296 [November, 1902.] 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE JOURNAL. 
Vol. VIII. No. 95. 
properties ; the Staphylococcus gave a characteristic pigment growth ; and the colon bacillus 
responded to all the typical tests that were applied to it. Judging from the results obtained, 
it was concluded that the experiments might have been extended for a much longer period 
than six months without producing any appreciable effect upon the vitality. 
These results are of great interest, for, as already stated, it must be assumed that at such 
low temperatures all the vital processes of the cell must absolutely cease, so that these 
organisms are capable of remaining in a state of entirely suspended animation for a period of 
six months, and perhaps much longer, without their vitality or characteristic properties being 
affected in any way. 
TIIE CULTIVATION OF COLOMBIAN CASSAVA IN INDIA. 
Acting on the advice and reports of Mr. Robert Thomson, who recently examined the 
methods adopted in Florida for the cultivation of economic plants (Imp. Inst. 
Journ., 1902, 239), the Director of Land Records and Agriculture, Bombay, has decided 
to commence the cultivation of Colombian cassava on the Government farms. lie has 
been supplied with stems and cuttings, which, if carefully handled, will keep for some 
months, from varieties of cassava growing in different parts of Colombia. The experiment is 
being carried out mainly with the idea of providing a famine plant ; although in Jamaica and 
Florida it is also used as a source of starch and as an excellent fattening food for cattle ; from 
the starch is prepared tapioca and dextrine, and the manufacture of glucose is to be 
commenced. 
Comparing it with corn, an acre of cassava producing six tons would yield 2,400 lb. of 
starch, whereas an acre of corn yielding forty bushels would only supply 1,187 R>* of starch. 
It is superior to rice in growing well under varying climatic conditions, and requiring 
considerably less rain, a condition of great importance in India. 
THE CULTIVATION OF COCOA IN AFRICA. 
An industry which has been spreading during the last few years in several parts of Africa, 
and on some of the islands round the coast, is the cultivation of cocoa. The chief source at 
present is the Portuguese island of St. Thomas, and it appears that all the land suitable for 
the purpose isjalready occupied ; at the same time several islands in the vicinity are being 
covered with plantations. The German Colony of the Cameroons, on the Western coast of 
Africa, ranks next, but practically the whole production is shipped to Hamburg ; the following 
figures show the output during recent years: — ■ 
1892. 1895. 1897. 1898. 1S99. 1900. 
Bags, 900. 2,640. 5,400. 6,745. 9.047- 9.833- 
It is expected that Madagascar, which has not completely recovered from the war with 
France, will become one of the most important sources of cocoa, the central portion and the 
eastern coast, especially round Tamatave, being highly suited to the industry. Complaints 
have from time to time been made that the German planters improve the outside appearance 
of the bean to the detriment of the “break,” but that matter can be readily remedied. 
AN INDIAN FAMINE FOOD. 
At the request of the Reporter on Economic Products to the Government of India, 
Mr. A. Chose has recently examined the seeds of the plant Asphodelus ienuifolius , belonging to 
the natural order Liliacecs and indigenous to Northern India, where it is widely distributed. 
{Agricultural Ledger 7, 1902). The seeds, and occasionally the whole plant, have been eaten 
by the natives in famine times. The specimen of seeds analysed in the present instance con- 
tained approximately 26 per cent, of albumenoids, 17 per cent, of carbohydrates, and 25 per- 
cent. of oil, the remainder being water, ash, and fibre. The nutrient ratio is not given. 
No alkaloid could be detected in the seeds. The oil was generally examined and found to 
have a saponification number of 1087, and to possess drying properties, which were im- 
proved by admixture with metallic oxides. The seeds are employed medicinally by the 
natives, and are known to exert a diuretic action, a fact which requires to be borne in mind 
in connection with their use as a food. 
LECTURES AND PAPERS. 
“ CONVICT LIFE IN SAKHALIN” 
{By Mr. C. W. Hawes.) 
ANGLO-RUSSIAN LITERARY SOCIETY. 
At a meeting of the Anglo-Russian Literary Society on Tuesday, October 7, 
Mr. F. W. Lawrence, M.A., of the Echo, took the chair at three o’clock, and 
Mr. C. W. Plawes, who had recently returned from Siberia, read a most interesting paper, 
illustrated by limelight and entitled “ Convict Life in Sakhalin .” Before entering upon his 
subject, Mr. Hawes spoke a few words about the penal system of Siberia generally. The 
prisons there were not all chambers of horrors as they had been represented by some writers, 
but neither were they pictures of Arcadian bliss as others would have us believe. It was 
quite certain, however, that the penal administration of Siberia, and indeed of the whole of 
Russia, was very much better than it was thirty or forty years ago. The abuses which 
continued to exist were due more to incompetent and immoral officials than to the system or 
to the measures of the Russian Government. 
The Island of Sakhalin was discovered by the Japanese in 1613, but the Russians did 
not know it was an island till 1840. In 185S the first batch of convicts was sent there. 
In 1875, Japan yielded her claim to its southern territory and received in lieu the Kurile 
Islands. It was in the autumn of last year that Mr. Hawes visited Sakhalin. He found it 
a most dismal place, peopled almost entirely by convicts, many of them desperate characters 
who were ready to kill a man for a few kopecks or a child for the value of its clothes. 
Houses were constantly being broken into and robbed, and it was necessary to be armed 
night and day. The servant in the house in which Mr. Hawes lived was a convict, who 
went to the prison every day to get his rations. Mr. Hawes’ interpreter, a schoolmaster, 
was also a convict, and the landlady’s son was murdered by an escaped prisoner during the 
lecturer’s stay in the house. In fact the whole European population of the island, except a 
few commercial agents and, of course, the prison officials and the soldiers, were convicts or 
ex-convicts. Eight thousand of the prisoners were murderers, and a few were politicals, 
educated men and women. • One woman whom Mr. Hawes saw there had been arrested at 
the age of nineteen for being mixed up in an affray at the time of the assassination of 
Alexander II. The prisoners were practically divided into three classes : the first of these 
consisted of the worst characters, and those whose sentences were just beginning who were 
confined (in idleness) in the “testing prison,” two were still chained to wheelbarrows night 
and day ; the second class consisted of the better behaved and less grave offenders, who 
worked in gangs, guarded by armed soldiers, while the third class lived in huts of their own, 
if married, outside the prison, or in barracks if they were single. They were entitled to the 
daily allowance of prison fare, consisting chiefly of salt fish and bread, and had to do a 
certain amount of allotted work during the year. Otherwise they were free to go about as 
they pleased, and to hire themselves out as labourers when they could. But the struggle to 
keep body and soul together in that terrible climate, with the difficulty of transport and the 
scarcity of food, was very hard, and made the chance of ever leaving the island, still less of 
returning to Russia, even at the close of a sentence, quite hopeless, except in the rarest cases. 
The expenses and the difficulties of travelling were, of course, immense. The natives of the 
island were chiefly of Mongolian descent, but consisted of three distinct groups, inhabiting 
respectively the north, the middle, and the south of Sakhalin. Of these the last-named 
were by far the most civilized and intelligent. They all lived chiefly on fish, which they had 
great difficulty in getting in sufficient quantities. They travelled over the snow in sledges 
drawn by dogs. In this way the mail was brought to and from Alexandrovsk, the capital 
of the island. It was a most difficult and dangerous journey and only a native could 
manage it. 
Mr. Hawes explained that, owing to the enormous distance between Sakhalin and the 
rest of the world (St. Petersburg was 5,000 miles away), supervision was difficult, and, as 
might easily be imagined, it was not by any means the best officials who were stationed in 
such an out-of-the-way and dismal place. And so it often happened that the officials them- 
selves were guilty of offences quite as bad as those for which the prisoners in their charge 
had been convicted. The Russian Government, however, were taking steps to rectify this 
state of things, and the convict staff were to be tried for forgery, fraud and offences against 
the public morality. 
In conclusion Mr. Hawes dwelt upon the one bright feature of this dismal picture-— the 
work of Miss Eugenie de Meyer, the heroic ambassadress of the Imperial Charity Mission. 
She was sent, iL was believed, by the Tzarilza’s special wish, and her principal object, after 
giving immediate relief and establishing refuges on the Island, was to help time-expired 
exiles to get back to their homes. 
Among those who spoke at the close of the lecture was Mr. Skrine, who dwelt upon the 
element of hope which he considered entered into the life of a Russian convict, but was 
conspicuous by its absence in our own system. Russian convicts were allowed to marry and 
set up house if they were well-behaved. This fact, in Mr, Skrine’s opinion, seemed to imply 
an enlightened policy on the part of the Czar and his advisers, whose aim was less punish- 
ment than reform. The Governor of an English convict prison had told the speaker that a 
sentence of eighteen months’ hard labour meant a complete and permanent breakdown In the 
case of an educated man. 
Mrs. Ross drew attention Lo the fact that capital punishment did not exist in Russia : 
this explained the presence of the 8,000 murderers on the island. 
Mr. Cazalet, the president of the Society, returned the hearty thanks of the meeting to 
the chairman who had so ably presided, and to Mr. Hawes for his intensely interesting paper. 
M r. Cazalet thought that the reports of Captain Dreyfus and others showed that the penal 
system of France was not much better than that of Russia, while our own system was 
by no means perfect. We had a powerful check, however, in the existence of a free Press, 
and it might be hoped that the same advance might be made in Russia, thanks to the earnest 
desire of the present Czar to insist on justice and good administration being extended 
even to the most distant realms of his vast Empire. 
*. — 
PROCEEDINGS OF INSTITUTIONS. 
THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OE ENGLAND. 
The Council of this society reassembled on theSthult., for the first time since the autumn 
recess, the meeting being held a month earlier than usual with a view to expediting the arrange- 
ments for the holding of the society’s first show on its new permanent ground in London from 
the 23rd to the 27th of next J une. In the unavoidable absence of the President (T he Prince 
of Wales), Lord Cawdor was called to the chair. 
The Hon. Cecil Parker brought up a further report from the Special Show Committee 
appointed on June 4 last “ to consider the arrangements to be made for the show of 1903, with 
more particular reference to the general composition of the prize-sheet, the allocation of space 
to the several departments, the entry-fees to be paid for exhibits of live stock, machinery, etc., 
and the arrangements for the accommodation of visitors to the show.” 
On the motion of Mr. Sanday, seconded by Mr. Crutchiey, it was resolved to invite the 
presidents of the several breed- and herd-book societies to a conference with a sub-committee 
of the Council on the afternoon of Monday, November 3, as to the classes to be offered for the 
breeds in which such societies are interested. 
Sir Nigel Ivingscote brought up a draft statement of the receipts and expenditure in 
connection with the society’s meeting at Carlisle last July, which showed that the expenditure 
had exceeded the receipts by about .£2,900. 
Lord Brougham and Vaux moved the adoption of a report from the Botanical and 
Zoological Committee, which stated that the consulting botanist (Mr. W. Carruthers, F.R.S.) 
had paid a visit of inspection to the Woburn experimental farm, and had examined particularly 
the experiments with different varieties of English and American clover seeds, the grass plots, 
the plots devoted to experiments on finger-and-toe in turnips, and the potato plots sprayed 
with Bouillie Bordelaise. He had drawn particular attention to the instructive lesson to be 
derived from the appearance of the finger-and-toe experiments, in which the use of lime had 
had a most beneficial effect upon the crop. In the case of the potato experiments, the spraying 
treatment had saved the crop from potato disease to a very large extent. 
Sir John Thorokl presented a report made to the Veterinary Committee by Professor 
McFadyean, which stated that the published returns for the first nine months of the year showed 
that there had been reported 529 outbreaks of anthrax, with 841 animals attacked. These 
figures indicated that the disease was now more prevalent than at any time since it was iirst 
scheduled in 1887. The Veterinary Committe drew attention lo the leaflet on anthrax which 
was circulated by the society, and which described the precautions which should be taken with 
a view to prevent the spread of this disease. The reported outbreaks for the past nine months 
of glanders numbered 886, and the animals attacked 1,597. The corresponding figures for 
last year were 1,047 and 1,799 respectively. During the same period 1,323 outbreaks of swine- 
fever had been reported, as against 2,795 outbreaks at the same date last year. Since the 
beginning of the year 12 cases of rabies in dogs and II in other animals had been reported. 
No case in dogs had been reported since the month of May last. The report further stated 
that, although the crops of acorns this year appeared to be light in many districts, and no case 
of acorn-poisoning had yet been reported to the laboratory at the Royal Veterinary College, it 
was desirable to call attention to the possibility of risks of this kind occurring during the next 
few weeks. 
Communications haring been received from the Sociedad Rural Argentina on the subject 
of the closing of English ports against live stock from the Argentine, a reply was, on the 
recommendation of the Veterinary Committee, ordered to be sent, stating that it was understood 
that communications, both formal and informal, were passing between the Argentine 
Government and the British Board of Agriculture, and expressing the hope that, by the action 
of the responsible authorities of both nations, a satisfactory solution of the difficulties to which 
the society’s attention had been drawn might speedily be found. 
The Hon. Cecil Parker reported that the examination in the science and practice of 
dairying had been held at the Reading College and British Dairy Institute from September 22 
to 26, and at the Scottish Dairy Institute, Kilmarnock, from September 29 to October 3 last. 
Twenty- four candidates had been examined at Reading, of whom 1 1 had satisfied the examiners 
and were eligible to receive the national diploma in dairying. Sixteen candidates were 
examined at Kilmarnock, of whom 11 had succeeded in obtaining the diploma. 
