October 7, 1915] 



NATURE 



151 



Graduate School; and of Prof. J. H. Van Amringe, 

 dean of Columbia College, and professor of mathe- 

 matics until his retirement five years ago after a 

 service of fifty years. 



The Rome correspondent of the Morning Post states 

 that in consequence of comments on his Germanophil 

 altitude, the Marquis Cappelli has resigned the presi- 

 dency of the Royal Geographical Society of Italy, and 

 the resignation has been accepted. As the Marquis 

 Cappelli is also president of the International Agri- 

 cultural Institute, the question is being asked whether 

 he will now retain that position. 



The director of the Meteorological Office reports that 

 information has been received from the seismological 

 observatory at Eskdalemuir, Langholm, Scotland, of 

 the record of a large earthquake which occurred at 

 7 a.m. G.M.T. on Sunday, October 3. The computed 

 position of the epicentre is between Colorado, U.S.A., 

 and the Island of Guadelupe, off the coast of Cali- 

 fornia. 



We learn from the Pioneer Mail that the pro- 

 gramme of the Board of Scientinc Advice for India 

 during the year 19 15-16 includes the following work 

 of the various scientific departments : — The meteoro- 

 logical department will continue observational work 

 with pilot balloons at varfous stations, and will also 

 do some e.xperimental work on vertical air currents 

 at Agra. In the astronomical department a new 

 spectroheliograph is under construction, which it is 

 hoped will be completed during the year. Five Omori 

 seismographs, two at Simla, two at Calcutta, and 

 one at Bombay, the Milne seismograph at Kodai- 

 kanal, and several instruments of local manufacture 

 at Bombay, will be kept in use during the year for 

 scientific research work. Geological surveys will be 

 continued in Bombay, Central India, Rajputana, the 

 Central Provinces, Burma, and Kashmir. In con- 

 nection with the botanical survey of the country, the 

 curator of the herbarium and the systematic assistants 

 will work up, with a view to publication, the material 

 of the past year's exploration in Southern India, and 

 the material presented by contributors not belonging 

 to the department for field work. It is proposed to 

 continue the exploration of Travancore by the curator 

 of the herbarium and an officer of the department. 

 This field work will be of practical use in connection 

 with the flora of Madras now under preparation. In 

 the industrial section of the Indian Museum plant 

 breeding and plant improvement work will be con- 

 tinued on wheat, tobacco, gram, fibre plants, indigo 

 and oilseeds; and fruit entomology will include 

 general investigations of crop pests, and especially of 

 the pests of rice, sugar-cane and cotton, fruit trees, 

 and stored grain. Under the head of agriculture, the 

 following are among the lines of work in progress :— 

 The combination of irrigation and drainage in the 

 growing of rice ; the study of the inheritance of the 

 more important characters of dairy cattle by crossing ; 

 the building up of milk pedigree in cattle by selection. 



The Rev. Cyrus Byington, born in 1793, served 

 for fifty years as a missionary among the Choctaw 

 Indians, and died full of years and honour in 1868. 

 NO. 2397, VOL. 96] 



He translated into Choctaw several books of the ! 



Old and New Testaments, and compiled a grammar * 



of the language. His chief work was a Choctaw- ; 

 English Dictionary, which he left in manuscript 

 without final revision. This has now been done by 



Mr. J. R. Swanton with the assistance of Mr. H. S. ' 



Halbert, who spent many years among the Choctaws, \ 



became familiar with their language, and is an en- 1 



thusiastic student of everything relating to the past i 



history and present culture of the tribe. The die- ' 



tionary, which has now been published as Bulletin 46 ! 



of the Bureau of American Ethnology, will be wel- i 



corned by all students of the languages of the i 



American Indian tribes. ' 



In Man for October, Mr. T. E. Peet discusses the ] 

 types of megalithic monuments found in the peninsula j 

 of Sinai, which are interesting in connection with the 

 question of rude stone monuments in the Mediter- ' 

 ranean basin, and also in view of a possible relation 

 between their builders and the early Egyptians. The ■ 

 monuments consist of beehive tombs, rock circles, i 

 and hut circles. Much further investigation is need- I 

 ful before their origin and relations can be fixed with ' 

 certainty. Mr. Peet, who writes with commendable 

 caution, thinks that the evidence does not satisfac- 

 torily prove their connection with Egypt. As regards ' 

 the Mediterranean relations, he remarks that the 

 more specialised features of the true megalithic sys- ; 

 tem — dolmens, the use of really large stones, and the i 

 combination of large orthostatic slabs and corbelled j 

 courses of masonry, as found in Malta and Sardinia ; 

 —do not exist. Possibly further Investigation may i 

 provide examples of these features, but at present we j 

 lack evidence to connect Sinai with the Mediterranean ] 

 megalithic area. \ 



In the Journal of the College of Agriculture of the 

 Imperial University, Sapporo, Japan (vol. vi., pt. vli.), 



Mr. J. Yamare discusses the inheritance of i 

 "notched" ears in Ayrshire cattle. This marked 



abnormality recognised in American herds of the \ 



breed Is due to a Mendellan dominant factor, but it ] 



Is of Interest to find that heterozygote individuals j 



show the "notching" only In a greatly reduced con- i 



ditlon. I 



Students of the Dragonflies will welcome Mr. \ 



Clarence H. Kennedy's "Notes on the Life-history i 

 and Ecology of the Odonata of Washington and 



Oregon" (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. xlix, pp. 259- ' 



345). The habits of the Insects when pairing and ' 



egg-laying are described, and structural details of | 



the nymphs and of the Imagos at different ages are j 

 made clear by means of an excellent set of illus- 

 trations. 



Dr. a. E. Cameron has spent a year in New Jersey i 



as a research fellow of the Victoria University, Man- i 

 Chester, and gives some of the results of his studies 



In an article on potato spraying and dusting, pub- I 



lished in the Bulletin of Entomological Research (vol. ] 



vi., part I.). It is established that Bordeaux mixture \ 



with arsenate, in addition to its effect as a fungicide, \ 



kills the beetle-enemies of the potato crop. Dr. \ 



Cameron directs especial attention to the profitable j 



