May 24, 1888] 



NATURE 



87 



a heavier aqueous and a lighter alcoholic layer. When the treat- 

 ment of the heavier layer with alcohol is repeated once or twice, 

 it eventually solidifies to a mass of white crystals which melt 

 below ioo° C. Moreover, on allowing the alcoholic washings 

 to stand, long brilliant white needles, often more than a centi- 

 metre in length, are deposited. These latter crystals differ very 

 markedly in melting-point from those obtained from the aqueous 

 portion, as they remain unfused even at 300 . They were 

 finally purified and subjected to analysis, the results of which 

 point very clearly to the composition 2NaHZn0 2 + 7H 2 0, or 

 2Zn(OH)(ONa) + 7ll 2 0. Hence this new salt may be re- 

 garded as hydrogen sodium zincate. It is soluble in water and 

 alcohol holding soda in solution, but is decomposed both by pure 

 water and alcohol. The crystals obtained from the aqueous 

 solution above mentioned appear to differ from those just de- 

 scribed only in containing more water of crystallization, the 

 amount of which has not yet been fixed with certainty. The 

 fact that zinc oxide behaves so negatively towards the more positive 

 alkalies, playing as it evidently does the rdle of an acid, is now 

 happily a proved one, and it is to be hoped that the American 

 chemists will continue their researches until they have been as 

 fortunate in preparing the normal salt of zincic acid. 



At the last meeting of the Asiatic Society of Japan, the Rev. 

 J. Batchelor read a paper on " Some Specimens of Aino Folk- 

 Lore." There were seven of these taken down as they were 

 sung, chanted, or recited by the Aino bard or story-teller. 

 After telling these stories, Mr. Batchelor observed that among 

 the Ainos there are still prophets and prophetesses, but they 

 limit their powers now to telling the cause of illness, prescribing 

 medicine, using charms, and the like. A person when pro- 

 phesying is supposed to sleep or otherwise lose consciousness, 

 and to become, so to speak, the mouthpiece of the gods. The 

 prophet is not even supposed to know what he himself utters, 

 and often listeners cannot understand the meaning of the utter- 

 ances. The' burden of the prophecy sometimes comes out in 

 jerks, but more often in a kind of sing-song monotone. Mr. 

 Batchelor described one scene of Aino prophesying at which he 

 was present. " Absolute silence reigned around, old men with 

 gray beards sat with eyes full of tears, in rapt attention ; the 

 prophet himself was apparently quite carried away with his 

 subject ; he trembled, perspired profusely, and beat himself 

 with his hands. At length he finished exhausted, and as he 

 opened his eyes for a moment, they shone with a wild light." 

 During the discussion which followed, it was stated that the 

 author of the paper was engaged in the preparation of an Aino 

 dictijnary, for which seven or eight thousand words had already 

 been collected. "Such a dictionary," said Prof. Chamberlain, 

 "would in all likelihood be a kind of tomb in which the 

 rapidly dying language would remain enshrined for ages. . Even 

 now it was striking to observe how all except the oldest men 

 and women were really bi-linguil, speaking Japanese as easily 

 as Aino." 



Mr. Bruce Foote, Superintendent of the Geological Survey 

 of India, lately contributed to the Asiatic Society of Bengal 

 some most interesting "notes" on recent Neolithic and Palaeo- 

 lithic finds in Southern India. These notes have now been 

 reprinted from the Society's Journal. One of the^facts to which 

 he calls attention is that "the old Stone-folk " of the Bellary- 

 Anantapur country, where great numbers of Neolithic settle- 

 ments have been found, selected granite-gneiss hills as the sites 

 of their settlements. Four considerations may, he thinks, have 

 influenced them in this choice : — (1) The more perfect isolation 

 of the granite-gneiss hills, which mostly rise singly out of the 

 plains, or, if in clusters, are yet individually detached, and 

 therefore more suitable for defence than posts on continuous 

 ridges, such as are generally formed by jthe "schistose rocks. 



Some of the granite-gneiss hills are nearly perfectly castellated 

 by the disposition of the rock-masses. (2) Rock-shelters of 

 great efficiency and comfortable terraces are to be found in 

 numbers on many of the granitoid hills, but hardly ever on the 

 schistose hills. (3) The collection of rain water and its storage 

 would, from the nature of the ground, be much easier on the 

 average granitoid rock than on the average schistose hill. 

 (4) The schistose hills are, in very many cases, generally, in 

 fact, surrounded by a heavy and broad talus most detrimental to 

 easy agricultural work. The granitoid hills, on the contrary, 

 form, as a rule, no great talus, but rise up straight out of the 

 great cotton-soil plains, so that the Neolithic field labourers 

 could have been quite close to places of refuge in cases of attack 

 from other tribes, and yet have been able to carry on their 

 agricultural work. 



At the last meeting of the Archaeological Society of Sweden, 

 Herr N. F. Sander read a paper on the wholly or partly un- 

 deciphered runic inscriptions in Sweden, which he divided into 

 three classes: (1) those composed of ordinary runic letters, but 

 in which the runic "staf " or sign 1, when signifying i or e had 

 purposely been left out, in one inscription even twenty- five 

 times ; (2) the conventional runic signs, which were really runic 

 cipher; and (3) the so-called Sudermania " qvist " (sprig or 

 faggot) runes, as well as the " ice " runes. Here the secret lay 

 in the circumstance that the three "sets" of letters had been 

 purposely misplaced, so that in the inscriptions the third set 

 (h,b,l,m, r) came first; first set (/",«,/, h,o,r,k) second; and second 

 set («, i, a, s) third. Referring to seven of the first-named order 

 of inscriptions which had recently been deciphered, Herr Sander 

 stated that five of them, all situated in the province of Upland, 

 had the same contents, and contained some curious objurgations. 

 In four of them appeared the word Pim or Piment (i.e. a strong 

 drink composed of wine, honey, and spice), which, as well as 

 Klaret, was mentioned in the Saga of Rollo the Ganger and the 

 Normans. All these inscriptions were referred to the close of 

 the pagan age. One of them read as follows : " Reksessr, only 

 Thynne's son (son of), assigned (to himself)—/.*, wedded — asa- 

 Askra; (she) is daughter of Thynne-Signil and the giant." At 

 the mouth of the River Aby, close to which this stone was found, 

 is a little island called Thynne or Tonno. 



In an interesting article in a recent number of the Natur- 

 wissenschaftliche Wcchenschrift, Prof. Nehring discusses the ques- 

 tion as to the origin of the dog. He expresses his belief that it 

 is descended from various still-surviving species of wolves and 

 jackals. The taming of jackals, he says, presents no particular 

 difficulty, and many attempts to domesticate wolves have been 

 successfully made in recent times. Herr Ronge has so com- 

 pletely tamed a young wolf that it follows him exactly as a dog 

 might do. 



The United States Consul at Auckland, in a recent report, 

 says that rabbits have so eaten out the ranges in New Zealand, 

 that the capacity for maintaining sheep has greatly lessened, and 

 the flocks have fallen off in numbers. At the Stock Conference 

 of 1886 it was stated that rabbits reduced by a third the feeding 

 capacity of land, and that the weight of fleeces had decreased 

 by 1 lb. to \\ lb. each. The number of lambs decreased from 

 30 to 40 per cent., while the death rate increased from 3 to 13 

 per cent. Since 1882, when the Rabbit Act became law, 

 Government has expended ^7000 on Crown lands alone,. and it 

 is estimated that during the last eight years private persons have 

 spent ^2,400,000 in extirpating rabbits. The methods gener- 

 ally in favour are fencing, poisoned grain (generally phosphorized 

 oats), and ferrets, weasels, and stoats. 



The Canadian Minister of Agriculture in his report for the 

 past year refers to various measures taken by the Government 

 for the advance of scientific a;riculture in the Dominion. Five 



