January 28, 1897 | 
NATURE 
301 
THE mammals collected by Dr. Donaldson Smith, during his 
recent expedition to Lake Rudolf, have just been described at 
Philadelphia by Mr. S. N. Rhoads. The collection contained 
representatives of fifty genera and seventy-seven species, seven 
of which are now characterised as new. These are mostly rodents. 
Perhaps the most noticeable discovery is that of a second | 
species of the very peculiar African genus Zephiomys, which 
Mr. Khoads proposes to call Lophzomys Smithz. Dr. Donaldson” 
Smith also obtained a specimen of the curious hairless mole- 
rat, Heterocephalus glaber, of which only two examples had 
been previously captured. 
Mr. FREDERIC W. TRUE, the Curator of the Department of 
Mammals in the U.S, National Museum, has just completed 
and published an excellent review of the Moles of North 
America, based principally on the large series of specimens of 
these insectivorus mammals under his charge. He recognises 
two sub-families of Moles as occurring in the Nearctic Region, 
Talpine, with four genera, and AZygaline, with one genus. 
Special attention is paid to the distribution of these animals in 
America, which presents several interesting features. Two of 
the five genera of Moles are strictly confined to the Pacific 
Coast, while the three remaining genera are only met with 
east of the Rocky Mountains. The most remarkable form, 
perhaps, of the American Moles is the so-called Star-nosed 
Mole (Condylura cristata), which carries an enlarged fleshy 
disc at the extremity of its snout, obviously for use as a highly 
developed tactile organ. 
THE insects which affect the cotton plant in the United 
States are described by-Mr. L. O. Howard in Bulletin No. 33, 
published by the U. S. Department of Agriculture: The 
cultivation of cotton in the United States has gone through a 
curious change with regard to the depredations of insects. Not 
very long ago, the average annual loss to the cotton-growers 
from the work of a single species of insect amounted to 
15,000,000 dols. This insect was the so-called cotton cater- 
pillar, or cotton-leaf worm (the larva of Aleta argiliacea, 
Hiibn.). Down to the year 1881 the damage done by this 
insect so far exceeded that inflicted by any other species that 
other forms had received but little consideration. Since about 
1880, however, the cotton-worm has ceased to bé a serious 
enemy to cotton. It is undoubtedly much less abundant and 
destructive than it was fifteen years ago, and no longer holds 
the first position among the insect enemies of the cotton crop. 
The so-called bollworm (the larya of He/iothis armiger, Hiibn.), 
which a few years ago did much lesss damage than the cotton- 
leaf worm, now ranks as the most prominent enemy. It is 
curious to note this decline of one harmful insect and rise of 
another. Students of biology will remember many similar 
instances. 
THE uncertainty which still exists as to the ultimate causes of | 
volcanic outbursts is illustrated by two papers which appear, at 
no great distance apart, in the Proceedings of the Boston Society 
of Natural History for 1896. The author of each paper starts out 
with the consideration of certain phenomena occurring ona small 
scale, and eventually applies his conclusions to the problem of 
the distribution of volcanoes ; but both start and conclusion are 
widely separate in the two cases. Mr. N. S. Shaler begins 
with the escape of gases from a viscous liquid, and noting how, 
once a path is opened up, a regular procession of bubbles 
follows along it, applies this first to explain the vertical jets of 
water and gas’ that issued from the ground at the Charleston 
earthquake, and then to the repetition of volcanic eruptions at 
the same locality. He suggests that it is the water included in 
deposited sediments which becomes the explosive steam of a 
voleanic outburst, and regards rapidity of sedimentation and the 
NO. 1422, VOL. 55] 
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conductivity o1 the earth’s crust as correlated factors in the 
establishment of volcanic action in any region of the earth’s 
surface. Mr. J. B. Woodworth, on the other hand, deals with 
the details of fracture under strain, and his paper is illustrated 
with some very beautiful photo-reproductions of the fracture- 
surfaces of fine-grained homogeneous rocks. He compares the 
distribution of volcanos (particularly in the Sandwich Islands 
and western coast of the Pacific) with the distribution of 
fracture-lines at the margin of a joint surface. Whether “this 
comparison be justified by further study or not, the paper is a 
most valuable addition to the literature of fracture-structures. 
AN interesting note on the Australian Snow Country has been 
received from Mr. John Plummer, of Sydney. A railway journey 
of only thirteen hours separates Sydney from the threshold of a 
region of ice and snow, where, even during the hottest days of 
the Australian summer, fires and blankets are necessary, while 
residents on the interior plains are suffering from the sweltering 
heat. Mount Kosciusko, the highest peak in Australia, being 
7171 feet above sea-level, is in that coolregion. It forms part of 
the Muniong Range, the northernmost portion of the Australian 
Alps, which extend across the upper waters of the Murray into 
Victoria, the whole of the surrounding country being more or 
less mountainous. The hills of the Muniong Range are po pu- 
larly known as the Snowy Mountains, portions of their summits 
being above the line of perpetual snow. There is no Alpine 
climbing to be done in scaling Mount Kosciusko. The ascent 
begins in reality twenty-five miles away from the summit, and 
the slope is so gradual that it may be performed without 
fatigue by any one in ordinary health. Highest Australian 
mountain though it is, the visitor can drive to the top of it. 
There are no trees within some miles of the mountain top ; but 
gigantic mosses grow there, and beautiful wild flowers. Love- 
liest of all, perhaps, are the mountain snowdrop and the 
elychrisan, or everlasting flower, which in this district has a 
black centre instead of the more common yellow one. Another 
interesting feature of the locality is the number of small lakes 
formed by the melting of the snow in basins between the hills. 
The highest of these lakes—it is the highest sheet of water in 
Australia—is situated about 300 feet from the summit of Mount 
Kosciusko. 
ALTHOUGH milk has so frequently been held responsible for 
the dissemination of diphtheria, yet curiously but few exact 
investigations have been made on the behaviour of diphtheria 
bacilliin milk. Hesse found that cholera bacilli underwent 
deterioration in raw milk; that, in fact, when kept in these 
surroundings at a temperature of 37° C., they were entirely 
destroyed within 22 hours. Caro of Naples, on the other hand, 
working with anthrax bacilli in raw milk, states that these 
microbes flourish abundantly in milk, and abate no jot of their 
virulence under these conditions. Prof. Schottelius has repeated 
these experiments, and has entirely confirmed them ; he has, 
however, extended his investigations to the behaviour of 
diphtheria bacilli in milk. Ina recent number of the Central- 
blatt fiir Bakteriologie, Part i., a summarised account is given 
of these researches, and it appears that in fresh milk diphtheria 
bacilli find an exceptionally satisfactory material for growth 
and multiplication. In sterilised milk, however, their growth 
was not so abundant, and was less strongly marked than in the 
ordinary broth used for cultivation purposes. As the milk was 
only sterilised for halfan hour by means of the ordinary Soxhlet 
apparatus, this difference in the vitality of the diphtheria bacilli 
in the raw and heated milk, respectively, could not have been 
due to the milk having become acid through heating. Hesse 
has shown that when milk is subjected to prolonged sterilisation 
at a high temperature it exhibits an acid reaction. Prof. 
Schottelius concludes his paper with a warning, now so often 
