136 
NA GOTRLE 
A FEW days’ stay at the island of Ascension when the 
Scottish National Antarctic Expedition was returning home 
provided an opportunity for exploration. Mr. R. N. R. 
Brown furnishes an account of his botanical observations 
and collections to the second part of vol. xxiii. of the 
Transactions and Proceedings of the Botanical Society of 
Edinburgh. Of the four phanerogams regarded as indi- 
genous, only Portulaca oleracea and Euphorbia origanoides 
were found, but of the cryptogams collected four provided 
new records for the island. 
A new Russian botanical journal, representing the 
botanical section of the Imperial Society of Naturalists of 
St. Petersburg, has been inaugurated under the editorship 
of Mr. B. Fedtschenko. The first number contains a de- 
scription, by Mr. W. Sukatscheff, of a new variety of Pinus 
Pityusa from the Crimea, and an ecological account of 
the flora of the province of the Don Cossacks is contributed 
by Mr. W. Droboff. A feature of some interest in the 
latter is the occurrence of Utricularia minor, Sparganium 
minimum, Eriophorum latifolium, and other northern 
types. 
SEVERAL contributions concerned with the determination 
of Philippine plants are published as a fourth supplement 
to the first volume of the Philippine Journal of Science. 
The list of new asclepiads determined by Dr. R. Schlechter 
includes species of Tylophora, Dischidia, and Hoya, and 
the same writer describes an endemic Burmannia allied to 
Burmannia nepalensis. The Acanthaceze were identified by 
Mr. C. B. Clarke, and the Myrsinaceze by Prof. C. Mez. 
Among the second series of grasses named by Prof. E. 
Hackel are a curious Chionachne and a species of 
Ischemum. <A second list of ferns contributed by Dr. 
E. B. Copeland contains, among others, new species of 
Schizoloma, Athyrium, and Polypodium, and a collated 
list of Philippine fungi, prepared by Mr. P. L. Ricker, is 
also published. 
In the Transactions of. the Institution of Engineers and 
Shipbuilders in Scotland (vol. 1., part i.) there is an able 
article on the development and present status of the steam 
turbine in land and marine work by Mr. E. M. Speakman. 
The author gives some valuable general considerations 
affecting their adoption, and incidentally points out that, 
while the solution of the gas-turbine problem does not 
seem entirely impossible, little or no direct development 
can be expected until numerous difficulties of a practical 
nature have been overcome. 
A THIRD report on the geological features and mineral 
resources of the Pilbara goldfield, by Mr. A. Gibb Mait- 
land, has been issued as Bulletin No. 23 of the Geological 
Survey of Western Australia. Jt covers ninety-two pages, 
and is accompanied by seven geological maps and thirteen 
illustrations. It completes the descriptions of those mining 
centres in the goldfield to which no reference was made 
in the previous two Bulletins, and includes full details 
of the gold-mining districts of Tambourah, Western Shaw, 
Northern Shaw, and Just-in-Time, as well as of the tin- 
fields of Wodgina and Cooglegong. It contains, in addi- 
tion, an able summary of the mineral resources and future 
prospects of the whole goldfield. If prospecting operations 
are carried on with due regard to the geological con- 
ditions, there can be no doubt that the district will continue 
to be a gold, tin, and tantalite producer. The various 
~tantalates and niobates of the rare earths, which exhibit 
marked radio-active properties, have been found to occur 
NO. 1936, VOL. 75 | 
| DECEMBER 6, 1906 
as primary constituents of the pegmatites such as are 
found at Wodgina. It is probable, therefore, that careful 
search may result in the discovery of various radio-active 
minerals. As minerals of subordinate importance, 
diamonds, scheelite, asbestos, and argentiferous lead ores 
are met with. Iron ores occur plentifully throughout the 
district, but at present such ores, though of high grade, 
are entirely beyond the reach of commercial enterprise. 
VoL. xxxvii. of the Sitzungsberichte of the Physico- 
medical Society of Erlangen for the year 1905 shows a very 
marked increase in the activity of the society as compared 
with previous years. The following papers may be noticed 
as possessing special interest :—a detailed investigation of 
electric discharges, by Mr. R. Reiger (pp. 1-130); a series 
of papers by Prof. E. Wiedemann dealing with the history 
of science, and referring in particular to the early scientific 
knowledge of the Arabs; details of the determination of 
the atomic weight of tellurium by Mr. A. Gutbier, and of 
bismuth by Mr. H. Mehler; and a paper on radio-tellurium 
by Mr. F. Henrich. 
Since the first X-ray tube was constructed by Prof. 
Rontgen, many modifications have been introduced of 
greatly increased efficiency. The most recent improvements 
have been directed to the purpose of making the vacuum 
adjustable, so as to be able to convert, for instance, a ° 
tube which has become very ‘“‘hard’’ into a tube of a 
““ softer ’’’ character. Mr. Rosenthal, of Munich, describes 
in the Verhandlungen of the Berlin Rontgen Congress, 
1906, a new type of tube, in which, it is contended, the 
character of the vacuum does not undergo variation at all 
after prolonged working. The principle consists in absorb- 
ing all those rays which emanate from the anti-kathode 
and are not true Réntgen rays, by an internal aluminium 
‘filter’; these rays do not, therefore, strike the glass 
walls of the tube or produce the customary heating and 
chemical effects which cause the vacuum to change. It is 
claimed that the new device is a really substantial improve- 
ment, both as regards convenience and economy. 
AN interesting study of the question whether an enzyme 
is capable of possessing more than one kind of activity 
is contained in a paper by Messrs. L. Marino and G. 
Fiorentino published in the Gazzetta (vol. xxxvi., ii., 
p- 395)- It is contended that the maltase of malt, free from 
emulsin and invertase, is capable, not only of decomposing 
maltose, but also of hydrolysing the natural and artificial 
glucosides which are susceptible to the action of emulsin. 
The absence of the latter in the maltase is held to be 
proved by the fact that the enzyme recovered after the 
action of maltase on amygdalin has taken place is almost 
without effect on salicin, whereas if a trace of emulsin 
is added to the maltase the enzyme recovered under similar 
conditions almost completely hydrolyses  salicin. The 
activity of maltase appears, indeed, to be destroyed by the 
products of the hydrolysis of amygdalin, whilst the latter 
do not affect emulsin. The maltase of malt seems to be 
very similar to the maltase of beer yeast, as it is capable, 
like the latter, of producing the same _ isomaltose 
synthetically from glucose; but it differs from it in hydro- 
lysing the 8, not the a-glucosides. 
Tue formation of hydrocyanic acid in plants, which was 
first investigated in the case of bitter almonds by Liebig 
and Wohler in 1837, has recently attracted attention owing 
to the discovery by Prof. Dunstan and Dr. Henry in certain 
fodder plants, known to cause cattle poisoning, of definite 
