THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March 2, 1903. 
The outbreaks of typhoid fever at Winchester 
and at Southampton again direct atteiation to the 
possibility of the typhoid infection being spiead 
through the agency of shell fish, in these instances 
through oysters. Dr. Nash, in a report on an out- 
break of typhoid fever at Southend-on-Sea, finds 
that the incidence of the disease was thirXy-six 
times as greac among shell-fish consumer as 
among those who do not eat sheU-iish, and expresses 
the opinion tiiat if tlse eating of shell fish were 
abandoned in Southend, the incidence of typhoid 
fever would lessen by fully one-half. In the 
Southend outbreak, cockles were mainly responsi- 
ble for the spread of the infection. — Nature, Jan 8. 
In a letter to Wednesday's Times, Sir Norman 
Lockyer states that several months ago he dis- 
cussed with Mr Shaw, the secretary of the Meteo- 
rological Council, the desirability of obtaining in- 
formation regarding barometric pressures from 
ships crossing the Atlantic, by utilising wireless 
telegraphy. It now seems probable that this idea 
will soon be practically realised, for in reply to 
an ethergram from Mr Marconi, Sir Norman 
Lockyer asked for help in this matter, and on 
January 13 received the following message : — " By 
wireless telegraphy, — Thanks for suggestion, hope 
to be able to do so goon, big westerly gale here 
Monday. — Maeconi." Sir Norman remarks that 
all friends of Science will be grateful to Mr 
Marconi for such generous and invaluable assist- 
ance which will undoubtedly be of enormous 
advantage to British meteorology. 
An exhibition is being held in London of the 
results of what is described as a new process for 
the preservation of animal tissues, by the injection 
of a fluid, the composition of which is not made 
public. The process is said to afford a satisfactoiy 
method of embalming animal bodies and of jire- 
serving museum specimens in a condition closely 
resembling life. The period which has elapsed 
since the application of the process to the various 
preparations exhibited is said by the inventor to 
range from a few weeks to thirty years. 
In a letter from Dr. Logan Taylor, the leader 
of the Sierra Leone expedition of the Liverpool 
School of Tropical Medicine, reference is made 
to the progress of the expedition in Sierra Leone. 
A very decided absence of anopheles larvte in 
places where it was formerly easy to get any number 
has been noticed, and is due to their not being 
able to breed owing to the pools being either swepc 
out or oiled regularly. Compared with the corre- 
sponding time last year, in some of the noto- 
riously bad streets where in a single house as many 
as six, seven or a dozen anopheles mosquitoe? could 
be found in the early morning this year, after 
searching house after house with great diffitMilty, 
one, or perhaps two, adult insects alone were dis- 
covered. Since the members of the Liverpool 
School expedition stopped dealing up yards and 
emptying out the water containing cnlex larvaj, 
no one else has taken up the work, and these 
insects are getting bad again, and unless the 
Government or the school will keep on the work, 
the money the school has spent on it will be almost 
thrown away. 
Symons's Meteorological Magazine, for Decern- 
her last contains a climatological table for the 
British Empire for 1901, so far as it can be shown 
by nineteen representative stations, but it i? nob 
claimed that the records quoted furnish more than 
a few useful samples of the various climates included 
in the British dominions. The highest temperature 
in the shade was 110° at Adelaide, in February. 
A new station has been included, viz. Diwson, 
where a temperature of 5l)° in the shade was re- 
corded in December, but the observations are 
incomplete. The highest mean temperature was 
82° -1 at Colombo, and the lowest 36°-4 at Winnipeg. 
The driest station was Adelaide, mean humidity 
59°," and the dampest Colombo, niea:i humiaity 
82°. The highest temperature in the sun was 
168°, at frinidad. The greatest rainfall was 114 
inches, at Lagos, and the least 1 8 inches, at Ade- 
laide.. Mone of the extremes referred to can claim 
distinction as "records," but at individual stations 
the sun temperatures at London, 139° 8, and at 
Malta, 162°'9, are the highest ob.^eived there, and 
at London the number of rainy days, 128, is the 
lowest since these interesting tables were com- 
menced. 
The first three parts of thp second volumes of the 
Records of the Botanical Survey of India have 
been issued. Mr J J Wood has compiled a list of 
f lants mainly fr'tin the province of Clmtia Nagpur. 
This part includes a map of the district lind two 
sectional diagram'-. Mr Grammie has recorded the 
results of his investigations into plants used during 
periods of drouuht. For the purpose of making 
bread, seeds of species of Indigofeia, Cyauotis and 
Panicum are used. Other sources of nourishment 
are the leaves ot Amarantus, Riveaand Leptadenia. 
A s.ystematic enumeration of the species of Cala- 
mus and Dasmonorops, by Mr O Beccari, is based 
mostly on plants growing on in the Malayan Pen- 
insula and the adjacent islands, and only a few 
species belong to India or Ceylon. 
" Tiree marble," with notes on others from lona, 
by Mr Ananda K Coomaraswainy. [Now ap- 
pointed (Tovernment Mineralogist for Ceylon, — 
£d. T.A.I The gneiss near Balephetrish has a 
general south-westerly and north easterly tr^'nd, 
and the limestone occurs in it as lenticleSi 
Descriptions of the varieties of the limestone 
in this locality are given. The inclusions com- 
prise those of gneiss containing quartz, fels- 
pars, I'.ornb'ende, augite, scapolite and spliene 
as characteristic minerals, and mineral-aggregates, 
consisiing of sahlite, coccolite, scapolite, sphene, 
apatite, calcite and mica. Tiie contaec-pheuutueua 
are not specially well displayed. The dynamic 
plienomina include the rounding of the minerals and 
the toi ination of "augen." The carbonates are pre- 
sent as a fine-grained granular matrix. Although 
there are exceptions, gneiss-inclusions and mineral 
aggregates have usually been protected from the 
effects of extreme pressure. The description of 
minerals includes carhonates, pyroxene, amphibole, 
fosterite, scapolite, sphene, mica, apatite and 
spinel. Various marbles are described from lona, 
where they are associated with actinolite-felspar 
schists and others; they are included in the gneiss. 
— Nature, Jan, loth. 
"Foliar Picrtodioity in Ceylon."— Mr. 
Herbert Wright's paper on this subject 
which appeared in full in our columns has 
since been reproduced in "Indian Plantinpf 
•and Gardening " and " West Indian Bul- 
letins " ; while .abstracts have been given 
in Annals of Botany, London " and ia 
several hon^e and Ceylon papers, 
