l62 



NATURE 



[June i8, 1891 



aries of registration London (practically those of the county of 

 London) declined in the same period from 21 "2 to io'4. The 

 rate of actual decline of population in central London continues 

 to increase, and the rate of increase of the other parts of 

 the metropolis, including even the aggregate outer ring of 

 suburban districts, continues to decline. Examined in 

 detail, the provincial towns show, with few exceptions, 

 the operation of similar laws ; actual decrease in the cen- 

 tral portions, and marked decline in the rate of increase in 

 the other portions, the latter being specially noticeable in those 

 towns with comparatively restricted areas. This examination, 

 while showing the marked general decline in the rates of increase 

 in these towns, discloses striking variations in the rates of in- 

 crease in successive census periods. Mr. Humphreys called 

 attention to the fact that these striking changes in the rates of 

 movement of population in the large towns interpose the greatest 

 difficulty in estimating, even approximately, their population in 

 intercensal periods. The estimate of population in Liverpool, 

 based upon the rate of increase between 1871 and 1881, ex- 

 ceeded the recently enumerated number by more than 100,000, 

 or by 20 per cent. ; while in Salford the percentage of over- 

 estimate, by the same method, was 26 per cent. Thus the 

 recent birth-rates and death-rates in these two towns have been 

 under-estimated by no less than a fifth and a fourth, respectively. 

 The various methods that have been at different times suggested 

 for estimating the population of towns in intercensal years, in 

 substitution of Dr. Farr's method, still used by the Registrar- 

 General's Department, were severally considered, and it was 

 shown that no hypothetical method yet devised affords reason- 

 able promise of satisfactory results. It was therefore urged that 

 a quinquennial census could alone supply a remedy for the 

 present difficulty, which threatens to impair the public faith 

 in death-rates, the failure of which would most seriously hinder 

 and imperil the health progress of the country. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 

 on April 29, Mr, T. W, Edge worth David exhibited, on behalf 

 of Mr, J. E. Carne, Mineralogist to the Department of Mines, 

 Sydney, a specimen of precious opal from the White Cliffs 

 about fifty miles northerly from Wilcannia. Precious opal anl 

 common opal have lately been discovered in this locality in 

 a formation corresponding to the Desert Sandstone of Queens- 

 land, The fopal occurs disseminated as an infiltrated cement 

 throughout the mass of the sandstone in place.'?, and also re- 

 placing the calcareous material of fossils. It also occurs in 

 cracks in the sandstone and in fossil wood, which is somewhat 

 plentifully distributed throughout the sandstone, and occasion- 

 ally replaces part of the original woody tissues of the siiicified 

 trees. 



Mrs. J. King van Rensselaer contributes to the Proceed- 

 ings of the U.S. National Museum an interesting paper on the 

 playing cards used in Japan, They are more distinctly original, 

 she says, than any others, and show no marks of the common 

 origin which the Italian, Spanish, German, French, Hindoo, and 

 Chinese cards display. Forty-nine in number, they are divided 

 into twelve suits of four cards in each suit. One card is a trifle 

 smaller than the rest of the pack, and has a plain white face not 

 embellished with any distinctive emblem, and this one is used as 

 a "joker." The other cards are covered with designs that re- 

 present the twelve flowers or other things aforopriate to the 

 weeks of the year. Each card is distinct and different from its 

 fellows, even if bearing the same emblem, and they can be easily 

 distinguished and classified, not only by the symbolic flowers 

 they bear, but also by a character or letter that marks nearly 

 every card, and which seems to denote the vegetable that re- 

 presents the months. The only month that has no floral emblem 

 is August, and that suit is marked by mountains and warm- 

 looking skies. 



NO. II 29, VOL. 44] 



Prof, D'Arcy W. Thompson has edited an interesting 

 volume of " Studies from the Museum of Zoology in University 

 College, Dundee," The volume consists of the first twelve 

 numbers of a journal in which the zoologists connected with the 

 Dundee University College hope to find "an incentive to their 

 own diligence, a way of communication with the outer world, 

 and a means of giving direction and consecutive purpose to all 

 their work." The editor contributes five pipers, and the writers 

 associated with him are Miss Mary L, Walker, Prof, H. Le- 

 boucq. Dr. PI. St. John Brooks, Mr. Alexander Meek, and 

 Prof, W. K, Parker. 



An interesting illustration of the antagonistic action of poisons 

 is mentioned in the current number of the Phartnaceutical 

 Journal. Dr. Mueller, of Yackandandah, Victoria, has written 

 a letter in which he states, says our contemporary, that in cases 

 of snake bite he is using a solution of nitrate of strychnine in 

 240 parts of water mixed with a little glycerine. Twenty 

 minims of this solution are injected in the usual manner of a 

 hypodermic injection, and the frequency of repetition depends 

 upon the symptoms being more or less threatening, say from 10 to 

 20 minutes. When all symptoms have disappeared, the first 

 independent action of the strychnine is shown by slight muscular 

 spasms, and then the injections must be discontinued unless 

 after a time the snake poison reasserts itself. The quantity 

 of strychnine required in some cases has amounted to a grain 

 or more within a few hours. Both poisons are thoroughly 

 antagonistic, and no hesitation need be felt in pushing the use 

 of the drug to quantities that would be fatal in the absence of 

 snake poison. Out of about 100 cases treated by this method, 

 some of them at the point of death, there has been but one 

 failure, and that arose from the injections being disconlinued 

 after i^ grain of strychnine had been injected. Any part of the 

 body will do for the injections, but Dr. Mueller is in the habit 

 of making them in the neighbourhood of the bitten part or 

 directly upon it. 



The Rev, J. Hoskyns-Abrahall writes to us that on June 10, 

 about 10.30 p.m., near Woodstock, he saw what he describes 

 as " a beautiful phenomenon." " Suddenly," he says, "at the 

 zenith, east of the Great Bear, shone f jrth a yellow globe, like 

 Venus at her brightest. Dropping somewhat slowly, it fell 

 obliquely southward. As it passed in its brilliant career, it 

 lighted up its dusky path with a glorious lustre. When it had 

 descended about half-way down toward the horizon, it burst into 

 a sparkling host of glowing fragments, each dazzlingly shot 

 over with all the hues of the rainbow." 



The Register of the Johns Hopkins University for 1890-91 

 has been issued. It contains a great mass of well-arranged facts 

 relating to the work of that flourishing institution. 



Mr. C. French, Government Entomologist at Melbourne, is 

 contributing to the Victoria Naturalist a series of notes on the 

 insectivorous birds of Victoria. In the first paper, which 

 appears in the May number, he describes the Australian Bustard 

 (Choriotis australis). Some months ago Mr. French made an 

 appeal to the Victorian Government for the permanent protec- 

 tion of this, the most useful insect-destroying bird in the colony. 

 His appeal was supported by the Council of the Zoological 

 Society of Melbourne ; and the Government has not only 

 acceded to the request, but has placed the matter before the 

 Government of New South Wales, who, it is hoped, will at 

 once see the necessity for the preservation of so valuable a bird. 



Dr. a, Koenig has issued as a separate volume the account 

 of his ornithological observations made during his explorations 

 in Madeira and the Canary Islands. It is a notable memoir, 

 and several new species and sub-species of birds are described. 

 He is somewhat severe on some British ornithologists for having 



