November 5, 1908] 



NATURE 



'7 



the subjoined, table, compiled from figures annexed to the 

 recent report of the Commissioner of Police, shows the 

 increase in the Metropolitan Police District, which 

 embraces an area of 700 square miles : — 



Accidents causing Death or Injury in the Streets within 

 the Metropolitan Police District, 1897 to 1907 inclusive. 



Injuries 



Annual average for the "| 

 five years 1897-1901 J 

 1902 

 1905 

 190+ 

 1905 

 1906 

 1907 



I '4 



6 



6 

 22 

 35 

 74 

 123 



Killed 

 by other 

 vehicles oi 

 by horses 



148 



137 

 I38S 

 160 



319 



592 



1,112 



1.557 

 3.358 



5.362 



Injured by 



other 

 vehicles or 

 by horses 



■ 9.33S 



.. 9,lS6 



.. 9,610 



■■ 9,272 



■ • 10,131 



.. 10,702 



.. 11,410 



after the 

 I, 1904— 



These figures make it very clear that not Ions 

 Act of 1903 came into operation — on January 

 raising the maximum speed-limit from twelve miles an 

 hour to twenty, the casualties caused by motor traffic in- 

 creased rapidly. Injuries caused by non-motor traffic have 

 also increased greatly in the last five years. 



November has opened with the same fine and brilliant 

 weather which characterised October, except that, in keep- 

 ing with the season, there has been a decided fall of 

 temperature, although the thermometer both by day and 

 night remains several degrees above the average. The 

 mean maximum temperature in London for Octo'Ber was 

 about 6° above the average, and at Greenwich there were 

 six days with the sheltered thermometer above 70°, and 

 twenty-two days with the reading above 60°, whilst on 

 October 3 and 29 the temperature exceeded all previous 

 records, on the corresponding days, by 3°. The duration 

 of bright sunshine was generally in excess of the average 

 over the country, and in London the sun shone for ninety- 

 eight hours, which is thirty hours more than the average. 

 The aggregate rainfall for the month varied considerably 

 in different parts of the kingdom, but there was generally 

 a deficiency ; the early part of the month was mostly very 

 dry, but fairly heavy rains were general towards the close 

 of October. In London there was a deficiency of rain 

 amounting to 08 inch, the measurement being 1-9 inches. 



The Allahabad Pioneer published recently a further 

 account of the explorations of Dr. M. A. Stein, written 

 from Khotan in July last. In September, 1907, he com- 

 menced his long journey to the Tarim Basin for his second 

 winter archa2ologicaI campaign. He reached Karashahr, 

 on the border of this region, in December, and at Korla 

 made a fresh investigation of a group of Buddhist shrines, 

 which had already been examined by Prof. Griinwedel. 

 Many fine painted panels and relieves were unearthed 

 here. The country, once irrigated from the Karakash 

 River, must in former times have supported a large and 

 thriving population, and even now, if the channels were 

 restored, these settlements might be re-established. About 

 Christmas the cold of the valley drove the party to the 

 sunnier hill country. After returning to Korla he marched 

 from the Inchike or Shahyar River along a previously 

 unexplored route to the Kuchar oasis, where the ruins 

 had lately been carefully explored by successive parties of 

 Japanese, German, and Russian archaeologists. So, after 

 a haz:irdous desert march, he was glad to re-visit his old 

 hunting-ground at Kara-dong. March and April were 

 spent in examining the desert belt adjoining the oasis from 

 Damoko to Khotan, and from a collection of unsavoury 



KG. 2036, VOL. 79] 



middens he recovered a great mass of documents, mainly 

 Indian, Chinese, and Tibetan, none of which, apparently, 

 is later than the eighth or ninth century a.d. At the 

 beginning of May Dr. Stein reached Aksu, after suffering 

 severely from heat and dust-storms. Here he arranged for 

 the continuation of the survey of the outer Tien-shan 

 range as far westward as the passes above Kashgar. 

 After some further exploration the traveller was forced to 

 return to Khotan, where, when this letter was dispatched, 

 he was engaged in packing up his large collections, many 

 of them consisting of fragile documents, which need much 

 rare, preparatory to sending them by the long and difficult 

 route across the Himalaya to India. 



We have received a letter from Mr. C. V. Raman, of 

 the Science Association Laboratory, Calcutta, directing, 

 attention to a method of illumination employed in micro- 

 scopy by Mr. G. Dubern in 1888, and described in Indian 

 Engineering for April of that year. Mr. Raman claims 

 that the apparatus renders visible ultra-microscopic 

 particles, and that Siedentopf's and Szigmondy's method 

 was thus anticipated. The apparatus consisted of a 

 polished glass plate, one end of which was cut off, form- 

 ing an angle of S4° 3S' with the base ; through this slant 

 end a prowerful beam of light was projected. We have 

 examined the description of the apparatus in Indian 

 Engineering, and consider that the method (not altogether 

 novel even at that date) was one of dark-ground illumina- 

 tion, any form of which tends to render ultra-microscopic 

 particles visible, but that it cannot be 'considered in any 

 way as anticipating the modern ultra-microscopic 

 apparatus. 



In addition to a memoir, with portrait, of Prof. W. 

 Lilljeborg, the October number of Naturen contains an 

 interesting account of the results of Mr. Luther Burbank's 

 experiments in developing and hybridising various fruits, 

 especially plums. Illustrations are given of the wild and 

 cultivated forms of the French plum, of the " plumcot " 

 (plum crossed with apricot), and of the hybrid blackberry 

 and raspberry. 



According to Museum News for October, there has- been 

 installed in the Brooklyn Museum a case showing the 

 home of the guacharo, or oil-bird, of Trinidad. The scene 

 represents a cave tenanted by hundreds of these birds, with 

 their nests, eggs, and young. The rainy season is the 

 time of nesting, and the cave is consequently represented 

 as dripping with water and the nests saturated. The cave 

 is lighted by electricity, which can be switched on or off 

 at pleasure. A group of five sea-lions forms another 

 addition to the exhibited series. In the matter of realistic 

 groups of this nature the Brooklyn and other American 

 museums are leaving our own Natural History Museum 

 far behind. 



We have to acknowledge the receipt of copies of articles 

 12-14 of the twenty-third volume of the Journal of the 

 College of Science, Imperial University of Tokyo, the con- 

 tents of all three of which are mainly of interest to 

 specialists. Japanese sertularian zoophytes of the group 

 Primnoidea form the subject of article 12, by Mr. K. 

 Kinoshita, and are illustrated by several excellent plates 

 in black and white. In No. 13 Mr. S. Tanaka treats of 

 some rare Japanese fishes, with descriptions of one new 

 genus, one subgenus, and six species, while in article 14 

 Prof. Einar Lonnberg, of Stockholm, contributes a list 

 of the bird-fauna of the island of Saghalin, based on 

 collections at Tokyo, in which three new subspecies are 

 named. The new genus (Gymnosimenchelys) in Mr. 



