468 



N.-J TURE 



[September io, 1908: 



of Commonwealth and State c-xport authorities with the 

 object of discussing the basis of united legislation. 



It is stated in the Lancet that out of 50,000 pupils in 

 the primary schools of Milan 47,000 are more or less the 

 victims of buccal maladies, mainly affecting the teeth, 

 and steps are being taken to bring about a more satis- 

 factory condition of things. To this end the Associazione 

 per la Scuola, composed of representatives of the 

 family and of the teaching profession, the Istituto 

 .Stomatologico Italiano, and the municipality, are acting 

 in concert to make a periodical inspection of the primary 

 schools, beginning with the coming scholastic year 1908-9. 

 This inspection is to be carried out by the " Commissione 

 d'Igiene," presided over by Ur. .Vmbrogio Bertarelli, and 

 composed of Dr. Bordoni-L'ffreduzzi, Dr. Clerici, and other 

 eminent consultants and practitioners of the Lombard 

 school. Under the auspices of this commission the inspec- 

 tion will be performed by the specialists attached to the 

 Istituto Stomatologico, who will communicate to the 

 parents or guardians of the children concerned the stomato- 

 logical condition of each, illustrated with appropriate 

 diagrams. A small fee will be expected from the well-to- 

 do families of the children inspected, while the service 

 will be rendered gratuitously to those of humble means. 

 At the end of the year statistical tables of the cures 

 effected and of the results obtained will be presented to 

 the municipality. 



Outbreaks of American gooseberry mildew having 

 occurred in various parts of Essex, and' the matter having 

 been brought under the notice of a committee of the 

 Esse.x County Council, the county inspectors have been 

 authorised to enter premises where the disease is believed 

 to exist with the view of specimens being sent to the 

 county laboratories io be reported upon. 



Silver medals are this year offered by the Industrial 

 Society of .Mulhousc for the synthesis of a gum possess- 

 ing the properties of Senegal gum, and for a handbook 

 treating of the drugs used in the dyeing and printing 

 industries; a medal of honour is offered for an 

 economical substitute for dried egg-albumen, or for a 

 decolourised blood-albumen for the same purpose. Othtr 

 awards will be given for papers on the colouring matter 

 or on the carmine in cochineal; the theory and manu- 

 facture of alizarin reds ; the composition of aniline black ; 

 the transformation of cotton into oxycellulose ; the com- 

 position of colouring matter and synthesis of a natural 

 colour, various mordants, bleaching processes, and colours, 

 &c. Papers, Sec, must reach the President de la Soci^ti5 

 Industrielle de Mulhouse, Alsace-Lorraine, before February 

 '5, 1909- Further details may be obtained on application. 



A CANAL of the width of rather more than 1000 feet is 

 to be constructed through the island of Miihlenwerder, in 

 the Elbe, \vhere the .Muhlenfeut joins the river, bv which 

 Hamburg will be enabled to use a considerable part of 

 the island for future harbour construction, and to leave 

 the waterway from the mouth of the Elbe to Harburg 

 independent of Hamburg's shipping. Hamburg wifl 

 in consequence be able to construct harbour basins in- 

 dependent of the part of the Elbe belonging to Prussia. 

 The deepening and widening of the lower portion of the 

 Elbe in 1S96 resulted in the river being available for the 

 increasing traffic and the larger dimensions of the vessels, 

 but the improvements then made are no longer sufficient ; 

 hence the present proposal, the cost of the carrying out 

 of which is estimated at 6,000,000/. 



NO. 2028, VOL. 78] 



The April number (vol. ii., part i.) of the Records of 

 the Indian Museum contains a notice of the retirement of 

 Lieut. -Colonel .Mcock from the office of superintendent of 

 the museum. Colonel Alcock came to India in 1886 as a 

 member of the Government Medical Service, and after 

 two years' professional work on the N.W. frontier he 

 was gazetted surgeon-naturalist to the Indian Marine 

 Survey ; his appointment to the superintendentship of the 

 museum took place in 1893. A minute of the trustees 

 records the value of his services to the museum and to 

 biological science generally. 



We have to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of the 

 report of the Indian Museum for igoti— 7, wherein attention 

 is directed to the embarrassment caused by the smallnes; 

 of the staff when two or three of its members are absent 

 on leave. It is, however, hoped that a revised scale of 

 pay will attract a better class of men to the posts filled 

 by the non-gazetted members of the staff. Much satisfac- 

 tion will be felt at the addition to the staff of a natural- 

 history collector, and at the permission granted to the 

 superintendent to visit various parts of India for the pro- 

 secution of faunistic and bionomical researches. 



The ravages of the coffee disease are so fresh in the 

 memories of the inhabitants of Ceylon that it is no wonder 

 the appearance of the bleeding disease of the cocoa-nut 



9w 



trees caused considerable alarm in the colony. Fortunately, 

 however, they are now better prepared to resist the attack 

 of an epidemic caused by a parasitic fungus than they 

 were twenty-five years ago. For one thing, they have a 

 resident official mycologist who was able at once to tell 

 them what steps to take to prevent the spread of the 

 disease, and the growers were ready, if not eager, to take 

 them. The illustration shows a young cocoa-nut tree 

 destroyed by the disease (Thielaviopsis ethaceticus. Went.). 

 The first appearance consists of a rusty or dusky bleeding 

 patch on the stem, which is subsequently followed by 



