520 



NATURE 



[January 6, 191 6 



shows that whole wheat grains fed to the bullocks 

 working in the wheat fields in the growing season can 

 pass through the animals, germinate, and thus account 

 for some of these contaminations of the pure cultures. 

 Six bullocks were fed on a special diet of whole wheat 

 grains previously soaked for one hour in cold water. 

 A mixture of green oat plants and wheat chaff was 

 also given as fodder during the experiment. All the 

 wheat grains voided by the animals were carefully 

 collected, and at once placed on a bed of sterilised 

 sand for germination tests. A considerable number 

 of wheat grains capable of producing strong plants 

 were taken from the dung of every bullock within 

 13J hours from the start of the experiment. On the 

 third day the number of grains passed by one bullock 

 in 24 hours rose to more than 9000. After seven days 

 the diet of whole wheat grains was replaced by whole 

 gram grains, yet for two days after this change large 

 numbers of wheat grains capable of germination con- 

 tinued to pass through the animals. As much as 

 205 per cent, of the grains fed to a single bullock were 

 recovered, germinated, and produced strong healthy 

 plants ; the lowest figure from a single bullock was 

 96 per cent. The gram grains fed during the last 

 four days of the experiment also passed through in 

 quantity, apparently undigested, but practically none 

 of these gram grains germinated. The author thinks 

 that the amount of obviously undigested material which 

 came through these bullocks was astonishing, but, in 

 this country at any rate, farmers well know the supe- 

 rior digestibility of crushed or ground grain, so, that 

 the investigation suggested on this point would appear 

 to be unnecessary. 



From an American source (Bull. Seis. Soc. America, 

 vol. v., 1915, pp. 155-9), we learn that several earth- 

 quakes were felt during last summer in countries now 

 at war. On June 3 an earthquake occurred at Munich 

 of sufficient violence to wreck some of the instruments 

 in the observatory tower. On June 13 a severe earth- 

 quake disturbed the kingdom of Wiirttemberg, being 

 especially strong at Ebingen and Balingen. On 

 August II, at 10.14 a.m., a shock of unusual severity 

 was felt at Laibach, the well-known seismic centre in 

 the south of Austria. In the same journal, the occur- 

 rence is reported of several earthquakes at Avezzano 

 on August 28, of a severe shock at Agualia (fifty-eight 

 miles north-east of Rome) on September 23 at 

 7.15 p.m., felt also in Rome, and of a strong shock 

 unaccompanied by damage, at Messina, on Septem- 

 ber 24. 



Two articles by M. Louis Brunet, in the Revue 

 ginirale des Sciences for November 30 and December 

 15, contain in about twenty pages a very complete and 

 readable summary of the recent work which has been 

 done on the constitution of Rontgen or X-rays, and 

 their application to the determination of the arrange- 

 ment of the atoms in crystalline bodies. The first 

 article deals with the interference of rays reflected 

 from the successive layers of atoms near the surface 

 of a crystal, the forms of X-ray spectrometers, the 

 characteristic X-ray spectra of the elements and the 

 relations which have been found to exist between 

 the wave-lengths of the principal lines of each element 

 and the atomic numbers. According to Rutherford's 

 NO. 2410, VOL. 96] 



theory of the atom, these represent the number of. 

 electrons in the nuclear charge of each atom. The 

 second part deals more in detail with the passage of 

 the X-rays through and their reflection from the sur- 

 faces of crystals. The principles of the method of 

 analysis of the structure of a crystal as described by 

 Bragg are given, and the application of them illus- 

 trated by zinc blend, diamond, calcite, certain nitrates 

 and carbonates, and iron pyrites. 



The Comptroller-General of Patents informs us that 

 the following notice as to renumbering specifications 

 on publication will appear in the Illustrated Official 

 Journal (Patents) of January 12 : — In order to give 

 the public the advantage of having abridgments of 

 specifications up to date while retaining their numer- 

 ical sequence, applications for patents made subse- 

 quent to 19 15 will be given new numbers when their 

 complete specifications are accepted or become open 

 to public inspection before acceptance. The new num- 

 bers will start with No. 100,001 (without any indication 

 of date), and will supersede the original application 

 numbers in all proceedings after acceptance of the 

 complete specifications. It is intended in future to 

 issue abridgments of specifications in the journal a 

 few weeks later than that in which their acceptance 

 or publication is advertised, so that they will be avail- 

 able for search purposes soon after the printed copies 

 of the specifications are on sale ; but, until the system 

 is fully in force, they will only be issued when there 

 are sufficient to make up a full sheet of sixteen pages. 



The list of members just issued by the Liverpool 

 Section of the Society of Chemical Industry calls for 

 comment as a most praiseworthy beginning for the 

 preparation of what amounts to a local "Who's Who" 

 of chemists. Such a list will form a most useful asset 

 in any attempt to organise the chemical profession to 

 play a greater part in the affairs of the State. The 

 Liverpool Section includes all members of the society 

 residing or working in Lancashire, Cheshire, and 

 North Wales, who are nearer of access to Liverpool 

 than to Manchester — in all 283, a number which sug- 

 gests that many chemists in the district have failed to 

 become members of the society. The list is printed 

 in four columns, and indicates for each individual the 

 address, occupation, and name of the firm. A pleasing 

 feature is the evidence afforded of the number of 

 chemists employed by some of the leading manufac- 

 turers in the district. 



Steady progress has been made with the building 

 of the new Southwark Bridge, although the war has 

 hinde'red the delivery of materials. The work of con- 

 structing one of the river piers is described in 

 Engineering for December 31. There are four of 

 these piers, the new bridge being of five spans, instead 

 of three, in order to coincide with the bridges to the 

 east and west. The piers are all to be carried upon 

 caissons founded in the London clay at a depth of 

 50 ft. below the Trinity high-water level. Two of the 

 four caissons required for the river piers are 120 ft. 

 long by 30 ft. wide, and the other two are 100 ft. 3 in. 

 by 29 ft., the weight of each of the larger caissons 

 being 200 tons ; these are the longest caissons con- 

 structed in this country. At the present time two of 

 the caissons have been lowered to the bed of the river, 



