48: 



NA TURE 



[September 6, 1906 



some reason the locusts would not touch the other poisoned 

 baits. 



The concluding part (v.) reviews the systematic position 

 of the Bombay locust, and gives a useful list of other 

 species found with it. These locusts are figured in the 

 plates. 



Half this report consists of four appendices. The first 

 deals with the action taken against locusts in the Bombay 

 Presidency. Summing up the campaign against the locust 

 in 1904, it is made quite evident that a very determined 

 effort was made to cope with this pest, and that the excel- 

 lent organisation that extended to every village in the 

 Presidency was effectual in producing a very general action 

 on the part of the people. This is all the more remark- 

 able when we consider the natural apathy of the ryot and 

 his strong objection to take life of any kind. Yet we are 

 told in the report that " 4152 maunds of adults, equivalent 

 to 66,432,000 individuals, were destroyed, or two-tenths 

 of a per cent, of the estimated number." One hundred 

 maunds of eggs were destroyed, representing 400,000,000 

 individuals, and 13,252 maunds of " hoppers," which re- 

 presented some 530,000,000. That is, 930 millions of young 

 were destroyed I 



In all some 1500 millions were probably accounted for, 

 Including adults, eggs, and hoppers ; of these 66 millions 

 were adults, which would have been responsible for another 

 3000 million " hoppers " had they lived. To accomplish 

 this the Bombay Government spent a little more than two 

 lakhs in rewards. Anyone knowing what " locust swarms " 

 mean to the cultivator will acknowledge that this sum was 

 well spent. In the same appendix are notes on the latest 

 invasion of the Portuguese territory of Goa, where the 

 damage in 1904 was also very great. Fears were enter- 

 tained that the locusts might make their way to the sea- 

 board and destroy the magnificent paying cocoanut trees, 

 one of the chief sources of revenue to the country. 



The second appendix is by Mr. B. P. Standen. In it 

 are mentioned various methods used to cope with the 

 locusts, such as the American " hopper dozer," the Russian 

 wheeled revolving brush, bags, poison bait, bonfires, &c. 

 But in the end of all this Mr. .Standen tells us Cp. 92) 

 that " the efforts were aided in a remarkable fashion by 

 juari birds (the Rosy Pastor), which arrived in large flocks 

 earlier than, usual and devoured the locusts greedily." . . , 

 " It is quite possible that the preservation of the crops was 

 due as much to these birds as to the effects of human 

 agency." Yet a few lines further back we are told in 

 his report that the Depuly Commissioner of Wardha con- 

 sidered that a third of the total number of hoppers were 

 destroyed by the measures adopted, whilst others estimated 

 that half at least were destroyed. 



Besides the plates of various species and structural 

 peculiarities, there is also .a map showing the infested 

 area in 1903-4. Fred. V. Theobald. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



CAMBRIDGE. — The second Frank Smart studentship in 

 botany, tenable at Gonville and Caius College, has been 

 awarded to Mr. F. T. Brooks, late scholar of Emmanuel 

 College, the understanding being that the student shall 

 prosecute research in some special branch of scientific 

 forestry. 



Mr. Sydney Pennington has been appointed an instructor 

 in veterinary science in the School of Agriculture, Ghizeh, 

 Egypt. 



Mr. J. Blakeman, Trinity College, Cambridge, has been 

 appointed mathematical master at the Municipal Technical 

 School, Leicester. 



The results of the annual examination held last July 

 bv the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board 

 have now been issued. The total number of candidates 

 for higher certificates was 2054, of whom 462 were girls 

 offering letters only. Of these candidates 1084 offered 

 Latin, 882 Greek, and 1369 French. In natural philosophy 



NO. 1923, VOL. 74] 



there were 143 candidates in the mechanical division, 131 

 in the physical division, and 132 in the chemical division. 

 Physical geography and geology were offered by forty 

 candidates, and biology by 183. The total number of 

 candidates for lower certificates was 1046, and the number 

 of candidates offering the several subjects mentioned w-as 

 as follows : — Latin, 668 ; Greek, 393 ; French, 993 ; 

 mechanics and physics, 74 ; physics and chemistry, 235 ; 

 chemistry and mechanics, 23 ; and botany, 62. The candi- 

 dates in this examination are almost entirely from public 

 schools, and the numbers given are interesting, since they 

 indicate the relative importance attached to linguistic and 

 scientific studies in these schools. 



.\mong calendars which have been received recently, that 

 of the East London College, in the Mile End Road, is of 

 special interest, showing as it does the admirable provision 

 now made in East London for higher education. The 

 object of the college is to provide such instruction in the 

 various branches of a liberal education as will qualify 

 students to take degrees at the University of London and 

 other universities of the United Kingdom ; to give such 

 instruction in science and technology as will be serviceable 

 to students who intend to pursue a profession or trade in 

 which a knowledge of science in its practical applications 

 is required ; and generally to promote higher education in 

 East London. The engineering department and other 

 portions of the college premises have been enlarged recently 

 at the expense of the Drapers' Company, which has madf 

 a further grant of 5000/. for this purpose. This company 

 is again awarding valuable scholarships tenable at the 

 college. The staff, too, has been strengthened, and there 

 is every prospect of a highly successful session's work. 



The London County Council has organised for the session 

 1906-7 courses of instruction for teachers. These courses 

 are open without fee to teachers in London schools, and are 

 intended to offer to teachers in the various types of schools 

 opportunities for developing their knowledge of different 

 subjects and of coming into contact with those who have 

 made a special study of the subjects in question. The 

 Council is of opinion that few things can be of greater 

 assistance to teachers than personal contact with some 

 experienced teacher who has devoted special attention to a 

 particular subject, or has made a study of the best methods 

 of presenting the subject to others. The courses include 

 partly lectures and demonstrations in special subjects, such 

 as manual training, general elementarv science, physics. 

 chemistry, botany, and also courses conducted under the 

 auspices of the County Council at the schools of the uni- 

 versity, namely. University College, King's College, Bed- 

 ford College, and the London .School of Econoinics and 

 Political .Science. Full particulars with regard to the 

 courses may be obtained from the executive officer. Educa- 

 tion Offices, London County Council, Victoria Embank- 

 ment, W.C. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, May 24 — Croonian Lecture, 1906. —"On 

 Nerve Endings and on Special Excitable Substances in 

 Cells." By Prof. J. N. Langley, F.R.S. 



The author stated in his general conclusions that the 

 paper had shown there was reason to believe that in each 

 of fh" three great types of connection of the peripheral 

 end of an efferent nerve with a cell, it is some constituent 

 of the cell substance which is stimulated or paralysed by 

 poison ordinarily taken as stimulating or paralysing nerve 

 endings. Reasons, though less complete, have been given 

 for supposing that these poisons have no special action 

 on nerve endings, and that physiologically the nerve ending 

 is not essentially different from the nerve fibre. In that 

 case, not only the function of reacting to numerous chemical 

 bodies, but probably also the special liability of both afferent 

 and efferent nerves to fatigue must be transferred from the 

 nerve endings to the same constituent of the cell. 



This theory adds to the complexity of the cell. It 

 necessitates the presence in it of one or more substances 

 (receptive substances) which are capable of receiving and 



