December 4, 1902] 



NA TURE 



113 



Gon lwana Series (permo-Triassic), and this is published with 

 seven plates in the Palaeontologia Indica (new series, vol. ii., 

 1902). 



The annual report of the Geological Commission of the Cape 

 of Good Hope for 1900 (dated 1902) has only just been received. 

 The operations of the Survey were naturally hampered by the 

 war, and the main work was in the districts on the west of the 

 Karoo, including the Cederbergen and part of the country be- 

 tween these mountains and the sea. It was carried on by 

 .Messrs. A. W. Rogers and E. H. L. Schwarz, under the direction 

 of Dr. Corstorphine, who has since resigned his position. Their 

 labours have resulted in the discovery of a new formation, the 

 " Ibiquas Series," comprising slates, sandstones and con- 

 glomerates, which overlie the Malmesbury beds and underlie the 

 Table Mountain Sandstone. Evidence of local glacial 

 action has been met with in the Table Mountain 

 Sandstone. The Dwyka Conglomerate has been found to 

 rest with marked unconformity on the older rocks as it is 

 traced northwards. Basic dykes and sheets of the same 

 type as those intrusive in the younger rocks of the central 

 Karoo, have been found in nearly all of the older series of 

 strata. 



We have received a report on the Terlingua quicksilver de- 

 posits of Brewster County, Texas {Bulletin No. 4 of the Uni- 

 versity of Texas Mineral Survey, 1902), by Mr. B. F. Hill, 

 under the direction of Prof. W. B. Phillips. It is mentioned 

 that at Comanche Spring, a small " seep," seven miles north of 

 the Rio Grande, the limestone bluffs have been covered in a 

 number of places with rude paintings of characteristic Indian 

 design. The artists were without doubt the Comanche Indians, 

 and the vermilion pigment was prepared from cinnabar. Of 

 late years, researches have been made in the district which show 

 that cinnabar and also native mercury occur in the Cretaceous 

 limestones, clays and shales. These strata are invaded by eruptive 

 rocks, to the presence of which the quicksilver deposits are con- 

 sidered to be indirectly due, the ore having been formed from 

 hot springs. The cinnabar is found in definite crystals and in 

 large amorphous masses ; other mercury compounds likewise 

 occur, while 'the native quicksilver is generally mixed with 

 crystalline masses of calcite, and occupies the interstices between 

 them sometimes in a quantity weighing twenty pounds. 



The second part of the Aarbogoi the Bergen Museum for the 

 current year contains a paper, by Mr. D. Bergendal, on Arctic 

 nemertine worms, in the course of which several new generic 

 and specific types are described. One of the former, Hubrech- 

 tella, is named in honour of the illustrious professor of zoology 

 at Utrecht. 



By the discovery of those of the great black species {Calypto- 

 rhynchus macrorhynchus), which are laid in the hollow branches 

 of gum-trees, Mr. D. le Souef ( Victoria Naturalist, vol. xix. 

 No. 6) has succeeded in filling the one remaining gap in our 

 knowledge of the eggs of Australian cockatoos. 



Asymmetrical development of the tracheal tubes in the 

 fore-wings of a female specimen of the North American moth 

 Tclea polyphonies affords, according to Dr. G. Enderlein 

 {Zoo/. Jahrb. — Abtheil. fiir Anatomic), .important evidence as to 

 the phylogeny of the Saturniidae and the developmental 

 history of the Lepidoptera in general. 



Morphologists will be much interested in a paper, by Mr. 

 E. Starks, on the shoulder-girdle of the hemibranchiate fishes 

 (sticklebacks, flute-mouths, trumpet-fish, &c), published in No. 

 1301 of the Proceedings of the U.S. Museum. Many emend- 

 ations on previous determinations are made, and it is urged 

 that the group is certainly entitled to rank as a suborder of equal 

 value with the Percesoses. 



The phylogeny of the Proboscidea forms the subject of a 

 paper by Dr. F. Ameghino published in vol. vii. of the Anales 

 of the Buenos Aires Museum. The author attempts to show 

 that the Patagonian genius Pyrotherium, which he regards as 

 of Upper Cretaceous age, is the proximate ancestor of the group 

 in question. This form, or its descendants, migrated into 

 Africa, where it gave rise to the recently discovered Palaeo- 

 mastodon and Mieritherium, the former of which is admitted to 

 be the progenitor of the mastodons ; the latter spread over the 

 world until one of them reached South America, the home of its 

 ancestors ! If, as is quite possible, Pyrotherium is really a pro- 

 boscidean, it has to be proved, before the author's views can be 

 accepted, first, that it is of Cretaceous age, and, secondly, that 

 it is not itself an immigrant from Africa. It will be unnecessary 

 to follow the author in his attempt to derive Pyrotherium — and 

 so elephants— from a Jurassic (?) South American marsupial. 



The Monthly Review for December contains the first part of a 

 contribution by the Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Fry, F.R.S., on the 

 age of the inhabited world and the pace of organic change. 



The annual report of the Liverpool Astronomical Society, a 

 copy of which has just been received, contains an interesting 

 address by the president, Mr. W. E. Plummer, upon the various 

 departments of astronomy in which observers, with or without 

 telescopes, may do useful work if they are inspired by the true 

 scientific spirit. 



We have received numbers 6-11 of vol. xi. and numbers 

 i-S of vol. xii. of the Transactions of the Academy of Science 

 of St. Louis. The separate parts are each devoted to a single 

 subject, and there is no regular interval of time between the 

 publication of consecutive issues. Many of the contributions 

 are of direct interest only to American men of science, while 

 others will appeal to scientific workers everywhere. Among 

 the latter class in the numbers of this year may be mentioned 

 Mr. A. S. Chessin's essays on the true potential of the force of 

 gravity and on the motion of gyroscopes ; and in vol. xi., the 

 reviews of the progress in physics and botany in the nineteenth 

 century, by Prof. F. E. Nipher and Dr. William Trelease 

 respectively, and the paper on some interesting molluscan 

 monstrosities, by Mr. F. C. Baker. 



The October number of the Journal of the Sanitary Institute 

 (vol. xxiii. part iii. ) contains the addresses to the various sections 

 at the Manchester congress of the Institute. Sir James Crichton- 

 Browne spoke upon the dust problem, and gave an analysis of 

 the dust from a bedroom which contained more than 50 per cent, 

 of organic matter, fragments of animal and vegetable fibres, 

 epithelial scales, starch granules and pollen. Prof. Delepine 

 discussed the epidemic of arsenical poisoning which occurred in 

 the north in 1901, and stated that with Reinsch's test less than 

 one part of arsenious acid in 10,000,000 parts of beer can be 

 detected. Prof. Sherrington gave an interesting address upon 

 school hygiene, and Dr. Shaw one upon the treatment of 

 smoke, printed in Nature of October 30 (vol. lxvi. p. 667). 

 The popular lecture by Sir W. J. Collins was entitled "The 

 Man versus the Microbe," in which he suggests that our views 

 upon the specificity of disease and the immutability of bacteria 

 should be modified in the light of the doctrine of evolution. 



The thirty-fifth volume of the "Journal and Proceedings of 

 the Royal Society of New South Wales," covering the year 1901, 

 provides convincing evidence of the scientific activity which 

 exists in many of the important countries of the British Empire. 

 From lime to time, similar portly volumes are received from 

 various colonies, all containing numerous important contribu- 

 tions to science, and it becomes increasingly difficult for a worker 

 in any branch of knowledge to acquaint himself even with the 

 new researches of British men of science. The volume before 



NO. I727, VOL. 67] 



