404 
and social gatherings have been arranged, and there 
is every prospect of a successful meeting. 
The Daily Chronicle of June 11 contains an account 
of the skeleton of a mammoth which has just been 
set up in the museum at Stuttgart, and is stated to be 
larger than any other known specimen. The skeleton 
was found at Steinheim, in Swabia, in the summer 
of 1910. The tusks are of no very great size, measur- 
ing 74 feet; but the skeleton is remarkable for the 
great relative length of the legs, especially the front 
pair, as well as for the great width of the molars. 
We understand that this skeleton is about to be 
described as representing a distinct local race of the 
mammoth. Somewhat curiously, a second mammoth 
skeleton has recently been set up in the Vélkerkunde 
Museum at Leipzig. This skeleton, which is nearly 
complete, has been described by Dr. J. Felix, in 
the Veréffentlichungen der Stiéidt. Mus. fiir Volker- 
kunde for the present year. It was discovered in 
December, rt908, under a considerable thickness of 
sand and clay, near Borna, its presence being revealed 
by the tip of one of the magnificent tusks. The 
skeleton stands 3°20 metres in height. 
THE summer has opened with very different weather 
from that which characterised the early part of the 
summer last year. During the first half of June the 
highest temperature at Greenwich was 71°, whilst last 
year there were in the corresponding period three days 
with the thermometer above 80°. There were fifty- 
six fewer hours of bright sunshine this year, whilst 
the principal difference has been in the rainfall. In 
the first fifteen days of the month the rainfall at 
Greenwich was 196 in., which is o’02 in. more than 
the average for the whole month, whilst last year for 
the corresponding period the total rainfall was 0°04 in. 
At Kew the rainfall for the first half of June this 
year was 2°38 in., at Camden Square 2°46 in., and 
at Hampstead 2°61 in. The summary of the weather 
issued by the Meteorological Office for the first two 
weeks of June shows that the rainfall was largely in 
excess of the average over the entire kingdom, the 
greatest excess occurring in the English districts. In 
the midland counties the rainfall for the two weeks 
was 265 per cent. of the average, in the south-east 
of England 254 per cent., in the south-west of Eng- 
land 245 per cent., and in the north-west of England 
244 per cent. of the average. The duration of bright 
sunshine for the two weeks was everywhere largely 
in defect of the average. 
An exhibition of non-ferrous metals, organised by 
Mr. F. W. Bridges, with the aid of an influential 
advisory council, presided over by Sir Gerard Muntz, 
was opened on Saturday, June 15, at the Agricultural 
Hall, Islington. This is the first exhibition devoted 
to non-ferrous metals which has yet been held, and 
the exhibits, although not very numerous, are of a 
striking and interesting kind, including a series of 
products which represent the most advanced achieve- 
ments of metallurgy. Several exhibits are of con- 
siderable scientific interest. Thus the increasing de- 
mand for vanadium in the metallurgy both of steel 
and of other metals furnishes an example of the prac- 
tical use to which metals are now put which, but a 
NO. 2225, vor. 89| 
NATURE 
[JUNE 20, 1912 
short time ago, were never seen outside the show- 
cases of chemical museums. Incidentally, the produc- 
tion of vanadium from its ores has also resulted in 
the production of uranium as a by-product, and the 
exhibit of the International Vanadium Company illus- 
trates these products in a striking manner. Another 
fine exhibit is a very large slab of ‘‘star’’ antimony, 
upon which the dendritic crystals of that metal are 
exhibited in a very beautiful way, by Messrs. Cook- 
son, of Newcastle. The same firm also shows crystals 
of antimony closely resembling those of bismuth, 
which can be obtained by pouring off the residual 
liquid when a slowly cooling ingot has formed a crust. 
The examples of antimony crystals obtained in this 
way which are shown at the exhibition are remark- 
ably fine. More strictly utilitarian are the various 
exhibits of ‘‘ribbon metal” produced by allowing 
molten metal to run in a thin stream upon the surface 
of a rapidly revolving iron drum; some of the many 
uses of such material, such as the caulking of pipe 
joints and for the chemical reactions which occur in 
gold cyaniding, are illustrated. 
Tue tenth annual report of the director of the 
Bureau of Science at Manila, Dr. Paul C. Freer, for 
the year ending August 1, 1911, has been received. 
It is an excellent record of scientific work done in 
the Philippines, and covers so wide a field that it is 
impossible here to attempt an enumeration of the 
researches completed. One instance of the useful 
character of the work accomplished by the Bureau 
may be cited. In August, 1910, a plan was devised 
whereby a temporary anti-mosquito brigade was 
established to eradicate the brown mosquito, Culex 
fatigans, Wied, in Manila, and incidentally to lessen 
the day mosquito, Stegomyia persistans, Banks. The 
director reports that the brown mosquito has been 
practically exterminated, and it is now almost impos- 
sible to secure specimens of it for experimental pur- 
poses. Other examples, by which sillx culture has 
been developed and improved, and the growing of 
tobacco has been made more satisfactory and more 
profitable, are dealt with fully in the report. Indeed, 
the Bureau of Science has in the ten years of its 
work so extended its activities that it is in close con- 
tact with the life and industries of the Philippines in 
every direction. 
In the many investigations that have been carried 
on with regard to the transmission of trypanosomes 
by tsetse-flies, the frequent presence, in the digestive 
tracts of flies caught wild in nature, of flagellate 
parasites known comprehensively as Trypanosoma 
grayi has been a standing puzzle. The name was 
given by Novy on the evidence of microscopical pre- 
parations sent to him from Uganda by Gray. Earlier 
investigators, including Koch, regarded these flagel- 
lates as stages of T. gambiense, the trypanosome of 
sleeping sickness. Minchin, who disproved this 
notion, regarded T. grayi as representing possibly 
the developmental stage of a bird-trypanosome in the 
tsetse. Kleine brought forward experimental evidence 
to show that it was the trypanosome of the crocodile. 
Most recently Roubaud has brought forward new 
observations in favour of the opinion, first expressed 
