May 7, 1903] 



NATURE 



15 



>u. nations on the Continent, laying special stress on the 



application of three-phase working and the use of high 



voltages which this system permitted ; he even went so far 



, as to say that, paradoxical as he might seem, the higher 



voltages were probably safer, as the workmen, knowing 



that any tampering with the mains meant certain death, 



,' left them severely alone. For the actual machinery, 500 



>" to 700 volts was a suitable pressure, but 1000 to 3000 volts 



I might be used with advantage for transmission for con- 



I siderable distances into the mines. Other evidence of an 



i> interesting nature was given before the committee, which 



* is still sitting. 



Official statistics have on several occasions been col- 



lt( ted as to the number of horses and other beasts of burden 



in Italy, but statistics regarding educational matters appear 



to be few and far between. The only records of the total 



attendances in Italian schools or colleges under the control 



public or religious bodies refer to the year 1870. For 



N ate boys' schools results were collected from 1879, and 



Lrirls' schools from 1887, but in no case does information 



■nd beyond 1894. Prof. Amato Amati, writing in the 



nbardy Rendiconti, now asks for an official census of the 



^)i ivate schools and educational institutions of Italy. 



Various experimenters have obtained interference between 



light-waves with a difference of path reaching in one case 



as much as 790,000 wave-lengths. Profs. Lummer and 



tiehrcke now describe experiments in the Verhandlungen 



(it the German Physical Society, in which interference 



' "nomena were obtained after nine reflections at the sur- 



s of a uniform plate, representing a difference of path 



2,600,000 wave-lengths, and they draw the conclusion 



111, it among the particles of vapour in the mercury arc 



u-t'd as the source of light, the greater portion send out 



light capable of producing interference for a longer time 



than the interval (less than io~^ of a second) in which 2| 



million waves are emitted. 



The importance of a convenient, accurate, and at the 

 same time readily understood designation of musical notes 

 ill connection with the study of audition and partial deaf- 

 11' ss forms the subject of ai paper by Sir W. R. Cowers, 

 F.R.S., in the Review of Neurology and Psychiatry for 

 April. At present there is no uniformity of notation, and 

 the notation adopted by Helmholtz was merely an old and 

 inconvenient notation used in organ construction. The 

 present writer proposes to use C to denote the " middle C " 

 (frequency 264), to use C\ C*, C to denote the successive 

 octaves above, and to use C,, C,, C, to denote the successive 



^ octaves below middle C, each octave extending to the B 



f above. 



w In describing the brain of the walrus, Mr. P. A. Fish 

 (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., \o. 1325) shows that the general 

 plan of the fissures corresponds to that obtaining in Carni- 

 vora generally, and more especially seals. 



The Natural History Branch of the British Museum has 

 received from Lord Crawford a small but interesting series 

 of birds' skins collected by Mr. M. J. Nicholl on St. Paul 

 and Noronha Islands, off the Brazilian coast. The only 

 specimens from the latter island previously in the collection 

 were obtained by Dr. H. N. Ridley in 1886. 



In vol. iii., part iii., of the Annals of the S. African 

 Museum, Mr. G. A. Boulenger describes six new forms 

 of perch-like fishes from the Natal coast. Recent issues 

 of the Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. contain papers on the band- 

 fishes (Cepolid.Te) and loaches (Cobitidae) of Japan, by 

 Messrs. Jordan and Fowler. 



NO. 1749, VOL. 68] 



In the course of a series of notes on the ornithology of 

 Norfolk for 1902, published in the April number of the 

 Zoologist, Mr. J. H. Gurney directs attention to the great 

 migration of rooks and other members of the crow family 

 which took place on the east coast during October of last 

 year. The greater number of the immigrants were rooks, 

 and the movement extended at least as far as Lincolnshire. 

 Several rare birds are recorded as stragglers. Mr. Gurney 

 adds that there is no good news to record of the great 

 bustards which were turned down at Brandon in 1900. Of 

 the original fifteen, only a single pair now remain ; the 

 hen laid a couple of eggs, which were incubated for six 

 weeks without a successful result. 



We have received from Prof. W. C. M'Intosh a copy of 

 a pamphlet on British fisheries' investigations and the 

 international scheme. After referring to past and present 

 investigations in connection with British fisheries, the 

 author discusses the international scheme for the systematic 

 biological survey of the North Sea, to which allusion has 

 recently been made in our columns, urging that if the 

 British Government resolves to participate in the scheme, 

 attention should be concentrated on the habits and develop- 

 ment of fishes and their food-supplies to the exclusion of 

 subjects connected with hydrography. In regard to the 

 supposed deterioration of our fisheries. Prof. M'Intosh is an 

 optimist, remarking that " There is no fear of the extinc- 

 tion of any species, especially of those important to man. 

 Furthermore, fishes have abounded in the primaeval as in 

 the modern seas, although the ravages of the gigantic 

 reptilian and other fish-destroyers — which in some instances 

 were distributed over the whole expanse of the ocean- 

 could not have been less than even the far-reaching efforts 

 of man. In neither period has extinction ensued from the 

 prevailing agencies, nor is it likely to take place under 

 these conditions in the future." 



An account of the structure and properties of a legu- 

 minous lliane, Derris uliginosa, the leaves of which have 

 been used as a fish poison by Fijian islanders, has been 

 received from the Wellcome Research Laboratories. A de- 

 scription of the anatomy of the stem is furnished by Mr. 

 Perr^d^s, from which it appears that irregular secondary 

 vascular structures arise in the cortex. As a result of 

 chemical investigation, Dr. Power discovered a considerable 

 amount of tannin and various resinous substances. The 

 toxic action is attributed to a constituent of that part of 

 the resin which is soluble in chloroform, and not .to the 

 tannin. 



The progress of the German East African colony may 

 be studied in the reports presented by the officers in charge 

 of districts, which are embodied in the Berichte issued 

 from Dar-es-Salam. The native food resources are matama, 

 maize, manioc, and in some parts bananas. Owing to the 

 risks of failure of the three first, the natives have been 

 encouraged to take up the cultivation of rice and sweet 

 potatoes. As a source of revenue extensive plantations of 

 coffee have been started by German companies, and on a 

 smaller scale the cultivation of coco-palms, agave and ceara 

 rubber is being extended with promising results. 



Of the papers read before the American Society for Plant 

 Morphology and Physiology, two contributed by Dr. E. F. 

 Smith refer to bacterial diseases attacking Japanese plum 

 trees and sweet corn, in both of which cases the author 

 concludes that infection takes place through the stomata. 

 A paper by Prof. Duggar traces the inconsistency of the 

 osmotic action of certain salts on marine algae to their 

 toxic action, and potassium salts were found to be more 



