June 9, 1898] 



NATURE 



m 



through\a.^tube and those which have not, and he concludes 

 that Rontgen rays are neither reflected nor diffused by the walls 

 of the tube, and that the transmitted rays are probably in no 

 way modified by its presence. 



Mr. Ernest Hose communicates to the Sarawak Gazette for 

 May some observations on an encounter between a python and 

 wild pigs in the jungle at Tambak. A young pig had been 

 seized by a large python, and the cries of distress summoned 

 about twenty of the herd to an attack. They gored the python 

 savagely with their tusks, and so harassed and lacerated it as to 

 force it to relinquish its prey. The python was ultimately killed 

 by Mr. Hose, 



An interesting note on Chinese antiquities is given in the 

 consular report on Shashih (c. 8648-108 of 1898), just issued. 

 Shashih contains a pagoda dating, it is said, from the ninth 

 century, and there are other remains. There are distinct traces 

 of the town having been at one time fortified, the earth nucleus 

 of a wall and six brick gateways being still visible. The place 

 is one of considerable interest to the archaeologist and student 

 of ethnography. All round Chingchou, which is about two 

 miles from the north-west extremity of Shashih, are mounds, 

 earthworks, look-out terraces, &c., the remains of ancient 

 cities and fortresses, which mark the sites of successive capitals 

 and strongholds of the ancient kings of Ch'u and their local 

 successors from the very dawn of authentic history. These 

 remains are not described in the report, but it is stated that 

 the traditions attached to them cluster round the capture of the 

 capital of Ch'u by the Prince of Ch'in in 278 B.C., its destruc- 

 tion as an independent kingdom half a century later, the part it 

 played in the wars of the second and third centuries a.d., and 

 the momentary revival of independence in the tenth century as 

 the principality of Nan P'ing. 



Another report on China, very important for commercial 

 purposes, " Trade of Central and Southern China" (c. 8649-29 

 of 1898), contains some geographical and other notes of interest, 

 together with maps. K'uei Fu is interesting as one of the 

 oldest sites of Chinese occupation in these parts, dating from 

 the beginning of our era. Geographically it marks the point 

 of junction of the limestone mountains, athwart which the 

 Vang-tze has forced a way in 100 miles of rapids and gorges, 

 and the red sandstone formation of Ssii-ch'uan. A mile beyond 

 Tzii-t'ung-chen there is a once-renowned Buddhist temple, and 

 still noteworthy for its gigantic figure of Buddha, about 80 feet 

 high, 5 feet across the toes of one foot, cut in high relief out 

 of the solid rock and overlooking a bad rapid in the river, over 

 which it is thought to have a sort of divine superintendence. 

 Though cut in a.d. 1126, it is still in excellent preservation, and 

 evidently much respected. The temple on the bluff behind the 

 image was once on a grand scale, but it has been allowed to 

 fall into utter ruin. In the region beyond this is the plain of 

 Sui-ning, composed of solid alluvium 30 feet deep. There are 

 frequent little temples to the god of the soil, usually of solid 

 stone, the image being enclosed by open fretwork, so that the 

 god cannot see out. The city of Ch'eng-tu is defended by huge 

 walls and gates. The first wall was built in the third century 

 li.c, shortly after the Chinese reduced the old aboriginal state 

 of Shu, and began to colonise this country ; the present wall 

 was built in 1784, and is really a magnificent structure, and 

 in almost perfect preservation. Opposite the city of Chia- 

 ting has been cut in high relief a huge figure of Maitreya 

 Huddha, no less than 380 feet high. Between Heng- 

 Chiang and Lao-wa-t'an is the territory of the independent 

 l)eople Lolo, a race akin to the Thibetans, and perhaps the 

 Burmese, who peopled these parts before the Chinese, and whom 

 the latter have never subdued, although they have been attempt- 

 ing the enterprise for nearly 2000 years. The eastern part of 

 the Red Basin was early peopled by the Chinese race, and in 

 NO. 1493, VOL. 58] 



the third century A. n. Ch'eng-tu w.-is the capital of the western 

 of the three kingdoms into which China was then divided. At 

 the end of the Ming dynasty (1640) the inhabitants were 

 destroyed in one of those social cataclysms that have occurred 

 with much regularity every few hundred years in Chinese 

 history. When order was restored by the present dynasty, the 

 province was colonised chiefly from Hupei and Hunan on the 

 east. Altogether this is a most interesting report ; and though 

 intended for trade, the ethnographer and geographer will obtain 

 many useful notes therefrom. 



Under the title of " The Adulteration of Dairy Produce," 

 Mr. R, Hedger Wallace has brought together a mass of statistics 

 relative to the quality of the articles which come under the 

 above head. The author's original paper was read before the 

 Royal Scottish Society of Arts in Edinburgh, and it constitutes 

 a formidable indictment against the conduct of dairying both at 

 home and abroad. The butter we import is apparently frequently 

 shamefully adulterated. The reputed pure Normandy and 

 Brittany butters, we are told, for example, have been found to 

 contain as much as from 30 to 40 per cent, of margarine ; and 

 not only is this latter material employed to swell the volume of 

 first-class butter exported to this country from these districts, 

 but butter of inferior quality is imported from Central 

 France, Italy, and even Australia, to be blended and forwarded 

 to us as the best Normandy and Brittany butter. Another plan 

 consists in importing Belgian butter, which enjoys a by no 

 means high reputation, and then shipping it from Calais to 

 England as Normandy butter, whilst Australian butter is also 

 worked up to sell in London under the Isigny mark, a noted 

 brand of Normandy butter. In the space of a little over two 

 years it appears that of the samples of butter taken at port 

 of entry into this country and analysed, \o\ per cent, of the 

 Dutch samples were adulterated, 2 per cent, of the Danish, 19 

 per cent, of the German, 5^ per cent, of the Norwegian, and 7 

 per cent, of the Russian. Unfortunately such adulteration is 

 not confined to our friends across the Channel, and the practice 

 of working up butters, as it is called, is carried on at home as 

 well. It is clear that such extensive adulteration, as Mr. 

 Wallace assures us goes on in the butter trade, ought to be ener- 

 getically dealt with by our public authorities. Another important 

 matter discussed by the author is the use of antiseptics or pre- 

 servatives to milk, technically known as "drugging" the 

 milk. We know that the addition of chemicals to niilk as pre- 

 servatives is prohibited in France on the grounds of unwhole- 

 someness ; cannot we induce responsible oflicials in this country 

 to bring this matter to the notice of the Government, and have 

 such treatment of milk included under the head of adulterants ? 

 The New York law on dairy products, passed in 1893, enacts, 

 among other things, ' ' that milk is adulterated to which 

 has been added, or into which has been introduced any foreign 

 substance whatever." Surely it is time steps were initiated, if 

 not by authorities responsible for the purity of our food supplies, 

 then by the public themselves, to put a stop to so reprehensible 

 a practice. 



As contributions to our knowledge of the Flora of India, we 

 have received reprints of the tenth portion of the materials for 

 a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula by Dr. George King, and 

 of a paper on some new Malayan orchids by Dr. G. King and 

 Mr. R. Pantling. 



In the Kew Bulletin No. 132, Mr. George Massee has a note 

 on the obscure disease which is often very destructive to young 

 fruit trees, known as " slime-flux." Mr. Massee attributes the 

 injury to the combined attacks of a Schizomycete, Micrococcus 

 dendroporthes, and of the aquatic condition of a fungus Torula 

 inonilioides. The Micrococcus is the active agent in producing 

 fermentation, but can enter the tissues of the plant only through 

 injuries in the bark. 



