October' 19, 1893] 



NATURE 



597 



the proceedings of the aeronautical conference have been issued 

 will depend upon the success of the enterprise. 



The first International Botanical Congress ever convened on 

 American soil was held at Madison, Wis., immediately after 

 the adjournment of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, August 23 and 24. The foreign repre- 

 sentation, however, was so small that the title of the meeting 

 was changed to the " Madison Botanical Congress." The 

 meeting was an outgrowth of that at Genoa last year. Prof. 

 E. L. Greene, of California, was elected president. AH the 

 subjects discussed at the meeting referred to terminology, the 

 following being the topics:— (l) Plant diseases ; (2) anatomy 

 and morphology ; (3) physiology ; (4) horticultural forms ; (5) 

 bibliography. It is expected that the next meeting will be 

 held in Europe in 1894, but the precise time and place was not 

 announced. 



That Traugott Friedrich Kiitzing, the author of the Phycologia 

 generalis, should have been still with us until within the last few 

 weeks will probably be a surprise to many. As an author, 

 Kiitzing had indeed completely disappeared from the scientific 

 world ; he had published nothing for more than twenty years, 

 and nearly all his most important works appeared before the 

 close of the first half of the present century. He may indeed 

 be regarded as the founder of a scientific study of the Algre, es- 

 pecially of sea- weeds. Much of his work has, of course, been 

 superseded by more recent investigations ; but his Phycologia 

 generalis, published in 1843, his Tabidic Phycologicr, issued in 

 twenty volumes from 1845 to 1870, with 2000 illustrations, and 

 his Species Algarum, 1849, are still classical works, which must 

 needs be in the hands of every student of the lower forms of 

 vegetable life, if it is only for the excellence and life-likeness of 

 their illustrations. In 184 1 he published the UiinvancUung 

 nieirer Algenformen in Iwhere, and in 1844 the Die kieselscha- 

 ligen Ba:iUarien Oder Diatonen, the introduction to our know- 

 ledge of the structure of the diatom-shell, in which there is now 

 so extensive a literature. Kiitzing died on September 9, at 

 Nordhausen, in the 87th year of his age. His extensive col- 

 lection of dried Algae has long b;en in the possession of the 

 University of Leyden. 



Mr. G. W. Young has issued " A Key-table showing the 

 characteristics of the principal Natural Orders of the British 

 ■ Flora," compiled for the use of students. A very brief synopsis 

 is given of the leading characters of each natural order, and a 

 familiar plant is mentioned as a "type." A few small correc- 

 tions might be made in a subsequent edition. Thus, Dielylra 

 ' spectalilis is the gardener's, not the scientific, name of the plant 

 indicated; in the Caryophyllacese the "free central placenta- 

 ■ tion " is by no means universal. 



Few geographers of the present day enjoy so wide a reputa- 

 tion as Baron F. von Richthofen, Professor of Geography in 

 Berlin University, and it is pleasant to observe the fitting way 

 in which his former students did honour to the sixtieth anniver. 

 sary of his birth on May 5, 1893. Many ofthem wrote papers, 



• either on geographical or geological subjects, for special publica- 

 .tion in the form of a handsome book, " Fe-tschrift," bearing 



• Baron von Richthofen's portrait as frontispiece. Among the 

 ! contributors we note the names of A. Philippson, F. Freeh, 



H. Yule Oldham, C. E. M. Rohrbach, and E. Hahn. 

 . Dr. a. Philippson's contribution to the " Festschrift " is an 

 .interesting investigation of the "Types of Sea-coasts " (Ueber 

 die Typen der Kiistenformen). Dr. Philippson insists upon the 

 study of the simplest types of form and the individual relation- 

 Lship of these types to the groups of natural agents which pro- 

 duce them. He shows how all sea-coasts may be reduced to 



NO. I 25 I, VOL. 48] 



two great and fundamental types, (i) Isohypsal coasts, where 

 the existing form of the coast-line still coincides with the 

 primary relief of the earth's surface at that part, so that we may 

 trace its origin from tektonic, volcanic, or other earth move- 

 ments. (2) Thalassogenic coasts, where the primary isohypsal 

 condition of the coa;t-line has been in greater or less degree 

 obliterated by the action of "littoral forces." Dr. Philippson 

 gives particular prominence to the flat-beach variety of thalas- 

 sogenic coasts, and describes in detail the purely potamogenic 

 type due to the action of inflowing rivers, the purely thalas- 

 sogenic type due to the action of breakers, and to the building- 

 up and breaking-down of " strand-walls." Lastly, the mixed 

 potamogenic and thalassogenic type combining the character- 

 istics of both. Numerous examples are drawn from familiar 

 European coast-lines, and several diagrams are given. 



A paper on "The Mechanical Genesis of the Form of the 

 Fowl's Egg," was read before the American Philosophical 

 Society on April 21. In it Dr. J. A. Ryder gives evidence 

 that the configuration of the outline of the hen's egg is deter- 

 mined by mechanical means while the egg membranes and shell 

 are in the process of formation within the oviduct. " The pres- 

 sure preventing the passage of the elliptical mass down through 

 an elastic tube must be developed largely in the form of fric- 

 tion, and the resistance of the walls of the oviduct to dilation. 

 To overcome this a greater pressure must be exerted on the 

 elliptical egg-mass at a pjint above its minor axis than below 

 the latter. This will tend to squeeze part of its substance, 

 since it is at last enclo-,ed in an elastic capsule before shell- 

 formation takes place, into the lower or larger end of the mass. 

 In this way the ovoidal form of the egg seems to have first 

 arisen." It therefore appears that the development of the 

 figure of the eggs of birds is a purely dynamical problem, or 

 one in which energy is applied in a definite manner to the 

 plastic surface of a mass in statical equilibrium within the 

 oviduct. This principle has many extensive applications, and 

 may lead to the elucidation of several obscure points connected 

 not only with the eggs of birds, but also those of reptiles and 

 insects. 



In a letter to Science for September 15, Mr. O. T. Mason 

 relates the discovery at the World's Columbian Exposition of 

 two examples of the Mexican atlatl, or throwing-stick, lying in 

 the Colorado Alcove. His description is as follows : — The 

 shaft is a segment of a sapling of hard wood. At the distal end 

 is a shallow gutter and a hook to receive the end of a spear- 

 shaft. At the proximal end or grip in the more perfect speci- 

 men, about four inches from the extremity, is a loop on either 

 side of the stick, one for the thumb, the other for the forefinger. 

 The remaining three fingers would be free to manipulate the 

 spear-shaft. These loops were made by splitting a bit of raw 

 hide, sliding it down the proper distance on the stick, forming 

 loops less than an inch in diameter by bringing the projecting 

 ends of the raw hide, and seizing it fast to the shaft. Below the 

 finger-loops or stirrups were a long chalcedony knife or arrow- 

 blade, the tooth of a lion, and a concretion of hematite seized 

 by a plentiful wrapping of yucca cord. Mr. Mason believes that 

 the Bjurke example from Lake Patzcuaro belongs also to the 

 same outfit. This is the first instance, as he says, of "finding 

 the ancient atlatl figured in the codices, and described by Mrs. 

 Nuttall." A connection between the cliff dwellers and the 

 Mexican peoples is thus indicated. 



Dr. G. ScHOTT contributes to a recent number of Globus an 

 account of the Atlas of the Indian Ocean, published by the 

 Deutsche See^varte, with particular reference to the behaviour of 

 the storms of the tropical part of that ocean. The article plainly 

 shows that whereas some twenty years ago the Germans were 



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