36 



NATURE 



[May 14, 1908 



the male. In respect to the first point, measurements show 

 that the female is shorter than her partner, while she also 

 seems to be more slenderly built. The relative numbers 

 of the two sexes cannot yet be definitely determined ; it 

 is true that more males than females are captured, but 

 this may be due to their larger dimensions, which prevent 

 them from escaping through the meshes of the nets, and 

 may also lead to a smaller number being rejected as 

 unsaleable on account of inferior size. Finally, it is 

 demonstrated that the occurrence of additional genital 

 apertures is by no means uncommon. 



The March number of Biometrika contains two papers 

 dealing with the inheritance, in two separate instances, of 

 split hand and foot deformities in man, the so-called 

 "lobster-claw," in which Messrs. Lewis and Embleton 

 show that the deformity is inherited and varies in degree, 

 although not in kind. The nature of the deformity is 

 illustrated in a series of radiographic plates. The authors 

 discuss the application of Mendelism to their results, and 

 conclude that, despite the apparent segregation, the trans- 

 mission is not governed by Mendelian laws. In an adden- 

 dum Dr. Lewis cites cases in which hypophalangia or 

 brachydactylia has been transmitted through normal in- 

 dividuals, so that the basis for the Mendelian application 

 fails. "It may be," he urges, "and very probably is 

 the ease, that Mendelism applies to certain hereditary 

 human deformities ; but the conclusions which are being 

 drawn, or implied, conclusions having a serious socio- 

 logical aspect, are at present ahead of the facts at our 

 disposal." In the family discussed by Mr. Pearson, there 

 was no instance of transmission through a normal in- 

 dividual, but the Mendelian ratios do not fit. This case 

 is illustrated by plates bringing out the variability of the 

 deformity. 



Among several articles of more than usual interest in 

 the February number of the American Naturalist, atten- 

 tion may be directed to one on the law of geminate 

 species, by Dr. D. S. Jordan, of Stanford University. 

 Starting with the axiom that in any region the nearest 

 representative of a given species is to be found, not in the 

 .same region or in a remote region, but in a neighbour- 

 ing district separated from the first by a barrier of some 

 kind or other, the author points out that this law rests 

 on the fact that the minor differences separating species 

 and races of animals are due to some form of segregation 

 or isolation. On account of the presence of some obstacle 

 or barrier, the members of one group are prevented from 

 breeding with those of another minor group or with the 

 bulk of the species, and as a result local peculiarities 

 arise, which eventually develop into distinct races or 

 species. On the other hand, where a number of in- 

 dividuals of a species are simultaneously modified in the 

 same way by similar conditions of food or climate, they 

 show no permanence in heredity, and should have no 

 permanent place in taxonomy. This is exemplified by Mr. 

 Beebe's researches into the effects of moist air in inducing 

 dusky colours in birds, which demonstrate the imperman- 

 ence of the groups or subspecies characterised by dark 

 shades of colour developed in regions of heavy rainfall. 

 These words, it may be added, should be well weighed 

 by those taxonomists who name local forms characterised 

 by the development of either unusually pale (in desert 

 districts) or unusually dark (in moist forest regions) colour- 

 ing. The fishes on the two sides of the Isthmus of 

 Panama, which have been separated since the late Miocene 

 or early Pliocene, afford excellent examples of geminate 

 (twin, or representative) species, or perhaps, as we might 

 in many cases better say, races. 

 NO. 20II, VOL. 78] 



In a letter to Nature of October 3, 1907, Mr. .'\inley 

 Walker asked for definite evidence bearing upon the wide- 

 spread belief in many countries that the stings of bees 

 act both protectively and as a cure for rheumatism. Dr. J. 

 Newton Friend, North Terrace, Mildenhall, Suffolk, sends 

 us an account of a case which has just come under his 

 personal knowledge. Two or three years ago a country 

 schoolmaster in Norfolk, who suffered very severely from 

 rheumatism in the back, deliberately exposed his arms to 

 the stings of bees, and was stung all over the arms. By 

 the time, however, that his arms were well again, his 

 rheumatism had completely disappeared. The gentleman 

 who took these heroic measures is now close on fifty years 

 of age. Dr. Friend suggests the addition of the following 

 two questions to those given by Mr. Walker : — (i) What 

 is the approximate age of the person supposed to have 

 been cured? (2) In what part of the body was the rheu- 

 matism manifested, where was the person stung, and for 

 how long was the cure effective? 



Mr. T. E. D. Innes has compiled a list of Indian jungle 

 products used as food by the natives during periods of 

 famine, that has been issued as an appendix to the 

 February nunber of the Indian Forester. Some of the 

 fruits, although lacking flavour, are eaten raw, others are 

 parched, or, as in the case of Ficus glomerata, Shorea 

 rohusta, &c., the fruits are ground into flour and baked 

 into cakes. Several climbers yield roots that are parched 

 or boiled, nnd vegetables are provided by the leaves of 

 Vicia hirsiita, Chenopodium album, Chlorophytiim tube- 

 rosum, and others. 



The sixth number of the botanical section of the 

 Philippine Journal of Science, concluding the section for 

 the year 1907, is devoted to short notes and to the third 

 portion of the index to Philippine botanical literature com- 

 piled by Mr. E. D. Merrill. Mr. Merrill also contributes 

 a first addendum to his identifications of the species 

 described in Blanco's " Flora de Filipinas," and a few 

 additions to the species recorded for the islands. Species 

 of Pteridanthus and Petrsovitex are new to science, and 

 provide first records for the genus in the Philippines. Dr. 

 E. B. Copeland is responsible for a revision of the fern 

 genus Tectaria ; many of the species are transferred from 

 the subgroup Sagenia of the genus Nephrodium. 



A NOTE on the flora of Prince Charles Foreland, Spits- 

 bergen, by Mr. R. N. R. Brown, published in the 

 Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh (vol. 

 xxiii.), refers to collections made by Dr. W. S. Bruce. The 

 number of species totals fifty-five, or rather more than a 

 quarter of the number recorded for the whole archipelago. 

 The character of the flora is evident from the observation 

 that Saxifraga opposiiifolia is probably the commonest plant 

 on the island and covers large areas; other species of 

 Saxifraga are Hirculus, aisoides, caespitosa and nivalis ; 

 the species of Ranunculus and Draba are also interesting. 

 The flora is European, and shows an entire absence of an 

 American element. 



Mr. G. H. .Shull records some additions to the list of 

 plants that conform to Mendelian principles in the February 

 issue of the Botanical Gazette. The first instance cited is 

 that of a branched specimen of the so-called " Russian " 

 sunflower ; experiments made in crossing branched and 

 unbranched plants indicated that branching is a dominant 

 character. Other examples were provided by plants of 

 Lychnis dioica and Verbascum Blattaria. In the former 

 case purple and white flowers provided reciprocal characters 

 when according to expectation white proved to be recessive. 

 For Verbascum, vellow colour in the flowers was found to 



