Marcu. 5, 1914] 
NATURE 15 
occupier of the throne, the king.’’ She notes that 
Arab legends of the ancient kings of Egypt mention 
the disappearance of two monarchs, and thus seem 
to preserve the tradition of the divine spirit leaving the 
world. The art evidence begins only from. Roman 
times, and the ceremonial record is less conclusive, 
being connected with the obscure Sed festival, of which 
she offers a new explanation. It seems to be con- 
nected with a fertility cult. But the Egyptian evidence, 
though when the details are taken together, it is 
suggestive, is far from being so clear as the practice 
of king-killing among the Shilluks of Fashoda, which 
was fortunately recorded in time for its use by Dr. 
Frazer in the new edition of his great work. 
Tue January number of Eugénique, which is the 
monthly journal of the Société francaise d’Eugénique, 
is largely occupied by Dr. Saleeby’s lecture on the 
progress of eugenics, which was delivered before the 
society on January 7. In the discussion which fol- 
lowed it, M. March, the head of the French Govern- 
ment Statistical Department, made some interesting 
observations on the relations between biometry and 
Mendelism. He pointed out that Mendel’s laws them- 
selves are statistical laws based on the theory of prob- 
abilities, while biometry is simply the application of 
statistical methods to biological problems. With re- 
gard to the controversy concerning the effect of 
alcoholism on the offspring, M. March condemns those 
as unscientific who criticise the results obtained by 
the Galton Laboratory, on the ground that they render 
weaker the struggle against alcoholism, and says 
further :—‘‘ Temperance societies know well the eternal 
objection made by peasants, ‘ Look at my neighbour ; 
he is eighty years of age, in splendid health, and has 
always drunk.’ On this point, as on all others, 
numerous observations, well conducted and _ well 
analysed, are the best means of reaching the truth.’ 
From an article in the Journal of Heredity, vol. v., 
No. 2, we learn that, as the result of experiments con- 
ducted by Mr. Alexander Graham Bell in Nova Scotia, 
high feeding of ewes just before the autumn pairing 
season results in the production of a much higher per- 
centage of female lambs than ordinary, the proportion 
of this sex in his flock being 72 per cent., whereas 
in those of neighbouring farmers there was a_per- 
centage of 883 males. 
THE first number of a new monthly journal devoted 
to microscopy has been issued. It is entitled The 
Journal of Microscopy and Natural History Mirror, 
and is edited by Mr. Edwards, the secretary of the 
Postal Microscopical Club, Reading. Its object is to 
foster the study of natural history with microscope 
and camera, and to help and instruct the amateur 
microscopist. The present number contains short 
articles on photomicrography, pond-life, mounting, 
and so on. 
BuLLeTIN No. 36 of the Agricultural Research Insti- 
tute, Pusa, India, contains a note by Major Holmes, 
on the McFadyean staining reaction for anthrax 
bacilli. This consists in staining under-fixed films 
with methylene-blue, by which procedure the bacilli 
are stained blue, and appear to be surrounded with a 
NO, 2274,/ VOL. 93] 
pale purple capsule. Major Holmes confirms the 
diagnostic value of this reaction, and makes the in- 
teresting observation that cattle in India rarely die 
of anthrax, even if inoculated with it. 
In The American Naturalist for February, Prof. 
W. E. Castle directs attention to the interest—from 
the point of view of Mendelian colour-inheritance—of 
two new colour-phases of the brown rat, respectively 
known to breeders as the pink-eyed yellow, fawn, or 
cream, and the black-eyed yellow, fawn, or cream. 
The former seems to have first appeared about 1910 
or 1911, while the originator of the second strain, as 
we learn from an appendix to the paper, was brought 
to Liverpool by a ship in 1912. Their special interest 
lies in the fact that yellow phases—due to the sup- 
pression of black and brown pigment—has hitherto 
been unknown in this species. 
A REMARKABLE instance of the needless multiplica- 
tion of technical names in zoology has recently 
occurred in the case of Grévy’s zebra. Some years 
ago Mr. R. I. Pocock pointed out that this species 
was so markedly distinct from other Equide as to 
be worthy of subgeneric separation, although he did 
not suggest a new subgeneric title. In 1912, Dr. 
Max Hilzheimer (Abh. Senckenberg Ges., vol. 
Xxi., p. 85), proposed for this species the sub- 
generic name, Megacephalon, which is preoccupied 
(1846) by a well-known genus of birds. In the same 
year Mr, N. Heller (Smithsonian Misc. Collect., 
vol. Ix., No. 8, p. 1), apparently without knowledge 
of Dr. Hilzheimer’s work, proposed the name Dolicho- 
hippus, in a generic sense. Unaware of this, Dr. 
A. Griffini, in an article on zebras and quaggas, 
orginally published in vol. iv. of Natura (Padua), but 
of which separately paged reprints have just reached 
this country, suggests the name, Ludolphozecora 
(from ‘‘ Zecora,”’ the designation by which Ludolphus 
alluded to the species), to replace the preoccupied 
Megacephalon. 
A copy has been received from Washington of the 
report of the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 
for the year ending June 30, 1913. We learn from it 
that a plan has been formulated and some progress 
has been made in certain lines of field work for a 
geological survey of Panama, under the joint auspices 
of the Isthmian Canal Commission, the United States 
Geological Survey, and the Smithsonian Institution, 
and a grant has been made from the institution’s funds 
toward the expenses of such investigation. The 
general plan of the survey comprises a systematic 
study of the physiography, stratigraphy, and structural 
geology, geological history and correlation, mineral 
resources (including coal, oil, and other fields), petro- 
graphy and palzontology of the canal zone, and of 
as much of the adjacent areas of the isthmian region 
as is feasible. The biological survey of the canal 
zone, organised by the institution in 1910, was brought 
to a close during the year so far as field work was 
concerned, and some of the results have been referred 
to in these columns. 
Iv has long been recognised that a necessity exists 
for the improvement of the important medicinal plants. 
