THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
343 
residual cake has considerable value and is in 
constant demand from abroad, while the shells or 
husks of the seeds, as well ss the stalks of the 
plants, are useful foi fuel. 
The blood of animals has been used for bread- 
making by Dr. Makarof in Russia. A dough of 
2 i parts of rye meal and lj of blood, is baked 
into a very good loaf, which is more nutritious 
than ordinary bread of rye or wheat. It is sug- 
gested that those v ho slaughter animals be re- 
quired to collect the blood, which has hitherto 
been wasted, and forward it to specified centres, 
where it should be made into bread and distributed 
to the poorer peasants. 
There are twelve persons in a hundred, accor- 
ding to Bleuler and Lehman, who have the faculty 
of hearing colours, and 500 cases in all have been 
well authenticated. A very curious illusion of 
these people is that up to the moment of being 
questioned they are convinced that this faculty of 
attributing colour to sounds is natural, normal, 
common to every one, and it is not with out unea- 
siness that they learn the contrary. The faculty 
is most common among the cultured. In con- 
sidering its origin, M. Alfred Binet suggests that 
perhaps some importance should be attached to 
the little reading books in which the letters are 
coloured for children : and that perhaps, also, the 
sound of certain words which designate colored 
objects is detached from the word itself by sort of 
abstraction, and carries with it the reflection of its 
colour.-' to other words. 
A tenant of more than ordinary interest has 
lived in the Garden of Plants, Paris, since August, 
1885, and has been an object of study by M. 
Vaillant. This is a South American boa (Boa 
ikvrinus) at least 20 feet long. Up to the end of 
1891 the serpent had taken food in this place 
34 times, an average of five times a year, the 
interval beetween its meals ranging from 28 to 
204 days. It calls for its meals by characteristic 
uneasiness. Its usual food has been small goats, 
with rabbits on three occasions and a goose on 
one, and the largest, animal it has swallowed has 
has been a kid of 26 pounds, or about one tenth 
of its own weight. Such prey is not of remarkable 
size, as serpents are capable of swallowing animals 
nearly as large as themselves. A few years ago, 
indeed, a horned viper was caught in the act of 
swallowing a French viper a little larger than 
itself, and no ill effects followed this enormous 
meal. 
Researches of Suehsland show that the process 
of “sweating” to which tobacco leaves are subjected 
in preparing them for use gives rise to fermenta- 
tive changes that are not due to purely chemical 
action, as has been supposed, but are effected by 
micro-organisms. The species vary in different 
kinds of tobacco. But what is most important is 
that pure cultures of the bacteria have been made 
and with them it has been found to be possible to 
transfer the peculiar taste and aroma of one 
kind of tobacco to another kind, and thus to raise 
the quality of inferior grades. Other German 
investigations during the last few months prove 
that the character of wine varies with yeast 
employed. As the qualities of butter and cheese 
depend also upon micro-organisms, is it not pos- 
sible to improve dairy products as well by inocu- 
lation with cultures of carefully-selected bacteria 1 
Among the Laos, a people inhabiting a district 
of Siam, the chewing of a preparation called 
"meing” is almost universal, the. practice being 
especially esteemed by those whose labour brings 
great bodily fatigue. Recent inquiry shows that 
this delicacy is prepared from the Assam tea- 
plant of commerce. The leaves, instead of being- 
used for an infused beverage as in other coun- 
tries, are steamed, tied into bundles and buried 
in the ground for about 15 days, after which the 
product will keep for two years or more. A simi- 
lar use of tea is not wholly unknown elsewhere 
Good authority states that, even in European 
countries, the ordinary dried leaves are some- 
times eaten, a craving being gradually established 
as iu tobacco-chewing. 
Undoubtedly the strongest vessel of its size in 
the world is that now being finished in Norway 
for Dr. Nansen’s Arctic expedition. It is built of 
long-seasoned materials, and the frame timbers 
are so close together that the vessel would be 
water-tight with the planking stripped off. The 
