436 



NATURE 



[October 6, igio 



Dr. J. B. Charcot; January i6, igii: the Michael Sars 

 North Atlantic deep sea expedition, Sir John Murray and 

 Dr. Hjort. A selection from the following papers may be 

 expected during the session : — Recent explorations in 

 Dutch New Guinea, Dr. H. A. Lorentz ; the develop- 

 ment of British Central Africa, Sir Alfred Sharpe ; recent 

 boundary work in Bolivia, Major P. H. Fawcett ; the 

 peoples of the Sudan, Dr. C. G. Seligmann ; the geo- 

 graphical conditions affecting the development of Canada, 

 Prof. \V. L. Grant ; economic geography of the Tyne, Mr. 

 A. J. Sargent; distribution of cotton culture within the 

 British Empire, Mr. J. Howard Reed; researches in the 

 Himalayas, Dr. .Arthur Neve; explorations in western 

 and northern .Australia, Mr. A. W. Canning. 



Mr. C. G. TiiORP, 182 St. George's Terrace, Perth, 

 Western Australia, writes : — " I am endeavouring to prove 

 the origin of obsidianites ; it has been stated that Mr. 

 Dunn's bubble hypothesis is impossible on account of the 

 occurrence of dumb-bells. I wish to endeavour to make 

 a dumb-bell by the union of the drops of two bubbles. 

 Perhaps one of your readers would help me to the forma- 

 tion of a very viscid fluid that would dry." The inquiry 

 was submitted to Prof. C. V. Boys, who has kindly sent 

 the following reply : — " The best mixture for blowing 

 bubbles that will solidify, not exactly dry, is resin con- 

 taining one-tenth, more or less, of beeswax, melted and 

 blown when fluid. Possibly the addition of Canada 

 balsam would make the mixture more adhesive. No soap 

 and glycerine mixture will make a bubble that will dry." 



In a letter entitled "An Undescribed Feather-element," 

 which appeared in Nature of September 15, Mr. F. J. 

 .Stubbs described a remarkable feature of the structure of 

 the primary feathers of certain birds, which he said 

 " seems to be hitherto undescribed." Two correspondents 

 have written to point out that the peculiarity in question 

 has been described before. Mr. W. P. Pycraft states that 

 he published an account of the structure seventeen years 

 ago in the pages of Natural Science (vol. iii., 1893, p. 

 197). Prof. R. v. Lendenfeld, of Prague, informs us that 

 " these structures have been studied in my laboratory 

 and carefully described and figured by one of my students. 

 Dr. E. Mascha, in his paper ' Ueber die Schwungfedern ' 

 (Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie, vol. Ixxvii., 

 1904, pp. 606-51, nine text figures. Plates 29-31), on 

 p. 614 ff, an English version of which appeared in the 

 Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections (vol. xlviii., 1905, 

 30 pp., 15 plates) under the title ' The Structure of Wing 

 Feathers.' " 



In Man for September Mr. W. E. Hardenburg, in an 

 account of the Indian tribes of the Putumayo River, one 

 of the principal tributaries of the Upper Amazon, describes 

 what he terms a system of " wireless telegraphy " in use 

 among this race. It consists of two logs of hard wood 

 pierced by narrow holes of longitudinal section, burnt out 

 by heated stones. One log is always thicker than the 

 other, producing two grave notes, while the smaller trunk 

 gives out two which are acute. They are hung from the 

 roof timbers, and are beaten with a club tipped with 

 rubber. A code is arranged based upon the differences of 

 lone and the length and number of the blows, so that 

 messages can be exchanged, on a clear day the sound 

 reaching a distance of from 12 to 15 kilometres. 



A SERIES of experiments by Messrs. R. M. Yerkes and 



D. Bloomfield is described in the Psychological Bulletin 



for .'\ugust, planned to answer the question. Do kittens 



kill ]iiicp instinctively ? The experiments decide in the 



NO. 2136, VOL. 84] 



affirmative. They show that " the instinct to kill may 

 manifest itself in the kitten before the end of the first 

 month of life, while the animal is yet feeble and barely 

 able to eat a young mouse." The instinctive reaction, 

 though somewhat variable with individual kittens, is 

 fairly definite in character. It appears quite suddenly, 

 and is aroused by the movement of the mouse, and, after 

 the first reaction, by the smell of the mouse. Usually it 

 develops during the second month of the kitten's life, and 

 does not completely wane during the following two or 

 three months, but " it apparently becomes increasingly 

 difficult to evoke. The practical inference is : allow a 

 kitten to exercise its killing instinct when young if a 

 good mouser is desired." The authors admit the great 

 value of imitation and experience for the killing reactions 

 of kittens, and for the modification and development of 

 these reactions. But the prime object of their experi- 

 ments is to show that kittens, reared in solitude, seize the 

 mouse, even in the first kill, so that they cannot be bitten 

 by it, and that the visual experience of movement is the 

 primary condition for the initiation of the instinct. 



In the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for 

 September Dr. C. I^. Minor, of .Asheville, N.C., has a 

 paper on the use of the X-ray in the diagnosis of pul- 

 monary tuberculosis. This subject was discussed at the 

 recent annual meeting of the British Medical Association 

 in London (see Nature, August 4). Dr. Minor gives 

 full directions as to the most suitable arrangement of the 

 apparatus and of the dark-room, and as to the positions 

 in which patients should be examined. His paper' is 

 chiefly interesting as representing the point of view of a 

 physician in general practice in contrast to that of th» 

 X-ray specialist. In his opinion the general practitioner 

 should confine himself to the use of the fluorescent screen, 

 and leave the taking and the interpretation of photograph;'- 

 plates, with the great amount of detail they contain, to 

 the X-ray specialist. He enters fully into the controversy 

 regarding the comparative value of the clinical and the 

 radioscopic methods of diagnosis of phthisis in its earliest 

 stages. Many X-ray specialists, he says, insist that signs 

 of early phthisis are shown by the Rbntgen rays before 

 the physician is able to demonstrate them by the ordinary 

 methods of physical diagnosis. In Dr. Minor's opinion 

 this is due to the fact that many clinical physicians are 

 not really expert in the method of physical diagnosis, and 

 that they frequently overlook signs which a more trust- 

 worthy diagnostician would have discovered. Dr. Minor's 

 own experience goes to show that there are few cases in 

 which, although distinct shadows are shown by the 

 X-rays, no physical signs can be elicited in the chest. 

 The present writer, however, has frequently had patients 

 sent for examination by thoroughly competent physicians 

 with the statement that no physical signs of lung disease 

 were present. He has then demonstrated to the physician 

 the exact position and extent of the pulmonary lesion, 

 and the physician has thereupon been able, by a careful 

 examination, to detect definite signs at this spot. Dr. 

 Minor directs special attention to the frequency of ihe 

 discovery of enlarged lymphatic glands in the chest, and 

 he describes the positions in which they are to be found. 

 His conclusions lend further confirmation to the view, now 

 generally accepted as true, that the X-ray examination of 

 the lungs is a very valuable aid to the early diagnosis of 

 pulmonary phthisis. 



Dr. p. L. Sci.ater has contributed to the " Handbook 

 of Jamaica for 1910 " a revised list of the birds of 

 Jamaica, based on the one by Messrs. .A. and E. Newton 



