January 2, 1896] 



NA TURE 



213 



ductive cycles of both animals and plants, and so close is their 

 correspondence, amid a host of complex structural details, that 

 it is in the highest degree improbable that the two series of 

 phenomena can have been independently evolved ; and whatever 

 the synapsis may eventually turn out to be, it is evidently a 

 cellular metamorphosis of a profoundly fundamental character, 

 which would appear to have been acquired before, the animal 

 and vegetable ancestry went apart, and to have existed ever 

 since. — Notes on the fecundation of the egg of Sphivrechittus 

 granulans, and on the maturation and fertilisation of the 

 egg of Phalliisia vtanniiillata, by M. D. Hill (plate 17). 

 In these forms there is no egg astrosphere or egg centrosome ; 

 both these structures are brought into the ovum by the 

 spermatozoon, and they give rise by division to all the 

 subsequent astrospheres and centrosomes throughout ontogeny. 

 There is consequently no such thing as a "quadrille." — P'urther 

 remarks on the cell-theory, with a reply to Mr. Bourne, by Adam 

 Sedgwick, F.R.S. 



Symoiis's Monthly Magazine for December contains a climato- 

 logical table and summary for various selected stations of the 

 British Empire, for the year 1894. Australia records the highest 

 shade temperature, viz. io7°*o at Adelaide, on November 26, 

 and it was the dryest station. In the twelve years for which 

 the annual summaries have appeared, this station has yielded 

 the highest maximum in ten years, Melbourne in one, and 

 Calcutta in one. The lowest temperature in the shade was 

 recorded at Winnipeg, - \(i''\ on January 24. This station has 

 never been equalled for lowness of absolute shade temperature, 

 and has only twice failed to record the greatest mean daily 

 range; the variation during the year amounted to i4i°-9. The 

 dampest station was Esquimalt, where the mean humidity 

 was 88 per cent. ; London comes next, being 81 per cent., 

 and both these places were the most cloudy, the average 

 amount being 6 "3. The least cloudy stations were Bombay 

 and Grenada, where the average amount was 4'o. The 

 greatest annual rainfall, 77*5 inches, occurred at Colombo, and 

 the least, i8'i inches, at Winnipeg. The Cape of Good Hope 

 observations were unfortunately missing. 



V Anthropologie , 1895, Tome vi. No. 4.— Quatenary deer of 

 Bagneres-de-Bigorre (Hautes- Pyrenees), by Edouard Harle. — A 

 careful examination of the mandible has led the author to the 

 conclusion that the animal to which it belonged was neither a 

 reindeer nor a stag, but that it must be considered a variety of 

 the fallow-deer ; and its presence in conjunction with Elephas 

 primigenitis. Rhinoceros tichorinus, and the reindeer, at the 

 foot of the Pyrenees, is a fact of some interest. — Note on the age 

 of metals in the Ukraine, by Baron de Baye. The progress of 

 civilisation was not uniform in the north and south of Russia in 

 Europe. In the district south of a line which corresponds very 

 closely with the 50th parallel of latitude, it has been found that 

 the use of metals was known at a very early date, whilst the | 

 Stone Age continued for a much longer period in countries to 

 the north of this line. Baron de Baye is careful to explain that 

 the term "Scythian," which he uses freely in connection with 

 the mounds and the various bronze articles found in them, does 

 not express an anthropological unit, but is used in a purely 

 geographical and ethnological sense. The numerous tribes, 

 however, comprehended under this name had the same civilisa- 

 tion, practised the same arts and the same funeral rites, and left 

 behind them similar archaeological remains.- — Anthropological 

 obser%-ations on the tumuli and worked flints of the Somali and 

 the Danakil, by Dr. Jousseaume. The tombs are constructed 

 of rough stones, more or less spherical or ovoid in shape, and of 

 various sizes. The flints are arranged by the author in four 

 groups, the first of which is represented by a single specimen in 

 the form of a wedge. The second group is spatulate, rather long, 

 very thick, and always larger at one end than at the other. The 

 flints included in the third group are discoidal, and of various 

 sizes ; while the fourth group includes all those that are lance- 

 shaped. — Infantilism, feminism, and the hermaphrodites of the 

 ancients, by Henry Meige. In this section of his paper the 

 author treats of feminism, of which a very beautiful example 

 came under the observation of Prof. Charcot at La Salpetriere. 



Bollettino della Societh Sismologica Italiana, vol. i., 1895, 

 No. 6. — Earthquake of Paramythia (Epirus) during the night of 

 May 13-14, 1895, by G. Agamennone (see p. 205). — TheGuzzanti 

 microseismoscope, by G. Guzzanti. — Notices of Italian earth- 

 quakes (April-May 1895), referring chiefly to the Florentine 

 earthquake of May 18, and to the pulsations of the earthquake 

 of Paramythia of May 13-14. | 



NO. 1366, VOL. 53] 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, November 28, 1895. — "The Expansion of 

 Argon and of Helium as compared with that of Air and Hydro- 

 gen." By Dr. J. P. Kuenen, Professor of Physics in University 

 College, Dundee, and Dr. W, W. Randall, Lecturer in John 

 Hopkins University, Baltimore, U.S..^. 



The gas-thermometer used for these experiments was such as 

 could be easily heated by means of a "Ramsay and Young" 

 vapour-jacket. It consisted of a bulb sealed on to a capillary 

 tube, which in turn was sealed on to a wider tube, provided 

 with a mark. This mark is situated 'ust outside the healing 

 arrangement, immediately below the capillary tube. The inner 

 mercury-surface is made to coincide with this mark, and both 

 this one and the outer surface are read on a scale with a 

 telescope. The readings were duly corrected for capillary 

 action, expansion of glass and mercury, and the part of the gas 

 that is not heated. The results show that up to 240° C. , the 

 highest temperature that was employed, the expansion of both 

 argon and helium is very nearly the same as that of air and 

 hydrogen. 



December 5, 1895. — " Studies in the Morphology of Spore- 

 producing Members. Part II. Ophioglossaceae. " By F. O. 

 Bower, F.R.S. Preliminary Statement on the Sorus oi Danua, 

 by F. O. Bower, F.R.S. 



In Part I. of these studies it had been shown on comparative 

 grounds to be probable that septation of sporangia, previously in 

 the race simple, had taken place among the Lycopodineiv. It 

 appeared, however, important to show that such a process of 

 septation has taken place elsewhere ; examples of it are found in 

 the anthers of many Angiosperms of the orders Mimoseiie, 

 Onagracete, Loranthacere, Rhizophorete, &c. The development 

 has been studied in certain cases, and it is seen that a partial 

 sterilisation of sporogenous cells results in the formation of 

 sterile septa, which may vary greatly in thickness from a broad 

 band of tissue to a narrow one ; sometimes the septum may 

 be represented by a single layer of cells of the nature of 

 a tapetum, or the septum may be incomplete. A comparison 

 of these cases with jilants of Pteridophytic affinity shows 

 that similar structural and developmental details are found : 

 the most conspicuous case is that of Damva, in which 

 large synangia are found on the under-surface of the 

 leaf; these, though attached along the leaf surface, have a 

 structural similarity to the spike of Ophioglossnni. It is not 

 uncommon to find in them, as in the Angiosperms quoted, great 

 variety of size of the loculi, and of thickness of the septa, while 

 incomplete septa are also common : the close parallel as to these 

 characters is a very striking feature, and raises the probability of 

 their having resulted from a similar mode of evolutionary 

 progress, i.e. by septation. 



The second jmrt of the "studies" refers to the Ophio- 

 glossacese, and the suggestion made by various writers 

 (Mettenius, Strasburger, Celakovsky, and others), that they are 

 related to the Lycopods is upheld ; it is supported on grounds 

 of comparison of external form, of anatomy, of the characters of 

 the Gametophyte and embryology, as far as known. From these 

 various sources a general support of the relationshij) has been 

 traced, the nearest point of comparison appearing to be between 

 O. Bergiannin, and Phylloglossitin Drnintnondii. It is con- 

 tended that the external similarity of these plants, long since 

 recognised, is not a case of mere mimicry, but of real relation- 

 ship, though this probably dates from an unknown common 

 ancestry. 



Such a relationship involves the idea of septation ; but it has 

 been shown that septation of a very similar nature has taken 

 place in the anthers of Angiosperms. Dan<ea among Pteri- 

 dophytes shows very similar characters, and, finally, a minute 

 study of development in Ophioglossnni has elicited facts which 

 are compatible with such a view. From simple types of Ophio- 

 glossnm a progression may be traced to the larger and more 

 complex species, e.g. , O. palniatuni ; while a somewhat parallel 

 sequence would lead from such a plant as Botrychium simplex 

 onwards to the larger, elaborate species of the genus. Helniin 

 thostachys appears to hold a somewhat independent position. 



ijecember 12, 1895. — "On the Formation and Structure ot 

 Dental Enamel." By J. Leon Williams, D.D.S., L.D.S. 

 The special points in the formation and structure of ename 



