338 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 326 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The third field-meeting of the Indiana Academy of Sciences 

 will be held at Greensburg, Ind., May 8, 9, and 10. The first 

 meeting will be held at 7.30 P.M., Wednesday, May 8, at which 

 time, in addition to miscellaneous business, a popular address will 

 be delivered by Dr. J. P. D. John, the retiring president, upon " Our 

 Celestial Visitors." As important business is to be transacted at 

 this meeting, it is very desirable that as many members report as 

 possible. It is particularly desired that all the members of the ex- 

 ecutive committee and of the committee on meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of Science at Indianapolis 

 be present. The next day, Thursday, May 9, will be spent in the 

 field along Cobb's Fork of Sand Creek. The citizens of Greens- 

 burg will furnish carriages. The creek will be followed for about 

 four miles. Here are to be found the rarest plants of the county ; 

 the junction of the Lower and Upper Silurian, rich in fossils ; and 

 as much zoological material as can be found in the region. It will 

 be a very profitable trip for all departments of field-work. Re- 

 turning to Greensburg in the evening, another public meeting will 

 be held at 7.30 P.M. This meeting will be of a somewhat varied 

 character, consisting of brief reports by different members of the 

 academy upon results of the field-work of the day. The meeting 

 will be of special interest to the citizens of Greensburg, as they will 

 hear discussed, in a popular way. the most interesting scientific 

 features of their own vicinity. Friday morning another excursion 

 will be made, as interesting as that of the day before. The details 

 have not been fully determined, but every thing will be arranged 

 for. Thi§ excursion of Friday will close the work of the academy. 



— The abandonment of silk-culture in California, according to 

 Bradsireeis, is foreshadowed by the action of the governor of that 

 State in vetoing an appropriation of ten thousand dollars made by 

 the legislature to carry on experiments in that direction. The rea- 

 son given is that California cannot compete with China or Japan 

 in that industry. 



— The solid matter present in mineral oils has recently been ex- 

 amined, says London Ijidiistries, by J. A. Le Bel, who has satisfac- 

 lorily established the fact that asphalt obtained from petroleum 

 and bitumen contains, in addition to an oxidized organic coloring- 

 matter, a large percentage of inorganic constituents. The ash 

 from a specimen of asphalt obtained from mineral oil procured 

 from Egypt contained 1 1 per cent of lime and sulphur, while the 

 asphalt derived from the Crimean oils yielded 6 per cent of ash. 

 Purified asphalt from Lobsann, in Alsatia, gave 5.4 per cent of ash, 

 consisting of lime, oxide of iron, silica, sulphuric acid, and a trace 

 of manganese. The presence of silica in the ash, the author con- 

 siders, supports the hypothesis of Mendelejeff, that the mineral oils 

 are formed by the action of steam on the heated rocks of the in- 

 terior of the earth. In the asphalt from Lobsann, Le Bel has also 

 obtained 4.9 per cent of sulphur in combination with silicon. 



— The manufacture of artificial coffee from burnt flour or meal 

 is reported to be carried on by certain firms in Cologne. London 

 Industries explains that the artificial beans are made in specially 

 devised machines, and resemble closely in appearance the natural 

 ones. They have been examined by O. Reitmair, who has shown 

 that they consist of 34.6 per cent of extract soluble in water, 

 mixed with 56.25 per cent of insoluble organic constituents. The 

 amount of ash on ignition is small, amounting to 1. 10 per cent. 

 They can be readily distinguished from the natural beans by their 

 property of sinking when immersed in ether, as genuine coffee- 

 beans float on that liquid. Strong oxidizing agents do not decol- 

 orize the artificial product so rapidly as natural coffee. 



— A correspondent of TheAmerican Field, after reading Greener's 

 " Modern Shot Guns," noting that the author states that he has never 

 known of snow causing the bursting of a gun when gotten in the bar- 

 rel, vouches for its having done so in one instance, and believes it 

 will in most cases, with ordinary charges, if the snow completely plugs 

 the end of the barrel, though it may not cause as bad a burst as a 

 more solid substance, as mud. Some years ago, while shooting with 

 an English-made muzzle-loader,this correspondent got a small quan- 

 tity of snow in one barrel, and carelessly discharged the gun before re- 



moving it, with the result that about an inch of the metal at the end of 

 the barrel was torn away at top and side (being twisted and bent over 

 toward the outside of the barrel). The recoil was not very great. 

 The gun was a heavy one, with good-quality barrels, and the charge 

 only ordinary or rather below the average. Doubtless the result 

 would have been worse with more than a small quantity of snow in 

 the barrel. The barrels were cut off below the break, and have 

 been used many times since. 



— Dr. A. T. Hudson of Stockton, Cal., has made a statement 

 which, in the opinion of The American Field, will be contradicted 

 by scores of people. Dr. Hudson asserts that whiskey is no antidote 

 for rattlesnake poison, on experiments made by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell. 

 He says, " Dr. Mitchell mixed the virus of the rattlesnake with al- 

 cohol and with other reputed antidotes, and found, on injecting the 

 solution into animals, that its power was not altered. He found also 

 that the effect of the virus was subject to very well defined limits, 

 and that a quantity which would kill an animal of a certain size 

 was much less powerful or inert upon larger animals. If a large 

 snake should bite a goat of about fifty pounds weight, and after- 

 ward two children of corresponding weight, he might kill the goat, 

 while the children would survive, because not enough virus was 

 left after the goat was bitten seriously to harm the children ; then, 

 if whiskey were given to the children, their recoverv would be at- 

 tributed to it, while it really had nothing to do with the matter. It 

 is rare that an adult person dies from the bite of a rattlesnake. 

 Whiskey may, however, be regarded as physiologically antidotal, in 

 so far as it will sustain the flagging powers while the poison is 

 being eliminated by the excretory organs." 



— For a long time the quarters occupied by the live animals at 

 the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., have been infested 

 by rats ; and every means known for their destruction or exter- 

 mination have been used, but all to no purpose, as the rats are 

 steadily increasing in number. They seem to know what rat-traps 

 are for, and keep out of them, no matter how tempting the bait. 

 But last week, according to TJie American Field, Capt. Weedin, 

 who has charge of the animals, made a valuable discovery, by 

 means of which he expects to clear the place of these destructive 

 vermin. In a storeroom drawer a quantity of sunflower-seeds, 

 used as food for certain of the birds, was placed, and it was noticed 

 that the rats eagerly gnawed their way through the drawer to get 

 at the seeds, which they evidently relished. Acting on this sup- 

 position, Capt. Weedin baited his rat-traps with the seeds, and 

 there was no more astonished man in Washington than he was 

 when he discovered, the next morning, that every trap so baited 

 held from ten to fifteen rats each. The rats were turned into the 

 cages containing the weasels and minks, which did the killing in 

 less time than it takes to tell it. The minks would kill the rats in- 

 stantaneously. 



— The Ventura Society of Natural History was organized in San 

 Buena Ventura, Cal., in June, 1884. It numbers about fifty mem- 

 bers, and holds its meetings once a month. The society has made 

 collections in minerals, fossils, conchology, botany, etc. Rev. 

 Stephen Bowers, Ph.D., has been president of the society from the 

 time of its organization. Congressman Vandever and other promi- 

 nent men are active members ; and while but a small proportion 

 of its members have time for original investigation, yet it is said to 

 be doing good work in some departments of science. Dr. Bowers 

 has been instrumental in securing one of Mr. Alvan Clarke's best 

 six-inch lens telescopes, which will be erected upon an eminence 

 north of the city overlooking the Santa Clara valley of the south, 

 the Pacific Ocean, and the coast range of mountains. 



— A very interesting report to the United States Hydrographic 

 Office from Commander Allen D. Brown, U.S.N., commanding the 

 U.S.S. " Kearsarge," shows an abnormal state of the weather and 

 ocean-currents about Barbadoes. From March 16 to 25 the trades 

 disappeared entirely, being replaced by calms and light variable 

 winds, chiefly from the westward, with frequent rain-squalls, — 

 most unusual weather. March 19 and 20, strong south-easterly 

 currents were observed (to the southward and eastward of the 

 island), thirty and twenty knots a day respectively ; March 29, be- 

 tween Barbadoes and Martinique, a current setting due north, ten 



