July 12, 1917] 



NATURE 



39 A 



towards the introduction of the metric system it 

 recommends the adoption of a decimal coinage. Re- 

 taining the pound sterling as the unit of value, the 

 committee proposes to divide this into a thousand 

 parts, called '"mils." The go'd coinage would then 

 consist of a sovereign of looo mils and a half-sovereign 

 of 500 mils, while the silver coinage would comprise 

 pieces of 200, 100, 50, and 25 mils, of precisely the 

 same values as existing coins. The crow-n and half- 

 crown would drop out, and the bronze coinage would 

 include pieces of 4, 2, and i mils. The withdrawal 

 of the threepenny-piece is also recommended, this 

 being replaced by a lo-mil piece having a scalloped 

 edge, and made of nickel or some other similar metal 

 or alloy. The committee is confident that as regards 

 the gold and silver coinage the transition would not 

 present any serious difficulties. The changes in the 

 values of the bronze coins might, it is thought, cause 

 some disturbance in the small everyday monetary 

 transactions, but this would be slight, as the proposed 

 pieces would be only about 4 per cent, less in value 

 than the present bronze coins. Although the com- 

 mittee does not advise tnat the change should be 

 made until some time after the declaration of peace, it 

 strongly urges that the necessary legislative steps 

 should be taken without delay. 



Prof. C. Baskerville, professor of chemistry in 

 the College of the City of New York, New York 

 City, has been appointed by the Ramsay Memorial 

 Committee, on the suggestion of the American Am- 

 bassador, representative and corresponding member 

 of the committee in the United States of America. 

 Prof. Baskerville will take the necessary steps for 

 forming a committee in the United States and for 

 receiving subscriptions to the fund from Americans. 

 Americans wishing to subscribe to the Ramsay 

 Memorial Fund can send their subscriptions either 

 to Prof. C. Baskerville or to the Rt. Hon. Lord 

 Glenconner, honorary treasurer of the Ramsay 

 Memorial Fund, University College, London, W.C.i. 



During the past two years a number of cases of 

 anthrax infection due to the use of infected shaving 

 brushes has been recorded (nineteen cases among 

 civilians and forty-six among soldiers). The matter 

 has been investigated by Dr. Coutts and others, and 

 a report on the subject has just been issued by the Local 

 Government Board (New Series, No. 112). The anthrax 

 infection assumed the external form, or malignant 

 pustule. The first case was detected by Dr. Elworthy, 

 pathologist to the West London Hospital, who proved 

 the presence of virulent anthrax spores in the shaving 

 brush used by the oatient, and also in other unused 

 brushes of the same pattern purchased at the shop 

 from which the original brush was obtained. Another 

 case of anthrax occurring about the same time was 

 also traced to the use of an infected shaving brush 

 purchased from a different shop. On tracing the 

 origin of the brushes, it was found that they all came 

 from one wholesale dealer, and were manufactured in 

 a single factor)-. Inquiries made on behalf of the 

 Board showed that the hair used in making these 

 brushes consisted in great part of Chinese horsehair, 

 and had not been disinfected before use. The remain- 

 ing unmanufactured hair was found to be largely 

 infected with anthrax spores. The hair in question 

 had been invoiced as "goat's hiir," which does not 

 come under the Home Office Regulations (dealing with 

 disinfection of Chinese horsehair), and hence had not 

 been disinfected. In three further cases shaving 

 brushes infected with anthrax were traced to manu- 

 facturers other than the one concerned in the first 

 cases. In addition, four further cases were traced to 

 brushes of foreign manufacture — Canada, New York, 



NO. 2489, VOL. 99] 



and Japan. The Board has under consideration what 

 administrative action is required to secure that hair 

 used in the manufacture of shaving brushes in this 

 country is satisfactorily sterilised before the brushes 

 are manufactured. 



Mr. C. W. Hobson (St. James's Square, Man- 

 chester) has forwarded to us a pamphlet containing a 

 scheme whereby the public conscience might be aroused 

 to the significance of the loss of infant lives and 

 means of prevention made widely known. The 

 education of the mother in infant welfare will take a 

 primary place in any scheme of prevention, but how 

 this is to be effected is a difficult problem. The sug- 

 gestion is that use should be made of the public Press, 

 and that matter dealing with the care of the infant 

 should be inserted in the advertisement columns as 

 persistently and frequently as that directing attention 

 to the merits of a particular soap or infants' food. 

 In this way, it is claimed, it would meet the eye of 

 the young mother whenever she takes up a newspaper. 



Largely owing to the example of the late Prof. 

 Skeat, the old unscientific treatment of local place- 

 names has been superseded by more accurate methods. 

 People ignorant of Anglo-Saxon and of the laws 

 of philology had no hesitation in theorising on English 

 place-names in a way which would not have been 

 tolerated by classical scholars in the case of Greece or 

 j Rome. Mr. St. Clair Baddeley, who has already pub- 

 ; iished an excellent manual of the place-names of 

 Gloucestershire, has now extended his sur\'ey to those 

 ' of Herefordshire in a paper published in vol. xxxix. 

 ! of the Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire 

 i Archaeological Society. He points out that Hereford- 

 ' shire place-names present a particularly difficult 

 problem, the county comprising lands which were 

 once the battlefield between Goidel and Brython, be- 

 tween Roman, Silurian, and Brython, and finally 

 ' between Mercian, West Saxon, and Welsh. All these 

 races have left their traces in the local nomenclature, 

 f and the task of disentangling these varied elements 

 has been increased by the intervention of the folk 

 etymologist, of whose work curious examples are 

 given. The bulk of the f>aper is devoted to an elabor- 

 ate glossar}', which will interest the historian as well 

 as the philologist. 



Stude.nts of the history of natural science may read 

 with interest and profit Prof. R. L. Moodie's article 



[ on " The Sources of Anatomical Literature " in the 

 American Naturalist for April (vol. li.. No. 604). The 



i author reckons 736 anatomists of eminence, among 



' whom 78 were Italian, 95 British and Irish, 36 Amer- 



I ican. 127 French, and 240 German. 



I In the Journal of Genetics (vol. vi.. No. 3) Miss 

 j Edith R. Saunders continues her studies of " * Double- 

 ; ness ' in Flowers," dealing with the genera Mecon- 

 j opsis, Althaea, and Dianthus. Double flowers are 

 i "mostlv female, owing to complete petalody of the 

 I androecium " ; these, fertilised with pollen from inccwn- 

 i pletely double flowers, give double offspring. "The 

 relation of single 'to double is evidently that of domin- 

 ant to recessive, being thus the reverse of that which 

 obtains in the carnation." 



The Journal of the Washington Academy of 

 Sciences (vol. viii.. No. 7) contains a sum- 

 mary of Dr. L. O. Howard's presidential 

 address on "The Carriage of Disease by 

 Insects." It is now known that 226 different disease 

 organisms are carried by insects to man or animals, 

 282 species of insect-carriers being concerned. Dr. 

 Howard regards the transmission of pellagra by 

 Simulium as definitely disproved, and considers it un- 

 likely that infantile paralysis is an insect-borne disease. 



