NATURE 



[April 3. 1902 



February 1S95, the recent frost was the most prolonged and 

 severe that has been experienced in February for half a century. 

 Dr. Mill measures the duration of the frost by the number of 

 nights during which the temperature in the shade fell below the 

 freezing point. In most places the cold weather set in on the 

 1st, and, generally speaking, lasted for three weeks, except on 

 the sea coasts. For instance, at Torquay the period was nine 

 days, at Eastbourne and some other places twelve days only, while 

 in Suffolk, Yorkshire and Peebleshire the fro.st lasted for twenty- 

 four days. The lowest shade temperatures were - 2° at Lairg 

 (Sutherland) and 0° at Braemar on the 14th. At Camden Square 

 the minimum was I5°'S, the only lower records there in February 

 being 15° -4 in 1S65 and 7°-3 in 1895. The mean temperature 

 of the month appears to have been from 3° to 5° below the 

 average in all parts of our islands. Heavy snowfalls occurred in 

 the north and west, but in the south-east there was an almost 

 entire absence of precipitation during the period of the frost. 



The Scientific American for March 8 describes and illustrates 

 a very novel form of flying machine which has been devised by 

 M. Henri Villard, of Paris. The machine has not yet been 

 tried, so at present nothing can be said about its capabilities, 

 but the inventor hopes to carry out the first trials next spring. 

 An idea of the apparatus may be perhaps best explained by 

 imagining a rather flat umbrella of considerable size made rigid 

 by an exterior steel rim and wire spokes. On the stick portion 

 of this large umbrella, and under the umbrella, are two pro- 

 tecting arms, one carrying a screw to move the apparatus in a 

 horizontal direction, the other a rudder for steering purposes. 

 Still lower down on this stick, on one side of it, say near the 

 handle of the umbrella, is the motor, and opposite it the seat 

 for the operator. The motor has two functions, one of which 

 is to drive the screw for obtaining the horizontal motion, and 

 the other, which is the novel part of this form of flying 

 machine, for rotating at a rapid speed the umbrella portion. 

 The idea is that the rapidly rotating umbrella with the com- 

 paratively heavy rim will act like the wheel of a gyroscope, 

 and that this will tend to keep the machine from being 

 easily moved out of the plane of rotation. The umbrella 

 portion, which is practically a parachute, is a large flat 

 wheel of twenty-two feet external diameter, resembling 

 somewhat a bicycle wheel, the rim of which is made of half-inch 

 diameter circular steel tubing, and this is covered on its upper 

 portion with stout cotton balloon canvas. The parachute or 

 wheel portion is not really a true wheel, but built on the plan 

 of a helix, so that by rapid rotation the whole apparatus can be 

 lifted vertically ; it is stated that this will absorb about four 

 horse-power. 



An ingenious and very convenient method for finding the 

 velocity of underground water is described by Prof. Slichter in 

 the Engineering News. The method is an electrical one, and 

 consists in determining the time taken for an electrolyte to travel 

 along a certain length of the stream. A double row of i.J inch 

 drive wells is sunk across the channel of the stream and the 

 upstream wells are charged with a solution of an electrolyte, 

 ammonium chloride having been found very suitable. The 

 electrolyte flows down stream with the moving water, and its 

 arrival at the second row of drive wells is indicated electrically. 

 The best method of connecting up the electrical indicator is said 

 to be the following. One pole of the battery is connected to the 

 outer sheathing of the lower well tubes through an ammeter ; the 

 other pole is connected to the upstream tubes and also to an 

 insulated electrode passing down the centre of the downstream 

 tube.s. A gradual rise in current marks the passage of the 

 electrolyte down stream ; when it arrives at the lower row of 

 wells, the resistance of the circuit between the sheathing and the 

 inner electrode is so much diminished that a sudden kick 

 NO. 1692, VOL. 65] 



of the ammeter occurs, marking with great precision the time of 

 arrival. The second circuit may be dispensed with, but the 

 moment of arrival is not in that case so sharply marked. A 

 number of preliminary tests have been made on the rate of 

 movement of the underflow of the Arkansas River, and a more 

 extended and systematic survey is now being undertaken. 



In a paper recently contributed to the Royal Dublin Society, 

 Prof. Johnson, of the Royal Collegeof Science, directs attention to 

 the great injury done by " smut " ( Ustilago avenae, Jens. ) to the 

 oat crop in Ireland, and as the result of two years' experience 

 strongly recommends the use of an American fungicide, " Sar.'" 

 Sar — so-called because of the ingredients, sulphur, alkali and 

 resin, used in its preparation — consists chiefly of sodium sul- 

 phide, and to this compound the fungicidal properties are due. 

 Sar can be made at a cost of 6J. to gi/. per pint ; and one pint 

 in 30 to 40 gallons of water will cleanse 4 bushels of seed. 

 The grain must be soaked for 24 hours, and for ordinary farm 

 use it would be necessary to provide a tank capable of dealing 

 with one day's supply of seed, say 30 to 50 bushels. Smut is a 

 widespread pest in Britain, but partly because in normal seasons 

 it does not do serious damage, and partly because of the un- 

 suitability of the farmer's ordinary " steep" (solution of copper 

 sulphate) and the trouble attending the use of Jensen's " hot- 

 water " method, few attempts have hitherto been made to deal 

 with the fungus. Prof. Johnson's paper should secure an 

 extended trial for sar in Wales, the west of Scotland, and 

 other moist districts where Ustilago avenae is common. 



Following the example set more than a decade ago by the 

 Government of New South Wales, the Agricultural Department 

 of the Government of Victoria has begun the issue of a monthly 

 journal. In the first part, dated January 1902, the scope of this 

 publication is indicated in an introduction written by the Hon. 

 John Morrissey, M.L.A., Minister for Agriculture. The chief 

 function is to bring the oflicers of the Department into closer 

 touch with the agricultural population. A considerable body of 

 information is accumulated by the experts employed by Govern- 

 ment, and it is felt that unless this information is in active 

 circulation it will prove of little value. An annual report 

 does not meet the farmer's requirements, for " the annual must 

 ever be largely a review, which in daily practice is not so much 

 wanted as the forecast, and this the journal will aim to furnish." 

 The thirty or so articles and notes contributed to the first number 

 by the officers of the Department are direct, practical, freely illus- 

 trated, and well calculated to assist the agriculturist. They deal 

 with such subjects as uses of demonstration plots, registration of 

 remounts, best types of vat for wine-making, cream-testing, and 

 inspection of exported butter. The journal is under the editor- 

 ship of Mr. H. W. Potts. It is well arranged and well printed. 

 It promises to be of much value to the colony. 



The British Mycological Society has just issued its trans- 

 actions relating to the week's fungus foray held at Exeter in 

 September of last year, and the papers read at the evening 

 meetings. The most successful find was Femsjonia luteoalba, 

 a genus belonging to the Tremellineae, and one up to that 

 time unrecorded for Britain. It was found growing on oak and 

 birch. A paper was read by Mr. B. T. P. Baker, of Cambridge, 

 giving some results of his cultures with Saccharomyces, which 

 were undertaken to determine the conditions regulating spore 

 formation. The cultures were made on plaster of Paris blocks 

 treated with various solutions. The results seem to confirm the 

 views put forward by Ileinsen that aeration is the most im- 

 portant condition which regulates the production of spores. 

 The amount of food present is also another determining factor 

 and one which reacts difl'erently with the two species, .S. 

 cerevisieae and anomatus, with which Mr. Baker experimented. 



