October 17, 1895] 



NATUR/i 



601 



The first series of lectures given in connection with the Sunday 

 Lecture Society begins on Sunday afternoon, October 20, in St. 

 George's Hall, Langham Place, at 4 p.m., when Prof. Sir 

 Frederick Pollock, Bart., will lecture on "Tyndall as Worker 

 and Teacher." Lectures will be subsequently given by Dr. 

 C. \V. Kinnnins, Kev. Stewart He.idlani, Prince Kropotkin, 

 Mr. Grah.im Wallas, .Mr. Wyke Bayliss, and Dr. U. D. Roberts. 



Facts are always worth recording, and we publish the fol- 

 lowing note because it contains an interesting fact, which is, 

 moreover, in accordance with other observations. The note 

 came to us from Mr. Mata Prasad, Benares: "It was quite 

 accidentally obser\ed, by a stammering friend of mine, during 

 the months of May and June last, that on moonlight nights he i 

 stammered more than on dark nights, and when he slept exposed I 

 to the rays of the moon during the month of June, he found that 

 he stammered the most on days succeeding full moons, while 

 a day just after the new moon, and a day before, he had not a 

 single attack of the fit." 



THii organisms responsible for the production of the Japanese 

 beverage sake are still the subject of comment and investigation. 

 Only a few weeks ago we received a communication from Dr. 

 Jorgensen, in which he claimed to have discovered that the mould 

 known as AsiJergillus oryz;e, employed in the preparation of sake, 

 was capable of producing the yeast cells invariably present, 

 and that, therefore, only one organism was responsible for the 

 elaboration of this well-known beverage. Mr. Atkinson, who 

 investigated this subject some years ago in Japan, could find no 

 evidence of the transformation of the mould into yeast cells, and 

 maintained that the mycelium and the ferment were entirely 

 distinct. This view has been quite recently upheld by some 

 experiments published by Messrs. Ivosai and Vabe, of Tokio. 

 They have found that in the prcp.iralion of sake two distinct 

 organisms are required, the well-known .Aspergillus and a species 

 of yeast. These have been carefully isolated and their growth 

 watched in various solutions, with the result that the 

 mould only gave rise to typical mycelium growths, whilst the 

 yeast elaborated only yeast cells, without exhibiting a trace of 

 mould. The authors are now engaged upon carefully identifying 

 this sake-yeast, and state that, as far as their investigations at 

 l>resent go, it resembles the Saccharotnyccs lercvisiir, with which 

 they are carrying out numerous comparative experiments. 



Om.v those who have much to do with scientific literature 

 know how important, and yet how much neglected, is the art of 

 making references. No apology is needed, therefore, for re- 

 printing in full the following rules abstracted from a paper that 

 appeared in the Brilisli Medical Journal, 1S95, ^o'- '• P- ^75, by 

 .Mr. J. B. Bade)-, Librarian of the Royal College of Surgeons of 

 I'.ngland. The rules can be obtained printed on a card, so thst 

 an abstractor can always have them before him. (l) The titles 

 of all books and periodical publications should be given in the 

 language in which they are written. (2) References .should be 

 taken from the title-pages, and not from the lettering on the backs 

 of books. (5) Where two, or more, vols, are bound together, 

 care should be taken that the reference is made from the right 

 title-page. (4) Where a journal is in more than one series, the 

 [lumber of the series as well as the vol. and date should be given. 

 (5) When an abstract only of a paper is referred to, this fact 

 should be stated, and reference to the original paper given if 

 possible. (6) Journals and Transactions should not be quoted by 

 ihe date of issue, but by vol., date and page. (7) In books 

 which have two sets of paging, care should be taken to specify 

 exactly the pagination to which reference is made. (S) The 

 name of the editor of a journal should not be used as part of a 

 title unless it be necessary to distinguish between two journals 

 with similar titles. (9) References to |iapers read before 



NO. 1355, VOL. 52] 



Societies w hich do not publish any separate reports of their meet- 

 ings should quote the journal where the paper in question can be 

 found. (10) In abbreviating titles care should be taken that the 

 abbreviation shows exactly what journal is refcrre<l to, e.g., /ill. 

 Anal. Physiol, does not make it clear whether an English, 

 French or German book is quoted. 



The Smithsonian Institution has recently published a series of 

 directions for collectors, as separate portions of Bulletin No. 3 

 of the U.S. National Museum. The directions for collecting 

 minerals, rocks, and fossils (parts H, I, and K)are written by 

 the curators of the respective departments, and include advice 

 not only on actual collecting, but on preparing, labelling, making 

 sections, &c. .Many of the recommendations are novel, and all 

 cannot fail to be helpful to amateur collectors. 



The Hullelin of Miscellaneous Tnformalion of the Rnyal 

 Gardens, ICew, for September, continues \he Diagnoses Africanie , 

 in which, in addition to a large number of new species, two new 

 genera are described : Cycloc/ieilon, Oliv., belonging to the 

 Scrophulariacea;, and Phillipsia, Rolfe, belonging to the 

 Acantliace;v. An interesting account is given of the history ot 

 the rock-garden, based on a list of herbaceous plants cultivated in 

 the Royal Gardens, Kew, issued by the Department. 



Under the modest title of " Guide to the Collections ol 

 Rocks and Fossils," the (Geological Survey of Ireland has pub- 

 lished what is really an excellent guide to the geology of Ireland. 

 The authors are Messrs. W. W. Watts and A. McHenry, and 

 the price of the book is ninepence. It opens with a short 

 introduction, explaining the principles on which is based the 

 classification adopted in the Science and Art Museum, Dublin. 

 Two-thirds of the book are taken up with an account of the 

 rocks of Ireland, each of the four provinces being taken in turn. 

 Part iii. begins with a popular account of general PaUeontology, 

 which is followed by a description of the fossils exhibited, and 

 this by a catalogue of figured and type specimens in the museum. 

 Finally we have an index of localities for the rocks described, 

 that should be most useful to amateur geologists. 



The Observatory of Manila has published an extensive dis- 

 cussion of the typhoons of the year 1S94, prepared by the Rev. 

 J. .'\lguc, S.J. The work occupies 176 small folio pages, and is 

 accompanied by a large number of plates showing the tracks of 

 the different storms and concomitant data, and also contains 

 some general considerations respecting the character of these 

 disturbances in the extreme Fast. \ section is devoted to the 

 distribution of the various meteorological elements around the 

 centres of areas of low barometic pressures at Manila during the 

 years 1879-94. The result of this discussion shows that the 

 distance of the cyclonic centre cannot be determined from the 

 reading of the barometer alone ; but the author describes an 

 apparatus, which he calls a " cyclonoscope," whereby an aproxi- 

 mate idea of the distance of the vortex may be determined. 



W. Eni;el.\iax.\, Leipzig, will shortly publish the collected 

 papers of Prof. W. Roux upon the " Entwickelungsmechanik 

 der Organismen." The work will consist of two volumes, illus- 

 trated with lithographic plates, and numerous illustrations in the 

 text. 



The sixth part of Hullelin No. 9 of the Minnesota Botanical 

 Studies (.August 1S95), 's entirely occupied by a very useful 

 " Contribution to the Bibliography of American .-Mga-," by Miss 

 Josephine E. Tilden. No less than 1 544 separate w orks or 

 papers are enumerated. 



The discourse entitled "The Splash of a Drop," delivered 

 by Prof. A. M. Worthington, F. R.S. , at the Royal Institution 

 in May 1894. I^^s been publishetl in book form by the Society 

 for Promoting Christian Knowledge, with illustrations of the 



