392 



NATURE 



[July 12, 19 17 



The life-history of Diapus furtivus, a platypod beetle 

 that bores in the sal tree in northern India, as de- 

 scribed by Mr. C. F. C. Beeson (Indian Forest Re- 

 cords, vol. vi., part i) is of much interest from the 

 ecological, as well as from the economic, point of 

 view. The female beetle constructs the galleries in 

 the timber wherein the insects breed, and transports 

 and cultivates the fungus ("ambrosia") which forms 

 the principal food of the larvae. The male takes no 

 share in this work, but he is useful as a scavenger, as 

 he collects particles of wood fibre and excrement, 

 pushes them backwards to the end of the entrance 

 tunnel, and expels them with a sharp jerk that entails 

 considerable muscular effort. 



That noxious weeds are spread by birds is well 

 known. But a new method of dispersal is described 

 by Mr. Charles Barnard in the Emu for April, where 

 he reviews the devastation caused among the birds 

 of Queensland by the terrible drought of 1902. Many 

 species escaped extermination by migrating to the 

 coast. Among these was the bustard or "plain tur- 

 key" (Eupodotis australis). In the skin, and even 

 embedded in the flesh, of a specimen killed in its 

 place of refuge the author found numbers of the 

 "spears" of the dreaded "spear-grass." Hundreds of 

 birds, he remarks, must thus have been infected, and 

 these, sooner or later, will find their way back to 

 the Western plains to scatter this scourge over the 

 sheep country. 



The skeleton of an adult female piked whale 

 {Balaenoptera acutorostrata) stranded at Crail in 

 1913 is carefully described by Prof. M'Intosh in 

 the Journal of Zoological Research for May. Some 

 interesting changes in the form of the skull during 

 post-natal development are brought out by comparison 

 between this specimen and the skull of a young male 

 of about 9 ft. in length. Perhaps the most noteworthy 

 feature in this description is the fact that a curious 

 "sesamoid" bone Avas found "in a tendon over the 

 third and fourth cervicals," measuring about 3I in. 

 long. So far, we believe, this is the first time that 

 such a structure has been described. We venture to 

 think that still further value would have been added to 

 this memoir if the total length of the animal had been 

 given, and if a comparison therewith had been made 

 between this skeleton and that of Rudolphi's rorqual. 



Apropos of the construction of fleets of wooden 

 ships in the United States, designed to defeat the Ger- 

 man submarine menace, Mr. H. F". Weiss, in a June 

 issue of the Scientific American, gives a brief summary 

 of the main facts in- regard to the life-histories of the 

 wood-'boring " ghip-worms " and "wood-lice." By 

 far the most destructive of these is the worm-like 

 teredo. The rate at which wood exposed to its 

 attacks is destroyed is remarkable. Sound pitch-pine 

 piling, he remarks, driven in certain harbours on the 

 Texas coast, were destroyed in twenty-nine days. The 

 author utters a word of warning against the use of 

 creosoted wood as a deterrent against its ravages, 

 for this in no wise confers protection, while it may 

 render cargoes of food-stuffs uneatable owing to the 

 fumes from the wood. Copper sheathing and copper 

 paint are the only p>ossible agents to defeat such 

 ravages. Compared with tlie teredo, the damage done 

 by the "piddock " is negligible. Of the "wood-lice," 

 the species known as the " gribble " is almost as much 

 to be feared as the teredo, but it works more slowly. 



The West Indian Bulletin (vol. xvi., No. 2, 19 17) 

 contains several papers of importance, one of particu- 

 lar interest being by Sir Francis Watts on "The Re- 

 covery of Sugar at Gunthorpes Factory, Antigua, dur- 

 ing the Years 1905-16." The contents of &ucrose and 



NO. 2489, VOL. 99] 



fibre per hundred parts of cane are given for each 

 year, and the tables show an unusually large amount 

 of fibre, which has tended to increase in recent years, 

 while the sucrose content has steadily fallen from 

 15-3 in 1905 to 12-5 in 19 16. No adequate explanation 

 is forthcoming, since dry seasons do not appear to 

 affect the proportions in any way. When it is realised 

 that a difference of one per cent, in sucrose content, 

 such as between 13-5 and 14-5, would mean an increase 

 in output of about 1000 tons ftom a factory making 

 14,000 tons of sugar, equal to a gain of loooi. on each 

 1000 tons of factory output, it will be recognised that 

 there is a considerable field open for careful scientific 

 research on both chemical and botanical lines. 



In the American Journal of Science for April (vol. 

 xliii., p. 322) Mr. G. P. Merrill records further ob- 

 servations on the occurrence of calcium phosphate in 

 meteorites, and places the crystals under francolite. 

 Unlike normal apatite in igneous rocks, they crystal- 

 lise out in the later stages of consolidation ; but the 

 author points out that this may be due to unknown 

 meteorltic conditions. 



Mr. S. Taber's experiments on growing crystals, 

 and his conclusion that growth against external pres- 

 sure takes place only in contact with a supersaturated 

 solution, were referred to in Nature, vol. xcvii., 

 p. 470. Mr. E. T. Long (Amer. Journ. Set., vol. xliii., 

 p. 289) has now allowed hot brine prepared from table 

 salt to cool while running through a rubber finger- 

 stall, with a small perforation at its narrow end, and 

 finds that the crystals not only expand the rubber, but 

 even produce punctures. The crystals ceased to grow 

 when the supersaturated solution was removed from 

 their surface. 



To Bulletins et Mdmoires de la Societe d'Anthro- 

 pologie de Paris, No. 5, for 1915, the publication of 

 which has been inevitably delayed by the present war, 

 Capt. G. G. E. Mauger contributes an interesting 

 paper under the title of " Quelques considerations sur 

 les jeux en Chine et leur developpement synchronique 

 avec celui de I'empire chinois." This will be of special 

 value to those engaged in the study of the origin of 

 chess and other games, such as draughts, and those in 

 which dice are used. 



A GLOSSARY of names in the Austrian coastlands of 

 the Adriatic (Prontuario dei nomi locali della Venezia 

 Giulio) has just been published by the Royal Italian 

 Geographical Society (vol. xv., part ii., Memoire). It 

 follows at an interval of a few months the glossary of 

 the Adige region previously noted in Nature. This 

 glossary contains all the names, arranged in alpha- 

 betical order, on the Austrian map of the coastlands 

 on a scale of i : 75,000. After each is given the 

 Italian equivalent, and in many cases the Slav form. 

 The Italian Geographical Society is to be congratu- 

 lated on its useful oublication and on its sanguine 

 anticipation of the return of these lands to Italy. 



The statistics of Italian earthquakes during the 

 twenty years 1891-1910 are examined by Dr. A. Cava- 

 sino in a recent paper {Boll. Soc. Sismol. Ital., 

 vol. XX., for 1916, pp. 9-31). The total number of 

 earthquakes recorded is 5922, giving an average annual 

 number of 296. The Calabrian earthquake of 1905 was 

 followed by a train of 396 after-shocks, the Messina 

 earthquake of 1908 by 1227, It is generally supposed 

 that the greater frequency of earthquakes at night is 

 apparent and due to the quiet of the midnight hours. 

 Dr. Cavasino shows that this is not the case for 

 Italian earthquakes by considering onlyshocks of such 

 intensity that they could not escape notice at any hour 

 of the day. Of these, 865 occurred during the twelve 

 night hours, and 638 during the day hours. 



