July 26, 1906] 



NATURE 



o'-o 



out the use of any brakes whatever, the driver kcepirif! his 

 fpot above the splash board to prove that no pedal brake 

 was in use, and the side hand-brake was tied and sealed 

 before slarlin},' the descent. The omnibus in question was 

 driven by an ordinary four-cylinder petrol enijine, but was 

 practically under electrical control. The engine is started 

 by .in electrical device, and the variations of speed are 

 under electrical control, the clutch and foot-brake being 

 electromagnetic and controlled by one pedal. The speed 

 control is obtained by shunt regulation of the dynamo in 

 combination with the ignition and carburation, and gives 

 the driver — it is claimed — perfect control without the use 

 of brakes. Various tests for pulling up and starting were 

 made and proved satisfactory, and the steepest portion of 

 the hill was taken at a snail's pace without the use of 

 br.ikes. We can only hope that, should this new method 

 of control continue to prove so satisfactory, it will be 

 adopted by the motor omnibus companies, and thus help 

 to re-establish public confidence in one of the most useful 

 innovations of recent years. 



Ttie provisional programme of Section B (Chemistry) of 

 the British Association meeting at York has just reached 

 us ; it is as follows .t— August i. — Presidential address, Prof. 

 W. R. Dunstan ; chemical research in the Dutch East 

 Indies, Dr. Greshoff ; utilisation of nitrogen in air by 

 plants, T. Jamieson ; the electrical discharge in air and its 

 commercial application, Sidney Leetham and William 

 Cramp ; the action of ammonium salts upon clay and 

 kindred substances, A. D. Hall ; oxidation in soils and its 

 relation to productiveness, Dr. F. V. Darbishire and Dr. 

 E. J. Russel. August 3. — Report, present position of the 

 chemistry of gum, H. H. Robinson ; on a gum (Cochlo- 

 spcrnum gosipium) which produces acetic acid on exposure 

 to air, H. H. Robinson ; report, hydrolysis of sugars, 

 R. J. Caldwell ; papers by the president and Dr. T. A. 

 Henry and by Dr. Greshoff. Joint discussion with 

 Section K, the production of hydrocyanic acid by plants. 

 August 6. — Report, present position of the chemistry of 

 rubber, S. S. Pickles ; the constitution of caoutchouc, Prof. 

 Carl Harries (Kiel) ; paper by Prof. W. A. Tilden ; report, 

 the study of hydroaromatic compounds. Prof. A. W. 

 Crtssley. August 7. — Joint discussion with .Section I, the 

 factors which determine minimal diet values, opened by 

 Dr. F. Gowland Hopkins. 



.'\ SPELL of the hottest weather this summer has been 

 experienced since the middle of the month over the Midland 

 and south-eastern districts of England. At Greenwich the 

 thermometer in the shade has exceeded 80° on four days 

 since July 17, while there was only one day previously 

 this summer, June 20, with a temperature above 80°. On 

 July 18 the thermometer in the screen registered 86°.2, 

 and on July 23 it registered 84°.7. On three days this 

 month the thermometer in the sun's rays at Greenwich 

 has exceeded 145°. In the northern and western portions 

 of the kingdom the temperature has been generally below 

 the average. At Greenwich the total rainfall this month, 

 to July 24, only measured 0-22 inch, which is about one- 

 tenth of the average. The weekly weather report issued 

 by the Meteorological Office shows that on July 17 and 18 

 an exceedingly heavy fall of rain occurred in the north- 

 west of Scotland, the aggregate amount for the two days 

 measuring 4.9 inches at Fort William and 4-4 inches at 

 Glencarron. An exceptionally important storm area for 

 the time of year had its centre near the Shetlands on 

 July ig, and strong westerly gales were experienced on 

 the northern coasts of Ireland and Scotland and in the 

 North Sea. 



NO. I917, VOL. 74] 



Mr. G. a. Hioiit, writing from Audisques, Pas de 

 Calais, states that among the peasantry of that district 

 there is a universal belief that the magpie is a dangerous 

 enemy to poultry, and it is shot by the farmers as vermin. 

 His own observation seems to show that the stories of 

 the magpie's depredations are unfounded, or at least greatly 

 exaggerated, and he would be glad to know whether there 

 is any authority for the belief. 



In the Proceedings of the I'niled States National 

 Museum, vol. xxx., Mr. T. W. Vaughan describes three 

 new species of corals belonging to the genus Fungia, the 

 one a fossil species from Japan, the others being recent 



forms. 



Nkw or rare scombriform fishes form the subject of a 

 paper by Mr. H. W. Fowler in the March issue of the 

 Proceedings of the Philadelphia .Academy, in the course of 

 which several forms arc described as new, while the genus 

 Lepodus of Rafinesque is made the type of a new family. 

 The same issue contains the second portion of a paper by 

 Messrs. Pilsbry and Ferriss on the land-molluscs of the 

 south-western United States. 



The Natural History Museum has just received an 

 important collection of bird and mammal skins from 

 Mount Ruwenzqri, East Central Africa, obtained w-ith the 

 aid of subscriptions from a number of persons interested 

 in natural history. The collection, we believe, includes a 

 number of new forms, or of forms previously known only 

 by a single specimen or so of each. 



We are indebted to Prof. K. Heider for a copy of an 

 obituary notice of the late Dr. Fritz Schaudinn, published 

 at Innsbruck, and reprinted from the Innshruckcr Nach- 

 richten for June 26. Dr. Schaudinn's career, although 

 brief (1871-1906), was a memorable and active one. 

 .Among the subjects to which Schaudinn specially devoted 

 his attention was the study of blood-parasites, his last 

 achievement in this line being the discovery of Spirochaeta 

 pallida, which he believed to be the bacterium of syphilis. 



A COPY of an illustrated guide to the German section 

 of the International Exhibition at Marseilles devoted to 

 the illustration of subjects connected with the study of 

 the ocean and sea-fisheries has reached us. In the 

 German section, a prominent place is occupied by exhibits 

 connected with the recent deep-sea and South Polar ex- 

 peditions, and also by others displayed by the German 

 Sea-fisheries Union of Hanover. The frontispiece to the 

 guide represents a reproduction of an Antarctic scene, with 

 seals and penguins on the ice. 



In the summer number (vol. ii.. No. 2) of Bird Notes 

 and News attention is directed to the wholesale collecting 

 of eggs of the great skua in Iceland, as demonstrated by 

 a photograph in a German ornithological serial, in which 

 a collector is represented with no less than 240 eggs of 

 that species. If egg-hunting is permitted on such a scale, 

 it seems scarcely probable that the skua will long survive 

 in the island. In another article gratification is expressed 

 at the support accorded by Her Majesty the Queen to the 

 crusade against the wearing of " osprey " plumes. 



a\t the date of publication (18S0) of Dr. Giinther's 

 " Study of Fishes," but three representatives of the genus 

 Chimaera were known to science. By the description in 

 the Journal of the College of Science of Tokyo University 

 (vol. XX., art. 2) of two new Japanese forms, Mr. S. 

 Tanaka has brought up the number to no less than ten. 

 The author seems to have had abundant material — no less 



