June 19, 1913] 



NATURE 



405 



It is there pointed out that the true civets (Viverra) 

 have closely allied representatives in the two con- 

 tinents, and that the same holds good for several 

 groups of mongooses (Mungos or Herpestes), while 

 the Indo-Malay linsangs (Prionodon) are near relatives 

 of the African Poiana. It is also pointed out in this 

 paper, and in a second by the same author (op. cit., 

 part 12) on the extinct viverroid genera Palhyaana 

 and Ictitherium, that although the Viverridae are the 

 most primitive type of cat-like Carnivora, and have 

 some representatives (Poiana and Prionodon) approxi- 

 mating to the feline type, while the above-mentioned 

 extinct genera show an equally marked step in the 

 direction of the Hyaenidae, yet that in both instances 

 these resemblances should be regarded in the light 

 rather of convergence than of direct ancestry, the 

 Felidae having in all probability originated independ- 

 ently from a still earlier stock. 



A recent number of Science (May 2) contains an 

 account by Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt, entomologist to the 

 Dominion of Canada, of the Imperial Bureau of Ento- 

 mology. This organisation has grown out of the 

 Entomological Research Committee appointed in 1909 

 by Lord Crewe, then Secretary of State for the Colo- 

 nies. The functions of the bureau, which is supple- 

 mentary to the existing research committee, are to 

 collect and coordinate information relating to the 

 noxious' insects of the world, to undertake the autho- 

 ritative identification of insects of economic importance 

 submitted by the Departments of Agriculture and 

 Public Health throughout the Empire, and to publish 

 a monthly journal giving summaries of all current 

 literature which has a practical bearing on the inves- 

 tigation and control of noxious insects. Mr. Guy 

 A. K. Marshall, the scientific secretary of the research 

 committee, has been constituted director of the bureau 

 and editor of the journal, the first issue of which, 

 under the name of The Review of Applied Ento- 

 mology, appeared in January of this year. It is being 

 published in two parts, devoted respectively to agri- 

 cultural and to medical and veterinary entomology. 

 Dr. Gordon Hewitt points out that there are no 

 fewer than 1700 periodicals which may contain articles 

 dealing with the subjects of which the bureau takes 

 cognisance, and that entomologists in many remote 

 districts have neither the opportunity of seeing nor 

 the time to consult more than a small proportion of 

 this literature. Hence the establishment of a central 

 organisation for the collection and dissemination of 

 important economic data is likely to be of the highest 

 practical value. 



The results of a comprehensive series of trials with 

 varieties of oats are published as Report 29 of the 

 Edinburgh and East of Scotland Agricultural College. 

 The observations extend over the years 1909-12, and 

 indicate marked differences between the varieties, 

 according to weather conditions, altitude, and char- 

 acter of the soil. Of the twenty-six varieties grown 

 at fifty-two centres, eight surpassed the standard 

 potato oat by from 20 to almost 40 per cent, in yield 

 of grain; five others were from 15 to 16 per cent. 

 better, but none of these improved varieties showed 

 itself equal to the standard oat in respect of straw 

 NO. 2277, VOL. 91] 



production. On account of early ripening certain 

 varieties are specially suited to late districts, while 

 others failed to ripen at all at the higher centres in 

 the wet season of 1912. 



The Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture of 

 Jamaica (vol. ii.. No. 6) contains a number of articles 

 on the fungoid diseases of the banana. Amongst 

 these is an account of the Surinam Panama disease 

 (Leptospora musae) of the Gros Michel banana. In- 

 vestigation has shown the fungus to be a parasite on 

 several varieties of Musa, although the plantain is 

 immune against it. Soil disinfection experiments 

 with carbolineum, copper sulphate, and gas water 

 have been made with negative results. Greater suc- 

 cess is anticipated from flooding the infected areas, 

 since the fungus is adversely affected by humid con- 

 ditions. The introduction of immune varieties, such 

 as the Congo and other bananas, is recommended. 



The Meteorological Charts of the North Atlantic 

 Ocean for May and June, issued by the U.S. Weather 

 Bureau, contain interesting articles by Mr. R. E. 

 Harris, illustrated by synoptic weather charts and 

 barograms, relating to the unusually heavy storms in 

 that ocean during January last (possibly the stormiest 

 month on record there), and supported by extracts 

 from log-books of a considerable number of vessels. 

 The most severe storm was that of January 7 to 11 

 inclusive. This depression had two centres at Green- 

 wich noon, January 8, one over New York, while a 

 storm was central near latitude 49 N., longitude 

 25 W., and was causing winds of force 8 to 

 12 (Beaufort scale) between the fifteenth and 

 forty-fifth meridians. By noon of January 9 a rapid 

 development in the western storm had occurred, and 

 it was central near latitude 45 N., longitude 48° W. 

 During the night of January 9-10 some remarkably 

 low barometer readings were recorded, the lowest, 

 2696 in., being registered by an aneroid at 52 N., 

 -5° 30' W. This (if really correct) is probably the 

 lowest reading ever made on the North Atlantic. By 

 noon of January 10 the storm was central near 

 51 30' N., 27 W., the lowest barometer being 2776 in. 

 The log of the ss. Cedric showed a continuous rise 

 of 28 in. in twenty-five hours and forty minutes (from 

 27-49 in. to 3029 in.), which, Mr. Harris observes, prob- 

 ably marks a record north of the thirty-fifth parallel. 



Mr. G. H. Knibbs, of the Australian Bureau of 

 Census and Statistics, recently contributed a paper to 

 the Philosophical Magazine on climatological physio- 

 logv. His view is that in "the mechanical and 

 chemico-physical arrangements of the human thermo- 

 stat actions supervene after about 30 C. is reached 

 which disturb those conditions of thermogenesis and 

 thermolysis which are necessary for the thermostasis 

 of the organism." He analyses a number of experi- 

 mental results obtained bv Prof. W. A. Osborn for 

 losses from the human body by evaporation, and dis- 

 cusses them from the theoretical side. The problem 

 in its simplest form is the same as the problem of the 

 wet-bulb thermometer, and Mr. Knibbs uses the re- 

 sults of Regnault, Stefan, Marvin, and others on the 

 relation of evaporation to temperature, relative 



