492 



NATURE 



[August io, 191 6 



the mortey which has been subscribed to industrial 

 fellowships, with the exception of small sums for the 

 purchase of very special apparatus, to secure the ser- 

 vices of a man who had shown a gift, for research 

 to devote all his time to certain problems connected 

 with the baking industry. Durmg the five years 

 which have elapsed since the establishment of the first 

 fellowship forty-seven distinct business organisations 

 have endowed one hundred and five one-year 

 fellowships. The total amount of money contributed 

 to the institute for the five years ending March i, 

 1916, was 72,oooi. In addition to this sum 4260!. 

 was awarded in bonuses to fellows for the successful 

 completion of problems. During the five years the 

 institute itself expended about 35,000/. Besides this 

 amount, the building and permanent equipment of the 

 institute represent an investment of between 6o,oooi. 

 and 70,000/. That the results obtained under the in- 

 dustrial fellowship system of the Mellon Institute have 

 justified the expenditure of these sums of money has 

 been shown by the fact that during the first four years 

 seven out of each ten problems assigned to the institute 

 for study were solved to the satisfaction of the donors. 

 A large percentage of the fellowships were renewed, 

 showing the confidence which industrialists have in the 

 institute. Twenty-five patents have been granted to 

 the holders of fellowships, and there are as many more 

 pending. Above all, some twenty new processes 

 developed in the Institute are now in actual operation 

 on commercial scales. 



Dr. G. F. Atkinson, "The Fj Generations, and 

 Back- and Inter-crosses of the Fi Hybrids between 

 CEnothera nutans and pycnocarpa " : — 



The result of the observations shows that in the Fi 

 generation from a cross between two feral, non-mutat- 

 ing species quadruplet hybrids appear in the Fi gene- 

 ration ; one is n blend and self-sterile, but its pollen 

 and egg cells are fertile; two of the degregates are 

 fixed types and breed true, while the fourth hybrid 

 (third segregate) appears to split in the second genera- 

 tion. The back- and inter-crosses show either striking 

 examples of patrocliny, or splitting into two types. in 

 some cases, into three types in other cases. But no 

 new types (with a single exception) appear; ihey all 

 conform to one or other of the six types, the primary 

 parental types, or one or more of the Fj hybrid types. 

 The single exception is a mutant of the dwarf gracilis 

 type. 



Prof. J. M. Coulter, " Inheritance through 

 Spores " : — 



The current work in plant genetics suggests the 

 question of the most favourable material. If sexual 

 forms are desirable, it seems obvious that the most 

 primitive should be included in experimental mate- 

 rial, since in such forms the sex act is not in- 

 volved with other structures, the origin of the sexual 

 cells is observable, and the whole situation lends itself 

 to more complete control and analysis. The sexual 

 cells, however, are genetically related to spores, so that 

 the origin of spores and their behaviour in reproduc- 

 tion are preliminary to the origin of gametes and 

 sexual reproduction. Reproduction by spores, therefore, 

 is a field rich in experimental possibilities. Analysis of 

 the conditions of spore formation furnishes a clue to 

 the additional conditions necessary for gamete forma- 

 tion ; experimental modification of the "germ plasm" 

 is more simple and definite than in complex material ; 

 and breeding from spores with essentially pure lines 

 is especially favourable for securing more definite data 

 in reference" to the possibilities of variation and in- 

 heritance. 



Prof. W. J. V. Osterhout, "The Dynamics of 

 Antagonism " : — 



If two toxic substances ainagonise each other this 

 is called action antagonism. An accurate measure of 

 NO. 2441, VOL. 97] 



antagonism is afforded by determining the electrical 

 resistance of living tissues. Toxic substances cause a 

 fall of resistance, but if in a mixture of two such 

 substances resistance falls less rapidly, it is evident that 

 this is due to antagonism. In the case of the common 

 kelp, Laminaria, NaCl causes a fall of resistance, 

 while CaClj causes a rise, followed by a fall, of resist- 

 ance. In mixtures of NaCl and CaClj tne resistance 

 rises and then falls ; by using the right proportions the 

 fall may be made very gradual. These facts may be 

 explained by assuming that the resistance is due to a 

 substance the production of which is accelerated by 

 CaClj, while its decomposition is checked by a com- 

 pound formed by the union of both NaCl and CaCl, 

 with a substance in the protoplasm. This throws new 

 light on the manner in which salts act in preserving 

 life. It has been found that the electrical resistance 

 rs a very delicate and accurate indicator of the vitality 

 of protoplasm, since any kind of Injury is at once 

 indicated by a fall of resistance. This permits a quan- 

 titative meaning to be given to such terms as vitality, 

 injury, recovery, and death. The mechanism by which 

 changes in resistance are produced by salts is therefore 

 of great importance. The facts here presented give 

 a new insight into this mechanism. 



Prof. F. Ehrenfeld, "Jointing as a Fundamental 

 Factor In the Degradation of the LIthosphere " : — 



In most text-books the question of land surface" 

 levelling or degradation is considered more from the 

 view-point of the atmospheric or other surface cause 

 than from that of the construction of the solid 

 portions of the earth itself. This Is a somewhat mis- 

 taken view to take of the case, as the stony mass 

 of the earth has been shown by many geologists to be 

 subject to a constant fracturing, or jointing, which 

 shows itself in various ways, such as influence on 

 river drainage, repeated groups of islands, bays along 

 sea coasts, and in certain types of volcanic and earth- 

 quake appearances. The paper discussed these and 

 also the subject of marine planation to produce a 

 lowering of the land below sea-level. Illustrations of 

 such marine action were shown from the Maine coast 

 and also from the forms and positions of some of the 

 Atlantic Ocean Islands. This subject of the action of 

 the sea to produce a general levelling, though much 

 discussed some decades ago, has been neglected by 

 many modern students, but is now becoming prominent 

 under newer Ideas, and this paper is in part a study 

 of jointing in the mass of the lands to assist in such 

 action and hasten continental land levelling and de- 

 struction by creating In the rock mass through joints 

 great lines of weakness which, under the attack of 

 both the atmosphere and the sea, compel the falling 

 apart of the land. The author proposed a "law of 

 joints " in which fhe controlling influence of joint 

 lines was more definitely stated. 



Prof. W. M. Davis, " Sinking Islands versus a 

 Rising Ocean in the Coral-Reef Problem " : — 



Since Darwin's voyage in the Beagle, eighty years I 

 ago, nearly all geologists who adopted his theor}' of | 

 coral reefs accepted also his postulate that the reef- 

 bearing islands have subsided with the subsiding ocean 

 bottom. In later years, and largely under the leader- 

 ship of Suess and Penck, the possible variation of 

 ocean level around fixed Islands has been emphasised. 1 

 When it is seen that a rise of the ocean surface around j 

 still-standing islands would produce all the conditions > 

 that arise from Darwin's postulate of subsiding islands 

 in an ocean of constant level, search should be rnade 

 for some means of evaluating these two alternatives. 

 The result of such a search shows that the theorv of 

 a changing ocean involves many extravagant complica- 

 tions which have not been sufficiently considered by 

 those w^ho accepted it ; while the theory of subsiding 

 islands is relatively simple and economical. Darwin s 



