May 23, 1918] 



NATURE 



231 



with the 'general ■ characteristics of focKl ingredients, 

 digestibility, albuminoid ratios, food units, feeding 

 standards, and the computing of rations. The bulletin 

 ^ives the most comprehensive series of data available, 

 and as such must be regarded as a valuable contribution 

 to Indian agricultural reference literature. 



The Advisory Council of Science and Industry of 

 the Commonwealth of Australia has issued a pamphlet 

 (Bulletin No. 5) dealing with some problems of wheat 

 storage. The bulletin is divided into two parts dealing 

 respectively with damaged grain and insect pests. The 

 former consists of the report of a committee appointed 

 to investigate the utility of quicklime for the preserva- 

 tion of wheat, in accordance with a scheme outlined 

 by Mr. A. O. Barrett. After careful investigation the 

 committee recommends that the process shall be given 

 a trial. Its experiments and observations indicate 

 that ordinary wheat is improved by the treatment, the 

 deterioration of damaged wheat is checked, and any 

 mousy taint is removed. The growth of weevils wds 

 not inhibited, nor were their eggs and the young pupae 

 prevented from developing. The latter problem is dealt 

 with more fully in the second part of the bulletin, 

 which includes a summary of reports received from the 

 Government entomologists of the various States as to 

 insects damaging grain, and a progress report of the 

 special committee on the damage to stored grain by 

 insects. The committee recommends the appointment of 

 a qualified investigator for systematic research on the 

 life-history of the weevils in Australia and the best 

 means of dealing with them, and this proposal is at 

 present under consideration by the Wheat Board. 



The Weather Bureau of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture has in active preparation an "Atlas 

 of American Agriculture," for which the maps dealing 

 with rainfall are practically finished. A copy of the 

 map showing the mean annual rainfall of the United 

 States was issued with the Monthly Weather Review, 

 July, 19 17, and has since been issued in a separate 

 pamphlet. The map indicates in a marked degree the 

 effect of the western mountains upon the distribution 

 of the precipitation, and, in a less clear fashion, the 

 similar effect of the eastern highlands, while it empha- 

 sises the run of the isohyets almost due north from 

 the shores of the Gulf of Mexico between Galveston 

 and the Rio Grande. In the accompanying text Prof. 

 R. DeC. Ward discusses, among other topics, the 

 climatic provinces of the United States. He divides 

 the eastern half of the country into two provinces, 

 Eastern and Gulf, and draws the boundary between 

 them for the western third of its course at right angles 

 to the north and south trend of the isohyets, so that 

 the western third of the Gulf Province has an annual 

 precipitation varying from 20 to 50 in. The Eastern 

 Province contains examples of at least three types of 

 rainfall : the summer rains of the north-west of the 

 province, the coastal rains of the Atlantic lowlands, 

 and an area of continuous rainfall at all seasons near 

 the southern end of the eastern highlands ; these sub- 

 divisions are ignored. 



Prof. S. W. Williston and his pupils continue to 

 make important additions to our knowledge of American 

 Permian Reptilia and Amphibia in the Contributions 

 from Walker Museum (vol. ii., Nos. 1-3), published 

 by the University of Chicago. Many of the fossils 

 are, unfortunately, so badly preserved that there is 

 scope for much difference of opinion as to their inter- 

 pretation, but the skeleton in several genera is now 

 becoming fairly well known. Some unusually good 

 specimens of the strange Stegocephaltan Diplocaulus 

 have just been studied by Mr. Herman Douthitt, who 

 shows that this animal must have been shaped and 

 lived like a skate. Since Cope originally described its 



NO. 2534, VOL. lOl] 



very short and broad triangular skull, there has been 

 much speculation as to its nature, and Mr. Douthitt 

 seems to have solved the problem. Some nearly com- 

 plete skeletons of the primitive reptile Labidosaurus 

 are discussed by Prof. Williston himself, who notes 

 the absence of a neck and the unusual strength of 

 the feet. There are large hook-like incisor teeth in 

 front of the upper jaw, which might assist the feet 

 in grubbing up worms and larvae. Prof. Williston 's 

 studies have led him to make another effort to attain 

 a natural classification of the reptiles. He recog- 

 nises four main divisions or subclasses, all beginning 

 in Palaeozoic times, and, all represented by their direct 

 descendants to-day. The Diapsida end in the tuatera, 

 crocodiles, and birds, the Synapsida in mammals, the 

 Parapsida in lizards and snakes, and the Anapsida 

 in tortoises and turtles. 



Under the title "Physics of the Air," Prof. W. J. 

 Humphries, of the United States Weather Bureau, 

 has been contributing to the Journal of the Franklin 

 Institute since August last a series of articles on the 

 physics of meteorological phenomena. The March 

 issue of the Journal, e.g., contains a description of 

 the seasonal and daily changes of barometric pressure 

 and a discussion of their causes, and the thirteen pages 

 form chap. xi. of the series. Together they consti- 

 tute a notable addition to the literature of meteoro- 

 logy, and it is to be hoped that the articles will be re- 

 issued in book form, so as to be accessible to the large 

 number of readers interested in the fundamental facts 

 of meteorology. For such readers there has, up to the 

 present, been no trustworthy English text-book which 

 discussed the subject from so scientific a viewpoint or 

 dealt with its modern developments so completely. 



The Photographic Journal for April contains a 

 description of the photometer for measuring the densi- 

 ties of photographic negatives shown at the March 

 meeting of the Royal Photographic Society by its 

 inventors, Messrs. Benson, Ferguson, and Renwick. 

 The negative is placed on an opal half an inch in 

 diameter, the top surface of which is level with that 

 of a small table in which the opal is inserted. Light 

 from a 15-candle-power headlight lamp placed under 

 the table passes through the opal and negative. Light 

 from the same lamp falls on movable mirrors, by 

 means of which it is thrown on to the under-surface 

 of a second opal near the first, and the distance of 

 the mirrors from the lamp is adjusted until the two 

 opals have the same intensity as determined by a 

 Lummer-Brodhun cube above the table-. In describ- 

 ing the instrument at the meeting, Mr. Renwick 

 pointed out that the time had arrived when eye- 

 estimates of densities were no longer sufficiently 

 accurate to enable progress to be made in ascertaining 

 the conditions which determine the density of a nega- 

 tive. In a paper which precedes the description, of 

 the photometer in the Journal, he shows that the 

 optical properties of the silver grains must be taken 

 into account before photographic densities can be 

 explained satisfactorily. 



The "natural" or spontaneous coagulation of the 

 latex in the production of rubber has been attributed, 

 on one hand to enzyme action, and on the other to 

 the agency of bacteria. Mr. M. Barrowcliff, in the 

 Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry for 

 February 15, adduces good evidence in support of the 

 former theory. Coagulation of latex was found to 

 take place in normal time after addition of toluol, 

 which acts as a bactericide, but is non-toxic to 

 enzymes. Similarly, the addition of thymol did not 

 inhibit or retard coagulation. Small quantities of 

 soluble calcium salts greatly accelerated the action , a^; 



