October i, 1914] 



NATURE 



1:5 



Ores." In 1894 he carried out further research 

 on behalf of the Frankfurt Gold und Silber 

 Scheide-Anstalt, and as a consulting- metallurgfist 

 made repeated voyages to Mexico and other parts 

 of the American continent. 



Mr. Julian was a man of wide scientific know- 

 ledge, a constant attendant at meetings of the 

 British Association, and other scientific societies, 



id he had acquired a wide knowledge of litera- 

 iure. A modest, cheerful man, he made hosts of 

 friends, and after his marriage to a daughter of 

 William Pengelly, the well-known geologist and 

 explorer of Kent's Cavern, his home at Torquay 

 became the centre of much scientific and literary 

 activity. On his last voyage to America, on w-ork 

 connected with a patent case, he perished in the 

 wreck of the Titanic. Though few details of this 

 final tragedy are available, he certainly displayed 

 the heroism and unselfishness which were the 

 leading characteristics of his life. 



In the present memoir compiled by his widow 

 the material is thin, and some of the less important 

 incidents of his life are described with more detail 

 than is necessary'. But in the circumstances this 

 is excusable, and the memoir gives a. vivid sketch 

 of a life devoted to the cause of science and of an 

 amiable and attractive personality. 



A Practical Handbook of the Tropical Diseases 



of Asia and Africa. By Dr. H. C. Lambart. 



Pp. XV + 324+ plates. (London: C. Griffin and 



Co., Ltd., 1914.) Price 85. 6d. net. 

 We are told fti the preface that " the intention of 

 the author has been to show^ at a glance, by its 

 alphabetical arrangement, the diagnosis and treat- 

 ment of the principal tropical diseases ; the sub- 

 jects treated will be found stripped to essentials, 

 and the pages nowhere encumbered with disputed 

 points or theories still sub judice, the book thus 

 being arranged for readiest reference." 



Such works are seldom to be recommended, be- 

 cause they involve too brief and fragmentary a 

 treatment of subjects which must be dealt with 

 thoroughly if they are to be understood at all ; 

 and they are to be recommended still less in 

 medical matters, w^hich are concerned w-ith the 

 life or death of patients. Medical men in the 



opics have enough time at their disposal to read 

 least much fuller text-books than this one, 



hich is apparently designed for the most cursory 

 ^f readers. Thus, the vastly important clinical 

 theme of abscess of the liver, requiring the utmost 

 care in diagnosis and in medical and surgical 

 treatment, is dealt with in three pages (without 

 mention of Rogers's emetin treatment); and the 

 iunior medical man who would trust to this brief 

 ote alone might go very seriously wrong. 



The author, moreover, can scarcely be com- 

 mended for the carefulness of his abstracts, or for 

 his grammar, his drawings, or, indeed, his general 

 design, and the accuracy of many of his state- 

 ments is open to question. The whole work sug- 



f sts a compilation taken down from previous 



xt-books or from lecture-notes ; and the number 

 : similar books on the same subject is already 



'() large. 



XO. 2344, VOL. 94] 



Leitfaden fiir Aquarien- und Terrarien-Freunde. 



By Dr. E. Zernecke. 4, ganzlich neu bearbei- 



tete Auflage von C. Heller und P. Ulmer. Pp. 



vii + 456. (Leipzig: Quelle and Meyer, 1913.) 



Price 7 marks. 

 Dr. Zernecke's handbook for the amateur 

 management of aquaria and the like is full of 

 valuable information. It pays sufficient atten- 

 tion to amphibia, lizards, snakes, and such small 

 deer, and it touches on the salt-water aquarium, 

 but its full strength is concentrated on the popu- 

 lar fresh-water aquarium. Full directions are 

 given for the installation, aeration, sanitation, and 

 general maintenance of this humanising educa- 

 tional instrument, and a host of water-plants, 

 fishes— both native and exotic — and invertebrates 

 of all kinds are introduced with suitable creden- 

 tials and attractive portraits. 



The Continents and Their People: Africa, a 

 Supplementary Geography By J. F. and A. H. 

 Chamberlain. Pp. vii + iio. (New York: The 

 Macmillan Co. London : Macmillan and Co. , 

 Ltd., 1914.) Price ^s. 

 This book provides an account of Africa and its 

 people which serves to supplement the more 

 technical descriptions of the text-book. Oppor- 

 tunity is taken to give a full treatment of the 

 industries dependent on dates and diamonds. The 

 nomenclature of the States should have been 

 brought up to date, and the account of the causes 

 of the Nile flood should be revised. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for 

 opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither 

 can he undertake to return, or to correspond with 

 the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 

 this or any other part of Nature. No notice is 

 taken of anonymous communications.'] 



The Determination of Sex in the Gall-fly, " Neuroterus 

 lenticularis " (" Spathegaster baccarum "). 



It is well-known that many Cynipid gall-flies of the 

 genus Neuroterus (Spathegaster) have two generations 

 in the year, one generation of parthenogenetic females 

 and a second generation of males and sexual females. 

 I have previously shown (Proc. Roy. Soc., 

 B Ixxxii., 1910, p. 88, and B Ixxxiii., 191 1, 

 p. 476) that any individual parthenogenetic 

 female has either only male or only female off^spring, 

 and that the eggs of the male-producers undergo 

 maturation of a different type from those of the 

 female-producers. I suggested that possibly the deter- 

 mination of male-producing or female-producing indi- 

 viduals depended on the existence of two kinds of 

 spermatozoa. Further experiments extending over 

 the last two years have shown that this suggestion is 

 mistaken, and that the difference between the male- 

 producing and female-producing parthenogenetic 

 females is derived from the sexual female parent. It 

 will take several months at least to complete the 

 I cytological investigation of the phenomena which I 

 I have in hand, and therefore it may be of interest 

 ; shortly to record at once the results of the breeding 

 j experiments, for they show a type of sex-determination 

 not previously known in the Hymenoptera. 



