THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
183 
The British Naturalist for April contains a ca- 
pital portrait and a short biographical sketch of 
Miss Eleanor A. Omerod the celebrated entomo- 
logist. 
As an authoress Miss Omerod’s name is a house- 
hold word in the agricultural countries of Europe, 
America, and Africa; but in the Mediterranean 
districts she is especially well known for her re- 
searches into, and practical remedies for the extir- 
pation of the insect pests that infest them. In 
1889-1890 her services were called into requisition 
by the late Major General Hales Wilkie the Pre- 
sident of the Malta Orange Disease Commission. 
Professor Loeffler of the University of Greifs- 
wald has just arrived in Greece, to which country 
he has been invited by the Hellenic Government, 
to give his assistance in a scheme for stamping 
out the present plague of mice in Greece by the 
use of the mouse typhus bacillus, which he disco- 
vered. 
From Helsingfors comes an account of an ex- 
traordinary archaeological find, consisting of a 
chest containing a quantity of ironwork, and a 
parchment giving a Latin treatise on steam as a 
force. The pieces of iron form a rudimentary 
steam engine, which must date from the first half 
of the twelfth century. 
“Silver thaw,” or rain falling when the air is 
below freezing point and congealing as it falls, 
has been the subject of considerable study at 
Scotland's mountain observatory on Ben Nevis. 
The phenomenon indicates an inversion of air 
temperature at the time, the hill-top being consi- 
derably cooler than higher atmospheric levels. 
During the six years ending with 1890, no less 
than 198 cases of silver thaw were observed, hav- 
ing a mean duration of 4| hours. The phenomenon 
is practically confined to the winter months, being 
rare from April to October and unknown in July. 
It occurs usualling during a light wind, fluctuating 
barometric pressure, rising temperature, and sel- 
dom when the thermometer stands below 27°. It 
is very often followed by severe gales. 
The British Museum authorities have just is- 
sued the second volume of a remarkable catalogue, 
says the London Standard . Stored in the drawers 
and cases of the Museum are some 50,000 in- 
scribed pieces of terra cotta or clay tablets, form- 
ing the rescued portions of the great libraries of 
Assyria and Babylon. The great impetus given to 
cuneiforn studies during the last few years in 
Germany and America, where they form part of 
the curriculum for a degree in Semitic languages, 
has made it necessary that the treasures of the 
British Museum, the centre of Assyrian studies, 
should be catalogued, and the trustees have now 
issued these volumes, containing a descriptive 
catalogue of some 8,000 inscribed tablets The 
insciptions in question come from the Kuyuryik 
Mound, on the site of ancient Nineveh, which 
marked the ruins of the great palace and library 
founded by Assurbanipal, or Sardanapalus, in 
B. C. 650. The tablets embrace every class of 
literature, historical documents, hymns, prayers 
and educational works, such as syllabaries or spell- 
ing books and dictionaries. One of the most 
interesting sections it that of the omen tablets, 
produced by the court augurs and diviners. They 
saw omens in all things — the flight of birds, swal- 
lows, pigeons, the coiling of snakes, the movements 
of scorpions, the winds, the clouds, and, above all, 
the stars. The catalogues have been prepared by 
Dr. Carl Bezoid, are beautifully arranged, and 
will tend to make the collections more accessible 
to students, and, in time, better known to the ge- 
neral public, who depend on specialists for the 
unravelling of the learning and wisdom of Chaldea. 
Of the many brilliant discoveries that the emi- 
nent Swiss chemist Mr. Ludwig has made of late 
the most remarkable is the process that he has 
invented for the economical supply of steam motive 
power by means of coal. He tells us that by burn- 
ing 125 tons of coal at a cost of £31 and making 
full use of it for steam raising purposes he can at 
the same time secure by a simple process that he 
has invented four tons of sulphate of ammonia 
from the smoke produced by the combustion of the 
coal. The market value of this product is estima- 
ted at £ 48. 
