May 27, 1915| 
NATURE 
351 

animals’ so-called depredations. The ‘ wiping-out” 
of the hérd, said to number 300 head, is no longer 
to be feared. Among the additions made to the col- 
lections during the year he directs special attention 
to “two extraordinarily large vessels affecting the 
shape of a hippopotamus”’ from southern Rhodesia. 
These bear a striking resemblance to the work char- 
acteristic of the early Egyptian civilisation, and afford 
a parallel to the large soap-stone bowls found at 
Zimbabwe by Bent, and the similar bowls used as 
fireplaces or ovens, found at Meroé and Abydos, close 
to the oldest known temples -of Osiris. 
A report has recently been issued by the Fisheries 
Branch of the Department of Agriculture and Tech- 
nical Instruction for Ireland on the outbreak of the 
disease known as “ furunculosis,” which attacked the 
salmon in the river Liffey in 1913. The report 
(Fisheries, Ireland, Scientific Investigations, 1914, 
li (1915), price 4d.) is by Prof. A. E. Mettam of the 
Royal Veterinary College, Dublin. After giving a 
useful summary of previous literature dealing with 
the disease, the author records the results of careful 
microscopical and bacteriological examination of a 
number of diseased fish. Attention was first pro- 
minently directed to the disease in Great Britain by 
outbreaks which occurred in 1911 in the Wye, the 
Exe, the Teign, and the Dart, large numbers of 
salmon, trout, and other fish being found dead in 
these rivers. The epidemic was reported on by Dr. 
A. T. Masterman, of the English Board of Fisheries. 
Prof. Mettam confirms the accounts given by previous 
workers. The diseased fish, which may or may not 
show external boils or Jesions,. are infected by a 
micro-organism (Bacillus salmonicida) which occurs 
in immense numbers in pus from the boils and also 
in the blood. Infection takes place very rapidly 
through the skin or gills, or from infected food. 
Healthy fish placed in infected water often succumb 
within a few days. It is suggested that a river may 
become infected by fresh-run salmon from the sea. 
All that can be suggested to check the disease in a 
river is the immediate removal and destruction of all 
dead and dying fish. Careshouldalso be taken not to 
transfer fish or fish fry from an infected river to one 
which is free from the disease. 
In Bulletin No. 19, issued by the North of Scotland 
College of Agriculture, Prof. James Hendrick describes 
the composition and value of liquid manure as pro- 
duced under the farming conditions of the north-east 
of Scotland. It is well known that practically the 
whole of the potash and readily available nitrogen 
is found in the urine, and where the litter is unable 
to absorb this completely, the surplus drains to the 
liquid manure tanks. The practical difficulties in the 
way of utilising liquid manure to the best advantage 
have in the past led to a waste of valuable fertilising 
material. Since potash manures are practically un- 
obtainable at present, any method of preventing waste 
of this. element has a special significance. During 
four seasons, 1910-13, liquid manure was applied to 
grass-land on farms in the district at various times 
from December to March. In all cases there was a 
considerable increase in the hay crop from the 
NO. 2378, VOL. 95] 

manured land. The average value of the increase, 
where 2000 gallons of liquid manure per acre was 
given, was 25s. per acre, with hay at 51s. per ton. 
The objections of the practical man that liquid manure 
applied in mid-winter would be washed from the soil 
before the plant could make use of it were not borne 
out by these experiments, which showed that the 
increase of crop from land manured in December was 
as great as where the manure was applied in March. 
The analyses of the various manures showed that 
‘where the liquid was applied at the rate of 2000 
gallons per acre, the application was equivalent to 
artificials costing about 2/. per acre. The great part 
of this value was recovered in the grass during the 
season of application. 
In the Annals of the South African Museum, vol. 
ix, part iv., Prof. Pearson continues the enumeration 
of the plants collected in the Percy Sladen Memorial 
Expeditions of 1908-9 and 1910-11 in South-west 
Africa. The various natural orders have been worked 
out principally by Miss R. Glover and Mrs. Bolus. 
Of the new species described and figured, Nenax 
Dregei, L. Bolus (Rubiacez), Anticharis juncea, L. 
Bolus, a spinescent scrophulariaceous shrublet from 
Great Namaqualand, Agathosma Sladeniana, R. Glover 
(Rutacez), and Lotonotis exstipulata, L. Bolus 
(Leguminosee), from the Cape region, are some of 
the most interesting. In the same number Mr. 
Phillips described three new species of Proteacez. 
Tue report of the director of the Botanic Gardens 
and Government Domains, Sydney, New South Wales, 
contains an interesting account of the work done in 
the Botanic Gardens in particular, and includes a 
number of excellent photographs of various parts of 
these justly famed gardens. Following the example of 
Kew we are glad to notice that a list of the fauna cf 
the gardens is being compiled, and a large number 
of different species are recorded in this report. 
Mr. E. D. Merritt describes four new species of 
Dillenia and twelve of Saurawia from the Philippine 
Islands in the Philippine Journal of Science, vol. ix., 
No. 6. Some forty species of the latter genus are now 
known from the islands. One of the Dillenias, D. 
cauliflora, though collected as long ago as 1838 by 
Cuming, has only now been determined with the help 
of new material from the Island of Samar. The 
Cauline inflorescence is a very unusual character in 
this genus. 
In the Philippine Journal of Science, vol. ix., No. 6, 
Mr. F. C. Gates gives an ecological account of the 
swamp vegetation in hot springs areas at Los Bafios, 
Laguna. Hot-water bacteria and Cyanophycez were 
found in the hottest water sometimes more than 
56° C., and in the surface water up to 52° C. filament- 
ous blue-green alge were found. Bacopa and Lippia 
fringed the pools, and the critical temperature for 
their growth proved to be from 48%52° C. Other 
plants are noticed in connection with their relation 
to the springs and the swampy ground and the asso- 
ciations which they form. 
Tropical Life for April, 1915, contains an interesting 
} letter entitled ‘The Future of the Solomon Islands,” 
