April io, 1913] 



NATURE 



143 



army of officials would be required for a task of this 

 nature. It is added that if the registers in any 

 museum or gallery are not properly kept up to date, 

 the fault is due to the inadequacy of the staff, 



The report of the Department of Agriculture of 

 the Union of South Africa has been issued in the 

 form of a Blue-book. Although work has been dis- 

 organised bv changes in administration, the report 

 contains many interesting accounts of the investiga- 

 tions carried out by the various branches of the ser- 

 vice. Amongst these may be mentioned the inquiry 

 as to the cause of lamziekte (lame-sickness) under- 

 taken by Dr. Theiler and Mr. Burtt-Davy, a discus- 

 sion of which appears in the report of the agrosto- 

 logist and botanist. Observations already made 

 would appear to indicate that the complaint is not 

 transmissible, and is more or less analogous with the 

 "pica" disease of North Germany and the corn- 

 stalk disease of the United States. The view is ex- 

 pressed that the disease is due to the action of a 

 plant poison, which is generated in grasses or other 

 plants normally innocuous. Its development is asso- 

 ciated with certain climatic and telluric conditions in 

 which summer drought is an important factor. In 

 this way the conditions responsible for the wilting of 

 grass also favour the formation of the toxin, and 

 this tends to explain the view commonly held that 

 the disease is caused by the consumption of such 

 wilted grass. 



To the February issue of the Journal of the Meteoro- 

 logical Society of Japan Mr. J. Otsuki contributes a 

 detailed report, accompanied by a map, of an eruption 

 of Asama-yama on December 14, 1912. The author 

 notes that this volcano has been particularly active 

 in recent years. A violent outburst occurred 130 years 

 ago, but from that time to 1909 the eruptions, though 

 frequent, were of a minor nature. In May of the 

 latter year an alarming eruption occurred, since when 

 the volcano's activity has increased, no fewer than 

 five serious outbursts being recorded in the past four 

 years. The latest manifestation caused considerable 

 consternation over a wide area. The reverberations 

 of the explosion, which are likened to the booming of 

 artillery, had earthquake-like effects on the near-lying 

 villages, and were heard over an area of nearly 16,000 

 square miles, while a rain of white ash fell during 

 the day of the eruption and the following day, cover- 

 ing ground extending for 2500 square miles. The 

 column of dust and vapour rising above the volcano 

 during the eruption was estimated to have been nearly 

 two miles high. 



Some interesting details, accompanied by synoptic 

 charts, relating to the disastrous hurricanes of Novem- 

 ber last in Jamaica are given in the United States 

 meteorological chart of the North Atlantic Ocean for 

 March, and in a report (No. 411) by Mr. Maxwell Hall, 

 Government meteorologist for the island. Mr. Hall 

 refers to three distinct disturbances : A, an ordinary 

 depression until it curved round the west end of the 

 island; B, a fully developed cyclonic hurricane which 

 struck the south-west coast, travelling in a north- 

 easterly direction; C, a small inland depression which 

 NO. 2267, VOL. 91] 



broke the telegraph wires, November 16 and 17. On 

 the morning of November 14 one of several useful 

 warnings issued by the Washington Weather Bureau 

 located a storm 400 miles south-west of Kingston; 

 this storm Mr. Hall refers to by the letter B. At 

 noon on November 17 the storm A was off Negri! 

 lighthouse, moving very slowly, and at midnight was 

 overtaken by B. The subsequent action between these 

 storms was very remarkable ; Mr. Hall says : — " Every 

 barometric pressure, as well as every direction of the 

 wind, was affected by two or three cyclones, and with 

 the data at hand it is not possible to separate the 

 effects." After A passed out to sea north-east of 

 Montego Bay, it returned rapidly southward, and 

 placed itself between Kempshot on one side and cyclone 

 B on the other. The registered wind velocity reached 120 

 miles an hour at Negril on the morning of November 

 18, and at Kempshot (Montego Bay) the same even- 

 ing a similar rate was estimated. Several towns were 

 entirely destroyed ; at Savanna-la-Mar the sea wave 

 was the highest within a century, and the sea was 

 driven half a mile up the principal street. 



Almost the whole of the March number of Terres- 

 trial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity is devoted 

 to a description of the theory, construction, and work- 

 ing of the earth inductor made by the Carnegie Insti- 

 tution of Washington for the determination of dip on 

 board the magnetic exploring ship Carnegie. The 

 coil of the inductor rotates about a diameter which 

 can be set at any inclination and in any azimuth. 

 Rotation of the coil will in general produce an alter- 

 nating current, which only becomes zero if the axis 

 of rotation coincides with the direction of the magnetic 

 field at the place of observation. A telephone in series 

 with the coil would determine the position of the axis 

 for zero current, if the axis could be kept fixed in the 

 proper direction. Since at sea this is not possible, the 

 coil is provided with a two-part commutator, which 

 rectifies the current and sends it through a moving- 

 coil galvanometer. By reading the deflections of the 

 galvanometer when the axis has several positions near 

 the correct one, and the coil is rotated at a constant 

 speed, the dip is determined on the Carnegie with an 

 accuracy of about three minutes of arc. 



The volume of " Records of the Survey of India, 

 1910-11," contains discussions on the pendulum and 

 latitude observations made in Sind and Baluchistan, 

 where the arrangement of the mountain masses seems 

 to show marked differences from that found in the 

 vicinity of the main Himalayan region. In the first 

 place, the average deflection of the plumb line is 

 found to be remarkably small, and in general the 

 attraction of the visible mountain masses is much less 

 than could have been anticipated. The geological 

 structure of the whole area is, however, very com- 

 plicated, and it would appear that far more informa- 

 tion, both as to the surface forms and as to the gravity 

 variations, is required before any very definite con- 

 clusions can be drawn. Possibly, as suggested by 

 Colonel Burrard, the Eotvbs torsion balance might 

 give information which would usefully supplement that 

 derived from other sources. It is to be hoped that 

 the Indian Survey will give a trial to this most in- 



