March 8, 1888] 



NATURE 



445 



The last issue' (Heft 37) of the German Asiatic Society of 

 Japan contains a lengthy paper, with numerous tables of ana- 

 lyses, on the food of the Japanese, the authors being Dr. 

 Kellner and M. Mori. They refer at the outset to the extra, 

 ordinary differences of opinion amongst various writers as to the 

 exact nature of the staple diet of the Japanese people. One 

 writer says it is almost wholly boiled rice flavoured with small 

 quantities of fish or pickled vegetables ; another says that, as 

 far as means allow, it is a mixed, and not a purely vegetable 

 diet, and therefore physiologically ample ; a third that it is 

 almost wholly vegetarian ; a fourth, that as much animal food 

 is consumed in Japan as in Germany, Austria, France, and the 

 Danubian Principalities ; and so on. All the writers here quoted 

 are modern men of science who have resided in Japan, and have 

 therefore had ample opportunities for forming an accurate 

 opinion. As to beef, however (there is no mutton in Japan), 

 there can be no question that its consumption is very small. In 

 1882 only 36,288 beasts were slaughtered, or about I kilogramme 

 of meat per head of the population, and it must be borne in 

 mind that a large consumption takes place at the open ports 

 amongst Europeans, and in the proximity of vessels. The con- 

 clusions to which the present writers — one of them, it will be 

 noticed, being a native investigator — come is that the food of 

 the Japanese people varies so considerably that, from a physio- 

 logical point of view, no single proposition can be laid down 

 respecting it. There are two main groups to be distinguished : 

 in one, the people from poverty are compelled to be veget- 

 arians, and use a diet which leaves much to be desired in its 

 effect in strengthening the body ; those in the second group are 

 able to obtain animal food from the sea with some ease, and 

 therefore use a mixed diet, which in kind and quantity appears 

 ample. Between these two extremes we find all kinds of 

 diet. The authors have not only made analyses of the various 

 food-stuffs of Japan, but have investigated in various public 

 institutions, from prisons to schools for army officers, the effect 

 of various classes of food on the labour and weight of different 

 persons. 



On February 10, at 12.40 a.m., a brilliant meteor was seen 

 at Venersborg, in Sweden. It went in a direction from south to 

 north, and was surrounded by an intense blue light. It was seen 

 to fall to the earth some considerable distance off, but no sound 

 could be heard. 



Dr. Robert Fries, a Swedish botanist, has completed a 

 memoir on the fungus-flora of the south-west coast of Sweden 

 on which he has been engaged for a number of years. It 

 embraces 865 varieties. 



Prof. Sven Lov6n, the "Nestor of Swedish science," 

 recently completed his seventy- ninth year, when he received 

 numerous congratulations from friends at home and abroad. He 

 is at present engaged in publishing a catalogue by Linnaeus of the 

 Lovisa Ulrika Museum in Sweden, which will be accompanied 

 by numerous illustrations and explanatory notes from a modern 

 scientific point of view by Prof. Loven. 



The report of the Norwegian Association for the Preservation 

 of Archfeological Remains for last year shows that thirty-one 

 barrows were opened in 1887 by the Association at Tvetene, in 

 the parish of Brunlanres, all of which were found to date from the 

 early Iron Age. Some 146 objects of various kinds were found. 

 These objects were added to the Museum of the Christiania 

 University. 



The well-known Norwegian naturalists, M. Michelet and 

 Dr. Bahrt, have introduced a Bill into the Storthing, pro- 

 hibiting the killing of any birds (except birds of prey, ravens, 

 rooks, and magpies) in the whole of Norway during the period 

 April I to August 15, also the taking of eggs or young birds. 

 The chief object of this Bill is to put a stop to the present 

 wanton destruction of birds by foreign "sportsmen." 



Mp. F. S. Wells, of Southgate, has sent us four photographs 

 of the lunar eclipse of January 21 last. Considering the small 

 size of the photographs, they are very interesting, and Mr. Wells 

 tells us that they were taken without costly apparatus. In the 

 original negatives the images were merely seven- sixteenths of an 

 inch. Mr. Wells enlarged them five diameters. 



Mr. R. Copeland writes to us: — "I have just learnt from 

 Leipzig that Prof Krehl is the University Librarian at that 

 place, and not Virchl as printed in Dr. Muir's letter on p. 246, 

 and repeated by me on p. 344 of Nature." Mr. Copeland also 

 mentions that the " Demonstratio eliminationis Cramerianoe " 

 was duly entered under De Prasse by Mr. K. Tucker, Hon. 

 Sec. Mathematical Society, when drawing up the catalogue of 

 the "Mathematical and Scientific Library of the late Charles 

 Babbage " in 1872. This library forms the nucleus of Lord 

 Crawford's collection of scientific books. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Rhesus Monkey {Macaats rhesus ? ) from 

 India, presented by Captain R. F. Hibbert ; a Common Raccoon 

 {Procyon lotor) from North America, presented by Mr. C. J. 

 Urquhart ; a Civet ( Viverricula ) from China, pre- 

 sented by Mr. Percy Montgomery ; two Laughing Kingfishers 

 {Dacelo gigantea) from Australia, presented by Mrs. Mars Buck- 

 ley ; twelve Black-headed Gulls {Larus ridibundus), a Common 

 Gull {Larus canus), British, presented by Mr. J. G. Barker ; five 

 Prince of Wales's Pheasants {Phasianus principalis <J <J Q 9 Q ) 

 from Afghan Turkistan, presented by Major Peacock, R.E. ; a 

 Cape Eagle-Owl {Bubo capensis), five Angulated Tortoises 

 (Chersina angulata), three Areolated Tortoises {Homopus 

 areolahis), a Natal Sternothere {Sternothmrus castaneus), a 

 Smooth Snake {Homolosoma lutrix), an Infernal Snake {Boodon 

 infernalis), a Rufescent Snake {Leptodira rufescens), a Spotted 

 Slowworn {Acontias meleagris), five Round-throated Frogs 

 (Rana fuscigula), a Narrow-headed Toad {Btifo angusticeps) 

 from South' Africa, presented by the Rev. G. H. R. Fisk, 

 C.M.Z.S. ; a Natal Sternothere {SternotJuerus castaneus) from 

 South Africa, presented by Colonel J. H. Bowker, F. Z. S. ; two 

 Cirl Buntings {Emberiza cirlus), British, purchased ; a Hog 

 Deer {Cetvus porcimis), an Eland {Oreas canna), a Yellow- 

 footed Rock Kangaroo {Petrpgale xanthopus) born in the 

 Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Tempel's Comet, 1867 II. — M. Raoul Gautier has published 

 in the Memoirs of the Society de Physique et d'Histoire 

 Naturellede Geneve, vol. xxix. No. 12, a discussion of the orbit 

 of the comet discovered by Herr W. Tempel, at Marseilles, on 

 April 3, 1867, with especial reference to its appearances in 1873 

 and 1879. There are several points of especial interest about 

 this comet : not only was it an addition to the number of known 

 comets of short period, but it possesses the peculiarity of an 

 elliptic orbit of but slight inclination, and of less eccentricity 

 than that of any other member of the same class. Its spectrum, too, 

 would seem to be unusual, for the imperfect view of it obtained 

 by Dr. Huggins, May 4 and 8, 1867, led him to conclude that 

 the bright bands, which it gave together with a continuous spec- 

 trum, were not those of carbon. Its orbit, ai.d e-pecially its 

 period, is also subject to great perturbations from the action 

 of Jupiter, and its perihelion distance was considerably 

 increased between 1873 and 1867 without its aphelion distance 

 being much altered. It had also been identified by M. Winnecke 

 with the comet observed by Goldschmidt at Paris, May 16, 

 185s, in a search for De Vico's comet, but von Asten's inquiries 

 have shown that the identification was an erroneous one. 



M. Gautier— though the perturbations due to Jupiter during the 

 period 1873-79, with which he was principally engaged, have 

 been but small, the two bodies being always "distant from each 

 other— has calculated the perturbations after the method of 

 variation of the elements, since this method was most suitable 



