576 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



he sends out, according to Mr. L. H. Kan- 

 some, messengers to all the villages under 

 his control, bidding the principal men from 

 each to assemble at an appointed time ; this 

 gathering is called a kabary. When all 

 those summoned are present, the governor 

 or his deputy reads aloud the proclamation, 

 which then becomes law, the representa- 

 tives of each village being responsible for 

 its publicity. Sometimes justice is adminis- 

 tered at a kabary of this kind, when the 

 governor pronounces sentence, after hearing 

 the evidence on both sides. 



A method of sewage purification called 

 the " Amines " process is being tried at 

 Wimbledon (England) Sewage Farm. It is 

 so named because it employs certain basic 

 carbon compounds called amines, together 

 with milk of lime. At present herring- brine 

 is the cheapest substance which contains the 

 amines. When the brine is introduced into 

 freshly made milk of lime it is decomposed 

 and a very soluble reagent is evolved, to 

 which the inventor has given the name 

 " aminol." This substance has a peculiar 

 briny odor, and when introduced into sew- 

 age is said to extirpate all micro-organisms 

 capable of causing putrefaction and disease. 



A committee of the Royal Society has 

 been appointed on the erection of a national 

 memorial to Dr. Joule. 



A specimen of the crested starling 

 (Freyilupus varius), of Reunion Island, has 

 recently been obtained for the British Mu- 

 seum. This bird, which has been probably 

 exterminated, is rarer in collections than the 

 great auk. Its coloring consists simply of 

 black, white, and gray, but when alive it 

 must have been a graceful bird. Some 

 Creoles on the islands, who remembered the 

 bird in their younger days, told the late Mr. 

 Pollen that it was so tame and stupid that 

 it could be knocked over with a stick. Only 

 sixteen specimens are known to exist, and 

 there is none in any American museum. 



Concerning "the grass problem in Ne- 

 braska," Prof. Bessey, at the agricultural 

 meeting of the American Association, men- 

 tioned places where buffalo grass is plentiful, 

 and others where the soil is a moving sand, 

 that gradually becomes covered with native 

 American grasses. In older tracts, timothy 

 has been introduced, Kentucky blue grass is 

 grown successfully, and clovers are doino; 

 well. Prof. Beal, in a paper on " Wild 

 Grasses under Cultivation," said that he had 

 found in his researches many wild grasses 

 that were valuable, and advised selections 

 for experiment. 



Prof. Fernow is quoted in the " Toronto 

 Globe" as advancing, in an interview, the 

 opinion, respecting the influence of forests 

 on climate, that the lack of moisture on the 

 plains of a large portion of the West was 

 due not so much to deficient rainfall as to 



excessive evaporation, which in turn was 

 due to the unchecked action of the wind. 

 Were there wind-breaks in the form of 

 patches of trees in that country, part of the 

 land would be thereby reclaimed, and the 

 reclamation of the rest would be rendered 

 far more easy. The proposition of Major 

 Powell, to remove the forests from the 

 crown of the Rocky Mountains, as a means 

 of improving the water conditions of the 

 desert, he regarded as preposterous, and 

 opposed to all our knowledge regarding the 

 natural conditions of mountainous districts. 



Dr. von Reuben Paschnitz having con- 

 cluded that when earthquake-shocks occur 

 simultaneously at different places, as re- 

 cently happened in Japan and Germany, a 

 connection may be presumed between them, 

 Mr. William White has presented some very 

 forcible arguments in " Nature " in support 

 of an opposite view. 



A statue of the French chemist, Nicolas 

 Leblanc, has been erected at Saint-Denis, 

 where he had a manufactory. 



While the enormous output of coal dur- 

 ing the last few years has not actually 

 crippled British fuel resources, Prof. Hull 

 anticipates a general rise in the value of coal 

 in the near future, on account of the great 

 depth at which the mines will have to be 

 worked, and the increased cost of coal- 

 mining. 



Both the Russian and English engineers 

 are planting trees extensively as an aid to 

 their operations in Central Asia. The Rus- 

 sians, under the direction of General Annen- 

 koff, are especially active in this work. Or- 

 ders have been given that no bushes are to 

 be cut down within ten miles of the Trans- 

 caspian Railway, and that the existing for- 

 ests of saxaul are to be preserved. Planta- 

 tions of this, which is a kind of brier-wood, 

 are to be made alons the line, with camel- 

 thorn and other native bushes that thrive 

 well. It is expected that these will protect 

 the line and provide shelter for weaker trees 

 and bushes of foreign origin. The tree- 

 planting of the last three years has not been 

 a complete success, but experience has shown 

 what varieties will and what will not thrive. 



The London " Spectator " publishes let- 

 ters showing that the idea that horse-hairs 

 dropped into water in time beget life and 

 become worms or " snakes " prevails exten- 

 sively over Europe as well as America. It 

 is based on the fact that worms resembling 

 short horse-hairs exist, and are not uncom- 

 mon in placid pools. A contributor to the 

 "Spectator" accounts for the experiences 

 of persons who claim to have " seen " the 

 horse-hairs become living, by observing that 

 after lying in the water for a long time a 

 hair swells, assumes the form of a young 

 eel, and, in a way common to many inanimate 

 substances, acquires a slow, wriggling motion. 



