160 



SCIENCE. 



[YoL. YI., No. 133. 



— Nature, for Aug. 6, in its leading article, quotes 

 with approval, and re-enforces with new argu- 

 ments, the claim which Science made last February, 

 that great saving could be effected upon the intro- 

 duction of prime-meridian time suggested by the 

 Washington conference, by the virtual amalgamation 

 of the nautical almanacs now published separately 

 by each of the maritime nations, and commends our 

 suggestion that the money thus saved should be ex- 

 pended upon an international mountain observatory. 

 The same number contains a long article on the co- 

 ordination of the scientific bureaus of our govern- 

 ment, based upon the two schemes proposed by the 

 committee of the national academy, and by Major 

 Powell, which appeared some time since in Science. 

 The article on the Lick observatory, which we pub- 

 lished last June, is also given in full. We shall 

 shortly print another, with illustrations. 



— Another exhibition, to be held in New Orleans, 

 is proposed for next winter. 



— A short time before his death, Prof. H. R. Gop- 

 pert of Breslau, in connection with the cliemist Pro- 

 fessor Poleck, made a study of the Hausschwamm, — 

 a fungus commonly known with us as dry-rot, which 

 had caused great injury to buildings in northern Ger- 

 many. The results of their combined studies now 

 appear in a pamphlet by Professor Poleck (Der haus- 

 schwamm, Breslau, 1885). Tlie dry-rot, Merulius 

 lacrimans, seems to be unknown in a wild state in 

 Germany, but is confined to wood-work of different 

 kinds, and attacks by preference, coniferous timber. 

 Strange to say, the fungus does not usually infest old 

 structures, but generally makes its appearance in 

 comparatively new buildings; and a startling series 

 of figures shows the amount of damage done in the 

 region of Breslau. Chemical analyses by Poleck 

 show that the merulius is particularly rich in nitro- 

 genous compounds and fat, which is rather remark- 

 able, when one considers the chemical constituents of 

 the timber on which it grows. Injury to health, or 

 even death, is said to result from exposure to air con- 

 taining large quantities of the spores of the merulius; 

 and several authenticated cases are reported. In a 

 supplementary note, Poleck considers the relation- 

 ship of merulius to actinomyces, a fungus which 

 causes a characteristic disease in man and cattle; 

 and he apparently comes to the conclusion that what 

 is called actinomyces is probably only the merulius 

 altered by the peculiar matrix on which it is growing. 

 His statements on this point can hardly be called 

 conclusive, or, in fact, other than vague. 



— An interesting new limuloid crustacean from the 

 Upper Chemung of Erie county, Penn., is described 

 in the American journal of science, under the provis- 

 ional generic name of Prestwichia. It occurs at the 

 junction between a bluish sandstone and a soft fine 

 shale, which, in tlie process of weathering, lias worn 

 away, leaving a sharply defined cast in hard sand- 

 stone. 



— In Yallorbes, in Switzerland, there are several 

 important fish-cultural stations for the development 

 of trout, the chief of which are on the borders of 



Lake Neuchatel. From 1864 to 1870 the station at 

 Poi«sine has placed in the neighborhood of 450,000 

 young fry in the rivers, and from 1872 down to the 

 present time more than 1,000,000. By this means 

 the rivers have been restocked in a very satisfactory 

 manner, and the trout of Yallorbes are far-famed. 

 This total would have been much larger had it been 

 possible to secure the required number of eggs. In 

 1885, 74,000 fry were developed ; the eggs being 

 placed in tlie incubating cans from the 10th to the 

 20th of April, and in the stream, between the 20th 

 and 31st of May, according to the rapidity of develop- 

 ment. 



— The industry of gutta-percha production, which 

 has been so profoundly menaced by the vast destruc- 

 tion of the trees by the natives, is likely to be greatly 

 increased in importance by the discovery of Mr. 

 Edward Heckel, recently published in La nature. 

 Dr. Heckel has announced that there is a tree in cen- 

 tral Africa, Butyrospermum Parkii, called by the 

 natives ' karite ' or ' care,' which is likely to replace the 

 gutta tree. The berries of this tree produce a stearic 

 wax called * butter of karite,' and valued highly by 

 the natives and travellers. The tree covers the vast 

 tropical area of central Africa in dense forests; and, 

 after it has attained the age of four years, it is pos- 

 sible by discrete incision to obtain from its trunk and 

 larger branches an annual supply of four kilogrammes 

 of gutta ($5-6 per year at the present price) without 

 injuring the tree in the least. By reason of the great 

 facility with which this tree grows in all kinds of 

 soil, and because of the success attending its cul- 

 tivation in a few places, Mr. Heckel thinks that it 

 can be profitably transplanted into the English and 

 French colonies. Guided by botanical analogy, he 

 also suggests it as highly probable that the Indian 

 species of Bassia will give a product similar to that 

 of the karite of Africa. 



— By a congratulatory letter addressed to him by 

 the society upon the occasion. Professor Asa Gray 

 was recently reminded that fifty years have elapsed 

 since he was elected a member of the oldest natural-: 

 history society in Germany, the imperial Academia 

 leopoldino-carolina naturae curiosorum. 



— Dr. A. W. Ljungman has been granted by the 

 Swedish government the sura of 350Z., in addition to 

 his salary, for investigating the herring and the her- 

 ring fishery on the south-west coast of Sweden. 



— The twelfth number of the German Colonial- 

 zeitung contains an article by Herman Soyaux on 

 experimental cultivation in tropical Africa. He 

 maintains that the soil is suitable for agriculture, 

 though it is exhausted in a year by the cultivation 

 of maize and manise: he recommends the cultivation 

 of coffee, vanilla, India rubber, tobacco, cotton, and 

 sugar-cane according to the varieties of soil. Lieut, 

 de Gile, commander of the Upper Kongo division, 

 has published a most enthusiastic description of the 

 country, where nearly all the above-mentioned plants, 

 and many others, grow naturally, or are already cul- 

 tivated. He represents the climate as healthy, and 

 the country thickly populated. 



