4i6 



NATURE 



[August 22, 1901 



M. G. M. Stanoiewitch. The use of a small captive balloon 

 fitted with a deep-toned electrically-driven bell or siren is 

 suggested as a means of breaking up hail clouds. 



New South Wales. 

 Royal Society, June 5.— Mr. G. H. Knibbs in the chair.— 

 On a new rock allied to nepheline phonolite, from Kosciusko, 

 New South Wales, by F. B. Guthrie, Prof. David, F.R.S., and 

 W. G. Woolnough. The Kosciusko rock is characterised by its 

 large proportion of nepheline which dominates all the other 

 minerals. The nepheline occurs in micro-porphyritic idiomorphic 

 crystals. The soda-augite a'girine is also abundant, and there 

 is a small amount ol glassy material in the base through which are 

 scattered delicate acicular crystals and microlites of felspar. A 

 few small amygdules may be noticed, not sharply marked off 

 from the surrounding rock ; they consist of a shell formed chiefly 

 of analcime enclosing secondary calcite. The specific gravity of 

 the rock varies from 2'43-2'5. The rock difliers conspicuously 

 from typical phonolites in the following respects: — (i) low- 

 silica percentage ; (2) entire absence of phenocrysts of sanidine. 

 It is a felspathoid rock, and although its silica percentage allies 

 it with the basalts, its mineral constitution, chemical composi- 

 tion and low specific gravity link it with the phonolites. So far 

 as the authors are aware, it is unlike any rock that has 

 hitherto been described from any part of the world. — Preliminary 

 notes on the intermediary host of Filaria imiiiitis, Leidy, by 

 Mr. Thos. L. Bancroft. Fitaria ivitnitis, a worm-parasite of the 

 dog, common throughout the world, but more especially in the 

 warmer parts, of from five to ten inches in length, the males 

 being the smaller, is found generally in the right ventricle of the 

 heart and in the pulmonary artery. The so-called embryos, 

 1/90 in. X 1/3500 in., are produced in great numbers; the late 

 Dr. Spencer Cobbold taught that an intermediary host was 

 necessary to transmit the parasite from one dog to another. 

 Among others, Grassi, Sonsino and J. Bancroft endeavoured 

 to discover this intermediary host. The dog-flea [Puiex serrati- 

 cefs), the various dog lice, and ticks were examined, but with 

 negative results. The author for thirteen years past had en- 

 deavoured to find the intermediary host, examining Pukx 

 serraticeps; the common horse-fly, Stonioxys sp.?: Culex vigilax, 

 Skuse — a day-flying mosquito ; the intestinal worm parasite of 

 the dog — the A)icJiylosioina or Doihinitis trigoiiocephalits. The 

 possibility of metamorphosis being essential seemed doubtful, 

 the embryo might, it was thought, go through a cold stage for 

 several days in the body of an insect and then develop, after 

 introduction into the body of the dog. A puppy, who ate no 

 Stomoxys flies gorged with filariated blood, in one month showed 

 after a series of experiments, extending over nearly a year, that 

 such an hypothesis was untenable ; and moreover, that the time 

 taken by the young filaria to arrive at sexual maturity was not 

 less than seven months nor more than twelve. After discussing 

 Grassi's discovery of the intermediary host of Filaria inimitis, 

 viz. the Anoflielcs nuuiilipeniiis^ Meigen, syn. A. cla-ngcr^ 

 Fab., and the statements of a paper by Grassi and Noe on " the 

 propagation of the filaria? of the blood exclusively by means of 

 the puncture of peculiar mosquitoes," the author states we 

 are now able to give an exact account of the life-history of both 

 Filaria nocturna and F. inimitis. The sexually mature worms 

 in man or dog produce embryos, which swim in the blood: the 

 mosquito on biting abstracts some of the embryos, the.se develop 

 in the mosquito's body, and in about three weeks are capable of 

 entering their final or definite hosts, passing into the puncture 

 made by the mosquito in the skin ; they then advance to sexual 

 maturity in the course of about a year. The position in the 

 mosquito's body during the metamorphosis of the embryos dis- 

 tinguishes F. iioititrna from F. inii/iilzs, the former being in the 

 thoracic muscles, the latter in the malpighian tubes, at their 

 maximum development ; the latter are distinguished as being 

 shorter and thicker. It has been learnt that mosquitoes live for 

 long periods, and not merely a few days as was formerly sup- 

 posed, and that during their life they bite frequently. In Europe, 

 Anopheles mactilipennis plays the role of host for the malarial 

 parasite, for F. immitis and it is believed also for F. noclurna ; 

 in Australia the house-mosquito, Culcx si'iisii, Giles, is host for 

 both F. Hoc/itriia and F. immitis, and probably also for the 

 malarial parasite. 



Linnean Society, June 26. — Mr. J. H. Maiden, president, 

 in the chair. — On the occurrence of diatoms and radiolaria in 

 the Rolling Downs Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of (Queens- 



land, by Prof. David, F.R.S., W. S. Dun and W. H. Rands.— 



Notes on an aboriginal grave in the Darling River District, 

 N..S.W. , by Graham Officer. Certain objects of aboriginal 

 manufacture found over a large area of the western division of 

 New South Wales have hitherto been somewhat of a puzzle to 

 anthropologists, and precise information about them is very 

 difficult to obtain. The objects in question are of two types, 

 one of which has already received consideration from Mr. W. R. 

 Harper in the Society's Proceedings for 189S (p. 420). A 

 second type is described in the present paper, some examples of 

 which were found on an aboriginal grave arranged in a circle 

 about three feet in diameter. The author concludes that the 

 objects of both types had a phallic significance ; also that those 

 of the first type were used to mark the graves of men, while 

 those of the second type were placed on the graves of women, 

 possibly also of youths who had not attained their tribal 

 majority. — The "shot-hole" fungi of stone-fruit trees in 

 Australia, by D. McAlpine. The shot-hole effects produced in 

 stone-fruit trees are shown to be due to an effort on the part of 

 the tree to get rid of a parasite or other irritating agent, and the 

 formation of a callus bounding the spot is a special property of 

 the living tissue. At least twenty fungi are known at present 

 to be the cause of "shot-hole," and of these one-half are found 

 in Australia — Australian Psyllidae, part ii., by W. W. ' 

 Froggatt. Twenty-four species referable to three subfamilies 

 are described as new. — On the "onvar" of Malekula, New 

 Hebrides, by Walter R. Harper. The " onvar " or thumb- 

 guard of the Malekulan archer was first mentioned by Captain 

 Cook, and a decorated form of it — probably part of the insignia 

 of a chief — was described by Forster. The more common form 

 is a circular piece of hard though light wood about 3 cm. in 

 thickness, 12 cm. outside diameter at the base, bevelled off to 

 an outside diameter of 7 cm. at the top and pierced by a hole 

 large enough to admit the hand of the wearer, the average 

 diameter of the opening in five specimens being 6'5 cm. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Japanese Sponges. By Prof. E. A. Minchin . . 393 

 Instruction in Village Schools. By Prof. R. Meldola, 



F.R.S. . . .... . . 394 



Heddle's Mineralogy. By Prof. H. A. Miers, F.R.S. 395 



The Circulation of the Atmosphere. By W. N. S. 396 

 Our Book Shelf:— 



Young and Linebarger : "ffhe Elements of the 

 Difierential and Integral Calculus"; Nichols: 

 " Differential and Integral Calculus with Applica- 

 tions for Colleges, Universities, and Technical 



Schools 396 



Goeldi : " .Alburn de Aves Amazonicas" 397 



Perkin : " l^>ualitative Chemical Analysis, Organic 



and Inorganic." — A. S 397 



Letters to the Editor : — 



The Fire Walk Ceremony in Tahiti. — Prof. S. P. 



Langley 397 



The Size of the Ice-grain in Glaciers. — J. Y. 



Buchanan, F.R.S. . ..... 399 



Problems of Geometry. — A. B. Basset, F.R.S. . . 400 



Forecast and Fact. — A. B. M. 400 



Boomerangs. — Ottavio Zanotti Bianco ..... 400 

 Batrachians and Reptiles in the Cambridge Natural 



History. (Illiislraied.) By G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S. 401 

 The Forthcoming Meeiing of the British Associa- 

 tion 403 



The International Zoological Congress 405 



Charles A. Schott 406 



Notes 406 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Nova Persei . . • 410 



Period of Mira Ceti 410 



The Cape Observatory 410 



Observation of Comet a (iqoi) 410 



The August Meteors of 1901. By W. F. Denning 410 

 Sand Waves in Tidal Currents, (llltislrated.) By 



Dr. Vaughan Cornish . 412 



Woad as a Blue Dye. By Dr. C. B. Plowright . . 413 



University and Educational Intelligence 415 



Scientific Serial , . . 415 



Societies and Academies 415 



NO. 1660, VOL. 6d] 



