May 14, 1903] 



NATURE 



of Agriculture to investigate and report upon the methods 

 of reclaiming alkali lands, with particular reference to the 

 conditions in America. The abandonment of many acres 

 of once fertile land at the time of the Arabian conquest, and 

 the change from the annual flooding to the perennial system 

 of irrigation through canals, has caused the rise and spread 

 of alkali over vast areas in Egypt. The reclamation of 

 large tracts of this kind is being taken up as a business 

 enterprise by British engineers, and the work has proved 

 a large financial success. The conditions met with and the 

 methods used are set forth by Mr. Means in Bulletin No. 21 

 of the Bureau of Soils, U.S. Department of Agriculture. 



In the New Year's number of Nature there appeared an 

 account of a basil, Ocimum viride, a plant which is known 

 to the natives of Nigeria as a protection against mosquitoes. 

 Captain Larymore, by whom this information was first 

 obtained, in a recent letter to the Times mentions that he 

 has brought home a plant which he has presented to the 

 authorities of the Kew Gardens, and that it may be seen 

 there. He also states that the natives believe in its efficacy 

 when taken as an infusion in cases of malarial fever. 

 Further evidence is offered in another letter to the Times 

 by Sir George Birdwood as to the knowledge widely spread 

 among the Hindus of these qualities of the basils, which 

 occur wild, and are generally cultivated in India. Thus, 

 during the formation of the Victoria Gardens in Bombay, 

 the workmen were attacked both by mosquitoes and malaria, 

 when upon the recommendation of the Hindu manager basil 

 plants were placed round the gardens, with the result that 

 the unhealthy nature of the locality was effectually changed. 



Prof. Hoyle (Manchester Memoirs, vol. xlvii. No. 9) 

 points out that the cuttle-fish described as Loligo eblanae 

 is identical with the one subsequently named Todaropsis 

 veranyi, consequently the name of the species should be 

 T. eblanae. 



• In the January issue of the Proceedings of the Phila- 

 delphia Academy Messrs. Anderson and Grinnell draw atten- 

 tion to the birds of the Siskiyou Mountains, California, on 

 account of the fact that they exhibit a mixture of types 

 characteristic of two distinct faunas, namely, the moist 

 coast fauna and the dry Sierran fauna. 



From a distributional point of view, the occurrence in the 

 Philippines of an indigenous representative of the Austral- 

 asian gum-trees is a matter of considerable interest, and it 

 is therefore satisfactory to find that, according to Mr. J. H. 

 Madden (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 1327), Eucalyptus 

 nandiniana, which is typically from New Britain, also occurs 

 in the aforesaid islands. 



Among the articles in the Journal of the Quekett Micro- 

 scopical Club, attention may be directed to one hy Mr. 

 W. H. Harris on the " dentition " of flies. Although the 

 various forms assumed by the " teeth " of these insects have 

 not escaped investigation, they seem to have attracted but 

 little attention in this country, and the author has therefore 

 done well in pointing out the possibilities of this branch 

 of study. An excellent plate accompanies the paper, in the 

 course of which Mr. Harris expresses some doubts as to 

 whether the true function of the canals known as pseudo- 

 trachea; is to convey liquid-food. 



The position in which different birds carry their legs in 

 flight forms the subject of an interesting paper by Captain 

 Barrett-Hamilton in the Zoologist for April. In all birds 

 it appears that the tibia, during continuous flight, must 

 occupy a nearly horizontal position, pointing directly back- 

 NO. T75O, VOL. 68] 



wards. The position of the metatarsi, on the other hand, 

 depends on whether the legs are required to act as a rudder. 

 During flight, birds must have an efficient rudder, and in 

 cases where the metatarsi are very long, as in the heron, 

 and must of necessity be directed backwards, the legs serve 

 this function. On the other hand, in many strong and 

 rapid flyers, especially those which make sharp turns and 

 twists, the steering is effected by means of a long, and 

 frequently forked, tail. Captain Hamilton gives a list of 

 birds exhibiting these correlations, but points out that our 

 knowledge of the subject is still very imperfect, and that 

 careful observation of a large number of species is required. 

 With the exception of the kites and fork-tailed kites, the 

 birds of prey form an exception to the rule. 



A USEFUL summary of our present knowledge of leprosy, 

 its aetiology and prophylaxis, is given by Mr. George Pernet 

 in the April number of the Quarterly Review. The author 

 discusses the introduction into, and prevalence of, leprosy 

 in the British Isles in the middle ages, the effects of the 

 segregation of lepers, the characters of the disease and of 

 the leprosy bacillus, and the danger of the introduction of 

 the disease into other countries through the importation of 

 coolie, Chinese, or other labourers belonging to races 

 afflicted with this scourge. 



An important report upon the aetiology and pathology of 

 beri-beri has been published by Dr. Hamilton Wright. A 

 specific organism has so far not been discovered, and Dr. 

 Wright has also failed to isolate one. His theory of the 

 nature of the disease is that it is due to a specific micro- 

 organism which remains dormant in certain localities, but 

 that, having gained entrance to the body by the mouth, it 

 multiplies locally in the digestive tract, producing toxins 

 which on absorption into the general circulation cause the 

 various symptoms characteristic of the disease. It is note- 

 worthy also that monkeys kept in a jail where beri-beri 

 was prevalent suffered from a condition resembling the 

 disease in man. 



A new pattern of electric lamp is being put on the market 

 by the Linolite Company. The filaments, instead of being 

 in ordinary bulbs, are enclosed in short straight tubes about 

 nine inches long ; the filament is given a small curl in the 

 middle to allow for expansion. These tubes are mounted end 

 to end in a metallic casing, which serves as a reflector, and 

 also carries the leads and the sockets into which the lamps 

 fit. There is thus produced a single line of light, which is 

 very suitable for certain forms of illumination, such as 

 shop-window lighting, lighting by reflection from the ceil- 

 ing, decorative illumination, and the like. The lamps are 

 made for all ordinary voltages, and of the same candle- 

 power and efficiencies as ordinary lamps ; they are run in 

 parallel for voltages up to 130, but for voltages above 200 

 the lamps are run in pairs, the two lamps of each pair 

 being in series. The system has been tried on several 

 occasions recently with very satisfactory results. 



At a recent meeting of the Academy of Sciences of 

 Vienna, Prof. Molisch, of Prague, communicated a paper 

 upon phosphorescent bacteria. He has been able to photo- 

 graph the colonies of a phosphorescent micrococcus by 

 means of its own light. By inoculating large glass flasks 

 of 1-2 litres capacity containinar a suitable culture medium 

 with the organisms, a " bacterial lamp " is obtained with 

 which it is quite possible for an observer at a distance 

 of one to two metres to read a thermometer or to see the 

 time of a watch. On a dark night the " bacterial lamp " 

 is visible at a distance of more than sixty paces. It is 

 suggested that such cultures of phosphorescent bacteria 



