548 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. U., No. ST. 



These people are extieraely hostile to strangers, 



and his success, therefore, is problematical. The 



Mahdi, or false prophet, who has been menacing 

 Khartum, is reported to have captured the traveller, 

 G. Roth, who was sent out by the Geographical 

 society of St. Gall, Switzerland, to explore the upper 



Nile. Yunker has succeeded in passing from the 



basin of the Nile to that of the Congo, and continues 

 his explorations, while one of his party has returned 

 with the collections made in the Niam-Niara country. 



Paul Soleillet writes from Ankober of his safe 



arrival at Shoa, the success of his journey, and his 

 favorable reception by King Meuelik II., who governs 

 all the population of Obok Shaffa and adjacent region 

 with a firm rule. Menelik is favorable to trade with 

 foreigners; and it is announced that he has been 

 named by King John of Abyssinia as his successor, 

 in default of direct heirs, to that kingdom. Soleillet 

 has formed valuable collections, and has discovered 

 wild coffee forming a dense undergrowth in the forest 

 along the river Gueb^, and indefinitely beyond. He 

 reports the product of the wild plant to be of excel- 

 lent quality. The abbe Trihidez, almoner of the 



army of occupation in Tunis, is reported to have dis- 

 covered at Susa some Phoenician stelae engraved in 

 a rather artistic manner, and in a good state of pres- 

 ervation. These records have been pronounced to be 

 of treat interest by such eminent specialists as Eenan 



and Berger. M. Alplionse Aubry has forwarded 



to the Ministry of public instruction at Paris, reports 

 on the geology of the English colony of Aden, which 

 is situated in the horseshoe-shaped crater of an ex- 

 tinct volcano, and on the French colony of Obok on 



the opposite shore of the Gulf of Aden. Gold has 



been found on the Kaap River in the Transvaal. 



Nuggets of half a pound in weight are reported. 



Oil has been ' struck ' in Natal, near Dundee, and also 

 large deposits of magnetic iron. A company has 

 been formed at Pietermarifzberg to investigate these 

 minerals. — w. H. D. [298 



BOTANY. 



Thermotropism. — Julius Wortmann has recently 

 shown that radiant heat falling upon a growing organ 

 can cause curvatures either toward or away from the 

 source of energy, and that the phenomena are in 

 general much like those produced by light. His 

 experiments are interesting, but are, as yet, incom- 

 plete, leaving some questions which seem to us very 

 important wholly unanswered. It is pretty clear, 

 however, that hereafter we must add the words 'posi- 

 tive thermotropism ' and ' negative thermotropism ' 

 to the already long list of new terms. — {Boi. zeit, 

 1S83, no. 29. ) G. L. G. [299 



On the growth of the epicotyl of Phaseolus 

 multiflorus. — In a series of experiments published 

 in 1878, Wiesner detected two maxima of growth 

 characterizing the younger internodes of many plants, 

 whereas Sachs (and more lately Wortmann) had 

 recognized only one maximum. To satisfy himself 

 of the correctness of his former observations, Wies- 

 ner has repeated and extended the experiments. 

 His results, derived from more than one hundred 



cases, show that in the plant named there are two 

 distinct maxima of growth. The measurements 

 were made with Grisebach's auxanomoter. — {Hot. 

 zeit., 1883, no. 27.) o. l. o. [300 



VERTEBRATES. 

 Keptiles. 

 Organ of Jacobsou in Ophidia. — Born re- 

 garded the cellular columns which form the greater 

 part of the thickness of the roof of Jacobson's organ 

 as " die zellige avsfiillungsmasse einfucker driisen 

 von birnformiger covfir/uration. Sie dicid an ein- 

 ander qedrdngt die ganze schleimhaut durchsetzen," 

 while Leydig believed them to be largely of gangli- 

 onic nature. E. Eamsay Wriglit agrees with Leydig. 

 He has studied the organ in Eutaenia (embryo and 

 adult). In conclusion, he says, " From the above 

 data I conclude that the cellular columns in the roof 

 of Jacobson's organ are outgrowths of the nuclear 

 stratum of its neuro-epithelium, the polygonal form 

 of which has been determined by the meshes of the 

 capillary plexus, through which the outgrowths have 

 taken place, and that in the course of development 

 more and more of the cells of the nuclear stratum 

 have been pushed outside the boundary formed by 

 the capillary plexus, till eventually little but the 

 superficial stratum is left inside that boundary." — 

 [Zool. am., vi. 389.) c. s. m. [301 



Mammals. 



The species of hogs. — M. Forsyth Major is con- 

 vinced, from his study of the genus Sus, that the six- 

 teen or seventeen species now recognized must be 

 reduced to four; namely, Sus vittatus Miill. and 

 Schleg., S. verrucosus M. and S., S. barbatus M. 

 and S., and S. scrofa Linn^. — (Zool. anz., vi. (140), 

 1883, 29.5.) F. w. T. [302 



Digestion of meats and milk. — Jessen has 

 carried out a series of experiments to determine the 

 time necessary for the digestion of equal quantities 

 of different meats and of milk. Three different 

 methods were employed in the investigation : 1. Arti- 

 ficial digestion; 2. Introduction of the meats iiito 

 the stomach of a living dog by means of a fistula; 

 3. Upon a healthy man, allowing him to swallow 

 the foods used, and ascertaining the time of digestion 

 by means of the stomach-pump. The results ob- 

 tained by the different methods are, on the whole, 

 uniform, as far as the relative time necessary for di- 

 gestion in each case is concerned, and may be stated 

 as follows: raw beef and mutton are digested most 

 quickly; for half-boiled beef and raw veal, a longer 

 time is necessary; thoroughly boiled and half-roasted 

 beef, raw pork, and sour cow's-milk follow next ; fresh 

 cow's milk, skimmed milk, and goat's milk are still 

 less easily digested ; while the longest time is required 

 for thoroughly roasted meats and boiled milk. — 

 {Zeilsch.f. hioL, xix. 129.) w. n. ii. -[303 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Iron in the mounds. — F. W. Putnam has had 



occasion to review some of tlie statements of the 



older writers on American archeology, — notably, Mr. 



