36o. 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 327 



winter where the temperature runs lower and with greater ex- 

 tremes, different results might possibly be obtained ; but this can 

 only be settled by carefully made and accurately recorded tests, 

 which it is hoped may be made another year. 



— The death is announced in 7V(j/m?-^ of April 25, of Dr. Paul 

 du Bois-Reymond, professor of mathematics at the Technical High 

 School of Berlin, and formerly at the Universities of Freiburg and 

 Tubingen. He was the author of two well-known mathematical 

 works, and brother of the eminent physiologist of the same name. 

 He was born on Dec. 2, 1831, and died at Freiburg in Baden on 

 April 7. 



— A Chinese native paper published recently, says Nature, a 

 collection of some zoological myths of that country, a few of which 

 are worth noting. In Shan-si there is a bird which can divest it- 

 self of its feathers and become a woman. At Twan-sin-chow 

 dwells the Wan-mu Niao (mother of mosquitoes), a fish-eating 

 bird, from whose mouth issue swarms of mosquitoes when it cries. 

 Yung-chow has its stone-swallow, which flies during wind and 

 rain, and in fine weather turns to stone again. Another bird 

 when killed gives much oil to the hunter, and when the skin is 

 thrown into the water it becomes a living bird again. With regard 

 to animals, few are so useful as the " Jih-kih"ox, found in Kansuh, 

 from which large pieces of flesh are cut for meat, and grow again 

 in a single day. The merman of the Southern Seas can weave a 

 kind of silky fabric which keeps a house cool in summer if hungup 

 in one of the rooms. The tears of this merman are pearls. A 

 large hermit-crab is attended by a little shrimp which lives in the 

 stomach of its master. If the shrimp is successful in its depreda- 

 tions, the crab flourishes, but the latter dies if the shrimp does not 

 return from his daily excursions. The " Ho-lo " is a fish having 

 one head and ten bodies. The myths about snakes are the 

 strangest of all. Thus the square snake of Kwangsi has the power 

 of throwing an inky fluid when attacked, which kills its assailants 

 at once. Another snake can divide itself up into twelve pieces ; 

 and each piece, if touched by a man, will instantly generate a head 

 and fangs at each end. The calling-snake asks a traveller, " Where 

 are you from, and whither are you bound } " If he answers, the 

 snake follows him for miles, and, entering the hotel where he is 

 sleeping, raises a fearful stench. The hotel proprietor, however, 

 guards against this by putting a centipede in a box under the pil- 

 low ; and, when the snake gives forth the evil odor, the centipede 

 is let out, and, flying at the snake, instantly kills him with a bite. 

 The fat of this snake, which grows to a great size, makes oil for 

 lamps, and produces a flame which cannot be blown out. In Bur- 

 mah and Cochin-China is a snake which has, in the female sex, a 

 face like a pretty girl, with two feet growing under the neck, each 

 with five fingers, exactly like the fingers of a human hand. The 

 male is green in color, and has a long beard : it will kill a tiger, 

 but a fox is more than a match for it. 



— Besides the usual attractions for the spring and summer, the 

 excursion committee of the Appalachian Club has arranged for a 

 club camping trip for August. The camp will be on Student Is- 

 land in Mooselucmaguntic Lake, the largest of the Rangeley chain. 

 Capt. Fred C. Barker, who owns and runs the steamers on this 

 lake and leases Student Island, will accommodate the party, engag- 

 ing a man and his wife to have special charge of the camp and to 

 do the cooking. The party will have the use of a frame cottage, 

 in which a few persons can be accommodated ; but, as the excur- 

 sion is arranged to please people who love camping, it is expected 

 that the majority will sleep in tents. Camp-life, boating, canoeing, 

 bathing, fishing, steamer excursions on the lakes, tramps in the 

 forest, and ascents of Bald and Deer Mountains, v/ill be attractions. 

 It will be possible for members to arrange small parties, engage 

 special guides, and make trips to Parmachenee Lake, Aziscohos 

 Mountain, or other points of interest in the Androscoggin region. 

 The camp will be opened early in August, and continue open till 

 the middle of September if desired. 



— The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station calls atten- 

 tion of farmers and others to the fact that it has extended its field 

 of investigation by the addition of a new department, for which 

 a laboratory has been completed during the past winter, and 

 equipped with the necessary books and apparatus for the study of 



fungi which are injurious to vegetation through the production of 

 rusts, smuts, rots, mildews, blights, and similar diseases. A small 

 greenhouse is attached to the building for winter experiments, 

 which has been used since its completion for preHminary experi- 

 ments to test the utility of certain methods of treating smut in 

 onions, to which special attention will be given during the coming 

 season. In order to obtain as much information as possible on 

 this subject, questions have been prepared, and sent to numerous 

 onion-growers ; and any one who can give any information on the 

 subject should send to Dr. Roland Thaxter, 27 Lincoln Street, 

 New Haven, Conn., for a set of the questions. 



— The director of the Hatch Experiment Station of the Massa- 

 chusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, Mass., invites all who may 

 have valuable or especially interesting new varieties of fruits, 

 vegetables, trees, shrubs, or flowers, to send them to him, that 

 they may be tested side by side, and under the same conditions, 

 with other new and the standard older varieties. The situation of 

 this experiment station is now such that the best of attention wilt 

 be given to all such new varieties, and careful observation and un- 

 prejudiced reports made of their behavior and merits. He would 

 urge that especial attention be given to promising local seedling 

 apples that have not been propagated and disseminated. On 

 almost every farm may be found numerous chance seedlings ; and, 

 as most of the standard varieties now in cultivation have originated 

 in this way, all seedlings that have the valuable qualities of size, 

 beauty, flavor, vigor, and freedom from disease, should be further 

 tested. 



— Attention is called by Btiilding to the advantages of wire- 

 wove waterproof roofing. The Architectural Building Trades Ex- 

 hibition, just closed in London, offered an opportunity to show its 

 numerous applications. It is intended mainly as a substitute for 

 galvanized iron in building. The roofing sheets are less than half 

 the weight of twenty-four gauge corrugated iron, and, being com- 

 posed of stout papier-mache, with fine steel-wire foundations, they 

 are excellent non-conductors of heat and cold. A settler's hut, 14 

 feet by 10 feet, weighing little over half a ton, was exhibited. It 

 was a strong, and at the same time a picturesque building, with 

 overhanging eaves, snow-white walls, and tile-red roof. Many of 

 these huts have been sent to the South African gold-fields, and 

 other places where portability is important. 



— Clark University, Worcester, Mass., has issued a preliminary 

 announcement of the work of the university, to begin in October 

 next, in the departments of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biol- 

 ogy, and psychology, with such additional facilities for the study 

 of languages as scientific students may require. This preliminary- 

 limitation of the wide academic field indicates no bias and no re- 

 striction of ulterior plans, but is adopted in the interests of more 

 effective organization. It is intended that these departments shall 

 be gradually organized and sustained on the highest plane possible 

 in existing conditions. No distinctively undergraduate classes will 

 be formed, and no candidate ~for lower college classes will be re- 

 ceived at first. While not declining to confer the degree of A. B., 

 the university will, for the present, give special attention to quaUfy- 

 ing for higher degrees. Ten fellowships of the first class of four 

 hundred dollars each, ten fellowships of the second class of two 

 hundred dollars each, and ten scholarships with free tuition, have 

 been provided. The rate of tuition has been fixed at two hundred 

 dollars a year, exclusive of laboratory fees. Applications can now 

 be received, and should be accompanied by a statement of the 

 course of study, and, if possible, by a specimen of work. A pro- 

 spectus containing fuller announcements will soon be issued. 



— At a meeting of the Physiological Society, Berlin, March 27, 

 according to Nature, Dr. Klemperer spoke on the proteid needs of 

 the animal economy in health and in certain pathological condi- 

 tions. Volt's teaching, that the human body in health requires 

 daily from 100 to 120 grams of proleid in order to supply its ni- 

 trogenous needs, has been recently contested from many sides ; 

 and, even if the experiments on which the attacks were based were 

 not altogether free from some defects, they still sufficed to cast a 

 good deal of doubt on Voit's theory. The speaker had endeavored, 

 working from the clinical point of view, to decide the question 

 whether an increased proteid metabolism can be prevented or 



