496 



NA TURE 



[October 21, 1909 



E. N. Browne, in the August number of the Journal of 

 Experimenlal Zoology (vol. vii., No. i), dealing with the 

 production of new hydranths by the insertion of small 

 •grafts from another individual of the same species. This 

 paper is particularly interesting on account of the ingenuity 

 of the methods employed. In order to determine the exact 

 •origin of the regenerating material, the author makes use of 

 Whitney's discovery that the green colour can be entirely 

 removed from Hydra ■viridis, without killing the animal, by 

 Tceeping it for some weeks in a 0-5 per cent, solution of 

 •glycerin. The artificial white hydras thus produced form 

 perfect grafts with ordinary green forms, giving rise to 

 parti-coloured colonies in which the boundaries between the 

 tissues of the green and white components remain clearly 

 ■defined. 



Irish Gardening (October) contains various seasonable 

 articles, notably on the cultivation of seakale and the 

 gloxinia. A very charming bell-shaped ericaceous plant, 

 Zcnohia speciosa, is recommended for the garden by Mr. 

 C. F. Ball ; in the variety pulverulenta it attains to the 

 dimensions of a good-sized bush. It requires a peaty soil 

 or the nearest equivalent, and is propagated from seed or 

 ■by layers. 



The Country Home (October) appears in an enlarged 

 form from the offices of the Sphere and Tatler. The 

 ■botanical and zoological articles are chiefly utilitarian or 

 popular. The intensive cultivation of asparagus is ex- 

 plained by Mr. L. Terasse, and vegetative propagation 

 ■forms the subject of an article by Mr. W. M. Webb, while 

 Mr. H. B. Buchanan gives advice on the breeding of pigs. 



Following up a line of work instituted in the United 

 ■States of America, the examination of parasitic fungi that 

 attack scale insects has been taken up by the Department 

 of Agriculture for the West Indies. Three species of 

 Ascomycetes, Sphaerostilbe coccophila, Ophionectria cocci- 

 cola, and Myriangium Duriaei are specified in the Agri- 

 cultural News (September 18) as having been taken on 

 scale insects infesting lime or citrus trees in Dominica, 

 St. Lucia, and other islands, and a fourth fungus is noted, 

 but not identified. It is proposed to experiment with 

 cultures of these fungi on nutrient media which could be 

 distributed to cultivators. 



The most striking point in a description of fungus 

 maladies of the sugar-cane, prepared by Dr. N. A. Cobb, 

 and published in Bulletin No. 6 of the division of patho- 

 logy and physiology in connection with the Hawaiian 

 Sugar-planters' .Association, is the attribution of parasitism 

 to the phalloid fungi Ithyphallus coralloides and Clathrus 

 trilobaftis. The mycelium of Ithyphallus was found 

 attached to cane trash and the roots, while the mycelium 

 of Clathrus passed in among the roots of canes where 

 •disease was abundant, so that the author classes them with 

 species of Marasmius as sources of root disease. With 

 the view of identifying the mycelium of these Phalloideae, a 

 special study was made of their sphaero-crystals. 



In connection with a visit of German systematic 

 botanists. Dr. E. Issler prepared an account of vegeta- 

 tion conditions in the Central Vosges Mountains, which is 

 published in Engler's Botanische Jahrbiicher (vol. xliii., 

 part iii.). The formations distinguished in the montane 

 region are spruce, beech, mixed fir woods, and the vegeta- 

 tion of the forest streams. It is a curious fact that the 

 beech in many places ascends higher than the conifers, 

 the reason being that the upper tree limit, at the low 

 altitude of 4000 feet, is determined by the wind, which the 

 beech is better able to withstand. In the subalpine region 



NO. 2086, VOL. Si] 



different types of flora are provided by the rocks, meadows, 

 and swamp, and in certain parts there are areas of ling 

 and sphagnum moors. Among the rare plants to be found 

 are Miilgcdiiim alpinum, Rhodiola rosea, Luziila spadicea, 

 two species of Isoetes, and Subularia aqiiatica. 



The Bio-chemical Journal for September (iv., No. 8) 

 contains a paper, by Dr. Otto Rosenheim, on the nomen- 

 clature of lipoid substances. He proposes to classify them 

 in three main groups, the cholesterins, the cerebro- 

 galactosides, and the phosphatides. Prof. Moore and Drs. 

 Wilson and Hutchinson contribute a paper on the bio- 

 chemistry of haemolysis. 



Prof. Halliburton, in the Journal of Hygiene (vol. ix.. 

 No. 2, September), directs attention to the fact that large 

 quantities of flour, both in this country and abroad, are 

 artificially bleached. Some experiments he has performed 

 distinctly indicate that both the starch and the gluten are 

 rendered less digestible by the process of bleaching, though 

 whether the change is sufficient to be serious to children or 

 invalids is a question on which there is at present no 

 evidence. 



In the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for 

 September (xx., No. 222), Dr. Charles White discusses in 

 a suggestive manner the municipal management of tubercu- 

 losis. He points out that our struggle must be for an 

 immune race, not for the extermination of the last tubercle 

 bacillus. More and more we see the evidence of protection 

 of small doses in healthy resistant bodies. In municipali- 

 ties the aim should be to get rid of sources of large doses 

 of tubercle bacilli, and to establish resistant bodies by 

 healthy lives, mainly in the cliildren. 



An account of the mathematical work of Sully Prud- 

 homme is given by Prof. H. Poincar^ in the Revue 

 gin^rale des Sciences for August 15. Sully Prudhomme 

 received a scientific education in his youth, but was pre- 

 vented by ill-health from attending the Ecole polytechnique. 

 That he nevertheless gave a large amount of attention to 

 mathematics is evidenced by the numerous manuscripts 

 left by him, including the rough drafts of a memoir on 

 geometry. It appears, however, that the manuscripts now 

 in existence cannot be regarded as more than rough drafts 

 of ideas which Prudhomme hod further developed and con- 

 siderably modified after writing them. Prof. Poincar^ 

 concludes that it would be undesirable to publish them 

 in cxtenso, and he therefore devotes the concluding portion 

 of his paper to a general account of their salient features. 



Under the title of " The Gambler's Ruin " (Annals of 

 Mathematics, x., 4), Prof. J. L. Coolidge discusses certain 

 problems connected with games of chance which have not 

 hitherto received complete treatment. It is pointed out that 

 while the problem of determining the odds that one player 

 may ruin another has been worked out thoroughly for the 

 case where the amount staked at each turn is the same, the 

 case where the stakes are varied, whether they be limited 

 or unlimited, has been less fully discussed. The author 

 considers the " systems " proposed at Monte Carlo and 

 elsewhere, and gives a deductive proof that no such system 

 can have more than an easily calculable chance of success. 

 He concludes with the quotation from Sir Hiram Maxim's 

 book : — " Je me rends parfaitement compte du d^sagr^able 

 effet que produit sur la majority de I'humanit^, tout ce qui 

 se rapporte, m§me au plus faible degr4, a des calculs ou 

 raisonnements math^matiques." 



A systematic study of the influence of the surround- 

 ing medium on the lines of the spark spectrum has been 

 undertaken by Dr. H. Finger at the suggestion of Prof. 



