l62 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 19, 1889 



colonies of thousands of the Vedolia, which are there in count- 

 less numbers sucking food. Over 50,000 have been taken away 

 to other orchards during the present week, and there are 

 millions still remaining, and I have distributed a total of 63,000 

 since June i. I have a list of 130 names of persons who have 

 taken the colonies, and as they have been placed in orchards ex- 

 tending from South Pasadena to Azusa, over a belt of country 

 ten miles long and six or seven in width, I feel positive, from my 

 own experience, that the entire valley wiil be practically free 

 from Icerya before the advent of the new year." 



Cocoa-nut butter is now being made at Mannheim, and, 

 according to the American Consul there, the demand for it is 

 steadily increasing. The method of manufacture was discovered 

 by Dr. Schlunk, a practical chemist at Ludwigshafen. Liebig 

 and Fresenius knew the value of cocoa-nut oil or fa^, but did 

 not succeed in producing it as a substitute for butter. The new 

 butter is of a clear whitish colour, melts at from 26° to 28° C, 

 and contains O'oooS per cent, water, o'oo6 per cent, mineral 

 stuffs, and 99 '9932 per cent. fat. At present it is chiefly used 

 in hospitals and other State institutions, but it is also rapidly 

 finding its way into houses or homes where people are too poor 

 to buy butter. The working classes are taking to it instead 

 of the oleomargarines against which so much has been said 

 during the last two or three years. 



A POINT of great importance for the progress of Western 

 science in the Chinese Empire is whether it should be taught in the 

 Chinese or in a foreign language. The subject has been frequently 

 discussed, and quite recently the opinions of a large number of 

 men most prominently engaged in the education of Chinese were 

 collected arid published in a Shanghai magazine, the Chinese 

 Recorder. The editor says that nine-tenths of these authorities 

 are of opinion that the Chinese language is sufficient for al} 

 purposes in teaching Western science. One gentleman states 

 that Chinese students can only be taught science in their own 

 language, and that the long time necessary for them to acquire 

 English for this purpose is wasted ; another says that "science 

 must be planted in the Chinese language in order to its per- 

 manent growth and development " ; a third sees no reason why 

 the vernacular should not be enough to allow the Chinese 

 student to attain the very highest proficiency in Western science, 

 although he admits that there is at present a want of teachers 

 and text-books. Prof. Oliver, of the Imperial University at Pekin, 

 says he has never found English necessary, but has always taught 

 in Chinese. Prof. Russell, of the same institution, finds Chinese 

 sufficient for popular astronomy. On the other hand, Mr. 

 Tenney says that it can only be for the most popular views of 

 science that the vernacular is sufficient. " It is impossible," he 

 says, " for scholars who are ignorant of any European language 

 to attain any such excellence in modern sciences as to enable 

 them to bear comparison with the finished mathematical and 

 scientific scholars of Europe and America." Thus, he continues, 

 as a medium of thought, any Western language is incomparably 

 superior to Chinese in precision and clearness ; the student 

 acquainted with a foreign language has a vast field of collateral 

 thought open to him which does not and never will exist in 

 Chinese, and he can keep abreast of the times, which the Chinese 

 student who must depend on translations cannot do. The 

 relation of the Chinese student "to the world of thought is 

 analogous to that of a blind and deaf person in the West, whose 

 only sources of knowledge are the few and slowly increasing 

 volumes of raised type letters which make up the libraries of the 

 blind." As has been said, however, the weight of opinion is 

 against Mr. Tenney. 



In a recent number of Humboldt, Herr Fischer- Sigwart de- 

 scribes the ways of a snake, Tropldonotus tessellatus, which he 

 kept in his terrarium in Zurich. It was fond of basking in the 



sun on the top of a laurel, from which it climbed easily to a high 

 cherry-tree fixed against a wall, its night quarters. Sometimes, 

 after lying still for hours, it would hasten down into a snail 

 pond (about 4 square yards surface) containing gold-fish, and 

 hide itself for a long time, quite under water, behind some stone, 

 or plants, the tongue constantly playing. When a fish came 

 near, the snake would make a dart at its belly. Often missing, 

 it would lose patience, and swim after the fishes, driving them 

 into some corner, where it at length seized one in the middle of 

 the belly, and carried it to land, much as a dog would a piece of 

 wood. Curiously, the fish, after being seized, became quite 

 still and stiff, as if dead. If one then liberated it, the skin of 

 the belly was seen to be quite uninjured, and the fish readily 

 swam away in the water. The author thinks the snake has a 

 hypnotic influence on its prey (and he had observed similar 

 effects with a ringed snake). It would otherwise be very diffi- 

 cult for the snake to retain hold of a wriggling fish. The snake 

 usually carried off the fish some distance to a safe corner, to 

 devour it in peace. 



A SPLENDID find of minerals containing the rare metals of the 

 yttrium and thorium groups has been made in Llano County, 

 Texas {Amer. yourn. of Science, December 1889). The whole 

 district for many miles round consists almost entirely of Archaean 

 rocks, granite being met with everywhere, and forming the 

 common wayside rock. Throughout the granite are dispersed 

 veins of quartz, and it is in these veins, and especially the swell- 

 ings of the veins, that large masses of rare minerals have been 

 found. The largest of these deposits consist of gadolinite and fer- 

 gusonite, and of two entirely new minerals, to which the names 

 yttrialite and thoro-gummite have been given. The first discovery 

 of gadolinite in Texas was made in 1886, when a pocket of 

 huge crystals and masses aggregating to about 500 kilo- 

 grammes was unearthed. Since that time a more complete pro- 

 spection of the district has revealed the existence of still larger 

 quantities. The gadolinite is generally found in small lumps 

 weighing about half a pound, but frequently also in much heavier 

 masses, and sometimes in immense crystals. One double crj'stal 

 was found weighing 42 pounds, and a still larger single crystal 

 weighed no less than 60 pounds. And these immense crystals 

 actually contain over 50 per cent, of oxides of the yttrium metals, 

 as do also the massive varieties. The crust of the gadolinite 

 crystals, which appear to be of monoclinic habit, was generally 

 altered into a brownish-red hydrate of waxy lustre ; but occa- 

 sionally, as in case of two particular specimens, the crystals were 

 found in a state of rare beauty and perfection. The new inineral 

 yttrialite, a thorium-yttrium silicate, was discovered associated 

 with and often upon the gadolinite. It was generally altered at 

 the surface to an orange-yellow hydrate of quite different struc- 

 ture to that of the hydrate of gadolinite. One mass of this in- 

 crustation was found to weigh over 10 pounds. It contains 46 

 per cent, of oxides of the yttrium metals. Fergusonite, hitherto 

 an exceedingly rare mineral, occurs in large quantities in the 

 Llano County district, generally in the form of broken interlacing 

 prisms several inches long. Two varieties of it have been identi- 

 fied — one a monohydrated and the other a trihydrated variety. 

 The monohydrated kind forms tetragonal prisms with acute 

 pyramidal terminations, of dull gray exterior, but possessing a 

 brilliant bronze- like fracture. It contains 42 per cent, of yttrium 

 earths and 46 per cent, ofcolumbic acid, Cb.205. The trihydrated 

 variety is similar, but of a dark brown colour. Associated with the 

 fergusonite is the new mineral thoro-gummite, a hydrated uranium 

 thoro-silicate. This mineral is frequently found in well-developed 

 crystals resembling, and having angles very nearly the same as, 

 those of zircon. It contains 22 per cent, of UO3, 41 per cent, of 

 ThOj, and 6 per cent, of yttrium earths. Its probable essential 

 composition is UO3 . 3ThOo . sSiO.^ . 6H2O. Besides these four 

 minerals of special interest to chemists, many more— such as 



