446 
NEAT EO Tes 
{ Marcu 7, 1907 
The author is a advocate of the 
living parenchymatous cells in 
Te) 2 aeanidiees))e strong 
important part taken by 
the ascent of sap, favouring the view that they act chiefly 
as intermediate pumping stations. It is noticeable that 
the explanation offered by Askenasy receives brief con- 
sideration, and no mention is made of the papers and 
investigations contributed to the subject by Dixon and 
Joly or other British workers. 
UnpousrTepLy the greatest novelty at the rubber exhibi- 
tion held in Ceylon last August was the sample of pressed 
or blocked the Malay 
States. As advantages 
over ‘‘biscuit’’ rubber, an early opportunity taken 
by Dr. J. C. Willis and Mr. M. K. Bamber to prepare an 
experimental block with creosote to ascertain whether 
it was suitable for shipment to Europe. The details of 
the experiment are given in vol. iv., No. 1, of the Circulars 
and Agricultural Journal of the Royal Botanic Gardens, 
Ceylon, from which it will be seen that, although the 
block contained a considerable amount of moisture, the 
price of the sample compared favourably with the best 
biscuit. 
rubber sent 
blocked 
from a plantation in 
rubber possesses several 
was 
Ir is improbable that students of natural history are 
sufficiently familiar with Crabbe’s poetical works to 
express an opinion on his descriptions of birds and plants. 
An article on Crabbe as a poet is contributed by the Rev. 
J. Vaughan to the February number of the Monthly 
Review, claiming that his descriptions of scenery are 
characterised by their distinctness and accuracy. The 
botanical references in his writings are practically con- 
fined to the district of Aldeburgh, in Suffolk, as in the 
allusion to the salt-marshes where ‘‘ Samphire-banks and 
salt-wort bound the flood,’’ &c. But his interest in botany 
extended much beyond word painting; he was a keen 
collector, and knew the haunts of such rare plants as 
Trifolium suffocatum, Pisum maritimum, and Urtica 
pilulifera; also several note-books still extant indicate 
that he ardently followed the progress of knowledge with 
regard to grasses, sedges, and cryptogams. 
Tne current issue of the Quarterly Journal of the Geo- 
logical Society (vol. Ixiii., part i.) contains a valuable 
paper by Mr. W. R. Baldwin-Wiseman on the influence 
of pressure and porosity on the motion of subsurface 
water. It contains an able summary of the more important 
investigations of the behaviour of underground water, and 
shows that by the careful study of the hydrological map 
of a district which has been surveyed with some exacti- 
tude, it is possible to gain a considerable knowledge of 
the details of the geological structure of the district which 
might not otherwise be available, and to obtain at the 
same time valuable data for the scientific solution of the 
water-supply problems of that district. 
THE recent remarkable development of the American 
iron industry is discussed in some detail by Mr. E. C. 
Eckel in the Engineering Magazine (vol. xxxii., No. 5). 
Dealing with the important subject of ore reserves, he 
shows that, on the assumption that the demand for iron 
ore during the present century may range from 50 to 100 
million tons annually, the Lake Superior district would 
last for from twenty-five to fifty years more if it supplied 
the entire United States. But, counting on the known 
reserves elsewhere in the United States, the ore will last 
for a much longer period, though, of course, it must 
necessarily show a gradual but steady increase in value. 
Electric smelting will, he considers, have little influence 
on the general development of the iron and steel indus- 
NO. 1949, VOL. 75] 
tries until fuel supplies become more scanty than they 
are at present. Considerably more practical results to the 
industry can be expected from the nodulising process of 
treating ore dust. This process accomplishes both the 
consolidation and desulphurising of the material, and its 
chief advantage, as compared with the older briquetting 
and roasting processes, arises from the fact that the rotary 
kiln employed is distinctly an effective labour-saving 
device. 
Tur remarkable paper which Mr. Dugald Clerk read 
before the Institution of Civil Engineers on February 26 
brings us appreciably nearer a complete understanding of 
the thermodynamics of the internal-combustion engine. 
He examined the results of the tests made by the institu- 
tion committee on the standards of efficiency of internal- 
combustion engines, and gives the results of further ex- 
periments on the large engine used in the test, with the 
view of finding the true heat distribution of the engine. 
Tables are given showing the ideal efficiencies for different 
compressions using the specific heat values given, and show 
that roughly the air standard is 20 per cent. too high, and 
that if y, the ratio of specific heat at constant pressure 
to specific heat at constant volume, be taken as 1-285 for 
the explosion line and 1-37 for the compression line, the 
change of specific heat between 1700° C. and 1000° C. 
commonly used in practice is too small to produce much 
error. More investigation is, however, required before 
even the apparent specific heat values can be accurately 
known for the various mixtures used in internal-combus- 
tion motors. For a given expansion the best engines have 
approached very closely to the theoretical realisation of 
their cycle. The complete suppression of all heat losses 
due to conduction, &c., on the explosion expansion strokes 
could only increase the indicated power by about 13 per 
cent. It is satisfactory to find that the gas engine is so 
nearly perfect. 
In his recent notice of Dr. E. W. Scripture’s work on 
experimental phonetics (February 21, p. 392), Prof. 
McKendrick pointed out that though mention is made in 
the work that Prof. Weber, with Prof. Schneebeli, applied 
the Fourierian analysis to a vowel curve, no date is given 
when this was done. Dr. C. E. Guillaume, of the Bureau 
international des Poids et Mesures, Sévres, who was 
formerly Prof. Schneebeli’s assistant, writes to say that 
the results of researches on the harmonic analysis of 
vowel sounds during the summer of 1878 were communi- 
cated to the Société des Sciences naturelles de Neuchatel 
on November 21 of that year. The paper by Fleeming 
Jenkin and J. H. Ewing referred to by Prof. McKendrick 
was communicated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 
June 3 and July 1, 1878, and was published in part iii. 
of vol. xxviii. of the Transactions, which is dated 1879. 
We have received from Messrs. Shelley W. Denton and 
Co., 99 Regent Street, W., samples of their patent butter- 
fly tablets, containing handsome tropical butterflies and 
moths, mounted on a special plaster background, and 
covered with glass in such a manner as to exhibit the 
wings, antenne, &c., to perfection, while preserving the 
specimens from almost any injury short of the actual 
breakage of the glass cover or of the tablet itself. We 
believe the process is American, and have been familiar 
with Messrs. Denton’s method for some years; and we 
are quite ready to concede that it possesses most of the 
merits claimed for it by the firm in the circular which 
they have sent us. But when they say that the specimens 
“preserve their rich colours intact,’’ and -‘‘ they make 
magnificent wall, table, cr mantel ornaments,’’ we can 
