June 3, 1920] 



NATURE 



433 



mongers who, if they have wasted our time in the 

 pamphlets they thrust upon us, at least in some 

 degree condone this nuisance by the amusement which 

 they supply." 



Sir W. Ridge way and Dr. L. D. Barnett have 

 reprinted a paper read by them before the Cambridge 

 Philological Society on "The Origin of the Hindu 

 Drama: Additional Evidence." The theory that this 

 type of drama had its origin in dances connected with 

 the cult of the dead is supported by a new series of 

 facts. Krishna, whether he be regarded as a deity 

 from all time or merely a vegetation abstraction, was, 

 as was suggested by S. L^vi in 1892, the chief element 

 in the Hindu drama. The defeat of the Asura demons 

 by Indra took a dramatic form, in which the god's 

 flagstaff became the emblem of the stage, recalling 

 the pole known to the Japanese as Mitegura, " Lordly- 

 Cloth-seat," and to the Chinese Gohei, " Imperial 

 Presence." In the same way the Vir, or spirits of 

 men who died on the battlefield, are "danced" by 

 the Mahrattas. Other evidence to the same effect 

 has been collected from other parts of India, and the 

 writers sum up the discussion by remarking that 

 " there can therefore be no longer any doubt that 

 Hindu serious drama arose in the worship of the 

 dead." 



In the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries 

 of Ireland (vol. xlix., part 2, December, 1919) Mr. 

 R. J. Kelly, K.C., discusses the question of the 

 famous Donnybrook Fair. On the authority of the 

 great Irish scholar. Dr. Todd, the name seems to be 

 derived from Domhnach broc, "the Church of Broc," 

 a saint who seems to have flourished before the 

 eighth century. By a charter of Prince John, bearing 

 date 1 192, the city of Dublin was authorised to estab- 

 lish a fair "at Doniburn annually to continue for 

 eight days on the Feast of the Invention of the Holy 

 Cross," and this was confirmed by a charter, 26th 

 of Henry III., dated 1241. The rude merriment, 

 crime, and degradation which occurred during the 

 fair finally led to its abolition in 1855, after it had 

 lasted nearly six and a half centuries. Mr. Kelly's 

 article contains an excellent collection of extracts 

 from contemporary writers describing the famous fair. 

 Further details are given in the same issue of the 

 journal in an article by Mr. H. Bantry White on 

 "An Old House at Donnybrook," 



Miss Anne L. Massy gives (Sc. Proc. Roy. Dublin 

 See., vol. xvi., No. 4, April, 1920) a revised list of 

 the twenty-five species of Holothurioidea ("sea- 

 cucumbers ") of the coasts of Ireland. Since the pub- 

 lication in 1905 of Mr. Kemp's paper on the Echino- 

 derms of the west coast of Ireland, the naturalists 

 of the Fisheries Branch of the Department of Agri- 

 culture have taken three sjsecies of Holothurians 

 which are new to the British and Irish area, namely, 

 Stichopus regalis, Mesothuria Verrilli, and Benthogone 

 rosea. The first of these occurs in the Mediterranean, 

 and is known as far south as the Canaries, but has 

 not hitherto been observed north of the Bay of Biscay. 

 The other two appear to inhabit the warmer parts 

 of the Atlantic, and probably reach their northern 

 limit at about 52° N. I 



NO. 2640, VOL. 105] 



Dr. H. a. Pilsbry's "Review of the Land Mollusks 

 of the Belgian Congo, chiefly based on the Collections 

 of the American Museum Congo Expedition, 1909- 

 1915 " (Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural 

 History, vol. xl., art. i, 1919), is a very important 

 contribution to our knowledge of the African fauna. 

 The collections on which it is based are very exten- 

 sive, comprising more than 6000 specimens represent- 

 ing 214 species and subspecies, and a complete record 

 of all the land molluscs hitherto known from the 

 region (compiled by Dr. J. Bequaert) is included. 

 Large numbers of carefully preserved spirit-specimens 

 were available, and Dr. Pilsbry was able to study 

 the anatomy of the soft parts with important results. 

 In the case of the Helicidae, of which the tropical 

 African representatives have hitherto been known by 

 the shells alone, he has been able to show that their 

 affinities are not, as had been supposed, with the 

 European genera of the family, but with the Asiatic. 

 The field notes are contributed by Mr. Herbert Lang, 

 whose account of the bionomics, economic uses, and 

 folk-lore of the giant Achatinidae is of particular 

 interest. His remarks on the dispersal of certain 

 species over large areas by the agency of man are 

 worthy of note as having possibly a wider application. 

 The memoir is very fully illustrated, and some of the 

 coloured plates are of exceptional beauty. 



Wk seem to have much to learn about even the 

 commonest of marine organisms, and the exceedingly 

 abundant and almost cosmopolitan protozoon Nocti- 

 luca — a frequent cause of luminescence in the sea — 

 has just received at the hands of Prof. C. A. Kofoid, 

 of the University of California, a new interpretation 

 which, if accepted, will necessitate a change in classi- 

 fication involving the removal of that supposed 

 Cystoflagellate from its accustomed position and 

 its incorporation in another group of the Flagel- 

 lata (" Noctiluca," Univ. of Cal, Publicns. in 

 Zool., vol, xix., No. 10, February, 1920). Prof. 

 Kofoid is the recognised authority on the groups in 

 question, and no one is more competent to express 

 an opinion on the matter. In describing several new 

 and remarkable genera of the Dinoflagellata from the 

 Pacific related to Gymnodinium, he points out that 

 Noctiluca may have its essential morphological 

 characters homologised with those of various new 

 highly specialised tentacle-bearing forms, such as 

 Pavillardia tentaculifera. Noctiluca, then, according 

 to these new investigations, is not exceptional amongst 

 Dinoflagellates in bearing a tentacle, and may be inter- 

 preted as having a girdle, a sulcus, and two flagella 

 like any other more ordinary Peridinian. The state- 

 ment, however, that the "tooth" or prehensile organ 

 represents the degenerate transverse flagellum may 

 possibly be regarded as open to doubt. The accept- 

 ance of this work means that the order Cystoflagel- 

 lata, established by Haeckel in 1878 for the reception 

 of Noctiluca, and adopted by most writers since, 

 should be either suppressed or emended. Noctiluca 

 is no longer its type for text-book and lecture. 



A CONCISE record of botanical exploration in Chile 

 and Argentina is given in the Kew Bulletin (1920, 

 No. 2) by W. B. Turrill, Among the earliest explorers 



