September 27, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



213 



orchards during and immediately after spraying, especially as no 

 animal would eat the sprayed grass exclusively. To test this fully, 

 I sprayed a large tree over some bright tender grass and clover. I 

 then cut the clover carefully, close to the ground, and fed it all to 

 my horse. It was all eaten up in an hour or two, and the horse 

 showed no signs of any injury. This mixture, remember, was of 

 double the proper strength, was applied very thoroughly, and all 

 the grass fed to and eaten by the horse. This experiment was re- 

 peated, with the same result. I next secured three sheep. These 

 were kept till hungry, then put into a pen about a tree under which 

 was rich, juicy June-grass and clover. The sheep soon ate the 

 grass, yet showed no signs of any injury. This experiment was 

 repeated twice, with the same result. It seems to me that these 

 experiments are crucial, and settle the matter fully. The analyses 

 show that there is no danger : the experiments confirm the con- 

 clusion. 



Thus we have it demonstrated that the arsenites are effective 

 against the codling-moth ; that in their use there is no danger of 

 poisoning the fruit, and, when used properly, no danger to the 

 foliage, nor to stock that may be pastured in the orchard. 



PLANT-LIFE OF ARABIA FELIX. 



Professor Schweinfurth, at a recent meeting of the Berlin 

 Geographical Society, spoke of his journey to Arabia Felix, under- 

 taken from November, 1888, to March, 1889, with the object of 

 making botanico-geographical studies. Stimulated by a journey of 

 the French botanist, A. Deflers, in the year 1888, Schweinfurth de- 

 termined to make one of the chief objects of this journey to Yemen 

 the obtaining of authentic specimens of a large number of the 

 species of plants described by the Swede, Peter Forskal, the bo- 

 tanist of the Niebuhr expedition (1761), who, when barely twenty- 

 seven years old, fell a victim to the climate after much ardent 

 activity in exploration. For what reason the scientific world, con- 

 sidering the complete opening-up of this ancient land of civilization, 

 has deferred so long the exploration of the country, it is difficult to 

 understand ; since Yemen, not only since the recent taking-posses- 

 sion of the country by the Turks, but for a long period, has been 

 distinguished, above all other parts of South Arabia, for the safety 

 of travel and the well-tested courtesy of the inhabitants towards 

 Europeans. Several plants, useful to man and cultivated by him, 

 have, through the medium of South Arabia, found their way to the 

 civilized countries of the north. Some, like coffee, appear to have 

 been converted here for the first time from their natural state into 

 the service of man. In ancient times there were in the first place 

 various fragrant substances exported from here. On that account 

 the country was named, from the oldest dynasties of the Pharaohs 

 down to the later Roman period, the holy land, the land of the 

 gods. The Punt country of the old Egyptians is surely not only to 

 be looked for in Africa, but denotes in the wider sense the territory 

 on both shores of the southern part of the Red Sea. The designa- 

 tions " stair " mountain and " step " mountain, both in the old 

 hieroglyphics as well as in Ptolemy and in the works of Arabian 

 geographers, Yakut and Hamdany, refer especially to the terraced 

 cultivated slopes of South Arabia, constructed with such a large 

 expenditure of labor, while they possess no meaning if applied to 

 the Somali countr)'. The ancient Egyptians took special care of 

 certain trees, which were dedicated to particular deities. Thus the 

 sycamore-tree was consecrated to Hathor. From the oldest tombs 

 found in the Pyramids, and belonging to the fourth dynasty, down 

 to the latest lists of offerings of the Ptolemaic-Roman epoch, the 

 fruit of the persea {Mimiisops sckz'mperz), the " aschd," appears as 

 a continually recurring gift to the gods and to the departed. The 

 tree was regarded as specially sacred, and was dedicated to the 

 greatest god. Re, the sun, and on numerous occasions the leaves 

 and fruit of both trees have been brought from the tombs to the 

 light of day. The foreign origin of the tree called Persea in the 

 Grecian authors, not to be confounded with the Persea graiisszma 

 of to-day, as coming from Ethiopia, by which term Abyssinia as 

 well as South Arabia may be understood, is attested by Strabo and 

 Diodorus, and confirmed by the present widespread existence of 

 wild-growing species. For several centuries the tree has entirely 

 disappeared from Egypt. On the other hand, the sycamore, al- 



though only in a cultivated state, is still to be found in Egypt and 

 certain parts of Syria. Schweinfurth has now discovered in Yemen 

 in numerous places fig-trees, in the case of which he has proved 

 botanically that these trees, called in the mountainous country 

 ckanes, and in the lowlands bttrra, are completely identical with 

 the Egyptian sycamore. At the same time the traveller found, in 

 the lowest mountain regions of Yemen, the Persea of the ancients 

 growing wild ; and it was there designated with the old Arabic 

 name lebbach, which was known to the Arabian geographers of the 

 middle ages. The Mimusops schimperi was formerly only found 

 in North Abyssinia. With the disappearance of the tree in Egypt, 

 for the protection of which the Emperor Arcadius made a special 

 law, which is still preserved, there disappeared in later Egypt also 

 the proper meaning of the name lebbach ; and at the commence- 

 ment of the last century the term was transferred to a species of 

 acacia {Albizia zebbell) introduced from India, which is to-day the 

 most widely spread tree in Egypt. In connection with the tradi- 

 tions inscribed on the ancient monuments, the fact that in Yemen 

 to-day there are still species of trees growing wild, which several 

 thousands of years ago and during a period of three thousand years 

 were held in Egypt to be sacred as symbols of divine worship, 

 throws important light upon the old relations subsisting between 

 the two countries. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



The Inhalation of Dust. — Dr. Kunze, in his inaugural 

 thesis for the M.D. degree of the University of Kiel, publishes as a 

 contribution to the diseases caused by the inhalation of dust a 

 series of examinations of lungs so affected. In all these, as stated 

 in a recent number of the London Lancet, dust was found micro- 

 scopically ; and, after chemical tests in the various anatomical and 

 histological parts of the lungs and in the interior of the lymphatic 

 vessels, numerous leucocytes were found covered with the dust. 

 Being arrested in its progress, it causes inflammation, producing 

 hyperplasia of connective tissue, especially where a dense network 

 of lymphatic vessels exists. Dr. Kunze also proved that the de- 

 gree of alteration in so-called " dust lungs " depends not merely on 

 the quantity of the dust inhaled, but also on its greater or less mor- 

 phological power of injunng the tissue. He concludes from his ex- 

 periments that even the greatest alterations in these lungs — such as 

 nodes, indurations, and vomicae — are mainly produced by the inhaled 

 dust, and that tuberculosis is only an occasional coincidence. The 

 least serious alterations in the lungs resulted from the inhalation of 

 lamp-black, the particles of which are very fine and little injurious; the 

 most serious, from the dust inhaled by earthenware manufacturers 

 and stone-masons. The lungs of a locksmith showed only a mod- 

 erate hyperplasia of connective tissue, the dust consisting partly of 

 the finest particles of iron. In a worker in oxides of iron the lungs 

 were found full of small granules, and the morbid changes in the 

 tissues were very considerable. The lungs of gold-miners were 

 generally indurated and atrophied : the dust in these cases is ex- 

 ceedingly fine. Sand produced numerous circumscribed hard nod- 

 ules and thick indurations. In cloth-manufacturers, the lungs, in 

 spite of their contact with an enormous quantity of organic dust, 

 presented but few indurations. In the lungs of two stone-masons, 

 induration and tuberculous disintegration were observed : all the 

 other lungs were entirely free from tubercles of any kind, — an ob- 

 servation which was verified by the absence of tubercle bacilli in 

 the muco-pus in the vomicse. 



Congress for Tuberculosis. — The second congress for 

 tuberculosis will be held in Paris during the latter part of July, 1890. 

 Professor Villemin will act as president. The following questions 

 are to be discussed : i. The identity of human and bovine tuber- 

 culosis, also that of other animals ; 2. The bacteriological and mor- 

 bid associations of tuberculosis ; 3. The isolation of tuberculous 

 subjects ; 4. The agents capable of destroying Koch's tubercle ba- 

 cillus, with a view to the prophylaxis and therapeusis of the disease 

 in man. 



Medicine in Japan. — In Japan there are thirty-one schools 

 of medicine, one of dentistry, and two of veterinary surgery. The 

 University of Tokio (the Imperial University) has over twelve hun- 



