458 



NATURE 



[July 3, 1913 



tor)' organs and drop off bodily when the perfect 

 branchial respiration is established. Miss Jane I. 

 Robertson, from the same school, contributes a useful 

 memoir on the development of the heart and vascular 

 system of Lepidosiren paradoxa, which will be wel- 

 comed by comparative anatomists. The University 

 of London is also to the fore in embryological re- 

 search, as witnessed by a memoir on the reproductive 

 cycle in the marsupial Dasyurus viverrinus, by Prof. 

 J. P. Hill and Dr. C. H. O'Donoghue. 



The variations in the common fresh-water nerite 

 (Neritina fluviatilis), which are illustrated by a 

 coloured plate, form the subject of a paper by Dr. R. 

 Hilbert in the 34 Bericht Westpreuss. Bot.-Zool. 

 Vereins. These variations, which are very marked, 

 are associated not only with locality, but also with 

 environment, which is likewise extremely variable; 

 some of these molluscs living in water with strong 

 springs, some in small, slow brooks, others in rapid 

 streams or large rivers, and yet others in calcareous, 

 brackish, and even thermal waters. These different 

 stations and physical conditions constitute, in the 

 author's opinion, the starting points of the numerous 

 variations in form and colour so characteristic of the 

 species. 



After a considerable, but unavoidable, delay, the 

 concluding portion of the late Mr. J. E. Robson's 

 "Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Northumberland 

 and Durham " has been published in the Natural 

 History Transactions of Northumberland, Durham, 

 and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, vol. xv., part 2, this issue 

 forming the completion of the old series. In an 

 introduction to the minute moths of the group 

 Tineina, which forms the subject of this part of the 

 work, the author remarks that two or three species 

 of that group which occur in the area under considera- 

 tion are unknown elsewhere in the British Isles. 

 " One insect, Acrolepia vetuletella, has not been re- 

 corded elsewhere than in the county of Durham, 

 though I believe a solitary example was taken . . . 

 at Richmond, in Yorkshire. Another, Lithocolletis 

 insignitella, . . . has not been taken in England 

 except between Hartlepool and Castle Eden, where it 

 occurs in enormous numbers." 



The Bulletin International of the Academy 

 of Sciences of Bohemia (Ceska Akademie Cfsare 

 Frantiska Josefa) for 1912 brings the pro- 

 gress of scientific work in Bohemia before a 

 wide circle that must remain ignorant of the 

 national language. The papers in this volume are 

 in one case in French, and in all other cases in Ger- 

 man, and the majority deal with mathematical or 

 geological inquiries. B. Nemec continues his studies 

 on fungi, and L. Pracka provides two papers on 

 variable stars. V. Rosicky has made a complete 

 examination of seventeen crystals of miargyrite 

 (Ag,S.Sb,S,), resulting in the measurement of twenty- 

 three new forms from the Bohemian specimens alone. 

 F. Slavfk directs attention to the formation of aragon- 

 ite at ordinary temperatures in mine-waters at 

 Pribram. B. Jezek describes a new rhombic thallium 

 mineral, orbaite, from Macedonia, based on the acid 

 NO. 2279. VOL. 91] 



HAs,S 5 , with the composition TlAs.SbS s . A. Hofmann 

 and F. Slavik report on gold and on telluride ores in 

 quartz-veins near the Bavarian border, where mining 

 was carried on so far back as the thirteenth century. 

 R. Sokol has studied the terraces of the Elbe valley, 

 and J. Woldfich goes beyond Bohemia to the Car- 

 pathians above Dobschau, where, in examining moun- 

 tain structure, he has found interesting traces of a 

 flora that is probably of Devonian age. 



Vol. xlvii. of the Nouveaux Mhnoires de la Sociitd 

 Helveiique des Sciences Naturelles is occupied by two 

 important papers. E. Ganz writes on the strati- 

 graphv of the Middle Cretaceous of the northern Alps 

 of Switzerland, beginning with the " Schrattenkalk " 

 (Barremian), and ending - with the Cenomanian 

 " Seewerkalk." Many geologists will remember the 

 fine cliff-sections of these series in the Santis area, 

 and the contrast between the scenery presented by 

 them and that on the margin of our Surrey Downs. 

 On p. 140 the author reminds us of the sandy character 

 of the lower Albian and of the clays of the upper 

 Albian in both the Alpine foothills and the south of 

 England. He adopts " Gault " as a stratigraphical 

 and not a lithological term, embracing the Albian 

 and the Gargasian series when these cannot be 

 divided on a map. Since the latter includes the zones 

 of the English Lower Greensand down to the base 

 of the Sandgate Beds, and also, at the top, the 

 Schloenbachia rostrata beds of the Upper Greensand, 

 this "Gault" is closely synonymous with the service- 

 able " Selbornian " of Jukes-Browne, and with 

 "Albian" as used by certain authors. The second 

 memoir is a morphological study by C. Bartschi of 

 "Das westschweizerische Mittelland," the lowland 

 stretching from the Lake of Geneva to that of Con- 

 stance. Here the great extension of the Rhone 

 glacier has left abundant traces. The remarks on 

 drumlins and kames will especially interest British 

 readers. 



The meteorological chart of the Indian Ocean for 

 July, issued by the Meteorological Office, contains 

 useful notes on the cyclonic storms of that region. 

 It is pointed out that in this month the south-west 

 monsoon dominates the meteorological conditions over 

 the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea; intelli- 

 gence received from the Indian Meteorological De- 

 partment showed that towards the end of May the 

 prevailing weather conditions in those districts were 

 quieter than usual for the time of year. The tracks 

 laid down on the chart show that the storm centres 

 move to the westward or north-westward across the 

 north of the Bay of Bengal. In the Arabian Sea the 

 monsoon at times attains a force of eight or nine of 

 Beaufort's scale, or from thirty to forty-four miles an 

 hour, but such cyclonic disturbances are generally of 

 little importance. Cyclonic storms are said to be 

 practically non-existent in July in the South Indian 

 Ocean; details of their behaviour in that part during 

 the cyclonic season, November to May (Nature, 

 October 31, 1912), are also referred to in the chart 

 now under report. 



In the issue of The Manila Times for May 20 last, 

 which has been sent to us, is published the report of 



