626 



NATURE 



[February 6, 19 13 



ill the north of Scotland and in the north-west of 

 England. In the east of Scotland and in the midland 

 counties the deficiency is o-6 hour per day. 



Proi". H. E. Jordan, in a paper entitled "Studies in 

 Human Heredity " (University of Virginia Publica- 

 tions, Scientific series, i., 12, 1912) gives a number 

 of pedigrees showing hereditary transmission of 

 human abnormalities and diseases. The pedigrees are 

 mostly small, and are suggestive rather than final. 

 The greater number deal with left-handedness, a con- 

 dition which usually appears to be recessive, although 

 some pedigrees suggest that it may behave as a 

 dominant. Of the several other abnormal conditions 

 dealt with, including cancer, hermaphroditism, 

 nephritis, and others, perhaps the most important is 

 the tendency to tuberculosis, which the author dis- 

 cusses more fully in the Journal of the .'Vmerican 

 Medical Association, li.x., 1912, p. 1518. He gives 

 pedigrees showing hereditary transmission through 

 several generations, and refers to previous evidence of 

 the importance of heredity in this disease. He 

 appeals especially to the medical profession for the 

 careful collection of further data, and points out the 

 danger from the marriage of consumptives if, as he 

 believes, inheritance plays a predominant part in pre- 

 disposing to the disease. 



The paper on Morocco recently read before the 

 Royal Geographical Society by Mr. A. G. Ogilvie 

 afforded interesting examples of the application of 

 theories of geographical control, in this way — that as 

 Morocco is a country about which there exists rela- 

 tively slight knowledge of geographical detail, it is 

 necessary to add deduction to description in order to 

 arrive at a fair general account. For example, rain- 

 fall observations are of the scantiest, but the author 

 put forward a map of the probable distribution of 

 rainfall based partly on the distribution of types of 

 vegetation, as well as on a consideration of the relief 

 of the land and the prevalent winds. From this he 

 was able to pass on to a discussion of those areas 

 which are most suitable for agriculture — not merely 

 those which are cultivated, but also those which might 

 be. He added Morocco to the list of potential granaries 

 of the world, and mentioned the possibility of apply- 

 ing the principles of dry-farming in the interior 

 steppes of the Meseta. Reference was also made to 

 the alluvial fans at the foothills of the Atlas, highly 

 fertile, and even now freely irrigated by the Berber 

 inhabitants, through covered channels which guard 

 against evaporation. These are only a few examples 

 of a number of points of interest in the paper. 



In the January number of The Zoologist Mr. E. A. 

 Smith states that Lord Denbigh has presented to 

 the British Museum (Natural History) the collection 

 of natural history objects made by Thomas Pennant, 

 the author of "British Zoology," which has remained 

 in a more or less undisturbed condition since the 

 death of the original owner at Douning Hall, Holy- 

 well, Flintshire, on December 16, 1798. The collec- 

 tion chiefly consists of stuffed birds, shells, fossils, 

 and minerals, but also includes a few mammals, fishes, 

 NO. 2258, VOL. 90] 



and crustaceans. Among the recent shells fifteen types 

 and sixty-one specimens figured in the "British 

 Zoology" have been identified. 



.\ccORDiNG to the report for 1911-12, the Natural 

 History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and 

 Newcastle has taken steps to increase the educational 

 use of its museum by an arrangement with the New- 

 castle Education Committee. As a result of this cer- 

 tain classes of scholars have been admitted to receive 

 a course of lectures, chiefly on the British vertebrate 

 fauna. During the year the society acquired the 

 carcase of a rorqual {Balaenoptera horealis) measur- 

 ing 45 ft. in length, of which the skeleton is being 

 prepared for exhibition. The weight of the flesh 

 removed is stated to have been 15 tons, and that of the 

 skull half a ton ; it would be interesting to know 

 whether tViis is an exact statement or merely a rough 

 estimate. 



The investigations of the black cotton soils of India 

 have been carried a stage further by Messrs. Harrison 

 and Sivan in the Memoirs of the Agricultural Re- 

 search Institute, Pusa (No. 5). Previous investigators 

 had shown that in certain areas titaniferous magnetite 

 occurred to the extent of several per cent., and they 

 therefore attributed the black colour to this substance. 

 The present authors show that in other parts of India 

 similar soils occur, but do not contain titaniferous 

 magnetite, and they adduce reasons for supposing 

 that in these cases the colour is associated with the 

 compound particles of relatively small dimensions. 

 They consider that the black material is a colloidal 

 silicate of iron and aluminium, containing also organic 

 matter. 



Mr. R. C. McLean has recently described (New 

 Phytologist, 1912, No. S) two fossil prothalli from the 

 Lower Coal Measures, one belonging to the Pterido- 

 spermic seed, Lagenostonia Lomaxii, the other to 

 some member of the Lepidodendron family. There 

 are very few examples of fossil prothalli preserved 

 from the Palseozoic formations, and among the few 

 a good state of preservation is decidedly rare. In 

 the Lagenostoma prothallus, displaying in excellent 

 preservation a structure hitherto unrecorded for this 

 well-known plant, the arrangement of the tissue 

 resembles that found in the prothalli of recent Gymno- 

 sperms, and this strengthens the view that the latter 

 have arisen from an ancestral type characterised by 

 the possession of a pollen chamber. The second pro- 

 thallus, showing exquisite preservation, had developed 

 outside the spore after the latter had been sited, and it 

 remained attached to the spore-wall at its base, re- 

 sembling in general form the prothalli of modern 

 heterdsporous ferns like Salvinia. Assuming that this 

 specimen is referable to the Lepidodendroid genus 

 Bothrodendron, the prothallus of this genus was more 

 primitive than that of Lepidodendron, where the 

 archegonia developed inside the spore. 



To the first volume of the Fortschritte der Mincra- 

 logie, Krisiallographie und Petrographie, issued under 

 the auspices of the recently founded German Minera- 

 logical Society, Prof. Berwerth contributes a valuable 



