December 6, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



387 



iiri tie ( " black thief " ) : ining fu is the commercial name of the 

 iish when dried. The black liquid secreted by the fish was used 

 -as a substitute for ink, but was abandoned, as it faded after a 

 'lapse of a few years. 



— Many late and valuable reports of ocean-currents have been 

 received at the United States Hydrographic Office, but lack of space 

 forbids any extended reference to them. The graphic record of the 

 tracks of derelicts, wrecks, buoys adrift, etc., published each month 

 on the " Pilot Chart," is itself instructive as to the general set of 

 currents, especially in the case of a large iron buoy like that from 

 Port Royal, S.C. Attention is called, also, to the " bottle papers " 

 issued by the Hydrographic Office, for masters of vessels to seal 

 up in empty bottles and throw overboard, in order, that, when 

 found and returned, data may be obtained regarding the general 

 drift of surface currents. This is an old plan, but one that is still 

 used, and is thought to give results of some value when a large 

 number of such facts are available for study. Many of these papers 

 have been returned to that office, and the latest may be mentioned 

 here. One was thrown overboard Dec. 30, 1888, by Chief Officer 

 Downie (British steamship "Crown Prince") off the north-west 

 •coast of Cuba : it was picked up on the beach at Matagorda Is- 

 land, Texas, Aug. 10, 1889, by the keeper of the Saluria life-saving 

 station. Another was thrown overboard March 27, 1889, by First 

 Officer Conklin (.'\merican steamship " Cherokee ") in latitude 36° 

 42' north, longitude 75° 06' west : it was picked up on Sept. 25 by 

 Capt. Touguerant (French brig "Bonne Josephine") in latitude 

 44° 30' north, longitude 52" lo' west. The forms issued for this 

 purpose are printed in six languages, and efforts are being made to 

 give them a wide distribution. 



— A lake-dwelling has .been discovered in the neighborhood of 

 Somma Lombardo, north-west of Milan, through the draining of 

 the large turf moor of La Lagozza. The Berlin correspondent of 

 the Standard, who gives an account of the discovery, says that 

 this " relic of civilization " was found under the peat-bog and the 

 underlying layer of mud, the former being i metre in thickness, and 

 the latter 35 centimetres. The building was rectangular, 80 metres 

 long and 30 metres broad ; and between the posts, which are still 

 standing upright, lay beams and half-burnt planks, the latter hav- 

 ing been made by splitting the trees, and without using- a saw. 

 Some trunks still retain the stumps of their lateral projecting 

 branches, and they have probably served the purpose of ladders. 

 The lower end of these posts, which have been driven into the clay 

 soil, is more or less pointed, and it can be seen from the partly still 

 well-preserved bark that the beams and planks are of white birch, 

 pine, fir, and larch. Among other things, were found polished 

 stone hatchets, a few arrow-heads, flint knives, and unworked stones 

 with traces of the action of fire. 



— According to recent work of Professor H. W. Wiley, the 

 chemist of the United States Department of Agriculture, the value 

 -of sorghum-seed as a food for man and other animals is fully equal to 

 that of maize and oats, and but little inferior to that of wheat. The 

 •essential constituents of the cereals as food are the albuminoids 

 •and the carbohydrates. Comparing these two constituents of sor- 

 ghum-seed with the other great cereals, it contains more albuminoids 

 than either unhulled oats or maize, and only about three-fourths of 

 a per cent less than wheat. Its contents of carbohydrates is al- 

 most identical with that of the other cereals mentioned. The 

 glumes of the sorghum-seeds contain a coloring-matter of great 

 intensity, and it has been thought that this substance might prove 

 injurious to the health of animals consuming it. Professor Wiley 

 has therefore had a careful examination made of the properties of 

 this coloring-matter, and finds it to be a vegetable coloring-matter 

 without noxious principles, and, as far as the investigations have 

 extended, wholly free from tannin. This study includes only the 

 ■chemical re-actions of the color, and the characteristics which dis- 

 tinguish it from other companion colors of a vegetable origin. 

 Owing to the small quantity of pure color obtained, and the diffi- 

 culties of complete purification, no experiments were made with 

 regard to its dyeing qualities. The richness of the color (a deep 

 red) would certainly point to the desirability of such experiments. 

 In the heavier and larger hulled seeds, such as those of Deutcher's 

 Hybrid, Early Tennessee, and the Early Amber varieties, the color 



seems to constitute between five and fifteen per cent of the alco- 

 holic extract, which latter ranges from five to ten per cent of the 

 seed. The yield of cane per acre appears to average from ten to 

 twelve tons; and the seed-head, fifteen to twenty per cent of the 

 cane. Assuming the seed to constitute seventy-five per cent of the 

 head, we have three hundred pounds of seed to the ton of cane. 

 This affords thirty pounds of extract, and three pounds of pure 

 color, to the ton of cane, or thirty pounds per average acre. The 

 higher the tonnage, and the darker and heavier the hull of the 

 seed, the greater the yield of color. 



— A curious instance of the vicissitudes of commerce is afforded 

 by the change going on in the raisin trade between this country 

 and Spain. In 1882 Malaga shipped to this country nearly a mil- 

 lion boxes of raisins, which was about half its production for that 

 year. Since that time the annual production in Malaga has steadily 

 decreased, while that of California has as steadily increased, till in 

 1888, out of a total crop of 112,000 boxes, Malaga sent us only 

 700,000 boxes. It is now predicted by vine-growers that in a few 

 years California will be shipping raisins to Spain. 



— Iron buoys, being constructed so as to withstand the buffet- 

 ings of the heaviest seas, are apt to remain long afloat when once 

 they get adrift from their moorings. Although their movements 

 are then governed by the combined influence of wind and current, the 

 relative effects of each of these components of the force acting upon . 

 them vary more or less, according to the shape and immersion of 

 the buoy. When a considerable portion of the moorings are still 

 attached, the immersion is generally so great that the influence of 

 the current largely outweighs that of the winds, and the drift of 

 the buoy is a very fair indicator of the set of the current it has ex- 

 perienced. A notable instance is afforded by the mid-channel 

 buoy from Port Royal, S.C, which went adrift in the latter part of 

 November, 1886, and is still floating about in the North Atlantic, 

 probably somewhere between the parallels of 35° and 45° north, 

 and the meridians of 45° and 55° west. Eleven reports have been 

 received thus far by the United States Hydrographic Office. 



— The following is a list of the Saturday morning lectures to be 

 given in the Law School building of Columbia College during the 

 season of 1889-90: Nov. 16, "The Influence of Locality in Ameri- 

 can Fiction," by L. J. B. Lincoln, Esq. ; Nov. 23. " Petroleum and 

 Natural Gas " (with illustrations), by Dr. John S.Newberry; Nov. 

 30, "Caesar and Cleopatra," by John William Weidemeyer, Esq. ; 

 Dec. 7, " Benjamin Franklin, America's Practical Philosopher," by 

 Dr. Henry M. Leipziger ; Dec. 14, " The Avesta and the Religion 

 of Zoroaster," by Dr. A. V. W. Jackson ; Dec. 21, "The Geolo- 

 gical History of Man " (with illustrations), by Dr. John S. New- 

 berry ; Dec. 28, " The Relation of the Higher Education of Women 

 to Literature in America," by L. J. B. Lincoln, Esq. ; Jan. 4, 1890, 

 " Shakspeare and Corneille,'' by Professor Adolphe Cohn ; Jan. 11, 

 " The Cyclades," by Dr. Louis Dyer; Jan. 18, "The Career of 

 Leon Gambetta," by Professor Adolphe Cohn ; Jan. 25, " Progress 

 of Education in the United States," by Dr. Henry M. Leipziger; 

 Feb. I, " Total Solar Eclipses and What We learn from Them 

 (with illustrations), by Professor J. K. Rees ; Feb. 8, " Where and 

 How We remember," by Dr. M. Allen Starr; Feb. 15. "The 

 Moon : A Study of her Surface " (with illustrations), by Professor 

 J. K. Rees ; Feb. 22, " Methods of teaching French," by Dr. B. 

 O'Connor; March i, "Emerson as an English Writer," by Pro- 

 fessor T. W. Hunt ; March 8, " Methods of Education," by Dr. B. 

 O'Connor; March 15, "Words and their Abuse; from Philologi- 

 cal, Rhetorical, and Moral A^iew- Points," by Dr. J. D. Quackenbos; 

 March 22, " The Poetic Edda," by Professor Charles Sprague 

 Smith ; March 29, the same subject continued ; April 5, " Swin- 

 burne and the Later Lyrists," by Professor H. H. Boyesen ; April 

 12, " George Eliot and the English Novel." by Professor H. H. 

 Boyesen; April 19, " Shakspeare's Dramatic Construction: The 

 Winter's Tale," by Professor T. R. Price ; April 26, " Shak- 

 speare's Verse Construction," by Professor T. R. Price; May 3, 

 "Athenian Days," by Professor A. C. Merriam ; May 10, "The 

 Geographical Distribution of North American Plants " (illustrated 

 by lantern projections), by Dr. N. L. Britton ; May 17, "Daniel 

 O'Connell," by Dr. William A. Dunning; May 24, " Shop-Girls 

 and their Wages," by Dr. J. H. Hyslop. 



