i;i6 



NATURE 



[December 12, 1901 



observations clown to iSoo, and containing a summary of the 

 previous observations, is not so scarce. Although not included 

 in the bequest, the Society wisely obtained by purchase a 

 bibliography compiled by Mr. Symons containing about 60,000 

 titles of meteorological and kindred subjects. 



An International Exhibition of Automobiles was opened at 

 Paris on Tuesday. Among the exhibits of scientific interest are 

 .^teerable balloons and motors to drive them. The cigar-shaped 

 balloon " Ville de Paris," which M. Deutsch proposes to try 

 next spring, is shown, and also a steerable military balloon 

 invented by Major Renard. 



Prof. G. Vicentini has communicated to the Aiti of the 

 Venetian Institution a paper on the supposed efticacy of canon- 

 firing in preventing hailstorms. In this paper the author 

 briefly reviews the work of the second International Congress 

 held at Padua, and his general conclusion is that the matter 

 requires to be studied in a more scientific and statistical manner 

 than has been hitheito done. For this purpose it may be de- 

 sirable on account of expense to restrict the investigation to a 

 limited region, but in the absence of more exact investigations 

 it is thought that the experiments hitherto carried out can be 

 hardly regarded as conclusive. 



We received a few days ago the Report, dated March 1901, 

 of the International Association for Promoting the Study of 

 Ouaternions and Allied Systems of Mathematics. From the 

 address of the president, Prof. C. J. Joly, of Dublin, we learn 

 that the Association was founded about the year 1900, at the in- 

 stigation of Mr. S. Kimura, of Japan, and Dr. P. Molenbroek, 

 of the Hague, and Sir Robert Ball was its first president. The 

 society proposes to publish a bibliography of the subject, and 

 a report on the position of quaternions and allied branches of 

 mathematics in the curricula of universities and colleges through- 

 out the world is also projected. 



We have received from the author, Mr. G. W. Cole, a copy 

 of a pamphlet entitled " Bermuda and the Challenger Expedi- 

 tion," being a bibliography of the results obtained by that 

 expedition at and near Bermuda. Owing to the establishment 

 of a biological station, each year witnesses the arrival in the 

 islands of an increasing number of zoologists, and it is for their 

 use that this useful pamphlet has been chiefly compiled. 



The observations of Herr E. Wasmann on the relations sub- 

 sisting between the staphilinid beetles dwelling parasitically (or 

 commensurally) in the nests of ants and termites are already 

 classic. The subject is further elaborated in a paper (the first 

 of a series) which appears in the Biol. Ceiilralblatl for November, 

 in which the author suggests that in some of these parasites we 

 have instances of the actual evolution of species going on before 

 our eyes. 



Our contemporary Die Umscliaii, of December 7, contains an 

 interesting summary, by Dr. F. Knauer, of recent investigations 

 — especially those of E. Wasmann — connected with the life- 

 history of ants and termites, particular attention being directed 

 to those insects living in commensalism in their nests, and the 

 plants they cultivate. Attention is first directed to the so-called 

 "crippled" or " pseudogynous " ants of certain species, which 

 have the head and abdomen of a worker and the body of a 

 female. Following this, the author refers to the curious cir- 

 cumstance that not only do the beetles living in commensalism 

 with ants show an extraordinary enlargement of the abdomen, 

 but that the same feature characterises the recently-discovered 

 flics of the genus Termitoxenia. The paper concludes with a 

 notice of the funguses and other plants cultivated by ants. 



The new editions of Darwin's "Descent of Man" and 

 "Origin of Species" which have recently been published by 

 Mr. John Murray are the most remarkable specimens of cheap 

 NO. 1676, VOL. 65] 



and authoritative scientific literature which have come under 

 our notice. Either of the books named can now be obtained 

 in the form of a well-printed and neatly-bound volume for half- 

 acrown, and a popular edition of the "Origin of Species" has 

 l)een published at the price of one shilling. No one interested 

 in the great problems of natural history need, therefore, be 

 without the t«ci works which determined the direction of 

 inquiry in the last century and still e.tert a profound influence 

 upon biological thought. It is worth while to remind naturalists 

 that though the copyright of the " Origin of Species " has now 

 expired, only the imperfect edition can be reprinted without the 

 authority of the aulhor's executors. The only complete and 

 authorised edition is that published by Mr. Murray. 



The Report for the year 1900 of the Botanic Garden and 

 Domains, Sydney, New South Wales, by the director, Mr. J. II. 

 Maiden, shows steady work in the improvement of the Gardens 

 and the increased efficiency of the herbarium and library. The 

 details are chiefly of local interest. 



We have received from the U.S. Department of Agriculture 

 (Division of Botany) two interesting pamphlets (Bidldins Nos. 

 27 and 28) : Seeds of Commercial Salt-bushes — i.e. species of 

 Atriplex— grown as forage-plants in the arid regions of the West, 

 by Mr. G. N. Collins ; and The Chayote, a Tropica! Vegetable, 

 by Mr. O. F. Cook. Ttie chayote or tayote, Sechium eliile, 

 a member of the Cucurbitace^, is better adapted for a tropical 

 climate than most herbaceous plants. It has been grown from 

 time immemorial by the aborigines of South .\merica for its suc- 

 culent fruit, but, like so many cultivated plants, is unknown 

 in the wild state. 



The Journal of the College of Science of the Imperial Uni- 

 versity of Tokyo (vol. XV. part iii.) contains several interesting 

 botanical articles, mostly in German ; among the rest : On the 

 organisms concerned in the fermentation of the Japanese spirit 

 "awamori," by Mr. T. Inui, which is attributed mainly to a 

 new species, Aspergillus htchucHsis, accompanied also by 

 Aspirgillus perniciosus, sp.n., Saccharomyces A waviori, sp.n., 

 and 5. aiioma/us ; on the transpiration of evergreen trees in 

 winter, by Mr. S. Kusano ; both transpiration and assimilation 

 are continued through the winter in the climate of Tokyo ; on 

 the action of cupric sulphate on plants, by Mr. N. Hattori ; and 

 on the more important fibre-plants of Japan, by Mr. K. Saito. 



The first instalment of the second edition of Prof, van 't 

 Hoff's " Vorlesungen iiber theoretische und physikalische 

 Chemie," dealing with chemical dynamics, has been published 

 by Messrs. F. Vieweg und Sohn, Brunswick. This is the part 

 of the work which has been translated into French and English 

 and already noticed in the review columns (vol. lix. pp. 458, 

 557. 1898). 



The Polygraphisches Institut of Ziirich has just issued the 

 first and second parts of a series of plates and descriptive text 

 entitled " Arboretum Amazonicum." The author of this icono- 

 graphy is Dr. J. Iluber, head of the botanical section of the 

 Museum of Natural History and Ethnography at Para, and the 

 work will be completed in ten parts. When the whole of the 

 parts have been received a review of their contents will appear 

 in these column.s. 



A SHORT address on the progress of physics during the 

 nineteenth century, recently delivered before the St. Louis 

 Academy of Sciences by Prof. F. E. Nipher, has been issued in 

 the Transactions of the Society (vol. xi. No. 6). He 

 remarks, in concluding his survey, " If the history of the 

 last century has taught us anything, it has established the prac- 

 tical or commercial value of research in pure science. It is 

 from such work that all of the great achievements have directly 



