i34 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 15. 



genera, the least abnormal forms being South Amer- 

 ican. The two sexes often differ enormously; the 

 male of some forms losing wings, mouth, and ocelli, 

 and having eyes and antennae of small size. — {Mit- 

 theil. ziiol. stat. Neapel, iii. .551, pi.) E. b. [904 



{Ec07iomic entomology.) 



The pine moth of Nantucket. — Detailed ac- 

 counts of the different stages, except the egg, and 

 of the habits of Retinia frustrana Scudd., are given by 

 S. H. Scudder. The paper is illustrated by an excel- 

 lent chromolithograph ic plate. The author is in- 

 clined to believe the insect described under the same 

 name by Comstock (Bep. U. S. dep. agnc, 1879) is 

 specifically distinct. — {Pub. Mass. soc. prom, ar/ric, 

 1883.) .J. H. c. '[905 



The spruce Tortrix. ^The natural history of 

 Tortrix fumiferana Clem, is given by C. H. Fernald. 

 {Ann. rep. si. cull, agric. Maine, 1882.) ,j. h. c. [906 



Clothes-moths. — A careful revision of the three 

 species of Tinea which infest clothing has been 

 made by Fernald. The common case-making species 

 should be known by the name of Tinea pellionella 

 Linn ; the species which makes a gallery of the sub- 

 stance on which it occurs is Tinea tapetzella Linn; 

 and the third species, which does not make a larval 

 case, but webs together portions of the substance 

 upon which it feeds into a cocoon before changing 

 to a pupa, is Tinea bisselliella Hum. — {Ann. rep. si. 

 coll. agric. Maine, 1882.) j. H. c. ' [907 



VEBTEBRATBS. 

 (.Physiology.) 

 Development of the red blood-corpuscles. — 



Feuerstack has published a memoir on this subject. 

 He gives first a brief mention of those authors who 

 have sought to trace the development of the red cor- 

 puscles from the white ; second, an abstract of Hayem 

 and Pouchet's theory of the haemato blasten; third, 

 of other views of less importance. The author 

 then presents his own observations and conclusions. 

 " We find in the circulation of animals with nu- 

 cleated blood-corpuscles every possible transition be- 

 tween colorless and colored blood-corpuscles. That 

 they are transition stages from the white to tlie 

 colored cells is shown by the course of development 

 during artificially indnced blood-formation." The 

 principal places of formation in the pigeon are the 

 osseous medulla, the spleen, the portal system, and 

 the feather-shafts; in the frog, the bony medulla and 

 spleen ; in Triton, the spleen, and the lymph sinus 

 near the bladder; in the eel, the spleen and the venal 

 lymph sinus. (The author has overlooked the view, 

 which is the one most plausible to us, that the 

 colored corpuscles are merely nuclei, and not com- 

 plete cells. His observations seem far from having 

 settled the problem.) — {Zeitschr. wiss. zooL, xxxviii. 

 136.) c. s. M. |;908 



Structural changes in the liver, accompany- 

 ing functional activity. — This subject, which as 

 yet has been little worked at in comparison with the 

 numerous corresponding researches made on othei' 

 glands of late years, is the subject of an interesting 

 reseai-ch by Afanassiew. His work leads him to the 

 following conclusions: 1°. Both glycogeny and the 

 formation of bile take place in all the cells of a 

 liver-lobnle. 2°. Agencies (section of the liver- 

 nerves or feeding on albuminous diet) which increase 

 the secretion of bile bring about a marked increase 

 in the size of the hepatic cells, which are also seen 

 to contain, in the interspaces of their protoplasmic 

 network, numerous albuminous granules. The cell 



limits are distinct, and the nuclei large and granular; 

 the whole organ is firm and resistant. 3°. On feed- 

 ing so as to get a liver exceptionally rich in glycogen, 

 the cells are found to be enormously large, when com- 

 pared witli those of an unfed animal, their contours 

 sharp, and in the cell body so many amorphous gly- 

 cogen particles deposited as to compress the proper 

 cell-substance into a mere coarse network stretching 

 from the nucleus towards the periphery. The blood- 

 capillaries are considerably narrowed by compres- 

 sion from the neighboring cells. The whole liver 

 is soft and brittle. 4°. Toluyl-di-amlne, which had 

 been found by Schmiedeberg to produce jaundice, 

 causes an increased biliary secretion. This it does by 

 bringing about a great destruction of red blood-cor- 

 puscles, whose decomposition products stimulate the 

 liver, and provide material for increased gall-secre- 

 tion. The experiments were made on dogs. — ( Pflilg. 

 archiv, xxx. 385. ) ii. n. ji. [909 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Ethnography of the Caucasus. — In a summary 

 of work by the Russian geographical society, Nature 

 has the following language: "Several linguists con- 

 sider the Armenian language as decidedly belonging 

 to the Iranian group, while others classify it with the 

 European group. Lagarde distinguishes it in three 

 elements, — the Haikan, the Arkasid, and the Sassa- 

 nid elements. The two latter are Iranian; but the 

 Haikan elements belong to a family of languages the 

 oldest of which is the Zend. Hiilschman concludes 

 that it occupies an intermediate place between the 

 Iranian languages and I he Slavo-Lithuanian; and 

 Fr. Midler, a partisan of its Iranian origin, admits 

 that it has some kinship with the Slavo-Lithuanian 

 languages. Prof. Patkanoff concludes that it occu- 

 pies an intermediate place between these two, and is 

 a representative of an extinct group of Indo-EuroiDCau 

 languages, which formerly was spread, perhaps, in 

 Asia Minor." — {Nature, March 15.) j. w. p. [910 



Tribes of the Zambesi. — Pere Depelchin, leader 

 of the catholic mission on the Zambesi, reports the 

 following tribes along that river, near its confluence 

 with the Chobe: the Ma-Nansa (or Ma-Kalaka), Ma- 

 Laya, Ma-Shukulombwe, Ma-Shubia, Ma-Tolala 

 (identified with the Ba-Nyeti), Ba-Rotse (orMa-Rotse), 

 Ma-Ntchoia, Ma-Mbunda, Ba-Libale, Ma-Pingula, Ma- 

 Hes. These tribes are subject to the empire of the 

 Ba-Rotse. Pere Depelchin finds that in Holub's lists 

 the vernacular terms for professions had been en- 

 tered as the names of separate tribes. The traveller 

 also corrects some difficulties respecting the languages 

 of the tribes. — (Precis /i jsi., Feb.) jT w. P. [911 



Iron in the Ohio mounds. — Mr. F. W. Putnam 

 showed that the iron swords, and plate of cast iron, 

 referred to in the writings of Dr. Hildreth and Mr. 

 Atwater as found in mounds at Marietta and Cir- 

 cleville, never' existed. The light shed by recent 

 discoveries showed that the supposed sword-handle 

 mentioned by Mr. Atwater, and the supposed orna- 

 ments of a scabbard described by Dr. Hildreth, were 

 common forms of implements and ornaments from 

 the mounds ; while ' the iron rust in the copper tube,' 

 or supposed 'end of the scabbard,' was red oxide of 

 copper, and the tube itself was simply a copper bead 

 of ordinary form. Mr. Putnam had studied the origi- 

 nal specimens of Dr. Hildreth, which were in the 

 cabinet of the Antiquarian society; and they will be 

 illustrated in his paper, to be printed by the society. 

 — {Amer. antiq. soc. ; meeting April 25.) [912 



Voyages of Moncatch-Ape. — In reference to 

 the recent notice of M. Le Page du Pratz (see 634), 



