April 16, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



349 



iraum of earthquakes is coincident with the mean 

 perigee, Dr. D. J. Macgowan recently submitted 

 the following statistics to the Seismological so- 

 ciety of Japan. They partially confirm also 

 Professor Milne's observations that cold weather 

 furnishes the maximum of frequency. Of 788 

 continental shocks, there occurred, in the 



1st 



2d 



3d 



4th 



5th 



6th 



month, 65 



82 



49 

 46 

 63 



The first day of the first 



7th month 



8th " 



9th " 



10th " 



11th " 



12th " 



month 





 70 

 56 

 43 

 65 

 88 



occurs about 



Feb. 6, or at the new moon which falls nearest to 

 the point when the sun is in the 15th degree of 

 Aquarius. On these seismic records, the Chinese 

 seldom designate the day of the month (moon) 

 when earthquakes occur, yet a considerable num- 

 ber may be found. Seventy-two cases show twice 

 as many in the first and second as in the third 

 and fourth quarters of the moon's phases, — 

 forty-eight in the former period, and twenty-four 

 in the latter. The sixth day shows the largest 

 number, 12 ; none took place on the 2d, 5th, 13th, 

 or 14th ; one occurred on each of the following : 

 4th, 7th, 17th, 20th, 22d, 23d, 24th, 28th, 29th. 

 Hours are rarely given : so far as they go, they 

 show that a large majority are nocturnal. 



— The third annual report of the Massachusetts 

 agricultural station deals chiefly with feeding- 

 experiments and experimental researches upon the 

 use of fertilizers, and the relative nutritive charac- 

 ters of prominent farm-crops. It contains a con- 

 siderable amount of matter that will be of value 

 to the agriculturalist. 



— The well-known embryologist of the fish 

 commission, Mr. John A. Ryder, is now engaged 

 in studying the development of the mud-minnow 

 (Melanura limi), and finds some remarkable amoe- 

 boid movements of the eggs before they are 

 hatched. This is somewhat peculiar, and is the 

 first time that it has been observed. By a series 

 of ingenious contrivances, he is enabled to watch 

 the process of development from the moment the 

 fish is hatched until it assumes the characters of 

 the adult. 



— The London Athenaeum announces that Sir 

 Henry Roscoe will probably be the president of 

 the British association for 1887, when the associa- 

 tion will hold its meeting in Manchester. 



— Dr. W. N. Bullard, in a paper lately read 

 before the Massachusetts medical society, gives a 

 detailed analysis of the various symptoms of tea- 

 poisoning, obtained from the study of a large 

 series of cases. He arrives at the important con- 



clusions, that the action of tea is cumulative, and 

 is more pronounced on the young and those in 

 a depressed physical condition, although persons 

 otherwise healthy not infrequently show poisonous 

 symptoms ; that as a rule in the class of people 

 examined by him, chiefly adult women, the aver- 

 age amount needed to cause poisonous symptoms 

 was a little less than five cups daily ; and that 

 chronic tea-poisoning is a frequent affection, whose 

 most common symptoms are loss of appetite, dys- 

 pepsia, palpitation, headache, vomiting and nausea, 

 combined with nervousness, and hysterical and 

 neuralgic affections, frequently accompanied by 

 constipation and pain in the region of the heart. 



— It has now been determined, says the London 

 Graphic, to deal in a somewhat new manner with 

 the difficult problem presented by the disposal of 

 London sewage, Avhich was a few years back con- 

 sidered solved by the simple process of emptying 

 it into the Thames. For some months experiments 

 have been made on what is known as the precipita- 

 tion method ; that is, the sewage is left in a tank 

 until its solid portion separates, the separation be- 

 ing hastened by the addition of lime and proto- 

 sulphate of iron. Hitherto a million gallons a day 

 have been dealt with, but it is now determined to 

 increase the plant so as to deal with nine times 

 that quantity of sewage. Under this treatment the 

 liquid portion becomes as clear as fresh water, and 

 can be emptied direct into the Thames. The solid 

 portion, or sludge, will be pressed into blocks re- 

 sembling so much cla} r , and will be taken out to 

 sea, to be discharged in deep water, where it can 

 do no harm. 



— According to Dr. E. Naumann, the director 

 of the geological survey of Japan, the principal 

 coal-deposits in the country are found in Kinshin 

 and Yesso. The most productive coal-mine is 

 that at Takashima, at which mine the daily pro- 

 duction amounts to 750 tons. The mine of next 

 importance is at Miike, which produces about 500 

 tons. The coal-fields at this spot are supposed to 

 contain 150,000,000 tons, and it is probable that in 

 the future Miike will become the principal coal- 

 mine of the country. The production of coal in 

 Japan during the year ending June 30, 1881, 

 was 890,000 tons. 



— At the congress of German physicists next 

 September, there will be an exhibition of scientific 

 photographs, to which all foreign scientists are 

 invited to contribute, especially astronomers, spec- 

 troscopists, geologists, botanists, zoologists, sur- 

 geons, etc. Further information may be obtained 

 by addressing Dr. H. W. Vogel, 124 Kurf iirstenstr. , 

 Berlin, W. 



— The subject of an interesting paper by Mr. 



