612 
NATURE 
[OcroBER 16, 1902, 
of oxides of nitrogen and led to absorbing towers. The air is 
circulated at the rate of about 5 cubic feet per contact per hour, 
and the inner cylinder rotates at the rate of 500 revolutions per 
minute, thus forming more than 400,000 arcs per minute. 
Sufficient data are not given to enable a calculation of the 
efficiency of the arrangement to be made. It will be re- 
membered, however, that the result of Lord Rayleigh’s experi- 
ment showed that, given cheap power, nitrates could be made 
by this process at less than the present cost. 
THE geology of western Rajputana forms the subject of an 
essay by Mr. Tom D, La Touche (A/e. Geol. Survey India, 
vol. xxxv. pt. i. 1902). The country is for the most part a vast 
sandy plain diversified only by sand hills and by isolated knolls 
and groups of hills composed almost wholly of crystalline 
rocks. Except when rain is falling, no running water is to be 
seen, and the principal agents of erosion are the intense heat of 
the sun, or rather the great alternations of temperature that act 
on the superficial layers of rock, and the violent winds aided by 
the sand they bear with them. Deflation, or the action of sand- 
laden wind, is illustrated in many curious features, notably in 
¢ertain scarped outliers of horizontal beds of sandstone which 
appear like pyramids in the plain. Some of these known as 
zeugen or ‘‘ witnesses” are figured. The crystalline rocks 
exposed comprise schists and quartzite, granites, rhyolites and 
basic dykes. The sedimentary rocks include the Vindhyan, 
Talchir boulder-beds, Cretaceous (?) Sandstone, Nummulitic 
Limestone, and recent accumulations. 
IN a recent issue of the /ozrnal of the Asiatic Society of 
Bengal, Major J. Manners-Smith records the existence of hybrids 
between the common wolf and domesticated dogs in the Gilgit 
district. 
IN the October number of the Zx/omologist’s Monthly 
Magazine, Mr. Charles Rothschild describes two new British 
species of fleas, the one infesting the moorhen and the other 
various small mammals. * 
Mr. W. L. Distant, ina recent issue of the 4znals of the 
South African Museum (vol. ii. pt. ix. art. xii.), publishes a 
series of notes on the bugs of the country, with descriptions of 
new species. 
IN a paper on the fishes of Mexico, published by the Field 
Columbian Museum (zool. series, vol. iii. No. 6), Mr. S. E. 
Meek figures a female of a viviparous species of Goodea in 
which the ovary is absolutely crammed with young. 
A RECENT supplement to the Zroprcal A griculturist (Colombo) 
contains the text of a preliminary report by Prof. Herdman, 
F.R.S., on the p2arl fisheries of Ceylon. The report may, we 
understand, be seen by those interested at the Commercial 
Intelligence Branch of the Board of Trade, 50 Parliament 
Street, S.W. 
In the Proceedings of the U.S. Museum, Messrs. Jordan and 
Fowler continue their survey of the fishes of Japan, the latest 
fasciculus dealing with the trigger-fishes, file-fishes and trunk- 
fishes. Excellent figures are given of some of these strange 
fishes, one of which is made the type of a new species and 
genus. 
THE effect of wind on the migration of birds, as exemplified 
by the case of hawks, forms the subject of an interesting article 
by Mr. C. C. Trowbridge in the September issue of the American 
Jaturalist. It is inferred that the migratory movements of 
hawks are very largely affected by wind, an adverse wind re- 
tarding, if not completely arresting. them. Several other 
conditions of the atmosphere which affect the migration are 
mentioned by the author. 
NO. 1720, VOL. 66] 
or else some spdres wnich have already been 
IN the October number of the Journal of Conchology, Mr. R. 
Welch describes and figures a number of ‘‘sports” of the 
common black-lipped snail (He/ix xemoralis), showing the spiral 
more or less elongated above the normal. It appears that 
enormous numbers of these snails are collected by the peasant 
women in a certain district of Donegal for the purpose of making 
necklaces of the shells. Among this number a small percentage 
of reversed specimens and others with abnormally tall spires are 
met with and picked out for special sale. In one of the figured 
specimens the spiral is so elongated as to recall a Scalaria. 
IN the August issue of the Biological Bulletin, Mr. H. F. 
Perkins describes a remarkable degeneration-process observed 
in larval ccelenterates of the genus Gonionema. After mention- 
ing the manner in which the larve disintegrate, the author 
observes that ‘‘the repeated fission of the individuals resulted 
in such diminution of the size of the pieces which came from the 
original individuals that after a time it was impossible to distin- 
guish the bits of living matter from the other particles lying 
about on the bottom. But during the entire time in which it 
was possible to recognise the pieces of disintegrating larvae, the 
sum total of this substance did not seem to be at all diminishing. 
It is impossible to assign any satisfactory explanation to the 
phenomena, but it is not unlikely that the condition of the 
water in this particular aquarium was peculiar.” 
THE affinities of that remarkable group of worm-like creatures 
known as Solenogastrae and their relationship to the Mollusca 
form the. subject of a long article by Herr J. Thiele in the 
Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie (vol. \xxii. pts. ii. and 
ili). There are two families of these organisms, the one typified by ° 
Neomenia and the other by Cheetoderma. Very generally the 
group is classed among the molluscs with the chitons; the 
author is, however, of opinion that the Solenogastre are really 
worms allied to the thread-worms (as represented by the 
Gordiidz) and annelids, but, in the relation of the heart to the 
uterus, as well as in the possession of a rudimentary tongue, or 
radula, approximating to the molluscs, and more especially to 
thechitons. If this view be correct, the Mollusca are descended 
from worms, the chitons representing the transitional type. 
As the result of a considerable number of experiments, Dr. 
Margaret C. Ferguson finds that the most effectual plan for 
starting the germination of spores of Agaricus campestris is to 
include in the culture either some of the mycelium of this plant 
induced to 
germinate. An account of the various m2zthods devised to 
bring about the germination of spores of this and various 
basidiomycetous fungi is published as a Bu/letin of the U.S.A. 
epartment of Azsriculture. An extremely useful historical 
summary of similar experiments is given at the end of the 
paper. 
THE latest parts of Engler’s ‘* Botanisches Jahrbuch” contain 
a monograph of the Berberidaceze and Podophyllacez, in which 
the writer, Dr. G. Tischler, proposes a separate order for 
Podophyllum and Diphylleia. Herr Bieyer finds that a com- 
parative study of certain of the Anonacee bears out the latest 
division of that order by Engler and Diels into two suborders 
only, the Uvarioidee and the Eupomatioidez. An article, 
“Der Wind als pflanzengeographischer Factor,” by Dr. 
Warming, is mainly a polemic against Prof. Hansen’s book 
dealing with the East Friesian Islands. Another proposal to 
deal with the present confused terminology of phytogeography 
originates from America, and a system of nomenclature is sug- 
gested by Mr. F. E. Clements, of Nebraska. 
MATTHEW ARNOLD’s well-known work on ‘‘ Literature and 
Dogma,” which, as its subtitle explains, is ‘‘ An Essay towards 
a better Apprehension of the Bible,’ has been issued for the 
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