194 
NATURE 
[APRIL 25. 1912 
taken near mid-eclipse (Fig. 1), showing the 
thin crescent of the sun as photographed in the 
calcium radiation K. For visual observations 
the crescent was projected, by a 34-inch telescope, 
on to a white screen, the 4-inch image thus 
obtained showing exceedingly well the mountain 
peaks on the moon’s limb. A noticeable feature 
was the ease with which one could produce 
crescent images through small apertures. The 
spaces between the fingers of an extended hand 
produced several, while thousands were seen 
projected on to a door by the uneven and dusty 
elass of a south window. The peculiar gloom 
which overspread everything near the maximum 
phase was very striking, being similar to that 
which precedes a dark thunderstorm. 
The charts exhibited at the Meteorological 
Office show the thermometric effects of the solar 
obscuration very markedly. For the usual daily 
sheets, “quick-run” sheets were substituted on 
the various recording instruments for the eclipse 
period. The minimum air temperature during 
the run was recorded at 12h. 21m., 10°4 minutes 
after the maximum phase; during the eclipse the 
temperature ranged from 56° to 54° F., the 
maximum for the whole day being 59°3° at 
2h. 45m. p.m. The Callendar radiation recorder 
showed an average rate of radiation received 
on a horizontal surface, during the eclipse 
time, of o'030 watt per sq. cm., the maximum 
being o'054 watt at th. 30m. p.m. and the mini- 
mum rate being o'007 watt from 12h. 11m. to 
12h. 15m., just after the maximum phase of the 
eclipse; the maximum rate of radiation for the 
day was 0'057 watt per sq. cm. at th. 50m. 
{1 cal. per minute=0°07 watt). : 
The fall in temperature was very perceptible, 
but the actual readings are somewhat complicated, 
in their possible interpretation, by a breeze which 
sprung up about 11 a.m. and lulled at about 
th. 30m. p.m. At Balham Mr. Creeze recorded 
shade temperatures of 56° F. at the beginning, 
52° at maximum phase, 51° at 12h. 30m. p.m., 
and s5256 ab 1a S5m. p.m. 
SARDINES. 
CASE recently decided at the London Guild- 
4 hall by Alderman Sir George Woodman, 
in which a large part of both the evidence and 
the arguments turned on the question of the true | 
meaning of the word “sardine,” has excited con- 
siderable interest. On one side it was contended 
that sardines were the young of the pilchard 
(Clupea pilchardus) preserved in a particular way 
in oil and put up in tins, according to the methods 
employed on the west coast of France. On the 
other side, an attempt was made to show that 
the name “sardine” had in practice been ex- 
tended, so that it included any small fish pre- | 
served in oil and put up in tins. Although the 
defendant, who was being prosecuted for selling 
Norwegian sprats or brisling put up in oil in tins 
as “sardines,” won his case (without costs) on 
decision on the question of the meaning of the 
name “sardine” followed closely the evidence 
given by the majority of the scientific experts. 
The Alderman’s decision on this point was :— 
‘““My decision is that the term ‘sardine’ is of 
French origin. It is the French name for the 
pilchard, the fish scientifically known as Clupea 
pilchardus. he industry of packing the immature 
pilchard in tins was started in France in 1882, and 
the fish so packed and imported into this country 
were universally known as ‘sardines.’ The word 
“sardine ’ has now become anglicised, and I hold that 
the meaning of the term is ‘the immature pilchard 
prepared and packed in oil in tins.’ This is not what 
the defendant sold. The ‘ Skipper Sardines’ sold by 
him were the Norwegian fish known as ‘ brisling.’ 
The ‘brisling’ is the Clupea sprattus of the same 
family, but of a different species from the Clupea 
pilchardus, and it is the same fish, allowing for 
differences caused by local environment, as the Eng- 
lish sprat.” 
The most interesting and complete account of 
the name ‘‘sardine” which we have seen was 
not, however, given in the evidence presented to 
the court, in so far as that evidence was published, 
but occurs under the signature “ Quibbon,” which 
we believe conceals the identity of a well-known 
and trustworthy authority on fishery questions, 
who writes in the Fish Trades Gazette (March 30, 
1912) as follows :— 
“The name ‘ Sardine.’ This. name is very widely 
applied either to the young of the pilchard, as with 
us, or to the pilchard itself. Thus the species Clupea 
pilchardus, our pilchard, is called sardina in Italy, 
sardinha in Portugal, sardina in Spain (where it 
seems also to apply to the anchovy), sardine in France 
and in Germany, sardin in Norway and Sweden (also 
pilchard in Swedish), pelser in Holland, and pilchard 
in Denmark; in Russia it is called Ssardinka. It is 
interesting to learn that it was the first of the Latin 
names to be used among the Anglo-Saxons for the 
herring. Eleven hundred years ago the Italian priests 
who endeavoured to instil a little learning into the 
Anglo-Saxon mind gave the name sardinas as the 
equivalent to the word hervingas, but later on this 
gave way to the name allec. The smelt (Anglo-Saxon 
smeltas) was called sardus. The word is derived 
from the island Sardinia (Greek Saoéd), and the 
fish was known to the Greeks as sardine (aapdim or 
wapdwos). It is curious that to this day the term 
sardyn or schardyn is applied all along the Dutch 
coast to the sprat, and the usual net for catching 
sprats is called sardynkuil. A Dutch fisherman 
confines the term sprott to the smoked sprat; the 
fresh sprat, or the sprat fishing, is always referred to 
as above stated. This has been the case for a very 
long time, as is evident from an old work, ‘Nieuwe 
Cronyk van Zeeland,’ published in 1696. Centuries 
ago Dutch trade with the Mediterranean was very 
great, and no doubt the mariners brought back the 
term ‘ sardine’ as applied in that sea, and used it in 
Holland for the small clupeoids, the sprats.” 
It is an easy matter to distinguish the sprat 
either from the young herring or from the young 
pilchard by the very much greater development 
of the spines alone the ventral edge of the body 
in the sprat. The distinction can be made by the 
sense of touch alone, as is well known to many 
fishermen, for if the finger be passed along the 
the ground that he had acted innocently, the { belly of the fish from the tail towards the head, 
NO. 2217, VOL. 89| 
