68 



NATURE 



[September 8, 192 1 



beyond them to greater morphological similarity, with 

 the specialised diprotodonts. Its ancestor was prob- 

 ably a northern form which had already separated 

 from the generalised polyprotodont stock, possibly 

 extended all over Holarctica, and may, therefore, 

 have given rise to the Australian diprotodonts. Mr. 

 Osgood is therefore led to support the Holarctic origin 

 of the mammalia so powerfully advocated by Matthew 

 in 1915. He concludes that Casnolestes must be 

 classified as a diprotodont marsupial belonging to a 

 special subfamily of its own in the family Palaeo- 

 thentidae, the approximate position assigned to it by 

 Osborn in 19 lo, but suggests that, in view of its 

 resemblances to the peramelids, it may be necessary 

 later to remove the latter from the polyprotodonts and 

 to unite them with Caenolestes in a special group of 

 equal value with the Australian Diprotodontia and the 

 remaining Polyprotodontia. Mr. Osgood's conclusions 

 are supported by Prof. C. J. Herrick from a study of 

 the brain of Caenolestes. His results, published as an 

 appendix to Mr. Osgood's work, show that the brain 

 of Caenolestes resembles most closely those of Pera- 

 meles and Notoryctes, and is more simply organised 

 than that of any Australian diprotodont. 



The Note of the Financial Adviser to the Egyptian 

 Government on the Budget of 1921-22 (Cairo, May, 

 192 1) is of interest for the stress which it lays on 

 the importance of scientific research in Egypt. A 

 countrv of a restricted habitable area and with a 

 population ten times as large as it would naturally 

 support needs all the assistance that scientific know- 

 ledge and technical skill can give. The importance 

 of conducting research in various fields is so great, 

 and its omission will be so dearly paid for, that 

 nothing should be allowed to hamper its steady pro- 

 secution. The spheres in which such investigations 

 are already proceeding are principally the study of 

 the Nile and the rainfall which feeds it ; the improve- 

 ment of the cotton plant ; the prevention of disease 

 among the population, and the application of the 

 knowledge which has been gained of bilharzia and 

 ankylostoma to the improvement of village life ; the 

 study of the fish-life, in the lakes, waterways, and 

 territorial waters of the country as bearing on an 

 important food-supply which could be largely de- 

 veloped ; and the exploration of the desert regions 

 for further deposits of petroleum, since Egypt is other- 

 wise dependent upon imported fuel. Registration of 

 title to land has become an urgent need, not only to 

 facilitate transactions in landed property, but also to 

 enable re-assessments of land tax to be made rapidly, 

 and to provide the means of quickly and accurately 

 collecting crop statistics, which are of the greatest 

 importance, not only to the agriculturist, but also to 

 the irrigation engineer who has to distribute the 

 water, and to the Government in the interest of public 

 economy and of public finance. There is probably no 

 country where properly directed scientific research 

 gives so prompt and abundant a return for expendi- 

 ture made upon it as Egypt. 



The Nile Commission during its sittings in Cairo 

 last year received a memorandum from a committee 

 NO. 2706, VOL. I08I 



of Egyptian engineers which dealt with various 

 matters relating to the irrigation projects under con- 

 sideration by the Commission. The committee has 

 now published an English translation of a com- 

 munication which it has forwarded to Adly Yeghen 

 Pasha, the Egyptian Prime Minister, in which it 

 criticises some of the conclusions of the Commission. 

 The principal contentions would appear to be that 

 the additional water required for Egypt can be stored 

 by a heightened Aswan Dam ; that Egypt has ,- 

 claim to all the water she requires or may requin 

 before the Sudan can use the supply which flows 

 through it; and that irrigation works in Egypt it.self 

 are more important than the proposals for utilisim 

 the Nile supply as a whol^. The outlook seems t- 

 be rather too narrow a one, for the subject needs to 

 be examined in all its bearings, agricultural as well 

 as irrigational, while the ever-increasing demand for 

 water necessitates accurate hydrographical studies of 

 the whole basin. We understand that the Egyptian 

 Government has appointed a Special Committee to 

 study the whole question in all its bearings, and to 

 recommend how the various interests can best be 

 served. Mr. C. E. Dupuis, formerly Inspector- 

 General of Sudan Irrigation and Water Adviser to 

 the Egyptian Ministry of Public Works, will be the 

 chairman, and will be assisted by scientific and 

 technical members. This Committee will doubtless 

 examine carefully and critically the proposals which 

 the committee of Egyptian engineers is supporting. 



Mr. Alex. B. MacDowell has examined the 

 records of temperature at Greenwich with regard to 

 the incidence of very warm and very cold months in 

 the seven years of sun-spot maxima, 1848-1917, and 

 the same number of years of sun-spot minima, 1843- 

 1913. Taking a very warm month as one with mean 

 temperature more than 3° above average and a very 

 cold month as one more than 3° below, he finds 

 thirteen very warm months and twenty very cold ones 

 (thirty-three together) in the years of maxima of sun- 

 spots as compared with four very warm and nine very 

 cold (thirteen together) in the years of minima. In 

 sending us a communication on this subject Mr. Mac- 

 Dowell asks : — " How is it that both very warm and 

 very cold months turn up so much more frequently 

 when the sun is disturbed than when it is quiet? " 



Clim.atology in California is dealt with in the 

 U.S. Monthly Weather Revieiv for April, 1921, by 

 Mr. A. H. Palmer, Meteorologist to the Weather 

 Bureau at San Francisco. Eleven regular first-class 

 stations are maintained in the State, and there are , 

 also about three hundred climatological sub-stations, 

 at most of which the observers are voluntar\^ Special 

 attention is paid to precipitation data, this being the 

 most important element of climate in California. 

 Various educational and research institutions also 

 maintain climatological stations. The University of 

 California has four precipitation and two evaporation 

 stations. Certain stations are maintained primarily 

 for agriculture ; nearly all the large citrus-growing 

 <-egions have climatological stations, and the instru- 

 ments are usually situated in or near the fruit groves. 



