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ATA TURE 



[January 27, 19 10 



■colleges are bevond question the most beautifully illustrated 

 of the agricultural journals. 



The current West Indian Bulletin (vol. x., No. 2) 

 contains, as usual, a number of interesting articles on 

 West Indian products. Among them is a statement of the 

 present position of the cotton industry, showing a rapid 

 increase in spite of one or two set-backs in a few unsuit- 

 able districts. The estimated value of the lint in 1902 was 

 7366/. ; in 1907 it was 172,294!. A pamphlet is also 

 issued summarising the experiments on sugar-cane at 

 Barbadoes with seedling canes and with various manures. 

 The striking result was brought out that potash and 

 nitrogen manures increased the amount of sugar while 

 phosphates diminished it. The Bulletin of the Jamaica 

 Department of Agriculture, the second of the new series, 

 is quite up to the standard set by the first, and contains 

 an interesting article, by Mr. Ashby, describing the 

 bacterial production of sulphuretted hydrogen from certain 

 obnoxious ponds near Jamaica. There are also some well 

 illustrated and interesting articles on the Indian cattle of 

 the island and the Hereford herd of Knockalva. 



.'\n interesting preliminary notice, by Mr. P. A. Curry, 

 of the results obtained in the research of the upper air 

 above the Blue Hill .area during the rainy season of iQoq 

 is published in the Cairo Scientific Journal for October 

 last. The main object was to find the direction and 

 velocity of the wind at different heights above Roseires by 

 the use of small pilot balloons, of which seventy-nine were 

 released. The surface wind, which was slightly west of 

 south, veered to south-west at 1500 metres ; at 3000 m. 

 north-east winds were somewhat predominant, veering to 

 slightly north of east at 3500 m. From that altitude to 

 6000 m. it was very constant in direction, at which point 

 it backed slightly to north-east at gooo m., then veering 

 again to east at 12,000 m. One balloon which rose above 

 this showed a due east wind at 13,000 m. and 14,000 m., 

 veering to east-south-east at 18,000 m. Up to 3000 m. the 

 velocity averaged little more than 5 metres per second, 

 increasing to 10 m.p.s. at 6000 m. ; it then decreased to 

 S m.p.s. at 7000 m., and remained fairly steady up to 

 10,000 m. Above this altitude the velocity increased 

 rapidly. The results show a fairly steady circulation 

 whether rain falls or not, and the limiting height of the 

 upper easterly drift does not decrease on dry days, as was 

 found to be the case in Abyssinia. 



Dr. G. H. Savage has sent us a reprint of the Harveian 

 oration delivered by him before the Royal College of 

 Physicians of London on October 18, 1909. Dr. Savage 

 selects for the themes of his lecture experimental psycho- 

 logy and hypnotism, and emphasises the importance of 

 taking into consideration the teaching and methods of these 

 subjects with regard to neurological and mental pathology. 



Mr. B. A. GuPTE, assistant director of ethnography for 

 India, has issued the preliminary draft of a collection of 

 passages from the sacred books of the Hindus, Jains, 

 Buddhists, and Mohammedans, dealing with women in 

 India, their life, morals, character, rites, and ceremonies, 

 which is of considerable interest. In a subsequent edition 

 the compiler would do well to give definite references to 

 his authorities, which would add considerably to the interest 

 of the collection. 



In an article entitled *' Mental Processes and Concomitant 



Galvanometric Changes " (Psychological Review, January), 



Dr. Daniel Starch investigates the changes in resistance of 



the body to a weak electric current during varying mental 



NO. 2100, VOL. 82] 



conditions. He concludes that all kinds of mental states 

 are accompanied by galvanometric changes, and that 

 emotional states and muscular activity produce the widest 

 deflections, habitual activity and the process of visual atten- 

 tion producing the least. He finds that quiet mental 

 activity, even when considerable effect is involved, produces 

 only small galvanometric effects. 



In a note published in the Bulletin of the Imperial Earth- 

 quake Investigation Committee (vol. iii.. No. 2, Tokyo) 

 Prof. Omori considers briefly a subject already touched on 

 by Mr. Oldham, namely, the dependence of the velocity of 

 seismic waves on the nature of the path traversed by them. 

 He calculates the mean surface velocity of the first pre- 

 liminary tremors by the " difference method " for three 

 earthquakes, and finds it to be 16.02 km. per second for 

 the Guatemala earthquake of 1902, 11-36 km. per second 

 for the Indian (Kangra) earthquake of 1905, and 13-97 km. 

 per second for the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. In 

 the first case the wave-paths were mainly submarine, in 

 the second mainly continental, in the third partly conti- 

 nental and partly submarine. The differences in velocity 

 may thus be due to a deficiency in rigidity in the continental 

 portions of the crust (especially in the centre of .^sia) and 

 to an excess of rigidity beneath the Pacific and Atlantic 

 Oceans. 



The Alines Department of South .\ustralia has issued an 

 interesting report, dealing with the mineral output of the 

 State for the half-year ending June 13, 1909 (" A Review of 

 Mining Operations in the State of South Australia during 

 the Half-year ending June 30, 1909," No. 10, Adelaide, 

 1909). The chief mineral in South Australia is copper, pro- 

 duced from a large number of small scattered mines, but 

 they were less active than usual owing to the low price 

 of copper. There are many small gold mines, of which 

 Arltunga is the most important field, but, owing to its 

 inaccessible position, only very high-grade ores can be 

 worked there. The average grade of the ore in the thirty 

 small mines reported is 102s. per ton. The total quantity 

 of ore treated from this field has been only 10,000 tons. 

 Steady progress is being made with the phosphate mines, 

 and a company is working one of the numerous deposits 

 of high-quality china-clay found in South Australia. 



In the Electrician for January 7 Mr. Fournier D'Albe 

 commences a series of articles on recent advances in elec- 

 trical theory. The first instalment deals with the doubts 

 which have been recently cast on the necessity for assuming 

 an aether, with the principle of relativity, the Fitzgerald- 

 Lorentz theory of the change of length of a body moving 

 through space, and with the problem of aberration. The 

 articles should prove a useful introduction to a subject 

 which is one of the most interesting before the scientific 

 world at the present time. There is a slight error in the 

 statement of the amount of expansion of a rod which 

 observers would postulate if the observed times of to and 

 fro motion of light were the same with the rod at rest 

 and in motion through the nether parallel to its length 

 respectively. The amount of change stated by the author 

 is that which would be postulated if the times were found 

 the same when the rod moved with the same velocity with 

 respect to the aither parallel and perpendicular to itself 

 respectively, as in Michelson and Morley's experiments. 



In the December (1909) number of Le Radium M. Jean 

 Perrin gives an account of his measurements of the 

 Brownian movements in emulsions of gamboge and of 

 mastic, and of the calculations of a number of molecular 



