April 3, 1902J 



NA TURE 



521 



the process which leads to the transfer of the haemoglobin in the 

 direction of the positive current. This process is considered to 

 be of the same nature as the phenomena studied by Quincke 

 under the name of electro-endosmose. 



Special attention was directed to the importance of the facts 

 which the author has elicited in reference to the colloidal yet 

 soluble lorm of oxy-h.^moglobin. It was pointed out that all 

 which has been said with regard to oxy-hsmoglobin applies to 

 COha;moglobin. 



A typical colloid in the sense of its absolute indiffusibility 

 through animal membranes and parchment paper, oxy-hcemo- 

 globin differs, however, from most colloids in the facility with 

 which it crystallises. Hitherto it has been known in its crystal- 

 line condition and in solution in water. Now in its third or 

 Colloidal form the analogy with such a colloid as silicic acid is 

 rendered complete. 



The discovery of this form of haemoglobin enables a conception 

 to be formed of the state in which the blood colouring matter is 

 probably contained in the blood corpuscles. It was known 

 that the amount of haemoglobin contained in the corpuscles is 

 so large that in most animals at least the whole of the water of 

 the blood would not be sufficient to dissolve it. It was perfectly 

 obvious, therefore, that it did not exist in the corpuscles in a 

 state of solution, and the opinion has generally been held that 

 these contained some unknown compound of oxy-hiemoglobin 

 with a constituent of the stroma. It seems highly probable that 

 in the red blood corpuscle haemoglobin may be merely present 

 in its colloidal form. 



Finally it was pointed out that the remarkable facility with 

 which the new colloidal form of hremoglobin traverses such 

 permeable membranes as the animal membranes and even 

 parchment paper, when its solutions are subjected to electrolysis, 

 suggests to physiologists the possibility that certain of the 

 phenomena of absorption in the animal body may be closely 

 connected with electromotive changes in the tissues concerned. 



OUANTITATIVE INVESTIGATIONS OF 

 BIOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. 



T~'HE first part of the new publication, Bioiiietrika, was 

 •'■ noticed in these columns on December 5, 1901 (vol. Ixv. 

 p. 106). The second part, which we have now received, bears 

 out the promise of its founders and shows that the new quantita- 

 tive methods of investigating biological problems have every 

 claim to rank as legitimate weapons of research. The present 

 part contains five original communications and a number of 

 miscellanea. Dr. Warren's paper on "Variation and Inherit- 

 ance in the Parthenogenetic Generations of the Aphis Hyalof- 

 Icrui trirkodiis" shows that variation within the family is 60 per 

 cent, of the racial variation, that the oflspring have no greater 

 resemblance to the mother than in sexual reproduction, but that 

 there may be a somewhat greater fraternal resemblance than 

 among the offspring of sexual reproduction. Mr. W. P. Elderton, 

 in a paper entitled " Tables for Testing the Goodness of Fit of 

 Theory to Observation," provides a set of tables useful alike to 

 physicists, biometricians and statisticians generally who want to 

 ascertain rapidly whether the distribution of observed data, 

 within the limits of " a sample," is in agreement with a proposed 

 theory. Mr. Oswald Latter, as the resultof measuring 243 eggs 

 of cuckoos and comparing them with the eggs of the clutches in 

 which they were deposited, has come to the conclusion that 

 there is colour-matching in 50 per cent, of cases, and in certain 

 of the remaining cases size-matching. The bearing of these 

 results upon Prof Newton's theory is considered, and that theory 

 is shown to receive confirmation therefrom. The next paper, 

 by Dr. W. R. Macdonell, has great practical interest in connec- 

 tion with criminal anthropology. 'The author has studied the 

 index characters hitherto used in the identification of criminals, 

 and now shows that there is a high degree of correlation 

 between the organs selected. He indicates the best method of 

 dealing with the measurements, and gives suggestions for 

 calculating uncorrelated characters " which would furnish an 

 ideal system of identification." In connection with that 

 most important topic, the laws of inheritance in hybrids. Prof. 

 W. F. K. Weldon gives an account of Mendel's results of 

 crossing races of peas which differed in one or more of seven 

 characters. To quote the abstract of this paper : — " From a 

 study of the work of other observers, and from examination of 

 the ' telephone ' group of hybrids, the conclusion is drawn that 



NO. 1692. VOL. 65] 



Mendel's results do not justify any general statement concerning 

 inheritance in cross-bred peas. A few striking cases of other 

 cross-bred plants and animals are quoted to show that the results 

 of crossing cannot, as Mendel and his followers suggest, be 

 predicted from a knowledge of the characters of the two 

 parents crossed without knowledge of the more remote 

 ancestry." 



The notes published under the miscellanea comprise one 

 from Prof. C. B. Davenport in which he shows that in an 

 "abnormal" species of Hydromedusa;, Pseudodytia petitata, it 

 appears that the less typical an individual the less its fertility, 

 and irregular individuals are more sterile than those having some 

 sort of syiTimetry. The typical form and symmetry thus tend to 

 by preserved. Prof. Karl Pearson, from a comparison of the 

 eggs of English and American house-sparrows, is enabled to 

 warn biometricians "against drawing conclusions from types 

 based on the ' modes ' exhibited by small samples of living 

 forms." In another note he also shows from mummy statistics 

 furnished by Prof. Flinders Petrie that there has been a great 

 increase in the expectation of life since the 2000 years which 

 have elapsed from the Romano-Egyptian epoch. Out of 100 

 modern English alive at ten years of age, thirty-nine survive to 

 be sixty-eight, while not nine survived out of 100 Romano- 

 Egyptians. Prof. Pearson also contributes a note " On the 

 Modal Value of an Organ of Character." Miss Agnes Fry 

 writes on variation in leaves of mulberry trees, and gives illus- 

 trations of the leaves of eight trees of difterent ages. From this 

 summary of its contents it will thus be seen that the new 

 publication is fully entitled to that support which we urged in 

 our notice of the first part. 



THE KOZLOFF EXPEDITION TO TIBET. 

 ^PHE last number of the Izvestia of the Russian Geographical 

 -'■ Society (1901, iv.) contains a series of very interesting 

 letters of Captain Kozloff', the head of the last Tibet expedition. 

 They cover the most important part of his journey, from May 

 1900 to October 1901, during which KozlofTand his companions, 

 Kaznakoff and Ladyghin, explored a quite unknown country, 

 situated between the 36th and 29th degrees of latitude and 

 97-99" E. longitude. A preliminary map, 27 miles to the inch, 

 illustrates these letters. 



The expedition left Tsaidam in May 1900, after having 

 organised a meteorological station at the old Tsaidam fort, 

 Barun-tsasak (36- 5' N. lat., 97° 30' E. long., S700 ft. alt.). It 

 crossed the high border ridge, Burkhan budda, which runs 

 N.W. to S.E., separating the high plains of Tsaidam from 

 the high plateau of eastern Tibet, and reached the twin lakes of 

 the upper Hoang-ho, Jarin-nor and Orin-nor, or Lakes Expedi- 

 tion and Russian, as they were named by Prjevalsky. The border 

 ridge consists here of two parallel chains, the passes through 

 which attain the respective heights of 15,700 and 15,600 feet, 

 while separate peaks rise another 500 or 600 feet above the 

 passes. Under the name of Amne-machin. it is continued 

 lurther S.E. in the same direction, the Hoang-ho running on ' 

 the high plateau at the south-western foot of the border-ridge. 



The intention of Kozloff was to explore Inner Tibet and, if 

 possible, to reach Illassa ; but as soon as they entered the 

 territory of Hlassa, their route was barred by a military force. 

 Yielding to the demands of the authorities, the expedition 

 abandoned its intention of penetrating further west, and 

 went southwards, with the intention of visiting the Chamdo (or 

 Tsamdo) monastery ; but its route was again and again barred 

 by military detachments, so that finally Kozloff turned east- 

 wards, under the 30th degree of latitude, and wintered on the 

 Dza-chu, a tributary of the Mekong, thirty miles north of Chamdo. 

 Later on, in the spring, he crossed once more the high range of 

 mountains which, running N.W. to S.E., separates the Mekong 

 from the Blue River, and reached this last under the 30th degree 

 of latitude. There the expedition made the necessary prepara- 

 tions for the return journey, which was resumed in April 1901, 

 exploring the Amne-machin region on the left bank of the 

 Vang-tse, and returning eventually to the upper Hoang-ho 

 lakes. 



Having thus described a wide curve in Tibet, the Kozloff 

 expedition explored lands totally unknown, where the three great 

 rivers— the Hoang-ho, the Vang-tse, and the Mekong— descend 

 from the high Tibet plateau to the lower regions of China, and 

 which represented a real puzzle in the orography of Asia. It 



