August 13, 190S] 



NA TURE 



549 



raccniosa and \Yiocar\)u% cannoni are two of the new 

 introductions into the gardens; also the Lonibiro and 

 Manicoba rubber trees, and Manihot " von Piauhy." 



The records of Mr. T. Fetch, Government mycologist 

 in Ceylon, provide information regarding the manner in 

 which certain fungi show different propensities in different 

 countries. The " bleeding disease " of cocoanut trees in 

 Ceylon is traced to the fungus Thievalopsis ethaceticus, 

 that is known in the West Indies and Java as causing 

 a disease of sugar-cane. Pestalozzia palmarum, which 

 attacks cocoanut palms in the latter countries, produces 

 the " gray blight " usually associated with tea in Ceylon. 

 With regard to this species of Pestalozzia, Mr. Fetch does 

 not accept the European reference to a species guepini, 

 and generally holds the view that identifications cannot be 

 satisfactorily made on dried specimens sent to Europe. 



Mr. .\. S. Hitchcock has rendered good service, more 

 especially to .American botanists, in making a careful 

 examination of type-specimens of .\merican species of 

 g-rasses deposited in European herbaria. The results of 

 his study of the grasses described by Linnaeus, Gronovius, 

 Sloane, Swartz, and -Mithau.x are collated in the Contribu- 

 tions from the United States National Herbarium (vol. 

 xii., part iii.). The author pursued his investigations in 

 the herbaria of the Linncan Society of London, the Natural 

 History Museums at South Kensington and Stockholm, 

 and the ^^useum d'Histoire naturelle at Paris. 



The second number of Parasitology (i., No. 2) contains 

 important papers on ticks, spirochajtae, and piroplasmata 

 (by Prof. Nuttall), and one by Dr. Castellani describing a 

 spontaneous liver abscess in a monkey caused by an 

 amoeba. 



Prof. Leduc gives an interesting account of the osmotic 

 " growths " which develop w'hen a fragment of a soluble 

 calcium salt (nitrate or chloride) is immersed in a solution 

 of sodium carbonate. The calcium carbonate formed 

 develops into curious outgrowths resembling those of the 

 lower plants, and having a cellular structure analogous to 

 that of the latter (Festband der Biocheniischcn Zcitschrifl 

 fur H. J. Hamburger, igo8, p. 280). 



We have received an advance copy of Messrs. Merck's 

 report of recent advances in pharmaceutical chemistry and 

 therapeutics for 1907. Within a compass of 262 pages a 

 large amount of information on new remedies, &c., is 

 given, and the report should be in the hands of every 

 medical man. It is sent free on application to 16 Jewry 

 Street, E.C. 



The Livingstone College Year-book for igo8 contains 

 the annual report, notes on experiences of former students 

 and on climatic outfit and hygienic questions, and a review 

 of the progress of tropical medicine, together with a re- 

 print of Sir Patrick Manson's opening address on tropical 

 research. The Livingstone College aims to give elementary 

 instruction in the principles of medicine and surgery to 

 missionaries. 



A CLEAR and somewhat detailed statement of Ihe present 

 position and recent progress of the science of comparative 

 psychology is to be found in the June number of the 

 PsycKological Bullelin. Prof. John B. Watson contributes 

 an article on the power of imitation in monkeys, which 

 sets in vivid contrast the utterances of popular anecdote 

 and scientific experiment. Working with rhesus and cebus 

 monkeys, he has found it impossible to obtain any con- 

 clusive evidence for tire presence of the function of imitation 



NO. 2024, VOL. 78] 



in its higher forms. This result is diametrically opposed 

 to that previously obtained by Prof. Hobhouse in a series 

 of similar — in part identical — experiments. Prof. Watson 

 suggests that the monkeys used by Prof. Hobhouse had 

 previously learnt a variety of tricks similar to those 

 demanded by the experiments. In his own work this 

 source of error had been carefully guarded against. The 

 long review of the psychological literature of the past 

 year which follows this article brings out very vividly 

 the signal success which is attending the application of the 

 experimental method to the problems of animal psychology. 



We have received from the Canadian Department of 

 Mines, geological survey branch, a couple of admirably 

 executed maps. One is a special contoured map of Ross- 

 land, British Columbia, drawn on a scale of 400 feet to 

 the inch by Mr. W. H. Boyd, and the other is a topo- 

 graphical map of the Yukon territory on a scale of 32 miles 

 to the inch, showing the position of the gold, silver, 

 copper, and coal deposits. 



The annual progress report of the Geological Survey of 

 Western Australia for the year 1907 (Perth, 1908) records 

 much useful work done during the year. The account 

 has been arranged upon slightly different lines from those 

 adopted hitherto, in that all reports of a scientific character 

 have been omitted, and their places taken by abstracts 

 pending their publication in the Bulletins of the survey. 

 Particulars are given of the results of boring for coal at 

 various localities, of the reported gold discoveries at 

 Mundijong, and of investigations of the wolfram and tin 

 deposit? near Brookton, and of the copper deposits at 

 Yandanooka. Several minerals not previously noted as 

 occurring in the colony were noted during the year, 

 namely, meymacite (hydrated o.xide of tungsten), tagilite 

 (hydrated phosphate of copper), amazon-stone, zoisite, and 

 hemimorphite. 



The elaborate cliaracter of the work being carried on 

 by the United States Geological Survey in the investiga- 

 tion of the fuel values and possibilities of the coals and 

 lignites of the United States is well shown in the report 

 on the United States fuel-testing plant at St. Louis, 

 Missouri, from January i, igo6, to June 30, 1907 (Bulletin 

 No. 332). The experts responsible contribute reports on 

 field work, on the work of the chemical laboratory, on 

 steaming tests, on producer-gas tests, on washing tests, on 

 coking tests, on cupola tests for coke, and on briquetting 

 tests. The briquetting plant has developed new possibili- 

 ties in the utilisation of slack coal and of anthracite culm 

 as an efficient locomotive fuel, and the producer-gas in- 

 vestigations have shown the availability of bituminous 

 coal, lignites, and peat rich in volatile matter, for the pro- 

 duction of power. We have also received a report by Mr. 

 R. L. Humphrey and Mr. J. A. Holmes on the organisa- 

 tion, equipment, and operation of the structural materiils 

 testing laboratories at St. Louis, Missouri (Bulletin 

 No. 329). Funds have been supplied to the Geological 

 Survey by Congress for investigations of structural 

 materials with the view of reducing the cost and improving 

 the quality of the materials used in building and construc- 

 tion work. Equipment of an elaborate character has been 

 purchased, and much work has been done in studying the 

 properties of concrete and reinforced concrete, and in test- 

 ing various materials to determine their relative value for 

 mortar and concrete. 



Dr. E. J. Spitta has published in the Journal of the 

 Ouekett Microscopical Club for April, recently received, a 

 short address on a method of photographing very trans- 



