346 
available phosphate in certain Indian soils— 
at times only one fiftieth to one twentieth of 
the amount usually regarded as necessary for 
fertility—have been under investigation. So, 
too, have been the low values of available 
potash in certain other soils. In this connec- 
tion efforts have been made not only to corre- 
late potash-deficieney with disease in animals 
and plants, but also to utilize the ash of at 
least one proclaimed weed as a means of ad- 
ding potash to the soil, and incidentally as a 
partial set-off against the cost of eradication. 
Botanical work has included, in addition to 
survey operations, much that is of immediate 
economic importance. One notable instance 
is afforded by the device of a method of selfing 
cotton, which is not only simple, but is also 
said to have proved successful. Much sound 
work has been done with indigo, jute, opium, 
rice, sugar and wheat on agricultural lines, 
and with grasses, as well as trees, on forestry 
lines. 
On the physical side we find that researches 
in solar physics have included an investigation 
of the displacement of the lines given by the 
electric are. This study has supplied interest- 
ing results, and led further to a determination 
of wave-lengths in the spectrum of the planet 
Venus with results that are of promise. In 
geology, besides survey operations, useful eco- 
nomic work has been done in connection with 
the output of wolfram. Three new meteorite 
falls—all chondrites—have been reported for 
1916-17 from northern India. The most 
notable item of economic geodetic work for the 
year has been the taking of hourly readings of 
a tide-cauge at Basra, erected in connection 
with military requirements. The constants 
deduced from the reductions of these readings 
have been transmitted to the National Phys- 
ical Laboratory at Teddington, to admit of 
the tracing of tidal curves for 1917-18. Im- 
portant also has been the compilation of a list 
of the plumb-line deflection stations of India 
and Burma. 
The work undertaken in connection with 
plant- and animal-pathology has been useful 
and varied. In this relationship an item 
which deserves attention is an account of 
SCIENCE 
[N. S. Vou. XLVIIT. No. 1240 
practical tests of the use of hydrocyanic acid 
gas for the destruction of vermin. While less 
successful than might be desired in the case 
of houses, this method has proved satisfactory 
as regards railway carriages and ships. 
Appended to the report is a memorandum 
on work done for India at the Imperial Insti- 
tute. A striking item in this memorandum 
is the record of a sample of Assam-grown flax, 
valued in London under war conditions in 
December, 1916, at £150 per ton, which was 
found to compare favorably with the medium 
qualities formerly received from Belgium. 
Perhaps the time is approaching when a 
body, similar in its functions to this Indian 
board, may be brought into being so as to 
ensure for the scientific departments of our 
various Crown Colonies that correlation of 
effort which, as this report testifies, already so 
happily attends the operations of the different 
scientific departments of the Indian govern- 
ment.—WNature. 
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 
Plant Genetics. By JouHn M. Counter and 
Merte C. Oounrer. The University of 
Chicago Press. 1918. Pp. 214. 
As the authors state the book is neither a 
technical presentation of genetics nor a general 
text, but is the outgrowth of a course of lec- 
tures designed to give general students of 
botany a brief introduction to the subject of 
genetics. This has been attempted in some 200 
small pages with numerous diagrams. It is 
written for younger students than the books 
on genetics which have so far appeared. Nec- 
essarily a minimum of illustrative material 
has been used and the complex features are 
omitted altogether or are only briefly alluded 
to. ’ 
An account of the earlier theories of heredity 
and a discussion of the inheritance of acquired 
characters opens the book followed by several 
chapters on Mendelism. The simplicity of 
the examples of the various types of Mendel- 
ism and the diagrams to illustrate them is @ 
real’ achievement. Some misrepresentations 
of facts are to be noted here which are hardly 
