November 20, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



285 



"Some Observations of Animal Life in my Aquariara," by J. H. 

 McGregor. Other professors and advauced students will deliver 

 addresses or read papers, the subjects of which have not yet been 

 given. Besides the regular paper at each meeting, there are notes 

 ■on personal work, recent discoveries, investigations, etc., by the 

 various members, and reports on current scientific literature. At 

 the meeting Nov. 3, the president. Professor Lazenby, recom- 

 mended that immediate action be taken toward the formation of 

 an Ohio State Academy of Science. The suggestion was acted 

 upon at once, and a committee, consisting of Professor W. R. 

 Lezenby, D. S. Kellicott, and W. A. Kellerman, was appointed to 

 jnake further arrangements in this direction, and to correspond 

 with scientific workers throughout the State with a view of se- 

 curing their cooperation. Correspondence from all persons inter- 

 ested is earnestly solicited. 



— It is reported that the decline in the supply of Bahia piassava 

 still continues, and that the bark is becoming exceedingly scarce, 

 owing to the reckless manner in which the trees are stripped. 

 Bahia piassava, as is well known, is the fibre from the sheathing 

 bases of the leaves of a palm (Attalea funi.fera), and is a most 

 valuable material for the manufacture of bass brooms and brushes. 

 A similar product, obtained from Para, is fui'nished by another 

 palm, the Leopoldinia piassava. In consequence of the scarcity 

 of these two commodities, attention has of late years been directed 

 to other channels for substances that might compete with, or, at 

 any rate, be used as a substitute for true piassava. One has been 

 found in Madagascar, the fibres of which are, however, not suffi- 

 ciently stiff or elastic to be used by themselves Split cane, dyed 

 brown to resemble piassava, has also been used, more, perhaps, 

 for mixing with the real thing than to be used alone. But the 

 most recent inti-oduction, and one of very considerable impor- 

 tance, is that now known in commerce as African piassava, or 

 Lagos bass. It diffei-s from the other three kinds, inasmuch that, 

 instead of being a fibrous coating or sheathing at the base of the 

 leaves, it is the strong woody fibres of which the petiole, or leaf 

 stalk, are built; and as the palm {Raphia vinifera) is now abun- 

 dant in tropical Africa, the supply is practically inexhaustible. 

 With this consideration, coupled with the fact that the substance 

 ■continues to arrive in large quantities, and to meet with a very 

 ready sale, it may be taken that African piassava is one of the 

 most important of newly discovered vegetable products. 



— The British East Africa Company have determined to make 

 a complete survey of the district between the east coast of Africa 

 and Victoria Nyanza, the vast inland sea The idea of having a 

 railway to this lake has been discussed for some time, and Sii- 

 John Fowler, on being appealed to, gave it as iiis opinion that a 

 I'ailway was practicable, and need not cost over two millions ster- 

 ling. This opinion, of course, could only be formed on incom- 

 plete information, for while travellers, like Mr. Joseph Thomson, 

 ■who has just returned from the interior of Africa, Dr. Fischer, 

 and Count Teleki, have afforded information as to the nature of 

 the country to be traversed, little is known about the formidable 

 Mau escarpment and the country lying between that precipice and 

 the lake. A thorough survey is therefore desirable, and the Brit- 

 ish East Africa Company, with commendable enterprise, have 

 determined to send out a party, the chief of which will be Cap- 

 tain J. R. L MacDonald, with Captain J. W. Priugle as assistant, 

 both being officers of the Royal Engineers. Captain MacDonald 

 is attached to the Indian Public Works Department, and has had 

 much expei-ience of railway surveying in India. The surveying 

 party will leave England in about ten days, says Engineering of 

 Oct. 30, and on arri%'al will separate into two or three sections. 

 One party u ill proceed along the Sabaki River, and the other will 

 start from Mo'ubasa. Both will meet up the Sabaki and explore 

 both banks. From Machakos the party will separate into three 

 parties. The return will be via the Kampeplain so that eight 

 months wiU probably be occupied in the work. It is hoped that 

 the result of the survey will be the construction of a railway to 

 the shores of the lake, as by this means it will be possible to open 

 up a very large tract of %irgin country for trading purposes. But 

 we do not know that the opinion will be equally unanimous as to 

 the railway being made by the government. The British East 



Africa Company will profit most lai^gely, and surely they should 

 bear the financial risk, if there be any. In any case the survey 

 mu^t have valuable results, as it will afford definite information 

 of that part of Africa, regarding which so little is known and in 

 which so much interest is taken. 



— Positive photographs can be obtained direct from the cam- 

 era, as announced by J. Waterhouse. in " Eder's Jahrbuch," 1891, 

 283-387 (abstract in Zeitsch. Physik. Chemie, VIII., 567). This 

 remarkable result is secured by adding small quantities (about 



-one-fifth per miile) of a substituted sulpho-urea to the developer. 

 Experiments were made with allyl and phenyl sulpho-urea added 

 to eikonogen. Sulpho-urea itself acts similarly, but without sat- 

 isfactory results. All these substances are powerful accelerators. 



— A very simple method of laying the foundations on a swampy 

 location, which did not furnish a firm subsoil, was employed by 

 an American engineer, according to Engineering, for supporting 

 a low wooden building to be used for storage of machinery. Casks 

 were set in holes in the ground along the line of posts and were 

 filled to the depth of about one foot with iron turnings. The 

 posts were set in the casks, which were then filled with iron 

 turnings compactly r.immed in place. A solution of salt and 

 water was then slowly poured over these turnings, which com- 

 pactly solidified into a hard mass. The heat of the oxidation of 

 the iron was so great that the posts smoked and were charred; 

 the latter fact probably being the reason why they have not as yet 

 exhibited any signs of decay ; and in this respect the use of iron 

 turnings furnishes an advantage over the use of concrete for cask 

 foundations. 



— Perhaps the strangest instance of the forced wanderings of a 

 petrel was that which brought one of the last-known members of 

 an extinct, or at any rate a lost species, the capped petrel, whose 

 only home appears to have been the islands of St. Domingo and 

 Guadaloupe, from the West India seas to a Norfolk heath. In 

 March or April, 1850, according to the London Spectator, Oct 31, 

 a bird was seen by a boy on a heath at Southacre, in Norfolk, 

 flapping from one furze-buth to another, until it crept into one, 

 and was there caught by him. Exhausted as it was, it violently 

 bit his hand, and he thereupon killed it. A Mr. Newcorae, one of 

 a race of falconers, happened to be hawking in the neighborhood, 

 and his falconer, seeing the boy with the dead bird, brought it to 

 his matter, by whom it was skinned and stuffed, and placed in the 

 Newcome collection, where.it still remains. It was a large bird, 

 about sixteen inches in length, with long, curved wings charac- 

 teristic of all the petrels, and a black head, as its name indicates. 

 Only two other instances of the capped petrel's appearance in 

 Europe are known. One was shot near Boulogne, and one in 

 Hungary, in 1870, which is in the museum at Buda-Pesth. Two 

 others have been taken in the United States. But the strangest 

 part of the story is that the capped petrels are now either extinct, 

 or lost to the knowledge of man. " It is certain," says Mr. Steven- 

 son, in his last and unfinished volume of ''The Birds of Norfolk," 

 " that the true home of this very rare species Is. or was, in the 

 islands of Guadaloupe and Dominica, in the West Indies, where it 

 was formerly very abiindant; but one of its old breeding-places 

 in the last-named of these islands was explored, without finding a 

 single bird, in February, 1887, by Colonel Feilden." It appears 

 that ten years before, not only Dominica, but also Guadaloupe, 

 was searched in vain for the " Diablotins," the name by which 

 these petrels were known to the old voyagers. It is believed that 

 they were possibly destroyed by a South American opossum which 

 was introduced to the island; but as the young and even the old 

 birds were constantly caught by the islanders for food In the holes 

 in which they nested, their destruction may be due, like that of 

 the great auk. to human greediness. 



— Morgan R. Sanford, formerly of the Kansas Wesleyan Uni- 

 versity, has been elected professor of science in the school at Wil- 

 braham, Mass. 



— Mr. Charles Darwin of the United States Geological Survey- 

 has been appointed to investigate the tin mining industry of Cali- 

 fornia, and ha- already proceeded to the scene of operations. 



