January io, 191 8] 



NATURE 



371 



of intensive manufacture. While the Production De- 

 partment lacks specialised knowledge and authority, 

 even the great abilities of the Director-General will be 

 insufficient to produce the desired results. The duty 

 of manufacturing engineers is to produce the engines, 

 and while the machinery for controlling manufacture 

 remains as it appears to be, it is preventing them from 

 discharging that duty. 



From the point of view of a statistician and avowedly 

 in the spirit of an iconoclast, Mr. F. J. Brodie con- 

 siders, in the December issue of Synwns's Meteoro- 

 logical Magazine, the evidence in respect of the theory 

 as to connection between gunfire and rainfall that can 

 be gathered from the published figures in the weather 

 reports of the Meteorological Office for the three years 

 of the war ended September, 19 17. From a series of 

 maps showing the quarterly variation of rainfall with 

 respect to the average for each of the twelve districts 

 into which the British Isles are divided for meteoro- 

 logical purposes, the following conclusions are 

 reached :— (a) That over a large portion of the United 

 Kingdom an excess of rain was reported in nine 

 quarters out of twelve ; [b) that in seven out of the 

 nine wet quarters the excess of rain was greatest in 

 districts situated in the eastern or southern half of the 

 country; further, that in two of the three dry quarters 

 the only districts which failed to report any deficiency 

 were again situated either in the eastern or in the 

 southern section. For the whole period the excess 

 was as much as 26 per cent, in England S.E., 20 in 

 England E., 14 in the Midlands, 10 in England N.E., 

 and 9 in England S.W. ; while in Scotland N. and 

 W. there were deficiencies of 5 and 10 per cent, re- 

 spectively — a suggestive enough distribution. Unfor- 

 tunately, the figures for northern France and Belgium 

 are not available — the more so since M. Angot, w-riting 

 in May, 19 17, observed that no distribution of exces- 

 sive rainfall having reference to a centre in the war 

 area had been found in France. It is also worthy of 

 remark that there was, prior to the outbreak of war, 

 every reason for anticipating a continuance of the spell 

 of wet years that had set in, in compensation for the 

 long dry period that marked the nineties of last 

 century and the opening decade of the present century 

 (in London, 190;^ wns the only wet year between 1894 

 and 1909) ; furthermore, that one of the three dry 

 quarters was that of Julv-September, 1916 — the period 

 of a great offensive in Flanders^ — and that the spring 

 offensive of 1917 also was favoured with fine weather. 

 So long is the arm of coincidence and so infinite are 

 the resources of our climate that, in the absence of 

 valid physical proof, it is doubtful w'hether, even in 

 the event of similar conditions continuing for another 

 three vears (or the duration of the war), meteorologists 

 would be convinced that the " frightfulness " of man 

 can influence the course of the elements. 



The Soci^t^ d'Anthropologie de Paris bravely con- 

 tinues its work in spite of the war. In part ii. of the 

 Bulletins et Mdmoires for 1916, which has just reached 

 us, M. R. Anthony contributes a graceful obituary of 

 one of its most illustrious foreign associates, Sir W. 

 Turner. Thi? is accompanied by a full catalogue, 

 extending to nine pages octavo, of the works and 

 papers on anatomy, physiology, and anthropology con- 

 tributed by him. 



Miss M. A. Murray supplements her paper in Folk- 

 lore (vol. xxviii., No. 3, September, 1917) by an article 

 in the Journal of the Manchester Egyptian and Orien- 

 tal Society for 1916-17 on "The God of the Witches." 

 She discusses the theory of an Eastern origin of the 

 w itchcraft observances, but the evidence is not quite 

 satisfactory. Converts from Islam to the witch cult 

 NO. 2515, VOL. 100] 



renounced their old religion, as did the converts from 

 Christianity; Arab witches, like curs, used to ride 

 about on sticks; the name of the great assemblies of 

 the witches, Sabbath, suggests an Eastern origin, but 

 cannot be connected with the sacred day of the Jews. 

 "It seems certain then that in this religion, as in 

 others, there was interchange between the East and 

 the West. But having regard to the antiquity of the 

 witch cult in Europe, it seems to me that the balance 

 of evidence is in favour of its originating^ in the West, 

 and being carried thence to the East." 



In the South African Journal, of Science (vol. xiii., 

 No. II, July, 1917) the Rev.' Noel Roberts describes a 

 series of Bushman rock paintings discovered at the 

 Zoutpansberg range, in the northern Transvaal, during 

 the construction of the railway to Messina. The ochre 

 used is believed to be derived from a deposit in the 

 neighbourhood of the caves, and natives assert that the 

 white paint was obtained from the milky kernel of the 

 Stamvruchte {Chrysophyllum magalismontanum). Much 

 controversy has arisen regarding the meaning and pur- 

 pose of the paintings. Some believe that they represent 

 historical incidents, or depict occurrences in hunting. 

 Others trace a connection with the art of northern 

 Africa. But Stow's conclusion that they are purely 

 historical still holds the field. At the same time, as 

 Sir James Frazer has advocated, there may be a 

 magical object, and Mr. Roberts advances some argu- 

 ments in support of this 'view. The excavation of the 

 detritus of the caves containing the paintings should 

 bring to light some objects which would help to fix 

 the date and intention of these representations. Mean- 

 while, the article provides a series of photographs of 

 considerable interest. 



Mr. C. W. Mally describes, in the South African 

 Journal of Science (vol. xiii.. No. 11, July, 1917), a 

 method of destroying that noxious pest, the Argentine 

 ant. The plan is to surround the opening of the nest 

 with a cordon of finely powdered corrosive sublirhate 

 about half an inch wide. Under some conditions the 

 ants become excited before they actually touch the 

 powder, the result being probably due to the fact that 

 fine particles of the sublimate are floating in the air. 

 When the drug has been sprinkled on the soil at any 

 point, it remains sufficiently virulent to affect the ants for 

 a long time ; some spots thus treated after eight or nine 

 months still react on the ants when they wander over 

 them. Heavy rain disperses the sublimate, but light 

 rain simply carries it into the soil, and then, as the 

 moisture evaporates, there is a tendency for the corro- 

 sive sublimate to be re-deposited on the surface. This 

 suggests that the foundations of building^ may be 

 treated, either during or after construction, w-ith a 

 solution which will protect them from ant invasion. 



Mr. H. H. Hayden, Director of the Geological Sur- 

 vey of India, in his report on the earthquake which 

 occurred at Dharmsala on May 10 last, states that the 

 situation of the station, in an area of pronounced tec- 

 tonic disturbance, renders the occurrence of periodical 

 earth shocks probable. With this possibility in view 

 there are, Mr. Maydon suggests, the alternatives to 

 be considered : either to abandon Dharmsala alto- 

 gether, or to adopt precautions which may render 

 earthquakes in future, so far as possible, innocuous. 

 The first course he does not recommend, and he be- 

 lieves that precautions such as have been adopted in 

 other parts of the world may render the retention of 

 Dharmsala as a station a matter of comparatively 

 slight risk. He advocates the erection of a new type 

 of building, the houses being either of wood or of 

 reinforced concrete, and he thinks that it would not 

 be difficult to select- methods of construction which 



