February i6, 191 i] 



NATURE 



525 



r smaller percentage of fire-damp than any lamp will 

 tect may be the source of the gravest danger in the 

 -^sence of coal-dust, and we hope that, in subsequent 

 issues, the Home Office will see its way to lay the 

 strongest possible stress upon this fact. The average pit- 

 man is only too prone to believe that anything which 

 the Home Office does not distinctly declare to be 

 dangerous, must be absolutely safe, and every care should 

 be taken to dispel so fatal a confidence. 



FLIES AS CARRIERS OF ISFECTIOS'.^ 

 T^HE reports referred to below include the results 

 ■*• obtained in the further investigations concerning 

 flies as carriers of infection. These are considered under 

 the following heads : — (i) observations on the ways in 

 which artificially infected flies (Musca dotnestica) carry 

 and distribute pathc^enic and other bacteria, by Dr. G. S. 

 Graham-Smith ; (2) summar\- of literature relating to the 

 bionomics of the parasitic fungus of flies {Empusa 

 muscae), by Mr. Julius Bernstein ; (3) note as to work in 

 hand, but not yet published, and as to proposed further 

 work in reference to flies as carriers of infection, by E>r. 

 S. Monckton Copeman, F.R.S. 



Dr. Graham Smith gives the results of an elaborate 

 series of experiments in connection with the role which 

 house-flies are supposed to play in the dissemination of 

 disease. He has proved conclusively (a) that in artificially 

 infected flies non-spore-bearing pathogenic bacteria do not 

 survive on the legs and wings for more than a few hours 

 (five to eighteen) ; (b) that these bacteria (a) frequently 

 survived within the crop for several days, and usually for 

 a longer period in the intestine ; (c) that the faeces and 

 regurgitated fluids (" vc«nit ") often contain the organisms 

 (a) in considerable numbers, and that they may remain 

 infective for varying periods ; (d) that " the only spores 

 (B. anthracis) with which experiments were made survived 

 on the legs and wings, in the crop and inteotine, and also 

 in the faeces, for many days. 



His somewhat premature conclusions regarding naturally 

 infected flies are that cultures of pathogenic organisms 

 may occasionally be obtained from them, but that this 

 does not " afford conclusive evidence that such flies are 

 a frequent source of disease in man by infecting food 

 materials." Several of the photographic illustrations 

 accompanying this memoir are extremely poor and of 

 little scientific value. 



Dr. Bernstein's contribution consists of a short resumi 

 of the literature relating to the fungus Empusa muscae 

 (Cohn). 



Dr. Monckton Copeman has elaborated an excellent 

 organisation for the elucidation of the question as to the 

 range of flight of house-flies, and trials will also be made of 

 the respective value of various baits that have been proposed 

 from time to time for attracting and killing flies. The 

 results of these investigations will doubtless prove of great 

 value, and materially assist in the methods of controlling 

 this ubiquitous pest. 



REPORTS OF METEOROLOGICAL 

 OBSERVATORIES. 

 JlfADRID OBSERVATORY {1902-5).— The meteor- 

 ological observations for these four years are 

 included in one volume (recently published). The data for 

 each year are divided into three sections : — (i) daily 

 observations and monthly means ; (2) monthly and annual 

 summaries, with differences from normal values ; (3) daily 

 sunshine observations, with monthly and yearly sum- 

 maries. This volume completes the series of these valu- 

 able observations, which for subsequent years have been 

 published in yearly volumes. The observations call for 

 no special remark, except that they appear to have been 

 very carefully made, and that full information of instru- 

 ments and methods is supplied. The average amount of 

 sunshine during the four years was 66 per cent, of the 

 possible amount, as compared with twenty-five years' 

 normal of 44 per cent, at Jersey. 



1 Funher Reports (No. 3) on Flies as Carriers of Infection. Reports to 

 the Local Government Board on Public Health and Medical Subjects (new 

 •eriM, No. 40). Pp. 48+7 plates. (London: Printed for His Majesty's 

 StaticnerY Office, igto.) Price gJ. 



xNO. 2155, VOL. 85] 



Royal Magnetical and Meteorological Observatory, 

 Batavia (1907). — The observations include hourly readings 

 and results, and a list of the earthquakes and tremors 

 registered by Milne's seismograph and Ehlert's horizontal 

 pendulum. The mean temperature of the year was 

 26-0° C, which is practically normal. The month with 

 highest mean of daily maximum was October, 31-0° C, 

 and that with lowest mean minima August, 22-6° C. The 

 absolute maximum was 34-5°, in October ; minimum, 

 20-4°, in June. The mean magnetic results were : — 

 declination, 0° 52-21' E. ; horizontal intensity, 0-367105 

 (C.G.S.); dip, 30° 5517' S. ; vertical force, 0-219877 

 (C.G.S.). A new series of observations of upper clouds 

 was started in 1907, and the observatory is cooperating 

 with the Zurich astronomical observatory' for the observa- 

 tion of sun-spots. A regular service of kite and balloon 

 ascents has also been recently established. 



Odessa Observatory (1908).— The meteorok)gical observa- 

 tions for this year have been published by Prof. B. V. 

 Stankevitsch, who has been appointed director in the place 

 of Prof. Klossovsky. In addition to the usual observa- 

 tions for the year, a useful summary of the results for 

 1870-1908 is given. The mean annual temperature is 

 50-2° ; January 26-6°, July 73-8° ; absolute maximum, 

 96-4° in July, minimum, — 18-8° in Februar>-. The aver- 

 age number of days of frost is 91. The average 

 annual rainfall is 1598 inches ; the wettest year, 

 2462 inches, the dryest, 8-97 Inches. The greatest fall in 

 one day was 3-1 inches. .An appendix contains an account 

 of magnetic determinations made by the director in the 

 summer of 1908 in the governments of Smolensk and 

 Kaluga. 



Mysore. Rainfall Registration (1909). — The tables show 

 monthly, seasonal, and yearly values for stations and dis- 

 tricts, also averages extending over many years. The 

 values for 1909, and average annual values, are also 

 exhibited on maps. The rainfall of 1909 was verj- favour- 

 able as compared with that for 1907 and 1908. For the 

 whole province, the year's aggregate was 42-44 inches, 

 being 5-50 inches, or 15 per cent., above the normal. On 

 the whole, the excess was greatest in January, caused by 

 a cyclonic storm crossing the south of the peninsula to the 

 Arabian Sea. The greatest falls in twenty-four hours 

 were ii-io inches in Shimt^a district (July 12) and 13-96 

 inches in Kadur (June 6). 



ASSOCIATION OF TECHNICAL INSTITU- 

 TIONS. 



'T'HE eighteenth annual conference of the .Association of 

 ■*■ Technical Institutions was held at the Stationers' 

 Hall on February 10 and 11. Sir Henry Hibbert, the 

 president for the forthcoming year, delivered his address 

 in the afternoon of Friday. In the course of the address 

 he pointed out that modern labour conditions render it 

 difficult for a boy to learn every branch of his trade. It 

 is therefore necessary that workshop practice should be 

 supplemented by the technical school. Day training classes 

 must be developed in order that those who are to take the 

 leading positions in great industrial concerns — the master, 

 his sons, managers, and foremen — may be scientifically 

 equipped, but the bulk of the provision of technical educa- 

 tion must be made by and through evening classes. He 

 would like to extend the day-school life — no boy to leave 

 school before the age of fourteen, and then to have a part- 

 time system up to seventeen. Students should not be 

 allowed to specialise too early. He would make prepara- 

 tory classes compulsory' before students were allowed to 

 join trade classes. To avoid irregularity" of attendance, 

 employers of labour must be got thoroughly in sympathy 

 with the organised efforts of education authorities. Con- 

 ditions have changed since the time when a man could 

 say he had succeeded without education. The education, 

 provided at the secondary schools under the regulations of 

 the Board of Education is not that required by children 

 who are able to remain at school for a limited period 

 prior to entering on industrial pursuits. For these special 

 schools are required. He believed that British employers 

 are not awakening to the necessity of strengthening their 

 producing power by the employment of highly , skilled 

 workmen. 



