pecked very slowly, and frequently raised her head and stretched her wings as if partially narcotised. This experiment was repeated on the cock, but I could not detect any indications of narcosis. The saucer was filled with hot dilute sulphuric acid, into which an ounce of powdered cyanide of potassium was thrown. The evolution of prussic acid was so violent that I considered the neighbourhood unsafe. My gardener, who was working thirty yards away, spoke to me of the "smell of almonds." For some minutes the cock turkey fed with his usual eagerness; then, suddenly, he began to stagger round the enclosure, crossing his legs and holding his beak straight up in the air. He made his way back into the pen, where he stood with head down and wings outstretched. After ten minutes he returned to the enclosure, but did not eat any more grain. His comb and wattles were deeply suffused with blood.

In all observations on the sense of smell of animals we have an obvious difficulty to face. There is no reason for supposing that an animal enjoys an odour which pleases us or dislikes one which we find disagreeable. My dog appeared to be almost indifferent to bisulphide of carbon. He showed, however, great repugnance to chloroform and prussic acid. It is difficult to think that an animal which is unable to protect itself from the injurious effects of such drugs as these can possess the sense of smell.

I shall be very grateful to any of your readers who will give me information on this subject. Especially should I be glad to learn something about the habits of wingless birds, the mode of life of which, more or less, resembles that of a terrestrial mammal. In them, if in any birds, it would seem likely that the sense of smell would be efficient. In his memoir on the Apteryx, Owen stated that "the relative extent and complexity of the turbinated bones and the capacity of the posterior part of the nasal cavity exceed those of any other bird; and the sense of smell must be proportionately acute and important in its economy. Downing College Lodge, January 26. ALEX. HILL.

The Origin of Radium.

Is the issue of NATURE for January 26, Mr. Soddy describes the present position of his experiments on the production of radium from compounds of uranium, and announces a positive result.

Since I wrote on May 5, 1904, pointing out that, on the theory of Rutherford and Soddy, the quantity of radium developed by a few hundred grams of uranium should be measurable in a few months, a quantity of about 400 grams of uranium nitrate has been preserved in my laboratory.

I am not yet prepared to give definite quantitative results, but Mr. Soddy's announcement may perhaps excuse a preliminary statement that the quantity of radium emanation now evolved by my uranium salt is distinctly and appreciably greater than at first.

A rough calculation of the rate of growth of radium indicates a rate of change far slower than that suggested by the simplest theory of the process, but somewhat quicker than that given by Mr. Soddy, who finds that about 2 X 10-12 of the uranium is transformed per annum. As Mr. Soddy says, it is possible that the total amount of emanation is not secured, and the fraction obtained may depend to some extent on the particular method used by each experimenter. But another possibility should be borne in mind. If a non-radio-active product, intermediate between uranium and radium, exists, the rate of appearance of radium would be slower at first, and quicker as the experiment proceeds. My uranium salt was not purified so successfully as that used by Mr. Soddy, and, when the first measurement was made a month or so after preparation, the yield of radium emanation was appreciable. It may be that Mr. Soddy is tracing the process from its inception, and that I have started at a later stage, where the rate of formation is somewhat greater. Further observation may be expected to elucidate these and other questions. W. C. D. WHETHAM.

Cambridge, January 30.

Fact in Sociology.

I ADDRESSED a letter to the editor of NATURE replying. to what I allege to be misrepresentations and misstatements in a review of three of my books by "F. W. H." (December 29, 1904, p. 193). After a delay of some weeksdue to the absence of "F. W. H." abroad, the editor of NATURE has written to ask me to modify and shorten my protest.

"F. W. H." told the readers of NATURE that my "Food of the Gods " "claimed to forecast the future." This was untrue, and I said so.

"F. W. H." mixed up my discussion of probabilities in "Anticipations" with my general review of educational. influences in "Mankind in the Making," and presented this as my ideals. I pointed out that this was an unsound method of criticism.

"F. W. H." presented the following as my opinions :Germany will be cowed by the combined English and American Navies, and Anglo-Saxonism will eventually triumph. There remain the Yellow Races. Their star, too, will pale before that of the Anglo-Saxons." I repudiated this balderdash with some asperity. It is violently unlike my views.

He wrote of me, "he seems unaware of the part in the national life that is played by the lower stratum of society, the stagnant' masses as he would call them.' I denied that I should, and pointed out that no one does know what part is played by any stratum of society in national reproduction. It is a field of unrecorded facts. I commented on "F. W. H.'s" assumption that he was. in possession of special knowledge.

true.

He wrote of "the fact that this stratum is an absolute necessity." This is not a fact. It may or may not be I commented on this use of the word "fact" in view of "F. W. H.'s" professorial sneer at my 'imagination unclogged by knowledge.

66

He declared that I want to get rid of the reckless classes, and depend solely on the careful classes,' a statement which has not an atom of justification. He not only 64 guys my suggestions, but foists an absolutely uncongenial phraseology upon me.

66

Finally, he wrote, we are to introduce careful parentage, that is, put a stop to natural selection." I quoted this in view of his statement that I had "no very thorough grasp of the principles of evolution." I discussed what appeared to be his ideas about evolution. They appeared to me to be crude and dull, and I regret I cannot condense my criticisms to my present limits.

I expressed some irritation at his method of misstatement followed by reply, and hinted a doubt whether my own style of inquiry-in spite of the fact that romances. blacken my reputation-was not really more scientific H. G. WELLS.

than his.

The Fertilisation of Jasminum nudiflorum. THIS well known plant, in accordance with its usual. habit, has been flowering in my garden at Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, since the third week in December, 1904, and amidst frost and snow and cold winds. There are no leaves, but there are thousands of bright yellow flowers. It is a puzzle to me how fertilisation is effected. The two. stamens are situated about half-way down the tube of the corolla, and about four or five millimetres below the style, which is, in many cases, two millimetres longer than the tube of the corolla. It seems to me to be a plant requiring the aid of insects in its fertilisation, but there are no insects to be seen at this time of the year. January 22, as there was some sunshine, I watched the plant for about four hours, but no insect paid it a visit. At the same time I found the oblong anthers had split and pollen grains were sticking to the stigma in many flowers. The brilliantly coloured flowers, although destitute of scent, are fitted to attract insects, and the form of the flower seems adapted for their visits. But there are no insects! Can anyone offer an explanation? The plant is beautifully figured in the Botanical Magazine, Ixxviii., tab. 4649. JOHN MCKENDRICK.

University of Glasgow, January

On

It will be seen that the chief maximum is about double the chief minimum in one case, and more than double in the other.

In a dot-diagram, where each day is represented separately according to its barometer (not merely grouped with others as below a certain limit), the contrast between the phases comes out still more clearly.

The view here given apparently finds support from various quarters. In the Meteorologische Zeitschrift for 1900, p. 421, Herr Börnstein gives a curve of pressure for Berlin (May to August in 1883-1900) which is of similar type to those in the diagram. Fr. Dechevrens informs me that the results above given agree with those of his own observations in China, Constantinople, and Jersey. M. Sainte Claire-Deville found the same variation at Cayenne, in French Guiana.

With regard to the winter half (October to March), the régime would appear to be somewhat different, but I cannot speak definitely of it at present.

Whether the facts presented be thought to indicate lunar influence or not, it may be of interest to watch future weather (in the summer half) from the point of view suggested. ALEX. B. MACDOWALL.

13 11

5 3

presented by a dot in those (graduated) columns; total 407. The dots in each column were then counted, and the sums obtained were added in groups of three (first to third, second to fourth, third to fifth, and so on). Thus we get the upper curve in the diagram.

In the case of Greenwich, the method was slightly different (see lower horizontal scale). The columns were for seven days about each of the four phases. For comparison with the Ben Nevis curve we commence with the first day after new moon. The days here considered were those with barometer under 29.6 inches; total, 476.

These two curves seem to tell much the same tale; few days of low barometer about (just after) full and new moon, many such days about (just after) the quarters. Thus, so far as the summer half in those twenty-one years is concerned, the popular belief would appear to be vindicated.

To give a fuller idea of the relations, I add a table of the maximum and minimum values (each number is, of course, the sum of three) :—

Reversal in Influence Machines.

a

THE method suggested for producing reversal on Voss or Wimshurst will not be found always trustworthy. Atmospheric conditions make a great difference. I have been experimenting for more than a year with the view of finding a solution of the reversal problem, and think I have succeeded in tracing the cause, which is primarily connected with dielectric strain. A Wimshurst with the dischargers beyond sparking distance, working at full speed, will often reverse if the discharge is made by suddenly connecting the terminals, but there is no certainty in producing this effect. I have recently constructed an influence machine akin to the Voss except that the replenishment is from the back of the disc. Reversal is still the stumbling block, and must occur with fixed inductors, while no plan for controlling the reversal can be relied upon. I should be happy to give any of your correspon. dents fuller particulars of my experiments if they will communicate with me. CHARLES E. BENHAM.

Colchester, January 14.

Dates of Publication of Scientific Books.

MAY I through your columns suggest to publishersespecially of scientific and mathematical books-to give in their catalogues the dates of publication of their books? As a book often gets out of date very soon, such an addition would greatly help those who have no access to good libraries in selecting books to be purchased. I may say that this is done almost invariably in the catalogues of French and German publishers. To take an instance, the Clarendon Press still includes Price's "Infinitesimal Calculus" in its catalogue. Now, although to one who wants to study the subject in an exhaustive manner the book is very valuable, still, to one who wishes to know the principles only, the book is, to say the least, not worth the big price asked for; and if the date of publication were mentioned in the catalogue, the purchaser would at any rate know that he was not buying an up to date book. R. P. PARAIYPYE. Fergusson College, Poona, India, January 1.

In tropical Africa there are thousands of square miles of land suitable for growing the Para tree. But whilst the demand for rubber has been increasing with the development of the electrical and motor industries, the number of forest trees yielding the substance has been diminishing, year by year, as a consequence of the faulty methods of " tapping employed by the natives. Hence a stimulus has been given to the production of rubber by cultivation; and with a view of fostering the industry in West Africa, Mr. Johnson was commissioned by Government in 1902 to visit Ceylon and study the methods employed there in the management of the plantations and the preparation of the rubber. He now gives, for the benefit of persons taking up the cultivation, some of the results of the visit in the form of such practical advice as would be likely to assist them in their undertaking.

The rubber trees are raised from the seeds, which may be obtained from Ceylon or the Straits Settlements at a cost of about 6s. 8d. per thousand. When the tree has attained a girth of twenty to twenty-four inches, the latex can safely be tapped; this may be in about five to seven years from the date of planting. The yield varies greatly, depending on the soil, the age of the tree, and the method of tapping. At present no really satisfactory data are available; but from such statistics as are given it would seem that about 1 lb. to 3 lb. of dry rubber per annum may be the average product of each tree. In addition, the seeds yield a drying oil somewhat resembling that obtained from linseed. As regards the latex-bearing "life" of the trees, it is stated, on the authority of the director of the Botanic Gardens, Straits Settlements, that trees are known to have been tapped, off and on, during fifty years, and to be still yielding a plentiful supply of latex.

compare favourably with the rubber given by the older methods of separation. These consist in coagulating the latex, either by simple exposure to the air or by the addition of an acid or a salt; the resulting coagulum is washed and rolled to free it from moisture and nitrogenous matters, and then dried by gently heating. The particular process suggested by the author is that of spontaneous coagulation of the latex in shallow saucers, followed, after washing and rolling, by exposure to the smoke of a wood fire as an antiseptic treatment. The price

The rubber-substance is contained in the latex of the plant in the form of minute globules, much as butter-fat exists in cow's milk. These globules can be made to coalesce by centrifugal action, just as cream is formed from milk in an ordinary separator; but the product thus obtained does not, apparently, 1The Cultivation and Preparation of Para Rubber." By W. H. Johnson. Pp. xii+99. (London: Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1904.) Price js. 6d. net.

and no great demand is made upon the skill of the cultivator who desires to try his fortune in this direction. As regards the call upon his capital, some idea of the cost of opening and maintaining a plantation will be obtained from the estimates which the author supplies, showing the expenditure in Ceylon and the Malay Peninsula. As an alternative to teaplanting, orange-growing, and cattle-ranching, the production of rubber would seem to be well worth consideration by young Britons who go abroad in search of a competency. C. SIMMONDS.

PREHISTORIC ENGLAND.'

AS this volume contains a notice by the publishers

The

that they "will shortly begin "the issue of the series of "The Antiquary's Books," to which this belongs, it may be assumed that it is the first. For the reason that it is an earnest of the quality to be expected in its successors, the book, both in manner and matter, must be treated in somewhat more critical and judicial fashion than if the series had been already fairly launched. The responsibility of a publisher in placing an antiquarian library before the public is never light, and at the present time it suffers from the inequality of modern knowledge in respect to the various prehistoric and archæological periods. later stages of the former class have vast floods of light thrown upon them by the constantly recurring discoveries in the Levant, and the comparative method has enabled us to classify many of our native antiquities by their means. In regard to the earlier stages of man's existence we are in the main still advancing at a painfully slow rate, and can scarcely be held to have more than a misty comprehension of the subject. In historic times the same want of balance of knowledge exists equally, though it is a far easier task to mask the difficulty, and to produce a nicely balanced tale from groups of facts of very different values.

The present volume deals only with the relics of man in Britain anterior to the coming of the Roman invaders, and in a sense, therefore, may be called prehistoric, for nothing in the nature of a native record can be quoted in support of any part of it. The author by his title, moreover, limits his field to the remains

8

FIG. 1.-Section of Barrow with successive Interments. From "Remains of the Prehistoric Age in England."

of the dwellers in Britain, that is to say, to the monuments they raised, the implements they made, and the graves in which they deposited their dead. The racial characteristics, as shown by the physical characters, are treated very briefly, and the burning questions of the priority of Brythons and Goidels in the land, of the precise position of the Picts as an indigenous tribe, of the succeeding immigrations from the Continent bringing with them new types of people, of weapons, or of burial customs, are only incidentally mentioned.

By the elimination of all these questions Dr. Windle has set himself an infinitely lighter task; but it is to be questioned how far an intelligent reader can gain

"Remains of the Prehistoric Age in England." By Bertram C. A. Windle, Sc. D., F.R.S. Pp. xv + 320; illustrated. (London: Methuen and Co.) Price 7s. 6d. net.

a true understanding of the conditions described without some fuller information on these points. It must be confessed, however, that the subject bristles with difficulties of all kinds and has tempting pitfalls for even the wary searcher, and, on the other hand, Dr. Windle has a right to set his own limits. Even within these limits he may be thought somewhat hardy, for to give an adequate account of all the material relics of man in Britain from the dawn of human life up to about 2000 years ago, within the compass of little more than three hundred pages, is not a thing to be undertaken with a light heart. One of the principal difficulties to be overcome is to avoid confusion in exposition and arrangement. In this matter Dr. Windle might have had more success. In

FIG. 2.-Ideal Section of Pit-dwelling. a, Natural soil; 6, Bank of same heaped up around Pit; c, Central support of Roof; d, Roof of Turfs and Branches. From "Remains of the Prehistoric Age in England."

more cases than one, instances of special types of implements are quoted without giving the very different periods. For instance, in dealing with necessary information that they belong to widely "pygmy flints," a puzzling subject, Dr. Windle quotes a number of surface finds, and then goes on to say, "in France they have been discovered at Bruniquel.' This can only mislead the inquirer or the student, for, so far as we know, the Bruniquel station, which is undoubtedly of the mammoth period, has no relation at all to such surface finds as have been made in

Lincolnshire, Lancashire, India, or Belgium. Nothing is more certain than that mere type or form alone is the most unsafe criterion of age.

caves

This elementary axiom may sound very like a platitude, but it is constantly neglected by men whose words carry weight, and cannot, therefore, be too much insisted upon. Such errors or vague statements affect the essentials of prehistoric science, and if persisted in inevitably retard the advance of knowledge instead of accelerating it, as Dr. Windle undoubtedly wishes to do. Again, it is very questionable wisdom to devote a chapter to "bone implements," the paragraphs dealing indiscriminately with the remains from the French caves, the Swiss lakes, and from a station like Grime's Graves. In the first place, there is again no relation between the sites quoted, and, so far as the French are concerned, the "bone" implements are mostly of horn. No doubt the information necessary to a proper understanding of the relative ages of the Dordogne caves, the Swiss lake dwellings, and the Norfolk flint pits is to be found elsewhere in the book; but for a popular work dealing with a difficult and complicated subject the first essential is clearness of exposition beyond all possibility of misunderstanding. Further, Dr. Windle's authorities are occasionally antiquated. It is not treating the reader quite fairly to give him Dr. Thurnam's classification of barrows without qualification. Is it, for instance, quite certain in the light of recent knowledge that all round barrows are of the Bronze age? It is also a trifle hard to find the late Dr. Frazer quoted as an authority on