374 



NA TURE 



[February 15, 1906 



ment as agglutinin, by Mr. MacConkey on a method for 

 hastening the liquefaction of gelatin by the B. doaceae, 

 by Dr. Boycott on the bacteriology of para-typhoid fever, 

 and bv Dr. Haldane on a portable apparatus for gas 

 analysis. Dr. Sandilands writes on epidemic diarrhoea 

 and the bacterial content of food, suggesting that flies may- 

 be the active agents in conveying this disease, no mention, 

 however, being made of Dr. Nash's previous work in this 

 direction. Prof. Ronald Ross directs attention to the 

 occurrence of flagellated protozoan parasites in the mos- 

 quito (C. fatigans), which he suggests may invalidate 

 Schaudinn's work on the development of the heemosporidian 

 Halteridium danilewskyi in this insect. Dr. Hamilton 

 Wright also contributes a reply to Dr. Travers's criticism 

 of preventive measures against beri-beri, which appeared in 

 a former number of the Journal. 



A select list of works prepared at the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Kew, by members of the staff, or in collaboration 

 with them, has just been published as No. i of the Kew 

 Bulletin, 1905. The list is extensive, as it goes so far 

 back as 1859, when Grisebach's " Flora of the British 

 West Indies " began to appear, and it includes Dr. Watt's 

 " Dictionary of Economic Products of India " and the 

 Annals of Botany. It is to be hoped that this number 

 is a precursor to the resuscitation of the Bulletin. 



From the Department of Agriculture, Nairobi, a leaflet, 

 No. 10, has been issued on the insect and fungoid pests 

 reported during the year 1904-5. The larvie of a moth, 

 Spodoptera cxempta, destroyed the vegetation near 

 Nairobi ; a ladybird, Epilachna similis, is mentioned as 

 doing great damage to maize and wheat ; and several 

 beetles and other insects were observed. Amongst fungi, 

 wheat-rust proved fatal to the prospects of the wheat crop, 

 dwarf beans suffered from rust and anthracnose, and the 

 crop of chick-pea, Cicer arietinum, was completely de- 

 stroyed by a iiredo-iungus. 



The historic quotation connected with Darwin's examin- 

 ation of the primrose might well be repeated with refer- 

 ence to a posthumous paper on the oxlip by the late Prof. 

 Errera, edited by Miss J. Wery for the Receuil de 

 Vlnstitut botanique, Brussels (vol. vi.). The paper fur- 

 nishes a good illustration of Prof. Errera's talent for 

 drawing deductions from simple experiments or observ- 

 ations. It was found that although the number of long- 

 styled and short-styled plants was about equal, a bunch 

 of flowers collected at random nearly always contained more 

 of the long-styled, this being due to the slightly larger size 

 of the flowers ; the balance is maintained by the direct 

 fertilisation of a larger number of short-styled flowers. 



We have received the report of the Meteorological 

 Service of Canada for the year 1903. At the chief stations 

 observations are taken day and night at equal intervals 

 of time not exceeding four hours; at other stations they 

 are taken three times daily, except in the case of those 

 recording only rainfall and the general state of the weather. 

 For the purpose of weather forecasts the country is 

 divided into ten districts ; the general success of fully or 

 partially verified predictions amounted to 86 per cent. 

 The results for the numerous stations are very carefully- 

 prepared, and include observations in Newfoundland, 

 Labrador, and Bermuda, together with a chronicle of the 

 chief characteristics of the weather in each month. Maxi- 

 mum shade temperatures of 99 were registered at Alberni, 

 British Columbia, in June, Melfort, N.W. Territories, and 

 St. Alban's, Manitoba, in July ; minimum, —67°, at Good 

 Hope, N.W. Territories, in February. 

 NO. 1894, VOL. 73] 



The U.S. Monthly Weather Review for September last 

 contains an account of the Japanese meteorological service 

 in Korea and Manchuria. At the beginning of the Russo- 

 Japanese war, Prof. Wada, who had been connected with 

 the meteorological service of Japan since 1879, was 

 entrusted by the Japanese Government with the organ- 

 isation of a similar system in Korea and Manchuria, and 

 is now completing the work as chief of that service ; up to 

 the present time fourteen stations have been established. 

 A first-class observatory has been established at Chemulpo ; 

 the other stations, including Mukden, Fusan, and Port 

 Arthur, are mostly of the second order. All the coast 

 stations issue daily weather predictions, which are made 

 known by means of flags ; the central observatory issues 

 storm warnings when an atmospheric disturbance is ex- 

 pected on or near the coasts of Korea and Manchuria, and 

 day and night signals are immediately displayed at all 

 stations. 



In view of the fact that acetylene gas is used in 

 Germany to a very large extent, it is proposed to form a 

 guild of acetylene apparatus owners for the purpose of 

 collecting, arranging, and distributing information on 

 methods of preparation and storing and on the uses of 

 acetylene. 



It has long been known that the province of the 

 Pechora is rich in mineral treasures. Quite recently 

 a party of Russian and Belgian engineers examined the 

 basin of the Ussa, and made rich finds of naphtha and 

 copper ores. In fact, it is stated that the quantity of 

 naphtha to be obtained from surface deposits in the 

 Pechora district exceeds that present in the Caucasus, 

 and is of a better quality, whilst the tonnage of easily 

 workable copper ores is given as many millions. But for 

 the working of these treasure-fields a large sum of money 

 will be required, inasmuch as even the most primitive 

 roads and methods of easy communication are practically 

 unknown ; also the population, and consequently the supply 

 of labour, is extremely small. However, it is reported 

 from St. Petersburg that energetic efforts are being made 

 to obtain the necessary capital. 



In the Lancet for December 16, 1905, Dr. P. W. Latham 

 describes a new method of directly transforming a-benzoyl- 

 amino-/>-hydroxycinnamic acid into tyrosine, by heating 

 it with potassium cyanide, which acts as a reducing agent, 

 and subsequently boiling the product with aqueous barium 

 hydroxide. A theory, based on these observations, is 

 advanced as to the method of formation of tyrosine in the 

 animal body. 



In a note published in the Annalen der Physik (series 4, 

 vol. xviii., p. 860), Prof. B. Walter recommends the use 

 of a material called " picein," manufactured by the New 

 York-Hamburg Indiarubber Company, as a cement for 

 joining together pieces of physical apparatus ; it is prefer- 

 able to sealing-wax on account of the ease with which it 

 can be worked, and the fact that it does not become brittle. 

 As it is insoluble in water and alcohol, it can be used in 

 contact with solutions prepared with these solvents, for 

 example in absorption cells. 



We have received a reprint of a memoir by Prof. Augusto 

 Righi, published in the Memorie of the Royal Academy of 

 Sciences of Bologna (series vi., vol. ii., p. 151). in which full 

 details are given of the method used in ascertaining the con- 

 nection existing between the atomic weight of an element 

 and the amount of secondary radiation it emits when sub- 

 jected to the /3 and 7 rays of radium ; the results have 

 already been noticed in Nature (vol. lxxii. p. 350). 



