444 



NATURE 



[June 9, 1910 



domestic animals in Uganda, and on more than one occasion 

 nipped an epidemic in the bud, thus earning, if they had 

 known it, the gratitude of the animals themselves." 



Of no less interest was his account of " muhinyo, " a 

 fever among the Uganda natives, which had been mis- 

 taken, by clinical observation, for diverse other fevers. 

 The Sleeping Sickness Commission, by animal experimenta- 

 tion, proved it to be, practically, Malta fever, and further 

 proved that the germs of muhinyo were present in some 

 of the goats from an infected district. The evidence thus 

 appears complete that the fever, like Malta fever, might 

 be transmitted in the goat's milk. 



Finally, Sir David Bruce spoke of the discovery that the 

 common sand-fly is capable of transmitting simple con- 

 tinued fever. Here the experiments were made on volun- 

 teers in the cause of science. " The study of the habits 

 of the sand-fly is being pursued with energy, and I hope 

 that within a short time simple continued fever will have 

 disappeared as completely from Malta as Malta fever has 

 done." Of the completeness of the disappearance of Malta 

 fever from our army in Malta, since the goat's milk was 

 prohibited, the following figures are proof : — in 1905 there 

 were 643 cases; in 1906, 147; in 1907, 11; in 1908, 5; 

 in 1909, I ; and in 19 10, thus far, o. 



We hope that the Research Defence Society will see to 

 it that such a record of the experimental study of diseases 

 shall not be allowed to drop out of the public mind. 



METEORIC FIREBALL OF JUNE i. 



o 



|NE of those brilliant meteors which often appear in 

 the twilight of our midsummer skies was seen on 

 Wednesday, June i, at 9.40 p.m. The atmosphere was 

 fairly clear, and the object formed a fine spectacle to many 

 persons in the southern counties of England. Excellent 

 descriptions of the apparent path it traversed have come in 

 from various places, including Coventry, Bristol, Cheshunt 

 (Herts), and Ealing, Sydenham, and Heme Hill, London. 



The meteor was much more brilliant than Jupiter, and 

 as it sailed slowly along it apparently changed its colour 

 from electric blue to gold, and threw off a short trail of 

 reddish sparks. Viewed from the metropolis, the observed 

 flight was a descending one from west to north-west, and 

 the whole trajectory occupied about four seconds. 



There is no doubt that the meteor was directed from a 

 radiant near Antares, in Scorpio, which has furnished many 

 June fireballs in past years. Its height was from about 62 

 to 48 miles, and the path of some 100 miles, traversed at a 

 velocity of about 25 miles per second. First visibly appear- 

 ing over a point near Chippenham, it passed to north-west, 

 crossing the Severn, and disappearing south of Montgomery, 

 in Wales. Other reports will doubtless come to hand, arid 

 enable this result to be tested, but it cannot be far wrong. 

 The fireball supplies further corroboration of the activitv 

 of the Scorpiid shower, and of the almost unique brilliancy 

 of its meteors. There was a fireball seen in Scotland bv 

 several observers on May 24, at iih., and this had a 

 height of about 70 to 44 miles over the sea north of Ire- 

 land. This object also was directed straight from the 

 radiant in Scorpio. 



"W. F. Denning. 



INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON TROPICAL 

 AGRICULTURE AND COLONIAL DEVELOP- 



MENT. 



A NOTE on the organisation of this congress was pub- 

 lished in Nature of April 7, and it is only necessary 

 to say now that the congress was arranged by the Inter- 

 national Association of Colonial Agriculture, with the assist- 

 ance of the Belgian Society for the Study of Tropical 

 Agriculture. British contributions to the congress were 

 provided for by a British committee, including agricultural 

 and forestry officials throughout the Empire, and of which 

 Prof. Wyndham Dunstan, F.R.S., was president, and Dr. 

 T. A. Henry secretary. 



The congress met from Mav 20 to Mav 23 in the Palais 

 de Congr^s of the Brussels Exhibition. " The date of the 

 NO. 2 119, VOL. 83] 



first meeting coincided with the funeral of the late King, 

 so that the president. Colonel Thys, merely declared the 

 congress open, and the meeting was adjourned as a mark 

 of respect to the memory of His late Majesty. 



The work of the congress was divided into three 

 sections, (i) dealing with agriculture and forestry ; 

 (j) with animal industries ; and (3) with labour, transport, 

 and trade. Altogether nearly 200 reports and papers were 

 presented to the congress, and of these more than one- 

 third were submitted through the British committee. It 

 is only possible to refer briefly to a few of the more 

 important matters discussed. 



In July, 1909, the International Association appointed 

 " General-Reporters " to collect information on various 

 subjects connected with tropical agriculture, and to pre- 

 sent reports on them to the congress, and the reading and 

 discussion of these reports occupied much of the time 

 devoted to sectional meetings. 



Prof. Dunstan submitted a general report on the prac- 

 tical results of cotton cultivation in various countries, with 

 observations on the scientific and economic causes of its 

 success or failure. He pointed out that the successful 

 development of cotton cultivation in W^est Africa and other 

 suitable territories in the future will depend on the 

 establishment of a variety of cotton suited to the country 

 and to the requirements of manufacturers, and that this 

 can best be achieved by persistent scientific work carried, 

 on by Government. The position of cotton cultivation in : 

 the United States, Egypt, India, and other producing 

 countries was then reviewed. Prof. Dunstan also pre- 

 sented special reports from countries in which cotton 

 cultivation is carried on commercially or experimentally, 

 each of these recounting the difficulties met with and the 

 experimental work in progress in the area considered. 

 These reports were contributed by authorities on cotton 

 cultivation in each of the countries dealt with. 



A similar inquiry on tlie rubber plants of tropical 

 countries resulted in the presentation of a number of 

 reports, each of which dealt with the rubber plants, native 

 or introduced, of the country considered, the methods of 

 obtaining rubber therefrom, and, in most cases, the 

 improvements needed in native methods of preparation. 

 Reports from the following countries were submitted : — 

 Belgian Congo (MM. Kindt, Pynaert, and Ghislain), 

 French W'est Africa (M. Yves Henry), British West Africa 

 (Mr. H. Brown), British East Africa (Mr. A. C. Mac- 

 donald), German African colonies (Dr. Warburg), Java anc 

 Sumatra (Prof. Berkhout), Mexico (Senor Flores), Brazil 

 (Sefior Argolo), &c. Special papers were also contributed 

 by Dr. Heim (Rational study of rubber plants) anc 

 Prof. Carmody (New method of preparing Castilloa 

 rubber). 



Other inquiries undertaken were the place of botanit 

 gardens in agricultural research in the tropics, and legis 

 lation against the spread of insect pests and fungoid 

 diseases ; but comparatively little progress was mad» 

 with these, though special reports in connection will 

 the first-named were submitted by M. Capus for Indp- 

 China, and by Profs. A. Engler and G. Volkens, d^ 

 Berlin. 



.Apart from these reports, many papers were submittet 

 on more general subjects. Mr. A. E. Humphries read ; 

 useful paper on the wheat requirements of the Unite* 

 Kingdom, in which he outlined the characters which miller 

 in this country seek in imported wheat. Mr. I. B. Pole 

 Evans described the results of investigations undertako 

 in the Transvaal with a view to the development of ru^ 

 resistant cereals, and Mr. Guthrie, of New South Wal^M 

 submitted two papers, one describing chemical investig 

 tions in connection with the production of improved whea 

 and the other giving an account of the work of the la 

 W. J. Farrer, who initiated wheat-breeding work in Ne 

 South Wales. Only two papers on tobacco were sUl 

 mitted, one by Mr.' Odium, of Rhodesia, describing th 

 cultivation of bright pipe tobacco, and the other by Drt 

 Henry and Auld on the burning quality of tobacco, i 

 which they pointed out that defective burning quality 

 one of the first difficulties met with in growing tobacc 

 in a new countn,-, and showed, as the result of numerou 

 analyses of tobacco ash, that good burning depends on tH 

 nature and quantity of mineral constituents in the leaf, an 



