476 



NATURE 



[March 41, 1901 



rise to the Metatheria, whose specialised representatives are the 

 marsupials ; while the Eutheria, specialised into modern pla- 

 centals, are likewise an offshoot from the Metatheria. This 

 phylogeny, thinks the author, is the most probable of all. It is 

 urged that the imperfect placenta of the bandicoots, instead of 

 being, as considered by Mr. Hill, vestigial, may be an instance 

 of parallelism, and that in marsupials generally the allantois 

 failed to form a placental connection. Owing to the antiquity 

 of both placentals and marsupials, the arboreal character of the 

 feet of the modern forms of the latter is of little importance. 

 Further, it is considered that too much importance has been 

 assigned to the characters distinguishing monotremes from other 

 mammals ; foetal marsupials showing a monotreme type of cora- 

 coid, while it is probable that in the long run it will be found 

 impossible to maintain the essential dissimilarity between the 

 milk-glands of monotremes and those of other mammals. 



Another paper in the same issue of the American Naturalist , 

 by Mr. A. E. Ortman, deals with the subject of the geogra- 

 phical distribution of animals and plants, its title being the 

 " Theories of the Origin of the Antarctic Faunas and Floras." 

 Sir Joseph Hooker first, and the late Dr. L. Rutimeyer second, 

 are credited with being the pioneers of the idea of the essential 

 unity of the southern faunas. Rutimeyer, indeed, distinctly 

 states that ' ' we should take a part of the present faunas of South 

 America, South Africa and Australia for remnants of an old 

 fauna that spread over a large extent of the Antarctic continent, 

 and that this Antarctic continent was the centre of origin of a 

 peculiar Antarctic fauna." Here it may be appropriately 

 mentioned that Dr. Stejneger, in a paper in the same journal, 

 feeling, like many other writers, the urgent want of a word 

 denoting both fauna and flora collectively, proposes the term 

 " Biota" to fill the gap. If this were adopted, he adds, " biotic 

 would then signify ' pertaining to or treating of a biota,' as, a 

 biotic publication, a biotic region." 



In continuation of his earlier researches, Dr. Carl Sapper 

 contributes a paper on the ethnography of southern Central 

 America to the February number of Peiermann's Mitteilungen. 

 The paper gives an account of the languages of the region, with 

 a 'map showing their distribution in 1899, and a comparative 

 review of the civilisations of the different Indian tribes. 



Dr. Emil Schlagintweit returns to the question of the 

 name of the highest mountain in the world in an article in the 

 current number of Petermann^ s Mitteilungen. After discussing 

 specially the Tibetan names Chomo Kankar and Tsering chenga, 

 strictly Jomo gangs dkar and Thse ring mched Inga, Dr. 

 S.chlagintweit reasserts his former decision in favour of the name 

 Gaurisankar- Everest. 



The Verhandlungen of the Berlin Gesellschaft fUr Erdkunde 

 contains a paper on the geological history of the North German 

 plain, by Prof. Wahnschaffe. An excellent summary is given 

 of recent additions to our knowledge of the glacial phenomena 

 of this region, especially those derived from deep borings. The 

 Zeitschrift of the same society contains two important papers, 

 one on the country and people of north-eastern Tibet, by Dr. 

 K. Futterer, and a discussion of Dr. S. Passarge's observations 

 of atmospheric pressure and temperature in the Lake Ngami 

 region as applied to the determination of heights, by Herr G. 

 von Eisner. 



The report of the Danish Meteorological Institute on the ice 

 of the Arctic seas during 1900 has just been issued. With the 

 support of the Seventh International Geographical Congress the 

 Institute has been enabled to make this report fuller than in 

 former years ; not only is full information given from the 

 Atlantic-Arctic waters, but a number of observations from the 

 Bering and Beaufort Seas. The general features during the 

 season were — great masses of ice in the north-west part of 

 Barents Sea and round Spitsbergen, considerable masses of ice 

 NO. 1637, VOL. 63] 



in the Kara Sea, less ice than in a normal year between Franz 

 Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya and under the east coast of 

 Greenland, normal conditions off south-west Greenland, and 

 particularly favourable conditions off Labrador and in Baffin's 

 Bay. 



In the third part of his " Geology of the Boston Basin," Mr. 

 W. O. Crosby deals with "The Blue Hills Complex" 

 {Occasional Papers, Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 1900). This com- 

 plex is the area of granitic rocks and associated Cambrian strata 

 in eastern Massachusetts, which includes the Blue Hills and the 

 country eastwards to Quincy and the northern parts of Braintree 

 and Weymouth. In this region is the famous quarry which 

 yielded Paradoxides Harlani of the Middle Cambrian, but the 

 Lower Cambrian with Olenellus is likewise represented. No 

 recognisable trace of the floor upon which the Cambrian strata 

 were deposited has been discovered, but that Upper Cambrian 

 or Potsdam strata exist, or formerly existed, in the region is 

 evidenced by fossiliferous pebbles in the Carboniferous rocks, 

 which, together with drift deposits, occupy much of the ground. 

 The Cambrian strata were strongly folded and invaded by great 

 bodies of igneous rocks not later than Devonian times. All 

 these rocks and the effects of metamorphism are fully described 

 and illustrated. The author also discusses the relations of the 

 Blue Hills complex to the peneplains of eastern Massachusetts, 

 and to the Glacial phenomena of the area. The palaeontology 

 of the Cambrian strata is dealt with by Mr. A. W. Grabau, and 

 the leading fossils are figured. 



A NEW part of the revised second edition of Prof. Arnold 

 Lang's " Lehrbuch der vergleichenden Anatomie der wirbel- 

 losen Thiere," dealing with the Protozoa, has been received 

 from the publisher, Mr. Gustav Fischer, Jena. The book has 

 been completely revised and partly rewritten. 



The Monist for January contains the translation of an address, 

 by Prof. Ludwig Boltzmann, on " The Recent Development of 

 Method in Theoretical Physics." This address was originally 

 delivered at the congress of the Gesellschaft deutscher Natur- 

 forscher und Aerzte in Munich in September 1899. 



A NEW meteorological journal has been established under the 

 title Climate,vi\t\\ Mr. N. A. Demchinsky as editor. The period- 

 ical will appear twice a month, and all its contents will be in four 

 languages — Russian, German, French and English. The chief 

 object is to apply to weather prediction Mr. Demchinsky's 

 theory that the moon is the chief factor in meteorological 

 changes. 



A LIST of the birds of the Bristol district is given in the 

 volume of Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists' Society (vol. ix. 

 part 2) just published. Other papers are on a Rhsetic section 

 at Redland — a suburb of Bristol, by Mr. W. H. Wickes, with 

 additional observations on the beds, by Mr. J. Parsons, and on 

 Triassic deposits at Emborough, by Prof. Lloyd Morgan, F. R. S. , 

 and Mr. S. H. Reynolds. 



The second part of the report on a bathymetrical survey 

 of the fresh-water lochs of Scotland, by Sir John Murray, 

 K.C.B., F.R.S., and the late Mr. Fred P. Pullar, appears in 

 the March number of the Geographical Journal. An account 

 of the first part-of the survey was given in Nature of May 17, 

 1900 (vol. Ixii. p. 65). The second part treats of the remaining 

 lochs of the drainage basin of the Forth, viz., Loch Chon, with 

 Lochan Dubh, Loch Ard, and Lake of Mentieth in Perthshire, 

 and Loch Leven in Kinross-shire. The same number of the 

 Journal contains a report of the special meeting held to com- 

 memorate the progress of geographical discovery during the 

 Victorian reign. 



The general appendix to the annual report of the Smithsonian 

 Institution for 1898, which has just been received, consists of 



