November 7, 1912] 



NATURE 



285 



The extension of the Manchester Museum was 

 formally opened on Wednesday, October 30, by Mr. 

 Jesse Ha worth, the donor of the larger part of the cost 

 of the new buildings, when Prof. Flinders Petrie 

 delivered an address on the raison d'Stre for the study 

 of Egyptology. The extension consists of a central 

 building, 65 ft. long and 35 ft. w'ide, comprising base- 

 ment, ground and first floors, the latter with a gallery 

 12 ft. wide all round. This central building is con- 

 nected with the old museum by a bridge 12 ft. wide, at 

 the level of the first floor, and, balancing the bridge 

 in front elevation, is a low building 30 ft. long and 

 35 ft. wide, consisting of basement, ground and first 

 floors, communicating with the corresponding floors 

 of the central building. The larger room on the 

 ground floor will be devoted to a museum of economic 

 and applied geology, which will be practically an ex- 

 tension of the existing geological museum on the 

 ground floor of the old building. The smaller room 

 on the ground floor w-ill contain the collections illus- 

 trative of anthropology, ethnology, and numismatics. 

 The whole of the first floor and gallery will be given 

 over to the exhibition of the valuable and extensive 

 collection of Egyptian antiquities, and for those illus- 

 trating the allied civilisations of the Orient. These 

 collections, which deal with the historic period of 

 human development, will be directly connected, by 

 means of the bridge, with those illustrative of Palaeo- 

 lithic and Neolithic man, which are exhibited on the 

 first floor of the old museum. It has been possible, 

 therefore, to add these important departments to the 

 museum without any reorganisation of the existing 

 collections, while at the same time they fall into their 

 correct place in the general scheme of classification 

 adopted in the museum. 



For the third month in succession October was 

 generally cold over the United Kingdom, although it 

 was less so in the northern and western districts than 

 elsewhere. At Greenwich the mean temperature for 

 the month was 48°, which is 2° less than the average, 

 but in both August and September the mean was 

 more than 4° below the average. The mean maxi- 

 mum temperature for October at Greenwich was 57°, 

 which is 1° below the average, and the mean minimum 

 39°, w'hich is 4° less than the normal. The highest 

 day temperature was 66°, which is the lowest October 

 maximum since 1905. There were in all only nine 

 days at Greenwich with the temperature above the 

 average, and on three days at the commencement of 

 the month the deficienc}' of temperature exceeded 10°. 

 The aggregate rainfall at Greenwich for October was 

 i"86 in., which is o'99 in. less than the average, and 

 rain fell on fourteen days. The duration of bright 

 sunshine for the month was 123 hours, which has only 

 been exceeded twice in October in the last thirty years, 

 and never by more than ten hours. 



The factors concerned in the ripening of cheddar 

 cheese are discussed by Messrs. Hastings and Hart 

 and Miss Evans in Research Bulletin 25 of the Univer- 

 sity of Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station. 

 The ripening seems to be brought about first by the 

 action of bacteria belonging to the JS. lactis acidi 

 group, and subsequently by that of another group of 

 acid-forming bacteria, the B. btilgaricus group. 

 NO. 2245, VOL. 90] 



Important studies on dietetics are being carried out 

 by the U.S. Department of .'\griculture. One of the 

 latest bulletins (Yearbook for 191 1) deals with the 

 nutritional value of green vegetables. While they do 

 not add gre^atly to the total nutrient and fuel values, 

 they increase the wholesomeness of the diet in three 

 ways, viz., by supplying necessary mineral matters 

 less abundant in other food-stuffs, by supplying bulk 

 desirable for the normal digestion of the more con- 

 centrated food materials, and by rendering the diet 

 more varied and attractive. 



A VALUABLE report on isolation hospitals, compiled 

 by Dr. H. Franklin Parsons, has been issued by the 

 Local Government Board. Many isolation hospitals 

 all over the country have been inspected, and full 

 details are given as to construction, cost, and main- 

 tenance, with plans. The utility of these hospitals is 

 discussed, and the question of combination between 

 adjacent authorities is considered. The architect of 

 the Board (Mr. Kitchin) points out that the cost of a 

 rod of stock brickwork in mortar has risen from 

 12Z. 10s. in 1859 to 16I. los. in 1905 and 16I. 5s. in 

 191 1. Suggestions are made for cheapening con- 

 struction, e.g. by the use of steel or timber framework 

 covered with patent slabs, which might result in a 

 saving of 30 to 40 per cent., but this kind of con- 

 struction is at present hampered by the building by- 

 laws now in force. 



The effect of smoking on the physique of college 

 undergraduates is discussed in a paper by Dr. 

 Frederick J. Pack in Tlie Popular Science Monthly for 

 October, under the title " Smoking and Football Men." 

 The author's reason for singling out football men for 

 special study is that it is impossible to draw definite 

 inferences from comparing students some of whom 

 are athletes and some of whom are scholars, an !, on 

 the other hand, he considers that the football Mjaad 

 forms a very nearly homogeneous group en which 

 observations can well be based. Further collections 

 of statistics are given referring to the effects of smok- 

 ing on scholarship as tested by examination?., and 

 to the lung capacities of smokers and non-sniokiTS. 

 In every case the evidence is against smoking. In 

 the football trials only half as many smokers as non- 

 smokers were successful. In the case of able-bodied 

 men smoking was associated with diminished lung 

 capacity amounting to 10 per cent. Finally, in examina- 

 tions it was found that about 70 per cent, of the 

 candidates obtaining highest marks were non-smokers, 

 while 70 per cent, of those obtaining lowest marks 

 were smokers. 



In The Nature Photographer tor October Mr. F. J. 

 K-och gives an interesting photograph of a herd of 

 chamois in the Alps, taken with a telephoto lens. 

 « 



Dr. C. C. Hossius, of Berchtesgaden, has favoured 



us with a copy of a paper from the Nachrichtshlatten 

 der Deutschen Malakozoologischen Gcscllschajt on 

 land and marine shells collected during an expedition 

 to the Malay Peninsula and Siam. The most impor- 

 tant result appears to be the evidence of the molluscan 

 fauna that the islands of Koh-Si-Chang and Koh- 



