Foraminifera of New Jersey. By R. M. Bagg, Jr. Pp. 89, with 6
plates.--No. 89. Some Lava Flows from the Western Slope of the Sierra
Nevada, California. Pp. 74.--No. 149. Bibliography and Index of North
American Geology, Palæontology, Petrology, and Mineralogy for 1898.
By F. B. Weeks. Pp. 152.--Monograph. Vol. XXX. Fossil Medusæ. By
Charles Doolittle Walcott. Pp. 201, with 47 plates.
Universalist Register, The, for 1898. Edited by Richard Eddy, D. D.
Boston: Universalist Publishing House. Pp. 120. 20 cents.
Warman, Cy. The Story of the Railroad. New York: D. Appleton and
Company. (Story of the West Series.) Pp. 280.
Waterloo, Stanley. Armageddon. A Tale of Love, War, and Invention.
Pp. 259.
Whiting Paper Company, Holyoke, Mass. The Evolution of Paper. Pp. 20.
Chicago and New York: Rand, McNally & Co.
Wilson, J. Self-Control, or Life without a Master. New York: Lemcke &
Büchner.
Worcester, Dean C. The Philippine Islands and their People. New York:
The Macmillan Company. Pp. 529. $4.
Wyckoff, Walter A. The Workers. An Experiment in Reality. The West.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 378. $1.50.
Fragments of Science.
=Tree Planting in the Arid Regions.=--In planting the arid and
subarid regions of the country, where no trees are growing naturally,
Mr. B. E. Fernow says, in a review of the work of the Department of
Forestry, different methods of cultivation from those given in the
humid parts are necessary, and the plant material has to be selected
with a view to a rigorous climate characterized by extreme ranges
of temperature varying from -40° to +120° F. The requirements of
the plants for moisture must be of the slightest, and they must
be capable of responding to the demands of evaporation. At first,
whatever trees will grow successfully from the start under such
untoward conditions would have to be chosen, no matter what their
qualities otherwise might be. The first settlers have ascertained by
trials some of the species that will succeed under such conditions,
but unfortunately most of them are of but small economic value, and
some of them are only short-lived under the conditions in which they
have to grow. A few years ago Mr. Fernow came to the conclusion that
the conifers, especially the pines, would furnish more useful and
otherwise serviceable material for the arid regions. Besides their
superior economical value, they require less moisture than most of
the deciduous trees that have been planted, and they would, if once
established, persist more readily through seasons of drought and be
longer lived. A small trial plantation on the sand hills of Nebraska
lent countenance to this theory. It being vastly more difficult
to establish the young plants in the first place than in the case
of deciduous trees, much attention was given to the provision for
protection of the seedlings from sun and winds; and they were planted
in mixture with "nurse trees" that would furnish not too much and yet
enough shade. "It can not be said that the success in using these
species has so far been very encouraging; nevertheless, the failure
may be charged rather to our lack of knowledge and to causes that can
be overcome than to any inherent incapacity in the species." The
experiments should therefore be continued.
="The Venerable Bede's" Chair.=--In an article in a recent issue of
Architecture and Building, on Ancient and Modern Furniture, by F.
T. Hodgson, the following interesting account of the chair of "the
Venerable Bede" occurs: "Perhaps the best-known relic, so far as
furniture is concerned of this early period, is the chair of 'the
Venerable Bede,' which is still preserved in the vestry of Jassova
Church, Northumberland, England. This chair is distinctively an
ecclesiastical one--a throne, in fact, of some dignity. It is made
of oak and is four feet ten inches high. There are many engravings
of it, but I reproduce from one of the best. The chair is now well
on to twelve hundred years old, and if cared for as it ought to be
is good for several hundred years more. There is a popular tradition
concerning this chair that is worthy of notice. It is said that to
this ancient relic all the brides repair as soon as the marriage
service is over, in order that they may seat themselves in it. This,
according to the popular belief, will make them joyful mothers of
children; and to omit this custom the expectant mothers would not
consider the marriage ceremony complete, and in default thereof of
being enthroned in 'the Venerable Bede's chair' barrenness and misery
would surely follow. Like all other relics of the sort, it is subject
to attacks of the sacrilegious penknives, together with the wanton
depredations of relic hunters, and has been so shorn of its fair
proportions that very soon there will be little of it left but its
attenuated form if stricter watch is not kept over it."
=The Physics of Smell.=--The principal subject of Prof. W. E.
Ayrton's vice-presidential address on physics at the British
Association was the physics of smell, which was presented as a
subject that had been but little studied. In testing the generally
accepted idea that metals have smell, based on the fact that a smell
is perceived with most of the commercial metals when handled, the
author had observed that when these metals were cleaned or made
outwardly pure the smell disappeared. Yet it is shown that these
metals acquire smells when they are handled or abraded by friction,
which are characteristic and serve to distinguish them. This may
be ascribed to chemical action, but not all chemical action in
which metals may take part produces smell; for when they are rubbed
with soda or with sugar no smell but that of soda or of sugar is
perceived; nor is the metallic smell observed when dilute nitric
acid is rubbed on certain metals, though the chemical action is very
marked with some. But mere breathing on certain metals, even when
they have been rendered practically odorless by cleaning, produces
a very distinct smell, as also does touching them with the tongue.
These smells have hitherto been attributed to the metals themselves,
but Professor Ayrton looks for their source in the evolution of
hydrogen, which carries with it impurities, hydrocarbons, especially
paraffin, and "it is probable that no metallic particles, even in the
form of vapor, reach the nose or even leave the metal. While smells
usually appear to be diffused with great velocity, experiments prove
that when the space through which they have to pass is free from
draughts their progress is very slow, and it would therefore appear
that the passage of a smell is far more due to the actual motion
of the air containing it than to the diffusion of the odoriferous
substance through the air." The power of a smell to cling to a
substance does not appear to depend on its intensity or on the
ease with which it travels through a closed space. Experiments to
determine whether smells could pass through glass by transpiration
either revealed flaws in the glass or ended in the breaking of the
very thin bulbs and gave no answer.
=The Cordillera Region of Canada.=--A length of nearly thirteen
hundred miles of the great mountainous or Cordillera region of the
Pacific coast is included in the western part of Canada. Most of
this, Mr. George M. Dawson says, in a paper on the Physical Geography
and Geology of Canada, is embraced in the province of British
Columbia, where it is about four hundred miles wide between the
Great Plains and the Pacific Ocean. To the north it is included in
the Yukon district of the Northwest Territory till it reaches, in a
less elevated and more widely spread form, the shores of the Arctic
Ocean on one side and on the other passes across the one hundred and
forty-first meridian of west longitude into Alaska. The orographic
features of this region are very complicated in detail. No existing
map yet properly represents even the principal physical outlines,
and the impression gained by the traveler or explorer may well be
one of confusion. There are, however, the two dominant mountain
systems of the Rocky Mountains and the Coast Range. As a whole, the
area of the Cordillera in Canada may be described as forest-clad,
but the growth of trees is more luxuriant on the western slopes of
each of the dominant mountain ranges, in correspondence with the
greater precipitation occurring on these slopes. This is particularly
the case in the coast region and on the seaward side of the Coast
Range, where magnificent and dense forests of coniferous trees
occupy almost the whole available surface. The interior plateau,
however, constitutes the southern part of a notably dry belt, and
includes wide stretches of open grass-covered hills and valleys,
forming excellent cattle ranges. Farther north, along the same belt,
similar open country appears intermittently, but the forest invades
the greater part of the region. It is only toward the arctic coast,
in relatively very high latitude, that the barren arctic tundra
country begins, which, sweeping in wider development to the westward,
occupies most of the interior of Alaska. With certain exceptions
the farming land of British Columbia is confined to the valleys and
tracts below three thousand feet, by reason of the summer frosts
occurring at greater heights. There is, however, a considerable
area of such land in the aggregate, with a soil generally of great
fertility. In the southern valleys of the interior irrigation is
necessary for the growth of crops.
=The "Rabies" Bacillus.=--Ever since the discovery of Pasteur that
an attenuated virus made from the medulla or spinal cord of a dog
affected by rabies was, when administered in graduated doses, a
specific against the disease, bacteriologists have been eagerly
seeking to isolate the rabies bacillus. A number of observers, among
them Toll, Rivolta, and San Felice, have succeeded in staining
a bacillus which they claimed to be that of rabies. Memno, of
Rome, confirmed the observations of the preceding, and proved the
virulent character of the micro-organism, which he described as a
blastomycete. He has quite recently succeeded in cultivating the
bacillus in artificial media and producing typical rabies in dogs,
rodents, and birds by inoculations. He found that the bacillus
grew better in fluid than in solid media, the best being bouillon
with glucose slightly acidulated with tartaric acid. The growth
did not become manifest under a week, and was easily arrested by
"air infection." It would thus seem that we have at last certainly
established the bacterial origin of rabies.
=The St. Kildans.=--St. Kilda, the farthest out to sea of all
the British Isles, is a rounded mountain with "stack rocks" and
islets round it, rises twelve hundred and twenty feet in height,
and contains a settlement of about seventy-five men, women, and
children--almost the only representatives left on the British
Islands of man in the hunting age. On one of the subsidiary islands,
Boreray, is gathered the main body of the sea birds for which the
island is famous; and on a third, Soa, are the diminutive descendants
of Viking sheep, left by old sea rovers. Mr. R. Kearton, who has
recently visited the islands for recreation among the sea birds,
represents that in the little community of its people the ordinary
and extraordinary operations of life seem inverted. Sport is a
serious work; sheep herding and shearing are an exciting sport. A
St. Kildan qualifies for marriage by proving his courage and skill
as a fowler, by standing on a dizzy precipice called Lover's Stone,
and goes out bird snaring with a serious face. When he wants a sheep
for the butcher, he asks his friends to a sheep hunt in the island
of Soa, in which dogs and men pursue the animals from rock to rock.
An offer made by a factor to supply the people with nets, so that
they might catch the sheep with more humanity and less waste of life,
was rejected by them. They preferred the old methods, which supplied
plenty of danger and excitement. While the sheep are hunted, the cows
are thoroughly spoiled. Every day the women are seen hard at work
picking dock leaves and storing them in baskets for the cows at
milking time, for they will not be milked unless they are fed. The
sheep on Soa Island are plucked instead of being sheared, at the time
when the wool would naturally be shed, and what wool will not come
off in this way is cut off with a pocket knife. When the steamer with
Mr. Kearton reached the island, no one came down to meet it till the
whistle had been blown two or three times. "It was not etiquette to
rush down like a parcel of savages," but the people "retire to tidy
themselves, and then row out and call in proper form."
=The Island of Sakhalin.=--Mr. Benjamin Howard, an English visitor at
the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, presented before Section E of that body an interesting
account of the great but little-known island of Sakhalin, more
generally spelled Saghalien in our geographies. Mr. Howard, however,
strongly urged the former spelling, as most correctly representing
the name, which is always pronounced by the Russians in three
syllables, with the accent on the first. It is now used as a penal
colony by the Russian Government, and a more hopelessly remote and
inaccessible spot for such a purpose can hardly be found. To it are
sent the hardest cases among the Siberian prisoners; and Mr. Howard
spoke of becoming accustomed, during his stay there, to meeting
scarcely any human beings but murderers, except, of course, the
guards and officials. The island is extremely inaccessible; there
is no commerce, and neither inducement nor opportunity for vessels
to touch there, while much of the coast is ice-bound for a large
part of the year. Mr. Howard, who was engaged in some scientific
work on the island in the service of the Government, is one of
the very few foreigners who have traveled or resided there at
all. He predicts for Sakhalin, however, a future of considerable
importance ultimately, though only after a long period of preliminary
development and exploitation as a penal colony, which stage has but
lately been begun. It has forest and mining resources--among the
latter, coal; the deposits are near the surface, but thus far have
been very little examined. He was unable to give any data as to
their geological age or actual extent; but the Government will no
doubt soon make investigations. The most remarkable possibilities,
however, are in the line of fisheries, the coasts swarming with fish
to an extent that is scarcely credible by one who has not seen them.
Mr. Howard said jocosely that he would hardly dare to relate what he
had personally witnessed, in view of the usual reputation of "fish
stories." The climate is of course rigorous, under the influence of
cold northern currents, and markedly in contrast with that of the
same latitude on the American side of the Pacific, where the Japan
current carries its modifying influence as the Gulf Stream does to
northern Europe. Some agriculture, however, is possible during the
short summer, and the penal colonists have made fair beginnings
of self-support. He referred further to a remnant of native Aino
population as very interesting from the fact that they have preserved
their peculiarities of life and manners, and their purity of stock,
much more completely through their isolation than the Ainos of the
Japanese Islands, who have been modified more or less by association
with the latter people.
=Technical and Popular Names.=--In a paper criticising the
multiplication of local names in geology, Prof. C. E. Keyes
distinguishes between names devised with a conscientious desire to
better the condition of a science by clothing the new ideas with
simple words and those which are the product of a name-making mania.
"The first can not be too highly commended, nor the second too deeply
deplored." Every progressive science must discard the names that have
served their purpose, and must be prepared to receive all of the
new ones demanded. The sciences have each two phases, for each of
which a terminology is demanded, in one of which the names must be
technical and special, established primarily for the investigator,
and in the other general, popular, simple, and free from technical
appearance; but the distinction is rarely made. Those who object to
the prevalence of technical names in other sciences seldom reflect
that they have them in their own art. Yet if a man of science should
desire to familiarize himself with the artisan's work, "he would be,
after five minutes' talk with a machinist or electrician, confronted
by so many unfamiliar terms--technical terms of everyday use--that
he would at once cry out for greater simplicity of language." In the
geological sciences the technicalities play the same part they do in
the arts and in business. Every new name in geology, however, must be
properly defined before it can be noticed, and its subsequent career
will depend on its utility. It may be said that no greater boon to
the working geologist has been devised than the plan of designating
geographically geological units irrespective of exact position or
age. Since its adoption a vast mass of valuable information has been
obtained that was previously unthought of, and is in a shape to be
always used; the other departments of geology have been much aided,
and stratigraphical geology has been greatly helped.
=The Origin of a Curious Habit.=--The following paragraphs are taken
from a recent Nature. It is well known that the kea, or mountain
parrot of New Zealand, has acquired the habit of attacking sheep, and
making holes by means of its sharp and powerful beak in the backs of
these animals for the purpose of abstracting the kidney fat, which
appears to be esteemed as a luxurious diet. It is supposed that this
peculiar habit or instinct was developed by the bird getting the fat
from the skins of sheep that had been slaughtered, but this solution
is not very satisfactory, as there appears nothing to connect the fat
on the skins of sheep with the live animals. In a note published in
the Zoölogist (May 16th), Mr. F. R. Godfrey, writing from Melbourne,
offers the following solution of the mystery, which seemed to him
to be simple and satisfactory, and more rational than the sheepskin
theory: In the hilly districts of the middle island of New Zealand
there is a great abundance of a white moss, or lichen, which exactly
resembles a lump of white wool, at the roots of which are found
small white fatty substances, supposed by some to be the seeds of
the plant, and by others to be a grub or maggot which infests it,
which is the favorite food of the kea. Probably the bird, misled by
this resemblance, commenced an exploration in sheep, and this proving
satisfactory, originated the new habit. In a note to this suggestion
the editor points out that Mr. Godfrey is in agreement with another
observer--Mr. F. R. Chapman--who in describing the hills of this
island says: "A very interesting _raoulia_, or vegetable sheep, was
very plentiful on steep, rocky places.... It is said that the keas
tear them up with their powerful beaks, and that these birds learned
to eat mutton through mistaking dead sheep for masses of _raoulia_."
=Changes in Plant Characters.=--From experiments upon the cultural
evolution of _Cyclamen latifolium_, W. T. Thiselton Dyer finds
that, when once specific stability has been broken down in a plant,
morphological changes of great variety and magnitude can be brought
about in a comparatively short space of time. It appears that though
sudden variations do occur, they are, as far as we know, slight
as long as self-fertilization is adhered to. The striking results
obtained by cultivators have been due to the patient accumulation
by selection of gradual but continuous variation in any desired
direction. The size which any variable organ can reach does not
appear to be governed by any principle of correlation. Large flowers
are not necessarily accompanied by large leaves. The general tendency
of a plant varying freely under artificial conditions seems to be
atavistic--or to shed adaptive modifications which have ceased to be
useful, and to revert to a more generalized type, or to reproduce
characters which are already present in other members of the same
group. But this statement must be accepted with caution. The most
remarkable phenomenon in the cultivation of the _Cyclamen_ is the
development of a plume or crest on the inner surface of each corolla
segment. This shows that the plant still possesses the power to
strike out a new line and to develop characters which would even be
regarded as having specific value.
=Hanging an Elephant.=--One of the elephants in Barnum and Bailey's
show, having repeatedly shown signs of insubordination and bad
temper, it was finally decided to kill him. From a note in Nature
we get the following account of his execution: After considerable
discussion it was decided to strangle him. A new Manila rope was
loosely wound three times around his neck, and his legs, fully
stridden, were securely chained each to a post firmly driven into
the ground alongside each limb. The animal was intentionally not
isolated from his fellows, as it was feared that if placed by itself
it would become restive and ill-tempered. The rope surrounding the
beast's neck had one end secured to three strong pillars in the
ground, some distance away and slightly in advance of the fore feet;
and the other, which terminated in a loop, was hooked to a double
series of pulleys, to the tackle of which ninety men were attached.
When all was ready, the slack was gently, quietly, and without any
apparent annoyance to the elephant--which kept on eating hay--taken
in till the coils round its neck were just taut. The word was then
given, "Walk away with the rope." Amid perfect silence the ninety men
walked away, without apparently any effort. So noiselessly and easily
did everything work that, unless with foreknowledge of what was going
to take place, one might have been present without realizing what the
march of these men meant. The elephant gave no sign of discomfort
either by trunk or tail. Its fellows standing close by looked on in
pachydermatous unconcern, and at the end of exactly thirty seconds
it slowly collapsed and lay down as if of its own accord. There was
absolutely no struggle and no motion, violent or otherwise, in any
part of the body, nor the slightest indication of pain. In a few
seconds more there was no response obtained by touching the eyeball.
At the end of thirteen minutes after the order to "walk away" the eye
had become rigid and dim. That no more humane, painless, and rapid
method of taking the life of a large animal could be devised was the
opinion of all the experts who witnessed the execution.
MINOR PARAGRAPHS.
Count Gleichen relates, in his story of the mission to Menelek, that
besides the Maria Theresa 1780 dollars, the people of Abyssinia, for
small change, use a bar of hard crystallized salt, about ten inches
long and two inches and a half broad and thick, slightly tapered
toward the end, five of which go to the dollar at the capital. People
are very particular about the standard of fineness of the currency.
"If it does not ring like metal when flicked with the finger nail,
or if it is cracked or chipped, they won't take it. It is a token of
affection also, when friends meet, to give each other a lick of their
respective _amolis_, and in this way the material value of the bar
is also decreased. For still smaller change cartridges are used, of
which three go to one salt. It does not matter what sort they are.
Some sharpers use their cartridges in the ordinary way, and then
put in some dust and a dummy bullet to make up the difference, or
else they take out the powder and put the bullet in again, so that
possibly in the next action the unhappy seller will find that he has
only miss-fires in his belt; but this is such a common fraud that no
one takes any notice of it, and a bad cartridge seems to serve as
readily as a good one."