January 25, 19 12] 



NATURE 



421 



rmen. Twenty-two deaths occurred among those inoculated 

 and twenty-four deaths among those not inoculated. The 

 ratio per looo of strength of admissions for enteric fever 

 among the inoculated was 3- 19, and the corresponding 

 ratio of deaths was 0-37. Among the not inoculated the 

 admission ratio per 1000 of strength was 12-72, and that 

 for deaths was 2-06. As regards case mortality, the per- 

 centage figures are 11-23 ^Of ^^^ inoculated and 16-89 ^or 

 the not inoculated. There thus seems to be a very strong 

 •case in favour of anti-typhoid vaccination. 



In The Field of December 30, 191 1, Mr. Lydekker 

 suggests that the so-called unicorn rams of Nepal, of which 

 living examples were exhibited a few years ago in the 

 Zoological Gardens, are an artificial product. Mr. 

 Lydekker 's views are, however, disputed by Mr. Pocock in 

 the same journal of January 13. In The Scottish 

 Naturalist for January Mr. H. J. Elwes gives the first 

 instalment of notes on the primitive sheep of the Scottish 

 islands, dealing in this instance mainly with those of the 

 Shetland*. The paper includes illustrations of a ram and 

 a ewe of the short-tailed Soay, or Soa, breed, which is 

 perhaps the most primitive of all. 



Pal^obotanists are well served by the publication " Die 

 Palaeobotanische I^iteratur, " of which the second volume, 

 compiled, as was the first, by Dr. W. J. Jongmans, has 

 been published by Gustav Fischer, Jena (price 18 

 marks). This volume catalogues contributions issued in 

 1909, and contains also a few papers of the previous year. 

 The first section provides a bibliography ; the second 

 section, forming the main portion of the work, presents an 

 alphabetical list of references for families, genera, and 

 species. 



Two important contributions to the flora of Siam were 

 published last year. A systematic catalogue, appearing in 

 the Bcihefte zuni Botanischen Centralblatt (vol. xxviii., 

 part ii.), deals with the plants collected by Dr. C. C. 

 Hosseus in 1906. It amplifies the list communicated by 

 the author to the preceding volume by the incorporation 

 of new identifications ; among the latter, the family 

 Orchidaceae attracts attention on account of numerous new 

 species and the large number of species of Dendrobium. 

 A more comprehensive list is that provided by Mr. W. G. 

 Craib, who has worked out the collections of Dr. Kerr 

 and officers of the Siam Forest Service, and has embodied 

 his determinations of the dicotyledonous plants in the first 

 and last numbers of The Kew Bulletin (1911). This 

 enumeration indicates a preponderance of species in the 

 families Leguminosae, Euphorbiacea;, Rubiaceae, and 

 Acanthacea; ; the Cupuliferae consists of twelve species of 

 Quercus and four of Castanopsis ; new species are 

 abundant. 



The experimental trials of different varieties of sugar 

 cane that have been maintained in the Leeward Islands 

 for eleven successive seasons furnish each year new facts 

 or premises. The latest report, for 1909-10, bears testi- 

 mony to the value in Antigua of the established variety, 

 Sealy Seedling, and a seedling introduced recently from 

 Barbados ; similarly, an older and a new variety, different 

 from the two former, have yielded the best returns in St. 

 Kitts. It has been recognised that the results of the 

 experimental trials must not be too hastily followed up on 

 the sugar estates ; there has certainly been no precipitate 

 change in Antigua, where White Transparent still occupies 

 two-thirds of the total acreage ; in St. Kitts, however, a 

 seedling introduced in the earlier trials has displaced th.nt 

 standard variety from the premier position. An incroasu 



NO. 2204, VOL. 88] 



in the amount of root disease caused by the fungus 

 Marasmius sacchari is noted, for which rotation with cotton 

 is suggested as a remedy. The manurial experiments re- 

 corded in a separate part are now confined to ratoon canes ; 

 the new fertilisers, nitrolim and nitrate of lime, were intro- 

 duced for the first time. 



A COPY of the report for the year 1911 of the Philo- 

 sophical Institute of Canterbury, N.Z., has been received. 

 During the year the membership reached its highest for 

 many years, and the financial position of the institute is 

 very satisfactory. The report points out that the council 

 of the institute has considered it a duty constantly to urge 

 the importance of preserving the native fauna and flora 

 of New Zealand, and when it was suggested recently that 

 Kapiti Island, one of the Dominion's sanctuaries, could 

 with advantage be used as a holiday resort for Wellington, 

 representations were made to the Government as to the 

 retrograde nature of the proposed step, and the council 

 has had the satisfaction of eliciting from the acting 

 Minister of Lands a statement that it is not intended to 

 interfere with the position of the island as a sanctuary. 

 The council has also urged on the Government the 

 desirability of using the s.y. Terra Nova in investigating 

 the biological and hydrographical problems of the New 

 Zealand continental shelf. Its representations have not 

 been accepted, but it is to be hoped that the work which 

 has been done by the Terra Nova in the waters immedi- 

 ately to the north of New Zealand may result in sub- 

 stantial additions to scientific knowledge of the marini' 

 fauna of that area, as well as conduce to the safety of 

 shipping between Australia and this country. The presi- 

 dent of the institute for the present year is Dr. L. 

 Cockayne, and the honorary secretary Dr. C. Coleridge 

 Farr. 



The summary of the weather for the week endinj^ 

 January 20, issued by the Meteorological Office, shows that 

 the conditions were generally unsettled throughout the 

 period. Heavy falls of rain, sleet, or snow occurred in 

 every part of Great Britain. The aggregate rainfall was 

 in excess of the average over the entire kingdom, except 

 in the north of Scotland and the north of Ireland, the 

 excess being large in most parts of England and in the 

 west of Scotland. In the northern and Midland counties 

 the precipitation was chiefly snow. At Southport the 

 depth of snow on the morning of January ij was 7 inches, 

 whilst a similar quantity was reported next morning at 

 Cirencester, and a depth of 8 inches at Bath. In the 

 south and south-east of England the fall of snow was 

 very slight. There was a decided rise of temperature 

 towards the close of the week, and the snow rapidly dis- 

 appeared. The melted snow, combined with the copious 

 rains, occasioned floods in many parts of the country. At 

 the end of the week the large European anticyclonic 

 system, which had extended from Siberia to Norway, and 

 at the centre of which the barometer was above 31 inches, 

 had decreased considerably in intensity. For the time the 

 threatened cold spell had disappeared, and d.nmp and mild 

 weather had again set in. 



In a memorandum dated Simla, December 11, iqir, 

 referring to the probable character of the rains from 

 December, 191 1, to February, 1912, in niniiu'rn lndi;i, 

 the officiating director-general of observ.Udi !•> explains that 

 the f.ill-i (luring the winter season o.c m during the 

 p;iss,t^i . f (iisturbances which have b< ■ n shown to reside 

 in the upper and middle strata of the atmosphere. When 

 these depressions show themselves, their line of travel 

 v.iri' s considerably from year to year, and it is chiefly 



