April 17, 1890] 



NATURE 



569 



an offer by a French syndicate to build a bridge of 8oo metres 

 in length and 70 metres high between Roumeli and Anatoli 

 Hissar. The bridge would consist of one span, and this would 

 exceed in length by one-half the longest span of the Forth Bridge. 

 The Anatolian railway, it is thought, will make the coastruction 

 of such a bridge a necessary and feasible undertaking before 

 many years. 



Madame Rosa Kirschbaum, who has taken the degree of 

 Doctor of Medicine at a Swiss University, has been authorized 

 by a special imperial decree to conduct a hospital for eye diseases 

 at Salzburg. The Vienna Correspondent of the limes says 

 this is the first case of a lady physician being admitted to medical 

 practice in Austria. 



The new number of the Kew Bulletin begins with a section 

 on canaigre, the root of which seems likely to take an important 

 place as a tanning material. This is followed by sections on 

 pistachio cultivation in Cyprus, Indian sugar, and mites on 

 sugar-cane. The section on Indian sugar consists chiefly of a 

 selection from a file of documents sent to Kew from the India 

 Office, containing much valuable information as to the production 

 of cane sugar in India. 



At the meeting of the Scientific Committee of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society on April 8, Mr. Wilson exhibited a plant 

 of a primrose, a seedling from Scott Wilson, showing a 

 greater advance to a deep blue colour thanh as yet been made. 

 A series of intermediate forms were also shown. 



The Prefect of Savoy has recently prohibited the gathering of 

 the Cyclamen in the woods of his department. Notwithstanding 

 its abundance in the locality, this beautiful plant had been 

 threatened with total extinction, from the enormous numbers 

 gathered each year for sale in the markets of Chambery and 

 Aix-les- Bains. 



A singular fact is related by M. Lagatu in the Feuille cies 

 Jeunes Nattiralistcs. In the year 1884 a large number of cattle 

 died after having browsed in a particular pasture in the depart- 

 ment of rOise. M. E. Prillieux found the cause of death to be 

 poisoning by ergotized Lolium ; and he attributes it to the fact 

 that the cattle were sent to the pasture about 10 days later than 

 usual. M. Prillieux frequently found ergot on tufts of grass 

 refused by the cattle, which marked the spots where dejecta had 

 been left without being scattered. 



Dr. G. B. De Toni has retired from the editorship of the 

 Italian bi-monthly journal Notarisia, devoted to cryptogamic 

 botany, which will in future be conducted by Dr. David Levi 

 Morenos. 



At the last meeting of the Natural History Society of Kiel, 

 Major Reinhold read a paper on the botanical condition of 

 the German Ocean. According to researches recently made, 

 the eastern part is almost wholly bare of vegetation. This is 

 believed to be owing to the strong tidal currents, which so dis- 

 turb the sea bottom as to prevent the germs and spores of marine 

 plants from settling. 



A ZOOLOGICAL floating station is now in working order at 

 Isefiord on the Danish coast, under the direction of Dr. 

 Petersen. 



The Proceedings of the International Congress of Zoology, 

 held last August in Paris, were issued a few days ago. Among 

 the contributors are Messrs. Bogdanow, Bowdler Sharpe, 

 D'Arcy Thompson, E. P. Wright, C. V. Riley, V. Wagner, 

 Ray Lankester, A. S. Packard, Trimen, Riitimeyer, Retzius, 

 Hubrecht, de Selys-Longchamps, Agassiz, Blanford, L. Netto, 

 W. A. Conklin, A. Fritsch, and McLachlan. This list of 

 names suffices to show that the meeting was really of an 

 international character. 



A shock of earthquake was felt in Maine, U.S.A., on 

 April II. 



Reports of an earthquake felt on March 26, between 9.15 and 

 9.20 p.m., have been received from Innsbruck, the Ziller Valley, 

 Sterzing, Bozen, Meran, the Puster Valley, Salurn, Arco, 

 Ampezzo, and the Weiten Valley. The direction of the shocks 

 was from north to south. 



Two papers on " The Cradle of the Semites," read before the 

 Philadelphia Oriental Club, have just been published. The first 

 is by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, who contends that the Semitic 

 stock came originally from '* those picturesque valleys of the 

 Atlas which look forth toward the Great Ocean and the setting 

 sun." Prof. Jastrow, the author of the second paper, agrees 

 generally as to the probability of a Semitic migration from Africa 

 into Asia, but thinks that Dr. Brinton goes farther than the 

 evidence warrants when he tries to indicate the particular region 

 of Africa from which the migration started. 



During the summer and autumn of 1888, and the following 

 winter, Mr. Albert Koebele carried on researches in Australia 

 for the purpose of determining whether it would not be possible 

 to introduce into California the most efficient of the Australian 

 natural enemies of the fluted scale (Icerya purchasi, Maskell). A 

 report on his investigations has just been issued by the U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture ; and from this it seems that the 

 results achieved by him are highly satisfactory. Prof. Riley, 

 who contributes an introduction to the report, says that one of 

 the insects imported, the Cardinal Vedalia ( Vedalia cardinalis, 

 Mulsant), has multiplied and increased to such an extent as- 

 to rid many of the orange-groves of Icerya, and to promise 

 immunity in the near future for the entire State of California. 



Some interesting notes on the archaeology and ethnology of 

 Easter Island, by Mr. Walter Hough, appear in the new number 

 of Ihe American Naturalist. One of. the last acts of the late 

 Prof. Spencer F. Baird was to induce the American Navy 

 Department to send a vessel to explore the island and bring back, 

 representative specimens. The U.S.S. Mohican, then at Tahiti, 

 was detailed, and the fruits of the successful twelve days' explora- 

 tion are now to be seen in the north and west halls of the 

 American National Museum. They consist of several stone 

 images, carved stones, painted slabs, and a fine collection of 

 smaller objects obtained by Paymaster W. J. Thomson, U.S.N.. 

 In his article Mr. Hough makes good use of the materials thus 

 brought together, and of information placed at the disposal of 

 the National Museum by Mr. Thomson, and by Surgeon G. H,_ 

 Cooke, U.S.N. 



Two interesting papers on primitive architecture, by Mr. 

 Barr Ferree, have been reprinted together, one from the 

 American Naturalist, the other from the American Anthropo- 

 logist. In the first article the author deals with sociological 

 influences, in the second with climatic influences. 



From the reports, for the past official year, of the Directors of 

 Public Instruction and their subordinates in various Indian, 

 districts, on vernacular literature, it appears that, on the wholes 

 but very little scientific work of an original character is being 

 performed by natives of India, and that the taste for scientific 

 literature, original or translated, can scarcely be said to exist. In. 

 Bengal, the Director says that, "while physiology keeps in old 

 grooves, medicine seems to be trying to return to them.' 

 In Madras scientific works appear to have been confined to the 

 translation of an old Sanskrit work on medicine, unless indeed 

 "a collection of a thousand stanzas in Tamil verse, treating of the 

 Yoga philosophy, can be called scientific." In the North- West 

 Provinces eleven works on medicine were registered during the 

 year, some of them being translations, while others are described 

 as original works of some merit. The great mass of Indian, 

 literature appears to be composed of fiction, poetry, and the 



