248 



NATURE 



[May 30, 19 1 8 



should keep suitable records. If this course had 

 been followed in Ayrshire, some 500,000/. rhight 

 have been saved. But our local authorities have 

 not yet acknowledged the duty. 



It has been left to the meteorological societies, 

 or the Meteorological Office, or the British Rain- 

 fall Organisation to collect such observations of 

 weather as are made for country landowners or 

 by meteorological enthusiasts in various localities ; 

 the distribution is naturally hapha2ard. Moreover, 

 with the possible exception of. the water engineer, 

 the people who have to carry out such schemes 

 have no training in the use of the collected in- 

 formation or in -how to find it, and without some 

 experience the tables are difficult to use. Much 

 of the information requires- re-working in order 

 to answer special questions. For those who know 

 where to look for it, there is a vast mine of in- 

 formation about the climatology of the British 

 Isles, but, for lack of schools devoted to such 

 sciences, it is largely unworked. An authorita- 

 tive compilation is much needed. The Royal 

 Meteorological Society, in co-operation with the 

 Meteorological Office, began to work the data for 

 a climatological atlas shortly before the war, but 

 has had to discontinue the task for. the present. 

 It was thought at the time to be an undertaking 

 of great utility, but that its present worth might 

 run to six figures in a single case was clearly not 

 realised. 



NOTES. 



The twelfth annual meeting of the British Science 

 Guild will be held at the Mansion House on Wednes- 

 day, June 19, at 4 p.m., the Lord Mayor in the chair. 

 Lord Sydenham, president of the guild, will deliver 

 an address on "Education, Science, and Leadership"; 

 and other speakers will be Sir Algernon Firth, Bart., 

 and Sir Henry Newbolt. Tickets of admission may 

 be obtained from the Secretary, British Science Guild, 

 199 Piccadilly, London, W.i. 



The Lords Commissioners of H.M. Treasury have 

 approved the proposal of the Meteorological Com- 

 mittee that, in view of the variety and importance 

 of the scientific problems upon which the Meteoro- 

 logical Office is required to advise the fighting forces^ 

 Sir Napier Shaw shall, for the period of the war,, 

 become scientific adviser to His Majesty's Government 

 m meteorology, and be relieved of the administrative 

 duties of the Meteorological Office, but retain the 

 chairmanship of the Meteorological Committee. 

 Lt.-Col. ,H. G. Lyons, with the sanction of 

 the War Office, has been appointed acting director 

 of the Meteorological Office for the same period. 

 We most heartily congratulate the Government and 

 Sir Napier Shaw upon this appointment. Meteorology 

 in England has made great progress during the last 

 twenty years, and a large share of the credit for this 

 must be given to Sir Napier's administration of the 

 Meteorological Office and to his lectures and papers 

 on the subject. The value in war of correct forecasts 

 is obvious, but there are many other ways in which 

 an intimate knowledge of meteorology may be of 

 use, and no more suitable man could have been found 

 for the new post. 



The return to Copenhagen from Greenland, via the 

 Faroe Islands, of . Mr. Knud Rasmussen, the Danish 

 Arctic explorer, is announced by Renter's Agency. In 

 NO. 2535, VOL. IOl"| 



1916 Mr. Rasmussen expired the coasts of Melville 

 Bay between Upernivik and Cape York, as ice pre--^ 

 vented his reaching his station at Thule, in North 

 Star Bay, In 1917 he returned to his original pro- 

 gramme of exploring the north-west coast of Green- 

 land, with special reference to Eskimo migrations. 

 This was almost the last unexplored part of the Green- 

 land coast. The expedition also planned to carry 

 mails to the American Crocker Land Expedition and 

 its relief expedition, the latter supposed then to be 

 at North Star Bay, south of Smith Sound. The 

 news now to hand through a Reuter message reports 

 that Mr. Rasmussen reached Sherard Osborne 

 Fjord early in Ma)% 1917, and spent the summer in 

 mapping the little-known fjords as far north as De 

 Long Fjord. The difficulties of travelling were accen- 

 tuated by the absence of game. In the beginning of 

 August the expedition started south again over the 

 ice, and with great difficulty reached Cape Agassiz, 

 140 miles north of Etah, in three weeks' time, and 

 Etah on September 10. Dr. Wulff, one of the men of 

 science, died of exposure. Mr. Rasmussen apparently 

 wintered at Etah or Thule, and left Greenland this 

 spring. He reports no trace of Eskimo migrations on 

 the north-west coast. Apparently his plans for travers- 

 ing the Canadian Arctic archipelago from east to west 

 have been deferred. 



Science has lost another distinguished young votary 

 by the death of Capt. James Watson Pryde, who fell 

 in action in East Africa on May 5. Capt. Pryde was 

 a native of: Dundee, and received his early education 

 at the Morgan Academy. He then entered the Uni- 

 versity of St. Andrews, and completed his arts course 

 with distinction in every class. With a strong bent 

 for science, he selected zoology as his main depart- 

 ment, and there he gained the highest honours in class 

 and degree examinations, as well as in practical 

 work. Moreover, he at once commenced, as Walker 

 Trust scholar, original work at the Gatty Marine 

 Laboratory, taking up the study of the North Sea 

 Polychaets where another able graduate, Wm. Small, 

 now with the fighting forces in East' Africa, had 

 left off, and his published papers show that he 

 did so with conspicuous syccess. Early in his col- 

 lege career Pryde joined the O.T.C., and at the 

 outbreak of the war was sergeant-major. He volun- 

 teered for service at once, and received a commission 

 in the Black Watch, his talents, administrative skill, 

 and agreeable bearing making him very popular. He 

 was then attached to the King's African Rifles, and 

 lately was at Zomba, Nyasaland, pursuing the 

 Germans into Portuguese East Africa, in the region 

 of the Lugenda River. He was looking forward to 

 an early return to continue his researches and the 

 study of medicine. The loss of a zoologist so able 

 and accomplished, and of so gallant a soldier, is 

 grievous. 



The Trustees of the British Museum have published 

 a report on an investigation carried out by Mr. J. 

 Hartley Durrant, of the Natural History Museum, and 

 Col. W. W. O. Beveridge to ascertain how and when 

 the infestation of Army biscuits by fk)ur-moths takes 

 place, and whether any steps can be taken to prevent 

 this. A list is given of eight species of beetles and 

 four Pyralid moths that were actually found in the 

 tins of biscuits examined. But by far the most 

 serious pest was the moth Ephestia kiihniella, and 

 excellent illustrations and a full description are given 

 both of this species and of Corcyrn cephalonica. Evi- 

 dence is adduced indicating that Central America is 

 probably the original home of E. kiihniella, the so- 

 called Mediterranean flour-moth. The examination of 

 various intact airtight tins showed that the biscuits. 



