86 



NATURE 



[November 17, 1910 



and emaciation ; the disease is characterised by patho- 

 logical changes in the ca^ca, intestines, and liver, while 

 there are invariably present in the organs encysted stages 

 of a coccidium, and also an amoeba known as A. mclea- 

 gridis. In a long Bulletin issued by the Agricultural 

 Experiment Station of the Rhode Island State College 

 Drs. Cole and Hadley give a detailed summary of the 

 work so far done on the disease, and add a number of 

 observations of their own. Although but little advance 

 is recorded in the methods of prevention and treatment, 

 the bulletin will be found very useful to those interested 

 in diseases of birds, both by reason of its completeness 

 and for the evidence it offers that the cause is a 

 coccidium. 



The United States laws dealing with commercial 

 fertilisers go further than our own in that they require 

 the name of the firm to be published along with the 

 analytical data dealing with the manures and feeding- 

 stuffs supplied. Bulletin 141 of the Purdue University 

 Agricultural Experiment Station gives the results of 

 analysis of several hundred fertilisers and feeding-stuffs, 

 together with the guarantee and the name and address of 

 the manufacturer. Any case of fraud is thus at once 

 exposed. The law is fully explained in the bulletin, and 

 several illustrative ' cases are quoted. There are also 

 tables showing the average composition of normal feeding- 

 stuffs, and of the materials used as adulterants. 

 Altogether, the bulletin gives a very good idea of the 

 work of an agricultural analyst in the United States. A 

 smaller bulletin on the same lines is sent us by the West 

 Virginia University Agricultural Experiment Station. 



In one of a series of papers on the foraminifera of the 

 shore-sands of Selsey Bill, Sussex, Messrs. E. Heron- 

 Allen and A. Earland have described the forms derived 

 from Cretaceous sources (Journ. R. Microscopical Soc, 

 1910, p. 401). In all cases these have been compared with 

 specimens obtained from the hollows of flints in the same 

 deposits ; 1 18 species are identified, some of which are 

 new to the records from the Upper Chalk. Mr. Heron- 

 Allen offers a copy of a privately issued paper on Chalk 

 foraminifera, printed in 1894, to any worker who may 

 apply for it (address : Large Acres, Selsey). This earlier 

 paper contains complete directions as to preparing material 

 from the Chalk, as well as records of a number of species 

 found at Twyford, many of which were previously known 

 only in Cainozoic strata. It is pleasant to see that the 

 veteran Mr. Joseph Wright, of Belfast, remains an active 

 adviser on the work published in 19 10. 



Copies have reached us of the valuable meteorological 

 charts of the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans for 

 December, and of the South Atlantic and South Pacific for 

 the season December, 19 10 to February, 191 1, issued by 

 the U.S. Weather Bureau. In the North Atlantic chart 

 Prof. Moore continues the useful practice of exhibiting, by 

 daily synoptic weather charts, specimens of the typical 

 cyclonic storms which occur in that month. One of these 

 disturbances, which was central near the Azores on 

 December 18, 1909, moved quickly across Great Britain 

 to the North Sea. The synchronous chart of December 21 

 shows that another storm dominated the entire northern 

 part of the ocean, that typical cyclonic circulation prevailed 

 from the American to the European continent, and that its 

 disturbing influence was felt so far south as Madeira. 



An interesting application of the dilatometric method to 

 th-; study of the polymorphism of the alkali nitrates is 

 described by Prof. Bellati and Dr. Tinazzi in the Atti 

 del Reale Istitnto Veneto. It is shown that ammonium 



NO. 2142, VOL. 85] 



nitrate undergoes an abrupt expansion at 35°, a contrac- 

 tion at 86°, and a second expansion at 125°, correspond- 

 ing with the three transition-points of the four modifica- 

 tions of the nitrate. Potassium nitrate undergoes an 

 abrupt expansion at 127°, rubidium nitrate at 161°, 

 ca;siuni nitrate at 148°, and thallium nitrate at 73° and 

 142° C. 



In reference to Dr. Baker's remarks on the Theory of 

 Numbers at the Sheffield meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion (Nature, October 20, p. 514), Dr. Vacca, of Genoa, 

 sends us the following quotation from Euler (Nov. Comm. 

 Petr., vol. xvii., 1772, p. 25) : — 



" Non dubito fore plerosque, qui mirabuntur, me in 

 huiusmodi questionibus evolvendis, quas nunc quidem summi 

 geometrae aversari videntur, operam consumere ; veruni 

 equidem fateri cogor, me ex huiusmodi investigationibus 

 tantumdem fere voluptatis capere, quam ex profundissimi^ 

 geometriae sublimioris speculationibus. Ac si plurimun 

 studii et laboris impendi in quaestionibus gravioribu- 

 evolvendis, huiusmodi variatio argumenti quamdam mihi 

 baud ingratam delectationem affere solet. " 



We learn from the Engineer for November 11 that the 

 Metropolitan Water Board intend to instal a battery of 

 Humphrey gas pumps for the reservoir which is being 

 constructed in the Lea Valley, near Chingford. A total 

 pumping capacity of not fewer than 180 millions of gallons 

 in twenty-four hours is required, made up of one unit 

 of 20 and four units each of 40 million of gallons. It is 

 understood that the Pump and Power Company, Ltd., 

 offered to supply and erect on foundations provided by the 

 Board five pumps of these capacities, together with a 

 Dowson producer gas plant and all accessories, including 

 two electrically driven compressors for starting purposes, 

 for the sum of 19,388/. The guaranteed fuel consumption 

 is not to exceed i-i lb. of anthracite coal fed into the 

 producers per actual horse-power hour when working at 

 the normal full load during an official trial of six hours' 

 duration. The head to be pumped against is 29 to 30 feet, 

 including friction. Thus a power of about 250 pump 

 horse-power is required in each of the larger units. The 

 conditions are ideal for the Humphrey gas pump, but as 

 the power is larger than anything yet attempted by Mr. 

 Humphrey, the results of the experiment will be awaited 

 with considerable interest. At any rate, the Water Board 

 cannot be accused of being behind the times. 



An article in the Builder for November 12 deals with 

 a novel type of timber construction evolved by Mr. Otto 

 Hetzer, of Weinar. In this new method the cross-sections 

 of timber beams are adapted to actual stresses as in the 

 case of riveted iron structures, and this is carried out by 

 means of a composite beam with variable cross-sections in 

 each given portion. A special glue being required, capable 

 of forming an inseparable whole out of a number of 

 composite parts, Mr. Hetzer seems to have succeeded, after 

 many 3'ears of work, in producing one which possesses the 

 required rapidity of binding, resistance against atmospheric 

 influences, and the property of increasing hardening. The 

 Hetzer compound beams are composed of three longitudinal 

 layers, the uppermost of which is a wood characterised 

 by a particularly high ' compressive strength (such as red 

 beech), and the lowermost of a wood of great tractive 

 strength (such as pine) ; the central portion need not be 

 of any specially resisting material. An upward parabolic 

 curvature is imparted to the central wood, so that in the 

 central cross-section, submitted to the highest stresses, the 

 whole of the deflection thrust is dealt with by this para- 

 bolic core and the lowermost layer. Satisfactory tests of 

 these beams have been made at the Institute of Charlotten- 



