ULY 31, I919] 



NATURE . 



433 



many accounts of the Ainu, those of the Kurile 

 Islands have been strangely neglected, but that they 

 form an important factor in the study of this remark- 

 able people. This claim is fully justified by the appear- 

 uice of this elaborate account of them, dealing with 

 heir history, linguistics, sociology, customs, and 

 -uperstitions. It is illustrated by thirty-eight pages 

 uf photographs and by numerous drawings in the text. 



Ix Norway, as elsewhere, the little Scrophulariaceous 

 ilant Euphrasia, best known to us as the common 

 < yebright, is extraordinarily variable. The numerous 

 forms that have been described, notably by R. v. Wett- 

 stein, may be due in part to local influences, differ- 

 ences of moisture, and the like, and appear to revert 

 to the norm when withdrawn from the action of such 

 influences. Other forms seem to be more permanent, 

 and may be definite mutations provoked by differences 

 of climate in different districts or changes of climate 

 in past time, or by other physical changes in the 

 environment. Such forms may be regarded as true 

 species or sub-species. Yet other forms are probably 

 hybrids between those last mentioned, and, though of 

 apparently constant recurrence, would be susceptible 

 to Mendelian analysis. Before such analysis is under- 

 taken it is certainlv helpful to have a very exact 

 systematic survey of all the variations that occur in 

 a state of nature; and this is the task that has 

 been accomplished for the Norwegian species 

 by Mr. E. Jdrgensen, whose results have just 

 been published in Bergens Museums Aarbok, 1916-17 

 (Naturvidenskabelig Raekke, 2 Hefte, 337 pp.> 

 II maps, 14 pis., 11)19). The main text, which is 

 in German, is also illustrated by enlarged diagrams of 

 detail, and there is an English summary. The author 

 recognises five species, with sub-species, forms, and 

 sub-forms, all belonging to the sub-genus Eueuphrasia, 

 Wettst., section S< micalcaratae. 



Light has been thrown upon a very fascinating 

 theme by the publication of Dr.' Gilchrist's paper on 

 • Luminosity and its Origin in a South African Earth- 

 worm " (Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Africa, vol. vii., part 3, 

 1919, pp. 203-12, pi. xxiv.). We have but one regret: 

 the species of Chilota which displayed the pheno- 

 menon in so marked a degree is not identified. So 

 long ago as 1900 no fewer than thirty species had 

 been described. Chilota is nearly related to Photo- 

 drilus, Giard, and one species of this genus is now 

 known as Microscolex phosphoreus on account of its 

 luminous properties. Until each species known to be 

 luminous has been definitely determined, we shall 

 always have confusion. But in regard both to the 

 information given and to the inferences or conclusions 

 drawn therefrom, Dr. Gilchrist's paper is a decided 

 advance on its predecessors. Fungi, bacteria, gre- 

 garines, and other lowly organisms have been regarded 

 as agents in the production of luminosity, and the 

 author not only states the case as it formerly stood, 

 but also gives a very clear and instructive view of his 

 own observations and findings. The fluid exuded was 

 subjected to a variety of tests, and found to consist 

 mostlv of single cells heavily laden with inclusions 

 of different kinds. "The luminosity is given out by 

 the inclusions of small size, and these seem to be of 

 a substance allied to fat, by the oxidation of which 

 light is produced." 



The Weekly Bulletin of the Hawaiian Volcano 

 Observatory records in vol. vii.. No. i, for January, 

 1919, the very considerable appearance of "smoke" 

 that may arise from incandescent lava owing to copious 

 evolution of sulphurous gases. The bulletin continues 

 to give admirable photographs of successive stages of 

 activity in Kilauea. 



NO. 2596, VOL. 103] 



Mr, Thomas Shefpard, well known for his re- 

 searches and historic studies in British stratigraphy, 

 has given an interesting account of " Martin Simpson 

 and his Geological Memoirs " in the Proceedings of 

 the Yorkshire Geological Society (vol. ix., p. 298). 

 Simpson was well known to visitors in the classic 

 surroundings of Whitby, and published a summary of 

 the contents of the VVhitby Museum at the age of 

 ninety-one, a year before his death in 1892. 



In Naturen for April-May, 1919 (fortv-fourlh year, 

 Nos. 4-5), Hr. Olaf Hol'tedahl gives a distinctly 

 original series of maps showing the relations of lanJi 

 and sea "i jordens oldtid " in the North Atlantic 

 region. The "oldtid " dealt with ranges from Ordo- 

 vician to Permian times, and the maps, and the 

 evidence discussed, include the whole North Polar 

 area and that down to Newfoundland and the British 

 Isles. The maps, if enlarged, would make an excel- 

 lent series of lecture-diagrams. 



The literature of that old and recurrent subject, the 

 origin of flint, is added to by Mr. W. H. Twenhofel 

 in a paper on chert in Kansas and Oklahoma (Amer. 

 Journ. Set., vol. xlvii., p. 407, 1919). The author 

 refers to W. A. Tarr's work (see Nature, vol. ci., 

 p. 174), but does not seem to have considered the 

 formation of flint-zones by deposition ■ of silica in 

 waters moving at right angles to the stratification. 

 He assigns, at any rate for the region dealt with, an 

 early date in the history of the unconsolidated rock 

 for the growth of flint from silica in solution in the 

 sea. 



In a paper recently received (Academie d'Agriculture 

 de France, October 23, 1918) Prof. J. Mascart, the 

 director of Lyons Observatory, has directed attention 

 to the exceptional nature of the two winters 19 16-17 

 and 1917-18 in that neighbourhood. Both produced 

 cold sp>ells of unusual severity, and the sequence of 

 two such winters following one another appears 

 to be almost unique. In the winter of 1916-17 

 the autumn might be said to be prolonged to 

 January 15, after which, with two brief excep- 

 tions, temperature remained low until April 28, 

 falling at times below —20° C. over extended 

 regions. Thereafter the first fifteen days of May 

 were very warm, so that the season of spring was 

 entirely suppressed. The features of the following 

 winter were very different ; there was a cold spell 

 from mid-October to mid-January, after which the 

 weather became mild until the end of March, the 

 break in January being of a very pronounced 

 character. Thus the lowest temperature of the winter 

 occurred on January 5, -171° C, and the mean tem- 

 perature of that day was —11-2° C. On Januarv 20 

 the mean was no less than -t-ii-7° C, or 22-9'* C. 

 above that of January 5. This difference is greater 

 than that between the mean coldest and the mean 

 warmest days of the year. Attention is directed to the 

 fart that the two winters were almost inverse, so that 

 mean temperature from the two combined would have 

 shown little of note. In considering the effect of such 

 winters on fruit-trees and crops the difficulty of 

 eliminating other factors is pointed out, and it is 

 suggested that close collaboration between agriculturists 

 and meteorologists is necessary to arrive at any con- 

 clusion of value. 



.•\ VALUABLE article on the mechanical extraction of 

 coir is published in the Philippine Journal of Science 

 (November, 1918); also one on the mechanical pro- 

 perties of Philippine coir and coir-cordage. The same 

 issue also deals with steaming tests of Philippine 

 coals. 



