February 29, 19 12] 



NATURE 



59: 



having been Syene (Aswan), or at most Hierasykaminos 

 (Maharraka), at the southern end of the Dodekaschoinos. 

 No literary authority under the Empire gives the sHghtest 

 hint of any such thing as a Roman station far south of 

 Napata, and within 150 miles of Khartum, and until 

 definite evidence comes from Prof. Garstang we must sup- 

 pose that his Roman temple is no more than a Nubian copy 

 of one, and means no regular Roman station. Had there 

 been such a station at Meroe, Strabo could not have failed 

 to mention it. 



The " Memorandum to Sanitary Authorities on the Sub- 

 ject of Epidemic Poliomyelitis " (infantile paralysis, see 

 Nature, vol. Ixxxvii., p. 494), which was issued by the 

 Local Government Board in December, 191 1, has now been 

 followed by the publication of further reports upon the 

 subject (New Series, No. 61). The volume contains a re- 

 port by Dr. Reece on the prevalence of the disease in 

 Devonshire and Cornwall in 1911; another, by Dr. Farrar, 

 on outbreaks in the Midlands and Dorsetshire in 1910 ; 

 notes by Dr. Mervyn Gordon on the bacteriology of the 

 disease ; and clinical and epidemiological notes by Dr. 

 Hugh Macewan. The number of known cases in the 

 Devon and Cornwall outbreak up to September 16, 191 1, 

 was 154, with thirty-four deaths, but probably many mild 

 and abortive cases escaped notice. The report concludes 

 with a grave indictment of some of the public authorities 

 of the districts concerned on account of their reluctance to 

 take the steps necessary to cope with the disease. 



We are glad to welcome a new series of publications by 

 the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. The 

 series will comprise the publications of the Babylonian 

 section of the museum ; and a beginning has already been 

 made by the issue of a monograph on " Babylonian Hymns 

 and Prayers," by the Swedish scholar Dr. David W. 

 Myhrman. It is well known that the University of Penn- 

 sylvania possesses a very rich collection of tablets obtained 

 as the result of four expeditions which conducted excava- 

 tions on the site of the Babylonian city of Nippur between 

 the years 1888 and 1900. The greater number of the texts 

 published in the present volume are from this site ; others 

 are from collections purchased in London and Baghdad. 

 The tablets contain religious compositions, the majority of 

 which are written in Sumerian, the language of the early 

 non-Semitic inhabitants of Babylonia. Since they date 

 from the end of the third millennium B.C., they are of very 

 great interest as throwing light upon the development of 

 Babylonian religious ideas in their earlier stages. Dr. 

 Myhrman has expended an immense amount of labour in 

 order to reproduce the original script as closely as possible, 

 working on the principles which have governed earlier 

 publications of the Pennsylvania Museuin. But, at any 

 rate in the more crowded texts, we could wish that a more 

 conventional transcript had been adopted ; this would un- 

 doubtedly save time in publication, and would be a real 

 help to the reader. The excellent photographic plates 

 already furnish the student with the necessary epigraphical 

 data. But, apart from this suggestion, we have only 

 praise for the volume before us, which makes the texts 

 available for students on the plan already employed by the 

 great museums of London, Paris, and Berlin. We note 

 with pleasure that the new series largely owes its success 

 on the material side to the generosity of Mr. Eckley 

 Brinton Coxe, jun., who has already done so much to 

 further the scientific aims and interests of the University 

 of Pennsylvania. 



An account of the vertical migrations of Mysis mixta in 

 the Baltic is given by A. Otterstrom in Meddelelser fra 

 Kommissionen for Havunderaogeher, Plankton, Bd. i., ^ 



NO. 2209, VOL. 88] 



No. 9. The observations deal only with the summer 

 months June, July, and August. During the daytime the 

 Mysis are found only on the bottom. Between 8 and 

 10 p.m. they move upwards into the higher water layers, 

 the height to which they rise apparently varying with the 

 intensity of the light. The author considers that the whole 

 phenomenon is controlled by light-intensity, and that 

 temperature has little, if anything, to do with it. .\s^ 

 M. mixta is an important food of the herring in the Baltic, 

 the question is one of some practical interest. 



Two papers recently published by Danish investigators 

 (Danish hydrographical investigations at the Faroe Islands 

 in the spring of 1910, by Martin Knudsen, in Meddelelser 

 fra Kommissionen for Havundersogelser, Hydrografi ii.. 

 No. I, and The plankton on a submarine bank, by Ove 

 Paulsen, in Biologiske Arbeider Tilegnede Eiig. Warming, 

 November, 191 1), throw new light upon an oceanographical 

 problem of very considerable interest, namely, the physical 

 and biological conditions upon an isolated bank surrounded 

 by deep water in mid-ocean. The Faroe Bank, which the 

 two authors deal with, lies in the Atlantic at a consider- 

 able distance to the S.W. of the Faroe Islands. The 

 temperature of the water on the bank is lower than that 

 of the surrounding ocean water at similar depths, and at 

 the same time the salinity is less. The water on the bank 

 agrees in these features with water from lower depths in 

 the surrounding ocean, and Dr. Knudsen is probably 

 correct in his view that the bank is covered by water 

 which has run up along the slope of the bank from the 

 deep water surrounding it. The plankton on the bank 

 itself is shown to be markedly different, at all seasons at 

 which samples were taken, from that found in thfe 

 immediate neighbourhood off the bank, the bank plankton 

 having a distinctly neritic, or shallow water, character. 



We learn from The Journal of Agriculture of South 

 Australia that an anonymous donor has presented a sum 

 of money to the University of Adelaide for the purpose 

 of providing scholarships for post-graduate work. These 

 are to be called the Lowrie scholarships, in recognition of 

 the services rendered by Mr. William Lowrie, the director 

 of agriculture for the colony. It is proposed that the 

 scholarships be tenable for one year. 



We have received a copy of La Vie Agricole, a new 

 weekly agricultural paper issued by J. B. Bailli^re et Fils, 

 Paris, proposing to deal with scientific and practical 

 matters of agricultural interest. Prof. Perrier gives an 

 interesting summary of the problem of sex determination, 

 whilst M. Diffloth writes an informing article on the 

 desiccation of potatoes in Germany. Summaries are also 

 given of investigations carried out in other countries. 

 Altogether, the new journal promises to form a very useful 

 addition to agricultural literature. 



It appears from The Journal of Agriculture of South 

 Australia that the policy of repurchasing estates for closer 

 settlement in South Australia continues to justify itself by 

 the results. Large estates are bought by the Government 

 and subdivided into small holdings of about 300 acres. In 

 one case, where formerly not more than 400 persons 

 inhabited a large area, the population rose under the new 

 system to more than 4500. The value of the improvements 

 effected is invariably high. A very great change in the 

 agriculture of the country is certain to set in, with results 

 that must be wholly beneficial. 



After exhaustive experiments with practically all 

 improved artificial pasture grasses, extending over a period 

 of some eight years, the Department of Agriculture in 

 Natal has, we learn from The Agricultural Journal of the 



