354 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No. 490 



These illustrations are doubtless sufficient to indicate the 

 extensive field that is open for the development of techno- 

 logical chemistry; and, with all deference to the aid that 

 should be expected from the study of chemistry in the vari- 

 ous systems of liberal education, they seem to afford coa- 

 vincing' evidence that, in its highest efficiency, the chemical 

 laboratory of the future should include the promotion of 

 industries that depend upon the application of chemical 

 principles. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The railway which is at some time or other to traverse the 

 African continent has been opened as far as a point near Cazengo, 

 140 miles from the starting-point, St. Paul de Loanda. 



— A South African and International Exhibition will be opened 

 at Kimberley in September. The processes of winning diamonds 

 and gold will be shown; the machinery department will contain 

 a large variety of machinery employed for mining and agricul- 

 tural purposes ; and the agricultural interests of the colonies and 

 neighboring states will receive special attention. 



— The British Medical Association, says Nature, will hold its 

 sixtieth annual meeting at Nottingham on July 36, and the three 

 following days. Mr. Joseph White, consulting surgeon of the 

 Nottingham General Hospital, will preside. Addresses will be 

 given in medicine by Professor James Gumming of Queen's College, 

 Belfast; in surgery by Professor W. H. Kingston of Montreal; and 

 in bacteriology by Dr. G. Sims Woodhead of the Research Labora- 

 tory of the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, England. The 

 scientific work of the meeting will be done in ten sections. 



— Through the courtesy of his friends, the editors of Tlie Scot- 

 tish Geographical Magazine have had an opportunity of perusing 

 a diary by Mr. F. J. Matthew of a ride of 1,000 miles through a 

 little-known part of the territory of the Argentine Republic. On 

 Oct. 5 he started from Buenos Ayres by train, and reached Men- 

 doza on the 7th. Thence he travelled, partly by coach, partly on 

 horseback, to San Rafael, a distance of 210 miles. Having col- 

 lected a store of provisions, the traveller set out on No^. 16, with 

 six mules and a man, and, crossing the river Diamante, took a 

 westerly direction towards the Cordilleras, the route being through 

 very beautiful scenery, for the Andes were not far distant, and 

 the second night was passed at an elevation of 4,450 feet above 

 sea-level. On the third day the river Atuel was reached, and two 

 or three days later Mr. Matthew rested at the estancia of an Eng- 

 lish doctor living in Mendoza, where 15,000 sheep and 6,000 or 

 7,000 head of cattle are fed. Thirty miles from this estancia lies 

 the lake Llancanelo, a narrow sheet of water several leagues in 

 length. Two years ago part of it dried up, leaving a fiat expanse 

 of smooth sand nine miles across. Seen from the middle, this 

 sandy plain has a bright-blue, glassy appearance, and counterfeits 

 water wonderfully. The lake is fed by two streams, but has no 

 ■visible outlet. It is said to be di-ained by a subten-anean stream. 

 At any rate, in the dried bed are to be seen several of those fun- 

 nel-shaped depressions common in the Karst formation; their sides 

 are encrusted with salt. The country around is wild, and the 

 climate cool, the altitudes at which the camp was pitched being 

 5,600 to 5,800 feet. Game is plentiful. Herds of guanacos were 

 often Qiet with, and pumas are so numerous that horse-breeding 

 is impossible, as they kill all the foals. Near Chacaico, where 

 Mr. Matthew stayed a month, he observed eagles, condors — which 

 are very destructive among the calves and sheep — rattlesnakes, 

 otters, and a variety of chinchilla (probably the Alpine viscacha, 

 Lagidium Peruanum). At Agua Nueva, twenty-one miles east of 

 Chacaico, a large quantity of stock — horses, cattle, sheep, and 

 goats — is fed by squatters, who pay a small rent for the use of 

 the camp or run (eampo). The pasture is excellent, but last year 

 locusts played great havoc among the more tender grasses. The 

 return journey was made across the Atuel and Salado rivers, and 

 over the Central Pampa to Trenque Lauquen. The country, at 

 first rocky, changed to level pampa of poor soil covered with 

 prickly shrubs. Rain came down in torrents and swelled the 



rivers, so that they were difficult to cross. Water, which is scarce 

 even among the mountains, is often not to be procured during a 

 ride of fifty miles. Mosquitoes were troublesome, and at one 

 camp a swarm of locusts obliged the traveller to pack up and 

 move on. In the province of San Luis woods began to appear, 

 and improved the landscape. Near Cochico is a series of shallow 

 lakes of brackish water, studded all over with di-y, barkless trees. 

 For two or three days Mr. Matthew rode through dense woods, 

 and then entered the grassy pampa, where estanaias were more 

 numerous, and the track well worn. Nothing but grass, reaching 

 up to the knee of a man on horseback, can be seen the whole day 

 long. Most of it is pasto amargo (bitter grass), and the sheep do 

 not seem to thrive on it. The sheep are of difl'erent breeds — 

 Lincoln, Merino, Rambouillet — and the cattle mostly crossed 

 shorthorns. Trenque Lauquen is on a railway, by which Buenos 

 Ayres can be reached in twelve hours. 



— A new application of the stems of the larger-growing species 

 of bamboo has recently been adopted in China for the manufacture 

 of small trays and ornamental articles for export to Europe. It 

 is known in China as bamboo sheeting, and it is said to be carried 

 on at present only to a limited extent at Wenchow, where, not- 

 withstanding that it is quite a new trade, about ten firms are now 

 engaged in it. The process adopted is as follows: A length of 

 bamboo is cut ofif, and then pared with an axe till it is of the 

 thickness required. It is next planed with a spokeshave, and the 

 thin cylinder so obtained is slit up, so that, on being opened out, 

 it forms a sheet. A nurriber of these cylinders, placed one inside 

 the other, are immersed in boiling water for a few minutes, to 

 render them flexible, and they are then unrolled and flattened out, 

 by being subjected to pressure under heavy stones. These sheets 

 are sometimes used for making fretwork and carved screens, fans, 

 etc. ; and the small, pale straw-colored pin-trays, for toilet tables, 

 which appeared in the London shops last season, are apparently 

 made from this specially prepared bamboo. It seems to adapt 

 itself extremely well for moulding into many forms, and might be 

 made available in this country for various kinds of veneering. 

 The bamboo now appears to be the Dendrocalamus latiflorus, and 

 specimens of the sheeting, and articles made from it, may be seen 

 in Museum No. 2 of the Royal Gardens, Kew, says The Journal 

 of the Society of Arts. 



— The first sunshine recorder was the invention of Mr. John O. 

 Campbell of Islay, and consisted of a hemispherical bowl, in 

 which a spherical glass ball stood on a low pedastal. As the sun 

 passed across the sky, its rays, concentrated by the ball, burned 

 a groove in the side of the bowl. With this instrument the 

 amount of sunshine during six months was roughly recorded, and 

 the character of individual months was fairly shown, but the 

 grooves of two successive days could not be distinguished from 

 each other, the change in the sun's declination being very slight. 

 Slips of cardboard were afterwards substituted for the wooderk 

 bowl ; and in the present form of appai'atus, devised by Sir G. G. 

 Stokes, according to The Scottish Geographical Magazine, three 

 brass grooves, concentric with the spherical lens and adjusted for 

 the latitude, hold the cards for summer, winter, and the equi- 

 noxes, respectively. The cards are changed daily at sunset. This, 

 instrument is not without defects. When the sun is low it ceases 

 to act, and at all times the slightest film of cloud, hardly visible 

 to the eye, is sufficient to check the burning power of the sun's. 

 rays. Photographic processes have been devised by Mr. Jordan,. 

 Professor M'Leod, and others, but they are less easily managed. 

 The Stokes-Campbell instruments have been in use since 18S0,. 

 and the Meteorological Ofiice has issued a report on the sunshine 

 recorded during the years 1881-90. The sunniest spots in the 

 Kingdom are the Channel Islands, which enjo}' sunshine during 

 39.9 per cent of the time the sun is above the horizon in the- 

 course of the year. Falmouth shows the next highest record,. 

 35.7 per cent, and along the whole coast of England from Milford 

 Haven to Yarmouth there is no great variation. The coast nat- 

 urally receives more sun than inland districts, where clouds are 

 formed by the hills, and in towns the percentage is low owing to 

 the smoke. As regards the monthly means, it is found that in 

 Jersey alone does the sunshine ever attain to half the amount 



