Feb. 13. 1879] 



NATURE 



351 



In a recent series of demonstrations at La Salpetriere, Paris, 

 Prof. Charcot has shown, intir alia, that it is possible to produce 

 in one subject a state of catalepsy on one side of the body, and 

 a simultaneous state of lethargy on the other. The patient is 

 first thrown into catalepsy by looking at the electric light (in this 

 state the limbs are supple and will retain any position one chooses 

 to give them). To produce the state of lethargy or somnam- 

 bulism on one side, it is sufficient to close the corresponding eye, 

 or shut oflf the light with a screen ; the two states are then co- 

 existent on the two sides of the body. 



We learn from the North Chitta Herald that at the December 

 ■eeting of the Shanghai branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, a 

 per was read by M. A. A. Fauvel, on the alligators of China, 

 1 which occasion the author exhibited a live specimen obtained 

 .?t October from Chinkiang, on the Yangtsze-kiang, as well as 

 :ranium and skeleton, and a stuffed crocodile for comparison. 

 i.e paper commenced with a philological dissertation on the 

 names by which the saurians of China have been known at 

 various times, and the specimen exhibited (between 5 and 6 

 feet long) was identified with the fo or ngo of the old writers. 

 Among modern writers, the late Mr. Swinhoe seems to have 

 been the first to allude to its existence, and in 1869 a specimen 

 was exhibited in the Chinese city of Shanghai. Pere Heude 

 more recently nearly became the possessor of a specimen which 

 he only lost through his servant haggling over the price. At 

 various times reports have reached Shanghai of crocodile -like 

 animals being seen in the Yangtsze-kiang, but Mr. L. E. Palm, 

 of the Chinese Customs' service, was the first to obtain a 

 genuine specimen, which was presented to the Society last year. 

 A careful examination soon showed, according to M. Fauvel, 

 " that it was no crocodile, but a genuine alligator, a most inter- 

 esting fact, as hitherto no alligator has been met with in the 

 Old World, the genus being supposed to be confined to the 

 ers of America." M. Fauvel then explained from the speci- 

 ens, and by means of careful drawings, the peculiarities of the 

 genus. The Chinese animal seemed to resemble most the 

 Alligator lucius of the Mississippi, but, as it seemed to belong 

 to a distinct species, he proposed for it the specific title of 

 ^'sinensis," until further research should establish or disproTe 

 the distinction. 



The Xorth China Herald publishes some notes of a journey 

 made during last October by the Rev. J. S. Crossette, in the 

 northern part of the Chinese province of Shantung, in the course 

 of which he visited a cotton-growing district. His account of 

 this industry is not very encouraging. The scraggy little shrub, 

 he writes, not as high as the knee, black as if blasted by mildew 

 or killed by frost, looks very different from that in the cotton- 

 fields of the United States; and in his opinion the intro 

 duction of some foreign cottonseed would effect a great 

 improvement. 



According to the Democrat, San Francisco is to be the first 



city whose streets are to be lighted entirely by the electric light. 



It is proposed to divide the city into districts, varying in extent 



om one to three ra'des, each of which will be fed by a suffi- 



jntly powerful Gramme machine. The machines have already 



arrived at New York, and arrangements have been made for 



adopting two or three different patents. The Electrician says : — 



' ' The experimental trial of the electric light at the works being 



executed at the port of Havre has given complete satisfaction. 



^Vithout waiting for the report of the committee nominated by 



the French Board of Works, the Chamber of Commerce has 



uthorised the establishment of ten lights in the outer port." 



In his last report to the Foreign Office, II.M.'s Consul at 

 Tamsui, Formosa, calls attention to one or two features of in- 

 terest in connection with the camphor trade there, which is 



assuming considerable proportions. Formosa, it is well known, 

 is one of the very few districts in the world which produce 

 camphor, the others being Japan and some parts of the Malay 

 Archipelago. The tree from which it is obtained {Camphora 

 officinarum), is said not to be known on the mainland of China ; 

 camphor, at any rate, is not extracted from it there. The cam- 

 phor-producing tree of the Malay Archipelago differs from that 

 growing in Formosa and Japan, and, in addition to the crude 

 camphor, produces a valuable medicinal gum, known to mer- 

 chants as "camphor baroos," the duty on which in China is 

 about 6s. per pound. The Formosan tree, on the contrary, does 

 not produce this gimi. 



As showing the much greater attention gradually being 

 directed to Singapore and the Malay Peninsula, to which we 

 have from time to time alluded, it will not be uninteresting to 

 record that some land at Tanjong Pagar, which, not a great 

 number of years ago, was bought from the East India Company 

 at the rate of i rupee for fifteen acres, was recently sold at 

 prices ranging from 20,000 dols. to 30,000 dols. per acre. 



Owing to the melting of mountain snows and torrential rains, 

 the Lake of Geneva reached a higher level last month than it has 

 been known to attain at this season in the forty-one years during 

 which its fluctuations have been noticed. 



It is rumoured that M. Ferdinand de Lesseps will be appointed 

 Governor-General of Algeria. 



M. Maurice Sand has discovered and published an account 

 of a " pre-historic flint-implement workshop " near the village 

 of Loges, on the firontier of the Indre and t he Cher. On the 

 summit of a heath, almost on a level with the surface, he has 

 picked up hundreds of fragments of flints, convex on one side, 

 concave on the other ; also lanceolated axe-heads, arrow-heads, 

 a jasper axe, and many scrapers in red and white cornelian or 

 sardonyx. The flint-layers cropping out to the surface bear 

 marks of human labour. 



The collection of maps, "iplans, and views of London and 

 Westminster, made by the late Mr. Frederick Grace, and lent to 

 the South Kensington Museum by his son, Mr. J. G. Grace, is 

 now on %iew from 10 to 4 daily, in two of the upper rooms in 

 the galleries on the west side of the Horticultural Gardens. The 

 plans and views selected from the collection for exhibition are 

 3,085 in number. A complete catalogue, compiled from Mr. 

 Grace's larger work, has been issued by the Stationary Office. 



New Guine.\ is rapidly ceasing to be terra incognita. 

 Thanks to both scientific and missionar)- enterprbe we have 

 lately learnt much both of its geography and ethnology. Re- 

 cently, and in this country alane we have had the results of the 

 experience of D'Albertis, Comrie, Kiehl, Lawes, Moresby, Stone, 

 and Turner. In the Chronicle of the London Missionary Society, 

 October, 1878, we have, under the title "New Guinea," an 

 account of the journeys made by the Rev. Jas. Chalmers. He 

 is stated to have \'isited one hundred and five villages on the 

 south coast of the mainland during the spring of last year, and 

 ninety of these villages are reported as being visited for the first 

 time by a white man. From Mr. Chalmers's general ethnological 

 notes we learn that these lutives cook the heads of their slain 

 enemies to secure clean skulls to place on sacred places. Each 

 family has a sacred place where offerings are carriai to the spirits 

 of deceased ancestors. This ancestor worship seems to be 

 carried on with great fear. The spirits of their dead are invoked 

 at the commencement of planting, at stalling on trading expe- 

 ditions, &c. They have one great spirit — Palaku Bara, who 

 dwells in the mountains. Pigs are always killed in the sacred 

 place and offered to the spirit, after which the carcase is carried 

 back to the village to be divided and eaten. During this expe- 



