June 23, 1904] 



NA TURE 



185 



Paris, May 5). One striking instance is given of a 

 cancer district, viz. at Luckau, a small town in northern 

 Prussia, where Behla has investigated the incidence of 

 cancer from 1878 to i8qq. The town consists of two por- 

 tions, one on higher ground, which is well drained and 

 consists of 415 houses, the other low-lying, damp, and 

 surrounded with canals, consisting of 115 houses. In the 

 latter, during the twenty years, seventy-five cases of cancer 

 occurred, while in the former, nearly four times as large, 

 only si.xty-five cases occurred during the same period. 



Ox a previous occasion reference has been made in our 

 columns to the investigations of Dr. C. H. Eigenmann into 

 the structure of the eye of the blind fishes (Amblyopsidae). 

 A fuller and more detailed memoir by the same investi- 

 gator on the eye of Amblyopsis has recently been published 

 in Contributions from the Zoological Laboratory of Indiana 

 University (No. 50). The author finds that although the 

 foundations of the eye are normally laid, instead of de- 

 veloping with the aid of new material, the superstructure 

 is completed out of that provided for the foundation, and 

 that in the end complete disintegration takes place. 



We have received from the U.S. National Committee of 

 Audubon Societies a batch of leaflets (published at New 

 York) on bird protection and on the teaching of ornithology 

 in schools, and likewise the combined report of that body and 

 the A.O.U. Committee on the Protection of North American 

 Birds for 1903, extracted from the Auk for January. The 

 leaflets contain e.xcellent portraits and descriptions of some 

 of the most beneficial of North American birds, one being 

 specially devoted to the snowy heron, or egret, and to the 

 oft-told tale of the iniquity of wearing " aigrettes " and 

 "ospreys." The report, which is illustrated with repro- 

 ductions from photographs of bird life in protected locali- 

 ties, emphasises the satisfactory results which have accrued 

 from the special protection extended to gulls and terns by 

 means of the Thayer fund. 



In' his usual interesting style, Mr. E. T. Seton, in the 

 June number of the Century Magazine, gives an account of 

 the labours of the little burrowing rodents commonly known 

 as pocket-gophers, and their effect on the soil. According 

 to the author's personal observations, true earth-worms are 

 unknown in Manitoba, and, indeed, in all that part of North 

 America lying to the south of the Saskatchewan and west 

 of the Mississippi, with the exception of a narrow humid 

 belt along the Pacific coast ; and it would seem that the 

 work performed by those annelids in other parts of the 

 world is accomplished in western North America by pocket- 

 gophers. In Manitoba the surface soil consists of a layer 

 of black humus from a foot to two feet in thickness, and 

 there can be little doubt that this layer, which is not a solid 

 bed of decayed vegetation, has been thoroughly mixed up 

 with the subjacent loam by the action of burrowing rodents, 

 foremost among which are pocket-gophers. 



Appendix iii. to the Kew Bulletin has been received, 

 which contains a list of the new garden plants of the year 

 1903. 



Is the Journal of the .Asiatic Society of Bengal, No. 4, 

 vol. Ixxii., Sir George King, F.R.S., in conjunction with 

 Mr. J. S. Gamble, F.R.S., continues the " Materials for a 

 Flora of the Malay Peninsula." The contribution contains 

 the order Capri foliaceoe (three species of Viburnum), and 

 those species of the Rubiacea; which possess numerous 

 ovules in each cell of the ovary. This tropical order is 

 well represented, and the authors have added a number 

 of new species, including fourteen for .'\rgostemma, nine 

 NO. 1808, VOL. 70] 



for Randia, and four for the morphologically interesting 

 genus Mussa;nda. 



The subject of nuclear fusion in vegetative cells is treated 

 in three papers by Dr. Nemec which have appeared in the 

 Sitzungsbcriclite of the Royal Scientific Society of Bohemia 

 (1902, 1903). By the action of such irritant solutions as 

 copper sulphate or chloral hydrate, it is possible to induce 

 anomalous developments in the cells of the meristematic 

 region of seedling roots whereby the formation of the cell 

 wall consequent to cell division is suspended, and a 

 bi-nuclear condition is established. Fusion of the two 

 nuclei follows, and the resulting nucleus in the succeeding 

 division shows twice the ordinary number of chromosomes. 

 This number is maintained for a time, but eventually a 

 reduction takes place, and the ordinary number of chromo- 

 somes appear on the spindle. 



We have received from Messrs. .\rmbrecht, Nelson and 

 Co. a fine example of flexible sandstone, known also as 

 itacolumite, from its occurrence on Itacolumi, a mountain 

 near the town of Ouro Preto, in the State of Minas Gereas 

 in Brazil, where it was first discovered. This variety of 

 rock has been found in several localities in the United 

 States, and also in India. E.xamples were obtained by the 

 late General C. A. McMahon from Kaliana, a hill near 

 Dadri, about 60 miles west* of Delhi. He regarded it as 

 a local and modified form of the quartzite of the district. 

 Certain beds of earthy cellular quartzite are there quarried 

 for millstones, and the stone-cutters come abruptly upon 

 the flexible stone when engaged in quarrying. This stone 

 occurs in irregular patches, and its flexibility appears to be 

 due to the partial removal of the felspathic cement to which 

 the rigidity of the mass of the adjacent rocks is due. The 

 rock does not possess a schistose structure, and the flexi- 

 bility is not due to the presence of talc or mica, the peculiar 

 character being due to the decomposition or dissolution of 

 portions of the matri.x of the quartzite. 



Professional paper No. 9 (forestry series) of the United 

 States Geological Survey deals with the forest conditions 

 in the Cascade Range Forest Reserve, and forms the sixth 

 paper of the series. A description of the first five papers 

 will be found in Nature, vol. Ixviii. p. 406. The Cascade 

 Range Forest Reserve covers an area of 7254 square miles, 

 and is the largest of all the reserves. The introduction 

 deals with the general topographical, geological, and 

 climatic features of the area, the classification of lands, 

 such as forested, burned, open, &c., together with the total 

 stand of timber, which exceeds 50,000,000,000 feet. The 

 species are varied, although the timber consists almost 

 entirely of conifers. The reserve is divided into thirty-seven 

 townships, which are again subdivided into ranges. The 

 bulk of the report deals with the classification of lands, 

 stand of timber, species, and forest conditions in the several 

 ranges. The value of the report is greatly enhanced by 

 the forty-one illustrations, consisting of photographs, maps, 

 and diagrams. 



We have received from Messrs. A. and J. Smith, of 

 -Aberdeen, a descriptive catalogue containing full particulars 

 of Prof. Hay's apparatus devised for the investigations 

 conducted by Dr. Leslie Mackenzie and himself for the 

 Royal Commission on Physical Training. In addition, the 

 list contains information of other appliances suitable for 

 the measurement of children. 



The most recent addition to the Patent Office Library 

 Series is the " Subject List of Works on Electricity, 

 Magnetism, and Electro-Technics, in the Library of the 



