April 26, 1900] 



NATURE 



developed by Herr Miiller Landsmann in the Bernese Oberland, 

 near Meiringen. A concession has been obtained from the 

 State for the working of an outcrop of hceniatite. The vein has 

 a thickness of 7 feet, and is visible for a length of two miles 

 along the mountain face. Thence the ore will be transported 

 by an aerial ropeway to Innerlkirchen below. The concession 

 obtained for the water power available from the Aar in the 

 immediate neighbourhood, amounting to 60,000 h.p., will be 

 used to drive the machinery required, and to supply the power 

 for the electric smelting furnaces. 



Agricultural experiment promises to become an important 

 branch of technical education in rural districts. Prof. W. 

 Somerville's eighth annual report on experiments with crops 

 and stock in the counties of Cumberland, Durham and North- 

 umberland is an instance in point. It contains the results of 

 well-arranged experiments of direct value to the farmers of the 

 districts in which they were made ; and by encouraging work of 

 this kind the councils of the counties mentioned are doing a 

 service both to technical education and the agricultural com- 

 munity. Many of the investigations described deal with the 

 values of natural and artificial manures for different crops. A 

 note on the eradication of charlock amongst corn crops by spray- 

 ing with solutions of sulphates of copper and iron is of wide 

 interest. The corn crop was in no case permanently injured by 

 the treatment, though in some cases it was temporarily harmed. 

 In no case was clover at all injured. On the whole, a 4 per 

 cent, solution of copper sulphate is recommended for application 

 at the rate of 25 to 40 gallons per acre, the dressing being 

 repeated after the interval of a week if necessary. 



At a meeting of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, on 

 April 2, Dr. W. H. Warren read a paper giving an outline of 

 recent progress in the chemistry of perfumes. For the most 

 part, these substances are high boiling oils. Formerly these 

 oils, which are complex mixtures of several compounds, were 

 obtained exclusively from flowers, but recently some of the 

 essential principles have been produced by chemical means, 

 whereas other artificial perfumes are mere imitations. With a 

 few exceptions, the essential principles which give the per- 

 ftimes their value belong to the complex class of organic com- 

 pounds known as the terpenes. Nearly every substance having 

 the properties of a perfume has in its molecule certain atomic 

 groups the presence of which exerts a marked influence on the 

 odour. Among the more important of these may be mentioned 

 the aldehyde, ketone, ester, ether and alcohol groups. Wonder- 

 ful progress has been made in the knowledge of the terpenes 

 and of their derivatives during the past ten or fifteen years, 

 among the chemists who have taken a prominent part in the 

 labour being Wallach, Baeyer and Tiemann. 



Particulars concerning the establishment of the Hamburg 

 Institute for the study of nautical and tropical hygiene are given 

 fn the Board of Trade Journal. The Institute, like those of 

 Liverpool and London, is a natural outgrowth of new condi- 

 tions. The rapid transition from sails to steam, as a means of 

 propulsion, the almost universal substitution of steel for wood 

 in the construction of sea-going vessels, and the improvement 

 in the food provided for seamen, have brought about a marked 

 change alike in the ailments and the nature of the accidents 

 occurring to members of the crews. Scurvy, night blindness, 

 the so-called ship anosmia, chronic ailments of the digestive 

 organs and canals, as well as lead -poisoning, even if not yet 

 absolutely extinct, have become rare in a very marked degree. 

 In their place, however, a series of new diseases has demanded 

 the closest attention of the medical faculty. To deal with these 

 diseases, and cases of malaria, beri-beri, black water fever, and 

 other tropical disorders, special hospitals or institutes at large 

 NO. I 59 1, VOL. 61] 



ports are needed. The Hamburg institute is to comprise a 

 division for patients, provided with sixty beds and a laboratory, 

 which will be fitted for bacteriological, as well as for chemical 

 research, space being provided for twelve investigators. Five 

 tables for research will be reserved for qualified military medical 

 aspirants for service with the German Colonial troops or under 

 the German Colonial Department. Their course of study of 

 the etiology, symptoms and treatment of malaria and other 

 grave tropical diseases, of tropical physiology and tropical 

 hygiene, will extend over several months. Attention will also 

 be given to the more general methods of hygienic investigation, 

 so that the students in question, when opportunity should be 

 forthcoming, may possess the requisite training for extended 

 research abroad, combined with the ability to report technically 

 thereon. The additional tables in the laboratory will be placed 

 at the disposal of the naval and mercantile services, as well as 

 of medical men, who, having returned from the tropics, are 

 desirous of pursuing special branches of research. The 

 participation of Prof. Koch in the investigation of tropical 

 diseases has greatly assisted the decision of the German 

 authorities in establishing the Hamburg Institute. 



The complete history of the great Japanese earthquake of 

 1891 is still unwritten ; but Prof. Omori has contributed an in- 

 teresting note upon it to the last volume of the Publications of 

 the Earthquake Investigation Committee. The total disturbed 

 area is estimated at about 900,000 sq. km. The maximum 

 acceleration at various places was calculated from a large number 

 of overturned bodies ; that at Nagoya being 2600, and at two 

 other places more than 4300 km., per second. The range of the 

 motion at Nagoya must have been about 233 km. Many obser- 

 vations were also made on the direction of overturned bodies, 

 from which it appears that in and near the Mino-Owari plain, 

 the principal direction of the earthquake motion was approxi- 

 mately normal to, and directed towards, the meizoseismal zone. 



For several years Prof. Omori has studied the subject of 

 earthquake measurement in a brick building. One of Prof. 

 Ewing's horizontal pendulum seismographs was fixed near the 

 top of an external wall of the Engineering College at Tokyo, 

 whilst another was erected on the ground below. During the 

 years 1894-98, ten moderate earthquakes were recorded, and it 

 was found that if the earthquake consisted of comparatively slow 

 vibrations (say, above half a second in duration), the motion was 

 practically the same in both places ; but if of quick-period vibra 

 tions, the motion of the top of the wall was about twice as great 

 as that of the ground. Prof. Omori notices that, with destruc- 

 tive earthquakes, the damage of two-storied buildings is generally 

 confined to the upper storey. 



Wb have received a reprint, from the Transactions of the Royal 

 Society of Canada, fil a note, by Mr. W. Bell Dawson, on some 

 remarkable secondary tidal undulations registered at Halifax, 

 N.S., Yarmouth, St. Paul Island, and St. John, N.B., on 

 January I and 2 of this year. The secondary movements 

 ranged from 10 per cent, of the whole amplitude of the tide 

 at St. Paul Island, to no less than 45 per cent, at Yarmouth. 

 The pilot chart of the North Atlantic shows that at least three 

 storms, two of which developed hurricane force, passed over or 

 near the region between December 26 and January 2. Mr. 

 Dawson does not attack the general problem of the causes of 

 secondary undulations, which are of very frequent occurrence 

 off" the eas'.ern seaboard of Canada, but he draws attention to 

 the favourable conditions which exist there for observing them. 

 The most important feature as yet determined is that the 

 secondary undulations do not become magnified in range in 

 the same ratio as the main tidal undulation does, under the 

 influence of the general form of the coast. 



