NATURE 



[December i, 1904 



the exhaust from the central engine. The Marconi system 

 of wireless telegraphy will be installed, and remain at the 

 service of the travelling public, as on all the Belgian mail 

 steamers. 



The articles in the fourth part of vol. xxxii. of Gegen- 

 baur's Morphologisclics jahrhuch are two in number, the 

 one, by Dr. Bose, on variations in certain muscles of the 

 human thorax, and the other, by Mr. A. Gierse, on the 

 brain and cephalic nerves of the small deep-sea teleostean 

 fish Cyclothonc acclidens. The latter is remarkable for 

 possessing a median cephalic sympathetic nerve-cord, 

 apparently unknown in any other vertebrate. 



According to the report of the annual meeting held in 

 May last, the Boston Society of Natural History (U.S.A.) 

 is devoting attention to the display in its museum of the 

 fauna of New England. New England palaeontology is to 

 be shown in the eastern end of the building between the 

 rooms devoted to the palseontology of the rest of the world, 

 while the remaining available space will be devoted to the 

 recent birds and mammals. In the galleries will be 

 arranged the lower vertebrates and the invertebrates. 

 Accordingly, the local fauna, which is to be the leading 

 feature of the museum, will occupy the most prominent and 

 central position, from which the various portions of the 

 general collection will diverge. This is as it should be, and 

 when complete the museum promises to be a model for 

 other local institutions of a similar nature. 



The first part of vol. Ixxviii. of the Zeitschrift fiir -vissen- 

 schaflliche Zoologie is devoted to the fourth and apparently 

 concluding section of Dr. E. Rohde's valuable and ex- 

 haustive account of the structure of the organic cell, and 

 to an article by Mr. D. Deineka on the constitution of the 

 swim-bladder of fishes. In the second of these articles the 

 author supports the view that the main function of the 

 swim-bladder is hydrostatic ; fish in which this organ has 

 been pierced, and the whole or part of its contained gas 

 withdrawn, or replaced by water, completely lose their 

 balance, in some cases falling on one side, in others stand- 

 ing nearly perpendicular in the water with the head down- 

 wards, and in others, again, floating belly upwards. 

 Whether, however, the swim-bladder has a double function, 

 and acts also as a respiratory organ, is, in the author's 

 opinion, extremely doubtful. 



In the September issue of the Proceedings of the Phila- 

 delphia Academy Miss A. M. Fielde records three instances 

 of curious traits displayed by ants kept under observation 

 in the laboratory at Woods Holl, Mass. In the first case 

 the actions recorded suggest something akin to hypnotism, 

 while from the third there seems a possibility that these 

 insects may be able to remember and recognise individuals 

 of their own kind after a separation of several years. The 

 reactions of ants to vibrations form the subject of a second 

 article by the same author in conjunction with Mr. G. H. 

 Parker. In this it is urged that it is misleading to ascribe 

 or to deny hearing to these insects. They are very sensitive 

 to the vibrations of solids, but not to those of air, and their 

 reactions to these might as well be described as due to 

 touch as to hearing. 



The appearance of a bark disease among the Para rubber 

 trees in certain districts in Ceylon during 1903 created some 

 alarm among rubber planters, but prompt measures for its 

 treatment were carried out under the advice of the Govern- 

 ment mycologist. Mr. J. B. Carruthers, the officer in 

 question, gives an account of its occurrence in his report, 

 which forms No. 16 of vol. ii. of the Circulars and Agri- 

 NO. I 83 I, VOL. 7 1] 



cultural Journal of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon, and 

 states that the disease was due to a canker fungus ; further 

 details with regard to structure and treatment will form the 

 subject of a separate circular. 



The Journal of Botany (November) contains the first part 

 of a detailed description of the plants collected in Patagonia 

 by Mr. Hesketh Prichard, of which a preliminary list was 

 given in his book " Through the Heart of Patagonia." 

 The identification has been undertaken by Dr. Rendle, who 

 prefaces the list of plants with a short account of the region 

 in which the collections were made, and the typical elements 

 which are represented. The new species belong chiefly to 

 characteristic temperate South American genera. To the 

 same number Mr. A. B. Jackson contributes some notes on 

 Leicestershire plants which summarise observations made 

 since the year 1886, when the " Flora of Leicestershire " 

 was published. 



Dr. W. E. de Kort]6, at a meeting of the Pathological 

 Society of London on November 15, described what he 

 believes to be the parasites of small-pox and vaccinia. In 

 the lymph of the eruptive spots in both these diseases he 

 has detected bodies measuring about 1/2500 inch in 

 diameter, amoeboid, and containing refractile granules ; 

 these he regards as amoeboid protozoa. They are extremely 

 delicate, breaking up and disappearing on all but the 

 gentlest manipulation, and on attempts to stain or preserve. 

 They seem to be very similar to the bodies described by 

 Funck some years ago under the name of Sporidiiim 

 vaccinale. 



In an article on trypanosome diseases (Brit. Med. Journ., 

 November 26) Prof. Robert Koch advances arguments in 

 favour of the view that the trypanosomes of mammals at 

 present known belong to about three species, viz. the rat 

 trypanosome and the T. Theileri of South African cattle, 

 both of which are distinguished morphologically and by un- 

 changing virulence and inoculability from the other trypano- 

 somes, i.e. those of nagana, surra, mal de caderas, and 

 sleeping sickness, all of which show considerable variation 

 in morphology, virulence, and inoculability, and are there- 

 fore regarded by Prof. Koch as being probably varieties of 

 one type. 



The new number of the Miltcilungen aiis den deutschen 

 .^chutzgcbieten contains papers on the north-western 

 boundary region of Togoland, by Count Zech, and on the 

 results of an exploration of the healthy plateau region of the 

 Kamerun, north of the Manenguba mountains, by Dr. Hans 

 Zieman. The information in the former paper, and the 

 map accompanying it, are of particular interest on account 

 of the immediate proximity of the district to British 

 territory. 



The July number of the Bulletin of the Italian Geo- 

 graphical Society contains the concluding portion of Prof. 

 Brocherel's report on the expedition to Central .\sia in 

 iqoo. Signer Carlo Rossetti writes on the political and 

 economic conditions of Korea,' and Signor Eugcnio Bar- 

 barich makes an important contribution to the physical 

 geography and geology of Albania. -Another paper deals 

 with the award of the King of Italy in the arbitration as 

 to the boundary between Brazil and British Guiana. 



Prof. Penck's account of the progress made during the 

 last five years in the execution of a map of the world on 

 a scale of i : 1,000,000, which was presented to the Inter- 

 national Geographical Congress at Washington, is pub- 

 lished in the October number of the National Geographic 

 Magazine. During the last four years France, Germany, 



