25« 



NATURE 



[April 20, 191 1 



Muii} a> .i.(! tho important facts from almost every part 

 uf the globe which tlie presrnt number contains, it must 

 sutVicc to notice only the chapter on the causes of variation 

 in glaciers. The data there cited show that, at any rate 

 under certain conditions, the winds are factors, especially 

 in the rennoval of snow, more potent than has been 

 hitherto supposed. In regions of low temperature, but of 

 high winds, these drive the snow before them, like sand 

 in the desert, and thus check the formation of glaciers. 

 The volume of an ice-strcam, speaking in general terms, is 

 a function of two variables, the one alimentation, the 

 other ablation. Hitherto the ofToct of the latter has been 

 underestimated, the advance or retreat of a glacier having 

 been supposed to be mainly dependent on the amount of 

 the snow which falls on the upper part of its basin. 



M. Rabot classifies the years from 1826 to 1906 in 

 groups, according as the rainfall or the summer tempera- 

 ture at Geneva was above or below the average, and 

 states Yhat in the former case the Swiss glaciers, as a rule, 

 retreated, and in the latter advanced. Similar, though less 

 precise, evidence is obtained from other regions, so that 

 It is very probable, to quote Prof. Forel's words, that the 

 variations in summer temperature produce more effects 

 upon glaciers than has hitherto been supposed. On the 

 latter subject, and especially on the changes during the 

 last few years, a very large amount of information is 

 given. In short, its editor has made the Revue indispens- 

 able to all interested in the study of glaciers. 



(2) The Commission Internationale des Glaciers decided 

 at Stockholm last August that this report should appear at 

 an earlier date. Hence a supplement will be necessary 

 to contain documents which have not yet been received. 

 Still, this number includes Europe, with Russian Asia and 

 the United States of North America. The results show a 

 general but slow decrease of the glaciers. To this rule 

 there are local exceptions, which, however, are few except 

 in Scandinavia ; and even here they are in a minority. 

 It is suggested that in Norway changes in the humidity 

 of the air, due to the shifting of ocean currents, produce 

 more effect on climate and glacial oscillation than those 

 in temperature. Some sets of observations in the French 

 .\lps are more than usually systematic, for the investi- 

 gators take account of avalanches and calculate the rate 

 of flow and of ablation at the surface of glaciers between 

 two stations. They note that 683 out of 740 avalanches 1 

 followed a customary course, and estimate the amount of ' 

 debris brought down by them at 2243 cubic metres. 

 .Altogether the number contains not a little interesting 

 information. 



THE ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC 

 BIOLOGISTS. 

 'PHE tenth general meeting was held in the University 

 of Birmingham, under the presidency of Prof. G. H. 

 Carpenter, on April 6 and 7. There was a good attend- 

 ance. 



The president communicated a paper on some dipterous 

 larvae which last year caused considerable damage to crops 

 of swedes near Dundalk, Ireland. These belonged to an 

 apparently new species of gall-midge and to Scaptomyza 

 flaveola. In connection with this species, several points 

 of interest in the structure of the larva were demonstrated 

 by means of photographs and drawings shown in the 

 lantern. 



Mr. H. Maxwell Lefroy, in a very interesting address, 

 spoke on the training of economic entomologists. Not the 

 least difficulty in making economic zoologists in England 

 was the preponderance of the academic view and the total 

 absence of the economic view based on experience. He 

 pointed out that, in addition to a training in zoology, 

 botany, and chemistry, a course in agriculture should be 

 taken, and a knowledge of field work in entomology was 

 useful. 



Mr. Walter E. Collinge read a paper on house-flies and 

 public health, in which it was pointed out that there was 

 now no longer any doubt that cholera and typhoid fever 

 were both spread by these insects, and that there was 

 accumulating evidence that infantile diarrhoea, dysentery, 

 and tuberculosis were also. Mr. Collinge contended that 



NO. 2164, VOL. 86] 



a proper system of control and prevention were eskcntial 

 on the part of every corporate body having anything to do 

 with the health of the general public. After br 

 ferring to the ordinances and regulations in force 



countries, he commented upon th'- "•:-'■ • 



for the keeping of food in the mod- 

 the necessary regulations for the <i , ^ 



manure, &c. In concluding, he pointed out that it ; 

 maincd with the general public to educate the authorit. 

 in these and like matters if we have to remove from <j r 

 midst a danger full of potentialities to ourselves and c .: 

 children, and detrimental to the public at large. 



An interesting discussion on the standardisation f 

 economic nomenclature was opened by Mr. H. Maxvvril 

 Lefroy, and a committee was appointed .;i:i th- 



matter. 



Dr. G. H. Pethybridge gave an account of -.oiiie rec( t • 

 work on diseases of the potato plant in Ireland, where ih ■ 

 potato crop is peculiarly liable to suffer. Great advan<'^ 

 have been made in recent years in checking the ravag'-^ 

 of different diseases, but there are still many that hav 

 not yielded to treatment. A considerable amoiint of atten- 

 tion has been given by the author to these, and the results 

 were very fully described and illustrated. 



Mr. W, B. Grove described four little known British 

 fungi, viz. Mucor spinosus, Monilia lupuli, n.sp., long 

 known to brewers as occurring on spent hops, but hitherto 

 undescribed. Rhopalocystis nigra was a new name pro- 

 posed for Aspergillus niger, and Hormodendron clado- 

 sporoides, a species often confounded with Cladosporium 

 herbarutn. 



Mr. Walter E. Collinge directed attention to the 

 extremely serious nature of the plague of eeKvorms and 

 white worms which are at present attacking different 

 crops throughout the country, and to the scanty nature 

 of our knowledge of their life-histories and bionomics. 

 Dr. J. H. Priestley initiated a discussion on the 

 systematic recording of diseases of economic plants. The 

 occurrence of the beetle Necrobia rufipes in cotton bales 

 formed the subject of an interesting communication by 

 Mr. Joseph Mangan. Mr. G. E. Johnson demonstrated 

 some stages in the life of the nematode living in the 

 nephridia of the earthworm. The association accepted '!' 

 the invitation of Prof. Carpenter to m^et in Dublin in 

 1912 at a date to be fixed later. 



THE CONSERVATION OF OUR NATIONAL 



WATER RESOURCES. 

 A N interesting paper on the above subject was read by 

 Mr. W. R. Baldwin-Wiseman before the Surveyors' 

 Institution on January 27. This may be considered as the 

 complement to the paper read by the author before the 

 Royal Statistical Society in 1909 on the increase in the 

 national consumption of water. In the earlier paper Mr. 

 Baldwin-Wiseman dealt with the enormous increase in the 

 consumption of water, and the reasons for such increase, j 

 and he referred very shortly to the necessity for the crea- -^ 

 tion of a central authority which should be charged with 

 the duty of water conservancy in its widest application, 

 and, for that purpose, should engage in a close and exact 

 study of the water resources of the country. He .now 

 deals with some of the methods adc^ted by different coun- 

 tries to conserve and use in a systematic way the water 

 which they possess. It is rightly pointed out that the 

 particular use of water to which greatest attention is re- 

 quired varies in different countries. In the United King- 

 dom the water supply for domestic purposes and trade uses 

 Is all-important, and with it must be coupled the prevention 

 of stream pollution. In Italy, Switzerland, Norway, and 

 Canada water-power development is predominant. In 

 Egypt, India, parts of Australia, and certain regions of the 

 United States and Canada irrigation claims first place. 

 In Germany and Belgium inland navigation is of extreme 

 importance, while Holland devotes attention to drainage 

 and reclamation. 



The author's researches as regards what has been done 

 by various countries for the conservation of water for the 

 different purposes mentioned are of a careful and exhaustive 

 character, and it must have taken considerable time and 



