55° 



NATURE 



[January i6, 19 13 



Messrs. Lauder and Fagan have issued in bulletin 

 form (Report 26, Edinburgh and East of Scotland 

 Agricultural College) a summary of their investiga- 

 tions on the effect of heavy root feeding on the milk 

 of cows. They show that the feeding of a ration 

 containing a large quantity of water does not reduce 

 tlie percentage of fat or increase the percentage of 

 water in the milk. A more concentrated ration cer- 

 tainly yields a larger quantity of milk, but the turnip 

 ration, on the other hand, gave richer milk and at 

 a lower cost. 



An account has been published from the Entomo- 

 logical Laboratories of the Agricultural Research In- 

 stitute, Pusa, of the TetriginaB (Acridiinae), by Dr. 

 J. L. Hancock. The members of this subfamily are 

 so variable in structure and coloration that difficulty 

 is experienced in drawing specific distinctions between 

 some of the closely allied forms. The author has car- 

 ried out a systematic arrangement of the species, and 

 has succeeded in dividing the members of this genus 

 into two groups by the characters of the frontal costa 

 and the position of the superior paired ocelli. 



The existence of circular currents in the Sea of 

 Japan, we learn from The Japan Chronicle, Kobe, of 

 December i<), 1912, has been established by Dr. 

 Wada, the meteorologist of the Korean Government- 

 General. Great weight is attached to the discovery 

 by Japanese authorities, who regard it as having an 

 important bearing on the distribution of marine life 

 and even on human migrations in East .\sia. Dr. 

 Wada carefullv studied the movements of nearly 400 

 mines, laid in Vladivostok Bay by the Russians and 

 Japanese during the war, which drifted on to the 

 coasts of Japan, and further observed the drift of 

 120 bottles thrown into the Sea of Japan from a 

 steamer belonging to the Government. From the data 

 obtained. Dr. Wada concludes that the Liman cur- 

 rent, running down from the Siberian coast, flows 

 southward past Kang-won and Ham-gyong Provinces, 

 Korea ; from Cape Duroch the stream sweeps 

 round to the coast of Echizen, Japan, whence 

 it goes northward along the coast of Japan 

 together with the Tsushima current. One stream goes 

 out into the Pacific through the Tsugaru Strait, and 

 another stream continues northward to Tartar Strait, 

 where it rejoins the Liman current, thus forming a 

 complete circle. 



Shortly after the great Valparaiso earthquake of 

 August 16, 1906, attention was directed to certain 

 luminous phenomena that were observed before, at 

 the time of, and after the earthquake. The observa- 

 tions have recently been analysed by Count de Mon- 

 tessus de Ballore, the director of the Chilean 

 Seismological Office {Bollettino of the Italian 

 Seismological Society, vol. xvi., pp. 77-102). The 

 total number of records collected is 136. Of these 

 44 are decisively, and 16 implicitly, negative; in 38 

 cases some lights of an indefinite character were 

 noticed; in the remaining 38 records the observation 

 of luminous phenomena is more or less explicit. 

 Many of the negative records are communicated by 

 NO. 2255, VOL. 90] 



persons accustomed to scientific investigations, and 

 in some cases contradict alleged observations of lights 

 at the same places. It does not follow that the lights, 

 when observed, were connected with the earthquake, 

 for, in the centre and south of Chile, a storm raged 

 during the night of the earthquake, and it was from 

 this part of the disturbed area, and not from the 

 epicentral district, that most of the observations came. 

 Coutit de Montessus therefore concludes that, for the 

 Valparaiso earthquake at any rate, the connection of 

 the luminous phenomena with the earthquake is not 

 proven. 



In Science of December 6 Prof. J. E. Church, jun., 

 in charge of Mount Rose Observatory, on the summit 

 of a peak of the Sierra Nevada Mountains (altitude 

 3292 metres), gives an interesting account of its plans 

 and progress. The meteorological station is at pre- 

 sent the highest in the United States, and was estab- 

 lished privatelv a few years ago for the purpose of 

 ascertaining the minimum temperatures at that point ; 

 it was subsequently attached to the University of 

 Nevada. Although the staff only occupies the observa- 

 tory during part of the year, the station is well pro- 

 vided with specially constructed self-recording instru- 

 ments, and bids fair to become of considerable import- 

 ance in the study of mountain meteorology. Among 

 the main problems which occupy attention may be 

 mentioned (i) the prediction of frosts at lower levels 

 and the relationship of the former to the passing of 

 storms over the summit. A temperature survey has 

 been in progress for two seasons for the purpose of 

 delimiting areas suitable for fruit-growing, and 

 several auxiliary stations have been established at 

 various levels. (2) The influence of mountains and 

 forests on the conservation of snow. A special bulle- 

 tin on this subject is now being prepared. Prof. 

 Church points out that "forests may be too dense 

 as well as too thin for the maximum conservation of 

 snow." The ideal forest seems to be one filled with 

 suitable glades, which may be produced by judicious 

 pruning or by proper planting. 



Under the title, ".A. Class of Periodic Orbits of 

 Superior Planets," Prof. F. R. Moulton, in a paper 

 reprinted from the Transactions of the American 

 Mathematical Society, xiii., i, discusses the problem 

 of three bodies of a distant particle moving subject 

 to the attraction of two finite bodies which revolve 

 about the common centre of gravity, with special 

 reference to the case of nearly circular orbits. 



In a note contributed to the Atti del Lincei, xxi., 

 (2), 7, Dr. Giovanni Giorgi considers the solution of 

 problems in elasticity where after-effect (the Nach- 

 wirkung of Boltzmann) is taken into account. The 

 object is to show that when any problem in statical 

 elasticity has been solved, the corresponding solution 

 in the present instance can be deduced by substitut- 

 ing an expression involving a differential operator for 

 the constant modulus of elasticity. 



Various definitions of a curve have been given by 

 Jordan, Schonflies, Young, Veblen, and others. In 

 the Memoirs of the College of Science and Engineer- 



