462 



NA TURE 



[September 30, 1922 



Research Items. 



The Oldest-dated Seal Cylinders. — M. Leon 

 Legrain, m the March issue of the Museum journal, 

 < laims for the University Museum, Philadelphia, 

 the possession of the oldest-dated cylinder seal, 

 brought from Baghdad in 1890, which belonged 

 to Basha - Enzu, probably the first king of the 

 IVth Kish dynasty, about 2990 B.C. It therefore 

 antedates the famous buffalo seal of Sargani of Akkad, 

 and pushes back toward the third millenium B.C. 

 a standard of art formerly known as the Gudea style. 

 The engraving is of special interest from the point of 

 view of Babylonian ritual. The museum also prides 

 itself on possessing the oldest Cassite royal seal 

 cylinder so far known, bearing the earliest contem- 

 porary record of the war god Shugamuna. II is 

 inscribed with the name of the son of King Karaindash, 

 and may be dated about 1540 b.c 



Honey that drove Men Mad. — In the September 

 issue of Discovery, Prof. W. R. Halliday, with the 

 help of his colleague, Prof. McLean Thompson, has 

 cleared up a difficulty unsolved by editors of Xeno- 

 phon's " Anabasis." The historian describes how the 

 retreating Greeks, when they arrived near Trebizond, 

 ate some honey, with effects ranging from intoxication 

 to insensibility. Some authorities have denied that 

 poisonous honey was found in Pontus, but the writers 

 now point out that there is no evidence to show 

 that the breed of bees in Pontus, or the general 

 climatic condition, was responsible for this poisonous 

 honey. When honey is produced in excess, and the 

 floral parts fail to develop, there results an accumula- 

 tion of by-products in which toxins abound. When 

 the competition for nectar pollen is intense many 

 insects develop a biting habit, piercing the tissue's 

 of plants in search of short-cuts to food supply, ami 

 tins habit results in the formation of poisoned honey. 

 The observation of Pliny that honey was poisonous 

 in some seasons and not in others is thus proved to 

 be accurate, and can be explained on scientific grounds. 



The Rocks of Mount Everest. — In the Geo- 

 graphical Journal for September, Dr. A. M. Heron 

 has a note on a small collection of rock specimens 

 made at heights between 23,000 ft. and 27,000 ft. 

 bj the climbers on the recent expedition. These 

 specimens show Mount Everest to be a pile of altered 

 sedimentary rocks — shales and limestones — conyei ted 

 in!.' banded hornfels, finely foliated calc-silicate 

 schists, and crystalline limestones. They confirm 

 the views reached by Dr. Heron last year bv ex- 

 amination of moraine material from the northern spurs, 

 and by inspection of the mountain by telescope from 

 the Kongbuk valley. From 21,000 ft. to 27,000 ft., 

 Al( unit Everest appears to be built of these dark 

 hornfels and schists, with occasional bands of white 

 limestone and veins of quartz and muscovite granite. 

 From 27,000 to 27,500 ft. extends an almost horizontal 

 belt of schorl muscovite granite, above which are 

 black schists. Dr. Heron thinks that the age of the 

 rocks may perhaps be assumed, for the present, to 

 be Jurassic or Trias. 



Wind-speed from Sea and Land. — The Meteoro- 

 logical Office has issued, as Professional Notes No. 

 28, a comparison of the anemometer records for 

 Shoeburyness and the Maplin lighthouse, bv Messrs. 

 N. K. Johnson and S. N. Sen. The wind-speed in 

 case is recorded by a Dines pressure tube anemo- 

 meter. For wind direction Shoeburvness has been 

 used throughout, the Maplin direction recorder being 

 out nl order. The wind-speed observations are only 

 available for about ten months 111 19 19, no observations 



WO. 2761, VOL. I io'l 



being to hand from Maplin for the comparison from 

 June 12 to September 1. Maplin lighthouse is five 

 miles from the coast, and is situated twelve miles 

 east-north-east of Shoeburyness. The head of the 

 anemometer at Shoeburyness is carried above the 

 top of a steel girder tower to a height of sixty feet 

 above the surrounding buildings and ninety feet 

 above ground, but there is an avenue of trees about 

 seventy feet high running parallel to the coast at a 

 distance of 150 yards on the landward side of the 

 anemometer. At Maplin the head of the anemometer 

 is about five feet above the apex of the roof of the 

 lighthouse, on the western side, being fifty feet above 

 sea-level. Shoeburyness is said to have a slight 

 predominance of light winds, and at Maplin lighthouse 

 strong winds are decidedly more frequent ; the latter 

 is explained by the suggestion that the increased 

 friction over land as compared with the sea causes 

 the air to pile up over the land. This difference of 

 pressure, it is said, must tend to reduce the speed 

 of the surface wind as it approaches the shore-line. 

 There is good evidence of the land and sea-breeze. 

 The height of the head of the anemometer at Maplin 

 seems scarcely sufficient to insure that it is clear 

 from an upward rush of air caused by the obstruction 

 of the lighthouse. 



Metallurgical Research. — Volume 16 of the 

 Collected Researches of the National Physical Labora- 

 tory has recently been published. It is predominantly 

 of a metallurgical character, although certain papers 

 dealing with engineering subjects are contained 

 therein. The twenty-one papers which it contains 

 are all reprints of papers published by members of 

 the staff in various scientific and technological 

 journals during the years 1919 and 1920. Fourteen 

 of the papers are definitely metallurgical, and a 

 considerable number of these relate to aluminium and 

 its alloys, which have been intensively studied during 

 the last few years, under the general superintendence 

 of Dr. Rosenhain, the head of the department. 

 These investigations are of a very valuable nature, 

 and have contributed in no small degree to the 

 continually extending use of aluminium alloys, not 

 only in aviation, but also in general engineering. 

 Of the papers dealing with iron, attention may be 

 directed to that published by Dr. and Mrs. Hanson 

 on the constitution of nickel iron alloys. The 

 investigations of these authors on this series of 

 alloys have finally enabled the general nature of 

 the equilibrium diagram to be settled once and for 

 all, although they are careful to point out that no 

 very high degree of accuracy can well be claimed. 

 It is interesting to notice that the general result 

 of their researches is to establish firmly the late 

 M. Osmond's hypothesis of the constitution of these 

 alloys, particularly in the range from 0-30 per cent, 

 of nickel. The importance of keeping down the 

 impurities to a minimum is clearly seen in this work, 

 otherwise a true equilibrium is not established. 

 Attention may also be directed to the paper by 

 Dr. Haughton on the study of thermal E.M.F. as an 

 aid in the investigation of the constitution of alloj 

 systems and on the measurement of the electrical 

 conductivity of metals and alloys at high tempera- 

 tures. The volume contains a paper of the first 

 importance bv Dr. Stanton, D. Marshall, and C. N. 

 Bryant on the conditions at the boundary of a fluid 

 in turbulent motion, and two papers by Mr. Baker, 

 the superintendent of the William Froude National 

 Tank. The high character of the series is well 

 maintained in the present volume. 



