SCIENCE. 



32 



the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, is thus described by 

 one of the lecturers at a recent meeting : "The innumerable cells 

 of the human body are supplied by twelve mineral salts in the 

 blood, which, when their proper proportion is interfered with in 

 any manner, cause diseases of different natures, according to 

 which mineral salt is deficient or in excess of its natural ratio ; 

 that is, the disturbance of this ratio puts the human system into 

 a proper condition to absorb the disease germs that are constantly 

 floating in the air. By providing twelve specific medicines by 

 which the proper proportion of mineral salts is restored, health is 

 regained and disease driven out by furnishing direct to the blood 

 the same molecules that a perfect digestion and assimilation would 

 furnish. The doses administered supply to the tissue cells the 

 special salt, the lack of which is the cause of all diseases. Under 

 the advance of biochemistry it has become possible to apply to 

 each kind of tissue its own definite and peculiar salt, according to 

 the requirements in disease. By the distinctive systems our 

 physicians are guided in the choice of the particular ceU-salts re- 

 quired, the immense variety and numerous complications of 

 morbid states offering vast scope for exact medical practice where- 

 with to build up the great pyramid of scientific medicine of this 

 advanced era." 



— An interesting account of the nest and eggs of the cat-bird 

 (Ailurcedus viridis Latham), says Nature, is given by Mr. A. J. 

 North in the latest number of the Records of the Australian 

 Museum (vol. i.. No. 6). The habitat of the cat-bird is the dense 

 scrubs of the coastal ranges of New South Wales. Although the 

 bird is common, authentic specimens of its nest and eggs seem to 

 have been unknown until lately. For an opportunity of examin- 

 ing such specimens, Mr. North is mdebted to Mr. W. J. Grimes, 

 an enthusiastic oologist, who recently secured two nests of this 

 species on the Tweed River. The nest is a beautiful structure, 

 being bowl-shaped, and composed exteriorly of long twigs, en- 

 twined around the large broad leaves of Ptarietia argyrodendron, 

 and other broad-leaved trees, some of the leaves measuring eleven 

 inches in length by four inches \u breadth. The leaves appear to 

 have been picked when green, so beautifully do they fit the 

 rounded form of the nest, one side of which is almost hidden by 

 them. The interior of the nest is lined entirely with fine twigs. 

 The eggs are two in number for a sitting, oval in form, being but 

 slightly compressed at the smaller end, of a uniform creamy 

 white very faintly tinged with green, the shell being compara- 

 tively smooth and slightly glossy. Although the cat bird is usually 

 included in the family of bower-building birds, Mr. North has 

 never known or heard of its constructing a bower. 



— The following memorandum, by Sir George Birdwood, on the 

 myth of the second birth of Dionysus, as connected with the de- 

 velopment of Phoenician commerce and the country of the cinna- 

 mon tree, is taken from Louis Dyer's "Studies of the Gods in 

 Greece," 1891: Herodotus (iii. Ill) says, "Some relate that it 

 [Kivva/iuiiov] comes from the country in which Dionysus was 

 brought up; "and (iii. 97), "The ^Ethiopians boardering upon 

 Eg\ pt, . . . and who dwelt about the sacred city of Nysa, have 

 festivals in honor of Dionysus; " and again (ii. 46) he says, "But 

 Dionysus was no sooner born ihan he was sewn up in the thigh 

 of Zeus, and cai-ried off to Nysa, above Egypt, in ^Slthiopia." Now 

 there are several Nysas. Herodotus meant Nysa in Ethiopia, 

 that is the Troyloditic country beyond the Soudan; for the 

 Soumali country is the cinnamon country. On the other hand, 

 the story of Dionysus, " the Assyrian stranger," is. inter alia, a 

 myth of the development of Phoenician commerce, of which wine 

 was everywhere throughout the eastern Mediterranean (Le^?ant) 

 the staple; and the Greek myths, associating the wine god with 

 Mount Meroe, in Ethiopia, probably arose from the fact that, in 

 the original Phoenician myth, he was not a "child of the womb," 

 but " of the thigh " (iirjpo-). That is to say, these myths probably 

 arose at the time when kinship among men had ceased to be traced 

 through their mothers, and had already begun to be traced through 

 their fatliers. Similarly, the association of the wine god with 

 "Nysa above Egypt " was presumably due to there having been 

 a Nysa near Meroe, and to his Greek name being AidTOcror, this 

 Greek form of his name being probably a folk corruption of his 



[Vol. XVIII. No. 441 



Phoenician name, which would almost certainly end in nisi 

 " man." Of course, the cult of the vine and the manufacture of 

 wine did not arise in Ethiopia, but on the slopes of the Indo- 

 Caucasus ; and hence Mount Meroe [Meru] and the Indo-Caucasian 

 Nysa have been identified as the seats of the education of the 

 young Atdvvao^. 



— Edward Burgess, known the world over as a designer of fast 

 yachts, died at his home in Boston, July 12. Mr. Burgess had 

 been ill since May, the first trouble being typhoid-fever, but it was 

 hoped that he was on the fair road to recovery, when an unex- 

 pected ill turn resulted in his death. To the scientific world Mr, 

 Burgess was known as a prominent entomologist. For many 

 years he was secretary of the Boston Society of Natural History. 

 He was much liked by all who knew him, and his record as a 

 yacht designer has been most honorable. 



— M Maspero has an interesting article on the dog in ancient 

 Egypt in a recent number of La Nature, a brief synopsis of 

 which we find in Nature. It is illustrated by representation%of 

 dogs reproduced from Egyptian monuments, and by a mummy of 

 a dog recently opened and sketched by M. Beckmann. In ancient 

 Egypt, as in modern Europe, the dog was regarded both as a 

 friend and as a useful servant. He also received the honors of a 

 god, and there are cemeteries of dogs (corresponding to the ceme- 

 teries of cats) where mummies have been found by the thousand. 

 Attempts have been made to identify the various species of dogs 

 represented in wall paintings, but those naturalists who have in- 

 vestigated the subject have not always arrived at the same con- 

 clusions. M. Maspero points out that mummies supply more 

 trustworthy materials for study, and urges that men of science 

 should lose no time in examining some of them, as cemeteries of 

 animals are being very rapidly " exploited " 



— A recent number of Nature informs us that there has been 

 lately formed in Berlin a " Union of friends of Astronomy and 

 Cosraical Physics," with the view of organizing practical co-oper- 

 ation in these subjects of research in Germany, Austria, Hungary, 

 Switzerland, and neighboring countries, and also in the colonies, 

 and where membership may be desired. The object is to be 

 sought by means of free communications of the members or groups 

 of members to headquarters, whence advice and results of obser- 

 vations, etc., will be issued. Sections are formed for observations 

 (1) of the sun; (2) of the moon; (3) of the intensity and color of 

 starlight and of the MUky Way ; (4) of the zodiacal light and 

 meteors; (5) of polar light, terrestrial magnetism, earth currents, 

 and atmospheric electricity ; and (6) of clouds, halos, and thunder- 

 storms. Professor Lehman-Fllhes has been elected president of 

 the Union, and the presidents of the sections are Messrs. Forster, 

 M. W. Meyer, Plassmann, Jesse, Weinstein, and Reimann. 



— The work done by university extension students at Cambridge 

 last year was so satisfactory, according to Nature, that the syndi- 

 cate for local lectures are encouraged to repeat the experiment 

 this year. They will be prepared to receive a larger number of 

 students, say from sixty to eighty, most of whom will be lodged 

 either at Selwyn College or at Newnham College. The period of 

 study will last from July 28 to Aug. 22, or nearly a month in alL 

 The syndicate have just issued a detailel programme of the vari- 

 ous courses of study; and due attention has been paid to the 

 claims of science as well as to those of literature and art. At the 

 chemical laboratory, on alternate days, there will be a course of 

 demonstrations illustrating the methods of chem'cal manipulation 

 in a short series of typical exoi'riments. The pupils will be first 

 shown each experiment, and will then be expected to repeat it for 

 themselves. At the Cavendish laboratory, on alternate days, a 

 course of short experimental lectures, chiefly on electricity and 

 magnetism, will be delivered ; and most of the experiments shown 

 in the lectures will afterwards be performed by the students for 

 themselves. Geology will be studied, on alternate days, at the 

 Woodwardian museum, where there will be a course of demon- 

 strations on the leading fossil types of the animal kingdom, from 

 the specimens in the museum. A course of demonstrations, fol- 

 lowed by practical work, will be given, on alternate days, in the 

 physiological laboratory; and Mr. Graham, chief assistant at the 



