54 



NATURE 



[July 13, 1911 



hi of some plankton observations made on the west 

 coasl "I Scotland, and cot m with tliose made 



in the Irish Sea. There is, indeed, much truth in the 

 of these authors that, "for a complete under- 

 ding of the plankton changes throughout the year in 

 the Irish Sea, it is essential that we should have full 

 information, not merely as to the larger organisms of the 

 'zoo-plankton, but as to the planktonic conditions in general 

 in both surface and deeper water along the north coast 

 o) Ireland and off the west of Scotland." 



A taper on the educational treatment of stammering 

 children, by Or. J. T. McHattie, with discussion thereon, 

 has In in issued by the Medical Officers of Schools Associa- 

 tion, and contains much information on the causation and 

 remedial treatment of this distressing condition. 



Messrs. Goetsch, Cushing, and Jacobson publish an 

 important experimental and clinical study on the functions 

 11I the hypophysis cerebri, a small organ situated nl the 

 base of the brain. If either experimentally or in certain 

 cases of brain disease an increased discharge of the secre- 

 tion of the posterior lobe take place, an increased amount 

 of sugar appears in the blood, apparently indirectly through 

 the action of the secretion in causing an increased dis- 

 charge of the glycogen stored in the tissues. Later an 

 increased tolerance for sugars is established, often with a 

 ir in|i in v towards general obesity (Johns Hopkins Hosp. 

 Bull., xxii., No. 243). 



We published recently (June 29) a short article on the 

 progress of radiography in medical diagnosis, and alluded 

 in particular to the work of the staff at Guy's Hospital 

 in their investigation of pathological conditions of the 

 intestine. In this connection we note the appearance of 

 a new paper, a reprint of which has reached us, by Dr. 

 A. C. Jordan, medical radiographer to Guy's Hospital 

 (Brit. Med. Journ., May 20), in which he shows that it 

 is often possible to detect duodenal obstruction by the 

 X-ray method after giving the patient a bismuth meal. 

 Diseases of the duodenum are often extremely obscure, 

 and this new method of diagnosing the condition will he 

 welcomed both by the medical profession and the suffi n 

 from such complaints. 



To the Entomological Research Committee (Africa) the 

 Natural History Museum owes a beautiful enlarged model 

 of the tropical rat-flea (Xenospylla cheopis), which appears 

 to be the main vehicle in the conveyance of bubonic plague 

 in the human subject. The species is believed to have 

 been a native of North Africa, but is now practically 

 cosmopolitan. The model is about 12 inches in length. 



We have been favoured with a copy of part xxvi. of 

 the elaborate work in course of publication by Mi 

 Friedlander, of Berlin, under the auspices of the Royal 

 Prussian Academy of Sciences, entitled "Das Tierreich,' 

 nl which Prof. F. E. Schulze is editor. The first part was 

 issued in 1896, and from the commencement tin 

 has been greatly assisted by Prof. Fritz Edler von 

 Mai Im nthal, of the aforesaid academy, whose death at 

 Berlin on August 2S, 1910, is deplored in a special leaflet, 

 with portrait, accompanying the present issue. Dr. von 



Mael thai was born .1! Olmiitz, Moravia, on January 2, 



1857, and, after spending his youth at Gratz, eventually 



, im 1 official nl the Prussian Academy. In the 



present issue of the "Tierreich" Prof. I.. G. Neumann 



treats of the acarines of the family Ixodid.e in the detailed 



mannei characteristic of the work as a whole. We are 



likewise indebted to Messrs. Friedlander lor a sale cata- 



of works and papers on recent and fossil mammals. 



NO. 2176, VOL. 87] 



The June number of Tlie Quarterly Journal of Micro- 

 scopical Science (vol. lvi., part iv.) contains a full descrip- 

 tion, by Mr. K. Kirkpatrick, of the remarkable sponge 

 .U. -iIli normani, which the author has now obtained in 

 quantity from a depth of 60 fathoms near Porto Santo, 

 Madeira. The nature of this enigmatical organism - 

 likely to give rise to as much controversy as did that of 

 Haliphysema or Astrosclera. Mr. Kirkpatrick has at 

 length settled down to the view that it is a siliceous 



sponge of thi ii 1 Mid family Ilaploscleridae, which, 



in addition to the typical skeleton of siliceous spiculi 5, 

 secretes a basal skeleton of calcite. This basal skeleton 

 takes the form of a horizontal perforated lamina, and tin- 

 perforations are filled with what is believed to be sponge 

 tissue. The evidence brought forward for this view, if 

 not quite conclusive, is certainly very strong. The upper 

 part of the organism, which rests upon the basal lamina, 

 is an undoubted haplosclerid sponge, characterised by a 

 new type of microsclere, to which the name " clavidisc " 

 is applied, a name to which exception might perhaps be 

 taken on the ground that the spicule is characterised, not 

 by anything resembling a key, but by something resembling 

 a keyhole. The author considers that the canal system 

 of the sponge belongs to a new type, to which he gives 

 the name " hymenopylus," characterised by the fact that 

 tin very wide openings of the flagellate chambers are 

 guarded by a delicate sphincter membrane. It is probable 

 that the flagellate chambers of most sponges are 

 " hymenopylous," and the condition is very well known 

 in the Calcarea, but, of course, such a structure can only 

 be made out in exceptionally well-preserved material. The 

 arrangement of the prosopyles, consisting " simply of 

 spaces between tie- fused rays of the stellate bases of the 

 collar-cells," which the author is led to believe may 

 possibly occur among other tetraxonid sponges, has, of 

 course, been known for many years in the common 

 British Halichondria panicea. In short, the canal system 

 appears to be of the normal eurypylous type so common 

 amongst the Munaxonellidas, and it was hardly necessary 

 to coin a new term for the special benefit of this sponge. 

 The paper i- admirably illustrated, and will be read with 

 great interest by all spongologists. 



Experiments described by Dr. R. Seeger in the Sitzungs- 

 berichte der Kaiserlichen Ahademie der Wissenschaften, 

 Vienna (vol. cxix., part 9), indicate that hemiparasites 

 of the tribe Rhinantheaj transpire much more freely 

 than autotrophic plants. Thus Euphrasia Kostkoviana and 

 Odontites verna gave off 19 milligrams of water in 

 10 minutes, as compared with 6 milligrams transpired by 

 Veronica chama. Irys, [-8 by Hydrangea hortensis, end 

 0-48 by Rhododendron hyhridum. 



A it it. description of the forestry court at the United 

 Provinces Exhibition held at Allahabad in December last 

 year appears in Tim Indian Forester (March and April). 

 flu' exhibition comprised timber specimens and products, 

 trophies 1 other forest products which occupied 



the three main buildings. In addition there were installed 

 a turpentine distillery, a wood-pulp laboratory, wood- 

 work-in. . a lac factory, various artisan demon- 

 strations such Hoshiarpur wood carvers, and an 

 i ion of katha extraction. The success of the section 

 may be largely accredited to the energetic president, Mr. 

 P. II. 1 



A snoRi null- mi comparative trials with calcium 

 11111 sulphate, nitrate of lime, and 

 nitrate of soda a- artificial fertilisers, i* contributed by- 

 Mr. F. J. Chittenden to the Journal of the Royal Horti- 



