JUNE 4, 1914] 
NATURE 
S09 
festival of the Hindus, known as the Holi. A _ primi- 
tive form of the rite is the burning of a tree or pole, 
apparently symbolising the burning of the old year. 
To this are added various observances—fire-walking, 
swinging, burning of bush-fruits—which seem to ke 
connected with the cult of fertility. 
Ar the last meeting of the Society of Antiquarians 
of Scotland, Mr. Ludovic Mann discussed certain 
elaborately carved balls of stone, of which some two 
hundred examples are known. It was believed that 
they were found in interments of the bronze and 
stone ages; but the style of decoration points to the 
conclusion that they range through the first two or 
three centuries of our era. Mr. Mann produces some 
strong evidence to show that they were used as 
movable poises or weights on weighing beams. He 
believes that they originated with the Roman statera, 
and that they throw light on the conditions of com- 
merce in Scotland some two thousand years ago. 
SINCE oceanography is a subject in which Nor- 
wegian physicists and naturalists have taken a pro- 
minent part, it is appropriate that a full memoir 
upon this branch of science appears in the April 
number of Naturen. 
SUGGESTIONS with regard to the establishment of 
special rooms for children in museums are contributed 
by Mr. W. R. Butterfield, of the Hastings Museum, 
to the May issue of the Museums Journal. To any- 
one who has watched the aimless manner in which 
parties of children wander through the galleries of 
the Natural History Museum, the need and advisa- 
bility of such special rooms—if only they can be made 
to attract the class for whom they are intended—will 
be self-apparent. 
Tue Zoological Society of Scotland is to be heartily 
congratulated on the complete success attending the 
first year’s working of the Zoological Park, Edin- 
burgh, of which a full account is given in the report 
of the council for the year ending March 31, a report 
notable on account of the number and beauty of the 
illustrations. Among donations to the menagerie 
mention may be made of a consignment of antarctic 
seals and penguins from Messrs. Chr. Salvesen and 
Co., of Leith, several antelopes and deer from the 
Duke of Bedford, and an elephant from the Maha- 
raja of Mysore. 
A PHOTOGRAPH of the pair of young sea-elephants, 
or elephant-seals, recently presented by the Duke of 
Bedford to the Zoological Society forms one of the 
most striking features in the May number of Mr. 
Douglas English’s Wild Life. It is to be regretted 
that in the accompanying letterpress no mention is 
made of their place of origin, and the statement that 
‘‘Head”’ Island (instead of Heard Island) is one of 
the breeding places of the species is misleading. It 
may also be mentioned that ‘‘neoteny”’ (p. 16) is not 
a term likely to be familiar to the class of readers 
for whom this publication is intended. 
SEVERAL observers have in recent years experi- 
mented on the eggs of various animals by means of 
the centrifuge, with the view of determining the 
NOEN2327, VOL..93) 
effects upon development of a redistribution of the 
various constituents of the cytoplasm. The latest con- 
tribution to this particular branch of the science of 
experimental embryology is a long memoir by Dr. 
J. W. Jenkinson, ‘‘The Relation between the Struc- 
ture and the Development of the Centrifuged Egg of 
the Frog,’ published in the Quarterly Journal of 
Microscopical Science (vol. Ix., part 1). This author 
finds that, as a result of centrifuging, the constituents 
of the cytoplasm are driven past one another in oppo- 
site directions, and that this disarrangement brings 
about distortion of development, or even prevents it 
altogether. Normal development appears to be con- 
ditioned by a definite arrangement of the visible cyto- 
plasmic constituents, with the exception of the pig- 
ment. The yolk, glycogen, and fat, not being living 
substances, cannot, however, be properly termed 
organogenetic, and no evidence of the existence of 
distinct organogenetic bodies in the living protoplasm 
was obtained in the case of the frog’s egg. Dr. 
Jenkinson arrives at the general conclusion, however, 
that the causes upon which the primary differentiation 
of the embryo depends are located in the cytoplasm. 
He maintains that the cytoplasm transmits those char- 
acters which determine the large group to which an 
organism belongs. Generic, specific, and varietal 
characters, on the other hand, are supposed to be 
carried by the chromatin substances of the nucleus, 
which, however, depends upon differences in the cyto- 
plasm for the manifestation of its activities. 
ACCORDING to investigations by Mr. J. N. Currie 
on the flavour of Roquefort cheese (Journal of Agri- 
cultural Research, vol. ii., No. 1) it has been found 
that a considerable amount of the fat is hydrolysed 
during the ripening period. The chief factor in this 
process would appear to be Penicillium roqueforti, 
which produces a water-soluble lipase, and thus leads 
to the accumulation of the acids of milk fat in both 
the free and combined forms. Of these acids, caproic, 
caprylic, and capric, and their readily hydrolysable 
salts, have a peppery taste, and are responsible for the 
characteristic burning effect of Roquefort cheese upon 
the tongue and palate. 
Sir T. H. Ho.iuanp provides a very valuable biblio- 
graphical and critical index to ‘‘ Indian Geological Ter- 
minology’”’ in vol. xliii., part 1, of the Memoirs of the 
Geological Survey of india. Such lists are seldom 
readable, being intended only for reference; but in this 
case a student, going through these well-written pages 
with a map of India at his side, will learn a great 
deal about the geology of the country, and, incident- 
ally, about the men who have developed our know- 
ledge and the principles of stratigraphical research. 
THE Geologists’ Association furnishes in its Pro- 
ceedings much useful information as to districts 
visited on excursions, and many of the descriptive 
papers serve to bring our text-book knowledge up to 
date. In recent issues a valuable series of papers has 
appeared on the Aberdeen and Arbroath area 
(vol. xxiii., part 5). The picturesque regions of southern 
Mayo and Sligo, still too little known, are described 
in vol. xxiv., part 2, with eight photographs of scenery 
and rock-structure; while the Mesozoic beds round 
