March 23, 1899] 



NA TURE 



493 



mediate result of this work, the Department is in a position 

 to pronounce definitely upon the milling quality of any variety 

 of grain. In conjunction with the purely experimental work, 

 Mr. Guthrie has been enabled to demonstrate the practicability 

 of adjudicating upon wheats entered in prize competition on 

 the basis of their flour product. The agricultural societies in 

 the wheat districts have been so favourably impressed with the 

 utility of the system that it is now customary for wheats, re- 

 commended by the judges employing ordinary methods, to be 

 submitted to the milling test before the awards are made. 



The industry of viticulture promises to attain large propor- 

 tions in New South Wales, the area in the Colony suitable for 

 the production of grapes for wines of all types being practically 

 unlimited. From the report just issued by the Department of 

 Mines and Agriculture, we learn that the appointment of a 

 graduate of one of the large viticultural colleges in Europe, to 

 advise the vignerons as to the cultivation of the vine and the 

 application of more scientific methods of wine production, has 

 been much appreciated by those engaged in the industry. The 

 phylloxera pest, which proved so disastrous a few years ago 

 in Europe, and, unfortunately, appeared in New South Wales 

 also, has received unremitting attention ; and in the few places 

 in which the insect has been discovered, the vineyards have 

 been treated with carbon-bisulphide and rigorously uprooted. 

 As a practical measure of protection against the inroads of this 

 pest, the Department has secured from France half a million 

 cuttings of phylloxera-resistant varieties for use as stocks in the 

 planting of new vineyards. 



A PRELIMIXARY Statistical statement of the mineral pro- 

 duction of Canada during 1898 has been issued by the Canadian 

 Geological Survey. The total value of the metallic minerals 

 produced is placed at 21,622,601 dollars, while other mineral 

 products have a value of 15,884,596 dollars. The grand total 

 shows an increase of nearly 32 per cent, as compared with 1S97, 

 which year showed an increase of 27 per cent, compared with 

 1896. Whilst these large increases of late years have of course 

 been partly due to the discovery and working of the rich gold- 

 placers of the Yukon, other important mineral industries have 

 also contributed to them, and there is every reason to expect a 

 ■continued rapid growth in many of them for some years to come, 

 especially as the province of British Columbia continues to 

 develop. 



The " Year-Book and Record " of the Royal Geographical 

 Society for 1899, which has just Ijeen published, contains 

 portraits of the first President of the Society, Lord Goderich, 

 and of the present President, Sir Clements R. Markham, K.C. B. 

 The Society now numbers more than four thousand Fellows. 



The thirteenth part of Mr. Oswin A. J. Lee's brilliantly 

 illustrated work, entitled "Among British Birds in their 

 Nesting Haunts," has been published by Mr. David Douglas, 

 Edinburgh. The nests illustrated in the ten plates are of the 

 mistle thrush, great black-backed gull, red-backed shrike, sky- 

 lark, buzzard, redstart, green woodpecker, linnet, and garden 

 warbler. 



The Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information for January; 

 issued by the Botanical Department of Trinidad, and edited by 

 Mr. J. H. Hart, contains papers on the rubber, rice, cacao, and 

 guinea-grass {Panicum maxtiiiiim) industries of the island, and 

 a continuation of the editor's enumeration and description of 

 the Ferns of the West Indies and Guiana. 



Mr. W. L. Dist.^nt, the author of " A Naturalist in the 

 Transvaal" and of several well-known entomological works, is 

 about to issue a book called " Insecta Transvaaliensia," in 

 NO. 1534, VOL. 59] 



twelve large quarto parts, with coloured plates. It will be 

 mainly founded on the author's own collections and observ- 

 ations, and will be, to a large extent, an epitome of the South 

 African insect fauna, and, we may presume, of the East African 

 insect fauna in general, of which the South African is merely 

 an offshoot. 



An estimate of the importance of electrical industries, and o. 

 the large number of people concerned with applied electricity, 

 may be gained from two electrical trades' directories just issued. 

 " The Electrician Electrical Trades' Directory and Handbook 

 for 1899" — now in its seventeenth year of publication — testifies 

 to the exceptional progress of the trades connected with applied 

 electricity during the past year, the advance being not only 

 in respect of electric illumination, but also of electric traction 

 in its various forms and electric power supply generally. It 

 has thus been necessary to largely extend the sheet tables of 

 electric lighting and tramway undertakings in Great Britain. All 

 the alphabetical sections have been carefully revised, and the 

 tabular information has been checked. A feature of this hand- 

 book is a biographical section containing short biographies of dis- 

 tinguished physicists and electricians, many of them accompanied 

 by half-tone portraits. — "The Universal Electrical Directory" 

 contains the names of the members of the electrical and kindred 

 industries throughout the world, the total number of names of 

 firms and individuals included in it being 25,464. The natural 

 expansion of the electrical industries has caused the addition of 

 nearly two thousand new names to those contained in the 

 volume for 1898. All the names are conveniently classified 

 into nine sub-divisions, so that reference is easy. The volume 

 is invaluable to all who are engaged in the commercial applica- 

 tions of electricity. 



A NEW method of preparing Le Verrier's phosphorus sub- 

 oxide, P4O, is given by Messrs. A. Michaelis and M. Pitsch in 

 the last number of the Bcrichle. If finely divided phosphorus 

 is treated in the cold with a weak alcoholic solution of caustic 

 soda or potash, it slowly gives off hydrogen, and the liquid 

 becomes an intensely dark red colour. This red solution, when 

 treated with acid, gives a greenish-yellow precipitate, which on 

 analysis proved to be pure P4O. This can be readily redissolved 

 in weak alkali to a deep red .solution, but it appears to be 

 insoluble in all other solvents. As the authors remark, it is 

 curious that the formation of this compound in this way should 

 have so long escaped notice, as the preparation of hydrogen 

 phosphide by the action of hot alcoholic potash upon phosphorus 

 is one of every-day occurrence. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Rhesus Monkey (Macacus rlieuis) from 

 India, presented by Mr. H. Belier ; two Black-backed Jackals 

 (Canis mesomelas) from South Africa, presented by the Hon. 

 James D. Logan, juii. ; two Squirrels (Sciiiriis vulgaris), 

 British, presented by Miss Dorothy Reynolds ; two Nicobar 

 Pigeons (Calaenas nicoharica) from the Indian Archipelago, 

 presented by Mr. W. H. St. Quintin ; a Reed Bunting {Em- 

 beriza schoenichis), European, presented by Mr. F. Chatwin ; 

 a Broad-fronted Crocodile (Osteoloemus tetrjsfiis) from West 

 Africa, presented by Lieut. Kenneth A. Macdonald, A.S.C. ; 

 three Cape Vipers {Causus rltotnbeatus), a Puff Adder (Bitis 

 arietans), a Rough-keeled Snake [Dasypeltis scabra) from 

 South Africa, presented by Mr. 8. B.Carlile ; a Clouded Tiger 

 {Felis nebulosa) from Northern India, four Waxwings (Ampelis 

 gairulus), European; three Wandering Tree Ducks (ZJe-Wro- 

 cygna arcuata) from the East Indies, an Adorned Terrapin 

 {Chrysemys omata) from Central America, an Indian Eryx 

 {Eryx johni) from India, purchased : a Macaque Monkey 

 (Macacus cynomolgus), born in the Gardens. 



