35» 



NATURE 



[May II, 1911 



of thf I'nited Smtfn Dipartment of Agriiultiirr Bureau of 

 Animal Industry. Four ryclp«t were found in the year, the 

 winter p<'riod, NovmilHr to March, wherein egg production 

 i<i r««ent!ally n non-natural (i.e. a forced or utimulatfd) 

 process, the spring period, March to Junr». this being the 

 natural laying perio<l of the fowl, and two later periods. 

 June to September and September to October. The third 

 period represents in part a natural continuance of the 

 normal breeding pcrio<l, and in part a stimulated process; 

 it is terminated bv ilw luDiilf, thi> characteristic feature of 

 the fourth pii ! 



Tub !' Agricultural College has recently 



issued tv dealing with the experiments carried 



out in ill' I luifitips of Staffordshire and Shropshire. 

 Numerous fw Id trials are reported in various centres, 

 dealing with the effects of the various artificial manures 

 alone and in various admixtures on the common crops. 

 Some of the proportions arc a little difficult to understand ; 

 one of the mixtures, for instance, being composed of 

 I^ cwt. of one constituent, 3^ cwt. of another, and if cwt. 

 of a third. Unfortunately no soil analyses are given, nor 

 are there any meteorological data for the various centres, 

 so that discussion of the results is not possible. At the 

 college itself, work has been continued on the " wart " 

 disease of potatoes caused by the fungus Synchiirxum 

 endohioticiim, Percival, not the least interesting feature of 

 which is that rortnin varieties of potato are immune, whilst 

 others, in the <a]w c (inditions, are attacked. 



I\ 1.(1 (",.', li^rnpliit' (\(i. ;,, iMii), M. N. Villate gives an 

 an..!!! ,.i 1i\ 1. (till journeys from Tidikelt to the Niger 

 by !iil .idds to our accurate knowledge of 



the i ...... >,.. I. His object was to extend the network 



of astronomically determined positions, and he succeeded 

 in obtaining the latitude and longitude of forty-nine points. 

 Equal altitudes of stars wore observed for latitude and 

 chronometer correction ; longitudes were obtained when 

 practicable by occultation of stars, and chronometer watches 

 furnished a means of determining the difference of longi- 

 tude between neighbouring points on the route. Observa- 

 tions were also made of the magnetic declination, 

 inclination, and horizontal force at some thirty-five to forty 

 points from Biskra in the north to Gao on the Niger in 

 the south. In consequence of changes which were found 

 to have lak-n place in the magnetic moment of the 

 magnets during the journey, values of the horizontal force 

 (an onlv be i^iven to three places of decimals of C.G.S. 

 unil--. 



Miss GEORtiN\ l\iNG has reprinted several newspaper 

 ••1-- in a |).iniplilet entitled "The Mineral Wealth of 

 \ ^ inh W'.des and other Lands and Countries " 



(Sydney : Brooks and Co.), with some additional matter 

 and a personal introduction. Her main contention is that 

 the ore-deposits were connected with volcanic activity, 

 which was especially prevalent in Tertiary times. Man, 

 however, is said to have existed in Australia in " the early 

 Tertiary period," and to have acquired a wandering pro- 

 pensity from the mental shocks then received. Glossopteris 

 is said to be in Europe exclusively a Mesozoic plant. 

 Waterspouts over oceans are attributed to " upheavals of 

 subsided metamorphic matter." We can understand the 

 writer's assertion that geologists in Australia have objected 

 to the publication of such papers in scientific journals ; but 

 we can scarcely believe, as is alleged, that their motive was 

 a fervent desire to issue the results under their own 

 names. 



NO. 2167, VOL. 86] 



The Italian S< i ' d Society has issued a volume • : 

 notices of the < observed in Italy during tt • 



year 1907. The volume i* compiled by Dr. G. Ma,- 

 assistant in the R. L'fTicio Ccntrale di Meleoro! . 

 Geodinamico at Rome, and forms the appendix to tl. 

 fourteenth volume (for 10 10) of the Bollettino of the Seismt 

 logical .Society. Twenty years ago, such notices wer- 

 contained in a few sheets of the Bollettino Metcorico of th' 

 central office. When the .Seismological Society was found' d 

 in i8<)5, they were issued in detachments with each part 

 of the Bollettino. Published, as they now arc for the firs' 

 time, in a separate volume of nearly six hundred pages, v. > 

 can form some idea of the magnitude and value of tK- 

 work, for the editing of which Dr. Martinclli is rc«ponsib1« 

 Among the mc«t interesting of the notices are those on t!. 

 Calabrian earthquake of October 23, 1907. These form t! 

 foundation ^f the report that will shortly be issued by th- 

 Government Commission on this violent, if ^oiii< \\h..- 

 restricted, shock. 



The monthly meteoroloyii .n c n.in oi tne S<>r-,n \-.i.in^ . 

 published by the Meteorological Committee for May (fir-^t 

 issue), includes useful synoptic weather charts of that 

 ocean for .April 6-12 (commencing with the day following 

 the blizzard experienced in this country). They show that 

 during nearly the whole of the period in question there 

 was an area of high barometric pressure outside our north 

 and north-west coasts, and that it extended at times to the 

 mid-Atlantic. This distribution of pressure explains the 

 severe weather over England and France, which was 

 accompanied by frequent showers of snow and sleet. As 

 the central part of the anticyclone extended southward the 

 weather became finer. The chart of the Indian Ocean fer 

 the same month contains an interesting communication ori 

 phosphorescent seas from .'\dmiral Tydeman, of the 

 R. Netherlands Navy (see Nature, March 16). We note 

 that the chart has been further improved, and extended to 

 the eastward. 



A NEW method of producing the line spectra of a metal, 

 which promises to facilitate greatly the study of the subject, 

 is described by Dr. G. Gehlhoff in the Verhatidlungen of 

 the German Physical Society for March 30. It makes use 

 of the fact that the inactive gases, helium, argon, &c.. ar.: 

 spectroscopically extremely sensitive to impurities, their 

 lines disappearing from the positive clow of the vacuum 

 tube if small quantities of air or water vapour are present. 

 A small quantity of the purified metal to be investigated is 

 introduced into one of the ordinary spectral tubes, and the 

 tube washed out with, and finally filled with, helium. On 

 passing the discharge the tube may or may not give the 

 lines of the metal in the positive glow, but on heating it. a 

 temperature can always be found at which the lines appear, 

 and a higher temperature at which the helium lines dis- 

 appear completely. These temperatures are respectively, 

 for csesium. 50° and 70° C. ; for sodium and potassium, 

 80° and 140° C. : while for mercury the temperature of the 

 room is sufficient to produce the lines of the rrfetal. 



The March number of the Bulletin de la Sociiti d'En- 

 couragcment pour I'Industrie Xationale contains the first 

 instalment of a lecture on the electrification of railways, 

 delivered before the society in November last by M. de 

 Valbreuze. After giving a short history of the slow pro- 

 gress of electrification previous to 1905, and its rapid 

 extension since that date, the author describes the principal 

 features of the systems at present in use under the heads : — 

 Direct current 500-700 volt systems, triphase systems, 

 monophase systems, and direct current high-pressure 



