March 13, 1902] 



NA TURE 



445 



photograph here reproduced shows the shadow of a slit between 

 very carefully worked edges of brass. The slit was about fifteen 

 centimetres in length, tapering from a width of 005 centimetre 

 at one end to nearly zero at the other. 



In a recent issue of the Acles of the Scientific Society of 

 Chili (vol. .\i. part 3), Senor F. Albert publishes an account of 

 the different species of seals frequenting the coasts of that 

 <:ountry, together with a summary of the legislation for their 

 protection. It is satisfactory to learn that the Government are 

 fully alive to the necessity for such protection and are doing all 

 they can to see that the various enactments are duly carried out. 

 The regulations forbid any but Chilian subjects to shoot seals or 

 otters at all, while they establish a close time lasting from the 

 beginning of November till the end of February. 



To shake about 200,000 peach trees and 50,000 plum trees 

 for the purpose of dislodging injurious insects is a formidable 

 task, yet it was successfully accomplished several times 

 between .\pril iS and June i, 1901, by the Hale Georgia 

 Orchard Company at Fort Valley, Georgia, U.S.A. The insect 

 against which this action was taken was the curculio beetle. 

 The San Jose scale, so prevalent in south Georgia, is thoroughly 

 controlled by the kerosene-water treatment, the beach-tree borer 

 is held in abeyance by the cutting-out method, and the brown 

 rot is fairly well controlled by the Bordeaux treatment, but the 

 curculio bafHes all contrivances for its destruction except the 



Gang at work catching beetles shaken otT fruit trees in Georgia. 



tedious method of shaking the trees on which they occur and 

 catching the beetles as they fall. The accompanying illustration 

 from a paper by Messrs. W. M. Scott and W. F. Fiske, in the 

 Proceedings of the thirteenth annual meeting of the Association 

 of Economic Entomologists, shows a gang at work catching 

 beetles on sheets stretched upon frames, as they are shaken off 

 the trees. With eleven pairs of sheets, about 40,000 trees were 

 treated in the course of a day. About 137,000 of the beetles 

 were caught and killed during the season, and as a large pro- 

 portion must have been females capable of depositing eggs, an 

 immense amount of damage was prevented by the work. 



To Mr. O. Voges, of Buenos Ayres, is due the credit of 

 having discovered the smallest bacillus which has yet been 

 identified. It is much sinaller than the influenza bacillus, and 

 is only just discernible when magnified about 1500 times. 

 These very minute rods were obtained from abscesses which 

 cattle suffer from in South America, producing a disease known 

 as manquea amongst other names. It is usually found in quite 

 young cattle, and is easily recognisable by the characteristic 

 lameness of one leg which it produces. The bacillus is an 

 anxrobe, and produces in artificial cultures the same highly 

 offensive odour which is associated with it in the abscess. 

 Mice, rats and rabbits are quite immune to its action, but 

 NO. 1689, VOL. 65] 



guinea-pigs succumb in from 24-48 hours, and the bacilli are 

 found in the heart's blood and all internal organs. Inasmuch 

 as the action of such well-known ana'robic pathogenic bacteria 

 as those of tetanus and symptomatic anthrax is due to their toxic 

 products, filtrates of liquid cultures of this bacillus were tested 

 for their toxicity, but even guinea-pigs did not react to such 

 injections, and therefore Voges concludes that the pathogenic 

 action is due to the bacilli themselves and not to their products. 

 An interesting fact noted by Voges is that the animals he in- 

 oculated only succumbed when the weather was hot ; not once 

 in the winter could he successfully infect one animal. This is 

 also true of the disease in its ordinary course, as the hotter the 

 climate the more flxtal are the results. If the abscess is opened 

 in its early stages the disease is arrested and the animal recovers. 

 This simple remedy is recommended by Voges. 



The fourth and concluding number of the second volume of 

 the IVest Indian Bulletin contains several interesting articles. 

 One on the Jamaica fruit trade is a reprint of an account 

 given by a special correspondent in the Times, and deals mainly 

 with the successful inauguration of the shipping of bananas to 

 England last year. Mr. A. R. Gilzean contributes a sketch of 

 the history of rice-growing in British Guiana. As a very large 

 proportion of the population of the country is composed of East 

 Indian coolies well acquainted with rice cultivation, there can be 

 no doubt that in time rice will become an important article of 

 commerce, the local conditions being described as ideal. An 

 account is given of recent experiments with sweet potatoes, the 

 cultivation of different varieties in various islands, methods of 

 storage, preparation of meal, &c. Sweet potatoes form a staple 

 food in the islands, and the Imperial Department of Agricultuie 

 is endeavouring to induce English people to cultivate a taste for 

 the vegetable by sending fortnightly supplies to London, printed 

 information being given to purchasers as to fifteen different ways 

 of preparing for table. Mr. Maxwell-Lefroy has a lengthy 

 article on suggestions for insect control in the West Indies. 

 He proposes five principal ways of attacking the problems — 

 measures to prevent the introduction of new diseases (such as 

 quarantine or the regulation of plant importation) ; the adop- 

 tion of preventive measures ; also of remedial measures ; the 

 encouragement of useful native birds and other organisms ; and 

 the introduction of new insectivorous birds, insects, &c., and 

 the regulation of the importation of new animals. Other papers 

 relate to bee-keeping, " thrips " and " witch-broom" diseases 

 on cacao, methods for destroying land crabs, treatment of im- 

 ported plants at Jamaica, citrate of lime and concentrated lime 

 juice, &c. The number includes the index to the volume. 



There are several indications in various islands of the Indo- 

 Pacific region that the fact of being tattooed is thought to be bene- 

 ficial when the soul passes into the next world. The last example 

 of this belief is an account in Globus (Bd. Ixxxi. p. 46), by Prof. 

 G. Thilenius, of thetattooingof women in the Laughlan Islands, 

 or Nada, a small group of islands east of the southern end of 

 New Guinea. A considerable surface of the women is tattooed 

 with angled designs, but concentric circles are tattooed on the 

 legs. The belief is that between the Laughlan Islands 

 and the island of Vatum in the Trobriand group, to which their 

 souls should go, there is a great snake over which they must 

 pass. The snake asks each soul for her tattooing. The soul 

 takes off her tattooing and gives it to the snake, who covers 

 itself with it. The snake then becomes broad and flat and the 

 soul passes over, as on a bridge. If the soul is not tattooed the 

 snake shrinks, becomes very narrow, and the soul falls into the 

 sea and cannot reach Vatum. These wretched souls become 

 fish. 



Prof. A. Tarenetsky, in an elaborate work, " Beitrage 

 zur Skelet und Schaedelkunde der] Aleuten, Konaegen, Kena 



