Pebbuaky 11, 1898.] 



SGIENGE. 



209 



starting in June from Victoria, B. C. ; lie will 

 reach the Siberian islands by September. 



The London Times, quoting the Turkestan Ga- 

 zette, announces the arrival at Tashkent of two 

 German professors, whose names are not given, 

 for the purpose of fitting out a scientific expe- 

 dition to Tibet and Kashgar, in which the 

 Grand Duke of Baden has interested himself. 

 The Russian authorities are giving every assist- 

 ance, and the party will start from Osh with an 

 escort of Cossacks. 



In commenting on the epidemic of plague in 

 India the Lancet states that it has apparently 

 gained such a hold that its proportions in the 

 affected districts are calculated to give rise to 

 serious alarm. The latest reports from Bombay 

 quite bear out this view. The epidemic in that 

 city has been greatly aggravated of late ; the 

 type of the disease is of a more virulent char- 

 acter than that of last year, and the mortality 

 is reported to average more than 200 daily. It 

 is scarcely necessary to add that trade is par- 

 alyzed, and that there is a renewed exodus of 

 natives from Bombay. The disease also largely 

 prevails in Poona and in the Deccan. 



The Annual Horticultural and Agricultural 

 Exhibition at Cairo was opened on January 

 14th. According to the report in the London 

 Times the exhibits of timber-woods showed the 

 great capabilities of Egyptian soil and climate 

 for their production, and the Finance Ministry 

 is now making experiments in forestry on a 

 considerable scale, and planting out 190,000 

 young trees of about 100 varieties, all exotic 

 and chiefly from India. A novelty was seen in 

 a substance called cerosie, of which a French 

 local chemist claims to be the discoverer. It is 

 extracted from the scum which rises to the sur- 

 face of liquid sugar after the cane is crushed. 

 The resulting substance is stated to possess the 

 qualities of ordinary beeswax, which it re- 

 sembles in appearance, though darker in color. 



At a recent meeting of the British Ornitholo- 

 gists' Club, the Chairman, Mr. P. L. Sclater, 

 F.R.S., gave an account of ornithological jour- 

 nals, giving a history and description of the 

 three principal journals — the Journal fur Orni- 

 thologie, founded in 1853 by Dr. Jean Cabanis 

 and becoming in 1894 the organ of the Deutsche 



Ornithologischen Gesellschaft ; The Ibis, 

 founded by the British Ornithologists' Union 

 in 1859 ; and The Auk, established by the 

 American Ornithologists' Union in 1884 and 

 edited by Dr. J. A. Allen. There are, it ap- 

 pears, five ornithological journals in Germany, 

 three in Great Britain, two in Austria, two in 

 America, one in Hungary and one in Italy. 

 There is none in France. 



According to Industries and Iron, the 'Crane' 

 carried out at Portsmouth on the 26th of No- 

 vember her second three hours' speed trial, at 

 which she was required to maintain a mean of 

 6,000 h.p. and a speed of 20 knots. The mean 

 h.p. of the three hours was, however, 6,267, 

 and the speed 30.347 knots. The revolutions 

 were 397.4. During the six runs on the meas- 

 ured mile the h.p. gave a mean of 6,480, the 

 speed being 30.724 knots, and the revolutions 

 404J. The mean air pressure for the entire 

 run was 3 in. At the first three hours' trial 

 the coal consumption, which was required not 

 to exceed 2J lb. per unit of power per hour, 

 has been ascertained to have been 2.4 lb. 



A PROPOSAL was made some time ago for the 

 introduction of the seeds of certain trees from 

 India and Ceylon into British Central Africa for 

 the purpose of supplying shade for the coffee 

 plants in the numerous plantations which are 

 now being opened up in the protectorate. The 

 Foreign Ofiice, says the London Times, requested 

 Mr, Thiselton-Dyer, the Director of Kew Gar- 

 dens, to report on the subject. As a result of 

 Mr. Thiselton-Dyer's reports, her Majesty's 

 Commissioner has determined to rigidly en- 

 force the regulations for the prevention of coffee 

 disease in Central Africa, which prohibit the im- 

 portation of seeds from India and Ceylon. In 

 his report Mr. Thiselton-Dyer says : ' ' The coffee 

 disease was introduced into Fiji through the 

 instrumentality of tea seeds from Ceylon. Not- 

 withstanding the splendid attempts of Sir Wil- 

 liam MaoGregor to stamp it out, it ultimately 

 completely destroyed the coffee industry, which 

 was the most promising planting enterprise in 

 the colony. The Germans, by some unknown 

 means, have succeeded in introducing the dis- 

 ease into their African territories. In the face 

 of these undoubted facts, it would, in my 



