January 30, 191 3] 



NATURE 



599 



Urban, two colours only being used, and the film 

 passing at a double rate, so that the alternating 

 coloured pictures blended as perfectly in the eye as 

 in the non-coloured projection. Such films have been 

 shown for a considerable time at the Scala Theatre 

 and elsewhere, and are well known. Inventors have 

 continued to be very active in this direction, and a 

 demonstration of " chronochrome " films was recently 

 given at the Coliseum, London. These films are in 

 three colours instead of two, as theory indicates to be 

 necessary. The triple pictures are produced by taking 

 the red, green, and blue-violet constituents simul- 

 taneously in a single camera, and they are projected 

 on the screen in a similar way, where they are super- 

 posed to form the coloured picture. There is no need 

 to enlarge upon the advantage of three colours as 

 compared with two, and if the mechanical difficulties 

 that must have arisen have been fully overcome, as 

 they appear to have been, this process must prove to 

 be a notable advance in colour projection. It would 

 seem, however, that the two-colour method referred 

 to may continue to hold its own because of its greater 

 simplicity. 



In vol. xliv. of the Transactions of the New Zealand 

 Institute, Prof. J. Macmillan Brown criticises the theory 

 of Polynesian migrations advanced by the late Prof. 

 Finck in the Transactions of the Royal Scientific 

 .Society of Gottingen for 1909. Prof. Finck's theory 

 was largelv based on philological considerations, and 

 postulated a movement from the southern Solomon 

 Islands eastward to the northern fringe of Polynesia. 

 To this Prof. Macmillan Brown objects that, while 

 there is a striking similarity between the languages 

 of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Malaysia, there is a 

 phonological gulf between the Polynesian dialects, on 

 one hand, and the Malaysian, and, still more, the 

 Melanesian languages, on the other. The same difficulty 

 arises from a consideration of physical characteristics 

 and culture. " We get," he objects, " into the region 

 of the miraculous when we start a patriarchal, tribal, 

 genealogy-loving, chiefly Caucasian people from a 

 matriarchal, kin-divisioned, short-memoried Negrito 

 island ; and still nearer the miraculous when we start 

 off, for nearly ten thousand miles of open oceanic 

 wandering, a canoe expedition right in the teeth of 

 the only constant winds, the trades that blow eight 

 or nine months of the year, from an island that had 

 only shallow shells of canoes, unfit for crossing any- 

 thing but fairly narrow straits in calm weather or a 

 favourable wind." These criticisms must be taken 

 into serious account in any future attempt to settle 

 the tangled problems of Polynesian wanderings. 



.\ CONSIDERABLE addition to the Indian fresh-water 

 fish fauna is made by Mr. B. L. Chandhuri in vol. 

 vii., part 5, of Records of the Indian Museum. The 

 new species, which are illustrated in four plates, are 

 all referable to previously known generic groups. 



In T}xe American Naturalist for January Mr. E. L. 

 Michael discusses the bearing of the Chsetognatha 

 (Sagitta) of the San Diego region on "Jordon's law," 

 namely that, in the case of land animals, the nearest 

 relative of any given species is to be found in a 

 NO. 2257, VOL. 90] 



neighbouring district, separated by some kind of 

 barrier. In the case of the pelagic Chaetognatha this 

 law is only partially true when tested by vertical dis- 

 tribution, allied species being isolated, but inhabiting 

 situations remote from one another. 



In the January number of The Museums Journal 

 the Rev. Henry Browne points out (in a paper read 

 before the Dublin Museums Conference of 1912) how 

 museums mav cooperate in placing the study of the 

 classics on a more modern and satisfactory basis. 

 This, it is suggested, may be accomplished by ex- 

 hibits illustrative of the private and public life, art, 

 &c., of the ancient Greeks and Romans, thereby com- 

 bining education by means of tangible object with 

 education by literature. Those who are of opinion 

 that no Englishman can know his own language 

 properly without a knowledge of the classics will 

 welcome the suggestion. The natural history museum 

 of St. Andrews University forms the subject of an 

 article in the same issue by Prof. Mcintosh. 



So long ago as 1887 the late Prof. Marsh proposed 

 the name Eohatrachus agilis for remains of a sup- 

 posed frog or toad from the Como Jurassic ol 

 Wyoming. The two type-specimens were, however, 

 never properly described or figured, and the determina- 

 tion has consequently been ignored. An examination 

 by Dr. R. L. Moodie (Aifier. Journ. Sci., vol. xxxiv., 

 p. 286, 1912) of these remains indicates that Marsh's 

 diagnosis was perfectly correct, and that they really 

 represent a tailless batrachian, and that, too, of a 

 modern type. Indeed, it is suggested not only that 

 it may belong to the family Bufonidse, but possibly 

 even to the existing genus Bufo. In stating that the 

 American Jurassic toad is the only known Mesozoic 

 tailless batrachian, the author appears to have over- 

 looked the description in 1902 bv Mr. L. M. VidaJ 

 {Mem. R. Ac. Cienc. Barcelona, ser. 3, vol. iv., 

 (p. 203) of remains of a frog from reputed Kimerid- 

 gian strata of Montsech, N.E. Spain, referred to 

 the Oligocene and Miocene genus Palaobatrachus, 

 under the name of P. gaudryi. 



The classification of the various forms of cultivated 

 rice is a task that has been attempted by several 

 botanical and agricultural writers, with varying de- 

 grees of success. An elaborate system of classification 

 is set forth by S. Kikkawa in vol. iii.. No. 2, of the 

 Journal of the College of Agriculture, Tokyo, in a 

 memoir of more than a hundred pages, largely occu- 

 pied by closely packed columns of measurements, and 

 representing a vast amount of labour. In framing his 

 classification, the author lays down the sound prin- 

 ciple that in dealing with cultivated plants it is neces- 

 sary to take into account not only the relatively con- 

 stant morphological characters, but also those char- 

 acters which, though not very constant and often 

 fluctuating considerably, may yet be of great import- 

 ance for agricultural purposes. The memoir is accom- 

 panied by four plates of photographic illustrations. 



Prof. C. J. Chamberlain has contributed to The 

 Popular Science Monthly (November, 1912), an ex- 

 tremely interesting account of his recent round-the- 

 world botanical excursion under the auspices of the 



