NA TURE 



[November 3, 1898 



RESEARCHES ON MEDUSAE. 



The Cuhomedusae. By Franklin Story Conant. (Memoirs 



from the Biological Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins 



University, vol. iv. No. i.) Pp. xvi + 6i, and plates. 



(Baltimore : Johns Hopkins Press, 1898.) 



IT is one of the characteristics of some of the 

 more important American Universities that they 

 advance knowledge, employ the best of their young 

 graduates, and at the same tmie add to the treasures of 

 their museums by equippmg expeditions to explore 

 unknown regions, both of sea and land. In this way 

 the archaeology, ethnology, geology, palaeontology, and 

 marine zoology of Central and North America have all 

 benefited largely ; and the results of these College 

 expeditions are to be seen in several of the Transatlantic 

 Museums and Universities. 



Last year (1897) was unfortunately most disastrous to 

 the marine biological expeditions of two of the leading 

 American Universities : Columbia at New York, and the 

 Johns Hopkins at Baltimore. The Columbia University 

 Expedition to Alaska was wrecked on the return voyage 

 by running on the West Devil rock in Dixon entrance, 

 the steamer sinking almost at once in deep water, and 

 the party barely escaping with their lives (one of them, 

 young Mr. B. B. Griffin, has unfortunately died since), 

 while all their collections, notes, drawings, theses, and 

 other property were lost. The Johns Hopkins Expedi- 

 tion to Port Antonio, in Jamaica, had even a more 

 tragic termination. Prof Humphrey, the leader of the 

 expedition, died of yellow fever after a few hours' illness 

 the day (August 17) they were to have sailed for home. 

 Dr. Conant, the second in command, and Dr. Clark con- 

 sidered it their duty, under the circumstances, not to 

 leave. Clark was then taken ill and recovered ; but 

 when they eventually sailed from Port Antonio, on 

 September 6, Conant became ill on the second day at 

 sea, and died on September 13 in Boston. 



The present volume consists of Dr. Conant's re- 

 searches on the Cubomedusae completed, and accepted 

 by the Johns Hopkins University as a dissertation for the 

 degree of Doctor of Philosophy, just before the author 

 sailed on the fatal expedition to Port Antonio, and now 

 published as a memorial by his friends, fellow-students 

 and instructors at the University. Dr. Conant had been 

 with the Johns Hopkins marine laboratory party at 

 Jamaica in June 1896, and the discovery then of two 

 new species of Cubomedusae in Kingston Harbour led 

 him to the further study of the group. Cubomedusae 

 are comparatively rare jelly-fish, and are of morpho- 

 logical interest because of the relatively high degree 

 of development attained by their nervous system and 

 sense-organs. After a systematic review of the position 

 of his new species (one of them the type of a new 

 family). Dr. Conant gives an excellent account of the 

 anatomy and histology, with a specially full description 

 of the nervous system and of the highly-developed 

 eyes and associated sense-organs. Eight clearly drawn 

 plates, nearly all the figures being from drawings by the 

 author, illustrate satisfactorily this monograph, which is 

 of special interest, first as giving an account of a rare 

 group of' medusae, and secondly because of its sad 

 associations. Dr. Conant was a talented and high-souled 

 NO. I 5 14, VOL. 59] 



young zoologist, who seems to have sacrificed his life, 

 to a sense of duty and devotion to others. . 



During this last stay in Jamaica, Conant seems to have 

 been working largely on physiological problems espe- 

 cially of the sense-organs, such as the action of retinal 

 pigment-cells under the influence of light and darkness : 

 and also on the embryology of the Cubomedusae. We 

 are glad to learn from Prof W. K. Brooks, that Conant's 

 notes are so full and so advanced that he hopes to be 

 able to have them completed and published before 

 long. W. A. H. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Special Report on the Beet-Sugar Industry in the Unitea 

 States. Pp. 240. (Washington : Government Printing 

 Office, 1898.) 

 For some time the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture has been instituting and directing experiments 

 to ascertain where sugar-producing plants can be grown 

 most profitably. The present volume contains the 

 results of this investigation so far as concerns the beet- 

 sugar industry. It is divided into two parts, one part 

 consisting of the report of the chemist of the Depart- 

 ment, Dr. H. W. Wiley, while the other consists of the 

 report of the field agent, Mr. C. F. Saylor, who has 

 personally visited and e.xamined the plantations and 

 factories concerned in the beet-sugar industry in a large 

 number of districts. 



The facts and figures presented in the volume justify 

 the attention which the Department of .•\griculture has 

 given to the development of this important industry. 

 How widespread is the interest taken in the subject mav 

 be judged by the fact that 150,000 copies of a farmer- 

 bulletin upon sugar-beet were applied for last year, an>l 

 60,000 copies of the present report have been printed for 

 distribution. 



Numerous packets of sugar-beet seed were sent to 

 different parts of the United States last year with the 

 object of obtaining information as to the regions in whicli 

 the sugar industry is most likely to succeed. There arc, 

 however, such great differences in soils and climatic con- 

 ditions in the United States, that seeds which are suitable 

 for one locality may not succeed in-another. Dr. Wiley 

 therefore points out that the experiments which the 

 Department of Agriculture has conducted for severally 

 years in the analysis of beets, and the delimination o£, 

 areas suited to beet culture, require now to be supple-i 

 mented by a more rigid scientific attempt to develop beetst 

 of characteristics best suited to the various localities. 



The opinion of Mr. Saylor upon the industry is 

 decidedly optimistic. He says: "There is no doubl 

 that the United States has a wide and varied extent ol 

 land that will successfully grow high-grade beets, that) 

 the enterprise of the people of this country will appreciate] 

 this fact, and that in a short time all the sugar consumed 

 in this country will be furnished by our own people. 

 Whether this prediction will be fulfilled during the nexti 

 few years remains to be proved ; but, in any case, the De- 

 partment of -Agriculture is doing its best to educate andi 

 assist the farmers who cultivate lands upon which the 

 sugar-beet can be successfully grown. 

 Traiii! d^ Alglbre Super icure. Par Henri Weber. Traduiti 

 de I'allemand sur la deuxifeme edition par J. Griess. 

 Pp. 764. (Paris : Gauthier-Villars, 1898.) 

 This is a translation of the first volume of the second 

 edition of Prof. Weber's " Lehrbuch der Algebra," andl 

 will doubtless be welcome to those who are more familiar! 

 with French than with German. The translation appears! 

 to be trustworthy, although a few misprints have crept ini 

 here and there which are not in the original ; thus on 

 pp. 71, 72, the indices oj, ao...a,„ should be replaced by 



