June 15, 1916] 



NATURE 



327 



two absolutely similar reactions. The reactions of 

 Protozoa are never uniform. Even in Arnoeba they 

 are so varied as to be scarcely ever twice alike. After 

 describing some experiments on Paramoecium, the 

 author maintains that every reaction produces a definite 

 modification in the living tissue, and may therefore 

 be considered as closely connected with the creation 

 of the personality, and he concludes a closely reasoned 

 dissertation in these words: — "The life of every 

 organism is an uninterrupted creation, and this indi- 

 vidual creation, the cause of endless variety, is but a 

 small part of that larger creative cycle which we call 

 evolution." 



Dr. Johs. Schmidt, in vol. xxiii. of Rapports et 

 Proces-verbaux du Conseil Jnternational pour Vexplora- 

 tion de la tner, gives a further contribution of his 

 studies on the natural history of the eel. The paper 

 deals with the question of the existence of "smaller 

 species" or "races" of the European eel, and with 

 the distinguishing features of this species, of the 

 American and of the Japanese eel. The characters 

 investigated include the number of vertebrae, the 

 number of rays in different fins, and the number of 

 branchiostegai rays. The conclusion arrived at is 

 that, whilst the three species investigated are clearly 

 marked the one from the other, it has not been found 

 possible to distinguish between different "races" of 

 the European eel. The most convenient character is 

 the number of vertebrae. The author brings forward 

 a point of considerable biological interest by com- 

 paring the condition found amongst the eels with 

 that found in the viviparous blenny (Zoarces vivi- 

 parus), a species having about the same number of 

 vertebrae as the eel. He finds that samples of Zoarces 

 taken from closely adjacent localities in Danish 

 waters may differ one from another as regards 

 number of vertebrae to a higher degree than does 

 the European eel from the American eel in respect 

 of the same character, and that, whereas Zoarces vivi- 

 parus in the north of Europe is divided up into 

 numerous distinctly different stocks or populations 

 according to locality, all the eels of Europe are identi- 

 cal. This difference the author considers must be 

 due to the fact that all European eels have the same 

 origin in the spawning grounds of the Atlantic Ocean. 

 The blenny, on the other hand, is viviparous and has 

 no pelagic stage, so that it is highly localised, and 

 specimens collected, for instance, in the inner waters 

 of a fjord may have a lower number of vertebrae than 

 those taken at the mouth. Whether this is due to 

 "genotypic differences " or to the immediate effect of 

 varj'ing external conditions, the author hopes to make 

 a matter of direct experiment. 



The Government of Madagascar has issued the 

 ■' Annuaire General de Madagascar et Dependances " 

 for 1916. The war has affected the size of this year's 

 volume, which takes the form of a supplement and 

 corrections to the issue for 1914. Among a great deal 

 of matter the most useful from a geographical point 

 of view is the account of the railways, to which is 

 added a large-scale map. There is also a short account 

 of the chief roads, and of the navigable waterw^ays. 

 The last part of the volume is occupied with trade 

 statistics. 



Vol. I of Agricultural Statistics for India, 1913-14, 

 which deals with British India, demonstrates a note- 

 worthy steadiness of agricultural operations during 

 recent years. In the preceding decade the total 

 area cropped, the areas sown with rice, millets, wheat, 

 sugar, cotton, jute, and oil-seeds, suffered but 

 slight fluctuations. The cropped area which has 

 been irrigated and the area devoted to food crops 

 have both increased, the former by 30 per cent. In 

 the whole of India 80 million acres are sown with rice, 



NO. 2433, VOL. 97] 



which is ten times the acreage in Japan; 29 million 

 acres with wheat, which is only exceeded by the wheat 

 acreage of the United States ; and 25 million acres with 

 cotton, which is two-thirds of the cotton acreage of 

 the United States. About one-eighth of the Indian 

 area is cropped more than once. The exceptions to 

 the general conditions are indigo and opium, which 

 have declined in acreage by about a half since 1909. 

 In the latest year the area devoted to cinchona was 

 increased by a tenth ; this increase is due to a great 

 extension of the cultivation in Bengal, the acreage 

 having declined in Madras, which is the other chief 

 growing district. Nearly half the sugar-cane is pro- 

 duced in Agra, where the area under this crop is being 

 increased. A third of the cropped area in Madras and 

 the United Provinces, a half in the Punjab, and three- 

 quarters in the district of Sind depend upon irrigation 

 from canals, tanks, or wells for their water supply. 



The fifth volume of the special reports on the 

 " Mineral Resources of Great Britain " has just been 

 issued by the Geological Survey (London : H.M. Sta- 

 tionery Office and E. Stanford, Ltd. ; price 15,). This 

 is rather more miscellaneous in scope than its pre- 

 decessors, and deals with a number of mineral sub- 

 stances between which there is neither economic nor 

 geological relationship, namely : — Potash-felspar, phos- 

 phate of lime, alum shales, plumb^ago, molybdenite, 

 chromite, talc and steatite, diatomite. It will be noted 

 that some of these substances, like alum shales, are 

 being worked to-day; others, like plumbago, have 

 given rise to important mining operations in the past; 

 and others again, like molybdenite, never have been 

 worked in this country, nor does there seem to be 

 much probability as regards this mineral that work- 

 able deposits are likely to be discovered. It might be 

 suggested that in such a case as the last-named rather 

 more attention might be devoted to the known occur- 

 rences within the Dominions of Greater Britain. The 

 first article in the volume is perhaps the most interest- 

 ing, because the discovery of an economically work- 

 able British source of potash is one of the great needs 

 of the moment. It is curious to note that in the 

 section dealing with the extraction of potash from 

 felspar foreign authorities are freely quoted, but no 

 reference is made to an exhaustive recent article on 

 the subject in the Journal of the Society of Chemical 

 Industry (April 30, 1915). If the present ux)rk serves 

 to direct the attention of chemists and geologists to 

 this important subject, nothing but good can result ; 

 indeed, it seems strange that, at a moment when 

 committees by the score are being created to advocate 

 researches into all manner of subjects, some of them, 

 perhaps, of but remote practical interest, the important 

 question of potash supply has not received more atten- 

 tion. It would indeed be a wise move if the Board of 

 Agriculture would offer a handsome prize as an induce- 

 ment to chemical investigators to work at this problem, 

 which, although admittedly difficult, should not be 

 incapable of solution. 



An interesting addition to the existing literature 

 on the eruptions of the volcano Stromboli has come 

 to our notice in the form of a collection of papers 

 published in a particularly interesting number of the 

 Atti dei Lincei, xxv. (i), 5. It was after an interval 

 of twenty-four years that an eruption characterised by 

 copious flows of lava made its first appearance in 

 June, 1915, and Prof. Gaetano Platania and Prof. 

 Gaetano Poute were deputed to study the phenomena, 

 being assisted in this work by an American vulcan- 

 ologist, Mr. F. A. Perret. The papers here referred 

 to describe separately the individual experiences of the 

 three observers. Profs. Platania and Poute contribut- 

 ing their own observations, while those of Mr. Perret 

 are detailed in a paper by Prof. A. Ricc6. 



