September 20, 1900] 



NATURE 



499 



A REPORT OR the mineral statistics and mines of Canada for 

 1898 (1900), drawn up by Mr. E. D. Ingall, contains records of 

 a great variety of mineral products. It is interesting to note 

 that the output of coal, supplied mainly from Nova Scotia 

 (nearly two-thirds), and from British Columbia (nearly one- 

 third), shows an increase : the total production being nearly 

 four million tons. Natural gas is obtained from wells in 

 southern Ontaria. Gold shows a large increase, due to the out- 

 put from the Yukon ; but silver, which is almost wholly derived 

 from British Columbia, shows a decrease. On the whole, how- 

 ever, the growth of Canada's mineral industries is stated to be 

 very encouraging. 



In the memoirs of the Society " Antonio Alzate" (vol. xiv.), 

 Senor M. Moreno publishes a discussion of the sunshine values 

 at the Observatory of Leon (Mexico), situated in latitude 21° 

 '07' N. , showing the daily amounts recorded by a Campbell- 

 Stokes instrument from June 1892 to December 1898. These 

 values are all the more acceptable from the fact that out of some 

 thirty observatories in the Mexican Republic, Leon appears to be 

 the only station which furnishes a complete record of sunshine. 

 The following figures, giving the average percentages of the 

 possible amounts, show that the locality enjoys a large amount 

 of bright sunshine :— winter, 71; spring, 72; summer, 59; 

 autumn, 69 ; and for the year, 68. In Dr. Scott's discussion of 

 ten years' sunshine in the British Isles, the annual average for 

 London (City) is 24 ; for Greenwich, 25 ; and for Jersey, the 

 sunniest part of the British Isles, 40. 



The U.S. Monthly Weather Review for May last contains an 

 interesting article, by Prof. C. Abbe, on the history of modern 

 weather prediction. He considers that the first effort towards 

 this end was the publication of the " Mannheim Ephemerides," 

 a series of thirteen volumes, for the years 1780-92, containing 

 detailed meteorological observations for thirty-six stations in 

 Europe and for three stations in America. After many years. 

 Prof. H. W. Brandes first compiled from those observations 

 daily weather maps for 1783 (" Beitrage zur Witterungskunde," 

 Leipzig, 1820). In 1826 Prof. J. P. Espy organised a joint 

 •committee for the purpose of studying storms ; numerous maps 

 were constructed and many published in four successive reports 

 (1845-60). The labours of Espy and Redfield established the 

 fact that individual features of the weather, as well as storms, 

 move in such a manner that their approach can be predicted by 

 means of maps. Prof. J. Henry constructed daily weather maps 

 from telegraphic reports, for personal study, for several years 

 from 1848, and from 1856 onwards they were exhibited at the 

 Smithsonian Institution. These maps were made the basis of 

 frequent special predictions of the weather for the benefit of 

 members of Congress and others. This date brings us down to 

 the time of the establishment of the meteorological offices in 

 this country and abroad. 



Many interesting points referring to the work of the Govern- 

 ment Laboratory are mentioned by the director, Dr. T, E. 

 Thorpe, F.R.S., in the report recently issued. A number of 

 tinned meats were examined for the Admiralty for food preserva- 

 tives, but no antiseptic other than common salt was detected. 

 Numerous butters contained boric preservative and were arti- 

 ficially coloured. As usual, the use of boric acid is most preva- 

 lent in butters from France, Belgium and Australia, and is 

 very common also in Holland. The most frequent colouring- 

 matter is annatto, but the use of coal-tar yellows appears to be 

 on the increase, and is especially prevalent in Holland, the 

 United States and Australia. In the course of the year it was 

 decided by the Board of Trade that all passenger ships should be 

 required to carry a filter capable of delivering water free from 

 micro-organisms. With Dr. Thorpe's assistance, a filter which 

 satisfactorily fulfils this condition has been decided upon. As a 

 NO. 16 I 2, VOL. 62] 



supplement to the work of the Steel Rails Committee (see p. 437), 

 an investigation was undertaken with the object of elucidating the 

 mode in which the phosphorus in steel is chemically combined. 

 The inquiry clearly showed, as has already been surmised, that 

 the phosphorus present is, like the carbon, not infrequently in 

 more than one form of combination. The greater part of the 

 work done in connection with the Home Office arose out of the 

 inquiries instituted by the Home Secretary, relative to the pre- 

 valence of lead-poisoning arising from the use of lead compounds 

 in pottery manufacture. A considerable number of " fritts " and 

 "glazes" have been examined, and the conditions determining 

 the ease with which lead compounds may be extracted from 

 them by dilute acids, comparable as regards their action with 

 that of the gastric juice and other animal solvents, have been 

 ascertained. As the result of the inquiry made last year, the 

 Home Secretary has required the manufacturers of pottery to 

 abandon the use of raw lead, and in view of the facts brought to 

 light by the examination of the fritts and glazes, he has expressed 

 his intention of prescribing that in future such glazes shall con- 

 form to a standard of insolubility as regards lead. 



The evidence for presence of totemism in various parts of the 

 world is now being carefully ex£^mined, as it is beginning to be 

 realised that a cult of animals is not necessarily the same as 

 totemism. This is the attitude taken by Dr. C. Hose and Mr. 

 W. MacDougall in their paper read before the recent meeting 

 of the British Association, and to which reference will be made 

 elsewhere in our columns. Dr. E. Westermarck, the author of 

 the well-known work on " Human Marriage," has published 

 some of the results of his investiga tions in Morocco in a paper 

 in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute (vol. xxix. 

 p. 252), entitled "The nature of the Arab Ginn, illustrated by 

 the present beliefs of the people of Morocco," in which he 

 adopts the same conclusion. The Gnun, as they are called in 

 Morocco, form a special race of beings, created before Adam. 

 They have no fixed forms, but may assume almost any shape 

 they like. Usually they are hurtful to man. The bad Gnun 

 being always ready to attack human beings, various means are 

 used for keeping them at a distance. The Gnun are afraid of 

 salt and steel, which are consequently employed as prophy- 

 lactics ; the best and, from a religious point of view, the correct 

 preventive against their attacks is the recital of passages of the 

 Koran. Dr. Westermarck adversely criticises Robertson Smith's 

 explanation that the Ginn are modernised representatives of 

 totem animals, and states that they are beings invented to 

 explain the wonderful and mysterious in nature. They are, in 

 fact, survivals of the early indigenous animistic beliefs of a salt- 

 less and ironless antiquity, which, at a later date, were absorbed 

 and developed under the influence of Islam. 



The Society for the Protection of Birds has just issued, in 

 pamphlet form, a communication from Sir C. Lawson, which 

 appeared in the Madras Mail oi March 27 and April II, plead- 

 ing for the adequate protection of insectivorous birds in India. 

 It appears that for more than a decade a law has been in force 

 in Madras for the protection of birds, but that when, some time 

 ago, steps were taken to extend this enactment to the other 

 presidencies, the responsible advisers to the Indian Government 

 did not consider that the time was ripe for such legislation. Sir 

 C. Lawson now urges that, in great part owing to the famine, 

 the need of bird protection by law demands immediate recogni- 

 tion. At present he pleads only for those insectivorous species 

 whose wholesale slaughter for the sake of their plumage leaves 

 grain and cotton-fields at the mercy of insect pests, thus causing 

 " a deplorable sacrifice of human food and the materials of human 

 raiment, besides inflicting penury on individuals and great loss 

 to the State." The society is endeavouring to form an Indian 



