May 28, 1903 



NATURE 



87 



the bacterial cell. Dr. A. E. Wright suggests that this 

 combination alters the electrical relations of the fluid and 

 suspended particles (bacteria) so that these then offer an 

 appreciable resistance. The electric currents generated by 

 the ionisation of the salts in solution would tend to drive 

 these interposed resisting particles out of the direct line 

 of action, and the displaced particles would all tend to find 

 a position of rest in the angles between the intersecting 

 lines of force, and so clumping would result. {Lancet, 

 May 9, p. 1299.) 



Much work has of late years been carried out upon the 

 nature and physiological action of the venoms of poisonous 

 snakes.' The latest contribution to the subject is a memoir 

 by Captain Lamb and Mr. Hanna upon the venom of 

 Russell's viper {Daboia Russellii). They find that Daboia 

 venom owes its toxic property chiefly to its action upon the 

 blood, the rapid death which results being mainly due to 

 extensive clotting of the blood in the blood-vessels. Heat- 

 ing a weak solution of the venom (01 per cent.) for half 

 an hour to 73° C. completely destroys the toxicity, though 

 a more concentrated solution (i per cent.) may have its 

 toxicity only lessened by this treatment. Daboia venom 

 and cobra venom differ in two respects ; cobra venom con- 

 tains a toxic substance of the nature of an albumose, which 

 acts especially upon the central nervous system, and "is the 

 essential poisonous constituent, whereas it contains no 

 substance causing intra-vascular clotting. Daboia venom, 

 on the other hand, contains no toxic element having an 

 action similar to that of the toxic albumose of cobra venom. 

 Calmette's anti-venin, which has a powerful neutralising 

 action for cobra venom, possesses little or no such property 

 for Daboia venom. (Scientific Memoirs of the Government 

 of India, No. 3, Calcutta.) 



Part i. vol. iv. of the West Indian Bulletin contains a 

 complete record of the observations of atmospheric pheno- 

 mena at various points on the island of Barbados during the 

 fall of volcanic ash following the eruption of the St. Vincent 

 Soufri^re on March 22 last, together with the results of the 

 chemical analysis of the ash by Prof, d 'Albuquerque, and 

 of the mineralogical analysis by Dr. Longfield Smith. The 

 latter stales that the minerals present were the same as 

 those found in previous falls, but the relative proportions 

 differed very considerably, the most striking feature, which 

 at once distinguish the late fall from former ones, being 

 the large amount of magnetite and haematite present. 

 There was only a small proportion of glass, which was of 

 two kinds — a clear, colourless to brown variety, enclosing 

 microlites and often crystals of felspar, and a translucent 

 to opaque variety, the latter often brown, owing to 

 numerous haematite inclusions. 



The Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West 

 Indies is giving some attention to the question of improving 

 the corn yield of the islands for estate purposes. At present 

 enormous quantities of corn have to be imported, for the 

 islanders grow corn only as a catch crop, which is often 

 planted at wide distances apart, and little or no attention 

 is given to it. As a result the yield of corn averages only 

 about ten bushels per acre, the quality grown containing 

 10 or II per cent, of protein. In a recent number of the 

 Agricultural News it is stated that much better results 

 " may be attained without the aid of elaborate chemical 

 analyses, and with no more apparatus than a pen-knife, an 

 observant eye, and the expenditure of a certain amount of 

 care and time." Based upon the investigations of Prof. 

 Hopkins, of the University of Illinois, simple instructions 

 are given for making a chemical selection of ears of seed- 

 NO. 1752, VOL. 68] 



corn by a simple mechanical examination of the kernels, 

 thus enabling farmers to separate the high-protein from 

 the low-protein seeds. It is hoped by adopting this method 

 of corn-breeding to increase the protein yield by about 2 per 

 cent., while the greater care devoted to the cultivation would 

 necessarily lead to a substantial increase in the quantity of 

 corn produced per acre. 



An interesting account of the works of the late Sir G. G. 

 Stokes is given by Prof. W. Voigt in the Nachricht-'n of 

 the Gottingen .Academy, 1903, part i. 



The Actien Gesellschaft fiir Anilin Fabrikation, of 

 Berlin, send their price list of dry plates, developers, and 

 other requisites for photography, which they manufacture 

 under the registered name of .'\gfa. 



Considerable uncertainty has prevailed as to the exist- 

 ence of conjugation in the Amoebae. In the Atti dei Lincei, 

 xii. 7, Signora Margherita Traube Mengarini publishes a 

 paper on the subject. The authoress has been sufficiently 

 fortunate to observe a process of true conjugation in 

 Amoeba undulans, apart from the process of fusion observed 

 by Zaubitzer and Maggi. This process lasts but a short 

 time, and it ends in the complete separation of the animals, 

 so it is difficult to study the phenomenon in its entirety. 



In connection with the debated question of the magnetic 

 action of convection currents, MM. Cr^mieu and Pender 

 have undertaken a series of experiments the results of 

 which ai-e summed up in the Bulletin of the French Physical 

 Society. They now definitely prove that metallic surfaces 

 turning in air, either with or without the presence of 

 parallel armatures, produce magnetic effects agreeing to 

 within 10 per cent, of the amounts required by the convection 

 theory. A further mode of experimenting is described by M. 

 Vasilesco Karpen, who produces an alternating convection 

 current by rotating an ebonite disc charged by an alter- 

 nating current. 



M. LfioN GuiLLET contributes some interesting notes to 

 the Bulletin of the French Physical Society on the metallo- 

 graphy of nickel steel. The steel was of three different 

 classes, the first having the same structure as carbon steel, 

 the second (mertensite) having the structure of tempered 

 steel, and the third a polyhedral structure. It is found 

 that these classes differ notably in their behaviour when 

 subjected to tempering, heating, extreme cold, and de- 

 carburation, and M. Guillet finds a close relation between 

 the mechanical properties of the steel and its micrographic 

 structure. 



Under the title of Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Photo- 

 graphie, Photophysik und Photochemie, a new journal has 

 been brought out by Messrs. Ambrosius Barth, of Leipzig. 

 The editors are Dr. E. Englisch (Stuttgart) and Prof. K. 

 Schaum (Marburg), with whom Prof. H. Kayser (Bonn) 

 has cooperated. The first number contains papers on 

 Kirchhoff's laws, by F. Richarz and A. Pfliiger ; on the 

 photochemistry of silver iodide, by Liippo-Cramer ; and on 

 stereoscopic photography of microscopic objects, by W. 

 Scheffer, the last paper being illustrated by a plate showing 

 stereoscopic representations of a fly and other objects. A 

 noteworthy feature is the collection of abstracts of papers 

 dealing with physical and physiological optics, radiography, 

 photography, and allied subjects, which are to include 

 electricity and wireless telegraphy. 



Those who are engaged in the teaching of elementary 

 experimental physics will find a mine of wealth in Prof. 

 Bohn's newly-published illustrated catalogue of instruments 



