February 17, 1898] 



NATURE 



m 



like to have further particulars and assurance that this descrip- 

 tion is justified by accurate scientific observation. The tribes of 

 the interior have neither idols, priests, nor temples ; but there is 

 a vague general belief in spirits, mostly evil, dwelling in or near 

 certain trees or sacred spots, in witchcraft and in ghosts, as well 

 as a more vague belief in a kind of supreme being. The various 

 tribes have each their sacred animal or totem, which it is un- 

 lawful for them to eat or kill. Altogether this is an excellent 

 report, and the accompanying maps make it of some value to 

 anthropological students. 



An exploration of considerable importance has lately been 

 undertaken by the East Siberian branch of the Russian Geo- 

 graphical Society (/sT/^^^/a, xvii. 1,2; xviii. 3). M. Sibiryakoff, 

 a well-known owner of gold-mines, having put a large sum of 

 money at the disposal of this society, about twelve persons, 

 thoroughly acquainted with the Yakutsk province from a many 

 years' stay in different remote parts of it as political exiles, were 

 invited to join in a detailed exploration — anthropological, ethno- 

 graphical, linguistic, and economical — of the Yakut and Tungus 

 population of the province. The exploration, which has now 

 been carried on for three years, has resulted in the accumulation 

 of most valuable materials. Anthropological measurements and 

 photographs of Yakuts, Tunguses, and Russians were made by 

 MM. Gekker, Mainoff, and Vitashevskiy, on a very large 

 scale, and part of the data has already been published in the 

 Memoirs of the East Siberian branch. Special excursions to 

 inquire into the economical conditions of the population were 

 made ; all materials which are kept in the archives of the local 

 administration, and which could be utilised for historical, ethno- 

 graphical or economical purposes, were consulted. The common 

 law of the natives was carefully studied, as also their folk-lore 

 and their traditions ; and, finally, the exploration was extended 

 by the exiles who are kept in Sredne-kolymsk to the extremely 

 interesting, and almost quite unknown, Yukaghires of the 

 Arctic littoral ; while S. Kovalik has nearly prepared for print 

 a complete history and ethnographical description of the Yakuts 

 of the Olekma region. At the same time E. Pekarsky, who 

 speaks in Yakut as in his mother tongue, has prepared for publi- 

 cation a most elaborate and highly appreciated Yakut dictionary. 

 For compiling it, he has utilised all formerly printed materials, 

 as also many MSS. which were .kept in the library of the East 

 Siberian branch, and a considerable amount of notes collected 

 by his comrades within the last fifteen years. A special sum 

 was subscribed by M. Sibiryakoff for the publication of this 

 dictionary. 



A NEW process for preventing the decay of wood has recently 

 been introduced, and extensive works set up at Millwall for 

 treating timber. The inventor, Mr. Samuel Edward Haskin, 

 has been engaged for the last twenty years in experimenting 

 and perfecting the process in America. Hitherto the method 

 adopted for preventing wood from decay has been by the with- 

 drawal of the sap, and the injection of creosote or other anti- 

 septic substances. The Haskin process, on the contrary, 

 retains the sap, but destroys its germinative principle. To 

 procure this result the wood to be treated is placed in a 

 cylindrical heating-chamber, and submitted to a medium of 

 -superheated air at a pressure fourteen times as great as the 

 normal pressure of the air. The substances composing the sap 

 are by this means chemically changed, and form a powerful 

 antiseptic mixture, which becomes consolidated with the fibre, 

 thus strengthening and preserving the wood. 



Mr. H. L. Russell is continuing his experimental investi- 

 gations on the ripening of cheese, and, in conjunction with Mr. 

 S. M. Babcock, has recently published an important paper 

 describing what the authors consider to be a new factor in this 

 process. Hitherto these changes have been solely ascribed to 

 NO. 1477. VOL. 57] 



the direct or indirect action of the bacteria that are present in 

 the milk, and the lactic acid bacteria have been credited with 

 playing the chief role in this matter. But Russell and Babcock 

 have shown that profound changes of a physical and chemical 

 nature occur in milk in which bacterial fermentations have been 

 excluded, and by means of carefully carried out experiments 

 they have obtained results which they consider justify the 

 assumption that these changes are of a non-vital character, and 

 due to the presence of ready-formed enzymes in the milk 

 as obtained from the cow. They have, moreover, succeeded 

 in separating out proteid-converting (proteolytic) enzymes 

 which, when applied to milk, exerted a curdling as well 

 as a digestive function. The authors believe that the ripen- 

 ing of hard cheese, instead of being due solely to bacteria, 

 is caused by the joint action of both organised (bacteria) and 

 unorganised ferments (enzymes). This is a novel suggestion, 

 and will doubtless stimulate research in this direction. Mean- 

 while the characteristic flavours of cheeses still remains a 

 problem, and it is probable that in this department investiga- 

 tions may teach us to credit bacteria with yet more importance 

 than we are even at present inclined to ascribe to them. The 

 authors' memoir is to be found in the fourteenth annual report 

 of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station, issued in 

 December last. Agricultural research in this country may well 

 take a lesson from the splendid work which flows so continually 

 from the recently equipped scientific stations in the United 

 States ; formerly the investigator had but little more than 

 German journals to take into consideration, but now he has to 

 refer on all sides to American publications. 



The Bulletin No. 2 (December 1897) of the Laboratories of 

 Natural History of the State University of Iowa consists of two 

 articles — " The Coleoptera of the Lower Rio Grande Valley," 

 by Mr. H. F. Wickham, and ' ' The Ferns of Nicaragua," by Mr. 

 B. Shimek. In the latter paper the number of species enumerated, 

 including Ophioglossacese and Marattiaceae, is i98,zbelonging to 

 39 genera, justifying the author's description of Tropical America 

 as the "fern-paradise of the earth." (In the British Islands we 

 have 38 species belonging to 17 genera.) The larger number of 

 these were collected by the author in a botanical expedition 

 undertaken for the University. The high mountains in close 

 proximity to the sea afford a climate remarkably well adapted 

 for the growth of ferns, which are stated to form the most con- 

 spicuous feature of the vegetation excepting palms. A large 

 number are epiphytic, and they vary in size from tiny species of 

 Trichomanes, with fronds only a fraction of an inch in height, to 

 clinging " vines " like Blechnum voliibile, single fronds of which 

 often exceed 30 feet in length, or to splendid tree-ferns. The 

 paper is illustrated by twenty excellent plates. 



Farmers' Bulletin, No. 68, of the U.S. Department of 

 Agriculture is devoted to a description of the black rot of 

 the cabbage, and the best remedies or preventives, by Mr. 

 E. F. Smith. The disease is due to Pseudomonas cam- 

 pestris, a parasite especially destructive to plants belonging 

 to the Cruciferae. 



Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein and Co. have in the press 

 a work on " Epidemic Diphtheria," by Dr. Arthur Newsholme. 

 The work embodies a research on the origin and spread of the 

 disease, from an international standpoint. 



Messrs. Crosby Lockwood and Son ask us to state that 

 the forthcoming work on "Submarine Telegraphs: their His- 

 tory, Construction, and Working," by Mr. Charles Bright, will 

 be published very shortly, and to remind our readers that the 

 subscription price ceases to apply on the date of publication. 



A THIRD and revised edition of Mr. W. Arnold Buffum's 

 interesting book on amber, entitled " The Tears of the Heliades, 



