~* 
APRIL 21, 1923] 
NATURE 
545 

of chemical standards for analysis, and the establish- 
ment of a more formal organisation on a firmer 
financial basis. These standards are now widely 
used, and the movement seems likely to become self- 
supporting, some 15 or 20 co-operators taking part 
in each standardisation, and the number of users, 
both at home and abroad, being large. 
UNDER the title Capita Zoologica, anew quarto Dutch 
_ zoological periodical has recently appeared. It is 
_ issued under the editorship of Prof. Dr. E. D. van 
Oort, director of the State Museum of Natural History 
_ at Leyden, and is composed of transactions on system- 
atic zoology, each part forming a complete work which 
is sold separately. A number of transactions will form 
a volume of about 500 pages, with plates and engrav- 
ings. The contributions are published in English, 
French, and German. The part before us of this well- 
executed publication is Deel 1, Aflevering 4 (1922, 
price 24 guilders), and is devoted to a description of 
flies of the group Dolichopodinz of the Indo-Austral- 
asian region by Th. Becker. It is evidently an im- 
portant contribution by this recognised authority, 
and extends to nearly 250 pages, 222 illustrations 
Occupying 19 plates. The previous three parts of 
this journal deal respectively with Nematodes, by Dr. 
J. G. de Man; Rhizostomes, by Dr. G. Stiasny; and 
Oligochetes, by Prof. W. Michaelsen. 
WE have received from Messrs. Pastorelli and 
-Rapkin, Ltd., of 46 Hatton Garden, E.C.1, a new 
catalogue of chemical thermometers. All the instru- 
ments listed are stated to be of British make, and as 
a guarantee of this the thermometers bear the name 
“ BritGia,”’ the registered trade mark of the British 
-Lampblown Scientific Glassware Manufacturers Asso- 
ciation, Ltd. The list in question is very compre- 
hensive and covers a variety of ranges from - 30° C. 
to 600°C. Thermometers with corresponding ranges 
on the Fahrenheit scale are listed in most cases. 
The ranges are varied in such a manner that it should 
be possible to select a reasonably open scale ther- 
mometer for any temperature. Quotations are given 
for two main classes of thermometers, namely, low- 
priced chemical thermometers and best quality stan- 
dard laboratory thermometers. We are pleased to 
reduction in the prices which have been prevailing 
of late years. For convenience, the cost of supplying 
National Physical Laboratory certificates with the 
latter class of instruments is shown separately. A 
special section is also devoted to high range ther- 
mometers constructed of borosilicate glass and nitro- 
gen-filled. These can be supplied in metal sheaths 
for industrial use. 
Part 3 of volume tr of the Abstract Bulletin of the 
Research Laboratory of the Lamp Works of the 
General Electric Co., Cleveland, Ohio, deals with 36 
researches recently published, and extends to nearly 
220 pages. It has been found advisable to expand 
the pure and applied sections of the laboratory into 
two separate laboratories for pure and applied science 
under the directions of Dr. E. F. Nichols and Mr, M. 
NO. 2790, VOL. 111] 
4 

note that in both classes there is a considerable. 
SS SS Se a a ee 
Luckiesh respectively. Both laboratories contribute 
to the researches abstracted in the present part. As 
an illustration of the thorough way in which industry 
in America is going into the scientific and technical 
questions which underlie manufacturing processes, 
we would direct attention to a paper of 32 pages 
by Mr. Luckiesh on the physical basis of colour 
technology, in which the methods used to investigate, 
by the help of the spectro-photometer, the properties 
of the dry pigments used in the paint industries, of 
the dyes, their mixtures and solutions, and of the 
various substances used in producing coloured glasses, 
are described. With data of the kind described 
available, many of the difficulties and obscurities of 
the colour industries are removed, and progress 
becomes rapid, while without them much groping 
in the dark is inevitable. 
Part F of the ‘‘ Guide-book of the Western United 
States ’’ has just been issued as Bulletin 707 of the 
U.S. Geological Survey. Its author, Marius B. 
Campbell, writes for the tourist who looks with an 
intelligent interest from the windows of his parlour-car 
on the “ Denver and Rio Grande Western Route ” ; 
but side-excursions are duly encouraged and described, 
and the maps show, in brown stippling, some ten 
miles depth of country on either side of the adventur- 
ous line. Numerous illustrations are given of the 
scenery along the route, which starts from Denver 
and ends at Salt Lake City. West of Canon City 
(not “ Cafion’”’ or ‘“‘ Canyon,” be it observed) the 
railroad enters the Royal Gorge of the Arkansas River, 
which is cut r1ooo ft. sheer in pre-Cambrian granite, 
overlain by stratified rocks of Upper Cretacous age. 
We are shown the fantastic arid weathering of the 
rose-red Permocarboniferous sandstone in the famous 
Garden of the Gods, and Pike’s Peak appears as a 
portion ofasnowy range. The ancient local glaciation 
of Colorado is not neglected, and the time-honoured 
error as to the origin of the term roches moutonnées is 
once more repeated on Plate 55. The protected 
fauna is illustrated, and the fauna that tried in vain 
to protect itself at the opening of Cainozoic times is 
finely represented by restorations of Stegosaurus and 
Triceratops. Stegosaurus, by the bye, means “ roofed 
lizard,’’ not ‘‘ plated lizard.’’ This and the other 
guide-books of the series must not be overlooked by 
those who travel in America, and they contain much 
geographical: and geological information which is 
rendered accessible in European libraries, through the 
generosity of the Survey, for those who may never 
cross the Atlantic. 
BuLLETIN No. 133 of the Engineering Experiment 
Station of the University of Illinois is entitled “A 
Study of Explosions of Gaseous Mixtures,”’ by Prof. 
A. P. Kratz and Mr. C. Z. Rosencrans. The report 
contains a valuable bibliography of the subject, 
beginning with Dalton and Humphry (not ‘ Hum- 
phrey’’’ as in the report) Davy, and after passing 
in review such classical researches as those of Dixon, 
Berthelot, Petavel, Bone, Jouguet (not ‘‘ Jouget,’’ 
as in the report), Thornton, and others, the literature 
teferences are carried up to 1921. A brief summary 
