January i6, 1902] 



NATURE 



257 



learn more about this region. The Russian geologist, Bog- 

 danovich, notwithstanding a most careful search, has found 

 during his three years' journey no traces of this submergence. 

 Stoliczka's fossils are apparently similar to those found by the 

 Russian explorers further north, which have proved to be 

 Devonian. ObruchefTs fossils from the eastern Gobi belong to 

 freshwater lacustrine deposits. And now we learn from Prof. 

 Tschernyscheff ( Fir/iaK(i?/!<«^<;« of the St. Petersburg Minera- 

 logical Society, xxxviii. 2) that the fossils brought in by D. A. 

 Klements from the Dzungarian Gobi, from a spot, Nyursu, 

 situated to the east of PyevtsofTs route from Kobdo to Guchen, 

 belong to the PermoCarboniferous strata, which are known in 

 the Urals as the Artinsk horizon. They contain Bryozoa 

 (Polypora and Fenestella), the polypes Staiopora coluinnaris, 

 var. RaiHOsa miilligemmala, and the molluscs Productiis piirdoni, 

 P. asperultis, P. mexicaniis, C/toneles traiisitionis, Rhynchopora 

 nikitini, Rclicularia lineala, Martinia seiniglohosa, Spirifer 

 cameralus and Bairdia curia. The character of this fauna is 

 also similar to the fauna which was found by Loczy in the 

 provinces of Se-chuen and Yunnan. 



In the Notes of the Leyden Museum (vol. iv. p.i9l) Dr. F. A. 

 Jentink describes a skin of the rare Bornean bay cat (Felts 

 badia), which he believes to be the fourth known specimen. 

 In the same is.sue Dr. O. Finsch continues his catalogue of the 

 ornithological collection at Leyden. 



In the Sitzungsberichte of the Vienna Academy ( 1901 , No. 25), 

 Prof. R. von Wettstein draws attention to the important 

 zoological and botanical collections obtained by the recent 

 expedition to south Brazil. He directs attention to the marked 

 changes caused in the vegetation of the country by plants 

 introduced, either accidentally or on purpose, during the last 

 century. 



In the January number of the Entomologist, Mr. F. B. Dodd 

 describes a peculiar instrument by means of which the silk- 

 producing moths of the Australian genus Antheraea cut their 

 way out of their hard cocoons. The instrument "is a short 

 hard black and curved thorn, situated in the thick joints at the 

 base of the fore-wings, one on each side ; in a rubbed specimen 

 the thorn is easily discernible, but in a good one it is concealed 

 amongst the dense scales. ... It would be interesting to 

 know whether anyone can state whence the liquid issues which 

 the moth discharges to soften the cocoon where he cuts through ; 

 it must issue from near the thorn, for, as a rule, the scales left 

 at the base of the wing and alongside the thorax are wet and 

 matted when the moth emerges." 



To the issue of the Journal of the Straits Branch of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society for July last Captain S. S. Flower contri- 

 butes an interesting series of notes on the millipedes, centi- 

 pedes, scorpions and allied creatures of the Malay Peninsula 

 and Siam. The author sets an excellent example to other 

 naturalists in the way he grappled with an unknown subject. 

 " When I arrived in the Straits Settlements," he writes, "in 

 March 1S95, I knew practically nothing of these animals, how 

 they were classified, how to distinguish between them, or which 

 were poisonous and which harmless, and in no book or paper 

 could I find the information I wanted, so I set to work to 

 collect and examine specimens, and compare them with such 

 literature as was available." The result of this energy and 

 perseverance is the long and well-annotated list before us. 



Mr. G. Archdali. Reui contributes to the current number 

 of the Monthly Review an instructive and clearly written account 

 of " the rationale of vaccination." After an explanation of the 

 causes of zymotic diseases, it is explained that there are two 

 kinds of immunity from them — the inborn and the acquired. 

 The former prevents infection, the latter prevents reinfection, 



NO. 1 68 1, VOL. 651 



and both kinds have arisen in the human race through a process 

 of natural selection. When, as in the case of measles, immunity 

 can be acquired by the individual, natural selection has evolved 

 a power of recovering from infection. Thus, Englishmen, who 

 have long been afflicted by measles, are as certainly infected, but 

 recover much more easily than Polynesians, to whom the 

 disease has only lately been introduced. After passing in review 

 the theories which have previously been held to explain acquired 

 immunity, Mr. Reid shows that it is due to an habituation to the 

 toxins of that disease. This result is brought about by the 

 digestion in the blood of the toxins, so that there are present in 

 the animal's blood toxins in all stages of attenuation, from those 

 newly produced by the microbes, and extremely virulent, to those 

 produced in the beginning of the disease and now in a state of 

 great enfeeblement. Up that graduated scale the cells of the 

 animal react till complete immunity is attained. The serum 

 treatment artificially supplies digestive substances and, what is 

 even more important, a scale of attenuated toxins. Applying 

 these principles to the case of small-pox, the necessity for 

 periodical vaccination is established. It is pointed out that, since 

 small-pox is an air-borne disease, isolation, by itself, has no 

 greater power of controlling small-pox than the historic old 

 lady with a broom had of sweeping back the Atlantic. In the 

 absence of vaccination isolation would be worse than useless. 



A NEW edition (the third) of "Practical Radiography," by 

 Messrs. A. W. Isenthal and H. Snowden Ward, has been 

 published by Messrs. Dawbarn and Ward. Many additions 

 have been m.ade to the original volume, and the position and 

 possibilities of radiography at the present time are fairly repre- 

 sented. The book is a useful guide to many aspects of work 

 with Rontgen rays, and in it the authors judiciously combine 

 practical hints with descriptions of theoretical interest. 



The German weekly scientific periodical Die Natur has 

 just commenced a new half century in its existence, the first 

 number having appeared on January 3, 1852. The journal was 

 founded by the late Dr. Otto Ule and Dr. Karl Miiller, and 

 has maintained a high position among scientific periodicals from 

 the commencement. The present editor is Herr H. Behrens. 

 The cordial relationship which has existed between the French 

 and German periodical representatives of Nature and ourselves 

 is one instance among many of the cosmopolitan character of 

 scientific interests. We congratulate Die Natur upon its jubilee 

 and trust that its work and influence in the future will be even 

 more extensive than in the past. 



Mr. C. E. Benham has prepared a series of seven stereo- 

 scopic diagrams, published by Messrs. Newton and Co., illus- 

 trating the polarisation of light. These diagrams show, in 

 stereoscopic relief, the various directions of vibration in 

 a light-wave, the passage of a ray through a doubly refract- 

 ing crystal, the action of Nicol's prisms, and polarisation by 

 reflection. The figures are drawn in white lines on a black 

 ground, and they should be very useful for demonstration pur- 

 poses. The only fault we have to find with them is that the 

 right-hand and left-hand blocks in several cases are of unequal 

 size, and present in the stereoscope the appearance of pieces 

 of black paper which have been turned up at one side and slant 

 towards the observer instead of looking like screens placed 

 behind the diagrams. This is particularly confusing when there 

 are two diagrams on the same slide, and the black patches appear 

 tilted in opposite directions. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Patas Monkey (Cercopithecus patas), a 

 Ground Hornbill (Bucorz'us abyssinicus) from Kontagora, 

 Nigeria, presented by Captain E. H. Lewis ; a Common For 



