344 
THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
planking is, first a ceiling of pitch-pine, alter- 
nately 4 and 8 inches thick, then outside two 
layers of oak, 3 and 4 inches thick respectively, 
and over all is an ice-sheathing of greenheart. 
The sides are thus from 28 to 32 inches thick 
of solid wood. The vessel is sharp and iron-clad 
fore and aft, and its form ensures pushing up out 
of water as the ice closes around it. Both propel- 
ler and rudder may be lifted in wells to avoid ice, 
while in action the rudder may be immersed beyond 
the reach of floating ice. The length of keel is 
101 feet, deck over all 128 feet, breadth of beam 
36 feet, and depth 17 feet. The vessel is rigged 
as a three-masted schooner, and has an engine of 
160 indicated hoise-power. With carefully selected 
equipment for five or six years, it is Dr. Nansen’s 
intention to sail next June, and to seek and follow 
the ocean current that is believed to cross the 
polar basin from the New Siberian Islands towards 
the north of Greenland. 
A case of bleeding through the sound skin is 
the subject of a European medical report. A girl 
of eighteen was the sufferer, the blood appearing 
from the tip of the nose, from the anterior surface 
of the fore-arms, and from the finger-tips. At 
times the blood simply oozed through the skin, 
then spurted a foot high, the phenomenon last- 
ing, with short intermissions, about four hours. 
The usual symptoms of exhaustion followed. The 
girl had been in good health, and repeated exa- 
minations failed to reveal any adequate cause 
for this singular hemorrhage. 
A mollusc that might take an important place 
in textile industries if it existed in sufficient num- 
bers, is found in warm seas, especially on the 
coasts of Sicily and Malta. It is the Pinna, a genus 
of wingshelled bivalves, of which one species attains 
a length of two feet. To attach itself to the rocks 
it spins a cable of strong filaments, called collec- 
tively the byssus. These threads are wonderfully 
strong, silken in texture, and have been woven 
into various delicate fabrics. A pair of gloves 
from this material may be seen in the British 
Museum, and fine mummy cloths made from it by 
the ancients are still preserved. 
Perfumes and the odours of flowers are not 
be relied upon to take the place of ordinary 
disinfectants, yet they may play a considerable 
part in strengthening our defence against disease 
germs. A German chemist, Herr OmA sehenk. 
has been making experiments to determine the 
activity of certain essential oil- a- germicides, 
and finds that oil of cinnamon has the greatest 
effect and oil of rose the least, while oils 
of fennel, lavender, cloves, thyme, mint, anise 
eucalptus, turpentine and lemon range between. 
The bacillus of typhus was killed in 45 minutes 
in air carrying the vapour of oil of cinnamon in the 
proportion of 0,000 5 gram per liter. The ba- 
cillus tuberculosis was destroyed in 23 hours 
by cinnamon vapour of the strength of 0,001 8 
gram per liter of air; in 12 hours by oil of 
eucalyptus in the proportion of 0,0252 gram per 
liter of air; and in the sjme time by oil of 
lavander in the proportion of 0, 001S gram per 
liter. Constant renewal increases the activity of 
the vapors, which in small proportions seem 
to exert a retarding influence cm the growth 
of germs. 
The oldest herbarium in Europe is scarcely 400 
years old, but in the Egyptologist Museum at 
Cairo is a collection of parts of plants that have 
been collected from ancient Egyptian graves and 
carefully investigated by Dr.George Sehaweinfurth. 
There are both the edibles made necessary by an- 
cient beliefs and the symbolical floral offerings. 
The funeral food of the. fifth dynasty (3000 B. C.l 
include a well-preserved legume of clover and a 
handful of barley ; that of the twelfth dynastry 
(2500 B. C.) grains of mustard seed, capsules of 
flaxseed, gourds, lentils, beans, figs, pine needles, 
juniper berries, etc.; and from later graves have 
come onions, leeks, garlic, and such flowers and 
plant decorations as the blue and white lotus 
the red poppy, oriental larkspur, hollyhock, crown 
chrysanthemums, safflower, pomegranate flowers 
willow leaves, grasses, etc. The richest finds have 
been yielded by tombs of the eighteenth to 
the twelfth ceutury B.C. One of the general 
conclusions to be drawn from this herbarium, 
says Herr Paul Pasig, is that Egypt has sus- 
tained no appreciable climatic changes during the 
last 4000 years. 
