8 3 2 



NA TURE 



[December 16, 1922 



most numerous. There is daily variation in the 

 numbers of a Protozoon in a given quantity of 

 culture. Dark, heavy soils containing much humus 

 yielded more kinds of Protozoa than sandy ones. 

 Samples of soil taken relatively near the surface, say 

 six or eight inches down, usually yielded more 

 Protozoa than deeper samples. Cultivated soils 

 yielded more species of Protozoa, especially of 

 Ciliata, than uncultivated ones. Owing to partial 

 sterilisation of South African soils by solar heat and 

 drought, the number of Protozoa in a given area of 

 soil seems to be less than in soils from England 

 or the northern United States. The ingestion of 

 bacteria by soil Protozoa has, so far, not been often 

 observed naturally in South African soils. — J. A. 

 Gil more : Note on elasticity of Dwyka Tillite. 

 Investigation of Dwyka Tillite from Matjesfontein, 

 Cape Province, shows that for an absorption of water 

 of less than 1/400 gm. per gm., Young's Modulus 

 decreases by about 12 per cent., whereas for an 

 absorption of order 1/800 gm. per gm. the crushing 

 strength increases by about 50 per cent, or more. — 

 H. O. Monnig : On some new South African parasitic 

 nematodes. — Sir Thomas Muir : Note on the co- 

 evanescence of the primary minors of an axisymmetric 

 determinant. — T. J. Mackie : The serum constituents 

 responsible for the Sachs-Georgi and the Wassermann 

 reactions. Sera were fractioned by Liefman's carbon- 

 dioxide method ; the carbonic-acid-insoluble globulin 

 was inactive and inhibitory in the flocculation test. 

 The carbonic-acid-soluble fraction was further frac- 

 tioned into pseudo-globulin and albumin components 

 and flocculation was found to be due almost entirely 

 to the former. In the Wassermann reaction, the 

 most active fraction is the carbonic-acid-insoluble 

 globulin. — J. R. Sutton : Note on the propagation 

 of heat in water. Harmonic analysis of hourly ob- 

 servations of the temperature of water in a brick 

 cistern, 7 feet square and 30 in. deep, shows that 

 the whole body of water is heated nearly simul- 

 taneously (chiefly by the sun's rays) and that the 

 surface temperature is propagated downward as a 

 wave of about 7 in. per hour. 



Royal Society of South Africa, October 18. — Dr. 

 J. D. F. Gilchrist, president, in the chair. — Miss A. V. 

 Duthie : The cones, spores, and gametophytes of 

 Selaginella pumila. — F. G. Cawston : South African 

 larval trematodes and the intermediary hosts. The 

 commoner species of fresh-water mollusc found in 

 certain rivers of South Africa, as well as some lagoon 

 inhabitants which are occasionally found in quite 

 fresh water, together with the commoner larval 

 trematodes of these localities, are described. — J. 

 Moir : Colour and chemical constitution, Pt. XVIII. : 

 Colourless substances in concentrated sulphuric acid 

 solution (halochromy). Observations on coloured 

 solutions in sulphuric acid of 25 simple substances, 

 mostly colourless per se, are recorded, and a scheme 

 for calculating colour from chemical constitution is put 

 forward. — J. Stuart Thomson : African Alcyonaria 

 with a statement of some of the problems of their 

 dispersal. 



Official Publications Received. 



Straits Settlements. Annual Report on the Raffles Museum and 

 Library ior the Year 1921. By Major J. C. Moulton. Pp. 16. 

 (Singapore.) 



The Royal Technical College, Glasgow. Annual Report on the One 

 Hundred and Twenty-sixth Session adopted at the Annual Meeting of 

 Governors, held on the 17th October 1922. Pp. 71. (Glasgow.) 



County Borough of Warrington: Museum Committee. Report of 

 the Keeper hi tin Museum lor the Two Years Hiding 30th June 1922, 

 with a List of the Principal Additions to the Museum Collections. Pp. 

 18. (Warrington.) 



Department of the Interior : Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 1922, 

 No. 20: State Laws relating to Education enacted in 1:120 and 1921. 

 Compiled by Wm. R. Hood. Pp. iv + 269. (Washington : Govern- 

 ment Printing Office.) 25 cents. 



Department of Fisheries, Bengal. Bulletin No. 19: Statistics of 

 Fish imported into Calcutta for the Year ending 31st March 1922. 

 Pp. 14. (Calcutta : Bengal Secretariat Hook Depot.) 8 annas. 



Diary of Societies. 



SATURDAY, December 16. 



BRITISH Ecological Society (Annual Meeting) (at University College), 

 at 10.30 a.m. — Dr. R. Lloyd Praeger : Dispersal and Distribution 

 (Presidential Address). — Dr. Cockayne's Work on the Tussock Grass- 

 land of New Zealand (Lantern and Specimens). — J. Ramsbottom : 

 The Mycology of the Soil. — W. H. Pearsall : Plant Distribution 

 and Basic Ratios. 



British Psychological Society (Annual General Meeting) (at Uni- 

 versity College), at 3.— S. J. F. Philpott : The Analysis of the Work 

 Curve. — H. Gordon : Hand and Ear Tests. 



MONDAY, December 18. 



Roy'al Geographical Society (at Lowther Lodge, Kensington 



Gore), at 5. — Col. Sir Gerald Lenox - Conyngham : The Proposed 



Determination of Primary Longitudes by international Co-operation. 

 Institution of Electrical Engineers (Informal Meeting), at 7. — 



E. E. Sharp and others : ^Discussion of Time Switches. 

 Institution of Mechanical Engineers (Graduates' Section), at 7. — 



A. J. Gould : Warships. 

 Royal Institute of British Architects, at 8. — A. N. C. Shelley : 



The Law of Building outside London. 

 Aristotelian Society (at University of London Club, 21 Gower 



Street), at 8. — Prof. R. W. Sellars : Body and Mind. 

 Chemical Industry Club (at 2 Whitehall Court), at 8. — Br. W. R. 



Ormandy : Paper. 



TUESDAY, December 19. 



Royal Society of Medicine, at 5. — General Meeting. 



Royal Statistical Society, at 5.15. — T. T. S. de Jastrzebski: 



Changes in the Birth Rate and in Legitimate Fertility in London 



Boroughs, 1911-1921. 

 Institution of Civil Engineers, at 6. — F. M. G. Du-Plat-Taylor : 



Extensions at Tilbury Docks, 1912-1917. 

 Institute of Marine Engineers, Inc., at 6.30. — Film illustrating 



Industrial Works — Messrs. Hadfields. 

 Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain (Technical Meeting), 



at 7.— H. T. G. Meredith : Gravure. 

 Royal Anthropological Institute, at 8.15. — Dr. C Fox : The 



Distribution of Population in the Cambridge Region in Early Times, 



with special reference to the Bronze Age. 



WEDNESDAY, December 20. 



Royal Society of Medicine (History of Medicine Section), at 5.— 

 Dr. Nixon : The Debt of Medicine to the Fine Arts. 



Royal Meteorological Society, at 5. — C. J. P. Cave and R. A. 

 Watson Watt: The Study of Radiotclcgraphic Atmospherics in 

 Relation to Meteorology. — C. J. P. Cave : Winter Thunderstorms in 

 the British Islands. — D. E. Row : Forecasting Sky Types. 



Geological Society of London, at 5.30. — W. A. Richardson : A 

 Micrometric Study of the St. Austell Granite' (Cornwall).— W. G. 

 Shannon: The Petrography and Correlation of the ligneous Rocks 

 of the Torquay Promontory. — Prof. O. T. Jones": Demonstration of 

 the Crystallisation of a Doubly-Refracting Liquid. 



Royal Microscopical Society, at 8. — J. E. Barnard : Sub-Bacteria. 



THURSDAY, December 21. 



Royal Society of Medicine (Dermatology Section), at 5. 



Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (at Geological Society), 

 at 5.30. — F. White : Notes on the Correction required to Aneroid 

 i:< ■.i.lne.:s for Altitude to counteract the Effect produced by the 

 Diurnal Barometric Wave. — P. C. Whitehead : Some Notes on the 

 Secondary Sulphide Enrichment exhibited by certain Auriferous 

 Veins. 



Chemical Society, at 8. 



PUBLIC LECTURES. 



SATURDAY, December 16. 

 IIorniman Museum (Forest Hill), at 3.30. — H. N. Miliigan : Animals 



without Teeth. 



THURSDAY, December 21. 



City of London Y.M.C.A. (186 Aldersgate Street), at 6. — Sir John N. 

 Jordan : Some Chinese Problems. 



NO. 2772, VOL. I IO] 



