qy° 
THE /Vestern Monthly (Chicago), in its August number, has 
a very readable article on Sun Spots and their lessons, in which 
the author discusses the consequences of the obscuration of one 
part in one hundred and thirty of the sun’s visible surface in the 
present year, and thinks that he is about to open one of the 
sealed volumes which contains the principles of prognostic 
meteorology. 
Tut ‘Proceedings of the Birmingham Natural History 
Society and Microscopical Society” for 1869, is another of 
those records of natural history researches in the provinces, of 
which we have so many gratifying instances, the more valuable 
when coming from the centre of a manufacturing district, where 
the thoughts of men are naturally turned in such very different 
channels. We have papers of various lengths on mineralogy, 
botany, microscopy, physiology, geology, entcmology, malaco- 
logy, and other branches of natural history, showing, if not 
much originality, much careful observant work. Appended are 
preliminary lists of the flowering plants, mosses, Lepidoptera, 
and Mollusca found within a radius of ten miles from Birming- 
ham, a by no means inconsiderable array. 
THE astronomical and meteorological observations of the 
National Observatory of Santiago, in Chile, have now been 
regularly published since 1853, chiefly by Don José Tomas 
Vergara. They also include the Valparaiso meteorological 
observations. 
CINCHONA culture has now so far advanced in Madras that 
the Government is preparing to deal with it as an annual crop. 
Mr. WORTHINGTON SMITH records in the Journal of Botany 
an instance of a fatal case of poisoning by eating the root of the 
Water-dropwort, xanthe crocata, an umbelliferous plant com- 
mon in ditches and wet places. A carter at Staplehurst, in 
Kent, ate. some of the roots whilst at work, supposing them to 
be the wild parsnip ; in about an hour he became unconscious 
and convulsed, and death occurred in another half-hour, before 
medical aid could be obtained. The man had fed his horse 
with roots of the same plant, and the animal also expired about 
two hours after eating them, There is no doubt that the Qinanthe 
is a virulent poison, but it seems strange that the horse, as well 
as the man, should not have rejected a plant of so acrid and sus- 
picious a flavour. Several wild Umbelliferae are among the most 
dangerous of British plants, and it is probable that the Greek 
poison k@yeiov was obtained from others besides the hemlock, 
SHARKS appear to have recently again made their appearance 
in the Gulf of Trieste, and the police have issued a notice for- 
bidding people to bathe in the port or on the coast. For each 
fish destroyed in the waters between Punto Grona and the castle 
of Duino a reward of 300 florins (about 30/.) is given. 
THE Indian Government has selected the Khond Hills for 
cinchona experiments. If they succeed the cultivation will be 
thrown open to private enterprise, with the view of further pro- 
moting employment and cultivation among the Khonds. 
THE extent of the Wurdah coal-field in India has been con- 
firmed, and the seams in Berar have been found to be 45 feet in 
total thickness. 
THE total eclipse of July was observed at Constantinople by 
the Rey. C. Gribble, H.B.M. Chaplain, formerly of the Royal 
Navy, a local astronomical observer. He contributes an account 
to the Levant Herald of July 20. The dogs of Constantinople 
continued barking until about the middle of the eclipse. 
WE haye had occasion to refer’ to wild-beast legislation and 
administration, an important matter in India. A curious discus- 
sion has arisenin Bombay, Tigers having come to Salsette and 
killed several people, the magistrates applied to increase the 
reward, but the Government have refused, thinking that the 
report of the presence of tigers there will attract English sports- 
men from Bombay, 
NATURE 
[Aug. 18, 1870 
“A CATALOGUE of Maps of the British Possessions in India 
and other parts of Asia,” published by order of Her Majesty’s: 
Secretary of State for India in Council, is a very useful publica- 
tion for those interested in our Asiatic possessions. 
THE first and second quarterly publications for 1870 are issued 
of Auwers’ and Winnecke’s “ Vierteljahrsschrift der Astrono- 
mischen Gesellschaft.” 
Dr. SaAcus’s ‘‘ Lehrbuch der Botanik nach dem gegenwartigen 
Stand der Wissenschaft”? has reached a second enlarged and 
partly rewritten edition. It is illustrated with 453 woodcuts. 
Dr. Kart Karmarscu’s ‘ Technological Dictionary, Eng- 
lish, French, German,” of which the second edition is just issued, 
is a most useful compilation, containing the corresponding 
terms in these three languages employed in Architecture, civil, 
military, and naval; Civil Engineering, including bridge build- 
ing, road and railway making ; Mechanics, machine and engine 
making ; Ship Building and Navigation ; Metallurgy, mining and 
smelting ; Artillery ; Mathematics ; Physics ; Chemistry ; Mine- 
ralogy; and generally in the Arts and Sciences. 
Dr. ENGELMANN publishes the first part of his ‘* Results of 
Cbservations in the Leipzig Observatory,” comprising those 
made with the meridian-circle. 
M. VIDAL’s statement (says the Photographic News), that a 
sensitive plate, if exposed to light in the camera, and then placed 
behind the yellow glass window of a dark room, becomes attacked 
by the yellow rays and yields a fogged image, whereas a sensitive 
plate previously unexposed to light is not affected in the same 
manner, has been confirmed by results obtained in America, and 
detailed in the Philadelphia Photographer. 
PAPERS ON IRON AND STEEL 
1.—A VERY COSTLY AND VEXATIOUS FALLACY 
nN 
“ FRIEND of mine has been converting some com- 
mon cinder pig-iron into either very fine iron or 
steel by a very simple process, but does not know who 
to apply to to learn its value. He is willing to share the 
profit with anyone who will help him in the matter. I 
have some small samples of it if you would like to see~ 
it, or can tell me who would be likely to interest them- 
selves in the matter. From what I can make out I 
should think it would make good steel, for it will harden 
and temper now.” 
The above, quoted from a letter I have recently re- 
ceived, is atypical sample of a number of others I have 
had at different times, and it represents the labours of 
quite a multitude of patient, long-suffering, and miser- 
ably deluded investigators. The published specifications 
of abandoned patents make painful record of wasted 
money, time, and ingenuity; and suggest dark tragedies 
of ruined hopes, all arising from the same misunder- 
standing of the changes which take place in the conver- 
sion of ordinary pig-iron or cast-iron into merchantable 
steel. 
The most humiliating feature of this delusion is that it 
is not the offspring of popular ignorance, is not preva- 
lent among the beer-drinking class of iron-workers, who 
sign their names with a X, but crops out among in- 
telligent self-taught men, who have studied the chemistry 
of iron and steel as expounded in recognised chemical 
books. The costly fallacy I allude to is directly trace- 
able to the teachings of our highest scientific authorities. 
As NATURE is now largely circulating among the class of 
self-taught and energetic men who supply this ever- 
recurring crop of victims, and also among those who most 
unwittingly and unwillingly have deceived them, there 
