357 
Pror. A. Keiru, in the November issue of Man, 
describes two ancient crania found by the Rev. H. 
Mason in an old deposit at Wanganui, New Zealand. 
They belong to the Moriori race, now confined—a 
mere remnant—to the Chatham Islands. They in- 
habited New Zealand before the arrival of the Maori, 
and their crania differ in a remarkable degree from 
those of the latter race. The Moriori skulls are 
devoid of negroid characteristics, the stock to which 
the Maori are more closely allied. The Moriori are 
evidently related to some of the Polynesian and South 
American races; at least it is among these peoples 
that we find cranial forms which are comparable with 
them. 
WE have received from the Land Agents’ Society 
a copy of the seventh annual report of the honorary 
consulting biologist, in which Mr. W. E. Collinge, 
after referring to the spell of wet in 1912 as having 
been favourable to animal pests and inimical to game- 
birds, mentions some of the most serious cases of 
damage by insects and other pests which occurred 
during the year, with the best remedial measures for 
such infestations. 
In the October number of The American Naturalist 
Prof. W. S. Anderson insists on the importance of 
the study of the inheritance of coat-colour in horses. 
“Tf" he remarks, “there is a law governing the 
transmission of colour, may we not infer that a law 
of somewhat like nature will govern the transmission 
of the more essential qualities of the horse? If it 
can be proved that colours are unit characters and 
their inheritance obeys the Mendelian law of 
dominants and recessives, I believe one very important 
step will have been taken to solve the whole problem 
of breeding horses.’ Very noteworthy is the fact 
that when chestnut horses are mated with one another 
the progeny all seem to inherit the (recessive) colour 
of their parents, the recorded exceptions of one per 
cent. being probably due to error. 
In the current number of The Journal of Agricul- 
tural Science (vol. v., part 4) Messrs. W. A. Davis 
and A. J. Daish contribute a study of the methods of 
estimation of carbohydrates, especially in plant ex- 
tracts. 
estimation of sugars in plant extracts, particularly 
of cane-sugar and maltose, are dealt with. A new 
method of estimating maltose, based on the use of pure 
cultures of maltase-free yeasts, such as Saccharomyces 
marxianus and S. exiguus has been devised. This 
is the only one available in such cases, as the ordinary 
method, using dilute hydrochloric acid for the hydro- 
lysis of maltose, leads to destruction of much lzvulose 
and to quite erroneous results. A scheme for the 
analysis of the complex mixtures of sugars, namely 
pentoses, dextrose, lavulose, cane-sugar, and maltose, 
occurring in plant extracts is appended. Mr. Davis 
also describes, in a separate paper, a simple labora- 
tory apparatus for the continuous evaporation in vacuo 
of large volumes of liquids, such as plant extracts, 
which under the ordinary conditions froth badly and 
thus present difficulties. 
NO. 2299, VOL. 92] 
Certain sources of error encountered in the. 
NATURE 
[ NOVEMBER 20, 1913 
The Journal of Economic Biology for Septemt 
contains a valuable ‘“‘Generak Survey of the Ins 
Fauna of the Soil,’ by Mr, A. E. Cameron, of 
department of agricultural zoology in the Univers 
of Manchester. The researches described have bee 
carried out in the grounds at Fallowfield attached 
the economic laboratory, and from this small area 
wonderful amount of interesting information has be 
obtained. The author gives a catalogue of more th 
150 species of Apterygota, Coleoptera, Lepidopte 
Diptera, and Hymenoptera found in the soil at le 
during some stage of their life-history, together wii 
the depth and nature of their habitat and observatio 
on their food. He also discusses the effect exerted 
these terrestrial insects on the soil as regards mois re, 
temperature, and ventilation—all factors of great cul- 
tural importance. It is regrettable that this excellent 
paper is disfigured by an abnormal number of m 
prints, and we do not understand why the explanations 
of some of the well-drawn figures of larva are given 
in German rather than in English. i. 
Tue October number of The Journal of Genetics ; 
(vol. iii, No. 2) contains papers of very varied interest. 
Prof. Punnett and Miss Pellew deal with gametic 
reduplication (‘‘coupling”’) in sweet-peas and peas. 
Prof. Punnett gives evidence that when two domin: 
factors are introduced into a double heterozygote 
from different parents, the ratio of ‘‘repulsion”” 
the same as that of the coupling found when th 
are introduced from the same parent. When thre 
factors are concerned together, the ratios between an: 
two of them are modified, and he shows that the 
modification appears to agree with Trow’s ae 
of secondary reduplication. Mr. J. C. F. Fryer gi 
a preliminary account of Mendelian segregation in 
sexually dimorphic Phasmid, in which the female 
differ in two pairs of characters; perhaps his mo 
interesting observation is that typical Mendeliz 
segregation may occur in parthenogenetic reproduc 
tion. Mr. E. N. Wentworth shows that strains 
Drosophila (Diptera) of very different fecundity may 
arise by inbreeding from one pair, and suggests that 
loss of fecundity on inbreeding may be due simply to 
the segregation of such strains of low fertility. Pure 
strains of high fertility showed no loss in eight gene 
rations of inbreeding. Mr. C. Todd gives a luci 
account of hzmolytic tests, showing that not o 
phylogenetic relationship may be ‘tested in this w 
but also that each individual has characteristic blood 
corpuscles, the fate of which, when injected i 
another individual, can be followed. He gives indi 
tions of the hereditary transmission of these individ 
blood-characters. Mr. C. J. Bond shows that af 
apparently complete removal of the testicular tissue 
birds, a full-sized testis may be regenerated; 
suggests that the proportions of gametes bearing 
different hereditary characters may differ in the r 
generated testis from those existing in the normal 
testis. 
t 
An important investigation, entitled “Cloud and 
Sunshine of the Mediterranean Region,’ by Mr. J. 
Friedemann forms Part 2, vol. xxxv., of Archiv der 
Deutschen Seewarte. The area dealt with extends to 
