October i, 1914] 



XATURE 



123 



it was decided to form a new association, and the 

 first officers of the council, with Prof. Frankland as 

 president, were elected in 1877. The membership, 

 which in February, 1878, was 225, had grown in 

 March, 1914, to 1454. Recently new buildings have 

 been erected, duly equipped, and suitable for the pur- 

 poses of the institute, at a cost of 17,080/. Owing to 

 the dispute in the building trades in the early part of 

 this year, these new buildings have not been com- 

 pleted, so that the institute will occupy their present 

 premises at 30 Bloomsbury Square, if necessary until 

 Christmas. A special council meeting was held on 

 June 12 to consider the question of bringing the work 

 of the institute more prominently before the public. 

 Four lectures will be given during the winter months. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Comet 1913/ (Delav-An). — Delavan's comet is becom- 

 ing a less favourable object for evening observation 

 owing to the diminution of its declination and its 

 movement westward among the stars. It attains, 

 however, a considerable altitude in the hours just 

 before dawn, and this is the best time for observation. 

 It is situated not far from the star x Ursze Majoris, 

 and is approaching a Can. Venaticorum. On clear 

 evenings it is a conspicuous object near the northern 

 horizon and its tail has increased considerably in 

 length. The series of fine nights recently experienced 

 has given opportunities for a considerable amount of 

 observation. 



The Recent Solar Eclipse. — The recent eclipse was 

 observed at Paris and Algiers, though at both stations 

 it was only partial. At the Observatory of Paris MM. 

 Bigourdan, Boquet, Chatelu, and Le Morvan made 

 the observations, while M. Gounessiat worked under 

 :^'^ood conditions at Algiers. The results of these ob- 



•rvations have been communicated to the Comptes 

 ■cndus, August 24 and 31. In the case of Paris, 

 M. Bigourdan determined the observed minus calcu- 

 lated times of commencement and end as —23 sec. and 

 — 38 sec. respectively. M. Gounessiat, from his ob- 

 servations at Algiers, gives the corrections to his 

 observed times of first and last contact as —25 sec. 

 and —38 sec. respectively. 



Fren'ch Provincial Observ.atories in 1913.^ — The 

 pamphlet published by the French Minister of Public 

 Instruction and Fine Arts, entitled " Enquetes et Docu- 

 ments relatifs a d'enseignement sup^rieur," vol. cix., 

 contains the reports of the French provincial observa- 

 tories for the year 19 13. The observatories dealt with 

 are Algiers, Besan^on, Bordeaux, Lyons, Marseilles, 

 Nice, Pic du Midi, and Toulouse. The volume gives 

 a good idea of the various branches of astronomical 

 and meteorological work, which forms the main 

 routine work of the several institutions, besides stating 

 the actual progress made during the past year. It 

 gives further lists of the various staffs, showing that 

 each observatory employs from six to nine scientific 

 members, excluding the Pic du Midi, which is com- 

 posed of four 



Strong Magnetic Fields for Solar Research. — 

 MM. Deslandres and Perot present, in the Comptes 

 rendiis for August 24 (vol clix.. No. 8), the second of 

 their series of experiments for the production of most 

 intense magnetic fields. This work is particularly 

 important in its bearing on experiments relative to 

 researches on solar magnetic fields. It is pointed out 

 that the progress of advance in the construction of 

 electromagnets is to be found, not in the saturation of 



NO. 2344, VOL. 94] 



large masses of iron, but in the judicious use of intense 

 electric currents. The authors of the above paper do 

 not therefore advocate the e.xceedingly ponderous ap- 

 paratus of Weiss, which weighs about 100 tons, but are 

 directing their attention to comparatively small and 

 light electromagnets. In the present paper they 

 describe somewhat in detail the methods they adopt 

 and the success already achieved speaks well for fur- 

 ther advance. With the support of the Princess of 

 Polignac, the electric supply company of Paris, and 

 the electric station of the Bon Marchd, they have 

 been able to test their new method of water cooling 

 of the magnetising coils, and have without the use 

 of iron reached a field of 50,000 gauss as 

 measured by its effect on one of the zinc lines. 

 They use thin silver tape instead of wire in their 

 coils, and cool it by a stream of water flowing across 

 instead of along the tape. The difference of potential 

 between two consecutive turns of the tape is kept 

 below 14 volts in order to minimise electrolysis. By 

 the use of iron cores the authors hope to be able 

 eventually to reach fields of 150,000 gauss, but their 

 work has been interrupted by the war. 



RECENT ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY. 



T^HE University of California has recently issued 

 *■ (Publications in Zoology, vol. xi., No. 14. 

 1914) a monumental paper on economic ornithology 

 by Mr. H. C. Bryant; although a single species only 

 — the Western Meadow-lark (Sturnella neglecta) — is 

 dealt with, the memoir extends to 133 pages, with 

 four plates and many statistical tables. All modes of 

 investigation — field work, experiments with captive 

 birds, examination of stomach contents of adults 

 throughout the year and of nestlings, summaries of 

 the influence of season, locality, age and sex, on the 

 nature of the food — have been brought to bear on the 

 problem. The farmers of California, in reply to cir- 

 culars sent out by the author, were about' equally 

 divided in opinion as to whether this particular bird 

 is harmful or not. Mr. Bryant comes to the conclu- 

 sion that except for a reprehensible habit of destroy- 

 ing sprouting grain in spring, the Western Meadow- 

 lark must be regarded as beneficial from the numbers 

 of harmful insects and weed-seeds that it devours. 

 In addition to the economic interest of this paper, a 

 discussion of the value of "protective" adaptations 

 in insects appeals to the naturalist. A large propor- 

 tion of the stomachs examined contained hair}' cater- 

 pillars, ants, wasps, and bees, as well as " crj'p'tically " 

 coloured grasshoppers and weevils. The author ad- 

 mits, however, that the factors of situation and motion 

 at the time of capture might explain why the form 

 and hue of these latter failed to protect them. 



The last published part of the Bulletin of Entomo- 

 logical Research (vol. v., part i, April, 1914) contains 

 an interesting account of the Gold Coast by Dr. J. J, 

 Simpson, who has paid special attention to tsetse-flies 

 and other blood-sucking insects. Mr. W. W. Frog- 

 gatt has a short but valuable note on sheep-maggot 

 flies in Australia, where species of bluebottle (Calli- 

 phora) have, during the last ten years, acquired the 

 habit of " blowing " healthy sheep, as the greenbottle, 

 Lttcilia sericata, has long done in this country. A 

 minute chalcid parasite does something to keep the 

 flies in check, but they are said to have caused the 

 loss of a million pounds to stockowners last year in 

 New South Wales alone. Glossina morsitans in 

 Nyasaland is discussed bv Dr. J. O. Shircore, who 

 has traced the fly to foui "primary centres," where 

 extermination might be attempted with some chance 

 of .success. 



