no 



NATURE 



[April 5, 19 17 



Second LiEur. Cvril Douglas McCourt, who lost 

 his life while gallantly leading a bombing attack in 

 France on October 8, 1916, was born in 1883, and 

 educated at St. Charles's College, North Kensington, 

 whence he gained an institute scholarship at the City 

 and Guilds of London Central Technical College, now 

 part of the Imperial College of Science and Technology. 

 After gaining the college associateship in chemistry, 

 he served for a brief f>eriod as private assistant to 

 Prof. H. E. Armstrong. In 1903 he was appointed 

 chief chemist to the Morgan Crucible Co., Ltd., and 

 during the six years that he held that post he carried 

 out a number of valuable investigations bearing upon 

 the manufacture and uses of various refractory 

 materials, but the outstanding feature of his work 

 was the part he played in the invention and subsequent 

 development of the Morganite brush for dynamos and 

 motors. This brush possesses exceptionally good 

 lubricating and commutating properties, which are 

 principally due to the comparatively low temperature 

 at which it is burnt during its process cf manufacture. 

 In 1909 Mr. McCourt resigned his appointment with 

 the company in order to work out, in collaboration 

 with Prof. W. A. Bone, in Leeds, the industrial 

 applications of the phenomenon now known as "in- 

 candescent surface combustion," a field of technical 

 research which strongly attracted him, and afforded 

 him ample scope for turning to good account his 

 considerable knowledge of refractory materials. This 

 collaboration speedily resulted in the many important 

 scientific inventions comprised under the " Bonecourt " 

 surface combustion system, the value of which has 

 been more appreciated in America and Germany, where 

 already considerable developments have been success- 

 fully worked out, than in the country in which they 

 originated. Mr. McCourt showed great versatility 

 and ingenuity in all his experimental work, to which 

 he was passionately devoted, whilst his frank and 

 generous nature was highly valued by all with whom 

 he came in contact. Shortly after the outbreak of 

 war he abandoned his research work in order to join 

 the Army, where he anticipated that his scientific 

 training and experienre ot the management of men 

 would stand his country in good stead. His death 

 is a real loss to science. 



Dr. J. W. Fewkes has reprinted from the Holmes 

 anniversary volume an interesting monograph on the 

 remarkable cliff-iuins in Fewkes Canon, Mesa Verde 

 National Park. Colorado. The author was deputed in 

 1915 by the Smithsonian Institution to continue the 

 work of excavation and repair of these buildings. A 

 report on the general results of the work was published 

 under the title of " Excavation and Repair of the 

 Sun Temple." In the course of the season's work he 

 also excavated and repaired a cliff-dwelling, called 

 Oaktree House, the results of which are described in 

 the present publication. A plan of this building, which 

 cannot be called characteristic, but resembles that of 

 Spruce-tree House and other cliff-houses in Mesa 

 Verde Park, is iriven. In another building, known as 

 the Painted House, a series of representations of men 

 and animals was discovered. The monograph is com- 

 plete and well illustrated, and gives much information 

 on the religious cults of the builders. 



Dr. Maynie R. Curtis continues {Biol. Bull, xxxi.. 

 No. 3) previous interesting studies in the " Physiology 

 of Reproduction in the Domestic Fowl " with a paper 

 on double eggs. From the observations given it appears 

 that an egg, after having received its membrane or 

 its membrane and shell, may be propelled up the 

 oviduct instead of being laid.- In such case it may, 

 on re-entering the terminal part of the duct, stimulate 

 the secretion of another set of envelopes around those 



NO. 2475, VOL. 99] 



already formed, or, if it meets its successor, return 

 along with it, and with it become enclosed in a com- 

 mon set of envelopes. 



.V USEFUL vegetation map of the Lfnited States by 

 Mr. F. Shreve, of the Arizona Desert Laboratory of the 

 Carnegie Institution, is published in the Geographical 

 Review for February (vol. iii.. No. 2). The map, which 

 is produced in colours, differs in some respects from 

 previous maps, and shows eighteen vegetation areas. 

 The basis of the classification is, as usual, desert, 

 grassland, and forest. Of these the desert and the 

 forest are subdivided, but the natural grassland in 

 want of data has been left as a single region. The 

 local influence of soil has been ignored so far as 

 possible. The map forms a valuable basis for geo- 

 graphical work, and has the merit of steering a course 

 between excessive detail valuable only to the botanist 

 and wide generalisations which are a danger to geo- 

 graphical research. 



.■\ NEW method of expressing the representative 

 fraction of a map is suggested by Mr. A. R. Hinks 

 in a paper on British and metric measures in geo- 

 graphical work in the Geographical Journal for 

 March (vol. xlix,. No. 3). Mr. Hinks proposes to take 

 the fraction of the "million" map, i/M, as a unit 

 and to write the representative fraction of all maps on 

 a larger scale than i/M as a fraction with M in the 

 denominator and the proper numerator; thus 1/125,000 

 would be written 8/M, and 1/63,360 as iS-8/M. In 

 maps on a smaller scale than i/M the denominator 

 would be expressed in M's; thus 1/1,680,000 would be 

 written i/i-68M. Mr. Hinks proposes that this system 

 should be given a trial by adding it as ^n alternative 

 to the ordinary form. It is certainly less inconvenient 

 and easier to write than the large number of figures 

 required in the usual representative fraction. 



The first part of vol. xvi. of the Transactions of the 

 Geological Society of Glasgow (1916, price 75. 6d.) 

 contains a presidential address by Pror. J. VV. Gregory 

 that deserves to be widely read, on "The Geological 

 Factors Affecting the Strategy of the War and the 

 Geology of the Potash Salts." The careful annexa- 

 tion of the Lorraine ironfield by Germany in 1871, 

 and the equally far-sighted occupation of the best 

 French coalfields since 1914, are judiciously pointed 

 out. A summary of Everding's paper on the potash- 

 salt area of Prussia includes sections not easily avail- 

 able. Other sources of potash are usefully reviewed, 

 and to these alunite might now be added. 



Now that the development of marine warfare has 

 compelled every nation ^o look into its own resources, 

 it is cheering to receive Mr. C. H Clapp's report on 

 the geology of the Nanai.mo map-area (Mem. 51, 

 Canada Geological Survey), in which a promising 

 report is given of the Upper Cretaceous coals on Van- 

 couver Island, directly opposite the terminus of the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway. Though the ash is often 

 about 9 per cent., the seams provide "high volatile 

 bituminous coals of fair quality " and thicknesses of 

 5 ft. and 6 ft. are common. Admirably produced topo- 

 graphical and geological maps on the scale of 

 I ; 62,500 are provided with the memoir. 



The importance of a suitable site for the installa- 

 tion of seismographs is illustrated in a recent number 

 of the Georgetown (U.S.A.) University Publication. 

 Two Wiechert seismographs were placed temporarily 

 at the base of a tower 212 ft. in height, and the 

 rocking of this tower by heavy winds affected the 

 records of the instruments. These and other seismo- 

 graphs were then erected in a heat- and damp-proof 



