May 19, 1870] 
NATURE 
53 
of raw beet-root sugar. What prevents us making sugar for our- 
selves in the United Kingdom? Certainly not climate, for the 
Hon. Agar Ellis, M.P., has grown sugar-beets this year in 
several parts of Kilkenny county; and Dr. Vélcker’s analysis of 
the roots finds a proportion of 8°94 to 1091 per cent. of crystal- 
lisable sugar, while a proportion of only 8°5 per cent. is said 
to be sufficient to remunerate the sugar manufacturer. The 
sugar-beets grown near Lavenham, Suffolk, in 1868 contained, 
according to the same analyst, from 9°62 to 12°84 per cent. of 
crystallisable sugar. 
A PARLIAMENTARY return has just been issued showing to what 
extent the Act for establishing libraries and museums has been 
adopted. At Manchester the Public Free Library was opened 
on the 6th of September, 1852; the public subscription 
amounted to 12,823/., of which 813/, 18s. was contributed 
by artisans and workpeople, numbering upwards of 20,000 
persons employed in the various industrial establishments 
in the city and neighbourhood. On the question of main- 
taining the library, the number of votes recorded in favour 
of the adoption of the Act was 3,962 ; against its adoption, qo. 
The news-rooms during the evening hours are constantly 
crowded ; from the published tables it appears that the total 
number of readers had increased from 39,944 in 1853 to 135,877 
in 1868, Between 1863 and 1864 the numbers fell from 91,121 
to 58,589, showing to how great an extent the libraries are used 
by the classes affected by the cotton famine. The number of 
borrowers, though subject to a slight fluctuation at the same 
period, has shown a comparatively steady increase from 2,000 in 
1853 to 27,749 in 1868. The daily average of visitors in 1868 
was 5,575, or upwards of 1,700,000 during the year. The total 
number of volumes in the library in June 1869, was 40,498 in 
the reference library, and 49,791 in the lending department. 
THE Prussian Goyernment appears to have definitely decided 
on introducing the Vautherin (iron) sleepers in the place of wood on 
the State railways. A contract has been recently entered into with 
the Saarbriick works, for the supply of 30,450 sleepers, intended 
for the railways from Tréves to Saarbriick, from Saarbriick to 
Neunkirchen, and from Neunkirchen to Bingerbriick. By this 
means it is thought also that the inconvenience will be avoided 
which has been experienced in France from the excessive de- 
struction of the forests, and the great excess of the consumption 
of timber over the native production. 
THE gradual destruction of fish in the rivers of Germany by 
the unrestricted fisheries bas begun to attract serious atten- 
tion, and the evil is beginning*to be felt also in the coast fish- 
eries. 
eries, estimates the quantity of fish caught on the coast between 
Cherbourg and Toulon at upwards of 58,000,000 kilogrammes 
in the year. 
Tr is stated that the Roman Catholics of San Francisco are 
building an ‘‘earthquake-proof”’ church. The side walls above 
the basement are only 30 feet high ; at this height a roof rises, 
which, with the main roof, is supported independently of the 
walls, by two rows of pillars inside of them. Both roofs are 
firmly bound to the pillars, and the pillars are fastened together 
by iron cross-beams, secured with heavy iron bolts, forming a net- 
work of great strength. The theory of the plan of construction 
is, that should the pillars be shaken down, the roof would be 
launched outside the walls, thus giving a chance of escape from 
the ruins. Inthus falling, the roof would be carried aside a 
distance of 80 feet, the length of the pillars. 
Ir can scarcely be said that any amount of water is too 
great for the supply of public and private wants, but as the 
expenses increase rapidly with the yolume supplied, a limit 
M. Schmarda, who has been commissioned by the | 
Austrian Government to inspect and report on the French fish- | 
is in practice soon reached and cannot readily be exceeded. 
The average amount of water consumed per diem for each 
person is estimated at about three-and-a-half pints, below 
which proportion physical suffering commences. The quantity 
required for washing purposes is estimated at about one gallon. 
A considerable quantity is also required for the consumption of 
animals, for watering the streets, gardens, &c., the extinction of 
fires, and other purposes. The following table shows the 
quantity supplied in different cities to each inhabitant per diem, 
expressed in litres (=1°7 pints). 
Rome........ 944 litres derived from springs 
New York... 568 Fi) yy springs and rivers 
Marseilles .. 470 55 ‘3 ditto 
Besancon ... ef b> ditto 
Dijon......... 6 i Rosoir springs 
Bordeaux > 9 springs and rivers 
Metzipec nce x a ditto 
London...... 5 s rivers 
Lyons ........ | springs and rivers 
Brussels ..... » ” ditto 
Geneva ...... 74 A 5 rivers 
Grenoble..... 65 os) “4 springs 
BArIShs psriere) (GO 5 Fi springs and rivers 
Montpellier. 60 AS sa springs 
Pavesi esscap 42 fs A ditto 
Liverpool... 23 Fr) 35 ditto 
THE Field quotes the following from the Zoronto Glove, illus- 
trative of the much-disputed fact that the queen-bee can be 
fertilised within the hive. The observer is Mr. Malone, of 
Garden Island :—“ I first made some small nuclei hives, and in- 
serted three frames in each (with brood and comb in them), and 
placed a queen cell in each in such a manner that by turning a 
button I could see the cell. As soon as the queen was hatched 
I caught her and placed her ina cage 6in. square by 8in. long, 
two sides of the cage being wood, the rest wire, and placed a 
good number of worker\bees in with her, and put the cage on the 
top of the frames in a hive containing a good swarm of bees, 
having first removed their queen. When the queen was five 
days old, that is, on the fifth day, I took out all the worker bees 
from the cage, and placed seven nice large drones in with the 
queen, I left the queen and drones together forty-eight hours in 
the cage, having placed them back again on top of the frames, 
and replaced the cover and plugged up the ventilators which are 
in the sides of the cover, to keep out the light. Of course I put 
some honey in the cage, out of the reach of the bees below in the 
hive, to keep the queen and drones from starving. Each time 
on examination, I found (with one exception) a dead drone, 
having all the end of his abdomen burst open, and twice I noticed 
evidences of impregnation. To make myself doubly sure that 
they were fertilised by this method, I introduced the queens into 
new swarms, and closed the opening so that nothing but a 
worker bee could go in and out, and all the queens (with one 
exception, as mentioned above) in a few days commenced laying, 
and reared nicely-marked Italian workers.” 
Tue Rev. E. O'Meara, A.M, is preparing acatalogue of Irish 
Diatomaceze. This catalogue will appear in the form of a re- 
port to the Royal Irish Academy, and will, we presume, be 
published in its Transactions. A synonymy of all the species 
will be given, and figures of all the new species, or of species 
the figures of which are not easily accessible. This catalogue, 
which will be the result of many years’ labour, will, we believe, 
form a worthy supplement to ‘‘Smith’s British Diatomaceze.” 
ComPpLaints have appeared in some of the Dublin papers 
that the library of the Royal Dublin Society was closed for a 
week during the Dublin Cattle Show. It is also rumoured that 
a complaint of the same kind was forwarded to the autho- 
rities at Kensington, When it is recollected that this 
perhaps, the only equally large library in Europe that is open 
to the public from 10 A.M. to 10 P.M. throughout the year, it 
will be seen that the public have little rea! caus2 of complaint in 
its being closed for eight or ten days in the twelve months. 
is, 
