April 27, 1899] 



NA TURE 



613 



antiquity, is the study of weathered surfaces of ancient stone- 

 buildings and monuments. 



The gold-bearing slates of Nova Scotia have been investigated 

 by Mr. T. Edmund Woodman (Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 

 vol. xxviii., March 1899). The rocks extend along the eastern 

 side of the country in a belt which averages twenty-five miles 

 in width, and covers an area of about six thousand square 

 miles. They are highly metamorphosed, and are regarded as 

 probably belonging to the Algonkian system. The rocks are 

 intersected by veins of quartz and calcite containing gold, both 

 free and in the various sulphides, which are abundant. Among 

 the veins much interest attaches to the gold-bearing stratified 

 veins, often called "leads" ; and it is observed that, although 

 the veins lie parallel to the planes of stratification, they must 

 have come from below, and have been formed from hot waters 

 which bore various substances in solution. Probably in this 

 complicated region the gold is of varied origin. In some cases 

 it must have been deposited with the sediments, and has since 

 been concentrated by subaerial agencies. 



It is many years since the question of the chemical reactions 

 which occur in the pan amalgamation of silver ores has been 

 raised. Since Hague's experiments his conclusions have been 

 accepted that cuprous chloride is formed by the interaction of 

 common salt, bluestone and metallic iron, and that cuprous 

 chloride is instrumental in reducing sulphide of silver. As the 

 result of a series of experiments, however, Mr. H. F. Collins 

 put forward a new account of the pan process at the last meet- 

 ing of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy. According to 

 his view, a "chloride" ore is readily treated in an iron pan 

 without bluestone or metallic copper, the silver compounds 

 being directly reduced by the iron. In the case of sulphide 

 •ores, treatment is facilitated by the addition of sulphate of 

 copper, which is rapidly reduced to metallic copper by the iron. 

 The copper, whether amalgamated or not, acts on sulphide of 

 silver, reducing it to metal and enabling it to be taken up by 

 the mercury. On the other hand, cuprous chloride, a still more 

 energetic agent in reducing sulphide of silver, never exists in 

 the pan, and in this way the comparatively bad results obtained 

 in the treatment of sulphide ores in the presence of metallic 

 iron are explained. The use of copper-bottomed vessels in 

 the treatment of sulphide ores has been practised for over a 

 century. In such vessels cuprous chloride is formed in consider- 

 able quantities. 



The cosmopolitan character of Cairo is exemplified by an 

 announcement which we have received referring to the Ghizeh 

 Zoological Garden. The information is printed in six languages, 

 namely English, French, German, Italian, Greek, and Arabic. 

 From it we learn that the garden is open every day, Sundays 

 included, that the collection of animals is such as pleases the 

 popular mind, and includes two lionesses formerly belonging to 

 the Khalifa at Omdurman, and that a large variety of plants 

 may be seen. The paths extend altogether to a length of six 

 miles (of which three and a half miles are paved with coloured 

 mosaic), the grottos were erected in the time of Ismail Pasha, 

 and more than twenty bridges cross the ornamental water in 

 the grounds. The garden is evidently a very pleasant and 

 instructive place. 



Mr. a. Hall, of Highbury, has designed an almanac 

 with the object of eliminating the inconvenience consequent 

 on the various days of the months falling on different week days, 

 owing to the changing number of days in each month. His 

 scheme is to make New Year's Day separate from the rest, 

 calling it January o, and then divide the remaining 364 days 

 into thirteen months of twenty-eight days each. Following this 

 plan, therefore, any particular day of any month will always fall 

 NO. 1539, VOL. 59J 



on the same day of the week, and this would, of course, be con- 

 venient for many purposes. The extra month he proposes to 

 denote by the name "Christember." The almanac sent us is 

 printed on this principle, and a useful item included is the table 

 of corresponding dates between the Gregorian, Julian, Jewish 

 and Mohammedan calendars. 



A SYSTEM of printing telegraphy, known as " Prof. Row- 

 land's Multiplex," is stated by Engineering to have been 

 recently tested between Philadelphia and Jersey City with 

 highly satisfactory results. On this system a message is sent 

 and received in legible and easily read type, transmitted from 

 keyboards similar to those of a typewriter, the characters in- 

 cluding simply the ordinary alphabet and numerals. The 

 device on trial was made at the Johns Hopkins University in 

 order to demonstrate what merits it possessed and also its 

 weakness, if any, and it is arranged for eight messages, four in 

 each direction, and duplexed in the usual way. The messages 

 are printed on either a tape or a page, and a speed of sixty 

 words a minute has been obtained in some of the experiments, 

 but the limit of speed or the number of messages was not 

 reached. There is no other multiplex printing system sending 

 from a keyboard and received on a page, and this one is only a 

 part of that invented by Prof. Rowland. It is stated that the 

 whole invention contemplates a relay method, by which any 

 amount of territory may be covered, and comprises a system by 

 which eight people in one city can be in communication with 

 eight others in another place over one wire and with absolute 

 secrecy. Among the advantages claimed for the multiplex 

 system is that of less liability of error, since there is only one 

 person engaged, and he the sender ; while, by the Morse 

 system, there is an opportunity for mistakes at each end of the 

 line. 



The Director of the Batavia Observatory, Dr. Van der Stok, 

 has published the monthly and yearly rainfall values of the East 

 Indian Archipelago for 1897 — the nineteenth year of the series. 

 The stations number 215 ; in Java the rainfall of the year was 

 less than the average, but in Sumatra the amount was greater 

 than the mean, especially during the first part of the year. One 

 of the tables shows the greatest quantity of rain in twenty-four 

 hours during each month, for the years 1879-97 ; at Batavia and 

 several other places the fall amounted to over 1 1 inches, and in 

 the south of the island of Saparoea to nearly 16 inches. 



Prof. L. Errera, of Brussels, reprints from the Bulletin of 

 the Royal Academy of Belgium an account of experiments made 

 on Aspergillus niger, which he claims to prove indisputably that 

 an acquired character — viz. adaptation to the medium in which 

 it grows — is transmitted by inheritance. 



The part of the l\Iinnesota\Botanical Studies for February is 

 full of interesting matter. Besides papers of more local interest, 

 are articles on seedlings of certain woody plants, and on the 

 comparatise anatomy of hypocotyl and epicotyl in woody plants, 

 by Mr. F. Ramaley ; a contribution to the life-history of Rumex, 

 by Mr. Bruce Fink ; one on seed dissemination and distribution 

 of Kazoumofskia robusta, a parasitic plant belonging to the 

 Loranthaceoe, by Prof. D. T. MacDougal ; also observations on 

 Gigartina, by Mary E. Olson, and on Constanlinea, by Mr. 

 E. M. Freeman. 



Prof. F. Plateau, of Ghent, pursues his adverse criticism 

 of the theory that insects are mainly attracted to flowers 

 by the sense of sight in their capacity as pollen-distributors. 

 In a paper, reprinted from the Memoirs of the Zoological 

 Society of France, he details a series of observations on Salvia 

 horminum and Hydrangea opuloides. Neither the coloured 

 bracts of the former, nor the conspicuous sterile flowers in 

 the latter species, can be regarded as "vexillary." In both 



