132 



NATURE 



[June io, 1897 



This year's exhibition of the Russian Archseological Com- 

 mission at St. Petersburg, containing the collections made in the 

 years 1895 and 1896, offers a special interest. Besides a great 

 number of most valuable classical antiquities discovered at the 

 sites of old Greek colonies on the Black Sea, it contains very 

 interesting collections of stone-age implements and pottery from 

 Kieff, Tiflis, and Poland ; of the intermediate age between the 

 stone and the bronze period from various parts of Central Russia ; 

 and very rich collections of bronze weapons and implements 

 from Caucasia, Saratoff (a splendid bronze helmet), Tomsk, and 

 Yeinseisk. Among these latter the miniature copies of various 

 implements of that period deserve a special mention. 



The last number of the Jotinial of the Russian Physical and 

 Chemical Society (xxix. 3) contains an obituary notice, devoted 

 to the memory of Dr. Vera Bogdanovskaya-Popoff, who was 

 killed on May 8 in her own laboratory at Izhora, by an 

 explosion. She had been working to obtain a combination, 

 analogous to prussic acid, in which nitrogen would be substituted 

 by phosphorus. When Mile. Bogdanovskaya came to Geneva, 

 in 1890, to study under Prof. Groebe, she intended to carry on 

 that investigation, but was dissuaded by Prof. Groebe, and made, 

 instead, a research on dibenzyl ketone (Cheinische Berichte, xxv., 

 1892), for which she received at Geneva the degree of Doctor of 

 Sciences. Returning to' Russia in 1892, she was assistant to 

 Prof. Lvoff, at the High Courses for Ladies, and devoted much 

 of her time to aid the beginners in grasping the principles of 

 chemistry. She lectured also upon stereo-chemistry, which she 

 had studied under Prof. Guye ; and finally, in her own 

 laboratory in the neighbourhood of St. Petersburg, returned to 

 the work on the phosphorus analogues of prussic acid. She fell 

 a victim of an explosion which took place during that dangerous 

 investigation. 



Among recent American botanical papers received are " New 

 Studies upon the Smut of Wheat, Oats, and Barley," issued from 

 the Government Agricultural Experiment Station for North 

 Dakota; and the completion of Dr. Millspaugh's "Contributions 

 to the Coastal and Plain Flora of Yucatan," published by the 

 Field Columbian Museum. 



The Deutsche Seewarte has just issued a volume entitled 

 " Segelhandbuch " for the Pacific Ocean, intended to accom- 

 pany the Atlas of Charts for that ocean, which appeared some 

 time ago. The work is divided into a large number of chapters, 

 written by the staff of the Seewarte and other experts, and contains 

 the results of experience gained by the discussion of an immense 

 number of trustworthy observations, mostly made on board 

 German vessels, relating both to air and sea. The Seewarte has 

 now issued these useful atlases and handbooks for all the large 

 oceans. 



In a recent number of the Proceedings of the Boston Society 

 of Natural History Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, jun., gives an account 

 of the mammals of Ontario, based on collections made in 

 different parts of that province in 1896. To these are added 

 notes on the same subject, made by Mr. Allan C. Brooks during 

 ten years' residence in the counties of Wellington and Hamilton. 

 While we fully allow that science is cosmopolitan, it could be 

 well wished that our Canadian friends would pay a little more 

 attention to the fauna of their own country, and not suffer it to 

 be entirely in the hands of their more active brethren of the 

 United States. We trust that the proposed establishment of a 

 Professorship of Zoology at McGill University, Montreal, may 

 have a good effect in this direction. 



The last number of the Annali d''Igiene Sperimentale con- 

 tains a paper by Dr. Massone, on the presence of tubercle bacilli 

 in the milk supplied in Genoa. Forty-four different samples of 

 milk were collected, and were submitted to a careful microscopic 



NO. 1 44 I, VOL. 56] 



examination, but in no case were tubercle bacilli discovered. 

 When, however, the further test was employed of first sub- 

 mitting the various milk samples to the centrifugal machine, 

 and then inoculating the layer of cream and the deposit 

 thus obtained into guinea-pigs, three out of the forty-four 

 samples were found to contain tubercle bacilli, for three 

 of the animals thus treated succumbed to tuberculous in- 

 fection. Dr. Massone points out how important it is that 

 all tests of milk for tubercle bacilli should be made by direct 

 inoculations into animals, as no trust can be placed on micro- 

 scopic evidence as to the freedom of milk from this species of 

 infection. In conclusion the author emphasises once more the 

 inconsistency which attends the severe restrictions imposed in 

 many places upon the sale of meat obtained from tuberculous 

 animals, whilst no attention is paid, or public importance 

 attached, to the prevention of milk being distributed infected 

 with these noxious germs. In the former case, owing to the 

 meat being cooked before use, less danger attaches to its con- 

 sumption, whilst the unfortunate custom which prevails of 

 drinking milk in its raw unsterilised condition, renders the use 

 of contaminated milk a greater menace even to the health of the 

 community than the distribution of tuberculous meat. 



Everything concerning the Island of Jamaica, from its 

 discovery by Columbus in 1494 to the present time, will be 

 found in the admirable " Handbook of Jamaica," published by 

 authority (Mr. Edward Stanford is the London agent), and pre- 

 pared by Mr. S. P. Musson and Mr. T. L. Roxburgh. At the 

 end of the chronological history of the island, reference is made 

 to the publication of Prof. Williams' report on the cattle disease 

 in Jamaica. The conclusion arrived at is that the disease " is a 

 chronic form of Texan fever conveyed from place to place and 

 transmitted from one animal to another through the intervention 

 of the Tick. The infection is conveyed by the progeny of 

 Ticks which have matured on infected cattle, and is inoculated 

 by them directly into the blood of susceptible cattle." Remedies 

 for the destruction of the Tick are suggested in the report. 



The New Zealand Institute has just commenced to publish, 

 in quarto form, a series of reproductions of photographs of the 

 remaining monuments of Maori skill and art, with short descrip- 

 tions of the specimens figured. The author of this important 

 descriptive work, Mr. Augustus Hamilton, Registrar of the 

 University of Otago, has, with his camera, visited many out- 

 lying parts of Maoriland with great enterprise and success. 

 The pictures obtained by him have been photographically re- 

 produced in extremely fine tone ; so that the complete collection 

 will preserve for the ages the characteristics of the ornamenta- 

 tion of the Maoris, when the "devouring tooth of time" 

 has obliterated the originals. It is hardly necessary to explain 

 to readers of Nature that a publication of this character is of 

 the highest value. The first part, which has just been issued, 

 describes the canoes of the Maoris and the carvings upon them ; 

 this, with four other parts illustrating the dwellings, weapons, 

 dress and decoration, and social life, will complete a volume. 

 It is expected that Part ii. will be ready next August. 



In the Catalogue of the Vienna Exchange Office for Crypto- 

 gamic Plants, conducted by Herr J. Brunnthaler, Igelgasse 11, 

 Vienna, iv/2, are offered for exchange or sale some 600 Mosses, 

 140 Hepatics, 940 Fungi, 580 Lichens, 690 Algge, and 48 micro- 

 scope slides. The value attached to every specimen is expressed 

 in the units (twentieths of a shilling) adopted for convenience of 

 exchange, the valuation depending on the quality and rarity of 

 the specimen. Numerous regulations are given as to the con- 

 dition, preparation, and labelling of specimens sent for exchange 

 to the Office. Lists of such specimens as can be supplied for 

 exchange must reach the office by September 15. From the 

 parcels subsequently sent in a deduction of 25 per cent, of the 



