August 10, 1929] NATURE 245

AuGusT 10, 1929] NATURE 245

Research Items. Sinanthropus Pekinensis : Further Discoveries. - (NATURE, Aug. 25, 1928, p. 285). The review deals Further investigations by the Geological Survey of with the historical aspects of alcoholism, its prevalence China at Chou Kou Tien during the season of 1928 in Great Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Russia, have brought to light more Sinanthropus material and the United States; its association with other from the site on which the type form molar tooth was morbid conditions, especially cancer, pellagra., and previously discovered. The new material is described mental disease, experimental work, tests of drunken• in general terms by Dr. Davidson Black in Science for ness, mortality, legislation, and modes of prevention. June 28. It consists of the greater part of the right A bibliography of 40 references to the literature of horizontal ramus of an adult lower jaw with the molar nine different countries is appended. teeth in situ and having the premolar canine and distal half of the lateral incisor sockets preserved. Further, Changes in the Earthworm Fauna of Illinois.-Frank there are a worn right upper molar with evidence of Smith records changes in the earthworm fauna of injury during life, the labial side of the crown and Illinois (Bull., Div. Nat. Hist. . Survey, State of Illinois, portion of the root of a permanent median incisor, an vol. 18, art. 10, 1928). The tendency is towards an immature lower median incisor and the root of a wom increasing domination of European species and a cor• lower permanent median incisor posthumously crushed responding decrease in the abundance of some indi• anrl deformed. All the specimens are deeply pig• genous forms. The author compares collections which mented and mineralised. Though not found in the he and others made thirty years ago with recent col• sanie deposit as the earlier material, there can be no lections, and records that about 1896 only a few speci• doubt as to their contemporaneity and their geological mens of Lumbricus terrestris were seen in a restricted age-Lower Quaternary (Polycene). The greater part locality near Champaign crawling about during a rain of this material has still to be prepared and studied in storm. For several years afterwards specimens of the laboratory, but enough is now available to make this earthworm needed for class-work had to be it possible to draw certain conclusions. It is evident obtained from dealers elsewhere, but about 1905 that Sinanthropus, like Eoanthropus, was a large specimens were fairly abundant in the Arboretum in brained form though the calvaria is not tmduly thick. the University campus. Later the neighbouring area The morphology of the jaw of the two specimens pre• became abundantly stocked with them, while speci• sents features of unusual interest. The general archi• mens of Diplocardia communis, which was formerly tecture of the symphysis region makes it evident that common, became infrequent. The area in Champaign the very generalised hominid dentition is supported into which L. terrestris has extended its distribution wit-h a framework of a type hitherto encountered only has also greatly increased in recent years. among forms having relatively formidable canines. The architecture of the jaw is much less hominid Gas Vacuoles of Arcella.-The April issue of the than that of the teeth ; it supports and represents a Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (vol. 72, type which, until the discovery of Eoanthropus, had pt. iv.) is devoted to a memoir by the late Dr. Edward been supposed to be associated only with an anthro• J. Bles on Arcella, and is a study in cell physiology. The poid type of dentition. It is clear, therefore, that dis• experiments were devised by Dr. Bles and carried out tinctive hominid teeth were evolved before the sup• with his well-known skill and care. He describes the porting jaw lost its anthropoid form. morphology of Arcella discoides-the species selected for observation because of its transparent test, which Is Evolution Continuous or Discontinuous ?-Very is paler in colour, and flatter than that of A. vulgaris considerable modifications have taken place in the -and how he obtained a constant supply of young views regarding the nature of Darwinian variations examples for study. The original object of the investi• and mutations since these processes came into opposi• gation was to determine the nature of the contents of tion as the alternative bases of the origin of species. the gas vacuoles in Arcella, and the author states that Dr. Francis B. Sumner, in a short article in the July the gas is pure oxygen-if any other gas is present it Scientific Monthly, summarises the present day point is only in exceedingly minute traces. The oxygen is of view. He indicates that although the mutationists produced by oxidase action. The generally accepted still ' stick to their guns ', deductions from the results view that the gas in the vacuoles is carbon dioxide of genetic experiments, while allowing discreteness. to is founded on a single experiment by Biitschli, and the the gene, have added to it a content of quantitative author shows that this conclusion is untenable. The potentialities or values. So that mutation in the new movements of pseudopodia from their protrusion to view is no greater a ' saltation ' than variation was disappearance are connected directly with the in the old. It comes to this, apparently, that muta• activity of an oxidase (the granules of which stain tion is hereditary variation, regardless of magnitude, blue with benzidine), and on applying the benzidine that is to say, it is a hereditary (transmissible) modi• test to several flagellates and ciliates it was found that fication of the germinal substance, while the alter• a similar oxidase was present in them, and t-he author native variation is a non-hereditary change, due, as is adduces evidence in support of his view that there is commonly assumed, to the action of environment, in these cases as in Arcella a similar method of con• broadly speaking, upon the individual. If mutation verting the chemical energy of the oxidase action into be regarded as of this minimal type, then evolution the energy used in movement.. The paper is illus• is due to a process which, while discontinuous in trated by eleven plates of excellent drawings by Mr. esKence, produces a sensible continuity, for in the A. K. Maxwell. author's opinion the transition from one species to another has commonly involved no greater breaks in Evolutionary Sequence among Protophyta. -At continuity than may now be observed between one the present time, eleven classes of simple, holo• individual and another in the same species. phytic organisms are recognised, in no two of which do chromatophore pigments, reserve substances, and Alcoholism.--The June issue of the Bulletin of cell membranes show complete correspondence. In Hygiene contains a review of recent literature on alco• Fritsch's review of these classes under the title of holism, by Dr. J.D. Rolleston, whose previous contri• " Evolutionary Sequence and Affinities among Proto• butions to this subject were noted by us last year phyta" (Biol. Reviews, vol. 4, Aprill924), it is brought No. 3ll9, VoL. 124]

ou t very clearly that these classes may b e regarded parts away from each other. The radially outward as parallel evolutionary series, most of which are movements suggest a system of convection currents represented by forms ranging from motile flagellate generated by differential radioactive heating beneath organisms to typical algre types such as the chloro• each of the two great land-masses. The importance coccoid, filamentous, siphonaceous, etc. In fact, it of recognising thermal and electromagnetic pro• is in only two of the eleven· classes, the Eugleninere cesses as well as those due to gravitation is emphasised. and Chloromonadales, that typical algal forms are still unknown. In view of these facts, it is only Effect of Nuclear Spin on Spectra.- The line spectra reasonable to agree with Fritsch that the purely of bismuth and cresium have a hyperfine structure, artificial distinction into Flagellata and Algre should the description of which falls outside the usual be abandoned. Recent work has also brought about quantum t h eory of electronic motions. Stated for• a readjustment of the groups formerly included under mally, it requires the introduction of a new quantmn the Chlorophycere. Borzi's original suggestion that number, and the corresponding physical accompani• yellow-green , oil-forming. organisms should be placed ment of this in the atomic model has been traced to in a class distinct from th at containing the green, the quantised rotation of the positive nucleus. The starch-forming organisms, has received ample justifica• development of this idea on t h e quantum mechanics t ion and such forms are now classified as H eterokontre has been carried out by J. Hargreaves in a paper - a group of equal rank with Chrysophycere, Bacil• appearing in the July issue ·of the Proceedings of the lariales, etc. On the other hand, Bohlin's group Royal Society, for the relatively simple case of a Stephanokontre, and Blackman and Tansley's Akontre, nucleus with a half-quantum spin in an atom with a do not receive equal support, and the t endency at the central field. After some empirical adjustment, the present time is to reduce these to the rank of sub• results of theory and experiment can be made to groups co-equal with Ulotrichales, Siphonales, etc., agree, and there emerges, inter alia, a rule for the of the large class Isokontre, with the other sub-groups most probable type of transition, namely, one in of which their metabolism is in agreement. The which there iR reversal neither of the spin axis of the classification of the Isokontre now appears to be nucleus, nor of that of the electron which is respon• satisfa@torily established, but much work still remains sible-loosely speaking-for the emission of radiation. to bring the other groups into an equally satisfactory Mr. Hargreaves suggests that some of the effects condition. observed indicate that the charge of the nucleus is localised chiefly in its outer Theories of Coral Reefs.-Whart on's view that foundations for coral reefs h ave been furn ished by the Raman Effect for X-Rays.-When homogeneous marine abrasion of volcanic islands is shown by Prof. X-rays are scat tered, some of the deviated quanta W. M. Davis to be untenable as a general explanation form a group which has hitherto been supposed to be (Science Progress, July 1929). Darwin's theory in• of the same frequency as the incident beam. A care• volves slowly subsiding volcanic islands, and there• ful analysis of this so-called unmodified radiation by fore uncliffed and bayed shore-lines would be expected, D. P. Mitchell with a spectrometer of very high a nd such evidence as is available of the original resolving power (Physical Review, vol. 33, p. 871) has foundations should reveal the slopes of a dissected now shown, however, that it is actually not homo• cone. In contrast, Wharton's theory demands geneous, but possesses a fine structure. The detail of cliffed a nd non-embayed shore-lines, and uplift.ed reefs the lat ter depends upon the nature of the scattering ought to be based upon flat platforms. It is shown material, but is independent of the angle of scattering, t hat both Darwin and Wharton overlooked these and and it is found that the changes in frequency corre• other inevitable consequences, but that, whereas spond fairly well with characteristic frequencies of the ' \'barton's theory is fmmd to be contradict ed when it atoms responsible for the scaUering. The effect thus is confronted by the facts of exploration, that of appears t o be analogous to that discovered in t he region Darwin is convincingly confirmed. The article is of optical frequencies by Raman and Krishnan, stimulated by a review of "The Coral Reef Problem", except that the transitions involved are electronic in in which Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner suggests that the case of X-rays, and molecular for the Raman Whart,on's theory has not been prov ed untenable by spectra. It is perhaps somewhat difficult to picture definit e evidence. Prof. Davis has now specifically how, as has been observed in one instance, the fre• answered this criticism in a paper which is not only quency of an X-ray can be increased by eleckonic a valuable summary of coral-reef evidence but also scattering, and it also seems necessary t o assume that an admirable lesson in scientific method. when an X-ray has its frequency diminished, the electron concerned is only taken t o the periphery of Continental Drift.-The attention of geologists is the atom, and then left there at rest. directed to a review of the continental drift hypo• thesis by Prof. Arthur Holmes (Mining Magazine, A Simple Audio-Frequency Oscillator.- Most la bora• April, ::\1ay, and June 1929). Evidence is summarised tory courses in physics and chemistry include elec• suggesting that the movements involved in the trical bridge m easurements for which an alternat• changes that have affected the face of the earth since ing current supply is needed, and it is a common the close of the Palreozoic include (a) a breaking up experience of instructors that these often prove of Laurasia and Gondwan aland with a radially out• extremely troublesome to operat e. Mr. C. W. w_ard drift of the individual parts of each area towards Oatley has described a low-power audio-frequency the Pacific and the Tethys; and (b) a general drift, oscillat or in the July number of the Journal of probably involving the whole of the crust, with a Scientific Instruments, which appears to be a consider• northerly component on the African side sufficient able advance on previous pieces of apparatus used to remove Natal from the neighbourhood of the late• for this purpose. It consists essentially of a valve• Carboniferous south pole and Britain from the late• maintained tuning-fork, of the type introduced by Carboniferous tropics. It is shown that the motive Dr. Eccles. The alternating voltage from this is force cannot be of external origin but must arise taken to benches round the laboratory, and is ampli• within the earth itRelf. What is required for (a) is a fied by a single-valve circuit on each, the bridge ter• mechanism operating beneath t he continents capable minals being finally connected to tapped transformers of stretching or splitting them and of dragging the on the anode circuits of the latter . A special feature No. 3119, VoL. 124]

of the circuits described is that the only source of work carried out in this house by Profs. Willard, Kratz, power required, both on the high-tension side and the and D ay. It covers tests of efficiency, capacity, low-tension side of all the valves, is t he 110 volt D.C. rating, and h eat losses of commercial furnaces, heat main. In the actual circuit for which the details are insulators, sizes, positions, and resistances of air ducts, given in this paper, the fork has a frequency of 180 and the effects of conditions outside the house on cyeles per second, and yields immediately 10 volts their action. Six varieties of solid fuel have been r.m.s. The maximum voltage which can be used on compared, two types of ehimney stacks and stove the bridge is 30 volts r.m.s., but Mr. Oatley's arrange• pipes, and the effect of providing thermal insulation ments would appear to be susceptible of considerable in the ceiling has been determined. The loss of heat modification, and apparatus similar in principle could from the outside surfaces of the walls and windows be readily set up in most laboratories. and the influence of sunshine on it are to form the subject of a future bulletin. Crystallisal:ion.-We have received from Dr. :F. H. Maberley a note on a simple experiment in which half Martinsel SteeL-Any improvement in the quality a stick of ' meta-fuel ' is set on edge on a penny resting of steel fot' ships enabling scantlings to be reduced on a cork, is ignited and three-quarters allowed to burn. is welcomed by shipowners and shipbuilders. Among It is then blown out, and the sublimate collecting is the new steels available is martinsel steel, which is examined with a lens. It consists of delicate crystal• referred to in a short article in the Engineer for July line needles, some with branching ends. 19, by Mr. P. G. Rouse. The development of this steel was d escribed in a paper read on Mar . 22 to the Oxidation-Reduction.- The twelfth (1927), thir• W est of Scotland Iron and Steel Institute by Mr. teenth, and fourteenth ( 1928) of the series on this sub• F. G. Martin, who some seven years ago advocated ject being issued by the U.S. Public Health Service, the heat treatment of ship steel and the careful which were referred to in NATURE of Aug. 3, p. 213, measurement of its elastie limit . It has been found have recently come to hand. A reply is made to tha t the elastic limit of steel depends on the arrange• Kodama's criticisms of the author 's work on the m ent of its microstrueture, and this in ordinary ship Schardinger reac.tion, the previous results being con• steel;; is affected by the rolling. Martinsel steel is a firmed. The thirteenth paper describes the prepara• special quality steel subjected after rolling to a special tion of 34 indophenols, many of which are new ; all heat treatment ensuring the formation of a miero• can be nsed as oxidation-reduction indicators, but structure most favourable to the great est elastie nine are listed as being specially useful. The four• strength of the steel, and Mr. Rouse gives miero• teenth presents data on the equilibrium potentials of photographs of ordinary mild steel an