676 



ATA TURE 



[OCTOBliR 29, 1908 



Ue have to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of vol. Ix. 



I <er. I) of the AnaUs del Museo Nacioiial de Buenos Aires, 



•'veral of the articles from which have already been noticed 



:: our columns. Among those not so mentioned, reference 



7iay be made to two by Mr. F. Lahille on Argentine 



taceans, one relating to a supposed new species or sub- 

 species of dolphin of the genus Tursiops, and the other to 

 the occurrence of Balaenoptera acntirostrala ( = rostrata) 

 in the South American Atlantic. As regards the former, 

 it will suffice to mention that the author appears to be 

 unacquainted with the papers on the dolphins of this 

 group contributed by Mr. Lydekker to the Journal of the 

 Bombay Natural History Society and the Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 In connection with the second, it is remarkable that the 

 author once more resuscitates the (we had heard obsolete) 

 irheory of the descent of cetaceans from ichthyosaurs. 

 Here again we note the absence of any reference to Dr. 

 Fraas's proof of the origin of the presumably cetacean 

 zeuglodonts from primitive Eocene land Carnivora. 



We have received two bulletins from the Experi- 

 ment' Station of the Colorado Agricultural College. 

 No. 130 deals with the evergreen trees of Colorado, and 

 describes the native pines, spruces, firs, junipers, and red 

 cedars from the botanical and economic point of view. 

 There are several good illustrations. No. 128 deals with 

 lucerne. Attention is directed to the fact that lucerne, 

 being a deep-rooted leguminous plant, increases the supply 

 of nitrogen and of organic matter in the soil, and thus 

 tends to maintain the fertility of land which is being 

 heavily cropped with sugar beets and other exhausting 

 crops. Numerous varieties are described, and their relative 

 values under the conditions of the trial are indicated. 



In'Creasing attention is now being devoted to the produc- 

 tion of cacao in the West Indies, and some account of 

 the investigations on this crop made by the scientific staff 

 of the Depart.iient of Agriculture is given in the West 

 Indian Bulletin, vol. ix. , No. 2, and in a recent issue of the 

 Agricultural News, the periodical published by the Depart- 

 ment. Fertiliser experiments have been made to discover 

 the sort of manuring necessary, and attempts have been 

 made to improve the crop by selecting promising sorts 

 and then propagating them by grafting or budding. The 

 \'arious diseases to which the crop is liable have also been 

 studied, and systematic operations started fcr coping with 

 them. The whole work furnishes another example of the 

 great benefit conferred on the industries of the West Indies 

 ty the scientific staff. 



Bulletin No. 113 of the \\'est \"irginia Agricultural 

 Experiment Station gives some interesting notes on the 

 habits of mice, voles and shrews, particularly from the 

 economic standpoint. The short-tailed shrew {Blarina 

 hrevicauda) is considered to be beneficial to farmers, and 

 is-recommended for protection. Brewer's mole {Parascalops 

 hreweri) may do a certain amount of injury because of the 

 nuinber of earthworms it eats, and the rather unsightly 

 mounds of earth it throws up, but it destroys so many 

 grubs that on the whole it is classed as useful. On the 

 other hand, the various field mice, of which two are 

 described (Microtus pennsylvanicus and M. piiietorum scalop- 

 soides) are regarded as wholly injurious, and their destruc- 

 tion by strvchrinc is urged. Th'.- bulletin is well illustrated 

 with photcgrarhs. 



I\ Syn'ous's Melcorologictil Maj^azinc, July-Seplember, 

 the Rev. D. C. Bates descri-bes some recent and costly 

 fain-making experiments by gun firing in the Oamaru 

 district of New Zealand, which may be considered useful 



NO. 2035, vol.. 78] 



in so far as they once more prove their absolute futility. 

 From various causes the district is subject to long 

 di oughts; an influential committee was formed to organise 

 the e.xperiments, for which a large sum of money was 

 readily subscribed, and was supplemented by the Govern- 

 ment, Mr. Bates being requested to watch and report 

 upon the results. The weight of the charges varied from 

 50 lb. to 200 lb. ; these were primed with dry gun-cotton 

 and fired by a dynamite detonator attached to a slow burn- 

 ing fuse, and in nearly all cases complete detonation took 

 place. The times chosen for the experiments were gener- 

 ally those when atmospheric conditions were considered 

 to be favourable for rain. Although rain occasionally fell 

 within a reasonable time, Mr. Bates could only conclude 

 that it was a mere coincidence, and that " the explosions 

 had apparently no more effect on the vast expanse of the 

 air than would the striking of a match in a room." , 



In a short note in the Annals of Mallieniatics for July, 

 Prof. J. L. Coolidge proves a theorem, which he states he 

 has not previously seen, according to which, if a set of 

 ratios between positive integers are equal to one another, 

 then all are equal to the ratio of the greatest common 

 divisor of the numerators to that of the denominators, and 

 also to the corresponding ratio of the lowest common 

 multiples. 



Messrs. B. G. Teubner, of Leipzig, have issued an 

 elegantly bound volume, of more than 500 pages, contain- 

 ing a catalogue of their published works on mathematics 

 and allied sciences. To the English reader this list should 

 afford an object-lesson as to the value which is attached to 

 scientific progress and advancement by our German rivals. 

 The book was prepared for the International Mathematical 

 Congress at Rome this spring. It is illustrated by por- 

 traits of eininent matheirtaticians, including a frontispiece 

 of Galileo Galilei, ana in addition to alphabetical and 

 subject indices it contains an introductory account of the 

 principal works published by the firm from the middle 

 of last century, and a calendar of births, deaths, and other 

 important events in the mathematical world, by Prof. 

 Felix Miiller, of Dresden. 



A NEW work is announced for early publication by Mr. 

 Elliot Stock, under the title " Saint Gilbert : the Story of 

 Gilbert White and Selborne," by Mr. J. C. Wright. 



Prof. R. W. \\'ood has written another amusing set 

 of verses for children, illustrated with quaint drawings. 

 Attention was directed on a previous occasion to the 

 character of the volume " How to Tell the Birds from the 

 Flowers." The present volume is entitled "Animal 

 Analogues," and is published by Messrs. Paul Elder and 

 Company, of San Francisco and New York. Its price is 

 50 cents net. 



The best form of the mariner's compass card, so de- 

 scribed and reproduced in Nature of September 24 (p. 509), 

 is the registered design of Mr. F. Howard Collins, of 

 Torquay, and has been awarded a diploma for bronze 

 medal at the Franco-British Exhibition. A specimen of 

 Mr. Collins 's card was submitted to us two years ago, 

 and was commented upon at that time (vol. Ixxiv., p. 594). 



With reference to the review of " Science and 

 Empiricism " (Nature, October 15, p. 603), Mr. Daniel 

 writes that cancer must be due to loss of energy in the 

 coll, and not to bacteria. This point was not referred to 

 in the review; in fact, the trend of opinion at present 

 is against the parasitic origin of cancer. The reviewer 

 took exception to the extremely imaginative conception of 

 the cancer process as expressed in the book. 



