372 



NA TURE 



[February i6, 1905 



A TELEGRAM has been received at the otlice of the Scottish 

 National Antarctic Expedition in Kdinburgh announcing the 

 safe arrival at Buenos Ayres of Mr. R. C. Mossman, who was 

 left in charge of the meteorological station at Scotia Bay, 

 South Orkneys, last February. Mr. Mossman has spent two 

 continuous years in the .Antarctic regions. 



The Treasury has agreed to make a contribution from 

 public funds toward the cost of establishing and maintaining 

 a national museum and a national library in Wales, on the 

 condition that suflicient local support is forthcoming. The 

 Lord President of the Council has appointed a committee of 

 the Privy Council lo consider and di'termine the place at 

 which each of the two institutions should be established and 

 other matters relating to their foundation and future main- 

 tenance. 



-M. J.acques I-'aike accomplished a successful voyage in a 

 balloon from London to Paris on Kebruarv iz. He left Ihe 

 Crystal Palace at 0.45 p.m. on February 11 with M. Hubert 

 Latham, and they at once rose to a height of 500 metres, 

 which they kept until within sight of the sea, near Hastings. 

 They then descended until the guide-rope touched the water, 

 when they travelled at the rate of 1 10 kilometres an hour.' 

 At 10 p.m., seeing a lighthouse, they rose to 2000 metres, 

 and soon passed over Dieppe. The balloon descended at St! 

 Denis, outside Paris, six hours after starting. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death of .Mr. 

 William Sellers, the eminent mechanical engineer of Phila- 

 delphia. When president of the Franklin Institute in 18(14, he 

 read a paper on screw-threads and nuts, and his form of 

 thread subsequently became the standard for the United 

 Stales. He had many friends in this country. He was a 

 member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and as chair- 

 man of the Philadelphia committee took an active part in the 

 reception of the Iron and Steel Institute in its recent visit 

 to America. 



The new Premier diamond-mine, situated about twenty 

 miles W.N'.W. of Pretoria, in the Transvaal, produced in 

 January of this year an enormous diamond far surpassing in 

 size the largest previously known. It measures 4^ x 2^ 

 inches, is said to be of excellent quality, and weighs 3032 

 carats ( = 67(1* grams, or nearly i\ lb. avoirdupois). The 

 largest diamond previously discovered is the " Excelsior," 

 which was found in 1S93 in the Jagersfontein mine. Orange 

 River Colony, and was valued at 1,000,000/. It was as large 

 as a hen's egg, weighed 971J carats, and has been cut into 

 nine brilliants. The world-famous Indian diamonds, the 

 " Koh-i-noor " and " Great .Mogul." are considerably smaller 

 than the " Excelsior," and compared with this huge latest- 

 found diamond their size sinks into insignificance. An 

 account of the Premier mine was recently published in 

 the report for 1903 of the Geological Survey of the Transvaal 

 (Nature, 1004, Ixxi., p. 55). The mine was opened up in 

 1902, since when it has produced .a rich vield. It is of the 

 same type as the Kimberley mines, but considerably larger 

 in size. The pipe containing the " blue-ground " has an 

 oval-shaped cro.ss-section ; its longer diameter measures just 

 over half a mile, and its area is estimated at 350,000 square 

 yards. The pipe breaks through felsitic rocks, which were 

 earlier intruded in the quartzites of the Pretoria series. 



" Notes on Phosphorescence in Pl.inls and .Animals ■" is 

 the liile of a paper by .Miss Hage in the VitlnrinH 

 Waturalisl lor November last, of which Ihe author has 

 been good enough to send us .1 copy. Special attention 

 is directed to the occurrence of phosphorescence in 

 butchers' meat, since a remarkable prevalence of this has 

 been recently noticed in Melbourne. So far as ihe i>ulhor 

 NO. 1842, VOL. 71] 



could ascertain, no cultures have been taken from phos- 

 phorescent meat, so that the bacteria by which the pheno- 

 menon is produced are still unknown. 



The Times of February 9 devotes nearly a whole column 

 to the collection of giratTes in the Natural History Museum, 

 which has recently been enriched by examples of the Kili- 

 manjaro and Nigerian races. The article mentions the 

 names of the various donors of the series in the national 

 collection, which is altogether unrivalled. Brief reference 

 is made to the earlier specimens of giraffes brought to this 

 country, and to the history of the evolution of our know- 

 ledge of the local variations of the species. In conclusion, 

 special attention is directed to the importance of ascertain- 

 ing the reason for these and analogous colour-variations in 

 animals. 



We have received copies of Nos. 1 lo 3 of the foiilh 

 volume of the Goeldi Museum at Para, the first of which 

 is dated February, while the other two were published in 

 December, 1904. The catalogue of Para mammals in 

 No. I, by Messrs. Goeldi and Hagmann, has been already 

 noticed in our columns. .Among the contents of Nos. 

 2 and 3, mention may be made of a list of the mosquitoes 

 of Para by Dr. Goeldi, with an account of the measures 

 taken to exterminate Sirgomyia fasciata and Ctilex fali- 

 .i,'flHS, and also of Dr. Ilagmann's synopsis of the birds 

 described by .Spix, Wied, Hurmeister, and Pelzeln. Con- 

 siderable interest attaches to a paper on a disease which 

 has recently affected domesticated animals in the Island of 

 Marajo. 



The Scientific Anicrictni of January 21 contains an illus- 

 trated account of the setting-up in the .American Museum of 

 Natural History, New York, of a skeleton of the dinosaur 

 Brontosaurus, obtained from the deposits near the famous 

 Bone Cabin Quarry in i.SqS. The skeleton, which is the 

 largest and at the same time the least incomplete specimen 

 of its kind, is being set up under the immediate direction 

 of Prof. Osborn, and will be the only mounted example of 

 the bony framework of the brontosaur. Its estimated 

 length is sixty-two feet. Contrasted with that of Diplo- 

 docus, the skeleton of Brontosaurus is characterised by 

 its relatively shorter body and limbs, and its more massive 

 general structure, the arrangements for lightening its 

 weight being more specialised than in any other member 

 of the group. From the rough terminal surfaces of the 

 limb-bones it is inferred that the creature was largely 

 aquatic in its habits; and when sitting down it is sup- 

 posed that the weight of the body was partly supported 

 by the extremities of the ischia and pubes, which may 

 have been furnished with elaslic pads of cartilage or 

 connective tissue. 



The " One and .All " -\nnual, 1905, contains a number 

 of articles connected with gardening, among which are 

 .some practical notes on growing mushrooms, celi'Cy and 

 herbs. 



The Japanese have a malted preparation, known as 

 ame, which is a kind uf candy or barley-sugar, made by 

 the action of barley malt on glutinous rice. Midzu-ame, 

 or liquefied ame, a syrup, forms the subject of an article 

 by Prof. F. H. Storer and Mr. G. W. Rolfe in vol. iii. 

 |.;irt iv. of the liullcliii of the Bussey Institution, Harvard 

 I'niversity. The preparation of ame dates back many 

 centuries, and it is interesting to compare it with must, 

 or the more modern wort. Prof, Storey also describes 

 Mime experiments made with pop-corn which bear out 

 Ihe opinions of previous investigators that popping is 

 ciusid by bursting of the starch grains. 



