i8 



NATURE 



\_May I, 1879 



iZm. 



American serials exdusively devoted to entomology is constantly 

 increasing. 



A SLIGHT earthquaT<e was felt betwean 9.15 and 9.30 p.m., 

 April '24, at Sigmaringen. The direction was 'not observed. 

 The following particulars have reached the Times of the 

 earthquake which occurred in Persia on March 22, at 3.42 

 A.M. (London time, 12.37 A.M.). It lasted 12s., was felt at 

 Tauris and east as far as Zendjan ; no damage was caused in 

 Tauris, but in the vicinity of Mianeh, where the shocks con- 

 tinued with more or less vigour up to April 2, great damage and 

 loss of life have occurred. An official report, prepared for the 

 Persian Government by the Persian Telegraph authorities at 

 Mianeh gives the damage, as far as is at present known, as 

 follows :— 21 villages totally destroyed, 54 greatly damaged, 922 

 personskilled, together with 2,660 sheep, 1, 125 oxen, 124 horses, 

 and 55 camels. The centre of the disturbances was the moun- 

 tain of Bousgouche. 



We learn from the Colonies and India that an American 

 explorer has recently discovered in the little -known district 

 of Yucatan, bordering on British Honduras, a valuable insect, 

 possessing properties which ought to make it a rival of the 

 cochineal and shellac-producing insects. This is the neen, or 

 niin, a species of Coccus, which feeds on the mango tree and 

 similar plants, and exists in enormous quantities in Central 

 America. It is of considerable size, of a yellowish brown 

 colour, and emits a peculiar oily odour, containing as it does, a 

 large quantity of fatty oil, or rather grease. This grease is used 

 by the natives for various purposes, being highly prized as a 

 medicinal oil for external application, and it is also employed for 

 mixing paints. It can be made to change its condition very 

 considerably by different processes. When exposed to great 

 heat, the lighter oils evaporate, leaving a tough flexible mass, 

 resembling half-softened wax, but unaffected by heat or cold, 

 which may be used as a lacquer or varnish. When burnt, this 

 material produces a (hick semi-fluid mass, somewhat resembling 

 a solution of india-rubber, which after a few days becomes hard 

 and solid. As a cement this substance will be invaluable, and it 

 might also be used for waterproofing purposes. 



Within a few days the scientific committee for the organisa- 

 tion of the Paris Exhibition of Applied Sciences will hold an 

 important meeting. The exhibition will be open from July to 

 NoTember. 



Several of the Conseils Generaux of the surrounding depart- 

 ments have voted funds for the erection of an observatory on the 

 top of Mont Ventoux, in Vaucluse. It will be the third high 

 meteorological station in France, and very likely not the last. 

 M. Ferry, the Minister of Public Instruction, is favourable to 

 the erection. 



" The Silk-Worm, being a brief Manual of Instruction for the 

 Production of Silk," is the title of a pamphlet by Mr. C. V. 

 Riley, professor of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Silk- 

 worm rearing seems likely to become an important industry in 

 some parts of the United States. 



The March number of the Journal of the Statistical Society 

 contains the concluding part, upwards of 180 pages, of Mr. C. 

 Walford's elaborate and valuable paper on the Famines of the 

 World. The whole paper, we believe, will be published sepa- 

 rately. 



Messrs. Heywood, of Manchester, have just published the 

 tenth series of Science Lectures for the People delivered in that 

 city. The volume, which can be had for a few pence, contains 



nine lectures by some of the most eminent men of science of the 

 day. Huxley lectures on William Harvey, Roscoe on the Sun , 

 Flower on the Tasmanians, Williamson on Insectivorous Plants, 

 Barrett on Edison and his Inventions, Dawkins on Our 

 Earliest Ancestors in Britain, Abel on the Modem History of 

 Gunpowder, Dallinger on the Minutest Forms of Life, and 

 Romanes on Animal Intelligence. Several of the lectures are 

 illustrated. 



Mr. Richard Rathbun has reprinted from the Proceedings 

 of the Boston Society of Natural History, a pamphlet of 25 

 pages on the Devonian brachiopoda of the Province of Para, 

 Brazil. The list is a long one, and many species are described 

 for the first time. 



It will be difScult to surpass or even equal our American 

 friends in the illustrated scientific works which they have begun 

 to publish in such quantity. We have had occasion to mention 

 more than one work of this class recently, and now we receive 

 the first part of " Characea Amcricanae," illustrated, described 

 and published by Dr. T. F. Allen, of New York. The parti- 

 cular specimen described, and illustrated by an exquisitely coloured 

 plate, is Chara gymnopus, A. Br., var. elegans, A. Br. 



We have on our table the following works :—" Our New 

 Protectorate," 2 vols., J. C. McCoan (Chapman and Hall); 

 Karl von Gebler's "Galileo Galilei," translated by M. Sturge 

 (Kegan Paul and Co.); "The Encyclopaedia Britannica," 

 vol. ix. (A. and C. Black); "Geography" (School Books for 

 South Africa, No. i). Dr. John Shaw (W. Collins) ; "Element* 

 of Natural Philosophy," Part i., Second Edition, Thomson and 

 Tait (Printed at Cambridge University Press); "Chemistry of 

 Common Life," J. F. W. Johnson and A. H. Church (Black- 

 wood and Co.); "Shadows of the Coming Truth" (Elliot 

 Stock); "Caves of South Devon and their Teachings," J. 

 E. Howard (Hardwicke and Bogue) ; "Scientific Re- 

 sults of the Second Yarkand Mission ; " 6 Plates, from the 

 Notes of Ferdinand Stoliczka (Quaritch) ; "End-on Illumina- 

 tion in Private Spectroscopy," Piazzi Smyth (Neil and Son, 

 Edinburgh); C. Peschel's " Geschichte der Erdkunde," Parts 

 i. and ii.. Edited by Prof. Dr. Sophus Ruge (R. Oldenburgh, 

 Miinchen); " Pre-Historic Times," fourth edition, Sir Joha 

 Lubbock, Bart. (F. Norgate) ; " Dictionary for Architects," 

 No. I, W. J. Christy (Griffith and Farren) ; " Reduction of 

 Greenwich Meteorolo^^ical Observations" (Spottiswoode) ; " The 

 Flowers of the Sky," R. A. Proctor (Strahan) ; " On Certain 

 Effects of Starvation on Vegetable and Animal Tissues " (D. D. 

 Cunningham, Government Printer, Calcutta) ; " The Microscopic 

 Organisms found in the Blood of Man and Animals" (Govern- 

 ment Printer, Calcutta) ; " Rambles in North- Western America," 

 J. M. Murphy (Chapman and Hall); "Atlas of Histology, 

 Parts I and 2, E. Klein and N. Smith (Smith Hall) ; " How t* 

 learn Danish," E. C. Otte (Trubner and Co.); "Key to 

 How to Learn Danish," E. C Otte (Triibner and Co.) ; 

 "Anatomy and Physiology of Man," G. G. P. Bale (Remington 

 and Co.); "On Artificial Manures," by M. Georges Ville, 

 translated and edited by William Crookes (Longmans) ; " Agri- 

 cultural Ants of Texas," H. C. McCook (Trubner); " De la 

 Ligue Contre les Vivisections, ou la Nouvelle Croisade," Par un 

 Anglais (Ernest Leroux); "L'Kclairage Electrique," Le Comte 

 Th. du Moncel (Hachette) ; " Contributions to the Anatomy of 

 the Central Nervous System of Vertebrate Animals," Alfred 

 Saunders ; " Infection— Diseases in the Army," Prof. K. 

 Virchow (H. K. Lewi>) ; " Recherches sur I'Electricite," Gaston 

 Plants (Paris, A. Fournan) ; ".On the Daily Inequality of the 

 Barometer " (W. W. Rundell) ; "Freedom in Science and Ter.oh- 

 ing," Ernst Haeckel (Kegan Paul and Co.). 



