596 



NA TURE 



[June 3, 1909 



chapter, and the author concludes that it was derived 

 f.'om the basic igneous rocks themselves. De Launay, 

 Perkins, and other mining authorities share that view, 

 which has, however, been rejected by Prof. Louis, who 

 c >nsiders that the gold came from quartz veins in the 

 schists and gneisses, and also by Mr. J. A. Spurr, 

 who thinks it is derived from the acid igneous rocks, 

 and was introduced in solutions connected with the 

 intrusion of dykes of the ultra-acid rock which he 

 has called alaskite. Some of the placer gold has been 

 derived directly from quartz veins formed in the 

 superficial sheets of laterite that cover much of the 

 country, but the gold in these veins is no doubt 

 derived from the primary deposits in the underlying 

 rocks. The gold in the secondary veins in the laterite 

 sometimes occurs in rich pockets. It is therefore 

 not surprising that the placer gold includes small 

 nuggets. Mr. Brown, however, strongly supports the 

 view that gold is present dissolved in the soil waters, 

 and is thus carried into the drifts and there chemically 

 deposited. As a proof of the solubility of the gold in 

 the waters of the soil, he refers to its presence in the 

 vegetation. The occurrence of gold in the trees grow- 

 ing on gold-fields has been repeatedly affirmed and 

 denied. Air. Harrison accordingly carefully assayed 

 samples of wood from the interior of trees, and proved 

 that the ashes contain gold up to several grains per 

 ton. The establishment of this fact bv Mr. Harrison 

 is an important contribution to the problems of gold 

 deposition ; nevertheless, the information he gives as 

 to the distribution of the alluvial gold suggests that 

 the bulk of it is of detrital origin. 



(2} Mr. Johnson's book contains less original matter. 

 It is a short summary, in si.\ty-one pages of large type, 

 of the chief facts as to the distribution of base metals 

 in South Africa. It is prefaced by a brief theoretical 

 introduction, and concludes with some pages of prac- 

 tical hints to prospectors. It is a useful guide to 

 recent literature, and to mining work on the base 

 metals in .South Africa. The author adopts the 

 American quantitative classification of rocks, and his 

 short theoretical statement gives the arguments fairly 

 for both sides of disputed questions. J. W. G. 



OVU BOOK SHELF. 

 The Method and Scope of Genetics. An Inaugural 

 Lecture delivered on October 23, 1908. By Prof. 

 W. Bateson, F.R.S. Pp. iv+49. (Cambridge : Uni- 

 versity Press, 1908.) Price is. 6d. net. 

 The University of Cambridge is to be congratulated 

 in respect of the professorship of biology, which it 

 founded last year, with the aid of an anonymous bene- 

 factor. It is to be congratulated because it has had 

 the wisdom to recognise the import and the promise 

 nf a kind of inquiry which is still young (though it 

 justified itself long ago at Down, atBrunn, and else- 

 where), and has hitherto had very little academic re- 

 cognition ; for although the professorship bears the 

 comprehensive title " of biology," it was founded with 

 the understanding that the holder should apply himself 

 to a particular class of physiological problems — those 

 (if heredity and variation — the study of which is de- 

 noted by the new term "genetics." Some years 

 ago, in the llniversity of Edinburgh, thanks, we 

 believe, to the energy of Prof. Cossar Ewart, whose 

 NO. 2066, VOL. 80] 



" Penycuik Experiments " have been so important 

 in themselves and in their incentive, there was estab- 

 lished a lectureship on the physiology of reproductiorj, 

 which has been filled by Dr. A. H. H. Marshal with 

 conspicuous success. 



But Cambridge has gone one better — we hope the 

 equivalent Scottish step will soon follow — in instituting 

 this professorship of biology, ear-marked to mean 

 genetics. The University of Cambridge is not less 

 to be congratulated on being able to secure for this 

 new professorship an investigator like Mr. Bateson — 

 on whom Darwin's mantle has fallen — whose critical 

 insight, patience, ingenuity of experiment and in- 

 fectious enthusiasm have won him the respect and 

 admiration of all the biologists of to-day. 



In his inaugural lecture Prof. Bateson shows that 

 the claims put forward in the name of genetics are 

 high, and that they are not high without reason. 

 " Mendel's clue has shown the way into a realm of 

 nature which for surprising novelty and adventure is 

 hardly to be excelled." " It is no hyperbolical figure 

 that I use when I speak of Mendelian discovery lead- 

 ing us into a new world, the very existence of which 

 was unsuspected before." Let us notice some of the 

 progressive results which warrant these enthusiastic 

 statements. .A great law of inheritance has been dis- 

 covered, and a simple hypothetical rationale of the 

 law has been suggested. The duality of inheritance 

 which the cytologist had demonstrated in his own way 

 has been likewise proved — one may almost sav plaved 

 with — experimentally. Curiously puzzling phenomena 

 have been made plain. Fresh light has been thrown 

 on reversion and on v.ariation. A new point d'appiii 

 has been found for physiological chemistry, and from 

 cases so different as cinnamon-canaries and sweet 

 peas, currant-moths and colour-blindness, it seems 

 as if we were on the eve of discovering something 

 of the mystery of sex. And, besides all this, " if we 

 want to raise mangels that will not run to seed, or 

 to breed a cow that will give more milk in less time, 

 or milk with more butter and less water, we can 

 turn to genetics with every hope that something can 

 be done in these laudable directions." Even in regard 

 to human kind it does not seem any longer an idle 

 dream to see an art of eugenics rising on the founda- 

 tions of genetics. J. A. T. 



Hydraulic Ghiiralc. By A. Boulanger. 2 Vols. Tome 

 i., Principes et Problemes Fondamenteaux. Pp. xvi 

 -1-382. Tome ii., Problemes A .Singularites et Ap- 

 plications. Pp. vii + 2gg. (Paris : Octave Doin et 

 Fils.) Price 10 francs. 

 The science of hydraulics in France has long been 

 served by distinguished and devoted adherents — to in- 

 stance only a few, Bazin, St. Venant, Du Buat, Prony, 

 and Boussinesq. The numerous contributions of this 

 last-named exponent, during a period of nearly forty 

 years, to the Academy of Sciences and other scientific 

 bodies, are familiar enough to students of the subject, 

 but, owing to their detached and voluminous character 

 (the total publications of the eminent man of science 

 amount to iSoo quarto pages), they have not 

 hitherto been conveniently adapted to the requirements 

 of systematic study, and it has long been felt that 

 a risunte of, their more important conclusions would 

 be of great service. At the, instance, therefore, of the 

 director of the Bibliotheque de MiJcanique, and with 

 the concurrence of M. Boussinesq himself, the present 

 work was undertaken with this end in view. 



There are two volumes, the first being devoted to 

 a demonstration of fundamental principles and to the 

 statement of general phenomena, appertaining as much 

 to the province of the physicist as to that of the 

 engineer. Thus, after an introduction on the laws 



