NATURE 



[April 3, 1913 



tion with those of domesticated cattle and goats. 

 '1'hal they were kept in a captive condition is indi- 

 cated by the circumstance that in each case they are 

 shown feeding out of a trough and haltered, and 

 by the prefix or the word ran, apparently indicat- 

 ing domestication, to their names. 



The January number of The Quarterly Journal of 

 Microscopical Science (vol. lviii., part 3) again bears 

 witness to the large amount of experimental inves- 

 tigation which is being carried on bv biologists. The 

 S and larva? of sea-urchins afford material for no 

 fewer than three papers by different writers. There is 

 an interesting paper by the late G. H. Grosvenor, 

 whose untimely death has inflicted a great loss upon 

 zoological science, and Geoffrey Smith, on the life- 

 cycle of the small fresh-water Crustacean, Moina 

 reclirostris. These authors point out that, according 

 to Weismann, sexual forms should be produced in 

 every parthenogenetic generation independently of 

 external conditions, but they actually find that by 

 isolating the parthenogenetic females at birth until 

 the production of the brood at a temperature of 25 

 to 30 C, the production of sexual forms is entirely 

 suppressed. They conclude that the influence of 

 isolation and of a high temperature on the suppression 

 of the sexual forms may be ascribed either to the 

 comparative absence of excretory matter or else to 

 highly favourable nutritive conditions. Another 

 memoir of special interest to students of animal 

 bionomics is on stolon formation in the remarkable 

 polychaete worm, Trypanosyllis, bv F. A. Potts, which 

 forms an important contribution to our knowledge 

 of the very curious processes of asexual multiplication 

 by budding that take place in this group. We must, 

 however, enter a protest against the use of the term 

 " stolon " for the reproductive individuals which arise 

 by budding in such cases. 



Although much work has been done in recent years 

 on the bacteriological conditions in soils in temperate 

 zones, there has been hitherto a scarcity of data relat- 

 ing to soils in tropical and subtropical countries. On 

 this account a report of studies on Indian soils, by 

 Mr. ('. M. Hutchinson (Memoirs of the Department 

 of Agriculture in India, Bacteriological Series, vol. i., 

 No. 1), forms a welcome addition to the subject. In- 

 vestigations have been undertaken with the view of 

 testing the methods already in general use for the pur- 

 pose of ascertaining their value under Indian condi- 

 tions. The phenomena associated with the partial 

 sterilisation of the soil, the occurrence of bacterio- 

 toxins, and the rapidity of biochemical changes, such 

 as ammonification, nitrification, and nitrogen fixation, 

 have been subjected to a critical study. The view that 

 the decomposition of cellulose is due chiefly to the 

 activities of anaerobic organisms is perhaps given too 

 much prominence in the discussion of the utilisation of 

 organic residues. 



Mr. J. van Baren, of the Landwirtschaftliche Hoch- 

 schule in Wageningen, Holland, publishes in the 

 Compte rendu of the eleventh International Geo- 

 logical Congress a paper on red stony loam as a 

 product of interglacial weathering. He notes the 

 NO. 2266, VOL. 91] 



occurrence of this material as isolated sheets in 

 eastern Holland, overlain by Boulder Clay or Boulder 

 Sand, and points out that the fragments of iron- 

 bearing silicates in the red loam show, by their rusted 

 condition, signs of atmospheric weathering. The 

 small pebbles are also strikingly attacked, in dis- 

 tinction from those obtained from the sandv residue 

 of the overlying Boulder Clay. The author urges 

 that the Red Boulder Loam is decidedly older than 

 the second series of glacial deposits above it, and 

 that its weathered condition indicates exposure during 

 an interglacial epoch. The analyses given do not 

 support his contention that the products of weather- 

 ing are lateritic. Comparisons are made with similar 

 materials in north Germany, north Italy, the east 

 coast of England, and the United States, and the 

 desirability of chemical investigations of these is 

 pointed out. In the discussion on the paper Mr. van 

 Jentsch urged that a red colour in such deposits 

 does not always imply a weathered condition. 



We have received a separate copy of the address 

 given by Prof. J. von Kowalski to the Swiss Natur- 

 forschenden Gesellschaft at the Altdorf meeting last 

 year. It deals with the relations between radiation 

 and energy, and, after giving an account of the 

 work of Wien and others, sketches the quanten theory 

 as advanced by Planck, and stated with great clear- 

 ness by Einstein in 1905. After showing how fertile 

 the theory has been in suggesting new lines of re- 

 search in both theory and experiment, the author 

 emphasises the fact that at the present time the 

 point of view provided by the theory is already known 

 to be too restricted. Having served the true function 

 of a theory — to indicate the line of advance — it must 

 soon be replaced by some more general conception 

 which will make clear to us those relations between 

 matter and energy of which the quanten theory has 

 given us a misty glimpse. 



Observations on the seiches of Japanese lakes were 

 begun in 190 1, on the suggestion of Prof. Nagaoka. 

 Four years later, the seiches of the nearly circular 

 lake Toya, in the island of Hokkaido, were found bv 

 Prof. Honda to have a period of 9-29 minutes. In 

 191 1, Mr. N. Mori found the period to be 45 minutes, 

 and suggested that the mean depth of the lake had 

 increased by about fifty metres during the interval 

 of seven years. Mr. K. Sano shows, however, that 

 the two periods may be the result of different modes 

 of vibration if account be taken of the existence of 

 the circular island in the middle of the lake (Journ. 

 Meteor. Soc. of Japan, January). He finds that the 

 period of the seiches would be 10-25 minutes if the 

 water oscillate with a straight nodal line through 

 the common centre of the lake and island; and 3-9 

 minutes if there were a circular nodal line midway 

 between the boundaries of the island and lake. 



A paper on measurement of the flow of the River 

 Derwent, Derbyshire, by Mr. E. Sandeman, read 

 before the Institution of Civil Engineers on April 1, 

 contains some interesting particulars. The flow of 

 the river has been measured since 1905, when a weir 

 was built by the Derwent Valley Water Board, to 



