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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



helps transpiration, and cleanses the surface. 

 In verification of this we are reminded that 

 after a shower the pointed leaves of the ash, 

 willow, etc., have had the dust quite washed 

 out, while rounded leaves like those of the 

 oak are still dirty. 



Timber Testing. From the Report of 

 the Division of Forestry for 1893 we learn 

 that the scheme of testing timbers to deter- 

 mine their several qualities has found gen- 

 eral favor in this country and in the Old 

 World too. The calls for special investiga- 

 tions into the qualities of various kinds of 

 timbers have been numerous, and beyond the 

 financial ability of the division to attend to 

 them all. A special demand exists for the 

 tests of kinds that are still more or less un- 

 known, they being now drawn upon to eke out 

 the deficiency of supply of the better-known 

 kinds. The collections of test material had 

 reached, at the time of preparing the re- 

 port, a total of two hundred and thirty-four 

 trees. A series of tests and examinations of 

 bled and unbled timber has been carried on 

 in order to ascertain whether the practice of 

 taking the resin from trees has any influence 

 on its quality. The results seem to show 

 that there is no determinable influence upon 

 the mechanical properties of the timber. 

 But the removal of the resin, if not carried 

 on with care, affects the life of the tree and 

 invites other destructive influences. The 

 turpentine industry, like the lumber indus- 

 try, is carried on on the " robbing system " 

 of taking off in the most crude and rapacious 

 manner what Nature has provided. It is 

 time, Prof. Fernow maintains, to substitute 

 a " management system," which shall utilize 

 the remaining resources more exhaustively 

 yet more carefully, by avoiding all unneces- 

 sary waste. 



Madagascar Lemnrs. The great island 

 of Madagascar, with a surface extent exceed- 

 ing that of Italy, is, like Australia, a land by 

 itself, with a fauna distinct from that of 

 Africa. This fauna is particularly charac- 

 terized by the presence of numerous lemuri- 

 ans or maki mammals, which are also called 

 false monkeys, or fox-nosed monkeys, and 

 which occupy a corresponding place with the 

 monkeys of Africa. A few lemurians are 

 found in Africa and Malaysia, but they ap- 



pear to be isolated there, and like estrays 

 among a fauna of different character. There 

 still exists on this island a singular cat called 

 the Cryptoproctus, which is plantigrade (sole- 

 walking), while all the other cats in the 

 world, excepting Australia, are digitigrade 

 (toe-walking). Such zoological peculiarities 

 give this island as nearly a marked stamp of 

 strangeness as that by which Australia is 

 distinguished. To find a fauna comparable 

 to this we have to go back to the ancient 

 geological periods and question the fauna 

 characterizing them. We find that animals 

 similar to those living in Madagascar inhab- 

 ited the forests of France in the Eocene and 

 Miocene ages of the Tertiary. Vestiges of 

 an animal but little different from the Cryp- 

 toproctus of Madagascar have been found in 

 these formations, and the remains of tree- 

 living lemurians allied to the makis of 

 Madagascar have likewise been found in 

 them. Thus Madagascar yet supports a 

 Tertiary fauna, as Australia is still the home 

 of a Cretaceous fauna. The investigation of 

 the fossil fauna of the country becomes, in 

 the light of these facts, a matter of much 

 interest. It has hardly been begun as yet, 

 but has yielded some remarkable specimens. 

 Among them are the eggs and bones of the 

 largest of all the birds known the Epior- 

 nis, sixteen feet high a hippopotamus very 

 different from those now living, and the skull 

 of a great lemurian which has been described 

 by Mr. Forsyth Major as Mcgaladapis mada- 

 gascariensis. The lemurians now living in 

 Madagascar are only of medium size or 

 small. The largest of them is the short- 

 tailed indri, which is but little more than three 

 feet high when standing erect on its hind 

 legs. The Megaladapis was three times as 

 large, or about the size of the orang-outang 

 or the gorilla. 



Mrs. Hemenway's Work for Science. 



Mrs. Mary Tileston Hemenway, who died in 

 Boston March 6th, seventy-two years of age, 

 was equally famous for her benevolence and 

 for her practical interest in promoting scien- 

 tific work. Possessed of a fortune now val- 

 ued at $15,000,000, she contributed half of 

 the $200,000 that were raised to save the old 

 South Church from destruction; projected 

 an institute for the encouragement of the 

 study of American history among young peor 



