ISO 



NATURE 



[February 2, 1922 



energy due to the induced currents in the earth under 

 the antennae. The Commission therefore advises that 

 efficient earth-screens made of grids of copper wire be 

 used at all the chain stations. It is suggested that the 

 Marconi Company be invited to tender for earth- 

 screens, antenna tuning coils, and thermionic-valve 

 sets. It also suggests that if their tender be not 

 acceptable, suitable plant could be designed by the 

 Commission after the conclusion of the work now 

 being undertaken at Horsea. 



The last annual report from the Field Museum of 

 Natural History at Chicago deals with the highly 

 successful removal of the collections from the build- 

 ing in Jackson Park to a new building in Grant Park. 

 The Section of Plant Reproduction continued to turn 

 out those beautiful models of vegetable structure on 

 which we have commented in previous years. In 

 addition to several fruits and flowers, the reproduc- 

 tions include the green algae, Oidogonium and Ulo- 

 thrix, enlarged tip of a frond of the alga, Bryopsis 

 plumosa, a cotton plant, and a cycad, Zamia floridana. 

 Another reproduction illustrated, but not otherwise 

 mentioned, in this report is a restoration of the New 

 Zealand moa, 13 ft. high. We do not know which 

 species of Dinornis this professes to represent, but 

 it seems to have an abnormal number of cervical 

 vertebrae, a mammalian back, and pantomime legs. 



In "La Cit^ des Termites " Dr. J. Feytaud gives a 

 very interesting account of the social habits of Leuco- 

 termes lucifugus, Rossi. The author has had excel- 

 lent opportunities to study this species of white ant 

 (one of the two species of the family found in Europe) 

 at first hand in the south-west of France, and he 

 has made good use of them. The brochure contains 

 one of the most complete studies of the life and habits 

 of the termites that we have. Much of the informa- 

 tion has appeared in scientific journals, but now that 

 the author has brought his studies together into on^ 

 volume the intricate and elaborate social life that 

 exists amongst termites should become more widely 

 known. A chapter is devoted to the ravages and 

 means of destruction of termites. 



Some interesting anthropological data relating to 

 the Pitcairn Islanders, the descendants of the 

 mutineers of the Bounty, are contained in an ap- 

 pendix by Dr. D. Colquhoun, of Dunedin, New 

 Zealand, to a report on a visit paid in June last to 

 Pitcairn Island by Sir Cecil Rodwell, High Commis- 

 sioner of the Western Pacific (Colonial Reports — 

 Miscellaneous : No. 93). The present inhabitants, 

 who number 174, are the descendants of forty of the 

 islanders who, in 1859, returned to Pitcairn from 

 Norfolk Island, whither the whole population of 190 

 had migrated in 1856. Dr. Colquhoun describes the 

 islanders as lighter in complexion than pure Maoris, 

 and says many would pass for southern Europeans. 

 The hair is generally dark and straight, although one 

 individual had the frizzy hair, dark skin, and thick 

 lips of a Melanesian type, and two children had fair 

 hair and blue-grey eyes. Generally the eyes are dark 

 NO. 2727, VOL. 109] 



brown, rarely bluish-grey. All the islanders are 

 dolichocephalic. No stigmata of the degeneration 

 through in-breeding, which was anticipated from the 

 evidence afforded by Admiral Palliser's visit to the 

 island in 1898, were observed, and the island is sin- 

 gularly free from disease. Copies of the report may 

 be obtained from H.M. Stationery Office, Imperial 

 House, Kingsway, W.C., price lod. 



RfesEAU MONDIALE, 1914, has recently been published 

 by the Meteorological Office of the Air Ministry. The 

 preface to the work is written by Sir Napier Shaw. The 

 present volume completes five years of the publication, 

 1910 to 1914, which will afford some idea of the value 

 of the compilation of meteorological data for the 

 whole globe which it has been the ambition of 

 meteorologists to achieve for a long time past. 

 Data for 1914 were not obtainable until some 

 time after the war, and information for many 

 of the Siberian stations is still lacking. The 

 number of stations , recorded for the present 

 volume Is 392. Two stations are chosen for each ten- 

 degree square, and the results are given for each 

 month and for the year. For barometric pressure the 

 mean is shown with the difference from the normal. 

 For temperature the mean maximum and mean mini- 

 mum values . are tabulated with the mean of the 

 maximum and minimum and the difference from the 

 normal, together with the absolute maximum and 

 absolute minimum temperatures experienced. For 

 rainfall the total precipitation is given and the differ- 

 ence from the normal. 



The report of a general discussion on the physics 

 and chemistry of colloids, held jointly by the Faraday 

 Society and the Physical Society of London, has 

 been issued by the Stationery Office at the price of 

 2S. 6d. It Includes nearly thirty formal papers on 

 colloids, in addition to the discussions arising there- 

 from. Special attention may be directed to the bril- 

 liantly lucid " Survey of the Physics and Chemistry of 

 Colloids," by Prof. Svedberg, of Upsala, with which 

 the proceedings were opened. The essential outlines 

 have been drawn with a clearness and firmness of 

 touch that has never before been equalled, whilst the 

 bibliography at the end of the paper shows where the 

 details required to complete the picture may be found. 



The demand for very penetrating X-rays for pur- 

 poses of medical therapy has led to the construction 

 of high-tension apparatus capable of giving a con- 

 tinuous output for several hours of current at an 

 alternative spark-gap up to about 18 in. This has 

 caused considerable modifications in the design of 

 both induction coils and Interrupterless transformers. 

 A circular on " Deep Therapy Apparatus, Section 2b," 

 issued by Messrs. Newton and Wright, Ltd., 

 gives a description of an Induction coil designed 

 for this type of work. The coil really consists 

 of two symmetrical coils mounted side by side, 

 the whole being immersed In oil; this latter 

 avoids breakdowns due to insulation troubles pro- 

 duced by the high-tension discharges in the air In 

 the interior of the coil. A useful feature of the double- 



