August 4, 1923] 



NA TURE 



177 



Research Items. 



ToNGAN Astronomy and the Calendar. — In one 

 of the Occasional Papers of the Bernice Pallahi Bishop 

 Museum (vol. viii. No. 4, 1922) Mr. E. E. V. Collocott 

 has collected all that can be known of Tongan astro- 

 nomy. They had the vaguest notions of the heavens 

 and of the relations of the sky to stars, sun, and moon. 

 They treated astronomy as a branch of navigation, 

 but since the use of the mariner's compass, few if any 

 living Tongans are able to point to or name more than 

 a very small proportion of the stars. Practically all 

 the available star lore of the Tongans is included in 

 sailing directions written by the late Tukuaho, who 

 was Premier of Tonga about thirty years ago, and 

 this account, copied by permission of his son Tungi, 

 consort of H.M. the Queen of Tonga, has been followed 

 by Mr. Collocott in compiling this paper. 



Discovery of an Early Pal^olith in Norfolk. 

 — In the Antiquaries Journal for April (vol. iii.. No. 2), 

 Mr. J. Reid Moir describes the discovery by Mr. 

 J. E. Sainty of an Early Palajolith from the Glacial 

 Till at Sidestrand, Norfolk. The specimen contains, 

 in its interstices, material which, in appearance, is 

 identical with the matrix of the Boulder Clay, and the 

 colour of the flake-scars is precisely similar to the 

 broken surfaces of many flints in the Till at Sidestrand. 

 Mr. Reid Moir believes that the implement originally 

 belonged to the Upper Freshwater Bed, the highest 

 division of the Cromer Forest Bed Series. The Early 

 Palaeolithic implements of these strata are believed 

 to afford the only evidence in East Anglia of the 

 warm climate prevailing in Early Palaeolithic times, 

 and possibly representing the Giinz-Mindel inter- 

 glacial epoch. This gives definite evidence that the 

 manufacture of early Chellean hand-axes was begun 

 in what is now East Anglia, before the arrival of the 

 glaciers which were responsible for the deposition of 

 the Lower Glacial beds. Mr. Sainty has generously 

 presented this Sidestrand implement to the Ipswich 

 Museum. 



Chromosome Movements in Nuclear Division. — 

 Many attempts have been made to explain the forces 

 at work in connexion with the mitotic figure in nuclear 

 division. Attractions and repulsions are evidently 

 involved, and these may result partly from the pre- 

 sence of electrical charges on the colloidal particles. 

 The latest contribution to this subject is by Mr. 

 Graham Cannon {Jottrn. of Genetics, vol. 13, No. i), 

 who applies Lamb's hypothesis that the centrosomes 

 are pulsating or oscillating bodies, and also extends 

 it to a consideration of the movements of the pro- 

 nuclei in fertilisation. Mr. Cannon discusses many 

 of the consequences which would follow from this 

 assumption, but as yet there is little direct evidence 

 that the centrosomes are actually centres of oscillation 

 or pulsation. A very interesting feature included in 

 the paper is the demonstration, by means of figures 

 of the chromosome groups in the equatorial plate of 

 various animals, that the chromosomes do in fact 

 arrange themselves like floating magnets, the par- 

 ticular arrangement depending upon the number of 

 bodies present. This result was predicted by R. S. 

 Lillie in 1905. 



Efficiency in Cotton Weaving. — As the number 

 of stuflies made in different industries and in different 

 departments of the same industry increases it becomes 

 more and more apparent that there are conditions 

 militating against efficiency which are of an alterable 

 character. A careful study of efficiency in cotton 

 weaving, l)y Mr. S. Wyatt (Reports of the Industrial 

 Fatigue Research Board, No. 23 ; London : H.M. 



NO. 2805, VOL. I 12] 



Stationery Office, price 35. net), demonstrates once 

 more the value of natural, as against artificial, 

 illumination ; this factor has been shown in previous 

 reports to hold true in silk weaving and in fine linen 

 weaving. The relations between humidity, high 

 temperatures, and efficiency are very well brought 

 out ; under existing conditions it is maintained that 

 the best conditions for productive efficiency in 

 weaving, in humid sheds of the type investigated, 

 seem to be with a dry bulb temperature of 7o°-j^° F. 

 and a relative humidity of 80-85 per cent. The 

 writer also shows that, on the two-break da}'^ system, 

 the efficiency during the pre-breakfast spell is con- 

 sistently low. Various other aspects of the problem 

 are considered, such as personal ability, individual 

 differences, incentives and fatigue, and suggestions are 

 given both for the amelioration of the conditions of the 

 cotton weaver and for further study. The Fatigue 

 Research Board in its cautious preface to the report is 

 careful to point out the limits within which the conclu- 

 sions must be interpreted. It is interesting, though, 

 to note that in considering one report after the other 

 there is a rapidly increasing weight of evidence in 

 quite definite directions. 



The Control of the Paddy Stem Borer in 

 India. — In Memoirs of the Dept. of Agriculture in 

 India, Entomological Series, vol. vii. No. 13, 1923, 

 Mr. E. Ballard gives an account of experiments on 

 the control of the paddy stem borer Schcsnobius 

 incertellus in the Godaveri delta. The insect occurs 

 wherever paddy is grown in the East, and causes an 

 annual loss of 10 per cent, of the entire Indian crop. 

 Various schemes have been put forward for controlling 

 the insect, the use of light traps being largely 

 advocated. Mr. Ballard expresses doubts as to the 

 efficacy of the latter method. Such traps are ex- 

 pensive and liable to be stolen, sometimes they only 

 attract moths towards the light without destroying 

 them, while many of the moths have laid their eggs 

 before being trapped. The method of selecting 

 attacked seedlings at the time of transplanting gives 

 some hope of constituting an effective means of 

 control. Close cutting, used in combination with 

 seedling selection, should also destroy a large pro- 

 portion of the larvae from which the succeeding crop 

 could be infected. The extent to which stubble 

 helps the insect to tide over the time between the 

 crops needs research. The natural insect parasites 

 of the borer also require study, and the possibility 

 of growing immune varieties of paddy should be 

 tested. 



Correlation of Oil-Sands : the Dakota Group. 

 — The correlation of oil-bearing sands on the basis of 

 palajontological or petrographical work or both, is a 

 phase of the geology of petroleum which has not 

 always received the detailed attention in the United 

 States that it undoubtedly merits. It is therefore 

 gratifying to note that the importance of such work 

 is now more generally realised, and Mr. W. T. Lee's 

 contribution to Bulletin 751 on the " Continuity of 

 some Oil-bearing Sands of Colorado and Wyoming " 

 is a case in point. As Mr. Lee remarks, nearly every 

 important sandstone in the great Cretaceous system 

 of the western states contains oil, and the differentia- 

 tion and correlation of these oil-horizons form pro- 

 blems the ultimate solution of which is demanded 

 before this vast region can be economically developed. 

 The rocks dealt with in this report belong princi- 

 pally to the Dakota Group, and apart from valuable 

 local details regarding the different sands and shales 



