502 



NATURE 



[July ^6 1906 



States. Of agricultural experiment stations there are now 59, and 

 the 148 chemists connected with them have done a large amount 

 of original investigation in subjects more or less closely allied to 

 agricultural and physiological chemistry. Prof. Chandler gave 

 a comprehensive account of the chemical industries. In par- 

 ticular he referred to the progress made in electro-chemistry, 

 and described the methods now adopted for the reduction of 

 aluminium at Niagara, and also for the manufacture of carborun- 

 dum and artificial graphite. Speaking of water-gas, he 

 described the opposition against its introduction for illumi- 

 nating purposes. The question came before the Health 

 Department of New York, and, after careful investigation, 

 the department decided that the gas was such an improve- 

 ment in quality and price, while the increased danger as 

 compared with that from old-fashioned coal-gas was so slight, 

 that it was not wise to interfere with it. The water-gas in- 

 dustry has now taken almost complete possession of the whole 

 country. There are at least 500 gas companies using water- 

 gas wholly or in part, and it is estimated that in 1899 three- 

 quarters of the entire consumption, or 52,500 million cubic feet, 

 consisted of carburetted water-gas. At the close of the address 

 the Society's medal, which is awarded not oftener fhan every 

 two years, was presented to Dr. Edward Schunck, F.R.S., in 

 recognition of his classical investigations on natural colouring 

 matters and other researches in connection with technical 

 chemistry. 



We learn from the Times that the Select Committee to which 

 the Sea Fisheries Bill was referred, presented a special report to 

 the House of Commons on Thursday last expressing the view 

 that it would not be expedient to pass the measure into law 

 without further inquiry and investigation. The committee 

 regards it as proved beyond the possibility of dispute that there is 

 a very great and serious diminution of the fish supply, that the 

 ancient fishing grounds are much depleted, and that in default 

 of a remedy the consequences to the fishing industry and the fish 

 supply will at no very distant future be disastrous. The prohibi- 

 tion of the taking and killing of such fish is described as practi- 

 cally impossible without prohibiting trawling altogether. As 

 regards the prohibition of fishing within certain areas where small 

 fish more particularly abound, the Committee thinks that it is 

 established that there are certain well-known areas in the North 

 Sea where undersized small and young fish congregate, and that 

 to prevent fishing in such areas would be of great value. It is 

 pointed out, however, that such a result could not be obtained 

 without joint international action among the Powers bordering 

 the North Sea, and that the difficulties of such international 

 action and the policing necessarily ancillary thereto are obvious. 

 In conclusion, the Committee considers that no effort ought to be 

 spared — first, to arrange for international treatment of the sub- 

 ject generally, and especially for regulation of the North Sea 

 area ; and, secondly, to provide for the adequate equipment of 

 the Government department in charge of the subject, so that it 

 may effectively pursue scientific investigation, and ascertain with 

 sufficiency and precision what has been done in the way of 

 scientific research or in the matter of practical legislation by other 

 inquirers and by other countries. 



Mr. E. H, L, Schwarz sends us from Cape Town some in- 

 teresting remarks upon the snake-stone, apropos of the facts 

 stated by Mr, Hervey in Nature of May 24 (p. 79) as to the 

 use of a stone by the Malays as a remedy for poisonous bites. 

 Snake-stones are fairly common in South Africa, and are de- 

 scribed as white, porous stones, which, when applied to the place 

 where the snake has bitten a person, adhere till all the poison is 

 drawn out into them, after which they are placed in milk, which 

 in turn draws the poison from the stones, and renders them 

 again fit for use. The farmers firmly believe they are taken from 

 NO. 1604, VOL. 62] 



the head of a snake. It is suggested that snake-stones are 

 made of pumice. To the uneducated, the structure of pumice 

 has a close resemblance to that of bone, and this may possibly 

 explain the popular delusion that snake-stones are made of bone. 

 Mr. Schwarz thinks that the black colour of the stone, described 

 by Mr, Hervey, may have bee^ due to blood, or the stone may 

 have been a black variety of pumice, for there is an instance of 

 originally black pumice having been thrown up near the light- 

 house on Cape Agulhas. The fact that the fable of the stone 

 having been taken from the head of a snake is exactly the same 

 in the Malay States as is prevalent in South Africa is interesting, 

 though the Malay slaves which the early Dutch obtained from 

 Batavia in exchange for quaggas, zebras, ivory, &c., may have 

 carried the legend with them. It is not an uncommon custom 

 in Germany for people to carry about with them nuggets of 

 raw gold to draw out of their bodies all the more subtle evils, 

 such as those produced by spirits and devils, while for the 

 grosser evils they carry a potato. Is the snake-stone legend 

 a derivative of these, or are they subsequent to the snake-stone? 



Magnetic observations were made at several stations upoti 

 the day of the recent total solar eclipse (May 28), under the 

 direction of Dr. L. A. Bauer. A brief statement of the results 

 is given in Terrestrial Magnetism. Ten observers were engaged 

 in the work, and eight complete series of observations were ob- 

 tained — seven for declination and one for horizontal intensity. 

 All the stations show a magnetic effect, which cannot be 

 referred to any other cause than that of the eclipse, the principal 

 effect occurring, like the fall in temperature, some minutes after 

 time of totality. The effect is as though part of the night hours 

 were interposed among the day hours, e.g. the declination at all 

 of the stations having passed the morning elongation and ap- 

 proaching the mean value of day, is increased about .2o"-4o" if 

 the declination be east, and decreased if the declination be 

 west ; whereas, the horizontal intensity approaching at the time 

 its minimum value for the A.'A.'^ , '\% increased iox a brief period 

 after time of totality. The observations and results will be 

 published in full in a Bulletin of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey. 



The hot and dry spell which set in over a fortnight ago 

 promises still to continue, and although the mid-day temperatures 

 are not generally as high as they were on several days last week, 

 they are far in excess of the average. There have been three 

 days at Greenwich with the shade temperature above 90°, the 

 highest reading as yet being 94° on July 16. The nights are 

 also excessively warm, and on the night of July 22-23 the 

 lowest reading at Greenwich was 67° '6, which is warmer than 

 any night in July or August at Greenwich since August 8, 1846, 

 when the thermometer did not fall below 68°. During the last 

 week there have been five successive nights without the thermo- 

 meter falling as low as 60°. There has been no rain in London 

 for three weeks, and the same dry weather has been experienced 

 generally in the south-east of England. The conditions have 

 been less settled over the northern and western portions of our 

 islands, where rain has fallen at frequent intervals and no very 

 extreme temperatures have occurred. 



From Dr. Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., we have received the re- 

 print of a very suggestive lecture on "Modern Views of 

 Matter," delivered before the Literary and Philosophical 

 Society of Liverpool in March last. In it Dr. Lodge discusses 

 the atomic theory, the ether, the conception of " electrons," 

 and the still more recent hypothesis of the existence of 

 "corpuscles." 



Arrangements have been made for six popular science 

 lectures for young people, under the general title of " The 

 World we Live On," to be delivered in Kensington Town 



