October 15, 1908] 



NA TURE 



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The Intc-rnation;il Conference on Electrical L nits anu 

 Standards, the constitution and objects of which were de- 

 scribed in last week's Nature, was opened on Monday 

 at the rooms of the Royal Society by Mr. Churchill, M.P., 

 president of the Board of Trade. In the course of his 

 remarks at the opening of the proceedings Mr. Churchill 

 said : — " Fourteen years have passed since the last Inter- 

 national Congress, at which definite resolutions were passed 

 as to electric units. The resolutions of Chicago in 1893, 

 based as they were upon the conclusions reached at Edin- 

 burgh in the previous year, have formed the starting point 

 of legislation in various countries. The present conference 

 owes its inception to the resolution agreed to by the 

 delegates of many countries four years ago at the great 

 exhibition at St. Louis. That resolution not only con- 

 firmed the necessity for a more practical and perfect 

 uniformity of electrical standards through the labours of 

 an international commission, but further expressed the 

 hope that that commission might ultimately be preserved 

 in a perrflanent form. His Majesty's Government has 

 responded with precision and cordiality to the proposal to 

 convoke an international conference in London. The 

 result of the invitations has been most gratifying. The 

 importance of the w^ork is undoubted, the capacity of th; 

 conference is indisputable. It is not within the scope of 

 such a conference to formulate laws for Governments and 

 nations. It is its business to define in clear and accurate 

 expression those scientific quantities in terms of which 

 electric energy is bought and sold, and, if possible, to 

 embody its conclusions in draft articles which may form 

 the b.Tsis of legislation and administration, so far as 

 electric units and standards are concerned. While the 

 work of the conference is scientific, it must also be prac- 

 tical. It is of the greatest interest to science to realise, 

 in the most exact manner, the fundamental units of the 

 electrician ; but the primary work of the conference is to 

 define and specify standards for the purposes of trade and 

 commerce. Those standards must be definitely fixed in 

 value ; they must be permanent, and they must be re- 

 producible. Physicists will continue their researches into 

 the exact relations of those standards to the fundamental 

 units, and each year will make the knowledge of those 

 relations more complete ; but the object of the conference 

 is to secure the immense advantage to trade and commerce, 

 by establishing a universal system of standards acceptable 

 to all." .After a vote of thanks had been passed to Mr. 

 Churchill, Lord Rayleigh took the chair, and the business 

 of the conference commenced. In the evening the delegates 

 were entertained at dinner by the president and members 

 of the Royal Society Club, and a reception was held by 

 Lord Rayleigh and the council of the Royal Society. As 

 at present arranged, the last meeting of the conference 

 will be held on Wednesday, October 21, and we hope to 

 publish an account of the proceedings in Nature of the 

 following week. 



Nattiren for September contains the conclusion of Dr. 

 L. Stejneger's article on the relations of the fauna and 

 flora of western Norway. Reference is made to the dis- 

 tribution of certain liver-worts and to the bearing of the 

 newly described iUcrotiis arvalis exsiil of the Hebrides on 

 the theory of a former land-connection between Scandinavia 

 and Scotland. 



Insects injurious to local crops in 1907 form the subject 

 of Bulletin No. 251 of the Michigan State .Agricultural 

 Experiment Station. .Among these, the most harmful 

 appears to be the so-called rose-chafer, which visits many 

 of the vineyards in millions. It is noted that certain evil- 

 smelling bugs prey upon the potato-beetle. 



NO. 2033, VOL. 7S] 



Sou.E time ago Dr. F. A. Bather attempted a revision 

 of the nomenclature of the crinoids. The subject has 

 been further elaborated by Mr. A. H. Clark in a paper 

 published as No. 1623 of the Proceedings of the U.S. 

 National Museum. Dr. Bather's conclusions with regard 

 to the names to be used are stated to be incorrect, except 

 in the case of two genera. 



No. 4 of vol. V. of the University of Colorado Studies 

 includes a list of Colorado Entomostraca, by Mr. G. S. 

 Dodds. The list is not a long one, but this is probably 

 to a great e.xtent owing to imperfect knowledge, and 

 when collections have been made from the numerous small 

 lakes at elevations between 6000 feet and 1200 feet, it is 

 probable that the number of these organisms will be very 

 largely increased. 



We have received a copy of a second edition of a guide 

 to the Wilberforce Museum at Hull, in which Mr. T. 

 Sheppard gives much interesting information with regard 

 to William Wilberforce and his connection w^ith that city, 

 which was his birthplace. In addition to Wilberforce 

 relics, the building also contains objects connected with 

 the history and trade of Hull, among the latter being a 

 complete collection of whaling implements. 



In a paper on the Ceylon fishery of window-pane 

 oysters (Placiina placenta), published in the August number 

 of Spolia Zcylaiiica, Mr. A. Willey describes a certain very 

 remarkable peculiarity in the development of that species. 

 The fact that the largest oysters examined during the in- 

 spection in October last were immature leads to the con- 

 clusion that Placuna does not produce an annual brood, 

 but that one generation succeeds another at intervals 

 longer than one year, and that se.xual maturity is attained 

 only after completion of the superficial growth of the 

 shell, the life of individual oysters probably being three 

 years. 



In the September number of the Zoologist Mr. H. E. 

 Forrest directs attention to the remarkable difference 

 between the vertebrate faunas of Wales and Ireland, dwell- 

 ing specially on the absence from the island of moles, 

 short-tailed field-mice, weasels, polecats, reptiles, and 

 several kinds of fresh-water fishes. In explanation it is 

 suggested that the paucity of the Irish fauna may be due 

 to that island having become separated from Great Britain 

 before the latter was cut off from the Continent by the 

 English Channel. The theory of a direct connection 

 between Ireland, Scotland, and western Norway is 

 ignored. 



In an article on wild life in the Murray Swamps, pub- 

 lished in the August number of the Victorian Naturalist, 

 Mr. A. H. E. Mattingley utters yet another protest against 

 the evil deeds of the plumage-hunters. " Dead and dying 

 egrets," he reports of a certain spot, " were everywhere. 

 The plume-hunters had been there before me, and the 

 ivreck they had left behind made my blood boil with 

 indignation. It would not have been so bad had the 

 slaughter consisted only of the hundred or so of adult 

 birds, but, as these were the parents of three times as many 

 fledgelings, left to die of starvation, you may readily guess 

 how I felt." 



We have been favoured with a copy of the first number 

 of a new work entitled " Wild Beasts of the World," by 

 Mr. F. Finn, published by Messrs. T. C. and E. C. Jack. 

 The work is to be completed in seventeen parts, at the 

 price of is. each, and is to be illustrated by 100 coloured 

 quarto plates, six of which are issued in the part now 

 before us. These, which represent apes and monkeys, are 



