Decemder 12, [918] 



NATURE 



291 



on and 0) assignmc nl to a a rso/i 



11 most suitahl 



u ill be pf -• ! 



Maumalogists will welcome thi description of the 



m hi countrj , West Sumati a, 



Messrs. II. 1 . Robinson and C. Boden KJoss, 



which appi ai • In ih<- Journal of the Fedi rated (w'alaj 



- Museums (vol. viii., pari 2, 1918), hoi bnh 



di als « ith the rriosl extensive coll 



hi mad.- in the island prbj)erj but also because of the 



careful way in which thr work has been (Tone. 



pedes are described for the BrsI time, whoe a 



number "I others, of which temporary diagnoses have 



alr.a.h appi described in detail. Adults 



and young and variations attributable to age, sexj and 



season or to individuals are all carefully described, 



.ts all so an ittributable to altitud< . 



..111111 essa\ on the gannets ol Bonaventurc 

 Island bj Mr. 1'. A. Taverner appears in the Ottawa 

 Naturalist (vol. xxxii., No. 2). Mr. Taverner 

 describes the breeding colonies, not only of the 

 gannets, but also of the guillemots, puffins, and petrels 

 ated therewith. An attempt, he remarks, has 

 been made to make this spot a perpetual bird reserve, 

 hut the .Hurts of the Conservation Commission in 

 this direction have met with only a cold response from 

 the local population. It is to be hoped thai the 

 Dominion authorities will not relax their efforts in 

 this matter, it only to put an end to the wanton 

 destruction caused by "sportsmen" who seem to lake 

 a delight in slaughtering the birds without making 

 am use whatever of their victims, which include 

 thousands of young left to di.- of starvation by the 

 death of their parents. 



I in peach-shoot borer (Laspeyresia molesta, Busck.) 

 causes considerable damage to peach-trees, as well as 

 to other rosaceous trees, in Japan. An interesting 

 nit of the biology of this insecl is given l>\ 

 Messrs. Harukawa and Vagi in the Berichte des 

 Ohat.a Institutes (Eld. i.. Heft 2, pp. 151-70). On the 

 south coast of western Japan this ins. . 1 passes through 

 live generations in a single year, but the number 

 of annual generations appears to be determined to a 

 greater or less extent by the climatic conditions. The 

 duration of 1 he egg stage was found to be 24 days, 

 of the larval condition 11 15 days, whilst the insecl 

 remained in the pupal state for 6-10 days. At the 

 onset of cold weaih.r the larvae spin their cocoons, pass 



the winter as caterpillars, and onl\ assume the pupal 

 the following spring. The young caterpillar, as 

 soon as it leaves the egg, makes its way to the has. 

 of a still unexpanded leaf of a young shoot of the 

 peach-tree, bores iis waj into the pith, and destroys 



this from above downwards. The insect also attacks 

 the fruit of the peach, pear. etc. 



Radio-mbtallographi is i" subject ol .1 short article 

 by Mr. Thorne Baker in the British Journal of Photo- 

 graphy for November 29. By using a modern high- 

 t( nsion transformer and Coolidge tube, heavy currents 

 of extreme penetrating power can be produced, and 

 i it possible to take photographs through 4 in. 

 of hard steel. A hole 1 04th of an inch in diametei 

 and of the same depth, drilled in the upper surface 

 of a block of steel 2 in. thick, will show distinctly 

 in a good radiograph with an exposure ..f about two 

 minutes, so that the usefulness of the method for 

 showing flaws and cavities is very promising. In- 

 stallations for testing by this method have been put up 

 by many large engineering firms. The protection ol 

 No. 2563, VOL. 102] 



the operator is a , . ,....., i. ha! i„ 



ordinary medical work, and it is preferable to control 



the apparatus from a separate room or cabin, 'the 



partition beirtg lined with heavj sheet-lead, a ihi.k 

 lead-glass window beihjg pm | , x ji|, 



a I. ad shutter immediately the tub eei 1.. be 



acting properly. 



I in- subject ol [he 1 i.iill- I a\ lor lecture, which was 



delivered this year In Mr, !•". Twvman, ,,i Messrs. 



Adam Hilger, Ltd., was " I he I se of th< Intei Eefo- 



1 )ptical Systems." A full account of 



'he lecture is published in the Journal of the Royal 

 Photographic Spcietj just published (November). Mr. 

 Tw Milan's experience confirms Lord Rayleigh's rule 

 (which was derived from the calculations of light 

 intensity distribution for a few specific cases) that/an 

 optical instrument cannot properly be deserilped as ol 

 first quality if ii produces aberrations greater than a 

 quarter of a wave-length. Many photographs of inter- 

 ference patterns produced by aberrations are given in 

 the report. In order to utilise the result of the lest, 

 the contour lines of the pattern are marked during the 

 observation on the surface of the lens with a paint- 

 brush, and then (he pari indicated as the hioh.-si i s 

 polished off, gradually extending the area of polishing 

 to tin- further contour lines. Mr. Twvman says that 

 this is "not at all a difficult or very lengthy opera- 

 tion, and one which 1 have performed this morning, 

 before my usual breakfast-hour, on a very similar 

 lens." We are therefore justified in hoping that the 

 near future will enable us to get optical systems much 

 nearer to perfection than those to which we have 

 been accustomed, without any notable increase in their 

 , cost. 



fur: importance of kinematograph propaganda has 

 been fully realised by America and Germany, and it is 

 quite lime that its usefulness was appreciated in Hol- 

 land. As the Industrial Publicttj Service, Lid. 

 (Hampden House, Kingswav, W.CI2), points oul in 

 a recent brochure, 90 per cent, of the films shown to 

 lb. British public are of foreign brigirt, with the 

 result that the conceptions of life which a multitude 

 of our people derive are those as represented 

 principally in America. Among the objects of the 

 Industrial Publicity Service I which is a non-profit 

 organisation controlled by various manufacturers' 

 associations) are that it should serve as a medium 

 by which the general public at home and abroad 

 should be hotter informed of the developm.nl of British 

 industries through the Press, and that it should 

 organise kinematograph displays, etc., showing the 

 importance of improved methods of production on 

 the well-being of the population. In this respect 

 the claims of British science as applied lo industry 



should receive attention, so that othei nations may. 

 realise, through (he medium of the kinema, what 

 Britain has accomplished in thai direction. If this 

 method of propaganda were judiciously resorted 10, it 

 would go far to maintain the prestige of the British 

 nation among our Allies and neutral countries. The 

 main thing is to make films of this kind popular ami 

 interesting, and it could be done without detracting 

 in any way from the dignit\ of science. 



It is well known that American shipbuilding yards 

 have mad. extensive Use of bridge-building and other 

 suitabh equipped works for the fabrication of parts of 

 vessels. Similarly it was necessary to utilise fur the 

 propulsion of ships sn buill every type of standard 



which could be said lo be in any way suitable 

 for marine work. From an article in Engineering for 

 November 20 we learn thai American ships an- being 



