NOVEMBER 23, 1916] 
nearer to the normal than was: the case earlier in the 
war. France is now importing three times as much 
nitrate as in 1915, and the same applies in various 
degrees to all the importing countries, but the in- 
creased demand is entirely for industrial purposes. 
The manufacturers of synthetic nitrogenous fer- 
tilisers have almost everywhere augmented their out- 
put considerably, either by development of existing 
plant or by new construction. Very little, if any, of 
the extra supplies are available for agricultural pur- 
poses; in'some countries the State requirements absorb 
the whole output. The review includes a_ useful 
bibliography of the literature published during the 
first six months of 1916: 
Tue issue of the reports containing the scientific 
results of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 
1gt1-14, under Sir Douglas Mawson, has been seri- 
ously delayed owing to the war and its effect upon 
assets, such as the popular book, film, and lectures 
which it was anticipated would realise sufficient to 
defray the cost of publication. We are glad to learn, 
therefore, that the Government of South Australia has 
come to the assistance of the expedition, and agreed 
to execute the printing at the Government Printing 
Office, Adelaide. The New South Wales State 
Government has also generously agreed to reproduce 
certain illustrative matter. The production will ap- 
pear in royal quarto size, similar to like publications 
of other British, Antarctic expeditions. The completed 
work will be voluminous, and several years must 
elapse before all is passed through the press. The 
plan of publication is to divide the subject-matter into 
the three series, as follows :—Series A, geography, 
geology, etc.; Series B, physical subjects; Series C, 
bidlogy. Each series will be subdivided into volumes 
and parts. Prof. W. A. Haswell, of Sydney Univer- 
sity, who organised the programme of the biological 
section of the expedition, is editing Series C, and 
has already made arrangements for the working out 
of most of the groups collected. Three parts, namely, 
Fishes, Mollusca, and Cephalopoda, are expected to 
appear this year. 
‘Tur death of Mr. Charles Smith, master of Sidney 
Sussex College, removes a well-known figure from 
Cambridge, and will be widely regretted. Mr. Smith 
was born in Huntingdon, and entered Sidney Sussex 
College as a scholar in 1864, graduated as third 
Wrangler in 1868, was elected a fellow of the college 
in the same year, and held the office of tutor from 
1875 to 1890, in which year he was elected master 
on the death of Dr. Phelps. From 1896 to 1909 he 
Was a governor of Eton College. During’ his tutor- 
ship Sidney Sussex increased greatly in numbers, and 
the influence of his teaching was seen in the successes 
of his pupils in the Mathematical Tripos. He was 
indefatigable in his efforts to promote the interests of 
his college. To him the erection of the new block of 
buildings there was due, and it was his ambition, un- 
fortunately not realised, to complete the new court 
by the addition of a further range. To the general 
public he was best known as the writer of a series 
of text-books on mathematical subjects remarkable 
for their clearness of exposition. His books on conic 
sections and algebra in particular are probably known 
to most English mathematical students. They ap- 
peared at a time when a more thorough, and, at the 
same time, a more attractive, style of elementary 
mathematical teaching was greatly needed, and had 
immediately a large success. In private life Mr. Smith 
was a great lover of flowers, especially of delphiniums, 
roses, and chrysanthemums, which he grew in great 
profusion and with much success in his charming 
garden at the Master’s Lodge. y 
NO. 2456, VOL. 98] 
NATURE 
235 
Aw exhibition and sale of water-colour sketches by 
the late Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson will be held (by 
permission of the Alpine Club) at the club rooms, 2 
Savile Row, W., from November 27 to December to. 
Tue Bradshaw Lecture of. the Royal College of 
Surgeons of England will be delivered on December 15 
by Col. C. J. Symonds upon “Gunshot Injuries of 
the Spinal Cord.” 
Tue death on November 18 is announced in the 
Morning Post of November 20 of Mr. J. H. Merivale, 
the North of England mining engineer, who was 
secretary to the North of England Institute of Mining 
and Mechanical Engineers, and formerly professor of 
mining at Durham College of Science. 
Engineering for November 17 contains an interest- 
ing article by Prof. Luiggi on the utilising of volcanic 
heat for power-production purposes. In Central Tus- 
cany, near Volterra, there are numerous cracks in the 
ground from which powerful jets of very hot steam 
spout high in the air with great violence and con- 
stanecy. Early experiments:on the use of this steam 
for driving engines showed that the borax salts, 
sulphuretted hydrogen, and sulphuric acid present in 
the steam necessitated frequent repairs on account of 
the corrosive action. This difficulty has been over- 
come by applying the steam, not directly in the engine, 
but to a boiler instead of fuel; steam is thus produced 
in the boiler at a pressure of two atmospheres, then 
passed through a superheater, and so to the steam 
turbine used for driving electric generators. Prince 
Ginori-Conti, who has financed the undertaking 
throughout, has been responsible for three large in- 
stallations on this system. One of the 3000-kw. units 
has been at work since January, 1916, the second since 
April, and the third has just been started. So far 
the first two groups have worked quite successfully, 
and have been a great boon to the industries of Tus- 
cany, greatly crippled by the scarcity and high price 
of coal. Since the region available extends for many 
square miles around Larderello, there is nothing to 
prevent the system being developed to the production 
of hundreds of thousands of horse-power. 
Capt. W. B. Gourtay writes us, from ‘‘ somewhere 
in France,” a brief but extremely interesting note on 
a phosphorescent centipede. He discovered the 
creature in a very unexpected manner, inasmuch as he 
was putting coals on a dying fire in an unlighted 
room when he immediately noticed on the coals a 
gleaming, wriggling object, which proved, by the 
light of a match, to be ‘‘a small yellow centipede.”’ 
The fact is worth placing on record, since the occur- 
rence of phosphorescence in this group is by no means 
generally known. Even by specialists, indeed, nothing 
seems to be known of the matter save that two species 
of Geophilus possess the power of emitting phos- 
phorescent light; the source and use of the light are 
yet to be discovered. In one of these, G. electricus, 
the light has been described by Mr. G. S. Sinclair as 
brilliant, the creature emitting it leaving a trail. of 
bright light behind it which lasts for some time. Of the 
other species, G. phosphoreus, still less seems to have 
been recorded. It was described by Linnzeus on the 
authority of a Swedish sea-captain, who asserted that 
it dropped, shining like a glow-worm, upon the deck 
on his ship when he was sailing in the Indian Ocean 
a hundred miles from land. From this we may infer 
that it had been taken on board at the last port of 
call, and remained concealed, either on the deck or in 
the rigging, until it at last revealed itself as a ‘‘stow- 
away.” 
One of the most interesting phases of the work 
which the Young Men’s Christian Association is 
