Ee 
May g, 1912] 
tion that in different areas there have been tectonic 
movements and phenomena attending differential 
elevation, depression, and denudation, which have 
contributed to destroy a consecutive altitudinal 
chronology. Palzolithic man being a nomad, he con- 
structed his implements according to hereditary 
custom, while discoveries of improved methods were 
not easily disseminated over the wide areas occupied 
by these wandering groups. In the course of the 
discussion he suggests a new series of terms to desig- 
nate various forms of implement. It is obvious 
that innovations such as these, unless accepted by a 
congress of anthropologists, are likely to lead to 
further confusion, and his proposal to assign the name 
“Prestwich” to one and ‘‘Evans” to another type, 
after two distinguished geologists and antiquaries, 
though based on the analogy of terms like ‘‘ohm,” 
“watt,” or ‘‘farad,” is scarcely likely to meet with 
general acceptance. 
To The Field of April 17 Mr. Lydekker contri- 
butes extracts from a letter from the British Resident 
in Nepal in regard to the so-called unicorn rams of 
that country, of which examples were exhibited some 
years ago in the London Zoological Gardens. Mr. 
Lydekker had previously suggested in the same 
journal that the fusion of the horns is due to arti- 
ficial manipulation of those of young lambs of 
the barwal breed; and this is fully confirmed by the 
inquiries instituted by the Prime Minister at the 
request of the Resident. The budding horns of young 
lambs are seared with hot irons, and treated with soot 
and oil, after which, instead of spreading outwards, 
they coalesce and grow backwards. 
In connection with the treaty between Great Britain, 
the United States, Russia, and Japan for the suppres- 
sion of pelagic sealing, Dr. F. A. Lucas contributes to 
the American Museum Journal for April an article 
on the Alaskan fur-seal. ‘‘ The fur-seal,’’ he observes, 
“would long ago have been swept out of existence but 
for the fact that the breeding-grounds are carefully 
guarded, and while the herd is but a tithe of its 
former size, it still comprises many thousands. If 
pelagic sealing can be brought to an end, the seal- 
herd will recuperate rapidly, even though the death- 
rate is high, and not more than half the seals born 
in any one season live to return the next. Whether 
or not this desirable end can be brought about remains 
to be seen, and some of us are not very hopeful.” 
Tue twenty-second annual report of the Missouri 
Botanical Garden contains two long papers on the 
genus Agave, by Dr. Trelease, who also contributes 
a shorter paper on two new Yuccas. The Agave 
memoirs are illustrated by no fewer than eighty fine 
photographic plates, numerous new species being de- 
scribed, chiefly from Lower California. A further in- 
stalment of Griffiths’s studies on the genus Opuntia is 
also included; this is illustrated by seventeen beau- 
tiful plates, representing ten new species. 
From two articles on Podophyllum emodi, in The 
Indian Forester (April, 1912) and the Forest Bulletin 
(No. 9), by Puran Singh, it would appear that the 
Indian species has strong claims on many grounds 
for inclusion in the new edition of the British Phar- 
NO. 2219, VOL. 89] 
NATURE 
249 
macopeeia, which is now being revised by a com- 
mittee of the Pharmaceutical Society. It ‘has been 
definitely established that the Indian species yields a 
considerably higher percentage of resin,- containing 
the active cathartic and purgative principle podo- 
phyllotoxin, than the American species (P. peltatum) 
which has hitherto been universally employed as the 
source of the drug podophyllin. 
No. 48 of the Scientific Memoirs of the Govern- 
ment of India, by Major D. McCay, details investi- 
gations into the jail dietaries of the United Provinces. 
It contains a mass of statistical and. analytical data 
on the subject which will be of the greatest value. 
The nutritive values of the diets at present in use, and 
the coefficients of protein and carbohydrate absorption 
of the different materials entering into those dietaries, 
have been determined, and from the data obtained 
eight new dietaries of practically identical nutritive 
values have been framed. Certain side-issues have 
also been investigated. Thé percentage of nitrogen 
in the faces is practically constant, whatever the type 
of diet may be, and when inferior vegetable food- 
stuffs are made use of the loss of protein by the faces 
is very great. A final conclusion is of considerable 
importance: from the facts collected with regard to 
the inhabitants of the United Provinces and martial 
races of the plains, it would appear that, other things 
being equal, diet is the all-important factor in deter- 
mining the degree of physical development and 
general well-being of a people, and that with a low 
level of nitrogenous interchange deficient stamina, 
morally and physically, must be expected. 
The meteorological chart of the North Atlantic for 
May, issued by the Meteorological Office on April 18, 
includes synoptic weather charts for April 8-17. 
During this period a large anticyclone moved north- 
eastward from the southern part of that ocean. The 
weather was fair over western Europe, but to the 
westward of longtitude 30° W. conditions were change- 
able and showery. The latest ice reports from Canada 
referred to the existence of heavy, close ice and 
numerous bergs in Belleisle Strait; off Cape Race 
(Newfoundland) no ice was visible. Mention is made 
of the fact that the bergs which appear annually in 
the. North Atlantic have their origin, as a rule, in 
western Greenland; only a few come from Spits- 
bergen, and still fewer from Hudson’s Bay. The 
mean limits of field-ice and of icebergs in May are 
laid down on the chart, the extreme boundaries being 
about 42° N., 45° W., and 39° N., 40° W. respec- 
tively. 
A LECTURE on daylight delivered by Prof. E. L. 
Nichols before the Franklin Institute is reproduced 
in the April number of the Jcurnal of the Institute. 
In addition to a summary of the facts about daylight, 
which are comparatively well known or can be found 
in a standard work like Pernter and Exner’s *‘ Meteoro- 
logische Physik,’’ it contains an account of the 
measurements made by the author at home and in 
Switzerland by means of a spectrophotometer. These 
cover such subjects as the relative brightness of clear 
and partially or wholly clouded sky, the distribution 
of light of different wave-lengths in daylight at 
