August 5, 1909] 



NA TURE 



169 



Fumigation under tents with hydrocyanic acid gas has 

 been the principal means of controlling scale-insects on 

 citrus fruit trees in California for many years. Most of 

 the commercial orchards in the State are fumigated at 

 intervals of one or two years, at a cost ranging from 

 25 cents to 1-50 dollars a tree. The results of the work 

 of different manipulators, and against different scale pests, 

 show considerable discrepancy, and a good deal still re- 

 mains to be done to put the whole method on a sound 

 basis. Mr. Woglum has recently published the results 

 of investigations made in California with the view of 

 cle.Tring up some of the discrepancies ; the paper, which is 

 well illustrated, forms Bulletin No. 79 of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture Bureau of Entomology. 



The summary of the weather for the week ending 

 July 31 shows that the period was again cold for the 

 time of year over the whole country. The highest maxi- 

 mum shade temperature for the week over the United 

 Kingdom was 73° in the east of England and in the 

 Midland counties, whilst in the north and east of Scotland 

 and in the Borth of Ireland the thermometer did not 

 exceed 68° ; the rainfall over England was everywhere 

 largely in excess of the average. The summary for the 

 eight weeks of summer, as yet expired, shows that the 

 thermometer has not exceeded 77° in any part of the 

 kingdom, and in the north-east of England the highest 

 temperature is 73°. The excess of rainfall for the eight 

 weeks amounts to i-6 inches in the west of Scotland and 

 in the north-west of England, and to 1-3 inches in the 

 Midland counties. At Greenwich tlie excess of rain for 

 Juno and July amounts to 2-4 inches, the aggregate 

 measurement being 685 inches. The duration of bright 

 sunshine for the summer, so far, is largely deficient of 

 the average, the deficiency exceeding eighty hours in the 

 north-east and south-east of England. 



In the Avchiv jor Maihematik og Natiirvidcnshah (vol. 

 xxix., No. 12), Mr. A. S. Stcen discusses the mean tempera- 

 ture of the sea surface on the Norwegian coast, " reduced " 

 for the thirty-year period i.S74-igo3. With one exception 

 the observations were made at light-stations between 

 Torungen in the south-east and Gjcsvaer in the extreme 

 north (lat. 71° 6'). The lowest mean values occur in 

 February and March, and the highest in August. Selecting 

 two stations on the -Atlantic coast, we find at Utsire (lat- 

 50° 18') those values to be 39-2° F. and 585°, and at 

 .\ndenes (lat. 69° 20') 33-3° and 51-1° respectively; up to 

 lat. 63° the mean annual temperature of the 30-year period 

 does not fall below 46-4° F. The tables also include 

 departures of the monthly means from the normal value for 

 each of the separate years 1874-1903. 



Among several useful papers on the climatology of Italy 

 recently received from Dr. Eredia, we may refer to two 

 of special interest, relating to torrential rains in Sicily 

 (1S79-1907), and to the disastrous floods, especially in the 

 provinces of Syracusa and Catania, caused by severe 

 thunderstorms in November last. The heaviest rains occur 

 on the eastern slope of the island between September and 

 April ; at Riposto a fall of 7-64 inches within twenty-four 

 hours occurred in November, 1889, and one of 8- 12 inches 

 at Catania in September, 1902. In the thunderstorms of 

 Ncvim.ber 17 and 18, Riposto recorded daily falls of 1829 

 inches and 8-ii inches; 5-91 inches fell in twenty-five 

 minutes. At Sant' Alfio the falls were 8-68 inches on 

 November 17, and 14-39 inches on November iS. This 

 remarkable downpour was caused by a shallow barometric 

 depression passing from the south of Spain to Algeria, with 

 high barometric pressure existing at the time over the 

 Balkans and Upper Italy. 



NO. 2075, VOL. 81] 



After the Kangra earthquake of April 4, 1905, Prof. 

 Omori, who had been sent by the Japanese Govern- 

 ment to India, lent to the Indian Meteorological Depart- 

 ment a portable seismograph of his design. This instru- 

 ment was set up in Simla, and in vol. xx., part ui., 

 of the Memoirs of the Indian Meteorological Department a 

 list is given of the seismographic records obtained with 

 it between June, 1905, and November, 1908. The 

 instrument is of the pattern which records by the 

 movement of a tracing point on a travelling sheet of 

 smoked paper, and has a heavy mass of about 10 kg. at 

 the end of a boom 75 cm. in length. Experience has 

 shown that instruments of this type seldom give satis- 

 factory records of the preliminary tremors unless the heavy 

 mass is at least 25 kg., and the seismograms, reproduced 

 in the memoir, show that the Simla instrument is no 

 exception to this rule. 



In a recent number of Globus (xcvi., i), Mr. W. Reinhard 

 gives a short description, with facsimile, of a MS. map of 

 the British Isles preserved in the British Museum, which 

 does not seem to have hitherto met with the attention it 

 deserves. It is of interest as occupying an intermediate 

 position between early productions such as those of 

 Matthew Paris, and the more precise work of Christopher 

 Saxton, or even of Mercator and Ortelius. It is without 

 date or author's name, but may be assigned with some 

 confidence to the middle of the sixteenth century, being 

 thus about contemporary with (Mr. Reinhard says earlier 

 than) the map of George Lily (iS4&). stated by Gough to 

 be the first exact map of Great Britain. While not quUe 

 so correct as this as regards the outlines, especially of 

 Scotland, it is perhaps superior as regards the amount of 

 detail supplied, at least for England. Besides most of the 

 principal towns and villages, it names a number of physiieal 

 features. Among islands, we find Holy and Fame islands 

 (Northumberland) ; Mersea and Foulness (Essex) ; Mt. St. 

 Michael (Cornwall); Priestholm or Puflfin island, near 

 Anglesev. The name Portland appears on the mamland, 

 while Corfe and Selsea are both shown as islands. Of 

 towns and villages swept away by the sea, we find Dunwich. 

 Orwell (misplaced), and others, but not Ravenspur, though 

 this had been destroyed only about 1530. A large island 

 seems indicated within the mouth of the Humber, though 

 it would probably be risky to argue changes of coast- 

 line from such evidence. There is still much room for 

 research as regards the data on which such maps were 

 based. 



The June number of TerrcstrM Magnetism and Mmo- 

 spheric Electricity contains a frontispiece showing the 

 magnetic survey yacht Carnegie under full sail and an 

 article describing her construction and the work she is 

 intended to do. She has a displacement, when fully 

 .■quipped, of 568 tons, and is built almost without iron, 

 her bolts and metal fittings being of bronze, copper, or 

 o-un-metal. The observation rooms are amidships, the 

 yacht is to make a magnetic survey of the oceans during 

 the next fifteen vears, with the object of correcting the 

 magnetic charts and compass data at present available 

 Her first voyage will be to Hudson Bay and the North 

 Atlantic Ocean. 



The Electrician for July 16 contains an article, by Mr. 

 L. W. Wild, on the comparative merits of photometers 

 of the Bunsen type, of the Lummer type, and of the flicker 

 type, for testing the brightness of lights of different colours. 

 Mr. Wild has used two or three photometers of each type 

 in the comparison of a carbon with a tungsten filament 

 lamp, and comes to the conclusion that for accurate work 



