502 



NA TURE 



[September 12, 1907 



■sveather reports have been improved ; the maps of the 

 former now include in situ observations from Iceland and 

 Ihe Azores, and the statistical portion contains observ- 

 ations by w/ireless telegraphy from commanders of His 

 Majesty's ships. The Icelandic reports are of the greatest 

 ■value for weather prediction, and the successful inaugura- 

 tion of the service is due in a great measure to the 

 exertions of the Danish Government and the Copenhagen 

 Meteorological Office. The most important change in the 

 weekly report is the inclusion of a table in which the 

 week's warmth, rainfall, &c., for districts are characterised 

 verbally ; to obtain this result the weekly values of the 

 various elements for the years 1881-1905 have been re- 

 examined from the point of view of their frequency 

 ■distribution. The committee notices with satisfaction that 

 the weather forecasts for the year show a considerable 

 Increase of accuracy ; the percentage of complete and 

 partial success for the whole of the British Isles of the 

 'forecasts published in the morning newspapers was ninety- 

 one, or 3 per cent, higher than in any year since they 

 were first issued in 1879. The operations of the marine 

 branch are carried on with great vigour ; we have before 

 us the monthly pilot charts of the North Atlantic and of 

 the Indian Oceans for September, 1907, both issued about 

 the middle of August. These charts afford an amazing 

 amount of useful information brought down to the latest 

 time, and although they represent but a small part of the 

 work of that department, their publication monthly at a 

 regular date is of itself a very onerous piece of work. 

 The committee, recognising the importance of observations 

 made in British colonies and dependencies, fully supports 

 a proposal, emanating, we believe, from correspondence 

 between Dr. Shaw and Mr. R. F. Stupart, of Canada, for 

 holding a meeting of colonial meteorologists at Ottawa in 

 1908, with the view of promoting mutual cooperation in 

 ■dealing with meteorological questions generally. 



The third volume (pp. x-l-528), which deals with 

 linguistics, of the Reports of the Cambridge Anthropo- 

 logical Expedition to Torres Straits has now been pub- 

 lished by the Cambridge University Press. The volume 

 is by Mr. Sidney H. Ray, and consists of four parts, deal- 

 ing respectively with the languages of Torres Straits, the 

 languages of Cape York Peninsula, North Queensland, 

 the languages of British New Guinea, and the linguistic 

 position of the languages of Torres Straits, Australia, 

 and British New Guinea. These reports will occupy six 

 volumes, of which the fifth — the first to be completed — 

 dealing with sociology, magic, and religion of the western 

 islands, was noticed in N.iture of June 23, 1904 (vol. Ixx., 

 p. 179). The following general linguistic summary gives 

 the results of Mr. Ray's work on the material collected 

 by himself and Dr. A. C. Haddon with the assistance of 

 numerous other workers : — (i) The western language of 

 Torres Straits is Australian. (2) The eastern language of 

 the Straits is morphologically related to the Papuan of 

 New Guinea. (3) There is no genealogical connection 

 between the two languages of the Straits. (4) There is no 

 irvidence of an African, Andaman, Papuan, or Malay con- 

 nection with the Australian languages. There are reasons 

 for regarding the Australian as in a similar morphological 

 stage to the Dravidian, but there is no genealogical 

 relationship proved. (5) The Papuan languages are dis- 

 tinct from the Melanesian. They are in some respects 

 similar to the Australian, but their exact positions are not 

 yet proved. (6) Languages of the Papuan type are found 

 in German New Guinea. There is no direct evidence of 

 their existence in Netherlands New Guinea. (7) There is 

 insufficient evidence to connect the Papuan with the 

 NO. 1976, VOL. 76] 



Andaman or Halmaheran languages. (8) In the northern 

 Melanesian Islands a few languages are found which have 

 Papuan characteristics. (9) Differences of grammar and 

 vocabulary which appear in other island languages appear 

 to be remains of an archaic Melanesian speech. There is 

 no grammatical evidence to connect them with the Papuan, 

 but they show the Papuan diversity of vacabulary. 

 (10) The Melanesian languages of New Guinea and those 

 of the islands are closely (genealogically) related in 

 grammar and vocabulary. (11) The Melanesian languages 

 of New Guinea and the islands stand in the same position 

 with regard to the Polynesian. Both the former represent 

 an older and fuller form of speech of which the Poly- 

 nesian is a later and more simplified descendant. 



With reference to a note in Nature of August 29 

 (p. 449), Prof. B. Brauner asks us to say that the pen- 

 ultimate sentence should read : — " The atomic weight of 

 nitrogen cannot be higher than 1401 (not 14.10) and 

 lower than 14008 (not 1408), and so the atomic weight 

 of silver must lie between Ag= 107880 and 107-883." 



From the author, Mr. Angel Gallardo, we have received 

 a copy of a paper from the Revista de la Universidad de 

 Buenos Aires devoted to a discussion of the methods of 

 zoological teaching in that University. 



We have received a copy of vol. v., parts xvii. and 

 xviii., of Prof. G. O. Sars's " Account of the Crustacea 

 of Norway," dealing with a section of the copepod family 

 Canthocamptidse. 



The July number of the Trinidad Bulletin contains 

 several notes on cacao, in which varieties, diseases, and 

 pruning are discussed. On the subject of varieties, Mr. 

 J. H. Hart affirms that clear distinctions exist between 

 Venezuelan and Trinidad Criollo, both in the matter of 

 shape and toughness of skin, and refers to the incon- 

 stancy of colour inheritance in cacao pods. With regard 

 to the raising of new seedling varieties of sugar canes, the 

 opinion is expressed that it is more advantageous and 

 quite suitable to make a first selection according to the 

 results of cultivation, and subsequently to test the canes 

 so selected for sugar content, thereby saving extensive 

 chemical investigations. 



We have received from Messrs. R. and J. Beck their 

 illustrated catalogue of microscopical apparatus. It should 

 be useful to microscopists, as hints are given on tVie use 

 of the apparatus figured. 



Students of the mollusca will be interested in the 

 description, by Dr. W. Gadzikiewicz, of the biological 

 station at Sevastopol, in Biologisches Centralblatt of 

 August I, of a new species of doris (Staurodoris bobretzkii) 

 from Sevastopol Bay. 



The ovaries of Hemiptera (by Mr. A. Kohler), the 

 nervous and excretory systems of various fresh-water 

 planarians (by Mr. H. Micoletzky), and the tracheal 

 muscles of ephemerids (by Mr. E. Durken), constitute the 

 contents of vol. Ixxxvii., part iii., of Zeitsohrijt fiir wissen- 

 schaftliche Zoologie. 



In vol. Ixiii., part ii., of V erhandlnngen des natur- 

 historischen Vereins der preussischen Rheinlande und 

 Westfalens, Dr. O. le Roi completes his synopsis of the 

 birds of the Rhine province. 



Among others, the Bio-Chemical Journal for August 

 (ii.. No. 9) contains a paper by Dr. MacLean on safranin 

 as a test for carbohydrates. It is concluded that this is 

 one of the most suitable reagents for determining the 

 presence of traces of carbohydrates in liquids. 



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