July 19, 1888] 



NATURE 



279 



maize culture in Bessarabia has suffered much in this way. 

 To protect the tobacco, Prof. Lindemann recommends sowing 

 the fields in the end of March with mustard or rape, so that the 

 jnsect at the time of egg-laying may be hindered by a thick cover 

 of vegetation. Another insect {Ped'tius femoralis, F.) acts just 

 like Opatrum, but does more harm to maize than to tobacco. 

 Prof. Lindemann further describes two minor diseases affecting 

 the leaves, and making the tobacco unsalable. One {(/trips) is 

 also caused by an insect ; the other {mosaic disease) seems to be 

 due to some condition of the ground. 



The Indian Museum has begun to issue what promises to be 

 a most useful series of " Notes on Economic Entomology." Two 

 numbers, by Mr. E. C. Cotes, first assistant to the Superintendent 

 of the Indian Museum, have been published- — the first presenting 

 a preliminary account of the wheat and rice weevil in India ; the 

 second dealing with the experimental introduction of insecticides 

 into India, and including a short description of modern insecti- 

 cides and methods of applying them. 



The new number of the "Internationales Archiv fiir Ethno- 

 graphic " (Rand I., Heft III.) contains, besides various collec- 

 tions of short notes, the conclusion of Herr J. Biittikofer's 

 excellent paper on the natives of Liberia, and an account, by 

 Herr A. Woldt, of objects of interest brought by Captain 

 Jacobsen from certain districts of the Amoor in 1884-85, and 

 now preserved among the treasures of the Berlin Ethno- 

 graphical Museum. These objects are valuable on account of 

 the light they throw on customs connected with Shamanism. 



Ax instructive paper on the osteology of Porzana Carolina 

 (the Carolina Rail), by Dr. R. W. Schufeldt, has been re- 

 published from the Journal of Comparative Medicine and 

 Surgery. As defined by the American Ornithologists' Union, 

 the order Paludicolae, containing the Cranes, Rails, &c, is 

 primarily divided into two sub-orders, the (1) Grues or the true 

 Cranes, and (2) the Ralli, containing the Rails, Coots, and 

 Gallinules, &c. The family Pallida occur in this latter group, 

 wherein the genus Porzana is well represented by the subject of 

 Dr. Schufeldt's memoir — the common Sora or Carolina Rail. A 

 complete account of the osteology of this ralline form has never 

 been published, yet its skeleton contains many points of interest, 

 to say nothing of importance when it is compared with other 

 types. When his material better admits of it, Dr. Schufeldt pro- 

 poses to thoroughly compare the anatomy of the several forms of 

 American Cranes and Rails. 



The Cavendish Lecture, delivered at the West London 

 Hospital by Sir William Stokes, has just been published. The 

 subject is "The Altered Relations of Surgery to Medicine." 



According to the report of the Medical Missionary Society's 

 Hospital in Canton for 1887, the medical class numbered 

 twelve Chinese, of whom four were women. The students are 

 required to pay a fee, which is fixed at twenty dollars a year for 

 three years, over which period the course extends. They 

 support themselves and buy their own books. Western 

 medicine and surgery are slowly but surely advancing in China, 

 and it is now time that schools of a high order were established. 

 The publication of many medical books, the establishing of 

 hospitals, in which millions of patients have been treated, the 

 training of hundreds of students, the skill of the European 

 physicians practising in the open ports — all tend to educate 

 China and prepare the way for greater things. 



The Russian Statistical Committee having made minute 

 inquiry as to the number of blind people in Russia, it appears 

 that blindness is very unequally distributed among the different 

 nationalities inhabiting the Empire. While there are only 8 

 blind people for each ic,coo Poles, 10 for as many Lithuanians 

 and Jews, and 19 for Russians and Letts, the figures rise to 22 



with the Esthonians, 35 with the Bashkirs, 41 with the Mor- 

 dovians, 51 with the Tartars and Tcheremisses, 63 with the 

 Tchuvashes, and 83 with the Votyaks. Blindness is thus much 

 more widely spread among the Ural-Altayans, and especially 

 among the Finnish-Mongolian stems, than among the Aryans 

 and Semites, although the conditions of all these races, so far as 

 poverty is concerned, are much the same. It is worthy of note 

 that one-eighth of all cases of blindness in Russia are due to 

 small-pox, and one-half only to direct eye diseases. 



A joint exhibition will be made at the "Cincinnati Centen- 

 nial " by the National Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, the 

 U.S. Geological Survey, and the Bureau of Ethnology. The 

 law providing the necessary funds was not approved until May 

 28, so that there has been little time for preparation ; but " the 

 Government scientific exhibits," says Science, "will be in Cin- 

 cinnati in good season, and will constitute one of the most 

 interesting features of the exposition." In the Department of 

 Anthropology the National Museum will exhibit cases of ob- 

 jects showing the geographical distribution and physical charac- 

 teristics of the races of men, and the processes and results of 

 some of the most primitive arts. It will also exhibit a collection 

 illustrating Biblical archrcslogy, and a collection of remains of 

 prehistoric man in Europe, Asia, and America. In connection 

 with the same department the Bureau of Ethnology will have a 

 good exhibition. It has chosen as its special subject the 

 Pueblo of Zuiii, its arts and industries ; and it will show various 

 models of Indian mounds of the Mississippi. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Mona Monkey {Cercopithecus mona 6 ) from 

 West Africa, presented by Miss Edith Frank ; a Macaque 

 Monkey {Macacus cynomolgtis 6 ) from India, presented by Miss 

 Chester; a Brown Capuchin {Cebus fatiielliis <J) from Guiana, 



presented by Mr. Roger M. Dodington ; a Capuchin 



{ Cebus ) from Columbia, presented by Mr. H. B. 



Whitmarsh ; a Grand Eclectus {Ec'ectus roratus) from Moluccas,, 

 a Red-sided Eclectus {Eclectus pictoralis) from New Guinea, 

 presented by Lt.-Col. R. Wolfe; two Corn Crakes {Crex 

 pratensis) British, presented by Mr. R. B. Spalding ; a Green 

 Turtle (Chelone viridis) from the West Indies, presented by 

 Baron Henry de Worms ; two Hog-nosed Snakes {Heterodon 



platyrhinos), a Snake {Cyclophis a'slira), two Carolina 



Anolises {Anolis carolincnsis) from North America, presented 

 by Mr. H. E. T. Glover ; two European Tree Frogs [Hyla 

 arborea) European, presented by Mr. Lionel A. Williams ; a 

 Tuberculated Iguana {Iguana tuberculata), two Common Boas 



{Boa constrictor var. divinihequd), a Snake {Dromicus 



ater) from the West Indies, presented by the West Indian 

 Natural History Exploration Committee ; two Ruffed Lemurs 

 {Lemur varius) from Madagascar, a Hyacinthine Macaw {Ara 

 hyacinthind) from Northern Brazil, three Red and Blue Macaws 

 {Ara macao) from Central America, four Spotted Tinamous 

 {Nothura maculosa) from Buenos Ayres, deposited ; two King 

 Crabs {Limulus polyphenols) from North America, purchased ; 

 two Mule Deer {Cariacus macrotis) born in the Gardens. 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA FOR THE 

 WEEK 1888 JULY 22-28. 



/"C*OR the reckoning of time the civil day, commencing at 

 * Greenwich mean midnight, counting the hours on to 24, 



is here employed.) 



At Greenwich on July 22 

 Sun rises, 4h. 12m. ; souths, I2h. 6m. 11 "8s. ; sets, 20I1. om. : 



right asc. on meridian, 8h. 8 "9m. ; deck 20 9' N. 



Sidereal Time at Sunset, i6h. 4m. 

 Moon (Full on July 23, 6h.) rises, 19m 39m. ; souths, 23b. 53m. ; 



sets, 4V1. 10m.*: right asc. on meridian, 19I1. 57"3m.; deck 



20 25' S. 



