Montreal. The arrangements made by the cable company were such that by means of relays and repeaters at the intermediate points the signal sent by the King travelled the whole distance without manual help. The current transmitted from West Dean Park released a current at Montreal which opened the doors of the new institute, hoisted a Union Jack, and turned on the electric light. This is, we think, the first time that a ceremony of this kind has been performed at such a distance, namely, 3000 miles, without any outside assistance, and shows the great advance that has been made in telegraphic transmission of iate years. Within one minute of the key being pressed at West Dean Park a return signal was received from Montreal intimating that the ceremony had been performed satisfactorily, and a message of congratulation was sent by the King to the manager of the Commercial Cable Company within four minutes of the first signal. All these facts prove that modern telegraphic instruments are becoming more and more efficient, and the latest accomplishment will doubtless advance the closer relationship between the Mother Country and the colonies.

THE United States Government, says Science, is now carrying on work at regular forest experiment stations similar to the agricultural experiment stations in the different States. The first forest experiment station created was the Coconino Experiment Station at Flagstaff, Arizona, established in 1908. Investigations covering many phases of forestry in the south-west have already been undertaken at this station. The second forest experiment station has been established this year on Pike's Peak, Colorado. The need for such stations becomes apparent when the long time necessary for handling forest experiments is considered; in forestry, because of the long time required for trees to develop, scores of years are often required to complete a single experiment. All experimental work is conducted under the direction of men who have had training in technical and practical forestry. The greatest technical problem which now confronts the forester in handling the great pine forests of Arizona and New Mexico is that of establishing a new stand of trees to replace the old timber which is cut off. This was the first problem undertaken by the Coconino Experiment Station. Much information regarding the factors influencing natural reproduction has been secured already, but many years of systematic study will be required to solve the problem. The feasibility of artificial regeneration by planting and sowing is also being tested. The plans for the near future provide for a detailed study of the problems concerning the natural and artificial regeneration of other commercial trees, such as Douglas fir, Engelmann spruce, and the junipers.

We learn from the Pioneer Mail that a committee has been appointed for establishing a Pasteur institute in Burma, and is actively engaged in forwarding the scheme. Recently the Secretary of State intimated, in view of the straitened condition of the provincial finances of Burma and of the fact that there was no guarantee that the initial capital outlay on the institute would be met from private subscriptions, sufficient cause to resort to public money had hardly been made out, and consequently regretted his inability to sanction the project as outlined in the first instance. A subcommittee, appointed to formulate a working scheme for the building and equipment of the institute, has reported, and is of opinion that it is possible to provide for bare requirements for one-half of the available capital. The institute, it is hoped, will in course of time find itself in proximity to a general bacteriological institute, and it is considered desirable that the buildings of the institute

shall be permanent and substantial, so that they will be a creditable feature of the entire group of buildings to be constructed ultimately for scientific research. The subcommittee recommends, also, that the institute should be under the direction of an officer specially selected in the United Kingdom for his success in bacteriological research. Such an officer, it is suggested, should be appointed on a special agreement, and should not expect transfer, war service, pension, private practice, or any other of the special privileges open to members of the Indian Medical Service.

THE third part of vol. vi. of the Annals of the South African Museum is devoted to the continuation of Messrs. Gilchrist's and Wardlaw's description of a collection of fishes from the coast of Natal, among which several are

new.

IN a paper on the remains of Carboniferous airbreathing vertebrates in the U.S. National Museum, published in No. 1696 of the Proceedings of that institution, Mr. R. S. Moody directs special attention to the reptile Isodectes punctulatus, on account of its bearing on the origin of the reptilian class. The type and only known specimen, which lacks the skull and nearly the whole of the fore-limbs, and measures less than 6 inches, is redescribed in detail. It displays indications of affinity with the Microsauria, but its ordinal position among reptiles cannot be determined. Several new amphibians are described in the paper.

To the October number of the Popular Science Monthly Prof. W. A. Locy contributes a thoughtful article on the service of zoology to intellectual progress. The study of this science has been a great factor in the cultivation of straight thinking; "its influence has been great in clearing the atmosphere of thought, in dispelling clouds, and in freeing the mind from the bonds of inherited prejudice and traditional superstition." Another result was the conception of the constancy of nature, and, in particular, the idea that all animal life is the result of one continuous and orderly progress. As regards the practical applications of zoology-often in connection with botany-these have been exemplified during the last decade by the wonderful discoveries as to the modes in which diseases are introduced into the human systems by the intervention of insect and other animal carriers, while scarcely less important are the benefits which a knowledge of heredity has conferred upon breeders. Finally, there is the crowning service which zoology has conferred upon mankind in enabling us to realise the existence of evolution, which is so comprehensive in its extent that it enters into all realms of thought, and largely aids in teaching man to comprehend himself, and in some dim degree to understand his own future destiny.

In a pamphlet entitled " Breeding Horses for Use, or Equine Eugenics," published by Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein and Co., Ltd., Mr. Francis Ram seems well pleased to play the part of Cassandra, for he tells us that, six-andtwenty years ago, he issued under the same title an unanswerable pamphlet, and that if the advice contained therein had been followed a sum of at least 100,000,000l. would have been saved to the nation, while the breed of horses would have been vastly improved. The main feature of the scheme seems to be the substitution of stallions for geldings in cavalry and omnibus horses, and the selection from among these, after severe tests of stamina and endurance, of a small percentage for breeding purposes. Perhaps the author might have had a better chance of getting his scheme more carefully considered had he not

run a tilt at judges at horse-shows and other experts, whom he pronounces utterly unfit for their duties. He also seems to possess better vision than most persons, as he asserts that he can see the true position of the limbs of a galloping horse without the aid of photography, while he also accuses Sir Ray Lankester of being in error regarding the position of the legs and feet in a running dog.

structure. It appears that the fishes are well known to the native Malays, who actually make use of the luminous organs for catching other fish, cutting them out and attaching them to the hook above the proper bait, under which conditions they will remain luminous for some hours, a fact which throws an interesting sidelight on the function of such organs. The fishes themselves are, as one would suppose, predaceous, feeding on all the small inhabitants of the coral reef, especially crustacea.

are really only four types entitled to specific rank. This view is entirely ignored by Mr. G. S. Miller in a paper on the mouse-deer (chevrotains) of the Rhio-Linga Archipelago, published as No. 1695 of the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, in which a large number of island forms related to the napu are treated as distinct species. Apart from this, Mr. Miller draws some interesting conclusions regarding the development of melanism and other colour-phases in this group. "The only conclusion that seems justified," he writes, "is that the Tragulus napu group consists of a series of local species whose colourpattern, probably for some physiological reason, is varying along two main lines of divergence, both of which are independent of external conditions as ordinarily understood. Each series is equally incapable of explanation by the hypotheses of Lamarck, Darwin, or De Vries. On the larger land-masses such changes as may be taking place are uniform over wide areas and relatively slow, while in the regions which, by submergence, have become divided into small land-areas separated by water the changes are irregular and rapid, though progressing on different islands at a very unequal rate.

MESSRS. WILLIAMS AND NORGATE have forwarded to us the third and fourth parts of the thirty-ninth volume of Gegenbaur's Morphologisches Jahrbuch, containing papers on the development of the vertebral column in Echidna and in man, by G. P. Frets; the prothorax of birds and mammals, by T. Funccius; the saccus endolymphaticus, by Giuseppe Sterzi; the segmental theory of the vertebrate head, by B. Hatschek; the swim-bladder of Malacopterygii, by L. F. de Beaufort; and the brain-pattern of the anterior cranial fossa, by E. Landau.

WE have received from the publishers an essay, by Prof. O. Grosser, on the methods of foetal nourishment amongst mammals (including man), forming part iii. of the collection of anatomical and physiological lectures and essays edited by Profs. Gaupp and Nagel (Sammlung anatomischer und physiologischer Vorträge und Aufsätze, Heft iii.; Jena Gustav Fischer, 1909, price 60 pf.).

THE investigations of the Challenger and other deepsea exploring expeditions have long since made us familiar with the fact that many deep-sea fishes possess luminous organs of various kinds, but one would hardly expect to find such organs in species which live habitually in shallow water. It appears, however, from the observations of Dr. Otto Steche, published in a recent number of the Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie (Band 93, Heft iii.), that we must modify our ideas on this subject. Anomalops katoptron and Photoblepheron palpebratus are two fishes which inhabit the shallow waters of a coral reef in the Malay Archipelago. In each case the luminous organ is a large oval body lying beneath the eye. The author was able to keep the fish in captivity, and gives some interesting particulars of the behaviour of the organ in the living animal, as well as a detailed account of its microscopical

A NOTE on tamarisk manna is contributed by Mr. D. of Bengal (vol. v., No. 2). The substance is obtained from the halophytic shrub Tamarix gallica and from Tamarix articulata, while the species Pallasii yields an inferior sweet gum. It has not been ascertained whether the manna is produced by insect agency or is a natural secretion of the plant. The ordinary method of extraction consists in pounding the branches or leaves; the saccharine ingredient of the manna was found to be cane-sugar. A curious occurrence of manna was observed on certain land in Seistan which was subject to inundation; the manna shed by the tamarisk bushes had apparently dissolved in the water and dried out in lumps as the water evaporated.

ON the subject of nomenclature in connection with plant Engler's Botanische Jahrbücher (vol. xliii., part iii.), deformations, an article by Dr. R. Gradmann, published in serves careful attention. It is pointed out that three methods of classification have been advanced, the physiognomic, adopted by Grisebach, the pioneer in this branch of botany; the ecological, exemplified by Warming's “Plant last-named, it is observed that while the designation of Formations"; and the purely floristic. As regards the formations according to dominant and subdominant or typical plants has its practical uses, the only comprehensive system is furnished by a complete list of all the plants for each individual formation. Three points arise out of this paper-first, the basis for a system of classification; secondly, a convenient designation for each formation; and, thirdly, the means of differentiation between similar formations.

THE National Geographic Magazine (p. 822) contains an interesting paper, by Mr. G. R. Putnam, of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, on modern nautical charts. The article contains a popular account of the methods of hydrographical surveying and chart construction, and charts of different periods are compared.

THE first number of a new volume of the Abhandlungen of the Vienna Geographical Society is devoted to a memoir, by Dr. H. Leiter, on the question of changes of climate in northern Africa during historic times. An exhaustive examination from different points of view shows that there is no evidence that any progressive change of climate has taken place.

WE have received Publications Nos. 3 and 4 of the Finland Commission for Hydrographic and Biological Investigations in the Gulf of Finland. In the first of these Dr. Johan Gehrke discusses at length the variations in the mean values of temperature and salinity in the waters of the gulf, from observations made at three stations during the years 1902-7. The second memoir consists of a table giving hourly values of water-level at Hangö from 1897 to 1903.

CAPTAIN P. K. KOZLOFF contributes an account of the Mongolia-Sze-Chuan expedition, carried out under his charge on behalf of the Imperial Russian Geographical

two groups other bands were observed, and the wavelengths are given. It is interesting to note that when the arc-gap was lengthened the line at A 4227 reversed at the positive pole only, while H and K were much stronger near the negative pole than the positive.

THE Concluding part of the first volume of the Memoirs of the College of Science and Engineering, Kyoto Imperial University, contains a second paper by Mr. Y. Osaka on the mutarotation of glucose. It is shown that the velocity of the change of rotatory power which takes place in freshly prepared solutions of this sugar increases between 15° and 25° in the ratio 1/2.7. Sodium chloride has no catalytic action at dilutions below N/15, but at N/10 and N/5 a distinct retardation could be detected, as already noted by Levy and by Trey; in presence of hydrogen chloride, however, it was found to stimulate the catalytic action of the acid. In accordance with the author's theoretical conceptions, the addition of a trace of a weak acid (N/300 succinic or acetic acid) was found to produce a slight retardation, although larger quantities of the acid accelerated the change. The same issue contains a paper by Kuhara and Komatsu on a series of isomeric phenylphthalimides. Two compounds previously described could not be prepared again, but, in addition to the ordinary stable, colourless phthalimide, the authors obtained a colourless isomeride melting at 83-84°, which readily passed over into the stable form, and a yellow compound melting at 125-126°, which could not be transformed. The isomerism of the derivatives of phthalic acid is undoubtedly one of the most important of the cases awaiting investigation, and further work in this direction is much to be desired.

THE October issue of Pearson's Magazine contains a further instalment of Lieut. Shackleton's narrative entitled "Nearest the South Pole." In the same number is also to be found an illustrated article dealing with oak galls.

MM. A. HERMANN ET FILS, of Paris, have published a second French edition of the third part of Mr. W. Rouse Ball's "Mathematical Recreations and Essays." The volume includes the chapters on astrology, hyper-space, and time and its measurement, together with additions by MM. Margossian, Reinhart, FitzPatrick, and Aubry. The translation is from the fourth English edition, and its price is 5 francs.

IN the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (xliv., 25) Messrs. Gilbert W. Lewis and Richard C. Tolman discuss the principle of relativity, and the system of non-Newtonian mechanics required to maintain such fundamental conservation laws as that of energy and to reconcile them with the experimental results of Michelson and Morley and of Bucherer.

are

A SERIES of volumes on the history of science has been arranged by the Rationalist Press Association, and will be published by Messrs. Watts and Co. The first two volumes The History of Astronomy," by Prof. George Forbes, and The History of Chemistry (vol. i., from earliest times to 1850 A.D.), by Sir T. E. Thorpe. Among the authors who will contribute to the series are Dr. J. Scott Keltie (geography), Mr. Horace B. Woodward (geology), Prof. L. C. Miall (biology), and Dr. A. C. Haddon (anthropology).

THE Railway Department of the Cape Government has issued a second edition of its official guide-book under the title " Cape Colony To-day." The book runs to 280 pages, is profusely illustrated, and provides an admirable account of the distinguishing characteristics of the districts

described. For the convenience of tourists who wish to explore Cape Colony thoroughly nine tours have been mapped out, and particulars are given of the chief towns and other interesting places en route. The principal industries dealt with are fruit and grain growing and ostrich farming in the western province; sheep, goat, and ostrich farming and fruit growing in the midland districts; and the cultivation of maize. Every sort of information likely to be of service to the traveller is to be found in the book.

A copy of the report for 1908-9 of the council of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne has been received. The society is to be congratulated upon receiving, by the will of the late Mr. George E. Crawhall, a legacy of 6000l. to be invested for the benefit of its funds. The legacy was most opportune in view of the many financial needs of the society, and it is to be hoped that the council's appeal for donations to enable the cost of maintenance of the Hancock Museum at Newcastle-upon-Tyne and of printing the society's Transactions to be met will be responded to generously. The curator's report on the museum shows that a complete overhauling and re-installation of the fishes in the zoology department has been effected, and that valuable specimens have been presented to different sections of the museum.

numerous

A SIXTH edition of Mr. Herbert M. Wilson's " Irrigation Engineering" has been published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall, Ltd., in this country, and by Messrs. John Wiley and Sons in America. The fourth edition of the work was reviewed at length in these columns on January 28, 1904 (vol. Ixix., p. 291), and it will suffice to mention some of the distinguishing characteristics of the present edition. The book has been re-written almost entirely, and brings up to date the remarkable progress made in construction by the Reclamation Service of the United States. Much old matter has been eliminated, and a large amount of new text and eighty new illustrations, representative of more modern designs for irrigation works, have been introduced.

WE have received the third part of the first volume of the Journal of the Municipal School of Technology, Manchester. An explanatory note points out that the journal was established to record the original scientific work done in the school by members of the teaching staff or by students. Such work has accumulated so rapidly, however, that it has been decided to print. in abstract only, or in some cases the titles only, of all the work published previous to 1908 which has not appeared in the journal already. The papers for 1908 are to be printed in full. The present issue contains the paper by Mr. J. Prescott on the figure of the earth which appeared in the Philosophical Magazine of October, 1907, and abstracts of papers from the mechanical engineering, the physics, the electrical engineering, and the chemistry departments. It is noteworthy that the excellently produced periodical was printed in the photography and printing crafts department

of the school.

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. HALLEY'S COMET.-In a communication to No. 4263 of the Astronomische Nachrichten (p. 319, October 13), Prof. Millosevich states that the photographic observations of Halley's comet made on September 14 show that the elements already published need very small corrections, and that, according to his calculations, perihelion passage should occur at 1910 April 19.2d. (Berlin M.T.) +0.5d.

Father Searle, director of the Brooklands Catholic University Observatory (U.S.A.), finds, from the Mount