- 

 sidered. 



In the May and November issues of the Journal 

 of the Royal Photographic Society Dr. W. H. Mills 

 and Sir W. J. Pope publish the results of their work 

 during the last few years on photographic scnsitisers. 

 In the first communication they «l«srribe the prepara- 

 tion and .sensitising ciTect of twenty difTercnl uo- 

 lyflnine derivatives, one of which, trimethylwocyamne 

 iodide, is now well known as pinaverdol or .scpsilol 

 green. They find that the total induced scnsitivcnes.* 

 diminishes steadily as the molecular w.ii<li( of the 



