January 13, -1916] 



NATURE 



553 



lat the gain in cfticiency is ofifset by th6 coinpara- 

 veiy short life of the mantles. ' 



Acetylene installations have been widely used for 

 )untry houses, for country railway stations, etc.; irt 

 ict, in similar circumstdnces to petrol-air gas. The 

 omparative advantages of the two systems have becfn 

 he subject of much discussion. The fact that there 

 lie opportunities for both seems to be borne out by 

 le practice of several firms who are prepared to instal 

 ib.er system. 



The following might be taken as a very rough 

 .dication of the cost of installations : — 



3. --Ponable aceivlene lamp of very simnle' 

 cor. itruciion ; reijuires i lb. of carbide a d is 

 staiedloijivesocandls-powei fj eignt hour , 



fixtures, on which 

 a large sum may 

 be expended if 

 artistic effects are 

 n demand. Prices 

 will also be found 

 to have r 4 s en 

 somewhat during^ 

 the war. 



A special pro- 

 vince for acetylene 

 lighting is in con- 

 nection with port- 

 able lamps, some 

 of which are of 

 .ery ingenidns and 

 attractive design. 

 Lamps 'of this 

 kind ard in de- 

 mand for ' tem- 

 porar\- workshops 

 and construction 

 work undertaken 

 during the night 

 time, .a type of 

 apparatus m uch 

 used for the latter 

 purpose being the 

 acetylene flare and 

 generator, which 

 is eauipped with a 

 parabolic t eflector 

 designed to con- 

 centrate the light 

 over a small 

 (Shortly 

 the , war a 



before 



large number of 

 these flares were introduced into the Pantheon. Paris, 

 on the occasion of the bicentenary of Jean Jacques 

 Rousseau. It was only just before the performance 

 that the organisers suddenly realised that there is 

 neither gas nor electricity in' the building.) 



In Fig. 3 is shown a 'very handv form of portable 

 lamp recently introduced by the Thorn and Hoddle 

 Acetylene Co. Its characteristic is extreme simplicitv. 

 AH that is necessary is to throw a charge of carbide 

 into tlie inner vessel, pour some water into the outer 

 can, and light up. There iff no cock attached to the 

 lamp, and this enables the gas consumption to be 

 automatically balanced by the inlet of water through a 

 special valve. The lamp is very strong, and can be 

 carried in the hand, stood up beside the work, or hung 

 from the roof or wall. It is said to be now very 

 widely used for military purposes. 



Acetylene, like petrol-air gas, can be used for heat- 



NO. 24.11, VOL. q6J 



ing and cooking with small stoves consuming fron* 



I to 6 cub. ft. per hour, but is not recommended for 



) use or^ a large scale. It would, however, be useful 



1 for laboratory work. Another application of acetylene 



which sometimes comes in handy in this connectioa 



I is its use, in connection with oxygen, for welding pur- 



i poses. For this purpose tubes of dissolved acetylene 



i are sometimes used. The gas is dissolved under pres- 



I sure in acetone, and is evolved when the pressure is 



relaxed. Such cylinders can be very readily detached 



and sent off to be refilled, a newly-charged vessel. 



being substituted. 



THE BRITISH, MYCOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 '"PHE Transactions of the British Mycological Society 



■■■ tor 1914 (vol. v., part i; May, 1915; Worcester: 

 E. Baylis and Son) contain a number of iateresting 

 articles. Prof. A. H: R. BuUer's presidential address 

 on the fungus lore of the Greeks and Romans shows 

 the various ways in which fungi attracted the atten- 

 tion of the ancients. Those who are adverse to the 

 idea of our various edible kinds of fungi being_ con- 

 sidered a valuable source of food will hote that Dio- 

 scorides was so suspicious of all edible fungi (although 

 these were consumed in large quantities by the Greeks 

 and Romans) that he recommended the taking of an 

 emetic after the eating of any kind. Pfiny, in referring 

 td the rust of cereals, which he calls "the greatest 

 j>est of the crops," says that it may be averted "by 

 fixing branches of laurel in the fields." Such kinds of 

 belief die hard; the present writer can recall that 

 when, a few years back, the American gooseberry- 

 mildew first invaded Kent, a prominent fruit-farmer 

 announced his intention of' planting a hedge of 

 Eucalyptus to ward off this new pest. 

 . Miss Gulielma Lister, well known as the mono- 

 grapher of the Mycetozoa, publishes an account of the 

 Japanese species collected during the past eight years 

 by Mr. Kamagusu Minakata. The species new to 

 science are illustrated with the beautiful and faithful' 

 drawings characteristic of Miss Lister's work. Mr. 

 Minakata, moved primarily by a sense of their national 

 importance, has protested against the demolition of the 

 ancient Shintoist temples. The sacred groves of 

 ancient trees round these temples have proved an 

 excellent "hunting-ground" for Mycetozoa. So' 

 vehement on one occasion was his opposition that it 

 led to his being put into prison for eighteen days; 

 this was not wholly wasted time, however, since he 

 j was able to collect' a species of Stemonitis " on an 

 old post in the gaol." 



Mr. J. Ramsbottom contributes a very useful sum- 

 mary of recent work on the cytology of fungus repro- 

 duction, and in a separate note points out "that the 

 '' guttulae'' in spores of the Discomycetes — a feature 

 commonly introduced into the diagnosis of species — 

 disappear in sections mounted in glycerine. Biograph- 

 ical accounts of the late Dr. M. C. Cooke and of the 

 Rev. W. L. W. Eyre are also given by the same 

 author. 



Mr. C. K. Sutherland describes some new genera 

 of marine Pyrenomycetes. 



One of the activities of the society is the holding 

 annuallv of " funirus forays " in the spring and 

 autumn ; those held in 1914 led, ds in previous years, 

 to the discovery of fungi new to Britain. It is satis- 

 factorv to find that care is taken to obtain a critical 

 deterrnination of all the soecies collected. The collec- 

 tion of Fusicladium dendriHcum — the cause of the 

 destructive disease known as apnle " scab " — on P^rus 

 torminalis suggests that some of thie fungous "pests" 

 of the fruit-grower may — like some of the insect pests 

 — emerge from woods which often neighbour fruit- 

 farms. 



