———— 
SEPTEMBER 25, 1913] 
occupying the drier situations. The boundary 
between these two species is shifting towards the 
‘moister regions, indicating that the area which is too 
dry for the rock pine to inhabit is increasing. 
(3) Geologically, the authors have to take a wider 
field. Of chief importance is the evidence that the 
whole of the south-west’ States have suffered a great 
diminution of their mountain glaciers and enclosed 
lakes, commencing several thousand years ago, and 
probably still in progress, as shown by measure- 
ments in the last few decades. No single line of 
evidence is conclusive, but the convergence of so many, 
coupled with the experience of observers in other 
lands, renders dessication in this region in human 
times very probable. In connection with the authors’ 
suggestion for the careful measurement of the fluctua- 
tions of land-locked lakes, it may be noted that such 
records are now being kept in the British colonies in 
tropical Africa. The work is illustrated with a 
number of very clear photographs, but the omission 
of the names of the months and the scales of units 
in the diagrams of monthly rainfall and temperature | 
is unfortunate. 
~WE have received the ** Pilot Chart” of the North 
Atlantic Ocean for September, published by the 
United States Hydrographic Office, containing similar 
useful information relating to winds, currents, &c., 
to that included in the ‘‘ Meteorological Charts’’ for- 
merly published by the Weather Bureau, but now 
‘discontinued (NATuRE, September 11). An interesting 
account is given of observations on ocean tempera- 
tures in the vicinity of icebergs and in other parts of 
the ocean by officers of the U.S. Bureau of Standards, 
with illustrations of the temperature equipment and 
of samples of the records obtained. Practically con- 
tinuous temperature readings were obtained from 
June 4 to July 10, 1912, and these show that the varia- 
tions in parts of the ocean far removed from ice are 
often as great and sudden as in the vicinity of ice- 
bergs. The authors consider that the question is still 
in doubt whether these influence to any considerable 
extent the temperature of sea-water at a mile or so 
distant. 
AN interesting article on evaporation in the great 
plains and intermountain districts as influenced by the 
haze of 1912, by Messrs. L. J. Briggs and J. O. Belz, 
of the Bureau of Plant Industry, appeared in the 
Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences of 
August 19. The haze was presumably due to the 
eruption of Mount Katmai (Aleutian Islands) on June 
6-7 of that year, during which volcanic ashes fell at 
Sitka, 7oo miles distant, and the sun was obscured for 
atime. It gave rise to a marked diminution in the 
intensity of solar radiation, which was particularly 
noticed in subsequent months at the Mount Wilson, 
Mount Weather, and Madison observatories in the 
United States. The authors, who had been engaged 
in evaporation measurements during the last five 
years, deemed it desirable to determine to what extent 
‘this reduction of solar intensity affected the evapora- 
tion (not forgetting that this is also greatly influenced 
‘by other factors). Tables of monthly normal evapora- 
tion for fifteen stations show that during four months 
NO. 2291, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
107 
1 
following the eruption the average reduction was about 
Io per cent. This reduction in the mean evaporation, 
although somewhat less than the observed reduction 
in solar intensity, appears to afford an approximate 
measure of the reduction of the latter at the earth’s 
surface. 
THE Scientific American (vol. cix., No. 5) contains 
two illustrated articles on the modern developments of 
the electric furnace. In the first (p. 84) an account 
is given of recent patents covering improvements 
in the electric arc as used in the purification of 
steel and iron and in the production of compounds of 
nitrogen from the air; whilst in the second a special 
account is given of the electrical production of steel, 
from the early experiments of Siemens to the thirty- 
ton furnace of to-day. Illustrations are given of the 
Stassano are furnace in use at Turin, of the Kjellin 
and the Réchling-Rodenhausen induction furnaces, and 
of the Heroult 15-ton are furnace in use at the works 
of the U.S. Steel Corporation. 
AERONAUTICAL science in America receives fresh 
recognition in the decision of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution to reopen the Langley Aérodynamical Labora- 
tory. The first serious contribution from the scien- 
tific side of aéronautics is to be found in the work 
| of Langley, the necessary funds being provided by a 
Governmental grant; had the light petrol motor 
come into existence twenty years ago, it is probable 
that the Langley Laboratory would never have been 
closed, and would now be the leading aéronautical 
laboratory in the world. The Smithsonian Institution 
is a private concern, although closely connected with 
the U.S. Government departments. For the present 
it will be dependent on private donations for its in- 
come for aéronautical research, though in time it is 
hoped to receive a Governmental grant in aid. Appa- 
ratus useful in aéronautics already exists in the U.S. 
Bureau of Standards, and the U.S. Weather Bureau, 
with which the Langley Laboratory will be closely 
connected, and financial support is primarily needed 
for the construction of two wind tunnels and the 
necessary model-making apparatus. In addition to 
experiments on models an aircraft field laboratory is 
proposed, for measurements of stress, moments of 
inertia, &c., and for the adjustment and repair of 
several full-scale land and water aéroplanes. 
In the July number of The Biochemical Journal 
(vol. vii., No. 4) Mr. Egerton C. Grey demonstrates 
the production of acetaldehyde during the anaerobic 
fermentation of glucose by Bacillus coli communis, 
and states that, by artificial selection by means of 
growth on sodium chloracetate, strains of the original 
organism can be obtained which produce either a 
greatly diminished amount of the aldehyde or none at 
all. As this diminution is accompanied by a falling-off 
of the production of alcohol and carbon dioxide, it 
is probable that the aldehyde is a primary, not a 
secondary, product of fermentation, and that the 
process of alcohol formation by B. coli communis is 
analogous to the alcoholic fermentation set up by the 
zymase of yeast. 
In the current number of the Berichte (No. 11, 
p. 2401), Prof. Willstatter and L. Zechmeister publish 
