546 



NA TURE 



[February 9, 1899 



The annual meeting of the Institution of Naval Architects 

 will take place on Wednesday, March 22, and the two follow- 

 ing days, at the Society of Arts. The Right Hon. the Earl of 

 Hopetoun, G.C.M.G., president, will occupy the chair. 



Colonel Edmonp BAlNBKlDr.E, C.B., Royal Artillery, 

 Superintendent of the Royal Laboratory, Woolwich, has been 

 appointed to succeed the late Sir William Anderson, K.C.B., as 

 head of the Ordnance Factories. 



Malpighia records the death of two distinguished Italian 

 botanists. Prof. T. Caruel, director of the Museum of the 

 Botanical Garden at Florence, a copious writer on many 

 'branches of botany ; and Dr. G. Gibelli, Professor of Botany at 

 Turin. 



Mr. Asa Van Wormer (says the American Naturalist), a 

 wealthy merchant of Cincinnati, has presented the sum of 56,000 

 dollars to the University of Cincinnati, for the erection of a 

 fire-proof library. 



Cosmos for January 28 contains an article by M. Larbaletrier, 

 giving an account of the cultivation of the truffle in France, with 

 a table showing the importations and exportations for the years 

 1895-1897. During the year 1897 France exported 193,376 

 kil. of truffles, valued at 1,740,380 francs ; of these, 86,000 kil. 

 came to this country. A map shows the areas both of the 

 natural production and of the cultivation of the esculent. With 

 the exception of the culture in the neighbourhood of Paris, these 

 are entirely in the southern and, especially, in the south-eastern 

 departments. 



It is announced, by the Geograf^liical Journal, that consider- 

 able progress has been made with the preparation, for public- 

 ation, of the extensive scientific material collected during the 

 voyage of the Fram, and that there is a likelihood that the first 

 volume of memoirs will be issued during the coming summer 

 or autumn. The collection will be in quarto form, and the 

 separate memoirs will be the work of a number of specialists 

 in the subjects treated of, each being paged separately. The 

 total number will probably be about twenty, forming from 

 three to five volumes. The memoirs will be published at the 

 expense of the Nansen Fund for the advancement of science. 



An effort is being made to introduce into this country the 

 Nodon-Bretonneau method for seasoning wood by means of 

 electricity. Upon this system the timber to be seasoned is 

 placed in a large tank and immersed, all but an inch or two, in 

 a solution containing 10 per cent, of borax, 5 of resin, and 075 

 of carbonate of soda. The lead plate upon which it rests is 

 connected to the positive pole of a dynamo, and the negative 

 pole being attached to a similar plate arranged on its upper sur- 

 face so as to give good electrical contact, the circuit is completed 

 through the wood. Under the influence of the current the sap 

 appears to rise to the surface of the bath, while the aseptic 

 borax and resin solution lakes its place in the pores of the wood. 

 This part of the process requires from five to eight hours for its 

 completion, and then the wood is removed and dried either by 

 artificial or natural means. In the latter case a fortnight's ex- 

 posure in summer weather is said to render it as well-seasoned 

 as storage in the usual way for five years. 



Tnt. British Medical Journal publishes the following state- 

 ment : — A somewhat mysterious communication was made last 

 week to the Academic de Medecine. It was to the effect that 

 M. Jaubert, who is a chemist formerly attached to the Ecole 

 I'cily technique, had succeeded in finding a substance which, 

 when used in proper proportion, was capable of removing from 

 the air of a closed chamber the carbonic acid, watery vapour, 

 and other irrespirable products produced by a living animal 

 enclosed in the chamber, while at the same lime giving out 

 NO. 1528, VOL. 59] 



" automatically in exchange the mathematically exact quantity 

 of oxygen required." Two experiments were made by Dr. 

 Laborde, the one on a guinea-pig under a bell jar, the other 

 on M. Jaubert's brother, who wore a tightly-fitted respiratory 

 mask. The nature of the substance is net mentioned, the only 

 indication being that it is the lightest "reservoir" of oxygen 

 in existence. The note is published only to obtain priority for 

 the discoverer ; but we are told that the research has been in 

 progress since May last, with the approval and assistance of 

 the French Ministry of ihe Marine, which w.is interested in M. 

 Jaubert's scheme because it promised to be useful in submarine 

 boats and in diving-bells. It is stated that three or four kilo- 

 grams of this substance is enough to keep a healthy adult alive 

 for twenty-four hours in a space hermetically closed. M. 

 Laborde thinks that the substance will be of use also in medi- 

 cine, since a few grams— an amount which can be easily carried 

 in a waistcoat pocket — w ould at once yield several decalitres of 

 very pure oxygen gas. 



The Rritish Food /ouriial aiid Analytical Review is the title 

 of a new monthly publication, which has for its object the dis- 

 cussion of all matters of general interest connected with adulter- 

 ation and fraudulent trading. Arrangements have been made 

 whereby the British .Analytical Control will have this journal as 

 its press organ. For the enlightenment of those who do not 

 know what is meant by the " British Analytical Control," we 

 are informed that it is a system of permanent control and 

 guarantee in relation to food products and to other articles of 

 public necessity and utility, which has been established in Great 

 Britain and the Colonies and Dependencies of the Crown.. 

 There can be no doubt that such an association, established as 

 it is with the approval and co-operation of a number of leading 

 public analysts and other scientific men, is capable of doing 

 most useful work in bringing public opinion to bear upon this 

 important subject. 



A RECENi number of the Centralhlatt J'iir Bakteriologie 

 contains a paper on the vitality of the typhoid bacillus in milk 

 and butter, by Messrs. Bolley and Field, of the Government 

 Experiment Station for North Dakota, U.S.A. The butter 

 used in these investigations was derived from an ordinary 

 creamery, and contained one ounce of salt per pound. Ten 

 days appears to be the longest period of time over which 

 typhoid bacilli introduced direct into butter could be detected. 

 When, however, the cream was infected with typhoid germs 

 before churning, the latter were discovered in butter even after 

 three months. Typhoid bacilli do not apparently make any 

 marked growth in butter if the butter-milk is thoroughly worked 

 out of it ; if, however, the latter is left in to any extent, the 

 bacilli take advantage of the mixture and multiply. In sterilised 

 milk typhoid bacteria can exist for upwards of four months, 

 and, inoculated into ordinary milk freshly drawn, they have 

 been demonstrated as long as three months. No types of bac- 

 teria were met with in milk which proved capable of overcoming 

 the typhoid b.icillus ; even when inoculated in comparatively 

 small quantities into sour milk, it took well-nigh complete 

 possession of the liquid becoming almo.st a pure culture. These 

 experiments furnish yet another wiirning, to those concerned 

 with the conduct of our dairy supplies, of the supreme import- 

 ance of vigilance in all matters connected with the manufacture 

 and distribution of such easily-infected articles of food as milk 

 and butter. 



THE/i;Hr«(i/of Clrahamstown (Cape of Good Hope) refers to 

 an interesting return published by the Department for .■Agri- 

 culture, showing the ravages of rinderpest in the Cape Colony, 

 and the results ol the highly creditable battle waged against it 

 by our ofticials. From it we learn that the proportion of cattle 

 infected (including those inoculated) wtis 9S per cent, of the 



