Oet. 26, 1888.3 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



43i 



Temperature at Cairo. — The average maximum 

 temperature for the week ending July 19th was io6j 

 degs. F., and the extreme heat 114J degs. The lowest 

 temperature registered was 72^ degs. 



Effects of Unwholesome Water. — According to a 

 medical contemporary, the death-rate at Cairo is now 73 

 per 1,000. This mortality is ascribed to the polluted 

 water of the Nile being used for drinking. 



The Prevention of Sea-Sickness. — According to the 

 Bulletin Medical, antipyrine has no effect upon sea- 

 sickness. The New York Medical Record proposes oxa- 

 late of cerium, given in 15-grain doses every two hours. 

 Science recommends that the projecting region behind 

 the ears should be rubbed vigorously with the fingers. 



Exploration in Morocco. — We learn that Mr. 

 Joseph Thomson is at Tangier on his way home from 

 Morocco, having been offered an important mission. 

 Mr. Harold Crichton Browne, who is at Rabat, will carry 

 out alone the remainder of the Morocco expedition as 

 originally planned. He proceeds at once to Mequinez 

 and Fez. 



Physiological Instruction in the United States. — 

 It appears (Science) that in twenty-five out of the thirty- 

 eight States, and further, in all the territories and the 

 district of Columbia, " instruction in physiology and 

 hygiene, with special reference to the effects of stimulants 

 and narcotics, is made compulsory by statute on all 

 pupils in some part of their school life." 



Colour-Hearing. — Mr. J. A. Maloney, after describing 

 in the New York Medical Journal and in Science some 

 interesting experiments on the conduction of sound- 

 vibrations by the bones of the skull, asks : — " May not 

 colour-hearing, in view of the readiness with which the 

 sphenoid bone takes up and delivers vibrations, be due to 

 mechanical stimulation of the optic nerve by the impinge- 

 ment upon it of the sphenoid bone in its passage through 

 the optic foramen ? " 



A Novel Falsification of Food. — M. van Hamel 

 Roos (Cosmos) has recently detected at Amsterdam 30 

 per cent, of marble dust in ground rice imported from 

 Italy. In Haute Vienne, one of the most extensive 

 millers of the district has been found to have mixed 

 carbonate of lead with his flour. This fraud gives the 

 flour a fine appearance, renders it whiter, and enables the 

 dealer to pass off inferior qualities. The consumer is, of 

 course, liable to the miseries of lead-poisoning. 



Dangerous Cookery. — According to the Medical Press, 

 a lady at Tournai treated her guests to a very tasty dish 

 of beignets auxfleurs d'acacias, the prescription for which 

 she had taken from the family cookery-book. Eleven 

 persons partook of the dish, and soon after all of them 

 showed symptoms of poisoning — vomiting, cerebral 

 excitement, dilatation of the pupils, etc. The supposed 

 "acacia flowers" were flowers of Cyh'sus Adami, a 

 variety of the common laburnum, every part of which is 

 poisonous. 



The Green Colour of the Sea. — According to 

 Pouchet (Comptes Rendus), the green colour of the sea 

 in many parts is due to the presence of numerous dia- 

 toms, radiolaria, etc. The microscopic organisms contain 

 diatomine, a yellowish-brown colouring matter, and this 

 yellow, conjointly with the natural blue of the water, 

 constitutes the green colour observed. Pouchet was led 

 to this view by the fact that Pelagia noctiluca, which has 

 a yellow colour, appears green when immersed in 

 the sea. 



The Cork Industry in Spain. — The British Consul 

 at Barcelona, in a report just published, states that 

 in some places the cork trees have been suffering from 

 the invasion of a pest which threatened to destroy them. 

 A voracious caterpillar appeared by millions in the 

 cork forests, and in a very short time stripped the trees 

 of all the leaves from the tips of the branches to the 

 trunks. These caterpillars are now in their turn at- 

 tacked and devoured by another insect, a species of 

 beetle of a dark-green colour. Another insect in the 

 form of a crab (cangrejo) pursues the caterpillars and 

 destroys them. Moreover, when the caterpillar has 

 passed through its metamorphosis and the butterflies 

 have deposited their eggs, another insect, until now 

 unknown, attacks and pierces the bags containing the 

 eggs and destroys them. It is hoped that by means of 

 these three agencies the complete extinction of the de- 

 structive caterpillars may be accomplished. 



The Electrical and Allied Trades. — On Monday 

 last a meeting was held at the offices of the London 

 Chamber of Commerce, Eastcheap, for the purpose of 

 completing the organisation of the electrical trade 

 section of the Chamber, with the object of dealing effec- 

 tively with questions of general interest relating to the 

 trade. Mr. W. Crompton was voted to the chair. The 

 organising committee, appointed at the meeting on the 

 27th of July last, brought up a report, in which they 

 recommended that a working or executive committee — 

 elected annually by the general body of the trade — 

 should be charged with the ordinary business of the 

 section, and that in the first instance it should consist of 

 thirty-three members, to be increased to forty-eight at 

 the first annual meeting, if the membership then obtained 

 should warrant a larger representation. With a view to 

 an equitable representation on the working committee of 

 the various branches of the electrical trade, the organizing 

 committee recommended the division of the working 

 committee into the following subsections : — Telegraph 

 companies, 5 members; telephone companies, 3 mem- 

 bers ; electrical supply companies, 6 members ; electrical 

 manufacturers and contractors, 13 members; consulting 

 electrical engineers, 4 members ; and " general," two 

 members. On the motion of Mr. Reeves, seconded by 

 Mr. Brown Martin, the report was adopted ; and on the 

 motion of Mr. Rawson, the working committee were 

 authorised to elect their chairman and vice-chairman, if 

 they wished to do so, from outside their own body. The 

 election by ballot of the working committee was then 

 proceeded with. 



The Invention of the Microscope. — This subject 

 has recently been discussed at a meeting of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences. By general consent the invention 

 of the compound microscope is ascribed to Drebbel, 



