March 29, 1906] 



NA TURE 



5i7 



new specimens, the contents being " Decades Kewenses, 

 xxxvi.-xl.," "Diagnoses Africanae, xiv.," and "New 

 Orchids, Decade 26." The first furnishes a list of ferns 

 •and flowering plants, of which the majority were collected 

 by Dr. Henry in China. An interesting species is Cuscuta 

 Upcraftii, that has been grown on potatoes from seed 

 collected in Tibet by Mr. W. M. -Upcraft. A list of staffs 

 in botanical departments at home, in India, and the colonies 

 lias also been published as Appendix iv., 1905. 



As interesting report on the mineral resources of the 

 Kalahasti Zamindary, Madras, has been published by Mr. 

 V. S. Sambasiva Iyer, of the Mysore Geological Depart- 

 ment (Bangalore, 1906). Gold, iron ore, barytes, and 

 marble are met with. The evidences obtained and the 

 records of old workings fully justify a detailed prospecting 

 of the Sirasinambedu gold deposits. 



In the Engineering Magazine for March there is an 

 admirably illustrated account of gypsum mining in the 

 vicinity of Paris by M. Jacques Boyer. Interesting de- 

 tails are given of the calcination of the material and of 

 ■the preparation of plaster of Paris. At the present time 

 some eighty companies are engaged in the industry near 

 Paris, and 5500 workmen are employed. 



A remarkable example of the surface outcrop of an iron 

 ore deposit is illustrated in an article on iron ore in 

 Mexico, by Mr. R. H. Anderson, in the Engineering and 

 Mining Journal of New York (vol. lxxxi., No. 9). The 

 deposit is situated on the Las Truchas creek, near the 

 boundary of the States of Michoacan and Guerrero. The 

 outcrop is 10,000 feet in length and 4000 feet wide. It 

 rises to a height of 450 feet. 



The paper on smoke prevention contributed by Mr. A. J. 

 Martin to the conference on smoke abatement at West- 

 minster in December, 1905, has now- been published in 

 pamphlet form (London: Sanitary Publishing Co., Ltd., 

 price is.). Mr. Martin advocates a scheme of long-distance 

 gas transmission, and urges that a strong permanent com- 

 mittee be appointed by the Government to deal with the 

 evils produced by smoky fogs, and the desirability of pro- 

 viding a cheap, smokeless fuel for domestic and industrial 

 use. 



The opening number of vol. iii. of the Bolletino of the 

 Italian Meteorological Society contains an interesting 

 article on the supposed connection between rainfall and 

 volcanic activity, unsigned, but evidently emanating from 

 the Observatory of Catania. The author finds that 

 whether account is taken of the daily variation in the 

 activity of Etna during the eruption of 1892, or the whole 

 ■series of eruptions the date of which is known with 

 accuracy, there is no evidence of any connection between 

 .the volcanic activity of Mount E(na and the local rainfall ; 

 .neither of these determines or is determined by the other. 



The weather during the past week has been unusually 

 cold and disagreeable over the whole of the British Islands, 

 the day temperatures being about io° below the average 

 for fifty years, with sharp frost at night, and frequent 

 showers of snow and hail. These conditions were produced 

 by a complex distribution of barometric pressure, the chief 

 features of which were an anticyclone lying over the 

 Atlantic at some distance to the west of our shores, with 

 areas of low pressure over Germany and the south-west of 

 France, and they were consequently accompanied by bitter 

 northerly and north-easterly winds, whilst gales were ex- 

 perienced on several coasts. The following low night 

 screen temperatures have been reported to the Meteor- 

 NO. I9OO, VOL 73] 



ological Office : — 22° in the Midland counties and 23 in 

 the south of England. At Greenwich the exposed thermo- 

 meter fell to iS° on the morning of March 23. Sunshine 

 exceeded the normal amount in several districts. 



The University of Innsbruck publishes in a concise and 

 handy form the results of the observations made at its 

 meteorological observatory, situated about 1886 feet above 

 the sea. The last pamphlet received contains observations 

 and mean results for 1902, taken three times a day, together 

 with hourly values from various self-recording instruments. 

 The tables have been prepared by Dr. W. Trabert, which 

 is a sufficient guarantee for the accuracy of the work. 

 There is a useful appendix by Mr. H. von Ficker on cloud 

 formation in the Alpine valleys from observations extend- 

 ing from January, 1904, to March, 1905, with valuable 

 notes on the occurrence and behaviour of the Fbhn wind. 

 This phenomenon is well known to Alpine observers as, 

 generally speaking, a dry, warm wind, to the influence of 

 which the melting of the snow in the spring is chiefly 

 due. 



The current number of the British Journal 0/ Psychology 

 (vol. i., part iv.) contains as its main feature an article by 

 Dr. W. H. R. Rivers entitled " Observations on the Senses 

 of the Todas," a small and possibly degenerating com- 

 munity of about 800 individuals, living among the Nilgiri 

 Hills in southern India. The methods of observation 

 were similar to those used by the Cambridge expedition 

 to the Torres Straits. Visual acuity, colour-vision, visual 

 illusions, tactile discrimination, tactile illusions, sensibility 

 to pain, smell, taste, hearing, were all made the subject 

 of tests. Of these the most elaborately treated are 

 visual illusions, particularly the illusion of compared hori- 

 zontal and vertical lines, and Dr. Rivers puts the results 

 obtained from the Todas in this department of observ- 

 ation alongside those obtained from Cambridge under- 

 graduates. In his general conclusions he lays stress on 

 the difference in the part played by inference in the process 

 of determining the sensory threshold, and the consequent 

 difficulty of comparing sense-acuity in races of different 

 culture. This play of inference reaches its greatest scope 

 in the case of smell. In visual acuity and the tactile 

 acuity of the forearm it would appear that the Todas 

 have a slighter degree of sensibility than more civilised 

 races, but they are inferior rather than superior in acuity 

 of smell, and probably in acuity of hearing ; they are also 

 less sensitive to pain. Among other articles are those of 

 Dr. James Ward, "Is 'Black' a Sensation?" and of 

 Mr. W. McDougall, on " The Illusion of the ' Fluttering 

 Heart ' and the Visual Functions of the Rods of the 

 Retina." Mr. McDougall points out that two quite 

 distinct illusory appearances have been hitherto confused 

 and brought together under the designation " the flutter- 

 ing heart," and he claims that the true explanation of one 

 of these is to be found in a suggestion made by Prof. J. 

 von Kries. 



In the Chemiker Zeitung for March 21 is an interesting 

 report, by Dr. E. Gerlach, dealing with the advances made 

 by electrotechnical industries during last year. The 

 writer deals particularly with electrical illumination, tele- 

 graphy and telephony, new accumulators, dynamo 

 machines, electrical heating, power transmission, ^electrical 

 railways, conductors and insulators, and measuring instru- 

 ments. 



As is well known, the carbides of different metals yield 

 different hydrocarbons when acted upon by water. Thus 

 while calcium carbide gives acetylene, aluminium carbide 



