i So 



NA TURE 



[December 21, 1905 



by an inclination of 30°, and hence the three rays practically 

 constitute two axes, respectively lying in the required 

 vertical and horizontal directions." It will be remembered 

 that in a recent note we referred to the views of an author 

 who regarded these triradiate spicules as an instance of 

 over-specialisation. 



The Journal of Economic Biology is the title of a new 

 serial, edited by Mr. W. E. Collinge, and published by 

 Messrs. Dulau and Co. For some time, and more 

 '•specially since the foundation of the Association of 

 Economic Biologists, it has been evident that workers in 

 the subject to which the new serial is devoted frequently 

 experience difficulty in finding suitable means of making 

 their labours known to the public, especially when illus- 

 trations to their papers are required, and it is to meet 

 this want that the venture, to which we wish cordial 

 success, has been made. In the opening article Prof. 

 A. H. R. Buller discusses the destruction of wood-paving 

 in roadways by a kind of dry-rot produced by the fungus 

 known as Lentinus lepideus. In the second article the 

 editor describes some very remarkable varieties of the 

 currant-moth produced by change of food and temperature, 

 while in the third and last communication Mr. F. V. 

 Theobald describes new gnats from various parts of the 

 world. 



With the October issue the publication of Climate came 

 to an end, an amalgamation having been effected with the 

 Journal of Tropical Medicine, which in future will devote 

 four of its issues annually to the special subjects hitherto 

 dealt with in Climate. 



The Journal of the Royal Sanitary Institute for 

 December (xxvi., No. 11) contains the second part of a 

 paper on the administration of the Food and Drugs Acts 

 by Mr. Wellesley Harris which should be very useful to 

 students of public health, the mortality statistics of boot 

 and shoe workers in Northampton by Dr. Beatty, a 

 note on the recent literature of plague by Colonel 

 Notter, and an article on school hygiene by Dr. 

 Elkington. 



In an interesting article on the revival of phrenology in 

 the Fortnightly Review for December, Mr. Stephen Paget 

 reviews the subject and refers to Dr. Bernard Hollander's 

 book on the mental functions of the brain. Gall it was, 

 celebrated for his anatomical studies of the brain, who 

 originated what is known as phrenology, a study very 

 different from the present conception of localisation of 

 function in the brain, as Mr. Paget points out. From 

 the wreck of Gall's work Dr. Hollander has saved many 

 well recorded cases of localised injury or disease of the 

 brain With exaggeration or diminution of this or that one 

 function — cases such as led to the discovery of the speech 

 centres. But when Dr. Hollander asserts that his book 

 may have an important bearing on the development of 

 mental science, on the treatment of lunacy, &c, Mr. Paget 

 considers that he is claiming much more than can be 

 admitted. 



On the subject of the conditions essential to the best 

 production of Para rubber, Mr. II. Wright has compiled 

 some useful data in vol. iii.. No. 6, ol the Circulars of 



'" Royal Botan trdens, 1 eylon. It would appear that 



richness of soil is not so important as altjtude and tempera- 

 ture, since by the- annual shedding of its leaves the tree 

 returns a large amount of material to the soil. With 

 regard to temperature, the trees thrive best in Brazil in a 

 NO. [KS6. VOL. 73] 



mean temperature about 25 O, while, as to altitude, th : 

 limit of successful cultivation in Ceylon is placed at 2000 

 feet above sea-level. 



The superintendent of the botanical department, Trinidad, 

 in the Bulletin (October) refers to a new variety of coffee, 

 Coffea roiusta, received from the Congo River, West 

 Africa, that has been successfully propagated at the experi- 

 ment station. A stock of nearly two thousand plants 

 offered for distribution was quickly disposed of to planters. 

 In the same journal Mr. W. R. Buttenshaw, writing on 

 the subject of selection by means of vegetative propagation, 

 instances a few of the improvements that have been effected 

 by continuous selection of cuttings and by bud selection. 

 A distinction is drawn between the sudden emergence of a 

 sport and gradual development by careful selection. 



With the object of ascertaining whether a commercial 

 fibre can be prepared from banana leaf-sheaths, it is 

 announced in the Agricultural News (October 21) that 

 prizes for the best samples of fibre will be offered at the 

 agricultural show to be held in the course of this month 

 in Barbados ; the fibre will be extracted from the dwarf 

 banana, as this is the species cultivated there. In the last 

 number of the journal, which, owing to an alteration in 

 the sailings of the Royal Mail steamers, is dated 

 November 11, a note appears on the cigarette and biscuit 

 beetles. The former, hasioderma serricorne, does not con- 

 fine itself to tobacco, but feeds also on leather and drugs, 

 and the biscuit beetle, Sitodrepa panicea, shows similar 

 tastes. 



The report for the year 1004 of the director of the 

 botanic gardens in Sydney, New South Wales, has been 

 received. Amongst the list of interesting plants that 

 have flowered during the year are Diplachne Peacockii, 

 an indigenous grass recently discovered, Paspalum 

 cochinchinense, another grass that, judging from the 

 vigorous growth made in a dry season, may prove as 

 valuable for fodder as Paspalum dilatatum, Eucommia 

 ulmoides, the Chinese rubber-tree, and a number of 

 Opuntias that are being cultivated with the object of 

 obtaining a spineless plant. Of the trees planted in the 

 Centennial Park, the most interesting are the Aleppo pines, 

 Pinus halepensis, that are being grown as a wind-break. 



In the Engineer of December 15 drawings are given of 

 a dredger that has been used by the Dundee Harbour 

 Trustees for more than a century. It is built of oak, and 

 is 68 feet long with a beam of 21 feet, and draws in work- 

 ing order 7 feet 6 inches. The engine is believed to have 

 been built by James Watt. 



In the December number of the Popular Science Monthly 

 there is .1 useful article by Prof. R. D. George, of the 

 University of Colorado, giving an able summary of the 

 existing knowledge of mining and the use of metals by the 

 ancient Egyptians. In the same issue Dr. Charles R. 

 Eastman, of Harvard University, inquires into the rightful- 

 ness of regarding Anaximander, the pupil of Thales in the 

 sixth century B.C., as tin first who foreshadowed modern 

 ideas of evolution. All estimates present Anaximander as 

 a keen and deeply contemplative student of nature who 

 arrived at a dim adumbration of great truths. 



In th.. current issue of the Bulletin de hi Sociiti 

 d' Encouragement Messrs. G. Arth and P. Lejeune give 

 some interesting particulars of a prehistoric mass of metal 

 found near Nancy at a depth of 4I metres below the 



surface. The mass weighs about 300 kilograms, and is 

 accompanied by fragments of charcoal and ski-. It appears 



