October 28, 1909] 



NA TURE 



527 



Society during 190S, to the October number of the Geo- 

 graphical Journal. The work of the expedition was to 

 explore certain unvisited parts of Mongolia, to examine 

 I^ake Kolio-nor, and to investigate the region of the upper 

 course of the Hwang-ho. Amongst the most important 

 results already obtained from the first part of the journey 

 is the identification of the dead city, Khara-khoto, with 

 Hsi-hsia, the capital of a Tangut kingdom which flourished 

 from the eleventh to the fourteenth century. 



An important list of the strong earthquakes felt in the 

 Philippine Islands during the last half-century has recently 

 been issued by the Rev. Miguel Saderro Mas6, assistant 

 director of the Weather Bureau. The earthquakes, fifty- 

 five in number, vary in intensity between the degrees 7 

 and 10 of the Rossi-Forel scale of seismic intensity, five 

 of them attaining the highest degree. The year of maxi- 

 mum activity, when eight strong earthquakes were felt, 

 was 1897, which was also that of the great Assam earth- 

 quake ; and, during the decade 1890-1900, sixteen strong 

 shocks occurred in the Philippines, while in the same 

 interval no fewer than nine were felt in Japan. The most 

 unstable district in the archipelago is Mindanao, and 

 especially the eastern part of the island, which lies in the 

 neighbourhood of the great geosynclinal of the Pacific 

 Ocean. 



An analysis of the underground temperature at Osaka, 

 western Japan, by Mr. T. Okada and Mr. T. Takeda, is 

 contained in the Bulletin of the Central Meteorological 

 Observatory of Japan, No. 2, 1909. The tables show the 

 hourly mean temperature at depths varying from 00-06 

 metre for the years 1901-6, and the monthly mean tempera- 

 ture between 00 and 50 metres for the years 1S95-1904. 

 Below the surface the soil consisted of granite sand. At 

 the depth of 60 cm. the diurnal variation is almost in- 

 significant; the minimum occurs between 2h. and 3h. p.m., 

 and the maximum between midnight and 3h. a.m. The 

 mean annual temperature increases up to a depth of 

 300 cm. and then decreases ; at the depth of 500 cm. the 

 minimum occurs in May and the maximum in November. 

 The total annual heat exchange is» computed to be about 

 one-thousandth part of the total quantity of solar radiation 

 received by the surface of the soil. 



Storms of wind and rain have occurred very generally 

 over the British Islands during the past week, and the 

 weather throughout the period was under the influence of 

 cyclonic disturbances, which arrived with considerable fre- 

 quency from off the -Atlantic. On Saturday, October 23, 

 a south-westerly gale blew in most parts of the country, 

 and at Scilly the wind during the evening blew in squalls 

 with a velocity of ninety miles per hour from the west- 

 ward. In London the aggregate rainfall to the morning 

 of October 27 is 2-65 inches, whilst the average for the 

 whole month is 2-73 inches, and as yet rain has fallen 

 on twenty days this month. 



\ PRELIMINARY note, by Mr. J. R. Sutton, on the results 

 of observations made during three years upon the diurnal 

 variation of level at Kimberley, is published in the Trans- 

 actions of the Royal Society of South Africa for July last. 

 It appears from the tables that the movements on the 

 seismograph are very great ; the maximum westerly 

 elongation of the pendulum occurs at Sjh. a.m., the 

 maximum easterly about 4jh. p.m., the median positions 

 a little before iih. a.m. and gjh. p.m., the mean daily 

 range for the period being 55 mm. Not much connection 

 with the weather can be traced ; cloud and variations of 

 barometric pressure are thought to be the most potent 

 disturbers in a small way of the regular diurnal march of 

 NO. 2087, VOL. 81] 



the pendulum. There was a strong tendency for the pen- 

 dulum to deviate more and more to the west of its mean 

 position during winter, and to the east during summer. 



The Philippine Journal of Science for June (iv., No. 3) 

 contains several papers of importance on protozoology and 

 parasitology, and a study of the diet and nutrition of the 

 Filipino people by Mr. Hans Aron. 



We have received the first part of a volume of memoirs- 

 of the Oswaldo Cruz Bacteriological Institute, Rio de 

 Janeiro (" Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz," Tomo i.,. 

 Faciculo I, 1909). The text is in Portuguese, but in' 

 parallel column a translation in German, French, or 

 English is given of each article. It contains three excellent 

 coloured plates and other illustrations. Among the con- 

 tents are a description of a new species of Tabanus, and a 

 contribution on native Tabanids, by Dr. Adolpho Lutz and 

 Dr. Arthur Neiva ; observations on Brazilian Anophelinae, 

 by Dr. Neiva ; descriptions of two new species of Plas- 

 modia, by Drs. Aragao and Neiva; a study of a new 

 species of .Amceba, by Dr. Aragao ; studies on tuberculosis, 

 by Dr. Pontes; concentration of diphtheria anti-toxin, by 

 Messrs. Giemsa and Godoy ; and the preparation of anti- 

 plague serum, by Dr. Vasconcellos. 



A NOVEL type of gas-driven water pump, designed by Mr. 

 H. A. Humphrey, seems likely to find numerous applica- 

 tions owing to its simplicity and high economy. The 

 pump consists of a vertical U tube, having legs of un- 

 equal length. The longer leg enters at the bottom of 

 the delivery tank, and the shorter leg is partly immersed 

 in the tank from which the water to be pumped is drawn. 

 The water enters the shorter leg through a number of ad- 

 mission valves, and the upper portion of this leg forms 

 the combustion chamber, and is fitted with admission, 

 exhaust, and scavenging valves, and also an electric ignition 

 device. The gaseous pressure acts direct on the surface of 

 the water in the shorter leg. By taking advantage of the 

 oscillations set up in the water contained in the U tube, and' 

 the consequent alterations in gaseous pressure in the 

 combustion chamber, Mr. Humphrey has succeeded in pro- 

 ducing a four-stroke cycle, having a long expansion stroke, 

 a long return exhaust stroke, a short suction stroke, and a 

 short compression stroke, at the end of which the charge is 

 ignited. Prof. Unwin has tested this pump, and finds the 

 equivalent coal consumption to be only 106 lb. per pump- 

 horse-power hour, a result doubtless owing to the utilisation 

 of the " toe " of the diagram, which is generally wasted 

 in an ordinary gas-engine cylinder. 



In continuation of a previous paper. Prof. James Barnes, 

 of Bryn Mawr College, publishes a note on the new lines 

 in the calcium spectrum in No. i, vol. xxx., of the Astro- 

 physical Journal. The spectra measured were produced by 

 an arc between poles of metallic calcium, enclosed in an 

 exhausted chamber. The first table gives the wave-lengths 

 of two series of triplets previously measured by Kayser 

 and Runge, and three series given by Saunders. The fre- 

 quencies can be represented by a formula of the Rydberg 

 type, the following giving the first line of each triplet : — 



; for \ 4586-10, the first line of the 

 («/ + 0-927)= 



least refrangible series, "1 = 3. There are no lines near 

 \ 6208, which is the approximate wave-length for 111 = 2; 

 it therefore appears that the series is a subordinate one, 

 as suggested by Ritz. Prof. Barnes also gives the wave- 

 lengths of the two groups at X 6382 and X 6389, observed 

 by Fowler in sun-spots and obtained by Olmsted in the 

 calcium arc in hydrogen, but doubts whether they are 

 due to a compound of these two elements. Between these 



^ = 28911 ^^^75 



