November ii, 1909] 



NA TURE 



43 



and single-hearted devotion to the prosecution of know- 

 ledge by forming a fund which should be of material 

 benefit to his family — a widow and two daughters. Prof. 

 Ganigee was widely known both in this country and 

 abroad — he had, indeed, a European reputation — and it 

 has seemed to those who have given their support to this 

 fund, which was initiated some months ago, that it might 

 be possible to augment still further the capital sum which 

 it is desired should be raised if a knowledge of the objects 

 of the fund was more widely spread, so that those who 

 may wish to help should be invited to subscribe. It is not 

 intended that any list of subscribers should be published. 

 Towards the end of this month there will be a meeting 

 of those who are in sympathy with the view that the raising 

 of such a fund for his family would be the best and 

 wisest appreciation of Prof. Gamgee's life-long devotion 

 to science. The date and place of this meeting will be 

 duly announced. Subscriptions may be sent to Prof. 

 Arthur Schuster, Victoria Park, Manchester ; Dr. A. D. 

 Waller, Physiological Laboratory, University of London, 

 S.W. ; or Dr. *G. A. Buckmaster, University College, 

 London, W.C. 



To the second half of the " Bergens Museum Aarbog " 

 for igog Mr. Haakon Schetelig contributes an article on 

 Norwegian antiquities received by the museum in 1908. 

 The specimens include a roughly chipped stone implement 

 from Vespestad ; a bench of pine-wood from Hammer 

 Church, Nordhordland ; a portion of an iron sword, with 

 silver mountings on the scabbard, from Sondhordland ; a 

 stone axe from Sogn ; a flint javelin-head from Hardanger ; 

 and a bronze brooch from Lofoten. 



In a paper published in vol. xxii., part i., of the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, Miss Morris 

 and Miss Raff direct attention to certain features in the 

 structure of the Australian lancelet, Assymeiron 

 hassanuni, which have either escaped previous notice or 

 have been inadequately described. The species in question 

 occurs locally in depths up to 20 fathoms along the coasts 

 of Victoria, and is commonly used in the laboratories of 

 the colony in place of the typical Amphioxus. In another 

 paper in the same issue Miss Buchanan commences a 

 detailed account of the anatomy of Australian earth- 

 worms, dealing in this instance with the blood-vascular 

 system, which is illustrated in the different species by 

 diagrams. 



In vol. xvii.. No. 6, of the Proceedings of the Roval 

 Physical Society of Edinburgh, Dr. Campbell Geddes 

 directs attention to the extraordinary individual variation 

 to be met with in the degree of development of the 

 muscular impressions, crests, or tubercles of the appendi- 

 cular skeleton of the human subject, and the inferences 

 to be drawn therefrom. In the author's opinion such 

 surface-details of the bones of the skeleton are only in- 

 din-ctly dependent on age, sex, and muscular activity, and 

 an- not, as Topinard believed, an index of the abso- 

 lute muscularity of the individual. On the contrary, 

 they depend directly upon, and therefore serve as an 

 index to, the type of nutrition which the somatic cells 

 of the individual enjoyed during life. 



The origin and flora of the salt-marshes, salt-ponds, 

 and fresh-water lakes of the northern coast of New Jersey 

 liave been studied by Mr. J. W. Harshberger, who gives 

 the results of his investigations in the August issue of the 

 Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia. 

 Such lakes and ponds are due to the advance of sand- 

 dunes across the outlets of streams arising some distance 

 inland. Most of the larger streams that have kept their 

 NO. 208g, VOL. 82] 



outlets open are bordered for some distance from the sea 

 with a characteristic salt-marsh vegetation. As the bars 

 encroached on the outlets of the streams the water became 

 brackish, and the salt-marsh plants gradually disappeared 

 with the decrease of saltness. Finally, near the heads 

 of several of the bays, as well as in some of the smaller 

 ponds, the water becomes more and more fresh, and the 

 salt-marsh plants are replaced by those accustomed to 

 grow in or near fresh-water streams. Similarly, salt-ponds 

 have become slowly changed into fresh-water lakes, with 

 a corresponding alteration of the vegetation. 



We have received the report on the progress and con- 

 dition of the U.S. National Museum for the year ending 

 June 30, 1908, in which detailed information is given as 

 to the work accomplished on the new building up to that 

 date, with illustrations of the complete structure. The 

 progress of the w-ork was considerably delayed owing to 

 the failure of contractors to deliver the full complement of 

 granite within a specified period. During the year under 

 review the ethnological section of the museum was very 

 largely augmented by collections illustrative of the natives 

 of Borneo and the Philippines, the cliff-dwellers of Arizona, 

 the Zuni Indians of New Mexico, and the Tahltau Indians 

 of British Columbia. Mammals and birds from Malaya, 

 the Philippines, and Costa Rica bulk largely among the 

 additions to the zoological section, and the collections of 

 fishes and invertebrates were largely augmented by the 

 final distribution of the specimens obtained during the 

 exploring cruise of the Albatross in the Pacific. 



The nematodes come in for a large share of attention 

 in the latest number of the Zeitschrift fCir wisscnschaftliche 

 Zoologie (Bd. 93, Heft iv.), in which Mr. E. Martini con- 

 tinues his studies on the subcuticula and lateral areas, and 

 Dr. Fr. Bi'lek deals with the fibrillar structures in the 

 muscle and intestinal cells of ascarids. Dr. Bflek's memoir, 

 with its beautiful illustrations, constitutes a noteworthy 

 addition to our knowledge of invertebrate cytology. 



Messrs. Sanders and Co., Shaftesbury Avenue, have 

 issued a very complete series of lantern-slides, 270 in all, 

 illustrating spiders and their habits, a number of which 

 we have had the opportunity of inspecting. The photo- 

 graphs were taken from nature by Mr. Richard Hancock, 

 and show great manipulative and artistic skill. The 

 series, of which a complete catalogue is also published, 

 should be of great use to popular lecturers. 



The Journal of Morphology for October (vol. xx., No. 3) 

 contains two important cytological papers. In his 

 " Observations on the Ookinesis in Cerebratulus lacteus," 

 Naohide Yatsu describes the phenomena of maturation and 

 fertilisation of the egg and its early cleavage stages. He 

 deals especially with the behaviour of the "centriole," or, 

 as English cytologists generally term it, the " centrosome," 

 the latter term being used by the present author to 

 designate the " centroplasm " which surrounds the 

 " centriole," in other words, what is often termed in this 

 country the " centrosphere." It is evident that the termin- 

 ology of cytologists is in a somewhat confused state. 

 Vatsu maintains the view that the middle piece of the 

 spermatozoon carries a centriole into the egg at fertilisa- 

 tion, and that this gives rise by division to the cleavage 

 centrioles. 



Another paper in the Journal of Morphology — " Com- 

 parative Studies in Crustacean Spermatogenesis " — by M. 

 Louise Nichols, besides the author's own observations, 

 contains a useful rcsumd of the work of previous writers 

 on the morphology of the crustacean spermatozoon. It 

 seems that, according to Koltzoff, the curious immobile 



