January 9, 1896] 



NATURE 



227 



The following papers will then be read and discussed, as far as 

 time permits: "Telemeters and Range-finders for Naval and 

 other Purposes," by Profs. Barr and Stroud; "Calculation of 

 Horse-power for Marine Propulsion," by Lieut. -Colonel Thomas 

 English ; " Notes on Steam Superheating," by Mr. William H. 

 Patchell. 



The Home Secretary has just issued the following order : — 

 <i) The Wild Birds Protection Act, 1880, shall apply within the 

 administrative county of the Parts of Kesteven, Lincolnshire, 

 to the following wild birds, viz. : — Kestrel, merlin, hobby, 

 common buzzard, honey buzzard, swallow, house martin, sand 

 martin, swift, and wryneck, as if those species were included in 

 the schedule to the Act. (2) The taking or destroying of the 

 «^s of the following wild birds is prohibited within the ad- 

 ministrative county of the Parts of Kesteven, Lincolnshire, viz. : 

 Goldfinch, kingfisher, nightjar, nightingale, owls (of all species), 

 ruff or reeve, woodpecker, kestrel, merlin, hobby, common buz- 

 zard, honey buzzard, swallow, house martin, sand martin, swift, 

 wryneck, teal, and wild ducks (of all species)." 



The last published number of the U.S. Weather Review 

 <June 1895) contains some interesting notes on the early history 

 of weather telegraphy. The Morse telegraph was put into opera- 

 tion between Baltimore and New York on May 27, 1844, and it is 

 said that a few days only had elapsed before the operators began 

 to forewarn each other of the more important weather changes. 

 In the American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. ii. 1846, 

 Mr. W. C. Redfield notified that the approach of a gale, when 

 the storm was yet on the Gulf of Mexico, or in the Western 

 States, might be made known by means of the electric telegraph. 

 A similar opinion, by Prof. Loomis, was published in the Second 

 Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for the year 1847. 

 A remarkable enterprise was undertaken by a news agency in 

 New York ; on January 24, 1848, Messrs. Jones and Co. adver- 

 tised that they had made arrangements to give daily and hourly 

 reports of meteorological phenomena from all parts of the 

 country which were in telegraphic communication with New 

 York ; this advertisement appeared in Silliman's American 

 Journal of Science for March 1848. The subsequent steady 

 development of telegraphic weather reports culminated in the 

 publication of daily maps ; further particulars respecting the 

 early development of meteorological telegraphy will be found in 

 •" Weather Charts and Storm Warnings," by Mr. R. H. Scott. 



An apparatus which illustrates all the laws of falling bodies, 

 and also shows the tension or force acting upon them, is described 

 by K. Hrabowski in Wiedemann's Annalen. It consists of a 

 carriage moving on a single rail, somewhat on the Lartigue 

 railway system, pulled by a weight drawn over a pulley, the 

 string being connected to the carriage by a spring moving up 

 and down in a vertical tube. To the upper end of the spring a 

 jiencil is attached, which moves along a vertical plate, and leaves 

 a mark as the carriage runs along. When the carriage is at 

 rest, the pencil stops at the point indicating the amount of the 

 moving weight. Immediately on starting, the spring contracts, 

 and the pencil-point traces a curved line which gives the force 

 acting upon the carriage at every point. The line becomes 

 horizontal when the carriage and weight have equal velocities, 

 the tension in the spring being then just sufficient to overcome 

 friction, and the amount of the latter may also be seen at a 

 glance. By inclining the rail, the phenomena of acceleration 

 downwards, or retardation upwards, may be easily studied. 

 The apparatus is cheap, and should form a useful adjunct to 

 sjience classes. 



The following account of the method used by the Bushmen 

 of Namaqualand to poison their arrows is given in the Scientific 

 ylfrican:—'' Many methods of preparing the poison have been 

 NO. 1367, VOL. 53] 



described, and according to some the poison is said to be 



extracted from the root of the plant, Buphane toxicaria, or 



Gift-bol, but it seems that the extract is only used as a resin. 



Some resin, either from the Gift-bol or from one of the members 



of the Euphorbia group of cactus-like plants, is first obtained, 



and the sticky substance is placed on a stone. The Bushman 



then goes with a forked stick to look for the ' ring-halse ' or 



black night-adder, not the puff-adder which is called the ring- 



lialse. Having found the snake, by a dexterous thrust of the 



stick the animal is imprisoned just behind the head by the two 



prongs of the stick. The prepared stone is then placed in the 



I mouth, and the upper jaw forced right back. By this somewhat 



I rough treatment the poison glands become compressed, and two 



j drops of poison forced out on the fangs and caught on the stone. 



I The poison is then well mixed with the resinous matter, and is 



I ready for use. In the earlier days a more complicated procedure 



was adopted, through the medium of the witch-doctor. The 



[ whole head of the puff-adder was obtained and put in a pot 



along with the resin, and beetles and noxious herbs added to 



the incantation of the witch-doctor. The whole was stewed up 



amid great excitement. When the contents of the vessel were 



properly mixed, the sticky compound was collected by stirring 



it with a stick, to which the matter adhered, and on becoming 



cold, remained on the stick as a black knob, and formed then 



an article of barter." 



A DESCRII'TION of the gold fields of the Southern Ap- 

 palachians, based on a recent survey by Mr. G. F. Becker, 

 forms part of the latest volume of the " Mineral Resources of 

 the United States." There are a few small placer deposits in 

 this field, which afford but little gold. They are of interest, 

 however, in that they furnish undoubted proofs, in Mr. Becker's 

 opinion, that alluvial gold is not formed by accretion, but by 

 the wearing down of particles already present as such in quartz 

 lodes. He accounts for the high standard of alluvial gold, and 

 especially for that of the outer layers of nuggets, by assuming 

 that the silver and other impurities have been removed in solu- 

 tion by running water ; and he clinches his argument by quoting 

 the opinion of Orviedo, one of the lieutenants of Columbus. 

 Mr. Becker further narrates how he has traced the complete 

 transition from hard auriferous quartz to true placer gravels 

 through a series of " saproHtes,'" a name proposed by him to 

 designate " thoroughly decomposed, earthy, but untransported 

 rock." He distinguishes them as " granitic saprolite " and the 

 like, and claims that the use of such a term would be very 

 convenient. The other gold deposits of the Appalachians are 

 mainly true lodes, occupying fissures which run across the planes 

 of stratification and have been formed by purely mechanical 

 action. In this the author differs from Mr. J. A. Phillips, who 

 thought they were "segregation veins." In whatever manner 

 the veins may have been formed, however, there can be no 

 doubt about some deposits of a slightly different kind occurring 

 in Carolina, and bearing imuch resemblance to the fahlhands of 

 Norway. These CsLXoVmai fahlbands are extensive lens-shaped 

 masses of rock, which are conformable to the general schistose 

 structure of the country, and are charged with disseminated 

 pyrites and gold. Quartz stringers and veins appear close to 

 and even in the rock masses, but, curiously enough, arc barren. 

 It is evident that the fahlbands have been enriched by impreg- 

 nation with solutions containing gold, and also that no true 

 segregation has occurred in these cases. 



The production and application of anti-toxic serum in the 

 treatment of rabies has naturally been regarded as a subject the 

 study of which could only be a question of time. The pre- 

 liminary experiments on this subject made by Messrs. Babes and 

 Lepp in 1889, had not been followed by any great advance in 

 this direction until this year, when a most elaborate and weighty 



