524 



NATURE 



[August 24, 191b 



written answer to an inquiry raised by a member of 

 Parliament the Home Secretary said: — "The three 

 hours following midnight (Summer Time) of the night 

 of September 30-October i are included in the Summer 

 Time period. The change does not take place until 

 3 a.m. Summer Time, or 2 a.m. Greenwich Time, on 

 October i. At that hour the clocks will be put back 

 one hour, so that the period 2-3 a.m. .Summer Time 

 will be followed by a period 2-3 a.m. Greenwich Time, 

 and they can readily be distinguished by the addition 

 of the words ' Summer Time ' or ' Greenwich Time,' 

 as the case may be." 



We announce with much regret the death, on 

 August 20, at the age of fifty years, of Dr. T. Gregor 

 Brodie, professor of physiology in the University of 

 Toronto. 



The Times for August 11 contains a notice of the 

 death in action of a very promising young geologist, 

 Eric VVarr Simmons, who was gazetted 2nd Lieut, 

 in the 6th York and Lane. Regiment in January, 

 1915. He took part in the landing at Suvla Bay, and 

 was reported missing on August 11, 1915. He studied 

 geology at University College, London, gaining 

 several prizes and a university scholarship, and gradu- 

 ated with first class honours in 19 14. He was a 

 student-demonstrator in the geological department of 

 University College. He was an enthusiastic member 

 of the University O.T-C, and immediately after 

 taking his degree applied for, and obtained, a com- 

 mission. He had no time, therefore, for completing 

 any original research. He was elected a fellow of 

 the Geological Society in 1915. His death adds 

 another name to the list of the younger generation 

 of scientific men from whom much was expected who 

 have perished in the war. 



The death is ann,ounced, in his sixty-fourth year, 

 of Mr. C. W. H. Kirchhoff, one of the leading Ameri- 

 can authorities on metallurgy and allied subjects. A 

 native of San Francisco, he graduated at the Royal 

 School of Mines, Clausthal, Germany, in 1874, as 

 mining engineer and metallurgist. Returning to 

 America, he served for three years as chemist of a 

 lead refinery in Philadelphia, and then joined the staff 

 of the Metallurgical Review. His principal work in 

 technical journalism was done in connection with the 

 Iron Age, of which he was associate editor from 1884 

 to 1889 and editor-in-chief from 1889 to 19 10. From 

 1883 to 1906 he was a special agent of the L'.S. Geo- 

 logical Survey for the collection of statistics on the 

 production of lead, copper, and zinc. He was elected 

 president of the American Institute of Mining En- 

 gineers in 1898 and again in 1912. In 1910 he 

 published "Notes on Some European Iron Districts." 



The sixty-first annual exhibition of the Royal Photo- 

 graphic Society opened last Monday at the Suffolk 

 Street Galleries, and it is surprising to see how little 

 effect the war has had upon the number and 

 the interest of the exhibits. The chief, if not the only 

 reminder of the crisis is a series of three official war 

 photographs, panoramas made by the Printing Com- 

 pany of the Royal Engineers. They are enlargements 

 of two diameters from 5x4 negatives, taken with tele- 

 photographic lenses (30 in. and 72 in. equivalent focal 

 lengths) on panchromatic plates and with dense colour 

 screens. They show the trenches. Each consists of 

 several prints joined to form a continuous picture, and 

 the quality of the work leaves, practically speaking, 

 nothing to be desired. Among the photomicrographs 

 is a fine series of sixty b\' Mr. G. Ardaseer of the 

 Radulae of Mollusca from specimens lent by the Rev. 

 Prof. H. M. Gwatkin, Mr. E. A. Pinchin sends a series 

 of Naviculae, photographs of diatoms of a quality that 



NO. 2443, VOL. 97] 



has never been surpassed and rarely equalled, and 

 Dr. G. H. Rodman's macroscopic and microscopic 

 examples of the flora and fauna remains found in Coal 

 Measures, from specimens in the Natural History 

 Museum, form an extensive and very valuable series. 

 Among the astronomical photographs, the most re. 

 markable are by Dr. R. VV. Wood of Saturn and 

 Jupiter taken at Mount Wilson by the 60-in. reflector. 

 Each planet is photographed by means of infra-red, 

 yellow, violet, and ultra-violet light, and the differences 

 are demonstrated by various combinations of these ir 

 different colours. Of the many other exhibits we have 

 only space to refer to Mr. J. H. Gardiner's auto-radio, 

 graphs of radium-bearing minerals, which clearly show 

 the radium-bearing parts of each specimen, and Mis* 

 M. O. Edis's photographs of Sir James Dewar's 17-in. 

 soap bubble taken during the first, second, and thirt 

 weeks of its life, the last quite black and very near tc 

 the limit of thinness. 



An increased prevalence of acute poliomyelitis (in- 

 fectious or infantile paralysis) is reported in New York 

 and in Aberdeen. The somewhat alarmist notices or 

 the subject in the daily Press are scarcely warrantee 

 at present, as the actual number of cases notified does 

 not appear to be large in either case — forty-eight ir 

 the former and thirty-nine in the latter. But the dis- 

 ease is most prevalent in July, August, and Septem- 

 ber, so that the occurrence of further cases is likelv. 

 As regards the British Isles, the population in general 

 and adults in particular, seem to be relatively insus- 

 ceptible. The early recognition and isolation of thi 

 first cases are important, for all the available evidence 

 points to the transmission of the disease by direct con- 

 tact with acute cases or carriers, and not bv flies 01 

 vermin. The secretion from the nose or mouth nearh 

 always seems to be the source of infection. The virus 

 is easily destroyed by dilute solutions of disinfectants 

 and does not appear to be capable of survival for mon 

 than a very short period outside the human body. 



The American Museum has recently selected fron^ 

 its large collections a special exhibit of m'occasin; 

 illustrating the principal patterns and their decora- 

 tion, as well as the relation between the style o] 

 decoration and the structure. The true moccasin is 

 almost confined to Canada and the northern two-thirds 

 of the United States. So far as the data from the 

 museum collections, described bv Mr. C. \\'issler in tht 

 American Museum Journal for May, indicate, it does 

 not occur in Mexico or South America, but it extends t( 

 Siberia and Lapland. Though the types used b> 

 American Indians seem to be infinitely varied, they 

 possess a few common structural features. As regards 

 material, reindeer skin is used in the Old World and 

 caribou in the New, two closely allied species. Ii 

 thus turns out that the skin shoe is the correlate of 

 the reindeer culture, a fact of interest to the ethno- 

 grapher. As regards decoration, the styles were ai 

 the outset correlates of the structural pattern, serv- 

 ing at first some useful purpose ; but when once the> 

 were established as styles thev were carried over tc 

 footwear of other kinds where they serve no practica 

 purpose. 



The designer of art fabrics, who is always in searcf 

 of new sources of inspiration, may well direct hi.'i 

 attention to the article on the decorative value o:l 

 Indian art, by Miss E. A. Coster, in the May issu<' 

 of the American Museum Journal. The patterns ir; 

 Indian weaving have not the variety shown in Persiarj 

 and Italian textiles, but possess strength, simplicity 

 and fine proportion. For the worker in ceramics thi 

 are unbounded possibilities, both in shapes and decor 

 tions. In metal- working the rosette type of decora j 

 tion will be especially helpful. The author rightbj 



