NATURE 



[ |amarv ib. 1919 



I irj character of the journal will be maintained. 

 The two most recent numbers mav be taken as types 

 of the importance of the Geological Magazine in times 

 when it is at length realised thai "in national progress 

 depends on scientific method ami observation. Dr. 

 Prior, for Instance, reviews Hie Progress of 

 Mineralogy from 1864 to 1918"; the proposed Mines 

 Department for the United Kingdom is discussed; and 

 Mr. Wilcockson gives tin- besl account of "Coal in 

 Spitsbergen" with which \\ • an acquainted. Mr. 

 R. D. Oldham deals with the difficult question of the 

 constitution of the earth's interior, and the paloeonto- 

 logical papers, always a strong feature, include one by 

 Dr. Andrews on "Fossil Mammals from Salonica and 

 Imbros," discovered l>\ officers of our Army in 

 moments of relaxation. The Geological Magazine is 

 published monthly by Messrs. Dulau and Co., 37 Soho 

 Square, London, at jjs. per annum post free. It 

 should find a place in all libraries where British 

 science is to be represented adequately. 



The new map of the Western front issued b\ Messrs, 

 W. and A. K. Johnston shows the main lines of the 

 retreat and advance of the Allied armies from 1914 to 

 1918. The map is on a small scale (1 in. to 18 miles), 

 and n<. relief is shown, but the lines held at different 

 periods during the war are clearly shown in colour. 

 The German territory occupied by the Allies under 

 the terms of the armistice is shaded red, and a deeper 

 tint shows the neutral zone on tin right bank of the 

 Rhine. The map, which is published at is., forms a 

 useful addition to the firm's series of yvar-maps. 



Ix the settlement of the complex problems arising 

 from the break-up of the Dual Monarchy, the question 

 of the distribution of the nationalities in Hungary will 

 be of chief importance. Four articles on this subject 

 by Mr. B. C. Wallis have recently appeared in the 

 Geographical Review (vol. vi., Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5). 

 The papers deal respectively with the Rumanians in 

 Hungary, the Slavs of Northern Hungary, the Slavs 

 of Southern Hungary, and the Magyars and Germans 

 in Central Hungary. Three coloifred. maps accom- 

 pany each article, showing relief, density of popula- 

 tion, and distribution of nationalities respectively. 

 They fit together to form a complete map of Hun- 

 gary. The population maps are constructed on the 

 contour method, which the author rightly claims gives 

 gradational representation and avoids the abrupt 

 changes characteristic of most maps of this land. Mr. 

 Wallis has been at great pains to unearth from census 

 statistics a great deal of useful information, the text 

 of the articles containing important facts relating to 

 the social and educational state of the people. The 

 work forms a valuable basis for discussions which 

 will shortly be exercising European statesmen. 



In a paper read before the Royal Society of Arts 

 on December 11, Major-Gen. Sir Frederick Smith 

 described the work of the British Army Veterinary 

 Corps at the fronts. Some 1300 officers, 27,000 men, 

 and 6000 coloured men were employed as a corps in 

 the various theatres of war. Every division possessed 

 a mobile veterinary section for immediate service- in 

 the field. Thence the wounded and sick animals 

 were forwarded to a veterinary evacuating station, 

 where a more thorough examination was possible and 

 the diagnosis was checked. Two or three times a 

 week the sick were sent on to the base, where they 

 were placed in a hospital, whence they 



were distributed to a general hospital, mange 

 hospital, convalescent dep6t, etc., as the case might 

 be._ Some 1,317,000 patients passed through the 

 various hospitals during the war (Journ. Roy. Soc. of 

 Arts, December 27, 1918, p. 80). 



NO. 2568, VOL. I02] 



The views of Dr. Edridge Green on colour vision 



an- well known, and considerable interest attaches to 

 his application of them to various problems connected 



with the subjects of protective and warning coloration 

 in birds and insects. In two recent articles (Science 

 Progress, July and October, 1918) Mr. Mottram and 

 Dr. Edridge Green have published a careful study of 

 the distribution of colour in five sub-families of Indian 

 diurnal Lepidoptera and two families of birds (the 

 Nectariniida; and Loriidae). On the authors' view 

 tin colour-perception of many enemies of insects has 

 not advanced beyond a stage in which green and 

 brown are indistinguishable, the brown and g re e n 

 dimorphism seen in certain groups (as in the larvae 

 of Amphidasu hetularia) would be accounted for, the 

 two colours being equally inconspicuous against either 

 kind of background. To such a colour-perception 

 yellow would also be inconspicuous. It is pointed out 

 that complemental colours placed side by side are 

 inconspicuous at long range, but very conspicuous 

 when within their blending distance; hence main 

 "warning" colours are only adapted for use at close 

 quarters. Stress is laid upon what the authors call 

 the "conjuring method" of protection, i.e. the sudden 

 disappearance of a bright colour and its replacement 

 by an inconspicuous or deceptive aspect, as in Kallima 

 pursued by an enemy. As a result of a statistical 

 computation, the interesting conclusion is reached that 

 sexual differences from the point of view of colour- 

 vision can be entirely accounted for on the basis of a 

 difference in visibility. 



Mr. J. Wilfrid Jackson describes the Brachiopoda 

 collected by the British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedi- 

 tion (Zool., vol. ii., pp. 177-202, 1 plate, 1918) in the 

 New Zealand area and in the Ross Sea. The examples 

 from the latter have enabled the author to make a 

 di tailed . study of an Antarctic species previously 

 ascribed to the genus Rhynchonella, but for which a 

 new genus, Compsothyris, is formed. No new species 

 has been added to the list of those known to occur 

 in the Antarctic, but our knowledge of the geo- 

 graphical range of those recorded, belonging to the 

 genera Compsothyris, Liothyrella, and Magellania, has 

 been materially extended. 



M. E. Roubaud discusses (Rev. gin. des Sci.. 

 November 15, 191S) the relations between man and 

 mosquitoes with reference to the danger from malaria 

 in France. Anopheles bred from larva? taken near 

 Paris, fed on cases of benign tertian or of malignant 

 malaria, and kept, some at room-temperature and 

 others at 25 C, were found on dissection to have 

 the developmental forms of the parasite on the stomach 

 or sporozoites in the salivary glands. Isolated cases of 

 malaria and some small epidemics have occurred in 

 France during the last two years, and M. Roubaud 

 states that in regard to the majority of these — chiefly 

 benign tertian, but five were malignant — it has been 

 established that the foci were cases of malaria of 

 colonial or Oriental origin. These facts prove that 

 Anopheles in France, when in contact with malaria- 

 carriers, can become infected, and can transmit the 

 organism. The danger is, however, less in practice 

 than would appear a priori, for, in spite of the intro- 

 duction on a large scale of malaria-carriers, the number 

 of new cases in France since the outbreak of the war 

 has bei 1 relatively small — about 250 — and this is due, 

 in M. Roubaud's opinion, not to the diminution in the 

 number of Anopheles, but to the relative isolation of 

 man from Anopheles, which has been brought about 

 by improved conditions of living. The ideal conditions 

 — isolated groups of people living in shelters on the 

 ground in sparsely inhabited, humid, and wooded 



