February 2 2, 1900] 



NATURE 



40 ] 



cholera. Scurvy would thus appear "as a chronic form of this 

 latter disease." During the last year the Institute was also very 

 active in preparing nialleine and tuberculine {30,000 bottles), 

 anti-diphtheria serum (33,000 bottles), anti-plague serum (8220 

 cubic centimetres), anti-plague lymph (400,000 c.c), and 

 various bacteria-cultures (about 1500). Anti rabic treatment 

 IS resorted to in 745 cases, and the grand total of all deaths 

 nongt this large number of patients was only i per cent. 

 The Institute has had this year at its disposal a total of 35,000/. 

 (350,000 roubles). The subscriptions for a monument to Pasteur 

 now reach a total of 1400/. 



The present status of rice culture in the United States is 

 reported upon by Dr. S. A. Knapp in Bulletin No. 22 of the 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture (Division of Botany). The 

 United States at present produces about half the quantity of 

 rice consumed. In the case of other cereals, an enormous 

 supply is exported. In the introduction to Dr. Knapp's report, 

 Mr. F. V. Coville points out that this anomalous condition is due 

 to the fact that rice, in addition to its tropical or subtropical 

 character, is a crop grown chiefly on wet lands, where it has 

 hitherto been impossible to use harvesting machinery. The 

 crop must therefore be cut with a sickle, and American hand 

 labour has been thrown into competition with the cheap labour 

 of the tropics, a competition that has not proved profitable to 

 the American. A new system of rice culture has, however, 

 been developed in south-western Louisiana, by which, as now 

 perfected, the elevated and normally or periodically dry prairie 

 lands are flooded by a system of pumps, canals, and levees, and 

 when the rice is about to mature the water is drained off, leaving 

 the land dry enough for the use of reaping machines, shown at 

 work in the accompanying illustration. Under this system the 

 cost of harvesting, and therefore the total cost of productions 



Harvesting Rice in South-Western Louisiana. 



have been greatly reduced and the industry has undergone a 

 rapid development. It was found, however, that a large pro- 

 portion of the 'grains were broken by the steam-reaping and 

 thrashing machines; so the U.S. Department of Agriculture 

 appointed Dr. Knapp as an agricultural explorer, with instruc- 

 tions to visit Japan, investigate the rices of that country, and 

 purchase a stock suited to meet the requirements of the American 

 problem. Dr. Knapp returned in the early spring of 1899 

 with 10 tons of Kiushu rice, which was distributed to experi- 

 menters in south-western Louisiana and elsewhere in the rice 

 belt. The result of the milling tests are now awaited. If the 

 high milling quality of the Kiushu rice is maintained under the 

 new cultural conditions, the last apparent obstacle to the com- 

 plete success of an American system of rice cultivation will be 

 removed. The action of the Secretary of the Department of 

 Agriculture in thus making an attempt to improve an industry 

 by a scientific examination of the conditions of cultivation is 

 I >ne of many similar examples of a far-seeing policy. 

 NO. 1582, VOL. 61] 



Under the title "The Nature and Work of Plants." Messrs. 

 Macmillan and Co. are about to issue a simple introduction to 

 botany, by Dr. Macdougal. It aims at explaining, in a way 

 that beginners can easily understand, the purpose of a plant's 

 different organs, the conditions of plant-life, and the effect of 

 it on other forms of life. 



Three characteristic letters from De Morgan to Sylvester, 

 written in 1856, when Sylvester was professor of mathematics 

 at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, appear in the 

 January number of the Monist, with an introductory note by 

 Dr. G. B. Halsted. 



A COPY of the eleventh issue of the annual volume on the 

 wealth and progress of New South Wales, by Mr. T. A. 

 Coghlan, Government statistician, has been received. The 

 volume runs into nearly eleven hundred pages, and is full of 

 interesting information concerning the natural resources, de- 

 velopment, and present position of the Colony. 



The Geological Photographs Committee of the British 

 Association have issued a circular announcing that they are pre- 

 pared to undertake the reproduction, in platinotype prints, or as 

 lantern slides, of a number of the views in their excellent collec- 

 tion. Such a set of pictures would be of great value to lecturers, 

 teachers and students, both at schools and at higher educational 

 institutions. Curators of museums, also, would find in the 

 pictorial epitome of British geology which the illustrations 

 would furnish, a very appropriate and instructive decoration. 

 Prof. W. W. Watts, Mason University College. Birmingham, 

 will send particulars of the scheme to any one who wishes to 

 have them. 



" Willing's Press Guide," or 1900, is a useful list o. 

 British, Colonial, and foreign newspapers and periodicals, 

 classified under various heads for convenience of reference. In 

 the classification according to interests, professions, trades, 

 religious denominations, sciences and other subjects, we notice 

 one or two curious entries. For instance, the " Astronomical 

 Observations of the Cambridge University Observatory" and 

 " Astronomical Observations and Researches made at Dunsink " 

 can hardly be designated periodicals. Under the heading of 

 Science, we find Science and Art — which has long ceased to 

 exist — a journal of a local scientific society, the Report of the 

 British Association, and a college magazine, but Natitre is 

 omitted, though, we hasten to add, it is included in the alpha- 

 betical list. With the exception of this misleading classi- 

 fication of scientific publications, the " Guide " is a well- 

 arranged book of reference to the newspaper press. 



The " Catalogue of Nests and Eggs of the Birds of Australia," 

 by -Mr. Alfred J. North, Ornithologist to the Australian Museum, 

 which was published by the Trustees of the Australian Museum 

 in 1889, as No. 12 of their series of Catalogues, is now out of 

 print, and the Trustees have decided to issue a new work in an 

 enlarged form by the same author. There will be representations 

 of about 600 eggs on thirty full-sized plates, and arrangements 

 are being made to have them hand-coloured for those who desire 

 it. Some of the nests and breeding haunts of the birds will 

 also be shown on full-sized plates, but the greater number will 

 be interspersed among the text, where also a large number of 

 the birds themselves will be figured. The photographs, from 

 which the plates representing the nests are made, have mostly 

 been taken by the author personally, many of them in situ, and 

 show the actual surroundings of the birds' homes. The black 

 and white drawings of the birds are by Mr. Neville Cayley, so 

 well known for his life-like drawings and paintings of birds. 

 The letterpress will contain descriptions of the birds, their 

 nests, eggs and haunts, and an account of their life history. The 



