October 14, 1909] 



NA TURn 



46^ 



the root disease caused by Fames scmitostus, and a branch 

 and stem disease which has not yet been traced to a 

 specific fungus. The Fornes spreads from the old stumps 

 of jungle trees, so that eradication of these is the only 

 remedy, while excision of infected parts and treatment 

 with Bordeaux mixture have proved effectual against the 

 less dangerous stem disease. 



A VARIED selection of microscopic accessories, apparatus 

 for bacteriological and haematological investigation, and 

 instruments for collecting natural-history specimens, is kept 

 by Messrs. H. F. Angus and Co., 83 Wigmore Street, 

 who have recently issued a well-illustrated catalogue of 

 this part of their stock. The firm acts as agent for 

 Messrs. Swift, Leitz and Zeiss, also for Dr. G. Grubler, 

 of Leipzig. Another feature of the catalogue is the Ust 

 of mounted specimens for the microscope, physiological, 

 prtliological, and botanical. 



The Francis Gallon Eugenics Laboratory has published 

 a lecture by its research scholar. Miss Ethel M. Elderton, 

 entitled "The Relative Strength of Nurture and Nature," 

 which was 'recently delivered in a course of lectures on 

 national eugenics at the laboratory. By the method of 

 correlation used by the lecturer and her colleagues, she 

 claims to establish the fact that " overcrowding, bad 

 economic conditions, bad physical and moral conditions of 

 the parents, have practically no effect on the intelligence, 

 eyesight, glands and hearing of the children." The results, 

 indeed, show that the children of drunken parents are 

 somewhat healthier and more intelligent than those of sober 

 parents, and generally that the influence of environment is 

 almost negligible compared with that of heredity. As the 

 author admits, some of " these results are certainly 

 startling and rather upset one's preconceived ideas." 



In a work entitled " Die Harte der festen Korper und 

 ihre physikalisch-chemische Bedeutung " (Dresden : Theodor 

 Steinkopff) Dr. Viktor Poschl makes a valuable contribu- 

 tion to the study of an important physical character of 

 solid substances, which has as yet scarcely received 

 adequate attention from crystallographers and others 

 interested in such matters. He describes a new form of 

 sclerometer recently devised by him ; in it the section under 

 test is placed on a carriage and drawn under a diamond 

 point, which may be lightly loaded, and the width of the 

 resulting scratch is measured by means of a high-powered 

 microscope. He gives the results of a series of experi- 

 ments made upon various minerals and metals. It is 

 interesting to note that the apparently wider scratch made 

 perpendicular to the trace of the cleavage plane is due to 

 incipient cleavage cracks, and that the direction parallel 

 to the trace is really the one of least hardness. Dr. 

 Poschl discusses with considerable acumen the connection 

 between hardness and solubility, chemical composition, 

 crystal form, and density. 



Prof. Eckert publishes a new " isochronic " chart of 

 the world in the September number of Petermann's 

 Mitteilungcn. The first part of an article on the construc- 

 tion of such maps, dealing with the history of their 

 development and with modern methods of arranging and 

 reducing the data upon which they are based, accompanies 

 the chart. 



The October number of Travel and Exploration contains 

 the first part of a paper, by Dr. M. A. Stein, on his 

 journey through the Taklamakan Desert, entitled " Across 

 the 'Sea of Sand.'" The paper gives a graphic account 

 of the incidents of the journey, and is illustrated by excel- 

 lent photographs. 



NO. 20S5, VOL. 81] 



Mr. Ellsworth Huntingdon contributes an article on 

 the Russo-.\fghan frontier region to the September number 

 of the National Geographic Magazine. The paper forms 

 the first part of an account of the " Afghan Borderland," 

 based chiefly on journeys made by the author in recent 

 years. Speaking of eastern Persia, Mr. Huntingdon re- 

 marks that " the inhabitants stagnate and play no part in 

 the present history of the country except as pawns to be 

 harried by the Afghans, cowed by the Russians, or cajoled 

 by the English." 



The British School of Archjeology at Athens has made 

 further important discoveries on the site of the city of 

 Sparta. The great temple of Artemis Orthia has been 

 now completely cleared. The site known as the Mene- 

 laion, at Therapne, about two miles south-east of Sparta, 

 has been partially examined. The sanctuary of Menelaus 

 and Helen, mentioned by Herodotus, Livy, Pausanias, and 

 Polybius, was a favourite resort of the Spartan ladies, 

 where the goddess was believed to confer the gift of beauty 

 on her worshippers. The discovery of Mycenaean remains 

 on this site suggests that this was the famous palace of 

 Menelaus, and this provisional identification is corroborated 

 by finds of bronzes, votive double-axes, lead figurines, and 

 terra-cottas. 



In the fourth Bulletin of the Archsological Survey of 

 Nubia for the current year Dr. G. A. Reisner continues his 

 account of a group of prehistoric cemeteries at Koshtamna, 

 in Nubia. The excavations disclosed two remarkable sets of 

 graves, one simple archaic pits with contracted burials, and 

 the second mud-cut chambers with mummies deposited in 

 an extended position. Unfortunately, many of the former 

 have been destroyed by cultivators in search of fertilising 

 matter for their fields, but those which remain extend from 

 the middle pre-dynastic period down to that of the late 

 Empire. The mud-cut graves represent the period from 

 the earliest Ptolemaic down to Christian times. Drs. G. 

 Elliot Smith and D. E. Derry have, as usual, reported 

 upon the physical characters of the human remains. These 

 show a considerable intermi.xture of the Negroid with the 

 indigenous type, which has resulted in a progressive 

 shortening of the cranium. Three distinct negro types 

 were observed — one small and relatively short-headed, the 

 second taller and dolichocephalic, the third a big, massive, 

 broad-faced, large-headed variety. The occurrence of 

 spinal tuberculosis in this region is now definitely estab- 

 lished, and the present investigations have pushed back 

 the diagnosis of this disease another thousand years, as 

 far back as the period of the Ancient Empire. 



The Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa 

 for July last contain a useful paper by Mr. R. T. A. 

 Innes, in which he endeavours to show what reductions 

 appHed to the Transvaal air-temperatures will in the mean 

 for the whole country reproduce the assumed temperatures 

 at sea-level. On squared paper points were placed for the 

 actual temperatures recorded at different altitudes; a curve 

 drawn through these to the point at sea-level approximated 

 closely to a parabolic form, and from this curve the reduc- 

 tions to sea-level were taken, the figures below 2500 and 

 above 6000 feet being mostly derived by extrapolation. 

 Three maps are given showing the distribution of sea-level 

 temperatures during the warmest and coldest months of the 

 year and for the mean of the year. The isotherms differ 

 considerably from those drawn by Dr. Buchan ; in the 

 warmest month, for instance. Dr. Buchan gives the sea-level 

 temperature of the western border as about 92^°, whereas 

 Mr. Innes gives it as 85°. The author remarks that, in 

 the absence of data, Dr. Buchan must have relied on the 



