470 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No.48i. 



ferenee proved to be a permanent one, and 

 not a variation caused by accident, or error in 

 technique, it was deemed worthy of being 

 placed on record. 



A large number of corpuscles were meas- 

 ured, but only the extremes and averages are 

 here presented. They are as follows: 



Shortest width observed 3.9 microns. 



Greatest width observed 4.8 microns. 



Shortest length observed 8.5 microns. 



Greatest length observed 10.7 microns. 



Average length 10.3 microns. 



Average width 4.1 microns. 



Ratio of width to length 1 :2.5. 



Average thickness 2 microns. 



Thus it is seen that the outline was dis- 

 tinctly elliptical, the long diameter being on 

 the average two and a half times the shorter 

 diameter. It is also to be observed that the 

 above figures differ considerably from those of 

 the normal red corpuscles, which vary from 

 7.2 microns to Y.8 microns. The thickness 

 was practically the same as that of the nor- 

 mal red corpuscles. The number was five 

 millions per cubic millimeter and the quantity 

 of hasmoglobin was up to the standard. The 

 colorless corpuscles presented no peculiarities. 



The student in whose blood these corpuscles 

 were found was a healthy mulatto about 

 twenty-two years of age. His brother, who 

 attended the university a few years ago, had 

 normal red blood cells. Other than this no 

 family history is at hand. 



HeLVIN DRESB.'iCH. 



Ohio State University. 



NOTES ON ENTOMOLOGY. 



AuGUSTE Baebey, an expert Swiss forester, 

 has published a review of the Soolytidse of 

 central Europe.* They are treated from a 

 systematic standpoint, but after the descrip- 

 tion of each species there is usiially a consid- 

 erable amount of biological matter. With 

 each species of great destructive power is given 

 the best means of combating it. A number 

 of the European species also occur in the 

 United States, so that the book will be of 

 great value to all American students of forest 

 insects. The excellent plates illustrate the 



* ' Les Scolytides de I'Eiirope Centrale,' Geneva, 

 folio, 120 pp., 18 plates (also a German edition). 



insects and their work; several of the latter 

 are particularly fine. 



The Miinchener Koleopterologische Zeit- 

 schrift is a new entomological journal, 

 devoted to the study of palsearctic beetles. 

 It is issued from Munich, and edited by 

 Drs. Karl and Joseph Daniel. Volume I. 

 (1903) is now complete and contains over 400 

 pages. A large majority of the articles are 

 systematic, and consist of reviews and revi- 

 sions of genera and groups, and descriptions 

 of new species and varieties. This volume 

 contains Dr. Ganglbauer's notable classifica- 

 tion of the coleoptera. He criticizes the 

 recent classifications of Lameere and Kolbe, 

 and presents a new one, which, in general, is 

 like that of LeConte and Horn (1883). There 

 are seven leading groups of families, but the 

 groups Clavicornia and Serricornia of those 

 authors are arranged under the groups Staphy- 

 linoidea and Diversicornia. It would appear, 

 however, even from the names of some of the 

 groups, that a logical classification of the 

 beetles is a thing only to be hoped for. 



The British Museum of Natural History 

 has issued an elaborate account of the African 

 tse-tse flies, prepared by Mr. E. E. Austen.* 

 The fact that one species ((?. morsitans) 

 carries the germs of the Nagana disease lends 

 great interest to the study of these flies. This 

 disease, so fatal to domestic animals, was sup- 

 posed to be due to a poison injected by the 

 bite of the tse-tse fly. All travelers in those 

 regions have been delayed or disheartened by 

 its ravages in their animals. And Mr. Austen 

 suggests that were it not for the tse-tse fly, 

 the entire history of South Africa would have 

 been different. Although as long ago as 1879 

 it was suspected that the tse-tse fly was merely 

 the carrier of a blood-parasite, it was not so 

 proved until 1895 by Col. Bruce. This para- 

 site was then described by Plimmer and Brad- 

 ford as Trypanosoma hrucei. Mr. Austen de- 

 votes many pages to the recital of the ravages 

 of the disease, quoting from many works of 

 travel. Detailed technical descriptions are 

 given of the seven species of the genus, one of 



*'A Monograph of the Tse-tse Flies {Glos- 

 sinu),' with a chapter on the monthparts, by H. 

 .J. Hansen, London, 1003, pp. 319, 9 pis. 



