OCTOBEE 4, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



451 



of Scottish ethnology, at any rate brought out the 

 fact that many primitive customs still survive in 

 different parts of the country and will undoubt- 

 edly serve to stimulate interest in a subject in 

 which the serious workers are regrettably few. 

 Papers dealing with Egyptian archeology and the 

 ethnology of the Sudan were unusually numerous. 

 Professor Elliot Smith in his two papers, one 

 dealing with the earliest attempts at mummifica- 

 tion in Egypt, and a second dealing with the 

 physical character of the Egyptians of the second 

 and third dynasties, has traced to a higher an- 

 tiquity than had previously been done the use of 

 this method for preserving the body of the dead, 

 and in the second case has demonstrated the exist- 

 ence of an alien population in Egypt at an earlier 

 date than his previous researches had revealed. 

 Dr. Wood-Jones's paper on the Ancient and Mod- 

 ern Nubas showed that there is evidence of this 

 same process of infiltration of an alien element in 

 Nubia in early Christian times. Mr. Eobert 

 Mond's colored illustrations of the Theban tombs 

 excavated by Mr. Gardner were greatly appre- 

 ciated, both on the ground of their beauty and 

 of their scientific value as accurate records. The 

 papers of Professor Petrie on early dynastic dis- 

 coveries, and by Mr. Quibell on tombs of the 

 second and third dynasties, both contained impor- 

 tant contributions to the study of Egyptian an- 

 tiquities. To archeologists a melancholy interest 

 attached to Mr. Ogilvie's paper on the Temple of 

 PhilsB. The colored slides shown to illustrate the 

 paper were reproductions of recent sketches, and 

 probably will be the last records to be made of 

 the temple, which will be finally submerged in 

 November. 



SECTION I — PHYSIOLOGY 



Mr. Leonard Hill presided over this section and 

 devoted his address to the important question of 

 ventilation in its relation to health. Some inter- 

 esting information was given by Professor J. S. 

 Maedonald, who, as a result of calorimetric ob- 

 servations on man, concluded that 25 per cent, of 

 the energy transformed during work is converted 

 into mechanical movement. His experiments were 

 conducted in the large calorimeter at Sheffield 

 University. Dr. A. D. Waller gave an account of 

 the original physiological work done by Patrick 

 Blair about 200 years ago in correctly describing 

 the nerves of the trunk of an elephant which died 

 near Dundee. He dissected the carcass of the 

 animal until, owing to its decomposition, he was 

 compelled to desist. Its bones were subsequently 

 ground to powder and used to fertilize the fields. 



This section devoted a morning to a discussion on 

 the relation between mind and body — a subject 

 which proved extremely attractive. Another dis- 

 cussion was held in conjunction with the Zoology 

 Section. This had relation to the physiology of 

 marine organisms. Dr. Edridge Green criticized 

 the report of the departmental committee on sight 

 tests. He condemned the wool test as not being 

 efficient in detecting color blindness; and also 

 criticized the form of lantern recommended by the 

 committee, and the method of flicker photometry. 

 Professor Gotch and Professor Sherrington agreed 

 that the wool test was quite inefficient and should 

 not be retained; but they defended the lantern 

 and the form of photometer recommended by the 

 committee. 



SECTION K — BOTANY 



Two of the most interesting papers in the 

 Botanical Section were read by Dr. C. H. Osten- 

 feld, of Copenhagen, and by Professor F. E. 

 Weiss, of Manchester. These dealt with the ques- 

 tion of hybridism in plants. Dr. Ostenfeld con- 

 fined his remarks to the genus of hawkweeds 

 (Hieracmm) , one of the most difficult genera with 

 which systematic botanists have to deal, on ac- 

 count of its remarkable polymorphy. As Dr. 

 Ostenfeld showed, some species of Hieradum re- 

 produce themselves without fertilization, whilst 

 other species require this; and in a third set of 

 species both modes of reproduction obtain. Cross- 

 ing species of one of these sets with another, 

 hybrids were obtained; and these first crosses dif- 

 fered remarkably among themselves, thus differing 

 from the first crosses of other genera, which are 

 remarkably uniform. The offspring of the first 

 crosses, however, were quite uniform, thus differ- 

 ing from later crosses of other genera, which are 

 remarkably polymorphous. Dr. Ostenfeld con- 

 cluded that in this genus of plants new forms have 

 arisen and are arising at the present time (1) by 

 hereditary variation of already existing species, 

 (2) by hybridization and (3) by a combination 

 of these methods. From those forms which repro- 

 duce themselves without fertilization very few new 

 forms arise at all; but there are indications even 

 here that new forms arise occasionally by muta- 

 tion. Dr. Ostenfeld 's paper may be regarded as 

 the first step towards a real synthesis of the ex- 

 tremely numerous ' ' species ' ' of the genus Hier- 

 acium. 



Professor Weiss 's paper dealt with artificially 

 produced hybrids of two common British species 

 of avens, Geum rivale and G. urianum. The first 

 cross agrees with plants named Geum intermedmm. 



