88 



NATURE 



[May 22, 1890 



movement of the ice, so that, in addition to the large number of 

 beigs south of the Banks, ice was constantly reported almost as 

 far east as the 35th meridian, in latitude 46" and 47° N. 



Dr. Max Buchner, who has spent a year and 9 months in 

 Australia, Japan, China, and Manilla, has returned to Munich. 

 He has brought back a valuable scientific collection for the 

 Ethnographical Museum, of which he is the director. 



Engineer and Engineering for May 16 print excellent leading 

 articles on the disastrous accident to the West Coast Scotch ex- 

 press at Carlisle, on March 4 ; thefr principal reason being that 

 the Board of Trade Report has just been issued, and that it is 

 in many respects a remarkable document. The accident, as our 

 readers will remember, was due to the driver losing control of 

 the train on entering Carlisle Station, where it ran into a Caledo- 

 nian engine waiting at the other end of the station. The Report 

 issued by the Board of Trade contains all the available evidence, 

 and the Inspector's opinions as to the cause. The question to 

 be settled was. Why or how did the driver lose control of the 

 train ? The Inspector held that the driver was in fault, and this 

 in the face of much evidence that did not support his theory. 

 This evidence he got rid of by the simple expedient of rejecting 

 it as untrue. Our contemporaries clearly demonstrate the real 

 cause of the brake failure, and point out that the Board of 

 Trade Inspector, even after the inquiry, did not understand the 

 construction and working of the North- Western automatic 

 vacuum brake, and that, therefore, his opinion is not worth the 

 paper it is written on. For instance, in his Report he is evi- 

 dently under the impression that it is possible for the driver to 

 alter the working of the train-brake from automatic to non- 

 automatic working from the foot-plate— an impossibility. The 

 accident was caused by the train-pipe between the engine and 

 train becoming blocked by ice, and thus causing the train-brake 

 to become gradually useless, owing to the connection with the 

 engine being closed. The engine-driver had no means of know- 

 ing this state of affairs except by applying the brake, which he 

 did on approaching Carlisle, and found it of no use. The Board 

 of Trade Inspector has thrown the blame of the accident on 

 the driver — a man who, according to the evidence, displayed 

 exceptional presence of mind in what he did. Had the Board 

 of Trade Inspector been a trained railway engineer, he would 

 certainly have come out of this inquiry more satisfactorily. The 

 inquiry, or rather the result of it, distinctly points, to the 

 anomaly of officers, however eminent, adjudicating on matters 

 concerning which they have not been thoroughly instructed. 



In the year 1886, when Mr. John Gardiner was scientific 

 adviser to the Board of Agriculture of the Bahamas, he was 

 asked by Governor H. A. Blake to prepare a list of the flora of 

 the colony. At the same time a list of the plants of New 

 Providence, prepared some years before by Mr. L. J. K. Brace, 

 was placed at his disposal. With this as a base, Mr. Gardiner 

 set to work, and in due time his task was accomplished. The 

 list, with notes and additions by Prof. Charles S. Dolley, has 

 now been printed in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia. It is called provisional, as Mr. Gar- 

 diner explains in an introductory note, mainly because it is not 

 backed throughout by herbarium specimens. 



Mr. George W. Perry, of Rutland, Vt., writes to Science 

 that European furze grows in one spot in the island of Nantucket, 

 where it has maintained itself for fifty years. It was introduced 

 by an Irishman, " who was homesick because it did not grow 

 about his cabin, as in the old country." Mr. Perry believes it 

 has not spread to any great extent. ' ' It may be interesting to 

 some," he adds, " that the Scotch heath also is found in one 

 spot in the island, where it has continued for a long time." Mr. 

 George M. Dawson, of the Geological Survey of Canada, also 

 writes to our American contemporary about gorse or furze in the 

 NO. 1073, VOL. 42] 



New World. He says it has for many years been fully naturalized 

 in the southern part of Vancouver Island, where, along road-sides 

 and in waste places near Victoria, it is very common. The 

 broom is also abundant in similar situations in the same locality, 

 and "both plants appear to be as much at home as in their 

 native soil." 



The new number of the Journal of the Anthropological In- 

 stitute of Great Britain and Ireland contains, among other 

 papers, an interesting address by the President, Dr. John Beddoe, 

 in the course of which he refers to the vexed question as to the 

 original seat of the Aryan race. Speaking of the fact that the 

 Lithuanian language is regarded by some philologists as "the 

 most primitive in form of the whole Aryan family," he points 

 out that we have little definite knowledge as to the physical 

 type of the Lithuanians. " Here, then," he says, "is a fine 

 opportunity, well within reach, for a partisan of the European- 

 origin theory. Let him go to Kovno or Vilna, and bring us 

 back, thoroughly established, the true Lithuanian type." 



A DETAILED description of the useful minerals and mineral 

 waters of the Caucasus, by Prof. V. MoUer, has appeared at 

 Tiflis. The author is at the head of the Mining Adminis- 

 tration of the Caucasus, and has availed himself of all accessible 

 information on the subject. The work is illustrated by a map. 

 It appears as the third volume of the second series of " Materials 

 for the Geology of the Caucasus." 



The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued Parts I., 11., 

 and III., of a valuable "Bibliography of American Economic 

 Entomology." These parts relate to the more important writings 

 of B. D. Walsh and C. V. Riley, and have been prepared by 

 Samuel Henshaw. 



Messrs. Crosby Lockwood and Son will publish imnae- 

 diately a new " Pocket Book " for electrical engineers, which" 

 has been written by Mr. H. R. Kempe, of the Postal Tele 

 graphs Department. They have ialso nearly ready a new work 

 on " Electric Light Fitting," a practical hand-book for working 

 electrical engineers, by Mr. John W. Urquhart, whose book on 

 " Electric Light " is well known. 



The same publishers have in the press a new elementary 

 treatise on "Light," for the use of architectural students, by 

 Mr. E. W. Tarn, forming a new volume of " Weale's Rudi- 

 mentary Series" ; also a revised and enlarged edition of Prof. 

 Merivale's " Notes and Formulae for Mining Students " ; and a 

 new edition of Mr. G. W. Usill's " Practical Surveying." 



We understand that Mr. Caleb Pamely, of Pontypridd, has 

 in the press a comprehensive treatise for the use of mining 

 engineers, dealing with the whole subject of colliery working 

 and management. It will be published by Messrs. Crosby 

 Lockwood and Son. 



At a recent meeting at Shanghai of the China Branch of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society, Dr. Macgowan, the veteran scholar, pre- 

 sented a paper on the political domination of women (" gynasco- 

 cracy" or "gynarchy") in Eastern Asia. In the opening of 

 the paper reference was made to the condition of the aboriginal 

 peoples whom the Chinese found on the Yellow River on their 

 arrival from Akkad. The Chinese then possessed the rudiments 

 of civilization, of which the aboriginals were destitute. That 

 this irruption of the Chinese was anterior to the invention of 

 cuneiform writing in Akkad was probable, because of their use 

 of quipos or knotted cords in keeping records. These quipos, 

 the author said, and not mere tradition, were the base of Chinese 

 archaic annals, and from them the earliest form of Chinese 

 written characters was evolved. Anterior to these quipos, 

 judging from certain neighbouring tribes, notched sticks were 

 employed. With regard to the tribes which the Chinese 



