6i4 



NA TURE 



[April 28, 1892 



sunshine, although less than in preceding weeks, still exceeded 

 the mean value in nearly all districts. 



Last week California was visited by the most severe earth- 

 quake which has been known in that region since 1868. On 

 April 19 shocks were felt over a distance of 200 miles, the 

 intensity varying at different points. In San Francisco a number 

 of large buildings trembled perceptibly, but only one was 

 damaged — an old church building until lately occupied by the 

 Academy of Science. The front wall gave way, tearing away 

 the balconies. The centre of the disturbance was Vacaville, 

 where a number of brick buildings both in the town and in the 

 vicinity were destroyed or damaged. Many walls also fell into 

 the streets. At Winters and Dixon serious damage was done 

 to buildings. On April 21 further shocks occurred at San 

 Francisco, and were felt in the surrounding districts. A number 

 of buildings were demolished at Winters, and several persons 

 received injuries. Eight distinct vibrations were felt. At Biggs 

 clocks stopped, and plaster fell from the ceilings of the houses. 

 At Woodville several brick buildings were damaged, while at 

 Vacaville some walls which had been cracked by the previous 

 shocks were demolished, and the ceilings in most of the houses 

 were cracked. At Sacramento also some damage was caused, 

 but the place which seems to have suffered most severely was 

 Dixon, where extensive damage had already been caused by the 

 shocks of April 19. 



Dr. a. C. Oudemans, Director of the Zoological Gardens 

 at the Hague, has for some years made the sea-serpent a subject 

 of special study, and now he is about to issue a book in which 

 he will present his conclusions. He states in a prospectus that 

 he was attracted to the question by "an account of the appear- 

 ance of a sea-serpent published in Nature of November 8, 

 1880." As Nature was not published on November 8, 1880, 

 a good many people may be tempted to think that this reference 

 (due, of course, to a slip of the pen or to a misprint) is very 

 suitable to the nature of the animal to which it relates. Dr. 

 Oudemans has placed side by side "all the accounts, tales, and 

 reports of this great unknown animal," and has convinced him- 

 self that " through all the reports there runs only one red thread, 

 that there must be one single animal species which has given 

 rise to all the reports." The author has chosen to write in 

 English, because it is a language " known to all navigators, as 

 well as to all zoologists, and other men of education. " The full 

 title of the work will be " The Great Sea-Serpent. An His- 

 torical and Critical Treatise. With the Reports of 166 Ap- 

 pearances, the Suppositions and Suggestions of Scientific and 

 non- Scientific Persons, and the Author's Conclusions." There 

 will be 82 illustrations. 



We are glad to hear that Mr. J. J. Wild, Ph.D., who ac- 

 companied the Challenger as secretary to the Director (Sir 

 Wyville Thomson) and artist to the Expedition, is settled in 

 Melbourne, Victoria, where he is engaged in producing plates 

 illustrative of the zoology and palseontology of the colony, 

 under the direction of Sir Frederick MacCoy, F. R. S. He is 

 at present figuring the fossil remains of Acanthodian fishes 

 discovered in the Old Red Sandstone of Mansfield, Victoria. 



The programme of the first series of summer excursions of 

 the Manchester Field Naturalists' Society has just been issued. 

 Mr. Leo Grindon, the founder of the Society thirty-two years 

 since, has been compelled, by advancing years and impaired 

 health, to resign the presidential chair, which Mr. Chas. 

 Bailey has undertaken to occupy. Mr. Grindon retains the 

 office of botanical referee, with the assistance of Mr. W. Gee, 

 who is engaged in teaching natural history subjects under the 

 Science and Art Department. A special study, appropriate 

 to the season and locality, is appointed for each meeting ; and 

 NO. I I 74, VOL. 45] 



a field card, directing observation in each of the seven sections of 

 the Society, is in preparation. A course of lessons, treating in 

 detail of the leading natural families of the Manchester Flora, is 

 being given in the city. 



At the meeting of the Royal Statistical Society on Tuesday, 

 Mr. R. Henry Rew read a valuable paper on the statistics of 

 the production and consumption of milk and milk products in 

 Great Britain. The subject, as he pointed out, is one of extreme 

 complexity. The effective production of milk by a single cow 

 ranges from nil (in the case of a cow which only rears her calf) 

 to 1200 gallons or more. The number of cows and heifers re- 

 turned in 1890, the year taken as a basis for calculation, was 

 3,956,220, of which it is reckoned that 3,544,575 are productive. 

 Returns now collected from a large number of districts, together 

 with other data, justified an estimate of 400 gallons per cow, 

 making the total quantity of milk available for consumption in 

 various forms in the United Kingdom 141 7 million gallons. 

 The number of cows has decreased in proportion to population. 

 In Great Britain there were in the period 1866-70 82T cows per 

 1000 of population, while in 1886-90 there were only 77 '9. The 

 absolute number of cows had increased, but not sufficiently to 

 keep pace with the growth of population. The latest return 

 (for 1891) is more encouraging, showing as it does the largest 

 number of cows on record. In Ireland the period 1886-90 

 showed a higher proportion (290-8) of cows to population than 

 in any of the four preceding quinquennial periods, but this was 

 due not to an increase in the number of cattle, but to the 

 decrease of population. The 1417 million gallons of milk pro- 

 ducfed in the United Kingdom is thus accounted for : — Consumed 

 as milk 570 million gallons ; butter, 617 million gallons (repre- 

 senting 105,000 tons of butter) ; cheese, 224 million gallons 

 (representing 100,000 tons of cheese) ; miscellaneous (condensed 

 milk, &c. ), 6 million gallons. Mr. Rew admitted that the results 

 arrived at were only tentative. He expressed a hope that before 

 long some official help might be given in the solution of a 

 problem which was of the deepest interest to statisticians, 

 agriculturists, and social economists. , 



The Bath and West of England Society decided some time 

 ago to appoint a] research chemist to make investigations upon 

 the making of cheddar cheese. Mr. Fred. Jas. Lloyd was 

 chosen to fill this post, and he has recently presented his report 

 of the work done in August, September, and October of last 

 year. The results obtained, though by no means complete, are 

 both valuable and interesting, and it is to be hoped that the 

 Society will continue and extend the work. The experiments 

 were made at the Society's Dairy School, near Frome, and it 

 was found possible to make a cheese in such a way as to be 

 guided in judging the condition of the curd by determinations 

 of acidity alone. The product was a decided success in every 

 respect. The average acidity of the mixed milk before adding 

 rennet was '24 per cent., but on setting the whey only showed 

 •16 per cent, of lactic acid. It was proved, by continued experi- 

 ment, that when the whey showed a percentage of acidity 

 slightly greater than that in the milk before renneting the pro- 

 cess was sufficiently advanced to draw off the whey and pile the 

 curd. Determinations of acidity in the later stages of manufac- 

 ture have yielded similar results, and it appears to be certain 

 that the careful development of definite amounts of lactic acid 

 at definite steps in the process is essential to success. The 

 bacteriological observations show that, although very many 

 organisms are liable to get into the milk, the majority of them 

 are not able to exist in an acid material, consequently by 

 insuring a proper development of acidity in the curd we destroy 

 their activity, which would otherwise spoil the cheese. Not only 

 does the Bacillus acidi lactici play the most important part in 

 the making of the cheese, but it is also the chief agent in the 

 ripening process. 



