3° 



NATURE 



[September 12, 1918 



American Museum of Natural Historj (New 

 ued, as th. first article of vol. xxxix. 

 of its Bulletin, "A Revision ol the Vespidae of the 

 Belgi by J. Bequaert, rhis is a sys- 



'1 more than usual importance, the 

 generic and specific diagnoses being exceptional^ de- 

 1 and carefully illustrated by structural drawings 

 and coloured plates, and tin classificatorj Facts 

 illuminated by man} noti 5 on bi haviour and by valu- 

 jraphical discussions, with manj distribu- 

 tional maps. It is pleasant to read in the authoi 's 

 introduction that when conditions in Europe deprived 

 him of the fruits of all hut a small part of his own 

 collecting, he found ample materials for study in "the 

 splendid collections of the American Museum I 

 Expedition," as well as a hearty welcome and cordial 

 assistance from the naturalists of the United States. 

 From the same institution has been issued as a " 1 luide 

 Leaflet" (No. 48) a popular pamphlet by C. E. A. 

 Wihslow and F. E. Lutz on " Insects and Disease." 

 The facts and methods of germ-transmission by 

 insects are clearly sel forth, and illustrated by good 

 photographs of specimens and models exhibited in the 

 American Museum. 



In the latest part of the Science Reports of the 

 Toh6ku Imperial University, Japan (Second Series, 

 Geology, vol. Hi., No. ii., 1918), Prof. H. Matsumoto 

 has several interesting notes on the fossil mammals 

 of Japan. A now molar tooth of an elephant from 

 Kaza seems to be exactly intermediate between the 

 molars of Elephas and Stegodon. Part of the lower 

 jaw of an ancestral deer, probably of Lower Miocene 

 age, is referred to a new species of Amphitragulus, 

 and is unusually large. \n elaborate study of some 

 skulls and frontlets oi bison from the Pleistocene of 

 Japan shows that they belong to the extinct species 

 Bison occidentalis and B. crassicornis, which are 

 already known from North America (chiefly Alaska) 

 and Siberia. A discussion of the skull and teeth of the 

 remarkable Miocene sirenian Desmostvlus is especially 

 valuable. Good specimens have now been obtained 

 both from the Pacific coast of North America and 

 from Japan, so that instructive comparisons can be 

 made. The Japanese species is the largest sirenian 

 known, with a skull 00 cm. in length. It seems to 

 have frequented estuaries rather than open seas, and 

 its peculiar front teeth were probably used like those 

 of a hippopotamus to dig up nutritious plants from 

 mud. The molars are especially effective grinding 

 teeth, and are sufficiently deepened to last during a 

 long life. 



Prof-. Chas. Chilton, who described the first species 

 of Phreatoicus in 1883, has added an interesting 

 chapter to the history of this crustacean genus by 

 giving a description (Journ. Proc. Roy. Soc. N.S. 

 Wales, vol. Ii., pp. 365-88, iqiS) of a fossil species 

 based on ten impressions found in the Wianamatta 

 Shale (probably Upper Trias) of Queensland. Although 

 none of the specitn s ire complete, the head and the 

 first peraeopods not being clearly represented in any 

 of them, the evidence afforded by the remainder of the 

 animal, which is in a good state of preservation, leaves 

 no doubt as to the correctness of the identification. 

 The fossil species, described as new- under the name 

 Phreatoicus wianamatti similar in general 



appearance to P. australis, and reached a length of 

 ^o mm. The living members of the Phreatoicidea, a 

 primitive group of the Isopoda, are found in the fresh 

 vaters of Vustralia, Tasmania. Ne\ Zealand, and 

 'south Africa. 



The Geological Survey "I Hungary has published 



lume of a new serial nam - I 1 Htltl- 



Ti is a handsome quarto <>f (v> pages in the 

 NO. 2 550, VOL. I02] 



Magyar language, and is well illustrated by 275 

 text-figures ami 20 plates of fossils. It comprises 

 tine, paiis, dealing respectively with Oligocene Mol- 



lusca, I- in): I els, and (allovian Ammonites. 



The last pari is i.\ the director of the survey, Dr. L. 



Lot , and (..inhale, with a valuable slraligraphical 



table showing the various Hungarian equivalents of 

 the Lower and Middle Oolites of western Europe. 



Tin. [jast suuinn 1 has, for the most part, been agree- 

 abli and pleasant In. in a mi nurological point of view, 

 although the totals and averages of the several ele- 

 ments, and of the rainfall especially, have been liable 

 to mislead and to give a somewhat unsatisfactory 

 impression. Some of the meteorological happenings 

 were abnormal, but they have, on the whole, proved 

 to be an advantage. Combined records for the tl 

 months, June, July, and August, show a general 

 deficiency of rain except in the north of Scotland and 

 in the south-east of England. In the neighbourhood 

 of London the aggregate rainfall for the three months 

 u as about 9 in., which is nearly 23 in. more than 

 the normal, although about 2 in. less than in 1017, 

 and it has only been exceeded in one other summer, 

 1903, since 1890, in twenty-eight years. June had a 

 decided deficiency of rain over the British Isles, and 

 chiefly so in England, where it was mostly less than 

 50 per cent, of the average, hut July was excessively 

 wet, yielding generally over the kingdom an ex. 1 ss 

 of nearly 50 per cent, of the average, whilst August 

 has yielded a total far below the normal. In July 

 thunderstorms were phenomenal over England, and at 

 Kew Observatory they occurred on nine days, being 

 more frequent than in any July since 1880. In 

 London the mean temperature for the summer was 

 61-5°, the mean maximum reading being io° higher 

 and the mean minimum io° lower than the mean 

 temperature, these results being not very different' 

 from the average, but, on the whole, there has be< n 

 an absence of hot days. Sharp ground-frosts occurred 

 in many parts of England, especially in the eastern, 

 central, and south-eastern districts, on several occa- 

 sions in June, and their effects are distinctly trace- 

 able. Over the country generally there has bei n 

 during the summer a slight deficiency of temperature. 

 The sunshine has not differed very materially from the 

 average. 



The Caiio Scientific Journal (vol. ix., No. 100, 

 January to March, 1917) contains an account by the 

 late Prof. Kr. Birkeland of simultaneous observa- 

 tions of the zodiacal light by himself and an assistant, 

 the one at Helwan in Egypt, the other at Salisbury 

 in Southern Rhodesia. The stations possessed the 

 same longitude, 31 E. of Greenwich, while differing 

 nearly 48 in latitude. The observations discussed 

 were made on sixteen occasions between July 8 and 

 September 2, 1915, but the results arc treated as pre- 

 liminary, the hope being expressed of repeating them 

 at more suitable stations at a more favourable season, 

 adopting an improved photographic method. The 

 observational results are shown in a number of 

 figures, and it is claimed that they show two definite 

 results— first, that the height of the visible light 

 column was much greater at Salisbury than at 

 fhlwan, and, secondly, that then was a considerable 

 relative displacement of the light columns, to the 

 north at Helwan, to the south at Salisbury. There 

 are numerous references to Prof. Birkeland 's 

 theoretical views, which associate the zodiacal light 

 with the earth's magnetism. He apparently believed 

 in the existence of "a principal ia\ system, a lenticular 

 nebula round the sun which scatters the sunlight, and 

 of a secondary scattering ray system round the earth, 

 captured from the principal solai system by the earth's 



