542 



NATURE 



[Ociober ig, 19- 1 



ed by the promoters of the scheme. The Maharaja 

 of Darbhanga has given five lakhs of rupees (about 33,330/.) 

 towards the university. 



It is announced in Science that the late Dr. William 

 , of Marion, has bequeathed his entire estate, valued 

 at about 6000/., to the Indiana Medical College, in which 

 he was a member of the faculty for many years. From the 

 same source we learn that among the public bequests made 

 by Mr. G. M. Pullman was that of 240,000/. for founding 

 and endowing the Pullman Free School of Manual Train- 

 ing at Pullman, 111. This fund has increased to more than 

 500,000/. The first step towards founding the school was 

 the purchase, in 1908, of forty acres within the limits of 

 the town of Pullman at a cost of 20,000/. Mr. Laenas 

 Gifford Weld, until recently professor of mathematics and 

 dean of the faculty of liberal arts in the Iowa State Uni- 

 versity, was appointed principal in May, and entered upon 

 his new duties on September 1. He will visit the leading 

 technical and trade schools in this country and in Europe 

 before the preparation of definite plans is undertaken. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Manchester. 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, October 3. — 

 The president, Prof. F. E. Weiss, gave an address on 

 recent researches on heredity in plants. After mention- 

 ing the work of earlier investigators, Prof. Weiss referred 

 to the experiments of Mendel on the crossing of different 

 strains of peas. From the results Mendel deduced the 

 two fundamental laws of heredity : first, the dominance of 

 certain unit characters in the first hybrid generation, and, 

 secondly, the segregation of the dominant and recessive 

 characters in the second hybrid generation. This latter 

 law, though not its numerical ratios, was independently 

 discovered by Naudin. These discoveries remained almost 

 unnoticed for half a century, until de Vries, Correns, 

 Bateson, and others brought them prominently before 

 biologists at the beginning of the century. Confining him- 

 self to the phenomena of heredity in plants, Prof. Weiss 

 dwelt upon some of the investigations of Correns and 

 Bateson on colour inheritance in Mirabilis jalapica and 

 sweet peas, and referred also to his own experiments in 

 crossing the scarlet and blue forms of the common Pim- 

 pernel. The resultant cross was completely scarlet, like 

 one of the parents, but in the subsequent generation 25 per 

 cent, of the offspring were pure blues. The same result 



ibtained by crossing the blue form with pollen from 

 a pink variety of Pimpernel, blue being recessive in the 

 first hybrid generation. Prof. Weiss also dealt with the 

 numerical ratios exhibited in the inheritance of paired 

 characters, and with some of the more complex manifesta- 

 tions, such as the appearance of coloured flowers as the 

 offspring of two white parents. Dealing with the analysis 

 of hybrid plants, he referred to his experiments with Getim 

 intermedium, the cross between the common and water 

 avens, a hybrid not uncommonly met with in the lime- 

 stone dales of Derbyshire. This plant exhibits in the size, 

 colour, and shape of its flowers an intermediate condition 

 between its two parents, and is thus easily distinguished 

 from either. The flowers of the hybrid possess both the 

 yellow plastids of the common avens and the red sap 

 (anthocyanin) of the water avens. When pollinated with 

 its own pollen, this very fertile hybrid gives rise to plants 

 some of which have red flowers with no trace of yellow, 

 while others are yellow with no red sap, and, in addition, 

 a number of plants with pure white flowers were obtained. 

 A similar " throwing " of white flowers was observed in 

 the offspring of the hybrid between the primrose ami the 

 oxlip. lie question of the determination of sex has also 



attacked from the botanical point of view by Correns 

 with some success, and his results, on the whole, tend to 

 confirm the view thai this problem maj yet be satisfac- 

 torily solved on Mendelian lines. 



DIARY OP SOCIETIES. 



THURSDAY, October io. 

 Institution of Mining and Metalli 

 milling : II. Suuulish |i.,ii — Fallacie 

 1 1 oleum : Eugene Co ' 



FRIDAY, OcTOBt 



Institution- of Mechanical Encinfei 



Metals ; Experiments on Rotating Beams: 



E. M. Eden, W. N. Ko.e. and F. L. Cunn 



NO. 2190, VOL. 87] 



at 8. — The Economics of 

 1 the Theory of the Organic 



-The Endurance of 

 ty College, London : 



TUESDAY, October 24. 

 Zoological Society, at i.ia— On a New Tree-Frog from Trinidad, living 

 in the Society's Gardens: E. G. Boulen E er.— Distant Or. : 

 Amphibia : B. F. Cummings.— The Duke of Bedford's Zoological Explora- 

 tion of Eastern Asia.— XV. On Mammals from theProvinces of 

 and Yunnan, Western Chil Thou . F.R.S.— Game Sanctuaries 

 and Game Protection in India : E. P. Sir! 



WEDNESDAY, October 25. 

 ical Association, at 5. — The President's Address. — 

 : C. T. Whitmell.— Meteors from Taurus: \V. F. 

 n the Resisting Medium : F. W. Henkel.— Observations 

 t: MajorS. A. Eddie.— Saturn's Rings: F. H. IVattie 

 Mars and Saturn: H. MacF.wen. 



Bkitis 

 Tovi: 



of the 

 — Conj 





THURSDAY, October 26. 

 tute, at 8. — Fire-proofing : R. L. H 



FRIDAY, October 27. 

 at 5. — Further Observations on the After-glow of 

 nd Kindred Phenomena: Hon. R J. Strutt, F.R.S. 

 iecond Series : Prof. C. G. 



■hvsical Society, 



Electric Discharge 



— Homogeneous Fluorescent X-radiation of 



Barkla and J. Nicol. 



MONDAY, October 30. 

 lristotelian Society, at 8. —The Relations of Universal 



Hon. Bertrand Russell, F.R.S. 



CONTENTS. page 



A Volume of Kohlrausch's Collected Papers. By 



G. C. F 509 



A Modern History of Chemistry 510 



The Anopheline Mosquitoes of India ,11 



Minerals of Rhodesia 'jii 



The Foundations of Science 512 



Our Book Shelf S13 



Letters to the Editor:— 



The Oiientation of the Great Temple of Amen-Raat 



Karnak. — Howard Payn 514 



A Possible Relation between Uranium and Actinium. 



—Dr. J. W. Nicholson 515 



Hot Days in 191 1. — R. Corless .515 



Insects Feeding on "Slime Flux" of Trees. — Joseph 



A. Gillett; W. J. B 516 



Meteor Showers. — John R. Henry 516 



The Possible Identity of the Kiess Comet.— P. H. 



Ling 5.16 



Standard Time in New Zealand. — G. Hogben . . . -16 



Habits of I). igs.— A. Everett 516 



Archaeology in Egypt and Greece. {Illustrated.) By 



H. R. Hall 517 



Progress in Electric Lighting, Heating, and Cook- 

 ing. (II I mt rated.) . 519 



Mankind — From the Pliocene to the Present. By 



Prof. Arthur Keith 512 



Coal Discoveries in British Columbia ■ 



Dr. Hughlings Jackson, F.R.S. By H. H 5 



Augusts Michel Levy 524 



Dr. F. Ameghino 525 



Notes 525 



Our Astronomical Column: — 



Changes on Mars 5 2 9 



Colour Photography of Mars 5 2 9 



Brooks's Comet, 19111' 5 2 9 



The Solar Eclipse of April 17, 1912 5 2 9 



An Enormous Bolide ... 5 2 9 



Micrometer Measures of Engelhardt-Stumpe Stars . . 529 



Photographs of the 1S9S Total Solar Eclipse .... 5 2 9 



Cooperation in Observing Variable Stars • 5 2 9 



The Science Section of the Turin International 



Exhibition. (Illustrated) 53° 



The Fourth International Conference on Genetics. 532 



Physiology at the British Association 533 



Agriculture at the British Association . 534 



The East African Natural History Society. Uy Sir 



H. H. Johnston, G.C.M.G., KC B. . . ■ • • 53° 



Whelks and the Valuation of the Sea. By K. . . 53 6 



Scientific Work of the Imperial Institute . . 537 



Exhibition of Model and Experimental Enginsering 537 



Forthcoming Books of Science ... 537 



The Scientific Misappropriation of Popular '..'erms. 



By Prof. J. W. Gregory, F.R.S . ■ • ■ 53 s 



University and Educational Intelligence . .541 



Societies and Academies ... 54 2 



Diary of Societies c 



