September 17, 1908] 



NA TURE 



485 



been identified in the West Indies, Hawaii, and Java. 

 Altliough various mycologists have had the subject under 

 investigation, there is still a good deal to be learnt with 

 regard to its growth and the best methods of prevention. 

 Mr. F. E. Stockdale has rendered useful service in collect- 

 ing available information in a paper published in the West 

 Indian Bulletin (vol. ix., No. 2). He expresses the opinion 

 that there is a reasonable possibility of checking the 

 disease by the application of Bordeaux mixture and lime, 

 and refers to the resistant property manifested by some of 

 the West Indian seedling canes. 



The Circular (vol. iv., No. g) prepared by Mr. H. F. 

 Macmillan, and issued from the Royal Botanic Gardens, 

 Ceylon, on the acclimatisation of plants, offers several 

 points for reflection. It furnishes evidence that the 

 inhabitants of tropical countries, as much as of countries 

 in temperate latitudes, have derived the greater part of 

 their edible and economic products from exotic plants. 

 Tea, coffee, cacao, rubber of all kinds, pine-apples, man- 

 goes, and oranges have all been introduced into Ceylon ; 

 even the coca6-nut palm, although of uncertain origin, is 

 not indigenous. The author also differentiates between 

 naturalised and acclimatised plants, and makes the broad 

 generalisation that plants in which the reproductive period 

 is normally prolonged are more easily acclimatised. The 

 circular contains lists of acclimatised plants in Ceylon, 

 naturalised weeds, and naturalised plants that have not 

 become pests. 



A REM.^RKABLE form of copper-rod currency, known to 

 the natives of the north-east Transvaal as Marali, is de- 

 scribed in the August number of Man by Dr. A. C. Haddon 

 and Mr. H. D. Hemsworth, of which only two specimens 

 are believed to have reached this country. Each example 

 consists of a straight rod of copper about 49 cm. in length, 

 with an average diameter of 13 mm. One end is attached 

 to the rounded apex of a flattened, oval, conical projec- 

 tion, the plane of which is set at a little more than a 

 right angle to that of the rod. Peculiar markings on one 

 specimen seem to indicate that the bore used for the cast- 

 ing was made by covering a reed with earth, and that in 

 this case, the reed having split, the coppersmith had 

 enveloped it with bands to keep it in its proper shape. 

 This form of currency was used chiefly in the purchase of 

 brides by the chiefs, and each rod seems at one time to 

 have represented the value of ten cows, the ordinary ex- 

 change price of a wife. Similar rods, which Mr. G. W. 

 Stow in his " Native Races of South Africa " (p. 518) was 

 inclined to regard as Madulas or phallic charms, appear 

 to be examples of this remarkable form of currency. 



In the National Geographic Magazine for August Mr. 

 T. Balfour contributes an account of the natives of Hum- 

 boldt Bay, in Dutch territory, on the northern coast of 

 New Guinea. Ethnologists will be interested in his de- 

 scription of their sacred drums and flutes, the latter so 

 long that when " two men each takes one of these instru- 

 ments and stand opposite each other, they blow into the 

 «nd of the bamboo, and the length runs out so far that 

 each man straddles his partner's flute." Their temples 

 are taboo to women, and Mrs. Balfour experienced much 

 difficulty in securing entrance and a sight of the sacred 

 objects. The architecture is peculiar, the building consist- 

 ing, as it were, of three cones superimposed one upon 

 another, that at the summit being the smallest. Their 

 modes of disposal of the dead range from desiccation to 

 inhumation. The pestilential climate and the unfriendli- 

 ness of the people offer little encouragement to the explorer 

 of this portion of the island. 



NO. 2029, VOL. 78] 



The August number of the Bulletin of the American 

 Geographical Society contains an interesting article, by 

 Mr. J. D. Hague, on the discoveries of Sir Francis Drake, 

 accompanied ly reproductions of the Drake commemora- 

 tion medal recently issued by the American Numismatic 

 Society — the third of the series, the two earlier ones 

 being, respectively, one in honour of Americus Vespucius, 

 issued in 1905, and one in memory of John Paul Jones, 

 issued in 1906. The medal now referred to represents a 

 bust portrait of Sir Francis, which Prof. Rudolph 

 Marschall, of Vienna, with the aid of photographic copies 

 taken specially for this work, by the courtesy of Lady 

 Drake, has produced from an oil painting from life by 

 .Abraham Janssens, continuously in the possession of the 

 family, and now at Buckland Abbey, Devon. The reverse 

 of the medal is a reproduction, as a partial facsimile, of 

 one side (the western or Pacific hemisphere) of the cele- 

 brated silver medal or " map of the world," which is 

 generally believed to have been made shortly, or, at most, 

 within a few years, after Drake's return from his 

 " world-encompassing " expedition, and concerning which 

 the late Sir John Evans wrote in terms of high praise 

 when directing the attention of the Royal Numismatic 

 .Society to it. 



.An interesting note on the history of the knowledge of 

 steel has been published in the Revue de Mitallurgie (vol. 

 v.. No. i) by Dr. Carl Benedicks, of Upsala University, 

 the recipient this year of the Iron and Steel Institute's 

 Carnegie gold medal for research. The difference between 

 wrought iron, steel and cast iron, the varying proportion 

 of carbon, was first demonstrated by Torbern Bergman in 

 1781. Linnsus (Pluto svecicus, 1734) describes steel as 

 iron without sulphur, and the views adopted at that epoch 

 were (i) that steel contained less " sulphur " than iron 

 (Rohault and Polhem, 1740), and (2) that steel contained 

 more " sulphur " than iron (Cramer, Gellert, Macquer, 

 von Justi, Spielmann). The term sulphur at that period 

 included all inflammable matter, such as asphalt and coal. 

 The author directs attention to a forgotten French work, 

 published anonymously in 1737, under the title of " Traits 

 sur I'Acier d'Alsace, on I'Art de convertir le Fer de Fonte 

 en Acier " (Strassburg). The writer of this work was an 

 elder brother of Gilles Augustin Bazin, a Strassburg 

 physician. Like Ri5aumur, he rejects the view that steel 

 is purer than ordinary iron, and realises that steel must be 

 made by adding a certain quantity of extraneous matter 

 to wrought iron, or by removing foreign matter from 

 pig iron. He had an exceptional knowledge of steel and 

 of its thermal treatment, and his book deserves a place 

 beside the monumental works of Ri^aumur and Swedenborg 

 (1753). A Swedish translation of Bazin's book was pub- 

 lished at Stockholm in 1753. 



A SHORT note on the study of sea-quakes in the Mediter- 

 ranean, by Prof. G. Platania, of the R. Istituto Nautico, 

 Catania, appears in the August number of the Rivista 

 Maritima. Prof. Platania proposes to undertake an 

 exhaustive study of this subject, and appeals for informa- 

 tion and records. 



The Rendicoiiti of the Reale Istituto Lombardo, vol. 

 xli., contain a paper by Dr. Gorini on lactic acid fermenta- 

 tions of milk (fasc. xiii.), and one by Prof. Bordoni- 

 Uffreduzi on ' diphtheria (fasc. xiv.-xvi.). In this it is 

 shown that since the introduction of antitoxin treatment 

 the number of cases of diphtheria in Milan has fallen from 

 1053, with 330 deaths, in 1896, to 657 cases, with 85 

 deaths, in 1907. a diminution of mortality per 10,000 living 

 from 7-3 to 1.5. 



