August i8, 1910] 



NATURE 



21 1 



We learn from Science that Dr. Frank H. Bigelow has 

 resigned his positions in Washington, D.C., as professor 

 of meteorologj', U.S. Weather Bureau, and professor of 

 astrophysics, George Washington University, in order to 

 travel in Europe for a few months. He will then resume 

 his studies in solar physics and terrestrial meteorology. 



In view of the removal of the work of the Meteorological 

 Office to the new building in Exhibition Road, South 

 Kensington, which is being arranged to take place in the 

 autumn, Mr. R. G. K. Lempfert, superintendent of 

 statistics, has been appointed by the Meteorological Com- 

 mittee to be superintendent of the forecast division ; Mr. 

 E. Gold, fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, Schuster 

 reader in dynamical meteorology, has been appointed 

 superintendent of the statistics and library division ; Mr. 

 R. Corless has been reappointed special assistant to the 

 director, with additional duties as secretary and clerk of 

 publications. The appointments date from October i. 



.Apropos of Prof. W. J. Pope's discourse on " The 

 Chemical Significance of Crystal Structure " at the Royal 

 Institution, a full report of which appeared in last week's 

 number of Natl're, it may be noted that the models which 

 illustrated the lecture, together with explanatory labels, 

 are exhibited by Prof. Pope in the Crystallography Section 

 of the Science Hall at the Japan-British Exhibition. Next 

 to this exhibit will be found also models of Bravais's 

 fourteen space-lattices, and of certain of Sohncke's point- 

 systems shown by Prof. H. L. Bowman. Among other 

 Interesting exhibits in the same section, in addition to 

 those referred to in an article in Nature of July 28, may 

 be mentioned the series of goniometers, showing the greqt 

 change that has taken place in the form of the instru- 

 ment since it was first devised, the refractometers and 

 protractors, and the pictures, obtained in natural colours 

 by direct photography on autochrome plates, of the inter- 

 ference figures displayed by certain crystal-sections. 



In L'Anthropologie for May-June M. Louis Seret brings 

 to a close his essay on the colonial empire of the 

 Phoenicians. To this he attributes the spread of Neolithic 

 culture in western Europe. In the sixteenth century e.g., 

 the Phoenicians, after the first Egyptian incursions into 

 Asia, started on their maritime career. The period of 

 constant warfare which succeeded produced a demand for 

 large supplies of arms of bronze, and the Cassiterides were 

 the only source from which tin in the necessary quantity 

 could be provided. But the accessible mines soon became 

 exhausted, and in the twelfth century the increasing use 

 of iron made the bronze trade much less important. He 

 connects the menhirs of western France with the cult of 

 a deity of reproduction, like the Greek Hermes. These 

 brilliant generalisations will probably not meet with 

 universal acceptance ; but this important study throws new 

 light upon the connection of the Phoenicians with the 

 spread of Neolithic culture in western Europe. 



In a third instalment of a " symposium " on the 

 palaiontological record, published in the August number 

 of the Popular Science Monthly, Prof. R. S. Lull discusses 

 the relation of embryology and vertebrate palaeontology. 

 He mentions that the dinosaur Compsognathus was prob- 

 ably viviparous, and refers to the importance of ascertain- 

 ing the origin of the peculiarity that tlie presumed ribs 

 of chelonians are external to the limb-girdles. He also 

 comments on the similarity between the head of a foetal 

 manati and that of a modern ungulate. 



In the course of a note on the first skull of the species 

 obtained from the Pleistocene of Saxony, Dr. K. Wanderer, 

 NO. 2129, VOL, 84] 



writing in Sit^ungsberichte und Abhandlungen dernaturwis. 

 Ges. Isis for 1909 (1910), reviews recent literature relating 

 to the local races of the musk-ox. In 1908 Dr. R. 

 Kowarzik pointed out that the living representatives of 

 the species are divisible into two main groups — an eastern 

 and a western — distinguished by skull characters. The 

 line of division between the two types is formed in North 

 .America by the Atlantic watershed and its continuation in 

 the islands of the Arctic Ocean. The western type, Ovibos 

 inoschatus mackenzianus {of which Gidley's O. yukonensis 

 appears to be a synonym), inhabits the Mackenzie Valley 

 and the districts to the west, but appears to have been 

 originally a native of Europe and northern Asia, whence 

 it reached America by way of Bering Strait. The skull 

 is characterised by the nearly quadrangular outline of the 

 basioccipital, the flattened but large horn-bases, the close 

 approximation of the stout sheaths of the horn-sheaths to 

 the forehead, the presence of distinct lacrymal pits, the 

 marked curvature of the tooth-line, and the long interval 

 between the sphenomaxillary fossa and the last molar, 

 rhe eastern American form is, it may be presumed, 

 O. m. typicHS, allied to which is the Greenland O. m. wardi. 

 The skull described by Dr. Wanderer was obtained from 

 Prohlis, near Dresden, in association with remains of 

 Rhinoceros antiquitatis, and is referred to the western 

 form. 



Two volumes by Mr. J. Wright on the cultivation of 

 allotments have lately been added to the series of " One 

 and .All " garden booklets. The first supplies information 

 with regard to the preparation and improvement of the 

 soil ; the second deals with the production of vegetables, 

 fruits, and popular flowers. 



A NEW volume, the fifth, of the botanical section of the 

 Philippine Journal of Botany begins with a number devoted 

 to the first part of an enumeration of Philippine 

 Leguminosje, provided with keys to the genera and species, 

 for which Mr. E. D. Merrill is responsible. The enumera- 

 tion covers 90 genera and 285 species, of which 14 entire 

 genera and 53 species are considered by th-e author to be 

 introductions. The proportion of endemic species is low 

 as compared with many other families. None of the genera 

 are very large, . Desmodium being predominant with 

 twenty-nine species, while Monarthrocarpus and Luzaria 

 are mpnotypic and endemic. Several species yield valuable 

 timbers, notably Pterocarpus indicus, P. echinatus, Albizzia 

 acle, Intsia bijuga, and Pahiidia rhomboidea. 



A NOTE by Mr. W. R. G. .\tkins on the cryoscopic 

 determination of the osmotic pressures in some plant 

 organs, chiefly fruits, appears in the Scientific Proceed- 

 ings of the Royal Dublin Society (vol. xii.. No. 34). 

 Following the methods adopted in earlier experiments, the 

 osmotic pressures were calculated from the data obtained 

 by measurement of the freezing point of the expressed cell 

 sap. The values so obtained justify the deduction that 

 similar organs . of any plant species have approximately 

 equal osmotic pressures, although a wide range of values 

 is obtained for similar organs of different plants. Thus 

 tomato fruits gave a value varying from si.x to nearly 

 eight atmospheres, and greengages a pressure of twenty- 

 nine atmospheres.. The variation in pressure recorded for 

 the tomato is connected with the ripening of the fruit, the 

 lower pressure in this case referring to the ripe fruit, 

 and is accounted for by the chemical changes in the cell 

 sap. 



Bulletin No. 55 of the West of Scotland Agricultural 

 College contains an account of experiments on soil 

 inoculation for the lucerne crop. Lucerne is not at present 



