May 11, 1899] 
panied by sections showing the flexured structure of the country, 
A well-deserved tribute is paid to the previous labours of Andrew 
“Geddes Bain and E. J. Dunn. The oldest rocks, known as the 
“Malmesbury Beds, comprise non-fossiliferous slates, mica- 
schists and quartzites, with intrusive granite. A great uncon- 
formity exists between these rocks and the overlying Table 
Mountain Sandstone. That series again is non-fossiliferous, but 
it is succeeded by the Bokkeveld Beds, shales and sandstones 
which yield genera characteristic of the Devonian period. The 
overlying Witteberg Beds, mainly quartzites, have yielded but a 
few obscure plant-remains; while still higher in the sequence 
comes the Dwyka Conglomerate, which may be of subaérial 
origin; and above it there is a series of shales and sandstones, 
known as the Ecca Beds, which have yielded occasional plant- 
remains. This great series overlying the Bokkeveld Beds is 
usually regarded as of Carboniferous age. Attention is given in 
the Report to the superficial deposits, and to the economic 
products of the regions examined. The work of the Survey is 
superintended by Prof. G. S. Corstorphine. 
THE Meteorological Section of the Hydrographical Com- 
mittee of St. Petersburg has published, as a supplement to 
vol. xix. of the Hydrographical Journal, a useful collection of 
tables referring to lighthouses and stations on the shores of the 
Black Sea and Sea of Azov, and of the Caspian, Baltic and 
White Seas. The observations were made in the years 1890-6, 
and give for each month and year particulars relating to the 
level of the water, the direction and velocity of wind, and the 
temperature of the sea surface. The text also contains details 
of the various stations, the times of observation, &c. 
In the Verhandlungen for 1898 of the Natural History Society 
for the Prussian Rhineland, &c., Dr. Geisenheyner commences 
an exhaustive account of the Rhenish Polypodiaceze. The pre- 
sent instalment’ is entirely devoted to the three species 
Blechnum spicant, Scolopendrium vulgare, and  Ceterach 
offictrarum ; numerous forms, varieties, and sports being de- 
scribed in great detail. 
THE first and second Hefts of vol. xxvii. of Engler’s 
Botanische Jahrbiicher are chiefly devoted to instalments, by 
various authors, of the editor’s contributions to the Flora of 
Africa. There are, in addition, papers by Dietel and Neger on 
the Uredinez of Chile ; by Pilger, on South American grasses ; 
and by Ule, on the Sphagnacez of Brazil. z 
Mr. A. H. Trow reprints from the Aznals of Botany a paper 
containing an elaborate account of researches on a Welsh 
variety of dchlya americana, undertaken with the special object 
of determining the nature of the chromosome-like body in the 
centre of the nucleus. His conclusion is that the nucleus is 
bounded by a nuclear membrane, and possesses a central body 
of spongy texture, which contains chromatin and nucleolar 
matter, but is neither a nucleole nor a chromosome. He 
thinks it probable that the reducing divisions in the different 
groups of plants are not all homologous. There is a true 
homology in the Muscinee, Vascular Cryptogams, and 
Spermaphytes; while in the Thallophytes there are ap- 
parently two types of reducing division which are not homo- 
ogous. 
WE have received (in two parts) an exhaustive account of the 
indigenous native drugs of Australia, by Mr. J. H. Maiden, 
Government Botanist, issued by the Department of Agriculture, 
Sydney. It would appear, from Mr. Maiden’s opening remarks, 
that Queensland is by far the richest of the Australian Colonies 
in native medicinal plants ; but the great majority of these are 
common to India and the Eastern Archipelago. In New South 
Wales the number of really useful native drugs is very small. 
In contrast to the natives of India, the Australian aborigines 
NO. 1541, VOL. 60] 
NATURE 37 
have but very little knowledge of the medicinal properties of 
their native plants. In addition to a portion of this same paper, 
the Agrécultural Gazette of. New South Wales for February 
1897 contains also the commencement of a paper by Mr. Maiden 
on the native food-plants of Australia, as well as a number of 
others by various writers on the cultivation of fruits and other 
food-plants, and on the breeding of live-stock, of interest to the 
colonists. 
As already announced, MM. Georges Carré and C. Naud 
have commenced the publication of a physical and a biological 
series of brochures, under the title of Sczenztéa. The third 
volume of the biological series, ‘‘ Les fonctions rénales,” by 
Prof. H. Frenkel, has just been published. 
Pearson's Magazine for May has an interesting article, by 
Sir Clements Markham, illustrated by several instructive maps, 
on the parts of the earth which remain to be explored. The 
same number contains a short account of Mr. Nikola Tesla’s 
experiments with currents of high potential and high frequency. 
THE second part of Mr. M. M. Pattison Muir's ‘‘ Course of 
Practical Chemistry ”” has just been published by Messrs. Long- 
mans, Green, and Co. The first part appeared in 1895, and a 
third part has yet to be published in order to complete the 
work. We propose to review Mr. Muir’s systematic course of 
laboratory work when the three volumes are available. 
Pror. MAuRIcE F1itzGERALD writes to say that in, his 
article on ‘‘ The Flight of Birds,” in NATurRE of April 27, he 
inadvertently attributed to Lord Kelvin the explanation of the 
way in which birds may utilise varying air currents for soaring 
instead of to Lord Rayleigh, who published it in NATURE on 
April 5, 1883 (vol. xxvii. p. 534). 
THE relationships between organic and inorganic chemistry 
were discussed by Dr. H. N. Stokes in an address recently 
delivered before the Chemical Society of Washington, and 
printed in Scéevce. IncidentallysDr. Stokes remarks: ‘‘ The aim 
of physical chemistry will have been accomplished when it has 
established a mathematical equation which, by proper substitu- 
tion, will enable us to predict the nature of every possible 
chemical system or reaction, and the properties, physical and 
chemical, of every possible element or compound.” 
Mr. J. G. FRAZER concludes, in the current number of Zhe 
Fortnightly Review, a contribution commenced in the April 
issue on ‘‘ The Origin of Totemism.” The general explanation 
of totemism to which the Zz¢zchizma ceremonies, which are de- 
scribed in ‘‘ The Native Tribes of Central Australia,” by Messrs. 
Spencer and Gillen, and discussed in the first part of the paper, 
seem to point is that it is primarily an organised and co-operative 
system of magic designed to secure for the members of the com- 
munity, on the one hand, a plentiful supply of all the com- 
modities of which they stand in need, and, on the other hand, 
immunity from all the perils and dangers to which man is exposed 
in his struggle with nature. Such an explanation is shown to 
be both simple and natural, and in entire conformity with the 
practical needs as well as the modes of thought of savage mang 
Referring to the investigations made by Messrs. Spencer and 
Gillen, Mr. Frazer, while admitting that it may be premature 
to say their work has finally solved the problem of totemism, 
says the researches at least point to a solution more complete 
and satisfactory than any that has hitherto been offered. 
Pror. HERDMAN, F.R.S., with the assistance of Mr. Andrew 
Scott and Mr. James Johnstone, has drawn up in the form of a 
brochure of eighty-eight pages, the report for 1898 of the Lan- 
cashire sea-fisheries laboratory at University College, Liverpool, 
and the sea-fish hatchery at Piel. The report contains papers by 
Mr. Andrew Scott‘on fish-hatching work at Piel, observations 
on the occurrence and habits of Leftocephalus, observations on 
