1 1t72 
NATURE 
[ DECEMBER 3, 1903 
activating substance in the serum, the heated serum be- 
having as a simple diluent, like physiological salt solution 
(Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond., vol. xxii. p. 357)- 
Tue October number of the Emu contains the photograph 
of a subadult Australian barn-owl in which large bunches 
of the nestling down are retained on the legs, thus com- 
municating to the bird a most remarkable appearance. 
THE osteology and affinities of the kingfishers form the 
subject of an article in the October number of the American 
Naturalist by Dr. Shufeldt, who arrives at the conclusion 
that these birds are probably nearly related to the cuckoos, 
bee-eaters, and jacamars, although further investigations 
into the morphology and life-history of all these groups are 
necessary before these complicated relationships can be 
preperly defined. 
An interesting addition to the British marine fauna is 
recorded in the November issue of the Zoologist. Until 
1899, when it was discovered on the coast of Brittany, the 
giant goby (Gobius capito), a fish attaining a length of 
9 or 10 inches, was believed to be confined to the Mediter- 
ranean. As the result of a careful search of the rock-pools 
last summer, Mr. F. Pickard-Cambridge has demonstrated 
its comparative abundance on the Cornish coast. In the 
same journal Mr. P. Podmore describes and figures some 
fertile hybrids bred from the ring-dove (Columba palumbus). 
Tue study of animals from the point of view of adapt- 
ation to their surroundings is now the fashion. The 
October number of the American Naturalist contains the 
first of a series of three or four articles written at the 
suggestion of Prof. H. F. Osborn on the adaptation of 
mammals to aquatic, arboreal, fossorial, and cursorial 
habits. Prof. Osborn states that a number of advanced 
students have undertaken the necessary investigations, and 
that the results are of great interest, and in some instances 
novel. ‘The first of the series, by Mr. R. C. Osburn, deals 
with adaptations to an aquatic existence. It is pointed out 
that the extent to which this adaptation has been carried 
indicates the relative date at which an aquatic or semi- 
aquatic life was commenced. Most aquatic mammals have 
depressed and expanded tails, but in the musk-rat and 
Potamogale this organ is compressed. The latter animal, 
at any rate, swims, like a newt, by the aid of its tail, to 
which the hind-limbs are closely pressed ; consequently there 
is no need for webbed feet. Kiikenthal’s theory that the 
increased number of phalanges in the flippers of cetaceans 
is due to the development of double epiphyses, one of which 
forms an additional phalange, is considered to be probably 
true. The fact that toothed cetaceans display indications 
of descent from an armoured ancestor, while the whalebone 
whales probably trace their descent from a fully haired form, 
seems to support the diphyletic origin of the two groups. 
PAMPHLET series No. 25, issued by the Imperial De- 
partment of Agriculture for the West Indies, contains a 
paper on ground nuts in the West Indies, by Mr. W. G. 
Freeman, until recently the scientific assistant to the De- 
partment. Hitherto, although ground nuts are easily 
grown in the islands, no attempt has been made to cultivate 
them on a sufficiently extensive scale to supply even local 
requirements, and quantities have consequently had to be 
imported. A summary of the results of the experiments 
on the cultivation of seedling and other canes at the experi- 
mental stations at Barbados, 1903, is given in No. 26 of 
the same series of publications. There were twenty-two 
fields of canes under experimental cultivation on nine estates 
situated in typical localities, the canes in each case being 
NO. 1779, VOL. 69] 
treated in exactly the same manner as the other canes on 
the estate. The best all-round cane proved to be the 
Barbados seedling, B 208, the second place being taken 
by B 147, the average quality of its juice being fair. 
Tue reintroduction of cotton growing into the West 
Indian Islands has soon been followed by the appearance of 
a destructive pest, the cotton worm or caterpillar—Aletia 
argillacea—which is causing considerable anxiety, as it 
strips a whole field in a single night. It is affecting 
Barbados, Montserrat, Antigua, and St. Kitt’s-Nevis. The 
officials of the Agricultural Department are actively engaged 
in devising methods for efficiently coping with the evil. 
Dr. A. FREIHERR VON BistRAM has reprinted from the 
Berichte der naturforschenden Gesellschaft zu Freiburg im 
Breisgau his paper on the dolomite region of Lugano. It 
is accompanied by an excellent coloured geological map on 
the scale of 1: 50,000, and the author has occasion to praise 
the contoured maps of the Italian Government, which, on 
this large scale, and with well-marked footpaths, have 
proved of service to so many geologists. The most striking 
feature of the district is the great east-and-west fault 
dividing the Triassic beds from the crystalline rocks on the 
north. The dolomite is thickened locally by repetition 
through earth-movements, after the fashion made familiar 
to us by the work of Dr. Ogilvie-Gordon and others, but 
the similarity of the strata prevents adequate mapping of 
the details. The style of the author enables one clearly 
to realise the landscapes, as in his picturesque description 
of the Val Solda. The obliquity of the axis of the Lake 
of Lugano to the structural folding of the district leads 
him to assign to it a glacial origin. The author lays stress 
ov the primary differences in the strata deposited in neigh- 
bouring areas, as affecting the manner of their subsequent 
deformation. His notes on the sections actually visible 
make the paper especially useful to subsequent visitors, and 
some of his criticisms affect the published maps of the 
Swiss Geologicai Survey. 
Tue Scientific American, in its issue for November 14, 
publishes a very complete and excellently illustrated account 
of modern printing methods, machines and appliances. 
Messrs. MAcMILLAN AND Co., Ltp., have issued part iv. 
of ‘*A School Geometry,’’ by Messrs. Hall and Stevens. 
The booklet runs to twenty-eight pages, and contains the 
substance of Euclid Book ii., together with Book iii., Props. 
35-37. Its price is 6d. 
Messrs. LONGMANS, GREEN AND Co. have just published 
a small work on ‘‘ The Analytical Chemistry of Uranium,”’ 
by Mr. H. Brearley, which contains a mass of information 
relative to the determination of the metal in its ores and in 
commercial products. The material is divided into four 
chapters, dealing respectively with the modes of estimating 
uranium, the estimation of uranium as phosphate, the 
separation of uranium, and the analysis of uranium ores. 
Messrs. CHarLES GRIFFIN AND Co., Ltp., have published 
the twentieth annual issue of the ‘‘ Year-book of the Scien- 
tific and Learned Societies of Great Britain and Ireland.” 
The publication forms a record of the work done in science, 
literature and art during the session 1902-1903 by a large 
number of societies and Government institutions. The in- 
formation has been compiled from official sources, and should 
consequently be quite trustworthy. We notice that no 
details of the Geographical Association are given, or of the 
Association of Science Masters in Public Schools. : 
