160 
NATURE 
[FEBRUARY 3, 1923 
eS Ee 
Research Items. 
DECIPHERING CHARRED DocumeEnts.—Mr. Ray- 
mond Davis, of the Bureau of Standards, Washington, 
finds that the written and printed matter of papers 
that have been thoroughly charred, as, for example, by 
being heated in an iron box or safe, may be deciphered 
by placing the charred sheet in contact with a fast or 
medium plate for a week or two in the dark and then 
developing as usual. There appears to be an emana- 
tion that affects the plate except where the charred 
ink acts as a protective coating. It is curious that 
films need a much longer contact than plates, and 
that sometimes the effect is reversed unless the film 
is previously washed and dried. ; 
~ THe Gypsies oF TuRKEY.—Prof. W. R. Halliday 
has collected from a wide range of literature an 
account of the Turkish gypsies in the Journal of the 
Gypsy Lore Society (3rd series, vol.i., part 4). The 
conventional estimate of the number of these people 
in modern Turkey is 200,000, but there is no accurate 
material for forming any conclusion which possesses 
the slightest value. The more rigid Osmanli hates 
them as infidels and dreads them as magicians, and 
the Christian view of the gypsy’s irreligion and genial 
roguery is illustrated from the folk tales. This 
feeling is based on the laxity of their religious observ- 
ances, for in this area religious tule has the added 
sanction of corresponding with racial or natural 
cleavage. This thievish habit and way of life have 
naturally made them unpopular, and it is widely 
believed in Turkey that they dig up graves and eat 
corpses, a belief probably based on their habit of 
eating carrion. It is also stated that they drink 
annually a secret potion, the composition of which is 
known only to the oldest and wisest of the tribe, 
which secures immunity from snake-bite. They are 
also said to furnish the most expert executioners in 
Constantinople, but this is scarcely credible. Their 
employment as bear-leaders is reflected in the dislike 
shown towards black and brown bears, and to the use 
of the skins of these bears by furriers in Constantinople. 
CERCARILE FROM INDIAN FRESH-WATER MoLtuscs. 
—Maj. R. B. Seymour Sewell has given an account 
(Ind. Journ. Med. Res., vol. x., Suppl. Number, 
1922) of the anatomy and biology of 52 cercarie, 
which he has preferred to designate by numbers as 
he considers that at present the basis of specific 
distinction is vague. The majority of the fresh- 
water molluscs are born in May-August, live for 
approximately two years, and then die from natural 
causes. The vitality of heavily parasitised specimens 
is considerably impaired. The maximal periods of 
miracidial infection occur in May-June and in 
September-October, that is, just before and just 
after the monsoon season. During an examination 
of nearly 4000 fresh-water snails a double infection— 
two forms of trematodes developing simultaneously 
in the same snail—was met with only in eighteen 
cases, namely in sixteen Melanoides tuberculatus and 
two Indoplanorbis exustus, the two most widely 
distributed species of mollusc in India. Cases are 
comparatively common in which one form of trematode 
was found developing from parthenite (sporocysts or 
redia) while another was found encysted in the 
tissues. Maj. Sewell records that on several occasions 
he observed in sporocysts (producing cercarie XV., 
closely related to Cercaria vivax Sonsino) the 
occurrence of miracidia—some of which were still 
in an incomplete state of development and enclosed 
in a thin capsule, but others were swimming freely 
in the cavity of the sporocyst. The sporocyst and 
NO. 2779, VOL. 111] 
redia are not sharply demarcated stages; it is easy 
to form a graded series beginning with an undoubted 
sporocyst which appears to be devoid of all structure, 
passing through forms—in which excretory and 
certain other organs are partly developed —which 
might be considered either as sporocysts or as redie, 
and ending with undoubted rediz with well-developed 
alimentary canal, a complicated excretory system, 
definite nervous system and genital organs, and 
active locomotor processes. 
GEoLoGy or NEw ZEALAND.—The latest view as to 
the grouping and correlation of the much-discussed 
strata of New Zealand is embodied in one of the 
pamphlets conveniently extracted from the New 
Zealand Journal of Science and Technology (vol. 5, 
No. 1, 1922). In this Mr. P. G. Morgan, director 
of the Geological Survey, gives geological maps of 
both the great islands, printed clearly in black and 
white, on a scale of 1 inch to 40 miles. If these were 
not so economically printed back to back, they might 
well be mounted by their fortunate possessor and — 
coloured according to the international scheme. The 
divisions of the Maitai systems (formerly held to be 
Triassic and Jurassic, but now shown to be Permo- 
Carboniferous) are still undecided ; but it is clear that 
the grouping of these rocks on the geographical axis 
of the southern island is not a tectonic feature, their 
general strike being north-westerly. In the epoch ot 
their deposition, New Zealand lay on the margin of 
Gondwanaland, and it seems reasonable to suggest 
that the strike of the Maitai systems, when they came 
to be folded, was determined by the pressures from 
the south that crumpled the beds in Jurassic times 
in the coast-ranges of the Cape Province of S. Africa. 
As Mr. C. A. Cotton has pointed out (‘‘ The Outline of 
New Zealand,’ Geographical Review, vol. 6, p. 320), 
the present form and features of New Zealand have 
been largely determined by faulting, with the forma- 
tion of blocks of uplift and depression. The dominion 
is developing its culture on a mere fragment of land 
left among the deeps. 
PALHONTOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN CHINA.—The third 
Asiatic Expedition of the American Museum of 
Natural History has been co-operating with the staff 
of the Geological Survey of China, and, in view of 
the interest taken in their joint researches, Mr. J. G. 
Andersson, with his colleagues of the Chinese Survey, 
have issued a brief summary of the results of the 
Survey’s operations so far as carried out (Bull, Amer. 
Mus. Nat. Hist., xlvi.art.13). The fossilinvertebrates 
are being worked out by Dr. A. W. Grabau, now 
paleontologist to the Geological Survey of China. 
At present these have been obtained almost ex- 
clusively from the paleozoic deposits, and will be 
described in the near future in a work devoted to 
Chinese paleontology, initiated by Dr. V. K. Ting, 
the director of the Geological Survey of China, and 
entitled ‘‘ Palaontologia Sinica.’’ Of considerable 
interest is the discovery of the first Eurypterus in 
China in the coal measures of the Kaiping basin 
in strata of Lower Permian age. Coal deposits are 
plentiful and range from Paleozoic to early Tertiary. 
By far the most interesting among the plant beds 
of China are the Permo-Carboniferous coal series, 
while those of the Jurassic of northern China come 
next in importance, and the Oligocene flora of — 
Fushun, in Fengtien, is the most representative of 
the Tertiary beds. Of the fossil vertebrates the 
principal description hitherto has been that of 
Schlosser, who, however, procured his material from 
Chinese medicine shops. Mr. Andersson has now 

