636 



NATURE 



[OCTOlJl 



923 



great significance of the study from economic and 



ii;iti'-ii;tl (!<f.ii(o points of view, and with the chance 

 ulmli Au ti ih.i h;w, from ite geographic position, 

 form, and diiu- a hignly important 



contribution !■■ figure of the earth 



and of the form <>< iiu- iiiini'-jiiiirf. 



The wide work on terrestrial magnetism being 



-'(l out chiefly by the United States was dis- 



I at some length, and again Australia was urged 

 iw ,.>kc up her fair share of it. The desirability of 

 continuing and extending the work of the non- 

 niagnctic ship Carnegie was affirmed. Other highly 

 interestmg subjects cannot Ije more than mentioned 

 by name, such as gravity work in Japan and the 

 I'hilippines ; earth tides and their employment for 

 determining earth rigidity ; pulsatory vibrations and 

 the causes of destruction by earthquakes, with an 

 account of safeguards to property adopted in Japan ; 

 international solar physics research ; determination 

 of gravity at sea ; comparison of accuracy of wired 

 and wireless longitude determinations. 



Three matters stand out in the work of the Geo- 

 graphy and Oceanography Section. The first is the 

 presence in Sydney Harbour of the new U.S.A. scout 

 cruiser Milwaukee (10,000 tons ; 35 knots), specially 

 sent out by the American Government to demonstrate 

 to the Congress the Sonic Depth Finder. The vessel 

 has journeyed some ten thousand miles and has 

 obtained a chart of the Pacific bed over which it 

 passed. While the instrument is not yet fully 

 perfected, its value not merely for rapidly obtaining 

 accurate knowledge of the sea bottom, but also in 

 increasing the safety of vessels in many of the intricate 

 channels among the Pacific islands, very greatly 

 impressed the Congress, while the object-lesson of a 

 fighting vessel devoted to scientific work was a 

 valuable one. The second was a full exchange 

 between the countries represented of information as 

 to what they are doing (or, in the case of Australia, 

 merely beginning to do) in the matter of hydro- 

 graphical surveys. A very fine exhibition of maps 

 was made, principedly from the Royal Topographical 

 Service of the Dutch East Indies. Prominence was 

 given to the need for work in the neighbourhood of 

 the Great Barrier Reef and elsewhere. In some 

 regions, charts drawn by Matthew Flinders are still 

 perforce being used. The third subject of importance 

 was the pressing need for co-ordination of meteoro- 

 logical work in the I'acific. There are now numerous 

 stations, working independently, overlapping, and 

 apparently incapable of co-ordination among them- 

 selves. The solution urged was the appointment 

 of a British officer at Samoa, it being believed that 

 in no other way could the difficulties in the way of 

 the needed association of activities be established. 



Geology possessed numerically the largest Section 

 of all, ana a huge amount of matter, nearly all 

 descriptive, was put before it. Indc«d, a " poo! " of 

 geological information was created, every • 

 contributing as much to it an time. ver>- 

 allotted, would {>ermit. It is impossible to 

 briefly the nature of the work discussed ; ti 

 subjects have already Ijeen indicated in a lonmrr 

 zirticle. Between section meetings the geologists 

 distribute<l themselves over the country.side. 



The Hygiene Section went fully into problems 

 connected with mining indu.stries, under thi- lc.id#rr- 

 ship of Drs. R. R. Sayers (U.S.A.). W ni 



(South Africa), and J. H. L. Cumii i.ij. 



Methods of ventilation, sanitation, and medical 

 examination were discussed from different points of 

 view. The progress of the hookworm campaign was 

 followed. In Queen.sland, where 12 per cent, of the 

 miners are affected, the value of tin 

 fully demonstrated. 



The establishment of an intematii' n, 



with a number of mobile units mo n.i 



to island introducing methods of moacni pn-Ncntive 

 medical science, is deemed es.sential if the present 



dwindling of population of native rac^ thv 



island groups is to be arrested. New ( i<\ 



1853 had 70,000 natives ; in 1900 the j. .v,. .vai 



19,000. Measles from Sydney killed 26 per cent, of 

 Fiji's population in 1875, while influenza in 1918 took 

 off 20 per cent, of the natives of Samoa. There is 

 also continuous heavy toll taken by tuberculosis 

 and venereal disease. A basis for part of the dis- 

 cussion was provided by results, obtained from a 

 widely circulated questionnaire, showing the distri- 

 bution of such diseases as plague, smallpox, leprosy, 

 malaria, beri-beri, and others. 



In view of the importance of animal life in the 

 economic positions of most of the Pacific countries, 

 a joint discussion between the Hygiene and Veterinary 

 Science Sections on the difficult subject of inter- 

 national animal quarantine regulation had more than 

 passing interest. The fact that " surra " in the 

 Philippines makes it impossible for horses to be kept 

 shows the significance of the whole matter to Australia. 

 Definite proposals have not yet been submitted to 

 the full Congress. 



It will be seen that throughout, the main functions 

 assumed by the Congress have been to examine 

 carefully existing lines of work, and then to point to 

 outstanding needs for individual and combined effort 

 in tackling the innumerable scientific problems of 

 the Pacific region. The extent to which such 

 stimulus will lead to action during the ne.xt tliree 

 years will be the test of the value of a meeting of 

 the kind. A. C. D. R. 



Diseases of Fruit in Storage. 



A TTENTION was recently directed in Nature 

 ■^^ (vol. Ill, April 14, p. 516) to the direct efforts 

 now being made in the United States to open up a 

 new field of service for plant pathology, through the 

 study of the best conditions for preserving fruit and 

 vegetable produce in the market and in transit. 



It would seem that in Great Britain, in a less direct 

 manner, through the activities of the Food Investiga- 

 tion Board, working under the auspices of the Depart- 

 ment of Scientific and Industrial Research, the same 

 field of service is gradually opening to the scientific 

 investigator. Thus the work of Mr. F. T. Brooks and 

 his collaborators upon the fungus organisms con- 

 taminating chilled meat, recently noticed in N.\ture 

 (vol. Ill, April 28, p. 582), was carried out for this 



Board, which has now issued, as Special Report No. 12, 

 a report upon " brown heart " — a functional disease 

 of apples and pears, by Dr. Franklin Kidd and Dr. 

 Cyril West. 



Occasionally when apples and pears are in storage, 

 or when in transit by ship to Great Britain, although 

 entirely healthy to outward appearance, the inner 

 portion of the fruit decays and turns brown ; no 

 organism is found to be present as the cause of this 

 diseased condition, which may be widespread. 



The authors report that, in 1922, this internal decay, 

 which they have described as " brown heart," was so 

 prevalent among apples imported from Australasia as 

 to arouse anxiety among those connected with the 

 fruit trade. In a report which is singularly direct in 



NO. 



2817, VOL. I 12] 



