August i8, 1904 J 



NATURE 



direction that we must look. The Daily Telegraph has 

 made the first venture in the direction, and its enterprise 

 promises success in the future in affording information of 

 the approach of bad weather. Disturbances are always 

 traversing the Atlantic, and they follow a course from W. 

 to E., or perhaps more often from S.W. to N.E. These 

 storm areas exert a considerable influence on our weather, 

 and if in the summer months they do not actually occasion 

 gales of any strength they are the cause of the rains and 

 unsettled weather which we experience. In the winter, 

 when our coasts are often swept by severe gales, wire- 

 less telegraphy will probably be of considerable value in 

 giving early intimation of the approach of storms, and 

 as Marconi's system is improved, and the messages can be 

 sent at greater distances from our shores, the advantage 

 will be much enhanced. The Meteorological Council was 

 some time since in correspondence with Lloyd's with 

 respect to taking advantage of wireless telegraphy, but up 

 to the present it has not been found possible to conclude 

 any arrangements. 



.\ccoRDiNG to the Lancet, a paper was recently read before 

 the Paris Academy of Medicine by MM. Raymond and 

 Zimmer on the results of the application of a tube of radium 

 containing five cubic centimetres to various patients suffer- 

 ing from nervous affections. In hysterical cases the results 

 were nil, and the same was the case in musculo-spiral 

 paralysis and acute facial neuralgia. Very remarkable 

 results, however, were obtained as regards the painful 

 phenomena of tabes. Peripheral pains were rapidly and 

 completely relieved, and in several grave instances of gastric 

 crisis great relief was obtained. These results induced the 

 observers to try the effects of X-rays, and they consider 

 that they met with great encouragement. These results 

 are to be communicated at some future meeting of the 

 academy. 



We have received from Messrs. Brewster, Smith and Co. 

 the following pieces of apparatus, which will be found 

 exceedingly useful by workers in chemical laboratories :■ — 

 A self-lighting Bunsen burner for lecture table use, in which 

 a two-way cock first directs a stream of gas on some black 

 platinum, which, becoming heated, raises the temperature 

 of some fine platinum wires sufficiently for these to ignite 

 the gas from the burner itself. A burette holder with a new 

 form of screw-clamping arrangement which is easily and 

 quickly adjusted, and is a decided improvement on the older 

 forms. A small turbine motor, which may be worked from 

 the usual high-pressure water supply at from 2000 to 4000 

 revolutions per minute, will be found very efficient in stirring 

 and agitating operations. A circular wire which may be 

 adjusted by a screw to the desired size acts very effectively 

 in fastening a connecting tube on to a high-pressure water 

 tap. An improved cheap form of Ramsay burner, with 

 two forks for supporting the combustion tube at various 

 heights above the burner, gives a very uniform flame along 

 its entire length. 



.According to some experiments on the formation of ozone 

 at high temperatures by Mr. J. K. Clement, published in 

 the Annalen der Physik, vol. xiv. p. 334, no trace of ozone 

 is formed when pure oxygen is passed over the conducting 

 substance of a Nernst lamp electrically heated to a tempera- 

 ture of 2ooo°-3ooo° C. When a trace of nitrogen is present, 

 however, the issuing oxygen liberates iodine from potassium 

 iodide solution, and the author believes that most of the 

 recorded observations of ozone formation at high tempera- 

 tures are in reality due to the formation of small quantities 

 of oxides of nitrogen. 



NO. 1 8 16, VOL. 70] 



" The Geology of the Country around Kingsbridge and 

 Salcombe " is the title of a memoir issued by the Geological 

 Survey in explanation of the new series geological maps 

 3^^ and 356. In it the author, Mr. W. A. E. Ussher, has 

 fully described the rocks of this difficult area. In the 

 northern part there is no doubt about the Devonian age 

 of the slates and grits, which are grouped with the Dart- 

 mouth slates and the Meadfoot and Looe beds. In the 

 southern part of the area there is a tract of highly altered 

 sedimentary and basic rocks, of mica schists and quartz 

 schists, together with green or hornblende-epidote schists. 

 Much controversy has arisen concerning the age of these 

 metamorphic rocks, and although the author appears in- 

 clined to regard them as altered Devonian, he has refrained 

 from e.xpressing any definite opinion with regard to them. 

 His careful and detailed record of facts will greatly aid 

 further research. There are brief descriptions of the New 

 Red rocks of Thurlestone and Slapton, and of the Pleistocene 

 and recent deposits. 



Dr. J. .A. Udden contributes an essay on the geology of 

 the Shafter Silver Mine district, in Presidio County, Texas 

 (Bull. Univ. Texas, No. 24). The district is composed of 

 Carboniferous with possibly Permian rocks and Lower 

 Cretaceous strata, the whole being invaded by intrusive 

 bosses, dykes, and sheets of various igneous rocks in- 

 cluding granite, diorite, andesite, and rhyolite, while 

 extensive lava flows have covered about one-third of the 

 land. The mineral deposits, comprising argentiferous 

 galena, &c., occur in the Cibolo limestone, which is prob- 

 ably of Permo-Carboniferous age, and the Shafter Mine, 

 the only successful silver mine in the State, has been profit- 

 ably worked for nearly twenty years. In the present report 

 attention is mainly directed to the Carboniferous and 

 Cretaceous strata and their fossils, of which detailed records 

 are given. 



In reference to the paragraph in our issue of July 28 

 with regard to recent captures in England of examples of 

 the striped hawk-moth (Deilephila livornica), Mr. F. H. 

 Perry Coste writes to us from Polperro, Cornwall, stating 

 that one of these insects was captured near that village on 

 August I. Its wings were so rigid that good setting was 

 impossible, and this leads the writer to believe that, like 

 all British members of the species, it was a migrant from 

 the Continent. Our correspondent would be glad to hear 

 whether any of the other recently taken specimens were 

 in the same condition, and whether they were captured 

 near the shore. 



A REMARK.-^BLE instance of protective resemblance is de- 

 scribed bv Mr. L. J. Cole in a paper on pycnogonid 

 arachnida published in vol. xxxi. (pp. 315-328) of the 

 Proceedings of the Boston Natural History Society. The 

 pycnogonids in general are long-bodied, long-limbed, spider- 

 like creatures, somewhat recalling the stick insects in their 

 fantastic contour. The form in question (Anoplodactylus 

 insignis bcnntidensis) has this irregular bodily contour 

 specially developed, and is further remarkable for its color- 

 ation of mingled pink and yellow. It thus corresponds 

 verv closely, both in form and colour, with a hydroid zoo- 

 phvte {Obelia marginata) of common occurrence in the 

 Bermuda sea, among the branches of which it lives. A 

 coloured plate illustrates the striking resemblance between 

 the two organisms. 



The Irish Naturalist for August contains two botanical 

 papers of considerable interest, the one, by the Rev. H. W. 

 Lett, recording a new species of liverwort {Adelanthus 

 dugorticnsis) from Dugort, in the Island of Achill, and the 



