JunE 6, 1912] 
NATURE 
353 
plate of the Paget Prize Plate Co., though scarcely 
past the experimental stage of production, is present 
in several examples shown by the makers. The 
character and method of production of this colour 
screen is clearly demonstrated by enlargements of it 
in its various stages. The colour patches are squares 
regularly disposed, the dyes being absorbed into a 
single collodion film. This gives the maximum of 
transparency, and the possibility of using the screen 
in contact with a separate plate, instead of coating 
the screen itself with the emulsion. Messrs. Julius 
and Ernest Rheinberge show their new ‘“ micro- 
spectra camera” and colour photographs produced by 
it. Here there are no dyes; the object is focussed on 
to a grating, and a prism of low angle gives a series 
of spectra which furnish the colour elements. 
on paper by the bleaching-out method on the new 
“Uto” paper, and many other interesting pictures 
and apparatus are on view. 
A LARGE and representative committee, with Lord 
St. Levan as president, has issued an invitation to 
the members of council and officers of a number of 
scientific and technical societies to visit Cornwall on 
July 16-20; the honorary secretary of the committee 
| presents the alga. 
mentary calcareous skeleton, has proved to be of a 
double nature, and consists of a siliceous sponge and 
an alga living in intimate association. The sponge 
has already been called Noronha  scalariformis, 
Kirkp., and the name Merlia normani, Kirlp., re- 
The discovery that Astrosclera was 
a combination of sponge and alga rendered it prob- 
able that Merlia likewise would prove to be a double 
organism. The investigation of living specimens of 
Merlia revealed the existence of remarkable pheno- 
mena, of which Mr. Kirkpatrick hopes shortly to 
publish an account with illustrations. 
Dr. N. ANNANDALE, of the Indian Museum, 
| Calcutta, writes to point out that, contrary to the 
Prints | 
in London is Mr. G. T. Holloway, 9-13 Emmett | 
Street, Limehouse, E. The number of visitors will 
be limited to a hundred, and it will include members 
of the Chemical Society, Institute of Metals, Institu- 
tion of Civil Engineers, 
Engineers, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 
Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, Iron and Steel 
Institute, and the Society of Chemical Industry. The 
Royal Society cannot be officially represented, as its 
250th anniversary meeting will be held during the | 
same week; and only a few geologists will be present, 
as the geological societies will be invited to a special 
meeting two years hence to celebrate the centenary 
of the Royal Cornwall Geological Society.. The pro- 
gramme includes visits to tin mines, dressing floors, 
china clay, engineering and other works, and places 
of interest to the geologist, together with certain 
other functions of less scientific or technical import- 
ance, but of a more social nature. Among these may 
be mentioned a visit to St. Michael’s Mount by invita- 
tion of Lord St. Levan, and to the Royal Institution 
of Cornwall at Truro and the Royal Geological 
Society of Cornwall at Penzance. Cornwall has 
reason to be proud of its societies. 
Cornwall Geological Society was founded in 1814, the 
Royal Institution of Cornwall in 1818, and the Royal 
Cornwall Polytechnic Society—for which the word 
‘polytechnic’ is said to have been first coined—in 
1833. The work which these societies have done in 
the cause of education, and especially of mining and 
metallurgical education, and for geology and 
mineralogy, is well known, and the hospitality which 
Cornwall is now extending to representatives of other 
societies will be highly appreciated. 
Mr. R. Kirkparrick, who has been engaged in 
dredging off Porto Santo Island, mainly with the 
view of working out the development of Merlia 
normani, writes to say that this organism, which he 
had described as a siliceous sponge with a supple- 
NO. 2223, VOL. 89] 
Institution of Electrical | 
conclusion arrived at by ‘‘H. H. H."’-in a letter to 
Nature of April 18, he does not state in his volume 
in The Fauna of British India series that winter is 
the driest time of year all over India. The sentence 
to which ‘‘H. H. H.” refers commences :—‘ In 
Bengal, however,’’ and the paragraph in which the 
said sentence occurs includes a statement that the 
phenomena with which it deals have been little 
studied in most parts of India. 
Tue rainfall for May was generally below the 
average over the British Isles, but the month was 
much less dry than April. At Greenwich the total 
rainfall for May was 1-31 in., which is o-6r in. less 
than the average, and the aggregate for the two 
months, April and May, was 38 per cent. of the 
average. The only years with a smaller rainfall in 
April and May at Greenwich in the last seventy years 
are 1844 with 0-65 in., 1870 with 0-75 in., and 1896 
with o-81 in. . The mean temperature for May at 
Greenwich was 357:5°, which is 3-7° warmer than the 
average. This is the thirteenth consecutive month 
at Greenwich with the mean temperature in excess 
of the average. There were thirteen days with the 
shade temperature 70° or above, and on May 11 the 
thermometer registered 83°. There was no frost in 
the shade during the month. The duration of sun- 
shine in May at Greenwich was 191 hours, which is 
three hours more than the average of the last thirty 
years. A summary of the weather for spring as 
comprised by the thirteen weeks ended June 1, issued 
by the Meteorological Office, shows that the aggre- 
| gate rainfall, controlled by the heavy rains of March, 
The Royal | 
was in excess of the average in the north-east and 
south-west of England, and in the Midland counties 
and the Channel Islands, whilst in both the south- 
east and north-west of England the deficiency was 
only 0:20 in. In the north of Scotland the excess for 
the thirteen weeks was 2-77 in., where the aggregate 
measurement was 12:65 in. compared with 3-93 in. 
in the east of England. The duration of bright sun- 
shine for spring was nowhere very different from the 
average. 
Hanp cards, the tools used for carding or combing 
' cotton or linen, the fibres of which, being finer than 
those of wool, require more delicate teeth or 
staples,” are still used in parts of France, and are 
made in Denmark for exportation to the Faroes, Ice- 
land, and Greenland. But since about 1870 they have 
