March 13, 19 13] 



NATURE 



5i 



kinematograph may be made such an effective educa- 

 tional instrument that encouragement should be given 

 to all who are endeavouring to discover its best uses 

 and to produce pictures above the penny-dreadful tvpe 

 which is now too common. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, March 6. — Sir Alfred Kempe, vice- 

 president and treasurer, in the chair. — Prof. J. C. 

 Bose : An automatic method for the investigation of 

 the velocity of transmission of excitation in Mimosa. 

 The research was undertaken to decide the question 

 whether in Mimosa pudica stimulus gives rise to a 

 mere nassage of hydro-mechanical disturbance or a 

 transmission of true excitation. The results obtained 

 warrant the conclusion that there is transmission of 

 true excitation. — W. K. Spencer : The Evolution of the 

 Cretaceous Asteroidea. An endeavour is made to 

 trace the evolution of the starfish through the whole 

 of the Cretaceous deposits. At the first sight the 

 material appeared to be unpromising, for complete or 

 even fragmentary specimens are rare. It has been 

 found possible, however, to use the isolated marginal 

 plates which are found fairly commonly on weathered 

 chalk surfaces. It is shown that these marginal plates 

 have a shape and ornament characteristic of each 

 distinct species. The species may be arranged in 

 lineages, and the examination of large collections 

 made bv English and Continental workers make it 

 feasible to trace the life-history of most of the lineages. 

 — Dr. E. A. Newell Arber : A preliminary note on the 

 fossil plants of the Mount Potts Beds, New Zealand, 

 collected by Mr. D. G. Lillie, biologist to Capt. Scott's 

 Antarctic Expedition in the Terra Nova, in 1911. 

 The communication briefly discusses the first results, 

 which have reached this country, of the late Capt. 

 Scott's second Antarctic Expedition. In the winter 

 months of the last two years the Terra Nova has been 

 at work in New Zealand waters. During these 

 periods Mr. D. G. Lillie, one of the biologists of the 

 expedition who has been attached throughout to the 

 Terra Nova, has been endeavouring to clear up on 

 the evidence of the fossil floras some of the many 

 points which remain unsolved with regard to the 

 stratif raphical geology of New Zealand. In particu- 

 lar, he has mad'"- large collections from the Mount 

 Potts Beds, in Ashburton County, Canterbury. Whether 

 these beds contain Glossopteris, as asserted by Hector 

 and others, has long been a matter of dispute, for 

 the whole question whether New Zealand formed part 

 of the great southern Permo-Carboniferous continent 

 of " Gondwanaland " depends entirely on the character 

 and age of the flora of these beds. As it proves, the 

 flora of these beds is thoroughly Mesozoic. The flora as 

 a whole consists chiefly of Rhaetic plants, though a few 

 Jurassic tvpes also occur, and thus the age of the beds 

 is either Rhaetic or Lower Jurassic. The Mount Potts 

 beds are admittedlv the oldest plant-bearing series, in 

 a geological sense, as yet discovered in New Zealand. 

 No Palaeozoic plants are known from these islands, 

 and there is thus no evidence that thev formed part 

 of "Gondwanaland" in Permo-Carboniferous times. — 

 Sir D. Bruce, Majors D. Harvey and A. E. Haraerton, 

 Dr. J. B. Davey, and Lady Bruce : (1) Trypanosomes 

 found in the blood of wild animals living in the 

 sleeping sickness area, Nyasaland. (2) Trypanosome 

 diseases of domestic animals in Nyasaland. II., Try- 

 panosoma Caprae (Kleine). (3) Morphology of various 

 strains of the trvpanosome causing disease in man in 

 Nyasaland. I., The human strain. 



NO. 2263, VOL. 91] 



Linnean Society, February 20.— Prof. E. B. Poulton, 

 F.R.S. president, in the chair. Roland II. Deakin ; 

 Anatomy of the larva ot Phryganea stricta. — W. Bet- 

 ting Herasley : The genera Radamaea, Heiith., and Neso- 

 genes, A. DC. Radamaea molilalia is a shrub from 

 Madagascar, and some imperfect spei imens of a similar 

 plant were referred to his R. prostrata. On compar- 

 ing these specimens with some collected on the Sea- 

 lark expedition by Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner and Mr. 

 J. C. F. Fryer, the author found' it had to be trans- 

 ferred to its proper genus, Nesogenes. Four species 

 of the latter genus are now known, including a new 

 one from Aldabra, named A'. Dupontii, Hemsl., after 

 the discoverer. — Prof. R. J. Harvey Gibson and Mar- 

 garet Knight : Marine Algae collected by Mr. Cyril 

 Crossland in the Red Sea. Part ii. was mainly a 

 list of species, forty-six in number, thirty-five of which 

 are additions to the former list. The authors have 

 observed sexual and asexual organs, not merely on 

 the same plant, but on the same branch, in several 

 species, and consider the phenomenon to be bv no 

 means exceptional. 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



Problems of Life and Reproduction. By Prof. M. 

 Hartog. Pp. xx + 362. (London : J. Murray.) 7s. 6d. 

 net. 



Geschichte der deutschen Naturphilosophie. By 

 Dr. C. Siegel. Pp. xv + 390. (Leipzig: Akademische 

 Verlagsgesellschaft m.b.H.) 10 marks. 



A Eoundation Course in Chemistry for Students of 

 Agriculture and Technology. By J. W. Dodgson and 

 J. A. Murray. Pp. x + 244. (London: Longmans 

 and Co.) 3.?. 6d. net. 



An Introduction to Metaphysics. By Prof. H. Berg- 

 son. Authorised translation by T. E. Hulme. Pp. 

 vi + 79. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 2s. net. 



The Development of Mathematics in China and 

 Japan. By Y. Mikami. Pp. x + 347. (Leipzig: 

 B. G. Teubner; London: Williams and Norgate.) 

 18 marks. 



The Elements of Heating and Ventilation. By 

 Prof. A. M. Greene, jun. Pp. vi + 324. (New York: 

 J. Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, 

 Ltd.) 10s. 6d. net. 



Vertebrate Embryology. By Dr. J. W. Jenkinson. 

 Pp. 267. (Oxford : Clarendon Press.) 12s. 6d. net. 



Development and Purpose : an Essay towards a 

 Philosophy of Evolution. By Prof. L. T. Hobhouse. 

 Pp. xxix + 383. (London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 

 10s. net. 



Aristarchus of Samos. The Ancient Copernicus. A 

 History of Greek Astronomy to Aristarchus, together 

 with Aristarchus's Treatise on the Sizes and Distances 

 of the Sun and Moon. A New Greek Text, with 

 Translation and Notes. By Sir T. Heath. Pp. viii + 

 425. (Oxford : Clarendon Press.) 18s. net. 



Materialien fur eine wissenschaftliche Biographie 

 von Gauss. By F. Klien and M. Brendel. Heft 2/3. 

 Pp. 143. (Leipzig : B. G. Teubner.) 4.40 marks. 



Report of the Thirteenth Meeting of the Austra- 

 lasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 held at Sydney, 1911. Pp xciii4-7664-48 plates. 

 (Sydney.) 



Chloride of Lime in Sanitation. By A. H. Hooker. 

 Pp. v-l-231. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons; Lon- 

 don : Chapman and Hall, Ltd.) 



The Trades School in the Transvaal. By W. J. 

 Home. Pp. viii + 96. (Johannesburg: Argus Print- 

 ing and Publishing Co., Ltd.) 



LInion of South Africa. Department of Agricul- 

 ture. Report with Appendices for the period May 



