522 



NATURE 



[September 29, 1892 



grey ashes, supposed to be the ashes of a cremated person. 

 The lid is moulded with the raised zigzag pattern csmmon in 

 Roman ornamentation, the hollow parts being let in with red 

 and green enamel. In the lower chambers, as stated in Mr. 

 Fitzpatrick's former paper, the following mammalian remains 

 have been found : — A slcuU of the brown bear ( Ursus arctos), 

 a skull of the Celtic shorthorn {Bos longifrons), teeth of the 

 reindeer {Cervus tarandus), and of the red deer {Cervus 

 elaphus), part of the skull of the wild boar {Siis scrofa), and 

 some human bones. 



The July number of the Korean Repository opens with an 

 article by the Rev. Dr. Edkins on the Persians in the Far East. 

 He shows from native sources that at a very early period the 

 influence of Persian ideas penetrated into China. The wide 

 acceptance of these ideas was due in part to the doctrine of a 

 future life, but Dr. Edkins attributes even more importance to 

 the worship of the god of fire as the special ruler of the hearth 

 and the god to be worshipped by newly married people. This, 

 he says, is so adapted toJthe natives of Eastern countries with 

 their strong family instincts, that it has easily kept its place and 

 still has a firm hold on the popular mind. In another article a 

 writer who signs himself " Viator " indulges in much enthusias- 

 tic admiration of Korea and the Koreans. He is especially 

 emphatic in his praises of the scenery around Seoul, with its 

 "grand amphitheatre of granite hills." " The city wall," he says, 

 " climbing over the most precipitous ridges, the sentinel peaks 

 of Nam San, with its chevelure of fine trees, and the bold 

 castellated rocks of Poukan, which on the south and north re- 

 spectively keep guard over the capital, with many other points 

 both within and without the walls commanding varied and ex- 

 tensive views, would alone in any tourist-frequented land make 

 Seoul a show-place of the guide-books." The ordinary Korean 

 he describes as "a docile and happy creature." 



We learn from La Nature that MM. Olivet, of Geneva, have 

 brought out a new system of electric heating applied to conser- 

 vatories, which may prove very useful where a motor force is at 

 one's disposal. A dynamo, worked by some motor, sends the 

 current into receivers of special metallic composition, which be- 

 come rapidly heated, but without exceeding a certain tempera- 

 ture. A heated air current is set up as with steam-heating. 

 The advantages of the system are : Absence of all unwholesome 

 gas or vapour which might injure the plants, simplicity of con- 

 struction in the parts conveying the energy, perfect safety as 

 regards heat, which can be regulated at will, convenience and 

 rapidity in starting and extinction, and cleanliness. 



Mr. A, C. Macdonald, of the Agricultural Department of 

 Cape Colony, refers with much regret (in the official publication 

 of the Department) to the senseless way in which the ant-bear is 

 being exterminated. This animal, he says, is one of the few 

 indigenous four-footed friends of the Cape farmer. " Its food is 

 the ant, more especially the white ant, an insect which feeds on 

 our crops and the succulent herbage of the veld, and which does 

 much greater damage than is generally supposed. Although the 

 ant has numerous enemies (among which is reckoned the koran, 

 a bird which I am happy to say is now being preserved on some 

 farms solely for this purpose), yet none are so destructive to its 

 welfare as the ant-bear. It is only when on the surface of the 

 ground that the ant runs any danger from its winged foes, but 

 above or below ground it is always within reach of the ant-bear. 

 But it is not only as a destroyer of ants that the ant-bear is of 

 value to the farmer. A large percentage of the seeds of our 

 herbage, after they have dropped off the plant on the hird 

 'ground, lose their germinating power from being exposed day 

 after day to the scorching rays of the sun. The ant-bear, as it 

 goes scratching about for ants, covers a large number of seeds with 

 loose earth, in which congenial bed they will retain their repro- 

 NO. II 96, VOL. 46] 



ductive power for a long period, awaiting the moisture from the 

 skies to shoot out and propagate their kind. And yet this 

 animal, harmless in other respects, is being slowly but surely 

 exterminated. For its skin, which is valued at about r5s., and 

 also for its flesh, which resembles superior pork, it is sought 

 after by the natives. With the white race ' sport ' is the induce- 

 ment, this fun taking the form at times of forcing the poor 

 brutes out of their holes by flooding with water, or drowning 

 them and digging them out afterwards." 



Prof. G. C. Caldwell, of Cornell University, has been 

 making oleomargarin a subject of careful investigation, and 

 presents the results of his researches in a valuable paper in the 

 September number of the Journal of the Franklin Institute. He 

 thinks that if made of unsuitable materials oleomargarin may 

 contain germs of disease, and that the process of manufacture 

 ought to be carefully inspected by capable officials ; but there is 

 no positive proof, he says, that it is now, or ever has been, made 

 of such materials, or that any disease has ever been communi- 

 cated to man by its use. He is also of opinion that, when pro- 

 perly made from fresh and clean materials, it differs but slightly in 

 healthfulness from butter. He records, however,arathersignificant 

 incident which has recently come to his knowledge. At an 

 asylum for blind children, in Louisville, Ky., where good butter 

 had been supplied, good oleomargarin butter was substituted. 

 No notice was given of the change, and even if the appearance 

 of the substitute would have betrayed it, the blind children could 

 not have seen it. There was no evidence that they were in any 

 way conscious of the change ; but it was observed that they 

 gradually ate less and less of the new butter and finally they 

 declined it altogether. No bad effect on their health could be 

 discerned. They made no complaint in answer to the in- 

 quiry as to the reason for not eating the butter other than that 

 they did not care for it. It was as if it did not adapt itself to 

 any need of the system . "This," says Prof. Caldwell, "cer- 

 tainly must be allowed to count against the complete fitness of 

 oleomargarin as a substitute for butter." 



A Field Naturalists' Club was formed la-.t year in 

 Trinidad, and seems likely to do much useful work. It pub- 

 lishes a journal, and in the third number, which we have 

 received, gives reports of its meetings from the beginning. In 

 the meeting on January 8 Mr. Mole announced that he had 

 found a Peripatus Edwardsii in the St. Ann's Valley ; and Mr. 

 Urich stated that he also had found a specimen of the same 

 species at Azouca. 



The report of the Government Centra 1 Museum, Madras, for 

 1891-92, has been published. In an interesting appendix Mr. 

 H. Warth, the officiating superintendent, gives an account, 

 among other subjects, of the tin district in Burma. The 

 tin-bearing deposits are, he says, of two kinds. First, there is 

 the tin gravel which is found in all or most of the valleys, a 

 mixture of rough white quartz pebbles with sand, garnet, black 

 tourmaline, and grey cassiterite. The thickness of the gravel 

 varies from i to 6 feet, and the yield of cassiterite may be put 

 down as at least \ per cent, or i pound of cassiterite (tin 

 dioxide) in 400 pounds of gravel. There are washings going on 

 at many places, but some valleys have been more or less ex- 

 hausted. The work suffers also under the disadvantage that the 

 greater part of the country is quite uninhabited, that food has to 

 be brought from a distance, and that there is always danger of 

 sickness. Chinamen are the chief workers. The second kind 

 of tin-bearing deposit is the original eruptive rock, which is 

 weathered so that it is possible to wash out the grains of 

 whitish cassiterite which it contains. Mr. Warth visited the 

 principal deposits of this kind near Malewun in July 1891. 

 He took samples from several excavations and washed them. 

 The mean is a yield of only 0'04 per cent, of impure wash tin. 



