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NA TUBE 



Mav 



1907 



offer with thanks, and the step taken will assist greatly 

 to make the Smithsonian Institution a clearing-house of 

 national scientific learning for the United States. 



In connection with the second centenary celebration of 

 the birth of Linnaeus, the opening article of the April 

 number of NaUtren is devoted to a sketch of the life and 

 work of the great naturalist, by Mr. J. Holmboe. It is 

 illustrated by reproductions of Hoffman's portrait and 

 C. F. Inlander's medallion. 



The practical work of the members of the Australian 

 Ornithologists' Union during the sixth congress, held last 

 November and December in exploiting the bird-life of 

 Mount Wellington, Tasmania, forms the subject of the 

 chief article in the April number of the Emu. Among 

 the illustrations to this article is one of a group of Euca- 

 lyptus trees showing the manner in which the great black 

 cockatoo strips off the bark in long streamers in order 

 to feed upon the grubs of certain bark-burrowing insects. 

 It is stated that only dead timber is attaclied by the 

 cockatoos, which are thus exceedingly useful in keeping 

 in check insects injurious to the forests. 



Insects injurious to barley and other grain when in 

 store form the subject of a paper by Mr. W. E. CoUinge 

 published in the Journal of the Institute of Brewing, vol. 

 xiii.. No. 3. The statement, on the authority of Miss 

 Ormerod, that in the winter of 1S84-5 a sum of between 

 1000!. and 2000Z. was lost on a single cargo of Russian 

 barley by the ravages of Calandra granaria gives an idea 

 of the magnitude of the evil, and the list of five-and-twenty 

 injurious species given by the author serves to emphasise 

 the seriousness of the situation. Worse still is the state- 

 ment that the number of species and of individuals of 

 such pests has notably increased in this country during 

 the last few years. Gauze-covered windows, cleanliness, 

 and fumigation with carbon disulphide are the chief 

 remedies suggested by the author. 



In a paper on the so-called renal portal system, pub- 

 lished in the April issue of the Proceedings of the Zoo- 

 logical Society of London, Mr. W. Woodland concludes 

 that the structures thus called are misnamed, and that 

 there is really no " portal system " connected with the 

 kidneys. He accordingly proposes to replace the terms 

 " renal portal system " and " renal portal vein " by " renal 

 cardinal meshwork " and " post-renal vein." As the 

 renal cardinal meshwork appears to have no excretory 

 function, the association of kidney and vein is probably 

 functionless, and thus, in a sense, accidental. The mesh- 

 work seems, in fact, to be merely " an instance of the 

 extension of a growing organ in the direction of least 

 resistance ; in other words, a mechanical product having 

 no direct relation to the physiological needs of the animal." 



The Popular Science Review for' May contains the first 

 connected account of the Jamaica earthquake which has 

 reached us. From this description, by Prof. C. W. Brown, 

 we learn that the earthquake was not remarkable for its 

 violence, as this is not put at higher than 9-5 degrees; of 

 w-hat scale is not stated, but whichever was used, this is far 

 short of that attained by really great earthquakes. The 

 shock, as distinguished from the damage, was not so 

 localised as appeared from telegraphic accounts ; there 

 seem to have been independent centres, of lesser violence, 

 on land, and the submarine cable was broken at two places, 

 about four and about twenty miles from Bull Bay, a 

 couple of miles or so of cable being so thickly covered 

 with debris that they had to be abandoned. At several 

 NO i960, VOL. 76] 



places along the edge ot the harbour the bottom has sunk 

 from its old level, the maximum difference being more 

 than six fathoms, but this subsidence was confined to a 

 belt of from a hundred to three hundred yards in breadth, 

 surrounding the harbour and located on the shore or 

 slightly off shore; the middle portion of the harbour and 

 the entrance channel were unchanged. 



One of the principal functions of the International 

 Association of Botanists is to provide critical notices of 

 papers and books on botany in their journal, the 

 Botanisches Centralblatt. An extension of this review 

 work has given rise lo the " Progressus Rei Botanicx " for 

 the publication of summaries prepared by acknowledged 

 authorities in different branches of botany. The first part, 

 issued in November, 1906, contained articles by Prof. E. 

 Strasburger, on cell-ontogeny; by Dr. D. H. Scott, on 

 PalcEozoic botany ; and by Dr. C. Flahault, on botanical 

 geography. The second part, lately received, also con- 

 tains three articles. Dr. L. Laurent reviews the progress 

 of paU-Eobotany with reference to angiosperms, Mr. W. 

 Bateson deals with the subject of genetics, and Dr. F. 

 Czapek writes on the physiology of nutrition. With regard 

 to Dr. Laurent's contribution, he explains that it is con- 

 cerned with the development of the angiosperms in the Cre- 

 taceous and Tertiary periods. Besides recording new 

 observations, the author discusses methods employed and 

 the general trend of results. A noticeable feature of Mr. 

 Bateson 's review is the general combination of zoological 

 and botanical facts. Dr. Czapek starts from the date of 

 the publication of the first volume of Pfeffer's " Plant 

 Physiology," and follows that author in his arrangement. 

 Among the subjects receiving special notice are the water- 

 current in plants, methods of absorption, assimilation of 

 carbohydrates and enzymes. 



A MONTHLY list of the publications of the U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture is sent to all who apply for it, and is 

 received by us. The activity of the department in obtain- 

 ing information upon every branch of scientific agriculturp 

 and 'making it available in reports, bulletins, circulars, 

 and other publications, issued at the nominal price of a 

 few cents, is really remarkable. The "monthly list now 

 before us is a six-page leaflet containing the titles of many 

 publications of importance, and including as new no fewer 

 than nineteen bulletins, twenty-one circulars, and two 

 farmers' bulletins on flax culture and experiment-station 

 work. Our Board of Agriculture and Fisheries issues many 

 useful leaflets, but its work cannot be compared with that 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, which is 

 continually obtaining new knowledge. It could not be 

 otherwise under the present conditions ; for while a few 

 hundred pounds a year represent the contribution our 

 Board is able to make for agricultural research, the ex- 

 penditure on investigations under the U.S. Department of 

 Agriculture amounts to more than two hundred thousand 

 pounds annually, exclusive of salaries of permanent officials 

 and expenses of publications. Our politicians profess re- 

 gard for British agriculture, but they do nothing to provide 

 for the development of the knowledge which is even more 

 necessary in the old country than it is in the new. 



Dr. V. CoNR.Ai) made some interesting experiments 

 on the ionisation of the air at the Santis Observ- 

 atory, Switzerland (altitude, 8200 feet), in August, 1905, 

 the results of which are published in the Proceedings of the 

 Vienna Academy for July 12, 1906. The author found that 

 the daily variation in the amount of positive ions exhibited 

 quite a different type from that of the negative ions. The 



