December 6, 191 7] 



NATURE 



western. Set was certainly brought into Egypt by 

 the desert road, as he had there two centres of the 

 first class, and he was introduced by the Red Sea way 

 to the Eastern Delta. The distribution of the Osiride 

 triad indicates a settlement so early in the land that the 

 worship was generally diffused. Prof. Petrie sums up 

 his article thus : "The geography of the worship of the 

 gods is thus seen to have a considerable value his- 

 torically, as bearing on their origin and connections. 

 When "more complete research into the localities of 

 various uncertain names may extend our identifica- 

 tions, it will be possible to get more light on the 

 sources of Egyptian mythology." 



Ornithologists will be grateful to Capt. Hugh Glad- 

 stone for his able summary of the life of John Hunt 

 (1777-1842) which appears in British Birds for Novem- 

 ber. John Hunt's "British Ornithology" is a book of 

 great rarity and some merit, but it seems never to have 

 been completed, owing perhaps to the fact that late in 

 life he emigrated to America. But Hunt's claim to a 

 place of honour among British ornithologists does not 

 rest alone on this work, the principal theme of ^ the 

 present communication, which is to be completed in a 

 ifurther instalment. 



Students of bionomics will find much interesting 

 anatter in the Scottish Naturalist for November, 

 wherein Dr. Eagle Clarke gives the first instalment of 

 a study of the wild life in a West Highland deer 

 forest. ' These mountainous tracts, he remarks, may 

 be regarded as Nature reserves, retaining still much 

 of their primitive wildness owing to the fact that it is 

 beyond the power of man to effect any material change 

 In the barrenness imposed by their physical conditions. 

 The Corrour Forest, which he so sympathetically 

 interprets, is of great extent, and lies amid some of 

 the wildest mountain country in Great Britain. In 

 . his survey he divides the forest into three zones — the 

 alpine, the sub-alpine, and the valley zone — giving an 

 analysis of the fauna, resident and migratory, of 

 each. Incidentally, of necessity, he describes the flora 

 also, but only in its relation to animal life. In the 

 same number the Misses Rintoul and Baxter record 

 some extremely interesting observations on the autumn 

 displays of some of our native birds. Records of 

 isolated cases by E. Selous, J. E. Millais, and H. Eliot 

 Howard can now be compared with the much more 

 extensive collection here brought together, but their 

 precise significance seems as elusive as ever. 



The Journal of Agricuitiiral Research (vol. x.. 

 No. 4) contains a further important contribution by 

 E. B. Hart, E. V. McCollum, and other colleagues 

 to the question of the physiological effect on growth 

 and reproduction of rations balanced from restricted 

 sources. Previous work has indicated that a ration 

 can be complete and efficient only when it 

 contains protein of adequate quantity and quality, 

 adequate energy, mineral ingredients in proper 

 quantity and proportion, and two factors (vita- 

 mines) of unknown constitution which have 

 been temporarily designated as "fat-soluble A" 

 and " water-soluble B." Later work now indicates 

 that to these must be added the important factor of 

 direct toxicity. This can be wholly absent or so mild 

 in its effects as to be entirely obscured when the other 

 essentials of a ration are at an optimum adjustment; 

 or with fair adjustment it may only reveal its effects 

 when the ration is continued over a very long time 

 and the animal involved in the extra strains of repro- 

 duction and milk secretion. Rations composed ex- 

 clusively of wheat products (grain and straw) did not 

 sustain growth with Holstein heifers. Such animals 

 also failed to show oestrus and could not be bred. 

 Marked pathological conditions resulted, such as 



NO. 2510, VOL. 100] 



blindness, feeble and emaciated condition, and abnormal 

 excitability followed by collapse. The responsibility 

 was found /to be due in part to the inadequate saJt 

 mixture provided by the ration, and in part to inherent 

 toxicity "in the grain. By the use of maize stover or 

 alfalfa hay as roughage in place of the wheat straw 

 growth was sustained, but reproduction was only par- 

 tially successful, weakness commonly appearing ih the 

 second gestation. Maize grain plus wheat straw 

 allowed sustained growth, but at a slow rate. Addi- 

 tions of salts to this ration made it normal. Addition 

 of wheat embryo to a maize ration caused disturb- 

 ances, bringing about early abortions, thus indicating 

 a high content of the toxic material in the wheat 

 kernel. 



The report of the Government Cinchona Plantations 

 and Factory in Bengal for the year 1916-17, being the 

 fifty-fifth annual report, is, as usual, a very interesting 

 and instructive document and a remarkable record of 

 efficiency. From it we learn that the acreage under 

 Cinchona has been increased to 2405^ acres, as against 

 the 2295 acres under cultivation the previous year. 

 Figures are given showing the profits of the under- 

 taking during the period 1900-17. For an outlay of 

 44,84,100 rupees the Government has received 

 51,24,900 rupees, and has acquired entirely within the 

 period 1905-17 additions to factory buildings, etc., 

 which have quintupled the 1900 output, a large reserve 

 of quinine, 2738 acres afforested with timber and fuel 

 trees, the 2405^ acres of Cinchona, and a large out- 

 put of other manufactured products, making a total 

 return in cash and readily realisable assets of 

 1,17,66,634 rupees. Among other medicinal plants 

 grown are Digitalis, Chenopodiurh atnbrosioides , and 

 Ipecacuanha. 



We welcome the first number of a new journal, 

 Psychobiology, to be published bi-monthly by the Wil- 

 liams and VVilkins Co., Baltimore, U.S.A. (London 

 agents, Cambridge University Press; price per volume, 

 23s. net), devoted to the field common to psycho- 

 logy and the biological sciences. It will concentrate 

 attention on the interconnection of mental and physio- 

 logical functions, holding firm to the conception of the 

 organism as a unity. It is edited by Prof. Knight 

 Dunlap, in association with Profs. J. J. Abel, W. B. 

 Cannon, R. Dodge, S. I. Franz, H. S. Jennings, and 

 G. H. Parker — a strong editorial board. In the first 

 number S. I. Franz and K. S. Lashley show that in 

 the white rat removal of large parts of the frontal 

 portions of the bram does not greatly interfere with 

 a learned reaction; D. I. Macht and S. Isaacs discuss 

 the influence of some opium alkaloids on the psycho- 

 logical reaction time; R. Ogden and S. I. Franz deal 

 with recovery from experimentally produced hemi- 

 plegia; Prof. J. B. Watson relates experiments which 

 show that the delaying of the nutritive reward for 

 thirty seconds after rats solved a problem box did 

 not alter the learning process; and the editor suggests 

 the theory that the effect of pleasure in "fixing" a 

 reaction may be due to the liberation of a specific 

 hormone, which need not necessarily come from a 

 gland. The whole number is interesting, and we wish 

 the new venture success. 



The outlook of chemistry in the United States, with 

 sj>ecial reference to the resources of this science in war 

 and peace, is discussed by Prof. Julius Stieglitz in his 

 presidential address to the American Chemical Society, 

 published in Science for October 5. Prof. Stieglitz 

 urges for the United States what has been advocated 

 for this country — a declaration of chemical independ- 

 ence. From a chemist's point of view the first con- 

 sideration necessary for this purpose is that the manu- 

 facturer should reckon the chemist "worthy of his 

 hire." The tendencv hitherto has been to treat the 



