74 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. Nc 470 



through the livelong night, maintained with vpciferations by 

 relays of zealous beaters. This deafening din was but a re- 

 crudescence of what had occurred a few generations before 

 — a panic which was only exceeded by that which subse- 

 quently prevailed over the entire empire. 



With regard to sheep, Dr. Macgowan said the ancient 

 mode of writing the character for yang, goat, was ideo- 

 graphic — four strokes on the top to represent horns, two 

 horizontal strokes representing legs, and a perpendicular one 

 to represent body and tail. The modern form gives an addi- 

 tional parallel stroke, like the word for horse; it is a simple, 

 not a compound character, and when sheep came to be 

 known, instead of making a new character, the sheep was 

 called the "Hun-goat," thus indicating its origin and affinity. 

 Yang, goat, is often translated sheep, the earliest instances 

 being found in one of the Odes, wherein the court habili- 

 ments of Wen Wang are called "lamb-skins and sheep- 

 skins." This was about 1160 B.C., but it is doubtful if these 

 robes are really the skins of sheep. It is not certain that 

 such was the case, for the skins of goats were used then, as 

 now, for clothes. Hun-goats are not named before the period 

 of the Tang dynasty, say the seventh century A.D. The 

 goat was one of the sacrificial animals, as at present, and 

 was at the first selected for sacrifice when sheep were un- 

 known. 



In the discussion which followed, the conclusions of the 

 paper were not accepted by all the speakers; and it was 

 agreed that the subject was one worthy of scholarly inves- 

 tigation. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The international Statistical Congress, which met at Vienna 

 in October last, selected the city of Chicago and the summer of 

 1893 as the place and date of their next meeting, and a committee 

 was appointed to draw up a report on the question of emigration, 

 which is to be discussed at that time. 



— It is said that two pieces of aluminium can be soldered to- 

 gether with ease by using silver chloride as a fuse. The pieces 

 of metal are placed together in their proper relative positions, and 

 finely powdered fused silver chloride spread along the line of 

 junction, after which the solder is melted on with a blow-pipe. 



— Professor E. A. Fuertes, director of the New York State 

 Weather Bureau, Ithaca, offers to send telegraphic notice of cold 

 waves to such persons in New York State as will display the regu- 

 lation signals for the benefit of the public. This bureau works in 

 co-operation with the Washington office. A limited number of 

 flags wiU be furnished by the Ithaca oflice, and those applicants 

 who cannot be thus supplied will be given a list of dealers from 

 whom the flags may be obtained. The flags, which are of bunt- 

 ing material, may also be made by the persons using them. 



— A mine of coal of very fair quality for steaming purposes 

 has been found by accident in the Straits of Magellan, according 

 to Engineering. Signer Fossetti, the captain of an Italian steamer, 

 was compelled to anchor in Shagnet Bay to make some repairs, 

 and while there he discovered coal very near the surface. Reach- 

 ing Valparaiso, he sent a corps of experts to the scene of the dis- 

 covery in a steam launch, who found that the coal was not only 

 abundant but of excelfent quality. The importance of the dis 

 covery to the commerce of the world can only be appreciated 

 when it is considered that all steamers passing through the Straits 

 of Magellan are required to coal there, and that the supply has 

 heretofore been brought from Cardiff, Wales. 



— According to observations made at recent meetings of the 

 Berlin Medical Society, it would seem that the epidemic of influ- 

 enza began there during the first week of November, the earliest 

 cases admitted into hospital having come unJer treatment on 

 Nov. 7. Ruhemann stated that the most noticeable difference 



between this and the other recent epidemics has been the large 

 number of women and children, and the small number of outdoor 

 workers attacked. Guttmann mentioned an instance in which 

 the admission of a single patient suffering from influenza was 

 shortly followed by the occurrence of 13 fresh cases. Frankel, 

 who took notes of 138 cases, found that only 9 (6.5 per cent) had 

 suffered from the disease before. The chief complications have 

 been pneumonia and heart failure. The effect on the death-rate 

 in Berlin has not been so marked as during the last epidemic, but 

 it has been considerable (27 per mills as compared with an average 

 of 18). In other parts of Germany the effect has been more 

 marked ; thus official statistics show that the death-rate has been 

 doubled, or nearly doubled, in several towns. It rose, for instance, 

 to 44 in Posen (average 31), to 45.6 in Frankfort-on-Oder (average 

 33.2), in Bremen to 34.8 (average 17.1), and in Rostock to 33.5 

 (average 15.6). 



— The citizens of New York, in 1892, propose to celebrate the 

 discovery of America in their own way, assisted by representa- 

 tives from every State and territory in the Union. A great food 

 show is to be held at Madison Square Garden in October of that 

 year. It is proposed at this exposition to show the progress made 

 by this country in the last four hundred years as regards our food 

 supply. The United States is the greatest food-producing country 

 in the world, and as food is the one thing above all others that 

 first claims the attention of the human family, it is safe to pre- 

 dict that the coming exposition will prove one of the most inter- 

 esting events of the century. Only food products will be allowed 

 on exhibition, exhibitors being restricted to manufacturers or pro- 

 ducers, no dealer as such being allowed to participate. Every 

 article of food exhibited must bear the bona fide name and address 

 of manufacturers, all fictitious brands being rigidly excluded. 

 Liquors, specifics, and patent melicines will not be allowed. 

 Every manufacturer exhibiting must guarantee that his goods at 

 the exposition are the same as offered for sale to the public. 

 Further information may be obtained of the Food Manufactur- 

 ers' Association, Hudson and Harrison'Street, New York City. 



— The United States consul at Bordeaux gives, in a i-ecent re- 

 port, some interesting information about the wines of the Medoc 

 district. He notes that this district, between the sea on the one 

 hand and the Garonne and Gironde Rivers on the others, is called 

 Medoo (quasi medio aquce), because nearly surrounded by water. 

 It is the northern termination of the extensive tract of sand hills 

 and marsh-land called " Les Landes," extending from Bayonne 

 north, which chan j;es to a bank of gravel on approaching the left 

 bank of the Garonne, and contains some of the most precious 

 vineyards in the world. The soil is of light pebble, and, indeed, 

 on the spots where some of the best wine is produced it appears a 

 mere heap of quartz mixed with the most sterile quality of earth. 

 The best wine is not produced where the bush is most luxuriant, 

 but on the thinner soils, where it is actually stunted, 

 and whei-e weeds disdain often to grow. Here the vine 

 retains the sun's heat about its roots after sunset, so that its 

 juices are matured as much by night as by day. The ac 

 cumulation of sand and pebbles of which this soil is composed is 

 apparently the spoils of the Pyrenean rocks, brought down by the 

 torrents tributary to the Garonne and other great rivers, and de- 

 posited in former ages on the borders of the sea. At a depth of 

 two or three feet from the surface occurs a bed of indurated 

 conglomerate, which requires to be broken up before the vine will 

 gro^v. 



— Nature, Jan. 31, contains some extracts from a valuable re- 

 port by the French agent at Victoria on the salmon indus- 

 try in British Columbia. Among the details noted by him is the 

 fact that the best fish are almost always taken on the outflow of 

 the river in the place where the fishermen endeavor to meet the 

 fish on their arrival from the sea. A boat is often filled with 

 several hundred fish in a single drift net of from 400 to 500 me- 

 tres. It is calculated that on certain days the total of the Eraser 

 fishery amounts to not less than 150,000 salmon, which are passed 

 through all the different phases of preserving, and are ready to be 

 forwarded for the market on the same day. An ingenious appa- 

 ratus used to take the salmon, chiefly on the Columbia River in 



