Ai'KiL 23, igOiS] 



NA TURE 



587 



NOTES. 



AccOKDiNG to the Pioneer Mail, the provision of a 

 Pasteur Institute for Burma is now assured, but some little 

 time must elapse before the worlc can be started. The 

 local community has come forward liberally in subscribing 

 nearly a lakh of rupees, and the Government of India is 

 understood to be addressing the Burma Administration on 

 the subject of ways and means for carrying the scheme 

 into effect, the total cost of such an institution being, of 

 course, much in excess of the sum that has been raised. 



At the si.Kth annual meeting of the Association of 

 Economic Biologists, held at University College, London, 

 on April 15, Mr. A. E. Shipley, F.R.S., was elected presi- 

 dent for 1908. A summary of the scientific proceedings 

 appears among our reports of societies. The following 

 resolution was passed at the meeting: — "That this 

 association, recognising the great need of an organised 

 inquiry into the feeding habits of the birds of the British 

 Isles with the view of obtaining a practical knowledge of 

 their economic status, is of the opinion that a committee 

 should be formed with the object of carrying on investiga- 

 tions on this subject." 



Ox Tuesday next, .April 28, Mr. Gerald Stoney will 

 begin a course of two lectures at the Royal Institution on 

 " The Development of the Modern Turbine and its 

 Application"; on Thursday, April 30, Mr. W. Bateson 

 will commence a course of three lectures on " Mendelian 

 Heredity " (these are the Tyndall lectures) ; and on Satur- 

 day, May 2, Mr. G. F. Scott Elliot will deliver the first 

 of two lectures on " Chile and the Chilians." The Friday 

 evening discourse on May i will be delivered by Prof. 

 Joseph Larmor, on " The Scientific Work of Lord 

 Kelvin": on May 8 by Mr. J. Y. Buchanan, on "Ice 

 and its Natural History ": and on May 15 by Mr. Herbert 

 Timbrell Bulstrode, on " The Past and Future of Tubercu- 

 losis." 



.\t the London Institution on ,\pril 15, Mr. Valdemar 

 Poulsen lectured on " Telephoning without Wires." The 

 paper was translated and read to the audience, and showed 

 that Mr. Poulsen has made a great advance in radio- 

 telephony since his last lecture in London at the Queen's 

 Hall two years ago. The progress made in wireless 

 telephony is shown by the fact that conversation has been 

 carried on across Denmark from Lyngby to another wire- 

 less telephone exchange at Esberg, 170 miles distant. 

 The reproduction of the voice was clear and distinct, and 

 easy to recognise. In addition to this, a further trial was 

 made with a phonograph played in Berlin, the music of 

 which was heard distinctly at Lyngby, near Copenhagen, 

 2()0 miles distant. At the close of the lecture some experi- 

 ments with a phonograph were made, and the strains of 

 two pieces of music were radiated to a telephone box in 

 the roof of the building, whence the audience were enabled 

 to hear the reproduction through telephone receivers. Mr. 

 Poulsen showed an apparatus which was guaranteed to 

 receive w»ireless messages in the Morse code, telephone 

 cables, and wireless photographs. The wireless photo- 

 graphs are produced by the deflection of a recorder for 

 the fraction of a second by wireless impulse. .\ ray of 

 light shines on a photographic plate, and consequently a 

 photographic negative of easily read signals is produced. 

 Mr. Poulsen has also produced a practical transmitter of 

 such a size that it can easily be carried in baggage, and 

 thus enables an officer on sea or land to communicate with 

 other units in his own voice. 



NO. 2008, VOL. 77] 



.Mr. J. R. Pennell, Mr. A. Kinnes, and .Mr. H. C. 

 Booth have been appointed to the vacant' junior assistant- 

 ships in the National Physical Laboratory. 



Some months ago we had occasion to notice a paper 

 by Mr. G. R. Marriner on the habits of the New Zealand 

 kea parrot. A volume by the same observer, entitled 

 "The Kea: a New Zealand Problem," is now announced 

 by Messrs. .Marriner and Spencer, of Christchurch, N.Z. 



We have to acknowledge the receipt of two parts 

 (vol. .xi., part ii., and vol. xii., part i.) of the Transactions 

 of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society. In 

 the latter of these, special interest attaches to a paper by 

 Mr. T. O. Bosworlh on the origin and mode of deposit 

 of the Upper Keuper beds of the county. In this paper, 

 which was read at the Leicester meeting of the British 

 -Association, the author points out that the climate of the 

 Carboniferous epoch, like that of the present day, had a 

 highly disintegrating effect on the igneous rocks of Charn- 

 wood Forest. Where, however, the Charnwood rocks 

 have been buried under Keuper deposits, they present a 

 sharp,' uneroded surface, indicating the existence of dry 

 desert conditions at the date of deposition of the latter. 



I.M the February issue of the Bulletin international of 

 the Academy of Sciences of Cracow, Mr. K. Stolyhwo 

 describes a human skull dating from the historic period 

 which presents strong indications of close affinity with 

 the Spy-Neanderthal type, the so-called Homo primigenitts. 

 of the Paljeolithic epoch. The skull, it appears, formed 

 part of a skeleton from a tomb in which was also buried 

 a suit of chain-armour, together with iron spear-heads, 

 &c. In the great development of the supra-orbital ridges 

 and of the notch at the root of the nasals, the skull, which 

 was found at Nowosiolka, closely approximates to the 

 Neanderthal type. It may be added that, in view of Prof. 

 Sollas's recent reference of the latter to the ."Vustralian 

 stock, the occurrence in eastern Europe of a late survival 

 of the same type is a matter of profound interest. 



The Indian' Forest Department has decided to issue two 

 new serials, Indian Forest Records and Indian Forest 

 Memoirs, for the publication of departmental literature. 

 The first part of the Records, published in Calcutta in 

 January, is devoted to an elaborate account, by Mr. E. P. 

 Stebbing, entomologist to the department, of the lac-insect 

 and its product. Although the exports of lac from India 

 are of immense value, amounting in 1905-6 to more than 

 three crores of rupees, a comparatively small revenue is 

 yielded to the Forest Department from this source, and 

 one of the objects of the inquiry was to ascertain whether 

 matters could not be put on a more satisfactory footing 

 in this respect. The inquiry also related to possible 

 improvements in the methods of collecting the lac. The 

 account is illustrated with two plates, one devoted to the 

 life-history of the insect and the other to the mode of 

 formation of the lac. It is unfortunate that, on ' its first 

 page, the part bears the date of 1907 instead of 1908. 



Insects injurious to the valuable sal-forests of Assam, 

 together with the parasites and other insects by which 

 they are infested or attacked, form the subject of an article 

 by Mr. Stebbing, issued at Calcutta as Forest Bulletin 

 No. II. It has long been known that these forests are 

 subject to severe damage from the attacks of leaf-eating 

 caterpillars, but Mr. Stebbing considered it probable that 

 the chief harm would be found due to a longicorn beetle 

 akin to the one attacking sal-timber in central India. 

 Unfortunately, this suggestion has proved onlv too true. 



