February 6, 19 19] 



NATURE 



45i 



further, indicates t li« pr< \ • > f each; One or two species 

 hi- condemns on account of theii ravages on game 01 

 poultrv . But for the most part h<- urges protection, 

 (minting out the immense services of these birds in 

 keeping down the gophers, which, apart from the 

 tities of grain the\ consume, hau- become 

 .1 serious menace on account of the diseases thej 

 spread, not only among cattle, but also among the 

 population of the rural districts. Text-figures and foui 

 must excellent coloured plates add greatly to the use- 

 fulness of this work. 



limal i- mains found in kitchen-midden de- 

 posits il importance to both anthropologists 

 ami zoologists. Hence we are much indebted to Mr. 

 Alexander Whetmore for his account of bird-bones 



found in kitchen-midden de] in the islands of 



St. Thomas and St. Croix, published in the Proceed- 

 ings of the I riit.it States National Museum (vol. liv.). 

 Altogether thirteen species an represented in these 

 deposits, of which one, a rail (NesoUrochus debooyi), is 

 new to science. One or two species are now no longer 

 found in a living state on St. Croix, and this is 

 attributed to the fact that the early French settlers, 

 somewhere about 1050, burned off the densely wooded 



covering of the whole island in Order that they might 

 render it more healthy, since up to that time fevers 

 and other diseases had taken a heavy toll of the 



rs. This conflagration, of course, entirely 

 changed the character of the flora and fauna, and this 

 fact has to be borne in mind by students of gee*- 



tical distribution. 



Under the title of "The Louse Danger," the British 

 Museum (Natural History) has issued a third " poster " 



in the economii series. Attention is directed therein 

 to thf danger of the clothes (or bodv) louse as a carrier 

 elapsing fever, typhus, and trench fever. In order 

 lid lice, regular washing of underclothing and 

 bed-linen is advocated. It is further desirable to avoid 

 contact with persons suspected ol being verminous; 

 hospital workers and others are advised to wear white 

 linen overalls. For the purpose of getting rid of the 

 lice, a hot bath, followed by a change of underclothing 

 and immediate disinfestation of verminous garments, 

 is an important measure. When eggs of the louse are 

 present in the hair, close clipping or shaving is neces- 

 sary; in the case of women, washing the hair with an 

 insecticidal solution is advised, followed by thorough 

 combing with a fine-toothed metal comb. Simple in- 

 structions for the disinfestation of clothing and bed- 

 ding an appended, together with information concern- 

 ing the most useful insecticides. The poster is written 

 in a clear and easily understood style, and is well 

 adapted for the purpose for which it is intended. 



In the Kew Bulletin (No. to, December, 10,18) 

 W. C Craib gives a further instalment of his "Con- 

 tributions to the Flora of Siam." Fourteen new 

 di scribed, belonging to ten families of 

 flowering plants. They are mainly jungle plants col- 

 1 by Kerr. The most interesting is a new genus of 

 1 iesneraceae, Damrongia, allied to Didymocarpus, and 

 named in honour of II. H. Prince Oamrong, "who, 

 himself interested in scientific pursuits, has done so 

 much for the advancement of education in his 

 country." 



I\ the Philippine Journal of Science (vol. xiii., 

 on C, Botany, No. 5) F. D. Merrill continues his 

 taxonomic work on trie flora of the Philippines. 

 Eighty-four new species, distributed among twenty-six 

 families, are described, the principal additions being 

 in the families Loranthaceae, MyrLsticaceae, Meliaceae, 

 Araliaceae, Gesneraceae (Cyrtandra), and Asclepiadaceae. 

 Then- is one new genus, Acanthophora (Araliaceae), 

 NO. 2571, VOL. I02] 



allied to Vralia, but recalling Acanthopanax in habit; 

 It is a sparinglj branched climber sprawling over 

 thickets, with In rtd Laves 3-5 ft. long,' 



and an ample terminal inflorescence about 1 m. in 

 length. Mr. Merrill has nason to believe that it 

 occurs also in Celebes, and thus adds another to 

 already long list of form to the Philip] 



and Celebes. He adds: 1 [ s now thoroughly 



established that the Celebes and Moluccan floras 

 distineiK more Closel} allied to the fli .1 ol thi Philip, 

 pines than is that of any other region, indicating 

 clearlj that land connections undoubtedlj existed in 

 previous geologic times between the Philippines and 

 the islands to the south and south-east." In addition. 

 to the new specie's, a few species previously known are 

 for the first time credited to the archipela [o, and a 

 few changes in nomenclature are proposed. 



In order to facilitate the use of quartz mercuryi 

 vapour lamps in dye-fading tests, the U.S. Bun,, 

 Standards has recently measured the radiation of 

 different wave-lenglhs 'emitted by a number of these 

 lamps, and has determined its variation with the age 

 of the lamp. The measurements were made by means 

 of a thermo-pile and galvanometer, the various por- 

 tions of the spectrum being separated by transmitting 

 the radiation through absorbing glasses. The results 

 show that the total radiation of a mercurv-vapour 

 lamp decreases during 1000 hours' intermittent use to 

 30-50 per cent, of its initial value, the radiation of 

 wave-length less than 1-4/1 decreases during that time 

 from 30 per cent, of the total to about 20 per cent., 

 while that of wave-lengths less than 0-45,11 decreases 

 from 20 per cent, of the total to about 14 per cent. 

 Messrs. Coblentz, Long, and Kahler, the authors of 

 the paper (No. 330 of the Bureau), attribute this 

 falling off to the blackening of the inside of the quartz 

 tube and the devitrification of the quartz itself. 



A recent issue of the Board of Trade Journal 

 (December 5) records some notable developments of 

 chemical industries in the United States. One in- 

 stance is the production of nitric acid on a large scale 

 from atmospheric nitrogen. A Government cyan- 

 amide-nitrate plant, No. 2, began operations in Octo- 

 ber at Mussel Shoals, Alabama. The product was 

 utilised for making high explosives, of which the out- 

 put from this plant is said to be at the rate of about 

 a quarter of a million pounds per annum. Another 

 example is that of potassium compounds. A new unit 

 of a potash plant on Searle's Lake, Southern Cali- 

 fornia, was brought into operation carlv in November; 

 its employment brings the production of potash by a 

 single company working on this lake up to 140 tons a 

 day. 



In Helvetica Chimica Acta. No. ;, there is a short, 

 but suggestive, paper by M. J. Lifschitz on chemical 

 luminescence. Just as with the absorption of light, 

 studies on the emission of light during chemical reac- 

 tions may prove to be of notable significance in eluci- 

 dating the connection between radiant and chemical 

 energy and the nature of chemical action. The pheno- 

 menon of chemical luminescence is by no means con- 

 fined to oxidation processes : a good display of light- 

 errission is observed when hydrobenzamide is distilled 

 in a current of hydrogen, although no oxygen is pre- 

 sent. Similarly, other reactions indicate that the 

 governing factor is not the total amount of trans- 

 formed energy, nor the speed of the reaction. The 

 author finds that the organo-magnesium compounds 

 (e.g. Grignard's reagent) furnish very convenient 

 material for the study of these ind kindred pheno- 

 mena. 



