March 2, 1916] 



NATURE 



15 



Those who are inclined to doubt whether museums 

 play any useful part in war-time should read the 

 account of what is being done in the Leicester 

 Museum, by means of an Infant Welfare Exhibition, 

 to combat the appalling mortality among infants. 

 This account appears in the Museums Journal for 

 February, and has been written by Mr. E. E. Lowe, 

 the curator, who is responsible for the scheme and 

 its execution. This mortality, which is largely pre- 

 ventable, is brought out with startling vividness by 

 means of a series of wooden columns, that for in- 

 fants up to twelve months old standing no fewer 

 than II ft. high, while that for the death-rate between 

 the ages from five to twenty is but 2^ of an inch 

 high. The food values of human, cow's, and con- 

 densed milk, the injurious effects of "dummies," of 

 "push-carts," and of certain kinds of clothing, are 

 brought out by means of specimens, models, or dia- 

 grams. Models also are used to demonstrate the 

 dangers of contamination by flies. The keenest in- 

 terest has been displayed in this exhibition since its 

 installation, especially by the poorer classes, for whom 

 it was more especially intended. Hence it is devoutly 

 to be hoped that this and similar museums will not be 

 closed by the local authorities from mistaken notions 

 of economy in war-time. 



A NEW genus of Ranunculaceae, Beesia, named in 

 honour of the f.rm of Bees, Ltd. — to whose enterprise 

 so much botanical exploration in China, Burma, and 

 the Himalayas has been accomplished — has been de- 

 scribed by Prof. Bayley Balfour and Mr. W. W. Smith 

 in Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, 

 vol. ix., No. xli. The new plant, Beesia cordata, 

 which is figured, is allied to the Japanese genus 

 Glaucidium, and to the Japanese and American 

 Hydrastis. It was collected by Mr. F. Kingdon Ward 

 in northern Burma, at 9000 ft. altitude, in the deep 

 shade of the rain forest. 



The annual report of the Agricultural Department, 

 St. Vincent, shows that a good deal of useful work 

 has been done in the past year in connection with 

 ■efforts to raise new strains of cotton, particularly with 

 reference to disease resistance. The progress of the 

 cotton industry is well shown in the tables covering 

 the period of the last ten years. The area planted in 

 1905-6 was 790 acres, and in 1914-15 4226 acres, 

 though in 1911-12 it rose to more than 5000 acres. The 

 weight of lint in 1905-6 was 137,460 lb., and in 1910-11 

 reached as high a figure as 561,526 lb., the average 

 yield of lint per acre for the ten years being 128 lb. 



We notice in La Geographie for November, 1915, 

 that the hydrographic department of the French Ad- 

 miralty have replaced the German names in Kerguelen 

 by names of French origin. It must be very galling to 

 the French to see an abundance of German names 

 scattered over the chart of their Antarctic island, 

 especially as German explorers were never sparing in 

 their naming or very mindful of previous names. At 

 the same time, however, the practice of changing ' 

 established names is a dangerous one if carried far, " 

 and it is to be hoped, in the interests of geographical , 

 accuracy, this principle will not be applied indis- [ 

 NO. 2418, VOL. 97] 



criminately, for confusion would certainly be the 

 result. The new names for Kerguelen appear in the 

 Avis aux Navigateurs of May 29, 1915. 



An article on the Peru-Bolivia boundary commission, 

 by Sir Thomas Holdich, in the Geographical Journal 

 for February (vol. xlvii.. No. 2) is another reminder, 

 were any required, of the losses that geographical 

 science has sustained by the war. In January, 191 1, 

 the services of four British officers were lent to the 

 Government of Peru to determine the boundary with 

 Bolivia. Two of them, Capt. H. S. Toppin, Northum- 

 berland Fusiliers, and Lieut. C. G. Moores, R.E., 

 have already lost their lives in action. Capt. Toppin 

 was to have written the report for the Peruvian 

 Government. When that became impossible the Royal 

 Geographical Society was asked to undertake the work, 

 and it was placed by the society in the hands of Sir 

 Thomas Holdich. Moreover, in certain circumstances 

 in the dispute the Royal Geographical Society was 

 made arbitrator by the Peruvian Government. In the 

 same number of the Geographical Journal is a paper 

 by the late Capt. Toppin on the diplomatic history of 

 the Peru-Bolivia boundary. 



Mr. F. E. Wright, writing in the Journal of the 

 Washington Academy of Sciences, vi., i, describes a 

 device for solving equations of the form a = }}c, where 

 a, b, c are functions for which suitable scales of 

 representation have been plotted. The method is ap- 

 parently based on the geometrical construction for the 

 product of two quantities by treating the latter as the 

 fourth term of a proportion having unity as the first. 

 It is, however, not easy to follow from the description, 

 but it may be useful to overcome the difficulties in 

 cases where some process of the kind has to be 

 frequently used. 



f 



DiCHROic fog is one of the troubles of the amateur 

 photographer when plates are developed under difficult 

 conditions as to temperature or otherwise. An inves- 

 tigation of its causes, prevention, and cure is given 

 by M. Ernest Coustet in the Revue generale des 

 Sciences (xxvi., 21). Of the causes, the most impor- 

 tant is the presence of traces of the fixing salt in the 

 developer or of the developer in the fixing salt. The 

 latter appears to be the most important, and thorough 

 washing before fixing the best preventive. A high 

 temperature and a weak fixing bath are favourable 

 to fogging. Of remedies the author recommends 

 neutral (never acid) permanganate followed by 

 bisulphite of soda. 



The issue of the index numbers of the two sections 

 of Science Abstracts completes the volumes for the 

 year 19 15. The physics volume has 770 pages and 

 the electrical engineering volume 622, while the num- 

 ber of abstracts are 1789 and 1152 respectively. The 

 volumes are therefore quite equal in size to those 

 issued before the war, though there seems to be a 

 small decrease in the number of articles abstracted, 

 partly no doubt due to the reduction in the amount 

 of scientific work being published. The name indexes 

 include names of authors and those mentioned in 

 abstracts, and cover twenty-nine and fifteen pages re- 



