March 21, 1890. J 



SCIENCE. 



189 



frontier, in the departments of the Vosges and the Meurthe. It 

 is a curious fact that the quartier of Paris most densely peopled 

 hy foreigners of a certain nationality corresponds to the country 

 district where their compatriots are most numerous; for in- 

 stance, Germans live chiefly in the north-east of Paris as well 

 as of France. 



— The arrangements for holding an exhibition in Jamaica in 

 1891 appear now to be fairly complete. The exhibition is to be 

 opened on the 37th of January, 1891, and to remain open for a 

 period of not less than three months. It will be managed by 

 a commission, of which the Governor of Jamaica is at the head. 

 The exhibition will comprise specimens of all Jamaica products, 

 — sugar of all qualities, and its allied industry of rum-manu- 

 facture; liqueurs, cordials, etc. ; coffee; oranges, pine-apples, 

 and fruits of all kinds; pimento, cacao, annatto; woods in all 

 degrees of preparation for use; spices, condiments, etc.; fibres 

 and fibrous materials; cinchona -bark, oils, essential oils, per- 

 fumes, etc. ; medicinal and economic substances; works of art, 

 pictures, fancy articles, and ornamental work ; horses, cattle, 

 and live-stock of all kinds. The botany and geology of the 

 island will also be fully illustrated. The exhibition will also 

 contain examples of foreign products imported into Jamaica. 

 The date given for the receipt of applications for space is the 

 1st of May next. No charge is to be made for space. A guar- 

 anty fund of over $11.5,000 has been raised in the island; and 

 this, it is believed, will nearly suffice for the purposes required. 

 A committee to insure the due representation of British indus- 

 tries has been formed in London. Mr. Washington Eves, 

 C.M.G., is the chairman; and, at the request of the committee, 

 the Council of the Society of Arts have nominated one of the 

 members, Mr. C. M. Kennedy, as a member of that committee. 

 For further information, application should be addressed to Mr. 

 Washington Eves, 1 Fen-court, E.G., London, Eng. 



— Mr. J. L. Shand sends the following extract from a letter 

 from Mr. James Taylor of Toolecondera Estate, dated June 25, 

 1888, to the Journal of the Society of Arts, London, which 

 gives, on undoubted authority, the dates of the first importation 

 into Ceylon of Assam hybrid tea-seeds, and also of its first suc- 

 cessful planting. The first tea was sold in Kandy early in 1872, 

 just about the time of the arrival in the colony as governor of 

 Mr. (now Sir William) Gregory, who at once paid a visit to 

 Toolecondera to see what was going on there. Mr. Taylor 

 writes, ' 'The first Assam hybrid tea-seed arrived here in the 

 early part of 1868. That lot all failed, and our second lot 

 came in the first days of 1869, and our clearing of twenty acres 

 was planted with the plants from this seed in the latter part 

 of the same year. Tea was first planted on Toolecondera in 

 1866 along the roadsides. This was China tsa, the seed of 

 which had been got from the Peradenia gardens, and the plants 

 raised here in small nurseries. Our tea-house was built in 

 1872 ; but some tea was made for sale before that, and we had 

 been making it experimentally for years before. Our first ex- 

 periment was about 1866, when an Assam planter passing 

 through showed me how to do the rolling, and told me about 

 the rest of the performance. This was with leaves off old tea- 

 bushes in the garden of my bungalow. ' ' 



— The richest petroleum districts of Roumania are situated at 

 the south-east of the Carpathian Mountains, where the oil is ob- 

 tained at five different spots. In many places, especially at 

 Ploiesti, the gTound is charged with gas to such a degree that it 

 is only necessary to bore a hole, and a jet of inflammable gas 

 issues at once. The working of the oil, as described in the Oil, 

 Paint and Dnig Reporter, is conducted in shafts and galleries, 

 the roofs and walls being closed in with boards. The total yield 

 from Walachei amounts to 9, 000 tons, and the product contains 

 20 to 33 per cent of solid paraffine. It is exported to Vienna to 

 a considerable extent, and yields about 15 per cent of peti-oleum 

 naphtha on refining. The wells are 50 to 70 metres in depth, some 

 as much as 120 metres. Deeper borings and large refineries have 

 been established recently by foreign enterprise, and the output of 

 oil has increased rapidly of late. The oil districts stretch along 



the southern side of the Carpathians to an extent at present un- 

 known, in the provinces of Prahova, Dimbowitza, and Buzen; 

 and the fields appear to be connected with those of Galicia. Twc 

 varieties of crude oil are distinguished, — (1) Pacura and (2^ 

 Titeiu. The latter contains the material for refining pui-poses, 

 and yields 78 per cent of burning naphtha. It cannot be im- . 

 ported into Austria-Hungary on account of the high duty, but is 

 freely exported to Germany, where there is no duty on the raw- 

 product; and after refining, the lighting-oil can be sold at 18.4 

 marks per hectolitre, while American oil commands 27 marks 

 (this refers to 1884). The petroleum from Momesti andCasin 

 flashes at 17° to 19° C. (10" below Russian petroleum), and be- 

 gins to distil at 80°, yielding a large proportion of distillate up 

 to 150°. Roumanian oils from eight districts are described by 

 Istrati (Jahrbiich des Organischen Laboratoriums zu Bucharest, 

 1888-89), and contain from 42 to 65 per cent of photogen, 5 to 20' 

 per cent of petroleum naphtha, and 11 to 25 per cent of solid 

 paraffine. The residues yield nearly 50 per cent of photogen 

 when carefully rectified. A sample from Paoureti (Prahova) 

 yielded 50 per cent of lighting-oil of specific gi-avity 0.800, and 

 distilling between 135° and 280°. Austrian and American crude 

 petroleum both yield about 50 to 55 per cent of good burning oil, 

 while the Russian product does not give more than 30 per cent. 



— Of 123 varieties and seedlings of the potato tested the past 

 season at the Agricultural ExjDeriment Station, Madison, Wis., 

 the following ten were most productive, yielding in the order 

 named: seedling from C E. Angell, Rose Beauty, Monarch, Du- 

 plex, Late Beauty of Hebron, Mullaly, Alexander's Prolific, 

 Seneca Red Jacket, White Beauty of Hebron, and Wisconsin 

 Beauty. Placed in the order of their table quality, these varie- 

 ties would rank as follows : Alexander's Prolific, White Beauty 

 of Hebron, Late Beauty of Hebron, Duplex, Monarch, Wisconsin 

 Beauty, Seneca Red Jacket, Rose Beauty, Mullaly, seedling from 

 C. E. Angell. The tests made at the station, taken as a whole, 

 favor heavy rather than light seeding. Cutting off the "seed- 

 end" was found detrimental to the yield. No advantage followed 

 sprinkling the cuttings with plaster before planting. 



— Dr. Thomas Taylor, microscopist of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, proposes the following new method of 

 detecting oleo in butter : Dissolve in 20 cubic centimetres of 

 petroleum benzine 140 grains of a mixture of oleo and butter. 

 Heat slightly to secure a perfect solution of the fats. Caseine 

 and animal tissues may be readily removed by passing the liquid 

 while warin through fine musUn. Fill a test tube with the solu- 

 tion, and place in ice- water. In about twenty minutes the oleo- 

 fat will separate from the butter-fat, and fall to the bottom of the 

 tube, being insoluble in cold benzine, while the butter-fat will re- 

 main in solution in the benzine. Separate the oleo-fat from the 

 liquid butter-fat by filtration. The fat recovered may be solidi- 

 fied by mechanical pressure, placing it between several layers of 

 bibulous paper to absorb the remaining benzine, after which the 

 sheet of solid oleo may be removed from the paper with a palette- 

 knife. The butter may be recovered by evaporating the benzine 

 by means of a sand-bath. 



— Dr. Thomas Taylor, microscopist of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, proposes the following new method of 

 detecting cottonseed-oil in lard: Dissolve in 30 cubic centimetre& 

 of petroleum benzine 140 grains of a mixture of lard and cotton- 

 seed-oil. Heat slightly to secure a perfect solution of the lard. 

 Animal tissues should be carefully removed by passing the liquid 

 while warm through fine muslin. Fill a test-tube with the solu- 

 tion, and place in ice-water. In about twenty minutes the lard 

 falls to the bottom of the tube by reason of its insolubility in cold 

 benzine, while the cottonseed-oil remains in solution in the ben- 

 zine. Separate the lard from the cottonseed-oil by filtratioM 

 through fine bibulous paper, and subject the recovered fat ta> 

 mechanical pressure between several folds of the flltering-paper,^ 

 by which means the remaining benzine is absorbed. The solidi- 

 fied fat may be removed from the paper with a palette-knife. 

 The cottonseed-oil is separated from the benzine by means of a 

 sand-bath, which evaporates the benzine. 



