l82 



NATURE 



{Dec. 26, 1S7S 



small boats, and for this reason, among others, it has been found 

 necessary to send the grain tribute up to Peking by sea. The 

 last mail from China, however, brings news of an unusual rise in 

 its waters. A correspondent of the North China Herald left 

 Tientsin on October 10 and observed no especial increase in the 

 water until he reached the town of Hsingchi, about seventy miles 

 to the south. There he met with a south-west wind, and 

 noticed the water up to the top of the banks. Further on the 

 people were seen raising narrow ridges to prevent the water from 

 overflowing into the fields. Beyond the city of Tsingchow, and 

 as far as the Narpi district, large tracts of land were under water , 

 The general level of the country east of the canal is about six or 

 eight feet below the artificial embankment, and in not a few 

 places this is very weak from the constant wash, especially at the 

 bends, so that the danger is serious. The writer had not been 

 able to learn the cause of this unusual and rapid rise in the 

 Grand Canal, but the Chinese attribute it to heavy rains in the 

 moimtainous region to the south-west, though it has never been 

 known to happen before so late in the year. 



The Board of Trade having received, through the Foreign 

 Office, reports from Her Majesty's Consul at Taganrog as to the 

 recent destruction of corn crops in the neighbourhood of that 

 place by a beetle described as the AnisopUa austriaca, have 

 communicated with the Entomological Society of London, and 

 have been favoured by that Society with a report upon the subject. 

 The Report is signed by Messrs. McLachlan and Waterhouse, 

 who state that the insect AnisopUa austriaca has nothing whatever 

 to do with the "Colorado beetle." It belongs to a group of 

 beetles (Rutelidae) allied to our common cockchafer, but is of very 

 much smaller size. There can be no doubt, they state, that the 

 eggs are deposited in the earth at the roots of corn and grasses, 

 that they soon hatch, and that the larva feeds upon the roots. 

 How long a period elapses before the pupal state is assumed 

 they know not, but they think that two years may be the outside 

 limit, and that in the autumn of the second year of its existence, 

 the larva either forms a cocoon in which it remains quiescent 

 until the following spring, when it assumes the pupal state, or, 

 as is more probable, it assumes that state in the autumn, and the 

 perfect insect may be developed soon afterwards, but remain in 

 the cocoon until the following summer. All accounts, however, 

 they have been able to refer to concerning this and congeneric 

 species, agree (as does the information furnished by Mr. 

 Carruthers) in attributing the chief damage to the perfect insect, 

 which feeds upon the green corn in the ear. After referring to 

 the abundance of the beetle in some parts of Germany, they 

 commend, as a preventive of its ravishes, rotation of crop and 

 encouragement of insectivorous birds, and state their opinion 

 that there is no reason to apprehend the recurrence year after 

 year of such multitudes of the beetles as have occasionally 

 appeared. ''In the present state of entomological science," 

 they conclude, "it is impossible to accurately account for 

 visitations like this, which occur with many insects, injiurious or 

 otherwise. It may be that the pupal condition is prolonged 

 indefinitely, or until circumstances favour its determination ; by 

 this reasoning (which is warranted by what we know to be the 

 case in some other insects) the pupae might be accumulated from 

 year to year, and the perfect insects from these accumulations 

 burst forth simultaneously." 



At the second monthly meeting of the Statistical Society, 

 held on the 17th inst.. Dr. Mouat, Foreign Secretary of the 

 Society, who was deputed to represent it at the meetings in 

 Paris of the Demographic Congress, and of the Permanent 

 Commission of the International Statistical Congress, and, in 

 Stockholm, of the International Penitentiary Congress, read 

 reports of the proceedings of those bodies, so far as they were 

 of interest to the Statistical Society. The chief work of the 

 Permanent Commission was its ov/n reorganisation as the execu- 



tive of the Statistical Congress, and the adoption of a scientinc 

 scheme of classification of statistics for international purpose>-. 

 Statistical annuals for 1877 have been published in France, Italy, 

 Prussia, Axistria, Hungary, and Belgium, all differently arranged. 

 With a view to the adoption of uniformity of system on strictly 

 scientific principles, M. Deloche, the chief of the General Sta- 

 tistical Department in Paris, suggested such a system, and it 

 was adopted. Taking territory and population as its basis, the 

 subsequent grouping of the many and varied facts by which 

 human activity is manifested was in the order of the faculties to 

 which they naturally attach themselves, viz., the moral, the intel- 

 lectual, and the physical. Reference was made by Dr. Mouat 

 to the large amount of valuable statistical information collected 

 and published annually in the form of the statistical abstracts of 

 the British Empire ; and to the mass of miscellaneous statistics 

 furnished from time to time to Parliament. Dr. Mouat was of 

 opinion that the time had not yet arrived for the scientific classi- 

 fication of statistics, and he suggested for consideration a more 

 simple form under four heads, viz., (i) Territory and Popula- 

 tion ; (2) Revenue and Commerce ; (3) Laws and Government ; 

 and (4) Miscellaneous Statistics, containing all that cannot be 

 grouped under any of those heads. The Demographic Congress 

 was entirely devoted to the consideration of questions of popula- 

 tion in the aggregate, or the natural history of society, as dis 

 tinguished from physiology — births, deaths, marriages, migra- 

 tions, &c. 



The Times a few weeks ago gave prominence to some facts 

 showing the highly electrical condition of the atmosphere in 

 Canada during the fine dry winter there. A letter from Mr. 

 A. H. McNab, of Teignmouth, in the IVestern Times of Decem- 

 ber 17, will show that similar conditions exist in England 

 during similar weather. He says : — " About 7.45 P.M. on 

 Friday I was crossing Shaldon Bridge from the Teignmouth 

 side, and immediately after passing the 'drawbridge' I was 

 much surprised to find both sides of the bridge illuminated at 

 certain regular distances with pale blueish lights resembling flick- 

 ering lamps. My first impression was that, owing to the dense 

 fog that prevailed, some sort of lamps had been placed on the 

 bridge as a warning for the boats and barges passing up and 

 down the river, but on coming to the first iron upright in the 

 bridge railing I at once came to the conclusion that the light was 

 electrical, for each point of iron had a flame of about two inches 

 in height, composed of electric sparks issuing from it, accom 

 panied by a hissing sound resembling that caused by the escape 

 of gas from unlighted burners, and all the iron points along the 

 bridge were similarly illuminated, producing a most charming 

 effect. The point of the umbrella which I carried was also 

 emitting a light, and when moved about produced sparks and 

 sound. When I was midway across the bridge a passenger 

 suddenly appeared in the fog and called out to me, ' Sir, your 

 umbrella has a light oa the end of it.' .His surprise, however, 

 was not lessened when I informed him that his own umbrella 

 had the same. So far as I observed the phenomenon was 

 entirely confined to the bridge, and on my return some time 

 after it had entirely disappeared. Perhaps the large amount of 

 iron in the bridge may have something to do with it." 



The mission of Sergeant Jennings, of the United States 

 Signal Corps, has not been quite fruitless in Paris. A sort of 

 weither indicator has been placed, by order of the Prefect of 

 the Seine, at the doors of the Luxembourg Palace; others will, 

 it is said, be very shortly installed in several places of Paris. 



As No. I of "Dimmock's Special Bibliography" (Cambridge, 

 Mass.) we have received a descriptive list, arranged according to 

 date, of the Entomological Writings of Prof. John L. Le Conle, 

 compiled by Mr. S. Henshaw. There are 150 entries, and the 

 list seems compiled with great care and must prove useful to 

 entomologists. 



