52 



NATURE 



[January 12, 192; 



new observations show that the glaciation was con- 

 temporary with the extinct giant wombat and other 

 giant marsupials, which there is much evidence to 

 show lived in south-eastern Australia when moister 

 climatic conditions prevailed. The date of this 

 glaciation is estimated by Sir Edgeworth David and 

 his colleagues, according to the report, as 100,000 

 years ago. 



At a meeting of the provisional council of the New 

 Zealand Astronomical Society, held at the Hector 

 Observatory, Wellington, on November 15 last, the fol- 

 lowing officers were elected :— President : Dr. C. E. 

 Adams. Vice-?residenis: Hon. Sir Francis Bell, 

 Prof. E. Marsden, Mr. T. Allison, and Dr. C. Munro 

 Hector. Secretary: Prof. D. M. Y. Sommerville. 

 Treasurer : Mr. C. G. G. Berry. Editor: Mr. A. C. 

 Gifford. Council: Mr. J. C. Begg, Hon. Mr. Justice 

 Chapman, Prof. C. Coleridge Farr, Mr. E. G. Hogg, 

 Capt. G. S. Hooper, and Mr. J. T. Ward. 



Under a provision of the Sundry Civil Act of 

 March 4., 192 1, Government Departments of the 

 U.S.A. were required to suspend publication of all 

 periodicals except those approved by Congress by 

 December i, 1921. A resolution empowering the Con- 

 gressional Joint Committee on Printing to authorise 

 the continuance or discontinuance of these periodicals, 

 among them the Journal of Agricultural Research, 

 passed the Senate, but did not come to a vote in the 

 House before the adjournment of the last session of 

 Congress. The Journal of Agricultural Research has, 

 therefore, been suspended until its continuance is' 

 authorised by Congress. 



On Tuesday next, January 17, at 3 o'clock, Dr. 

 F. H. A. Marshall begins a course of two lectures at 

 the Royal Institution on " Physiology as Applied to 

 Agriculture " ; on Thursday, January 19, Mr. Seton 

 Gordon gives the first of two lectures on " Mountain 

 Birds of Scotland " and "Sea-birds and Seals "; and 

 on Saturday, January 21, Dr. Charles Macpherson, 

 organist of St. Paul's Cathedral, commences a course 

 of two lectures, with musical illustration, on "The 

 Evolution of Organ Music." The Friday evening 

 discourse on January 20 will be delivered by Sir James 

 Dewar on "Soap Films and Molecular Forces," and 

 on January 27 by Viscount Burnham on "Jour- 

 nalism." 



The Echo de Paris is to be congratulated on the 

 success of the subscription it raised to enable the 

 octogenarian physicist Edouard Branly to continue his 

 experimental work. Like many scientific men, Branly 

 never sought commercial profits out of his discoveries, 

 but the French public was unaware of the straits to 

 which he had been reduced. It is now announced 

 that the Branly Fund exceeds 200,000 francs (about 

 4000Z.). Branly was the first to point out in 1890 that 

 the electric resistance of a mass of metallic powder 

 changed enormously when an electric spark took place 

 in its neighbourhood. The resistance generally 

 diminishes, but in a few cases — for instance, with 

 peroxide of lead— it increases when the spark ensues. 

 NO. 2724, VOL. 109] 



i This was the principle of the earliest form of coherer 

 I which in the early days gave such an impetus to radio- 

 ; telegraphy. 



The first meeting of the Society of Telegraph 

 Engineers was held on February 28, 1872, and the 

 council of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 

 (originally the Society of Telegraph Engineers) is 

 arranging to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of 

 the meeting. On February 21 at 4 p.m., and on 

 February 22 at 8.30 p.m., Prof. J. A. Fleming will 

 deliver a popular lecture (to which admission is by 

 ticket) on " Michael Faraday and the Foundations of 

 Electrical Engineering." The annual dinner of the 

 institution will be held on February 21, at 7 p.m., 

 at the Hotel Cecil, and in the afternoon and evening of 

 February 23 several members of the institution and 

 others closely connected with the early development of 

 electrical engineering will give short discourses on 

 their reminiscences and experiences during the early 

 history of the electricity supply industry. The 

 speakers will deal both with matters of scientific and 

 technical interest, and also with the effect of legisla- 

 tive action on the progress of the industry. 



Influenza seems to be asserting itself with suffi- 

 cient intensity to call for caution, especially on the 

 part of the individual attacked, although at present 

 the epidemic has not become sufficiently violent to 

 cause alarm. The Registrar-General's weekly returns 

 show that for the ninety-six great towns of England 

 and Wales, including London, the deaths from in- 

 fluenza in the last six weeks have increased from 

 80 to 418, and in London alone the deaths from this 

 cause have increased from 26 to 151. Fifty-nine per 

 cent, of the deaths in London have occurred at ages 

 above forty-five, whilst between twenty and forty-five 

 years of age the deaths are 27 per cent., and below 

 twenty \^ears of age only 14 per cent. The age- 

 incidence of death in the present epidemic differs 

 from that in the severe epidemic of 1918-iq, which 

 for the most part attacked the able-bodied ; the 

 present attack has reverted to the incidence shown 

 bv the earlier epidemics after 1890. In the six 

 weeks the deaths from pneumonia have nearly 

 doubled, whilst deaths from bronchitis have remained 

 fairly steady. With the abnormally mild weather 

 in December the disease increased, which was a 

 common feature with earlier epidemics, and it is to 

 be hoped that the drop in temperature experienced in 

 the early days of 1922 will lessen the severity of the 

 attack. 



Temperature In the past year was almost as ab- 

 normal as the rainfall, and November was the only 

 rnonth at Greenwich with the mean temperature 

 below the average, whether compared with the normal 

 for sixt\'-five years, 1841-1905, or with the normal for 

 thirty-five years, 1881-1915, used by the Meteorological 

 Office. The temperatures are given in Fahrenheit, 

 and are chiefly from civil-day observations at Greenwich. 

 The warmest month was July, with a mean of 685°, 

 which is 48° above the average for sixty-five years, 

 but both in January and October the excess of tem- 

 perature was rather more than 7°. In November the 



