i6 



NA TURE 



[NoVEMUER 2, 1905 



Dr. L. Cockayne contributes a short article on the far 

 north of New Zealand to the Young Man's Magazine 

 (August 1). The narrow strip of land lying north of the 

 thirty-fifth parallel is for the most part a barren waste 

 traversed by a few diggers of kauri gum. A belt of man- 

 groves lines the estuary in Rangaumu Bay, and about 

 North Cape are found the purple-flowered composite, 

 Cassinia amoena, the crimson-flowered Veronica speciosa. 

 and the curious leafless parasite Cassythia paniculata. 

 Especially interesting is the Reinga, a rocky mass jutting 

 out into the sea, whence, according to Maori lore, the 

 Maori spirits took their final leap into the unseen world. 



It is interesting to find, as noted in the Agricultural 

 News (September 9), that the new Barbados varieties of 

 sugar-cane, known as B20S and B147, have yielded good 

 results in Queensland ; the latter seems to be especially 

 hardy and proof against fungoid attacks. A remedy is 

 suggested in connection with an unsatisfactory shipment 

 of mangoes that the decay which is caused by fungi or 

 bacteria acting on the bruised surface of the fruit may 

 be in some measure prevented by immersion in a weak 

 solution of formalin ; it is said that with due precaution 

 the formalin does not spoil even such delicate fruit as 

 strawberries. 



At the beginning of this Year an improvement was 

 effected in the general style of the Indian Forester, and 

 now, owing to the departure of two members of the con- 

 trolling committee, a more permanent arrangement for 

 a board of management, presided over by the Inspector- 

 General of Forests, has been established. Mr. E. P. 

 Stebbing, who continues to act as editor, discusses in the 

 August number the pros and cons of fire protection in 

 teak forests, and concludes with the recommendation to 

 consider how fires can be controlled so as to yield the 

 maximum benefit with a minimum of damage. He also 

 furnishes the life-history of a cecidomyid fly which pro- 

 dui es galls or pseudo-cones on Pinus longifolia. Mr. 

 E. M. Hodgson presents an interesting account of the 

 arrangements for fire protection in the Mandui range, Surat 

 di-trict. 



In Bulletin No. 26, Bureau of Government Laboratories, 

 Manila, Dr. Richard Strong gives an admirable survey of 

 the clinical and pathological significance of the Balantidium 

 coli, a protozoon parasitic in man and swine, and causing 

 diarrhoea and pseudo-dysentery. 



The contents of the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins 

 Hospital for October (xvi., No. 175) are chiefly devoted 

 to medical subjects, but include an interesting summary 

 of our present conceptions as to the cause of the heart 

 beat by Mr. E. G. Martin. 



The Journal of Anatomy and Physiology with the October 

 number commences its fortieth volume, and Sir William 

 Turner, F.R.S., who has been an associate editor since 

 its foundation, contributes a preface. The size of the 

 page has been much enlarged, which, it is hoped, will be 

 more advantageous for the reproduction of drawings. 

 The number contains ten important articles and several 

 excellent plates. 



The papers in the October number of the Journal of 

 Hygiene (v., No. 4) maintain a high standard. Among 

 others, Dr. II. S. Willson writes on a new process for 

 the isolation of the typhoid bacillus from water by means 

 of precipitation with alum, Mr. Crofton on anti-bacterial 

 sera, Mr. de Korte on a sarcosporidium of a monkey, Dr. 

 NO. 1879, VOL J?> 



Graham-Smith on a piroplasma parasite of the mole, Dr. 

 Nuttall on the prevalence of anopheles, Dr. Harden on the 

 chemical action on glucose of the lactose-fermenting 

 organisms of faeces, and Dr. Haldane on the influence of 

 high air temperatures. 



ATTENTION is directed in the Engineering and Mining 

 Journal, of New York, to the remarkable developments at 

 Mount Morgan, Queensland, whereby the mine of that 

 name is being converted from a great gold mine into a 

 copper mine. Diamond-drill borings have revealed large 

 bodies of copper gold ore below the previous openings in 

 the gold ore sufficient to warrant the erection of smelting 

 works capable of treating 10,000 tons of ore monthlv. 



At the first meeting of the autumn session of the 

 Institution of Mechanical Engineers, an interesting paper 

 on the manufacture of cartridge-cases for quick-firing guns, 

 by Colonel L. Cubillo and the late Mr. A. P. Head, was 

 submitted. The object of the paper Yvas to describe the 

 new plant recently completed at the Royal Spanish Arsenal 

 at Trubia, Spain, for the manufacture of brass cartridge- 

 cases from 3 inches to 6 inches in diameter. 



A STRIKING photograph is reproduced in Engineering 

 of October 27 showing the extraordinary erosive effect of 

 the discharge from the Assouan dam. The whole of the 

 water of the Nile passes through sluices in the face of 

 the dam. These sluices are at different heights, so that 

 water is never discharged under a head of more than 

 29-5 feet, which limits the velocity of discharge to less 

 than 35 feet per second. Even at this velocity, however, 

 the water has proved capable of lifting a boulder, weigh- 

 ing more than 60 tons, out of its natural bed in apparently 

 solid rock, and hurling it back against the dam. 



The following method, requiring only a scale and a 

 pair of dividers, for the measurement of angles is given 

 in the Engineer. Suppose the length of an arc of 90° to 

 be 90 mm., the length of the radius of the corresponding 

 arch will be i8o/7t = 57j mm. Every millimetre, there- 

 fore, measured as an arc struck with this radius corre- 

 sponds to an angle of i°. For example, if an angle of 

 33 is required, describe an arc of 57-3 mm. radius and 

 mark off upon it with a pair of dividers 10 mm. three 

 times, and finally 3 mm. for the odd 3 . The method is 

 equally applicable to British measures if the standard 

 radius is taken at 573 inches, when the degree corresponds 

 to one-tenth of an inch. 



The October issue of the Journal of the Franklin 

 Institute, of Philadelphia, contains an account of the in- 

 vention and development of the telautograph. Electric 

 transmission of handwriting has received attention ever 

 since telegraphic transmission of printed characters was 

 effected. Prof. Elisha Gray exhibited a telautograph at 

 Chicago in 1893, but cost and difficulty of manufacture 

 led to its abandonment. The instrument has been brought 

 to its present state chiefly through the experimental work 

 of Mr. G. S. Tiffany. It is a variable current instrument 

 with several interesting features, including what may be 

 termed a straight line D'Arsonval movement, which is 

 used to work the receiver. A large number of private line 

 telautographs are now in actual use in the United States. 



In a series of papers in the Proceedings of the Royal 

 Society of Victoria (n.s., vol. xviii., part i., August) 

 Messrs. Thiele, Chapman and Hall add to the knowledge 

 of the Palaeozoic rocks and fossils of Gippsland. A series 

 of graptolites, including both some new forms and several 



