November 21, 1901] 



NA TURE 



61 



reports by members of his staflf. The chief attention of the 

 Survey is appropriately given to questions of economic im- 

 -portance, but those of scientific interest are by no mean? 

 neglected. Aid has been furnished by Mr. Robert Etheridge, 

 jun., in the determination of a series of fossil corals from Stan- 

 well, near Rockhampton, which prove to be of Permo-Carboni- 

 ferous types. These are described and figured in BiiUelin 

 No. 12, together with a paper on the structure of the oolitic 

 limestones by Mr. G. W. Card. The Etheridge and Gilbert gold- 

 ■ fields in north-western Queensland are reported on by Mr. 

 Walter E. Cameron. The reefs occur near the border of a mass 

 of granite and lie partly in that rock and partly in adjacent 

 schists. The same geologist has given attention to the artesian 

 water in this northern area to the south of the Gulf of Car- 

 pentaria. The water-bearing strata occur at depths which 

 e.\tend to as much as 3000 feet beneath sea-level, and water 

 has been obtained at depths of 2000 feet and upwards, with 

 a yield varying from 100,000 to one million gallons a day. 

 Mr. Cameron also reports on recent developments in the copper- 

 mining industry in the Cloncurry district. The ores occur in 

 the older nietamorphic series, and further systematic explorations 

 are strongly recommended. Mr. B. Dunstan describes the 

 anthracitic coal-deposits of the Dawson-Mackenzie region in 

 central Queensland ; in the Annual Report of the Geological 

 Survey of Queensland he also refers to the occurrence of rhodo- 

 chrome and of barklyite (the opaque ruby). Mr. J. Malcolm 

 Maclaren deals with the geology of the Ravenswood gold-field 

 on the borders of the Burdekin River. The rocks comprise 

 schists and altered sandstones of unknown age, quartz-porphyries, 

 granitites and granites. Microscopic sections of some of the 

 rocks are illustrated. The country rock of the reefs is mainly 

 granitic. Mr. Maclaren reparts also on the tin mines of the 

 Stannary Hills, Eureka Creek, in North Queensland. Tne 

 tinstone does not occur in fissure lodes with true walls, but as 

 an impregnation along the bed ling-planes of green chloritic 

 slaty shales. Hence he considers that the permanency of the 

 veins may be confidently anticipated. Mr. Lionel C. Ball 

 reports on the Red Queen and Black Diamond gold-mines 

 near Taromeo. The district is regarded as a promising one. 



" Ai'i'EXDlx No. I — 1902 " of the Kew BiilUtin of Miscel- 

 laneous Infttrmation has been issued. It consists of the usual 

 list of seeds of hardy herbaceous annual and perennial plants 

 and of hardy trees and shrubs, most of which have ripened in 

 Kew during the year 1901. They are offered in exchange with 

 Colonial, Indian, and foreign botanic gardens, as well as with 

 regular correspondents of Kew. 



The Indian Tea Association has issued a report (published in 

 Calcutta) on " Red Rust, a Serious Blight of the Tea-plant," 

 by its scientific officer, .Mr. Harold H. Mann. The disease is 

 caused by an alga, Cep/ialeuros mycoidea, which attacks chiefly 

 the leaves, one of the small number of alga; which are morbific 

 parasites on plants. The remedy recommended is spraying 

 with Bordeaux mixture or sulphide of potassium. 



The publication of the weekly Botanisches Centralblatt will 

 cease with the close of the present year, when it will have com- 

 pleted its eighty-eighth quarterly volume. The chief editor. Dr. 

 Uhlworm, has been chosen to edit a new international botanical 

 journal, the publication of which was decided on at the recent 

 Congress of Botanists at Geneva, subject to sufficient support 

 being promised in the way of subscriptions. 



We learn from the Botanical Gazelle that Dr. J. N. Rose has 

 returned from his botanical expedition to Mexico. He has 

 brought back a large collection of plants made chiefly in the 

 States of Mexico, Hidalgo, Vera Cruz, and Pueblo. Consider- 

 able collections were made in the high mountains, especially 

 NO. 1673, VOL. 65] 



about Pdchucha and on Orizaba and Popocatepetl. The col- 

 lection is especially rich in species of Oxalts, a genus which 

 reaches a high development in Mexico. 



Statistics issued by the Indian Department of Revenue 

 and Agriculture show the mineral production of the Empire 

 from 189 1 to 1900. Of salt, about one million tons is annually 

 produced ; of saltpetre, about 20,000 tons. The output of coal 

 has increased to more than six million tons. Gold has been pro- 

 duced to the value of about two millions sterling, mostly from 

 Mysore. Burma and Assam have yielded 38,000,000 gallons 

 of petroleum. 



The first number of a new periodical, entitled Science, Arls, 

 Nahtre, has been received from Paris. The journal resembles 

 La Nature in scope and typography, and the editor, ]\L Leon 

 Lefevre, hopes to keep its readers in close touch with movements 

 in science, invention and industry. 



A SECOND edition of Mr. A. H. Hiorns's concise and practical 

 manual on " Mixed Metals and Metallic Alloys" has been pub- 

 lished by Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Ltd. The book has been 

 completely revised and enlarged so as to include the results of 

 the chief rescirches on alloys published during the last seven or 

 eight years. 



The results of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to 

 Torres Straits will be published in several volumes — probably 

 six — dealing respectively with physical anthropology, physiology 

 and psychology, linguistics, technology, sociology and religion. 

 The first part, just published, belongs to the volume on physiolog 

 and psychology, and in it Dr. W. H. R. Rivers deals with vision. 

 We propose to notice the volumes when the series has been 

 completed. 



Evidence of Austria's position among leading contributors 

 to scientific knowledge is afforded by the annual volumes pjb- 

 lished by the Vienna Academy of Sciences. The Sitzungs- 

 berichte for 1S99 are before us, and as they occupy approxim.^tely 

 four thousand pages it is clearly impossible to describe the 

 contents. Many of the papers have, however, already been 

 mentioned in these columns, and we need now only express 

 satisfaction at the substantial testimony to scientific activity 

 presented to us by the volumes before us. 



The supplementary list of lantern slides just issued by Messrs. 

 Newton and Co. contains, among other scientific subjects, sets 

 of slides of natural history subjects reproduced from photographs 

 by Mr. Douglas English ; photographs of ripples on mercury 

 and water surfaces by Dr. J. H. Vincent ; sound waves by 

 Prof. R. W. Wood ; photo-micrographs illustrating the morpho- 

 logy of malaria by Dr. H. R. D. Spitta ; and photo-micro- 

 graphs by Dr. J. Leon Williams relating to the microscopic 

 morpholocy and pathology of the enamel of teeth. To be able 

 to illustrate lectures or lessons with these photographic pic- 

 tures of natural objects and phenomena should greatly facilitate 

 instruction and create interest in scientific subjects. 



New editions of two volumes in the well-known Text-Books 

 of Science series have been published by Messrs. Longmans, 

 Green and Co. One is Sir W. de W. Abney's "Treatise on 

 Photography," which contains the essential principles of the 

 science of photography, and should be understood by everyone 

 who aspires to be a successful photographer, whether from a 

 scientific or artistic point ol view. The second volume is Prof. 

 W. A. Tilden's " Introduction to the Study of Chemical Philo- 

 sophy," which has been completely revised and in large part 

 rewritten in order to present the principles of theoretical and 

 systematic chemistry in their modern aspects. The book is one 

 svhich students of chemistry read with pleasure ; because it is 

 a synopsis of the leading principles of chemistry, and profit ; 



