May 25, 1916] 



NATURE 



201 



educated men we ought to have known we had no 

 business to be going about the countn-. This was 

 rather too strong, so I retorted, "That is nonsense; 

 we have a right to take a walk along the roads to see 

 the countr)-." To cut a long storj' short, he departed, 

 before our train arrived, with the remark that, if we 

 had been photographing or sketching, he should have 

 taken us into custody. 



We were at nearest about seventeen miles from the 

 sea. Neither at Louth (where we had spent a week) 

 nor at Lincoln was any notice posted up in the hotel 

 <or elsewhere, so far as we had seen) supporting his 

 view, and we had not left the high road, except to 

 enter two pits. It is therefore obvious that any village 

 Dogberry- may employ the "brief authority" with 

 whtch he imagines himself clad to prevent all study of 

 Enelish geology' or natural histor\\ 



T. G. BONNEY. 



National Food Supply and Nutritional Value. 



One of the remarks made in the article in Nature 

 of May II on my survey of the "Food Value of 

 Great Britain's Food Supply" is certainly justified, 

 namely, "the value for protein seems low." It is 

 too low. This has arisen from taking an analysis 

 tor wheat flour in which the protein was 7-9 per cent., 

 whereas it should be, more correctly, something like 

 107 per cent. Making an allowance for this difference 

 increases the daily protein ration per man by 10-4 grams 

 and brings it to 1121 grams instead of 101-7. For 

 a similar reason the carbohjdrate should be reduced 

 from 587-12 grams per man per day to 580-7 grains. 

 Whether the fat should be reduced depends on the 

 analysis adopted for the different kinds of meat. A 

 recalculation, however, adopting different analyses, 

 and perhaps, on the whole, more accurate ones, makes 

 no material difference in the daily ration " as pur- 

 chased." It certainly affords no ground for reduc- 

 tion; on the contrary, it shows an 'increase of 1-9 

 grams per man f>er day. 



In conclusion, perhaps I may be permitted to ex- 

 press my grateful appreciation of the very fair and 

 svmpathetic way in which your article, as a whole, 

 is written and for the opportunity it affords of making 

 these corrections, which I hope to publish later in 

 detail. W. H. Thompson. 



Trinity College, Dublin, May 15. 



I AM glad to find that Prof. Thompson has dis- 

 covered a reason for giving us a more reassuring 

 figure concerning the national supply of protein. It 

 is now clear that we have a larger margin upon which 

 to draw in case retrenchment should prove necessary. 



Readers of Nature should be grateful to Prof. 

 Thompson for making the correction, and I have 

 myself to thank him for the courtesy of his letter. 

 The Writer of the Article. 



May 19. 



The Lower Greensand Flora. 



In the kind review of my work on the Lower 

 Greensand Flora in Nature of May 4 your reviewer 

 states that I have overlooked a memoir by Buckland. 

 This is the Bridgewater treatise. May I point out 

 (i) that I was dealing with Lower Greensand and 

 not Portland Oolite plants, and therefore not profess- 

 ing to give a complete account of the latter, but merely 

 referred to Buckland's original memoir, in which the 

 name of the genus was founded, for purposes of 

 nomenclature; (2) that, even though in the later work 

 (the Bridgewater treatise) Buckland figures a speci- 

 men with the "lateral buds," which are probably 



NO. 2430, VOL. 97] 



cones, it remains the fact, as I stated, that no cones 

 are figured in the original type; (3) that the Bridge- 

 water treatise example can only be accepted as being 

 the same species as the original type by an assump- 

 tion that they were, in fact, identical, because, as I 

 stated, the original type specimen is lost ; (4) that, con- 

 sequently, it is not carelessness, but a perhaps over- 

 meticulous scrupulousness in nomenclature which 

 made me, and still makes me, hesitate to accept as a 

 certainty the identity of the so-called Cycadites micro- 

 phyllus of the Bridgewater treatise with the lost 

 original vegetative type of Cycadeoidea microphyllus, 

 in spite of the top part of the drawing. 



Marie C. Stores. 



Ov^erlookixg a reference is at least to some of us 

 too common an occurrence to need an elaborate de- 

 fence. My point is that Buckland's later description 

 of one of his species, Cycadeoidea microphylla, is 

 fatal to an important argument used by Dr. Stopes. 

 Buckland expressed no doubt as to the specific identity 

 of the specimen figured in the Bridgewater treatise 

 with that on which the original account was based, 

 and, whether or not the stems belong to the same 

 species, there are no adequate grounds for doubting 

 their generic identity. The natural course to pursue 

 in endeavouring to solve a problem is to consider such 

 evidence as is available, and, as regards the question 

 at issue, I maintain that the evidence overlooked by 

 Dr. Stopes furnishes a serious — in my opinion a fatal 

 —objection to her conclusions. A. C. S. 



Meteorological Conditions of a Blizzard. 



The word "blizzard," signifying originally a type 

 of snowstorm most common and most severe in the 

 Rocky Mountain States of the Union, although occa- 

 sionally occurring elsewhere, is now loosely used to 

 mean any heavv" snowstorm. This is unfortunate, for 

 a term is needed for the type of storm referred to 

 above. Three things must co-exist in a blizzard — 

 large quantities of very fine snow ; very low tempera- 

 ture, generally below ^ro Fahrenheit; and a high 

 wind of great velocity. 



Apparently the loose use of the word is becoming 

 common in Great Britain, for you refer in Nature of 

 April 6 (p. 129) to "a blizzard of unusual severity." 

 The context shows that neither the snow nor the 

 temperature condition could have been fulfilled, for 

 you say that the gale "was accompanied by rain and 

 snow." 



I doubt ver\' much whether the British Isles could 

 produce the requisite conditions for a real blizzard. 



Arthur E. Bostwick. 



St. Louis, Mo., April 24. 



THE ROUTLEDGE EXPEDITION TO 

 EASTER ISLAND. 



NOW that members of Mr. Scoresby Rout- 

 ledge's expedition to Easter Island have 

 returned to this country, it is possible to give 

 some idea in broad outline of the objects of the 

 expedition and of its chief results. The expedi- 

 tion, which was aided by grants from the British 

 Association and the Royal Society, was excep- 

 tionally well equipped. It also had the advantagie 

 of being independent of the infrequent opportuni- 

 ties of communication with Easter Island, as Mr. 

 Routledge had built and fitted at his own expense 

 the schooner Mana, of 126 tons, with auxiliary 

 motor power, in which the expedition sailed from 



