68 



NATURE 



[May 2 1, 1908 



fluence on ihc effectiveness of the cooling. The investiga- 

 tions of cooling velocities were made with an automatic 

 quenching apparatus and temperature calibration device, 

 with a string galvanometer, calibration of which instru- 

 ment has been investigated. The cooling velocity is con- 

 siderably lowered with increasing carbon content, and 

 possibly silicon has a similar effect. Results are given 

 confirming the theory that troostite is a solid colloid solu- 

 tion of cementite in iron, or, in other words, a pcarlite 

 having ultra-microscopic particles of cementite. The last 

 section of the rcf>ort is devoted to the study of austenite, 

 for which a new etching medium, 5 per cent, alcoholic 

 solution of metanitrobenzolsulphonic acid, was found to be 

 of use. .Austenite was observed to be more liable to rust- 

 ing than martensite. The most important fact found 

 concerning the preservation of austenite in carbon steel is 

 that it requires a high mechanical pressure. Austenite 

 never occurs in the outer layer of a hardened specimen, 

 but it is entirely erroneous to ascribe this to o.xidation ; it 

 has been shown to depend on the lack of the necessarv 

 pressure. 



The annual dinner of the institute was held on May 14, 

 with Sir Hugh Bell in the chair. Four hundred members 

 and visitors were present, the principal speakers being .Sir 

 Edward Grev, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Sir 

 M'. H. White, K.C.B.; the Right Hon. J. L. Wharton, 

 Sir Walter Runciman, Mr. R. A. Hadfield, Viscount Ridlev, 

 and General Baden-Powell. 



SCIENTIFIC AID TO EGYPTIAN 

 AGRICULTURE.^ 

 J7EW of the changes effected during the past decade in 

 our management of the Crown colonies, India, and 

 Egypt will be of more lasting benefit than the establish- 

 ment in them of scientific, as distinct from the ordinary 

 administrative, departments of agriculture. Although they 

 have only been working a short time, some of them have 

 already rendered very useful service, and give promise of 

 even better things in the future ; indeed, in this respect 

 these countries are usually better off than the self-govern- 

 ing colonies — one might almost add than ourselves ; in 

 proof it is only necessary to refer to the admirable work 

 accomplished in Jamaica and in the Transvaal, where, on 

 the advent of self-government, it was decided to maintain 

 the scientific department. 



The volume before us contains an account of the work 

 done by the scientific staff of the Khedivial Agricultural 

 Society. More than half of it is devoted to cotton, the 

 staple Egyptian crop. 



Mr. Willcocks gives some notes on the Egyptian cotton- 

 bug or cotton-stainer {Oxycareitiis hyaJiiiipciuiis), an insect 

 which receives its name from the fact that it stains the 

 fibre either with its e.xcrcments or with the juices of its 

 body, but which in addition inflicts other damage by 

 sucking the juices from the bolls and the seeds. Once 

 the pest has invaded a cotton field there appears to be no 

 way of getting rid of it, but various suggestions are given 

 for keeping it down. Mr. Willcocks has worked out the 

 life-history, and the stages in its development are shown 

 in a beautiful coloured plate by Miss Connie Beard. 



This is followed by a long paper, or rather a collection 

 of papers, by Mr. Lawrence Balls, dealing mainly with 

 lieredity in cotton. The cotton plant follows Mendel's 

 laws of gametic segregation in certain of its characters, 

 but the practical problems involved are likely to prove 

 difficult of solution. The history of cotton in Egypt has 

 not yet been worked out ; the crop is undoubtedly of great 

 antiquity, and some indigenous culture still exists in the 

 Soudan. But the modern crop is not indigenous ; it is 

 closely related to Sea Island cotton, from which, indeed, 

 it has probably sprung, since Sea Island cotton was 

 -certainly imported into Egypt in 1822. It is not, however, 

 a pure type. Mr. Balls shows that cross-fertilisation takes 

 place to a certain extent under field conditions, and the 

 accumulated effect of this has been to convert the crop 

 Into a mass of hybrids. This is no doubt of prime import- 

 ance in studying two of the most pressing practical 



' " Yenr-bo^k of Ihe Khedivial At;ricultiiral Society, Cairo, 1906." Pp. 

 219- (Cairo: National Printing Department, 1507.) 



NO. 2012, VOL. 78I 



problems, the deterioration of the crop in yield and 

 quality and the multiplication of a weed cotton in the 

 fields. Much can be done by selection to get rid of the 

 weed cotton, but selection alone cannot solve the problem, 

 since there will always remain the splitting forms arising 

 from natural crosses between the wild and cultivated 

 varieties. The only permanent solution is to breed pure 

 types, and though Mr. Balls is aware of the special difficul- 

 ties involved (notably the fact that many of the characters 

 of importance to the manufacturer and cultivator are 

 dominant), he is quite hopeful of the result. 



Cotton is not the only hope of the scientific staff. The 

 Nile \'alley is well adapted to wheat cultivation, and was 

 in Roman times a great wheat-producing district. To-day 

 wheat is actually imported, but it is pointed out that the 

 crop might very well come into the rotation with cotton, 

 so that Egypt could once again take a place among the 

 wheat-producing countries of the world. 



Mr. Hughes contributes some notes on Egyptian and 

 .Soudan soils. Generally speaking, the Nile soils do not 

 contain much organic matter, and the " total " phosphoric 

 acid is not high, but a large proportion is " available," so 

 that Dyer's method may show 002 per cent, to 008 per 

 cent. In spite of this, however, application of super- 

 phosphate has been found beneficial. We may expect some 

 very interesting and important results when the manurial 

 requirements of these soils, as ascertained by field trials, 

 are compared with their chemical composition. It would 

 also be desirable to get out the full mechanical composi- 

 tion of some of the typical soils of known history. Mr. 

 Burns gives an interesting series of analyses of the solids 

 dissolved in the Nile water, samples having been taken 

 for this purpose every month during iqo6. The results 

 will be of great value to students of the Nile flood. 



Altogether, the w^ork is very satisfactory, and is full of 

 promise for the welfare of Egypt. E. J. R. 



THE PIGMENTATION SURVEY OF SCOTLAND. 



'T'HE Last half-yearly number of the Journal of the Royal 

 Anthropological Institute contains an important 

 memoir, prepared by two enthusiastic Scotch anthropo- 

 logists, Messrs. Gray and Tocher, on the pigmentation of 

 hair and eyes among the school children of Scotland. In 

 one respect the methods employed fail to secure that pre- 

 cision which is necessary to an investigation of this kind. 

 Attempts were made to furnish the correspondents with 

 standard colour cards produced by the three-colour litho- 

 graphic process, but English manufacturers have up to the 

 present been unable to provide them. There seems, how- 

 ever, to be a prospect of overcoming this difficulty by the 

 adaptation of Lovibond's tintometer to anthropological 

 work. The new instrument is described by Mr. Gray in 

 the April number of Man. 



Even with these imperfect methods the results are 

 valuable. In the first place, the percentage (24-9) of Scotch 

 bovs with fair hair is unexpectedly low'. The obvious in- 

 ference is that the pure Norse or English element in the 

 population is by no means predominant, and that there is 

 a dark or brunette element at least equal, and probably 

 greater. The highest density of fair hair is to be found 

 in the great river valleys opening on the German Ocean 

 and in the Western Isles. In the former case this prob- 

 ably points to invasions of a blonde race into those regions. 

 Similarly, the higher percentage of fair hair in the Spcy 

 valley and in the Western Isles implies inroads of the 

 \^ikings or Norsemen. It is perhaps pushing the evidence 

 too far when the writers suggest that the high percentage 

 of fair-haired girls in the neighbourhood of Dunfermline 

 is due to the train of blonde damsels who are supposed 

 to have accompanied the Saxon princess Margaret, who 

 about the time of the Norman Conquest became Queen of 

 Malcolm Canniore. 



The survey appears to corroborate the conclusions of 

 Dr. Shrubsall in regard to London slum districts, that the 

 percentage of fair-haired people in industrial towns is very 

 low. For some reason as yet obscure, whether from alien 

 invasion or the influence of environment, in towns like 

 Glasgow and Dundee the conditions are specially unfavour- 

 able to the survival of blonde men, while the reverse is 



