SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Mar. 30, 1888. 



ants practice leaf-cutting, and that they inhabit various 

 regions from the south of Brazil to Central America, to 

 Mexico, and even to New Jersey. 



The nests of the eatable ants are in some parts very 

 numerous : they form hillocks of about one-and-a-half 

 yards in width at the base, and perhaps two feet in 

 height. 



In speaking of food insects, we should not omit to notice 

 the common locust, which is often consumed by the 

 Arabs. These insects, after being stripped of their wings, 

 are sometimes preserved in oil, like sardines. A French 

 officer, who had recently the opportunity of tasting this 

 strange delicacy, reports that it might possibly be not 

 bad eating if only the oil were not rancid and if there had 

 been a less liberal admixture of sand. 



Plants Destructive of Germ Life. — A correspondent 

 of the Agricultural Gazette, writing with reference to the 

 influence of certain vegetable products on bacteria and 

 other forms of " invisible life," gives a list of plants 

 which are reputed as being inimical to the development 

 of germ life. These include Bridelia spinosa, Soulaniea 

 amora, Hcrpestis amara, Teucrimn Africanum, Cyperus 

 rotundus, Peppermint, Andrographis panicidata, Acacia 

 orfola, Pinus sylves/ris, Scotch fir, and Larch fir. We 

 are told that the bark and leaves of the former, which 

 can be got from various parts of the Indian empire, where 

 it grows, is eaten by the native cattle when infested with 

 animal or vegetable parasites, and proves an effective 

 remedy. Soluaiuca amara is also an East Indian plant. 

 In the Malayan archipelago it is reported by Dr.Lindley 

 as successfully used in cases of cholera and pleurisy, etc. 

 It is likewise used in pneumonia. In the Molucca 

 Islands Herpestris amara is greatly esteemed as a pre- 

 ventive of the growth of animal and vegetable parasites. 

 Teucrium Africanum, as the name implies, is a native of 

 Africa, where it is reported to kill bacteria in anthrax 

 in cattle and glanders in horses. Cattle that die of 

 anthrax are eaten by the Kaffirs along with this plant, 

 which prevents their being infected. Of the others, 

 Cyperus rotundis is said to be used with favourable results 

 in cholera ; Andrographis paniculata in cholera, dysen- 

 tery, and intermittent fevers ; and Acacia orfola in pre- 

 venting camels' milk from becoming sour for a consider- 

 able time. Scotch and Larch fir barks are said to 

 prevent anthrax, and it is thought probable that all the 

 pine and fir bark juices possess similar properties. 

 Scientific writers, we are told, such as Linnreus, Wither- 

 ing, and Somerville, drew attention to the fact that non- 

 coagulation was due to milch cows eating peppermint. 

 It is now a well-established fact that when much of it is 

 eaten the taste in the milk is perceptible, and that it 

 prevents coagulation even when the quantity eaten is so 

 small as hardly to be tasted in the milk. It has long 

 been known to farmers and dairymen that if milch cows 

 eat peppermint in their pastures or hay, their milk will 

 not make cheese. In the olden times this was attributed 

 to witchcraft. But since it was discovered, by Koch and 

 other microscopists, that the coagulation of milk is due 

 to the rapid growth of a thread -bacteria and other germs 

 in the rennet, farmers and dairymen have got a scientific 

 solution of the problem, viz , that these micro-germs 

 cannot be grown when the preventive properties of 

 peppermint are present in milk, although only infinitcsi- 

 mally small in degree. 



tion of food fishes the great difficulty has been the 

 supply of proper nutriment for the young fry. It is 

 well known that the larvce of gnats, entomastraca and 

 other forms of minute aquatic life constitute the natural 

 diet of fish in their so-called " alevin " stage. Fish-cul- 

 tivators have, when possible, selected waters where such 

 creatures are plentiful, or have attempted to collect 

 them. But M. Lugrin has discovered a simple and in- 

 expensive way of propagating them in any required 

 quantity. " In a fortnight any pond through which a 

 stream flows may be so stocked with natural food as to 

 be able to sustain the young fish until they are one 

 month old, and similar cultivation can be continued until 

 they are at least one year old and suitable for being 

 turned out. If afterwards natural food is deficient in 

 certain waters or at certain times, it can always be sup- 

 plied by cultivation. This method has been tried with 

 full success at Grenaz, near Geneva, and is about to be 

 introduced at Haslemere. 



Extirpation of Rats. — According to L' Union Medi- 

 cate, it is easy to communicate tubercular disease to rats 

 and mice. This observation shows the possibility of 

 dispensing with cats and terriers, both of them animals 

 open to grave objections. 



A Step in Pisciculture. — In the systematic propaga- 



Polynuclear Infusoria. — Gruber describes in the 

 Bcrichte der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Freiburg 

 a number of marine infusoria, partly rew, in part for- 

 merly known, in which there are a great many nuclei. 

 The division of the nuclear substance is carried so far in 

 some that even under the strongest magnifying powers 

 the nuclei appear only as minute granules. As these 

 bodies prove all to be true infusorial nuclei, they must 

 all have their meta-nuclei, but our magnifying powers 

 are not sufficient for their detection. Still they are pre- 

 sent, as is shown by the process of separation in 

 Holosticha scutellum. As soon as the multiplication begins 

 all the nuclei coalesce to a central mass, and the meta- 

 nuclei do the same. When thus aggregated they are 

 visible to the eye as a small body, situate near the main 

 nucleus. The mass of both kinds of nuclei, accurately 

 divided in halves, is then transferred to the two daughter- 

 specimens into which the original individual is being 

 resolved. But even before this fission takes place the 

 main nucleus has again split itself up into numerous 

 nuclei, and the meta-nucleus is often separated to such 

 a degree as to be no longer visible with the microscope. 

 These observations are of value, since they afford us 

 tangible proof of the extended divisibility of living 

 matter, and especially of that matter which is the main 

 seat of life — idioplasm. We see it here pass from a 

 visible body by successive halvings into invisibility,'and 

 yet we know that it is present. 



Introduction of Fishes into Chili. — We learn from 

 L' Intransigeani that the streams of Chili are being suc- 

 cessfully stocked with salmon, carp, tench, gudgeon, and 

 eels. The spawn and the young fishes have been brought 

 not from California, but from France. 



Sardines on the West Coast of France. — Last year 

 sardines re-appeared on the French coast in dense 

 masses, just as piscicultural authorities were discussing 

 the causes of their presumed disappearance. The sardine 

 does not spawn in French waters, and the causes of its 

 periodical return have not yet been detected. 



