590 



NA TORE 



[October 19, 1893 



We require either striated rock surfaces or boulders, or undoubted 

 roches jnoutonnks, or erratics, which can be proved not to exist 

 safficiently near to have been brought by "creep" or land- 

 slides. In view of these liabilities to error, we may be almost 

 sure that the supposed evidences of glaciation described by the 

 late Mr. Belt in his "Naturalist in Nicaragua" (p. 260), are 

 explicable in the same manner as the Brazilian evidences, since 

 he nowhere found glacial striae or any boulders that could be 

 proved to be true erratics ; and this is the more certain because 

 he himself states (p. 265), " I have myself seen, near Pernam- 

 buco, and in the province of Maranham, in Brazil, a great drift 

 deposit that I believe to be of glacial origin." 



All students of the past and present history of the earth are 

 indebted to Prof. Branner for having relieved them of a great 

 difficulty — a true glacial nightmare — that of having to explain 

 the recent occurrence of glaciatisn on a large scale far within 

 the tropics and on surfaces not much elevated above the sea- 

 level. Alfred R. Wallace. 



Telegony. 



Dr. Romanes' letter inviting a discussion concerning the re- 

 markable phenomenon of telegony will be welcomed by many 

 who have felt that too little notice has been paid by men 

 of science up till now to one of the most obscure problems ol 

 heredity. At the conclusion of his remarks. Dr. Romanes 

 rejects Prof. Weismann's hypothesis that sperm elements 

 are capable of penetrating into the ovary, and fertilising 

 immature ova in situ, on the ground of their obvious incapa- 

 bility of doing so. It seems, however, possible to doubt 

 whether the spermatozoa are so incapable of penetrating such 

 tissues as the stroma surrounding an ovarian follicle. Although, 

 as far as I am aware, the actual penetrating of spermatozoa 

 through ovarian tissues has in no case ever been shown to take 

 place, yet we are bound to take it for granted that in some 

 cases this actually occurs, from facts observed in many Inverte- 

 brata. 



Prof. Whitman, in an exhaustive paper published in the 

 Journal of Morp/tolojry, January 1891, has collected a con- 

 siderable mass of evidence to show that in many widely- 

 differing animal groups the spermatozoa make their way 

 through the external body wall at many different points, usually 

 a large number being bound together to form spermatophores. 

 Perhaps the best examples of animals where this occurs are 

 found among the Turbellarians and Leeches. In these forms 

 the spermatozoa pass directly through the epidermis, basal mem- 

 brane, and the layers of muscular and connective tissue till they 

 reach the body cavity. Here the spermatophores break up, and 

 in some instances the individual spermatozoa undoubtedly must 

 penetrate the wall of the ovary in order to fertilise the ova in 

 situ. 



As in many mammals, the immature ova lie very near the sur- 

 face of the ovary, it does not seem to be beyond possibility that 

 even in the higher vertebrates some similar process may occur. 



On the other hand, as Prof. Weismann points out, if such be 

 the case we should expect to find animals pregnant several times 

 in succession after once being crossed, of which no instance has 

 ever been recorded. 



Dr. Romanes' suggestion that the followers of Weismann 

 may explain the facts of telegony by supposing the spermatozoa 

 to disintegrate and that their "ids" and "determinants" 

 somehow enter the unripe ova, must for the same reason be 

 dismissed as impracticable, unless it be assumed that enough 

 " ids " never reach one egg to supply the place of those " ids " 

 which have been got rid of by the reducing division of the egg 

 nucleus, and would be replaced in the ordinary course of things 

 by the spermatozoon. Such an assumption would be obviously 

 unscientific and unwarrantable. 



It seems, therefore, unsafe, until more definite experimental 

 work has been done with regard to this obscure and interesting 

 problem, to attempt to give any very definite explanation of 

 the facts as they now stand, if we adopt Prof. Weismann's, 

 views as to the continuity of the germ plasm. The facts, as 

 Dr. Romanes very rightly insists upon, show that telegony is 

 on the whole, of very rare occurrence, and on this account it is 

 premature to go so far with Mr. Spencer as to maintain that the 

 few isolated instances of telegony are sufficient to knock down 

 at a blow the far-reaching theories of heredity which Prof. 

 Weismann has put forth. M. D. H. 



September 29. 



The Use of Scientific Terms. 



Prof. Lodge has made a valuable statement regarding 

 scientific terms in last week's Nature as follows: — "The 

 words used in the current language of biology are extremely 

 classical and as unlike the language of daily life as can be con- 

 trived. This is done to keep free from the misunderstandings 

 arising out of the attempt to give to popular words a scientific, 

 i.e. an accurate meaning." Botanists have not always been as 

 careful as Prof. Lodge would have us believe, and as an 

 instance to the contrary I would cite the following : I was 

 recently lecturing on forest utilisation, and used the word bark 

 in its ordinary meaning of the outer envelope of a tree. One 

 of the students in the class interrupted me to point out that I 

 was speaking loosely, as bark is now a scientific term, meaning 

 the transformed outer envelope of a plant, the German iPi7!-,(Y, 

 after the g rowth in it of corky or stony tissues. 



I appealed to the sense of the class as to whether botanists 

 have any right to adopt a common English word for some- 

 thing beyond its ordinary meaning, and the class took my view 

 of the subject unanimously, carrying eventually even the 

 objector with them. 



The substance now scientifically termed hark might be styled 

 rhytidome, as is done in France (vide "Flore Forestiere, " by 

 A. Mathieu, edition 1887, p. 595) ; or can any reader of Nature 

 propose a better term ? W. R, FiSHBR. 



Coopers Hill, October 16. 



Rustless Steel. 



Some months ago I noticed, in The Field, the statement that 

 steel containing twenty per cent, of nickel was free from rust 

 and, on that account, very suitable for the manufacture of small 

 arms of high quality. From its use in the manufacture of 

 ordnance and armour-plate I presume, moreover, that the 

 nickel alloy does not compare unfavourably with ordinary 

 steel in point of tenacity and hardness. 



If this proves to be the case— and it is the object of this 

 letter to elicit the information from some of the numerous 

 readers of Nature — nickel-steel would form an invaluable 

 material for the construction of certain parts of astronomical 

 and geodetic instruments, notably the pivots and axes, which, 

 as made at present, slowly deteriorate from rust when of steel, 

 or from wear when of bronze. With geodetic instruments, 

 continually set up as they are in exposed situations, sometimes 

 near the sea, it is seldom there is not, after a few years' use, 

 evidence of rust enough on the pivots to have destroyed riuch 

 of the extreme perfection of figure attained by makers like 

 Repsold or Ertel. The wear of bronze pivots is even worse. 

 I am informed that the earlier meridian observations at a leading 

 observatory are not comparable in accuracy with those taken 

 after the original bronze pivots had been replaced by steel ones. 



Cape Town, September 27. H. G. Fourcade. 



RESEARCH LABORATORIES FOR WOMEN.^ 



T^HE session which we inaugurate to-day will in the 

 -'• future be regarded as of prime importance in the 

 history both of Bedford College and of the higher educa- 

 tion of London at large. 



It will be remembered in the history of London, for in 

 the course of it the Gresham Commissioners will issue 

 their long-expected report. Whatever the nature of that 

 report may be it will be important ; most important if 

 the Commissioners succeed in solving the diflficult pro- 

 blem which has been proposed to them, and enlist in 

 favour of their recommendations so strong a senti- 

 ment of public approval that a teaching university is 

 at length established on the lines which they lay down. 

 Important, though no doubt less important, if they add 

 to the long list of failures to find the true solution, and 

 thus only prove that another route to the desired end is 

 barred. 



As regards Bedford College itself, we meet this session 

 under the shadow of a loss. Miss Martin, for many years 

 the Lady Resident, who has done so much in helping to 



1 Inaugural adiiress delivered at the Bedford College for Wome , by 

 Prof. A, W. Riicker, F.R.S.J 



NO. I 25 I, VOL. 48] 



