September ,8, 1910J 



NATURE 



319 



of the meetings. That this was no small task may be 

 judged from the fact that some five hundred members and 

 participants came to Graz on August 14 and 15, and that 

 in the five days of the congress more than 100 papers 

 had to be read. One disadvantage of this abundance 

 of communications was the limitation of discussion, which 

 might have been surmounted had the members e.xercised 

 the art of compression. .As it was, papers were frequently 

 read in exienso, and valuable time was thus lost. Some 

 confusion was caused by the carrying over of papers from 

 one day to the ne.xt, but the committee must be congratu- 

 lated on the manner in which they organised the pro- 

 ceedings and surmounted difficulties, which in most cases 

 were caused by the very success of the congress. 



For such an international gathering Graz was a for- 

 tunately chosen meeting place. This " pearl of Styria " 

 lies in beautiful scenery, and wears a peaceful and pic- 

 turesque air. The Stadt-Park and the Schloss-berg form 

 convenient shady spots in which the leisurely life of the 

 town can be studied, whilst in the " H'ilmteich " woods, 

 the methods for bird-protection are seen in the most modern 

 form. Gatherings at these and other points were arranged 

 during the intervals of congress-business, and were greatly 

 enjoyed, for, with the exception of two evenings, the 

 weather remained fine. 



The meetings themselves took place in the large 

 " Stephanien-Saal " in the mornings, and in the university 

 buildings in the afternoons. On the first day (August 15) 

 the congress inspected the university, and more especially 

 the zoological institute, w-here President von Graff guided 

 the members over the charming building over which he 

 rules. Then followed the official reception and opening of 

 the congress. The only papers read that day were a long 

 discussion by Prof. Delage on the methods and results of 

 experimental parthenogenesis ; a kinematographic repre- 

 sentation of sea-urchin development (by .M. F. Mes and 

 Mdlle. Chevroton) ; and a description of the biology of the 

 lower Danube by Dr. Antipa. A pleasant evening was 

 spent at the Hilmteich, where one realised the truly inter- 

 national character of this gathering. 



The most important paper given during the second day 

 of the congress was one by Prof. Gaupp, of Freiburg, on 

 the affinities of the mammalia as deduced by the study of 

 the skull. Dr. Gaupp is, of course, a well-known authority 

 on this subject, and he treated it from a broad comparative 

 standpoint. Stress was laid on the primordial or cartila- 

 ginous cranium, and the descriptive part of the paper was 

 illustrated by a series of exquisite models made by Ziegler 

 under the supervision of Gaupp and others. .-Vmongst 

 many detailed points of interest was the fact that the 

 gristly skull of the young rabbit presented a closer agree- 

 ment with that of the lizard than did the skull of Echidna. 

 The relationships of the Mammalia, so far as the primitive 

 skull w-as concerned, pointi'd rather to reptilian than to 

 amphibian ancestry. Dr. Gaupp subsequently gave a series 

 of demonstrations of the models used in his lecture. 



Another paper of importance was that by the veteran 

 zoologist, Gehejmrath F. E. Schultze, on the air-sacs of 

 birds, illustrated by a series of casts of the lungs and air- 

 sacs taken from a number of representative and familiar 

 birds. These models were exhibited during the course of 

 the congress, and formed a triumph of technique. They 

 consisted of metallic castings, and exhibited the relation- 

 ships of the different sacs by a carefully chosen system of 

 colours. No such clear demonstration of the anatomy of 

 this difficult subject has ever before been carried out. 



During the afternoon of each day the congress divided 

 into eleven sections, thus showing the extent to which 

 specialisation has proceeded in zoology. The cytologists 

 and proiozoologists constituted the first of these,' and the 

 chief subjects of interest in this section were the nature of 

 the cell-elements, particularly the meaning of the chromo- 

 somes and their relation to sex. These papers, however, 

 were of a highly technical character, and are difficult to 

 summarise until the printed report appears. \'ery few- 

 papers on Protozoa were communicated, the most interest- 

 ing being one by Dr. Enriqucs on the experimental deter- 

 mination of conjugation among Infusoria, and a long 

 discussion by Dr. Hartmafln on the nature of the nucleus 

 in Protozoa and the bearing of this subjett on general 

 cytology. 



In the second section papers were given on the anatomv 



NO. 2132, VOL. 84I 



and physiology of Invertebrata. Prof. Pelseneer led off 

 with an interesting account of the occurrence of hermaphro- 

 ditism in Lamellibranchs, and traced a relation between this 

 condition and certain bionomical factors. It appears that 

 hermaphrodite forms are much commoner than is generally 

 supposed, especially among bivalves that are either com- 

 mensal in habit, or that lead a deep-sea life. Another 

 paper of interest was that by Mr. E. Ray Gregory on the 

 water vascular system of one of the cake urchins 

 (Echinarachinus). M. Rousselet e,xhibited specimens of 

 Trochosphaera, and there were several papers dealing with 

 purely histological topics. In the section devoted to 

 Vertebrate problems, there were several contributions to 

 the anatomy and development of the lymphatic system, 

 including some beautiful demonstrations of the lymphatics 

 in tadpoles by Dr. Hoger, in the cat by Drs. Huntington 

 and McClure. Prof. Lee, of Minneapolis, exhibited a most 

 valuable series of early stages in the development of 

 Rodents peculiar to North America. Prof. Hubrecht de- 

 scribed the placenta and early development of that strange 

 Malayan mammal, Galeopithecus. Dr. Franz gave an 

 account of the relation between motor activity and the 

 development of the thalamencephalon in the develqpment of 

 fish ; and Principal Jordan a most attractive description of 

 the Bering Sea fur seal. 



The most popular sections, however, were those that 

 dealt with experimental and bionomical problems, and the 

 list of papers read before them is so large that only a mere 

 and arbitrary selection can be made. Of these, the paper 

 on colour-physiology by Dr. Paul Kammerer, of Menna, 

 was the most interesting. For some time past Dr. 

 Kammerer has subjected specimens of various Amphibia 

 (Salamaiidra maculosa, S. atra, Molge, spp., Rana 

 esculcnta, arvalis, &c.), Reptilia, and Mollusca to the 

 influence of various coloured surroundings, and has also 

 reared the offspring of these animals under certain con- 

 ditions of light and background. By the aid of coloured 

 lantern slides, the author showed how the colouration both 

 of the under and of the upper surface responded to this 

 treatment, how the question of sex complicated the result, 

 and how the offspring appeared to inherit a tendency to 

 develop colouring similar to that induced in their parents 

 without the influence of similar surroundings. The back- 

 grounds employed were chiefly yellow earth and black 

 earth, and the results were only broadly stated (the paper 

 suffering, as did so many others, from congestion of busi- 

 ness). Dr. Gadow, of Cambridge, made an interesting 

 speech on the nature of Amphibian colouring, but further 

 discussion was prohibited by the lateness of the hour. 

 Subsequently Dr. Kammerer showed spirit-specimens of his 

 experimental animals. A somewhat disappointing paper 

 on a closely allied subject — the formation of pigment in 

 birds — was contributed by Dr. Riddle, of Chicago. In this 

 Dr. Riddle stated that " both the kind and quantity of 

 melanic pigment produced by a bird . . . are dependent on 

 nutritive and other local and temporary conditions." The 

 disappointment lay in the fact that no explanation of what 

 these conditions were, was given. The paper was mainly 

 an attack upon the results obtained by Miss Durham on 

 the pigments of guinea-pigs. 



Prof. Woltereck contributed a further instalment of his 

 work on Daphnids, and showed how variations in the body 

 were correlated with sexual changes. On this subject Dr. 

 Langhans, of Prague, also spoke, urging the evidence he 

 had obtained as to the inheritance of acquired characters 

 in this group. One of the longest experimental papers was 

 that by Prof. Conklin on the power of regulation in 

 Echinoderm eggs. After centrifuging such eggs for a short 

 time, the cytoplasm of the eggs is drawn away from its 

 initial position, but when the eggs are removed from the 

 centrifuge the regulative power show's itself by causing a 

 symmetrical arrangement of the cells. The diverse 

 behaviour of the tw-o polar cells was very clearly shown, 

 and the influence of the length of time of centrifuging was 

 also explained by a series of lantern slides taken from some 

 two thousnnd preparations. 



In another section. Prof. Crampton gave a well-illustrated 

 account of the distribution of species of Partula, based 

 upon his explorations in south-eastern Polynesia. He 

 pointed out the extremely definitely localised character of 

 the species and the evidence for mutation. In the same 

 section, Prof. Carpenter, of Dublin, described an interest- 



