30 



NATURE 



[May 12, 1887 



amylum congestum et simili candore, interdum multus, non- 

 nunquam vero perpaucus. Sed non omnes arundines sive rami 

 eum humorem continent, at ii dumtaxat quos Bisnager, Batecala 

 et pars Provinciae Malavar profert. Hie autem liquor concretus 

 interdum nigricans et cinereus invenitur, sed non ideo impro- 

 batur. Nam aut ob nimiam humiditatem, ant quod diutius 

 ligno inclusus permanserit, hunc sibi colorem conciliat : non 

 autem ob arborum incendium, veluti nonnuUi putarunt, Si- 

 quidem in multis ramis, quos non contigit ignis, niger etiam 

 invenitur." 



Garcia also gives information as to the medical virtues of 

 ."tabasheer, which were esteemed to be very important at that time : 

 ■ " Ceterum ex Medicorum turn Indorum, turn Arabum, Persarum, 

 - et Turcorum testimonio Tabaxir internis et externis convenit 

 ardoribus, tum etiam biliosis febribus et dysenteriis : praesertim 

 autem in biliosis fluxionibus utuntur ; nostri vero trochiscos ex 

 eo conficiunt addito semine Oxalidis." 



Almost all prse-Linnean writers who mentioned tabasheer 

 for the most part onl)' reproduced what they found in Garcia's 

 book. Joh. Bauhinus even identifies the name of tabasheer with 

 the plant itself, which he calls in his " Historia Plantarum," i. 

 2, p. 222, "Tabaxir sive Mambu arbor, Tabaxir folio oleae." 

 Rumphius in his "Herbarium Amboinense," of the year 1763, 

 relates that he had "never found any trace of tabasheer in the 

 bamboos growing in the Molucca Islands, except on one occa- 

 sion : — "Juniores arundines plerumque in inferioribus suis nodis 

 semi-rejjletae utcunque sunt lympida aqua potabili, quae hisce 

 in terris sensim evanescit, in aliis vero regionibus exsiccatur in 

 substantiam albam et calceam, quae Tabaxir vocatur. lUud 

 tantum addere debeo, mihi in Hituae ora moranti semel adduc- 

 tum fuisse per pueros meos substantiam albam, siccamque instar 

 farinae amyli, quae in ilia ora ab illis fuerat detecta, quantum 

 recordor, in Bulu seru {Beesha huniilis, Kunth, Bambusa Fax, 

 Poir.) fistulis, dura autem erat, sicca, ac penitus insipida omni- 

 busque Aethiopibus, quibus ostendebam, ignota, ipsiusque 

 albido sensim in cinereum degenerabat colorem." 



Further information on tabasheer is given by Piso, a well- 

 instructed Dutch physician, in the year 1658, but I am inclined 

 to think that he is wrong in identifying "Achar," a sweet 

 dish celebrated in India as well as in Europe at that time, with 

 the tabaxir of the Eastern peoples. But let us hear what he 

 says : — "Novissimi autem stolones, qui maxime succulenti sunt 

 et saprosi magni fiunt in Indiis, apud Advenas aeque ac Indi- 

 genas, quod bases sunt Celebris istius compositionis ' Achar ' 

 dictae, quae in Europam invecta in deliciis habetur palutum 

 doctis, et a me quoque non semel cum voluptate gustata est. At 

 vero ubi hae Arundines procerae et annosae factae fuerint, 

 liquores content! substantia, color, sapor, et efficacia mutantur, 

 atque pauUatiin ] rotruditur foras et iuxta internodium vi Solis 

 coagulatur ac instar pumicis albi indurescit, mox nativae suavi- 

 tatis expers facta, peculiarem saporem cum parva adstrictione, 

 eboris usti aemulum acquirit, vocaturque apud indigenas ' Sacar 

 Mambu' — Tabaxir Garciae et Acostae — qui quo levior, albi- 

 cantior ac glabrior eo praestantior : quo magis inaequalis atque 

 cinerei coloris evadit, deterior habetur." 



Though it is very probable that under certain circumstances 

 almost all species of the genus Bambusa and its allies are 

 able to produce tabasheer, but few are specially mentioned as 

 capable of producing this interesting substance. All the species 

 that I have found noted in the literature of earlier and modern 

 times are the following : (1) Bambusa arundinacea, Retz, or the 

 common bamboo; (2) Bambusa spinosa, Roxb., which is called 

 by Burmann, 1737, in his "Thesaurus Zeylanicus," "Arundo 

 indica arborea maxima cortice spinosa Tabaxir fundens " ; (3) 

 Beesha humilis, Kunth, which is Rumph's bamboo mentioned 

 above ; (4) Beesha Rheadii, Kunth, and (5) Guadua angustifolia, 

 Kunth, the species from which Humboldt's specimen of tabasheer 

 was taken. Ernst Huth. 



Frankfurt, Oder, April 17. 



A Brilliant Meteor. 



I SAW here this evening a splendid meteor ; time, by London 

 and North-Western Railway, 8. 19. Its apparent point of 

 origin was nearly south, and altitude 45° from the zenith ; its 

 path from east to west ; finishing about west-south-west, some 

 30° from the horizon ; duration at least four seconds. It in- 

 creased in brilliancy until near extinction, when it quickly faded 

 in a dull red glow, like that of the residuum from the fire-ball 

 of a rocket. The head, of an apparent brilliancy three times that 



of a star of the first magnitude, had precisely the appearance of 

 the incandescent spot of the oxy-hydrogen light, and the tail, 

 very long, exhibited a red glow. Some neighbouring trees and the 

 chimney of a house enabled me with a pocket compass to getjthe 

 altitude and bearings approximately. Arthur Nicols. 



Watford, May 8. 



The following particulars relating to a very fine meteor may 

 be of service in fixing its course if it was seen elsewhere : — 



(i) Position of observation: the open space in front of St. 

 Anne's, Soho. 



(2) Size : three or four times > Venus. 



(3) Colour : decidedly green. 



(4) Path : it was first seen somewhere near 7 Gemlnorum, and 

 in two or three seconds disappeared slowly behind the houses in 

 the direction of Aldebaran. 



(5) Time of disappearance : 2oh. 22m. 19s. May 8. 



The time can be relied upon, as my watch was compared on 

 Saturday and again this morning with G.M.T, 



Saturn was just visible, and Venus, therefore, must have been 

 very bright, yet she seemed quite dull and yellow by the side of 

 the splendid fireball. Maures HorneR. 



28 Upper Montagu Street, W^., May 9. 



P.S. — 7 Geminorum was of course invisible, and Aldebaran 

 behind the houses. 



On Sunday, the 8th inst., at 8.23 p.m., a very brilliant 

 meteor was seen here by a party of four persons, of whom I was 

 one. When I first saw it, it was almost in the zenith, and 

 appeared considerably larger and more luminous than Venus 

 (which had been visible for some time), though of much the 

 same colour. It crossed the sky in a north-westerly direction, 

 and became invisible about 17° above the horizon. As it tra- 

 velled, a brilliant trail of red light appeared behind it, which 

 increased in length and brightness as it descended, being fully 

 three times longer than the head, when it attained its greatest 

 length. 



The meteor was one of striking brilliance, and must have been 

 specially so, as the sky which it crossed was still bright with the 

 yellow glow of sunset. Isabel Fry. 



5 The Grove, Highgate, May 10. 



Residual Affinity. 



I was greatly interested in Prof. Armstrong's recent articles 

 on " Residual Affinity," as it is a subject I brought before the 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh fully nine years ago, as one of the 

 main causes of solution, molecular compounds, &c. I was, how- 

 ever, somewhat disappointed with the conclusions he came to, 

 and was tempted to exclaim in Scriptural language, "Ye did 

 run well ; what did hinder you that you are again entangled in 

 the yoke of bondngsl" Prof. Armstrong comes to the conclu- 

 sion that HCl and NH3 combine owing to the residual affinity 

 of CI for N. Now how can this be ? If we regard it from a 

 thermal point of view, we find that, in the combination of HCl 

 with NHg, 41,900 units of heat are given out, while the com- 

 binations H with CI and N with H3 give out 22,000 and 11,890 

 units respectively ; that is, the residual affinity of N for CI, as 

 measured by heat, exceeds by about one-third the sum of the 

 affinities of H for CI and H3 for N ; and yet, under ordinary 

 circumstances, CI has very little affinity for N. Is it not more 

 rational to conclude that the residual affinity is not confined to the 

 negative elements, but extends to both, and that the combination 

 of HCl andNHg is due mainly to the residual affinity of CI 

 and N for H ? It is easy to understand that this residual 

 affinity is so lowered in intensity that neither CI nor N 

 can retain unassisted more than one and three atoms ; but when 

 the energy of the PI is reduced by combination with another 

 body, each of them can then act upon it. That residual affinity 

 exists in both positive and negative elements seems to me 

 evident from the fact that the heats of solution of salts in water 

 vary directly as the affinity of the metal for the O of the water 

 and also directly as the affinity of the negative element for the 

 H, as I have pointed out in my letter on "Laws of Solution," 

 in Nature, vol. xxxiv. p. 263. It seems strange to me that 

 chemists will search out for occult causes of phenomena which 

 can much more easily be explained by what is already known of 



