298 



NATURE 



[July 29, 1897 



-collections, needless rooting-up of specimens, attempting to 

 cultivate wild specimens of refractory species, and purchasing 

 such wild specimens from itinerant or other dealers ; {b) by 

 endeavouring to persuade others, especially school children, 

 cottage gardeners, and dwellers in large towns, to a similar 

 abstention." It is to be hoped that other local natural history 

 societies will follow the example of the Essex Field Club, and 

 bring this pressing matter prominently before their members. 



The first section of an interesting Russian expedition which 

 was at work this spring, in Bukhara, under Colonel Kuznetsoff, 

 -has just returned to Tashkend. Although the Khanate of 

 Bukhara is open to Europeans, and the Russian Turkestan Rail- 

 way crosses it, the Khanate remains one of the least-known 

 parts of Central Asia as regards its population and economical 

 •conditions. The new expedition had precisely these studies in 

 view. It has visited the chief towns of Bukhara, as also the 

 desert portion of the banks of the Amu for 190 miles, between 

 Pata-ghissar anda lonely village Sarai, and has explored theregion 

 of Sarygor. It returns with valuable materials, and with a 

 great number of photographs. 



A SCIENTIFIC expedition was sent to Central Borneo, in 1893, 

 by the Dutch Society for the advancement of natural history 

 ■exploration in the Dutch colonies. Prof. Molengraaff went out 

 as geologist, Dr. Hallier' as botanist, and Dr. J. Biittikofer as 

 zoologist, while Dr. Nieuwenhuis undertook the study of the 

 anthropology and ethnography of the natives. A concise de- 

 scription of the field of exploration and a general statement of 

 the zoological results is contributed to Notes from the Leyden 

 Mtisenin (vol. xix., published July 15) by Dr. J. Biittikofer. 

 In the same publication, Dr. F. A. Jentink describes the 

 mammals collected during the expedition. 



The most important matters which the Trustees of the South 

 African Museum refer to in their report for the year 1896 are the 

 reorganisation of the staff, and the completion of the new build- 

 ings recently described in Nature (p. 31). The scientific staff 

 -of the Museum now stands as follows : — Mr. W. L. Sclater, 

 Director and Keeper of the Department of Vertebrates ; Mr. L. 

 Peringuey, Assistant-Director and Keeper of the Department of 

 Insects ; Dr. W. F. Purcell, Assistant and Keeper of the 

 Department of Land Invertebrates ; Dr. G. S. Corstorphine, 

 Keeper of the Department of Geology and Mineralogy ; Dr. J. 

 D. P . Gilchrist, Honorary Keeper of the Department of Marine 

 Invertebrates. The total number of specimens added to the 

 ■collections during the year was 8009, of which 900 species were 

 new to the Museum. Evidence of increasing interest in the 

 Museum is shown by the fact that the number of visitors in 1896 

 was 49,419, this being an increase of nearly eleven thousand 

 upon the number of the previous year, and by far the 

 highest number yet registered. Mr. Peringuey refers to the 

 discovery, by Surgeon-Major Bruce, that the dreaded Tsetse-fly 

 (Glossina morsitans) is a larviparous insect, i.e. it gives birth to 

 a full-grown larva, which, very shortly after being extruded, 

 pupates, the external skin or puparium hardening and assuming 

 an ovate shape, auriculate at one end. This discovery, so much 

 at variance with what is known of the life-history of kindred 

 dipterous insects, was at first doubted, but Mr. Peringuey says 

 he can authenticate it, for he has bred from puparia, sent to him 

 by Sir Walter Hely- Hutchinson, the Governor of Natal, what is 

 undoubtedly the G/ossma morsitans of Westwood. 



The vast and sudden changes of wind-velocity occurring in 

 stormy weather, which were revealed by Prof. Langley's 

 observations published in 1893 in his essay on "The Internal 

 Work of the Wind," have been made the subject of a 

 novel investigation at the hands of Dr. Romei Martini. In the 

 -Rendiconti del Reale Istituto Lombardo, Dr. Martini describes 



NO. 1448, VOL. 56] 



a series of observations on the periodical and other variations in 

 the level of water in wells, and has proved the existence of 

 rapid fluctuations corresponding very closely with the fluctua- 

 tions of wind-pressure during a storm, of which latter he also 

 gives diagrams closely resembling Langley's. The old and well- 

 known tradition, that a sudden rise or fall of water in wells 

 may be used to predict bad weather, has thus received explana- 

 tion ; but the most remarkable feature is that while small and 

 rapid fluctuations of pressure readily make their influence felt 

 on the instrument for registering the level of the well, large 

 variations in the barometer are much more uncertain in their 

 action. 



In the Monthly Weather Review., considerable attention is 

 now being given to kites and their use in exploring the upper 

 air. The number in which the weather of April 1897 is discussed, 

 contains a long monograph by Prof. C. F. Marvin dealing with 

 the theory of the mechanics and stability of kites. In addition, 

 the editor (Prof. Cleveland Abbe) gives some interesting 

 historical facts relating to the early history of kites, and a 

 controversy as to the earliest use of wire for kite-lines shows 

 that experiments with wire were made in 1836 at Philadelphia, 

 and in 1844 by Mr. Joshua Law in England, We also learn 

 that just as the European meteorological bureaus have taken up 

 sounding balloons as a means of exploration at great altitudes, 

 the United States Weather Bureau has prepared kites to cover 

 a great horizontal extent of territory with automatic meteoro- 

 logical instruments. While the European system is designed 

 for special occasional work at 50,000 feet altitude, the American 

 system of kites contemplates regular daily work at 5000 feet. 

 Probably both systems will in time supplement each other. 



The current number of the Zeitschrift fUr Hygiene contains 

 an elaborate memoir by Dr. Max Neisser, of the University of 

 Breslau, on the correct diagnosis of diphtheria bacilli. Amongst 

 the many interesting and important points investigated, con- 

 siderable attention is directed to the production of acid in 

 culture media by these bacilli. This has long been regarded as 

 a characteristic feature in the growth of diphtheria bacilli ; but 

 Dr. Neisser has made a new departure in estimating the amount 

 of acid elaborated, quantitatively. It appears that during the 

 first nine hours no increase was observed, but at the end of the 

 first day a considerable quantity was discovered, and that it 

 materially increased in the course of the second day ; after that 

 period, however, no further rise was recorded. So far Dr. 

 Neisser has only met with one variety of bacillus resembling 

 that of diphtheria, which possesses this power of elaborating 

 acids in such quantity. Some very interesting investigations 

 are recorded on the rate of multiplication exhibited by diphtheria 

 bacilli grown in serum, and then plate-cultivated in agar dishes 

 for numerical determinations. The original number inoculated 

 consisted of \\ million diphtheria bacilli; after six hours this 

 figure was transformed into 60 millions, after nine hours into 

 500 millions, and after twenty-four hours into iioo millions. 

 The growth in serum between the sixth and ninth hour after 

 inoculation is, therefore, particularly prolific. In broth the 

 multiplication is much slower, and at the end of twenty-four 

 hours only about 120 millions of diphtheria bacilli were found, 

 which, if contrasted with the 1 100 millions recorded at the end 

 of that time in blood-serum cultures, is very striking. Dr. 

 Neisser's laborious investigations should prove of great value to 

 all concerned in the bacterial diagnosis of diphtheria. 



In a recent number of the Bulletin of the Geological Society 

 of America, Prof. Tarr describes some of the results of his study 

 of the Greenland glaciers during the summer of 1896. In 

 opposition to the views of other recent observers, he considers 

 there is ample evidence of a former much greater extension of 



