May 6, 1915] 
NATURE 



The effect of the regulations will be that as 
regards the amount of the chief “secondary ” con- 
stituents (esters, furfural, and higher alcohols), 
which distinguish whisky from “silent” or patent 
still spirit, the whisky sold in Western Australia 
will be classified into four varieties, and the con- 
sumer will know, within limits, what is the pro- 
portion of these secondary products in the bever- 
age he drinks. (O5)S5 

NOTES. 
We regret to see the announcement of the death 
on May 4, at seventy years of age, of Sir William R. 
Gowers, F.R.S., distinguished by his work on diseases 
of the nervous system and related subjects of medical 
science. 
Pror. SypNEy J. Hickson has been elected president 
of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society 
for the ensuing year (1915-16). 
Tue council of the Institution of Civil Engineers 
has made the following awards for papers read and 
discussed during the session 1914-15 :—The Telford 
gold medal to Mr. A. L. Bell (Rosyth); Telford pre- 
miums to Mr. C. W. Anderson (Chakradharpur, 
India), Sir Thomas Mason (Glasgow), Dr. H. F. 
Parshall (London), and Mr. H. E. Yerbury (Sheffield), 
and the Crampton prize to Mr. F, D. Evans (Kuala 
Lumpur, F.M.S.). 
In reply to a question asked in the House of Com- 
mons on May 4, Mr. Tennant said :—‘‘ The latest 
information with regard to the incidence of enteric 
fever among the British troops in the Expeditionary 
Force is as follows:—Up to date 963 cases have 
occurred, and of these 780 have been analysed; 142 
cases have occurred in men inoculated fully with two 
doses of vaccine. Among these ten deaths have 
occurred, giving a case mortality of 7 per cent.; 157 
cases have occurred in men partially protected by 
inoculation—that is, who have had only one dose of 
vaccine. Among these there have been ten deaths, 
giving a case mortality of 636 per cent.; 481 cases 
have occurred in non-inoculated men. Among these 
there have been 100 deaths, giving a case mortality 
of 20-79 per cent. To appreciate the full value of 
these figures it must be brought to notice that 90 per 
cent. of the troops forming the Expeditionary Force 
have been inoculated voluntarily. Therefore, among 
go per cent. of the force (i.e. inoculated men) there 
have been 299 cases and twenty deaths. In the other 
to per cent. (uninoculated men) there have been 481 
cases and roo deaths. 
Own May 1, at about 5 a.m., the instruments of the 
seismological observatories of this country registered 
an earthquake of quite unusual strength, of which, 
however, we have as yet received no other news. 
At West Bromwich, the oscillation was so great that 
one of the recording needles was dismounted. The 
approximate position of the epicentre, as deduced from 
the Eskdalemuir seismogram, is latitude 47° N., 
longitude 156° E., or on the east side of the Kurile 
Islands. The earthquake is evidently one of the most 
NO. 2375, VOL. 95| 
* 

269 

The Kurile Islands 
and the Japanese Empire are, as is well known, in 
the form of festoons, the convex, or eastern side, of 
which slopes steeply into the deeper waters of the 
Pacific Ocean. In the Kurile Islands, earthquakes 
are weal and infrequent as compared with Japan. 
The recent earthquake thus visited a district in which 
great shocks are almost or quite unknown. More- 
over, the epicentre lies (at a depth of about 4000 
fathoms) near the base of the western slope of the 
great depression which forms the north-easterly con- 
tinuation of the Tuscarora Deeps. 
interesting of the last decade. 
In view 
posals for 
interest to 
of the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s pro- 
a differential tax on beer, it may be of 
note in what manner the specific gravity 
of beer is related to its alcoholic strength. As ex- 
plained in an article in Nature of April 8, the basis 
of the beer duty is not the actual amount of alcohol 
in the beer, but its potential amount as measured by 
the ‘“‘original’’ specific gravity of the wort. In beer 
as it is sold, the proportion of alcohol varies some- 
what even for worts of the same original specific 
gravity, because they may be fermented to somewhat 
different degrees either in the. primary fermentation 
or in the slow after-fermentation which generally 
supervenes. Broadly, however, it may be said that 
in light beer of original gravity 1043 (water=1000), 
the tax on which is not affected by the present pro- 
posals, the proportion of alcohol is usually about 6 or 
7 per cent. of proof spirit. This represents 33 to 
4 per cent. of real alcohol—that is, of ethyl hydroxide, 
C,H,.OH, by volume. Beer of original specific 
gravity 1050 to 1055, on which a supertax is to be 
levied, contains about 9 to 11 per cent. of proof spirit 
when sold, corresponding with 5; to 6} per cent. of 
real alcohol. This represents the beer ordinarily 
drunk, such as dinner ale, pale ale, ‘‘ porter,’’ and the 
beer generally supplied on draught in public-houses. 
Heavier beers and stout range from about 1060° to 
togo° of original gravity; these contain from 11 to 
14 per cent. of proof spirit, or 6} to 8 per cent. of 
real alcohol. In special ‘‘strong ale” the original 
gravity may be more than 1100°, and the amount .of 
proof spirit as much as 20 per cent., or approximately 
Irg per cent. of alcohol. 
We have sadly to record the death of Erasmus 
Darwin, the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Horace Dar- 
win, of Cambridge, and a_ grandson of Charles 
Darwin, and of the first Lord Farrer. He was killed 
on April 24, leading his men in action in Flanders. 
On the outbreak of war in August last he instantly 
applied for a commission, and was gazetted Second 
Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion Alexandra Princess 
of Wales’s Own Yorkshire Regiment in September 
last. He went into camp at Darlington until Novem- 
ber, and then was stationed at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
and was put in command of the scout work, which 
he entered into with all that quiet zest which was 
characteristic of him. He delighted in the work of 
training himself and his men in long expeditions by 
night and by day over the moors. Not even the 
pressing offer, which was made to him a few days 
