June 7, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



441 



two or more were exposed under precisely the same conditions. 

 He subsequently tried what re-action would take place between 

 unboiled starch and potassium iodide when exposed to the influ- 

 ence of ozone ; but the difficulty of getting this spread evenly upon 

 paper by hand, so as to insure a perfectly even tint after being acted 

 upon by ozone, led him to devise a new method of accomplishing 

 this. Briefly described, it may be said to be a method by which 

 the starch is deposited on the surface of the paper by precipitation ; 

 and, for delicacy and precision in regulating the quantity on any 

 given surface, it leaves very little to be desired. 



— A large number of experiments have been carried out at Inns- 

 bruck by Professor Peyritsch, and are recorded in the " Trans- 

 actions of the Imperial Academy of Vienna," vol. xcvii. i. p. 597, 

 tending to show that double flowers may be artificially produced 

 by the agency of a mite {Phytoptits). It seems that the professor 

 was examining a wild double flower of Valeriana tripteris, and 

 discovered that it was infested with the mites in question. He 

 transferred these mites to other plants, chiefly of the orders Valeri- 

 anacecE and Cruczferce, and a few Scrophularinea, ComnielynacecE, 

 and even others ; but the best results were obtained in the first 

 named. Various kinds of doubling were produced, such as petalody 

 of the stamens and pistil, prolification and duplication of the 

 corolla, etc., as well as torsions and fasciations of the shoot. The 

 leaves were also affected, the margin showing teeth like those of a 

 comb. By infecting the plant at different times, either the leaves 

 or the flowers may be influenced, and it appears that the parasite 

 must attack the organ in its earliest stages. Professor Peyritsch 

 thinks that there are certain mites which produce double flowers in 

 certain plants, as the mites in which he was particularly interested 

 were always most abundant in certain species, and less so in 

 others. 



— The introduction of Phylloxera into Asia Minor appears to 

 have been the result of a deliberate importation of the vines from a 

 country where the disease was known to exist. 



— An interesting note, by Mr. Arthur A. Rambaut, on some 

 Japanese clocks lately purchased for the Dublin Science and Art 

 Museum, has been reprinted from the " Proceedings of the Royal 

 Dublin Society." These clocks, though differing in other respects, 

 agree in this particular : that the time is recorded, not by a hand 

 rotating about an axis, but by a pointer attached to the weight, 

 which projects through a slit in the front of the clock-case. This 

 pointer travels down a scale attached to the front of the c'ock. and 

 thus points out the hour. Mr. Rambaut has consulted several per- 

 sons who have been resident for some time in Japan, but none of 

 them has ever seen clocks of like construction in actual use. A 

 young Japanese gentleman to whom the specimens have been 

 shown, says that he has heard of such clocks being used in rural 

 parts of Japan about twenty or thirty years ago, but that they have 

 been almost completely superseded by clocks made on the Euro- 

 pean plan. 



— An international congress of chronometry will be opened at 

 the National Observatory, Paris, on Sept. 7. An influential organ- 

 izing committee has been formed, of which Vice- Admiral de Fauque 

 de Jonqui^res has accepted the presidency. Those who wish to 

 become members should communicate with the secretary, M. E. 

 Caspari. 



— Engineering reports that arrangements have been made for 

 the despatch of another exploring and prospecting expedition for 

 the Australian interior. The funds for the undertaking are to be 

 chiefly provided by the Central AustraHan Exploring Association, 

 which is an offshoot of the South Australian branch of the Geo- 

 graphical Society. Baron von Muller of Melbourne has taken an 

 interest in the enterprise, and it is hoped that a portion of the funds 

 available for exploration in the hands of the Geographical Society 

 in Victoria will be placed at the disposal of the expedition. The 

 leadership of the party has been undertaken by Mr. W. H. Tiet- 

 kens, an experienced Australian explorer. The party will probably 

 consist, in addition to the leader (upon whom will also devolve the 

 duties of botanist, prospector, mineralogist, and surveyor), of three 

 men and a black boy, with twelve camels, two horses, and provis- 



ions for six months. The starting-point will be Alice Springs, and 

 the expedition, travelling ordinarily at the rate of one hundred 

 miles per week, except when engaged in the work of prospecting, 

 will proceed to Lake Amadens with a view to examining carefully 

 the surrounding country. 



— The Paris correspondent of the London Daily News says the 

 Zoological Society of France has warned the French Government 

 that a great ornithological calamity is impending. The Depart- 

 ment of the Benches du Rhone has hitherto been one ot the chief 

 landing-places for swallows coming from Africa. Engines for 

 killing them, formed of wires connected with electrical batteries, 

 have been laid in hundreds along the coast. When fatigued by 

 their over-sea flight, the birds perch on the wires, and are struck 

 dead. The bodies are then prepared for the milliner, and crates 

 containing thousands of them are sent on to Paris. This has been 

 going on for some years, and it has been noticed this spring that 

 swallows have not landed on the low-lying coast, but have gone 

 farther west or east, and that they go in larger numbers than formerly 

 to other parts of Europe. There are places, says the Zoological 

 Society in its petition, where they used to be very numerous, but 

 which they have now deserted, although there has been no falling- 

 off in the gnats and other flying insects on which they live. 



— A sub-committee of the Royal Agricultural Society of South 

 Australia has undertaken to raise subscriptions in aid of the de- 

 struction of sparrows in South Australia, and it is proposed to have 

 monthly competitions in the production of sparrows' heads and 

 sparrows' eggs. These competitions will take place after the next 

 autumn show in Adelaide. At the autumn show there will be a 

 grand prize competition, when prizes of £2, £1 los., los., and 5s. 

 will be offered for the largest numbers of sparrows' heads, and the. 

 same value in prize-money will also be offered for the largest num- 

 bers of sparrows' eggs. Additionally to this, every competitor whO' 

 fails to secure a prize, and yet brings in one hundred or more heads 

 or eggs, will receive a bonus of 2s. 6d., and any one producing un- 

 der one hundred and not less than fifty heads or eggs will receive^ 

 a bonus of is. 



— A report comes to the Entomological Museum, Washington, 

 from Mr. J. W. Beach of Batavia, Boone County, Ark., to the effect 

 that a general alarm prevails in that section of the country for 

 many miles around in regard to the chinch-bug. They did a con- 

 siderable amount of damage there last year, and those that win- 

 tered over have already destroyed many fields of grain this spring. 

 The wooded country in places is reported full of them ; so much 

 so, that the people are contemplating setting fire to their wood- 

 lands. 



— The weight of the smoke-cloud which daily hangs over London 

 has been estimated by Professor Chandler Roberts, says the Engi- 

 neering Times, to amount to about 50 tons of solid carbon and 

 250 tons of carbon in the form of hydrocarbon and carbonic-oxide 

 gases. Calculated from the actual result of tests made by the 

 Smoke Abatement Committee, the value of coal wasted in smoke 

 from domestic grates amounts, upon the annual consumption of 

 5,000,000 of people, to ;£2,256,5oo. The cost of cartage on this 

 wasted coal is calculated to be _£268,75o, while the unnecessary 

 passage of about 1,500,000 horses through the streets in drawing 

 it, adds seriously to the cost of street cleaning and repairing. Then 

 there is the cost of taking away the extra ashes, ;/;43,ooo per year. 

 Summing it all up, the direct and indirect cost of waste coal may 

 be set down at ;{]2, 600,000, plus the additional loss from the dam- 

 age done to property caused by the smoky atmosphere, estimated 

 by Mr. Chadwick at _£2,ooo,ooo, the whole aggregating ;£4, 600,000. 



— " The Summer Care of Children " is made the subject of a 

 timely paper in the June number of Babyhood, by Dr. H. D. Chapin. 

 Equally practical is the article on " Nursery Cookery," by Dr. 

 Sarah E. Post. Other articles of interest to parents are, " The 

 Musical Education," " Where shall we spend the Summer ? '^ 

 " Botany for the Little Ones," etc. Much valuable advice is of- 

 fered concerning earache, the promotion of the suckling power, 

 and the many questions of food, dress, etc., asked by correspond- 

 ents. 



