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NA TURE 



[March 24, 1910 



able observations on the parasitic castration of the crab 

 Inachus by the degenerate barnacle Sacculina. Male crabs 

 ■when infected by the parasite develop the secondary sexual 

 -characters of the female, and in certain circumstances ova 

 may actually appear in the gonad. Female crabs in like 

 case, however, do not develop male characteristics. Hence 

 it was concluded that the male crab is a potential 

 "hermaphrodite, in other words, a heterozygote in which, 

 under normal conditions, maleness is dominant. The 

 Temale crabs, on the other hand, were regarded as pure 

 recessives in respect of their femaleness. On these facts, 

 amongst others, the author bases his " half-hybrid " theory 

 of sex-inheritance, in accordance with which one sex is 

 a heterozygote showing dominance of maleness or female- 

 ness, while the other is a pure recessive homozygote. It 

 appears that Prof. Bateson and Mr. Punnett two years 

 later arrived independently at the same result in endeavour- 

 ing to interpret Doncaster's remarkable breeding experi- 

 ments on the currant moth, but in this case the female 

 is the heterozygote and the male the homozygote. Mr. 

 Smith also deals with the correlation between primary and 

 secondary sexual characters, again largely as a result of 

 his own observations on the parasitic castration of Inachus. 

 He concludes that the development of the secondary sexual 

 characters is not primarily dependent on the gonad, but 

 that the development of both is dependent upon a common 

 factor, which is supposed to be a hypothetical " sexual 

 formative substance," an internal secretion, occurring in 

 two varieties, male and female. The theory, however, is 

 somewhat complicated by the necessity of taking into con- 

 sideration the well-known effect produced by the gonad on 

 the development of the secondary sexual characters, as 

 shown by castration. Mr. Smith's views on the question 

 approximate closely to those of Mr. Walter Heape. 



A CURIOUS abnormality in a batch of crocus specimens 

 is described in the Gardeners' Chronicle (February 26). 

 Some of the thin scale leaves that envelop the bud had 

 developed into white fleshy leaves, which grew nearly as 

 high as a normal flower, while the enclosed foliage leaves 

 and flowers were stunted. It is suggested that the sap 

 had been diverted to the scale leaves as a result of forcing 

 treatment. 



The treatment of felled trees with the view of reproduc- 

 tion by coppice shoots forms the subject of an article in 

 the Indian Forester (December, 1909). In Europe it is 

 usual to cut the stumps flush with the ground. When 

 this method has been followed in India, at any rate in 

 the case of the well-known sdl tree, Shorea robusta, 

 coppice shoots are in many cases not formed at all ; it 

 appears that, owing to contraction, the wood and bark 

 separate, and the dormant buds are not rejuvenated ; but 

 if a few inches of the stump are left, coppice shoots are 

 abundantly produced. 



With regard to the ultimate reasons for the injurious 

 effects produced in plants by frost, an instructive article 

 appears as an editorial in the Gardeners' Chronicle 

 (February 19). It has been shown that ice is first formed 

 in the interspaces between the cells, with the result that 

 water is withdrawn from the cell sap ; continued forma- 

 tion of ice causes disruption of the tissues ; but ice- 

 formation is not regarded as the chief cause of injury. 

 A new theory receiving the approval of competent authori- 

 ties has been advanced by the Swedish botanist Lidfors. 

 He examined a number of plants such as Cerastium and 

 Viola, which, without any apparent means of protection, 

 survive the severe winters of Sweden, and found that 

 NO. 2108, VOL. 83] 



during winter the starch in the leaves was replaced by 

 sugar. He then falls back on experiments connected with 

 the maintenance of proteins in the cell sap and protoplasm, 

 by which it has been shown that if water be extracted from 

 the cell the proteins pass out of solution, causing destruc- 

 tion of the cell ; but if sugar is present the proteins will 

 remain in solution until a much lower temperature is 

 reached. This theory also affords a logical explanation of 

 the disastrous effects of spring frosts. 



The official forecast for the wheat crop of South 

 Australia is now published in the Journal of Agriculture 

 for that colony, and is put at 11^ bushels per acre. If 

 this is realised it will be the second highest yield during 

 the last twenty years. The average yield in 1893 was 

 7-5 bushels per acre ; it fell steadily until 1896, when it 

 was only 1-4 bushels, but then it rose slowly to 11-3 bushels 

 in 1905 and has remained round about this figure since. 

 The 1908 crop of 11-45 bushels was the highest on record. 

 The yield for the United Kingdom in 1908 was 32-3 

 bushels. 



It occasionally happens that milk which has stood at 

 low temperature for twelve to twenty-four hours becomes 

 so viscid that it can be drawn out into strings. The 

 trouble is caused by a micro-organism, but as it is not 

 very common no large number of investigations have yet 

 been made. A case that arose in Rhode Island was fully 

 investigated by Messrs. Cole and Hadley, the results being 

 published as Bulletin 136 of the Rhode Island Agricultural 

 Experiment Station. From the details given it appears 

 that the organism resembles the Bacillus lactis viscosus 

 described by Adametz and A. R. Ward, and belongs to 

 the same group. 



Mr. H. T. Ferrar contributes further notes on the move- 

 ments of subsoil waters in Egypt to the December (1909) 

 number of the Cairo Scientific Journal. These deal 

 specially with the variations of level observed in a number 

 of experimental tube-wells specially set up in the province 

 of Gharbia, in Lower Egypt, which indicate that the con- 

 ditions in Lower Egypt are almost the reverse of those 

 which obtain in Upper Egypt, the minor factors in the 

 latter becoming the controlling factors in the former. A 

 series of diagrams shows the relation of the Nile flood to 

 the movements of water-table, with the modifications pro- 

 duced by such factors as the nature of the soil, seepage, 

 and irrigation. 



Captain Tixier, of the Siam Indo-China Boundary Com- 

 mission, contributes to La Geographie (xx., No. 6, p. 337) 

 a valuable note on the orography of French Indo-China. 

 The region may be described generally as a vast sandy 

 plateau, uplifted towards the east and enclosed by four folds 

 in parallel pairs perpendicular to each other. On the 

 north the Tonkin and northern Annam fold runs north-west 

 and south-east, with a parallel member, much less 

 important-, to the south, in the Cardamom range. At right 

 angles to these, in a direction N. 25° E., are the Cape 

 Varela-Poulo Condore chain and the great fold which 

 appears to have rested its whole weight on the sand 

 plateau, causing it to sink, and in balancing to rise to the 

 east, the movement being accompanied by fracture in two 

 directions parallel to the enclosing chains. The Gulf of 

 Siam, with its almost uniform depth of 45 metres, is 

 apparently a plain similar to that of Grand Lac and the 

 Semoun. 



We have recently received an excerpt from the Bulletin 

 of the Society of Historical and Natural Sciences of the 

 Yonne (2 Semestre, 1908), consisting of a very useful 



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