was to be carried out, the total number of surgeons to be maintained was excessive. Putting aside this question of economy and distribution of personnel, the system was extravagant owing to the hospitals being regimental also; this involved an unnecessary duplication of equipment, while, too, in many instances the regimental surgeons, by this limitation of their sphere of duty, had a tendency to drift into a quasiroutine method of professional practice.

In 1858, following the close of the Crimean War, came the Royal Commission under the presidency of Sidney Herbert. The immediate result of its report was the formation of the Army Medical School at Netley for the training of medical officers in military technical duties, also the re-modelling of the service and the initiation of practical reforms in the administration of military medical affairs, as well as the creation for hospital duties of the Army Hospital Corps, a body of men possessing a complete military organisation. In 1873 the system of regimental surgeons, except in the Guards, was abolished finally, and all medical officers were consolidated into one staff; at the same time disappeared also the regimental hospitals, their places being taken by general hospitals and station or field hospitals. From this date all regimental organisation ceased to exist, the arrangements for medical affairs passing into the hands of the medical officers alone. In 1877 authority was given to medical officers to command the whole of the Army Hospital Corps, and also all patients in military hospitals, as well as other soldiers attached to them for hospital duty. From this date the medical officers became invested with the responsibilities as to discipline, training, supply, payment, and movement of their own subordinates, similar to the responsibilities resting upon a commissioned officer in any other branch of the service. In 1885 the appellation of the Army Hospital Corps was changed to Medical Staff Corps, and in 1898 the Medical Staff and the Medical Staff Corps were further consolidated into an autonomous whole as the Royal Army Medical Corps of the present time. As a necessary sequel to the functions and responsibilities of the Corps in its new organisation, its officers were given full army rank and title, thus completing the evolution of the medical service from the chaotic state when its personnel were mere camp followers endowed with neither official status nor responsibility to the completely autonomous and purely military organisation of to-day. These recent reforms have embraced the granting of good pay, liberal terms of service and study, with the abolition of the archaic school of instruction at Netley and the substitution of a Royal Army Medical College in London, where the officers of the Corps are brought into intimate touch with the newest theories and practice of medicine. In a word, the liberal and far-seeing policy of those responsible for the reforms of 1899 to 1902 has revolutionised the position and moral of the Corps, with the result that its 1002 officers and 4189 noncommissioned officers and men constitute a contented and thoroughly efficient body of technically trained men, equipped and able to meet the needs of the sick and the wounded.

Is the task ended? it may be asked, and have we reached finality in our efforts to build up a medical corps at once worthy of the country and the Army of which it is an integral unit? Unfortunately no; there is much yet to be done. Military history has, up to to-day, been a history of the battle only, of brave deeds done and suffering bravely borne; but what of the history of the means by which armies were rendered numerically efficient and placed in a condition to fight? We have faced the problem of how to treat and provide for the sick and wounded, and

unhesitatingly compel our commanders to encumber their fighting force with impedimenta and medical provision for 10 per cent. of sick; but need this be? The two great scourges of armies in the field are enteric and dysentery. During the late war in South Africa, these two diseases alone caused 74,000 admissions to hospital and 9200 deaths. Yet both diseases are largely preventable. It is no exaggeration to say that for every man wounded in war twenty sick men are brought to hospital, largely from preventable causes. The unopposed crossing of the Modder River lost us more men from enteric than the battle of Colenso lost us from wounds. Surely if this enormous waste of fighting strength is avoidable, the prevention of sickness and disease in a field force is of more importance than the mere treatment of its victims. Thanks to the evolution in its organisation and perfection of equipment which the Royal Army Medical Corps now presents, the soldier of to-day has a better chance of recovery than the sick or wounded man of the Peninsular or Crimean Wars; but the same cannot be said of the soldier's chances of contracting preventable disease, for the organisation and equipment of the British Army as to disease prevention remain little better than they were a hundred years ago. The reason of this is, that army administration (medical) has not kept pace with the advance of science, and has neglected to note early the influence of Pasteur's work upon the problem of war. This, then, is the task still before the army medical servicehow to translate scientific knowledge into an administrative system for the efficient prevention of disease among troops in the field. This would be easy enough if no regard were paid to the necessities of mobility and supplies, but those are points which we cannot ignore; in fact, the whole object and aim of sanitary effort is to increase fighting efficiency and lessen transport; therefore, in our campaign to reduce the incidence of preventable disease, we need to be careful not to add impedimenta to the Army with one hand even though we take some away with the other.

It is to the solution of this problem that the medical corps of the Army is now devoting itself, and the principles on which it is working are briefly these :— (1) the Army at large, from highest to lowest, must be educated to appreciate the need of radical reforms in the direction of preventing disease, and to understand that these cannot be secured "by order " only, but require personal effort on the part of each individual and the recognition by officers of their own direct responsibility for the health of their men; (2) the elaboration of an organised system for providing safe and potable water for all troops when in camp or on field service. The practical application of the first principle has taken the form of systematic instruction in the various garrisons of all ranks in elementary sanitation. These classes are conducted by officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps, whereby the importance of personal effort on the part of both officers and men is enforced and the special training of a certain number of men in practical sanitation secured, so that each unit may have its own sanitary squad for these special duties. Having these trained men at their disposal, it is hoped that commanding officers will find no future difficulty in the maintenance of their own lines and camps in conditions of sanitary efficiency. For the provision of safe and approved water to each unit in the field the Royal Army Medical Corps proposes to take full responsibility, and to this end every water-cart, every filter, every heat steriliser, and all chemical reagents for the routine purification of water will be in the charge of, and worked by, trained men of the Medical Corps.

Experience has shown that to hand this kind of equip ment over to other than specially trained men is certain to end in failure. For the training of these men in methods of water purification the new School of Army Sanitation has been established at Aldershot, where special provision is provided for practical instruction in every method and the working or trial of any new apparatus or chemical technique adapted for army needs. The success of this effort has been already remarkable, demonstrating not only the feasibility of purifying water for soldiers under field conditions, either by means of special filters, by heat exchange sterilisers or by chemical reagents, but also showing the fitness of the men of the Royal Army Medical Corps for this special work. The school is utilised also for instruction of men from every branch of the service in general sanitary duties, and in this twofold way constitutes a centre for the dissemination of practical sanitary knowledge and work to the whole Army.

It is early yet to say what will be the final result of this attempt, but everything points to the conclusion that the incidence of preventable disease in time of war must and will be reduced thereby. It is gratifying, further, to record the sympathetic support which the movement is receiving from a large number of general officers, commanding officers, and others outside the medical corps; but there is much leeway to be made up and much apathy and inertia to be overcome. This will be done only by the support of public opinion and interest, particularly of the scientific public. Possibly this outline of the present position may appeal to them to see that the scheme of work here sketched out has free scope and opportunity to evolve itself; in other words, that medical science is applied logically to the attainment of army efficiency, and that disease prevention is regarded as much a function of the medical corps as disease or wound R. H. FIRTH.

treatment.

THE METRIC SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES IN THE COLONIES.1

THE

HE question of the introduction of the metric system of weights and measures into the United Kingdom has been before the public for more than forty years. An important step in this direction was taken in 1897, when the Weights and Measures (Metric System) Act was passed which rendered it lawful to use metric weights and measures in this country for the general purposes of trade. The trading community as a whole has not, however, manifested any eagerness to take advantage of this permissive legislation, and, so far as retail trade is concerned, the use of the metric system appears to be restricted to dispensing chemists and a few vendors of lager beer. It is true that for some years past the system has been allowed to appear in the official syllabus of our public elementary schools, but no stress is laid upon it there, and its chief recommendation is represented as being "the advantage to be gained from uniformity in the method of forming multiples and sub-multiples of the unit."

But although the metric system has made little progress in this country, and has met with scant official encouragement, the importance of its universal adoption is becoming every year more fully recognised in our colonies. The report which forms the subject of this article is a very clear indication of the strong current of public opinion in the Transvaal in favour

1 "Report of the Commission appointed to consider and report upon a Draft Ordinance to consolidate and amend the Law relating to Weights and Measures. (Pretoria: Government Printing Office, 1936.)

of the general adoption of the system. The commissioners, of whom Mr. R. T. A. Innes, the wellknown Government meteorologist, was chairman, recommend that the kilogram, the metre, and the litre be adopted as the basis of the standards of weight and measure in the colony. An important resolution, which will go far towards making the public familiar with metric weights and measures, is that it shall be compulsory to use the system in land surveying and in the retail sale of drugs. The opinion is expressed that it will not be practicable to insist upon the exclusive use of the metric system in general trade in the colony until the system is made compulsory in the United Kingdom, unless the other South African colonies consider it feasible to combine for the purpose.

The commissioners have made a careful survey of the question of weights and measures legislation, and their recommendations are embodied in a final draft ordinance the provisions of which are in many respects a distinct advance on the enactments in force in this country. Thus the definition of ** trade " explicitly includes contracts for land, and so renders surveyors' measures liable to official verification. In the United Kingdom, surveyors generally test their own measures as best they can. The definition of "measuring instrument" includes instruments for the measurement of area. A similar provision in this country would be most beneficial to the leather trade in preventing disputes, now of frequent occurrence. especially in the sale of hides. Short weight and measure, and the practice of weighing the wrappers with goods sold, are made distinctly penal. People defrauded by these practices in the United Kingdom have to seek their remedy in the county court, or in a prosecution for false pretences.

It appears from the minutes of evidence appended to the report that much difficulty is experienced in the Transvaal in getting assay weights standardised with accuracy, especially weights from 10 mg, downwards. Certificates obtained some years ago from official institutions in Austria, England, Germany, and the United States were found to give very different values for the same set of proportional assay weights. So far at least as England and the United States arr concerned, it is probable that at the period in question the standardising institutions had had but little experience in the verification of metric assay weights Within the last few years, however, both these depart ments have been materially strengthened. The recent report of the newly-constituted Bureau of Standards at Washington sufficiently attests the high calibre of the scientific members of the present staff, whilst a corresponding improvement has been effected in this country by the appointment of Major P. A MacMahon, F.R.S., to take charge of the Standards Department of the Board of Trade.

At the forthcoming colonial conference the importance to our colonies of the adoption of the metric system of weights and measures throughout the Empire will be urgently impressed upon the Secretary of State, and it is hoped that the Home authorities will be induced to take a greater interest in this ques tion than they have hitherto evinced. The introduction of the metric system into the United Kingdom is not indeed a task to be lightly undertaken. It word involve much hardship to small traders. and would derange the habits of the whole trading communit Centuries of instruction in the “advantages of uniform multiples of the unit" would not prepare the natur for so great a sacrifice. When so little has br done by the authorities to familiarise the public with the real significance of the question, it is not surprising that public opinion is on the whole unripe for

a change of such magnitude. These considerations are well understood in the colonies. Thus on p. 64 of the report now under consideration we find the statement:" The United Kingdom is conservative and unless this is forced upon them it will never be adopted."

The question of the adoption of the metric system has not been brought forward in our colonies merely from considerations of relative practical utility or of relative scientific perfection, but owing to difficulties experienced in commerce with foreign countries, and to the prospect of continual loss of trade. Until the United Kingdom, their very good customer, takes the lead, they cannot afford to make the change. If their loyalty in respect of weights and measures is thus in great measure enforced upon them, it is none the less pathetic. Every day it is more effectually shutting them out from the new markets which are of vital importance to their commercial prosperity. So long as the public at home are taught that the claims of the metric system are based chiefly on its decimal notation, so long will they remain unconvinced of the necessity for adopting it. On the other hand, if the true issues are placed before them, they are not likely to be inconsiderate in a matter which involves the interests of their most important colonies.

NOTES.

THE following is the text of the address presented by Sir Arch. Geikie for the Royal Society at the recent celebration of the quatercentenary of the University of Aberdeen -The Royal Society of London for Promoting Natural Knowledge sends cordial greetings to the University of Aberdeen on the auspicious occasion of the celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of its foundation. The Royal Society would more specially desire to record its sense of the importance of the services which the University has rendered to the progress of science. From its infancy the society has been privileged to count among its fellows distinguished professors and graduates of Aberdeen, and this close and valuable association still continues. It is a gratification to recall that the illustrious family of the Gregorys, which for some two centuries shed so much fame upon the University and upon Scotland, were from the beginning intimately linked with the Royal Society. James Gregory early reached such eminence in mathematical and astronomical research that in 1668, when he was only thirty years of age, he was elected a fellow, six years after the incorporation of the society. His invention of a reflecting telescope, of which he had first conceived the idea, prompted Newton to proceed in a similar direction in order to evade the difficulties of chromatic dispersion, and led to mutual regard and friendly cooperation. To his brother David Gregory, who had the distinction of being one of the earliest effective promoters of the Newtonian philosophy, the society is also indebted for important communications published in early volumes of the Philosophical Transactions. The obligations of physical science to Aberdeen did not end with the lives of the masters of the seventeenth century, for within living memory the University has numbered among its professors the world-renowned pathfinder James Clerk Maxwell. To the progress of the study of medicine the same remarkable family of Gregory continued during successive generations to make important contributions, while the fame of the medical school was in more recent years extended by Allen Thomson. In natural science the well-remembered names of John Fleming, William MacGillivray, and James

Nicol appear among those who have sustained the scientific reputation of Aberdeen. But it is not only with the scientific side of culture in the University that the Royal Society has had interesting links. It is a pleasure to remember that Thomas Reid, the father of Scottish philosophy, whose fame is one of the fairest pearls in the chaplet of the northern University, contributed to the Royal Society in 1748 an essay upon quantity. In remembrance of these varied associations of the past, and with

sincere wishes for their continuance in the future, the Royal Society gladly adds its felicitations to those which will this year come from all civilised countries to the University of Aberdeen.

We regret to learn of the death on Wednesday, October 10, at the age of fifty-five, of Mr. Herbert Rix, assistant secretary of the Royal Society from 1885 to 1896. Mr. Rix resigned his post ten years ago, finding that his strength would no longer sustain the greatly increased anxiety and burden of his office. He was already suffering from a weakness of the heart, which gradually developed during the following years. A year ago he was obliged to relinquish nearly all active work, and the shock of his wife's death last August, as the result of an accident, had a disastrous effect upon him. Mr. Rix entered the service of the Royal Society in 1879, as clerk under the late Mr. Walter White, then assistant secretary, whom he succeeded six years later, his service to the society thus extending over seventeen years. During this period a great extension of the activity of the society occurred, entailing a large increase in the responsibilities of the executive and in the amount of work thrown upon the office. Mr. Rix's bent

was in the direction of the moral rather than of the exact

sciences, but he gave the best energies of a well-trained mind to the arduous duties of his position, and the simple directness of his character, his high principles, and his kindly nature made him popular with all who came in contact with him. After retiring from the assistant secretaryship he retained for some years the position of clerk to the Government Grant Committee, and continued up to the time of his death to act as secretary to the Lawes Trust Committee. He devoted much of his latter years to the study of comparative religion, and was a frequent lecturer on ethical subjects. He was a graduate of London University.

THE board of directors of the great manufacturing firm of Kynoch (Ltd.) has decided to introduce the metric system of weights and measures into all their works. A small committee has been appointed to consider the details of the change and to provide the necessary instruments, and as soon as the committee reports the change will be made. All the weights and measures used by the firm, whether lineal, square, or cubic, will be metric. For money calculations the pound sterling will be adopted as the unit, and this will be subdivided decimally.

A REUTER telegram of October II from Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, reports that a violent eruption of Mont Pelée has caused a shower of ashes to fall over the south-east of Guadeloupe.

A NEW ZEALAND international exhibition is to be held, under the auspices of the New Zealand Government, at Christchurch, Canterbury. The exhibition will be opened on November 1, and will be terminated in April, 1907. A special feature is to be made of the representation of Maori life, and Poi dances and hakas will be arranged from time to time.

THE annual meeting of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union will be held at York on Saturday, December 15. Mr. W. Eagle Clarke, of the Royal Scottish Museum, will deliver his presidential address, entitled "Antarctic Bird-life,' which will be illustrated by a series of lantern-slides from photographs taken during the National and Scottish expeditions. Further details can be obtained from Mr. T. Sheppard, the honorary secretary of the society, at the Museum, Hull.

A FRUIT growers' conference will be held at the SouthEastern Agricultural College, Wye, on Wednesday, November 7. The chair will be taken by Mr. Laurence Hardy, M.P., and an introductory address will be given by the principal of the college. The subjects to be considered at the conference will be:-Methods of planting, S. U. Pickering, F.R.S.; strawberry culture, W. P. Wright; treatment of American blight, F. V. Theobald; and some fungus diseases of orchards and plantations, E. S. Salmon.

WE learn from the Times that unavoidable delay in the completion of the latest addition to the Carnegie Institute building at Pittsburg, Pa., has made it necessary to change the date for opening the annual international exhibition from November 1 of this year to April 11, 1907. This change has been made because the trustees desire the exhibition to be held in conjunction with the opening and dedication of the building, which has been enlarged during the past two years to about six times its original size. A number of eminent men, representing the scientific, artistic, and literary organisations and institutions of the world, will be present at the dedication.

THE new session of the Royal Geographical Society will be opened on November 12, when a paper will be read on North-Eastern Rhodesia by Mr. L. A. Wallace. On November 19 Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner will deal with the subject of the Seychelle Islands, and on December 10 an account of irrigation in the United States will be given by Major John H. Beacom. Other provisional arrangements are as follows:-Polar problems, Dr. Fridtjof Nansen; through Central Africa from the west coast to the Nile, Lieut. Boyd Alexander; nine years' survey work in northern China and Mongolia, Colonel A. W. S. Wingate; a journey through Central Asia to northern China, Major C. D. Bruce; the north magnetic pole and the northwest passage, Captain Amundsen; aboriginal India, Colonel Sir T. H. Holdich, K.C.M.G.; a journey from Yunnan to Assam, E. C. Young; the story of London maps, Laurence Gomme; the evolution of the map of Africa, Edward Heawood; inland waterways, G. G. Chisholm ; the Taupo volcanic region, New Zealand, J. Mackintosh Bell. At one of the meetings in the early part of next year an authoritative account will be given of H.R.H. the Duke of the Abruzzi's expedition to Mount Ruwenzori.

IN 1904 an advisory committee was appointed by the Secretary of State for India to inquire into some of the problems concerning plague, and the first function of the advisory committee was to appoint a working commission which has been investigating the disease in India ever since. A series of reports on the work already accomplished has just been published in a special number of the Journal of Hygiene (vi., No. 4). The first half of this contains the results of experiments on the transmission of plague by fleas. Guinea-pigs allowed to run free in plague houses in 29 per cent. of cases contracted plague, but if the animals were kept screened by fine gauze, so that fleas had no access, they remained healthy. Fleas caught on

rats dying of plague and transferred to healthy animals transmitted the disease. The Hon. N. C. Rothschild contributes a paper on the species of flea found on rats. Experiments on the infectivity of native floors grossly contaminated with B. pestis seem to show that they do not remain infective for more than twenty-four hours. In plague-infected rats as many as 100,000,000 bacilli may be present in 1 c.c. of blood, and a few in the urine and færs Chronic plague in rats was noted in six instances at a season of the year when neither human nor rat plagu existed, suggesting that this possibly is the means by which the infection is propagated from season to season.

THE contents of the first part of the nineteenth volume of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria com prise descriptions of new and little-known marine mollus from the adjacent sea, by Mr. J. H. Gatliff, and of decapod crustaceans from the same, by Messrs. S. W. Fulton and F. E. Grant, together with the first instalment of a census of the Victorian representatives of the last-named group by the same writers.

THE papers in the September issue of the American Naturalist are chiefly interesting to histologists and specialists. In the first Prof. A. W. Weysse and Mr. W. S. Burgess contribute an elaborate account of the histogenesis of the retina, summarising their conclusions at considerable length in tabular form. The marine copepod crustaceans of Rhode Island receive attention at the hands of Mr. L. W. Williams, while Mr. R. H. How discusses the lichens of Mount Monadnock, New Hampshire.

ANOTHER of those emendations in nomenclature which are rapidly tending to make zoology an impossible science to all save the specialists in particular branches appears in a paper on the "digger-wasps" of North America and the West Indies, forming No. 1487 of the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum. According to the author, Mr H. T. Fernald, none of the insects which have been included in the genus Sphex during the past century properly belongs to it. Consequently the species and subgenera s long included under that generic designation now appear under the title Chlorion, while Sphex is made to include those hitherto known as Ammophila, a further change being the substitution of the subfamily Chlorionine for the original Spheginæ, and the transference of the latter, under the altered form of Sphecinæ, to the old Ammophiline Fortunately (under its amended form of Sphecida) the family name of Sphegidæ is retained for the whole group The author appears to have made an exhaustive study al that section of the group he classifies as Chloriontna. having examined, and when necessary re-described, all the type-specimens in American collections.

To the June issue of the Proceedings of the Philadelphi Academy Mr. H. W. Fowler contributes the first part of a paper on American fresh-water "heterognathous fishes or those usually classified under the family name Characinidæ. In the author's opinion they should form two families, for which the titles Erythrinid Characidæ are adopted. Apparently, however, there is no justification for the use of the name Characinid Characidae), since there is no such genus as Characings or Characus. If but one family is recognised the nar Erythrinidae may be employed, but if two groups an recognised a new title (such as Citharinidae) is required. may also be noticed that the author does not recognise th preoccupation of Chirodon (or Cheirodon) by Chirodus The author has had access to all Cope's type-specimers,

and proposes a number of new names, and he is of opinion that the information he conveys with regard to rare or nominal species will be appreciated by naturalists.

MUSEUM technique is the leading feature of the five articles (four of which were read at the recent Bristol conference) in the September issue of the Museums Journal. In the first, and perhaps most generally interesting, Dr. Sorby discusses the mode of forming a collection to illustrate the origin and structure of rocks. The material of rocks, such as sands and clays, should form the starting point. This should be followed by illustrations of different modes of deposition and sorting, while the consolidation of deposits by infiltration, or by removal and replacement of material, claims the next place. The formation of concretions, and various mechanical changes, culminating in slaty-cleavage, complete the illustration of the genesis of aqueous rocks, after which come illustrations of the formation of the igneous series. The next three articles deal respectively with the exhibition of coins, models of Protozoa, and the hanging and care of pictures. In the fifth Dr. J. E. Duerden describes a new method of preserving entire tortoises which deserves the best attention of museum curators, the specimens treated by this method having, it is stated, a remarkably life-like appearance.

THE report of the working of the Government Museum at Madras for the past year is a record of steady progress. The great collection of prehistoric antiquities recovered from interments in the Nilgiri Hills by Mr. J. W. Breeks and others has now been increased by a splendid series of bronzes, iron weapons and implements, pottery, and human bones from the excavations at Aditanallur, in the Tinnevelly district, conducted by Mr. A. Rea, and these have been arranged in a new gallery built for their reception. Mr. Thurston, who usefully combines the duties of curator with those of director of the Ethnographical Survey, has made his usual tours among the jungle tribes, and has collected many curious implements, skulls, and other specimens. He has made a special anthropometric survey of that little-known tribe, the Chenchus of the Nallamalai Hills. His materials now enable him to establish the correlation, so far as the type of head is concerned, between the people of the Canarese, Maratha, and Telugu area, that is to say, the north-west and northeast of the province, as compared with the Malayalim and Tamil dwellers in the south. This is interesting in connection with Mr. Risley's speculations on the brachycephalic Marathas. During these expeditions he used for the first time an Edison's phonograph, by which he was able to secure records of tribal songs and music. Duplicates of these are to be sent to Mr. C. S. Myers for the Museum of Comparative Music at Cambridge. Mr. Thurston finds the phonograph an admirable means of conciliating timid and suspicious jungle folk, who fear the ordinary anthropometric methods. No travelling anthropologist, he says, should be without it.

A COLLECTION of diagnoses of new Philippine ferns, prepared by Mr. E. B. Copeland, forms the second supplement to vol. i. of the Philippine Journal of Science. The most striking novelty is an epiphytic plant of the nature of a Drynaria, receiving the name of Thayeria cornucopia, that is said to have a unique humus-collecting structure; each leaf forms a complete receptacle, enclosing the humus on all sides. New species are described for a number of genera, including Alsophila, Cyathea, Trichomanes, Nephrolepis, Plagiogyria, &c. The writer revives the genus Schizostege, assigned to Cheilanthes by Baker and to Pteris by Christ and Diels, for two new species.

OWING to the want of knowledge of the complete lifehistories of many of the Uredinales, the classification of the group is a matter of some difficulty. Prof. J. C. Arthur presented an outline of a system of classification to the International Scientific Congress of Botanists at Vienna in 1905, that is published in their "Resultats Scientifiques." Three orders, Coleosporiacea, Uredinacea, and Ecidiacea, are defined according to the nature of the teleutospores and their germination. Suborders are determined by the position which the spores occupy in the tissues of the host plant. Finally, the genera in each suborder are grouped according to the development of one or more of the acidio-, uredo-, and teleuto-spore stages.

IN the annual report for 1905-6 of the botanic station, agricultural school and experiment plots in St. Lucia, the superintendent, Mr. J. C. Moore, refers to tapping trials made on trees of Castilloa elastica that point to a yield of 2 lb. of cured rubber for mature trees. The agricultural instructor, Mr. G. S. Hudson, devotes a considerable portion of his report to the subject of cacao, detailing the results obtained on experiment plots. A new hybrid plant has been produced by crossing Theobroma pentagona with Theobroma cacao. On the debated question of shade or no shade for cacao, Mr. Hudson says that shade and shelter are obviated partly in Grenada by close planting, but he recommends for St. Lucia a light shade of Para rubber trees or Erythrina indica, and wind belts of Inga

vera.

WE have received several of the recent issues of the Boletin del Ministerio de Fomento of Peru, a well-edited journal issued by the Department of Public Works. It contains much valuable information regarding the railways of the Republic.

AN admirable coloured geological map of Queensland (Publication No. 206), on a scale of forty miles to the inch, has been received from the Geological Survey of Queensland. It has been compiled under the supervision of Mr. B. Dunstan, acting Government geologist, by Mr. H. W. Fox, and shows the mineral localities clearly marked in red.

THE Transactions of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland (vol. xlix., part vii.) contains a valuable paper on equimomental systems and their use in applied mechanics, by Mr. R. F. Muirhead. The value of this principle has hitherto been regarded by engineers as of academic interest, and in developing the principle and in reducing the results to a form suitable for practical application the author has done much to reduce the time and labour of engineering calculators.

THE annual memorandum issued by the chief engineer of the Manchester Steam Users' Association deals with several subjects of importance to engineers, such as steam-pipe explosions, the brittleness of steel plates, and boiler tests. Many steam pipes are badly designed, and may explode at any time. They could, however, be made safe without much expense; and in order to encourage those dealing with these matters to study the subject, a sketch is given of a glass model which clearly shows the hammering action of water when confined in steam pipes. In the section dealing with boiler tests, particular stress is laid on the carrying out of gas analysis with the greatest possible care. If this is done, it will be possible to utilise the goanalysis for determining the chemical composition of the fuel, and for ascertaining at any instant what is th efficiency of the heating surface.