376 
NATURE 
Ar the annual general meeting of the Faraday Society arguments advanced, the Bill was suspended for — 
held on December 18, 1916, the following officers and 
council were elected :—President, Sir Robert Hadfield ; 
Vice-Presidents, Prof. K. Birkeland, W. R. Bousfield, 
Prof. F. G. Donnan, Dr. Eugene Haanel, Prof. A. K. 
Huntington, and Dr. T. Martin Lowry; Treasurer, 
Dr. F. Mollwo Perkin; Council, W. R. Cooper, Dr. 
C. H. Desch, Dr. J. A. Harker, Emil Hatschelk, 
Cosmo Johns, Prof. A. W. Porter, E. H. Rayner, A. 
Gordon Salamon, Dr. George Senter, and Cav. Magg. E. 
Stassano. A general discussion, to be opened by Sir 
George Beilby, F.R.S., will shortly be held on ‘ The 
Training and Work of the Chemical Engineer.’’ Later 
in the session general discussions will probably be 
arranged to deal with ‘‘Osmotic Pressure” and ‘‘ The 
Setting of Cements and Plasters.” 
Dr. J. Watrer Tewkes has issued a pamphlet re- 
porting the progress made in the excavation and repair 
of the Sun Temple at Mesa Verde National Park. 
The monument was discovered by Dr. Tewkes in 1909, 
and since then work has steadily gone on in order to 
excavate and repair this interesting building. The 
pamphlet issued by Dr. Tewkes contains a full account 
of the building, with a ground plan, measurements, 
and photographs, which make it now possible to 
understand the character and purpose of this remark- 
able structure. 
Unper the title, ‘‘ Some Forest Insects in Aberdeen- 
shire,’ Mr. Walter Ritchie, in the Scottish Naturalist 
for December, cites a remarkable case of a beetle 
which, in different areas of its range, selects different 
food-plants, though there is no apparent need for this 
change iin diet. The species in question is Crypto- 
rhynchus Lapathi, which, in Central Europe, is a 
destructive enemy of the alder, but on the Dee, near 
Aboyne, it feeds on the willow. Though alder trees 
of various ages were growing in abundance among 
the willows not a single alder was attacked. 
“Tur Evolution of Provincial Museums and the 
Obstacles They Have to Surmount ’’ formed the subject 
of an admirable address by Mr. F. Woolnough at the 
Ipswich Conference of the Museums Association of 
1916. He complains much, in the Museum Journal 
for December, wherein this address is printed, of the 
lack of interest taken by the State in the work of 
museums, hence the want of funds and the restricted 
usefulness of such institutions. Every museum, he 
contends, should be provided with a well-equipped 
lecture-room, wherein the various aspects of this or 
that section of the collections can be enlarged upon 
before or after a visit to the actual specimens in the 
galleries. This provision is not likely to be made 
in the immediate future, having regard to our depleted 
exchequer, but nevertheless it is sadly needed. 
WE note with regret that the Bill for the introduc- 
tion of protective measures designed to save some of 
the more interesting birds of Malta from extermina- 
tion has been shelved, at least temporarily, as the 
result of an opposition which depended for success on 
ability to distort facts, in the supposed interests of 
local sportsmen and those who gain an easy living by 
exploiting the bird-life of the island. From the report 
of the debate in the Daily Malta Chronicle, which has 
been sent us, we learn that the Lieutenant-Governor 
and the Crown Advocate paid a just tribute to the efforts 
of Dr. Giuseppe Despott to place this Bill upon the 
Statute-book. Though the Crown Advocate, in the 
course of an able and learned speech, showed that the 
leader of the Opposition was himself but recently 
urging the very measures he now so strongly opposed, 
and though he directed a running fire of scathing criti- 
cism against the manifold absurdities of the 
NO. 2463, VOL. 98] 
six months in order that further evidence might be 
obtained. In the interests of the islanders themselves 
and of economic ornithology beyond the sphere of | 
operations of this Bill, it is to be hoped that it will 
presently find a place on the Statute-book. 
WitH the November number of the Quarterly 
Journal of Microscopical Science (vol. Ixii., part 1) is 
issued an Index to vols. xxix.—Ixi. (inclusive). The 
preface is signed by Mrs. H. L. M. Pixell-Goodrich, 
who is presumably responsible for its compilation on 
the plan adopted by Dr. G. H. Fowler for the index 
to vols. i.-xxviii. It is an index of both authors and 
subjects, and will be an invaluable aid to zoologists, 
who have so frequently to consult this important 
periodical. Incidentally, also, it constitutes a very 
interesting record of contributions made, chiefly by 
British zoologists, to what we may perhaps be allowed 
to term the more academic branches of zoological 
science during the past twenty-eight years, a record 
with which the editor of the journal, Sir E, Ray 
Lankester, has every reason to be satisfied. : 
Tue caterpillars of that destructive insect, the large 
larch saw-fly, Nematus erichsonii, have been found, 
and for the first time, in Aberdeenshire. They were 
met with in considerable numbers during the months 
of August and September by Mr. Walter Ritchie, who 
gives a brief account of his discovery in the Scottish 
Naturalist for December, 1916. He found that the 
area over which these caterpillars were dispersed 
measured about eight square miles, and this being so, 
it is well that the discovery has been made now, in 
order that immediate steps may be taken to check or 
suppress its extension. The damage, he remarks, 
caused by this species in England led to its being 
placed among the insects scheduled under the Destruc- 
tive Insect Pests Order. By this Order the presence 
of the insect in any plantation must be reported at 
once to the Board of Agriculture. 
A FURTHER important contribution to the science of 
animal nutrition in its application to farm animals is 
furnished by Armsby, Fries, and Braman in their 
determinations of the net energy values for cattle of 
red clover hay and maize meal, which are recorded in 
vol. vii., No. 9, of the Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Results in close agreement with previous determina- 
tions were obtained, the general average indicating a 
net energy value per kilogram of dry matter consumed 
of 981 Cal. in the case of clover hay, and 1913 Cal- 
for maize, the total metabolisable energy being 
3522 Cal. and 3755 Cal. respectively. 
For the guidance of farmers the Board of Agricul- 
ture has issued a leaflet (Special Leaflet No. 64) on 
ground-nut cake, a feeding-stuff to which much atten- 
tion has been given since the outbreak of war. As an- 
important product of British tropical possessions the 
ground-nut (Arachis hypogaea) has an obvious interest, 
and in view of the high value of its oil for edible pur- 
poses and the richness in protein (45 to 50 per cent.) 
of the press residue, or cake, all efforts to secure its 
wider use in this country are warmly to be commended. 
As in the case of palm kernels, the successful develop- 
ment of the industry is largely dependent upon the 
creation and maintenance of a large and stable home 
market for the cake, and the Board’s leaflet should 
contribute usefully towards this end. 
THE general concern about rising food prices lends 
a wider interest than it would normally claim to the 
recently issued Report on Prices and Supplies of Corn, 
Live Stock, and other Agricultural Produce in England 
and Wales in 1915 (Agricultural Statistics, 1915, vol. 1., _ 
part iii.), presented to the Board of Agriculture and 
¢ 
[JANUARY II, 1917) 
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