78 

70:5 per cent. The healthy areas are in the open 
plains, the hyperendemic areas at the foot of, the 
mountains, where shade produced by forest, jungle, 
long grass, scrub, etc., exists, and (3) the. endemic 
area with intermediate conditions. These data illus- 
trate also the great value of malaria surveys before 
recommendations based simply on general principles 
are carried out. 
Guinea-worm prevails to the extent of as much as 
4 per cent. in some of the Indian jails. In a certain 
Bombay village over a third of the Cyclops in the 
village well contained larvae, but the villagers put all 
the usual obstacles in the way of improving the well 
and their health. 
Vol. v. contains an extremely interesting method of 
classification of Anophelines based on the distribution 
of “spots” on the wings; three main groups, Proto- 
anopheles, Deuteroanopheles, and Neoanopheles, are 
easily separated. 
The problem of the mode of dissemination of kala- 
azar is still swb judice; the balance of opinion favours 
the bed-bug as the agent. It has occurred to the 
writer as a not impossible hypothesis that perhaps 
this and some other diseases are not insect-man-insect 
diseases, but insect-man diseases only, i.e, the infect- 
ing agent is inoculated into man from and by an 
insect, produces its ill-effects, but is not further trans- 
missible. 
As regards the destruction of rats in plague prophy- 
laxis, we have the merits of two methods put for- 
ward, viz. : (1) phosphorus, made up in attractive balls 
containing less than 3 per cent., and (2) hydrocyanic 
acid gas. This last kills not only rats but fleas, and 
its only drawback appears to be its very poisonous 
character. Its detection, however, is an easy matter, 
viz., by means of a paste which forms with it prussian- 
blue. The amount requisite is 3-2 of an ounce of 
potassium cyanide per 100 cu. ft. It has many advan- 
tages over the sulphur dioxide or carbon monoxide 
methods. 
There are many other subjects, such as vital statis- 
tics, water filtration, that we have not alluded to, but 
one would refer those who wish to obtain a general 
idea of the scope of these important conferences to 
the summary contained in the first volume. We ought 
to end with a word of congratulation on the splendid 
work that is being done. Jen Wie WineSs 

ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 
JN the February number of British Birds Miss 
M. D. Haviland continues her account of ornitho- 
logical observations made in the delta of the Yenisei, 
dealing in this instance with the little stint. So fear- 
less during the nesting season were these birds that 
it was with difficulty they were kept far enough away 
from the camera to admit of the taking of a satis- 
factory photograph; and a brooding cock captured 
by the author in her hands, when released returned 
to the young. In six out of eight instances the sit- 
ting birds were cocks, but whether both sexes take 
their share in incubation was not ascertained. 
The distribution of birds in Ceylon, in relation to 
recent geological changes in that island, forms the 
subject of an article by Mr. W. E. Wait in Spolia 
Zeylanica for December, 1914. (vol. x., part 36). A 
large proportion of the resident birds, especially in 
the Kandyan provinces and the wet zone of the low 
country, are of a Malabar type; but in the north and 
north-west there is a nearer affinity with those of 
the Carnatic. Of the peculiar species, the greater 
number pertain to the Malabar type of the fauna, 
and have their headquarters in the wet zone, but 
there are also a few with a Himalayan or Malay 
facies, although none of the Carnatic types. As the 
NO. 2368, VOL. 95] 
NATURE 


[Marcu 18, 1915 

theories advanced by the author to explain these 
peculiarities in distribution are confessedly tentative, 
quotation seems unnecessary. f 
In the Zoologist for February Miss W. Austen re- 
cords the appearance of a flock of about thirty long- 
tailed tits in a garden at Maida Hill on October 1, 
1914, an occurrence which the editor believes to be 
altogether unprecedented. . ; 
To the January number of the Auk, and likewise 
to Blue-Bird for the same month, Dr. R-: W. 
Shufeldt contributes a note on the last survivor of 
the American passenger-pigeon, which died in the 
Cincinnati Zoological Gardens on September 1, 1914, 
at the age of twenty-nine years. Immediately after 
death the body, packed in ice, was forwarded to the 
National Museum at Washington, where the skin was 
carefully removed for preservation, doubtless in the 
study series. Before this took place a photograph 
of the head and neck was taken and coloured with 
Japanese tints from the specimen; this photograph, 
after the insertion of an artificial eye, being repro- 
duced in colour in the aforesaid issue of Bee 

NOTES ON GLASS.1 
CERTAIN amount of experimental work on 
glass-ware of various kinds has been carried 
out recently at the National Physical Laboratory, 
and it may be of interest to. make known some of 
the .results. 
Chemical investigations have for’some years been 
dependent on German glass; the publication of the 
analyses and of test results may, it is hoped, lead 
some English firms to produce articles which may 
replace those of German manufacture. 
The first table gives the analyses of some thermo- 
metric and chemical glass-ware. 
Analyses of Thermometer and Chemical Glass-ware. 






| ‘Thermonetes age ee Chemical Glassware 
Js eo} = | Pe ectetl eG 
@ | 9 (a ice: ea 
elon Wee ee | eo | eae 
= i) oS [ eam ee (24 gel] a 
Silica .. 72°86] 66°58/66°74) 64°60] 68:00}76'02/74°36 
Alumina 003 6°24) 3°84) 2°77| 6°24] 2°32! 0°64) o'g0 
Lime... oan 0°35| . 7°18} 0°28) tr. | 4°80 7°38) 9°40 
Zinc oxide... | — | 6:24) 828] 10°43] 2°40} — | — 
Manganese oxide | tr. 0°28) 0°65) tr. o'r4| tr. | tr. 
Ferric oxide fre tral etal aetr tr. tra ien 
Lead oxide 2 ae ee |) a ee a |) 
Soda (Na,O) ... | 9°82} 14°80 899} 9°71 10°17] 7°60\14°83 
Potash (IX,O) ... | o’lo| tr. | 008] tr. 1°82] 7°70] O°14 
Boric anhydride. | 10°43) o'gt| 7°18} 8-70 5°53) —| — 
Magnesia so | 0°20; O°17| 4°50) 0°32) 5°04} 0°30} 0°16 
Arsenious oxide . — — 024 
| ] } 
|100°00 100°00|99°47)100°00|100°46\99°64'99°79 
| * | * | * 






Analyses made with an asterisk have been made at the N.P.L. The other 
analyses are taken froma paper by Walker in the Journal Am. Chem. Soc., 
XXvil., 865, 1995. 
(Bohemian and Thiiringen glass is now rarely used in chemical work, but 
the analyses given are of the best material of that class.) 
Resistance of Various Chemical Glass-ware to the 
Action of Chemical Attack. 
The table below, taken from the work of Mylius 
and Foerster on this subject, gives the action of 
1 From the Na‘ional Physical Laboratory, February, TQT5. 
