August 13, 1903] 



NATURE 



351 



one lamp has, in addition, opal glass for the upper half of 

 the bulb, the filament being of the ordinary shape. The 

 filament of the other lamp is fixed horizontally, and is 

 zig-zag in shape ; the upper half of the bulb in this case 

 is of clear glass. The result of these designs is to give 

 a distribution of light having the maximum candle-power 

 in the vertical direction ; in one of the lamps which we 

 tested the vertical candle-power was 175, and the mean 

 horizontal candle-power 10, thus practically reversing the 

 values obtained with ordinary lamps. For situations in 

 which good illumination directly below the vertical is 

 specially required, these patterns of lamps should prove 

 useful. 



A VERY ingenious electrical type-setting machine is briefly 

 described by M. Tavernier in a recent issue of the Comptes 

 rendus of the Paris Academy of Sciences. The apparatus 

 is similar in principle to the familiar linotype machines, but 

 the operations of typing the copy and casting the type are 

 separated 5 the operator works at an electrical typewriter, 

 which produces a perforated tape, and at the same time an 

 ordinary typed copy of the manuscript, which enables correc- 

 tions to be made in the tape before the type is set up. The 

 perforated tape is passed automatically through the type- 

 setting machine, which is also operated electrically. The 

 advantage of thus dividing the two operations is that the 

 asting machine can be worked at a uniform maximum 

 speed, and is independent of the skill of the typist. A 

 further modification of the machine allows it to be used 

 telegraphically ; the perforated tape produced by the type- 

 writer is passed through a transmitter, which sends signals 

 over the line and reproduces in a receiving apparatus a 

 duplicate of the tape, which can be used in the type-setting 

 machine. The details of the various pieces of apparatus 

 are not given, but there can be no doubt that the invention 

 is likely to prove of great utility. 



We have received the forty-sixth volume of the " Year- 

 book " of the Austrian Meteorological Service for 190 P. 

 The operations of the central office include the usual work 

 of a normal observatory, the control of about 400 stations 

 of various classes, and telegraphic weather forecasts. 

 There are, in addition, a large number of stations dealing 

 with thunderstorms and hail, but purely rainfall observ- 

 ations are now under the control of another department. 



\n active part is taken in the international balloon ascents; 



■ e have frequently referred to some of the preliminary re- 

 Milts obtained. Another feature of the Austrian service is 

 the erection of a number of stations for " weather shoot- 

 ing " for the dissipation of thunder clouds and prevention 

 of damage by hail, but the operations hitherto have not 

 led to the hope of unqualified success. A separate appendix 

 accompanies the "Year-book," which includes very valu- 

 able discussions on thunderstorm observations and on 

 i~;otherms for Austria, both papers illustrated by charts. 

 Ill the discussion of thunderstorms, some very interesting 

 and instructive conclusions are drawn as to their connec- 

 tion with geographical features and the distribution of 

 barometric pressure. It may be interesting to note here 

 that out of 94 cases of damage to trees by lightning in 

 1901, 27 were pine or larch, 20 oak, 17 poplars, and lo pear 

 trees. The beech tree, which is generally supposed to be 

 practically free from lightning strokes, was only struck 

 once, but there were several other trees which similarly 

 escaped damage. 



At the recent congress of the Royal Institute of Public 



Health, Prof. Moore, of Liverpool, read a paper upon a 



*' Chemical Theory of the Transmission of Certain Infective 



Diseases." He pointed out that in many of the specific 



NO. 1763, VOL. 68] 



fevers no micro-organism has been isolated, and suggested 

 that in these a chemical body of the nature of an enzyme 

 may be the aetiological agent. To account for the repro- 

 duction of this chemical substance, which is necessary to 

 explain the phenomenon of infection, Prof. Moore supposes 

 that, by its action upon some of the cells, more of itself 

 may be formed. He points out that there are analogies 

 to this action in the case of certain " catalytic " reactions. 



A SECOND report of the Special Chloroform Committee 

 of the British Medical Association has just been issued. 

 Mr. Vernon Harcourt, F.R.S., describes some experiments 

 made to estimate the amount of chloroform which may be 

 dissolved by the blood, and an apparatus for the limitation 

 and regulation of chloroform vapour when administered as 

 an anaesthetic. Dr. Dudley Buxton discusses the clinical 

 use of certain inhalers (including Mr. Harcourt's form), 

 and Mr. Walter Tyrrell reports upon the use of Mr. 

 Harcourt's inhaler. Prof. Sherrington, F.R.S., and Mr. 

 Sowton describe a number of experiments made to measure 

 that dosage of chloroform under which the mammalian 

 heart can, and cannot, work efficiently. They conclude 

 that the heart muscle rapidly takes up chloroform offered 

 to it in the blood-vessels of its vascular system. 



Captain Lamb, I.M.S., has made a series of experiments 

 upon the action of the venoms of the cobra and of Russell's 

 viper {Daboia Rttssellii) upon the red-blood corpuscles and 

 upon the blood plasma (Scientific Memoirs of the Govern- 

 ment of India, New Series, No. 4). Both these venoms are 

 shown to have a marked haemolytic action, both in vivo 

 and in vitro. Cobra venom never induces intra-vascular 

 clotting; in fact, it. rather diminishes blood coagulability, 

 while Daboia venom causes extensive intra-vascular 

 clotting. In vitro cobra venom prevents the clotting of 

 citrated blood or plasma which ensues on the addition of 

 a soluble calcium salt; Daboia venom, on the other hand, 

 increases the tendency of citrated blood and plasma to 

 coagulate. In conclusion, Captain Lamb considers that his 

 experiments do not support Martin's hypotheses that all 

 snake venoms contain at least two toxic proteids, one being 

 a neurotropic, the other a htemotropic, poison, and that 

 the action on blood coagulability is due to a setting free 

 of nucleo-proteids. 



The current issue of the National Geographic Magazine 

 contains an article by Dr. H. W. Wiley, chief chemist of 

 the Department of Agriculture, on "The United States; 

 its Soils and their Products." Little is said about the 

 special features exhibited by the soils of the country, the 

 article being, in fact, a brief summary of the acreage, yield, 

 and value of the main crops grown in the United States, 

 useful to the student who has no opportunity of consulting 

 the " Year-book " of the Department of Agriculture. The 

 two facts that are most striking are the relatively low 

 yield per acre and the enormous diversity of the agriculture ; 

 Dr. Wiley, indeed, asserts that " within the borders of the 

 United States are grown every agricultural crop known to 

 the world." The article is illustrated by several interest- 

 ing photographs, calculated to impress the reader with the 

 magnitude of the scale on which farming is practised in the 

 United States. 



A MOST interesting and remarkable instance of local 

 adaptation to abnormal conditions on the part of a mollusc 

 is recorded by Baron E. Nordenskjold in No. 704 of the 

 Zool. Anzeiger. It appears that in the " Chaco " districts 

 of South America a species of fresh-water limpet (Ancylus 

 moricandi) is found during the wet season in the pools 

 which are then abundant in the country. During the dry 

 season, however, these pools are completely desiccated, and 



