December 3, 1914] 



NATURE 



Zl^ 



many other interesting points which cannot be alluded 

 to in a short space. An earlier paper (in the Journal of 

 Genetics, iii. (19 14), p. 179) shows that in Simo- 

 cephalus the idea of an inherent reproductive cycle is 

 mistaken, and that the production of males probably 

 depends on certain unknown factors acting in a cumu- 

 lative manner over several generations. 



The December issue of the Fortnightly Review con- 

 tains an article by Mr. J. B. C. Kershaw on the effect 

 of warfare upon commerce and industry. He shows 

 that the fluctuations of our trade during the past 

 half-century have been largely independent of the 

 wars that have been carried on by our own and other 

 countries. The effect of wars upon the trade of this 

 country will be measured to a large extent by the 

 degree of their interference with the fundamental 

 occupation of agriculture in the countries involved, 

 and the results will be manifest, not at the moment, 

 but in the year or years directly following the war. 



We have referred occasionally to the useful and 

 somewhat laborious compilations of information re- 

 lating to ice in the Southern Ocean contained in the 

 monthly meteorological charts of the Indian Ocean 

 issued by authority of the Meteorological Committee. 

 The chart for December gives a table showing the 

 number of instances, for each of the twelve months 

 in the years 1885- 19 13, of reports that have reached 

 the Meteorological Office. Out of a total of 1694 

 reports, 258 were for the year 1893 ^"^ 3^5 for the 

 year 1906. The largest number of reports have been 

 from ships traversing the South Atlantic, and mostly 

 between Cape Horn and 40° S., and between 30° and 

 60° W., and the smallest number were from ships in 

 the South Pacific ; but it is pointed out that absence 

 of ice in certain parts cannot be taken as proof that 

 none existed. The highest of the bergs was 1700 ft. 

 (June, 1884, 44° S., 49° E.); those of 1000 ft. are 

 comparatively numerous. Bergs varying from five to 

 twenty miles in length are frequently sighted south 

 of 40° S. ; and the tables show that icebergs extend- 

 ing from six to fifty miles in length are " far from 

 uncommon " in the Southern Ocean. 



Ix the November issue of Symons'^ Meteorological 

 Magazine " The Practical Utility of a World Bureau 

 of Meteorology" is again urged by Mr. W. M. Hays 

 and Mr. H. H. Clayton (see Nature, October i). 

 The suggestions include: (1) the use of telegraphic 

 weather reports from all available parts of the globe, 

 for framing estimates of the effect of weather changes 

 on crops, and (2) the unification and improvement of 

 meteorological services generally. If such a scheme 

 were really practicable as regards daily or seasonal 

 weather forecasts, there could be little question of its 

 general utility. The authors' own views upon the 

 subject are supplemented by the opinions of eminent 

 meteorological authorities, and in our issue of 

 February 26 Dr. Shaw referred to the desirability of 

 daily weather reports for the whole globe. To have 

 any chance of success, such a plan as that now in 

 question should (we presume) be recommended by the 

 International Meteorological Committee as a body, 

 NO. 2353, VOL. 94] 



but all efforts towards the creation of an independent 

 institution at six international meetings, at least, led 

 to no favourable result. The great enterprise of the 

 U.S. Weather Bureau in establishing a dailv service 

 for the northern hemisphere may eventually aid the 

 solution of the much more ambitious problem. 



In Nature for October 15 we referred to the re- 

 ported invention, by an Italian professor named Argen- 

 tieri, of a " pocket " system of radio-telegraphy. We 

 now learn from an Italian source that a gentleman of 

 this name has been demonstrating a system of tele- 

 graphy before an Italian Government Committee, but 

 what are the advantages claimed for the apparatus, 

 and what its success, are at present being kept a 

 secret by the parties concerned. 



The value of magnetic tests as a means of deter- 

 mining the changes which occur in paramagnetic 

 materials at high temperatures is well illustrated by 

 a paper by Prof. Honda and Mr. T. Sone on the 

 changes of structure of certain iron and chromium 

 compounds, which apf>ears in the August number of 

 the Science Reports of the University of Sendai, 

 Japan. From their observations it appears that 

 although at very high temperatures magnetite, 

 FCjOj^, is more stable than haematite, FejOj, at 

 temperatures below 1300° C, the reverse is the case, 

 and that magnetite, once it is heated above 1100° C, 

 is almost entirely converted into haematite, and re- 

 mains haematite on cooling again to ordinary- tempera- 

 tures. This deduction from the magnetic observations 

 has been confirmed by weighings. Heating to 

 1300° C. appears to produce no structural chang.^ in 

 chromic oxide, Cr^Oj, but chromium trioxide, CrO,, 

 appears to undergo two non-reversible changes. 



In a paper read before the Royal Society in 1909 

 Mr. S. Kinoshita showed that an a particle projected 

 through a photographic film is capable, throughout 

 the whole of its range, of making any grain of silver 

 chloride it strikes developable. Since then, m com- 

 pany with Mr. H. Ikeuti, he has been using this 

 method of tracing the paths of the a particles, and 

 some of his results are reproduced in the September 

 number of the Proceedings of the Tokyo Mathematico- 

 Physical Society. The a particles were obtained from 

 the end of a needle which had been rubbed on a metal 

 surface previously exposed to radium emanation. The 

 end was brought close up to or into contact with the 

 photographic plate. After development the plate shows 

 under the microscope a series of developed grains 

 lying in straight lines radiating from, and forming 

 a halo round the region of contact, extending 0054 

 millimetre beyond the outside rim of the contact patch. 

 These grains are distributed through the thickness of 

 the photographic film, and are due apparently to the 

 a particles from radium-C. Another series of de- 

 veloped grains close to the surface of the film appears 

 to be due to a particles projected tangentialiy to the 

 surface from active material slightly above it. A few- 

 grains still further afield the authors ascribe to 

 ,18 particles. 



