July i8, 1918] 



NATURE 



391 



\ SEPTUAGENARIAN engineer of distinction, with a 

 li; record of useful public and private service, has 

 passed away in the person of Mr. George VValler 

 Willcocks, C.B., whose death occurred on July 7. 

 His most prominent work in this country was 

 in connection with the Local Government Board, 

 which appointed him its chief engineering in- 

 spector in igo2. Some time previously he had 

 been, first chief assistant, and then chief, hydraulic 

 engineer for Ireland, until the office was abolished in 

 1890, when he received the thanks of the Irish Execu- 

 tive for his services. Mr. Willcocks had also con- 

 siderable foreign and colonial experience. After 

 several years with the East London Railway, he went 

 out, in i86g, to Hungary, to engage in railway de- 

 velopment in that country, and, in 1880, he was in 

 South Africa, constructing waterworks in Natal and 

 , Cape Colony. His private practice included much 

 Parliamentary work on railway Bills, and he also 

 reported to the Thames Conservancy on the condition 

 of the river from Purfieet to the sea. He was a 

 member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, having 

 been elected in 1873. 



The Electrical Research Committee, which was 

 appointed last autumn, under the auspices of the 

 Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, is 

 at present engaged in superintending a research on 

 insulating materials (fibrous materials, porcelain, 

 \ ebonite, mica, composite materials) and the water- 

 I proofing treatment of insulating windings of electrical 

 machines, in respect of which grants have been made 

 to the Committee by the Research Department, the 

 British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers' Associa- 

 tion, and the Institution of Electrical Engineers. 

 The Committee consists of three members nominated 

 by the institution, and three members nominated by 

 the B.E.A.M.A., the nominees of the former being 

 • Mr. C. H. Wordingham (chairman of the Committee), 

 Mr. C. C. Paterson, and Mr. C. P. Soarks. and those 

 of the latter Mr. F. R. Davenport, Mr. D. N. Dunlop, 

 and Mr. A. R. Everest. The temporary address of 

 the Committee is i Albemarle Street, London, W.i, 

 and the secretary is Mr. P. F. Rowell. 



June this year was generally cold and dry over the 

 United Kingdom, and for the first month of summer 

 was far from seasonable. At Greenwich the mean 

 temperature for the four weeks ending June 29, as 

 shown by the weekly weather reports of the Meteoro- 

 logical Office, was 573° F., which is 2° below the 

 normal. The greatest deficiency of temperature oc- 

 curred in the closing week, when the mean was 567° 

 and 4° below the normal. The maximum shade tem- 

 perature in each of the last two weeks, ending June 22 

 and 29, was 73°, and for the week ending June 15 

 was only 74°. For one-hdlf of the days in June the 

 London temperatures failed to touch 70°. It is, how- 

 ever, not necessary to go further back than two 

 years for an equally unsatisfactory record, the weather 

 being decidedly colder in June, 19 16, when the mean 



■ temperature for the month at Greenwich was 2° lower, 

 \ and there was a greater absence of warm days. The 

 j month this year was drier. The total rainfall for the 

 : four weeks ending June 29 at Greenwich was 075 in., 

 I which is 106 in. below the normal, and 41 per cent. 



■ of the average. There was no rain in the week ending 

 June 8, and only 006 in. for the week ending June 29. 

 in the Midland counties the total rainfall for the four 

 weeks ending June 29 was oqi in., and in the south- 



\ east of England loi in. The report for the week 



I ending June 29 states that the deficiency of rainfall 



I in the South of England has been almost continuous 



•sinre the week ending May 11, the deficiency for that 



d being 38 mm. or 1-50 in., and the totaf measure- 



NO. 2542, VOL. lOl] 



ment in seven weeks is only 51 per cent, of the. 

 average. 



We have received from Miss M. M. Brinkworth, 

 3 Mount Beacon, Bath, an example of a peloriate 

 Viola flower. Pelorisation with "or without spurs 

 has been observed in various species of this genus, 

 but the case illustrated by Miss Brinkworth 's speci- 

 men differs in showing a concomitant increase in the 

 number of sepals and petals. 



Some interesting explorations were made in Spits- 

 bergen last year by M. Adolf Hoel and Capt. S. 

 Rovig, of the Norwegian Navy. A short paper in 

 La Geographic (vol. xxxii., No. 2, 1918) gives the 

 chief results. The territory examined was in the 

 south, chiefly between Bell Sound and Horn Sound. 

 M Hoel denies the distinction generally made between 

 the Archean and Hecla Hook formations on the west 

 coast. He claims to have discovered in the Hecla 

 Hook beds north of Horn Sound rocks characteristic of 

 the so-called Archean formation of Spitsbergen. All 

 these rocks, at least in the south of Spitsbergen, he 

 attributes to pre-Devonian, probably Silurian, times. 

 M. Hoel further claims to have discovered Tertiary 

 rocks on the west coast between Horn Sound and 

 South Cape. The paper also contains some informa- 

 tion about the Horn Sound glaciers. Finally, there is 

 news of increased mining activity, including new 

 claims and the encroachment of certain Scandinavian 

 claims on British estates. 



A REPORT (vol. ii., A. 5) on the Danish Oceano- 

 graphical Expeditions of 1908-10 to the Mediterranean 

 and adjacent seas deals with the distribution and life- 

 histories.^ of the fishes belonging to the families 

 Argentinidae, Microstomidae, Opisthoproctidae, and 

 Mediterranean Odontostomidae. The report, written 

 by Dr. Joh. Schmidt, refers almost entirely to the 

 collections made by the author himself on board the 

 Danish Fishery Research steamer Thor during the 

 years 1903-10 in the north-eastern Atlantic, and later 

 on in the Mediterranean. It is entirely systematic. 

 There are very clear charts showing the distribution 

 of the fishes collected, and special attention is devoted 

 to larval and post-larval forms, a large number of 

 these being described and figured. 



Bulletin No. 11 of the Department of Fisheries, for 

 the Province of Bengal and^ Bihar and Orissa (Cal- 

 cutta : Bengal Secretariat, 19 18) consists of an 

 account of investigations on the Hilsa undertaken 

 during 1917, and also of a summarv of previous work. 

 The Hilsa is a very highly esteemed Indian food-fish. 

 It is a Clupeoid (Clupea or Hilsa ilisha), and, like the 

 salmon, it is an anadromous fish ascending rivers 

 from the sea in order to spawn. From the time of 

 Francis Day (1873) it has been the subject of more or 

 less unsuccessful investigation. Day, recognising that 

 the existence of weirs or anicuts presented great diffi- 

 culties to the upward passage of the fish, advised a 

 kind of under-water fish-pass, which does not seem 

 to have been successful The Madras Fisheries De- 

 partment instituted research into methods of artificial 

 culture in 1909, but this was apparently dropped. The 

 present (Bengal) Department began again about the 

 same time, and, after sending a superintendent to 

 America to study methods of shad-culture, tried to 

 propagate Hilsa on the same lines, but without suc- 

 cess. In this paper Messrs. T. Southwell and 

 B. Prashav examine the methods, discuss the reasons 

 for failure, and suggest further investigation. 



The May issue of the Veterinary Review (vol. ii.. 

 No. 2) contains, in addition to the reviews and ab- 

 stracts of veterinary literature, a useful article by 



