44- i'l -^^ T TOXIXS. 



lime was sown. It will be noticed that there is no crop worth 

 speaking about. 



To the rio^ht of the man there is a single drill c>f much 

 Ivetter growth, then one of stunted growth, and then a block 

 showing ifair growth. These were the mealies which received 

 bonemeal. The stunted row. however, received no bonemeal 

 owing, the farmer explained, to the fact that the fertilizer 

 attachment of the planter had become choked. Throughout the 

 good |)atch there were other stunted rows due to the same cause. 

 These, while testifying to the uniformity' of the soil, afforded an 

 excellent, although accidental, series of controls. 



It would be interesting to learn whether an\' cases similar 

 to this have been noted elsewhere. /Vnyhow, this solitary case 

 \vould seem to afford an illustration of the untenableness of 

 Whitney and Cameron's toxin theory-. 



(Read. July 6. njJ/. ) 



Hay Fever. — rhe Medical Journal of South Africa 

 remarks that a short time ago correspondence appeared in the 

 l)ress tending to incriminate the pepper tree {Schiinis uioUc) 

 as being the cause of hay fever. It has been asserted that hay 

 fever can Ije caused only by the pollen of those plants which 

 depend upon the wind for its distribution. In other countries the 

 hay fever of early simimcr is associated with the flowering of the 

 grasses, and of late summer mainly with the flowering of certain 

 of the Composita;. It seems possible that the pollen of Cosmos 

 and of the maize plant may ibe effective in South Africa, but in 

 the United States of America, where the sul)ject ha> ])een exten- 

 six'ely in\-estigated, the onlv tree implicated has been the cotton 

 wood. 



Light- ABSORBING Matter in Space.— Aliout 



fighleen m<»nth-^ agcj Barnartl discovered abcau the star 

 .\o\a I'ersei a nebulosity of fan-shaped ajjpearance. .\b)re 

 recent ])hotographs show, in addition, a sharplx-detined 

 continuous ring of nebulosity, of which the central poin^ 

 is the nova. (ireat ex])anding rings were ])ho'tographed 

 around this new star at its original outburst in 1901. and 

 W. W. Campbell, of Lick ( )bservatory. in his presidential address 

 to the American Association for the Advancement O'f Science, 

 explained the phenomena of tem])orary stars by the theory that a 

 dark star, travelling ra])i(Il\ through ,s])ace. has met with resist- 

 ance, such as a great neljula or cloud of particles. The rushing 

 of the dark star into and through this resisting medium would 

 cause a great wave of light to go out from the moving body, and 

 this, fallin<^ on non-luminous materials, would make a ring of 

 nebulosity, visible by refiectit)n. From the abo\e anfl other facts 

 Campbell infers the existence of a stU])endous amount of obstruct- 

 ing material >cattered throughout our stellar system. 



