748 



NA TURE 



[December 2, 192: 



Research Items. 



Some Roman Antiquities. — Two articles in the 

 Journal of Roman Studies (Part i, vol. 10 for 1920) 

 refer to antiquities in England. In the first, Mr. 

 A. M. Woodward describes a decorative bronze 

 Silenus mask found at Ilkley during excavations 

 conducted by the Yorkshire Archaeological Societv. 

 This was probably used as a jug-handle, and that 

 a bronze vessel so elaborate should be found at the 

 quarters of an auxiliary cohort is at first surprising. 

 But the site seems to have been long occupied, and 

 the inhabitants included a civilian settlement. The 

 vicinity of York, a great military station, may have 

 led to the introduction of articles of luxury. In 

 the second paper Mr. C. D. Chambers remarks that, 

 although the Romans valued pigeon manure, it is 

 strange that so few dovecots of that period have 

 been discovered. Though octagonal foundations like 

 those of medieval dovecots have been found at 

 Great Witcombe and Stroud, rectangular dovecots, 

 though probably numerous, cannot be identified 

 with certainty, except where the pigeon-holes actually 

 exist, as at Caerwent. If excavators were to look 

 for dovecots rather than shrines, it is not unlikely 

 that further evidence would be forthcoming. 



The Pituitary Body. — A paper by Bailey and 

 Bremer (" Experimental Diabetes Insipidus," " Ar- 

 chives of Internal Medicine," vol. 28, p. 773) serves 

 as a timely warning against hasty conclusions of the 

 existence of internal secretions when the results 

 have been brought about by injury or disease supposed 

 to be limited to a particular organ. There are three- 

 symptoms supposed to be produced by injury of the 

 pituitary body — increased urinary secretion, hyper- 

 trophy of fatty tissue, and atrophy of the testis. 

 Camus and Roussy had already brought evidence 

 that these effects were due to injury of that part 

 of the brain, the hypothalamic region, in close 

 contact with the pituitary body, but they do not 

 appear to have been altogether successful in avoiding 

 some injury to the latter also. The work of Bailey 

 and Bremer was done in the laboratory of Prof. 

 Harvev Cushing, and the pituitary region was reached 

 by a slight modification of the operation described 

 by Crowe, Cushing, and Homans. The pituitary 

 body itself and the neighbouring parts of the brain 

 can be clearly seen, and it was found that a small 

 injury to the hypothalamus, leaving the pituitary 

 completely intact, was sufficient to bring about the 

 three symptoms above mentioned, which are supposed 

 to be due to injury to the pituitary body itself. 



Sterility in Species-Crosses. — Results have been 

 accumulating for a number of years, showing that 

 in species-crosses in various animals one sex is either 

 absent, rare, or sterile. Such disturbances of the 

 sex-ratio, or sterility of one sex in the hybrids, 

 have been observed by Tutt, Harrison, Goldschmidt, 

 and others in Lepidoptera, by Whitman, Riddle, and 

 others in birds, by Sturtevant in Drosophila. Among 

 mammals, guinea-pigs and Bovidaj show similar 

 distortions of the sex-ratios. Mr. J. B. S. Haldane, 

 in an interesting review of all these and similar 

 results (Journ. of Genetics, vol. 12, No. 2), shows that 

 in every case it is the heterozygous sex which is 

 deficient in numbers or sterile in such species-crosses. 

 Thus in mammals and flies this applies to the male 

 sex, which is the heterozygous sex, while in birds 

 and butterflies it applies to the female sex, which is 

 known from breeding experiments and cytological 

 study to be the heterozygous sex in these groups. 



Chromosomes of the " Millions " Fish. — In two 

 papers on the cytology and genetics of the little 



NO. 2770, VOL. I 10] 



" millions " fish, Lebistes, Dr. 0. Winge [Journ. of 

 Genetics, vol. 12, No. 2) finds the number of chromo- 

 somes to be 46 in both sexes, and concludes that the 

 males must therefore have an XY pair of sex- 

 chromosomes. In extending the breeding experi- 

 ments of Dr. J. Schmidt, who showed that certain 

 colour markings of the males are inherited only 

 from male to male (hence through the Y-chromo- 

 some), he finds four such colour-marking factors in 

 the Y-chromosome of different races of this fish. 

 In addition, Dr. Winge makes the interesting 

 discovery that in the " Magdeburg race " the 

 X-chromosome contains a factor which gives a 

 sulphur-yellow colour to various parts of the body 

 and a red colour to the lower margin of the caudal 

 fin. This factor is inherited in the usual fashion of 

 sex-linked factors, except that all these characters 

 are invisible in the females. Some evidence is also 

 obtained of crossing-over between these factors in 

 the X- and Y-chromosomes. This, if confirmed, 

 will furnish an interesting extension of our knowledge 

 of sex-linked inheritance. When colour-marking 

 factors are present in the X- and Y-chromosomes of 

 a male they both show in its visible pattern, but 

 one is transmitted, like the X-chromosome, through 

 the daughters to their sons, while the other is trans- 

 mitted (in the Y-chromosome) directly from father 

 to son. 



Cotton Research in Egypt. — The second annual 

 report, for 1921, of the Cotton Research Board, issued 

 by the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture, indicates 

 clearly that the improvement of the cotton crop, with 

 which the prosperity of Egypt is so closely connected, 

 is being seriously dealt with by methods of research. 

 The Board has given special consideration, among 

 other matters, to the decline in yield, two-year v. 

 three-year rotations, and control of seed used for 

 sowing. A summer fallow appears to be of great 

 value in maintaining the fertility of the soil, as the 

 temperature of the surface soil rises sufficiently high 

 to have a partial sterilisation effect by suppressing 

 the harmful factor which has been shown to exist in 

 Egyptian soils. The value of Nile silt as a fertiliser 

 seems hitherto to have been exaggerated. Yield may 

 not be much affected by reduced watering, but 

 quality may be adversely influenced. Work is being 

 done on the extraction of pure lines, propagation of 

 selected strains and field tests of commercial varieties, 

 in order that types may be selected that shall be most 

 suitable for the purpose required. Special efforts 

 have been made to find a method of controlling 

 the sore-shin disease, the usual means being in- 

 effective or impossible of application on a large scale. 

 Various reagents have been used for soaking the 

 seeds, and the effect of sowing on different dates 

 has been tested, but no conclusive results are yet 

 available. Insect pests are also receiving attention, 

 pink boll-worm and cotton-seed bug being under 

 investigation . 



The Cranial Morphology of Fishes. — Two 

 important papers on the anatomy and morphology 

 of fishes appear in the Journal of A natomy (vol. 56, 

 Pts. 3 and 4). In the first of these Mr. E. Phelps 

 Allis, junior, describes in great detail the cranial 

 anatomy of Polypterus, illustrated by twenty -two 

 beautifully executed plates, all except two of which 

 are in colour. In the second paper Dr. H. Leighton 

 Kesteven strongly criticises Huxley's interpretation 

 of the bones in the palate and upper jaw of bony fishes 

 and offers a new concept of their significance and 

 homologies. He regards the premaxillse and maxilla? 

 of the majority of teleostean fishes as constituting 



