February io, 191 6] 



NATURE 



653 



which was published in Nature of March 25, 

 1915 (vol. xcv., p. 103), pointing out the urgent 

 need for the provision of adequate faciHties for 

 systematic scientific and manual training in tech- 

 nical optics, and referring to recommendations 

 made in July, 1914, for the establishment of a 

 national institute, but no official action appears-^ 

 to have resulted. The main points of the posi- 

 tion of the country as regards the manufacture of 

 optical instruments and related matters are clearly 

 stated in the report to which we have referred, 

 and a course of action is indicated. Lack of 

 official encouragement has been largely respon- 

 sible for loss of our optical trade in the past, and 

 for the action which the Ministry of Munitions 

 has now had to take to provide sufficient instru- 

 ments for purposes of war. If the Government 

 neglects to provide for the future in a matter of 

 such national importance as the promotion and 

 development of scientific optical manufacture, it 

 will lose an opportunity never likely to occur 

 again. The need for a national institute is un- 

 doubted, and the outlay required is so small in 

 comparison with the advantage to be gained by 

 its establishment, that we cannot believe the delay 

 in dealing with the matter is due to financial con- 

 siderations, but rather to want of knowledge 

 and to official incompetence. 



THE SOUTH AFRICAN SEA-FISHERIES.^ 



THIS report is of considerable general interest, 

 since it contains an account of the develop- 

 ment of the sea-fisheries in South African waters 

 and a discussion of the factors, real and pro- 

 blematical, affecting the general productivity of 

 the fisheries. Trawl-fishing by means of modern 

 vessels began early in the 'nineties of last century, 

 but for one reason or another most of these early 

 enterprises were not successful. In 1895 the 

 Cape Government took the matter up, and ar- 

 ranged to carry out a general biological survey. 

 A steam vessel, the Pieter Faure, was designed 

 and built specially for this work, and various 

 new trawling grounds were discovered and investi- 

 gated. As a result of this preliminary survey 

 various private fishing companies began opera- 

 tions, some of which were unsuccessful. At 

 present there are about eight steam-trawlers regu- 

 larly engaged in fishing in South African waters, j 

 and an industry, limited in its scope, has appa- 

 rently been well established. Such statistics as j 

 are available show a general rise in the produc- I 

 tivity of the fishery, or at least, that it is being | 

 maintained ; it is difficult to be certain as to the 

 trend of the figures. 



In South Africa, as in home seas, there have 

 been misgivings as to the effect on the continu- 

 ance of the yield of fish of various causes. Fluc- 

 tuations occur and cause much discussion and 

 demand for remedial measures, or prohibitions 

 and restrictions by legislation. In the case of 

 a fishery where these fluctuations may be due to 



1 Marine Biological Report No. 2, for the yrar ending June t,o, tqm" 

 Pp. 167 + 2 Chans. (Union of S .nth Africa. Cape Province, 1914.) 



NO. 2415, VOL. 96] 



natural, uncontrollable changes or factors, or to 

 variations in private enterprise, or to causes, such 

 as over-fishing, which can be controlled, it is 

 always difficult to know what is best to be done. 

 Many of the causes alleged for the supposed 

 diminution of the Cape sea fisheries seem to Euro- 

 pean readers to be imaginary. The noise and 

 disturbance due to the running of trains along the 

 sea-coast ; firing guns ; the use of dynamite ; sea 

 birds, seals, and porpoises ; the increase of ship- 

 ping, etc., would scarcely be regarded in Europe 

 as competent causes. Nevertheless, the sea 

 fisheries off the South African coast are very re- 

 stricted, and factors which we could scarcely 

 regard as operative in the North Sea may be 

 significant in South African waters. A very good 

 case is made out in the report for the destruction 

 of large numbers of sea fishes by sudden changes 

 in sea temperature due to the extension of cold 

 bottom currents ; by changes due to local sub- 

 marine volcanic disturbances; and by the fouling 

 of the water by masses of decaying plankton. All 

 these are surely matters for scientific investiga- 

 tion, and this is all the more desirable since they 

 are matters of exceptional marine biological in- 

 terest. The really important thing in relation to 

 the South African marine fisheries at present — 

 more important than the promotion of private 

 enterprises — is good, well-equipped, scientific, and 

 statistical investigation. 



The report deals with other matters of special 

 interest. The crawfish {lasus lalandii) has 

 become a very important economic crustacean, and 

 fairly large quantities are now canned and ex- 

 ported. It is the object of very careful fishery 

 observations, and of good zoological investigation. 

 There are reports on the destruction of fish and 

 fish-spawn by netting; very interesting and well- 

 written observations on the habits of South 

 African fishes ; an account of the snoek-fishes 

 (allies of the mackerels) ; descriptions of three new 

 species of marine fishes; and the first part of a 

 catalogue of South African fishes in general. The 

 volume is, altogether, one of much interest and 

 value to science, apart from its special objects in 

 relation to the local fishing industry. J. J. 



NEW ANTISEPTICS. 



BRIEF notices have already appeared in the 

 Press and a fuller account in the British 

 Medical Journal (August 25, 191 5) on the use of 

 sodium hypochlorite solution, made slightly acid 

 with boric acid, for the treatment of wounds. 

 This solution was first introduced by Dr. Dakin 

 and applied with great success in the hospital at 

 Compifegne and in other military hospitals. But 

 this was not the only antiseptic submitted to ex- 

 amination and experiment at the Compi^gne 

 hospital. 



An account by Drs. H. D. Dakin, J. B. Cohen, 

 and J. Kenyon has just appeared in the British 

 Medical Journal (January 29, igisjon chloroamine. 

 This compound, like many others in which 



