208 
NATURE 
[ Fuly 2, 1885 
AccorpDING to the Paris Correspondent of the Zzmes, the 
Academy of Sciences, whose turn it is this year to award 
the Institute’s biennial prize of 20,000f., has pronounced in 
favour of Dr. Brown Séquard. 
ACCORDING to the Swedish papers, on the evening of June 19 
a crane was shot at Orkened, in Scania, which had a parchment 
card tied to its neck with the following lines written in ink :— 
I come from the burning sand 
From Sudan, the murderers’ land, 
Where they told the lie, 
That Gordon would die. 
The bird had previously been wounded in the wing, and was 
very exhausted. 
THE Japanese have at last, after much hesitation, promulgated 
a patent law. As in America, with respect to copyright, it was 
argued that with no patent protection the Japanese got the benefit 
of the inventions of the whole world. The new law appears, 
like many other recent Japanese laws, to be compiled from 
similar laws of other countries—a clause from England here, from 
France there, from Germany in another place, as seemed advis- 
able in the circumstances. The term of protection is fifteen 
years; ‘‘articles that tend to disturb social tranquillity, or 
demoralise customs and fashions, or are injurious to health,” and 
medicines cannot be patented ; the inventions must have been 
publicly applied within two years, and patents will become void 
when the patented inventions have been imported from abroad 
and sold—an illiberal provision which prevents the patenting 
of foreign inventions in Japan unless the inventor also manu- 
factures them in the country, and which therefore renders the 
new law practically useless to any but the Japanese inventor. 
The fees are low, amounting to about three pounds sterling for 
fifteen years’ protection, the one payment down being sufficient, 
while there are no annuities or annual payments for keeping the 
protection in force, as in many European countries. The 
punishments for breaches of the regulations are sufficiently severe 
to act as a warning against infringement. 
THE attention of all interested in the study of philology, com- 
parative folk-lore, and cognate subjects, should be directed to a 
magazine which is now being published at Kandy in Ceylon. 
It has just completed its first year, and is called the Ortentadist, 
the sub-title being ‘‘a monthly journal of Oriental literature, 
arts and sciences, folk-lore, &c.”’ It is edited by a Singhalese 
gentleman, Mr. Goonetibleke, and its contributors are for the 
most part Singhalese. The last three numbers of the first volume 
are_now before us, and among the contents we observe articles 
‘on the terms of relationship in Singhalese and Tamil,” the 
influence of the Portuguese and Dutch on these two languages, 
contributions to a descriptive catalogue of Sanskrit, Pali and 
Elu works extant in Ceylon, the progress of the Singhalese in 
literature, arts, and sciences. But folk-lore has, so far, been 
the strong point of the new magazine ; it has published numerous 
articles on Singhalese proverbs and folk-lore ; sometimes a 
popular tale amongst a particular Eastern people is started by a 
contributor, and is then pursued through other peoples having a | 
parallel tale. These tales are translated in full, and are fre- 
quently accompanied by the originals. The address of the 
editor is Trincomalie Street, Kandy, Ceylon, and Messrs. 
Triibner are the agents for Europe. 
WRITING to the Zzmes on the subject of Adelwezss, Mr. 
Burbidge, of the Trinity College Botanical Gardens, Dublin, 
points out that the plant is easily grown in English gardens from 
seed. It is sown in common garden earth in a cold frame, and 
when large enough each little plant is placed ina small pot ina 
mixture of loamy earth and old lime rubbish, or the plants, he 
says, are equally well pleased by a niche in a sunny rock garden, 
| of certain plants in a northern climate. 
| trees the Yakutes used to add to their sour milk a flour of dried 
provided a supply of their favourite lime rubbish or old mortar 
be afforded them. Contrary to the generally received opinion, 
the Zdelwetss is really a plant of extremely easy culture from 
seeds as here directed, and, further, good fresh seeds of it are 
quite readily obtainable from the usual sources of seed supply. 
WE have received the first number of the Bulletin of the 
Society of Natural History of Brookville, Indiana, an association 
organised in 1881, according to the report, with excellent results 
in an enlarzed interest in the study of nature, the establishment 
of a valuable museum, and the founding of a large and excellent 
library. Amongst the contents we notice papers on the stone 
mounds on the Whitewater ; on the flora, fossils, and land and 
fresh-water mollusca of Franklin County, and on the fauna ~ 
changes of the same district. The last paper is especially inter- 
esting, as showing the effects on the fauna of civilisation and its 
accompaniments, such as draining, cutting down forests, &c. 
WE have received the fifteenth annual report of the Wellington - 
College Natural Science Society. The observations conducted 
by the society have been carried on as usual, and the more im- 
portant of them are published in detail ; beyond this the report 
offers no new features for special comment. 
WE notice in the issue of the St. Petersburg /zvestia (xx. 6) 
| two papers by MM. Popoff and Karatanoff on the customs of 
the Katchin Tartars of Minusinsk, with a notice, by M. Potanin, 
on wild plants used as food in Siberia, These last are numerous. 
The Katchin Tartars eat the grains of Fagopyrum tataricum ; in 
the government of Irkutsk, during years of scarcity, the peasants 
add to their flour the Polygonum convolvulus. In Northern 
Mongolia the grains of P. vzviparum (oorgene with the Mongols) 
are a common addition to food. The ‘‘ibseck,” used by the 
Katchin Tartars, seems to be the Cirsium acaule, whose roots 
are eaten in Northern Mongolia. In Northern Siberia (Turu- 
khansk, Yakutsk regions) the inhabitants eat the anti-scorbutic 
roots of the Cochlearia stsymbrotdes, Dec., var. Czekanowskiana, 
(Trautvetter). The exact determination of this plant is due to 
| Czekanowski’s expedition, for Middendorff had confounded it 
| with the poisonous Veratrum Jobelianum, Bernh., and he even 
saw in its eating a proof for the disparition of poisonous qualities 
When there is no pine- 
roots of Butomus umbellatus instead of pine-bark. Great stores 
of these roots are usually made by Yakutes, who also use the 
grains of Plantago media and P. canescens, Adams. In the 
Khangai, M. Potanin was also shown a species of Plantago the 
fruits of which are eaten by the Khalkas Mongolians ; but alto- 
gether, he observes, a confounding of Polygonum with Plantago 
has possibly been made by previous authors. We may add to 
this list that the Zz/im martagon is eaten in large quantities in 
Transbaikalia, and that it isa common thing with the Buriates 
to pillage in the autumn the provisions of bulbs of this Lily 
made by the Arvicole, and to appropriate these provisions for- 
themselves. 
THE Stokes- Watson spark apparatus for showing the com- 
bustion of metals under the microscope, by the passage of the 
electric spark through them, made by Messrs. Watson and Sons, 
of High Holborn, from the design suggested by Prof. Stokes, was 
exhibited by Messrs. Watson at the conversazione of the Royal 
Society, Burlington House, on May 6, and again by them on 
Friday, June 5, at the Royal Institution. It is a most inter- 
esting apparatus, the different metals in combustion showing 
beautiful colours, and as the apparatus can be added to any 
ordinary microscope, no doubt it will become very popular. 
THE Trilobites recently found in Eastern Siberia belong, 
according to Prof. Friedrich Schmidt, to very different ages. 
Those found in boulders on the Olenek (Agnostus, Olenus, 
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