SepteiMber 15, 1892] 



NATURE 



4/5 



Agriculture, partly from private subscriptions, and partly from 

 grants by the County Councils of Anglesey, Carnarvonshire, and 

 Montgomeryshire. A considerable sum was also contributed 

 locally to meet the expenses of field experiments, dairy demon- 

 strations, and Extension lectures. Two things are aimed at in 

 connection with the College scheme of agricultural education : — • 

 (l) To provide at the College as complete a training in agri- 

 culture and the sciences related to agriculture as can be obtained 

 at any of the recognized Agricultural Colleges, and especially 

 to provide such a training as would be suitable for land agents, 

 farmers, bailiffs, and young men who intend emigrating with a 

 view to farming in one of the colonies. (2) To make the Col- 

 lege a centre of agricultural education for North Wales, and to 

 organize in the six northern counties of the Principality, in con- 

 nection with the College, a system of instruction to meet the 

 special wants of each agricultural district, and supply a graduated 

 system whereby pupils may pass from the School to the College. 

 Several local landowners and farmers have enabled the College 

 to make arrangements by which farms in the neighbourhood of 

 Bangor can be used by the lecturer in agriculture and the mem- 

 bers of his classes for the purpose of practical instruction. 



In a paper on the Ainos of Yezo, contributed to the latest 

 report of the U.S. National Museum, Mr. Romyn Hitchcock 

 refers to the arrow poisons used by the Ainos. The method of 

 preparing these poisons has been revealed to only one traveller. 

 Dr. B. Scheube, who believes his information to be correct, as 

 the accounts obtained from different localities entirely agree. 

 His account is as follows : — The young side roots of Aconitum 

 Japonicum are usually gathered in summer and dried in the 

 shade until autumn. The roots which contain active poison 

 become softer, while the others grow harder ; apparently a 

 process of fermentation takes place. The former, after the 

 removal of the skin, are rubbed between two stones to a pasty 

 mass. There is no further preparation. This material is either 

 spread directly upon the arrowheads or preserved. The poison 

 maintains its activity for five months. Dr. Scheube adds that 

 in every village the poison is prepared only by a few old men, 

 not because the process of preparation is unknown to the others, 

 but because these men have had experience in its production. 

 Prayers, magic formulas, and the like are not recited during the 

 preparation. The activity of the poison is tested by a portion 

 being placed on the tongue. To ensure its action each arrow 

 receives portions from three different preparations. Dr. Stuart 

 Eldridi^e has made some chemical and physiological investiga- 

 tions of this poison, which confirm the supposition that aconite 

 is its active ingredient. But Dr. Eldridge declares that the 

 pulp prepared as described is mixed with other ingredients, 

 which he has been unable to identify, but which are probably 

 inert, and the resulting mass is buried for a time in the earth. 

 On removal from the earth the poison, he says, appears as a 

 stiff, dark, reddish-brown paste, through which fragments of 

 woody fibre are distributed ; and the poison, when applied to 

 the arrow, is mixed with a certain proportion of animal fat. 

 Mr. Hitchcock secured two specimens of the poison, which are 

 in the form of hard lumps. Specimens of the plant from which 

 the poison is obtained were collected by Mr. T. Holm, and 

 determined by him as Aconitum faponictim. In some parts of 

 the country it grows in great abundance, and the fine purple 

 flowers are very pleasant to the eye. 



In their very interesting account of various plants growing in 

 and through the shells of marine mollusca (noticed by us in 

 Nature) Bornet and Flahault called attention to some fungoid- 

 like hyphse, which were recorded under the names of Ostraco- 

 blabe and Lithopythium, but in the absence of any fructification 

 or of very definite characters, their position was not more accu- 

 rately determined. Dr. Bornet, on looking over the fourth part 

 NO. I 194, VOL. 46 1 



of the Berichte der deutschen botaniscben Gesellschaft was 

 struck by the resemblance of Lithopythium gangliiforme, B. and 

 F., to the deeper hyphae of Verrucaria caliseda as represented 

 by M. Bachmann in figures 3 and 4 of plate ix. accompanying 

 his memoir (Die Beziehung der Kalkflechten zu ihre Sub- 

 strat) and it occurred to him that the hyphae found perforating 

 the marine shells might be those of lichens. To verify such 

 an idea, Dr. Bornet spent some time at Croisic towards the 

 close of the summer of 1891. Here, of the shells gathered at 

 low -water mark or not uncovered at each tide, a large number 

 had the calcareous portions traversed by filaments of O. implexa. 

 Sometimes these filaments were solitary, at other times and more 

 frequently they were accompanied by one or more of the per- 

 forating Algae (Gomontia, Ostreobium, Mastigocoleus, Hyella), 

 but nothing either in or externally seemed to indicate that they 

 were the hyphae of a Lichen. When the shells were gathered 

 off the rocks at a height at which they were frequently out of the 

 water, a large number were found to present discoloured 

 patches covered with dark depressed spots formed by the sper- 

 mogonia and apothecia of a Verrucaria. The shells of Purpura 

 lapillus with the mollusc, or serving as a home for some hermit 

 crab, were the more frequently attalcked. Some shells of Patella 

 and Balanus were also attacked. When thin sections were 

 made, perpendicular to the surface of the shell, the outer border 

 appeared granular and was nearly opaque, the hyphae and the alga 

 condensed in the gonidial layer, having caused the semicrystalline 

 shell structure to disappear, leaving it in a powdery state. But 

 deeper in that portion of the shell which in part preserved its 

 transparency the filaments could be seen perforating it to a con- 

 siderable extent, and these presented all the characters of those 

 described by Bornet and Flahault as belonging to O. implexa, 

 with the sole exception that the fusiform dilatations were not 

 observed. On decalcification the gonidia were found to be 

 mostly supplied by Mastigocoleus testarum, some few by Hyella 

 caspitosa. Towards the margin they were reduced to the condition 

 of isolated cells, but deeper down, the long branches of the 

 thallus were found little altered and most easily recognisable, 

 presenting a most favourable example of the connection existing 

 between the gonidial stages of the filamentous algae. M. I'Abbe 

 Hue recognized the lichen of Purpura lapillus as Verrucaria 

 consequens (Nyl). It will be noted that the hyphae of this 

 Verrucaria are capable of living isolated, not except under cer- 

 tain conditions uniting with the algal forms, these latter requir- 

 ing the presence of the open air from time to time, so that the 

 lichen stage is not developed on the shells always submerged. 

 Lithopythiuim gangliiforme, though carefully looked for, was 

 not met with, but its history, when known, will no doubt be 

 equally interesting. 



Dr. a. B. Griffiths writes to us to explain, in answer to a 

 criticism which appeared in the recent review of his book, " The 

 Physiology of the Invertebrata," that it is extremely difficult to 

 determine in what state of combination uric acid exists in the 

 urine of invertebrates. He, however, considers it more than 

 probable that both potassium and lithium occur in the urine of 

 some of these animals. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Philantomba Antelopes {Cephalophus 

 maxwelli) from Sierra Leone, presented by Mr. P. Lemberg j 

 two yellow-bellied Liothrix {Liothrix luteus) from China, pre- 

 sented by Mr. J, Holmes ; four Poe Honey Eaters {Prosthema- 

 dera nava-zeaJandice) from New Zealand, presented by Capt. 

 Edgar J. Evans, R.M.S. Tainui ; a Little Grebe {Tachy- 

 baptes fluviatilis), British, presented by Mr. Thomas Riley ; a 

 Hoopoe {Upupa epops), a Greater-spotted Woodpecker (Z>««</r<?- 

 copus major), twelve Fire-bellied Toads {Bombinator igneus), 

 European, purchased. 



