July i, 1909] 



NATURE 



turbines of Atlantic liners. — Hon. R. C. Parsons: 

 (i) " Panflex " spring wheel for motor vehicles. The 

 " Panflex " spring wheel is an invention which has for its 

 object the easy motion of a vehicle when run at low or 

 high speeds. This ease of motion is due to the springs 

 being capable of deflection in every direction. The wlieel 

 is not subject to bursts or punctures, prevalent in the case 

 of wheels fitted with pneumatic tyres. The wear and tear 

 is small, and, should a spring break, which is seldom the 

 case in practice, another can be inserted in a few minutes 

 at a very small cost. (2) Working model apparatus for 

 recording the effects produced upon wheels of various 

 descriptions when passing over obstacles. (3) .Seismograph 

 apparatus for registering the jolts felt by the body of a 

 motor vehicle when run on " Panflex " or pneumatic 

 wheels. 



The Director, Rnyal Gardens, Kcw : (i) Specimens to 

 illustrate the wood Lignum nephriticum, and the fluores- 

 cence of its infusion. Lignum nephriiiciini is the wood of 

 " Coatii " [Kyscnhardtia anwrplioides), a small leguminous 

 Mexican tree. An infusion of the wood was used 

 medicinally by the .\ztecs. Soon after the conquest of 

 Mexico the Spaniards brought the wood to Europe, where 

 it was used for similar purposes, and excited remark 

 owing to the" blue fluorescence of the watery infusion of 

 the wood. The phenomenon was first described more fully 

 by .Athanasius Kircher (1646), and J. Bauhin (1651), who 

 used cups made of the wood. It was carefully studied 

 by Boyle (1664). During the next century- the wood itself 

 was lost sight of; its origin remained unknown until quite 

 recently. Plukenet (1606) suggested, and Dale (1737) and 

 Linnseus stated, that it was the wood of the horse-radish 

 tree (Moringa picrygospcrma), which is, however, a native 

 of the Old \\'orld. .Another source that has been suggested 

 is Pithecolohium Ungiiis-Cati, a native of the West Indies. 

 (In charge of Dr. 6. Stapf, F.R.S.) (i.) Wood of true 

 Lignum nepliriliium and cup turned from the same, and 

 samples of infusions, presented to the Kew Museum as 

 "cuatl." (ii.) Medicinal substitutes of Lignum nephriii- 

 cum : — (a) wood of Moringa pterygosperma, from Scinde ; 



(b) wood of Pithecolohium Vnguis-Cati, from Florida ; 



(c) wood of a tree, possibly a species of Imbricaria 

 (Sapotacea"), fron tropical .\merica, received from Paris in 

 185 1 as Bois ncphritique. (2) Plants of Ecanda (Raphion- 

 acme utilis), and sample of rubber prepared at Kew from 

 a tuber of it. — R. A. Robertson : Photographs (for identifi- 

 cation purposes) of the transverse surface of timbers. — 

 Prof. R. H. Yapp: Photographs of tropical vegetation. 

 The photographs were, for the most part, taken during 

 the Skeat Expedition to the Malay Peninsula (1899-1900). 

 — Prof. F. E. Weiss : (i) Some alien aquatic plants from 

 the Reddish Canal, near Manchester ; (2) some South 

 .African aquatics grown in the laboratory. University of 

 Manchester. 



R. 1. Pocock : Warning coloration in some weasel-like 

 Carnivora. Animals which are nauseous or poisonous or 

 dangerous to meddle with commonly have some means of 

 self-advertisement, such as conspicuous coloration or sound- 

 ing organs, which appeals to the sense of sight or of hear- 

 ing of their enemies, warning the latter to let them alone; 

 but most mammals are coloured so as to be concealed 

 either from their enemies or from the prey they feed upon. 

 Such concealment is commonlv effected by counter-shading, 

 the upper side being dark to tone down reflected light. 

 and the lower side white to counteract shadow, the result 

 being obliteration of the shape and solidity of the body. 

 Some of the weasel tribe, however, form an exception to 

 this rule, being light above and black below, often with 

 the white of the back, as in skunks, or of the head, as 

 in badgers, emphasised bv black stripes ; and since these 

 animals are known to possess glands which secrete fluids 

 with a foetid or suffocating odour, and since, also, they 

 are known to be desperate fighters and fearless and extra- 

 ordinarily tenacious of life, and to feed, for the most part, 

 upon vegetables or upon animal food, for the capture of 

 which concealment is unnecessary, there are strong reasons 

 for believing them to be conspicuously and warningly 

 coloured. — H. F. Angus : Stereoscopic photomicrographs. 

 The series comprise eggs of butterflies, moths, and para- 

 sites ; botanical objects, such as mycetozoa, leaf hairs, &x. 



NO. 2070, VOL. 81] 



— F. Enoch : Living stick-insects (Bacillus rossi). The 

 eggs of these stick-insects are less than one-eighth of an 

 inch in diameter, and much resemble a minute vase. On 

 emerging they are half an inch in length, and quickly 

 stretch themselves along a green twig, which they exactly 

 resemble. Most of the specimens have changed their skins 

 five times, the old skin being generally eaten. When, 

 mature, these stick-insects attain a length of more than, 

 4 inches, and become of a brown colour, which harmonises 

 with the brown twig on which they rest. They are 

 nocturnal feeders, and exceedingly amicable toward each 

 other, treating each other as sticks, several often clinging 

 together. — Prof. George H. F. Nuttall, F.R.S. , and Dr. 

 Seymour Hadwen : The discovery of a curative treatment 

 for malignant jaundice in the dog and for redwater in 

 cattle, with ^ demonstration of the effects of trypanblau 

 upon the parasites. The disease known as malignant 

 jaundice (piroplasmosis) in dogs is exceedingly fatal. It 

 has hitherto resisted all forms of treatment. Both trypan- 

 blau and trypanrot injected subcutaneously will cure or 

 prevent the disease. The effect of the drugs is exerted 

 directly upon the parasites {Piroplasma canis) which cause 

 the disease. The parasites may be observed to degenerate 

 and disappear from the blood within a few hours after 

 treatment. The parasite of redwater in cattle (Piroplasma 

 bonis) is likewise affected by trypanblau. 



Dr. C. D. Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion: Panoramic views in tlie Rocky Mountains, U.S., 

 and Canada. — Dr. .4. Smith Woodward, F.R.S. : Skull of 

 Megalosaurus from the Great Oolite of Gloucestershire. 

 This is the first nearly complete skull of a carnivorous 

 dinosaur found in Europe, and agrees with the skull of 

 Ceratosaurus, from the Jurassic of Colorado, U.S. .A., in 

 exhibiting a bony horn-core on the nose. The specimen 

 was discovered by Mr. F. L. Bradley near Minchinhampton. 

 — Dr. C. W. Andrews, F.R.S. : Remains of rhinoceros and 

 mammoth from the Thames alluvium under the offices of 

 Lloyd's Weekly News, Salisbury Square, Fleet Street, E.C. 

 The specimens exhibited were : — (i) a nearly perfect skull 

 of a young individual of the woolly rhinoceros (Rhinoceros 

 tichorhinus), in which some of the milk-teeth were still 

 in use ; (2) a maxilla and nearly complete mandible of a 

 young mammoth (Elcphas primigenius) ; the first and 

 second molars were in wear, the third not yet having 

 appeared. — Dr. F. A. Bather, F.R.S. : Sections of seasonal 

 clav from Stockholm. This clay, which was deposited 

 during the melting and retreat of the great ice-sheet in 

 .Sweden, may be described as fossil years and seasons. 

 The alternating bands of dark and light can be easily 

 seen, and Baron G. de Geer (from whom the specimens 

 have been received) believes that each cycle represents a 

 year, the lighter rock having been formed during the melt- 

 ing of the snows in spring. He has traced these bands 

 for great distances, and has been able to map the changing 

 limits of the ice-sheet from year to year through a long 

 period. This is the nearest approach to a definite chrono- 

 logy by years that has yet been made by geologists, but it 

 still needs to be linked up to the chronology of human 

 history. — Dr. Marie Stopes : The microscopic structure of 

 fossil plants from Japan. The nodules containing the plants 

 were obtained in the river beds of the mountainous region 

 of northern Japan. They are of Cretaceous age, and con- 

 tain fossil plants with their tissues so well preserved that 

 the cells can be seen in microscopic sections of the stony 

 matrix. All the plants are new to science, and among 

 them are several specimens of the first petrifaction of a 

 flower hitherto discovered. The nodules contain ferns, 

 gymnosperms, and angiosperms, which form an interesting 

 mixed flora, the first of the kind to be described from 

 specimens showing their anatomical structure. — Prof. 

 Flinders Petrie. F.R.S. : .Ancient modelled heads of various 

 races. These heads were found in the foreign quarter of 

 Memphis, the capital of Egypt, and represent the various 

 peoples who were known there, 500 P.O. to 200 B.C. The 

 Persian Empire, at that time, brought together all races 

 between Scythia and India, and the Mediterranean peoples 

 were familiar with Egypt before that. The modelling was 

 probably done by Grseco-Egyptians. Most of these were 

 found in the excavations of the British School of ArchfEO- 

 logy in Egypt. 



