June 30, 1923] 
Ps 
NA TURE 
893 

Research Items. 
FUNCTION OF THE SPLEEN.—More than ten years 
ago Richet showed that dogs from which the spleen 
had been removed had to eat more than normal 
animals to keep their weight constant. In the 
Comptes rendus of the Paris Academy of Sciences 
of April 16 he states that spleenless animals when 
starved lose weight more quickly than the controls, 
and concludes that the organ diminishes denutrition ; 
its normal function, useful but not necessary to 
the economy, being to slow down metabolism. 
These observations may possibly be correlated with 
those of Korenchevsky (Journ. Path. Bact. vol. xxvi., 
1923, p. 387), who describes hypertrophy and hyper- 
plasia of the germ centres in the spleen in pigeons 
with beri-beri caused by an inadequate diet of polished 
tice—perhaps an attempt to compensate for the 
severe failure of nutrition. 
PALZOCENE PRIMATES OF THE UNITED STATES.— 
More than ten years ago a considerable collection 
was made in the Sweet Grass County, Montana, of 
fossils from the Fort Union Paleocene. The inter- 
vening time has been devoted to the cleaning and 
_ preparation of these, among which the mammalian 
remains appear to represent at least forty species 
belonging to not less than fifteen families and six or 
seven orders. The descriptions of these will be under- 
taken, order by order, and ultimately combined into 
a single monograph. The Primates form the subject 
of a memoir by J. W. Gidley (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., 
vol. Ixiii. art. 1). Until now true Primates have 
not been reported in America from beds older than 
the Eocene, and these indicated that earlier forms 
must have existed, so that it is not surprising, although 
of the greatest interest, that they do occur in the 
Fort Union Paleocene, and that all thence are in 
“Scans of a more primitive type. These early 
imates belong to two families: Tarsiidz, repre- 
sented by four genera, of which three—Paromomys, 
Palechthon, and Elphidotarsius—-are new; and 
Plesiadapide, with one new genus—Pronothodectes. 
No representative of the Notharctide appears in 
the Fort Union collection. The author discusses 
the affinities and relationships of these various forms, 
He concludes that the early tarsiids as at present 
understood do not represent a natural group. It 
would seem, however, that within this group are 
to be found the ancestral stock which gave rise to 
the living Tarsiers ; and possibly also the ancestral 
form whence ultimately sprang the aberrant lemur— 
Daubentonia— of Madagascar. The root group, or 
Pas of the Primates as a distinct order, has 
still to be sought in yet older formations. 
EocENE PELECYPODA OF BurMa.—The fauna of 
the Eocene of Burma is especially rich in Gastropoda, 
but contains a lesser proportion of Pelecypoda. 
The former were placed in the hands of the late Mr. 
Vredenburg for description, while Dr. G. de P. Cotter 
‘has dealt with the latter (Pal. Ind., New Series, vol. 
vii., mem. 2). Twenty-five species are described and 
figured, of which nearly all are considered to be new. 
They indicate that the Yaw stage, to which the 
bulk belong, is to be correlated with the Upper 
Eocene of Java and the Bartonian of Borneo. The 
accompanying plates are remarkably good. 
Sor: BACTERIA AND ORGANIC ANTISEPTICS.—In 
an article in Discovery for June, Mr. P. H. Gray 
discusses the utilisation of organic antiseptics by 
bacteria of the soil. Phenol, cresol, toluene, and 
naphthalene applied to the soil disappear. This 
disappearance is due to the existence of bacteria in 
NO. 2800, VOL. III] 
curve for fluctuating variability. 
the soil which attack and destroy these compounds. 
Some 200 strains of antiseptic-decomposing bacteria 
have been obtained from over a wide area in Great 
Britain ; they are able to grow in solutions containing 
the antiseptics and even to utilise these compounds 
as a source of energy. It is possible to increase 
the fertility of the soil by the addition thereto of a 
mild antiseptic. This destroys certain soil pests and 
disturbs the equilibrium between protozoa and 
bacteria in the soil, enabling the latter to increase, 
and the bacteria produce available plant food with 
an increase in fertility. 
THE MARINE ELEMENT IN THE FAUNA OF THE 
Gancrs.—Dr. N. Annandale (reprint from Bijdragen 
tot de Dierkunde, K. Zool. Genootschap, Amsterdam, 
1922, pp. 143-154) discusses the marine element in 
the fauna of the Ganges. He regards the Bay of 
Bengal, with its low salinity and gradual changes 
from salt water to fresh, as an exceptionally favour- 
able starting-point for an immigration into fresh 
water on the part of marine organisms. An im- 
migration of the kind has been in progress for a long 
period, and many adaptable euryhaline species are 
still attempting to establish themselves above the 
limits of tidal influence in fresh water. A very 
slight change either in the environment or in the 
constitution of the animals themselves would enable 
them to do so. The relict and euryhaline faunas of 
the Ganges represent different stages in this process 
of inland immigration, which has proved successful 
owing to the vigorous constitution of those organisms 
that have missed no accidental opportunity of 
establishing themselves in fresh water. In spite of 
Superficial changes, a large proportion of both the 
telict and the euryhaline forms are of essentially 
primitive structure, or at any rate belong to ancient 
groups some of which have almost or completely 
disappeared from adjacent seas. In other words, 
fresh and brackish water have proved a last refuge 
for many marine species whose race in the sea was 
nearly done. 
THE NON-MENDELIAN INHERITANCE OF SIZE CHAR- 
ACTERS IN FLOWER Perats.—Prof. R. R. Gates 
describes, in the Journal of Genetics, vol. 13, No. 1, 
March, the inheritance of petal size through four 
generations of reciprocal crosses between C:nothera 
yubicalyx and G2. biennis. A more or less uniform 
F, generation is followed by wide segregation in Fy, 
not only between the size of petals in different plants, 
but even on the same plant and in some cases on 
the same flower. A close analysis of these flowers 
does not suggest frequency curves grouped around 
modes dependent upon different size factors, but 
rather haphazard distribution of sizes due to the 
failure of adjustment between different size tendencies 
inherited from the original cross, Such variation 
in size does not appear apart from the original cross, 
so that germinal factors are involved, but their 
representation is not possible, either in terms of 
normal Mendelian factors or in terms of the Galtonian 
Prof. Gates suggests 
that the variable nature of these inherited tendencies, 
as exhibited within the individual, may arise through 
their partial dependence upon cytoplasmic characters 
of the parental forms. 
THe Om Patm UNDER CvuLtTIVATION.—The oil 
palm, Ele@is guineensis, occurs naturally in West 
Africa over an area lying between 12° N. and 12° S. 
of the equator. The fruit of the palm has an outer 
‘pulpy. coat which contains some 50 per cent. oil 
