25^ 



NA TURE 



[January i i, 1906 



seven, together with thirteen new subspecies, are described 

 as new. The Japanese collection was chiefly made in 

 the Kyushu and Ryuku chains of islands, and is most 

 satisfactory, as we have now a fair knowledge of the 

 snails of all the larger ami of many of the smaller islands. 



The muscles of the jaws and pharynx in dog-fishes and 

 skates form the subject of an illustrated article by Mr. 

 G. E. Marion in the December, 1005, number of the 

 Imerican Naturalist. Considering the marked difference 

 in the shape of the two species, the similarity in their 

 muscular system is noteworthy ; but, as might have been 

 expected, the skate possesses a few muscles not found in 

 the dog-fish. The deep muscles of the trunk of the former 

 are described for the first time. In another paper Dr. 

 E. N. Transeau discusses the forest-centres of eastern 

 North America, and arrives at the conclusion that there 

 are four such developmental areas, namely, the great 

 conifer forest of the north-east, the deciduous forest of 

 the Ohio basin, the south-eastern coniferous tract, and the 

 insular tropical forest of southern Florida, the centre of 

 which is in the West Indies. The forest-centres correspond 

 with centres of high temperature and humidity. 



Some practical results may perhaps follow a paper con- 

 tributed by Mr. E. Iwanofl to Biologisches Centralblatt of 

 December 15, iqoj, on the cause of sterility in zebra-pony 

 hybrids. Sterility appears to attach to the male and not 

 10 the female hybrids, although the latter really produce 

 this sterility. For it appears, according to the author's 

 researches, that the spermatozoa are destroyed by leui 0- 

 cytes while within the body-cavity of the female. The 

 female-blood is, in fact, found to contain a substance 

 known as spermatoxin, which acts fatally on the sperm- 

 atozoa. A similar substance also exists in the blood of 

 female hybrid trout, but as impregnation of the ova takes 

 place outside the body-cavity, no ill results follow to the 

 spermatozoa. It is suggested that in the case of female 

 zebra-hybrids the effects of the spermatoxin should be 

 neutralised by the injection of an anti-spermatoxin serum. 



In the Biologisches Centralblatt (December 15, 1905) 

 Prof. Gorjanovie-Kramberger discusses the relationships 

 of the race of men whose remains have recently been dis- 

 covered at Krapina, south of the Styrian frontier. From 

 the examination of these remains it appears that the 

 Krapina race is identical with the one from Neanderthal, 

 Spv, La Naulette, Schipka, &c, for which the name Homo 

 primigenius has been proposed. From this primitive type 

 there seems to be a complete transition in cranial 

 characters, through the upper diluvial H. sapiens fossilis, 

 to modern man, who occasionally exhibits some of the 

 peculiarities of the ancestral form, such as the absence 

 of the chin prominence and the presence of wrinkles in 

 the enamel of the molars. The pre-diluvial race of Galley 

 (? Gallows) Hill, England, presents a difficulty, since, 

 although this is the oldest, it is at the same time the most 

 modern type. This is explained by the theory of the 

 existence at this early date of two distinct types of man- 

 kind, namely. Homo sapiens fossilis at Galley (?) Hill, 

 which had attained a relatively high development, and 

 //, primigenius at Krapina, Neanderthal, &c, the advance 

 "f which may have been prevented by unfavourable con- 

 ditions of existence. 



The contents of No. 195 of the Quarterly Journal of 

 Microscopical Science relate to the anatomy, histology, 

 development, &c, oi various groups of invertebrates, and 

 are all of a highly technical nature. Prof. Haswell con- 

 tributes the first part of a series of papers on the turbel- 

 NO. 1889, VOL. 73] 



larian worms, dealing in this instance with Heteroi li erus 

 while Prof. Carpenter discusses the segmentation and 

 phylogenj of arthropods, and Mr. Hill records his observ- 

 ations on the maturation of the ovum of Alcyonium. Mr, 

 F. I . Sinclair, in the fourth article, alludes to certain 

 points in the anatomy of the myriopods of the family 

 Platydesmidae ; and in the fifth and last Prof. Mine bin 

 describes a new sporozoon infesting the mucou- membrane 

 o) lie human nasal septum. At the end of his paper 

 Prof. Carpenter observes that " the more probable con- 

 clusion seems to be not that arthropods and polychaete 

 annelids stand to each other in the relation of descendants 

 to ancestors, but that the two groups represent spei ialised 

 collateral branches from a common stock. My own view 

 is that their common ancestors were microscopic animals 

 unsegmented, or with comparatively few segments between 

 a broad head-lobe and a narrow tail-somite. The occur- 

 rence "I the nauplius larva in some members of .ill the 

 great crustacean groups justifies the phylogenetic import- 

 attached to that form by Miiller." 



The position and relations of the abdominal and thoracri 

 viscera of an adult male negro are described and very 

 fully illustrated in a monograph entitled " Topography of 

 the Thorax and Abdomen," by Prof. Potter, just published 

 by the University of Missouri (University of Missouri 

 Studies, Science Series, vol. i., No. 1). The monograph 



presi a contribution to "descriptive anatomy" — the 



raw material out of which, when enough has been accumu- 

 lated, we may hope to build a " scientific anatomy." For 

 several reasons this contribution, though small, is valuable, 

 first, because of the accuracy of the workmanship ; 

 secondly, because it deals with a well developed adult 

 man, accidentally suffocated ; and thirdly, because it deals 

 with the Negro race, the anatomy of which at tie pn enl 

 moment is of the greatest interest. This interest centres 

 round, not what may be called the normal anatomy of 

 ill. 11 1.1 e, but its variations and abnormalities, and to 

 obtain a knowledge of these, records of hundreds of sub- 

 jects are required. In the subject described by Prof. 

 Potter the caecum occupies an abnormally high position, 

 a position recalling that seen in the young European child 

 and in the Anthropoid; this, apparently, is a characterise 

 of the Negro race, for in four subjects recently dis- 

 sected by the writer of this note a similar condition was 

 observed. Prof. Potter built up the reconstructions and 

 projections shown in the plates of his monograph from a 

 series of twenty-five sections, into which the trunk was 

 divided after being hardened by the injection of a 50 per 

 cent, solution of formaldehyde — a solution employed first 

 by Prof. Jackson. Prof. Potter is to be congratulated on 

 the manner in which he has carried out a laborious task. 



Some figures quoted by the Governor of the Bahamas in 

 his report on the Blue-book of the Bahamas, according to 

 a writer in the Journal of the Society of Arts, give an 

 idea ol the extent oi the sponge fishery business carried 

 on in those waters. There are schooners and sloops with 

 an aggregate tonnage- of 5052 engaged in this industry. 

 Attached to the vessels are 2517 open boats, and 5517 

 men and bovs are employed on them. There are also 

 291 open boats engaged, manned by the owners living on 

 the coasts of several of the out-islands to the number of 

 445. Disquieting reports as to the exhaustion of the 

 sponge beds and the increasing quantities of small sponges 

 broughl io market, which should have been left in the 

 beds to grow to a proper marketable size, recently led to 

 the enactment of a law under which a sponge fisheries 

 board is established with certain powers for the regulation 



