July 30, 1903] 



NATURE 



303 



il 



mcnts are : — (i) Growing plants have little or no effect 

 in driving away mosquitoes, and are not to be relied on 

 as a substitute for the mosquito net. (2) Fresh basil leaves 

 have no prejudicial effect on mosquitoes when placed in 

 close contact with them. (3) The fumes of burnt basil 

 leaves have a stupefying, and eventually a destructive, effect 

 on mosquitoes, but to obtain this action a degree of satura- 

 tion of the air is necessary which renders it impossible for 

 the individual to remain in the room. It is probable, how- 

 ever, that cones made of powdered basil would, when burnt, 

 have the effect of driving mosquitoes away, and to this 

 extent might be found useful. 



A REi»ORT has been issued by the London County Council 

 upon the manufacture of aerated waters in London. It is 

 recommended that, in view of the large consumption of 

 aerated waters, the premises upon which they are manu- 

 factured should be registered and periodically inspected in 

 order to ensure a proper standard as regards sanitary con- 

 ditions. 



We recently noted in these columns the outbreak of 

 ankylostomiasis (infection with a parasitic worm) which 

 has occurred in the Dalcoath mine, Cornwall, reported upon 

 by Drs. Haldane and Boycott. A report has now been 

 issued by the Home Office on an outbreak of the same 

 disease in the Westphalian colliery district in Germany. 

 A case has also been met with in Scotland by Dr. Stock- 

 man. In all probability, therefore, this disease is more 

 widespread than was formerly supposed. 



Dr. Timbrell Bulstrode's report upon alleged oyster- 

 borne illness following the mayoral banquets at Winchester 

 and at Southampton has been issued by the medical officer 

 of the Local Government Board. Dr. Bulstrode summarises 

 the facts as follows. Two mayoral banquets were given 

 on the same day in two towns. After both banquets a 

 certain percentage of guests, all of whom had partaken of 

 oysters, were attacked with illness of analogous nature, 

 in some cases with definite enteric fever, in others with 

 gastro-intestinal disturbance only. The oysters supplied 

 to both banquets were from the sam.e source (Emsworth), 

 and the oysters from this source were at the same time 

 and in other places proving themselves competent causes 

 of enteric fever. 



It is reported that Prof. Kossel, of the Imperial Depart- 

 ment of Health, Berlin, supports Prof. Koch's view of the 

 non-transmissibility of bovine tuberculosis to man. He 

 stated at a recent meeting of the Berlin Medical Society 

 that out of all the experiments conducted by the Imperial 

 Hoard of Health, in two cases only had human tubercle 

 iiacilli affected the experimental animals. Prof. Orth, the 

 -accessor to Virchow in the University of Berlin, on the 

 I her hand, states that in his own experiments 10 per cent. 

 of the animals were infected with the tubercle bacillus of 

 human origin. At the recent congress of the Royal Insti- 

 tute of Public Health, Prof. Young, who has collaborated 

 with Prof. Hamilton, of Aberdeen, said that their experi- 

 ments upon twenty calves left no doubt of the communi- 

 rability of human tuberculosis to bovines, and Drs. Dean 

 and Todd have proved the same point as regards pigs. 



In a paper entitled " Luftelektrizitat und Sonnemtrab- 

 lung " (Leipzig), Dr. H. Rudolph develops a theory of 

 the origin of atmospheric electricity. We do not think his 

 theory is likely to meet with general acceptance ; the 

 reasoning by which he arrives at the laws on which his 

 mathematical investigation is based is, to say the least, 

 by no means convincing. In an appendix the author 

 mentions a method which he has invented for employing 

 a captive balloon to collect from the upper atmosphere the 

 NO. I 76 I, VOL. 68] 



large amount of electrical energy which he believes to be 

 now running to waste, and he complains that the public 

 have not given his scheme the support that it deserves. 



The " spinthariscope " devised by Sir William Crookes 

 to show the scintillations which are produced on a blende 

 screen when a piece of radium nitrate is brought near it, is 

 now made by several scientific instrument makers. Mr. 

 A. C. Cossor, of 54 Farringdon Road, has sent us one of 

 these instruments, which consists of a short brass tube 

 having at one end a blende screen with a speck of radium 

 salt about a millimetre in front of it, and at the other end 

 a simple convex lens. The instrument is very satisfactory, 

 and shows the scintillations wonderfully well ; it provides a 

 convenient means of observing the action of radium, and 

 can be recommended as a waistcoat-pocket instrument of 

 scientific value. 



We have received a copy of the observations made at the 

 Batavia Observatory during the year 1901 ; it contains hourly 

 meteorological values and seismometric records, but the 

 magnetometer was out of action during the year, owing to 

 its removal to Buitenzorg. We are glad to see that the 

 Netherlands Government propose to undertake a magnetic 

 survey of the East Indian Archipelago, extending from 

 longitude 95° to 140° ; this will be a valuable addition to 

 the magnetic survey of British India. An appendix to the 

 volume contains a discussion of the anemometric observ- 

 ations for the ten years 1891-1900. This laborious investi- 

 gation shows that calms largely predominate, especially 

 during the westerly monsoon, from December to April. 

 The direction of the wind during this period is chiefly from 

 the north-western quadrant. From April to November, 

 northerly and north-easterly winds predominate by a large 

 percentage. The greatest horizontal displacement of the 

 air occurs between August and October, during which time 

 easterly trade-winds largely prevail. Another appendix 

 contains valuable electrical and meteorological observations 

 made during the total eclipse of the sun on May 18, 1901, 

 at various stations. 



The Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological 

 Society (No. 127, July) contains an important and interest- 

 ing paper on the prevalence of gales on the coasts of the 

 British Islands during the thirty years 1871-1900, based on 

 the data collected annually in the Meteorological Office for 

 the purpose of testing the accuracy of storm warnings issued. 

 We can only refer here to some of the general results :— the 

 mean annual number of gales experienced on the west 

 coasts is 296 ; of the total number 82 per cent, occur in the 

 winter half-year ; on the north coasts the mean number is 

 25-7, with a percentage of 84 in winter ; on the south coasts, 

 mean 191, winter percentage 80; on the east coasts, mean 

 1 56, with 84 per cent, in the winter half year. As regards 

 direction, the mean results show that on the west coasts 

 about 68 per cent, of the gales blew from the Atlantic, or 

 equatorial directions, and about 26 per cent, from the 

 Arctic, or polar directions ; on the north coasts about 66 per 

 cent, blew from equatorial, and 30 per cent, from polar 

 quarters ; on the south coasts the numbers were respectively 

 73 and 25 per cent; the results for the east coasts show 

 that less than 53 per cent, blew from equatorial directions, 

 and more than 44 per cent, from polar quarters. The 

 prevalence and direction of gales in each division are plainly 

 illustrated by wind-roses. 



An account of the flora of the north island of Nova 

 Zembla appears in the Bulletin du jardin impdrial 

 botanique of St. Petersburg. The author, Mr. Palibin, 

 observes that the flowering plants are most closely allied 

 to those found in the Arctic regions of Asiatic Russia, but 

 the algal flora resembles rather that of Spitsbergen. 



