i4 



NATURE 



[June 14, 1917 



Prof. Chilton now supplies. Only one small oversight 

 may be noted. While the text duly explains that 

 in the young the seventh peraeon-segment bears no 

 appendages, such appendages are nevertheless displayed 

 in the adjoining figure. 



Bulletin No. 4 of the Department of Chemistry, 

 South Australia, contains an interesting account of 

 the marine fibre industry of Spencer's and St. Vin- 

 cent's Gulfs, near Adelaide. The fibre is derived from 

 Posidonia australis, a marine plant of the family 

 Naiadaceae, to which our familiar pond-weeds (Pota- 

 mogeton) belong. The fibre consists of the remains 

 of the plant which have been accumulating for 

 centuries, and have become naturally retted through 

 the decay of the soft parts. It is estimated that the 

 workable deposits cover some 240 square miles, and 

 at a yield of 6 lb. of fibre per cubic yard, and an 

 average depth of deposit of 7 ft., this means a yield 

 of 19,200 tons of air-dried fibre per square mile. 

 Attention was first directed to the possibilities of an 

 industry in the fibre in 1902, and now three large 

 companies are at work. The fibre is useful for insu- 

 lating pu;rposes, the manufacture of bedding, etc. 

 The paper gives an illustrated account of the methods 

 employed for raising the material from the sea, and 

 general details as to the methods of cleaning and 

 preparing the fibre for the market. 



Attention is very properly directed in the Agricul- 

 tural News of March 10 to the remarkable progress 

 made in recent years in the agricultural departments 

 of the Windward and Leeward Islands, which pro- 

 gress,^ it should be pointed out, is largely due to the 

 fostering care and advice of the Imperial Department 

 of Agriculture under the Commissioner, Sir Francis 

 Watts. Starting from small botanic stations, each 

 island has now a well-organised agricultural depart- 

 ment, and the various islands are devoting their 

 energies to the economic products most suitable for 

 their particular conditions. The cotton industry in 

 St._ Vincent, Montserrat, St. Kitts, and Nevis; the 

 onion-grovving activity in Antigua, Montserrat, and 

 the Virgin Islands; limes in Dominica, Grenada, and 

 St. Lucia, are all thriving industries. Mention .should 

 also be made of the land settlement and peasant in- 

 struction work of the departments in St. Vincent and 

 St. Lucia, which has been attended with great suc- 

 cess. Further, in Dominica, in addition to its beau- 

 tiful botanic garden, there is an excellent system of 

 agricultural education in operation, and the science 

 of horticulture is maintained at a very high level 

 in the island. 



We learn from La Geographic (vol. xxxi., No. 4) that 

 a small Swedish expedition has left for Juan Fernan- 

 dez and the Galapag^os Islands. The expedition, which 

 is for botanical and zoological work, is under the 

 leadership of Dr. Carl Skottsberg, who was a member 

 of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 190 1-3. Dr. 

 Skottsberg in 1907-8 led an expedition to Patagonia, 

 the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and Juan Fer- 

 nandez. The last scientific expedition to the Gala- 

 pagos Islands was that of the California Academy of 

 Sciences in 1905-6. when Mr. Alban Stewart made a 

 thorough botanical exploration of the group and a 

 great deal of zoological work was done. 



The want of coal which is seriously affecting Nor- 

 way has already made her turn to the valuable Spits- 

 bergen 'deposits. According to La Giographie (vol. 

 xxxi., No. 4) Bear Island, another unclaimed Arctic 

 land, is now attracting her attention. During last 

 summer a party of Norwegian miners was at work 

 on a coal-seam there which has been known for many 

 years, and several wintered on the island in the hope 



NO. 2485, VOL. 99] 



of having a cargo ready for shipment to Norway this 

 summer. Previous reports on the coal of Bear Island 

 have not indicated very extensive deposits, but the 

 great drawback to mining is the absence of safe 

 anchorage. The Norwegian syndicate appears to con- 

 sider the construction of a port. A meteorological 

 observatory and wireless station are also proposed. A 

 further discovery of coal in Spitsbergen is reported by 

 a Russian expedition. According to the Bolletino of 

 the Royal Italian Geographical Society (vol, vi., 

 Nos. 4-5), the highest seam is near the surface and 

 extends over an area of 450 square kilometres. It is 

 estimated that this coalfield could produce 200,000 tons 

 a year. . 



In our issue of May 17 we quoted, without com- 

 ment, from the National Geographic Magazine, pub- 

 lished by the National Geographic Society of Wash- 

 ington, a forecast that, assuming that there is no 

 immigration, and that the United States will grow 

 as fast during the three centuries ahead of us as 

 Europe grew from 1812 to 1912, the population will 

 amount to nearly 500,000,000 in 2217, or approximately 

 166 to the square mile. A correspondent writing 

 under the name of "A London Statistician" questions 

 the accuracy of this estimate, mainly on the ground 

 that in certain States the former rate of increase has 

 not been maintained among the American-born popu- 

 lation. This fact has been admitted and explained by 

 General Walker (see " Encyclopsedia Britannica," 

 eleventh edition, xxvii., 635) on the grounds of a rise 

 in the standard of living, the multiplication of arti- 

 ficial necessities, the extension of a paid domestic ser- 

 vice, and the introduction of women into factory labour. 

 Our correspondent shows good reasons for confirming 

 these views, and, in any case, a forecast of this kind 

 is liable to modification by recent events — the probable 

 loss of life in war, a change in the conditions of pro- 

 duction and domestic life, and the amount of emigra- 

 tion from European countries — resulting from the 

 world-wide conflict which is now in progress. 



The papers, verbal discussion, and written com- 

 munications contributed to the symposium on refrac- 

 tory materials held at the Faraday Society on Novem- 

 ber 8, 19 16, have now been reprinted from the Trans- 

 actions in a brochure of 189 pages. A brief account 

 of the meeting was published in these columns on 

 December 7, 1916. The principal additions to the 

 symposium are the following : — (i) A note on the com- 

 position of clay and on silica bricks, by Prof. H. Le 

 Chatelier, containing some striking photomicrographs 

 of quartzite and cristobalite ; (2) two short papers by 

 Prof. H. B. Cronshaw, one on "The Deterioration of 

 Refractory Materials in the Iron and Steel Industries," 

 the other on ''The Standardisation of Refractory 

 Materials used in the Iron and Steel Industries " ; and 

 (3) a paper by Mr. R. B. Sosman, of the Geophysical 

 Laboratory, Washington, on the common refractory 

 oxides. The Faraday Society is to be especially con- 

 gratulated on having obtained Mr. Sosman 's contri- 

 bution, which gives considerable information about the 

 results of experimental inquiry obtained in the Geo- 

 physical Laboratory. It deals with the common rock- 

 torming oxides — silica, alumina, lime, magnesia, and 

 the oxides of iron. The last-named offer a research 

 problem quite different in character from that of the ^ 

 other oxides by reason of the fact that their composi- 

 tions and properties at high temperatures depend upon I 

 the pressure of the oxygen in contact with them. 

 Ferric oxide, Fe^O,, begins to dissociate as the tem- 

 perature rises Into oxygen and a solid solution con- 

 taining ferrous iron. At 3 given temperature the 

 initial dissociation pressure is high, but it drops 

 rapidly as the percentage of FeO in the solid increases, 



