138 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



he fell down in a ' fit,' and it was some time 

 before he recovered." As to the probable 

 cause of this affection, Dr. Bennett is dis- 

 posed to ascribe it to the indiscriminate inter- 

 mingling of the blood of different racial 

 types and the intermarriage of those stand- 

 ing in close relationship to one another. 



Poisonous Mussels. An unusual case of 

 poisoning recently happened in Seapoint, 

 County Dublin, Ireland, and was described 

 in the London Lancet. A lady, her five chil- 

 dren, and a servant partook of a meal of 

 stewed mussels obtained from a small sheet 

 of water to which the sea had access, but 

 which received fresh water and some sewage. 

 In about twenty minutes after the ingestion 

 of the mussels some of the children com- 

 plained of a prickly sensation in their hands ; 

 graver symptoms rapidly supervened, and in 

 less than an hour one of the children died, 

 the mother and three other children suc- 

 cumbing within two hours after eating the 

 mussels. One of the children and the maid 

 (the latter had eaten but few of the mussels) 

 suffered very much, but recovered. The 

 chief symptoms were vomiting, difficulty in 

 breathing, swelling of the face, want of 

 co-ordinaticn in movement, and spasms, prin- 

 cipally in the arms. It was thought that 

 the poisonous nature of the mussels was due 

 to their feeding on sewage. Some mussels 

 obtained from the same place were found to 

 have abnormally large livers and a much 

 more brittle shell than common. Leucomaine, 

 an alkaloid poison, was found in the vomited 

 matter. 



Resources of ]Vyassa-Land. Nyassa-land, 

 which extends from the southern shores of 

 Tanganyika Lake to the Zambezi River and 

 from the Congo free state to the Shire River, 

 one of the centers of the African slave trade, 

 has been brought into prominent attention 

 by the activity of missionary enterprise in 

 and around it. Its suitableness for British 

 colonization has been discussed in the British 

 Association by Captain F. D. Lugard. It 

 is touched by the most eligible route into 

 Central Africa, which lies by the water-way 

 of the Zambezi, Shire, and Nyassa to Tangan- 

 yika. The carrying trade to the missions is 

 already sufficient to pay dividends to a small 

 company. Then there grows up rapidly 



around each mission station a desire for 

 some of the rudimentary necessities of civil- 

 ization; and these, together with salt, a 

 chronic 6avage want, and metal wire and 

 beads for personal adornment, are essential- 

 ly the pioneering elements, and indeed consti- 

 tute the money of the country, for which the 

 natives are willing not only to bring their 

 produce, but to work by the week or month. 

 The country has to offer in return supplies of 

 mineral wealth, the variety and amount of 

 which are as yet unknown, but certainly ex- 

 ist. They include gold, copper, iron, asbes- 

 tus, and coal, and are probably sufficient 

 to pay the initial cost of exportation. 

 Other products are ivory, which is destined 

 to decrease ; coffee, tea, cloves, cinchona 

 bark, and India rubber, which have as yet 

 hardly reached the experimental stage, but 

 promise to be profitable when developed. 

 Several minor products, not sufficient in 

 themselves to sustain trade, will help it 

 along as supplements to the staples. The 

 beans of the miranguti tree are used by the 

 natives for food, and furnish a fat suitable 

 for illuminating purposes and for soap-mak- 

 ing. The bark supplies a capital mahog- 

 any dye, which is believed to have preserva- 

 tive qualities. Enormous herds of cattle 

 are accompanied by plants endowed with 

 tanning properties. There are oil-seeds and 

 dyes, several fiber plants, and in the low- 

 lands several kinds of timber trees of some 

 value, although this article is worth less 

 than some of the others. Many kinds of 

 imported trees, however, thrive excellently. 

 As to salubrity, the Shire Highlands have 

 proved by the test of many years to be well 

 adapted to the conditions of European life. 

 But the malarious coast country has to be 

 passed through, and the first requisite to set- 

 tlement is therefore a means of rapid convey- 

 ance from the coast, with better facilities 

 for accommodation and comfort. 



The Tradition of Mount Kasbek. The 



ascent of Mount Kasbck, of the Caucasus sys- 

 tem, was accomplished by the Russian topog- 

 rapher Pastuchoff on the 29th of July, 1889. 

 From the summit, 16,246 feet above the sea, 

 a view was had that " surpasses description." 

 The peak itself is concealed from view from 

 below by the projection of a spur which ap- 

 pears from the foot of the mountain to be 



