April 29, 1922] 



NATURE 



559 



Mr. John Place, 16 The Avenue, Beckenham, 

 Kent, directs our attention to a phenomenon known 

 to the guides at the Solfatara of PozzuoH near Naples, 

 but not, as he believes, satisfactorily explained. 

 When a lighted torch of brushwood or tarred string 

 is introduced into, or merely waved near any of 

 the crevices from which gases emanate, the emana- 

 tion appears to be greatly increased and " smoke 

 and steam issue from the spot where the torch is 

 waved," and even from fissures at a considerable 

 distance. We suggest that the burning of the torch 

 provides nuclei for condensation of vapour ; for 

 clouds gathering in a volcanic crater have been 

 traced, in some cases at least, to atmospheric vapour 

 influenced by the fine ejecta from the vent. 



The issue of the index numbers of the physics and 

 electrical engineering sections of Science Abstracts 

 completes volume 24 of each. The physics section 

 extends to more than 900 pages, 800 of which are 

 occupied by 2000 abstracts, while the electrical 

 engineering section of 650 pages devotes 600 pages to 

 nearly 1200 abstracts. Both volumes are rather 

 larger than pre-war issues, while the number of ab- 

 stracts is approximately the same. The increase of 

 length of the abstracts is scarcely justified by any 

 increase in the intrinsic importance of the matter 

 abstracted. The greater average length of the elec- 

 trical engineering as compared with the physics 

 abstracts is due mainly to the number of descriptions 

 of power plants and installations. Science Abstracts 

 continues to be one of the most valuable and time- 

 saving publications issued in this country ; without 

 it, research in physics and electrical engineering would 

 be seriously hampered and progress retarded. 



The issue of Science of March 3 1 contains an account 

 of the opening of the Norman Bridge Physics Labora- 

 tory of the Califomian Institute of Technology at 

 Pasadena, South California. The laboratory and 

 equipment have been provided by Dr. Norman 

 Bridge with the object of furthering work of the 

 highest type in the mathematical and physical 

 sciences and their applications. In the opinion of 

 Dr. MilUkan no subject furnishes a better training 

 in accurate observation, honest and dispassionate 

 treatment of data, and logical deduction of con- 

 sequences, while the classics are gradually disappear- 

 ing as the foundation of the American educational 

 system. The physics laboratory, of which Prof. 

 MiUikan has been appointed director, and the Gates 

 Chemical Laboratory with Dr. Noyes as director, 

 are to receive yoool. per annum for five years from 

 the Carnegie Corporation, and will thus be able to 

 co-operate with the Mount Wilson Observatory in a 

 joint investigation of the constitution of matter and 

 the nature of radiation. 



In a paper read at a recent meeting of the Royal 

 Colonial Institute, Mr. J. M'Whae, Agent-General 

 for Victoria, dwelt on the importance of white 

 settlement of the " heart of Australia," an area of 

 over half a million square miles lying approximately 

 within a circle of 400 miles radius, the circumference 

 of which passes through Sydney, Melbourne, and 



NO. 2739, VOL. 109] 



Adelaide. This area at present contains only 

 3,300,000 inhabitants, although it comprises as great 

 an area as France, Gennaxiy, Denmark, Switzerland, 

 Holland, and Belgium together. He admitted, how- 

 ever, that the problem is not merely one of attracting 

 population but depends also on the provision of a 

 sufficiency of water. Artesian wells number over 

 5000, and there are in addition many shallow bores 

 in the Riverina. In Victoria to-day 14,000,000 

 acres out of 56,000,000 acres are being artificially 

 irrigated. The Murray river valley offers the greatest 

 opportunities and considerable areas of arid land 

 have been reclaimed. The greater part of the 

 " heart of Australia " must, however, depend on 

 artesian water, and to what extent this supply is 

 inexhaustible remains to be seen. 



The annual report of the Smithsonian Institution 

 of Washington for 191 9 is a volume of nearly six hun- 

 dred pages, of which the greater part is composed, 

 as is customary, of noteworthy contributions to 

 science which were made known during that year. 

 In all, twenty-eight such publications are included. 

 Sir Ernest Rutherford's article, " Radium and the 

 Electron," which appeared in the Jubilee issue of 

 Nature of November 6, 1919, and Sir Arthur Keith's 

 presidential address at the Bournemouth meeting to 

 Section H (Anthropology) of the British Association on 

 " The Differentiation of Mankind into Racial Types," 

 from Nature of November 13, 19 19, are reprinted. 

 There are also two translations, " On the Extinction 

 of the Mammoth," by H. Neuville, which is taken 

 from L'Anthropologie of July 1919, and " A Great 

 Chemist : Sir William Ramsay," by Ch. Moureu, 

 from Revue Scientifique of October 1919. Some of 

 the remaining papers are reprinted from American 

 journals and a few are original. The volume forms a 

 valuable record of notable announcements in the 

 world of science for the year 19 19. 



We have received from Messrs. Harbutt's Plasticine, 

 Ltd., of Bathampton, an inexpensive outfit for mount- 

 ing insects and other natural history objects. The 

 apparatus is very simple and consists of " thymo- 

 plas," which is plasticine impregnated with a strong 

 preservative, slides of celluloid, and binding strips of 

 gummed paper. In using this method, a narrow 

 strip of " thymo-plas " is used to form a cell of the 

 desired shape on the centre of a celluloid slide : the 

 object to be mounted is then transferred to the cavity 

 thus formed and a second slide of celluloid is pressed 

 down on top. The opposite ends of the two super- 

 posed sUdes are securely bound together with strips 

 of gummed paper, and the mount is then complete. 

 The paper strips also serve as labels upon which the 

 necessary data relating to the specimen may be 

 recorded. Any one who tries this method will find 

 no difficulty in carrying it out ; groups of insect 

 eggs in situ on leaves or twigs, coccids, larval tubes, 

 cocoons, pupae, etc., can all be well exhibited when 

 mounted in this way. The method can also be applied 

 to samples of seeds,' fibres, small shells, and many 

 other objects. In so far as adult insects are con- 



