June 2, 1898] 



NATURE 



lOI 



included in it. The illustrations are good and numerous ; 

 they are to a large extent either drawn specially for the 

 work, or are taken from Briosi and Tognini's work on 

 Cannabis sa/i7>a. 



Dr. Montemartini has succeeded in getting a large 

 quantity of sound information into his short treatise on 

 " Plant Physiology," and he has made it more useful by 

 citing the chief literature of each subject in a list at the 

 end of each chapter. It is curious to note that he quotes 

 the ringing experiment, as used by Hales, to demonstrate 

 the ascent of water in the wood. In the "Vegetable 

 Statics," however, this experiment is described to prove 

 that there is no great downward motion of water in the 

 bark. With regard to the problem of the ascent of water 

 in trees, Dr. Montemartini accepts the hypothesis which 

 maintains that the sap is drawn up in a tensile state. In 

 each section the principal facts are well described, and 

 the book is well up to date. The section on growth is 

 perhaps the best in the book, and contains a short 

 account of the author's own researches. The last section 

 in the book is on reproduction, and too short to be of 

 much use. 



Glass Blowing and Working. By Thomas Bolas. Pp. 



212. (London : Dawbarn and Ward, Ltd.) 

 Considering the practical importance of glass-blowing, 

 not only in physical and chemical laboratories but 

 in many manufactures, it is remarkable that so few 

 works have been written on the subject. English 

 students are practically restricted to Mr. Shenstone's 

 well-known little book, and the chapters in Prof. 

 Threlfall's " Laboratory Arts." The present work, which 

 is based upon a course of lectures given by the author in 

 connection with the Technical Education Committee of 

 the Middlesex County Council, is quite distinct in char- 

 acter from either of these, and in some respects, perhaps, 

 is less suitable for a beginner. The opening chapters are 

 devoted to glass-working tools, the most important of 

 which, of course, are the blowpipe and the bellows. The 

 remarks on these are practical and lucid, the author 

 showing that the ideal blowpipe and bellows differ con- 

 siderably from those usually found in chemical and 

 physical laboratories. The chapter on minor tools and 

 appliances is very full, although many of the instru- 

 ments described are but rarely used by professional 

 glass-blowers. The chapters on glass manipulation con- 

 tain nothing essentially new, the only points which seem 

 somewhat unorthodox to one accustomed to the German 

 style of glass-blowing being the method of making the 

 inside seals in " traps," and the use of lead glass. The 

 author is a strong advocate of the use of the latter, and 

 indeed regards the blackening in a reducing flame as a 

 positive advantage to the beginner, as compelling him to 

 work with a flame in which the combustion is complete. 

 The latter part of the book gives instructions for making 

 small decorative articles at the blowpipe, with notes on 

 the preparation of enamels and coloured glasses. Many 

 useful recipes are given throughout the book, mostly 

 published for the first time, of which the various inks 

 for etching and printing on glass may be specially men- 

 tioned. If only as a collection of practical hints, the book 

 is certain to be found on the shelves of all amateurs in this 

 fascinating art. 



Experimental Mechanics. By G. H. Wyatt, B.Sc, 

 A.R.C.S. Handbooks of Practical Science, No iii. 

 Pp. 54. (London : Rivingtons, 1898.) 

 A NUMBER of simple experiments in mechanics, most of 

 them quantitative, are described in this book. The ex- 

 periments are capable of being performed by pupils who 

 can understand the descriptions of them, and they will 

 train the hand, mind and eye to work together. 



NO. 1492, VOL. 58] 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ Tlie Eifi/or does vol hol.l himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 prcsse,/ by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to cor e^p 'ud with the writers of, rejected 

 vianuscrip's hifend'-d fir this or any other part of NaturbI. 

 No no' ice is taken 0/ anonymous communications.'^ 



Notes on the Bugonia-Superstitions. — The Occurrence 

 of Eristalis Tenax in India. 



In consequence of a notice published by Baron C. R. Oslen- 

 Sacken in Nature (vol. xlix., p. 198, December 28, 1893), re- 

 questing the public for information about the folk-lore of the 

 I Oxen-born bees, I made to him several communications, most of 

 which were incorporated in his subsequent works : namely, 

 "On the Oxen-born Bees of the Ancients" (Heidelberg, 1894), 

 and " Additional Notes in Explanation of the Bugonia-Lore," 

 &c. {ibid., 1895).^ Continuing since in the researches, I have 

 collected the following notes, which I trust you will allow me a 

 space to publish, inasmuch as the latter work (p. 4) contains 

 the author's indication that he shall thereby conclude his pub- 

 lications on this subject :— 

 ' (i) The Occurrence of the Bees in a Skull. — Besides the two 

 instances of this incident quoted in "O. B." (pp. 64, 3) from 

 Herodotus and from Patterson, we find another case in Purchas's 

 " Pilgrimes." 1624, Part III., 1. iii. p. 627, where Geo. 

 Berkeley, the English merchant {c. 1605), narrates from his 

 personal observations that Livonia was then so much devastated 

 by the Russians that, her woods were "strowed with bones of 

 the dead carcases, and himselfe did once in one of those woods, 

 eate Honey out of a man's skull wherein a swarm of bees were, 

 and bred as it hanged on a Tree." 



(2) Chinese Lores in Relation to the Bugonia. — Mr. G. B. 

 Buckton, in his " Natural History of Eristalis tenax,''' 1895, p. 

 79, gathering from " O. B.", includes Japan and China among 

 the countries that ' ' have been all more or less affected by this 

 strange idea." Should a *eader infer from this passage that the 

 Japanese and the Chinese ever dreamt of the breeding of honey- 

 bees from bovine carcases, gross must be his blunder. He can 

 find in " O. B." a reproduction of my clear statements of the 

 absence from those nations of this belief (p. 20), and of the 

 early Japanese discrimination established between bees and drone- 

 flies (p. 33). 



However, the exposition of Mr. Buckton could excellently 

 apply to the case of the Chinese, provided the term " Bugonia- 

 superstiiion " be used in such an extensive sense as to cover all 

 allied beliefs derivable from the confusions of bees and drone- 

 flies. As the result of my research for three years past, I can 

 now enumerate altogether three instances of s^ch beliefs from 

 Chinese source : firstly, a notice of a literatus in the beginning of 

 the seventeenth century, who apparently mistook some Eristalis 

 for honey-bees (see Natukk, vol. 1. p. 30, May 10, 1894); 

 secondly, an inveterate fallacy current among the renowned 

 naturalists in China, that the bees use human urine for manu- 

 facturing honey '^ ("O. B.," p, 19; "A. N.," pp. 17, 19-20); 

 and thirdly, a passage which I have lately found in " Koo-kin- 

 tu-shu-tseih-ching" (Peking, 1726, Sec. IV., torn. Ixviii, " Ki-i- 

 pu-wei kau," i. fol. 2, b.), and reads thus : — "Should a hen's 

 egg turn into bees or wasps, it would portend the town where it 

 happens to become totally evacuated in subsequent time." 



Here I may add that, although the Chinese were singularly 

 free from the barren speculations on the artificial breeding of 

 honey-bees from dead oxen, yet they did not escape the invasion 

 of another enterprising illusion, which might have rivalled the 

 Bugonia-craze in its absurdity. It is described by Chang Hwa 

 (232-300 A.D. ) in his " Poh-wuh-chi " (tom. iv. f 7, a, Jap. ed., 

 1683) :— " Tear the Turtle ( Trionyx) into pieces about as large 

 as stones used in the game of Ki (a sort of chess) ; mix them 

 well with the juice of the Chih-hien (the red variety of 

 Aniaranthiismangoslanus),3ind bury them underground in a thick 

 envelope made ot the Imperata-grass ; thus, after ten days, you 

 will find each piece of flesh changed into a turtle." Another 

 book, named " Pi-ya Kwang-yau," is said to relate: "If a 

 carapace of the tuitle be wrapped with the Amaranth and placed 



1 For brevity's sake I shall use in this article the abbreviations "O. B." 

 and "A. N." respectively for these works. 



- So, Li Shi-Chin, one of the greatest naturalists China has ever pro- 

 duced, praises the Bees in a similar tone to Samson's riddle by saying : 

 " Out of the fetor came forth deity ; and out of the decay came forth 

 mystery" (" Pan-tsau-Kang-muh," 1578, sub., "Mih-fang") 



