as ae 
Marcu 24, 1923] 

































correlation that was positive in the Tropics and Polar 
regions, negative in the Temperate zones. He also 
found that the temperature in Argentina was corre- 
lated to the short-period variations of radiation 
observed in Chile, and he suggests that these changes 
have a tendency to recur in periods of 12 and 22 days. 
They are interpreted as being due to varying trans- 
ney of the solar atmosphere. Measures of the 
ightness of Saturn indicated similar variations, but 
with a time-interval proportional to the difference of 
longitude of Saturn and earth. This would be ex- 
plained by the solar regions of high or low radiation 
eing carried round by the sun’s rotation. 
_ The excess of radiation at sunspot maximum is 
explained by the greater activity of solar convection 
urrents at that time; these bring hot matter from 
the interior to the surface, which more than balances 
he loss of heat in the spots themselves. 
The mean state of transparency of the solar atmo- 
sphere is measured by observations of the radiation 
at different distances from the centre of the disc. 
HE Scottish Board of Health has issued a very 
clear and interesting report on the circum- 
ances attending the deaths of eight persons from 
botulism at Loch Maree in Ross-shire last year, and 
none of the vivid tragedy of the occurrence is lost in 
he telling by Dr. G. R. Leighton. 
On August 14, 1922, a number of guests stopping 
in the hotel went out for the day, and within a week 
ix of them, as well as two of the attendant ghillies, 
were dead. Once some sort of food poisoning was 
spected, the distribution of the fatalities between 
ese living in the hotel and those living in their own 
homes in the neighbourhood at once implicated 
uncheon, the only meal taken in common, as the 
ource of the poison, and further inquiries appeared 
o bring particular suspicion on a glass jar of wild- 
duck paste out of which about a dozen of the 
sandwiches had been made. The empty jar was 
ortunately recovered, and Mr. Bruce White, at the 
niversity of Bristol, was able to show that the small 
fragments of paste left in it were intensely poisonous 
to mice, and from them to isolate the Bacillus botu- 
linus itself. One of the ghillies was not hungry 
enough to eat all his sandwiches and took one home 
with him; when he fell ill next day and rumour 
suggested something wrong with the lunch his friends 
buried the sandwich, which was retrieved later and 
shown by animal experiment to be extremely toxic. 
guest also failed in his appetite and threw the most 
part of a sandwich to a wagtail on the lake shore; a 
of a small bird among the stones. 
There has, indeed, seldom been an outbreak of food 
NATURE a 
} greatest when the solar spot activity is greatest. 
_ atmosphere. 
Botulism in 
month later Dr. Leighton found the decayed remains | 
415 
The contrast between centre and limbs is found to be 
On 
the other hand, the short-period increases of radiation 
a associated with less contrast between centre and 
imb. 
The work also gives information on the trans- 
parency to radiation of different layers of our own 
“The atmosphere above 11 km. con- 
tributes more than half the radiation of the earth 
viewed as a planet. . . . Nearly the entire output of 
radiation of the earth to space, more than }, arises 
from the atmosphere and clouds.” 
The albedo of a large white cloud in the sunshine 
was measured from a balloon above it and found to 
be 78 per cent. Prof. H. N. Russell's discussion of 
Miiller’s observations of the albedo of Venus gave 
the value 59 per cent. It is concluded that the 
clouds on Venus while general are not thick enough to 
give full cloud reflection except for oblique rays. The 
albedo of the earth seen from space is estimated as 
between 43 and 45 per cent. 

Scotland. 
poisoning in which the facts were so clear and so 
plainly verified. The only point of interest which 
the report fails to elucidate—and perhaps the facts 
could not be ascertained with complete accuracy— 
is how many people ate any of the poisonous paste 
without having symptoms : it seems likely that there 
may have been about five. 
As has lately been shown by Dr. K. F. Meyer of the 
University of California (NATURE, January 20, p. 95) 
B. botulinus is a widespread common inhabitant of 
the soil, and may often be found on fruits, vegetables, 
and other food-stuffs. Taken with food in any 
numbers that are reasonably possible it is harmless, 
and in this way differs sharply from the food poison- 
ing bacilli of the Gaertner and Aertrycke group, which 
multiply inside the body and cause illness by pro- 
ducing a definite infection. B. botulinus is poisonous 
only if it has been able to grow for some time under 
favourable conditions outside the body and produce 
large quantities of its potent toxin; man is poisoned 
by the toxin, not infected by the bacillus. Laboratory 
experiments show that the resting spores are excep- 
tionally difficult to kill by heating. Considering, 
indeed, the wide distribution of the bacillus in Nature, 
the rarity of botulism is a remarkable testimony to 
the care with which potted meats and so on are 
usually prepared. Really efficient sterilisation is a 
secure preventive. The difficulty is that the glass 
containers, which the public esthetically prefers, 
cannot be heated to a sufficiently high temperature 
without an undue proportion of breakages. There 
seems to be no good reason why they should not be 
prohibited and tins made compulsory. 



‘THREE reports on investigations connected with 
house construction and allied subjects have 
recently been issued by the Department of Scientific 
and Industrial Research.' 
In the first of these, Mr. W. H. Wainwright gives 
some details of the cost of cottage building, and at 
the present time, when the cost of building is a very 
7 ment of Scientific and Industrial Research. Building Research 
Board: Special Report No. 6, “A Graphical Cost Analysis of Cottage- 
Building." By W. H. Wainwright. Pp. iv+8+20diagrams. 2s. 6d. net. 
Building Research Board: Special Report No. 5, ‘‘ Building in Cob and Pisé 
de Terre: a Collection of Notes from Various Sources on the Construction of 
Earth Walls.” Pp. iv+4o. 2s. net. Fuel Research Board; Special Report 
No. 4, ‘‘ Tests on Ranges and Cooking Appliances.” By A. H. Barker. An 
Extract from the Report of the Building Materials Research Committee. 
Pp. vi+55+1%5 figs. 2s. 6d. net. (London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1922.) 
NO. 2786, VOL. 111 | 
such information should be valuable. 
Building Construction Research. 
vexed subject and development schemes have to be 
very carefully debated owing to financial stringency, 
It is only by 
careful analysis in the matter of outlay that organisa- 
tion can be improved and economy effected, and 
those engaged in large building works will find in 
these tables much interesting matter. The diagrams 
are partly compiled from data collected by the 
Ministry of Health; some are calculating graphics 
which should save time and do something to popular- 
ise graphic methods among technicians, while others 
show the rise and fall of prices in labour and materials 
from 1914 to 1922 and are of general application. 
Mr. Weller in his editorial introduction anticipates 
