APRIL 15, 1915] 
NATURE 
181 

Tue death of Major Samuel Flood-Page removes 
from the electrical world an interesting personality 
who played no small part in two important develop- 
ments—electric lighting and wireless telegraphy. His 
first notable achievement after leaving the army was 
the organisation of the Electrical Exhibition at the 
Crystal Palace in 1882, when he was acting as manager 
of that institution. About this time the problem of the 
subdivision of the electric light had been solved by 
the introduction of the carbon incandescent lamp, and 
Major Flood-Page devoted his energies to promoting 
the commercial utilisation of the new illuminant. He 
was instrumental in introducing the first incandescent 
electric light into Australia, and then became secretary 
and manager of the Edison and Swan United Electric 
Light Co., Ltd. In the later years of his life he was 
interested in wireless telegraphy, and his faith in the 
ultimate success of this enterprise guided him through 
the many trials and difficulties which beset its path 
in the early days. Major Flood-Page first became 
actively engaged in wireless telegraphy in 1899, when 
he joined the Marconi Company in the capacity of 
managing director. In that year wireless telegraphy 
had advanced to a stage which permitted the estab- 
lishment of communication across the Straits of 
Dover, between the Chalet d’Artois, Wimereux, near 
Boulogne, and the South Foreland lighthouse. He 
was one of a small party which waited at the wireless 
station at the Needles, Isle of Wight, in November, 
1899, for the first wireless signals ever sent from a 
liner at sea to the British shores, and he was ever 
proud to recall the delight and satisfaction which he 
enjoyed as the liner’s message was being received 
over a distance of sixty-five miles. After resigning 
the managing directorship, he remained a member of 
the board of the parent Marconi company and many of 
its leading subsidiaries. He died on April 7, in his 
eighty-second year. 
Sik Rupert CiarkE, who in the summer of last 
year led an expedition up the Fly River in British 
New Guinea, recently arrived in London to take up 
an appointment in the Army Service Corps. In 1890 
Sir W. Macgregor reached a point 610 miles from 
the mouth of the river. Sir Rupert Clarke’s expedi- 
tion went 20 miles further. He also made the first 
ascent of Mount Donaldson, close to the German 
boundary. In a communication to the Times of 
April 10, he reports that the natives, a fine-looking, 
tall race, were at first inclined to be hostile, but 
later became friendly. They are divided into com- 
munes ranging in numbers from five or ten families 
to a thousand persons. No one is supposed to die 
a natural death, which is caused by suggestion 
through their magic men. After a man’s death his 
relations must get a head so that his spirit may rest 
in peace. These heads are usually those of the women 
and children of hostile tribes. They are in constant 
fear of attack from their enemies, and live on scaffolds 
raised on high trees. Their bows are exceedingly 
formidable, beyond the strength of a white man to 
draw. They protect themselves from arrows by a 
kind of bamboo cuirass. They wear no other cloth- 
ing. The height of Mount Donaldson was provision- 
NO. 2372, VOL. 95] 
ally fixed at about 2000 ft. The return journey was 
effected in safety, without firing a shot, on rafts down 
the Fly River. Some signs of gold were discovered, 
but not rich enough to make working worth the 
trouble. 
Tue Royal Geographical Society has received news 
of Sir Aurel Stein’s explorations in Central Asia from 
April to November, 1914. The expedition started in 
April from Tunhuang, where it had halted to recruit 
after the trying campaign in the Lop-nor desert 
between Turfan and the northern boundary of Tibet. 
The cave temples of the Thousand Buddhas near 
Tunhuang were re-visited, and further interesting col- 
lections were made. The explorer followed the ancient 
wall for 250 miles, and found that it was constructed 
of fascines of reeds or brushwood, admirably adapted 
to check the wind erosion of the desert sands. Coins, 
pottery, and metal fragments found near the surface 
made it possible to define the Chinese frontier posts 
with accuracy. Beyond the So-lu Hu valley further 
remains of the same kind were found. While Sir 
Aurel Stein was hunting for remains of the Great 
Yuechi on Indo-Hun culture to the north, his surveyor, 
Lal Singh, examined the ruined town of Khara Khoto, 
and proved that this could be no other than Marco 
Polo’s ‘‘City of Etzina,’? where in ancient times 
travellers bound for Karalkoram, the old Mongol 
capital, used to lay in supplies for the march across 
the great desert. Here many Buddhist remains were 
found, and it was ascertained that the ruin of the 
city was due to failure to maintain the irrigation 
system. When he despatched his report Sir Aurel 
Stein had planned to examine Buddhist ruins round 
Turfan, while his surveyor was to undertake the 
Selection of the little-known desert ranges of the 
Kuruk-tagh between Turfan and the Lop-nor depres- 
sions. 
A SYSTEMATIC paper on Termites from the East 
Indian Archipelago, by Masamitsu Oshima, has been 
published in Annotationes Zoologicae Japonenses (vol. 
vili., part 5). Of the twenty-four species enumerated, 
nineteen are described as new to science. The author 
imitates many modern American entomologists by 
illustrating his new species with photographie figures, 
most of which are valueless for the purpose of identi- 
fication. 

In the April number of the Entomologists’ Monthly 
Magazine Mr. J. T. Wadsworth records the occurrence 
at Northenden, Cheshire, at the roots of cabbages, of 
the larvee of an anthomyid fly (Phaonia irimaculata) 
new to the British fauna. Several of the grubs 
pupated, and eventually developed into the perfect 
insect, which measures 16 mm. across the extended 
wings—a fact rendering it somewhat remarkable that 
such a comparatively conspicuous species had not pre- 
viously been observed in this country. 
Many English-speaking naturalists who attended the 
meetings of the International Entomological Congress 
at Brussels and Oxford remember with pleasure con- 
versations with a courteous and enthusiastic Spanish 
priest, the Rev. P. Longihos Navas, S.J., whose good 
knowledge of French made him a valuable interpreter 
: to his compatriots. We have received a little ‘‘ Manual 

