192 



NATURE 



[November 8, 191; 



the last-named pamphlet will be surprised to learn of 

 the number of species of centipedes and millipedes 

 which are recorded as accidental inhabitants of the 

 human intestine. 



The extreme severity of the winter of 1916-17 levied 

 a heavy toll on the birds throughout the British 

 Islands, and it seems to have borne.no less heavily. on 

 our native flora. Not even Ireland escaped. Mr. 

 C. B. Moffat has already placed on record a number 

 of observations as regards the birds of Ireland, and he 

 now follows these up with a similar survey of the 

 havoc wrought among the native plants of Co. Wex- 

 ford. In the Irish Naturalist for October he tells us 

 that at least five species of plants have been so reduced 

 that it seems doubtful whether they will recover their 

 former plenty. These are the weld {Reseda luteola), 

 pale-flowered flax (Linum angustifolium), lleabane 

 {Fulicaria dysenterica), greater broomrape {Orobanche 

 major), and the lesser broomrape (O. minor). 



A VALUABLE and illuminating summary of what is 

 known of the habits and migrations of Chimaerae off 

 the Scandinavian coasts and the northern waters of our 

 own shores is given by Prof. D'Arcy Thompson in the 

 Scottish Naturalist for October. Though his survey 

 includes two species, Chimaera monstrosa and C. 

 mirabilis, his remarks are mainly concerned with the 

 former species. Hitherto it has been generally sup- 

 posed that this spawned only in deep water, but it is 

 now shown to spawn off the Norwegian coasts in 

 shallow water in winter-time, and to migrate to the 

 depths during spring and summer. Prof. Thompson 

 is disposed to regard these migrations as governed by 

 ternperature rather than by the search for food ; for the 

 species shows a partiality for cold or cool water, and 

 while in general it finds this optimum temperature in 

 the deeper waters outside the continental shelf, so also 

 it finds it in winter, but then only in the shallow 

 coastal waters of Norway. Many gaps, however, in our 

 knowledge of these migrations yet remain to be filled ; 

 for it is pK>inted out that from its occurrence more or 

 less all the year round off the south-west of Ireland 

 we are precluded from supposing that the various 

 localities where the soecies has been found lie in one 

 continuous and regular route of migration. We cannot 

 correlate what we know of it in Norway, in the northern 

 North Sea, and off the Hebrides with what we know 

 of it in the Bay of Biscay, the south-west of Ireland, 

 and the Faroe Channel. It seems, on the whole, prob- 

 able that in its rrore southern and more western 

 habitats the habits of the species are different from 

 those in the north ; that it is here confined to 

 deeper waters, but that it tends to resort periodically 

 to still deeper parts of the ocean, where it chiefly 

 spawns. 



Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist has sent to us a note on 

 luminosity in South African earthworms. He refers to 

 the Rev. Hilderic Friend's interesting letter in Nature 

 (vol. xlvii., 1893, p. 462) for earlier records, and states 

 that other cases have been noticed since then. 

 Opinions are, however, divided as to the source of the 

 phosphorescence, the latest suggestion being that it is 

 due to luminous fungi. During a dark and damp even- 

 ing. Dr. Gilchrist observed bright patches on the ground 

 in a pinewood on the slopes of Table Mountain. These 

 were traced to earthworms, specimens of which when 

 dug up discharged a viscid luminous fluid from the 

 mouth, and usually from the anus as well. Phos- 

 phorescent patches seen on the body were attributed to 

 portions of this discharge, perhaps scattered by the 

 movements of the worm ; but they may have been due to 

 something given out, from an injury to the body. The 

 luminous discharge contained numerous nucleated, 



NO. 2506, VOL. 100] 



granular cells, some of which showed active move- 

 ments, and resembled Gregarines. Dr. Gilchrist 

 thinks he has found sporoblasts and spores which 

 confirm this view of their natufe. The proof that 

 the cells were luminous was obtained by examining 

 them under the microscope, in a dark room, by means 

 of their own "light. The fluid containing them, when 

 dried at 60° C, recovered its luminosity when 

 breathed on or otherwise moistened. A useful survey 

 of what is known in regard to the production of light 

 by animals will be found in papers by Prof. U. Dahl- 

 gren, referred to in recent volumes of Nature (voL 

 xcvii., p. 146; vol. xcix., pp. 191, 430). 



With the continued, improvement of cytological 

 methods our knowledge of the minute details of the 

 growth and maturation of the germ-cells is constantly 

 increasing. At first attention was focussed upon the 

 remarkable changes undergone by the nucleus and the 

 mechanism of nuclear division during these processes^ 

 with results which are now well known to every 

 serious student. More recently a large amount of 

 laborious research has been devoted to the behaviour 

 of the cytoplasm and its various inclusions — mito- 

 chondria, macromitosomes, micromitosomes, acro- 

 blasts and acrosomes, to mention only some of the 

 numerous terms employed by recent investigators. The 

 story of the behaviour of these enigmatical bodies is 

 scarcely less remarkable than that of the behaviour 

 of the nucleus, and may well be regarded as affording 

 some justification for the view that the cytoplasm 

 plays an important part in the transmission of in- 

 herited characters. To those who have not follojved 

 the gradual elaboration of this story by various writers 

 a memoir in the current number of the Quarterly 

 Journal of Microscopical Science (vol. Ixii., part 3), by 

 Mr. J. Bronte Gatenby, will come almost as a revela- 

 tion. It deals with the cytoplasmic inclusions of the 

 germ-cells in Lepidoptera, a subject which is far too 

 complex to be adequately summarised in this place. 

 This memoir is a veritable triumph of microscopical 

 technique, and the numerous figures by which it is 

 illustrated are remarkably beautiful and convincing. 

 As a clear exposition of the latest views on the subject, 

 as well as for the sake of the new results which it 

 deals with, it should meet with a hearty welcome from 

 all biological students. 



Agricultural problems are largely represented in 

 recent numbers of the Atti dei Lincei. Thus Prof. 

 Alfonso Splendore (vol. xxv., 2, p. 12) describes re- 

 searches on the bacterial parasites of the field mouse 

 (Patymys) with a view to their application to the 

 extermination of these pests. The parasitic fungi 

 which give rise to the so-called "ink disease" in 

 chestnut trees are discussed by Dr. L. Petri in the 

 same number. Dr. Mario Topi (vol. xxvi., i, p. 4) 

 gives statistics showing the effect of arseniate of lead 

 and tobacco in destroying the larvae of the Tineae, , 

 which attack vines. Dr. Benjamino Peyronel (vol. 

 xxvi., p. 9) describes a potato disease new to Italy, 

 due to the fungus Spondylocladiutn atrovirens, wh.ich 

 was first discovered in Vienna on the tubers of pota- 

 toes in 1872, and described by Johnson as 

 occurring in Ireland in 1903. It would appear, how- 

 ever, that though this fungus is difficult to destroy 

 chemically, its effects on the tubers are mainly super- 

 ficial. In a later number (vol. xxvi., p. 11) Prof. Vit- 

 torio Peglion discusses the Peronospora of the hemp 

 {P. cannabina), which is referred to a new subgenus, 

 and of which the life-history is, still in doubt. 

 The same writer, in a later number (vol. xxvi., i, 

 p. 12) discusses the gummy fungus which is at 

 i present threatening the apricot trees in Emilia, and is 



