June 9. 1910] 



NA TURE 



437 



Mr. Wragge declines at present to give details of his dis- 

 coveries, and until these are published it is unsafe to 

 venture any opinion in regard to them. 



The Entomological Research Committee for Tropical 

 Africa, appointed by the Colonial Office, has issued the 

 first number of the Bulletin of Entomological Research, on 

 which the committee and the editor (Mr. G. A. K. 

 Marshall) may be warmly congratulated. Nearly half the 

 number is occupied by Mr. W. Wesch^'s descriptions of 

 the larval and pupal stages of West African Culicidae, a 

 most useful paper, giving characters for the identification 

 of the larvze and pupae of twenty-nine species of mosquitoes, 

 illustrated by seven excellent plates. The collector of the 

 specimens. Dr. W. M. Graham, adds valuable field-notes, 

 and the facts recorded are important alike to the entomo- 

 logist and the medical man. Dr. Drake-Brockman con- 

 tributes a short paper on blood-sucking Diptera from 

 Abyssinia, Mr. R. Newstead writes on Coccidae from 

 Uganda, and Mr. E. E. Austen describes new African 

 fruit-flies and a new Cordylobia — a muscoid genus the 

 larvae of which are subcutaneous parasites. In a short 

 preface Mr. A. E. Shipley discusses the general work of 

 the committee, mentioning that two experienced entomo- 

 logists have been sent out for the purpose of research and 

 instruction — Mr. S. A. Neave to Nyasaland and Mr. J. J. 

 Simpson to Nigeria. 



The following interesting communication has reached us 

 from Mr. Christopher Morse, of 3 Gladstone Road, Deal : — ■ 

 ** All your readers have, of course, noticed a cat washing 

 its face, but I expect very few have seen the same opera- 

 tion being carried on by a caterpillar. I observed one 

 engaged in this process yesterday, and thought it a matter 

 of interest. The creature was a smooth-bodied Noctuid 

 larva feeding on grass." Of course, it is well known that 

 butterflies often drink up water eagerly, and even bathe 

 in it ; while, as regards caterpillars, the drinker moth 

 {Cosmotriche potatoria) derives its name from the cater- 

 pillars' fondness for water, often plunging their heads into 

 the drops of water on the grass on which they feed (com- 

 pare Tutt's " British Lepidoptera," iii., p. 167). Mr. Tutt, 

 to whom we have submitted Mr. Morse's communication, 

 thinks that in most cases the true legs of caterpillars would 

 be too short to be used for washing the face (though in some 

 exceptional cases these are long), and adds, " Of course, 

 butterflies do it, and are well provided sometimes with 

 hooks for the purpose, especially for cleaning their antennae. 

 They often have the appearance you name when thus 

 employed. I think I noticed it particularly in Rusticus 

 hetidae and certainly some other species." It would be 

 of interest if Mr. Morse could continue his observations, 

 and especially identify the species of caterpillar which he 

 "oticed washing its face. 



A NEW geological society, already very well supported, 

 styled the Geologische Vereinigung, has been estab- 

 lished at Frankfurt am Main, somewhat on the lines of 

 the English Geologists' Association. While international 

 in character, it aims especially at providing summaries of 

 important geological work, which shall reach the in- 

 creasing number of teachers of geology. By organising 

 excursions, it hopes to come into touch with those who 

 have charge of classes in schools. The subscription is 

 only 10 marks annually, and each member will receive the 

 society's journal, the Geologische Rundschau, the first 

 number of which, published on April 26, is now before us. 

 As the six numbers of this journal cost 12 marks a year 

 (Leipzig : W. Engelmann), it is clearly profitable for readers 

 also to become members of the society. The journal is 

 NO. 2IIQ, VOL. 83] 



edited by Drs. G. Steinmann, W. Salomon, and O. Wilckens, 

 and is another sign of the activity of already busy men. 

 Two original papers appear in this number which might 

 easily have found a place in the older journals ; but the 

 signed reviews of geological knowledge are the main 

 feature, and rank with those on current subjects in the 

 English quarterly. Science Progress. The professional 

 worker can, of course, rely on Keilhack's Geologisches 

 Zentralblatt, which notices practically everything. The 

 Rundschau is at once more literary and more limited in 

 character, and has a critical usefulness of its own. 



Prof. E. A. M.artel makes a vigorous contribution to the 

 controversy regarding the existence of Grundwasser, or a 

 water table supported by an impermeable stratum, in the 

 Karst region, in a recent number of La Geographic, 

 p. 126. Prof. Martel considers that definite proof of the 

 non-existence of such an underground reservoir feeding the 

 subterranean rivers of the Karst is now available, and that 

 the question is finally settled. 



In N.ature of May 12 (p. 319) reference was made to the 

 important additions made to the monthly meteorological 

 charts of the North Atlantic issued by the Meteorological 

 Committee by the publication of current daily weather 

 charts of barometrical pressure, temperature, and wind, 

 compiled from reports by radio-telegraphy and through 

 other sources. The value of these data is still further 

 enhanced in the chart for June by a short discussion of 

 the predominant features indicated by the maps. These 

 show, e.g., that from May 5-1 1 inclusive an area of high 

 barometric pressure occupied a considerable portion of the 

 Atlantic, and, in connection with the low pressure existing 

 over these islands and Europe, was responsible for the 

 abnormally cold and squally weather then experienced over 

 this country. At the close of the period the advance of 

 an anticyclone, shown to be moving from Barents Sea 

 to Scandinavia, and the shifting of continental disturb- 

 ances towards north-west, tended to modify those con- 

 ditions. The unique reports of ice received by the com- 

 mittee show that icebergs were being sighted with 

 increasing frequency between 42° and 52° N. latitude, and 

 39^ and 52° W. longitude. 



In two papers contributed to the Proceedings of the 

 American Academy of Arts and Sciences (xlv., 8, 9) Mr. 

 Harvey F. Davies discusses the applicability of the law 

 of corresponding states to the Joule-Thomson effect in 

 water and carbon dioxide, with special reference to 

 temperatures above 100° C, and gives a new formula for 

 the total heat of saturated steam, which holds good within 

 limits of error between 65° and 190° C. This formula 

 really represents the difference of the total heat from that 

 at 100° C, the value of which is assumed from previous 

 work. 



At the 1908 Mathematical Congress at Rome Profs. C. 

 Burali Forti and R. Marcolongo w-ere appointed to draw 

 up a report on the various notations of vector analysis 

 with a view to unification. A critical review of their 

 publications on this subject is contributed to the May 

 Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. It appears 

 that the writers propose to avoid the use of the familiar 

 " nabla," observing that this operator has different mean- 

 ings as applied to scalar and vector functions ; but this 

 and the other points raised in the paper do not admit of 

 adequate discussion in the present brief reference. The 

 subject is of interest both to mathematicians and physicists, 

 but it is clear from Prof. E. B. Wilson's review-s that 

 much remains before a final system can be adopted. 



