70 NATURE 
Institute of Industrial Research in the University of 
Pittsburg of a series of bulletins dealing with the 
results of the inquiry into the black smoke problem 
in that district of the U.S.A. Five bulletins have been - 
issued so far: No. 1 deals with the ‘‘ Outline of the 
Investigation,” No. 2 is a ‘‘ Bibliography,’’ No. 3 dis- 
cusses the ‘Psychological Aspects of the Problem,” 
No. 4 deals with the ‘‘ Economic Cost of the Smoke- 
Nuisance in Pittsburg,’’ and No. 5 with the ‘‘ Meteoro- 
logical Aspect of the Smoke Problem.” 
Bulletin No. 4 contains the following summary of 
the losses annually incurred in Pittsburg, as a result 
of the damage and dirt produced by smoke :— 
(1) Cost to the Sore ae by imper- 
fect combustion ... Bo Poe) BO45O 
(2) Cost to the individual : “laundry and 
dry-cleaning bills ... : ane .+» 450,000 
(3) Cost to the householder : painting, 
cleaning, and decorating 466,400 
(4) Cost to the proprietors of wholesale 
and retail stores: cleaning, lighting, 
depreciation of stock ... 735,000 
(5) Cost to the owners of office buildings, 
hotels, and hospitals 43,400 
Total 41,998,950 
This estimate, it must be noted, covers the losses 
per annum in one American city alone, the population 
of which at the present time is about 350,000. Cal- 
culated for each head of the population, the loss is 
therefore about 5]. 13s. per annum. 
Assuming that London is only suffering pecuniary 
losses from the smoke evil to one-half the extent of 
Pittsburg, the total will represent a loss of well over 
ten million pounds per annum, or more than double 
the estimate given by the Hon. Rollo Russell, in a 
paper read at the Building Trades Exhibition and 
Conference, held in London in 1899. 
J. BaGaks 
THE AFRICAN MAMMAL FAUNA. 
JE eSouy a zoological point of view the year which has 
just come to a close will be noteworthy on 
account of the extraordinary number of new specific 
and subspecific names applied to members of the 
African mammal fauna. In the case of the larger forms 
a great proportion of these names have been proposed 
as the result of the detailed examination of the vast 
series of East African mammals collected during the 
Roosevelt expedition, by Mr. E. Heller, w ho, in 
various issues of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Col- 
lections, has described as new a number of local races 
of monkeys, antelopes, and Carnivora. To some of 
these reference has been already made in Nature, 
with mention of the very slight differences by which 
many of the new races are distinguished. The same 
naturalist has also, during 1912 and 1913, made 
several well-known antelopes the types of new genera, 
separating, for instance, the lesser kudu as Amm- 
elaphus, and Hunter’s hartebeest as Beatragus, the 
latter term being formed by combining ‘‘ B.E.A.,” 
the initials of British East Africa, with the Greek 
todyos—a combination which would have made the 
classically educated naturalists of a previous generation 
recoil with horror. 
Local races of the arui or North African wild sheep 
have been described in ‘‘ Novitates Zoologice,”” by 
the Hon. Walter Rothschild, who has also, in the 
December issue of the Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., given 
names to various local races of antelopes, among 
these being the Congo representative of the giant 
eland, which appears to be the largest form of “that 
NO; 23116; SViOL- 303 \| 
{Marcu 19, 1914 
species. A new race of the ordinary eland, as well 
as various monkeys, have been named by Dr. P. 
Matschie, respectively in the Sitzber. Ges. nat. 
Freunde and the Revue Zool. Africaine; while several 
local forms of antelopes have received new names 
from Mr. E. Schwarz in the Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 
Nor does this exhaust the list of antelopes, as Mr. 
Gilbert Blaine, in the journal last cited, has named 
a new gazelle from Erythroea, as well as two races of 
reedbucks. 
Among the smaller mammals particular interest 
attaches to the description of a second species of the 
remarkable insectivorous genus Massoutiera from the 
Algerian Sahara, by Mr. O. Thomas, in vol. xx. of 
the ‘‘ Novitates’’; while various new African bats and 
shrews have been named by the same writer in two 
issues of the Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. By far the largest 
number of additions to the list of African Micro- 
mammalia has, however, been made by Mr. Austen 
Roberts, who, in vol. iv., part 2, of the Annals of the 
Transvaal Museum, has described as new no fewer 
than twenty-eight species and subspecies from the 
Transvaal and neighbouring South African States. 
Although many of the races to which separate 
names have been applied during the year are un- 
doubtedly worthy of recognition and distinction, those 
based on minute and unimportant colour-differences 
make the thoughtful naturalist wonder where the 
splitting process is to end, and what advantage 
accrues to science when it is carried to the excess 
which is now in vogue. 
THE INSDILOLE (OR Mis TALES. 
E have received a copy of the tenth volume of 
the Journal of the Institute of Metals, con- 
taining, principally, an account of the papers read 
and discussions at the autumn meeting of the institute, 
held at Ghent in September last. The volume reflects 
the flourishing state of the institute, which has now 
held its first meeting abroad, and with marked suc- 
cess. 
The most important feature of the volume is the 
second report to the corrosion committee, in which 
Dr. Bengough and Mr. Jones, of Liverpool Univer- 
sity, give an account of their work on. this subject. 
This has included laboratory experiments and also 
trials with an experimental condenser ‘erected with 
the funds collected by the corrosion committee. This 
somewhat costly form of investigation has, however, 
fully justified itself, and its continuance jis assured 
by the further financial support received from 
some of those most interested in condenser-tube corro- 
sion. The report constitutes an important forward 
step in our knowledge of the corrosion of brass by 
the process of ‘‘ de-zincification.’’ It is shown that in 
a simple 70/30 brass this occurs normally in contact 
with sea-water, particularly :f the temperature is 
raised to the vicinity of 4o° C. A white zinc-salt, of 
the nature of a basic chloride, is formed, and acts as 
a species of catalytic agent, leading to the continued 
solution of zinc with constant re-formation of the basic 
chloride. Muntz metal is found much inferior to 
brass in this connection, but a brass containing I per 
cent. of tin, or, better still, 2 per cent. of lead, is 
found to resist this form of corrosion far better than 
a pure zinc-copper alloy. A remarkable result brought 
out by the report is the negligible influence exerted on 
dezincification by local electric cells, such as those 
formed by adherent particles of other metals or of 
carbon. 
Among the other papers may be mentioned a further 
contribution to the theory of an amorphous inter- 
crystalline cement, by Dr. Rosenhain and Mr. D. 
