January 22, 1920] 



NATURE 



541 



and educated at Queen's University, Belfast, from 

 which he received degrees in both law and theology. 

 During his student days he was twice a gold medallist 

 of the college. He was called to Princeton in 1875, 

 during the administration of President McCosh. 

 Since 1907 Prof. Macloskie had been professor 

 emeritus of biology in Princeton University. He is 

 best known for his work on the flora of Patagonia. 



The Times of January 21 contains the following 

 announcement with reference to the Dartmoor hydro- 

 electric supply scheme : — " In deference to the opposi- 

 tion from the Duchy of Cornwall and the Devon 

 County Council, the promoters have decided to drop 

 that part of the Hydro-electric Bill by which they 

 sought to utilise Dartmoor water for generating elec- 

 tricity. They will modify the Bill to restrict their 

 powers to erecting overhead mains for supplying to 

 consumers such surplus power beyond the require- 

 ments of their proposed copper-refining industry in 

 mid-Devon, which they produce from lignite beds they 

 intend to develop." 



Strong earthquakes continue to be felt in Mexico. 

 At La Fragua, in the State of Puebla, shocks have 

 been almost continuous since the great earthquake of 

 January 3. At Coatzlan, another shock occurred on 

 January 9, by which the destruction of the town was 

 completed. San Joaquin, a village of 3000 inhabitants 

 in the State of Vera Cruz, was destroyed bv an earth- 

 quake on the morning of January 12. On January 8 

 the volcano of San Miguel, 35 miles north-east 

 of Cordoba, broke into eruption ; streams of lava 

 flowed down the south-«ast side of the mountain, de- 

 stroying villages and ranches. 



.According to the Bulletin of the Science Division 

 of the Royal Academy of Belgium for March, 1919, 

 at the meeting on March i it was decided : — (i) To 

 break off relations and exchange of publications with 

 the scientific societies of Germany, Austria, Hungary, 

 and Turkey. {2) To employ only booksellers to pro- 

 cure such publications as shall be considered strictly 

 necessary, whatever be the additional cost involved. 

 (3) Not to send any publication to the men of science 

 of the above nations. (4) To decline and return to 

 the societies or authors of the above countries any 

 publications sent to the academy. 



An interesting interview with Prof. Einstein ap- 

 peared in the Daily Chronicle of January 15. A 

 German by birth, Prof. Einstein went to Switzerland 

 in his early youth, where he became naturalised. For 

 some years he was professor of physics at the Federal 

 Polytechnikum in Ziirich, and for a short time also 

 at the University of Prague. Shortly before the out- 

 break of war he was "called" to the University of 

 Berlin, where he is still working, being at the same 

 time director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for 

 Physical Research. Now little more than forty years 

 of age, this eminent man of science conceived the 

 outlines of the theory of relativity at the early age 

 of eighteen, and presented his special theory to the 

 scientific world at the age of twenty-seven. Prof. 

 Einstein regards Prof. Lorentz (Leyden) as his " co- 

 operator " in the special theory of relativity. He 

 NO. 2621, VOL. 104] 



1 points out that, far from vitiating the results of 

 I Newton, the theory of relativity rather enhances the 

 greatness of this genius. Though these new ideas 

 ! will not overthrow the general conceptions of man- 

 kind, they will leave their impress on men's thinking 

 in the philosophical and allied sciences. 



For some years there has been a vigorous Phyto- 

 pathological Society in the United States, and recently 

 a Canadian branch of this has been formed, the first 

 annual meeting being held in Ontario. Dr. A. H. R. 

 Buller, formerly of Birmingham University, and now 

 professor of botany in the University of Manitoba, 

 was elected president for 1920. Dr. E. C. Stakman, 

 of Minnesota, was the guest of the society, and gave 

 an account of the very valuable investigations which 

 he and his colleagues have carried out into the races 

 of cereal rust fungi and their bearing on the problems 

 of immunity and susceptibility to disease. Among the 

 attractive list of papers presented to the meeting, those 

 of Mr. J. E. Howitt on "Leaf-roll and Mosaic of Pota- 

 toes" and of Mr. Paul A. Murphy on "Diseases of 

 Potatoes which Cause the Running Out of Seed " may 

 be mentioned. Both are welcome additions to our very 

 meagre knowledge of extremely obscure .subjects of 

 primary importance. There is in this country no society 

 devoting itself exclusively to phytopathology, and 

 perhaps this is well, for we possess already more than 

 enough small specialised organisations running a 

 precarious separate existence. The need is not for 

 increase in their number, but for some kind of amal- 

 gamation or federation of those now existent. The 

 study of diseased crops is merely one branch of 

 applied biology, and this subject is excellently catered 

 for by the Association of Economic Biologists, which 

 performs valuable work in synthesising all the many 

 aspects of investigation which centre round the 

 economic utilisation of plants. 



Powell's classification and map of the linguistic 

 families of America allotted twenty-two families, or 

 parts of f.nmilies, to California. This classification 

 tias hitherto been generally accepted. But in recent 

 years the study of these dialects has been fully inves- 

 tigated by Messrs. R. B. Dixon and A. L. Kroeber, 

 the results of their work being now published in the 

 LIniversity of California Publications in .American 

 .Archaeology and Ethnology (vol. xviii., No. 3, Sep- 

 tember, 1919). It has now become possible to re- 

 group these dialects into seven main groups. The 

 most important of these are the Penutian in the 

 north-western region and the Uto-.Aztekan to the 

 south-west. The remaining language-groups form a 

 sort of fringe round the two greater groups, the most 

 important being the Hokon, and of less extent the 

 Algonkin, .Athabaskan, Yokian, and Lutuamian. Full 

 grammatical details on which this new classification is 

 based are given by Messrs. Dixon and Kroeber. 



Mr. J. W. GowEN has made (Genetics, May, 1919) 

 a biometrical study of the phenomenon of heredity 

 known as crossing-over, basing his conclusions on 

 extensive data derived from the behaviour of the 

 Mendelian factors in the third chromosome of Droso- 

 phila melanngaster. It is shown that double crossing- 



