November 19, 1908] 



NA TURE 



n 



conversazione of upwards of loo " diseased " metals and 

 alloys wliich had been collected at the instigation of Mr. 

 Boeddicker, the chairman of the local committee. It is 

 to be hoped that this display of metals and alloys which 

 have failed from obscure causes will lead to much valuable 

 research work being set in hand. Certain it is that in 

 the corrosion of metals the institute has a magnificent 

 field of investigation. The meetings were a pronounced 

 success ; the institute has justified its establishment, and 

 now takes its place among the technical institutions of 

 this country. 



TiiK first number of ihr- Bulletin of the .Sleeping- Sick- 

 ness Bureau has been published by the Royal Society, bear- 

 ing date October, 1908, and is edited by the director. Dr. 

 A. (i. Bagshawe. It deals with the chemotherapy of try- 

 panosomiasis, and contains a clearly written summary and 

 review of the results hitherto obtained in the treatment 

 with drugs of diseases caused by trypanosomes, with refer- 

 ences to 197 memoirs. The subject is dealt with under the 

 heading;s "Treatment of Trypanosomiasis in Man," " Bio- 

 logical Accommodation of Trypanosomes to Chemothera- 

 peutic .Agents," and " Treatment of E.\perimental Animals," 

 after which the editor draws some conclusions and lays 

 down some principles which, in his opinion, have been 

 established by this vast accumulation of experimental re- 

 search. The publication is a most valuable one, and will 

 undoubtedly be of great use to those engaged in research 

 or practice in this field by putting clearly before them what 

 has been achieved, and suggesting lines of investigation 

 to be followed. 



PoLVCiiiSTOus annelids collected off the Pacific coast of 

 North America by the U.S. steamer Alhalross in 1903 

 form the subject of a paper by Mr. J. P. Moore in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 

 delphia for June last. Out of 107 species collected, forty- 

 seven are considered to be new. 



Among the contents of vol. iii., part i., of the Trans- 

 actions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, 

 Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne is a paper by Mr. A. 

 Randell Jackson on rare arachnids captured in Britain 

 during 1907. Three of these are new to the British fauna, 

 two being new species, of which one appears to be in- 

 digenous, while the second is introduced ; the third is a 

 continental species of the attid or jumping group. Of 

 three other species only one sex had hitherto been recorded 

 in our islands. 



.Spiders likewise form the subject of an article in the 

 BiiUcliii international dc V Academic des Sciences dc 

 Cracovic for June, Mr. W. Kulczynski treating therein of 

 the Javan and Sumatran representatives of the groups 

 .Mygalomorphas and Cribellatae. Some of the specimens 

 described were collected at Palembaug, in Sumatra, others 

 in the islands of the Batu, Krakatau, and Babo groups, 

 and yet others in Java itself, more especially in the moun- 

 tains. A considerable number of new species and races 

 is named and described. 



Students of variation should be interested in an elaborate 

 paper by Dr. A. Brozek, of Prague, on the variability and 

 local forms of the decapod crustacean Palaemonetci 

 varians from four different localities, published in the 

 Sitzimf^sherichtc der k. Bohm. Gesellschaft dcr Wisscn- 

 schaften for 1907. Two of the four localities are so far 

 apart as Plymouth and Montenegro, and the variations — 

 in the number and form of the " teeth " of the rostrum — 

 are expressed in figures. It is noteworthy that the varia- 

 bility displays a marked tendency to asymmetry, and the 

 author divides this asymmetrical variation into a " posi- 

 tive " southern and a " negative " northern type. 



NO. 2038, VOL. 79] 



The damage caused to cotton in India by the cater- 

 pillars of the cotton leaf-roller moth (_Sylepta derogata, or 

 midtilinearis) is discussed by Mr. H. Maxwell-Lefroy in 

 Entomological Bulletin, vol. ii., No. 6, of Memoirs of the 

 Department of Agriculture in India. While this common 

 pest does not, as a rule, inflict much harm on native 

 Indian cotton, it is extremely injurious to introduced 

 .American and Egyptian strains, destroying in some 

 instances almost the entire crop. Whether these foreign 

 cottons will eventually become more immune to attack 

 remains to be seen. 



The intra-uterine development of the hedgehog appears 

 to have received but little attention at the hands of embryo- 

 logists, despite the fact that the group is one of the most 

 ancient of all mammals, and therefore likely to yield 

 interesting results in this respect. .As regards the age of 

 the group, it may be mentioned that both the extinct 

 Necrogymnurus and the existing Erinaceus are represented 

 in the Oligocene phosphorites of central France, the persist- 

 ence of the second genus being attributed to the defensive 

 coat of spines with which its members are furnished. 

 Recently Mr. H. Jacobfcuerborn has investigated the 

 development of the hedgehog,' with especial reference to 

 the time of the acquisition of the external form during 

 intra-uterine life, which he finds to be unusually early. 

 The results of the investigation are published in the Zeif- 

 schrift fiir wisscnscliaftUche Zoologie, vol. xci., part i. 



The relations of the fauna of Central Europe to the 

 Glacial period form the subject of a long and interesting 

 paper by Prof. F. Zschokke, of Basle, published in the 

 Verhandltingen der deutschen Zoologischen Gesellschaft for 

 1908. The paper is illustrated by two of Geinitz's maps, 

 showing the maximum glaciation of North and Central 

 Europe. Although at first bringing death and destruction 

 in its train, the Ice-age should be regarded, in the author's 

 opinion, as a great vivifying factor, exciting the fauna to 

 active and passive migrations, and thus extending the dis- 

 tribution of the various species both on land and in water. 

 The author has much to say regarding the spread in 

 Central Europe of Nehring's " steppe-fauna " from the 

 direction of the Ostsee, and adds that subsequently to this 

 there must have been a great northern post-Glacial migra- 

 tion of southern animals and plants. The article is of 

 such interest as to be well worthy of translation into 

 English. 



To the October number (vol. xliii., part i.) of the Journal 

 of Anatomy and Physiology Prof. O. C Bradley con- 

 tributes an important paper on the morphology and 

 development of the mammalian liver. Basing his con- 

 clusions largely on development, the author is of opinion 

 that the liver is primarily an organ of more simple struc- 

 ture than was supposed to be the case by the late Sir 

 W. H. Flower, consisting of three, in place of six, main 

 lobes. The difference between the two views will be 

 rendered most easily apparent by the following table : — 



Bradley Flower. 



„ ,,, (Right lobule Right central lobe 



(..antral looe ■■• ^ Left lobule Lefi central lobe 



(Main part Right lateral lobe 



Processus c.iudatus Caudate lobe 

 Processus onientahs or 

 papillaris 



Left lateral lobe Left lateral lobe 



The division of the central lobe into two is dependent on 

 the presence of an "umbilical fissure," and is therefore 

 not primary. The three fundamental lobes make their 

 appearance independently, and develop in connection with 

 different embryonic veins, the central lobe being produced 



