446 



NATURE 



[September i, T904 



Ornithological subjects constitute the contents of the 

 August number of the Zoologist, so far at least as the 

 separate articles are concerned, the measurements and 

 weights of the eggs of the commoner members of the plover 

 tribe being recorded in the first article by the Messrs. 

 Buchanan. A photograph of the new Orkney vole, in juxta- 

 position with one of the common vole, forms the frontispiece 

 to the number. 



A BiCAUDATE Specimen of the king-crab is described by 

 Mr. F. F. Smith in No. S of Tuffs College Studies, while 

 Mr. G. Winslow records three cases of structural abnormali- 

 ties in tailed amphibians. The origin of the hypophysis 

 cerebri in the salamander, Amblystoma, especially in con- 

 nection with the dispute as to whether it is an endodermal 

 or ectodermal structure, is discussed at considerable length 

 by Messrs. Kingsley and Thyng, and the histology of the 

 digestive tract of the same creature receives attention at 

 the hands of Mr. G. A. Bates. In a list of the mammals 

 in the Barnum Museum of Tuft's College, by Mr. A. E. 

 Preble, it is somewhat curious to find the African elephant 

 " Jumbo " figuring as Elephas indicus ; it is sincerely to be 

 hoped that this is an error, and not the result of a discovery 

 that E. indicus is the proper title of the African elephant. 



In the American Journal of Science for August, Dr. C. R. 

 Eastman discusses the nature of the limb-like appendages 

 in the fish-like creatures collectively known as Osteostraci, 

 as exemplified in the family Asterolepididae. Five theories 

 have been propounded to explain the nature of these struc- 

 tures. They have been likened, firstly, to arthropod 

 limbs ; secondly, they have been regarded as produced and 

 jointed extensions of the head-angles of forms like 

 Cephalaspis ; thirdly, they have been derived from a fi.xed 

 body-spine like that of Acanthaspis ; fourthly, they have 

 been considered to be the degenerate development from the 

 iobate fins of the fringe-finned (crossopterygian) ganoids ; 

 while, fifthly, they may be sui generis. The first two hypo- 

 theses Dr. Eastman dismisses as being founded upon mis- 

 conceptions. The third he regards as presupposing im- 

 possible or anomalous conditions. Against the fourth, 

 which was suggested by Mr. C. T. Regan in his paper on 

 the phylogeny of the Teleostomi, recently noticed in our 

 columns, the author advances a number of objections, while 

 he pins his faith on the fifth. Dr. Eastman also takes 

 occasion to record his dissent from Mr. Regan's views as 

 to the existence of a close aflSnity between the Osteostraci 

 (Cephalaspis, Asterolepis, &c.) and the Arthrodira (Cocco- 

 steus) ; and also as to the alleged relationship between the 

 latter and the fringe-finned ganoids. 



In the same issue Mr. E. H. Sellards publishes an im- 

 portant contribution to our knowledge of Palaeozoic cock- 

 roaches. Hitherto these insects have been chiefiy known 

 by the wings. It is now demonstrated that in bodily 

 organisation they conform essentially to the modern Ortho- 

 ptera, this agreement also extending to their development, 

 as exemplified by the resemblance of the young to the adult, 

 and by the growth taking place by means of a succession 

 of moults, during which the wings are gradually evolved. 



The fourth volume of the new series of the Proceedings 

 of the Aristotelian Society, containing the papers read before 

 the society during the twenty-fifth session, 1903-4, has been 

 published by Messrs. Williams and Norgate. Dr. Shad- 

 worth Hodgson contributes two papers dealing respectively 

 with method in philosophy and with reality. Prof. G. F. 

 Stout deals with primary and secondary qualities, and Dr. 

 E. Westermarck has a paper entitled " Remarks on the 

 Subjects of Moral Judgments." Miss E. E. C. Jones re- 

 NO. 1818, VOL 70] 



capitulates the main points of Prof. Sidgwick's ethical view, 

 and attempts to answer some of the objections to it that 

 have been brought forward in recent criticisms. 



In vol. xxiv., part iv., of Notes from the Leyden Museum, 

 Madame C. M. L. Popta describes as new a number of 

 species of cat-fishes (Siluroids) collected by Dr. Nieuwenhaus 

 in Central Borneo in i8g8 and 1900. In the same issue Dr. 

 Jentink records the plantain-bat (Cerivoula picta) from 

 Sumatra. 



Messrs. Patten and Hart have found that the soluble 

 phosphorus of wheat-bran is organic in nature, existing as 

 the magnesium-calcium-potassium salt of a phospho-organic 

 acid having the formula CjH.PjO,, and probably identical 

 with Posternak's anhydro-o.xymethylene diphosphoric acid 

 (Bull. No. 250, New York Agricult. Exper. Station). This 

 acid and its salts seem to be of wide distribution in the 

 vegetable kingdom, having already been isolated from peas, 

 beans, pumpkin and lupine seeds, and from the potato and 

 other tubers and bulbs. 



In the July number of the Gaz::etta Chimica Italiana, a 

 convenient and practical method for the preparation of 

 nitrosyl chloride is described by Francesconi and Bresciani. 

 It is found that carefully prepared animal charcoal exerts 

 a very considerable catalytic influence on the combination 

 of nitric oxide and chlorine, the temperature most favour- 

 able for the reaction being 40° to 50° C. Below 35° and 

 above 70° C. the influence of the catalyser is much less 

 marked. 



Several observations are to be found in the literature 

 which indicate that hydrobromic acid at 1000° C. and hydro- 

 chloric acid at 2000° C. are perceptibly dissociated into the 

 elements. The direct quantitative measurement of the 

 extent of dissociation at these high temperatures has not 

 yet been found possible. In the Zeitschrift fiir physikalische 

 Chemie (vol. xlix. p. 70), Messrs. Bodenstein and Geiger 

 have, however, calculated the percentage dissociation from 

 known experimental data, the numbers obtained being : — 



icoo" abs. 2000° abs 



Hydrobromic acid ... o'lS per cent. ... 60 per cent. 

 Hydrochloric acid ... o'oo2 ,, O'S „ 



In the current number (vol. xlix. p. 162) of the Zeitschrift 

 fiir physikalische Chemie, Dr. P. P. Fedotieff gives an 

 account of an investigation of the ammonia-soda process 

 from the standpoint of the phase rule. According to the 

 experimental data, it is theoretically possible to convert 

 80 per cent, of the sodium chloride used into bicarbonate, 

 and in practice the yield under favourable conditions should 

 not fall below 70 per cent. It is interesting to note that, 

 from a purely chemical standpoint, the Solvay process, in 

 which ammoniacal brine is treated with carbonic acid, is 

 not the best form of the process. The author concludes 

 from his measurements that the treatment of sodium chloride 

 solution with solid ammonium bicarbonate is to be preferred. 



An account of milk investigations at Garforth is given 

 by Dr. C. Crowther in the Transactions of the Highland 

 and Agricultural Society of Scotland for 1904. It is found 

 that change from a highly nitrogenous diet to one relatively 

 poor in nitrogen causes secretion of a larger quantity of 

 milk, but the milk is poorer in fat, the change in the fat- 

 content being much more pronounced in the morning than 

 in the evening milk. During the summer months of 1901, 

 1902, and 1903, the average percentage of fat in the morn- 

 ing milk of the Garforth herd was found on most 

 days to fall below the standard of 3 per cent, embodied in 

 the regulations for the sale of milk at present in force. 



