September 19, tgi8] 



NATURE 



51 



wind removes the debris. < aves are eaten oul in this 

 way under' the marginal cliffs, which recede b) a 

 ess of dry undermining. A paper by Dr. Bather 

 in ili' t ■ * i — is referred to. 



A publication nf importance to zoologists anil 

 geologists on "The Foraminifera of the Atlantic 

 Ocean" is begun by Mr. J. A. Cushman in Bulletin 

 No. i"-t "f the I nited States National Museum 

 1 Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1918). The 

 Astrorhizida alt with, and the evidence of 



selective abilitv in these primitive forms is of perennial 

 and philosophic interest Haliphysema, with its 

 crown of sponge-spicules, is figured after Brady; but 

 photographs an given of Psammosphaera parva, 

 which habitually builds into its spherical test one large 

 spicul< boldl] ai each end. Mr. Cushman 



writes Of another species as possessing "even greater 

 ingenuity." 



One of the greatest earthquakes of the last ten 

 years was registered on September 3. At West Brom- 

 wich the range <>f movement amounted 10 10 in.; the 

 until, were frequently swept off the paper, 



and urn- once completely dismounted, the total dura- 

 tion of the oscillations being four or five hours. The 

 origin of the earthquake is estimated to be in the North 

 Pacific, at a distance of 5600 miles, and probably in 

 the Aleutian Islands, which belong to one of the great 

 ions of the globe. 



Mr. C. H. iii ISCODINE, nf Abingdon Gardens, W., 

 has sent us an account of a remarkable hailstorm in 

 King Island, Tasmania, on June 21 last, received from 

 his nephew, Mr. E. J. Glascodine, from which we 

 extract the following: — "The hailstones were like 

 starfish, i.e. with a roughly spherical core and fingers 

 out in all directions, not only on one plane : more 

 like one of those most useful-looking old-time war 

 weapons, spikes protruding from a sphere of iron in 

 all directions mounted on a handle by a short chain ! 

 But in the case of the hailstones the spike was much 

 longer, the largest part of the whole. One or two 

 I mi more than three inches across from 



point to point, and several were above two inches in 

 two directions : the centre was comparatively small, 

 from I in. to ? in. in diameter, roughly. Thev were 

 not heavy, and were clear ice, not opaque as hail 

 usually is, and at the same time each ' stone ' 

 appeared to be an agglomeration of ordinary small 

 hailstones. Though the ground was more or less 

 covered with ice, which lav for two hours, and' 

 only a proportion of the hailstones were of extra large 

 size and this unusual shape, the thermometer (on 

 veranda) did not fall below 4S F. All soft, succulent 

 - of plants, such as arum lilies and rhubarb, 

 turnip-tops, and such like, were shredded, torn in 

 strips." 



In an article in the September issue of Scientia 

 Dr. A. Ricc6, of the Astrophysical Observatory of 

 tin University nf Catania, summarises our know- 

 ledge of the constitution of the sun. So far as tin 

 interior is concerned, there is still much to learn. 

 The high temperature and pressure which exist there 

 are so much above those attainable in a laboratory 

 that we are unable to ascertain what their effects on 

 the properties of matter are likely to be. There seems 

 little doubt that the temperature of the interior ex- 

 ceeds 7000 C, and is well above the critical tempera- 

 tures of the substances of which the sun is com- 

 posed. As a consequence, those substances should 

 be in the gaseous state ; but under the enormous pres- 

 sure to which thev ar/- subjected their molecules are 

 -1. close together that the properties of the gases must 

 be similar to those of liquids, or even solids, as known 

 from laboratory experiments. 



NO. 2551. VOL. I02] 



In to the Franklin Institute in 



March, which appears in the August issue of the 

 Journal of the institute, Mr. F. YV. Sperr, jun., chief 

 chemist to the Koppers Co., nf Pittsburgh, dealt with 

 In nlations between the principal characteristics of 

 American cokes and the sources of the coal from which 

 they are produced. In the course of his address he 

 pointed out thai more than one-half of the sixty million 



11-. of coke produced per annum in America at the 

 present time is made in the old "beeh oven, 



which wastes the ammonia, benzene, naphth 

 toluene, and other by-products the modern oven con- 

 serves, and, in addition, will onlv produce good coke 

 for metallurgical purposes from a much mop 

 range of coals than the modern oven. He estimates 

 the annual loss to the country from this cause, to be 

 19,000,000!. 



Tin: American Ceramic Society, which has been in 

 existence nearly twenty years, and has hitherto 

 issued its Transactions in the form of annual volumes, 

 has decided instead to publish a monthly journal, the 

 first number of which has just come to hand. The 

 official description of it as "a monthly journal devoted 

 to the arts and sciences related to the silicate indus- 

 tries " serves as a reminder that the authoritative 

 definition of the term "ceramic" in America covers 

 a much wider ran<?e than is commonly accepted else- 

 where. Possibly this more extensive field may supply 

 at the same time a reason for publication at shorter 

 intervals, and a sufficient amount of suitable matter 

 to maintain the standard aimed at. 'It is in- 

 teresting to note that of the committees through which 

 the U.S. National Research Council w-orks, three 

 are concerned with subjects ccming within the 

 scope of the American Ceramic Society's activi- 

 ties. An appreciative notice of Prof. E. Orton, 

 jun., who has been secretary of the societv 

 since its foundation, is included. Among the 

 technical papers in this first number are: — "Special 

 Pots for the Melting of Optical Glass," by Bleininger; 

 "The Effect of Gravitation upon the Drying of 

 Ceramic Ware," by Washburn; and "Notes on the 

 Hydration of Anhydrite and Dead-burned Gvpsum." 

 by Gill. We wish the American Ceramic Society 

 success in its new venture. 



Readers of Nature may be weary of the itera- 

 tion with which their attention has been directed 

 to the extraordinarily liberal scale on which the 

 American Government subsidises the provision of 

 agricultural education and research, but an article in 

 the current Fortnightly Review contains some striking 

 figures which deserve notice. For example, the ex- 

 penditure of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture has risen from 234,0001. in 1890 to upwards 

 of 5,000,000!. in 1916 — a figure which may be con- 

 trasted with the 300,000!. odd expended by the Eng- 

 lish Board of Agriculture in the latter year. Another 

 striking figure is derived from the report of the 

 Division of Publications. The aggregate printed 

 matter issued in one year exceeded 25 million copies 

 of nearly 2000 separate publications, all of which 

 were issued at a nominal price. Another novel form 

 of activity noticed is the employment of "agents in 

 the field " to supply advice gratuitously to the 

 southern coloured agriculturists. Of these 450 

 employed. Again, what arc known as "corn clubs" 

 for bovs have been started. The membership of these 

 ds 46.000, and all have been specially instructed 

 in the growing of maize. A sum of 8000! dis- 



tributed in prizes for good w^ork. A further respect 

 in which the U.S. Government is far ahead of the 

 British is in relation to the control of food products, 

 ally in respect of adulteration and preservatives, 

 and of this department a characteristic feature is the 



