4i8 



NATURE 



[December 25, 1919 



below 50°, and from November 10-16, seven cla\s, 

 it was below 40°. There has been no similarly long 

 period without a temperature of 50° at the correspond- 

 ing time of year during the last seventy-eight years. 

 This cold period was due to an abnormal distribution 

 of atmospheric pressure, the barometer being high 

 over Iceland and the neighbourhood, whilst it was 

 low to the south-east and south of England, causing 

 a steady drift of cold north-east and east winds over 

 the British Isles. 



In the Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research 

 Society for September last Mr. M. H. Shastri dis- 

 cusses the contributions of Bengal to Hindu civilisa- 

 tion. In the religious sphere western Bengal was the 

 scene of origin of Buddhism and Jainism. It was 

 the aborigines of Bengal who taught the Vedic Aryans 

 how to tame the elephant and to manufacture silk 

 and cotton cloth. It was from tlu local performances 

 of mystery plays that the Indian theatre was founded 

 in Bengal. The writer's views in some instances may 

 be open to comment, but the article is an interesting 

 contribution to Indian history. 



We have received the annual report of Livingstone 

 College for the year 1918-19. The college gives train- 

 ing in elementary medicine, surgery, and hygiene to 

 missionaries going to spheres of work abroad far 

 from medical aid. During the war the college was 

 transformed into an auxiliary hospital, but has now 

 resumed its proper work. The fees of students do 

 not sufifice to cover expenses, the deficit being met 

 by donations, and further donations to the college 

 funds are urgently needed. 



In the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physio- 

 logy (vol. xii.. No. 3) Sir E. Sharpey Schafer shows 

 that the fatal result of section of both vagus nerves 

 is due not to pneumonia, resulting from absence of 

 sensation in the parts supplied by these nerves and 

 lack of protection from foreign matter entering the 

 lungs, but to paralysis of certain muscles of the 

 larynx, leading to obstruction of the glottis and slow- 

 asphyxia. If this obstruction is prevented, animals 

 live indefinitely with scarcely any abnormal symptoms. 

 In the same journal Prof. Halliburton points out that 

 the waves in the blood-pressure seen during asphvxia 

 are correctly designated as "Traube" waves. Those 

 described by S. Mayer are of a different nature, and 

 being artificial have no physiological significance. 



The Veterinary Revieiv for November (vol. iii.. 

 No. 4) provides a valuable summary of literature on 

 current veterinary science and practice. Among the 

 reviews is one giving a full risumi of the methods 

 employed in the examination of milk at the Inter- 

 communal Laboratory at Brussels, with details of the 

 method of scoring. A maximum of 150 points is 

 given for all kinds of milk, and samples of sterilised 

 and pasteurised milk must obtain not fewer than 

 120 points; aseptic raw milk, 115 points; and ordinary 

 milk, 100 points. The scoring is based upon number 

 of bacteria present, catalase test, reduction test, fer- 

 mentation test, microscopic characters of films, and 

 kind of bacteria present. 



The Thomas Vicary lecture on "The Surgical Tradi- 

 tion " was delivered in the Royal College of Surgeons 

 of England on December 3 by Sir John Tweedy; In 

 1646 Mr. Edward Arris, and in 1655 Mr. John Gale, 

 gave sums of money to the Company of Barbers and 

 Surgeons for the purpose of lectureships. In 1745, on 

 the dissolution of the union between the Barbers and 

 the Surgeons, these funds became vested in the 

 Surgeons, and afterwards in the Royal College of 

 Surgeons, and "Arris and Gale" lectures have been 



NO. 2617, VOL. 104] 



delivered ever since 1810. Early in the present year 

 the Barber's' Company founded a lectureship at the 

 Royal College of Surgeons to perpetuate the memory 

 of Thomas Vicary, Master of the Barbers' Company 

 in 1540, and the former association between the 

 Barbers and the Surgeons. Sir John Tweedy, who is 

 a past-president of the Royal College of Surgeons 

 and a past-master of the Barbers' Company, first re- 

 viewed the life of Vicary, who was Serjeant-Surgeon 

 to Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, 

 and also resident surgical governor to St. Bartholo- 

 mew's Hospital. Sir John Tweedy then surveyed the 

 progress of surgery from the period of Egypt and 

 Greece, dealing in succession with the times of Celsus 

 and Galen, the Arabian writers, Lan franc and .\m- 

 broise Pare, concluding with a notice of Dr. J. F. D. 

 Jones, who discovered the true principles of the liga- 

 ture of arteries in 1805. 



Some very • interesting notes on the migration of 

 birds over the Mediterranean Sea, by Mr. C. Suffern, 

 appear in British Birds for December. The author 

 holds that there are at least three main routes of 

 migration, apart from the ' Gibraltar line. One of 

 these runs from Cape Bon to Sardinia, Corsica, and 

 the Riviera. Another from Egypt to Crete and Greece. 

 The third seems to run from Africa to Malta, Sicily, 

 and Italy. 



Mr. M. A. C. Htnton, in the Scottish Naturalist 

 for November-December, describes a new species of 

 field-mouse from Foula, thus adding another to the 

 list of insular forms which have been brought to light 

 by an intensive study of these northern islets. The 

 Foula field-mouse (Apodemus fridariensis thuleo) — one 

 of the Apodemus sylvaticus group — most nearly resem- 

 bles the field-mouse of Fair Isle, from which it differs 

 in its smaller size and conspicuously larger feet. Very 

 carefullv prepared tables of external and internal 

 measurements enable an exact comparison to be made 

 with other British species of the sylvaticus group. 



The 1918 Report of the Agricultural and Horticul- 

 tural Research Station, Long Ashton, Bristol, states 

 that, as is the case with all such stations, the normal 

 work has been considerably interrupted owing to war 

 conditions, and its place has been taken by technical 

 and advisory work, as well as by some few instruction 

 courses for officers. This outside work included in- 

 vestigations into the utilisation of cider-fruit by the 

 jam trade and for other purposes, miscellaneous ex- 

 periments in connection with fruit and vegetable pre- 

 servation, and an extensive series of experiments on 

 potato-spraying for the prevention of potato disease. 

 The last-named experiments include investigations into 

 the use of Burgundy mixture and of other copper sprays, 

 and discuss what proportions of soda and copper 

 sulphate are most advantageous in the former mix- 

 ture. The normal experimental work witH cider for 

 the season 1917-18 had to be reduced considerably, 

 and the varieties tested were those which had been 

 examined in former years. The trial orchards for cider- 

 production have received rather scant attention, though 

 some new orchards have been added. Other work 

 includes the .study of " reversion " and resistance to 

 "bi;:' bud " in black currants; the preserving value of 

 various spices and essential oils ; the influence of 

 concentration of sugar solutions upon the growth of 

 micro-organisms ; as well as a large amount of ad- 

 visory work and several special investigations which 

 arose out of it. 



Some improvements on his well-known classification 

 of climates are proposed by M. W. Koiipen. .A sum- 

 mary of his suggestions, without a map, is given in 



