February 12, 1903] 



NA TURE 



y^ 



Bagley. The work was done, under Prof. Titchener's direction, 

 in the psychological labaratory of Cornell University. Miss 

 Bagley examines the effects of rate of rotation, length of black 

 line, variation in size of sectors, width of line, position on the 

 disc, contrast, intensity of illumination, colour of background, 

 besid:S those of the general psychological factors, practice, 

 attention and fatigue. She obtains particularly interesting 

 results as regards the production of a subjective yellow and 

 concludes that only a four-component theory of vision is ade- 

 quate to her facts. The theory chosen, tentatively, is Ebbing- 

 haus's modification of Hering's well-known hypothesis. 



The Pioneer Mail quotes a letter from a Ceylon paper >n 

 which a correspondent records killing a cobra that had 

 partially swallowed a rat-snake. The cobra itself measured 

 4 feet 8 inches, and the disgorged rat-snake 5 feet. 



We have received vol. xx. part iv. of the Schriften of the 

 Scientific Society of Dantsic. Among' its contents is an 

 illustrated account of the insects of West Prussia harmful 

 to agriculture and horticulture, with suggestions as to the 

 best means of combating their ravages. 



The fourth part of Prof. L. Bolk's important memoir on 

 the anatomy of the Primates appears in part i. of vol. xxxi. 

 of Gegenbaur's Morphologisches Jahrbuch. In this section 

 the author describes in detail the cerebellum of the New- 

 World monkeys. It is to be followed by an account of the 

 same organ in the orang-utan. 



Dr. W. H. Gaskell, at the conclusion of a series of papers 

 on the origin of vertebrates, published in the Journal oj 

 Anatomy and Physiology, summarises, in the January 

 number, his views as follows : — " The consideration of the 

 formation of the vertebrate cranial region indicates that the 

 ancestor of the vertebrates was not an arachnid purely or a 

 crustacean purely, but possessed partly crustacean and partly 

 arachnid characters. In order to express this conclusion, 

 I have used the term Protostraca, invented by Korschelt and 

 Heider, to indicate a primitive arthropod group from which 

 both arachnids and crustaceans may be supposed to have 

 originated, and have therefore stated that the vertebrates 

 ■did not arise directly from the annelids, but from the 

 Protostraca." 



In the Biologisches Centralblatt for January 15, Herr 

 E. Wasmann commences an account of an investigation into 

 the phenomenon of " symphilism," that is to say, the har- 

 bouring of insects, &c., of various foreign species in the nests 

 of ants and termites. It is stated that the number of sym- 

 philous arthropods exceeds a hundred, of which from 

 eighty-five to ninety are beetles. All these symphilous in- 

 sects, and more especially beetles, possess certain peculiar- 

 ities by which they can always be recognised. Among the 

 most notable are special exudation organs, such as pits or 

 pores in the exoskeleton, mostly associated with pencils of 

 yellow or reddish-yellow hairs. Moreover, most symphilous 

 beetles have a characteristic colour, namely, oily reddish- 

 yellow or reddish-brown. They also show certain modifica- 

 tions of the mouth-organs, especially of the labium, as well 

 as " physogastrism," accompanied by excessive development 

 of the fat-bodies, or sexual glands. 



The effects of natural selection and race-tendency upon 

 the colour-patterns of the Lepidoptera formed the subject 

 of an investigation recently undertaken by Mr. A. G. Mayor, 

 the results of which are published in the Science Bulletin 

 (vol. i., No. 2) of the Brooklyn Institute. It appears th it 

 the colour-markings of Lepidoptera consist of spots and 

 bands, or of a combination of these two, the " combination- 



NO. 173/, VOL. 67] 



markings " being the least frequent. Certain general types 

 of variation in these markings are noticeable, but each 

 family or genus has characteristic modifications of these 

 types of variation. A definite relation exists between thr- 

 number of markings on the fore- and the hind-wings. The 

 species of a genus and the genera of a family are differenti- 

 ated by modifications of certain dominant conditions, each 

 genus or family displaying its own dominant conditions and 

 following its own peculiar law of differentiation. On the 

 whole, the investigation favours the view that new species 

 have originated by mutation independent of environment, 

 and generally not interfered with by adverse selection. 



Prof. Potonie, in a small work published by Gustav 

 Fischer, gives an explanatory account of his pericaulom 

 theory of the structure of plants. Probably the author would 

 hardly accept as a description of his position the suggestion 

 that it is an attempt to combine the views of Goethe and 

 of Alex. Braun, but it seems nevertheless very much like it. 

 The plant is conceived of as primarily originating from a 

 dichotomising thallus, which gradually becomes, by unequal 

 development of the two limbs, a sympodium. The leafy- 

 part seems to be formed as the outward prolongations of 

 the terminations of the dichotomising arms. The theory 

 is complicated by notions of congenital concrescence, but it 

 does not seem to render the task easier of deciding as to what 

 parts are to be attributed the properties of " Leaf-nature " 

 and what " Stem-nature." He concludes (p. 40), on grounds 

 that will probably not satisfy all anatomists, that in the 

 highest plants the pith is to be regarded as the " urachse," 

 the peripheral tissues belonging to the " pericaulom." It 

 may be doubted whether these academic speculations will 

 appeal to many botanists at the present d.i\ . 



A subject list of the works on general science, physics, 

 sound, music, light, microscopy and philosophical instru- 

 ments, in the library of the Patent Office, has been issued 

 at sixpence. The list consists of two parts : a general 

 alphabet of subject headings (occupying- 170 pages), with 

 entries, in chronological order, of the works arranged under 

 these headings ; and a key (12 pages) or a summary of these 

 headings, which serves the purpose of an index. 



Three more volumes of the first annual issue of the 

 " International Catalogue of Scientific Literature " have 

 reached us. Volume v. contains astronomical works and 

 runs to 301 pages. Volume vii. deals with pure mathe- 

 matics in 201 pages, and volume viii. with bacteriology in 

 314 pages. Those portions of the literature of 1901 which 

 are not catalogued in the volumes of pure mathematics and 

 bacteriology will form a part of the second annual issue of 

 the catalogue. 



Messrs. John Bartholomew ami Co., Edinburgh, have 

 commenced the publication, in twenty one monthly parts, of 

 " The Survey Atlas of England and Wales." The atlas is 10 

 contain eight) -four pi ites of maps and plans, with descriptive 

 text, illustrating 1 he topography, physiography, geology, climaie, 

 and the political and commercial features of the country. The 

 maps have been designed and prepared under the direction of 

 Mr. J. G. Bartholomew. The basis of the atlas is the Ordnance 

 Survey, reduced, by permission, to the uniform scale of half-an- 

 inch to the mile, in sixty-seven section maps, which are coloured 

 according to contour lines. In order to correct the maps to 

 date, the sheets have been submitted to local authorities for 

 systematic revision, and the general maps have also been 

 revised by specialists. 



Prof. A. M. Wori iiinc. ion's " Dynamics of Rotation," 

 which was written several years ago to provide engineering 



