6i6 



NA TURE 



[April 20, 1906 



anatomy of " Eclipse " and the most famous of his de- 

 scendants, which should prove interesting both to biologists 

 and breeders. It is important that information should 

 reach the authors before June i if possible, and all letters, 

 manuscripts, prints, or pictures addressed to " Eclipse," 

 c/o Mr. W. Heinemann, 21 Bedford Street, London, W.C., 

 will be acknowledged before that date, and will be treated 

 with the greatest care. 



Mr. Henry S. Wellcome, of Snow Hill Buildings, E.C., 

 is organising an exhibition in connection with the history 

 of medicine, chemistry, pharmacy, and the allied sciences, 

 and has issued a circular indicating the range of the pro- 

 posed exhibition. The loan of any objects of interest is 

 solicited ; these will be insured and carriage paid both 

 ways. The date of the proposed exhibition has not yet 

 been definitely settled. 



In the Comptes rendus of the Paris Academy of Sciences 

 (April 2, p. 823) M. Lortet gives an account of an ex- 

 amination of the contents of four vases containing the 

 viscera of King Rameses II., the Sesostris of the Greeks, 

 who is believed to have died about 3164 years ago. Profs. 

 Hugounenq, Renaut, and Rigaud were associated with M. 

 Lortet in the examination, and three of the vases were 

 surmised to contain the stomach, intestine, and liver of 

 the great king preserved with soda and aromatic resinous 

 substances, and enclosed in linen bandages. A fourth jar 

 contained the heart of the monarch, hard and horn-like, 

 but on microscopical examination showing the typical 

 bundles of muscle fibres of cardiac muscle, crossing one 

 another. 



In the April number of the Monthly Review, Mr. Paul 

 Uhlenhuth writes on the blood-relationship of man and 

 apes, and describes how, by means of the precipitin test, 

 various albuminous substances and the blood of different 

 animals may be distinguished from one another. The test 

 has also considerable medico-legal importance, and bio- 

 logically may be employed to ascertain the relationship of 

 various animals to one another. In this way it may be 

 shown that the anthropoid apes are most nearly akin to 

 man, while the lemurs are but distantly, if at all, related 

 to him. 



Somf. years ago Dr. A. Gallardo advanced a dynamical 

 interpretation of the karyokinetic figures in cell" division 

 that was explained in Nature of November 13, 1902 

 by Prof. M. Hartog. Dr. Gallardo has somewhat 

 mod. ned his former theory, and applying the results 

 obtained from a study of the properties of colloids, he 

 postulates in a paper published in Amides del Museo 

 National de Buenos A, res, vol. xiii., a negative charge for 

 the chromatin and a positive charge for the cytoplasm 

 around the poles of the spindle. In proof of his theory the 

 writer reproduces the figures obtained with special 

 apparatus on a metallic plate forming one electrode in an 

 electrolytic solution. 



It is remarkable that, despite the numerous investi- 

 gations during the last ten to twenty years into the coffee- 

 leaf disease caused by species of Hemileia, the complete 

 life-history of the fungus has not been worked out. Mr. 

 G. Massee directs attention to the want of information 

 concerning the a?cidial stage in his revision of the genus 

 published in the Kew Bulletin, No. 2, 1906. Four species, 

 two of them recently determined by Mr. Massee, are de- 

 scribed, and the probability of the lecidial stage is con- 

 sidered. In addition to an announcement regarding the 

 publication, and a list of the contents of a volume on the 

 NO. I9O4, VOL 73] 



" Wild Fauna and Flora of Kew Gardens," a supple- 

 mentary list of fungi prepared by Mr. Massee is given, 

 among which three species new to science are described 

 and illustrated. 



According to the Pioneer Mail, the Bombay Government 

 has decided that arrangements should be made for the 

 starting of experiments in the cultivation of rubber plants 

 both in the southern and northern circles, and in the 

 garden of economic botany which is about to be estab- 

 lished in Bassein. In the northern circle Mr. Ryan has 

 been requested to prepare and submit, under the direction 

 of the conservator, a scheme for the plantation of the 

 Ficus elastica, and for experiments with a view to ascer- 

 tain the yield of rubber and its commercial value, and to 

 suggest other rubber plants likely to show good results. 

 At the Bassein garden Mr. Gammie has been asked to 

 prepare a scheme of experiments on a smaller scale with 

 numerous rubber-yielding plants with the object of ascer- 

 taining which are the most likely to succeed in the coast 

 districts of the Bombay Presidency. For the southern 

 circle orders have been given for the preparation of a 

 scheme for experimental plantation, more particularly of 

 Hevea, in one or more localities under the direction of the 

 conservator. 



Mr. O. F. Cook, in an article entitled " The Vital 

 Fabric of Descent," published in the Proceedings of the 

 Washington Academy of Sciences (vii., p. 301), urges that 

 kinesis is the main factor in the evolution of organisms. 

 " Kinesis is not a mysterious force or mechanism to be 

 sought in reproductive cells; it is a general property of 

 organisms, as gravitation is of matter. And of kinesis 

 we know more than of gravitation. Two factors and two 

 results are already obvious. The factors are heterism, or 

 intra-specific diversity, and symbasis, or inter-breeding in 

 a specific network of descent. ..." "Natural selection 

 neither originates species nor actuates their further de- 

 velopment ; progressive change would go on whether selec- 

 tion were active or not, and whether the environment 

 were uniform or not. Nevertheless, selection conduces to 

 adaptation, since by permitting changes in some directions 

 and forbidding them in others, it deflects the specific 

 motion. The workings of natural selection are adequately 

 explained only by the kinetic theory." 



In the Zeitschrift of the Berlin Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde 

 (nidi'. No. 3) appears the first part of an interesting 

 historical paper on the measurement of geographical areas 

 before the invention of the planimeter, by Dr. W. 

 Schmiedeberg. 



The new issue (vol. xix., part i.) of Mitteilungen aus 

 den deutsehen Schutzgebieten contains papers on the daily 

 variation of temperature and pressure at Windhuk, German 

 South-West Africa, and of temperature at Herbertshohe, 

 Bismarck Archipelago, by Dr. J. Hann. Dr. P. Heidke 

 contributes a paper on the meteorology of German East 

 Africa, dealing with the means for the years 1899 to 1902- 

 from twenty-two stations. 



The April number of the Bolletlino of the Italian Geo- 

 graphical Society contains an extremely interesting paper, 

 by Dr. Roberto Almagia, on the earliest Italian contribu- 

 tion to oceanography. The pamphlet described is the 

 " Relatione del Mare " of Giovanni Botero, published in 

 Rome in the year 1600, and it is remarkable that not only 

 the main division of the subject into statical and dynamical 

 sections, but the subdivisions of each of these into special 

 parts, follow closely the method of treatment adopted in 

 modern research. 



