December 5. 1907] 



NATURE 



117 



India, and America (.lim-'riton Journal of Science, vol. 

 xxii., igo(), pp. 29 and 143J, since the treatment is mainly 

 pala'ontological. The conclusion arrived at is that as yet 

 we cannot determine whether the Permian is an indepen- 

 dent system ; but hopes are expressed that the unbroken 

 section of 9000 feet in south-western Texas, opening in 

 Carboniferous strata, may throw important light on the 

 true Permian sequence. The Permian faunas usually 

 known to us are detached members of an obviously larger 

 system, which may prove after all to be the Carboniferous. 



We have received also a number of papers dealing with 

 special divisions of fossil organic remains : — 



In the Transactions of the Geological Society of South 

 Africa, vol. ix., 1906, p. 125, Messrs. Mellor and Leslie 

 describe the fossil forest exposed, during an unusually 

 dry season, in the bed of the Vaal near Vereeniging. 

 The river had etched out, as it were, the roots of trees, 

 bedded below in coal, and a picture of a land-surface lay 

 revealed, probably of Permian age. The authors believe 

 that the roots and associated stems belong to Noegger- 

 athiopsis. Photographs are given of this interesting 

 exposure, which may not again become visible for many 

 years. 



Fusulina, like Nummulites, has an interest for all 

 geologists, apart from the fact that it is a handsome re- 

 presentative of the Foraminifera. Mr. H. Yabe (Journ. 

 Coll. Science, Univ. of Tokyo, vol. xxi., article 5, 

 1906), in describing a Fusulina-limestone from Korea, 

 discusses the genus in general, and adds a new subgenus, 

 Neoschwagerina, to the three proposed by Schellwien, 

 viz. Fusulina s.s., Schwagerina, and Doliolina. He 

 corrects (p. 17) a reference to Fusulina-limestone in 

 Borneo, originating in the Geological Magazine in 1875, 

 and points out that Sumatra was the locality referred to. 

 A useful summary of the distribution of such limestones 

 is provided, and Brazil, Persia, Turkestan, and the Salt 

 Range are grouped together as regions on the coast of 

 the Carboniferous " Mediterranean Ocean " (p. 24). Our 

 knowledge of Fusulina-limestone in Asia is still extending 

 (see the recent discoveries in Burma, " Records Geol. 

 Surv. of India," vol. xxxv., 1907, p. 52), and strati- 

 graphers may well read Yabe's paper in connection with 

 Schuchert's faunistic review, to which attention has been 

 directed above. A Japanese author who writes in such 

 good English may perhaps be excused for using 

 " foraminifera " throughout as a singular noun. 



An important criticism on the views of Prof. J. E. 

 Duerden as to the primary hexameral character of rugose 

 corals appears from Mr. T. C. Brown in the American 

 Journal of Science for .'\pril. Brown selects Streptelasma 

 rectum, one of the Devonian corals examined by Duerden, 

 as a type, and discovers in its earliest stage a primary 

 set of four septa, two forming a bar across the calicle, 

 the other two (alar septa) being set obliquely on the 

 cardinal one. In the next stage a secondary septum 

 appears in each of the comparatively large cardinal spaces, 

 and joins the alar septum obliquely. Here, then, a pseudo- 

 hexameral effect is temporarily produced. The author 

 comments on Mr. R. C. Carruthers's recent paper in the 

 Annals and Magazine of Natural History, which describes 

 a similar succession of septa, but which puts forward a 

 different view as to the mode of development of the first 

 pair of secondary septa. We may feel sure that Prof. 

 Duerden 's work will be further stimulated by the parallel 

 and critical investigations to -which it has given rise. 



Mr. Frank Springer uses the discovery of the disc of 

 Onychocrinus as a basis for a complete review and a 

 new an.alysis of the genera of Crinoidea flexibilia (Journ. 

 of Geology, vol. xiv., iqo6, p. 467). Drawings were 

 made from .^ngelin's specimens by Mr. G. Lilievall, of 

 Stockholm, who discovered, in the course of his work, 

 that Ichthyocrinus has an extra (primitive radianal) platf' 

 in the right posterior ray. Springer thereupon examined 

 numerous specimens of this genus from other localities, 

 and states fp. 478) that the .Silurian ones agree with those 

 drawn by Liljevall, while the Carboniferous ones have no 

 radiannl. For the latter, which are regarded as showing 

 an evolutionary elimination of a- '-primitive character, the 

 genus Motichthyocrinus is now proposed. A comparison 

 is instituted (p. 504) between the progressive variation in 

 position and the final removal of the radianal in time, 



NO. 1988, VOL. 77} 



and the similar events that affect the anal plate during 

 the life-history of Antedon. The six figures illustrating 

 the disc of Onychocrinus are unfortunately not numbered, 

 and some ingenuity is required before they can be fitted 

 in with their descriptions. 



The characters of certain labyrinthodont footprints have 

 led the Rev. Longinos Navds, S.J. (Boletin de la Sociedad 

 Aragonesa de Ciencias naturales, tomo v., 1906, p. 20S), 

 to form a new species, Chirosaurus ibericus or Cheiro- 

 therium ibericum ; but surely the reference of the beds at 

 El Moncayo, in which the specimen occurs, to the Silurian 

 (p. 212) rests on far too little evidence. Footprints of 

 Chirosaurus from Lower Triassic strata are, moreover, 

 already known in Aragon, and are cited by our author. 

 The fact that he is not startled by his own conclusion 

 shows that, in his zoological studies, the succession of 

 vertebrate forms has not as yet attracted him. 



Mr. G. R. Wieland (Science, vol. xxiii., 1906, p. 819, 

 and vol. xxv., 1907, p. 66) brings together good evidence 

 on " Dinosaurian gastroliths." The surface of such 

 stones, even when they are flints, shows " a higher polish 

 than wind or water ever produces." The deinosaurs are, 

 moreover, credited with a selective taste for brightly 

 coloured pebbles. 



In a paper on the origin of the Wasatch deposits of 

 the Big Basin (American'' Journal of Science, vol. xxiii., 

 1907, p. 356), Mr. F. B. Loomis describes (p. 363) a 

 new species of Lambdotherium, and one of Glyptosaurus, 

 a terrestrial lizard. The fauna, which includes Eohippus, 

 Phenacodus, Coryphodon, Crocodilus, aquatic turtles, and 

 a few fishes, is explained as having accumulated in flood- 

 plains, and not in a lake-basin, as has been generally 

 asserted. 



The Rev. T. Gardner, S.J., describes and illustrates 

 several types of small stone implements formed by primi- 

 tive man in Rhodesia (" Zambesi Mission Record," vol. 

 iii., 1906, p. 149). The author points out that manv of 

 the specimens now found upon the surface may have been 

 once deeply buried, and were washed out during the 

 sudden bursts of rain. We are already familiar with the 

 argument as to the antiquity of such implements in .Africa, 

 based on their occurrence in the river-gravels cut through 

 by the Zambesi gorge. In Father Gardner's paper we are 

 brought into touch with some of the first discoverers of 

 these interesting forms, including the observant author 

 and the scholars of St. George's School in Bulawayo. 



Finally, fossil man receives a whole-hearted greeting 

 from the Positivists, represented by Dr. Cancalon, in an 

 essay on " Le ProgrJs aux Temps paI(5olithiques "_ (Revue 

 jtositi-viste internationale, 1907). The proofs of this paper 

 have not been very carefully corrected ; but its acceptance 

 of long ages of mental progress in man, as not incom- 

 patible with Comte's conception of human nature, will no 

 doubt be of service in certain quarters, where science has 

 hitherto seemed fraught with pessimism rather than with 

 a guiding inspiration. G. A. J. C. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Dr. Barclay-Smith has been appointed 

 university lecturer in advanced human anatomy as from 

 Michaelmas, 1907, until Michaelmas, 1912. 



Prof. H. S. Carslaw has been approved for the degree 

 of doctor in science. 



The degree committee of the special board for mathe- 

 matics is of opinion that the work submitted by J. B. 

 Hubrecht, of Christ's College, entitled " An Attempt^ at 

 a Spectroscopic Investigation of the Solar Rotation," is 

 of distinction as a record of original research. 



We learn from the Revue scientifique that the University 

 of Lyons has accepted a gift from M. Thdodore ^'autier 

 of 40001'., the income from which is to be devoted to 

 research work in experimental physics. 



Sir Edward H. Carson, P.C, M.P., will distribute the 

 prizes and certificates at the Borough Polytechnic Insti- 

 tute on Thursday, December 12. Mr. J. Leonard Spicer,' 



