IS'OVEMBEK 27, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



699 



represented), but extends to a remarkable ex- 

 tent to the Asclepiadacea; and also to the 

 Leguminosa;; probably other families are also 

 affected. It seems likely that in the Transvaal 

 this development enables the plant the better 

 to survive adverse temporarily xerophytic con- 

 ditions. It is particularly noticeable here 

 that these plants are among the first to flower 

 in the spring, and that many — I am not yet 

 able to say with certainty, most — of them 

 flower without a drop of rain having fallen 

 for four or five months, and on dry hillsides 

 ■where they are not affected by an.y subirriga- 

 tion. It is true that there has been some 

 heavy dew, but in some of these instances 

 not enough to make the grasses and annuals 

 start growth. As I write there are Liliacese, 

 Iridacese and Asclepiadacese in bloom on 

 some of the driest ridges of the high veldt, 

 where scarcely a new blade of grass is to be 

 found. It must not be inferred from this, 

 however, that there is no green grass at this 

 season. On areas of burned veldt the new 

 growth of grass is in many cases quite per- 

 ceptible even withoiit any rain, perhaps ow- 

 ing to the effect of heavy dews. 



Joseph Birtt Davy. 



brain-weiguts of brothers. 

 Ix a former number of Science (XVII., No. 

 430, p. 516) the writer cited several brain- 

 weights of brothers and sisters, mostly chil- 

 dren. After the recent execution by electricity 

 of the three Van Wormer brothers, the follow- 

 ing data were obtained at the post-mortem ex- 

 amination : 



Age 



Stature (pcntimeters) . 



Head length 



Head breadth 



Cephalic index 



Head circumference. . . 



BcKly- weight (estimated) 



Fresh brain -weight 1,340 gms. 1.358 1,600 



The high weight of Frederick's brain oc- 

 casioning some comment, it was again weighed 

 after about five minutes' drainage, the second 

 figure being 1,590 gms. The left hemi- 



cerebruni weighed 3 gms. more than the right 

 in Willis's and 10 gms. less in Burton's, while 

 in Frederick's case the two halves weighed 

 exactly the same. 



The physiognomy of the cerebral gyral con- 

 formation of the three brains is quite similar 

 in some respects. 



A full report will be published later. There 

 was a well-marked postorbital limbus on the 

 left side in Frederick's brain. 



E. A. Spitzka, M.D. 



HECKXT ZOOPALEOSTOLOGY. 



schlosser's literaturbericht. 

 Dr. Max Schlosser, of ilunich, continues 

 his invaluable ' Literaturbericht ' up to the 

 close of the year 1900, and sends it to us as 

 an absti'act from tiie Archiv fiir Anthro- 

 pologie, Bd. XXVIII. Like all the previous 

 numbers of this review, which began in 1883, 

 this is most welcome not only because our 

 attention through it is directed to the entire 

 literature, but because of the original critical 

 notes which the author adds to the various 

 abstracts which he presents. 



AMERICAN OLrcoCEXE MICROFAUXA. 



L\ the White River formation near Pipe- 

 stone Springs, western Montana, Mr. Earl 

 Douglass discovered a very interesting micro- 

 fauna. The American Museum of Natural 

 History in 1902 visited the same locality and 

 secured a rich collection of small mammals, 

 especially important because the Titano- 

 therium beds of South Dakota have yielded 

 only the large mammals of the period. The 

 collection is described by Dr. W. D. Matthew* 

 as including one marsupial allied to Didel- 

 phys, three Insectivora, including two new 

 genera of an extremely primitive tjrpe, two 

 species of Creodonta, two of Carnivora re- 

 lated to the dogs and mustelines respectively 

 and six species of rodents. Among the horses 

 is the primitive Mesohippus wesloni, older in 

 type than Mesohippu^s hairdi. The Artio- 

 dactyla are also represented by a variety of 

 small forms. In this connection may also be 



* ' The Fauna of the Titanothrrium Beds of 

 Pipestone Springs, ilontana.' Hull. Amer. Mus. 

 yat. Hist., Vol. XIX., 1903, art. VI., pp. 197-226. 



