226 



NA TURE 



[December 23, 1909 



According to the report for 1908-9, the committee of 

 • he Leicester Museum and Art Gallery has sanctioned large 

 and important additions to the buildings under its charge. 

 The additions include a new entrance-hall, an extension 

 of the main building, with the conversion of the greater 

 portion of the ground-floor into a central hall, the re- 

 placement of the first floor by a gallery, and the con- 

 struction of a new staircase. It is also proposed to erect 

 and equip suitable work-rooms, to build a new wing on 

 the west side of the present structure, and to devote the 

 room now containing invertebrates to art purposes. 



Circular No. 113 of the Entomological Bureau of the 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture is devoted to the chinch- 

 bug {fiXissus leucopterus) and its ravages. No other insect 

 indigenous to the western hemisphere has spread its 

 devastating hordes over a wider tract than has this species, 

 and were it not for the destruction of the larv:E by heavy 

 rains, and, in a less degree, the diminution in its numbers 

 by the attacks during the rainy season of a parasitic fungus, 

 •continuous corn-growing in many parts of the United 

 States would have long since become impracticable owing 

 to this insect. The present circular, after giving a detailed 

 and illustrated account of the insect in its various develop- 

 mental phases, summarises the history of its periods of 

 greatest increase and its gradual spread, concluding with 

 a description of the various methods which have been pro- 

 posed to check and control its increase. 



Nos. 1704 and 1705 of the Proceedings of the U.S. 

 National Museum are devoted to molluscs, the first of 

 these containing an account, by Mr. W. H. Dall, of a 

 collection of marine shells from Peru, with a summary of 

 the littoral marine moUusca of the Peruvian zoological 

 province, while in the second Mr. P. Bartsch describes 

 four new species of Philippine land-shells. In connection 

 with the Peruvian province, Mr. Dall directs special atten- 

 tion to the unusual prevalence of black, blackish, or lurid 

 colouring among the molluscs, this being particularly 

 noticeable in the phytophagous group. It has been 

 attempted to explain this phenomenon, which has long 

 been known, by the suggestion that it is correlated with 

 the presence of the vast beds of kelp so characteristic of 

 the Peruvian coast ; but it is pointed out that similar dark 

 beds of kelp on the Californian coast give shelter to some 

 of the most brilliant trochids and other molluscs, while 

 green sea-weeds occur abundantly on the rocks below low- 

 water mark on the coast of Peru. Evidently, therefore, 

 some other explanation is required. 



In a paper published in a recent number of the Journal 

 of Physiology (vol. xxxix.) Dr. H. M. Vernon suggests a 

 liypothesis of tissue respiration founded on ferment action. 

 Dalcin has shown that, in accordance with the well-known 

 Fenton reaction, hydrogen peroxide, in the presence of 

 ferrous sulphate as activator, is able to oxidise various 

 amino-acids and fatty acids completely to carbon dioxide 

 and water. Aldehydes are formed as intermediate pro- 

 ducts. Similarly in living tissues it is thought that intra- 

 molecular oxygen is taken up in the form of an organic 

 peroxide and is transferred by the help of an intracellular 

 peroxydase ferment to oxidisable substances. The presence 

 of aldehyde groupings in animal tissues is strongly sup- 

 ported by the fact that poisons such as hydrocyanic acid, 

 sodium fluoride and acid sodium sulphite, which are 

 known to be capable of forming loose combinations with 

 aldehydes, temporarily deprive the tissues of their respira- 

 tory power without necessarily doing them any permanent 

 injury. Other poisons, such as formic aldehyde, tempor- 

 arily prevent the tissues from forming carbon dioxide, 

 NO. 2095, VOL. 82] 



though not from absorbing oxygen. It is suggested that 

 they act by destroying peroxydase, so that the peroxide of 

 the tissues, in the absence of activator, can only effect 

 incomplete oxidations. 



The study of nuclear changes and qualities in the 

 mutants and hybrids of Oenothera offers a promising field 

 of investigation. Mr. R. R. Gates, who has already con- 

 tributed some papers on the subject, furnishes in the 

 Botanical Gazette (September) a further account of the 

 chromosomes in the hybrid O. lata X O. gigas. There are 

 normally twenty-one (rarely twenty) chromosomes in the 

 somatic cells as compared with fourteen in O. lata and 

 twenty-eight in O. gigas. At the reduction stage half 

 the germ-cells receive ten and half receive eleven chromo- 

 somes, but there are occasional irregularities, as when the 

 germ-cells receive nine and twelve respectively. The author 

 argues that this segregation is not a pairing and separation 

 of homologous chromosomes of maternal and paternal 

 origin, but merely a division into numerically equal groups. 



Algology has formed the subject of several papers by 

 Mr. F. S. Collins which have been published in Rhodora 

 and other American publications. In his latest contribu- 

 tion, that appears as vol. ii.. No. 3, of Tuft's College 

 Studies, he undertakes the ambitious task of compiling a 

 flora of the green algfe of North America. The bulk of 

 the species are marine algse collected on the shores of 

 the United States, but the author recognises that Green- 

 land, Canada, Mexico, and the West India islands fall 

 within his province, and includes records of fresh-water 

 algae so far as they exist. The work contains short 

 diagnoses of all the species, keys to the species, genera, 

 and families, and a figure for each genus, thus providing 

 a serviceable handbook for American algologists, and one 

 that is likely to attract workers to the subject. The 

 author distinguishes two main groups, the Heterokontse, 

 so-called because the motile cells have cilia of unequal 

 length, and the Chlorophyceas. The family of DesmidiaccEe 

 is omitted, because it is too extensive. 



We have received from Prof. Hergesell a preliminary 

 summary account of the participation of various countries 

 in the international kite and balloon ascents during the 

 quarter ended June last. In addition to many places in 

 Europe and the United States, ascents were made at 

 Samoa and by the Greenland Scientific Expedition. The 

 greatest altitude reached by registering balloons was 27,100 

 metres, at Munich on May 7. Heights of 20,000 metres 

 and above were attained by the ascents from Glossop 

 (Manchester), Hamburg, Strassburg, Uccle (Brussels), 

 and Ziirich. The meteorological results will be published 

 elsewhere. 



In addition to the elaborate monthly and seasonal 

 meteorological charts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans 

 issued by the U.S. Weather Bureau, to which we have 

 already directed attention, we have received a copy of a 

 handy " Marine Calendar," showing for each month the 

 average weather conditions of the North and South Pacific, 

 the storm and hurricane signal code, and the moon's 

 changes for 120th meridian time (besides the usual 

 almanac). Following the calendar are tables for the con- 

 version of time of one country to that of another to the 

 nearest second. The calendar will be found very con- 

 venient for the purposes intended, and will further 

 popularise the useful marine work of the Weather Bureau. 



An appendix to the report of the International Confer- 

 ence on Electrical Units and Standards of 1908 has just 

 been issued. It will be remembered that the specifications 

 of the ohm, ampere, and normal cell in the original re- 



