August 29, 1889] 



NATURE 



423 



from twenty- five to thirty, are kept permanently on the fishing- 

 grounds during the shrimping season, and are visited daily, 

 when the catches are taken out through a hinged opening at the 

 side, and fresh bait put in. The second method recommended 

 consists of a conical pocket of small meshed net about 18 inches 

 deep, fixed to an iron ring with a diameter of 2 feet 6 inches to 

 3 feet. Four short lines are attached to the ring, and are made 

 fast to a rope and cork float. The bait, which consists of bits of 

 fish, is either placed at the bottom of the pocket or on two lines 

 stretched across the iron ring. These nets require to be raised 

 every 15 or 30 minutes ; they should be sunk so that the ring just 

 rests on the bottom, the supporting lines being kept clear of the 

 bait by means of a float fastened at the junction of the lines with 

 the mooring rope. This method is said to be most successful 

 when carried on at low water in the early morning. 



A RECENT number of the China Review (vol. xvii. No. 3) 

 contains a paper by Dr. Macgowan on the alleged avenging 

 habits of the cobra in Indian and Chinese folk-lore. The belief 

 in India is that a wounded cobra which escapes will sooner or 

 later revenge itself on the man who has caused the injury, 

 wherever he may go or whatever he may do. Dr. Macgowan 

 says that this belief is prevalent in Indo-China and China as 

 well as in India. But in China there is also a strong prejudice 

 against killing the cobra, lest its spirit should haunt the slayer 

 ever after. Cobras, therefore, are shunned rather than pursued 

 and attacked. Popular stories of the dire consequences of 

 slaying them keep up the superstition : a high official who 

 had killed one died soon afterwards of some mysterious disease, 

 and the death is attributed to the slain snake ; again, the spirit 

 of the snake enters into possession of its slayer, and employs the 

 vocal organs of the latter in uttering imprecations on himself 

 until death mercifully removes him. Dr. Macgowan gives a 

 large number of stones of this character. A number of others 

 refer to the retribution on snake-killers after their own 

 deaths. Gratitude, as well as vindictiveness, is ascribed to 

 snakes, of which some characteristic stories are given. In 

 conclusion, Dr. Macgowan observes that the recently established 

 vernacular press in China furnishes inexhaustible stores of 

 folk-lore. "Paragraphs describing popular superstitions, im. 

 jaossible occurrences, monstrosities, and so forth, constitute a 

 great portion of their matter." In regard to snakes, the marvel 

 is that any are killed at all in China, so many dreadful punish- 

 ments are supposed to overtake their destroyers ; and, indeed, 

 it is considered a work meriting favour here and hereafter to 

 purchase captured snakes and liberate them. Nevertheless, j 

 poisonous snakes are not numerous in Cliina, probably because 

 their presence is inconvenient to Chinese farmers, and they are 

 therefore destroyed, folk-lore notwithstanding. 



In connection with the recent discussion, in Parliament and 

 elsewhere, respecting emigration to South America, it may be 

 interesting to reproduce certain observations of Dr. Alfredo da 

 Luy, at a late meeting of the Academy of Medicine at Rio, 

 on the effect of climate on race. They are quoted in a report 

 from the British Legation in B.azil, which has recently been 

 published. " I have long noticed," he says, " that Brazilians 

 in general are more pallid, and are less vigorous and energetic, 

 than persons coming from temperate and cold climates. Here 

 in Rio de Janeiro the degeneration of the Portuguese race may 

 also be noted. In fact such inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro as 

 are not coloured persons are generally pallid, weak, of short 

 stature, and of but little muscular strength. I have found that 

 an anse.nic condition is very common among us, and, in most 

 cases in our country, malarious infection is the cause of the 

 impoverishment of blood, whenever this impoverishment exceeds 

 physiological limits. I believe, however, that such malarious 

 impoverishment of blood seldom kills by itself, but this it is 

 which makes children in Rio de Janeiro show so Utile resistance 



to other maladies, and it is one of the causes which concur 

 to produce the great infant mortality in the city of Rio de 

 Janeiro. The average annual mortality of children in Rio de 

 Janeiro, up to seven years of age, was 2900 in the five years from 

 1882 to i886, excluding those born dead. It is chiefly among 

 the children of Europeans resident in Brazil that I have met 

 with the most accentuated impoverishment of blood and debility, 

 and I believe the explanation to be marshy mila'-ia {iinpa- 

 ludismo). I have noticed in my practice that the children of 

 Portuguese and Italians do not fare so very badly in the 

 Brazilian climate, but that the children of foreigners coming 

 from the north of Europe show a noted physical degeneracy, 

 j and a frail vital resistance, so that the greater part of them suc- 

 cumb at a tender age, and even if they reach adult life they never 

 show any grade of robustness and energy comparable to that of 

 their progenitors. Although I am fully persuaded of the good 

 moral qualities of the European colonist, I think it my duty to 

 state that Germans, French, Belgians, and other persons from 

 climates very different from ours, will never be able to give a 

 prosperous colonization to our warmer provinces, except in the 

 case of crossing with races better adapted to hot climates." 



In Consul-General Playfair's Report to the Foreign Office on 

 the agriculture of Algeria, it is said that viticulture in that country 

 is beset with many dangers. In spring, hailstorms frequently 

 destroy the young shoots ; the flowers are often ruined by fogs ; 

 and the ripe fruit by the sirocco. The most serious enemy is, 

 of course, the Pkylloxa-a, but the officials have been iairly suc- 

 cessful in dealing with this pest. Another is the allise, a small 

 beetle that causes great destruction, particularly when in its larval 

 condition. The mode of killing the altise commonly adopted 

 is to place bundles of grass and vine-cuttings around the vine- 

 yard when winter is approaching ; in these the insects conceal 

 themselves in large compact masses, and the whole is then set 

 on fire. Other diseases are the diditiin, anthrachno.ns, pcronospera, 

 and chlorosis. It is calculated that the want of intelligent treat- 

 ment of these diseases causes the owners of the vineyards to lose 

 annually nearly a third of the crop. '1 he olive seems to grow 

 everywhere in Algeria except in marshy ground, and attains 

 dimensions quite unknown on the northern coast of the Mediter- 

 ranean. At present, however, from careless cultivation, the 

 plant has not proved as remunerative, nor have its products been 

 as good, as in Europe. 



The British Consul at Bogota, in his last Report to the 

 Foreign Office on the agricultural condition of Colombia says 

 that for tobacco cultivation in that country no manure is used, 

 and the same land is used over and over again for an indefinite 

 number of years. In some districts, where disease has completely 

 exterminated the tobacco plantations, it has been found that 

 when plants are brought from other districts they are not 

 attacked for a few years, but ultimately they are also destroyed. 

 This, perhaps, might be avoided by constantly im^)orting fresh 

 seed ; but the experiment was tried on some of the best tobacco 

 land in Colombia, with the result that as the seed brought from 

 inferior districts began gradually to improve by transportation to 

 the better soils, it became more liable to disease, while the plants 

 grown from seeds brought from the better districts were attacked 

 at once. Another instance of the ignorance of scientific agricul- 

 ture in Colombia appears in the case of cocoa. It is most care- 

 lessly cultivated, though it is a crop which requires constant care 

 and labour to weed and clean the ground, and free the trees of 

 the numerous insects, especially the caterpillars, which infest 

 them. A most destructive disease has lately attacked the trees 

 in the south of the Tolima, which is one of the very richest 

 districts in Colombia. This disease does not seem to have 

 been investigated, and no remedy has been suggested, but 

 the extent of its ravages will be understood from the fact that 



