144 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Kra-Champawn trail ia known as Burma- 

 tai, from the fact that a party of Burmese, 

 cominfj across to harry their ncif^^hbors in the 

 ohl fighting!; days, are said to have got into a 

 thiciv growth of this plant, and to have bathed 

 in the stream to allay the agony, with the 

 result that they all died there." The Siamese 

 call the plant kalcmg-ton chang. 



In the western part of Belgium the dog 

 has been employed as a beast of burden from 

 time immemorial. The Belgian dog (known 

 only by this name) is a large, compactly built 

 animal, measuiing from twenty to thirty 

 inches in height; the hair is smooth and 

 short, generally tan or dark brown in color. 

 It is the custom to crop both ears and tail. 

 The dogs are usually driven before carts 

 weighing from one hundred to one hundred 

 and twenty pounds, in teams of from two to 

 six abreast. A harness very similar in ar- 

 rangement to that of the horse is used. 

 Six of these animals will draw from six to 

 eight hundred pounds. They are put to work 

 when about a year old. They vary in price 

 from twenty-five to sixty shillings. There 

 are over two thousand dogs in Ghent licensed 

 as draught animals. 



A pi>ANT described by M. Henri Chantrey 

 as most probably answering to the manna 

 found by the Hebrews in the desert is the 

 thallophyte Canona escnlenia, or edible lichen, 

 which grows in the deserts of Persia, Arabia, 

 Mesopotamia, and Sahara. It is a grayish 

 cryptogam of about the size of a pea, bear- 

 ing short bracteate appendages on its top ; 

 when cut, it resembles a mass of dull white 

 flour paste. It is an ephemeral substance, 

 and must be collected the morning it ap- 

 pears, as it will soon dry up ; but when 

 properly prepared it can be kept in a close 

 vessel. It is highly appreciated by the 

 wandering Arabs, who have often been saved 

 by it from starvation, and they lay up stores 

 of it when opportunity offers. It is easily 

 collected, for it never adheres to any foreign 

 body, and, so far as appearance goes, seems 

 as if it might have been thrown on the 

 ground. There is but little suggestion of 

 the mushroom in its taste, whicii is rather 

 starchy, with a slight flavor of sugar. Cattle 

 are very fond of it. The Arabs boil it into 

 a gelatinous paste, which they serve in 

 various ways. They preserve it by drying it 

 in the shade and pack it in bladders or skins. 

 It is not a complete tirst-class food, but is 

 very good for a few days till something better 

 can be got. 



The Jernkontoret of Sweden is an iron- 

 masters' exchange at Stoc.iholm, which was 

 fovmded in 1747 for the financial convenience 

 of the subscribers, and now possesses a 

 reserve fund of about $1,500,000. The 

 functions of the society have been consider- 

 ably enlarged since its institution. It has 

 organized a corps of mining engineers and 

 metallurgists, who receive salaries from it, 



and further from manufacturers whom they 

 may serve. They are often commissioned 

 to go abroad and obtain information and 

 practical hints bearing upon their profession. 

 The institution is supported by a light assess- 

 ment on the production of its constituency. 

 It has a fine building, and publishes an an- 

 nual volume in Jtmkontorets Annalen, con- 

 taining original memoirs and reports from 

 technical agents, which is sent gratuitously 

 to all the masters of forges in Sweden, and 

 is sold abroad. 



In a number of glass mirrors of the 

 third and fourth centuries, examined by M. 

 Berthelot, the glass was coated with a 

 metallic substance and with a layer of whit- 

 ish material. The metal proved to be lead, 

 with no trace of gold, silver, copper, tin, 

 antimony, or mercury, and no sign of or- 

 ganic substance was present. It was thus 

 shown that no extraneous material was used 

 to cement the lead to the glass. The mirrors 

 appeared to have been cut from hollow 

 blown glass globes, and it is possible that 

 before the globe was cut the molten lead had 

 been poured into the interior, and had ad- 

 hered to the previously warmed glass. The 

 whitish layer consisted of lead carbonate 

 and lead oxide formed by the oxidation of the 

 lead coating and calcium carbonate, which 

 had been deposited from the water of the 

 district in which the mirrors were found. 



The list of recent deaths among men 

 known iu connection with science and its ap- 

 plications includes the names of Prof. Karl 

 Miiller, botanist, one of the founders of the 

 German scientific weekly. Die Natur, Feb- 

 ruary 9th, aged eighty-one years; Sir John 

 Struthers, emeritus professor of anatomy in 

 the University of Aberdeen, in his sixty- 

 seventh year; John Kreusi, mechanical en- 

 gineer and inventor, at Schenectady, N. Y., 

 January 22d, aged fifty six years ; Thomas ■ 

 Cook, teacher of anatomy and author of 

 works on the subject, in London, February 

 8th ; Dr. A. Veitmeyer, civil engineer, in Ber- 

 lin; Dr. Carl Schoenlein,of the Zoological Sta- 

 tion at Naples, aged forty years ; Major-Gen- 

 eral Joseph J. Reynolds, of the United States 

 Army, formerly professor of mechanics and 

 engiiMiering at Washington University, St. 

 Louis, February 26th, aged seventy-seven 

 years ; Dr. Alexandre Laboulli^ne, professor 

 of the history of medicine in the University 

 of Paris, and author of a treatise on patho- 

 logical anatomy and a book on French en- 

 tomological fauna, aged seventy- three j'ears ; 

 Dr. Philipp J. J. Valentini, Americanist and 

 student of ancient Mexican and Central 

 American monuments and codices, in New 

 York, March ICth, in his seventy-first year; 

 Gustave Wiedmann, professor of physics and 

 chemistry in the University of Leipsic, and 

 writer on electricity and magnetism ; and 

 Major J. Evans, professor of pathology in 

 the Calcutta Medical College, March 13th. 



