40 
NATURE 
[Marcu 14, 1912 
Tue September (1911) number of The Museum 
Journal, issued by the University of Pennsylvania, is 
largely devoted to a description of the Polynesian 
department of the splendid collection made by Mr. 
E. W. Clark. This includes remarkable exhibits of 
finely carved ceremonial axes from Mangaia, clubs 
from Marquesas and Samoa, paddles from the 
Austral Islands, and a magnificent series of state 
clubs from Tonga, which exhibit in the most perfect 
way the artistic capacity of the Polynesian races. 
In a paper entitled ‘‘ The Distribution of Early 
Bronze Settlements in Britain,’’? read by Mr. O. G. S. 
Crawford before the Royal Geographical Society on 
February 14, an attempt is made to determine the 
geographical and racial elements in the type of 
culture represented by the class of pottery designated 
“beakers ’’ by Mr. Abercromby, and one of the 
earliest forms of metal implements known, the flat 
celts or axes of copper or bronze. The British areas 
in which these articles are found together fall into 
several groups :—first, the east coast of North Britain 
extending from Cromarty Firth to the River Tees; 
second, the Yorkshire Wolds south of the Vale of 
Pickering and east of the Vale of York; third, the 
Peak District of Derbyshire; fourth, the Fen coun- 
try between Stoke Ferry and Newmarket; fifth, 
between the Thames at Oxford and the challx hills 
of South Dorset. It is pointed out that the incidence 
of the discoveries of these articles in juxtaposition is 
connected with the movement of the short-headed 
groups of peoples from various parts of Europe and 
the northern Mediterranean areas. 
Tue March issue of Pearson’s Magazine contains 
an article by Mr. C. G. Crosley on the problem of the 
feeble-minded. More than 150,000 feeble-minded 
persons form part of the present population of this 
country. The majority of them, says Mr. Crosley, 
drift continually in and out of our workhouses and 
prisons, unable to support themselves or to lead a 
decent life; worst of all, they are free, by marrying 
and having children, to pass on the taint of de- 
generacy to the next generation. Of the 150,000 
feeble-minded, nearly 70,000 are urgently in need at 
the moment of special provision for their care and 
control. Feeble-minded people are wonderfully 
prolific. The average birth-rate per marriage among 
the feeble-minded is seven, as against the four of 
normal persons. It is urged by Mr. Crosley that an 
essential preliminary to reform is that we should 
realise that feeble-mindedness is incurable. The 
State, he says, must have powers to care for and 
control, for so long a time as is thought expedient, 
all feeble-minded persons not properly provided for 
who are a danger to themselves or to society. 
Accommodation must be provided, in the shape of 
colonies, which could be cheaply built and would be 
practically self-supporting, where the inmates could 
be happily and usefully employed in agricultural or 
industrial work. 
Dr. CRESSWELL SHEARER contributes a remarkable 
memoir to The Quarterly Journal of Microscopical 
Science (February) on the problem of sex determina- 
tion in Dinophilus gyrociliatus. This minute annelid 
NO. 2211, VOL. 89] 
worm lays its eggs in capsules, several together. 
Some of the eggs in each capsule develop into males 
and others into females, and the young females are 
actually fertilised by the males before they leave the 
egg-capsule, and while they are still in the larval con- 
dition. Their ova are, however, not yet formed, and 
the spermatozoa actually conjugate with the so-called 
oogonia. Henceforth the oogonium has a double 
nucleus, half derived from the male and half from 
the female parent. During subsequent divisions of 
the oogonium each half of the nucleus divides in- 
dependently. Dr. Shearer calls the two halves ‘‘ male 
and female pronuclei,’’? but they are clearly not male 
and female pronuclei in the ordinary sense. The 
greater part of the process of oogenesis, then, appears 
to take place after the nucleus of the spermatozoon 
has entered the oogonium and the sperm nucleus con- 
tinues dividing with the nucleus of the oogonium. 
Towards the close of oogenesis the final products of 
the division of the so-called pronuclei appear to con- 
jugate. In some cases, however, division takes place 
in such a way that one of the daughter cells contains 
no representative of the male ‘‘ pronucleus,’’ and thus 
two kinds of mature eggs arise, those which contain 
chromatin substance derived from both male and 
female parents, and those which contain chromatin 
substance from the female parent only. The former 
are believed to give rise to female and the latter to 
male individuals. 
Tue recently published report of the advisory com- 
mittee for the Tropical Diseases Research Fund for 
1g11t (Cd. 6024) testifies by its bulk to the numerous 
investigations on tropical sanitation and the etiology 
of disease that are being carried on throughout the 
Empire, since it is nearly double the size of the re- 
port for the previous year. The actual report of the 
committee occupies three pages; against an income 
of 33451., the committee has incurred an expenditure 
of 37951. 6s. 8d., and attention is directed to the 
urgent need of further sums being placed at its dis- 
posal. The remainder of the volume consists of 
appendices containing reports on anti-malarial 
measures in the colonies and protectorates, and on 
the work done in the laboratories or schools of 
tropical medicine in this country and in the colonies. 
Many of these reports contain detailed accounts of 
researches as yet unpublished; for example, the 
account given on pp. 71-76 of the investigations of 
Prof. Minchin and Dr. J. D. Thomson on the trans- 
mission of the rat-trypanosome by the rat-flea and 
the development of the parasite in the insect host. 
Many interesting and novel observations are con- 
tained also in the reports of Dr. Castellani for 
Ceylon, of the bacteriologist for British East Africa, 
and especially in the three reports of Dr. L. Nicholls 
for St. Lucia, which are very full and are accom- 
panied by numerous illustrations. It is to be hoped 
that these investigations are not destined to remain 
buried in a Blue-book. 
Tue biology of the delta and the inundation-area of 
the Danube, with a short notice of the fisheries, 
formed the subject of an address by Dr. G. Antipa, 
director of the Bucharest Museum, delivered at the 
