December 8, 1892] 



NATURE 



13' 



turbances were passing away from our islands, sharp frosts 

 occurred in the north, where the shade temperature fell as low 

 as 13° in the north of Scotland on Thursday, December I. The 

 gales which accompanied the depressions were confined more 

 particularly to the north and west. On Saturday, the 3rd 

 instant, a large cyclonic disturbance appeared from off the 

 Atlantic, and in the rear of this cold northwesterly winds set 

 in with snow or hail showers generally ; in many parts of the 

 country the snow was sufficiently heavy to interfere seriously 

 with traffic. The temperature continued to decrease, the 

 highest daily maxima being generally below the average for the 

 lime of year, and at places in the north and north east of our 

 islands the maximum thermometer at times did not rise above 

 the freezing point. F^r the week ended the 3rd instant the 

 official reports show that the rainfall was greatly in excess in 

 Scotland, and rather so in the south of England and some of 

 the western districts ; but in the eastern parts of Great Britain, 

 and in the north of Ireland, there was a deficiency. In the 

 south-west of England the deficiency, from the beginning of the 

 year, is still very great, being 22 per cent, of the average 

 amount. 



Mr. H. C. Russell, in his presidential address to the Roya' 

 Society of New South Wales, mentions a very curious drift of a 

 "current bottle" thrown from the Austrian man-of-war Saida, 

 about half-way between Sydney and New Zealand. This bottle 

 found its way through twelve degrees of latitude and four of 

 longitude to the coast of Australia, two miles north of Tweed 

 River, where it was found just eleven months after it was 

 thrown into the sea. Mr. Russell states that from what is 

 known of the currents, which set strongly to the south along the 

 coast of Australia, it seems impossible that it could have 

 travelled direct, and that it was therefore probably carried east- 

 ward to the coast of New Zealand, and thence northward 

 towards New Caledonia, until it got into the current setting 

 from there to the coast of Australia ; a journey of at least 

 2, 500 miles in 335 days, and doubtless subject to many deviations 

 which made its course longer and all the more surprising. 



M. \V. Prinz, secretary of the Belgian Microscopical Society, 

 has published an interesting paper on filiform inclusions in the 

 quartz of St. Denis, Mons, which strangely simulate organic 

 structures. He has at the same time discussed the origin of 

 moss-agates, and has repeated the experiments with colloid 

 silica and certain salts by which very similar appearances are 

 produced. The paper, which is illustrated with a plate, is a 

 valuable contribution to the literature of a very interesting 

 subject. 



Mr. W. Holland contributes to the December number of the 

 Entomologists^ Monthly Magazine some good practical hints on 

 sugaring. Moths, he says, often come more readily when sugar 

 is applied to the twigs and branches of the trees they feed upon, 

 or twigs of something near their food-plant, than they will to 

 sugar placed on the trunks of trees ; Xanthia citrago, for 

 instance,[will hardly come at all to sugar put on the trunk of the 

 lime tree ; an occasional one only will be got in this way, but 

 by sugaring below the tips of the outermost branches all round 

 the tree Mr. Holland generally finds about fifty on one tree, 

 besides other species. In the case of Xanthia aurago again, 

 the best place to sugar is along the outside of the beech wood 

 beneath the ends of the overhanging branches, or on the 

 twigs of the hedge below them. Mr. Holland has repeatedly 

 taken about 100 in a night in this way, when trunks sugared 

 inside and outside the wood have not yielded one specimen. 

 Other things may be got in the same way by selecting the place 

 according to the species wanted. Among other points to which 

 he calls attention is the necessity of recognizing early what is 

 going to be a species of the year, for every year brings some 

 NO. 1206, VOL 47] 



particular kind more plentifully than usual. The sugar Mr. 

 Holland uses is "Egyptian raw," a date sugar. This is very 

 dark and strong stuff, sand-like, and free from lumps, and it 

 mixes easily without boiling. He simply mixes it with beer, and 

 then adds a drop or two of essence of pears just before starting 

 out. There is rum enough in good sugar, and to add more 

 is only to make the moths drop off before they can be bagged. 

 "Jamaica foots" is a good sugar too, but it is lumpy and needs 

 boiling. Old black treacle will do fairly well as a bait, but 

 "golden syrup" Mr. Holland believes to be a fraud. Beet- 

 root sugars, or refined sugars, are of course bad, and if he 

 happens to be in a place where he can get only these, then, 

 and then only, he adds rum. 



THEsecondvolumeofthe Transactions of the Leeds Naturalists' 

 Club, to which we referred last week, includes an interesting 

 paper on the structure and life-hisiory of a fungus, by Mr. 

 Harold Wager, assistant lecturer and demonstrator in biology, 

 in the Yorkshire College, Victoria University. The paper deals 

 with a small microscopic fungus, Peronospora parasitica, as a 

 type of the fungi. Mr. Wager points out that, although in 

 some respects this may not be the best type for the purpoi-e, it has 

 the advantage of having a comparatively simple structure and 

 method of development easy to understand, and serving as an 

 excellent introduction to the morphological study of the fungi. 

 This type is also the more interesting because many structural 

 details, which are fully described by Mr. Wager, have been 

 more fully worked out in it than in any other. The paper is 

 carefully illustrated, and the author gives a useful summary of 

 the methods employed in the examination of the various 

 structures he mentions. 



A NOVEL utilization of aluminium is that for the construction 

 of aluminium slate-pencils. Major von Sillich, of Meiningen, 

 found that aluminium gives a stroke on a slate, and a German 

 company has undertaken the manufacture of pencils based on 

 that fact. They are 5mm. thick and 14mm. long. They need 

 no pointing, and are well-nigh inexhaustible and unbreakable. 

 The writing, which is as clear as with ordinary pencils, requires 

 a little more pressure. It can be erased with a wet sponge. 



A coLORiMErKK for comparing the intensity of colour in a 

 solution with a standard solution has been constructed by 

 Papasogli. It consists of two graduated cylindrical vessels of 

 equal diameter, through which light is transmitted from below. 

 A vertical telescope fixed above the tubes shows the two halves 

 of the field equally illuminated if the amounts of coloration are 

 the same. If they are not, the heights of the liquids in the 

 tubes can by a simple contrivance be so regulated that the colours 

 have equal shades. Under these conditions, the concentration 

 of colouring matter is inversely proportional to the length of the 

 column of liquid tested. 



The Trinidad Field Naturalists' Club has held its first 

 annual meeting, and has evidently good reason to congratulate 

 itself on its success, which has surpassed the highest expecta- 

 tions of the members. Mr. Caracciolo, the chairman, in his 

 presidential address, reminded the club that the gardens, 

 plains, mountains, and rivers of Trinidad swarm with animal 

 forms, about a good many of which very little is yet known. 



The latest instalment of the Transactions of the Institution 

 of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland includes the address 

 by Mr. Robert Dundas, president, at the opening of the pre- 

 sent session. Speaking of railways, Mr. Dundas said that a 

 continual improvement in rolling stock generally can be noted. 

 Larger and more commodious carriages are gradually taking 

 the place of the smaller ones, and there is a marked increase 

 in the application of the bogie principle, which does well, 

 and makes an easy running carriage when properly constructed. 



