612 
NATURE 
[APRIL 25, 1907 
the Institute of Chemistry, a fellow of the Chemical 
Society, and he took a prominent part in the inauguration 
of the Society of Chemical Industry, filling in succession 
the offices of honorary secretary, member of council, chair- 
man of the Manchester section, and vice-president. Mr. 
Davis contributed largely to chemical, technological, and 
microscopical literature. His ‘“‘ Handbook of Chemical 
Engineering ’’ was published in 1901, and his other 
collected works include ‘‘ Sizing and Mildew in Cotton 
Goods ”’ (written in conjunction with Dr. Dreyfus and 
Mr. Philip Holland), “‘ The River Irwell and its Tribu- 
taries ’’ (of which he was co-author with his brother, Mr. 
Alfred R. Davis), and numerous other miscellaneous 
pampiilets, jectures, &c. From its commencement in 
he acted as editor-in-chief of the Chemical Trade Journal. 
Mr. Davis was in his fifty-seventh year. 
1887 
AFTER a sojourn of nearly a quarter of a century in 
Brazil, Dr. E. Goeldi has felt it necessary to resign the 
directorship of the museum which now bears his own name 
at Para. He is succeeded by his colleague, Dr. J. Huber, 
who has hitherto had charge of the botanical section. 
The State Government of Para has issued an appreciative 
notice of Dr. Goeldi’s with the 
museum. 
services in connection 
WE have receiv.d a copy of the Photographic Monthly for 
April, which contains reproductions of Mr. J. P. Millar’s 
photographs of young cuckoos in the act of ejecting their 
fellow-occupants of nests. Most, if not all, of these 
pictures have already appeared in a little work by Mr. 
W. P. Westall, which has been noticed in our columns. 
THE aphides of the genus Chermes infesting conifers 
in Colorado form the subject of the first article in the 
Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy for the current 
year. Several species occur which have life-histories of 
the same general type as that of the European Chermes 
abietis, both hibernating and migratory females being 
produced. New and other orthopterous insects from 
Arizona are described by Mr. J. A. G. Rehn in the second 
article. 
Two important articles are contained in the issues of 
Biologisches Centralblatt for March 15 and April 1, the 
one, by Dr. Max Wolff, on the spinal cord of the lancelet, 
and the other, by Mr. A. Mordwilko, on the biological 
relationship existing between ants and plant-lice. In the 
former attention is specially directed to the morphology 
and genesis of the cord, certain very remarkable con- 
clusions being reached with regard to the origin of its 
central canal. The nature of ‘‘ symphilism’’ and its rela- 
tion to parasitism is discussed jn the latter. 
AMonG the contents of vol. xli., part iii., of the Journal 
of Anatomy and Physiology, special reference may be made 
to an article by Messrs. A. Keith and M. Flack on the 
form and nature of the muscular connections between the 
primary divisions of the vertebrate heart. One of the 
most important conclusions relates to the existence in 
mammalian hearts of a remnant of primitive fibres at the 
sino-auricular junction. These fibres, which are intimately 
connected with the vagus and sympathetic nerves, have 
a special arterial supply, and it is in them that the 
dominating rhythm of the heart is believed normally to 
arise. Considerable interest also attaches to the descrip- 
tion, by Mr. C. A. Hill, of a female skeleton, apparently 
referable to the Bronze age, from a cave in Littondale, 
Yorkshire. 
NO. 1956, VOL. 75] 
In discussing polygamy and other mating habits among 
birds in the March number of the American Naturalist, 
Dr. R. W. Shufeldt refers to the imperfection of our 
knowledge on this subject in the case of many groups, 
stating, for example, that he cannot find out whether 
kiwis and brush-turkeys are polygamous or monogamous. 
Although birds may be polygamists, monogamists, or in 
certain conditions given to practices similar to polyandry, 
or even, possibly, to polyandry itself, we have no inform- 
ation with regard to the origin, causes, and, in most 
instances, the needs of these divergent habits. It is, how- 
ever, more easy in many cases to explain the radical 
changes which take place in these respects as the result 
of domestication. It may be added that the author dis- 
believes in the existence of any close relationship between 
kiwis and other struthious birds, or between the latter 
and tinamous. ‘‘A kiwi (Apleryx),’’ he writes, “‘is no 
nearer an ostrich, and an ostrich to a tinamou, than a 
limpkin (Aramus) is to a bustard, and a bustard (Otis) to 
a quail (Colinus).’’ 
Ix the April number of the Quarterly Review, Prof. 
J. C. Ewart, of Edinburgh, discusses recent opinions and 
theories relating to the origin of the modern horse. After 
reviewing the early history of the horse-stem (throughout 
which the name Protorohippus is misspelt Proterohippus), 
the author states that he recognises three equine types 
as having existed in Europe about the close of the Glacial 
type, namely, the steppe, the forest, and the plateau type. 
Without entering into the consideration of all the 
characteristics of these, it may be mentioned that, accord- 
ing to the evidence of skulls from a Roman fort at New- 
stead, the forest type is distinguished by the face being 
placed nearly in the plane of the basicranial axis, whereas 
in the steppe type (to which the Mongolian Przewalski’s 
horse is stated to conform, if, indeed, it be not the 
exemplar) the former is sharply bent down at an angle 
to the latter. According to the author, the skull of the 
celebrated thoroughbred ‘‘ Stockwell’? conforms very 
closely in this respect to the steppe type, and is altogether 
different from the plateau or Libyan type, although agree- 
ing with the latter in the characters of the cervico-dorsal 
vertebra. If such mixed features really exist in one and 
the same skeleton, there would seem little hope of an 
early settlement of the problem of the origin of the 
thoroughbred. 
A MEMoIR on “ Variation and Correlation in Cerato- 
phyllum,’’ by Prof. Raymond Pearl, with the assistance 
of Miss O. M. Pepper and Miss F. J. Hagle, has been 
published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The 
memoir deals, on somewhat novel lines, with the variation 
in the number of leaves to a whorl (and other characters), 
with especial reference to the laws of growth. It is shown 
that the mean number of leaves to a whorl y is related to 
the ordinal position of the whorl from the base of the 
branch x by a relation of the form y=A+B. log (x—C), 
the mean increasing rapidly at first and then more 
slowly. For a branch of a given order the constant A 
alone varies in populations from different environments, 
i.e. the means vary, but not the form of the law by which 
the successive whorls are differentiated. In branches of 
successive orders the constant B tends to increase, the 
mean number of leaves to a whorl tending towards the 
final limit with greater rapidity in secondary as compared 
with primary branches. The variability of the whorls de- 
creases from the base of the branch onwards, successive 
whorls being produced ‘‘ with ever-increasing constancy to 
Their type, the ultimate limit towards which the process is 
