232 
NAT ORE, 
[JANUARY 7, 1904 
be destroyed and the molluscs rendered harmless thereby ; 
but this cooking is a very perfunctory process, and consists 
in plunging netfuls of the live fish, the shells of which are 
tightly closed, into a vessel containing boiling water. The 
immersion of the cold mass immediately lowers the 
temperature, and when, in the course of two or three 
minutes, the water begins to boil again, the nets are lifted 
The scalding kills the fish and causes the shells to 
open, but does not sterilise the contents, and fish that had 
been kept in typhoid polluted water were found to be swarm- 
ing with live bacilli after this process of cooking. Pro- 
longed boiling would be effective, but causes the fish to 
shrivel and spoils them for sale. Dr. Klein suggested that 
cooking by steam might be found to sterilise efficiently 
without spoiling the fish as food, and some experiments 
have for the 
Two batches of molluscs 
were cooked, one for ten minutes and the other for five. 
out. 
recently been carried out 
Company with a view to test this. 
Fishmongers’ 
The steamer used was a vessel two feet deep, the fish being 
distributed in three layers on trays, the steam being intro- 
duced by a pipe about an inch from the bottom. The results 
were minutes, 
all 
:—ten mussels spoilt and useless, cockles 
right in upper layer, bottom layer overcooked; five 
minutes, mussels all right, and also two upper layers of | 
The 
bacterial results were that the cockles proved to be sterile 
in all cases. ‘The mussels were also sterile, except some in 
the top layer steamed for five minutes, which still contained 
some living spores. 
cockles, but bottom layer of cockles less satisfactory. 
As a result of these experiments the 
Fishmongers’ Company feels justified in strongly recom- 
mending a substitution of steaming for boiling to the trade. 
DiscussinG the subject of nuclear division without cell 
division, Mr. Ralph Lillie suggests that mitosis is an in- 
cidental consequence of the passage of the chromatin into 
the strongly acid and chromatic phase. This change, he 
believes, involves the acquisition by the chromatin of a 
negative charge of considerable potential, as a result of 
the inductive action of which there ensues a redistribution 
of the ions in the cytoplasm with the production of certain 
differences of electrical potential. To these potential differ- 
ences are due the appearance of the astral radiations and the 
diminution of surface tension that leads to cleavage (Bio- 
logecal Bulletin, vol. iv. No. 4). 
In a paper in the Technology Quarterly (vol. xvi. No. 3) 
Messrs. C. E. A. Winslow and C. P. Nibecker discuss the 
Significance of bacteriological methods in sanitary water 
analysis. They consider that the real application of 
chemistry begins where that of bacteriology ends. When 
pollution is so gross that its existence is obvious and only 
its amount need be determined, the bacteriological tests will 
not serve on account of their excessive delicacy. In study- 
ing the gross pollution of streams, treatment of trades’ 
wastes, and purification of sewage, the relations of nitro- 
genous and oxygen compounds are of prime importance, 
that is, when pollution is to be avoided because the decom- 
position of chemical substances causes a nuisance, it must 
be studied by chemical methods. When the danger is that 
of infection, and arises only from the presence of bacteria, 
bacteriological methods furnish the best index of pollution. 
With regard to methods, the authors express a preference 
for the use of the fermentation tubes, and of gelatin, and 
of lactose agar, plates. 
Tne secretary of the Durham College of Science, New- 
castle-upon-Tyne, writes to supplement the remarks respect- 
ing the conditions on which women can obtain degrees in 
the University of Durham, contained in an article on the 
NO. 1784, VOL. 69] 
higher education of women published in our issue of 
December 24, 1903. Residence in Durham is necessary only 
for women proposing to take a degree in arts of the Durham 
University ; for Durham degrees in science, medicine, &c., 
attendance at the Durham College of Science and the 
University of Durham College of Medicine is the qualifi- 
cation, and there are many women undergraduates at these 
colleges in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 
In the December number of the Zoologist Mr. A. H.— 
Cocks discusses the length of the period of gestation in the 
badger, which he is inclined to think is nearer a twelve-_ 
month than the four and a half months assigned to it by 
Mr. Meade-Waldo. 
Tue homology and classification of the tines developed 
in the crown of the antlers of the Carpathian red deer form — 
; 
the subject of an article by Dr. E. Botezat in Gegenbaur’s 
Morphologisches Jahrbuch (vol. xxxii. part i.). In ang 
appendix the author records the existence of what he re-— 
gards as two local races of the species, for which the names. 
Cervus vulgaris campestris and C, v. montanus are pro~ 
posed. It may be pointed out, in the first place, that (oe 
zulgaris is not the name of the red deer, and, in the second! 
place, that C. v. campestris is preoccupied by C. campestris, 
one of the names of the South American pampas deer. 
Bulletin No. 41 of the entomological division of the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture is devoted to an account of the 
life-history of the codling-moth and the damage inflicted’ 
by its caterpillar on orchards. The author, Mr. C. B. 
Simpson, states that this now cosmopolitan insect was in- 
troduced into the North-west Pacific States about the year 
1880. On account of the genial climate of this new habitat 
two overlapping annual broods are now produced, and if 
proper preventive measures are not taken to keep them in 
check, the entire apple-crop in many districts,is liable to 
damage. The best remedial measures appear to be arsenical 
spraying and banding, and by these means the damage to 
the crop in one case has been reduced from between 4o and — 
69 per cent. to as low as 10 per cent., while it is estimated — 
that by continuing the process for a few years the injury 
inflicted by this insect might in any locality be reduced from 
nearly 100 per cent. to 5 or 10 per cent. The annual shrink- 
age in value of American apple-crops owing to the ravages 
of this moth has been estimated at 11,000,000 dollars. 
Tue seas of Japan, Okhotsk, and Bering have been 
attracting of late a great deal of attention from both Russian’ 
and American explorers. M. P. Schmidt gives now, in a 
recent issue of the Isvestia of the Russian Geographical 
Society (1903, ii.), a short sketch of the physical geography 
of these seas, with a list of 133 species of fishes found in - 
them, and their distribution, the list being based both on 
previous research and the author’s own collection, whiclr 
contains 100 species. 
Tue hydrographic expedition of M. L. S. Berg, which 
has collected interesting data concerning the present rise 
of level of Lake Aral, has also studied the temperature, the — 
currents of the lake and its salinity (specific gravity from 
1.0076 to 1-0080 in the middle parts, and up to 1-0084 and 
1-0090, occasionally 1-0094 in sheltered bays). The plankton 
is poorer than in European lakes, and during the hot days 
it keeps at a certain depth, coming to the surface only in 
the moonlight. M. S. A. Zernoff, who has studied the 
Aral collections, has found in them quite a number of forms 
which had only been met with in the Caspian Sea, and had 
only lately been described by Prof. Sars. The expedition 
has also collected ants, lizards, and other specimens of 
interest to naturalists. : 
