Dec. 28, 1888.3 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



647 



General &oU$* 



Basic Slag in Agriculture. — The quantity of " basic 

 slag/' the by-product of the Gilchrist and Thomas 

 process, now consumed annually by farmers in Germany 

 reaches 300,000 tons. 



Locusts in Madagascar.— Father Paul Combone" 

 (Cosmos), writing from Tananarive, mentions that Mada- 

 gascar is at present visited by the " Valala " (Pachytylus 

 migratorioides), a species distinct from the locusts of 

 Algeria and of Western Asia. They are eagerly eaten 

 by the natives, and are consequently not regarded as a 

 scourge. They are captured by the uneconomical process 

 of setting fire to the herbage upon which they alight. 



The Height and the Speed of Waves. — The subjects 

 have been re-investigated by Mr. Buchanan, formerly of 

 the Challenger staff, during a sounding voyage on board 

 a steamer belonging to the Indiarubber, Gutta-percha, 

 and Telegraph Works, Silvertown, a vessel commissioned 

 to study the track for laying a submarine cable to St. 

 Paul de Loanda. Mr. Buchanan's observations were 

 made near the island of Ascension, the wind being so 

 violent that the signals were hoisted to warn ships from 

 attempting to enter the harbour. The height of the 

 waves was determined at 20 ft., the mean distance from 

 crest to crest at 625 ft., and the speed from 23 to 25 miles 

 per hour. 



The Electric Cultivation of Plants. — It has been 

 frequently asserted that electricity applied at the roots of 

 plants or to the soil in which seeds are sown should be 

 a powerful promoter of vegetation. Professor Wollny, 

 of Munich, has submitted this question to the test of 

 experiment. He surrounded plots of ground, each of 

 rather more than a square metre of surface, with boards, 

 sunk in the soil to the depth of a foot. In one of these 

 he arranged two earth-plates cdnnected by a conductor, 

 in which he introduced a battery of five elements ; in 

 another he placed an induction apparatus, and in a third 

 a plate of zinc on the one hand and a plate of copper on 

 the other, so as to form a natural element. Peas, pota- 

 toes, carrots, etc., were planted in these enclosures, and 

 it was found that the application of electricity, either at 

 a high or a low potential, proved either inert or injurious. 

 Professor Wollny believes that electricity occasions per- 

 turbations in the protoplasm of plants, the greater in pro- 

 portion to the conductivity of the sap. He infers from his 

 experiments that electro-cultivation has scarcely a future. 



The Laboratoire d'Erpetologie at Montpellier.— 

 This establishment is for the purpose of effecting the 

 sale and exchange of serpents and other reptiles and 

 amphibia. Any traveller can here dispose of living 

 specimens. It has 147 members in Europe, and 203 in 

 other parts of the earth. The purpose of the associa- 

 tion is to furnish the members with reptiles and amphibia 

 at cost price, in order to facilitate their study. The 

 superfluous specimens are disposed of to outsiders, and 

 the profit is applied to the purposes of the society. Every 

 member pledges himself to write yearly at least two 

 memoirs on reptiles, which are to be published in any 

 journal. The society possesses an " Encouragement 

 Fund," endowed by certain members for the purpose of 

 sending out young naturalists to countries not sufficiently 

 explored, in order to collect and to make observations. 

 Prizes, such as, e.g., a Zeiss microscope, are awarded for 



the best collections. Rare animals can be lent for obser- 

 vation to any member who can prove that he has ac 

 commodation for such specimens, on condition that he 

 publishes his results. 



The Public Health. — The Registrar-General's return 

 for the week ending December 15th shows that the 

 deaths registered during that period in twenty-eight great 

 towns of England and Wales corresponded to an annual 

 rate of l8'o. per 1,000 of their aggregate population, which 

 is estimated at 9,398,273 persons in the middle of this 

 year. The six healthiest places were Halifax, Brighton, 

 Hull, Bristol, Sunderland, and Wolverhampton. In 

 London 2,291 births and 1,455 deaths were registerea. 

 Allowance made for increase of population, the births were 

 452, and the deaths 404, below the average numbers in the 

 corresponding weeks of the last ten years. The annual 

 death-rate per 1,000 from all causes, which had been 

 i6'5 and 17-8 in the two preceding weeks, were last 

 week 177. During the first eleven weeks of the current 

 quarter the death-rate averaged 18-5 per 1,000, and was 

 2 - i below the mean rate in the corresponding periods ot 

 the ten years 1878-87. The 1,455 deaths included 154 

 from measles, 17 from scarlet fever, 39 from diphtheria, 

 14 from whooping-cough, 18 from enteric fever, 11 from 

 diarrhoea and dysentery, and not one from small-pox, 

 typhus, ill-defined forms of continued fever, or cholera ; 

 thus, 253 deaths were referred to these diseases, being 

 20 above the corrected average weekly number. In 

 Greater London 2,891 births and 1,817 deaths were 

 registered, corresponding to annual rates of 27-3 and 

 17-2 per 1,000 of the estimated population. In the Outer 

 Ring 22 deaths from measles, and 5 from diphtheria 

 were registered. The fatal cases of measles included 8 

 in West Ham and 4 in Croydon sub-districts. 



Fauna of a " Pile Dwelling." — A " pile-village " on 

 the Szontag Lake in the district between Lotzen and 

 Lyck was examined by Heydeck in 1887, and appeared 

 very similar in its construction to the pile-dwellings in 

 the Arys, Czarnikock, and Tulewo Lakes. The remains 

 were of a very remote date, as no articles of iron were 

 found, and of bronze only a decorative disc. The earthen 

 vessels had been made without the use of a wheel, and 

 had very little attempt at decoration ; only marks of 

 finger-nails and a stroke in the shape of N. The very 

 numerous bones were examined by Nehring, and were 

 found to belong to the wolf, fox, wild cat, otter, bear, 

 beaver, hare, wild boar, ur, stag, roe, domestic dog, 

 horse, swine, ox, sheep, and goat ; capercailzie, black 

 cock, duck, crow, hawk, ow', and pike. The most abun- 

 dant are the bones of domestic animals, especially of the 

 pig, and the next most plentiful are those of the stag and 

 the roe. Most of the marrow-bones have been broken. 

 The ur {Bos primigenius) is represented only by the core 

 of a horn, which shows many traces of human elaboration. 

 From the antlers of the deer many pieces have been 

 severed, probably for the manufacture of implements. 

 Nehring emphasises the absence of the reindeer, which, 

 indeed, he has never discovered in pre-historic finds, in 

 company with the roe, pig, and tame cow. The only 

 dog's teeth discovered are decidedly of a wolf-like type, 

 and belong not to the " peat dog," of Rutimeyer, but to 

 the so-called " Bronze dog." The horse-bones belong to 

 a pony of an elegant race, which was probably domesti- 

 cated. According to these remains the pile-builders lived 

 principally by hunting and keeping cattle, in part also 

 by fishing. 



