no 



NATURE 



[June 4, 1903 



favourable conditions in temporary laboratories. The work 

 of the biological department is mainly pathological, and is 

 concerned with the study of Asiatic cholera and other 

 tropical diseases. New laboratory buildings are announced, 

 in which special facilities will be offered to foreign men of 

 science who wish to undertake research work. 



The Californian red wood, Sequoia sempervireus, forms 

 the subject of a Bulletin issued by the U.S. Department 

 of Agriculture. Natural reproduction by seedlings is rare, 

 as these require plenty of light, but the writer, Mr. Fisher, 

 shows that effective second-growth is produced by sucker 

 shoots. A brown rot disease affecting the standing tree 

 is described by Prof, von Schrenck, but the cause of the 

 disease which is said to arise in the heart wood has not 

 been determined. Another Bulletin, by Mr. Foley, affords 

 good proof of the value of careful lumbering as adopted on 

 the Sewanee University Estate, Tennessee. 



In addition to some half-dozen short excursions to places 

 of interest of easy access, and one long excursion to the 

 north Donegal coast, beginning on July lo, which it 

 has arranged, the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club is 

 offering for competition during the session ending March 

 31, 1904, nineteen prizes, generally of the value of one 

 pound, and in other cases of ten shillings, for collections 

 of different botanical, geological and zoological objects. 

 The prizes are to be in books or suitable scientific objects. 

 Among the collections asked for may be mentioned the best 

 herbarium of local flowering plants, representing not less 

 than 150 species, with notes on variations adapting the 

 plants to special environments ; the algae of Larne Lough, 

 with an account of distribution ; the algae of Belfast Lough ; 

 fossils from the Rhcetic and Lias of Ulster ; and the best 

 set of tv/elve photographs illustrative of any one branch 

 of Irish archaeology. A prize is also offered for the best 

 original account of the habits of any marine annelid. 



An interesting interim report upon Cape horse-sickness 

 has been published by Dr. Watkins Pitchford, the Govern- 

 ment bacteriologist of Natal. In some respects this disease 

 resembles human malaria, for it especially attacks horses 

 kept on low-lying marshy ground, and those animals left 

 to graze all night. In affected districts horses may be 

 moved during the day without contracting the disease. 

 Dr. Pitchford now suggests that a mosquito, probably of 

 the genus Anopheles, is responsible for the conveyance of 

 the infection. He has stalled horses by night in stables 

 protected by wire gauze, or by a smoky atmosphere, in an 

 infected district, with the result that they all remained 

 perfectly well, whereas horses kept around and similarly 

 treated, with the exception of the protection afforded by 

 the wire gauze or smoke, succumbed. He therefore believes 

 that it is established that horses protected from the attacks 

 of winged insects enjoy immunity from horse-sickness. 



The January issue of the Proceedings of the Philadelphia 

 Academy contains a list of the polycistid gregarines of the 

 United States, by Mr. H. Crawley, and an account of the 

 habits of spiders, by Dr. T. H. Montgomery. 



We have received three parts (Nos. 10-12) of Manchester 

 Museum Notes, in two of which Prof. W. B. Dawkins 

 deals with the older rocks of the Isle of Man, while in the 

 third he describes certain iron implements found in the old 

 " camp " in Bigbury Wood, near Canterbury. These im- 

 plements prove that the camp belonged to the prehistoric 

 period, and from this it is inferred that the well-known 

 " Pilgrims' Way," which traverses such a large extent of 

 country in the south of England, likewise dates from that 

 epoch. 



NO. 1753, VOL. 68] 



The greater portion of the May number of the Quarterly 

 Journal of Microscopical Science is occupied by an important 

 paper from the pen of Mr. H. J. Hansen, of Copenhagen, 

 on the genera and species of the myriopod order Symphyla. 

 The first known species was described 138 years ago, and the 

 order is now known to contain at least 100 species. The other 

 contents of this part include an account of the body-cavity 

 and nephridia of the Actinotrocha larva, by Mr. E. S. 

 Goodrich ; a description of various acorn-worms (Entero- 

 pneusta) from Madras, by Mr. R. K. Menon ; and a notice 

 of the radiolarian Planktonetta atlantica, by Dr. G. H. 

 Fowler. The latter organism is distinguished from all 

 other members of its group by the possession of a float, a 

 diaphragm, and a single bundle of tubes of communication. 



The Times of May 19 contains a notice of the results of 

 the survey of the fishes of the Nile, undertaken by the 

 Egyptian Government, in cooperation with the trustees of 

 the British Museum, which has just been brought to a con- 

 clusion, after three and a half years' hard work by Mr. 

 W. S. Loat, who has had charge of the operations. The 

 scheme was due to the initiation of the late Dr. John 

 Anderson, and although, so far as the discovery of new 

 species is concerned, its results have been disappointing, it 

 has yielded important information with regard to distribu- 

 tion. Previous to the survey, the number of species of fish 

 known to inhabit the Nile was about 90 ; it is now more 

 than 100, Mr. G. A. Boulenger having described 14 new 

 species from among a collection of between 9000 and 10,000 

 specimens. Mr. Loat carried his survey far up both the 

 Blue and the White Niles, and thus completed the work 

 begun in the early " sixties " by Consul Petherick. It is 

 satisfactory to learn that Mrs. Anderson has made arrange- 

 ments for the publication of a volume on the fishes of Egypt 

 in the same style as those on the mammals and reptiles. 



A USEFUL manual for practical photographers, by Mr. 

 Alfred Watkins, entitled " The Watkins Manual of Ex- 

 posure and Development," has reached a second edition. 

 The text-book is published by the Watkins Meter Company, 

 of Hereford, and contains much information likely to prove 

 of service to photographers who already have some acquaint- 

 ance with the subject, as well as to beginners. 



The fourth edition of the " Official Guide " to the Belfast 

 and Northern Counties Railway, which has reached us, will 

 provide the visitor to the north of Ireland with just the 

 information he will want. The guide is liberally sup- 

 plied with maps and illustrations, and there are notes on 

 places and objects of scientific interest. The book is pub- 

 lished by Messrs. R. Carswell and Son, of Belfast, and costs 

 sixpence. 



A NUMBER of attempts have been made at various times 

 to introduce standard points on the temperature scale other 

 than the freezing point and boiling point of water, and for 

 high temperature work, especially the standardisation of 

 platinum resistance thermometers, Messrs. Heycock and 

 Neville have recommended the use, as a third standard 

 temperature, of the boiling point of sulphur. The Zeit- 

 schrift fiir physikalische Chemie for April 23 contains an 

 account of a very careful determination, by Messrs. T. W. 

 Richards and R. C. Wells, of the position on the inter- 

 national hydrogen scale of a standard temperature inter- 

 mediate between the freezing point and boiling point of 

 water. As the mean result of twenty-two determinations 

 made with four different thermometers, it was found that 

 the transition temperature at which the monohydrate and 

 the dekahydrate of sodium sulphate were both in equilibrium 

 with an aqueous solution of the salt lay at 32-383° + 0001. 



