250 



NATURE 



[May 8, 1913 



the institute the production of steel has grown from 

 600,000 to 60,000,000 tons per annum. 



It would appear from the recent annual report of 

 the Decimal Association that the General Medical 

 Council has announced that all measures and weights 

 in the new British Pharmacopoeia, including those 

 referring to dosage, will be in the metric system, and 

 that in order to facilitate the use of the work by 

 medical men, the equivalents for dosage will also be 

 given in the Imperial system. Further progress is 

 also reported in connection with the adoption of the 

 metric carat of 200 milligrams as an international 

 unit for the sale of diamonds and precious stones. 

 Owing, no doubt, to the steady advance made by 

 this unit on the Continent, the views of the trade in 

 this country with respect to it appear to have under- 

 gone considerable change recently, and to be now 

 generally in favour of the legalisation of the metric 

 carat. It is confidently expected that steps will be 

 taken very shortly by the Government to issue an 

 Order in Council legalising the metric carat, as well 

 as a series of multiples and submultiples of that unit. 

 The effect of this legislation will be to render the 

 present arbitrary and unrecognised carat illegal and 

 to bring the weights and balances used by merchants 

 and dealers for the sale of precious stones by weight 

 under the purview of the local inspectors of weights 

 and measures. A law has recently been passed in 

 Belgium making the use of the metric carat obliga- 

 tory in that country, and it is anticipated that a 

 similar step will be taken at an early date in the 

 United States, and possibly also in Russia. 



We understand that the Easter vacation season, 

 just concluded, at the Port Erin Biological Station, 

 has probably, taken all round, been the most success- 

 ful one yet held. The number of senior students 

 and of post-graduate researchers at work in the insti- 

 tution during March and April was above sixty. 

 Amphidinium operculatum, the minute brown dino- 

 flagellate which was found for the first time in Britain 

 at Port Erin a couple of years ago, and has kept 

 on occurring since from time to time in vast quanti- 

 ties, was present in abundance during the greater part 

 of April, and was the subject of some interesting 

 experiments and observations. The marine plankton 

 was abundant during the greater part of the vacation, 

 and the catches showed, early in April, the spring 

 diatoms making their appearance in great numbers — 

 at first round the coast on both east and west sides- 

 of the island; and not appearing out at sea (e.g. at 

 the five-mile station) until a week or so later. Un- 

 usually large quantities of floating fish eggs seemed 

 to be present in the tow-nets out at sea (the species 

 have not yet been identified, nor the exact numbers 

 in the hauls estimated), and the results in the fish 

 hatchery attached to the biological station have been 

 exceptionally favourable. The hatching work is still 

 in progress, spawning is not quite finished, so final 

 figures cannot yet be given, but it looks as if this year 

 might be a record one in fish-hatching. By April 24 

 more than eight and a half millions of plaice eggs 

 had passed into the hatching boxes, and above seven 

 millions of hatched fry had been distributed out at sea. 

 NO. 227I, VOL. 91] 



At a meeting of the Society of Engineers (Incor- 

 porated), held on Monday, May 5, a paper on tidal 

 waters as a source of power was read by Mr. C. A. 

 Battiscombe, the object of the paper being to direct 

 attention generally to the commercial possibilities of 

 hydro-electric installations in the British Isles, more 

 particularly with regard to the use of the tides. After 

 some introductory remarks in reference to tidal in- 

 tervals and the range of neap tides, the author pointed 

 out that in this connection the head of water avail- 

 able for actuating turbines cannot exceed one-third 

 of the range of minimum tides. An outline was 

 given of the arrangements proposed for the constant 

 maintenance of a working head, by means of a cham- 

 ber for the turbines, connected by valves to the tidat 

 way and to three reservoirs in which the tidal water 

 may be impounded. It was claimed that the utilisa- 

 tion of the tides for power purposes presents few 

 engineering difficulties so far as principles are con- 

 cerned, but that the real difficulty lies in the question 

 of cost, and therefore in the choice of the site and in 

 the design of the structural details. The author con- 

 cluded by insisting on the importance of regarding 

 the supply of fuel as a matter that concerns the whole 

 nation : that the demand for combustible fuel is con- 

 tinually increasing, and that coal being practically the 

 only fuel found in England, it would be mere folly 

 to neglect any other available source of energy whereby 

 the present rate of consumption of coal may be sensibly 

 reduced. It was submitted that not only can the tides 

 be utilised a_s a constant source of power, but that, 

 taken in conjunction with the power that could be 

 derived from fresh-water rivers, their utilisation would 

 be a great gain to the commercial and industrial 

 interests of the United Kingdom. 



The majority of the papers read before the first 

 International Eugenics Congress, held in London in 

 July, 1912, were published at the beginning of the 

 congress in a volume entitled " Problems in Eugenics." 

 Some, however, were received too late to be included 

 therein, and these, together with a report of the dis- 

 cussions which took place at the congress and the 

 speeches which were delivered at the inaugural ban- 

 quet, have now been published in a supplementary 

 volume ("Problems in Eugenics," vol. ii. ; London: 

 The Eugenics Education Society, 1913, pp. 196). In 

 the preface Major Leonard Darwin directs attention 

 to the fact that an international eugenics committee 

 has been established on a permanent basis as a result 

 of the congress. The primary object of this com- 

 mittee, which will meet in Paris next August, is to 

 settle questions connected with the future assembly 

 of eugenics congresses, but it is hoped that it may 

 also fulfil the useful function of a clearing-house for 

 information on eugenic matters. 



Those who are prepared to accept the view that 

 many, or all, megalithic monuments were designed 

 for the purpose of astronomical observations will be 

 interested in an elaborate paper by Dr. Marcel 

 Baudouin, entitled " Le siege d'observation de Cher- 

 giroux a l'lle d'Yeu (Vendee)," published in vol. Hi., 

 sixth series, parts 5 and 6, of the Bulletins et 

 Mimoires de la Sociiti d'Anthropologie de Paris for 



