DISCOVERY 



305 



tions described in his volume, is the topography of the 

 ancient city of Opis, which is identified with the ruins at 

 Tell-Abir, situated opposite the present junction of the 

 River Adhaim with the Tigris. This location was sug- 

 gested as long ago as 1841 by John Ross and Lieutenant 

 H. Blosse-L\Tich ; but its acceptance by later scholars has 

 been delayed by a difficulty in reconciling it with an in- 

 scription of Nebuchadnezzar. This difficulty a transla- 

 tion suggested by Professor Langdon has overcome, and 

 the site of Opis, on which so many Babylonian problems 

 hinge, may now be regarded as established. 



Opis is the most important ancient city on the Tigris, 

 and was founded by the Sumerians at least before 3500 

 B.C. It is suggested that the original name was Akshak. 

 though Professor Langdon admits that tliis identification 

 will probably give rise to criticism. At the time of the 

 Cassite incursion into Mesopotamia it becomes U-pi-e. 

 It possessed a cult of a deity of the lower world — a cult 

 which Professor Langdon points out is as old as the pre- 

 historic Elamite period of Sumerian history. It is men- 

 tioned for the last time by Strabo in 24 B.C. This gives 

 it an existence as a thriving city of 3,500 years. Through- 

 out this period mention of it in inscriptions and in his- 

 torical records is frequent. 



Colonel Lane's topographical researches make plain the 

 reasons for its prolonged importance. As a military and 

 irrigation centre, it was the Key of Accad and Babylon. 

 The author claims to have located the site of Nimrod's 

 Dam, which controlled the waters of the Tigris, and the 

 point at which the Median Wall, constructed by Nebu- 

 chadnezzar, joined that river. With its strongly organised 

 defensive system of canals, Opis constituted one flank of 

 the line of defence which extended to the Euphrates, or. 

 as he aims at showing, to Sippar. Limits of space pre- 

 clude a more detailed examination here of Colonel Lane's 

 investigations at Opis ; but when, as must inevitably 

 happen at some future date, excavations are undertaken 

 on this important site, his work will prove invaluable in 

 indicating the points at which investigation will prove 

 most fruitful and the nature of the problems which it 

 may be expected to elucidate. 



Of the other matters with which the author deals, 

 fascinating as they are, a brief mention must suffice. He 

 discusses the question of the size and system of defence 

 of ancient Babylon and, if he offers no solution of the con- 

 tro\-ersial question of its area, he does at least suggest 

 the line upon which the investigation of the archaeologist's 

 spade must work to afford a satisfactory answer. He also 

 follows in the footsteps of Xenophon and his band of ten 

 thousand Greeks in their march from the " Gates " to the 

 battlefield of Cunaxa and in the retreat thence to Opis, 

 offering suggestions as to the location of the two former 

 which seem reasonably probable in their agreement with 

 the requirements of the narrative. One of the most 

 arresting chapters in the book, however, is his detailed 

 elucidation of the campaign of Julian the Apostate which, 

 after the death in battle of that Emperor, led to the 

 disastrous defeat and capitulation of the army and lost 

 the Eastern Empire to Rome. 



E. N. Fall-^ize. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 The British Journal of Experimental Biology. Vol. I, 

 No. I. Managing Editor, F. A. E. Crew. (Edin- 

 burgh: Oliver & Boyd, 12s. bd. quarterly.) 



This latest addition to the list of learned journals should 

 fulfil a very useful function. It is designed to cover the 

 whole field of experimental biolog>'. At present there is 

 far too sharp a dividing-line between the problems of the 

 human body, and the problems which those whose interest 

 is mainly directed towards other forms of life have to 

 solve. It is becoming increasingly evident that all life is 

 essentially the same, subject to the same laws, manifesting 

 itself by similar mechanism. This first volume contains, 

 for example, an article by L. T. Hogben and F. A. E. Crew 

 which serves to show how a difficult question can be 

 decided by the use of a living creature as a kind of chemical 

 reagent, and in this case at least without the slightest 

 inconvenience to that creature. There were really two 

 problems : firstly, during what month of the development 

 of the internal secreting glands of sheep and oxen before 

 birth do they become active ? Secondly, there is a well- 

 known monstrous calf frequently born to cows of the 

 Dexter breed. Can this monster be compared — as has 

 been done — to that rather rare type of human imbecile 

 kno\\m as a cretin ? The problems are really very similar, 

 because a cretin is a child in whom the thyroid gland is 

 inactive — and one of the marvellous medical advances of 

 our age has been the curing of such children with tMToid 

 gland taken by the mouth. 



The problem was solved with the help of an axolotl — 

 a creature whose history is as strange as its name. Maiiy 

 will recognise it as a South American amphibian, allied to 

 our English newt, which, like Peter Pan, refuses to grow 

 up, and breeds in its tadpole stage, under ^^•ater. But 

 if it be given active thvToid gland to eat, it develops into 

 a lizard-like creature which lives on land. The important 

 fact is that even the smallest amount of active gland is 

 sufficient to make it grow up completely — it is a kind of 

 trigger action. B3' using this knowledge it was discovered 

 that the thvToid gland is not active until the fourth month 

 of development, and that the th>Toid gland of the Dexter 

 calf monster is fully active at birth ; it is not, therefore, 

 a kind of bovine cretin. From the point of view of 

 medical science the important fact emerges that it is 

 possible to distinguish active from inactive thyroid gland 

 microscopically. 



Another gland — the pituitary, a small body at the base 

 of the skull which sometimes is responsible for the occur- 

 rence of human giants — was examined by a similar 

 method. In this case a frog was used as a test animal. 

 The frog possesses in a lesser degree the power which we 

 associate with chameleons of changing its colour on 

 occasions, by the extension or retraction of special pig- 

 ment-bearing cells. The injection of extract of pituitary 

 gland makes all these cells extend — the least possible 

 quantity turning a pale yellow frog to a coal-black one in 

 less than an hour. It appears that the pituitary gland 

 begins activity before the thyroid. 



Other articles include a study by H. B. Fell of a case 

 of sex reversal in a domestic fowl — a previously orthodox 



