468 



NA TURE 



[March i6, 1905 



• iill on the gurnard commonly known as Priouotiis stcanisi, 

 which is made the type of a new genus. 



The structure of the squamoso-parietal crest in the skulls 

 of the horned dinosaurs of the Cretaceous of Alberta is 

 deemed by Mr. L. M. Lambe of sufluient interest to merit 

 a paper by itself, and he has accordingly described this part 

 of the skeleton in a recent issue of the Transactions of the 

 Royal Society of Canada (vol. x., sect. iv.). 



Our weekly budget includes copies of Nos. 3 and 4 of 

 the Sitziingsbcriclite of the Vienna Academy for the current 

 year. Among the notes is one by Prof. Molisch on phos- 

 phorescence in eggs and potatoes after cooking, and a 

 second by Dr. F. Werner on the Orthoptera of the Egyptian 

 Sudan. 



In the January number of the American Naturalist, Mr. 

 J. Stafford discusses the larva and spat of the Canadian 

 oyster, the latter of which is extremely minute and very 

 difficult to discover. Unlike the later stages, the very young 

 spat presents a dark metallic lustre. When once recognised, 

 the young spat is, however, by no means difficult to discover, 

 and the sailors soon became adepts in the search. Although 

 found on many kinds of shells, and sometimes on stones, 

 the spat displays a preference for the young of Crepidula 

 fornicata and colonies of Ralfsia verrucosa. 



To the Biologisches Centralblatt of February 15, Mr. 

 J. P. Lotsy contributes an article on " X-generation and 

 2X-generation," in which he proposes a theory to explain 

 certain features connected with cell-development and hereditv. 

 In the second article in the same issue Mr. E. Wasmann 

 seeks to explain the origin and development of slavery among 

 ants, showing the manner in which a colony of Formica 

 truncicola may have been gradually modified from a type 

 in which a certain number of stranger ants were received 

 as guests, to one in which a host of captives are maintained. 



The Otago Daily Times of January 6 contains an article 

 on the marine fish-hatchery at Portobello dnd the progress 

 recently made there. The institution was nominally opened 

 a year ago last January, but it was by no means in good 

 working order, having to contend with such difficulties as 

 leaky tanks. W'ork during the past year has been to a 

 great extent confined to observing the behaviour of a few 

 kinds of food-fishes in captivity. Many of these died off 

 quickly when introduced into the tanks, some, apparently, on 

 account of having been injured in their capture, and others 

 owing to a difference in the temperature of the water. Blue 

 cod, however, thrive well, although the endeavours to rear 

 the fry were unsuccessful. The introduction of the European 

 lobster is contemplated. 



Mr. L. Frederico, director of the class of science in the 

 Belgian Royal Academy, sends us a copy of an essay (from 

 the Bulletin of the Academy for December last) on the Glacial 

 fauna and flora of the plateau of Baraque-Michel, the 

 culminating point of the Ardennes. The boreal conditions 

 of climate have, it appears, preserved on this exposed plateau 

 a small colony of animals and plants of an essentially arctic 

 type, the nearest relatives of which are to be met with 

 only in the extreme north, and on certain much higher 

 mountains in central Europe. This assemblage seems to 

 be at the critical stage as regards temperature, a very slight 

 elevation of which would lead to its disappearance. We 

 thus have a definite refutation of the prevailing idea that 

 the temperature of this part of Europe has been higher at 

 some date since the Glacial epoch than it is at the present 

 day. 



NO. 1846, VOL. 71J 



Tilt-; February number of the Johns Hopkins Hospital 

 Hulh'lin (vol. xvi., No. 167) is mainly devoted to anatomy. 

 The teaching of anatomy is discussed by Mr. Mall, who 

 also writes on the working of the .\natomy .Act (U.S. .A.) 

 and preservation of material, and the anatomical department 

 of the University of California is described by Dr. Flint. 

 Three papers dealing with points in the development of the 

 kidney, a review of Flechsig's researches on the brain, and 

 an article on body-snatching in England complete the 

 contents of an excellent number. 



On the subject of the mandrake or mandragora, Mr. 

 G. B. Randolph has collated, in the Proceedings of the 

 American Academy of Arts and Sciences (vol. xl., No. 12), 

 a number of references from the classics, from which he 

 concludes that, on account of its narcotic qualities, it was 

 employed as an anaesthetic about the first century of the 

 Christian era. 



Experiments by Mr. E. S. Salmon showing that " biologic 

 forms " of Erysiphe graminis can be identified according to 

 their power of infecting different species of cereals have 

 been previously referred to. Pursuing his investigations on 

 the subject, Mr. Salmon states, in the Annals oj Botany 

 (January, 1905), that portions of a host plant which is 

 normally immune, become susceptible to infection by the 

 fungal conidia if they are injured or subjected to heat or 

 the action of anjesthetics, but the conidia produced as a 

 result of such infection cannot attack a healthy plant of 

 the same species. The practical application of this fact is 

 far reaching, as a wheat-rust can in this way spread to 

 barley leaves which have been injured by animals or storms. 



With the object of arousing interest in the subject of 

 the giant trees of Victoria — all species of Eucalyptus — Mr. 

 N. J. Caire has collected data as to size, height, and 

 localities of specimens known to him in a paper published 

 in the Victorian Naturalist (January, 1905). Big Ben, a 

 specimen of Eucalyptus amygdalinus, possessing a trunk of 

 57 feet girth, was destroyed by a bush fire in 1902, and 

 Billy Barlow, a blackbutt of the same circumference, was 

 sacrificed for the Paris Exhibition ; both these veterans 

 were probably more than a thousand years old. Most of 

 these trees of enormous girth present signs of senile decay, 

 as shown by broken tops or later by hollow stems. 



The results of recent experiments have proved con- 

 clusively, says the Pioneer Mail, that silk of excellent quality 

 can be raised in Ceylon, and samples of cocoons raised at 

 Peradeniya from European seed have been classed by a 

 European expert as second only to the best Italian silk. 

 Hitherto all experiments have been on a small scale, limited 

 partlv by the comparative scarcity of mulberry trees. The 

 time seems now to have arrived when more extensive opera- 

 tions might be undertaken with advantage ; and, with this 

 object, it is proposed that an experimental silkworm rearing 

 establishment be created. A scheme is under consideration 

 by the Ceylon Board of .Agriculture. 



Some interesting observations of the spark discharge from 

 a lloltz machine are described in a paper by Dr. L. 

 .-Xinaduzzi in the Atli of the Italian Electrotechnical .Asso- 

 ciation for 1904. Marked variations in the character of the 

 discharge were observed wiih varying atmospheric condi- 

 tions. 



I'liE peculiar photographic activity of hydrogen peroxide 

 has recently been considered by Graetz to be due to a 

 special radiation, in virtue of the fact that its influence 

 is capable of penetrating solid bodies, particularly thin 



