Jan. II, 1872] 



NATURE 



to examine the specimens in the Museum for the purpose of 

 special study. Notifications of this arrangement have been dis- 

 tributed to the principal learned societies throughout the country, 

 inviting them to attend on these days. 



I)e La Rue's indelible diaries for 1S72 are as usual beautifully 

 printed and bound, with ample room for memoranda. We miss 

 the astronomical article, but still the letter-press being curtailed 

 is an advantage, the book being less weighty for the pocket. 

 The desk diary is a most useful appendage to the writing table, 

 containing;, besides the almanack, tables, &c., extra pages for 

 memoranda and accounts. 



The eighth Annual Report is issued of the Belfast Naturalists' 

 Field Club for 1S70-71. The papers of which abstracts are 

 printed in the Report are of varied interest, the subjects comprised 

 including — " The Geographical Distribution of Cyclones," " The 

 Latest Fluctuations of the Sea Level on our own Coasts," " Ocean 

 Currents and their Effect on Climate," " Report of a Committee 

 appointed to examine some Ancient Remains in the neighbour- 

 hood of Armoy, county Antrim," and numerous others. A 

 number of prizes are offered to be competed for during the session 

 ending March 31, for the best herbarium, collections of fossils, 

 recent Crustacea and Echinodermata, shells, insects, sponges, 

 &c., and others. 



Prof. Halford has received from Simla the thanks of the 

 Government of India for his paper on " The Treatment of Snake- 

 bite by the Injection of Liquor Ammoni.-e into the Veins." The 

 Governor-General in Council has determined to have Dr. Ilal- 

 ford's pamphlet reprinted for general distribution to medical 

 officers in different parts of India. It appears to be placed 

 beyond doubt that this treatment is by far the most efficacious 

 yet discovered in cases of poisonous snake-bite. 



CoNDURANGO root, the reputed specific for cancer, is becoming 

 a subject of speculation in Ecuador and the United States. In 

 Ecuador it has reached 17/. a ton, but in New York it has been 

 selling for fabulous prices, though its virtues are contested. The 

 Government of Ecuador has imposed an export duty. The 

 Condurango root is now reported to have been discovered 

 by Mr. Simmons in the neighbourhood of Santa Marta in 

 Colombia or New Granada, and a small shipment has been 

 made to the United States. It is not stated whether it has been 

 tried for cancer in that country. 



The Chilian Government has sent the war steamer Cliacabuco 

 to survey the islands of Guaiatecas. 



The U.S. Government has directed a survey of the Bay of 

 Limou, the Atlantic terminus of the new Costa Rica Railway, 

 where a city is being laid out with a pier. 



Anthracite coal has been discovered in the district of San 

 Miguel, five miles from the capital of Costa Rica in Central 

 America. There are several seams of about 40 miles wide, and 

 the coal has been proved to be of good quality. A railway is in 

 progress in the neighbourhood. It may be remembered that 

 coal is also found in the .State of Panama. 



It is noted as remarkable that a spring of fresh water has 

 been discovered near Mollendo in Peru. 



The pearl oysters are said to have disappeared this season 

 from the Madras coast, as well as from that of Ceylon. 



M. Bertillon lately read before the Academy of Medicine in 

 Paris a paper on the relative influence of marriage and celibacy, 

 based on statistical returns derived from France, Belgium, and Hol- 

 land. In France, taking the ten years 1S57-66, he found that, in 

 1 ,000 persons aged from 25 to 30, 4 deaths occurred in the married, 

 lo'4 in the unmarried, and 22 in widowers ; in females at the 

 san»e age, the mortality among the married and unmarried was 

 the same — 9 per 1,000, while in widows it was 17. In persons 



aged from 30 to 35, the mortality among men was, for the mar- 

 ried, II per 1,000, for the unmarried, 5, and for widowers, 19 

 per 1,000 ; among women, for the married, 5, for the unmarried, 

 10, and for widows, 15 per 1,000. There appears to be a general 

 igreement of these results of marriage in Belgium and Holland, 

 as well as in France. 



We are so accustomed to associate tattooing almost entirely 

 with the natives of New Zealand and the Indians of North 

 America, that it comes to us almost as a new fact to learn from 

 a correspondent of tlie Fidd what a higli standard the art of 

 tattooing has reached among the Japanese. There we find men 

 who make it their business to tattoo others, and these "pro- 

 fessors of tattooing " are artists of no mean power, " for no india- 

 rubber or ink-eraser can possibly take out a false line once im- 

 printed ; and they most invariably in the ' printing in ' improve 

 upon the drawings previously made." The bettoes or Japanese 

 grooms will frequently have depicted on their skins, not only 

 perfectly- drawn pictures of birds, reptiles, beasts and fishes, but 

 also representations of whole scenes, often from some old legend 

 or history. A very common device is the red-headed crane, tha 

 sacred bird of Japan, depicted standing on the back of a tortoise, 

 and this is emblematic of woman's beauty treading down man's 

 strength. These designs are pricked in by needles, and two or 

 three colours are used. 



Prof. Kengott, of Zurich, states that a hail-storm lasting 

 five minutes occurred at eleven o'clock in the morning oi 

 August 20, 1 87 1, the stones from which were found to possess 

 a salty taste. Some of them weighed twelve grains. They 

 were found to consist essentially of true salt, such as occurs 

 in Northern Africa on the surface of the plains, mainly in 

 hexahedric crystals or their fragments, of a white colour, with 

 partly sharp and partly rounded grains and edges. None of 

 the crystals were entirely perfect, but appeared as if they had 

 been roughly developed on some surface. They had probably 

 been taken up and brought over the Mediterranean from some 

 part of Africa, just as sand is occasionally transported thence 

 to the European continent and the Canaries by means of 

 fiurricanes. A still more remarkable phenomenon has been 

 recently recorded by Prof. Eversmann, of Kasan — namely, the 

 occurrence of hailstones, each containing a small crystal of sul- 

 phuret of iron. These crystals were probably weathered from 

 some rocks in large quantity, and were then taken up from the 

 surface of the ground by a storm, and when carried into the hail- 

 forming clouds served as a nucleus for the formation of hail- 

 stones. 



A practical extension of the metalliferous region of Chile to 

 the south is announced in the discovery of rich silver deposits in 

 the southern province of Nuble. The place is called Cuesta del 

 Caracol, and is between the Rivers Lota and Nuble, about fifty 

 miles from San Carlos towards the east. The standard on assay is 

 estimated at looib. of silver to the ton. Operations are already 

 prepared on a large scale. The Lota district has hitherto only 

 been known for its large trade in coal and fire-bricks. 



The Indian Government has taken measures for a survey of 

 the Tenasserim tin mines and their present state of production, 

 for which purpose it has despatched Mr. Mark Fryar, mining 

 engineer, to that province. 



In the native State of Kolapore in the Bombay Presidency 

 sheep suffered from a strange form of animal plague. This con- 

 sists of a swarm of unusually voracious leeches. Bt-sides this 

 the wolves were out, carrying off children, invalids, and the aged 

 in the exposed villages. 



A WHITE elephant having been discovered in our possessions 

 in Tavoy, on the Malay Coast, the Buddhist sovereigns are ex- 

 tremely anxious to obtain such anjimportant minister of religion. 



