502 



NATURIi 



[September 23, 1897 



camphor is distilled almost exclusively from the wood of the 

 trunks, roots, and larger branches. The work is performed by 

 hand labour, and the methods employed seem rather crude. 

 The camphor trees are felled, and the trunk, larger limbs, and 

 sometimes the roots, are cut into chips, which are placed in a 

 wooden tub about 40 inches high and 20 inches in diameter at 

 the base, tapering towards the top like an old-fashioned churn. 

 The tub has a tight-fitting cover, which may be removed to p^t 

 in the chips. A bamboo tube extends from near the top of the 

 tub into the condenser. This consists of two wooden tubs of 

 different sizes, the larger one right side up, kept about two 

 thirds full of water from a continuous stream which runs out of 

 a hole in one side. The smaller one is inverted with its edges 

 below the water, forming an air-tight chamber. This air 

 chamber is kept cool by the water falling on the top and 

 running down over the sides. The upper part of the air 

 chamber is sometimes filled with clean rice straw, on which the 

 camphor crystallises, while the oil drips down and collects on 

 the surface of the water. In some cases the camphor and oil 

 are allowed to collect together on the surface of the water, and 

 are afterwards separated by filtration through rice straw or by 

 pressure. About twelve hours are required for distilling a 

 tubful by this method. Then the chips are removed and dried 

 for use in the furnace, and a new charge is put in. At the 

 same time the camphor and oil are removed from the condenser. 

 By this method 20 to 40 pounds of chips are required for one 

 pound of crude camphor. 



Dr. Wilhelm Halbfass contributes to Petermamt's Mit- 

 theilmigen the results of observations on eight of the Eifelmaare. 

 Elaborate contour maps are given, and a series of records of 

 temperature and transparency. All the lakes are practically 

 circular, the bottom steepest near the edges. The Laachen See 

 is by far the largest, while the Pulver-Maar is the deepest lake 

 in Germany outside the Alps, attaining a depth of 74 metres. 



A PHENOLOGICAL map of parts of the coast regions of 

 Albania and Epirus, by Dr. A. Baldacci, of Bologna, appears 

 in Petertnann's Mittheilungen (vol. xliii. 7), with part of a 

 paper by the same author describing the physical geography and 

 climate of the district in relation to its flora. The special 

 interest of the region lies in the transition from the Mediter- 

 ranean to the Alpine-Arctic flora direct, without the necessary 

 interposition of the usual coniferous belt. 



Dr. a. Philippson publishes in the Verhandlungen der 

 Gesellschaft fiir Erdkunde zu Berlin a short account of a cruise 

 amongst the Greek islands of the /Egean during 1896. . A 

 number of geological observations were made, and are plotted 

 on a sketch map, forming a distinct contribution to our meagre 

 knowledge of this interesting region. The distribution of the 

 masses of crystalline rock and the arrangement of the lines of 

 faulting, call for thorough exploration. 



Two important contributions to the literature of historical 

 geography have recently been published in Germany. The 

 Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fiir Erdkunde zu Berlin (vol. xxxii. 

 No. 2) contains a paper, by Dr. Konrad Kretschmer, on a 

 Catalan map in the Biblioteca Estense at Modena of date 1375, 

 with a reduced facsimile of the map appended. These Spanish 

 maps are of the greatest interest to geographers, particularly on 

 account of the commercial relations existing at that time between 

 Italy and southern France and north-eastern Spain. Only four- 

 teen have hitherto been known, and of these only three are 

 accessible in facsimile : that here reproduced and elaborately 

 discussed by Dr. Kretschmer forms the fifteenth, and is the first 

 known Catalan circular map of the world. Nos. 5 and 6 of the 

 present volume of the Mittheilungen der k. k. Geographischen 

 Gesellschaft of Vienna contain an abstract of a Festschrift pub- 

 NO. 1456, VOL. 56] 



lished in commemoration of the opening of the sea route to India 

 by Vasco de Gama, being a translation of parts of the Mohit 

 of the Turkish admiral, Seidi 'Ali, with reproductions of some 

 of the maps. The translation is by Dr. Maxim Bittner, Privat- 

 docent in Oriental languages in the University of Vienna, and 

 there is an introduction by Prof. Tomaschek. The Mohit Ls 

 practically a book of sailing directions compiled, by the best 

 sailor Turkey ever had, about the year 1554. Two chapters and 

 part of a third dealing with topographical matters were translated 

 by Prof. Luigi Bonelli and published in 1894 ; and the present 

 paper covers much the same ground, with improvements and 

 additions derived from the one of the two existing manuscripts 

 which is deposited in Vienna. Translations of other parts of 

 the Mohit into English, by Joseph Baron von Hammer-Purgstall^ 

 were published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 

 between the years 1834-38. 



The College of Agriculture at Tokyo is doing excellent 

 experimental work, judging by the contents of the latest 

 Bulletins it has issued. In that of June last are several 

 interesting memoirs, amongst which we may mention " Con- 

 tributions to the Chemistry of Sake Brewing," by J. Okumura, 

 in which attention is directed to the loss of starch which takes, 

 place in the process of washing the rice before it is steamed for 

 sake brewing, whilst some valuable observations are recorded 

 on the enzyme of the Koji fungus {Aspergillus oryza). K. 

 Yabe contributes a paper on the origin of the sake-yeast, in 

 which he points out once more that the Aspergillus oryza is 

 quite incapable of yielding the sake-yeast cells. K. Negami 

 details the results of his experiments on the fermentation of a 

 grape wine with the sake-yeast cells, which do not, however,, 

 encourage the use of the latter for this purpose, the taste of the 

 fermented product being that of an average white wine, the 

 bouquet being, moreover, of an inferior quality. A highly sugges- 

 tive memoir, full of experimental observations, is contributed 

 by U. Suzuki, entitled "On an important function of leaves." 

 The author comes to the conclusion, as the result of his investi- 

 gations, that reserve proteids in the leaves are decomposed into 

 amido-compounds during the night, and the latter are trans- 

 ported from the leaves to the other parts of the plants. The 

 leaves facilitate the formation of proteids in all parts of the 

 plants by the assimilation of nitrates, yielding thereby amido- 

 compounds. A great advantage is thus gained for the stems, 

 roots and fruits, in which the conditions for nitrate assimilation 

 are less favourable than in the leaves. The May Bulletin of 

 the College is entirely devoted to a long memoir, by H» 

 Tokishige, " On the nature of Japanese Farcy, an Enzootic 

 Skin Disease of the Horses and Cattle of Japan." 



Investigations carried out at the Purdue University Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station in 1895, demonstrated that an 

 efficient preventive of potato scab (a parasitic disease) is obtained 

 by treating the seed tubers with corrosive sublimate. The 

 poisonous and corrosive nature of this compound renders the 

 treatment objectionable to some extent, so investigations have 

 been made with the idea of discovering a preventive having^ 

 the good qualities of corrosive sublimate without its bad ones, 

 and which could confidently be used as the standard fungicide 

 for potato scab. According to a bulletin just received from the 

 Agricultural Experiment Station referred to above, this sub- 

 stance is formalin, the germicidal action of which was discovered, 

 by Loew in 1888. Observations made at the station lead to the 

 following conclusions : — Formalin, a non-poisonous, non-corro- 

 sive substance, will practically free seed potatoes from scab germs, 

 by an immersion for two hours in a solution of the approximate 

 strength of i : 300. It is equal to corrosive sublimate in efficiency, 

 and is without its dangerous and troublesome properties. Seed 

 material of seemingly good quality, as well as that much affected 



