76 



NA TURE 



[November i8, 1909 



'l>y milk and its products. A simple account is given of 

 its properties and of the effects of bacteria ; a number of 

 milk products are described, and comparison is instituted 

 'between these and other nutrients. It is further shown 

 that milk is quite as economical as other animal foods, 

 but dearer than most vegetable products ; as a source of 

 protein it is especially economical. 



We have received from the Michigan State Agricultural 

 College Experiment Station a bulletin describing a local 

 ■cattle disease known as the Grand Traverse or Lake 

 Shore disease. At the outset the head is carried low vi'ith 

 •drooping ears, the coat stares, and the appetite falls off. 

 The animals drink less and less as the disease advances, 

 ■until finally they refuse to drink at all. As the appetite 

 fails it becomes depraved, and such materials as bones, 

 wood, leather, rope, or bark are eaten. The animals 

 'become extreriiely emaciated. The seat of the disease 

 appears to be in the third stomach, where extensive lesions 

 are often found. The cause of the disease is obscure, but 

 some evidence was obtained that showed it lay in the 

 methods of feeding. E.xperiments to test this view are in 

 progress. 



Among some miscellaneous publications to hand from 

 the United States Department of .Agriculture is one on the 

 method of winter fumigation for the white fly infesting 

 •citrus trees. The tree is covered with a sufficiently large 

 tent in which hydrocyanic acid is being generated ; by 

 careful attention to certain details the f5y can, it is said, 

 be exterminated at a small cost. A Farmers' Bulletin 

 gives a short summary of the results obtained at some of 

 the agricultural e.xperiment stations. No fewer than ten 

 different subjects are dealt with, and references are given 

 to the original sources, from which farmers who wish to 

 tlo so can readily obtain fuller information. Anothei* 

 "bulletin describes the card-index sets now being made up 

 and sold, in which are catalogued the publications of the 

 Departments of .■\griculture, the Geological Survey, and 

 the State Surveys. Such an index is indispensable in the 

 United States, where an enormous number of official 

 publications are issued every year. 



The Geographical Journal for November contains a short 

 •report, by Sir Ernest Shackleton, on some results of the 

 British -Antarctic Expedition of 1907-9. The paper gives 

 a summary of the routes of the chief expeditions from 

 the headquarters at Cape Royds, and a brief narrative of 

 th^' most important events which occurred during each. 

 It is .mnounced that most of the volumes containing the 

 •scientific records and results of the expedition will prob- 

 ably be issued within the next twelve or eighteen months. 

 The contribution is accompanied by three maps. 



Dr. Warren du Pr^ Smith, chief of the Division of 

 "Mines, Bureau of Science, Manila, contributes a paper 

 to the November number of the Geographical Journal on 

 geographical work in the Philippines. The work under 

 the American regime is carried on primarily by the United 

 States Coast and Geodetic Survey, which is responsible 

 for the most accurate surveys, but mapping is also done 

 by the United States Army, the Bureau of Constabulary, 

 the Bureau of Lands (cadastral surveys), and the Division 

 of Mines. The land area of the Philippines is approxi- 

 mately 115,000 square miles, and of this about 14,000 

 square miles had been covered by triangulation, and the 

 •topography of 1500 square miles mapped up to June 30, 

 1908. 



The Revue des Idies for October contains an article, by 

 .Prof. Jacques Loeb, of California, entitled " Les Tropismes 

 NO. 2090, VOL. 82] 



et la Psychologie. " The writer refuses to accept the 

 common view that a physical interpretation, however com- 

 plete, of a psychical phenomenon can never afford an 

 explanation of its ps3'chical character. He maintains that 

 the " will " of an animal is merely a term useful to 

 cloak our ignorance of the forces determining its move- 

 mcnts, and that the scientific solution of the problem of 

 ^•olition consists solel)' in discovering those forces and the 

 laws according to which they act. He adduces evidence 

 in favour of attributing to positive or negative helio- 

 tropism the reactions of aphides, bees, ants, &c. , to light. 

 He combats the experimental work of Jennings and others 

 who claim to have established the inadequacy of mechanical 

 processes to account for the behaviour of even the lowest 

 organisms. 



Mr. G. L. Gomme contributes to the Sociological Review 

 for October an important paper treating of sociology as 

 the basis of inquiry into primitive culture. He lays down 

 as the fundamental proposition of anthropological research 

 " that inquiry into the culture and condition of primitive 

 man as he is represented by modern savages, in the 

 remains of decayed civilisations, or in the ancient records 

 of the beginnings of modern civilisations, can only be 

 conducted by considering each item of culture which is 

 the subject of inquiry in association with all the other 

 items of culture in the same social group." The original 

 social unit consists of the tribal rulers and the tribal 

 village, representing the one a conquering, the other a 

 conquered, race. Slavery in Indo-European society means, 

 not personal servitude, but the status of a class springing 

 from the conquered people. Indo-European tribalism is 

 not only a polity, but a religion, and it was indestructible. 

 The tribe is founded, not alone on blood kinship, but also 

 on common worship. He perhaps goes too far in extend- 

 ing Robertson Smith's theory of sacramental kinship with 

 the deity to non-Semitic communities ; but, with this 

 reservation, his study of early tribal origins is interesting 

 and suggestive. 



PEon.E who are seriously interested in aerial navigation 

 will regret that the weekly Ila, issued in connection with 

 the Frankfurt Exhibition, terminated on October 16. The 

 seventeen issues contain many important and well- 

 written articles dealing with various aspects of aero- 

 technics. Among the subjects treated are aerial motors, by 

 E. Rumpler ; materials and machinery, by August Bausch- 

 licher ; measurements of air resistance at Lindenberg, by 

 Dr. F. Bendemann ; aerial electricity, by O. Voigt ; wind 

 statistics, by W. Peppier ; bird flight, by F. W. Lanchester 

 (translated by H. Hochschild) ; the special steel industry, 

 by W. Eilender ; meteorological statistics for airships, by 

 W. Peppier ; balloon photography, by Captain Scheimpflug 

 (abstract) ; aerodynamical researches, by Prof. Ahlborn 

 (some of whose photographs of stream lines closely resemble 

 those recently obtjiined by W. E. Williams in this country) ; 

 besides unsigned articles on vehicles for transport of 

 hydrogen, lamps for hangars, the Parseval balloon, 

 and technical notes. The seventeen numbers of Ila will 

 preserve their place in the literat-ure of aerotechnics long 

 after the great majority of journals of mushroom growth 

 have passed into oblivion. 



Slvextv out of the hundred and eighty pages of the 

 .\ugust number of the Proceedings of the American Philo- 

 sophical Society of Philadelphia are devoted to papers 

 dealing with seismological subjects, some of which have 

 been mentioned already (June 10, vol. Ixxx., p. 444). 

 The first, on the causes and effects of earthquakes, by Mr. 

 E. O. Hovey, treats the subject in a popular manner, and 



