October 19, 1905] 



NA TURE 



,609 



Roth, the hon. curator. This institution, which is under 

 the control of the Halifax municipality, is devoted to art, 

 local history, numismatics, and ethnology, and it has 

 been the object of the present curator during his whole term 

 of office to make these collections thoroughly representative 

 and of real educational value. Consequently he has 

 rigorously excluded from the exhibition cases all speci- 

 mens coming merely under the designation of "curios," 

 and devoid of special local or educational interest — an 

 example which might, by the way, be followed by the 

 authorities of at least one rate-supported local museum 

 we could name. Whether this rigid censorship has aroused 

 ill-feeling we cannot say, but at the conclusion of his 

 address .Mr. Roth referred in somewhat bitter terms to the 

 apathy displayed by the municipal authorities towards his 

 efforts. Certainly thirty-six guineas a year is not a lavish 

 sum for the needs of such a museum, and the committee 

 appear to have funds at their disposal which they refuse 

 to spend. 



No. 13 B. of the Publications de Circonstance, recently 

 issued in Copenhagen by the International Council for the 

 Study of the Sea, contains an account of the present con- 

 dition of the German fisheries in the Baltic, and is a 

 continuation of the publication already issued (No. 13 A) 

 on the Danish and Swedish fisheries in that sea. The 

 present work has been prepared for the German Sea- 

 Fisheries Association by Dr. E. Fischer in cooperation 

 with Prof. H. Henking. It gives in a concise form in- 

 formation as to the different kinds of fishing practised in 

 the area, as well as an account of the boats, nets, and 

 other fishing gear employed, and of the quantities and 

 values of the fish landed. The fluctuations of the various 

 fisheries from year to year for the last ten years are shown 

 in a series of tables and curves, and a number of litho- 

 graphed charts illustrate the relative local abundance of 

 different species of fish along the Gcnnan coasts of the 

 Baltic. 



The second part of the first volume of the useful little 

 flora of the upper Gangetic plain, by Mr. J. F. Duthie, has 

 been published recently ; it includes the orders Caprifoliaceae 

 to Campanulaceje, and the index to the volume. 



The late Prof. L. Errera showed a marked preference 

 for physiological' problems, and one of his last papers, 

 which is published in vol. xlii. of the Bulletin de la 

 Socictc royalc de botaniquc dc Beige, takes up the difficult 

 subject of the ultimate cause behind reaction in plants. 

 The paper deals with dominance and inhibitory action, as 

 e.xemplified in the correlation existing between the direc- 

 tions assumed by the. main vertical shoot of a tree and its 

 branches under the influence of geotropic stimulus. Nutri- 

 tion or polarity has generally been invoked to furnish an 

 ixplanation, but Prof. Errera argues in favour of inhibit- 

 ing action, possibly due to interna! secretions. 



Report.s for 1904-5 on the botanic stations at .Antigua 

 and St. Kitts have been received. Owing to the want of 

 uniformity in the amount of fuzz on the cotton seed 

 imported from the Sea Islands into Antigua, some doubt 

 was expressed as to its purity. To test the matter some 

 of the seed was graded, and each grade was sown on a 

 separate plot ; however, on reaping the cotton, the lint from 

 the different plots did not present any marked difference, 

 and the seed was no more uniform than before. The con- 

 clusion is drawn that the character of the lint is fixed, and 

 does not alter with variations in the character of the 

 seed. In St. Kitts and Nevis interest attaches to the 

 cacao and rubber plantations which have been recently 

 NO. 1S77, vol. 72] 



started ; the rubber plants consist of, Castilloa , and 

 Funtumia. The work at the , agricultural school in St. 

 Kitts is worthy of mention ; the practical icourse includes 

 the cultivation of vegetables, the application of manures 

 to pine and cotton crops, and" the propagation of plants 

 by budding and cuttings. 



We have received from the Minister of the Interior the 

 twenty-fourth Bulletin issued by the Peruvian Corps of 

 Mining Engineers. It contains the mineral statistics of 

 Peru for 1904. The production . in that year included 

 59,920 tons of coal, 38,683 tons of petroleum, 2209 tons 

 of lead, 9503 tons of copper, 2675 tons of borates, 18,544 

 tons of rock salt, 21 tons of sulphur, 145,165 kilograms 

 of silver, and 601 kilograms of gold. Compared with the 

 production in the previous year, noteworthy increases are 

 shown. 



The. interesting paper on some phenomena of permanent 

 deformation in metals read by , Mr. G. H. Gulliver, of 

 Edinburgh University, before the Institution of Mechanical 

 Engineers in February has now been published in pamphlet 

 form. In making a tension test of a metal bar as soon 

 as the yield-point is reache'd, th^ deformation becomes 

 visible to the naked eye as the well known Liider's lines. 

 Hitherto the' lines occurring at the yield-point have beeil 

 confused Avith the two straight depressions known as the 

 "contractile cross." The 'author ' s'hows that the two 

 phenomena are quite distinct. In .his ■ experiments flat 

 steel bars were used. § inch in thickness and of various 

 widths from J inch to 4 inches.' 



The second part of' the mines and quarries general 

 report for 1904 has been issued by the Home Office. It 

 contains statistics of- the persons Employed and of the 

 accidents thjit occurred.' T-he -total' number of persons 

 employed' at mines and quarries, in the United Kingdom 

 and in the Isle of Man in 1904 'was 974,634, of whom 

 877,057 were employed at mines.- The. death rate from 

 accidents was 1-243 per 1000 persons employed at mines 

 and 115 per 1000 at quarries. By the Act of 1903, the 

 value of scientific training in mining is now shown to be 

 appreciated by the Governmerjt, . the hofders of diplomas 

 at institutions approved by the Secretary, of State for the 

 Home Department being eljgible for managers' certificates 

 after three years' practical experience instead of five as 

 was formerly the case. The list of institutions that have 

 been approved is given" in the report, and comprises the 

 Royal School of Mines, the universities of Birmingham, 

 Cambridge, Durham, Gla.sgow, -Leeds, London, O.xford, 

 Sheffield and Wales, the University College, Bristol, the 

 Glasgow Technical College, and the Wigan Mining College. 



In the American Journal of Science (vol. xx., No. 118) 

 Mr. Bertram B. Boltwood quotes a number of analyses of 

 minerals containing uranium arid thorium, and interprets 

 them by assuming that the ultimate disintegration pro- 

 ducts of the radio-active elements may include lead, 

 barium, bismuth, the rare earths, argon, and hydrogen. 

 The question is raised whether tlie qupntjties of these 

 elements actually e.-^isting in nature have not been produced 

 wholly by some such process of disintegration. 



In the Atti dei Lincei (vol. xiv. p. 18S) B. Gosio de- 

 scribes how the decomposition of exceedingly dilute 

 solutions of alkaline selenites, or, better; of alkaline 

 tellurites, may be utilised as a delicate test for living 

 bacterial contamination. Most living bacteria are capable 

 of decomposing potassium tellurite . with the production 

 of a blackish precipitate, becoming themselves, when viewed 

 under the microscope, tinged blackish grey. Dead bac- 



