243° - 
NATURE’ 
[JANUARY I0, 1907° 
the eastern half of Ireland, causing great damage.* 
disease has broken out on the ‘Continent, and assumed 
epidemic proportions, causing such devastation that drastic 
legislative measures are being employed. The evidence 
shows that the outbreaks have originated from gooseberry- 
plants imported from America.” : 
In October last I discovered the disease in an English 
nursery on standard gooseberries recently imported from 
the Continent, and later in commercial plantations in one 
of the chief gooseberry-growing districts of England. I 
have since been warning fruit growers, by means of lectures 
and otherwise, of the new danger. I have taken every 
step to impress on the Board of Agriculture the necessity 
for preventing further importation of diseased plants and 
for enforcing the destruction of all those already infected. 
The Board, on being informed of the outbreaks, sent 
Mr. Massee to the infected districts. As the result of his 
visit, a series of statements throwing doubt on the foreign 
origin of the disease and its serious nature have been 
widely circulated in the Press. These, as coming from the 
mycologist to the Board of Agriculture, have caused many 
growers to relax, at this critical stage of the first out- 
break, their efforts to stamp out the disease. 
I am convinced that there is no scientific foundation for 
the statements referred to. I have suggested* that the 
points at issue should be submitted to arbitration, for it is 
most important to fruit growers that no doubt should be 
allowed to remain on a matter which so affects their 
interests. 
The Board has issued a circular warning growers of the 
serious nature of the disease; but it does not recognise 
that the disease is new to the country, and that legislation 
is necessary. Unless the Board talkes stronger measures 
at once, and unless the effect of the statements made by 
Mr. Massee can in some way be counteracted, nothing can 
prevent the disease from spreading and causing losses of 
many thousands of pounds. E. S. SaLmMon. 
South-Eastern Agricultural College, Wye, Kent, 
January 5. 
Filter Presses. 
WE shall shortly be compelled to purchase a filter press, 
and should be glad if you would give us information 
as to the best firms to approach in this matter. 
Tue ‘‘ Cooper ResearcH. Lasoratory.”’ 
Water Lane, Watford, January 7. 
[Manuracturers of filter presses are invited to put them- 
selves into communication with our correspondent.— 
Ep. Nature.] 
ARCHASOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN 
TURKESTAN. 
E have referred already (NaturE, December 13, 
1906, p. 155, and December 20, 1906, p. 180) to 
the archzological expeditions of Dr. M. A. Stein and 
Dr. von Lecoq in Central Asia. News of Dr. Stein’s 
second expedition, which has resulted in further 
finds of importance, has lately been received, and 
details of the discoveries of Dr. von Lecoq (foolishly 
described in a telegram from India as comparable 
with those of Layard and Rawlinson!) have been 
communicated by the discoverer to the Srinagar corre- 
spondent of the Times of India, quoted in the Times 
of January 3. From these it is evident that Dr. 
von Lecoq’s discoveries are, as might have been 
expected, analogous to those of his forerunner, Dr. 
Stein, in imitation and emulation of whose work the 
Prussian expedition of Dr. von Lecoq was sent out. 
The MSS. documents found by Dr. von Lecoq are, 
with the exceptions noted below, of the same type 
and in the same languages as those found by Dr. 
Stein, and, further, Buddhist paintings of the kind 
1 Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc., vols. xxv.-vii., xxix. (1900-6). 
2 See Eriksson, Zeztschr. f. Phanzenkrankh., Bd. xvi.; also work of de 
Jaczewski. 
3 The Times, December 28, 1906. 
NO. 1941, VOL. 75] 
The | 
described by Dr. Lecog as ‘‘ the missing stepping- 
stone by which Indian art advanced across Asia to 
Japan ’’ were first found by Dr. Stein. 
This being said, however, we must note that Dr. 
von Lecoq’s work was carried out in a different part 
of Turkestan from Dr. Stein’s, in the vicinity of 
Turfan and Urumchi, as well as at Kucha and Kurla. 
It is therefore to be expected that the results of the 
Prussian expedition, while generally analogous to 
those of the Indian ones, will show peculiarities due 
to difference of geographical position, &c., and it may 
well be that Dr. von Lecoq has discovered objects of 
later date than any found by Dr. Stein. The docu- 
ments which he has found are mostly of the same 
kind and in the same tongues as those found by Dr. 
Stein, but some are written in new, or rather little- 
known, languages, such as Tangut, Koh-Turki, 
Middle Persian written in the Manichzan alphabet, 
and a sort of Central Asian dialect of Syriac. Manu- 
scripts in ordinary Syriac were found; these are, of 
course, monuments of the Christianising activity of 
the Nestorians in Central Asia from 600 a.D. to 
1000 A.D. A curious discovery is thus described :— 
‘“The furious zeal of the Chinese conquerors of 
Turkestan against Buddhism was exemplified by the 
discovery of the packed bodies, still clad and odorous, 
of a multitude of Buddhist monks driven into a temple, 
and stifled there, more than a thousand years ago.”’ 
Dr. von Lecoq’s colleague, Prof. Griinwedel, is still 
working in Turkestan. Already fifteen chests of 
MSS., and altogether about 200 cases of ‘“ finds,” 
have been sent to Berlin. ‘‘ The expedition up to date 
has cost the German Government 10,000l., a sum 
which may be contrasted with the 800]. spent on Dr. 
Stein’s epoch-marking expedition of 1900-1 by the 
Indian Government.’’ Comment upon this fact is 
superfluous, and would in any case be useless. 
The current number of the Geographical Journal 
contains a letter from Dr. Stein, dated from Keriya 
on October 10, 1906, giving an account of his work 
up to date. Apart from his trigonometrical surveys 
of the Kuen-lun mountains and his archzological re- 
examination of the Buddhist monument known as 
the Rawak Stupa (already mentioned in Nature), 
Dr. Stein excavated a small ruined temple in ‘ the 
extensive débris-strewn areas known collectively as 
the Tati of Hanguya.’’ Here he found terra- 
cotta rilievos of the fifth to sixth century a.D., 
often covered with rich gilding. Dr. von Lecoq 
reports similar discoveries of gilt paintings. East 
of the Khotan oasis Dr. Stein excavated ruined 
shrines near the village-tract of Domoko; that of 
Khadalik yielded MSS. of the same date as those dis- 
covered by Dr. Stein previously at Dandan-Uiliq. 
In one were found stringed rolls of Chinese copper 
money, deposited by one of the last devotees before the 
storm of Tibetan conquest wrested the land from the 
Chinese. At the time of writing, Dr. Stein was pro- 
ceeding from Keriya to the eastern sites beyond Niya. 
AT THE BACK OF THE BLACK MAN’S 
MIND.? 
APRESS can be no question as to the originality 
and value of this book as a contribution to 
West African ethnology. Mr. Dennett has lived many 
years amongst the Bavili and other tribes of the 
Kakongo district (Luango coast) immediately north 
of the Congo mouth. He has also of late lived as 
an official several years in the Benin district of the 
Niger Delta. About three-quarters of the book under 
1 “ At the Back of the Black Man's Mind ; or, Notes on the Kingly Office 
in West Africa.” By R. E. Dennett. Pp. xv+288. (London: Macmillan 
and Co., Ltd., 1906.) Price ros. net. 
