July 7, 1892] 



NATURE 



229 



forest is described as bearing "flowers, red and white, which are 

 larger than a sieve, and of extraordinary fragrance." Mr. 

 Macgowan adds: — "Mr. Taylor, while searching for orchids, 

 heard of these majestic trees and huge flowers, which he in- 

 ferred, from what natives said, were epiphyte orchids. I am 

 moved to make known this sylvan discovery in the hope that, 

 pending the exploration of this terra tncognita by our botanists, 

 Dr. Henry or Mr. Ford, residents in Formosa, will take 

 measures to provide those naturalists with specimens of flowers, 

 seeds, leaves, and bark of the trees concerning which the Chinese 

 have excited our curiosity." 



In a capital address on "tooth culture," delivered at the 

 annual meeting of the Eastern Counties Branch of the British 

 Dental Association, and printed in the current number of the 

 Lancet, Sir James Crichton-Browne referred to a change which 

 has taken place in bread, as one of the causes of the increase of 

 dental caries. So far as our own country is concerned, this is 

 essentially an age of white bread and fine flour, and it is an age 

 therefore in which we are no longer partaking, to anything like 

 the same amount that our ancestors did, of the bran or husky 

 parts of wheat, and so are deprived to a large degree of a 

 chemical element which they contain — namely, fluorine. The 

 late Dr. George Wilson showed that fluorine is more widely dis- 

 tributed in nature than was before his time supposed, but still, 

 as he pointed out, it is but sparingly present where it does 

 occur, and the only channels by which it can apparently find its 

 way into the animal economy are through the siliceous stems of 

 grasses and the outer husks of grain, in which it exists in com- 

 parative abundance. Analysis has proved that the enamel of the 

 teeth contains more fluorine, in the form of fluoride of calcium, 

 than any other part of the body, and fluorine might, indeed, be 

 regarded as the characteristic chemical constituent of this struc- 

 ture, the hardest of all animal tissue, and containing 95*5 per 

 per cent, of salts, against 72 per cent, in the dentine. As this 

 is so, it is clear that a supply of fluorine, while the development 

 of the teeth is proceeding, is essential to the proper formation of 

 the enamel, and that any deficiency in this respect must result 

 in thin and inferior enamel. Sir James Crichton-Browne thinks 

 it well worthy of consideration whether the reintroduction into 

 our diet of a supply of fluorine in some suitable natural form— 

 and what form, he asks, can be more suitable than that in which 

 it exists in the pellicles of our grain stuffs? — might not do some- 

 thing to fortify the teeth of the next generation. 



The recent publication is announced of the first number of a 

 new monthly journal under the title Rivista di patologia vegetale. 

 It is edited by Sigg. A. N. and A. Berlese, and published at 

 Avellino, in Italy ; and is to be devoted to the study of animal 

 and vegetable parasites infesting cultivated plants, to the diseases 

 which they cause, and the remedies employed to combat them. 



Dr. H. C. Chapman contributes to the latest instalment of 

 the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Phila- 

 delphia, a paper describing observations on the brain of the 

 gorilla. He says that while the fissures and convolutions are 

 disponed in the brain of the gorilla in the same manner, gene- 

 rally speaking, as in that of man or of the chimpanzee or orang, 

 it is nevertheless a low type of brain, being much less convo- 

 luted than the brain of man or of either of the two other anthro- 

 poids. If it were permissible, in the absence of living links or 

 sufficient fossil remains, to speculate upon the development of 

 man and the anthropoids from lower forms of simian life, Dr. 

 Chapman thinks it might be inferred from the character of the 

 brain that the gorilla had descended from some extinct Cyno- 

 cephaltis ; the chimpanzee and orang from extinct macaque 

 and gibbon- like forms ; and man from some generalized simian 

 form combining in itself the characteristics of existing anthro- 

 poids. 



NO. II 84, VOL. 46] 



At the annual meeting of the Department of Electricity of 

 the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences on June i, Prof. 

 E. J. Houston delivered a lecture on recent advances in the 

 applications of electricity. Turning for a moment from the past 

 to the future. Prof. Houston said it was related of Faraday that 

 when asked his opinion of tlie future of the electric motor, he 

 put up his cane and stopped it. That was Faraday's opinion. 

 Prof. Houston's view was more favourable. The true efficiency 

 of a triple expansion steam engine, he said, did not exceed 17 

 per cent, as a maximum. With the electric motor we could 

 already get an efficiency of from 90 to 95 per cent., but it was 

 to-day dependent on the steam-engine. A cheaper method 

 would be devised for generating currents, and he believed there 

 were now those living who would see the steam-engine rele- 

 gated to the scrap heap. Possibly the motor of the future would 

 be operated by thermo-electricity. Possibly a means would be 

 devised of converting the latent energy of coal directly into poten- 

 tial electrical energy. He believed in the successful solution of the 

 problem of aerial navigation in the near future. He was con- 

 fident that ere long our present methods of electric illumination, 

 in which 97 to 98 per cent, of the energy was expended in 

 useless heat rays, would be supplanted by one in which the 

 order was reversed — in which 97 to 98 per cent, would be con- 

 verted into light, and but 2 to 3 into heat. And finally, he 

 believed the time was near at hand when electro-therapeutists, 

 instead of regarding the human body as a vehicle for electricity, 

 would regard it as a source of electricity. They would then 

 make their diagnoses with the voltmeter, the ammeter, and the 

 condenser, and the result would then be definite, instead of, as 

 at present, "hit or miss." 



The Mediterranean Nattiralist quotes a statement made 

 by the late Rev. H. Seddall, who was many years a resident 

 of Malta, as to a curious form of industry formerly practised by 

 the Maltese. " Five species of Pinna" wrote Mr. Seddall, 

 "are found in Malta, some of them common in the harbours 

 within reach of a boat or a pole hook. They project from the 

 mud amongst the Zostera roots, to which they are attached by 

 their silken cable. Of this silk, which is of fine texture, but 

 heavy, I have seen gloves made." 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Palm Squirrel {Sciurus palmarum) from 

 India, presented by Miss Daisy Fox ; a Common Roe (Capreo- 

 lus caprcea i ), European, presented by Mr. E. J. H. Towers ; 

 a Tawny Owl {Syrnium aluco), European, presented by Mr. 

 Leigh Robinson; a Bronze Fruit Pigeon (Carpophaga anea) 

 from India, presented by Mr. J. L. Shand ; a Tuberculated. 

 Tortoise {Homopus fetnoralis), a Tent Tortoise {Testudo ten- 

 torial, two Fisk's Tortoises {Testudo fiski), a Robben Island 

 Snake {Coronella phocaruni) from South Africa, presented by 

 the Rev. G. H. R. Fisk, C.M.Z.S. ; two Green Lizards (Za<r^r^a 

 viridis), European, three Viperine Snakes (Tropidonotus viper- 

 inus) from North Africa, presented by the Rev. F. M. Haines ; 

 a Common Chamelon {Chamaleon vulgaris) from North 

 Africa, presented by Mr. Samuel L. Bensusan ; a Water Viper 

 (Cenchris piscivora) from North America, presented by Mr. 



Ernest Brewerton ; a Zorilla {Zorilla typica), a Grey Monitor 



{Varanus griseus) from Egypt, a Stanley Parrakeet (Platycercus 

 icterotis) from Australia, deposited ; two Asiatic Wild Asses 

 {Equus onager S ? ) from South-west Asia, received in ex- 

 change ; four Wapiti Beer {Cervus canadensis (J ? ? ? ) born 

 in the Gardens. 



OC/R ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



The Red Spot on Jupiter. — M. J. J. Landerer, in Bulletin 



Astronomique (tome ix., June), gives the results of his mea>ure- 



ments of the dimenr-ions and Jovicentric laiitude of the red spoi on 



Jupiter. The method he adopted was to make use of the trar.sit 



