398 



NA TURE 



[February 23, 1899 



operation, it may be added, is performed in the autumn. 

 These experiments in practical forestry have excited great in- 

 terest among foresters. It is hoped that the matter will be 

 taken up in a scientific way, and that the chemical action of 

 the impregnated sap will receive elucidation in a form which 

 will be of practical use to the owners of woodlands throughout 

 the country. 



BulUtin No. 4 (vol. iv. ) of the Laboratories of Natural 

 History of the State University of Iowa is entirely occupied by 

 two papers : On the Cyperacea of Iowa, by Mr. R. J. Cratty ; 

 and on American Uredine£e (part 2), by Messrs. J. C. Arthur 

 and E. W. D. Holway. Both papers are well illustrated. 



We have received the Proceedings of the Agricultural 

 Research Association for 1898. In its report, the Committee 

 calls especial attention to the experiments carried on by the 

 Association, under the direction of Mr. Thomas Jamieson, on 

 the cross-fertilisation of the oat, resulting in the production of 

 new valuable varieties by natural cross-pollination rather than 

 by any artificial assistance. 



Among the lectures to be delivered at the Royal \'ictoria 

 Hall, Waterloo Road, on Tuesday evenings during March, are 

 the following :— March 7, "The Scenery of Alpine Lands," 

 Mr. E. J. Garwood ; March 14, "The Atmosphere," Morris W. 

 Travers ; March 28, " Mont Blanc, the tlreat White Mountain," 

 Mr. J. Russell. 



Amono the papers in the winter number of Brain, is the 

 presidential address delivered to the Neurological Society by 

 Prof. Victor Ilorsley, F.R..S., on the determination of the energy 

 developed by a nerve centre, and a contribution on an experi- 

 mental study of visions, by Dr. Morton Prince. 



Under the title of "An experiment in commercial 

 expansion," Mr. Leonard Courtney, M. P., delivered in December 

 last a presidential address to the Royal Statistical Society, dealing 

 with the economic lessons taught by a study of the commerce 

 and development of the Congo Free State. The address is now 

 published In the Society's Jonrna/. 



A BRIEF summary has been published at Philadelphia of a 

 voluminous report drawn up for the Japanese Government by 

 Tentearo Makato on "Japanese notions of European political 

 economy." The report contains, inter alia, a summary of the 

 main views of leading political economists as they presented 

 themselves to the mind of the Japanese Commissioner. 



A m-MONTHl,v magazine devoted to the study and protection 

 of birds, edited by Mr. Krank M. Chapman, and published by the 

 Macmillan Company, New York, has just appeared under the 

 title of Bird Lore. The journal will be the organ of the 

 Audubon Societies, and will provide students of bird-life with 

 interesting articles and notes and pictures. The fact that during 

 the past six years New \'ork and Boston publishers have .sold 

 more than seventy thousand text-books on birds, promises 

 success to this popular journal of ornithology. 



In a recent note in these columns attention was drawn to the 

 reported discovery by M. Jaubcrt of a substance capable of re- 

 moving from the air of a closed chamber the carbonic acid, 

 water vapour and other irrespirable gases produced by a living 

 animal within the chamber, and at the same time of keeping up 

 the supply of oxygen. In the Comples renJus for February 6, 

 the subject is referred to in two communications. MM. Desgrez 

 and Balthazard describe experiments ma<k- with sodium peroxide. 

 This substance is acted upon by water according to the following 

 equation, Na^O^ •(- Il.jO = 2NaOII •)- O. The caustic soda 

 produced will, of course, absorb carbci dioxide. \ guinea-pig 

 weighing 400 grammes, when enclosed in 10 litres of air, was 

 NO. 1530, VOL. 59] 



asphy.xiated in from two to two and a half hours : but under 

 similar conditions when s<xiium peroxide was placed in the 

 enclosure, and water allowed to drop on it, a guinea-pig showed 

 no diminution of vitality at the end of four hours. To see if the 

 moisture of expired air would saftice to act on the peroxide, two 

 guinea-pigs were enclosed in 30 litres of air with 66 grammes 

 of peroxide. They were taken out alive at the end of ten 

 hours, whereas two others of the same weight died at the end 

 of four hours in the absence of peroxide. Finally a dog 

 weighing 6"5 kilogrammes, enclosed with 70 litres of air and 

 200 grammes of peroxide, gave unequivocal signs of life at the 

 end of six hours. The peroxide was only attacked superficially 

 in the last cases, owing probably to the formation of a protective 

 layer of carbonate. 



In discussing the above experiments, M. d'Arsonval points 

 out that seventeen years since he proposed an effective method 

 of achieving the same end. The animal is enclosed hermet- 

 ically in a tubulated receiver ; the upper part of this contains 

 a receptacle filled with pieces of soda-lime ; through the 

 tubulus a solution of hydrogen peroxide, coming from a 

 Mariolte's bottle, is conducted by a tube so as to drop into a 

 strong solution of chromic acid. The apparatus works auto- 

 matically, for as the animal breathes and the carbon dioxide 

 and water are absorbed by the soda-lime, the pressure falls 

 and the Mariotte's bottle comes into action. The hydrogen 

 peroxide solution then begins to drop into the chromic acid, 

 and disengages oxygen until the pressure is restored. The 

 flow from the Matiotte's bottle then stops, and the cycle 

 begins again. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Rhesus Monkey (Ma<a<us rhesus, 9 ) from 

 India, presented by Mrs. .K. J. Pauley ; a Mozambique Monkey 

 (Cercopithecus pygerythrus, i ) from East .-Vfrica, presented by 

 Mr. E. Tudor Johnson ; a Bonnet Monkey (Macaeus sinieus, 9 ) 

 from India, presented by Mr. J. H. Howden ; a Coypu (.Wjr- 

 opotamus coypits) from South America, presented by Mr. Sidney 

 Grey; a Restless Cavy (Cavia porcelliis) presented by Miss 

 Druce ; a Canadian Lynx (Felis canad,nsis) ; a Prairie Wolf 

 (Canis lalrans) horn North America, presented by Mr. Henry 

 Anger ; two Mountain Ka-Kas (Neslor notahilis) from New 

 Zealand, presented by the Hon. Walter Rothschild, M.P. ; an 

 Alexandrine Parrakeet [Palaeornis alexaiidri, 9 ) from India, 

 presented by M r. A. Pam ; a Beccari's Cassowary ( Casiiariiis dee- 

 carii) from Vokan Island, Aru Islands ; a Ma\ive-necked Cas- 

 sowary {Casiiariiis violicollis) from Terangan Island, Aru 

 Islands ; a Salvadori's Cassowary {Casiiariiis salvadori), a 

 Milne-Edwards Cassowary (Casuarius edwardsi) from North- 

 west New Guinea, two Vellow-naped Cassowaries (Casuarius 

 0ceipilalis\ from the Island of Geelvink Bay, New Guinea ; 

 three Reeves's Terrapins (Daiiionia renesi) ; three Black- 

 headed Terrapins (Damonia recvesi iiuieolor) from China, de- 

 posited ; two Red-brei»sled Mergansers (A/ersiis serralor, i 9 ), 

 European ; two Bahama Ducks (Poteitonetla bahameusts) from 

 South America, nine Spotted-billed Ducks (Anas pcceilo- 

 rhyucha), a Bar-headed Goose (Anser iiidiciis) from India, live 

 Brent Geese (Bernicia brenia), European, purchased. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Umtki) STAtKS Nav.m, Ohskrva roKV. — Prof. A. N. 

 Skinner, one of the staff of this well-known observatory, con- 

 tributes to S.ien.e (vol. ix.. No. 210, pp. 1-16, January 6) 

 a detailed history of the institution from its first inception to 

 the present lime. I le divides the time into four periods, each 

 characterised by some decisive change, both in the scope and 

 administration of the department. In 1823, J. ijuincey Adams, 



