252 



NATURE 



[August 25, 1910 



hypnotic aural suggestion ; the visional auto-suggestion is 

 also well known among other races, for example, the laXah 

 of the Malay peoples. Persons who are past thirty or forty 

 years of age, and chiefly women, are subject to this second 

 form of arctic hysteria. 



The chapter on family life is of especial importance ; a 

 careful account is given of relationship terms and the ideas 

 of kinship ; the system is essentially classificatory, with 

 some suggestive modifications, the information here given 

 being more detailed than is usually the case with even 

 professed ethnologists. A review of the facts pertaining to 

 marriages shows that, just as in the period of courtship, 

 there are two distinct tendencies, one towards loose se.xual 

 relations, and the other towards idealising constancy and 

 mutual faithfulness. So, also, in marriage, there is a 

 ■striving towards exogamy and an inclination towards 

 consanguineous marriages, which, it seems, were common 

 in former times. Both the Yakut (who in general practise 

 very strict exogamy) and the Yukaghir observe that 

 children born from consanguineous marriages are generally 

 unhealthy. Dr. Jochelson has not only given us a 

 ■detailed account of a vanishing people, but he alludes 

 to problems that will interest the student of comparative 

 ethnology. A. C. Haddon. 



miER'NATlO^A-i. CONGRESS OF ANATOMISTS 



AT BRUSSELS. 

 'T'HE second quinquennial Congress of .\natomists was 

 held at Brussels on ."Vugust 7-1 1. The societies par- 

 ticipating in it were the Anatomische Gesellschaft of 

 Germany, the .Association des Anatomistes of France, the 

 American Association of Anatomists, the Anatomical 

 Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Unione 

 Zoologica of Italy ; there was an attendance of about one 

 hundred members. Among the representatives from the 

 various countries and associations were Waldeyer and Von 

 Bardeleben, Nicolas and Laguesse, Minot and Piersol, 

 Romiti, and .Arthur Thomson, Paterson and Dixon. 



Meetings for the reading and discussion of papers were 

 held in the forenoons in the physics classroom of the 

 university, and demonstrations were given in the afternoon 

 in the anatomical department in the Pare Leopold. About 

 fifty communications were read, of which the majority dealt 

 with embryological or histological subjects ; many of the 

 papers were of great interest and importance. 



Among the papers presented by members from Germany, 

 Poll gave an important communication dealing with 

 spermatogeneris and oogenesis in hybrids. Using material 

 ■derived mainly from hybrid pheasants, he demonstrated 

 that spermatogenesis in them never went beyond the 

 primary stage, or to the production of fully formed sperms. 

 Braus gave a communication and demonstration upon the 

 ■distribution of motor nerve fibres to the muscle segments in 

 the lateral fin of the skate, and showed that each muscle 

 segment in it received an innervation from a number of 

 spinal nerves, and he also demonstrated the contraction of 

 from 5-8 muscle segments upon stimulation of a single 

 spinal nerve. 



Neumayer showed a beautiful series of models illustrat- 

 ing the development of the skeleton of the head in 

 Bdellostoma St. L., and Fetzer showed a model and 

 sections of a very early human embryo closely resembling 

 the ovum of Peters. In it the fixation and the histological 

 structure of the trophoblast w'ere particularly well seen. 



Lenhossek gave a communication on the nerve-cells of the 

 ciliary and otic ganglia in man, and showed some very fine 

 specimens of them. Several communications from members 

 of the German and American societies dealt with the 

 development of the blood cells, Maximow giving a com- 

 munication upon the development in Selachians and 

 Amphibians, Frau Wera Dantschakoff that in Reptiles, 

 and Minot upon the nomenclature and morphology of 

 blood cells in general. He appealed for a more rational 

 and scientific terminology than at present exists, and for 

 the abolition of terms such as *' normoblasts." 



The papers from French anatomists included one from 

 Lams, accompanied by a demonstration of beautiful speci- 

 mens on the fertilisation and early changes in the ovum of 

 "the guinea-pig, which gave rise to an interesting discussion 



NO. 2130, VOL. 84] 



upon the rdle of the tail segment of the entering spermato- 

 zoon, in which Brachet and Van der Stricht took part. 

 Dubrouil showed the development of the lamelhu in the 

 upper end of the femur, and the relation which they present 

 to the entering vessels. Several communications from 

 members of tliis society dealt with the presence and 

 character of Mitochondria in various tissue cells. 



Huntingdon and McCIure, of the American Society, dealt 

 with the development of the lymphatic system, and demon- 

 strated a loosening of the intima of the early veins, by 

 which lymph channels could take origin within the lumen, 

 outside the intima. 



Lee gave a communication upon the implantation of the 

 ovum in various . North American rodents, and Huber 

 demonstrated some fine corrosion preparations, illustrating 

 the morphology of the renal tubules and vessels in 

 vertebrates. 



Of the British and Irish Society, Hill (London) demon- 

 strated, by a fine series of photographs, the growth and 

 maturation of the marsupial ovum as illustrated by 

 Dasyurus. Berry (Melbourne) gave a communication upon 

 Tasmanian crania ; Evatt (Winnipeg) advanced a new view 

 of the homologies of the urethra and vagina in the sexes ; 

 .Arthur Thomson and Whitnall (Oxford) dealt with the 

 anatomy of the angle of the iris and a ligament acting as 

 a check to the action of the levator palpebra; superioris ; 

 and Waterston (London) gave a communication upon the 

 shape of the human stomach and the action of formalin. 

 A paper from Cameron (London) was read, upon the de- 

 velopment of the anterior commissure and adjacent parts. 



Most of these papers will probably be published at an 

 early date, and hence no description of them need be 

 given here. 



On the last day of the congress an important step was 

 taken in the appointment of an international committee to 

 consider the question of a uniform embryological nomen- 

 clature, on the model of the Basel anatomical nomenclature 

 for general anatomy. A committee of representatives from 

 each country represented at the congress was appointed, 

 with power to co-opt additional members, and with Prof. 

 Mall, of Baltimore, as general secretary. 



The members of the congress were entertained at a 

 municipal reception in the magnificent Hotel de Ville, and 

 they also appreciated greatly a demonstration given by 

 DoUo of the great collection of fossil Iguanodons in the 

 Natural History Museum. 



BRITISH MARINE ZOOLOGY. 

 'PHE Bureau of British Marine Zoology has been estab- 

 *• lished under the directorship of .Air. S. Pace, late 

 director of the Millport Marine Biological Station. The 

 objects of the bureau, we learn from the prospectus before 

 us, are twofold : — (i) to compile a bibliography of all 

 works dealing with the biology of the European seas, and 

 (2) to establish a marine biological station of a movable 

 character with adequate stafT, but relatively simple and 

 inexpensive equipment, to work at faunistic problems at 

 one or two points on the coast, with no reference to any 

 question of their possible economic importance. 



It is intended that the bibliography should be issued in 

 a large number of parts each year, and that the issue of 

 each part should follow the papers referred to in it at the 

 shortest possible interval. From the specimen pages of 

 such an issue submitted to us, we gather that the papers 

 are classified both under the author's name and according 

 to subject-matter, and they are accompanied by very brief 

 synopses of their contents, the brevity of which is in- 

 creased by the use of the numerous abbreviations employed^ 

 Such a bibliography should be of very considerable value 

 to workers at marine biology. Whilst, of course, it cannot 

 compare with such periodicals as the Zoological Record or 

 the Zoologisches Jahresbericht, it will anticipate the appear- 

 ance of these by many months. 



With respect, however, to the second project for which 

 the bureau has been established, viz. to carry on an ex- 

 haustive faunistic survey of the marine life at one or 

 more points on our coasts, a point of cardinal importance 

 is at once raised. AVe have at present about half a dozen 

 " stations " for the study of marine biology. There is 

 hardly one of these which receives anything like adequate 



