138 



NA TURE 



[April i, 1909 



The report of a committee appointed by the Royal Society 

 of Medicine to consider the request of the chief surgeon of 

 the Metropolitan Police on the best method of artificial re- 

 spiration in the case of the apparently drowned was adopted 

 by the council of that society in July last, and a copy of the 

 report has just reached us. The committee was fully re- 

 presentative, and included surgeons, physicians, and physio- 

 logists ; Sir William Church acted as chairman. The re- 

 port is unanimous, and recommends the simple and safe 

 method introduced by Prof. Schafer in preference to the 

 older and more risky methods of Sylvester and Marshall 

 Hall. We learn with satisfaction that the report has been 

 ofificially accepted for adoption throughout the metropolitan 

 area. We can only hope this example will be followed in 

 other quarters. For the sake of our readers who may not 

 be acquainted with the Schafer method, and one never 

 knows when the occasion may arise for its employment, we 

 may add a brief description of the process. The individual 

 is laid on the ground in the prone position with a thick 

 folded garment under his chest. The operator kneels 

 athwart him, facing his head, and places his hands on 

 each side over the lower ribs. He then slowly throws the 

 weight of his body forwards, and thus presses upon the 

 thorax of the subject and forces air out of the lungs ; he 

 then gradually relaxes the pressure by bringing his body 

 up again, but without removing his hands. This is re- 

 peated regularly at the rate of twelve to fifteen times a 

 minute until normal respiration begins or until all hope 

 of restoration is given up ; but it is best to persevere for 

 at least an hour. 



An insect has appeared in Antigua that causes the 

 dropping of the flower buds of cotton, and an investiga- 

 tion on the spot has been made by Mr. Ballou, whose 

 preliminary report is published in a recent issue of the 

 Agricultural Neivs. The insect was found living on the 

 wild cotton, and apparently on privet, and is now being 

 further examined. 



We have received the current number of Tropical Life, 

 a monthly journal devoted to those interested in tropical 

 or subtropical countries. It contains several useful articles 

 on important tropical crops, such as cacao, pea-nut, and 

 sisal, as well as notes on appliances likely to prove useful 

 on tropical estates. Market reports are also given, and 

 general articles calculated to interest those whom the 

 journal is designed to serve. 



Now that the interest in breeding problems has become 

 so widespread, it is very necessary to have some system 

 of records by which the parentage of any particular in- 

 dividual breed during the experiment may be at once ascer- 

 tained. The method adopted at the Rhode Island Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station for keeping pedigree records 

 is described by Dr. L. J. Cole in the annual report of the 

 station. It is a modification of Gallon's method (Nature, 

 1903, vol. Ixix., p. 586), and is worked on the card-index 

 system, giving each individual a separate card ; the 

 advantage claimed for it is that it enables the ancestors 

 and the descendants of any individual to be traced with 

 very little difficulty. 



Three bulletins from the United States Department of 

 Agriculture Bureau of Entomology are to hand. Dr. Ball 

 discusses (No. 66) the leaf-hoppers of the sugar-beet and 

 their relation to the " curly leaf " condition. Eutettix 

 tenella is described at length ; illustrations and descriptions 

 are also given of other species of Eutettix, of Agallia, 

 and of a small green Empoasca. It is concluded that 

 Eutettix toiclla is responsible for one common kind of 



NO. 2057, VOL. 80] 



"curly leaf." In No. 104 Dr. Chittenden deals with the 

 red spider {Tetranychus himaculatus),- which is particularly 

 injurious to violets, roses, melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, 

 &c. This spider resists fumigation with tobacco or hydro- 

 cyanic acid more than many other insects, but it is 

 destroyed by sulphur or soap solution. In Bulletin No. 344 

 Mr. W. D. Hunter deals, from the farmer's standpoint, 

 with the cotton-boll weevil, which does a great amount of 

 damage each year ; the loss caused by the weevil since it 

 invaded the States is estimated at 125,000,000 dollars. 



The influence of breed on egg-production in poultry is 

 well seen in a report recently issued by Messrs. E. and W. 

 Brown from University College, Reading. Danish, 

 American, and English Leghorns were kept under com- 

 parable conditions for twelve months, and careful record 

 was kept of the number of eggs laid. The Danish birds 

 had been bred to yield a large number of eggs of moderate 

 size; the English birds, on the other hand, had been 

 largely bred for exhibition purposes, for which egg-pro- 

 ducing capacity is not needed. The consequence is seen in 

 the following table : — 



Danish American English 



Leghorns Leghorns Leghorns 



Average number of eggs 



per bird >537 •■• 142 ... 76 



Average weight of each 



egg 2"I20Z. ... 2'340Z. ... 2'05oz. 



Percentage of eggs weigh- 

 ing less ihan 2 oz. ... I '8 ... 05 ... 32'9 



The profit on the English birds is shown to be much less 

 than that on the Danish or American birds. 



The tenth report of the Woburn Experimental Fruit 

 Farm follows closely on the ninth, and deals with the 

 treatment of trees for insect pests. It was found that 

 nursery stock could be freed entirely from woolly aphis 

 by immersion for ten minutes in water heated to 115° F., 

 at which temperature the plants did not sufifer. Treatment 

 with petrol was equally effective so far as the destruction 

 of aphis was concerned, but might be likely to cause more 

 damage to the plants. On the other hand, fumigation with 

 hydrocyanic acid was both risky and uncertain, and is not 

 recommended by the authors. Trees infested with aphis 

 could be cleansed by spraying with light paraffins like 

 petrol in the undiluted state, but their leaves suffer so 

 much that the method should only be adopted in extreme 

 cases. It is shown that injection of paraffin into the soil 

 produces but little direct injury to the tree, and there 

 seems the possibility that it might prove a useful method 

 for killing the insects that harbour round the roots, and 

 that do a good deal of harm by their migrations to the 

 branches. Experiments were also made with nicotine, 

 which was found to destroy Psylla, but not caterpillars. 

 Paraffin emulsion, however, proved quite fatal to the cater- 

 pillars of the winter moth, the gooseberry saw-fly, and 

 the currant saw-fly, and had the further advantage of not 

 interfering with the sale of any fruit which might happen 

 to be on the bushes at the time. 



A SHORT practical pamphlet on lawns, prepared by Mr. 

 W. J. Stevens, has been published in the series of " One 

 and All " garden books. It contains the necessary informa- 

 tion on the making of lawns with turf or with seed, 

 renovation and manuring, also a list of suitable varieties 

 of grass seed. It concludes with a few hints by Tom 

 Hearne on cricket and tennis grounds. 



It is now generally recognised that bakers prefer strong 

 wheats, because the flour gives a more shapely loaf. Soft 

 wheats have been recommended for Indian cultivation in 



