2l8 



NATURE 



[February i6, 1922 



Research Items. 



Birthdays in Relation to Intelligence. — In the 

 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 

 (vol. 41, No. 17) Mr. M'Callum Fairgrieve discusses 

 the annual incidence of intelligence. He experi- 

 mented with 368 boys, using chiefly the American 

 Army tests, supplemented by some of the tests used 

 by Dr. Cyril Burt. His object was to see whether 

 the time of year of birth bore any relation to intel- 

 ligence. The results seem to show that boys born in 

 the late spring months are in danger of developing 

 less intelligence than those born about October. It 

 is pointed out that naturally there are exceptions, 

 some of the clever boys having birthdays in the less 

 intelligent period, but that on the whole, and his 

 ages range from ten years to eighteen years, the 

 generalisation is correct. The author suggests that 

 it would be valuable if the test were repeated in 

 other districts. Certainly it is a problem worth 

 studying systematically. 



Apogamous Reproduction. — In a short account 

 of experiments in apogamous reproduction with 

 some species of Hieracium, Dr. C. H. Ostenfeld 

 (Journal of Genetics, vol. ii. No. 2) describes 

 the occurrence of several apogamic mutants which 

 remain true in apogamous reproduction. It is be- 

 lieved that the numerous microspecies in the sub- 

 genus Archieracium have been produced in this way, 

 being the after-effects of earlier crossing. The cyto- 

 logical studies of Rosenberg with species of this group 

 have shown that there are irregularities in the chromo- 

 some distribution during the reduction divisions. The 

 occurrence of apogamic mutants is plausibly accounted 

 for on the assumption that some such irregularity may 

 occur in the development of the egg-cell, thus pro- 

 ducing an aberrant individual which will breed true 

 later by apogamous reproduction. 



Sex-reversal. — In a very interesting paper on 

 sex-reversal in frogs and toads Mr. F, A. E. 

 Crew (Journal of Geneiics, vol. 11, No. 2) dis- 

 cusses all the recorded cases of females exhibit- 

 ing all intergrades towards the male condition. 

 In extreme cases the transformed animal appears 

 as a typical male, but may retain the Miillerian 

 ducts or a few ova amid the spermatic tissues. 

 Such an animal behaves and functions as a male, 

 but that it retains the germinal constitution, i.e. the 

 chromosome complex, of a female has been shown by 

 crossing such a transformed female with a normal 

 female. The young (774) were all females, showing 

 that the chromosome complex of these "somatic" 

 males had remained unchanged. The transformation 

 acts through the internal secretions of the gonads, 

 and the process of sex-reversal is very similar to that 

 which causes the production of freemartins In cattle, 

 as described by Lillie. The general opinion that 

 Bidder's organ in the frog is a rudimentary ovary 

 is questioned on the basis of these €x.periments. 



Cotton in the French Sudan. — ^The shortage of 

 raw cotton for the mills of France, due largely to the 

 decreasing export from the United States, has directed 

 attention to the possibility of large-scale cotton pro- 

 duction in the French Sudan. With this end in view 

 the Comit^ du Niger has been formed. Some details 

 of the schemes which this committee proposes, to- 

 gether with a large-scale map, are given in La Gio. 

 graphic for December last. Briefly, the Idea is to 

 irrigate certain areas along both banks of the Niger 

 in the vicinity of Segu,. which it is proposed to con- 

 nect bv rail with both Grand Bassam and Dakar. 

 NO. 2729, VOL. 109] 



On the left bank the Nyamina irrigation canal would 

 leave the Niger near Bamako, the railhead of the 

 line from Dakar, A barrage would be erected at 

 Sotuba and another at Sansanding, some twenty-five 

 miles below Segu, from which ihe Sansanding Canal 

 would run eastward for about 140 miles. Land on 

 the right bank is to be irrigated by the Segu Canal 

 and its branches, which leaves the river at the Sotuba 

 barrage. These schemes, if carried out in full, would 

 give some 10,000 square miles of irrigated alluvial 

 ground. Farther east along the Niger towards Tlm- 

 buctu vast areas of useful land could also be reclaimed 

 for cotton-growing. 



Potash in Marl and Greensand. — The value of 

 glauconitic marl and greensand as sources of potash 

 is once more raised in the Annual Report for 1920 of 

 the Department of Conservation and Development, 

 New Jersey. At Elmwood Station, where green marl 

 is 49 ft. thick, an acre of land covers approximately 

 9400 tons of potash. The average potash-content of 

 the marl over a wide area is as high as 6-6o per cent. ; 

 but commercial development, unfortunately, awaits 

 new methods of extraction. 



Antarctic Geology. — Mr. J. M. Wordie's report 

 (Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. 53, pt. 2, 192 1, 4s.) 

 on " Geological Observations in the Weddell Sea 

 Area," in connection with the Shackleton Antarctic 

 Expedition of 1914-17, is specially notable on account 

 of its photographic illustrations. The view of South 

 Georgia in Plate i provides an exceptionally fine pic- 

 ture of a land escaping from glacial control, with Its 

 high cirques In the background, frost-sculpturing on 

 the aretes, a valley glacier still pushing out to sea, 

 and the bared bed of another, preserving the very 

 form of the terminal fan, though the ice itself has 

 shrunk back towards the hills. 



Rainfall in Mysore. — Rainfall registration in 

 Mysore for 1920 is the subject of a report by Mr. 

 N. Venkatesa Iyengar, Meteorological Reporter to 

 the Mysore Government. During the year rain was 

 observed at 226 stations. The greatest rainfall re- 

 corded In one day was ii-88 in. at Agumbi, in the 

 Shimoga district, on July 24 ; In the previous year 

 the heaviest fall was 15-40 in. at Nagar on June 20, 

 The mean rainfall for the year in the State was 

 2896 in., whilst the average is 3607 in.; in 1919 the 

 mean for the State was 3897 In. There was a 

 deficiency of rainfall in 1920 in every district, ranging 

 from 6 per cent, in the Shimoga district to 49 per 

 cent, in Tumkur. Data are given showing the 

 monthly rainfall for the several districts and the mean 

 percentage departure from the average. Similar in- 

 formation Is given for the seasonal rainfall, the four 

 seasons into which the year is divided being cokl- 

 weather period, January and February; hot-weather 

 period, March, April, and May ; south-west-monsoon 

 period, June, July, August, and September ; and the 

 retreating south-west-monsoon period, October, 

 November, and December. In the hot-weather period, 

 the south-west-monsoon period, and the north-east- 

 monsoon period there was a general shortage of rain. 

 Rainfall Is collated for the several river-basins for 

 1920 and compared with the average fall for twenty- 

 seven vears, 1893-1919. The monthly average fall Is 

 given for each station. The average rainfall for the 

 year ranges from 316-50 In. at Agumbi, in the 

 Shimoga district, to i<-6i in. at Nayakanhatti, In the 

 Chltaldrug district. The geographical distribution of 

 rain In 1020 and the average are well shown in two 

 maps at the end of the report. 



