October 3, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



meeting was held in Philadelphia, and was signalized by a large 

 attendance and the formation of a local chapter of the national 

 society, whicli has held meetings monthly throughout the winter. 

 It is hoped that all persons interested in folk-lore will consider 

 themselves invited to attend the meetings at Columbia College, 

 when several interesting papers will be read, and that many will 

 unite with the national society, as an increase in membership in 

 New York and Brooklyn is desirable. The officers of the society 

 for 1890 are as follows: president, Dr. Daniel G. Brinton (Phila- 

 delphia, Penn.) ; council, Hubert Howe Bancroft (San Francisco, 

 Cal.), Franz Boas (Worcester, Mass.), H. Carrington Bolton (New 

 York, N.Y.), Thomas Frederick Crane (Ithaca, N.Y.), Alice C. 

 Fletcher (Nez Percfis Agency, Idaho), Victor Guilloii (Philadel- 

 phia, Penn.), Horatio Hale (Clinton, Ont.), Mary Hemenway 

 (Boston, Mass.), Henry W. Henshaw (Washington, D.C.), Thomas 

 Wentworth Higginson (Cambridge, Mass.), William Preston 

 Johnston (New Orleans, La.), Charles G. Leland (London, England), 

 Otis T. Mason (Washington, D.C.); secretary, W. W. Newell 

 (Cambridge, Mass.); treasurer, Henry Phillips, jun. (Philadelphia, 

 Perm.). The society publishes the Journal of American Folk-Lore, 

 a quarterly in octavo, bearing the imprint of Houghton, Mifflin, & 

 Co. It is sent free to members. The membership fee is three dollars 

 per annum. Persons desiring to join the society, or to receive the 

 circular containing the particulars of the meeting, should address 

 Dr. H. Carrington Bolton, University Club, New York City. 



— Up till quite lately, says Engineering of Sept. 19, the whole 

 of the guns for the Belgian Army were obtained from Essen; but, 

 in the presence of the immense progress of the Belgian steel in- 

 -dustries, it was only to be expected that an attempt would be 

 made to change this state of affairs. A number of cannon were 

 accordingly designed by the officers of the Belgian artillery, and 

 manufactured in the Royal Foundry, Liege, from steel obtained 

 from the Cockerill Company. Comparative tests of these guns 

 and a number of Krupp guns of similar type were arranged, and 

 liave just been brought to a successful conclusion. In the first 

 series of trials in which the ballistic qualities were to be tested, 

 the guns selected had in each case a caliber of 5.9 indies; and a 

 mortar, a howitzer, and a cannon of foreign and of domestic 

 manufacture were selected. The Belgian mortar was 45 inches 

 long, and weighed 8.2 hundredweight; while the corresponding 

 Krupp gun was 37.4 inches long, and weighed 7.1 hundredweight. 

 The Belgian howitzer was 83 inches long, and the Krupp 70,8 

 inches, whilst the dimensions of the cannons were more nearly 

 equal. Both sets of guns were fired with the same charges, 

 though these were above the proper limit for the Krupp guns, 

 which must have been at a disadvantage in consequence. As was 

 only to be expected under the conditions, the native-made guns 

 gave somewhat better results, the ranges of the mortars and 

 howitzers exceeding those of the Krupp guns by from 350 to 300 

 yards. The results with the cannon were practically identical. 



— Experiments made at the Ohio Experiment Station for the 

 past three years indicate that the plum curculio can be kept in 

 check by spraying with Paris green or London purple in water 

 solution. But, while this remedy was applicable to apples and 

 plums, it could not safely be applied to peaches, because the foli- 

 age of the latter is so easily injured by the poison. Professor 

 Bailey of the Cornell University station has been experimenting in 

 spraying peaches this year, and in a bulletin just issued announces 

 the following summary of bis results: 1. Peach-trees are very 

 susceptible to injvu-y from arsenical sprays; 3. London purple is 

 much more harmful to peach-trees than Paris green, and it should 

 never be used upon them in any manner; 3. Injury is more liable 

 to occur upon full-grown foliage and hardened shoots than upon 

 young foliage and soft shoots; 4. The immunity of the young 

 growth is due to its waxy covering; 5. Injury late in the season 

 is more apparent than early in the season, because of the cessation 

 of growth; 6. Injury from the use of London purple may be per- 

 manent and irreparable; 7. The length of time which the poison 

 has been mixed appears to exercise no influence; 8. London pur- 

 ple contains much soluble arsenic (in some samples nearly 40 per 

 cent), and this arsenic is the cause of injury to peach foliage; 9. A 

 coarse spiay appears to be more injurious than a fine one; 10. A 



rain following the application does not appear to augment the in- 

 jury; 11. Meteorological conditions do not appear to influence 

 results; 13. Spraying the peach with water in a bright and hot 

 day does not scorch the foliage; 13. Paris green, in a fine spray, 

 at the rate of one pound to 300 gallons of water, did not injure 

 the trees. Probably one pound to 350 gallons is always safe. 



— The following is a list in brief, according to Naf,ure, of sub- 

 jects on which the Dutch Society of Sciences at Haarlem invite 

 research: a history of the mathematical and physical sciences in 

 Holland; isomorphism; minerals in the river and dune sands on 

 the Dutch coast; the accessory sexual glands in mammalia; heat 

 liberated in solution of various salts in water; decomposition of 

 water or other liquids by disruptive electric discharges within or 

 on the surface ; influence of compression in different directions on 

 specific inductive power; determination of the form and position 

 of the reticular micrometers used by Lacaille at the Cape of 

 Good Hope ; influence of volume of molecules on pressure of a 

 gas; relation between density and chemical composition of trans- 

 parent bodies, and the index of refraction; modification of re- 

 flected light by magnetization of some other metal than iron ; 

 methods of obtaining and fixing new varieties in cultivated plants; 

 role of bacteria in filtration of potable waters throitgh a layer of 

 sand; bacteria and azotized combinations in the soil; healing 

 after grafting. 



— The last number of the Kew Bulletin contains a note on the 

 properties and uses of the jarrah-wood, a species of eucalyptus 

 native to western Australia. The main difficulties in connection 

 with its use in this country are the cost of freight for such heavy 

 timber from Australia, and its intense hardness, which makes it 

 difficult, for ordinary English carpenters' tools, to work it. The 

 tree which produces it grows generally to a height of a hundred 

 feet, and sometimes a hundred and fifty feet. It is found only in 

 western Australia, extending over the greater portion of the 

 country from the Moore River to King George's Sound, forming 

 mainly the forests of these tracts. According to Baron Mueller, 

 when selected tiom hilly locahties, cut while the saj) is least ac- 

 tive, and subsequently carefully dried, it proves impervious to the 

 borings of insects. Vessels constructed solely of it have, after 

 twenty-five years' constant service, remained perfectly sound, 

 although not coppered. 



—The steel-armor tests at Annapolis— the first armor-plate tests 

 ever made in this country — were completed on Monday, Sept. 33. 

 The plates used were one of solid steel with about 0.38 per cent of 

 carbon; and the other of the composition known as nickel steel, 

 being mild steel with 5 per cent of nickel; and a plate of a com- 

 pound of steel and iron, under the Wilson patent. The plates 

 were set side by side, and were backed with 36 inches of oak. The 

 gun used on the first series of tests was a 6-inch rifle, 17 feet and 

 a half in length. It was set with its muzzle 30 feet from the 

 plates, and was mounted on a carriage, so that it could be turned 

 to point squarely against any part of either plate. The projectiles 

 were Holtzer chrome steel shells, 17 inches long, 6 inches in 

 diameter, and weighing 100 pounds. The firing chai'ge was 44J 

 pounds of cocoa-powder. The initial velocity was about 3,075 

 feet per second, giving a muzzle energy of 3,343,876 foot tons. 

 Four shots were fired at each plate. Each plate vvas four feet 

 high and 6 feet wide, and 10.5 inches thick. On Sept. 33 the 

 tests were concluded by a shot at each plate with an 8 inch rifle 

 firing an armor- piercing projectile. The projectile weighed 310 

 pounds, and was fired by a charge of 85 pounds of powder, giving 

 an initial velocity of 1,850 feet per second. It appears from these 

 tests, s&ys Engineering News, that the solid steel armor is far superior 

 to the compound armor having a hard steel face and a wrought 

 iron back, when tested with modern high-power guns using 

 armor-piercing projectiles. As regards the relative efficiency of 

 the steel plate and the nickel-steel plate, the latter must be con- 

 ceded to have proved, on the whole, the better defence, as it was 

 not cracked by the 8-inch shot in the centre, as was the all steel 

 plate. On the other hand, the penetration of the all steel plate 

 was in almost every case less than that of the nickel steel, thus 

 showing the latter to be somewhat softer and tougher than the 

 former. 



