November 17, 192 1] 



NATURE 



3^ 



a shwt, but severe, early cold snap in November, 

 the sheltered thermometer at Greenwich on Novem- 

 ber ID registering 22° F., and on the grass the read- 

 ing was 9° F. The coldest November at Green- 

 wich occurred in 1871, when the mean temperature 

 for the month was 38°. In i8qo a severe frost set 

 in over England on November 25, the thermometer 

 registering 18° F. in the shade on November 28, the 

 lowest shade temperature on record for the month, 

 and the maximum temperature for the day was only 

 27° F. ; the frost continued practically without inter- 

 ruption until the end of Februar\-. 



On June 30 of this year the Manchester Museum 

 celebrated its hundredth birthday, and in the Novem- 

 ber issue of the Museums Journal its keeper, Dr. 

 W. M. Tattersall, takes occasion to give a brief his- 

 tory of the museum. 



Mr. W. Bellows, Tuffley Lawn, Gloucester, sends 

 us the following extract from a letter received on 

 November 9 from a correspondent in southern Mani- 

 toba (30 miles from the United States frontier) : — 

 " Perhaps you remember the little creek or river 

 which runs through part of my land. A colony of 

 beavers has built a house and dam, and, I fear, will 

 flood my hay-land. I must apply to the Government 

 for permission to break the dam. These creatures 

 are increasing rapidly and will do much damage. 

 They have now cut down a number of my trees of 

 good size, and, if unmolested, will destroy all near. 

 They are strictly protected ; permission has to be 

 obtained before one may be killed." 



A DET.41LED study of the races of Japanese domestic 

 cattle, based on the examination of a large series of 

 skulls, as well as on observations of the external 

 morphology, forms the subject of a paper by Mr. 

 Kenzo Iguchi in the Journal of the College of Agri- 

 culture, Hokkaido Imperial University, Sapporo, 

 Japan (vol. 9, part 5). The author concludes that 

 :he domestic cattle of Japan are not native, but have 

 been derived from the races of cattle of North China 

 brought over by way of Chosen on the wave of migra- 

 tion which carried the ancient culture of China to 

 Japan. Discussing the origin of Chinese cattle, Mr. 

 Iguchi supports the view that they have been derived 

 by an uninterrupted course of domestication from the 

 zebu of northern India, which he regards as the 

 ancestral wild parent of all the races of eastern Asiatic 

 cattle. 



The conservation of the wild or native fauna of 

 any part of the world will depend primarilv upon 

 economic considerations. The ideal of preventing, for ; 

 scientific reasons, the extinction of wild species, be- I 

 cause they are wild and represent the native fauna, 

 will never be reached or even considered when com- ; 

 mercia! interests are at stake. It is from this aspect 

 first and last that the problem is viewed. This is well 

 instanced by the publication of two articles in the 

 Yearbook of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, 1920, with the contradicton.- titles, '"Con- 

 serving our Wild Animals and Birds," and "Hunting 

 down Stock Killers." This apparent paradox is ex- ' 

 NO. 2716, VOL. IO8I 



plained by the fact that the first article advocates in- 

 creased measures for the protection of those animals 

 and birds which are of commercial value, and the 

 second details the work that has been done in the 

 systematic destruction of the native Carnivores which 

 take such enormous toll annually from the stock- 

 farms and ranches of North America. The man of 

 science and field naturalist will learn with satisfaction 

 of the good results already discernible from the Migra- 

 tory-bird Treaty Act of 1920. He can have nothing but 

 admiration for the splendid work which the American 

 Government has done in the preser\ation of bison, 

 elk, antelope, and deer, and will welcome any measures 

 which will save from extinction the small fur-bearing 

 mammals of the Northern Territories. On the other 

 hand, he will reflect that the Carnivores are at least 

 a virile and dominant family which the most rigorous 

 hunting may keep in check but hardly exterminate. 



The Hugo Miiller lecture delivered before the 

 Chemical Society on June 16 last by Prof. Benjamin 

 Moore is printed in the October issue of the Journal. 

 Prol. Moore spoke on " Photosynthetic Processes in 

 the Air, upon the Land, and in the Sea in Relation 

 to the Origin and Continuance of Life on the Earth." 

 In dealing with this wide subject an attempt was 

 made to trace the continuit},' of life from the inorganic 

 world to the highest types of organism. Radiant 

 energy from the sun is responsible for building up 

 simple inorganic and organic compounds, including 

 nitrogen compounds, from the air ; the nitrogen of 

 the atmosphere may be converted into proteins. 

 Photosynthesis occurs not merely in the region of 

 the absorption bands of chlorophyll, but throughout 

 the spectrum, and the chloroph}il may be a colour- 

 screen protecting the organism from the blue and 

 ultra-violet rays, which are prejudicial to life. Prof. 

 Moore describes many exf>eriments in support of his 

 novel and interesting views. 



The description of a new dye-printing photographic 

 process is contributed by Dr. J. M. Eder to the British 

 Journal of Photography few November 4. This method 

 is distinct from Willis's aniline process (1864), Feer's 

 diazotype (1889), Andresen's diazot^'pe (1895), and the 

 primuline process of Green, Cross, and Bevan (1890). 

 It has been patented by the Badische Anilin- und Soda- 

 fabrik. Benzidine hydrochloride or other diamine com- 

 pound is fwecipitated with an acid dye such as eosine, 

 cyananthrol, Neptune-green, or quinoline-yellow, ac- 

 cording to whether the p«int is to be a bright purplish- 

 red, a dark violet, a bright green, or brown. The 

 precipitate is mixed with manganese nitrate or a 

 similar oxidiser and water, and coated upon paper. 

 After exposure under a negative, fixing is done in a 

 solution of borax or of sodium phosphate. So far 

 pure whites have not been obtained, but the great 

 brilliancy and variety of colour that are possible, and 

 the good gradation and vigour of the prints, 

 render the process, in Dr. Eder's opinion, worthj- of 

 attention. 



Some engineering uses of stainless steel, which is 

 an alloy steel containing from 12 to 14 per cent, of 

 chromium, are described in an illustrated article in 



