October i6, 1891.] 



SCIENCH 



217 



flora of the country is poor, ro trees growing in the north of the 

 island and but few shrubs. Quadrupeds are scarce, the principal 

 being the guanaco, dog, fox, and one or two small rodents, but 

 snipe, ducks, geese, owls, swans, and other birds are plentiful. 

 Magnetic iron is widely distributed and in large quantities, and 

 gold, mixed with very small garnets and rubies, is found in sev- 

 eral places. There are also some coal seams of very poor quality, 

 and abundance of clay suitable for the manufacture of earthen- 

 ware. It is probable that the land will in time be taken up for 

 grazing purposes. Within the last few years several small farms 

 have been established and have yielded large returns. On Daw- 

 son Island the Jesuits have a model farm, where nearly 30,000 

 sheep and more than 6,000 cattle are fed. 



— It is stated by Engineering that half the tin of the world is 

 exported from the Malay Peninsula, where mining is carried on 

 almost entirely by Chinese. The mining is that of flood tin, and 

 the metal is taken from the lowlands near the mountains, where 

 it is found in porkets ten to twenty feet or more below the sur- 

 face. 



— Mr. W. Mattiere Williams, in a letter to Nature of Oct. 1, 

 writes as follows: " On two occasions, when proceeding north- 

 wards to Arctic Norway, I was much interested in observing the 

 fact that the plague of mosquitoes, which is so intolerable there, 

 especially p:evails in latitudes beyond the northern range of the 

 swallow. This may possibly be a mere coincidence, but I think 

 it is not — an opinion strongly supported by another and very 

 broad fact, viz., that in a given district in our own country the 

 gnats become more abundant immediately after the departure of 

 the swallows, martins, etc. If this view is correct, the protection 

 of these birds should be added to the devices named in ' Dragon- 

 flies vs. Mosquitoes.' " 



— On his return to Germany from Japan sixteen years ago. Pro- 

 fessor Eein, the well-known authority on Japanese art and indus- 

 try, planted in the Botanical Garden at Frankfort some specimens 

 of the lacquer tree (Rhus vernicifera), from which the Japanese 

 obtain the juice employed in the production of their famous 

 lacquer work. According to the London Times, there are now at 

 Frankfort thirty-four healthy specimens of the lacquer-tree, thirty 

 feet high and two feet in girth a yard from the ground ; and the 

 young trees, which have sprung from the original tree's seed, are 

 in a flourishing condition. It seems to be proved, therefore, that 

 the lacquer-tree is capable of being cultivated in Europe, and it 

 only remains to be seen whether the juice is affected by the changed 

 conditions. The Times says that, to ascertain this, Professor Rein 

 has tapped the Frankfort trees, and has sent some of the juice to 

 Japan, where it will be used by Japanese artists in lacquer work, 

 who will report on its fitness for lacquering. In the mean time, 

 some of the most eminent German chemists are analyzing sam- 

 ples of the juice taken from the trees at Frankfort, and samples 

 of the juice sent from Japan; and should their reports and the re- 

 ports from Japan be favorable, it is probable that the tree will be 

 largely planted in public parks and other places in Germany. In 

 course of time a skilled worker in lacquer would be brought over 

 from Japan to teach a selected number of workmen the art of 

 lacquering wood, and in this way it is hoped that a new art and 

 craft may be introduced into Europe. 



— The disposal of sewage is a question which has been to the 

 fore for a good many years in various countries, says Engineering, 

 but which, perhaps, nowhere on the Continent has been dealt with 

 in a more systematic manner than in Germany. In Berlin the 

 drains from the houses receive both the rain water, the dirty water 

 from the kitchen, etc., and the contents of the water closets, con- 

 ducting them to a system of radial sewers, through which they, 

 by a natural fall, proceed to a dozen various pumping stations 

 within the area of the town. From these the sewage, through the 

 medium of combined force and suction pumps, passes through 

 pipes of three feet or still greater diameter to the land which the 

 corporation of Berlin possesses, and where the sewage is used as a 

 fertOizer. The sewage makes its final exit through a system of 

 conduits so arranged that before reaching them it has parted with 

 all its manurial power to the soil through which it is made to pass. 



The sewage water thus filtered reaches the river through the natu- 

 ral fall of the conduits in a comparatively purified state. The 

 sewage is an exceptionally goo:l manure, and the yield of grass on 

 those fields that receive it is something quite out of the common, 

 so that it can be rut some six or seven times during one summer. 

 This system also seems to answer well so far as the sanitary side 

 of the question is concerned, but still there are a good many places 

 which prefer the method by which the sewage is collected in large 

 tanks, whereby it is possible to benefit larger areas by its fertilizing 

 qualities. Prankfort-on-the-Maine is another German town where 

 the sewerage system is very perfect, but owing to the excessive 

 cost of land in that locality the sewage is not, as in Berlin, used 

 as manure in the first instance. The sewage is purified before 

 being allowed to escape into the Maine, and the residue is pumped 

 into receptacles from where the farmers fetch it. The town of 

 Hanover is also about to adopt the sewerage system on a larger 

 scale. In Augsburg and Heidelberg the barrel system is used, 

 much more satisfactory in the latter than in the former town. 

 In Heidelberg the corporation itself attends to the emptying of 

 the barrels. 



— Cloud heights and velocities form the subject of a recent ar- 

 ticle by Mr. H. H. Clayton in the American Meteorological Jour- 

 nal. The paper contains the result of cloud observations made at 

 Mr. A. L. Botch's observatory at Blue Hill, Mass., during the past 

 five years. The average heights of some of the principal clouds 

 were: Nimbus, 412 metres; cumulus, base, 1,558 metres; false 

 cirrus, 6,500 metres; cirro-stratus, 9,653 metres; cirrus, 10,135 

 metres. The cumulus is highest at Blue Hill during the middle 

 of the day. The Upsala observations show that the base of the 

 cumulus, as well as the cirrus, increases in height untO evening, 

 but neither of these conclusions apply to the observations at Blue 

 Hill The average velocity found for the cirrus, 83 miles an hour, 

 is twice as great as that found at Upsala. The extreme velocity 

 was found to be 133 miles an hour. A comparison between wind 

 and cloud velocity shows that below 500 metres the wind velocity 

 is less than the cloud velocity. Above that, the excess of the 

 clond velocity increases up to 1,000 metres, and then decreases 

 again till about 1,700 metres, after which it steadily increases. 

 This decrease between 1,000 metres and 1.700 metres is very prob- 

 ably due to the fact that the clouds between 700 metres and 1,000 

 metres were mostly observed during the morning, when the cu- 

 mulus moves most rapidly, and that the clouds between 1.000 me- 

 tres and 1,700 metres were mostly observed during the afternoon, 

 when the cumulus moves slowest. 



— Dr. Borden P. Bowie of Boston University, who has charge 

 of the philosophical department, is now preparing a work on logic. 

 The manuscript is nearly ready for the printers. 



— Professor Conn, the head of the biology department of Wes- 

 leyan University, Middletown, Conn., has his latest book, "The 

 New World " ready for the press, and it will be issued very soon. 



— Professor George S. Bryant of the Alabama Polytechnic In- 

 stitute has been appointed director of the workshop and assistant 

 professor of mechanical engineering in the Leland Stanford, jun.. 

 University. 



— Several changes have been made in the faculty of Vassar 

 College, the following new teachers having been added : Professor 

 J. C. Bracq, professor of French; Miss Neef, assistant in French 

 and German; Professor J. L. Moore, professor of Latin; Miss 

 Byrnes, assistant in biological laboratory; Miss Ballantine, director 

 of gymnasium. Mrs. Georgia Kendrick is lady principal. 



— Professor George Fi-ancis James of the University of Nash- 

 ville has been appointed lecturer on literature in the University of 

 Pennsylvania and editor of University Extension, the official or- 

 gan of the American Society for the Extension of University 

 Teaching. Mr. James was a student of the Northwestern and 

 Michigan Universities and has done post-graduate work in the 

 University of HaUe, Germany, and in the Sorbonne at Paris. Two 

 years ago he gave up the principalship of the Decatur (III.) high 

 school to go to Nashville, from which position he has been called 

 to Philadelphia. 



