Supplement to the ''Tropical Agriculturist" [Feb. 1, 1894. 
minute oceanic animaU swimming by means 
of two leaf-like appendages on each .«i(i« of the 
head. They are found in all seas and some- 
times occur in such numbers as to discolour 
the water for miles. They constitute the chief 
article of food of the whale and are them- 
selves carniverous. (4) Chephelapoda, the last 
and highest class of the raollusca, animals with 
eight or more processes or " arms " placed round 
the mouth, which is funished with jaws and a 
toothed tongue ; they also possess two or four 
plume-like gills, a muscular tube or funnel placed 
in front of the body, through which is expell- 
ed the water used in respiration, and eitlier 
an external shell or an internal skeleton. To 
this class belong the cuttle fish and their allies, 
the ammonites, the paper and pearly nauti- 
lus. The pearly nautilus is well known by its 
beautiful shell, which is coiled into a spiral, 
and is composed of many chambers walled off 
from one another by curved shelly partitions, 
perforated centrally by apertures, which trans- 
mit a membranous tube or " sipliuucle." The 
separate chambers of tlie shell are filled with 
gas, and appear to act as a kind of Hoat, reduc- 
ing the specific gravity of the shell to near 
that of the surrounding water. The animal in- 
habits only the last and largest chamber of the 
ehell. 
ANTHRAX. 
He atithra.T and anthracoid diseases in Ceylon : 
there is cause for suspicion that tbey prevail 
in many places, but remain undetected, and are 
often communicated to man also. The follow- 
ing cutting Avhicli 1 preserved from the Ceylon 
Independent some months ago, is verj' suggestive 
of anthrax. However, the affection may how- 
ever quite possibly be something else alto- 
gether : — 
A Nkw Dise-\sE ? — A correspondent writes to 
a contempoiary: — "For some considerable time 
past a disease named by the native 'Beebula 
Ledda' has been travelling through the villages 
of Pittagalla, Omattee, etc., in tlie Bentota 
Korale, and has now made its appearance at 
Elpitiya. The disease begins with fever, and 
then o??e small watery bubble (Beebulla) becomes 
visible and the patient dies. It is said the 
disease is highly contagious, and the native 
vederalas have no treatment." 
In this connection there was a long corre- 
spondence in the vernacular papers and one cor- 
respondent had mentioned the fact, that the 
disease was first prevailing among cattle and 
subsequently effected men. 
Anthrax is caused by the presence of a Bacillus 
■v^hich multiplies rapidly in the animal body 
and destroys the vitality of the blood, and the 
Bacillus AntJircicis is one of the most easily 
detected under the microscope. So it would be 
well if a Veterinary Surgeon, or for the matter 
of that a medical man were to examine the 
alood of Kandamale cattle or Bihulaleda man 
bnd determine whether any anthrax Baccili are 
present, and if so the connection between oattle 
Kandaamle (or as it is now termed Laryngitis 
Coutagiosa) aud Beibulaleda. 
'« . W. A. P. S. 
FROM THE NORTH. 
I The paddy crops now growing in Jaffna have 
1 been injured by an insect called nrakkoddiyan 
I which is the larva of a butterfly common in the 
I North. Although some attempts were made by the 
i cultivators to get rid of the larvie by collecting 
i and destroying them, yet they had come in large 
I swarms and had done their worst in iieveral 
j parts before their ravages were checked. Tliese 
caterpillars had also eaten up thi- grass which 
grew along the ridges of the fields, and some 
cows which were fed with the worm-eaten grass 
happening to die almost immediately after, 
' their death was attributed by the villagers to 
some peculiar effect of these larvae. A study of 
entomology would be very serviceable in combat- 
ing the attacks of such insect pests. 
'1. The young paddy plants that were eaten 
by the insects revived and grew up when the 
welcome showers of rain fell about X'mastide, 
and if a few sliowers fall again tliis month (Janu- 
! aryj tliey would make the paddy recover considera- 
I bly from the havoc caused by the pest and Ijear 
fairrly good crops. 
I '6. Wliile the paddy-fields in the North fre- 
quently suffer from want of water, it must be 
remembered that there are lands in the centre 
and south of the Island which are injured by too 
much water. For an excessive and injudicious 
use of water is quite possible even in the irri- 
gation of a .semi-aquatic plant sucli as the paddy. 
Moderate flooding and drjing in alteniation at 
suitable stages seems to be best for paddy ; and 
this, I believe, has been proved by the Hon, 
Mr. Elliott, (who always takes an active interest 
in paddy cultivation,) in a series of experiments 
he carried on at ^latara. 
4. The scientific explanation of the desirability 
of alternate fiooding and drying is not far to 
seek. As the result of tliis alternation of con- 
dition, a soil contracts as it dries and expands 
wlien it once more becomes wet. Anyone wlio 
has observed the cracks that appear in land in 
dry weather will understand how helpful the 
contraction is to the aeration of the soil. Not 
oiily will tliere be large cracks formed, but 
small ones running like a network over the field, 
and the entire mass will be fissured in every 
direction. As a conse(|uence, the soil becomes 
pulverized and aerated to a considerable depth, 
and both soil and subsoil are benefited. 
.5. The soil in most parts of Jaffna is more or 
less sandy, and underlying it is a stratum of 
lime stone rock of coral ongin. The formation 
of this coral statum has been accounted for 
in the following way by the late Mr. A. M. 
Ferguson and others. The sea water off the Nor- 
thern coast is impregnated with carbonate of lime, 
and the coral insects have been, for countless ages, 
incessantly at work, elaborating this substance 
into coral stones of beautiful shapes. From the 
violence of the wares and by the process of 
natural decomposition, the coral thus formed 
has been broken up into very small particles 
and again agglutinated together by the super- 
abundant carbonate of lime into lime stone 
rocks called breccia into which dead and broken 
shells also entered. Blocks of this limestone 
j breccia make excellent building material, an4 
we are familiar with it ia that form. 
