374 
NATURE 
[Marcu 17, 1923 

considerable interest in the conclusion drawn by 
recent writers in the Journal of the Textile Institute 
as to the surprising strength of the cuticle surround- 
ing a cotton hair. From different lines of investiga- 
tion this result is arrived at by R. S. Willows and 
his co-workers in the Research Department of Tootal, 
Broadhurst Lee Co., Manchester, in their experiments 
upon mercerisation (Journ. of the Text. Inst., xiii. 
Ppp. 229-40, December 1922), and by H. F. Coward 
and L. Spencer upon the absorption of caustic soda 
solutions by cotton (Journ. of the Text. Inst., xiv. 
pp. 832-45, Jan. 1923). All these investigators con- 
clude that the swelling of the cotton hair in alkali may 
be considerably restricted by the resistance to expan- 
sion of the cuticle and give cogent grounds for this 
conclusion. Such a strong cuticle upon a hair which 
has largely matured within a closed fruit is at first 
sight a surprising phenomenon. It is interesting to 
note that H. J. Denham, in his study of the destruc- 
tion of the cotton hair by micro-organisms (Journ. 
of the Text. Inst., xiii. pp. 240-48, Dec. 1922), inclines 
to the view that some of these organisms can penetrate 
the healthy cuticle. This cuticle resists cold alkalis 
at high concentration and its hydrolysis by any 
organism has yet to be detected; but in view of 
these studies upon its strength, the actual method 
by which the uninjured cuticle is penetrated would 
seem to deserve close investigation. 
IMPOUNDING WATER FOR Mosguitro ControL.—In 
Bulletin 1098 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 
1922, Mr. D. L. van Dine describes a method of con- 
trolling the breeding of malaria mosquitoes in the 
lower Mississippi Valley. In this region the bayous 
or shallow streams of the delta, with their accompany- 
ing vegetation, greatly facilitate the breeding of 
anophelines. The topography renders drainage im- 
possible, and a trial was therefore made of clearing a 
section of the bayous and impounding the water so 
as to convert what was practically a marsh into a 
lake. The essential points in this method are the 
preliminary clearing of all vegetation, the provision 
of a sufficiently high permanent level of water, to 
suppress the further growth of aquatic and semi- 
aquatic vegetation, and the maintenance of a clean 
margin. The experiment thus carried out is stated 
to have given good results. 
GROWTH oF CassAvA PLants.—T. G. Mason has 
an interesting note in the Scientific Proceedings of 
the Royal Dublin Society, vol. 17, N.S. Nos. 11-13, 
Pp: 105-112, December 1922, upon the growth of 
some Bitter Cassava plants in St. Vincent, West 
Indies, under equivalent conditions save that half 
the plants were ringed through the phloem near the 
base of the stem, measurements of growth being made 
both before and after the operation. The experi- 
mental results show that this ringing did not affect 
the growth in length of the shoots for several weeks 
and then only to a relatively small extent; the 
fleshy roots, on the other hand, accumulated far 
less weight of reserve material upon the ringed plants. 
The author scarcely appears to put the simplest 
interpretation upon these experimental results when 
he declines to assume that the normal channel for 
the passage of this food to the root has been inter- 
rupted by cutting through the phloem, but assumes 
instead that the ring has blocked the passage of 
some mysterious correlating agency from the dominant 
apical shoot bud, and that in the absence of this 
unknown factor normal transmission of organic 
solutes in the xylem is impossible. 
ORIGINS OF PETROLEUM.—In an important paper 
on the marine kerogen shales from the oil-fields of 
Japan (Sci. Rep. Tohoku Imp. University, Ser. 3, 
NO. 2785, VOL. 111] 

vol. 1, No. 2, 1922, Maruzen Co., Tokyo), Mr. Jun-ichi 
Takahashi describes a number of interesting deposits 
of Miocene and Pliocene age from various islands 
of the Japanese group, including a series where 
radiolaria, sponge-spicules, and diatoms are associated 
with what was originally sapropelic matter. The 
author concludes that the kerogen has arisen from 
“ nectons and kelps ’’ which have “‘ been repeatedly 
buried by ash and detritus from submarine volcanoes.” 
He illustrates the memoir by photographs of rocks 
and marine fossils, and of a remarkable series of 
thin sections of the sapropelic ooze. 
CANNEL Coat, LicNITE, AND Mrnerat Orr IN 
ScorLanp.—The Geological Survey has published re- 
cently volume xxiv. of its special Reports on the 
Mineral Resources of Great Britain, which gives an 
account of a number of minor occurrences of cannel 
coal, lignite, and mineral oil in Scotland outside 
the recognised Scottish oil-shale fields. The work 
has been done by a number of members of the staff 
of the Geological Survey, and the publication is 
edited by Dr. W. Gibson. It is of course important 
that all such occurrences should be put on record, 
although, as is pointed out in the memoir itself, they 
have little or no economic value; nevertheless they 
are of interest to the geologist, and the information 
here given may prevent waste of money and energy 
in attempts to develop them. 
fs 
THE WARIALDA METEORITE OF NEW SouTH WALES. 
—The Warialda meteorite, which is defined as a fine 
variety of hexahedrite, has been described, figured, 
and its analysis given by J. C. H. Mingaye (Rec. 
Geol. Surv, N.S. Wales, vol. x. part 1). It is identical 
in crystallographic structure with the Bingera and 
Barraba meteorites which were found in the same 
district, and the three are probably products of the 
same fall, of which it is hoped further specimens may 
yet be discovered. 
ORTHOPTEROUS INSECT WING IN A _ SELENITE 
CrystaL.—In the Mount Elliott Copper Mine, North 
Queensland, at a depth of 260 feet from the surface, 
and embedded in a large crystal of selenite, enclosed 
in the actual copper lode worked in that mine, there 
has been found a portion cf the wing of an Ortho- 
pterous insect. This interesting fragment forms the 
subject of a paper by Dr. R. J. Tillyard in the Records 
of the Geological Survey of New South Wales, vol. x. 
part 2. The crystal must have been formed by per- 
colating waters long after the lode itself came into 
being ; its age is; consequently, very uncertain, but 
the author inclines to the view that it is late Tertiary. 
The conclusion reached after a careful study of the 
fossil is that it represents an archaic type belonging 
to the family of long-horned grasshoppers (Tetti- 
goniidz), and does not belong to any genus known 
to exist in the world to-day. Accordingly it has 
received the name of Austyodictya corbouldi, n. gen. 
et sp., the trivial name commemorating the manager 
of the mine through whose instrumentality the 
specimen was saved from destruction and forwarded 
to the Survey. 
NEw BRUNSWICK OIL-SHALE AND GypsuM DE- 
posits.—Memoir 129 of the Geological Survey of 
Canada records the geology of the Moncton Map-area, 
which includes parts of the counties of Westmorland 
and Albert lying in south-east New Brunswick. 
Besides giving an account of the general geology of 
the district, incidentally the geology of the Carbon- 
iferous rocks for the most part, the memoir gives 
some new facts relating to the oil-shale deposits. 
These shales are associated with certain horizons in 
the Carboniferous sequence, and an effort has been 

