August 22, 1918] 



NATURE 



489 



The autumn meetinj* of the Iron and Steel Institute 

 will be held at the Institution of Civil Engineers, 

 Westminster, on Thursday and Friday, September 12 

 and 13. Amon£j the papers that are expected to be 

 submitted are : — The Rate of Change at 100° C. and 

 at Ordinary Temperatures in the Electrical Resistance 

 of Hardened Steel, E. D. Campbell; Some Experi- 

 ments on the Reaction between Pure Carbon Monoxide 

 and Pure Electrolytic Iron below the A, Inversion, 

 H. C. H. Carpenter and C. Coldron Smith; Influences 

 of Hot Working on the Qualities of Steel, G. Charpy ; 

 The Casting of Steel in Ingot and other Moulds, J. E. 

 Fletcher; Magnetic Analysis as a Means of Study- 

 ing the Structure of Iron Alloys, K. Honda; Stan- 

 dardisation of Tests for Refractor}' Materials, Cosmo 

 Johns ; The Utilisation of Waste Heat from Open- 

 hearth Furnaces for the Generation of Steam, T. B. 

 Mackenzie; and Influence of Elements on Tenacity of 

 Basic Steel, A. McWilliam. 



According to the June issue of Terrestrial Mag- 

 netism and Atfnospheric Electricity, the magnetic 

 survey ship Carnegie arrived safely at her home port 

 in June last after having been detained for nine months 

 last year at Buenos Aires owing to the methods of 

 sea warfare adopted by our enemies. Her survey 

 work is to be suspended until it can be resumed with 

 safety. The results of the survey of the eastern por- 

 tion of the Pacific between the middle of Chile and 

 the Bay of Panama, which she was able to make 

 during her journey home in the early months of the 

 present year, are given in the same issue. The United 

 States and British charts are in close agreement with 

 the new measurements so far as the deviation of the 

 compass is concerned, but both charts are seriously 

 wrong in their values of the dip. Errors of three or 

 four degrees are frequent, and errors of five degrees 

 are occasionally present. 



In a letter to the Daily Telegraph of August 13, Mr. 

 F. W. Twort, professor-superintendent of the Brown 

 Institution, criticises the procedure of the War Office 

 with reference to the epidemic of dysentery in the 

 Salonika area during 1915 and 1916. Towards the 

 end of 1915 Mr. Twort was appointed in charge of a 

 laboratory at Salonika, and came to the conclusion 

 that much bacillary dysentery occurred in the district. 

 The War Office set up a Medical Advisory Committee 

 for the Eastern area of operations, and this Committee 

 in Egypt issued a report on Salonika. It apparently 

 considered the dysentery of Salonika to be the amoebic 

 form. In consequence of these findings, which he con- 

 sidered to be erroneous, Mr. Twort retired from the 

 Army Medical Service. .At the end of 1917 Lt.-Col. 

 Buchanan, a member of the War Office Advisory Com- 

 mittee, admitted that the diagnosis of dysentery bv 

 this Committee was wrongs that bacillary dysentery 

 occurred at Salonika ; and that certain large cells in 

 the mucus had been mistaken for amoebae. In spite 

 of these findings, the War Office, Mr. Twort asserts, 

 has so far taken no action to put matters right so far 

 as this is now possible. 



Thk Rev. W. Lower Carter, who died on June ig, 

 was from early youth an indefatigable worker in the ! 

 interests of geology, but it was relatively late in life 1 

 that he took up scientific work as a profession. He I 

 began business life as a bank clerk, and doubtless the i 

 experience he gained in that capacity developed the ' 

 organising abilities for which Mr. Carter was justly 

 known. .\fter a successful university career at 

 Birmingham, Cambridge, and Halle, he entered 

 the Congregational ministry. What time he 

 could spare from his pastoral work was devoted 

 to stimulate and assist scientific research, particularly 



NO. 2547, VOL. lOl] 



in connection with the Leeds Geological Association 

 and the Yorkshire Geological and Polytechnic Society. 

 For many years he edited the Transactions of these 

 societies, and, as honorary secretary, organised their 

 various activities. When, in 1908, Mr. Carter re- 

 signed his charge in Birkenhead to become lecturer 

 in geology at East London College, and afterwards 

 lecturer in geography at Queen's College, London, he 

 still retained his interest in the Yorkshire societies, and 

 it is largely due to his work that the Yorkshire Geo- 

 logical Society became so prominent among provincial 

 societies. Further scope was afforded his powers of 

 organisation when he acted for several vears as recorder 

 of Section C (Geology) of the British Association. The 

 time and energv given to assist the spread of scientific 

 knowledge through these bodies limited his original 

 research work. This, chiefly in the form of short 

 notes, was published in the Transactions of the York- 

 shire societies, as also more important contributions 

 on the development of certain river systems in York- 

 shire. It is, however, as an organiser and teacher 

 rather than as an investigator that Mr. Carter's name 

 will be remembered among geologists. 



The pleomorphism and developmental cycles of the 

 bacteria is the subject of a paper by Dr. Sopp in 

 Naturen (Bergen) for May (No. 5, 1918). In particular 

 he reviews the work of Almquist on pleomorphism and 

 that of Lohnis on the developmental cycle of Azoto- 

 bacter, in which he claims that conjugation occurs 

 with the formatioVi of various spore-like bodies. 



The July issue of the Archives of Radiology and 

 Electrotherapy (vol. xxiii.. No. 2) is devoted to the 

 consideration of the treatment of paralysis due to nerve 

 injury, a subject of great importance at the present 

 time. The principal paper is contributed by Lieut. 

 Noel Burke, R.A.M.C. He concludes that " rational 

 treatment of this form of paralysis must be directed to 

 the nerve as well as to the muscle. It takes the form 

 of the galvanic current with or without ionisation. 

 Pain can usually be relieved by electrical means or by 

 heat. The muscles should be treated both with mas- 

 sage and with the galvanic or sinusoidal current. A 

 discussion of the paper followed, in which many 

 speakers took part. 



The National Geographic Magazine for May is 

 devoted to a survey of the smaller North American 

 mammals by Mr. Edward Nelson. This is a really 

 wonderful achievement, for the author has contrived 

 to crowd a vast amount of information concerning the 

 chief characteristics, and habits, of a very remarkable 

 series of animals into a surprisingly small space. Yet 

 he seems to have omitted nothing material in his 

 task of condensation. A comment of his on the brown 

 rat in South Georgia is worth bearing in mind. This 

 animal," he tells us, wals introduced into the island 

 from whaling ships, and now, owing to the abundant 

 supply of food furnished by the great number of 

 whale-carcasses which drift ashore each season, it may 

 be found there in millions. Sooner or later this source 

 of food will cease, and it will then go hard with the 

 great colonies of penguins which still nest there unless 

 njeans for the destruction of this pest are speedily 

 devised. In addition to a large number of coloured 

 plates of great beauty are numerous text-figures, 

 illustrating the tracks made by various animals when 

 walking and running. 



The Journal of Agriculiural Research (Washington) 

 for June (vol. xiii.. No 10) contains an account by 

 Mr. R. W. Glaser of a new bacterial disease of gipsv- 

 moth caterpillars. It was apparently introduced with 

 some eggs of the Japanese gipsy moth, and the infec- 



