June 17, 1920] 



NATURE 



■5*37 



disease potato leaf-roll. — P. Portier : Regeneration of 

 the testicle in the pigeon deprived of vitamines. — 

 A. C. HoUande : CLnocvtoids and teracytes in the 

 blood of caterpillars.— E. Faure-Fremiet : The action 

 of different chemical compounds on the pulmonary 

 epithelial cell.— A. Mayer, H. Magne, and L. Piantefol': 

 Refle.x action produced by the irritation of the deeper 

 respiratory tracts. The antagonism of this reflex with 

 that caused by the irritation of the upper respiratory 

 passages.— G.' Bertrand and Mme. Rosenblatt : The 

 action of chloropicrin upon yeast and Saccharomyces 

 vini. A concentration of i milligram of chloropicrin 

 per litre is sufficient to slow down fermentation by 

 yeast, and 5 to 6 milligrams ^x litre completely 

 arrests the production of alcohol. Saccharomyces vini 

 is even more sensitive, growth being stopped by 

 I milligram of chloropicrin per litre. 



Cape Town. 

 Royal Society of South Africa, April 21.— Dr. J. D. F. 

 Gilchrist, president, in the chair.— L. P6ringuey : Note 

 on the whales frequenting South African waters. The 

 author describes the various whales which are known 

 to frequent the coasts of South Africa. The number 

 of these is still under discussion. The fact is now 

 well established- that certain Northern whales are 

 specifically identical with the Southern whales, and 

 are the kinds of whales found on the South .-Xfrican 

 coasts. That they are migrants, perhaps with the 

 exception of Balaenoptera Brydei, is a well-established 

 fact, but what is probably less known is that the 

 animals go to warmer equatorial waters to breed or 

 calve. If they are intercepted on their way there 

 from the Antarctic or on their return the multiplica- 

 tion of the species will be greatly hindered, to say the 

 least. People interested in the whaling industry admit 

 that some rheasure of protection is netessary. — J. R. 

 Sutton : Overgrowths on diamond. In this paper the 

 author discusses in detail overgrowths of calcite, bort 

 of various kinds, graphite, and diamond on diamond. 

 Experiments were made with the object of determining 

 whv certain diamonds from yellow ground are not 

 separated from the concentrates on the grease tables, 

 the conclusion being reached that carbonate of lime 

 readilv forms a coating on a diamond surface, causing 

 the diamond to behave like a common mineral in the 

 pulsator gravel. A clear diamond is readily wetted 

 by a solution of carbonate of soda, but not by pure 

 water. Overgrowths of graphite and of black bort 

 are common, c'Mid define per saltum stages of crystal- 

 lisation. Thirteen specimens of "hailstone" struc- 

 ture are described. Laminated diamonds appear to 

 be examples of overgrowth of diamond on diamond 

 with interposing planes of colouring^ matter.— J. R. 

 Sutton : Some statistics of thunder and lightning at 

 Kimberley. The author gives tables of the results of 

 eve and ear observations of thunder and lightning 

 made at Kimberley during the twenty-three years 

 i8q7 to iqi9, and classifies the storms according to 

 the classification given by I^y. A phenomenon pf 

 interest is the "smell" of a thunderstorm. The 

 author observed this onlv once strongly in Kimberlev. 

 European meteorological literature of the seventeenth 

 and eighteenth centuries has many allusions to the 

 "sulphureous smell" of lightninj?. — S. H. Skaife : 

 Notes on some .South African Entomophthoraceae. 

 The material used by the author was collected at 

 Cedara, Natal, in iqiq and 1920. The great majority 

 of the familv are parasitic on insects. The author 

 describes and figures South .African species of Ento- 

 mophthoraceae and his experiments of cultivating 

 them from dead and dying flies and grasshoppers and 

 of infecting insects from the cultures. 



NO. 2642, VOL. 105] 



Books Received . 



Banff and District. By A. E. Mahood. Edited by 

 Dr. E. I. Spriggs. Pp. xvi + 388. (Banff: Banff- 

 shire Journal, Ltd.) 



The Glow-worm and Other Beetles. By J. H. 

 Fabre. Translated by A. T. de Mattos. Pp. viii + 

 488. (London : Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd.) 8s. bd. 

 net. 



A Geographical Bibliography of British Ornithology 

 from the Earliest Times to the End of 19 18. By 

 W. H. Mullens, H. Kirke Swann, and Rev. F. C. R. 

 Jourdain. Part 4. Pp. 289-384. (London : Witherby 

 and Co.) 6s. net. 



The Ascent of Man. Pp. 74. (London : The 

 Horniman Museum.) 6d. 



Airplane Photography. By Major H. E. Ives, 

 U.S. Army. Pp. 422. (Philadelphia and London : 

 J. B. Lippincott Co.) i8s. net. 



The Nation's Food : .\ Statistical Study of a 

 Physiological and Social Problem. By Prof. Raymond 

 Pearl. Pp. 274. (Philadelphia and London': \V. B. 

 Saunders Co.) i6s. net. 



Co- Education and its Part in a Complete Educa- 

 tion. By J. H. Brulley. Pp. 39. (Cambridge : W. 

 Heffer and Sons, Ltd.) 2s. net. ,. 



The Year-Book of the Scientific and Learned 

 Societies of Great Britain and Ireland. Thirty-Sixth 

 Annual Issue. Po. vii4-336. (London: C. Griffin and 

 Co., Ltd.) I2S. 6d. net. 



The Organisation of Industrial Scientific' Research. 

 Bv Dr. C. E. Kenneth Mees. Pp. ix+175. (New 

 York and London : McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc.) 12s. 



Memoirs of the Geological Survey, Scotland : Th<e 

 Economic Geology of the Central Coalfield of Scot- 

 land. Description of .Area VII. By the late Dr. C. T. 

 Clough and others. Pp. vii-fi44. (Edinburgh: 

 H.M.S.O.) 7s. 6d. net. 



Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Special Reports 

 on the Mineral Resources of Great Britain. Vol. vi. 

 Second edition. Pp. vi4-24i. (London : H.M.S.O.) 

 7s. 6d. net. 



Contributions from the Jefferson Physical Labora- 

 tory and from the Cruft High-tension Electrical 

 Laboratory of Harvard University for the Years 19 16, 

 1917, and 1018. Vol. xiii. (Canibridge, Mass.) 



A Naturalist on the .Amazons. By H. W. Bates. 

 Abridf'ed and edited for schools by Dr. F. A. Bruton. 

 Pp. xix+182. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 

 2S. 6d. 



Tables of the Motion of the Moon. Bv Prof. E. W. 

 Brown, with the assistance of H. B. Hedrick. Sec- 

 tions i. and ii. Pp. xiii + 140-1-39. Section iii. Pp. 

 223. Sections iv., v., and vi. Pp. 99+56+102. (New 

 Haven. Conn.: Yale University Press; London: 

 Oxford LIniversitv Press.) 4 guineas net. 



Outlines of the Geology of Brazil, to accompany 

 the Geolo£*ic Mao of Brazil. Bv J. C. Branner. 

 Second edition. Pp. 189-338 + plates. (N.Y. City: 

 Geological Society of America.) 3.-55 dollars. 



War against Trooical Disease. Bv Dr. A. Balfour. 

 Pp. 219. (London : Bailli^re, Tindall, and Cox.) 

 12.T. 6d. net. 



The New Psychology and its Relation to Life. Bv 

 A. G. Tanslev.' Pp. 283. (London : George .Mien and 

 Unwin, Ltd.) loi. 6d. net. 



A Guid«- to the Old Observatories at Delhi. Jaipur, 

 Ujjain. Benares. Bv G. R. Kaye. Pp. vii-t-io8+ 

 XV nlntes. (Calcutta : Supt. Govt. Printing, India.) 

 3^. 6d. 



A Guide to the Identification of our more Useful 

 Timbers. Bv H. Stone. Pp. viii+52 + 'X plates. 

 (Cambridge : At the ITniversity Press.) ys. 6d. net. 



