59Q 



NA TURE 



[April 19, 1906 



2329 injured, while 5556 houses were totally, and 3383 

 partially, destroyed. In Ihe present rase seven persons were 

 killed and thirty-five injured at Daigo, where 400 buildings 

 were destroyed, while in the Ajensui district the casualties 

 amounted to three killed and fifteen injured, 1191 houses 

 collapsing and 749 being partially wrecked. A Renter 

 message states that the shock of April 14 was much more 

 severe than that of March 17, and the low death roll, as 

 well as the comparatively small amount of damage done, 

 is to be explained by the fact that the people were more 

 on the alert after their experiences of last month, and 

 that after the havoc caused by the first disturbance there 

 was not much left to destroy. 



Arrangements have been made to hold a joint meeting 

 of members of the American Institute of Mining Engineers 

 and of the Iron and Steel Institute in London during the 

 week commencing July 23. The Lord Mayor of London 

 has kindly consented to act as chairman of the London 

 reception committee, and a varied programme of entertain- 

 ments, visits, and excursions will be provided. Meetings 

 for the reading and discussion of papers will be held on 

 the mornings of July 24, 25, and 26, with visits to works 

 in the afternoons. The Lord Mayor will give an evening 

 reception at the Mansion House on July 24. On July 27 

 the annual dinner of the institute, to which the American 

 visitors are invited, will be held at the Guildhall. Detailed 

 particulars will be issued when the arrangements are 

 further matured. After the meeting in London, a tour will 

 be arranged for the American visitors to York, Middles- 

 brough, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. As 

 an alternative excursion a number of the American visitors 

 have been invited by the local reception committee for the 

 summer meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers 

 I" take part in the Cardiff meeting of that society. 



As previously announced, the annual meeting of the 

 Iron and Steel Institute will be held on May 10-11. At 

 the first meeting the Bessemer gold medal for 1906 will 

 be presented to Mr. Floris Osmond (Paris), and the awards 

 of the Andrew Carnegie gold medal and research scholar- 

 ships for 1906 will be announced. Among the papers that 

 are expected to be submitted during the meeting are the 

 following :— Influence of silicon, phosphorus, manganese, 

 and aluminium on chill in cast iron, E. Adamson ; influence 

 of manganese on iron, Prof. J. O. Arnold; relation between 

 type of fracture and microstructure of steel test pieces, 

 C. O. Bannister ; use of oxygen in removing blast furnace 

 obstructions, C. de Sehwarz ; volume and temperature 

 changes occurring during the cooling of cast iron, Prof. T. 

 Turner. The following reports on work carried out during 

 the past year by holders of Carnegie research scholarship, 

 will be submitted .-—Hardness of the constituents of iron 

 and steel, Dr. H. C. Boynton ; heat treatment of wire, 

 J. Dixon Brunton ; quaternary steels. Dr. L. Guillet ; in- 

 fluence of carbon on cast iron, W. H. Hatfield ; prepar- 

 ation of carbon-free ferromanganese, E. G. LI. Roberts 

 ■ ind E. A. Wraight; deformation ami fracture in iron and 

 steel, W. Rosenhain. 



The most important paper in No. iSi of the Proceedings 

 of the American Philosophical Society is one by Miss 

 M. E. Marshall on the anatomy of that aberrant night- 

 jar Phalaenoptilus nuttali, the investigation taking into 

 consideration the mutual relationships of the three families 

 usually included in the Caprimulgi. 



Among the contents of the Sitsungsberichte of the Royal 

 Bohemian Academy of Sciences for 1903 may be mentioned 

 an article by Dr. A. Erie on the reptiles of the Bohemian ' 



no. 1903, vol. 73J 



Cretaceous; Montenegro leeches, by Mr. R. Blanchard ; the 

 glands of holothurians, by Mr. K. Thon ; and the third 

 part of an account of certain fresh-water amphipod crus- 

 taceans, by Prof. F. Vejdovsky. 



In a paper published in the Proceedings of the 

 Rochester (U.S.A.) Academy of Science (iv., p. 203) Mr. 

 C. L. Sarle concludes that the Silurian fossils described 

 as Arthrophycus and Da;dalus, the nature of which has 

 received very various interpretations, are really burrows, 

 Daedalus, at any rate, being probably the work of a 

 sedentary polychaetous annelid. The structures form 

 elaborate open spirals of the " Archimedean " type. 



The concluding portion of the catalogue of the marine 

 shells of Victoria, by Messrs. Pritchard and Gatcliff, forms 

 the main portion of the contents of part ii. of vol. xviii. 

 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. Mr. 

 F. Chapman describes a new cephalaspid fish from the 

 Silurian of the colony, referred to the genus Thyestes 

 (Auchenaspis), as T. magnificus. The species of the genus 

 hitherto known are all small, but the new one rivals in 

 this respect the majorilv of the representatives of the 

 typical Cephalaspis. 



The contents of Scientific Investigations (Fisheries, 

 Ireland), No. 7, 1904 (1906), include a report by Mr. 

 E. W. L. Holt on artificial propagation of Salmonida? in 

 1904-5 ; notes on the spawning season of rainbow trout, 

 by Mr. C. Arens (the translation of a paper written for 

 the International Fish Congress at Vienna last year) ; 

 records of salmon-marking experiments in Ireland from 

 1902 to 1905, by Mr. A. B. E. Hillas ; and statistical in- 

 formation relating to salmon fisheries. 



In a report by Mr. E. D. Sanderson on miscellaneous 

 cotton-insects in Texas, forming Bulletin No. 57 of the 

 Entomological Division of the U.S. Department of Agri- 

 culture, attention is directed to the fact that, owing to 

 the ravages of the "boll-weevil," cotton cultivation has 

 entered on a new phase in Texas, and that noxious insects 

 which were formerly ignored have now assumed, in con- 

 sequence of early and rapid cultivation and reduced 

 acreage, increased importance as factors in the success or 

 otherwise of the crops. Although the investigation is still 

 in its infancy, it is suggested that the remedy for these 

 minor pests will be found in improved methods of culti- 

 vation rather than in recourse to poisons. 



We have received separate copies of several papers 

 recently published in the American Journal of Science. 

 among which are three by Mr. G. R. Wieland on Cre- 

 taceous turtles and tortoises, which have been already 

 noticed in our columns. In a fourth the same author dis- 

 cusses the " pro-embryos " of the fossil cycads of the group 

 Bennettitese. Since, with the exception of the archegonia 

 of Cycadinocarpus, no developmental stage has hitherto 

 been described in any fossil plant, the discovery is regarded 

 by the author as one of the highest importance. This paper 

 is dated 1904 ; while others, by Dr. J. Wortman, on re- 

 mains of Eocene Primates in the Peabodv Museum, were 

 originally published during that and the preceding year. 

 Of more recent date is a revision of the New York Helder- 

 bergian crinoids, by Miss M. Talbot, and a review of the 

 fauna of the Palaeozoic Chazy Limestone of North America, 

 b) Mr. P. E, Raymond. 



Notes on Bahama snakes, by Mr. J. 1.. Cole, and tie' 

 description of a new Bahama sea-spider, or pyenogonid, 

 by Mr. T. Barbour, form two of the articles in the March 

 issue of the American Naturalist. Mr. W. Stone con- 



