KRp 



March 21, 1918] 



NATURE 



5» 



itals with drugs and other materials from Indian 

 •sources. Absolute alcohol, previously imported from 

 abroad, is now made at the Government dep6ts at 

 Bombay and Lahore, and by private firms at Calcutta 

 and Ahmedabad. Belladonna is being largely culti- 

 vated in Kumaun, and among other drugs now sup- 

 plied from Indian sources are thymol, ether for phar- 

 maceutical purposes, lysol, calcium chloride, lactose, 

 and aniline oil, while arrangements are being made to 

 provide in India all the various nux vomica prepara- 

 tions. Bandages and dressings are now being locally 

 made, and glass is being manufactured for laboratory, 

 medical, and surgical purposes. Artificial limbs of the 

 latest pattern are being manufactured at Bombay. In 

 ^hort, the demands of the war in the domain of medi- 

 cine and surgery are being met in India on a very 

 considerable scale. 



A REPORT of a bacteriological investigation of the 

 City of Dublin milk supply is published by the Co- 

 operative Reference Library, Dublin. Of more than 

 100 samples analysed, only seventeen could be con- 

 sidered satisfactory; all the others would be classed 

 as low-grade milks unsuited for drinking in the natural 

 state. The examinations were conducted by Mr. D. 

 Houston, who gives a general discussion of the results 

 •obtained, and a preface is contributed by Dr. St. John 

 Gogarthy on the importance of a pure milk supply. 



The extraction of quite a small metallic fragment 

 from the brain is recorded in the Archives of Radiology 

 and Electrotherapy for February (No. 211). The 

 foreign body was localised by the X-rays, and the 

 •skull opened. The points of the forceps extractor were 

 then introduced into the brain, and manipulated so 

 that the shadows of the fragment and of the points 

 of the extractor fell exactly in the middle of a small 

 fluorescent screen attached to the instrument. After 

 •some manipulation the fragment was grasped and 

 withdrawn. The blades of the extractor were con- 

 nected with an electric bell, which rang when the 

 fragment was grasped, the circuit being then com- 

 pleted. The fragment was about 2 in. below the sur- 

 face of the brain, and the patient made a good re- 

 covery. Capt. Barclay was the! radiographer and 

 Capt. Rayner the surgeon in charge of the case. 



Although the National Seed Testing Station has 

 been in operation only since November last it is clear 

 from the interim report on the quality of existing 

 stocks of agricultural seeds, which is published in the 

 February number of the Journal of the Board of Agri- 

 culture, that a great deal of useful work has already 

 been accomplished. Up to February 4 tests had 

 already been completed on more than 2400 samples, 

 and although in certain species the numbers of samples 

 are too small to be taken as representative of the stocks 

 of these seeds in the country, it is thought that the 

 ^rtures given in the report may be taken as a fair 

 1(X of the standard of the more important seeds. 

 is reassuring to find that good seed in moderate 

 ijuantity is available in the case of the more important 

 n ops, especially the grain crops. At the same time, it 

 ■-; evident that there will be a large amount of low- 

 ide seed offered to farmers this season. This is par- 

 ularly so in the case of red clover, sainfoin, and 

 ridow fescue, which would seem to be considerably 

 low the average of normal seasons. In the case of 

 reals, attention is directed to the undesirability in 

 the national interest of making large sowings of grain 

 of^ low germination when good samples of high ger- 

 mination are obtainable, and permit of a much lower 

 rate of sowing. The staff of the station is to be 

 congratulated upon the large amount of work accom- 

 plished under conditions of exceptional difficulty. 



NO. 2525, VOL. lOl] 



A STRIKING object-lesson on the capabilities of water- 

 power, when adapted to industrial and manufacturing 

 uses, was affotded in an exhibition of kinematograph 

 films by Prof. J. C. McLennan, at the Institution of 

 Civil Engineers, on the evening of March 12. The 

 films were prepared by the Water-Power Branch of 

 the Department of the Interior of Canada, of which 

 Mr. J. B. Challis is superintendent. The exhibition 

 was given under the auspices of the Canadian Govern- 

 ment, and was intended to demonstrate the wonderful 

 extent of the hydraulic resources of Canada. In his 

 introductory remarks Prof. McLennan alluded briefly 

 to the progress of the country; thirty years ago it 

 might have been described as steady to variable, but 

 during the past twelve years it had undergone a re- 

 markable acceleration, which was apparently destined 

 to become even more accentuated in the immediate 

 future. This was due, in a very large measure, to the 

 construction of the three great highways across the 

 Dominion — the Canadian Pacific, the Canadian 

 Northern, and the Grank Trunk Railways. Arising out 

 of these as primary agencies, a great impetus had been 

 given to agriculture, education, and industry. The 

 water resources of Canada were estimated at twenty 

 million horse^jower, as compared with twenty-eight 

 million horse-power in the United States, and of these 

 some two million horse-power were now in use. The 

 importance of the conservation of such stores of energy 

 was fully recognised, and impounding works were being 

 carried out in order to realise the utmost capabilities 

 of supply, as might be instanced by the reservoir dam 

 at La Loutre, which impounds 160,000,000,000 cub. ft., 

 and has an effective drainage area of 16,200 square miles. 

 One of the most important uses to which water-power 

 had been applied was the solution of the problem of 

 the fixation of nitrogen from the atmosphere. The 

 films illustrated a number of waterfalls, reservoirs, and 

 installations of hydro-electric plants in various parts of 

 the Dominion, including Grand Mere, Shawinigan 

 Falls, Cedar Rapids, St. Timothee, Winnipeg, Van- 

 couver, and Niagara. 



Part i of vol. xxx. of the Proceedings of the Royal 

 Society of Victoria contains a description of a new 

 dividing engine for ruling diffraction gratings by Mr. 

 J. H. Grayson, of the University of Melbourne. The 

 design and construction of this machine have occupied 

 Mr. Grayson, whose skill in work of this tj-pe is well 

 known, for seven years, and the completion of the task 

 places spectroscopists under a great debt of gratitude 

 to him. His paper contains a detailed description of 

 the machine, and gives full particulars of the methods 

 used for grinding and testing the screw. The machine 

 is set up in a room of its own in the basement of the 

 University, and is driven by a i/40-h.p. hot-air engine 

 placed in an adjoining room. Ruling diamonds are 

 broken stones in which the fracture along a cleavage 

 plane intersects an- outer crystalline face and gives a 

 good knife edge. Mr. Grayson finds the stones from 

 the diamondiferous drift of New South Wales best for 

 this purpose, and when ruling properly such a diamond 

 makes no noise. The photographs which accompany 

 the paper show that the rulings are extremely regular 

 and warrant the hope that gratings ruled on the 

 machine will give exceptionally clear spectra. The 

 verdict of spectroscopists on the gratings will be 

 awaited with considerable interest. In the meantime 

 all will congratulate Mr. Grayson on the completion of 

 his work, and the University of Melbourne on the 

 public-spirited way in which it has provided facilities 

 for that work. 



In his presidential address to the section of the 

 Indian Science Congress dealing with Physics and 

 Mathematics, Dr. Wali Mohammad has given an- in- 

 teresting account of recent progress in magneto-optics. 



