136 



NATURE 



[June i i, 1903 



dealing with hourly results ; one of these shows that the 

 land and sea breezes are unusually marked at Southport, 

 to an extent, the author remarks, of which meteorologists 

 were not aware. The report contains the usual interesting 

 comparison of climatological statistics with other health 

 resorts. 



The Meteorological Ofilice pilot chart for June shows 

 that, as a result of the decision of the shipping companies 

 to divert temporarily the steamer routes to the southward, 

 there has been a great decrease in the number of ice reports 

 from the southern extremity of the Newfoundland Bank. 

 With the opening of the St. Lawrence season, however, re- 

 ports from the northern part of the Bank are becoming more 

 frequent. Another feature of the chart is an illustrated 

 description of the violent storm of wind, rain and snow 

 which, originating near Corsica, suddenly developed great 

 energy on the evening of April i6, and starting off across 

 north Italy, travelled through Austria and Poland to the 

 Baltic and the Gulf of Bothnia. ' 



The twenty-second number of the pamphlet series issued 

 by the West Indian Department of Agriculture forms 

 part ii. of Mr. Maxwell-Lefroy's investigation of " The 

 Scale Insects of the Lesser Antilles." It contains fifty 

 pages of valuable illustrated information on a subject which 

 is of the greatest importance to the colonists, as scale 

 insects are becoming increasingly troublesome in some of 

 the islands. The twenty-third pamphlet contains Mr. John 

 Barclay's " Notes on Poultry in the West Indies." Hitherto 

 the only information which the colonists had on the subject 

 of poultry applied to countries well outside the tropics, but 

 Mr. Barclay, of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, has for 

 several years past devoted personal attention to the rearing 

 of poultry in a tropical climate. 



Commander Whitehouse, R.N., has, we learn from the 

 Times, returned to England on sick leave from the survey 

 of the southern portion of the Victoria Nyanza. With the 

 recently inaugurated service of steamers round the lake the 

 quickest route to the Tanganyika region will be by way 

 of the Uganda Railway, and a project is on foot for opening 

 a route from Lake Victoria to the north of Tanganyika to 

 connect with the steamer on the last-named lake. Dis- 

 coveries of gold are stated to have been made both in British 

 and German territory along Lake Victoria, one being near 

 the Lumbas Station of the Uganda Railway at mile 520, and 

 the other in German territory to the east of Speke Gulf. 



In the course of a recent article published in the Recueil 

 de I'Institut botanique de Bruxelles, Prof. Errera comes to 

 the conclusion that it is not possible for organisms to exist 

 of a size very appreciably smaller than those which can be 

 observed with the highest powers of the microscope now 

 ■in use. An estimation is made of the number of molecules 

 of certain bodies, such as albuminoids, which are present 

 in a bacterium of given size: the number is of such an 

 order of magnitude that only a few molecules could be 

 present in an organism having a diameter Qoiyu, and thus 

 a minimum limit to the possible size is obtained. 



The geology of Kalahandi State, in the Central Provinces 

 of India, is described by Dr. T. L. Walker (Mem. Geol. 

 Surv. India, vol. xxxiii. part iii.). The entire State is 

 made up of unfossiliferous rocks, mainly crystalline schists, 

 with occasional masses of laterite which cap the broad 

 hills in the south-eastern part of the State. The occurrence 

 of graphite, which may be of commercial importance, is 

 noticed, and it is remarked that the graphite-bearing rocks 

 may become diamond-bearing in places where they have 

 NO. 1754, VOL. 68] 



been subjected to intense pressure. In sands ir6m the 

 streams near Bondesor, minute crystals, regarded a» 

 diamonds, have been detected. 



Although several accounts of the cytological changes 

 which accompany the formation of eggs in the Sapro- 

 legniaceje have been published, the lack of agreement in 

 details and conclusions made it desirable that further 

 evidence should be obtained. .This is forthcoming in the 

 experiments and histological investigations which are re- 

 corded by Prof. B. M. Davis in the Decennial Puhlications 

 of the University of Chicago. The experiments were con- 

 ducted entirely with plants bearing oogonia only. A 

 peculiar feature is the appearance of specialised masses of 

 cytoplasm, the coenocentra, round which the eggs are 

 formed, and which influence the destiny of the nuclei. 



A recent issue of Psyche contains the full report of a 

 lecture by Mr. F. M. Webster on the " diffusion " of 

 insects in North America. It is pointed out that this 

 diffusion commenced far back in the Tertiary period, and 

 attention is directed to the intimate connection between the 

 insects of North America, northern Asia and Europe which 

 existed at that epoch. Very remarkable is the fact that the 

 modern Rhynchophora of North America agree more closely 

 with their European Tertiary representatives than they do 

 with those of their own country. All this indicates the prob- 

 ability of a former free intercourse between America and 

 Asia, and perhaps also between America and Europe vici 

 the north-east. The lines of insect diffusion on the 

 American continent are treated in some detail. 



The heredity of albinism forms the subject of a paper by 

 Messrs. Castle and Allen published in the Proceedings of 

 the American Academy. The experiments, which were 

 made with mice, guineapigs, and rabbits, serve to show 

 that albinism, at least in domesticated animals, is not, as 

 often supposed, a sign of weakness and want of vigour. 

 The important result is, however, the proof that albinism, 

 as indicated by its disappearance for a generation and its 

 subsequent reappearance under close breeding, is inherited 

 in conformity with Mendel's law of heredity, and that, in 

 the terminology of that law, it belongs to the category of 

 recessive phenomena. For instance, in the case of mice, it 

 has been demonstrated that the grey hybrids produced by 

 crossing grey with white mice, when bred inter se, gave 

 birth to grey and white offspring approximately in the 

 Mendelian ratio of three to one. 



In the Monthly Review for June Sir Herbert Maxwell 

 reviews the question of animal intelligence ; that is to say, 

 the psychology of animals other than man. Commencing 

 with the declaration that he has nothing new to com- 

 municate, the author proceeds to observe that the problem 

 resolves itself into three items, (i) Are animals born as 

 automatons, and do they continue as such throughout life? 

 (2^ If they are conscious, are their consciousness and in- 

 telligence merely the physical products of certain changes 

 which take place during development, and therefore spon- 

 taneous in the sense that the development of organic tissue 

 is spontaneous? (3) Is the conscious intelligence esoteric, 

 that is to say, due to the action of an external and superior 

 mandate, or suggestion, acting upon a suitable physical 

 receptacle? After relating a number of instances of anirrial 

 behaviour bearing upon it. Sir Herbert considers it prob- 

 able that the first question should be answered as follows, 

 namely, that at birth animals are sentient and unconscious, 

 automatons, but that they are also provided with mental 

 machinery ready to respond in a greater or less degree ta 



