•.^/iv/vi'/iV ll^Hic^^lation^ """'•'•■'*•" — "^ — -^- ■ REPORT OF THE THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE South African Association FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. V^ ^ PRETORIA, 1915 JULY 5-10. CAPli TOWN : PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION. iyi6- ■ ^l^ # >>^ CONTEXTS. Page. Officers anh Council ... ... ... ... ... i Constitution of the Association ... ... ... ... ii Tables: Past Annual Meetings: — Places and Dates, Presidents, Vice-Presidents, and Local Secre- taries ... ... ... ... ... ... xi Sectional Presidents and Secretaries ... ... ... xiii lu-eninj4' Discourses ... ... ... ... ... xvi PRETORIA MEETIXC;, 1915:— General Aleelings ... ... ... ... ... xvii Officers of Local and Sectional Conuniltees ... ... xviii Proceedings of ThirteentJi Annual (ieneral .AlcetiuL; of Menihers xx Report of Council, 1914-1915 ... ... ... • ... xxv (ieneral Treasurer's Account, 1914-1915 ... ... ... xxix ICiyhth Award of tlie South .\frica Aletlal (I'late i) ... xxxii .Association Library ... ... ... ... ... xxxviii Address by the President of the Association: R. T- A. Lxxes. F.R.A.S., F.R.S.E. ... ... ... ... ... i Address by the Pkesidext of Section A: !■". E. Kanthack, -M.l.C.E., iM.L^l.E. ... ... ... ..._ ... 17 Addk-ess by the President of Section B: The late II. Kvxaston, M.A.. F.G.S. ... ... ... ... ... ... 24 Address by the President of Section C : C. P. Lounsuury. ii.Sc, F.E.S. 3.3 Address by the Pkesuiext of Section D: J. E. Ada.mson, AI..\.. ... 4b List of Papers read at the Sectional Meetincs ... ... 56 Termite economy : C. P'uller, F.E.S.. . . ... ... ... bo I'he proi)lem of horse sickness: Sir A. Theh.er, K.C.M.G.. D.Sc... ()5 Mcsciiibrianthemuni lortttusiim ... ... ... ... Nj Fire-resisting materials in huilding constructiim : A. 11. Reid, F.R.I.B.A., F-.R.San.l., E.S.A ... ... ... ,\^ Poisoned bait for biting Hies.. ... ... ... ... 94 Anhydrous liquid hydrocyanic acid for fumigation purposes : C. W. AI.VLLY, ALSc, E.E.S., F.L.S. ... ... ... ... 95 Alcoholometric tables ... ... ... ... ... 9^ Economics of the War : E. C. Reynolds ... ... ... 97 Some features of the Rand Gold Alining Industry: W. A. Caedecott, D.Sc. ... ... ... ... ... ... n.^, Breyium : a new element ... ... ... ... ... 1-^3 Contributions to the Chemistry of the So\a Bean : I^rof. P. D. Hahn, ALA., Ph.D ... ... ... ... IJ4 The Aliners" Phthisis of the Rand: W. Watkins-Pitchfok-d, ALD.. F.R.C.S., D.P.H. ... ... ... ... ... 1-7 Xotes on the chemical composition of Karroo ash : C. F. Juurrz. ALA., D.Sc, F.LC. ... ... ... ... ... i33 South African Agriculture: an analysis; P. J. »u Toit ... ... 145 Oil producing plants from South Africa ... ••■ ••• I55 Secular change in the period of U Carin;e-: A. \\ . Rohekts. D.Sc, F.R.A.S., F.R.S.E. ... 156 -Actiye principles of South African Plants ... ... ... i5>^ Radium in Japan ... ... ... ... ... ... i5<^ \n inquiry into the origin of certain South .\frican jihice names: Rev. C. Pettman ... ... ... ... ... i59 Some Problems of physical continuity: Rey. S. R Wei in, B.A., D.D. Ph.D. ... ... .'.. ... ... ... irr Xatiye agriculture: Rev. J. R. L. Kingon, ALA., F.L.S. ... ... 178 3;i474 IV CONTENTS. PAGE. Tlic problems and principles of malaria prevention : A. J. Orenstein, M.D. ... ... •.. ••• ••■ ••• '^3 SIR HENRY ROSCOE ... ••• •• ••• ••• 199 Sarcospondia: G. V-\.\ de W.\ll de Kock, M.R.C.V.S. ... ... 200 Biological Chemistry ... ... •■• ••• ••• -12 The economics of East Coast Fever; as illustrated by the Transkeian Territories: Rev. J. R. L. KiNGON, ALA., F.L.S. ... ... 213 Potash from American kelp . . ... • • ■ • • • ■ • ■ 226 Can hthia be a constituent of plant food:-' Prof. P. D. H.\hn. M.A., Ph.D. ... ... ■•• ••• ■■■ ■•■ 227 The Constitution of the Senate: F. Flowers, F.R.A.S., h.R.G.S. ... 230 Manganese m wheat ... ••. ••• ••• ••• 231 Notes on the Chemistrv of the INaras plant (Acaiithosuyos l.urnda Hook) : W. \'ersfeld, B.A., D.Sc., and G. F. Brittex, B.A.. (Plates 2-4) ... ... ... ••• ••• •■• 232 Southern stars ... ... • • • . • • • . • • • • • • -^^ The Bagananoa or Ma-labuch: notes on their early history, customs, and creed : Rev. X. Roberts ( Plates 5-7 ) 241 Food value of Kaffir corn 25(1 \ criticism of Lotsv's thcorv of evolulinn : Prof. S. ScH(i.\l.\.\ii, J\I.A., Ph.D., F.L.S., C.M.Z.S 257 lOrought in the Walerberg ... ... ... . - 265 The measurement of the natural ionisatidU of tiie air: 1'^. Jacot, B.A. 266 Soluble phosphate 271 The ostrich feather industry in South Africa: R. \V. Thornton ... 272 Latices from South African Plants ... -79 The relation of body and mind: Rt. Re\-. A. Cilvnilek. M.A., D.D. 280 Dietetic dehciency : 1 i. li. Green, B.Sc, F.C.S 289 Rubber from Alcohol 308 .\e\v Phosphatic Ores 308 Presentment and prt)of in geometry : a study of the associated circles of a triangle: Rev. F. C. Kolbe, B.A., D-D. (with 13 text figures) 309 Comet ]gi6a 324 South African IMuseiun 325 Soil Science 325 The Royal Society 325 Geography : J. Hutcheon, M.A., F.R.S.G.S 3^0 On the discrimination of the general conic : Prof. J. 1'. D.\lton, M.A., D.Sc 33:, The effects of snake venoms on domestic animals, and the prepara- tion of anti-venomous serum: D. T. AIitchell, AJ.R.C.V.S. ... 337 The structure of the universe 354 Note on the intersection of two curves, whose equations arc given in polar co-ordinates; with an illustrative example: Prof. L. Crawford, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S.E. (with two text figures) ... 35.5 Fossil man 359 Isotopes 35y The ijrofcssion of pharmacy : suggestions for reform in its mode of attainment: Prof. J. A. Wilkinson, M.x^., F.C.S 360 Problems of living matter 366 The fault systems in the south of South Africa : Prof. E. H. L. ScHWARz. A.R.C.S., F.G.S 367 Dark nebula: ' 382 Deliciency disease and cottonseed poisoning 382 The effects of droughts and of some other causes on the distribution of plants in the Cape region: Prof. R. Marloth, M.A., Pli.D., 383 Potash in Alsace 300 -Vstronrimical discf^veries 31)0 An actuarial analvsis of th.e loan schemes of certain l\and lluildim; Societies: Prof. J. P. Daltox, U.A., D.Sc 391 E. W HILGARD 397 CONTENTS. V The I icciirrciicc ^ Portland Cement 4-.^ South African Hepaticie, or Liverworts: T. R. Sim, F.R.H.S. ... 426 Radioactive minerals in South Africa : Prof. P. D. Hahn, M.A., Ph.D. (Plates 12-14) 44U Comet igi66 452 The masses of visual binar\- stars: R. T. A. Innes, F.R.A.S., F.R.S.E. 453 Carbon bisulphide and plant growth ... ... 473 The influence of the climatic and tellurical factors on the distribution and spread of certain animal diseases, with special reference to the conditions occurring in South Africa: D. Kehoe, M.R.C.V.S. 474 Hydrocyanic acid in sorghum Sd Rhodesian Ruins and Native tradition : Rev. S. S. DoRNAN, M.A., F.R.G.S.. F.G.S. (Plates 15-18) 502 A factor in the evolution uf plants : Prof. H. A. Wager, A.R.C.S.. . . 517 Game and bird protection in South Africa: a short comparison with some other countries : A K. Haagner, F.Z.S 5^9 Tobacco ash - • • • S-9 r^ledical insi^ection of schools in relation to social efficiency : C. F. L. Leipolut, F.R.C.S., L.R.C.P 5.5o "Loog-as'"; or, the ash of the alkali bush: A. Stead, B.Sc, l^C.S. 540 Martian Seas 542 A new smut on Sorghum halcpcnsc Nees : L B. Pole Evans, M.A., B.Sc, F.L.S. (Plate 19) 543 Die-back of apple trees, caused by Cytospora leucostoma (Pars.). Sacc. : P. A. van der Bvl, M.A., D.Sc, F.L.S. (Plates 20-25 and four text figures) 545 Status of chemists 557 Ostrich chick diseases : J . Walker. :\I.R.C.V.S. {Abstract) 558 .Icokanthera venenata 560 The Kgoma, or initiation rites of the Bapedi of Sekukuniland : Rev. N. Roberts and C. A. T. Winter. (Plate 26 and three text figures) 56 f Use of blood in Ijread . ._ 57^ The mineral spring on the farm Rietfontein,. District Brandfort, O.F.S. : Prof. M. M. Rindl, Ing.D. {Abstract) 579 Organisation of Science 588 The simplification of English: Prof. A. S. Kidd, M.A 589 Cattle ranching in Rhodesia 594 South African asbestos 594 Professor P^reud's psycho-pathological theories : G. T. Morice, K.C, B.A 595 Notes on the habits of a few trap-door spiders found in Alicedale, Cape Province : F. Cruden (Plates 27-28) 601 Scientific research in South Africa . . . _ 611 On the variability in the nature or temperament of wild animals in captivity ; with special reference to South African species ; A. K. Haagner, F.Z.S 612 African Native Melodies: Rev. W. A. Norton. B.A., B.Litt 619 On the gamma, or factorial function : Prof. W. N. Roseveare, M.A. 629 Phvsic;ii Chemistry ^47 Note on the genus ConiotJiccinin Cnrda : with special reference to Coniolhccium ehomaiospurnni Corda: P. A. van der Bvl, M.A., D.Sc, F.L.S. (Plates 29-34 and two text figures) 649 A critical examination of the methods used for countmg in elections by the single transferable vote: J. Brown, M.D., CM., F.R.CS., L.R.C.S.E 658 Vi- CONTENTS. , ■ PAGE. Some ol)scrvation& on the life history of the pepper tree caterpillar, Boinbycoinorplia pallida Dist. : t). Gunn {Title only) 685 Xew toijnyrapiiical methods and instruments: W. C. van uer Stkur ( Title only) 6S5, Atoms, old and new : Prof. D. F- du Toit Malherbe, M.A., Ph.D. ( Title only } ^ _ 68 5 The intensity of rainfall in the Transvaal: G. W. Co.\, ]".R.]Mct.S. ( witli six text figures ) 686 On the desirability of founding a South African Entomological Society: A. J. T. Janse, P".E.S. {'Title only) 693 Some aspects of modern naval development: H. C. Kenwav. {'Title only) 6ij3 Practical education: W. J. Hok.ne.. A.M.I.E.E. (with one text figure) 6g4 The Rand Gold: Prof. E. If. L. Scnw^\RZ, A.R.C.S., F.G.S. {Title only) ., 717 Experiments in crossing Persian and Merint) sheeii : 1. Burtt Daw, F.L.S., F.R.G.S. {'Title only) _ ." 71/ Pyorrhaa alveolaris: some experiments and their results: E, W. F"iTzSiMONS, E.Z.S., F.R.IM.S. {Title only) 717 Notes on the functions of colour in certain South African reptiles and amphibians: J. 1!. Power (Title only) 7J7 The real object of Natural Science: N. Mudd^ M.A. {Abstract) .. . 718 The intrusions in the granite of Parys, Orange Free State : Prof. S. J. Shand, Ph.D., D.Sc, F.G.S. {Abstract) 722 Preliminary list of South African fungi represented in the mycolo- gical herbarium, Pretoria: L B. Pole Evans, M.A., B.Sc, F.L.S., and Miss A. M. Bottomley, B-A. {Title only) 722 On a method of making permanent preparations of superficial fungi : Miss E. M. DoTDGE, M.A., D.Sc, F.L.S. {Title only) 7^2 Notes on some of the South African Stapelia : Miss S. M. Stent ( Title only ) 722 On the preservation of the monuments of Nature : IT. G. Brever, Ph.D. {Title only) ... ... ... ... ... 7^-^ Some notes on the Soutli African aloes: L B. Pole Evans, M.A., B.Sc, F.L.S. ( Title only) 7^3 Observations on the evolution of birds : with special reference to South African forms: A. RouEi-tTS {Title only) 723 Anti-venomous serum, and its preparation ; F. W. PTtzSimons^ F.Z.S., F.R.M.S. ( Title only) 723 The literature of France during the great revolution: Prof. R. D. Nauta {Title only) 723 Four months in Slavic Austria : Rev. W. A. Norton, B.A., B.Litt. {Title only) 723 Proportional representation, R. Kilpin {'Title only) 723 Officers and Council, 1915-1916 / List of members Hi Index vxrii LIST OF PLATES. J ' 0 face Pai^c T. Tlic Sontli Afric'i ^Fcilal ... ... .. ... xxxii J. The IXara.s i)lant ... ... ... ... ... 2.12 T,. TIk' !Nara,s plant 232 4. J'lie .'Naras plant ^3-2 5. The Bagananoa ^45 6. The Bagananoa -'45 7. Tlie Bagananoa 250 8. Bacterium caiiipcstr,- 402 [). I'acferitiin cuinl^cstj-c 402 10. Inu'lrritiiii ctini /wstrc ... ... ... 403 ir. Bacterium cuiii/wstrc 403 12. Radioactive minerals ... 450 13. Radioactive minerals . . 4.51 T4.. Radioactive minerals ... 4.=;2 15. Rhodesian ruins ... ... ... 506 16. Rhodesian ruins .507 17. Rhodesian ruins 514 iM. Rhodesian ruins 515 IQ. Smut (in S(>r,::liuiii IuiIc/h^iisc ... ... 544 20. Die-l)ack: of api)le trees ... ... ... 54S 2:. Die-hack of apple trees ... 549 22. Die-hack of apple trees ... .550 23. Die-hack of apple trees ... 550 24. Die-hack of apple trees ... 552 25. Die-hack of apple trees ... 554 26. Initiation rites of the Bajiedi 563 27. Nests i)f trap-door spiders ... 604 28. X'ests iif trajj-door spiders ... ... 606 2Q. Coiiiotlicciiiiii chiiiiKifnsf^iuinn ... ... 649 30. Coiiiotlicciiiiii clu)iiiatosfi>riiiii 651 31. Coniotlicciini! clioiuatt'sporiiiii 652 ,^2. Coiiiothcciuin clwmatospontiii 653 T,;^,. Coiiiothcciiiiii cliniuafospnniin 654 34. Coiiiotlicciitiii clioiitalosponnii 655 OFFICERS AND COUNCIL, 1914-1915. HONORARY PRESIDENT. Ills MAJESTY THE KINT,. PRESIDENT. R. T. A. INNES. F.R.A.S.. F.R.S.E. EX-PRESIDENT. Professor R. MARLOTH, M.A. Ph.D. VICE-PRESIDENTS. L. Craavfo!?d. M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S.E., Professor of Pure ^latliematics, South African College, Capetown. G. W. HERnM.^N, i\[.A., M.I.C.E., In- specting Engineer, Public Works De- partment, Pretoria. Sir A. Theiler, K.C.M.G.. D.Sc. Direc- tor of \'eterinarv Research. Pretoria. A. H. Watkins, M.D., .M.R.C.S., M.L.A,. Kimberley. HON. GENERAL SECRETARIES C. F. JuRiTZ. ?iJ.A., D.Sc, F.I.C., Gov- H. E. Wood ernment Chemical Laboratory, Cape- town. IM.Sc, F.R..Met.Soc, Union Observatory, Johannesburg. il. HON. GENERAL TREASURER. A. Walsh, P.O. Box 39, Cape Town. ASSISTANT GENERAL SECRETARY. Tucker. Cape of Good Hope Savings Rank Buildings, St. George's Street, Cape Town. P.O. P.ox 1497. (Telegraphic Address: " Scientific") ORDINARY MEMBERS OF COUNCIL. I. CAPE PROVINCE. Cape Peninsula. A. J. Anderson, M.A., M.B., D.P.H., Prof. H.' BoHLE, M.I.E.E. Rev. W. Flint, D.D. T. LuNT. D.Sc. F.I.C. A. H. Reid, F.R.I.B.A., F.R.San.I. Grahantstoivn. Prof. E. H. L. SCHWARZ, F.G.S. A.R.C.S. KingwiUianisiown. A. W. Roberts, D.Sc, F.R.A.S., F.R.S.E. Kimberley. \. F. Williams, R.Sc. Port Elisabeth. W. A. Way, M.A. Middelburg. A. Stead, B.Sc, F.C.S. Stellenbosch. I'rof. E. J. GoDDARD, B.A., D.Sc. II. TRANSVAAL. J ohannesburg. P. Cazalet. W. Elsdon-Dew, M.I.E.E. .S. Etans. F. Flowers, C.E., F.R.G.S., F.R.A.S. J. A. Fgote, F.G.S., F.E.I.S. T. Kirklaxd, M.E., M.Am. I.E. E. "Prof. T. Our, B.Sc, -M.I.C.E. Prof. G. II. Stanley. .\.R.S.-M., iM I.M.E., iM.I.M.M., F.I.C. Pretoria.' T. E. Adamson, M..\. Prof. W. A. Macfadven, M.A.. LL.D. A. K. Haagner. F.Z.S. F". E. Kanthack, M.I.C.E., M.I.M.E. 1). Kehoe, M.R.C.V.S. Prof. D. F. DU ToiT Malherbe, M.A., Ph.D. • E. T. Mellor, D.Sc, F.G.S., M.I.M.M. J. L. Soutter. Potchefstroom. F. G. Tyers, M.A. III. ORANGE FREE ST.VTE. Bloemfontein. Prof. T. M. Forsyth, M.A., D.Phil. Dr. W. Johnson, L.R.C.P., L.R.CrS. Prof.- G., Potts. M.Sc, Ph.D. IV. NATAL. Pietermaritsburg. Dr. J. Hyslop, D.S.O., M.B., CM. V. RHODESIA. Bulaivayo. * Rev. S. S. DoRNAN, M.A. F.G.S. VI. MOZAMBIQUE. S. Seruya. • ' TRUSTEES. Endowment Fund. J. W. Jagger, F.S.S., M.L.A. \V. RuNciMAN, M.L.A. .\. D. R. Tugwell. S.A. Medal Fund- W. E. Gurney. , ^ Sir T. Muir, Kt.. C.M.G., M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., F.RS.E ^ ^^ .^ W. Thomson, M.A., B.Sc. LL.D., F.R.S.E. CONSTITUTION OF THE South African Association for the Advancement of Sciknce. [As aniouhd at the TliirtccntJi Anunal Mectiiii^ at Pretoria, 1915 A I.— OBJECTS. The objects of the Association are: — To give a stronger impulse and a more systematic direction to scientific enquiry; to promote tlie intercourse of societies and individuals interested in Science in ditferent parts of South Africa ; to obtain a more general attention to the objects of pure and applied Science, and the removal of any disadvantages of a public kind which may impede it'^ i)rogres^. jr.— MEMBERSHIP. (rt) All persons interested in the objects of the Association are eligible for ^Membership. {^b) The Association shall consist of (a) Life Members, (b) Ordinary Members (both of whom shall be included under the term ** Members"), and (c) Temporary ^Members, elected for a session, hereinafter called " Associates." (c) jMembers and Associates shall be elected directly by the Council, but Associates may also be elected by Local Committees Members may also be elected by a majority of the Members of Council resident in that centre at which the n&r.t ensuing session is to be held. {d) The Council shall have the power, by a two-thirds vote, to remove the name of anyone whose Membership is no longer desirable in the interests of the Association. IIL-PRIMLEGES OF MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES (a) Life ATembers shall be eligible for all offices of the Association, and shall receive gratuitously all ordinary publica- tions issued by the Association. (h) Ordinary Members shall be eligible for all offices of the Association, and shall receive gratuitously all ordinary publica- tions issued by the Association during the year of their admission.. and during the years in which they continue to pay, zvithout inter- mission, their Annual Subscription. (c) Associates are eligible to serve on the Reception Com- mittee, but are not eligible to hold any other office, and they arc not entitled to receive gratuitously the publications of the Asso- ciation. (rf) Members may purchase from the Association (for the purpose of completing their sets) any of the Annual Reports, of the Association, at a price to be fixed upon by the Council. CONSTITUTION'. Ill IV.— SUBSCRIPTIONS. (a) Every Life Member shall pay, on admission as such, the sum of Ten Pounds. {b) Ordinary Members shall pay, on election, an Annual Subscription of One Pound. Subsequent Annual Subscriptions shall be payable on the first day of July in each year. (c) An Ordinary Member may at any time become a Life Member by one payment of Ten Pounds in lieu of future Annual Subscriptions. An Ordinary Member may, after ten years, pro- vided that his subscriptions have been paid regularly without intermission, become a Life Member by one payment of Five Pounds in lieu of future Annual Subscriptions. (d) The Subscription for Associates for a Session shall be Fifteen Shillings. v.— MEETINGS. The Association shall meet in Session Annually. The place of meeting shall be appointed by the Council as far in advance as possible, and the arrangements for it shall be entrusted to the Local Committee, in conjunction with the Council. VI.— COUNCIL. (a) The Management of the afitairs of the Association shall be entrusted to a Council, five to form a quorum. (b) The Council shall consist of the President., Retiring President, four Vice-Presidents, two General Secretaries and a General Treasurer, together with one Member of Council for every twenty Members of the Association. (c) The President, A' ice-Presidents, General Secretaries and General Treasurer shall be nominated at a meeting of Council not later than two months previous to the Annual Session, and shall be elected at the Annual General Meeting. (d) Ordinary Alembers of Council to represent centres having more than 20 Alembers shall, not later than one month prior to the Annual Session of the Association, be elected by each such Centre, in the proportion of one representative for everv twenty Members. The Annual General Meeting shall elect other Ordinary Members of Council, in number so as to give, together with the Members of Council already elected by the Centres, in all, one AJember of Council for every twenty Members of the Association. {€) The Council shall have the power to co-opt Members, not exceeding five in number, from among the Members of the Association resident in that Centre at which the next ensuing Session is to be held. (/) In the event of a vacancy occurring in the Council, or among the Officers of the Association, in the intervals between the Annual Sessions, or in the event of the Annual Meeting leav- ing vacancies, the Council shall have the power to fill such vacancies. IV COUNCIL. (g) During any Session of the Association the Council shall meet at least twice, and the Council shall meet at least six times during the year, in addition to such ]\Ieetings as may be necessary during the Annual Session of the Association. (h) The Council shall have the power to pay for the services of Assistant General Secretaries, for such clerical assistance as it may consider necessary, and for such assistance as may be needed for the publication of the Association Report or Journal. (i) The Council shall have power to frame Bye-laws to facili- tate the practical working of the Association, so long as "these Bye-laws are not at variance with the Constitution. -■J < VII.— LOCAL AND RECEPTION COMMITTEES. ' (a) A Local Committee shall be constituted for the Centre •at which the Annual Session is to be held, and shall consist of the Members of the Council resident in that Centre, with such other Members of the Association as the said ^^lembers of Council may elect. (b) The Local Committee shall form a Reception Committee to assist in making arrangements for the reception and entertain- ment of visitors. Such Reception Committee may include per- sons not necessarily ^Members or Associates of the Association.* (c) The Local Committee shall he responsible for all ex- penses in connection with the Annual Session of tlie Association VIIL— HEADQUARTERS. The Headquarters of the Association shall be in Cape Town. IX.— FINANCE. (a) The Financial Year shall end on the 31st of May. (b) All sums received for Life Subscriptions and for Entrance Fees shall be invested in the names of three Trustees appointed by the Council, and only the interest arising from such investment shall be applied to the uses of the Association, except by resolution of a General [Meeting ; provided that any com- position fee as a Life Member paid over to the Trustees of the Endowment Fund after the 30th day of May, 1914, may, upon the death of such Member, be repaid by the Trustees to the General Account of the Association, if the Council shall so decide. * The Reception Committee should make arrangements to provide : — (1) A large hall for the delivery of the Presidential Address and evening lectures. (2) A large room to be used as a Reception Room for members and others, at which all information regarding the Association can be obtained, and ^^'hich shall have attached to it two Secretaries' Offices, a Writing Room for members and others, a Smoking Room, and Ladies' Room. (3) Four rooms, each capable of accommodating about 30 or 40 people, to be used as Sectional Meeting Rooms, and, if possible, to have rooms attached, or in close proximity, for the purpose of holding meetings of Sectional Committees. (4) Other requirements, such as office furniture, blackboards, window blinds to darken sectional meeting rooms for Lantern lectures, notice boirds, etc. COXSTITUTION. V (c) The T.ocal Committee of the Centre in which the next ensuing Session is to be held shall have the power to expend money collected, or otherwise obtained in that Centre, other than the subscriptions of Members. Such disbursements shall be audited, and the financial statement and the surplus funds for- warded to the (jeneral Treasurer within one month after the Annual Session. [ d) All cheques shall be signed by the General Treasurer and a General Secretary, or by such other person or persons as may be authorised by the Council. iri "^Mienever the l)alance in the hands of the Treasurer shall exceed the sum requisite for the probable or current ex- penses of the Association, the Council shall invest the excess in the names of the Trustees. (/) ( )n the request of the majority of the Members of Council of any Centre in which two or more Members of Council reside, the Council shall empower the local Members of Council in that Centre to expend sums not exceeding in the aggregate lo per centum of the amount of Annual Subscriptions raised in that Centre. ((/' The whole of the accounts ' of the Association, i.e., the local as well as the general accounts, shall be audited annually by an auditor a])pointed by the Council, and the balance-sheet shall be submitted to the Council at the first meeting thereafter,, and be printed in the Annual Report of the Association. X.— SECTIONS OF THE ASSOCL\TION. The Scientific Work of the Association shall be transacted under such sections as shall be constituted from time to time by the Council, and the constitution of such Sections shall be pub- lished in the Journal. The Sections shall deal with the following Sciences and such others as the Council may add thereto from time to time : — Agri- culture; Anthropology and Ethnology. Archaeology; /Vrchitec- ture ; Anatomy ; Astronomy ; Bacteriology ; Botany ; Chemistry ; Education ; Engineering ; Eugenics ; Geodesy and Surveying ; Geography. Geology and Mineralog)- ; Irrigation ; Mathematics ; Mental Science ; Meteorolog}- ; Philology ; Physics ; Physiology ; Political Economy ; Sanitary Science ; Sociology ; Statistics, Zoology. XI.— RESEARCH COM^HTTEES. (fl) Grants may be made by the Association to Committees or to individuals for the promotion of Scientific research. (b) Every proposal for special research, or for a grant of money in aid of special research shall primarily be considered by the Sectional Committee dealing with the science specially con- cerned, and if such proposal be approved, shall be referred to the Council. (c) A Sectional Committee may recommend to Council the appointment of a Research Committee, composed of Members of VI RESEARCH COMMITTEES. the Association, to conduct research or to administer a grant in aid of research. (d) In recommending the appointment of Research Com- mittees, the Sectional Committee shall specifically name all Mem- bers of such Committees ; and one of them, who has notified his willingness to accept the ofiice, shall be appointed to act as Secre- tary. The number of Members appointed to serve on a Research Committee shall be as small as is consistent with its efficient working. (c) All recommendations adopted by Sectional Committees shall be forwarded without delay to the Council for considera- tion and decision. (/) Research Committees shall be appointed for one year only, but if the work of a Research Committee cannot be com- pleted in that year, application may be made, through a Sectional Committee, at the next Annual Session for re-appointment, with or without a grant — or a further grant — of money. (g) Every Research Committee, and every individual, to whom a grant had been made, shall present to the following Annual INIeeting a report of the progress which has been made, together with a statement of the sums which have been expended. Any balance shall be returned to the General Treasurer. (/?) In each Research Committee, the Secretary thereof shall be the only person entitled to call on the Treasurer for such por- tions of the sums granted as may from time to time be required. XII.— SPECIAL COMMITTEES. The Council shall have power to appoint Special Committees to deal with such subjects as it may approve, to draft regulations for any such Committees, and to vote money to assist the Committees in their work. XIII.— SECTIONAL COMMITTEES. (a) The Sectional Committees shall consist of a President, two Vice-Presidents, two or more Secretaries, and such other persons as the Council may consider necessary, who shall be elected by the Council. Of the Secretaries, one shall act as Recorder of the Section, and at least one shall be resident in the Centre where the Annual Session is to be held. (b) From the time of their election, which shall take place as soon as possible after the Session of the Association, they shall form themselves into an organising Committee for the purpose of obtaining information upon Papers likely to be submitted to the Sections, and for the general furtherance of the work of the Sectional Committees. (c) The Sectional Committees shall have power to add to their number from among the Members of the Association. (d) The Committees of the several Sections shall determine the acceptance of Papers before the beginning of the Session, keeping the General Secretaries informed from time to time of their work. It is therefore desirable, in order to give an oppor- (OXSTirUTlOX. vP tnnity to the Committees of doing justice to the several communi- cations, that each author should prepare an Abstract of his Paper, and he should send it, together with the original Paper, to the Secretary of the Session before which it is to be read, so that it may reach him at least a fortnight before the Session. (e) Members may communicate to the Sections the Papers of non-members. (7) The Author of any Paper is at liberty to reserve his right of property therein. (g) The Sectional Committees shall meet not later than the hrst day of the Session in the Rooms of their respective Sections, and prepare the programme for their Sections and forward the same to the General Secretaries for publication. {Ii) The Council cannot guarantee the insertion of any Report, Paper or Abstract in the Annual A'olume unless it be handed to the Secretary before the conclusion of the Session. (i) The Sectional Committees shall report to the Council what Reports. Papers or Abstracts it is thought advisable to print, but the final decision shall rest with the Council. XIV.— ALTERATION TO RULES. Any proposed alteration of the Rules — a. Shall be intimated to the Council three months before the next Session of the Association. b. Shall be duly considered by the Council and com- municated by Circular to the ^lembers of the Association for their consideration, and dealt with at the said Session of the Association. During the interval between two Annual Sessions of the Association, any alterations proposed to be made in the Rules shall be valid if agreed to by two-thirds of the Members of Council. Such alteration of Rules shall not be permanently incorporated in the Constitution until approved by the next Annual Meeting. XV.— VOTING. In voting for Members of Council, or on cjuestions con- nected with Alterations to Rules, absent jMembers may record their vote in writing. RULES FOR THE AWARD OF ^lEDALS. A. The South Africa Medal. I. COXSTITUTIOX OF COMMITTEE. (a) The Council of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science shall, annually and within three month« after the close of the Annual Session, elect a Committee to be called " the South Africa Medal Committee "' on which, as far as possible, every Section of the Association and each Province of South Africa shall have fair representation. Vm RULES FOR THE AWARD OF MEDALS. ( b) This Committee shall consist of eight Members elected from amongst Council Members, together with four other Mem- bers, selected from amongst Members of the Association who are not on the Council. ( c ) Each new Committee shall retain not less than four mcmljers who have served on the previous Committee. ( d ) The Chairman of the Committee shall be appointed annually by the Council from amongst its Members. ( c ) Any casual vacancy in the Committee shall be filled by the Council. IT — Duties. ( a ) The duties of the Committee shall be to administer the Income of the Fund and to award the Medal, raised in com- memoration of the visit of the British Association to South Africa in 1905, in accordance with the resolution of its Council. i^b) Tliis resolution reads as follows: — ( 1 ) That, in accordance with the wishes of subscribers, the South Africa Medal Fund be invested in the names of the Trustees appointed by the South African Association for the Advancenent of Science. (2) That the Dies for the Medal be transferred to the Association, to wdiich, in its corporate capacity, the administration of the Fund and the award of the Medal shall be, and is hereby, entrusted, under the conditions specified in the Report to the Medal Com- mittee. (c) The terms of conveyance are as follows: — (i) That the Fund he devoted to the preparation of a Die for a Medal, to be struck in Bronze, 2^ inches in diameter ; and that the balance be invested and the annual income held in trust. (2) That the Medal and income of the Fund be awarded by the South African Association for the Advance- ment of Science for achievement and promise in scientific research in South Africa. (3) That, so far as circumstances admit, the award be made annually. (d) The British Association has expressed a desire that the award shall be made only to those persons whose Scientific work is likely to be usefully continued by them in the future. III.— Awards. (a) Any indi\idual engaged in Scientific research in South Africa shall be eligible to receive the award. (b) The Medal and the available balance of one year's income from the Fund shall be awarded to one candidate only in each year (save in the case of joint research) ; to any candidate once only; and to no member of the Medal Committee. (c) Nominations for the recipient of the award nay be made bv anv member of the South African Association for the CONSTITUTION'. IX Advancement of Science, and shall be submitted to the Medal Committee not later than six months after the close of the Annual Sofesion. '■(d) The Medal Committee shall recommend the recipient of the award to the Council, provided the recommendation is carried by the vote of at least a majority of three-fourths of its Members, voting verbally or by letter, and submitted to the Council at least one month prior to the Annual Session for con- firmation. (e) The award shall be made by the full Council of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science after considering- the recommendations of the Medal Committee, pro- vided it is carried by the vote of a majority of its Members, given in writing or verballv. * / ) The Council shall have the right to withhold the award in any year, and to devote the funds rendered available thereby, in a subsequent award or awards, provided the stipulation con- tained in the second term of conveyance of the British Associa- tion is adhered to. (g) No alteration shall be made in these Rules except under the condition specified in Rule XIV. of the Association's Con- stitution, reading: — Any proposed alteration of the Rules — a. Shall be intimated to the Council three months before the next Session of the Association. b. Shall be duly considered by the Council, and be com- municated by circular to the Members of the Associa- tion for their consideration, and dealt with at the said Session of the Association. (h) Should a Member of the Medal Committee accept nomination for the Award or be absent from South Africa at any time within four months before the commencement of the ensuing Annual Session, he will ipso facto forfeit his seat on the Committee. B. The Goold- Adams Medals. {a) The Aledals shall be awarded on the joint results of the Matriculation and University Senior Certificate Examinations of the University of the Cape of Good Hope. (b) One Medal shall be awarded to the student who has taken the highest place in each of the seven Science subjects ; (i) Physics, (2) Chemistry. (3) Elementary Physical Science, (4) Botany. (5) Zoology. (6) Elementary Natural Science, and (7) Mathematics, as set forth in the University Matriculation Examination and the University Senior Certificate Examination ; and who is not over the prescribed age for Exhibitions at the Matriculation Examination. (c) The standard of marks shall be not less than 65 per cent, of the maximum. (d) The Medals shall be struck in bronze. (c') The first awards shall be made on the results of the 1910 examinations. X BYE-LAWS Under which the O.F.S. Philosophical Society 2vas incorporated, from 1st July, 1914, zvith the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, witJi the designation of " The Orange Free State Branch " of the Association. 1. The O.F.S. Philosophical Society to be incorporated with the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, this being the only course of procedure open under the existing Constitution. 2. The title of the Society so incorporated to be " The Orange Free State Branch of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science." 3. All members of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science resident in the Orange Free State will, for purposes of these bye-laws, be considered members of the Orange Free State Branch of the .Vssociation. 4. The local Committee of the Branch to consist of the Council members of the Association for the Orange Free State, together with such additional members as the Branch may elect to serve on its local Committee. 5. Subscription notices to meml)ers of the Branch to be cir- culated from the Head Office of the Association in Capetown, and subscriptions to be paid to the General Treasurer of the Association at Capetown, 10 per cent, thereof being remitted to the Orange Free State Branch for local expenses. Subscriptions of £1 per annum to entitle to memljership of the xAssociation as a whole, as well as of the Orange Free State Branch. 6. All members at present on the books of the Orange Free State Philosophical Society to be entitled to become members of the Association, to receive its Journal, and to enjoy the full privi- leges of membership, as soon as their subscription of £1 for the financial year 1914-15 shall have been paid. 7. Papers read before the Orange Free State Branch may either (i) be printed by title, abstract, or in exfenso. in the Jour- nal of the Association for the current year, after reference to the Presidents of the respective Sectional Committees, or (2) be read at the next Annual Session of the Association (provided that they have not been previously published in abstract or /;; extenso), and thereafter printed in the Association's Journal, swbject to the ordinary conditions. PLACES AND DATES OF PAST MEETINGS, ETC. XI (^ 42 s •"2 a; ~ o to «o C3> •3 ^ 5 ^ s =»i Oo «3 "(3 0^ ;i^ u l-j • lp-4 o \ fS; Ui a: < a C/3 "5 1- < § U fa o ^ tii P^ CO t/J 'J <■ (A 1-5 -J < o u u 0 Q o _l 5 . -■J 5 1 c d'^' u « 1^ :j; 3; y-~. r^ >• -^ w ' ' , J- — -- ' — ■--- ~- ^ • • : : ■ : : ■ ■ • • ^ • •^ • • :« : :y : : :a \ I •^■ -^; : _• fa A • c/i \ '.'ji '. . Ivi ■^_ v! . X >J |pi ' ' -y . ' ' cd • • ^ ^ '■^M • tl| • • ',' » • . , • : ^fau r-r :t/5 ; ~- 72 ; i^Ti • « ''"^ ■A i^'j^" s .« :^s; : :^.« ' "^ ^> • '^. f=i J 1- wWfe • I— ( - ■ • ^ r^" • "fafa z ^^ r ! '^ - ! '■ ^ r , ' s . , 111 Q CO -.'^ •^'J c/} cj ,'\ r^ ■A -A a cc a. UJ ;^r^. ' *< , :S^ «K^. ^ p^-^-" .i<5 .ili ^■^t; < ^^<<^ > 4=1 ■T. ■A6% 00 0 i ^&l ^1^1 .3 (/; ••^ uT-^ •' . • ".^ . " n^ - ^ » ta c ,- 0 s- =f^ Ji 5-rfa 5 a -^ fa --V X. — "7 >> ? ■i C = •= '-^^ 1— ij;'^ 4. o u5 i. OJ ■*-' *T" ^ S CjISt) U • c n 3 «1 . S ^. ST ^^'of Sh^.S ■p pn (Uf— . ■J p^-.s-B . .— -^ r . " rt — c 1— ,— .T. '-• Ul 'T. fH C ^.X Hi CJ r^'J^i- C '— ^ti I \ ; wi • • P^' ; • fr! eq :ij V3 ^ ^'4 l-H 0 * «a :s" S • 0 ^.^ "^ ^ -00" l_, 0 « — i' CO (J ^ o, *"• 6C _>> ^J "• 1- z UJ a CO -< fa . 1=^ S l-l w. UJ ^y* ^ U « w S hJ J 0. ►* o C-i ^ 1 ' 1, 3c3 C/2S W 0 fa"" " *-< < 0 c 0 2; r/: c Xll PLACES AND DATES OF PAST MEETINGS, ETC. WC/i :-§ : — . eM_ r tr. i-i <; l; w« ^ t+M o a: C u H K H < 3iU q •c FM . Cfi U ^?.i fc ,< , o p fu •c d o X '-!.< < 5 c < < Q i-J O O c z o < c u < e5 •LT! d < c B Z d « S cU _ I— . o I-! ""_ ^ 'C p ill < pq c n! o w . . . '. ' ! ; ; 1 ; • • ; ! ; i ." ! : : : • ; ; : : ; ''. '. ''. M : : w" '■ '■ c« : : t/i : « :cfi « :t«" h :d fe :d - :« D.Sc, .S. .. ., F.R D.Sc. C.S... S., F. ^^,fe ^6 < - .vi X -On 3 o S . c :.<;? n o t-1 o Is pa < u •a o c K W3 H Pi cq O w w a ^ w < «■ E .2 •"' S 5 CO fe. crj pi d Q 5 Ch 6 l-n' f- o !1h iJ-i O s « . r W tJ K : : ■ •/; : ■< Wpr&i CuCrA.<. w c/i Pii fe t- On - M c« , < in « .rC' fe -. t/f < w a: c PS f5 C pi. PRESIDENTS AND SECRETARIES OF THE SECTIONS. XIII Presidents and Secretaries of the Sections of the Association. Date and Place. Presidents- Secretaries- SECTION A.— ASTRONOMY. CHEMISTRY. MATHEMATICS. METEOROLOGY AND PHYSICS. 1903. Cape Town . . Prof. P. D. Hahn, M.A., ; Prof. L. Crawford. Ph.D. ; 190.1. Johannesburg* J. R. Wilhanis. M.I.M.M., '■ W. Cnllen, R. T. A Innes. M.Amer.T.^r.E. J. R. Sutton. M.A. W. Gasson. A. H. T. Bourne. E. N. Neville, F.R.S., D. P. Reid, G. S. "Bishop. F.R.A.S., F.C.S. i A. W. Roberta. D.Sc. , D. Williams, G. S. Bishop. F.R.A.S., F.R.S.E. IQ06. Kimberley 1907. Natalf . . . 1908- Grahamstown ASTRONOMY. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS. ^lETEOROLOGY. GEODESY. SURVEYING, ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND GEOGRAPHY. 1909- Bloemfontein Prof. W. A. D. Rudge. H. B. Austin, F. Masev. M.A. igio- Cape Town $ Prof. J. C. Beatiie, D.Sc, A. H. Reid, F. Flowers. F.R.S.E. K)Ti. Bulawavo .. ' Rev. E. Goetz, S.J., A. H. Reid, Rev. S. S. Dor- M.A.. F.R.A.S. nan. 1912. Port Elizabeth H. J. Holder, ^I.I.E.E. A. H. Reid. 1913. Lourengo J. H. von Hafe. 1 Prof. J. Orr, J. Vaz Gomes. Marques I 1914. Kimberley . . Prof. A. Ogg. .ALA.. B.Sc, ' Prof. A. Brown. A. E. H. Din- Ph.D. ham-Peren. 1915. Pretoria .. 1 F. E. Kantliack, ALLCE.. Prof. A. Brown. T. L. S Pretoria Rev. W. Flint, D.D. G. Duthie, M.A., F.R.S.E. W. A. Way, M.A. J. A. Foote, F.G.S. Prof. W. Ritchie, M.A. J. E. Adamsoii, M.A. G. C. Grant, Rev. W. A. Norton. G. B. Kipps, W. E. C. Clarke. G. B. Kipps. W. J. Shepherd. G. B. Kinos, E. G. Bryant. H. Pirn, }. Elvas. Prof. R. D. Xauta. A. H. J. Bourne. Prof. R. D. Nauta, R. G. L. Austin. XVI PRESIDENTS AND SECRETARIES OF THE SECTIONS. EVENING DISCOURSES. Date and Place. Lecturer. Subject of Discourse- 1903. Cape Town . . Prof. ^^^ S. Logeman, The Ruins of PersepoHs and B.A., L.H.C. how the Inscriptions were read. 1904. Johannesburg H. S. Hele-Shaw, LL.D., Road Locomotion — Present F.R.S.. M.I.C.E. and Future. 1906. Kimberley Prof. R. A. Lehfeldt, B.A.. The Electrical Aspect of D.Sc. Chemistry. W. C. C. Pakes. L.R.C.P., The Immunisation against M.R.C.S.. D.P.H.. F.T.C. Disease of JNIicrn- organic Origin. 1907- Alaritzburg . . R. T. A. Innes, F.R.A.S., Some Recent Problems in F.R.S.E. Astronomy. Durban . . . . Prof. R. B. Young, M.A., The Heroic Age cf South B.Sc, F.R.S.E., F.G.S. African GeoIog\'. . 1908. Grahamstown Prof. G. E. Cory, M.A. The Flistory of the Eastern Province. A Theiler, C.M.G. Tropical and ,Sub-tropical Diseases of Soutli Africa: their Causes and I'ropaga- tion. 1909. Bloemfontein C. F. Juritz, M.A., D.Sc, Celestial Chemistry. F.T.C. W. Cullen. Explosives: their Ivfanufac- turc and Use. Maseru . . . . R. T. A. Innes, F.R.A.S.. F.R.S.E. Astronomy. 19 ID. Cape Town . . 191 1. Bulawayo 1912. Port Elizabeth 1913. 1914. Lourengo Marques Kimberley 1915. Pretoria Prof. H. Bohle. M.I.E.E. J. Brown, M.D., CM., F.R.C.S., L.R.C.S.E. W. H. Logeman, M.A. A. AV. Roberts, D.Sc, F.R.A.S.. F.R.S.E. Prof. E. J. Goddard, B.A., D.Sc. S. Seruya. Prof. E. H. L. Schwarz, A.R.C.S., F.G.S. E. T. Mellor, D.Sc, F.G.S., M.I.M.M. C. W. Mally, M.Sc, F.E.S., F.L.S. The Conquest of the Air. Electoral Reform — Prapor- tional Representation. The Gyroscope. Imperial Astronomy. . Antarctica. The history of Portuguese conquest and discovery. The Kimberley Mines, their discover}', and their rela- tion to other volcanic ,yents in South Africa. The gold bearing conglomer- ates of the Witwatersrand. The House fly under Soutli . African conditions. XVll GENERAL MEETINGS AT PRETORIA. On Monday, July 5. at 3 p.m., the Association was officially welcomed by His Worship the Mayor of Pretoria (Mr. A. Johnston, J. P.) in the General Assembly Hall, Transvaal Uni- versity College. On Tuesday, July 6, at 2 p.m.. Members of the Association were received by Sir Arnold Theiler, K.C.M.G., D.Sc, Director of Veterinary Research, at the Government Bacteriological Laboratory, Onderstpoort. At 8.15 p.m. the Association attended a reception by the Mayor and Mayoress of Pretoria, in the Town Hall, when Mr. R. T. A. Innes, F.R.A.S., F.R.S.E., took the chair as President, and delivered an address, for which see page i . A vote of thanks was accorded to the President by acclamation, on the motion of the Rev. Dr. Flint. The President then presented the South Africa Medal and grant to Dr. C. F. Juritz, for conveyance to Mr. C. P. Lounsbury, B.Sc, F.E.S., who had left for Australia. For the proceedings, see page xxxii. On Wednesday, July 7, at 3.30 p.m., Members of the Asso- ciation attended a Reception by the Mayor, Mayoress, and Town Council of Pretoria in the Zoological Gardens. At 8.15 p.m., in the Town Hall, Dr. E. T. Mellor, D.Sc, F.G.S., M.I.M.M., delivered a discourse on " The Gold-bearing conglomerates of the Witwatersrand," Mr. F. E. Kanthack, Director of Irrigation, presiding. On Thursday, July 8, at 10.30 a.m., the Thirteenth Annual General Meeting was held in the General Assembly Hall, Trans- vaal University College, for minutes of whicii see page xx. At 1.48 p.m. Members proceeded on excursions to the Water- works at Fountains Valley, the Union Buildings and Plant Pathologist's Station, the Governor-General's residence and Eastern Sports Ground, and the Transvaal Museum. At 8,15 p.m. Members attended a Reception given by the Reception Committee, assisted by the Biological Society, in the Town Hall. On Friday, July 9, at 2.30 p.m., excursions took place to the Municipal Abattoirs, the Sewage Outfall Works, the late Pre- sident Kruger's residence, statue, and grave. At 4.30 p.m. Members visited the Municipal Fire Station, where a special demonstration by the Fire Brigade was given. On Saturday, July 10, at 8.15 a.m., Members proceeded to Johannesburg and visited the Crown Mines, Ltd., after which they were entertained at luncheon l)y the Chairman and Directors. They subsequently proceeded on an excursion round the suburbs of 'Johannesburg by special tramcar. At 7.45 Members left Pretoria for Potchefstroom, on a visit to the Government School of Agriculture and Experiment Farm. On Monday, July 12, in the Town Hall, Pretoria, Mr. C. W. Mally, M.Sc, F.E.S., F.L.S., delivered a discourse on " The House Fly under South African conditions," Dr. J. J. Boyd, Medical Officer of Health, presiding. B XVIU OFFICERS OF LOCAL AND SECTIONAL COMMITTEES, PRETORIA, 1915. LOCAL COMMITTEE. Chairman, Sir A. Theiler, K.C.M.G., D.Sc. ; J. E. Adam- son, M.A., G. W. Herdman, M.A., MJ.C.E., A. K. Haagner, F.Z.S., F. E. Kanthack, MT.C.E., MT.M.E., D. Kehoe, M.R.C.V.S., Prof. W. A. Macfadyen, M.A., LL.D., Prof. D. F. du Toit Malherbe, M.A., Ph.D., J. L. Soutter. Local Secretary, E. Hope Jones. RECEPTION COMMITTEE. Chairman, His Worship the Mayor of Pretoria (Councillor Andrew Johnston, J. P.) ; the Deputy Mayor (Councillor CM. de Vries) ; Councillors R. A. Kerr, J. J. Leggett, M. G. Nichol- son, W. Nivison, M. Simon and Sir }. van Boeschoten, Kt. ; Rev. H. S. Bosnian, B.A., Dr. J. J. Boyd, Rev. A. Burnett, Dr. H. Davies, The Very Rev. the Dean of Pretoria, Dr. F. V. Engelen- burg, J. H. L. Findlay, F. W. Jameson, H. C. Jorissen, J. Barclay Lloyd, C. Maggs, H. L. Malherbe, E. Rooth, H. RoseTnnes, J. Rissik, Dr. H. P. Veale, M.B., C.B., T. N. de Villiers, Hon. Sir J. W. Wessels, B.A., LL.B., T. C. Wolley-Dod ; J. H. Venning, Hon. Secretary. SECTIONAL COMMITTEES. Section A.— ASTRONOMY, MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, METEOROLOGY, GEODESY, SURVEYING, ENGIN- EERING, ARCHITECTURE, AND IRRIGATION. President, F. E. Kanthack, M.I.C.E., M.I.M.E.; Vice- Presidents, G. W. Herdman, M.A., M.I.C.E., and Prof. J. Orr, B.Sc, M.l.C.^..; Members, Prof. R. H. Charters, M.I.C.E., Prof. P. G. Gundry, B.Sc, Ph.D., A.R.C.S., Prof. R. A. Lehfeldt, B.A., D.Sc, Prof. A. Ogg, M.A., B.Sc, Ph.D., A. H. Reid, F.R.I.B.A., F.R.San.L, A. W. Roberts, D.Sc, F.R.A.S., F.R.S.E., and H. E. Wood, M.Sc, F.R.Met.S. ; Hon. Secretaries, Prof. A. Brown, M.A., B.Sc, F.R.S.E. {Recorder), and J. L. Soutter. Section B.— CHEMISTRY, GEOLOGY, METALLURGY, MINERALOGY AND GEOGRAPHY. President, H. Kynaston, M.A., F.G.S.; Vice-Presidents, E. T. Mellor, D.Sc, F.G.S., and Prof. J. A. Wilkinson, M.A., F.C.S. ; Members, C. F. Juritz, M.A., D.Sc, F.I.C, Miss C J. Maurv, Ph.D., Prof. S. J. Shand, D.Sc, Ph.D., F.G.S., Prof. Ol'FICKkS OF THE SECTIONAL COMMITTEES, xix G. H. Stanley, A.R.S.M., M.I.M.E., M.I.M.M., F.I.C,, and Prof. R. B. Young, M.A., D.Sc, F.G.S., F.R.S.E. ; Hon. Secretaries, H. C. I. Tietz, M.A., Ph.D. {Recorder), and Prof. D. F. du Toit Malherbe, M.A., Ph.D. Section C— BACTERIOLOGY, BOTANY, ZOOLOGY, AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY, PHYSIOLOGY, HY- GIENE, AND SANITARY SCIENCE. President, C. P. Lotinsbury, B.Sc, F.E.S. ; Vice-Presidents, I. B. Pole-Evans, M.A., B.Sc, F.L.S., and Sir A. Theiler, K.C.M.G., D.Sc; Members, F. A. Arnold, M.B., D.P.H., L.S.A., T. Biirtt-Davy, F.L.S,, FR.G.S.. A. Holm, D. Kehoe, M.R.C.V.S., Prof. R. Marloth, M.A., Ph.D.. Prof. G. Potts, M.Sc, Ph.D., Prof. H. A. Wager, A.R.C.S. ; Hon, Secretaries, C. W. Mally, M.Sc, F.E.S. , F.L.S. (Recorder), and A. K. Haagner, F.Z.S. Section D.— ANTHROPOLOGY, ETHNOLOGY, EDUCA- TION, HISTORY, MENTAL SCIENCE, PHILOLOGY, POLITICAL ECONOMY, SOCIOLOGY, AND STATIS- TICS. President, J. E. Adamson. M.A. ; Vice-Presidents, W. E. C. Clarke, M.A., and Prof. W. A. Macfayden, M.A., LL.D. ; Mem- bers. A. H. I. Bourne, M.A., Dr. F. V. Engelenburs:, J. A. Foote, F.G.S., F.E.LS.. Prof. T. M. Forsyth, M.A., D.Phil., G. T. Morice, B.A., K.C., H. Pirn, B.A., F.C.A., Prof. W. Ritchie, M.A., Miss Bertha Stoneman, D.Sc, and Miss M. Wilman ; Hon. Secretaries, Prof. R. D. Nauta (Recorder), and R. G. L. Austin. XX PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRTEENTH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF MEMBERS. {Held in the Transvaal University College, Pretoria, on Thursday, July 8, I9LS-) Present : R. T. A. Innes, F.R.A.S., F.R.S.E. (Presi- dent), in the chair; Messrs. |. E. Adamson, A. Bottomlev, C. K. Brain, Dr. J. Brown." H. T. Burroughs. Prof. R. H. Ghariers. E. H. Clephan. Dr. J.' P. Dalton. G. de Kock. Dr. E. M. Doidge. Miss A. M. H. du Boulav, I. B. Pole Evans, Rev. J. FitzHenry, Rev. Dr. W. FHnt. Mrs. E. Forsyth, Prof.' T. M. Forsyth. H. H. Green. D. Gunn, Miss J. Henderson, (j. W. Herdman, Mrs. A. E. Innes, E. Hope Jones, F. E. Kanthack, ]. A. Kendall. H. C. Kenwav. Prof. W. A. Macfadven, Prof. D." F. du T. Malherbe. C. W. Mally. Adv. G. T. Morice. I). T. Mitchell. Rev. E. W. H. Musselwhite, Rev. W. A. Norton, Prof. J. Orr, Miss G. E. Pollard. A. Roberts, E. M. Robinson, Dr. Jane B. H. Ruthven, Prof. E. H. L. Schwarz, Prof. S. J. Shand, E. Holmes Smith, Mrs. J. F. Solly, A. J. Spanner, Miss S. Stafford, J. D. Stevens. Dr. Bertha Stoneman, G. T- Swierstra, Miss E. L. Teasdale, Sir A. Theiler, P. van der Byi, Miss |. M. van Riet, Prof. H. A. Wager, [. Walker, Prof. J. A. Wilkinson. Miss M. \\'ilman. Dr. C. F. Juritz and H. E. Wood (General Secretaries). A. A\'alsh (General Treasurer), and H. Tucker ( Asst. General Secretary). Minutes. — The Minutes of the Twelfth Annual General Meeting, held at Kimberley on 9th July. 1914. and printed on pp. xix to xxiii of the Report of the Kimberley Session, were confirmed. Annual Report of Council.— The Annual Report of the Council for 1914-15. having been suspended in the Entrance Hall since 6th July, was taken as read, and adopted, on the motion of Rev. Dr. Flint (see p. xxv). Report of General Treasurer and Statement of Accounts for 1914-15. — The General Treasurer's Report and the audited Financial Statements for 1914-15, having been sus- pended in the Entrance Hall since 6th July, were taken as read, and adopted, on the motion of Prof. Malherbe (see p. xxix). Election of Officers for 19 15- 16. — The following officers were elected for 1915-16: — President, Prof. L. Crawford. M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S.E.; Vice-Presidents. Rev. W. Flint, D.D. ; Prof. J. Orr, B.Sc, M.I.C.E.; Sir A. Theiler, K.C.M.G., D.Sc; Prof. B. de St. J. van der Riet, M.A., Ph.D. ; General Secretaries, Dr. C. F. Juritz, M.A., F.I.C, and Mr. H. E. Wood, M.Sc, F.R.Met.S. ; General Treasurer, Mr. A. Walsh. (The retiring President, Mr. R. T. A. Innes, F.R.A.S., F.R.S.E., is a Member of Council, ex officio, for the year.) PROCEEDINGS OF ANNUAL MEETING. xxi Election of Council Members for 191 5-16. — The follow- ing were elected Members of Council for 1915-16: — I. Cape Province. — (i) Cape Peninsula: Dr. A. J. Ander- son, M.A., M.B.. D.P.H.. M.R.C.S.. Prof. A. Brown, M.A., B.Sc. Dr. J. Lunt, F.I.C, Messrs. R. \\'. Menmuir. A.M.I.C.E., and A. H. Reid, F.R.I. B. A., F.R.San. I. (2) Grahamstozvn : Prof. E. H. L. Schwarz, A.R.C.S., F.G.S. (3) Kimberley: Miss M. Wilman. (4) King ]]^iUiaiu's Tozvn: Dr. A. VV. Roberts, F.R.A.S.. F.R.S.E. (5) iM id del burg: Mr. R. W. Thornton. (6) Port Elisabeth: Mr. W. A. Way, M.A. (7) Stellenbosch: Prof. E. Goddard, B.A.. D.Sc. II. Transvaal. — (i) Johannesbwq \ Messrs. J. Burtt- Davy, F.L.S., F.R.G.S., W. A. Caldecott.B.A., D.Sc, F.C.S., P. Cazalet and W. Ingham, M.I.C.E., M.I.M.E., Prof. G. H. Stanley, A.R.S.M., M.I.M.E., M.I.M.M.. F.I.C, Mr. J. A. Vaiighan and Prof. J. A. Wilkinson, M.A., F.C.S. (2) Pretoria: Messrs. 1. B. Pole Evans, M.A., B.Sc, F.L.S., F. E. Kanthack, M.I.C.E., M.I.M.E., D. Kehoe, M.R.C.V.S., and Prof. D. F. du T. Malherbe, M.A., Ph.D. (3) Potchefstroom: Mr. E. Holmes Smith, B.Sc. III. Orange Free St.\te (including Basutoland). — (i) Bloemfontein : Prof. T. M. Forsvth, M.A.", D.Phil, and Dr. VV. A. Johnson. L.R.C.P., L.R.C.S. IV. Natal. — (i) Pietermaritsburg : Prof. W. N. Rose- veare, M.A. V. Rhodesia. — (i) BidazcaYo: Rev. S. S. Dornan. M.A., F.G.S. VI. Mozambique. — (i) Lourcni^o Marques: S. Seruya. Alterations in Constitution. — (i) S.A. Medal Com- mittee : Term of Office. The motion of Prof. Schwarz : " That Sub-Section A I of the Rules for the Award of Medals be amended by the insertion of the following new clause (c) the existing clauses (c) and (d) being re-lettered (d) and {e): — ' One third of the members of this Committee shall retire annually by rotation, but shall be eligible for re-election,' "' was discussed ; and an amendment by Mr. Kanthack was carried, that the new clause (c) should read as follows: " P!ach new Medal Committee shall retain not less than four member.- who have served on the previous Committee " ; and that the decision as to the members to be so retained should be left to the Council." (2) Allocation of Life Membership Subscriptions. — The motions of (a) Dr. Potts: — " That the following clause be added to Section IX {b) of the Constitution, 7'iz., ' Provided that, when Life Membership subscriptions of £5 are received from Members under Section IV (r). £1 los. thereof shall be credited to the year's current income'"; and {b) Mr. Walsh: — "To add to Section IX {b) the following clause, 'provided that any com- position fee as a Life Member paid over to the Trustees of the Endowment Fund after the 30th day of May, 1914. shall, upon XXll PROCEEDINGS OF ANNUA! MEETING. the dealh of such Member, be repaid by the Trustees to the General Account of the Association,' " were discussed; and it was resolved, on the motion of Rev. Dr. Flint, to adopt the motion of Mr. Walsh, subject to the following amendment, vis., that the w^ords " may, if the Council shall so decide," be substituted for the word " shall." Admission of Public to Sectional Meetings. — The motion of Dr. Potts, carried at the last Annual General Meetinc^, that the attention of the incoming- Council be directed to the desirability of admitting the public to Sectional Meetings, wis re-submitted l)y the Council for discussion ; the Council being of opinion that, in view of the importance of the issues involved, the matter should be reserved for the decision of the Annual General Meeting. The following is the memorandum obtained by the Council from Dr. Potts in support of his proposal : — " The attendance is often very small, which is disheartening to everyone, especially the authors of papers, if present. At Section C, in 1914, the average attendance was about three — the President, Secretary, and one other Member, who read the paper for the absent author. " If the public were admitted, it would probably increase the attendance, and might result in the acquisition of new members for the Association. It would also be a further return for the hospitality of the town." On this the Council added the following comment : — " The Council inclines to the view that such a course would deprive local residents of their chief inducement to pay 15s. and become Associate Members for the Session, and would thus reduce the funds available for use by the Local Committee to defray expenses : the sub.scriptions received from Associates being an asset of the Local Committee." On the motion of the Chairman, it was resolved to refer the matter back to the incoming Council for disposal, together with the subjoined further proposals for the conduct of future Sessions, which were submitted by Prof. vShand : — (a) That in future years a list of the papers offered to the Association be issued to Members some time before the com- mencement of the Session. (b) That with this list be issued balloting cards, and that Mem1)crs be asked to return these cards to the Secretary, having indicated upon them, by number, those papers zuJiich they particu- larly desire to hear. (c) That the Council do then scrutinize the balloting cards, and that those papers which shall have received the greatest numbers of votes (the minimum to be at the discretion of the Council) be appointed to be read at General Meetings of all Sections; and that the remaining papers be allocated among the various Sections separately. PROCEEDINGS OF ANNUAL MEETING. XXlll (d) That the Council arranoe the agenda of the next and future meetings of the Association, so that these General Meet- ings of all Sections (including the Presidential Address of each Section) shall have precedence over the Sectional Meetings. Enemy Aliens on Membership Roll. — Mr. H. J. Bur- roughs moved : — " That the names of all enemy aliens be struck off the list of members of the Association, and that steps be taken to amend the bye-laws so that they provide for the future that, in the event of war existing between the British Empire and other countries, citizens or subjects of which are honorar\r mem- bers or members of this Association, such honorary members or members shall, ipso facto, cease their membership." This having been seconded by Mr. Holmes Smith, a dis- cussion ensued, which indicated that the general feeling of the meeting was emphatically opposed to the motion, Science being regarded as international in character, and the idea of investigat- ing the nationality of any supporter of the Association being deplored as undignified and out of place. It was further pointed out that the very few enemy subjects w^ho were members of the Association would, if the war were prolonged, be eliminated in the ordinary course by the fact that they could not pay their subscriptions. The mover, in declining an appeal to withdraw his motion, mentioned that, in the Iron and Steel Institute, a similar motion had been adopted. A vote was taken and the motion was rejected, only three votes being recorded in its favour. Votes of Thanks. — It was proposed by Prof. Orr, and carried by acclamation, that the hearty thanks of the Association be accorded to the following: — (1) To His Worship the Mayor and the City Coun- cillors for the cordial welcome extended to the x\ssociation ; and for all the facilities afforded to the members for visiting local institutions and places of interest ; and also for granting the free use of the Town Hall for the various functions. (2) To His Worship the Mayor and the Mayoress for the most enjoyable Receptions given at the Town Hall and (in conjunction with the Councillors) at the Zoological (jardens. (3) To the Local and Reception Committees, and in particular to their respective Hon. Secretaries, Messrs. E. Hope-Jones and J. H. Venning, for the excellent arrange- ments made for the accommodation of members for the purposes of the Session, and for their general comfort and convenience ; and also for all the willing assistance rendered during the Session. (4) To the Reception Committee and the Biological Society, for the kind invitation given to members to a Reception at the Town Hall. XXIV PROCEEDINGS OF ANNUAL MEETING. (5) To the Council of the Transvaal University Col- lege, for the use of the College Buildings during the Session, and of the Students' Hostel as a place of residence for male members. (6) To the Committee of the Girls' High School, and in particular to Miss Headridge, for the accommodation pro- vided at the North Lodge for lady members. (7) To Sir Arnold Theiler and the Union Department of Agriculture, for the most interesting excursion provided for the members to the Bacteriological Laboratory at On- derstepoort. (8) To Mr. L B. Pole Evans, for granting facilities for visiting the Plant Pathology Station ; and to the Committee of the Transvaal Museum for similar facilities afforded for visiting that Institution. (9) To Mr. A. K. Haagner, Director of the Zoological Gardens, for all the courtesy shown and kindly assistance given to members in connection with their visits to the Zoological Gardens. (10) To the Works Department of the Municipality, and in particular to Mr. Wolley-Dod, Electrical Engineer and Transport Superintendent, for facilities afforded over their tramway system, and the provision of special busses. (11) To the Chairman and Directors of the Crown Mines, Ltd., Johannesburg, for their kind invitation to members to visit the mines on the last day of the Session, and for the hospitality offered in connection therewith. (12) To the Principal of the Government School of Agriculture at Potchefstroom, for the kind invitation given to members to visit that Institution, and for the hospitality offered in connection therewith. (13) To the Pretoria Club, the Country Club, the Pre- toria Golf Club, and the Civil Service Club, for extending the privileges of Honorary Membership to the members during the Session. (14) To the S.A. Railways, and in particular to the Divisional Superintendent, Pretoria, for railway facilities provided during the Session. (15) To Mr. Hafner, Registrar of the Transvaal Uni- versity College, for much willing assistance rendered during the Session. (16) To the local and Johannesburg Press, for their kindly references to the visit of the Association, and for giving publicity to the proceedings of the Session. On the motion of Rev. Dr. Flint, further cordial votes of thanks were accorded to the President, Mr. R. T. A. Innes, the General Secretaries, Dr. C. F. Juritz and Mr. H. E. Wood, and the Asst. General Secretary, Mr. H. Tucker, for all that they had done to promote the success of the Session. XXV REPORT OF THE COUNCIL FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE, 1915. 1. Obituary: Since the last x^nnual Session of the Asso- ciation your Council has had to deplore the decease of Sir George Farrar, Bart., and Captain F. H. Harrison, local Secre- tary at Kimberley during- last Session, both of whom met their death in connection with the military operations in German South-West Africa. 2. Sir Thomas Muir: Your Council desires to record its appreciation of the honour of Knighthood, which His Majesty the King has been pleased to bestow on Dr. Thomas Muir, F.R.S., Superintendent of Education in the Cape Province, who was President of this Association during its meeting at Cape Town in 1910. 3. Membership: The disturbed state of South Africa, due to the war and the late rebellion, is no doubt responsible in part for the fact that the number of new members elected during the last twelve months was only 25 — a figure far below the average. The deaths of four members, including the two whose names have been mentioned above, have been reported during the year, and 53 have resigned, or were removed from the roll of mem- bership on account of non-payment of subscriptions for two years or longer, or because their address is unknown. The Association, therefore, numbered 32 members fewer on the ist July, 191 5, than on the corresponding date of last year. The following table compares the number of members on the Association books on the two dates, and their distribution : — 1914. 1915. Cape Province 218 212 Transvaal 232 216 Orange Free State 35 35 Natal 24 23 Rhodesia 24 20 Basutoland 3 3 Mozambique 24 19 Swaziland i i German South-West Africa 3 2 Abroad 14 15 Unknown I I Total 579 547 4. Life Members: Consequent upon the amendment of Section IV (c) of the Constitution, adopted at the Annual General Meeting at Kimberley on the 9th July, 1914, whereby ordinary members of ten years' standing, who had paid their subscriptions regularly without intermission, acquired the XXVI REPORT OF COUNCIL. privilege of being enrolled as Life Members on payment of £5, there has been a considerable increase of Life Members, of whom there are now 61, as compared with 32 a year ago. 5. Report of Lourenco Marques Meeting, 1913: The tenth Annual volume, comprising the proceedings of the Asso- ciation at Lourengo Marques was completed, as anticipated in last Annual Report, in fourteen issues. The volume consists of 533 pages, and is, therefore, practically identical in size with the Bloemfontein volume of 1909. The tenth volume contains 34 papers printed in full, one in abstract, and three by title only. 6. Report of the Kimrerley Meeting, 1914: This volume is being completed in ten monthly issues, the Council's desire being to commence publication of the Pretoria volume within one month of the present Session. In consequence of this decision the average monthly issues of the Kimberley proceed- ings have been rather more bulky than usual. The volume will be completed with the July issue, and will probably consist of about 484 pages. It will contain 39 papers printed in full, two printed in abstract, and four by title. 7. South Africa Med.\l and Grant, 191 5 : On the recom- mendation of the South Africa Medal Committee, consisting of Prof. L. Crawford, M.A.. D.Sc. F.R.S.E. (Chairman). J. A. Foote, F.G.S., F.E.I.S., Dr. C. F. Juritz, M.A., F.I.C., Prof. J. Orr, B.Sc, M.I.C.E., Prof. G. Potts. M.Sc, Ph.D., Prof. E. H. L. Schwarz, A.R.C.S., F.G.S., Prof. G. H. Stanley, A.R.S.M., M.I.M.E., M.I.M.M., F.I.C.. Sir A. Theiler, K.C.M.G., D.Sc. Prof. R. A. Lehfeldt. B.A., D.Sc, H. B. Maufe, B.A., F.G.S.. Prof. A. Ogg, M.A., B.Sc, Ph.D., and Prof. E. Warren, D.Sc, the eighth award of the South Africa Medal, together with a grant of £50 has been made to Mr. Charles Pugsley Lounsbur>', B.Sc, F.E.S.. Chief of the Division of Entomology, Department of Agriculture. Pretoria. 8. Goold-Adams Medals, 1915: The fifth series of annual awards of the medal presented by H.E. Sir Hamilton Goold- Adams, at present Governor of Queensland, in connection with the Matriculation and Senior Certificate Examinations of the University of the Cape of Good Hope, have been made upon the results of the 1914 examinations. The following are the names of the recipients : — Mathematics: Vincent A. Boulle, Marist Brothers' Col- lege, Uitenhage. Physics : Evert J. Grobbelaar, High School, French Hoek Chemistry : Vincent A. Boulle, Marist Brothers' College. Uitenhage. Physical Science: Noel P. Sellick, Grey Institute, Port Elizabeth. Botany : Margaret Findlay, Girls' High School, WynVierg. RF.rORT OF a)UNCIL. XXVll 9. British Association Delegates: A large number of members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, on their way to attend the AustraHan Meeting, touched at Cape Town in the steamers Ascanius and Euripides during July, 1914. In conjunction with the Royal Society of Souih Africa, your Council did all that was possible, during the short time of the visitors' stay in Cape Town, to entertain them suitably. A cordial message of thanks and appreciation was subsequentlv received by wireless telegraph from Professor H. B. Dixon, on behalf of the British Association members. 10. Legislation Regarding Meteorites : In your Coun- cil's last Annual Report it was announced that the General Secretary of the Association had been commissioned to lay before the British and Australian Associations for the Advance- ment of Science, during his visit to Australia last year, the desirability of united action with a view to legislation relative to the preservation of meteorites in the interests of science. In due course Dr. Juritz secured the adoption of the following reso- lution by the Committees of Sections A and C. of the British Association, and subsequently by the Association's General Com- mittee :* " That in view of the fact that meteorites which con- vey information of world-wide importance, are sometimes disposed of privately, in such a way as to deprive the public of this information, the Council be requested to take such steps as may initiate international legislation on the matter." On return to England the resolution transmitted by the General Committee had been accepted by the Council, and trans- mitted to the International Association of Academies. 11. Presentation by Sir Thomas Muir: Your Council had the gratification recently of accepting from Sir Thomas Muir, Past President of the Association, the generous and valuable gift of a complete set of volumes of Nature, beginning with its first publication in 1870. The Council's sincere acknow- ledgments were expressed to Sir Thomas Muir for so valuable an addition to the Association's Library. 12. Endowment Fund: Owing to the death of Mr. H. M. Arderne and the resignation of the office of Trustee by Prof. J. C. Beattie, to both of whom the Association is deeplv indebted for their services, it devolved upon the Council to appoint two new Trustees of the Endowment Fund. It is with much pleasure that your Council is able to report that Mr. J. W. Jagger, F.S.S., M.L.A., and Mr. W. Runciman, M.L.A., have consented to accept office as Trustees along with Mr. A. D. R. Tugwell, who still continues in office. * Vide Brii. Ass. /'teporl. Australia, (1914) p. Ixiv. XXVm REPORT OF COUNCIL. 13. Research Grants: Your Council has nominated Rev. Dr. W. Flint, Mr. A. H. Reid, Prof. R. Marloth, and Dr. J. Lunt, to represent the Association on the General Committee for Research Grants administered by the Council of the Royal Society of South Africa. 14. Proposed New Sub-Section : Your Council has con- sidered a resolution adopted by the Committee of Section D at the Kimberley Session, to the effect that, in view of the increas- ing interest shown in native subjects, a new sub-section, whose function it would be to deal with African ethnology, education, history, language, and native affairs, should be established. It was decided to leave the matter for the Committee of Section D to deal with according to circumstances at the Pretoria Session. 15. The New Council: On the basis of Membership pro- vided by Section VI (d) of the Association's Constitution, the number of members of Council assigned to the representation of the several districts for the ensuing twelve months should be distributed as follows : — Cape Province : CapePeninsula 5 Grahamstown i Kimberley i Kingwilliamstown i Middelburg i Port Elizabeth i Stellenbosch i Transvaal : Witwatersrand 7 Pretoria 3 Potchefstroom i Orange Free State: (including Basutoland) Bloemfontein 2 Natal : Maritzburg i Rhodesia : Bulawayo i Mosamhique: Lourenqo Marques i 27 XXIX REPORT OF THE HONORARY TREASURER FOR THE YEAR ENDED MAY 31 st. 191 5. In presenting the Account of Revenue and Expenditure and the Balance Sheets of the Society for the year ending May 31st, I beg to report as follows: — The amount received for, current subscriptions shows a shortfall of £70 5s. ; that received for arrear subscriptions, an increase of £17 los., a nett decrease of £52 15s. One of the chief reasons for this decrease is that twenty- eight (28) of our regular subscribers have taken advantage of the new rule re Life Members, and the Funds get no advantage whatever from their subscriptions this year. The Journal has cost a total of £465 14s. lod., l)ut owing to the very generous contribution of £200 by the De Beers Com- pany towards the cost of printing the proceedings of the Kim- berley Meeting, only £265 14s. lod. shows in the Accounts. As requested at the last Annual Meeting, I have given details of the amounts figuring under sundry charges. The total of receipts and disbursements show a loss on the year's working of £35 i8s. id., or, deducting the cost of the May, 1914, Journal referred to last year of £17 7s. 2d., as against £25 i6s. 3d. for 1913/14. Considering the state of the country this may be considered satisfactory. The Endowment Fund has been increased by £140, and now stands at £1,338. During the year the principal amount of this has been invested in 5 per cent. Municipal Bonds, so the interest accruing to General Account will be somewhat increased in the future. , The Medal Fund now stands at £1,429 8s. 5d.. a* slight increase over last year's amount. I trust that some satisfactory arrangements may be made at the Annual Meeting by which the annual income of the Society may not be further reduced by the increase in the number of Life Members under the rules adopted last year. A. Walsh, Hon. Treasurer. June 9th, 1 91 5. XXX GENERAL TREASURER'S ACCOUNT, • re O tv l^ LT. < U3 •-W P o o lo o o\ o (—1 0^ M s o 3 fe 13 1- V C C^" rt u u C u 03 rt « oj rt 3 u. c p o W 0) c o o o o o O C ^ O '^ Q W P ;? w < H >^ W H O O o f\ y^ o o U-, -n- rr> W H I — ( Q W X G < W > w CO ro ° 1 In, M li-) w > w • fe o C/1 O rt O C-T3 c rt n TO hJ be -^ C '^ ■ - a m . C "j r a; .t: (U ^H J- ■- .•a •a ■ bfl Pi •a • a be (U m F -5 c/) en . -c -o TO -4— ' ^ p e 1? D U^ o i/j OT3 ^_, C tj c n o < ^ a; Uh 1-^ D. TO -4-i "to 5 O o Q < O o I — I H I— I U o CO en < J?; <; u ! — I < H O in 0\ "2 ^ § < ^ o u ' PS D 5 w Oh X H O CO X W Q ;z; <; w D 2 W > -0-- 2 ■/^::j ° VLJ f^ "^ 0) ^^ (V) lO 00 -^ ^ HH I— t ; >i ; . rt . S -Q -4-> irj . *-< I-O .■ , ' OJ ^'^ ON U ■-^ o • M-i >i ^ ■ rt-v* ^2 1 ^CO 1 !/> '^o : oJ *-- u 'P m Balan Intere igi >, . CQ ' ^- o o o "^ l-H ^ o o ncc 04 ^ o <^o -^ 0< '>}' 00 ^ -^ ^' . o • • . . -4— < • • . (—■ * • O •t~t rt 3 . . o • Ih • ; rt S ■4-J t": " 5 CJ . r- (u ni CU -H kr-l l^ _s , ^ >> ^ "rt "-^H wm o . H " - " 1 H 12; O P w to 0^ CO OVO o ^ On 1- '^ \o 00 \.r. t« " O 0^ D. _; o g U tn ^ c-' ,-^ « L" o o 00 en rn "-M O O [ ^ t^ lO 00 C 3 O u u < 3 OJ t; . , -*j C tn 5 OJ CQ 8 ^ & o-« O •a o^- w-t; o o -^ *-* -4-' rt OJ >i ^ u ^ ^< ^ 3^ e o ^ ^J <^s ^c to ON o\ a U XXXll EIGHTH AWARD OF THE SOUTH AFRICA MEDAL AND GRANT. (Fund raised by Members of the British Association in commemoration of their visit to South Africa in 1905.) Charles Pugsley Lounsburv, B.Sc, F.E.S., Chief of the Division of Entomology, Union Department of Agriculture, Pretoria, Transvaal, was nominated for the award upon the following grounds : — - " Mr. Lounsbury came to South Africa in 1895 as Govern- ment Entomologist in the Department of Agriculture of the Cape Colony, Capetown. " The greatest service since rendered by him to South Africa arose out of his investigations in regard to the transmission of disease by ticks. As resulting from those investigations he was able conclusively to demonstrate :— " I. That Heartwater, a virulent disease in sheep, goats, and cattle, is transmitted by the Bont Tick (Amblyomma hcbraum) , and his study of the life-historv of this tick had as its result the successful application of dipping as the best method of controlling it. " 2. That Malignant Jaundice of the Dog is transmitted by the Dog Tick {H(cmaphysalis leachi), and so he proved that there was a previously unsuspected coincidence between the life- history of this tick and the parasite causing the disease. " 3. That East Coast Fever, the most dreaded cattle disease in the country, is transmitted by the Brown Tick {Rhipiccphalus appcndicnlatus) and its allies, and his exceedingly minute inves- tigation of the life-cycle of the Brown Tick opened the way for that system of short-interval dipping which is giving such good results in practice in keeping the tick under control. " 4. That Arsenate of Soda is the essential ingredient in any dip in order that it may be efTectual for the destruction of ticks. This demonstration not only simplified the work of cattle-dipping, but also greatly reduced the cost, so that to-day dipping is the recognised method of tick destruction throughout South Africa. " Sir Arnold Theiler, in his Presidential Address to the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, at its Port Elizabeth meeting, referred to the fact that heart-water at one time rendered the rearing of cattle and small stock almost an impossibility, until Mr. Lounsbury, by his investigation, proved definitely that ticks are responsible for the disease. " It was through Mr. Lounsbury's efiforts that the Smyrna Fig industry in this country was made possible through the intro- duction of the different varieties of Smyrna Figs (the chief drying figs of commerce). But the introduction of these figs would have had no practical result were it not that Mr. Louns- bury was also successful in introducing into South Africa the S A. Assn. for Adv. of Science. 1915. Pl. I. The South Africa Medal. SOUTH AFRICA MEDAL. XXXUl insect Blastophaga grassontui, which carries the pollen from the Capri Figs, and without which Smyrna Figs cannot be fertilised. The Smyrna Fig is imperfect (self sterile), and the structure of the tig is such that it can be fertilised only by means of the Blastophaga, which breeds in the Capri Figs, and, coming to maturity when the pollen of the Capri Fig is ready, emerges covered with pollen, which it carries into the Smyrna Figs, and thus brings about fertilisation without which perfect fruit is impossible. " /Mthough Mr. Lounsbury was not personally instrumental in introducing into South Africa the Ladybird Novius ( Vc- dalia) cardinalis which destroys the Australian bug Icerya purcliasi — for the J'cdalia had been introduced into the country a short time before Mr. Lounsbury's arrival here — he at once took up the work of distributing the Ladybird on scientific lines, and with such success that to-day one seldom hears the Aus- tralian Bug so much as mentioned as a pest in this country. " But 'Sir. Lounsbury's researches in South Africa have been fruitful of good results to other countries as well. In 1898 he found in South Africa a parasite wasp which he at once foresaw would prove of considerable advantage to several other countries for the control of the Black Scale {Lccaniitm olcce). Fie found that by means of this parasite (ScutclUsta c\anca), the Black Scale could be kept in complete suppression here, and his suggestion that other lands might share in this benefit re- sulted in a formal request for assistance in this direction being made by the United States Government. Mr. Lounsbury despatched supplies of the chalcid wasp parasite to America, and colonies thereof were successfully established in the Cali- fornian orchards. Similarly, Mr. Lounsbury was instrumental in despatching to the island of Ascension, at the urgent request of the Admiralty, several colonies of one of the South African ladybirds {Exochomus nigromaculatus) for the purpose of destroying the Woolly Aphis of the apple tree, which was doing much damage on the island. Some years previously, Mr. Louns- bury had also supplied Ascension with hundreds of specimens of the Ladyljirds (Enopia cinctclla, Chilomcnes liinata, and Adalia flavomaculata, for similar purposes. " To Mr. Lounsbury's thorough and constant study of the best method of exterminating insect pests is due, more than to anyone else, the credit of the country's being provided with efficient insecticides, fungicides, apparatus and methods asso- ciated with the spraying of fruit trees. A very far-reaching development in this work was the discovery that the effectiveness of the Lime-Sulphur-Salt wash over the old California formula was due to the presence of the sulphides of calcium. This at once revolutionised the spraying of orchards for Scale Insects and Plant Diseases, because the elimination of the great excess of lime and salt in the old formula" not only reduced the first cost of the wash by one-half, but the resulting freedom of the spraying-mixture from grit, etc., lengthened the life of the spray- c XXXIV SOUTH AFRICA MEDAL. pumps, and made it possible to apply the wash evenly and quickly^ and so secure greater efficiency at much less initial cost. Soon these methods began to be copied throughout the world, and to-day the simplified Lime-Sulphur wash is being manufactured on a commercial scale, and is sold by the train-load in America. The practical result in South Africa has been that the simplified Lime-Sulphur wash has secured perfect control over the follow- ing pests of primary importance : — 1. White Peach Scale (the work on which led to the discovery). 2. Bryobia Mite on fruit trees. 3. Peach Leaf Curl, etc. " One of the first steps taken by Mr. Lounsbury on his first arrival in South Africa was to introduce the method of fumiga- tion with hydrocyanic acid gas for the destruction of the Red Scale on citrus trees. The Red Scale is the most important citrus tree pest in South Africa, and at one time it threatened the very life of the citrus industry. Through Mr. Lounsbury's thorousfh-gjoins: work the insect was brought under control, and confidence established in an industry which is doing more than anything else to enhance the reputation of South Africa as a fruit-growing country, and the industry bids fair to assume pro- portions in course of time that will rival its magnitude in Cali- fornia. " Mr. Lounsbury also placed South African Plant Import Regulations on a sound basis by introducing the fumigation method for cleansing trees and fruit arriving from oversea. By careful inspection and fumigation he kept the Cape Province (Cape Colony) free from many insect-pests that might otherwise have been introduced, to the great detriment of the whole sub- continent— for instance. Pernicious (San Jose) Scale and Brown Tail Moth, both of which were stopped at Capetown. " Mr. Lounsbury carried this fumigation method still further when he applied it to the destruction of vermin in Railway Saloons, Schools, Gaols, etc. This entirely new development in fumigation was speedily copied in other parts of the world. " Needless to say that the work of which the above is an outline, has won for Mr. Lounsbury a world-wide reputation. Even before LTnion, the Transvaal Government had requisitioned his services, some of the Australian Colonies had sought his assistance, and his aid to California and Ascension against pests persistent in those localities has been mentioned above. Dr. L. O. Howard, the Government Entomologist of the United States, Washington, D.C., paid him a very high compliment when he adopted his methods as the basis of similar investigations in America. " Mr. Lounsbury's Annual Reports, covering a period of eighteen years, constitute a very valuable series of official as well as scientific records. The following is a list of some of the most importan't amongst his other publications : — SOUTH AFRT(\A MI:dAL. XXXV 1. " Fruit Pests," 1896. 2. " Another introduced Scale Pest {Orthecia iiisignis)." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1898. 3. " Remedy for Mest-wurmen." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1898. 4. "Two fruit tree beetles." C.G.rl. Agric. Journal. 1898. 5. " The Codlin.iJ- Aloth." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1898. 6. " Scale insects on ornamental trees and plants." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. T898. % 7. " Tampans, or Fowl Ticks." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1899. 8. "The Wattle Bag- Worm." C.G.H. Agric Journal. 1899. 9. " A tick heart-water experiment." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1900. 10. " Two pine apple pests." C.G.H. .Igric. Journal, igoo. 11. "Cyanide gas remedy for Scale Insects." 1901. 12. " Transmission of Malignant Jaundice of the Dog by a species of Tick." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1901 13. " Heart-water in calves." C.G-H. Agric Journal. 1902. 14. "The destruction of ticks by oil-spraying: Eastern Province experi- ments." C.G.H. Agric Journal. 1902. 15. " Lime-Sulphur-Salt wash for scale insects." C.G.H. Agric. Journal- 1902. 16. " Cyanide gas fumigation." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1902. 17. " The Bryobia Mite." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1903. 18. " A new oak tree pest : the oak phylloxera." C.G.H. Agric. Journal, 1903. 19. "Persian Sheep and Heart-water" (with W. Robertson). C.GH. Agric. Journal. 1904. 20. " Transmission of African Coast Fever." C.G.I-i. Agric Journal. 1904. 21. "Gall worm in roots of plants: an important potato pest." C.G.H. Agric. Journah 1904. 22. "The Codling Moth: Notes on the Life-cycle." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1904. 23. " External parasites of Fowls." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1904. 24. "Fruit culture in Argentina." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1905. 25. " Insect Pests in South Africa." Science in South Africa. 1905. 26. " Habits and peculiarities of some South African Ticks." Addresses and papers. Brit. & S.A. Assoc, for Adv. of Science. 1905. 27. " Natural enemies of the Fruit Fly." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1905. 28. " Insect bites and the effects thereof." The Canadian Entomologist. 1906. 29. "Ticks and African Coast Fever." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1906. 30. " Zwart Roest ; or, Anthracnose of the Vine." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1906. 31. " Tobacco wilt in Kat River Valley." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1906. 32. " The Antestia Fruit Bug." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1907. 22i- " Caterpillars destroying trees." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1907. 34. " Wooly Aphis and Toliacco Extract." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1908. 35. " Melon Aphis." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1908. 36. " Pears and Pear Blight." C-G.JJ. Agric. Journal. 1908. 37. " The Smyrna Fig and its pollinating insect." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1908. 38. " The Kaiifir corn Aphis : Aphis Sorghi." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1908. 39. " Dry rot of the Potato." CG.H. Agric. Journal. 1909. 40. " The Codling Moth." C.G.I-i. Agric. Journal. 1909. 41. "Prune rust; a leaf disease of prune, peach, and apricot trees." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1909. 42. " Miscible oils for spraying." Agricultural South Africa. 1910. 43. " Calandra of the Vine." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1910. 44. " Plasmopara viticola; occurrence in 1910." C.G.H. Agric Journal. 1910. 45. " Bitter Pit." C.G.H. Agric. Journal. 1910. 46. "The Elegant Grasshopper (Zonocerus elegans)." Union Agric. Journal. 1912. 47. " Locust Bacterial disease." Union Agric. Journal. 1913. 48. " Caterpillar wilt disease." Union Agric. Journal. 1913. 49. " The Mally fruit fly remedy : a demonstration of its applicability in towns." Union Agric. Journal. 1913. XXXVl SOUTH AFRICA MEDAL. 50. "Pernicious .-calc : the present position." Unkon Agric. Journal. 1913. 51. "Warble flies." Viiiou Agric. Jounial. 1914. 52. " Cyanide fumigation of citrus orchards." Agric. Journ. of S.A. 1915. 53. " The locust menace." Agric. Jourii. of S.A. 1915. 54. " Plant killing insects : the Indian cochineal." Agric. Joiini. of S.A. T9i.> 55. " Scale insects." Agric. Journ. of S.A. 1915. 56. " The Phoracantha Beetle." Agric. Joiirii_. of S.A. 1915. 57. "Cyanide for fumigation pnrposfes." ■* Agric. Journ. of S.A. 1915. After the conclusion of the Presidential Address in the Town Hall, Pretoria, on Tuesday. July 6, 19 15, the President, Mr. R. T. A. Innes, handed the South Africa Medal and the award of £50 to Dr. C. F. Juritz, in trust for Mr. Lounsbury, who had left South Africa on a six months' tour in Australia and the United States on recovering from a serious illness. In doing so the President made the following additional statement : — " The scientific work undertaken by Mr. Lounsbury is lx)th of biolo_2^ical — and what appeals to the people of this country in particular — of economic value. He was the expert who under- took the first extensive investigations into the life cycle of the various tick diseases in South Africa, and so. laid the basis of all further work undertaken on similar lines by various investigators. He demonstrated in a series of careful and almost classical ex- periments the connection between the Bont Tick (Ambly omnia hebrcFum) and the disease of Heart-water in goats and cattle. By a series of experiments he proved that the dog tick (Hcrnia- physalis Icachi) was the carrier of biliary fever in the dog. The solution of the ])roblem was of a particularly intricate nature, which speaks highly for our medallist's endurance and keenness in research. " His investigations on the transmission of East Coast Fever by tick, corroborated and supported by the investigations of other scientists, helped to form the basis of legislation against the disease, and established the introduction of rational dipping l^oth for the eradication of the tick and the disease. Mr. Lounsbury, assisted by the Veterinary Department of the Cape, was respon- sible for the first systematic dipping experiments undertaken on scientific lines, and the introduction of arsenate of soda, recom- mended by him, helped to solve the dipping problem in a practical manner. This fact deserves to be especially emphasised, because in these times of rapid progress the inventors of new ideas are easily overlooked or forgotten. " South Africa is not ungrateful. We, the members of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, bear in mind that neither Mr. Lounsbury nor any other scientific worker asks for reward. All that the scientist asks is enough to live on modestly, with a sufficiency of leisure to enable him to indulge in his researches, and if he is fortunate in securing the interest of the State in his work he is happy. " I read recently in an American scientific journal (Science, 14 May, 191 5) that each scientific worker increases the material wealth of the world bv about £20,000,000 — or, in other words, SOUTH AFRICA MEDAL. XXXVll that the prodigious material wealth of the world of to-day, as compared with that of two centuries ago, is due to the inventions and discoveries of 10,000 men. Let us think of Watt, Stephen- son, Faraday, and Graham Bell as examples. No wealth could repay our debt to such men. Had the scientist, of which our Medallist is an example, asked for pecuniary reward, he lives in a generous country which has become proverbial for its muni- ficence to individuals, and he might have fared well. There are but few books which do not contain references to our South African millionaires. Our rewards have been prodigious, but, candidly, I think that in bestowing them our heart has triumphed over our head — that we have been too lavish, and that our gen- erosity has lacked discrimination. It is therefore with some pride that I take part in this ceremony, which marks the appre- ciation of our Association and of his colleagues in scientific research." The President thereupon handed the medal and cheque to Dr. Juritz, and said : — " Will you please transmit this medal to Mr. Lounsbury, and wish him in our name a complete restoration of his health and every success in his further researches, which we will follow with sympathetic interest." Dr. Juritz, on behalf of Mr. Lounsbury, thanked the Council of the Association for the award and the President for his kindly references to Mr. Lounsbury's work in makinfj the presentation. He promised to convey the award and the President's good wishes to the Medallist in due course. He referred to his association with Mr. Lounsbury in the professional branch- of the Cape Department of Agriculture, an association which had begun over a score of years ago, and expressed the particular pleasure he felt in accepting the medal on behalf of one who had served his adopted country so well. Previous Recipients. 1908. Grahamstown. — Arnold Theiler, C.M.G., M.D., Bacterio- logist to the Transvaal Government, Pretoria. 1909. Bloemfontein. — Harry Bolus, D.Sc, F.L.S., of Sher- wood. Kenilworth, Cape Division. 1910. Capetozvn. — John Carruthers Beattie, D.Sc, F.R.S.E., Professor of Physics, South African College, Capetown. 191 1. Bulaivayo. — Louis Peringuey, D.Sc. F.E.S., F.Z.S., Director of the South African Museum. Cape- town. 1912. Port Eli::abeth. — Alexander William Roberts, D.Sc, F.R.A.S.. F.R.S.E., of Lovedale Observatorv, C.P. 1973. Lourenco Marques. — Arthur Wilham Rogers, ?*[.A., ScD., F.G.S., Assistant Director of the Union Geological Survey, Capetown. 1914. Kimhcrley.—Proi. Rudolf Marloth, M.A., Ph.D.. Cape- town. XXXVlll ASSOCIATION LIBRARY. The following publications are regularly filed at the office of the Association, Cape of Good Hope Savings Bank Buildings, St. George's Street, Cape Town, and are available for perusal by members daily. General Science. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa. Memoirs of the Royal Society of South Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania. Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Proceedings of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. Sitzungsberichte der Koniglich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Servian Royal Academy of Sciences : Comptes rendus. Year Book. Michigan Academy of Sciences : Reports. Bulletins of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. Atti della Reale Accademia del Tincei, Rome. Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademien : Handlingar. o Arsbok. Koninklijke Akademie van W'etenschappen, Amsterdam: Proceedings of the Section of Sciences. A^erhandelingen. Revista de la Real Academia de Ciencias de Madrid. Report of the British ^Association for the Advancement of Science. Report of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Atti della Societa Italiana per il progresso delle Scienze. Cambridge Philosophical Societv : Transactions. Proceedings. Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. University of Virginia: Philosophical Society Bulletins. Science Reports of the Tohoku Imperial University. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. ASSOCIATION LIBRARY. XAXIX Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. Medelanden fran K. Vetenskapsakademien Nobelinstitut. Proceedings of the Cahfornia Academy of Sciences. Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel- phia. Archives Neerlandaises des sciences exactes et naturelles. Annaes scientilicos da Academia polytechnica do Porto. Proceedings of the Rhodesia Scientific Association. Memoires de la Societe de physique et d'histoire naturelle de Geneve. Det Kongelige Norske Videnskapers Selskaps Skrifter. Oversigt over det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Forhandlinger. Comptes rendus des seances de la Societe de physique et d' histoire naturelle de Geneve. Vierteljahrsschrift der naturforschenden Gesellschaft, Zurich. Bulletin of the Imperial Institute. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute. Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution. Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution (United States National Museum'). Annals of the Transvaal Museum. Annals of the Natal Museum. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. Field Museum of Natural History Publications. University of Pennsylvania Museum Journal. Bulletin of the Public Museum of Milwaukee. Records of the Albany Museum. i . L I B R Knowledge. V'^V '^''■ Science. \3Vvy7A8e>/(C Chemistry, Metallurgy, and Geology. ^^'^ 0 Journal of the Chemical, Metallurgical, and Mining Society of South Africa. Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademien; Arkiv for Kemi, Mineralogi, och Geologi. Transactions of the Geological Society of South .A^frica. Journal of the Geological Society of Tokyo. Geological Survey of New South Wales : Records. Memoirs. Mineral Resources. Bulletins of the Geological Institution of Upsala. Abstracts of Proceedings of the Geological Society, London. Bulletins of the Wyoming State Geologist. United States Geological Survey: Bulletins. Professional Papers. X ASSOCIATION LIBRARY. Mineral Resources. Annual Reports. Union of South Africa Alines Department, Annual I^eports. Egyptian Ministry of Finance: Geological Reports. Geological Survey of Western x\ustralia : Annual Progress Reports. Bulletins. Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. The Chemical News. The Mineralogical Magazine. Metr:orology. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. Bulletins of the Mount Weather Observatory. United States Department of Agriculture : Monthly Weather Review. Observatorio Campos Rodrigues : Relatorio. Resiuno mensal. Egyptian Ministry of Finance : Meteorological Reports. Agriculture. .A-nnali della Regia Scuola superiore agricoltura di Portici. International Institute of Agriculture. Rome : Bulletin of Agricultural statistics. Bulletin of the Bureau of Agricultural Intelli'jence and of Plant Diseases. Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station: Annual Reports. Bulletins. Agricultural Journal of the Union of South Africa. Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales. United States Department of Agriculture Experiment Station Record. Journal of Agricultural Research. Rhodesia Agricultural Journal. Department of Agriculture, New South Wales. Science Bulletins. Biology and Piivs[ol,ogy. Bulletin de la Societe Imperialc des naturalistes de Moscou. Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademien : Arkiv for Botanik. Arkiv for Zoologi. Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany. Bulletin of the Wisconsin Natural History Society. The Medical Journal of South Africa. University of California: Publications in Botany. ASSOCIATION LIBRARY. Xll Missouri Botanical Gardens : Annual Reports. Annals. Smithsonian Institution (United States National Museum) : Contributions from tlie United States National Her- barium. Bulletins of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The Australian Zoologist. Entomology. Report of the South African Central Locust Bureau. Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Insektenbiologie. Astronomy, Mathematics and Physics. Royal Astronomical Society : Memoirs. Monthly Notices. Harvard College Astronomical Observatory: Circulars. Annals. Union Observatory Circulars. Observatoire Royal de Belgique ; annuaire astronomique. Bulletins of Khedivial Observatory, Helwan, Egypt. British Astronomical Association : Journal. Memoirs. Lick Observatory Bulletins. Journal of the Astronomical Society of India. Proceedings of the Western Australian Astronomical Society. Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademien : Arkiv for Malematik, Astronomi och Fysik. Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society. Tohoku Mathematical Journal. Die Tatigkeit der physikalisch-technischen Reichsanstalt, Char- lottenburg. National Physical Laboratory, Middlesex : Collected Researches. Reports. Universidad Nacional de la Plata : Contribucion al estudio de las Ciencias fisicas y matematicas. Proceedings of the Physical Society of London. Political Economy and Social Science. United Empire. International Institute of Agriculture, Rome: Bulletin of the Bureau of Economic and Social Intelligence. xlii ASSOCIATION LIBRAR.Y. Geography^ Oceanography and Hydrography. Societa Italiana per il progresso delle Scienze : Comitate talassografico. Bollettinos. Memorias. The Geographical Journal. Bulletin of the American Geographical Society. ITnited .States Geological Survey : Water Supply Papers. Egyptian Ministry of Finance: Survey Department Papers. Istituto di geografia fisica e vulcanologica della R. Universita di Catania : pubblicazioni. Engineering. Proceedings of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. Journal of tli« South African Institute of Engineers. Transactions of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers Proceedings of the South African Society of Civil Engineers. Technology. Patents for Inventions : Abridgments of Specifications. The Illustrated Official Patents Journal. Anthropology. Journal of the African Society. Archeology. Bulletins of the Archaeological Survey of Nubia. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS, ADDRESS BY ROBERT THORBURN AYTON INNES, F.R.A.S., F.R.S.E. PRESIDENT. Excluding the purely formal meeting of 1905, in which year we joined forces with the visiting British Association for the Advancement of Science, this is the second session of the Association to meet in the Transvaal and the first to meet in Pretoria. Our Association was started in 1903 at Capetown, and in 1904 the meeting was held in Johannesburg, but on that occasion one day was spent in Pretoria. This year we hold our meeting in what is now the Administrative Capital of the Union, but we are invited to spend one -day in Johannesburg, visiting the Crown Mines, when visitors will have a favourable opportunity of seeing the conditions under which our staple industry is conducted, especially with regard to modern views on hygiene and the preservation of life. The calm atmosphere of our Association is especially suit- able for discussions upon the broad principles underlying polity. 2 PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. In the present times these principles are being profoundly modi- fied ; old standards of government seem to be weakening day by day, and our Association affords a common ground where tendencies can be examined for what they are worth, instead of through the distorting lenses of party passion. The list of papers bearing upon politico-sociological ques- tions read before our Association since its inception is too long for me to quote at length. At our first meeting in 1903, Professor Fremantle read a paper on the " Sociology of Comte, with special reference to the Political Conditions of Young Countries," and Mr. Basil Williams one upon '' Recoupment and Betterment." In 1906 Dr. Watkins gave a Sectional Pre- sidential Address upon " Economic Waste," and in 1914 one upon the " Constitution of the Senate." We also have had papers on " Proportional Representation " by Mr. William Cullen, '-Municipal Trading" by Mr. J. M. P. Muirhead, " State Socialism or Nationalisation " by Dr. Leech, etc., etc. I see that amongst the papers being read at this Congress there is one by Mr. Frank Flowers upon the " Constitution of the Senate," evidently in continuation of Dr. Watkins" paper ; this appears to be a subject well v/orthy of discussion, as the Senate, as at present constituted, will automatically come to an end in 1920. Other papers, by Mr. R. Kilpin and Dr. Brown, deal with the subject of " Proportional Representation." War and Science. We meet this year under extraordinary circumstances, during a period of war unequalled in the history of mankind in its extent and intensity. A superficial view would be that our Association has nothing to do with wars at any time, and should ignore the present war. This view . would be entirely wrong. The war touches humanity at every point, in every interest. I 3m therefore going to deal with it, but in such a way that no one could say to which side my sympathies lean. I have, like everyone else, very decided views upon the rights and wrongs of the war, but these concern one of the aspects with which we as a scientific body have nothing to do. A certain school of thought — not particular to any one nation — has praised the value of war as a discipline, and even as a moral force. Another school looks upon war as a curse for whicli no defence is possible. Science is impersonal, and looks merely to facts. Yet Science cannot but feel degraded when it finds so great a part of its recent advances applied so freely and almost solely as aids to the destruction of human life. The pre-eminent inventions of our present generation — wireless telegraphy, the airship, the flying machine, the sub- marine, thermite, and other allied heat producers — seem to have found their culmination in use in war. How different is this from the Scientist's ideal — the most altruistic possible — the lightening of the burdens of humanity by the mastery of natural forces. — the transformation of inanimate power to relieve man- president's address. 3 kind from arduous work — the conquest of pain and disease — the improvement of agriculture — and, by no means least, the enlargement of the human mind. Greek culture — that extra- ordinary efflorescence of a limited community of small cities, which we prize so highly to-day, and whose lesson seems to be valid for all time — we are told was only possible because the Greek civilisation was built upon slavery; the helot was the pivot on which it turned. The scientist looks forward to a period of leisure and culture equally founded upon a slavery, but not upon the unwilling slavery either of man or beast, but upon the willing slavery of machinery and of the powers of nature harnessed for use. An increasing and unfaltering search for truth, with a belief in the betterment of humanity through knowledge, is the ethical basis of Science, and none other. If Science could only serve material ends — the increase of money — profit, or serve to rivet the domination of one State over another — then it would be worthless, nay, it would be unclean. We perceive to-day that when any one nation deliberately uses the resources of Science as an aid to war, a burden of terrible import is thrown upon other nations. And herein is another apparent great evil of Science, because its advance makes war both more terrible and more destructive. I say an apparent evil, because if it is not controlled it will lead to exhaustion, and so limitation will have to come by necessity. I believe that in earlier ages the individual, or at least the family, the patriarchal group, was to a great extent, like a nation is now, each a law unto itself, and it was only as weapons got more expensive and deadly that the small group was willing to abandon the right of private revenge or redress. In yet later ages the baron in his great castle could defy the king, but the invention of the cannon and the control of the manufacture of gunpowder by the king, made even the most powerful barons willing to accept the king's peace. To-day we would not tolerate any man or group of men turning their buildings into fortresses ; to-morrow, I hope, I believe, that nations, or a federation of nations, will likewise refuse to allow any other nation or group of nations to arm themselves to such an extent that it or they can become a menace to the peace of the rest of the world. Organisation. There is another and more positive lesson for us in the present war. It shows the power of organisation. We see two Empires, but roughly one — the Germanic nation — at war with four other great nations, which has so developed its re- sources and organised them, that it can stand the strain of such a w^ar that 25,000,000 picked men have already been in the field. However deplorable this may be from ethical and econ- omic points of view, it at least does show what Science and Organisation can do to-day. I suppose that, one way and another, 50,000,000 of the human race are either fighting or supplying food and munitions of war to the combatants. And 4 PRESIDENT S ADDRFSS. no sign of exhaustion is as yet clearly discernible. When we remember that war in the olden days was conducted with small armies and only during a portion of the year, we realise the maleficent power that Science has placed in the hands of man- kind. It needs careful regulation. This power for evil might only have been potential, it might have remained undeveloped ; but we have found to our loss that at least one nation has de- veloped and organised itself, by the aid of Science, to such an extent that it dares to declare itself independent not only of the power, but even of the opinions of the rest of the world. The lesson will not be lost. If the deliberate organisation of a single nation can result in such power, then every nation must organise. Not necessarily organise for war, for death ; but organise for peace, for life. Laisses fairc passed into twilight when the Great War com- menced. We have to turn our eyes in the direction of the rising sun of an organised humanity, of which we perceive the dawn already. Then the Advancement of Science will surely have no sinister meaning. We pray that the Advancement of Science will be identical with the advancement of humanity. Progress of Astronomy. I am perhaps fortunate in belonging to a branch of Science which has nothing to do with war. Therefore the astronomer can regard war with a sense of detachment ; and to those who know the stars, the immensity, the eternity of the universe, its increasing grandeur, war seems trivial and foolish — the work of unbalanced minds. I spoke of one of the aims of Science as the enlargement of the human mind. Although every branch of knowledge — a word which I take to be nearly synonymous with Science (Science being co-ordinated knowledge) — leads to the extension of the human mind, to-day Astronomy has no other real use. We know that clocks are corrected through the observations of the stars, and that the sun and stars must be observed by navi- gators, but pre])aration for these practical applications form a very trifl?ng portion of the activities of astronomers. The very perfection of that part of Astronomy reduces it to a sort of automatism — it all but goes by itself. To-day the astronomer wants to find out the dimensions of the sidereal svstem — the extent of the Universe — the structure and arrangement of the stars in space — their relations to each other — the interpretation of their spectra — the dynamics of the Universe — the cause of variable stars. The solutions of any or all of these questions can hardly have any material efifect upon mankind — the effect is spiritual and emotional — man is proud to find that he can plumb space to its uttermost depth ; he presumes that the germ of the future which was conceived in the past is taking its form to-day, and that the process is continuous, and that as to-day he can predict tides and eclipses, so with greater knowledge he will in the future be able to predict the course of the sun amongst PRESIDF.NT S ADDRESS. 5 the stars and the future conditions of the planet upon which he has his being. The Distances of the Stars. The problem which will be more closely discussed in this address is that of the distance of the stars. The most direct way of finding these is by the parallactic displacement of the stars caused by the motion of the earth round the sun. In this enquiry the Union can have a local pride, as the first paral- lax* certainly found was that of Alpha of Centaurus by Hen- derson, the Cape Astronomer. The late Sir David Gill, our first President, continued Henderson's work, and perhaps one might say finished it in that form. Gill was an organiser, and when the parallax campaign, initiated by himself and completed with the aid of Dr. Elkin and others, had come to an end. it was apparent that the most directf method of finding parallaxes which was available would only yield a small crop, because the stars are at such enormous distances from the sun that the avail- able base-line for measurement, the diameter of the earth's orbit, some 186,000,000 miles, or 300,000,000 kilometres, is vanishingly small at the distance of all but a few near stars. Alpha Centaurus is the nearest known, and almost certainly the nearest to the svm, yet at its distance the diameter of the earth's orbit subtends an angle of but i Yi seconds of arc — an angle which is described by the minute hand of a clock in a four-thousandth part of a second of time. An angle so small is difficult to observe directly with accuracy, so that at best the measures must become differen- tial— that is, the stars are measured from neighbouring stars supposed to be at a much greater distance away ; such stars are called comparison stars. Professor Eddington estimates that there are thirty stars with a parallax of o".20 or greater, of which nineteen are already known. This means that within a distance nearly four times as great as that of Alpha Centaurus there are but thirty stars in all. This is the limit of visual work such as was done by Gill, but photographic methods, especially with the enormous telescopes used in America, carry the direct attack further. The delicacy, or, if you prefer, the accuracy, of any measure- ment is limited by its probable error. The probable error of a parallax measured visually under good circumstances (such as with the Cape heliometer) is about o".io (a tenth of a second of arc), and this is already, small as it is, a quantity larger than the quantity to be measured except in the cases of a hundred or so stars. The same method of parallactic displacement of stars on photographic plates has a much smaller probable error. The "^ Cut not the first announced. Bessel in 1838 announced the measure- ment of the parallax of 61 Cygnus two months earlier than Henderson whose delay was caused by his removal to Europe. t The only direct parallax found was that of ^ Centaurus, by Hen- derson. All other parallaxes of any certainty depend on an indirect method involving the assumption, nearly true, that all the stars with a few exceptions have very minute parallaxes. A O PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. most recent determinations made with the great telescopes of America, and in particular the 40-inch refractor of the Yerkes Observatory, have a probable error of about o".oi, or ten times less than the usual visual method, and Dr. Van Maanen, using photo- giaphs taken with the 60-inch reflector of the Mount Wilson Observatory, has reduced this probable error to o".oo6, or about a hundred and seventieth part of a second of arc. As regards the measurements of small quantities this is a wonderful achieve- ment, but delicate as these measurements are, they are too coarse to tell us much about the distances of the stars. Let us consider several recent sets of parallax measures : — 1. Van Maanen's list of five stars is as follows: — Star. Parallax. Probable Error. 96 0.026 +0.007 672 — 0.009 0.004 1549 O.OOI 0.002 2921 O.07S 0.006 2^2T,2, 0.003 o.oio 2. In two recent lists we find parallaxes for 61 Cygnus, the star for which Bessel first found a parallax. Probable Authority. Paralla.v. Error. Miller, 24-in telescope. Sproul Observatory . . . o".30i ±o''.oio Slocum & Mitchell, 40-in. telescope, Yerkes Obs. 0^.272 o".oo5 The negative parallax in Van Maanen's list would mean that the star was actually more distant than its comparison stars, which is at least unlikely, and in two other cases it will be seen that the parallaxes found are smaller than their probable errors. Somewhat similarly, in the case of 61 Cygnus, although the two parallaxes found agree very well, they differ by much more than their probable errors. 3. In the recent most considerable list of stellar parallaxes published (Slocum & Mitchell, Popular Astronomy, 1914 March), out of twenty-eight results, eight are negative parallaxes* and another four are smaller than their probable errors ; yet the list is one of stars selected for large proper motion or some other peculiarity which indicated a measurable parallax. These three sets show us that, valuable as the photographic method is, it is to be feared that it will also soon work out its rich lodes. So it does not take us much further. In this way the direct attack by parallactic displacement will reveal perhaps some one or two hundred parallaxes ; but we would learn nothing as to the distances of the great mass of stars, except what we already know, namely, that the distances are tremendous. *In this list the parallaxes of the two components of South 435 (5 '443) [3h. 40m. + 41°] are measured. These two stars form a physical system as they are travelling together through space witli an annual proper motion of i".4 in the direction of 149°. The parallaxes found are — ist star — o".oi6 +0.0TI 2nd star ... ... -ho".oio +0.008 which are contradictory, because they signifiy that the first star was more distant, and the second star nearer, than the comparison stars. It is likely enough that even, photographically, our present limit is about o".03, corresponding to a distance of al)out 30 radials. I'KESIDKNT S ADDRESS. 7 Fortunately there is an intlirect method of attack which, in tlie course of time, will tell us the distances of all the stars. Basically this method depends upon a knowledge of the jjroper motions of the stars. If by its annual motion around the sun, the earth causes the stars to be displaced, it is obvious that the progressive motion of the sun through space must cause a progressive displacement. If for the moment we assume the stars to be at rest, they will seem to sufifer two displacements — one purely periodic in a year, the other progressive, due respect- ively to the earth's orbital motion and the sun's motion through space. Here is a diagram of such a double motion, which was or- ginally published by Mr. Slocum. It plots the measures exactly made in the case of 0 Perseus and its companion. - 400 days -500 -200 - 100 o 100 200 300 ^ 00 days Parallax observations of 6 Perseus (1) and its companion (2) (after Slocum, Popular Astronomy, May, 1915). That the lines are zigzags is due to the parallactic displace- ment caused by the orbital motion of the earth, whilst the pro- gressive movement is due to the motion of the sun — at least in part ; wholly if the stars were stationary in space — partly if, as is to be expected, both stars and the sun are in motion. The crosses mark the actual observations made, so that at a glance one can see both the scale of the parallax and the inevitable uncertainties of observation. The earth's orbital motion being periodic has no cumulative effect, but the sun's progressive motion is cumulative. The amplitude of the earth's periodic motion is about 300,000,000 kilometres, and all the best and most recent results show that the sun is moving through space with a velocity of about 18 kilometres a second ; hence in a year the sun, and with it, of course, the earth and the rest of the Solar System, move over a distance of 550,000,000 kilometres ; roughly this is already twice the earth's annual displacement, and, as already stated, it is cumu- lative ; thus, in six years, the progressive displacement is already 8 president's address. eleven times the earth's periodical displacement, and the gain is continuous. Hence the mere lapse of time will tell us the dis- tance of the stars, but the problem is complicated because the proper motions of the stars are not mere reflexes of the sun's proper motion ; the stars themselves are also in motion, so that a process of unravelling is necessary. Without any unravelling, but by sim])le averaging, the elder Herschel found out that the sun was travelling in the direction of the constellation Hercules. At Capetown, in 1905, Professor Kapteyn announced his dis- covery that the proper motions of the stars divided themselves into two distinct drifts. The elder Boss found that the proper motions of a widely-spread group of stars converged to a point. The same astronomer also found, from a study of the proper motions, that there was a marked relation between the amount of proper motion and a star's spectrum. Investigations based upon proper motions — the thwart or across the line of sight motions — were powerfully aided by spec- troscopic results, and especially by the application of the Doppler piinciple. which tells us almost directly the radial velocity of the star, or its motion in the line of sight. The interpretation of stellar spectra is far from complete, and its problems will not be discussed to-night. The broad facts are that stellar spectra, with a few exceptions, fall into four great classes, which may be called the helium stars, the hydrogen stars, the metallic stars, and the carbon stars, in which the gradation from one class to another is so well marked that it is very plausibly assumed that a star of one class can in the course of time change into its contiguous class, and from that into its next class. At present it is assumed that the helium class is degrading or cooling into the hydrogen class, and that the hydrogen class is similarly approaching the metallic class (in which our sun is), and that later the metallic class will degrade into the carbon class, and that, finally, the carbon class will cool down and become dark stars. This con- tinuous degradation is a convenient inciiwria tcchnica, but it is not based upon any facts. Sir Norman Lockyer, by a closer study of spectra, asserts that there is both a descending and an ascend- ing scale. The assumption that there are the dark stars above referred to is unsupported by any fact. But to-night we are only concerned with spectrum analysis as an aid to interpreting the proper motions of the stars. Radial velocities fully confirm the motion of the sun through space as disclosed by the ])roper motions. The recent spectroscopic determinations of the direction and amount of the solar motion made by Dr. Campbell in America, and by Messrs. Hough and Halm at the Cape, agree Avithin a reasonable margin with the determinations of Newcomb and Boss, which are based in proper motions. Further, as with the proper motions, it is found that as the stars degrade from helium to hydrogen to metallic to carbon spectra, their velocities increase. Professor E. C. Pickering and others have shown how certain species of stars aggregate in certain parts of the sky. Thus the helium stars are only found near the Milky Way, that PRESJDLNT S ADDRESS. Q great girdle of stars which is the framework of the sidereal system. The direct measurement of parallaxes, and the small- ness of their proper motions, both indicate that the helium stars are enormously distant ; and conversely, that stars near us are generally of the metallic spectrum class. Besides the Taurus group of converging stars found by Boss, several other groups, with members spread all over the sky, have been found. The stars in these groups appear to be moving with nearly equal and parallel velocities through space. It is evident that once a star is grouped correctly, and the parallax or distance and velocity of any one star in its group is known, we can also determine its distance. Unfortunately the Doppler principle, by which astron- omers determine the radial velocities of the stars, is somewhat limited in its application. In the helium and hydrogen classes the lines of the spectrum are few, and are difficult to measure, and in all classes it is only possible to measure the displacements of the lines of the bright stars. Even if we anticipate improve- ments in the art of spectrography, it would seem impossible to obtain spectroscopic data in the form required for more than twenty or thirty thousand of the brighter stars. Therefore, although spectroscopy will be a useful ally, its help is limited. Let us now collect the data which are at the astronomers' disposal for finding the distance of the more distant stars. The most important datum is the star's proper motion. This is compounded of the reflex of the sun's motion and of the star's own proper motion, which latter may be eliminated b}- a process of judgment ))y assuming that the star is an average member of its group and spectral class, or that it belongs to one or other of Kapteyn's two drifts. Although in individual cases these indi- cations may be very erroneous, yet in the gross they are permitting astronomers to classify the stars into manageable groups. What is wanted is a better knowledge of the proper motions of the stars. Unfortunately at present these are not well known except for perhaps 10,000 of the brighter stars. Hitherto, the finding of the i^roj^er motions of the stars has been slow, arduous and expensive work. .\t least ten meridian observations, spread over half a century, were essential, and each meridian observation cost about 20s., and meridian observations can only be made of the brighter stars — of i)erhaps 100,000 out of i ,000,000,000 stars now within the reach of the largest telescopes, or of one star in every 10,000. This proportion is altogether too one-sided. Hence astronomers hailed the advent of the photographic dry plate. An organisation for a Carte dii del was formed, in which our first President, the late Sir David Gill, was one of the chief promoters, and this scheme has now been at work for twenty- eight years ; but, so far, the first Carte is far from complete. When completed in ten or twenty years time, we may expect it to furnish us with precise positions of some 3,000,000 stars (or of about I star in 300, still a very small proportion). We will not know the j)roper motions of these stars. To achieve that, another Carte dn Clel must be prepared, so that we must expect lo • president's address. another half-century to elapse before we are in possession of these 3,000,000 proper motions. Again, the labour, and with it the cost involved is enormous, and will probably be in the neigh- bourhood of los. a star. The drawback to these two methods of obtaining proper mo- tions is the necessity for defining the exact position of each star at different epochs, whilst what we want is not its exact position, which is difficult to define, l)ut its change of position — that is, its proper motion. At the beginning of this century it had been suggested that there was no necessity to measure the places of all the stars on photographic plates, but that if pairs of plates were examined in the stereoscope, those stars which had moved relatively would stand out in relief ; alternatively, that if pairs of plates were superimposed, those stars which had moved by proper motion woulcl easily be picked out. These suggestions were tried, and led to the discovery of a few proper motions, but the method was not workable on a large scale, mainly because of fatigue or strain upon the eyes. A third alternative was discovered by Dr. Pulfrich, of Jena, and described by him as a blink method. By this method the pair of plates to be examined is placed side by side, like the ])ictures in a sterescope, but they are examined with one eye through an optical and mechanical arrangement which rapidly lets the eye rest first on one plate and then t)n the other, so that in one second the eye has looked at each plate separately three or four times. This blinking makes the eye wonderfully sensitive to the slightest shift uj^on the plates. If one star relatively to its neighbours has shifted a hundredth of a millimetre U]:)on a Carte dn Cicl plate, the change is not only unmistakeable. it is obtrusive.. This blink-method revolutionises astronomy of position as regards the stars. Both with the meridian observations and the Carte du Cicl measure- ments, each star had to be dealt with separately. In the blink method the stars are dealt with in groups Indeed, one can say that it is easier to deal with 1,000 stars by the blink method than with one by the other methods. All that the blink method re- quires is pairs of plates separated by as long intervals as pos- sil)le. A few weeks ago Mr. Hough ( H. AI. Astronomer at the Cape) placed in Mr. Voute's and my hands a pair of plates with a time interval of nearly twenty-three years. There were about 10,000 stars on the two plates. Ijut in a few hours we were able to announce that only twenty of these showed proper motion — the rest were fixed stars — and we were able to find the proper motions of many stars which were so faint that even the great Carte (In Cicl would not have included them. Since then further pairs of Cape plates have been placed at my disposal with inter- vals of sixteen to eighteen years ; the results confirm the earlier experience. We can therefore clearly state that astronomers have now a weapon of attack which will in the course of time reveal to them, without arduous or expensive labour, the proper motions of all classes of stars from the brightest to the faintest. This will lead to a knowledge of the structure of the sidereal PRESIDKNT S ADDRESS. 1 I universe which a few years ago seemed unattainable. The im- mensity of the task when tackled by the old methods seemed so great, and the consequent delay so inevitable, that Kapteyn pro- posed that astronomers should concentrate their attention on certain selected areas which might be taken as representative samples of the whole sky. A rude analogy will perhaps help us. The old way was something like studying the condition of England by means of a " Burke's Peerage " or a " Who's Who." Kapteyn proposed as better a limited number of selected areas, some urban, some rural ; l)ut the blink method will easily cover the whole area and permit an exact census to be taken. The present state of astronomical science is one of great activity, but I have only time to make some brief references. The activities of the Union Observatory, an institution which was oriorinallv started bv our Association, call for some mention. The late Mr. Franklin- Adams planned a photographic chart of the whole sky, and more than half of the plates were taken at the Union Observatory. These were forwarded to the Astronomer Royal at Greenwich, and are undergoing ex- amination. Some of the first results of this examination have been published in the " Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society." Counts of the stars on these plates have been made by Messrs. Chapman and Melotte,* from whom the following figures are taken : — Plates Plates Galactic taken in taken in Latitude. S. Africa. England. o° to 15° 988,000 515,000 16 to 30 616,000 383,000 31 to 50 406,000 230,000 51 to 90 307.000 145,000 This little table invites two comments — one is that the p-arity of the atmosphere has resulted in many more stars (nearly twice as many) being found on the plates taken at the Union Observa- tory ; the other that the richness of the plates decreases more or less uniformly as the (ialactic Plane — the Milky Way — is left. Chapman and !\lelotte also give this table, showing the total number of stars in the sky, arranged according to magnitudes : — Magnitude. Number. 2.0 38 3.0 III 4.0 300 5-0 • 950 6.0 3,150 7.0 9,810 8.0 3-2,360 9.0 97400 lo.o 272,000 II .0 698,000 * Mem. R.A.S. 60 I4I. 12 PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. Magnitude Number I2.0 1,660,000 13.0 3,680.000 14.0 7,650.000 15.0 15,500,000 16.0 29,500,000 17.0 54,900,000 So actually, the Franklin-Adams ])lates locate for reference at any time about 100 million stars, and these may be said to be all the stars known to astronomers. Sj^ecial plates taken with the largest telescopes indicate a much larger number of stars — per- haps 10 to 15 hundred million in all. It will he noticed that the ratio from one magnitude to another, which is larger than 3 at the beginning of the talile, i)rogressively decreases, and is already less than 2 for the 15-16 magnitude; hence the authors conclude That modern photographic telescopes penetrate to a distance at which the stars begin to thin out fairly quickly either really or by absorption. Variation of Latiti'de. Since March, 1910, and until December. 1914. the Union Observatory has, aided for some years by a subsidy from the International ( ieodetic Bureau, taken part in a scheme of obser- vations for measuring the variation of latitude. I must be brief, and will only say that the question at issue was : " Is this variation common to the whole globe, or is it in part or wholly due to the elasticity of the Earth, so that the deformation in the northern hemisphere might be ditt'erent from that of the southern hemisphere?" The result of our observations to March, 191 3, proves that in the variation of latitude the Earth moves as a solid. In Dr. All^recht's own words : — From this series of observations we can deduce an interesting con- lirmation of the result, previously obtained, that the values of the quanti- ties x, y. and c deduced from observations made in the northern hemi- sphere, can be applied without any modification to the variation of the latitude in the southern hemisphere.* Gravitation. For upwards of half a century it has been known that the law of gravitation seems to be insufficient to account for all the i^lanetary motions — the most conspicuous exception being the motion of the perihelion of Mercury's orbit — and it has been found more recently that it is impossible to reconcile the Moon's motion with gravitation. Recently Professor Larmor and Mr. H. Glauert have proved that a certain amount of these irregularities are due to variations in the length of the day; Glauert finding that the length of the day has increased by a hundredth of a second in a third of a century. This means that as compared with a third of a century ago, the year will appear to be about 3^/^ seconds longer. Such a change, be- cause of our methods of determining time, will be most clearly reflected in the motion of the ist Satellite of Jupiter, whose eclipses can be observed with an accuracy of about i second, * Rapport sur les Travaux dii Bureau Central en 1914, page 6. PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 1 3 and whose motion is the most purel}' periodic that is known. Since 1908, every visible ecHpse of this satellite has been observed at the Union Observatory, so that in the course of time we may expect that our observations may assist in the solution of an obscure problem. In dealino^ with the structure of the sidereal universe, or in a smaller way with the dynamics of a star-cluster, it is often tacitly assumed that gravitation is the only force at work. That gravitation is not universally applicable we see in the solar system in the phenomena of comets' tails, and even more so in the disintegration and disappearance of periodic comets such as those of Biela and Holmes. Many double stars are un- doubtedly subject to the law of gravitation in all its purity, l)ut in far many more gravitation appears to be at most only only a secondary force ( thus in the case of double stars of which both components are of the helium tj'pe, there do not appear to be any signs of gravitative action between the two stars.* It is true that stars with variable radial velocities have been found spectroscopicallv. and their orbits deduced by purely gravitational principles, but in many of these cases it is not indubitablv certain that the shift in the lines of the spectrum is due to recession or approach. The difficulty is that in the so-called earlier type of stars, it is found that the H and K lines (»f calcium do not share in the variable motion on which the binary orbit is based. The inter- pretation of spectra — the contradictory behaviour of different lines, their thickness and intensities— still })rovides problems to be solved. In this connection one must refer to the illuminating papers by Dr. Nicholson on the relation between atomic struc- ture and the lines in the spectrum. Nicholson's work makes much use of the spectra of nebulae, in which we see matter under simpler conditions than is possible on Earth. At this meeting Professor Malherbe is reading a paper ui^on " Atoms. Old and New," which will go further into this subject than is possible here. Organisation of Astronomy. In the earlier part of this address I dwelt upon the power of organisation under scientific direction. I am tempted to develop the subject, limiting my example of organisation to the science of Astronomy, which is truly international in its aims. Astronomers are scattered all over the world, and pursue their work independently of the people amongst whom they live, and who pro\ide the money necessary for their existence. The people are not ungenerous, but they cannot be critical. The Astronomer is on his honour as it were, and this is nearly good enough, but not quite. If the Astronomer is a man of sufficient initiative and energy with a regulated imagination, he will not require much supervision, but he may feel that without the co- operation of his colleagues spread over the world his work may * This question is discussed more closely in my paper on the Masses of Visual Double Stars read at this meeting. 14 PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. be one-sided. He sees the need for organisation, and such organisation is not quite unknown, and has been found bene- ncial. Such occasional events as the transits of \'enus and total eclipses of the Sun generally lead to some loose co-opera- tion. More organised affairs were the Star Catalogue of the Astronomische Gcsellschofi (a society ha\ing its headquarters ir\ Germany, but with international aims). It divided the sky into zones, and allotted these to certain observatories, which were willing to co-operate. The catalogues actually published have been contributed by Austria, England, Holland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Russia, and the United States. This organised effort, started in 1868, is still going on. The other and more important organisation is that of the Carte dii Cicl. started in 1887, and in which our hrst President took a leading part — he was connected with it from its inception, and when lie died he was the President of the Commission. The scheme for the variation of latitude observations is also an international organisation. All these organisations were voluntary. In every way they were useful. The prolilem is whether we can extend the organisation to the whole body of Astronomers, and yet not destroy their initiative. A control, however light, which would destroy initiative would be fatal. At present many observa- tories furnish an annual report. Thus the Royal Astronomical Society in London publishes reports from most of the observa- tories in the Empire ; the Astronomische Gcsellschaft does the same for all the German, manv Continental, and a few Ameri- can observatories ; the French Government i)ublishes the annual reports of all French oliservatories. Other observatories fur- nish annual reports to their own governments or controlling bodies, and some of these are printed and circulated. .Still other observatories, and these in no small number, pulilish no reports. The change I advocate is a very small one ; it is that every observatory should furnish an annual report to its authority, and that these autliorities should transmit the rejjorts to an international association of astronomers, for comment and return. The report should be divided into sections some- what as follows:— (I) Working staff' of observing astrono- mers, non-obser\ing astronomers comprising computors and ordinary assistants. (2) Detailed list of instruments, which cost over £250 a-piece. (3) How many Observers have permanent quarters in the grounds? How many non-observers have ditto? (4) Efficiency of those instruments in past years in per- centage of hours available for work. (5) Observations secured in past year. (6) Observations i)ublisbed, being prejiared for publication, etc. (7) Unpublished obserxations made in pre- vious years — reason for non-publication? (8) Projected lines of work. (9) General notes and explanations. All these reports should be examined and analysed by a ccjmmittee of the international association and then ])ublished. The committee would then make its suggestions to the controlling bodies, leaving these to act on them or not. In this way the president's address. 15 careful minister or even Ihe conscientious member of i)arliament could tind out the opinions which an ex]3ert body holds concern- ing the institution for which he is asked to vote money. The advisory bodv could suggest to those astronomers who have sufficient equipment, but make no use of it, useful lines of research. The ardent astronomer who cannot persuade his government to provide funds would find himself in a stronger position when he has behind him an international body. The lethargic astronomer would find that his colleagues elsewhere look to him to do his share. Better than all, it might be possible to arrange that research students could visit and Avork at observatories whose ec|uipment is not in full use. It would be invidious to give exami)les of observatories not working up to their potentialities — few can — but several make no attempt at any work, and have become little better than sinecures* — it must suffice to say that at least two of the observatories possessing exceptionally large refracting telescopes have not contributed one month's work from them in the last 20 years — their expen- sive equiiMiient is idle and sknvly deteriorating — the output from many others is disappointingly small. If some inter- national association had the i^ower to recommend that these great telescopes were i)ut into commission, or ])etter still, to assign research students to their use, it would be a good tiling. In ancient days princes and men of wealth founded religious institutions called abbeys and monasteries. The}- did so because they considered they were hel])ing the cause of humanity — and for centuries these bodies did resp(^n(l to a real need — but the need passed, and only effete institutions remained — ultimately to be swept away — and to-day princes and men of wealth do nc^t found abbeys. In modern times — the most ancient observatory is not old — i)rinces and men of wealth found observatories because they consider they are helping the cause of humanity. It is unnecessary to push the analogy. The ardent astronomer will not permit to to be pushed too far ; he will organise with his colleagues for the adxaiicement of his science, and the con- sequent enlargement of man's intellectual horizon. I have only dealt with the organisation of a branch of Science somewhat widel}' detached from the current activities of the \\'orld. It would have been too ambitious to sketch the organisation of a state or of humanity at large. But such organisation must come. The War every day is showing us how necessary it is to organise for production — even if only in the munitions of war — and not for profit. We are living in dangerous times, times in which it behoves the man of Science, who is actuated by no selfish interests, to exert his power in remoulding the new society when the time, now near- at-hand, comes. t * They may provide a time or meteoroloo;ical service of some local importance, hut as institutions for research work of any kind their efforts are negligibly small. At least 33 per cent, of the Observatories listed in the Nautical Almanac publish nothiuQ-. tTlie interpretation of the social structure by means of analogies drawn from the science of Biology appears especially ])romising. i6 president's address. The notable discussion in the House of Commons on the 13th May last (reprinted in Nature of the 20th May) on the motion of the Government to form an Advisory Council on Industrial Research, sets an example, which is sure to be followed by other British communities. All the debat^ers spoke of the extraordinary example of Germany rising to great material power through the spread of technical education and scientific research. No country can afford, or would be justi- fied in lagging behind, but a more ethical objective should 1)e the ideal. In South Africa several problems have suggested them- selves, but the experimental work would be very costly, and might, after all, be insufficient, so that their solutions do not appeal to pri\ate enteri)rise — the local production of liquid fuel is one of these problems^ — liquid fuel can be made both from low grade coals and from agricultural produce, and it is within the ranee of probability that what to-dav are considered noxious weeds* might have an economic value in the production of alcohol. Again the extraordinarily favourable duration of sunshine in the Union invites the trial of sunpower boilers, especially for pumping. A census of the water power " white coal " is also desirable, because while we have no great specta- cular falls of water excepting the Victoria Falls, we must remember that our high veld rivers have a descent of 6,000 feet to sea-level, and some of this fall is probably economically avail- able. If Science is co-ordinated knowledge, what is the Scientist? The true type of Scientist is a man of faith, believing in the power of co-ordinated knowdedge to make the W'orld a purer and a better one. If the object of Science was only the material conquest of Nature it would be unworthy, and sooner or later it would be rejected by mankind. The faith of the Scientist is unlimited — he might declare his creed in words somewhat as f ollowsf : — I believe in the ultimate distinction between Good and Evil, and in a real Process in a real Time. I believe that it is my duty to increase Good and to diminish Evil. T believe in doing so I am serving the purpose of the World. This I know and I do not know anything else ; I will not put questions to which I have no answer, and to which I believe no one has an answer. Organic Action is my creed, .Abstract speculation weakens Action. I do not wish to speculate ; I wish to act ; I wish to live. Or, he says, using the words of Bacon : — The knowledge of Truth, which is the Presence of it : and the Beleefe of Truth, which the Enioying of it; is the Soveraigne Good of Humane Nature. The first Creature of God. in the workes of the Daves, was the Light of the Sense; The last, was the Light of Reason; .And His Sabbath Worke, ever since, is the Illumination of His Spirit. * Such as the euphorbia and other cacti. t Adapted from "Appearances,' by G. Lowes Dickinson (1914). Section A.— ASTRONOMY, MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, METEOROLOGY, GEODESY, SURVEYING, ENGIN- EERING, ARCHITECTURE AND IRRIGATION. President of the Section. — F". E. Kanthack, M.I.C.E., M.I.M.E. MONDAY. JULY 5. The President delixerec! the following- address : — The Section of whicli I have the honour of beino- President this year, embraces a somewhat curious mixture of pure and applied science, and it is difficult, in an address of this character, to find a common denominator. Sectional Presidents, as a general ride, cc^nfine their remarks to their own peculiar scientific compartment. As a civil engineer, I am perhaps fortunate in being intimately concerned, more or less, with all the science branches of this Section, and I have elected to address a few remarks to you to-day as an engineer in general, and not as an irrigation engineer in particular. It is quite impossible this year to deflect one's mind from the appalling struggle which is now taking place. The great war. especially in Europe, dift'ers from all previous conflicts, in that applied science is playing an overwhelmingly important part. Almost everv branch of science has been drawn upon, and par- ticularly those eiubraced in this Section. Mathematics, physics and engineering are the essence of gunnery. Engineering science and practice are drawn upon in every phase and branch of modern warfare. Irrigation, even, has played a very important role, as our enemy learned to their cost on the Yser Canal in Flanders. Architects have a very painful interest in the war. They, together with all lovers of what is beautiful, mourn the destruction of ])riceless gems of Gothic monuments. There is, however, one factor in this war which is entirely novel, and has had more far-reaching efifects than anything else, and that is the internal combustion engine. The extraordinary rapid development of this particular form of prime mover has entirely revolutionised warfare. Though this type of engine was brought to a very high state of efficiency some years before the present war, and was adapted to serve all the needs it now serves, in no previous campaign has it taken up the dominating position which it now occupies. Briefly stated, the result of the invention and development of the internal combustion engine Is mainly seen in motor transport and aviation, and it is quite unnecessary for me to enlarge on the far-reaching effects of these two factors in the present war. The origin of the gas engine is imperfectly known. It certainly dates back to the latter part of the i7t'h century, and l8 PKKSIDENTIAL ADDRESS SKCTION A. quite a large number of inventors occupied themselves with this form of heat engine. It remained for Otto to overcome all difficulties and embody all the theories of his distinguished pre- decessors in a reliable and practical engine. Otto and Langen's first engine — a free piston engine — was exhibited at Paris in 1857; but it was not until 1876 that Otto produced an engine which was the real precursor of all modern gas engines. Otto's work occupied 22 years, and is a record of extraordinary industry and perseverance. The successful engine of 1876 embodied the four-stroke cycle principle now universal in all automobile and aeroplane engines, and in most stationary gas and oil engines. This cycle had. however, been suggested by Beau de Rochas as far back as 1862. but the })rinciple upon which it is based, the compression of the explosive charge in the cylinder, was in the minds of several engineers about that time, The four-stroke, or Otto cycle, is so called because four strokes of the reciprocating piston in the cylinder are required to complete the series of (j])erations. These are as follows : — Firstly : The induction stroke, during which the explosive charge is drawn into the cylinder. Secondly : The compression stroke, during which the charge is compressed into a small volume. Thirdly : The explosive stroke, during which the gases are expanded. Fourthly : The exhaust stroke, during which the products of combustion are expelled from the cylinder. The development of the " Otto " gas engine ])roceeded steadily, mainly in the hands of British manufacturers, from 1880 onwards, the improvement being most marked during the last twenty years of the last century, and during this period of development the indicated thermal efficiency increased from about 16 per cent, to yj P^'" cent. This increase was mainly due to the steady advance in compression pressures adopted, which rose from approximately 30 pounds per square inch to over 200 pounds per square inch. All the earlier engines worked on ordinary town illuminating gas, but later on ])roducer gas and waste gases from blast furnaces were largely used, more especially in engines of larger sizes, developing as much as 2,500 brake horse-power and over, but in all cases the very high thermal efficiency has been maintained. The modern gas engine is. as regards thermal efficiency, greatly superior to the steam engine, and is consequently a much more economical prime mover. It has many other points in its favour, amongst which are rapid starting, less space occupied, and the small engines require less skilled attention than in the case of steam engines. The development of large engines work- ing on blast furnace gas has had the most far-reaching effects in the iron and steel making industries, and is now utilising vast quantities of energy which, for generations, have been wasted. I'RIiSIDKNTIAL ADDRKSS— SE( TION A. H) Oil engines have developed more or less concurrently with gas engines, and are in principle the same. The oil engine in its general form is merely a gas engine with a special device for vaporising the oil fuel, which is then mixed with the requisite amount of air to form an explosive mixture. The term " oil engine '" is usually applied to engines working on petroleum and heavier oils as distinct from engines working on light oils, such as benzine, naptha or petrol. The heavy oils are not readily volatilised, and require special vaporising devices. They are used almost wholly in stationary, agricultural and marine service, whereas the lighter ones, with a very low specific gravity and low flashing points, are very readily volatilised, and are eminently suitable as fuels in small high speed engines, familiar in motor- cars and aeroplanes. The petrol engine, under which head may be included all internal combustion engines using highly volatile fuels, is essen- tially a small high speed motor, and the evolution of this engine from the larger slow speed Otto cycle gas engine stands mainly to the credit of Daimler. Up to the early eighties the speed of even the smallest combustion engines did not exceed 200 revolu- tions per minute, but Daimler, in 1883. produced an engine run- ning upwards of 800 revolutions per minute. Daimler's achieve- ment was mainly a mechanical one, and was embodied in the successful employment of very high speeds of rotation, which made it possible to greatly reduce the weight and bulk of the engine without sacrificing power. Daimler produced his first motor bicycle in 1886. and the first motor-car fitted with a Daimler engine was in 1887. In 1889 the famous firm of Pan- hard and Levasser undertook the manufacture of Daimler motors in France, and the subsequent evolution of the motor-car in that country was extraordinarily rapid. The early engines were low powered, with single and two cylinders, air cooled, and hot tube or battery ignition, yet the development of the modern high- })owered engine, with four and six cylinders, water-cooled, and high tension magneto ignition, occupied only a few years. It is impossible for the non-technical indivjtkial to realise and appreciate the enormous amount of scientific work and inventive genius which has been expended on the motor-car, and especially on the engine. New metallurgical processes had to be invented to produce steels of great strength able to survive the shocks and strain of hard running, while the various machine tools and manufacturing processes connected with motor-car construction are no less wonderful than is the finished article. The average modern motor-engine has a normal speed of from one to two thousand revolutions per minute, and it recjuires no technical mind to realise that thorough reliability under such working conditions requires a mechanism of supreme excellence. Yet this reliability is but a few years' old. Even ten years ago motoring was full of troul)les ; twenty years ago a motor trij^ was a most vnicertain undertaking. 20 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION A. With engine reliability came its adaptation to need of aviation, and aviation practice developed a new species of motor engine, in which economy in petrol and oil consumption was, to a considerable extent, sacrificed to minimise weight per horse-power and extreme reliability. As regards the weight per horse-power, the first stationary petrol engines made in the year 1880 weighed about 1,110 lbs. per horse-power. Six years later Daimler, in his early motors, had reduced this weight to 88 lbs. per horse-power, and during the evolution of the motor engine this figure was rapidly reduced. In modern motor-car engines the engine weight, including the heavy fly-wheel, ranges from 18 to 24 lbs. per nominal brake horse power. In aeroplane motors the weight has been cut down to a wonderful degree, and engine weights per rated B.H.P. are given as varying from 21 lbs. to 1.8 lbs. This last figure is claimed for the 14-cylinder, 123 H.P. rotary Gnome engine. In the 7-cylinder Gnome engine the weight is only 3^ lbs., and 5 to 6 lbs. per rated H.P. is comparatively common in good engines. Another type of internal coml)Ustion engine of comparatively recent origin is the Diesel engine. This engine works on what is known as the continuous or slow combustion principle, whereas all gas engines, petrol engines, etc., work by explosion, that is to sav. by comlnistion at approximateh' constant volume. From the point of view of thermal efficiency, an engine on the slov/ com- bustion principle is more efficient than one working on the explo- sion principle. The slow combustion principle was first used by Bray ton in America in 1872, but it was not until 1893 that the late Dr. Diesel published his ideals defining the proper principles on which a heat engine should be designed in order to ensure its working with a maximum economy. Diesel's ideas were embodied in a patent taken out in 1892, and the manufacture was taken up by two important engineering firms in Germany, and the highly successful modern Diesel engine stands to the credit of the Germans — Augsberg engineering firm. The principle of this engine is to produce the highest tem- perature of the C3^cle before combustion of the charge takes place, and this high temperature is obtained solely by the com- pression of air, which is efifected in a separate air compressor, and not, as in the usual four-stroke cycle, by a compression stroke of the piston. The initial compression of the air is very great, reaching as high as 500 lbs. per square inch. At the commencement of the expansion stroke liquid oil fuel is injected into the charge of compressed and highly-heated air, and com- bustion of the mixture immediately takes place at more or less constant temperature. This engine immediately showed itself to be the most economical internal combustion so far as fuel consumption was concerned, and it was adapted to use low grade heavv oil fuels, such as crude petroleum and heavy vegetable oils, which could not be used in other types of internal combustion engines. This PKKSIDKXTIAI ALDRKSS SECTfON A. 21 type of engine has proved a great success for certain classes of work, and in the short time since it was placed on the market several millions of brake horse-power have been built. In recent years an intermediate type of engine has been produced, and has become popular, known as the semi-Diesel engine, which combines to some extent the merits of the high compression system of the Diesel engine and those of the low compression oil engine. This very briefly covers the range of internal combustion engines, which are found in everyday use. All are of the recipro- cating type, but there is a pt)ssibility that a gas turbine may yet emerge from the experimental stage and take practical shape. It has been shown that the internal combustion engine has in a very short space of time developed in many directions. In the course of its evolution many difficulties have been en- countered. Some of these have been wholly surmounted, others have only been partially overcome. Progress in some directions has been very rapid ; in others slow. Thus, in the case of small power imits up to four to five hundred horse-power, very rapid development has taken place, and a very high degree of perfec- tion has been attained, but with large power units many diffi- culties, anticipated and otherwise, have not been fully overcome. Improvement in thermal efficiency has been very rapid. The average efifective indicated thermal efficiency of gas engines is about 35 per cent. Theoretically, it is possible to further increase this efficiency by increasing the compression ratio, but practical considerations place a limit on such an increase, and one of the best authorities of gas engines considers it unlikely that a 40 per cent, thermal efficiency will be exceeded in commercial practice. So far as economy of heat is concerned, both gas and oil engines have considerably surpassed the best steam engines, and within certain prescribed limits the internal combustion engine now entirely holds the field against its older rival, the steam engine. In the case of larger imits, more esjjecially l)last furnace gas engines, the most recent improvement, as regards thermal efficiency, consists in using the heat contained in the exhaust gases of the gas engine for raising steam, and at a lecture recently delivered by Professor Hubert, of Liege University, before the Iron and Steel Institute in London, a large experi- mental plant, installed bv the Cockerill Company at Seraing. in Belgium, is described. In this plant the exhaust heat from four gas engines developing an aggre^^aie of 5.000 P>.H.P. is utilised, and it is stated that 55 per cent, of the heat of the waste exhaust gases is removed by the boilers, thus increasing the thermal efficiency of the gas engines by about 13 per cent. In the matter of fuel, the internal combustion engine secures a very distinct advantage. The steam engine is dependent upon a fuel by means of which water can be economically transformed into steam in a boiler and furnace. In the best types of steam plant about one pound of the best Welsh steam coal is required B 22 PRESIDENTFAL ADDRESS SECTION A. to develop one indicated horse-power in the engine. A good suction gas engine and generator working with best Welsh anthra- cite will equal and improve upon this performance. At the same time gas engines are working on town gas — obviating the complication, space and mess involved in a boiler plant, or gas may be produced in a generator from almost any fuel or refuse which can be made to liurn. Or, again, the waste gases of the blast furnace may be used. Engines using town gas are an obvious convenience to users of small powers in urban areas where gas mains are installed. The engine working with its own gas generator, more especially the suction gas engine, has made power available to thousands of users who could otherwise only obtain power at a high, or even prohibitive, cost. Many power users in South Africa have scrapped a steam j^lant, installed a larger suction gas plant, and have paid for the latter out of one, or. at the most, two years' saving in running costs. The enormous engines installed at up-to-date iron or steel works, and working on waste bia.sl furnace gas. save these works great sums of money annually, which were formerly spent on coal. To give an example of one of these large installations, at the v.'crks of the Indiana Steel Company, there are in one power house 1/ sets of large Nurenberg type engines, each developing 2,500 kilowatts, or 3,000 B.H.P. ; 51,000 B.H.P. in all. Both on the continent of Europe and in the United States there are many large blast furnace gas engines developing over 5,000 B.H.P. for each unit. Coming to the oil engines, these equal the gas engines for efficiency, but their great merit lies in the convenient form of fuel. A pint of oil per B H P. bour represents but little I)ulk, and oil engines are consequently larger in use as portable machines or tractors for agricultural and other purposes. All the smaller gas and oil engines are very easy to manage, and require no reg^ular expert attention, and can all be started up from cold within a few minutes — the least characteristic is of enormous advantage to the small ijower user The small high- speed engine working on petrol or alcohol falls into a separate class. The thermal efficiency of these engines falls considerably short of that obtained in gas engines, and rarely exceeds 25 per cent, when working at fairly high speeds, but the value of these engines lies in other directions. The extraordinarily small weight of these engines per horse power, the high speed of rotation, ease and speed with which they can be started, the small bulk of the fuel supply and its convenience, have endowed these motors with an importance hardly realised by most people. Modern automobilism and aviation, and all that these terms stand for, are the direct residt of the development of this type of engine by Daimler. Daimler produced the first motor bicycle and the first successful motor- car. Besides, Daimler, Benz deserves a considerable amount of credit as a pioneer in the production of an internal combustion PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION A. 2^ engine suitable for self-propelled road vehicles. It is difficult omnibus, and the motor bicycle, are derived from the curious to believe that the motor-car, commercial motor lorry, motor looking vehicks built during the late eighties. Early specimens, dating back to 1890, have found their way into the National Museum at South Kensington. In the large towns of Europe, horse-drawn vehicles are rapidly disappearing from the streets, and the self-propelled motor vehicle has, within the past ten years, revolutionised the traffic conditions in London and other great cities. With regard to aeroplanes and dirigible balloons, these owe their existence and success wholly to the internal combustion motors. The modern flying machine — certainly the monoplane — is, in its essentials, very little different from the model made by Henson about 1840. He invented it in 1835, and filed his patent specification in 1842. The model was built in accordance with data given by Sir George Cayley, who made a profound study of flight about a century ago. Cayley forecasted the aeroplane, and most of its essential features. Henson's monoplane was a steam-driven machine, but in his day no satisfactory motor was available, and sixty years had to elapse before the petrol engine provided a sufficiently light, powerful, and reliable motor to make the aeroplane a success. What the steam engine was to the nineteenth century, the internal combustion engine is to the twentieth, and the effect of the latter on society is probably greater and m-^re far-reaching than was the case with the steam engine. The effect of the petrol motor in the great world's struggle now raging is so great that I desire to call attention to the rapid evolution of this type of prime mover. Little did Otto and the earlier pioneers realise the colossal consequences which their work would have, not alone in the interests of civilisation, but as a powerful aid to the greatest orgie of destruction in which mankind has ever taken part. Nevertheless, the development of the internal combustion en^ ine is probably the greatest engineering achievement which the world has ) el: witnessed. Section B.— CHEMISTRY, GEOLOGY, METALLURGY, MINERALOGY AND GEOGRAPHY. President of the Section. — H. Kynaston, M.A., F.G.S. TUESDAY, JULY 6. The Section having assembled. Mr. R. T. A. Innes, F.R.A.S., F.R.S.E., President of the Association, expressed his sense of the loss that had befallen the Section and the whole Association in the decease of the President of the Section a week ago. He moved that the Section express its condolence with the bereaved family of the late Mr. Kynaston. The motion was agreed to in silence Ijy a standing vote. Professor D. F. dii Toit IN'Ialherbe, M.A.. Ph.D., Secretary of the Section, then read the following address, which had been prepared for delivery by the late President : — RADIO-ACTIVITY IN ITS BEARING ON GEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. During recent years an entirely new and novel branch of chemistry has sprung up — one might almost say, an entirely new science. The discovery of Radium and Radio-activity, involv- ing the remarkable phenomenon of atomic disintegration and the consequent spontaneous liberation of energy in the form of heat, has not only profoundly affected Chemistry and Physics in opening up some of the most fundamental cjuestions concern- ing the ultimate constitution of matter, but it has given the geologist good reason to pause, and he cannot help seeing that the study of Radio-activity is btnnid to considerably modify his outlook upon various terrestrial jjroblems. It has put things in a new light, and in this new light they have been re-considered, and are still presumably undergoing treatment by authorities such as Professors Strutt, Joly, Holmes, Chamljerlin, and others, and it is the duty of every geologist to fall in with the new line of thought, at least as far as it affects his particular science. The whole subject, however, although still (|uite a young one. is far too large and intricate to be gone into in detail here. I do not propose to go into the chemical side of the subject — • that can safely be left to the Chemists themselves^ljut I would like to point out briefly the very important bearing which the phenomena of radio-activity have upon various important geologi- cal questions. The old problems of the internal heat of the earth, and the condition and the constitution of its interior, have to be con- sidered afresh in the light of radio-activity. The present imper- fection, however, of our knowledge of the distribution of radium PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION V>. 2^ and radio-active substances in the earth as a whole is a hancHcap in this task. It will therefore be of interest first of all to review briefly what is known of this branch of the subject. Radio-active matter in the form of compounds is now known to be widely distributed over the face of the globe, a distribution which has, no doubt, been considerably influenced by the surface changes which the Earth has undergone. It is found in minute quantities in practically all the rocks of the Earth's surface, in nearly all the waters and in the atmosphere, while hand in hand with a general tendencv to diffusion there has also been, as we shall see, certain tendencies to concentration. So far as the crust of the Earth is concerned, the igneous rocks may be taken as the source of the radio-active sul)stances. Thev have a higher radium content than the sedimentary rocks, since the latter have been derived from the former, and in the pro- cesses of denudation and deposition a certain amount of the radio-active contents of the igneous rocks is taken up by the atmosphere and the waters. With regard to the igneous rocks Professor Strutt has found a higher radium content in the acid than in the basic rocks, and from the luunber of analyses so far completed, estimating the radium content in billionths of a gramme per gramme of rock, we get the further interesting generalisation that a combination of silica with a high proportion of alkali, such as is found in the phonolites and rocks of a similar class, favours the relative al)undance of radium in the igneous rocks. The extent to which the alkalis are present is. apparently, according to the later results of Holmes, the predominating factor in determinating tlie ([uantity of radium present. Joly's results indicate the probability also that volcanic and, to a less extent, hyperbyssal rocks on the average have a higher radium content than their plutonic equivalents. This may be accounted for by the fact. demcMistrated 1)\' numerous analyses, that volcanic rocks contain, as a rule, more soda and more silica than the corresponding plutonic rocks. Radium, therefore, shows a marked preference for alkaline and acid rocks, and also for volcanic rocks as compared with plutonic. Apparently, therefore, the processes of differentia- tion responsible for such rocks have also been favourable for the concentration of uranium, and conse(|uentK- c;f radium. The same may also 1)e said of thorium, as indicated bv the associa- tion of uranium and thorium-bearing minerals witli pegmatites genetically related to granites and syenites uf an alkaline character. Besides pegmatites, radio-active matter also tends to be concentrated in certain rock constituents, such as zircon, pyromorphite, apatite, etc. These results regarding the concentration of radio-active compounds are certainly significant, but the data are. perhaps, as yet hardly sufficient to enable us to draw any final conclusion from them. The close association with acid pegmatites, how- ever, suggests that the same process of differentiation may have 26 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION I',. been in operation in the case of the radio-active elements as has also been responsible for the selective concentration of the various minerals so characteristic of the final activities of an igneous magma, and frequently characteristic of pegmatites, such as tourmaline, topaz, zircon, beryl, cassiterite, etc. It is con- sidered by Holmes in this connection that the action of magmatic gases and vapours has largely controlled the process of differen- tiation, which has resulted in the extraction of the radio-active elements and their concentration in the subsidiary portions of the magma, such as the pegmatite veins. Chamberlin considers that since in the radio-active elements we have a thermal agency of very high efficiency, it is probable that, in virtue of the heat-producing activities of these elements, arising from continuous atomic disintegration, they have had a decided influence upon the production of igneous intrusion and extrusion. In his opinion, they thus assist by their action other agencies such as compression, not only in the liquefaction of rock matter, but also in facilitating a passage for it towards the surface. In short, the peculiar activities of the radio-active elements have been one of the principal agents in effecting their concentration towards the surface of the earth. Leaving out of consideration, however, the actual methods of distribution and concentration, let us return to the relation between radio-activity and the earth's internal temperature. We have seen that radium is widely distributed over the more super- ficial portions of the earth. If, then, radio-active matter was distributed in a similar proportion throughout the entire mass of the earth, from the surface to the centre, it has been estimated that the observed temperature gradient as the eartli is penetrated, would be very much higher than it is ; in fact, the earth would never ha\e become fit for habitation, and would actual! v be growing hotter ! But as this is not the case, we can only con- clude either that radio-active elements are absent from the more central portion of the earth, or possibly present to a cjuite in- appreciable extent, or that, if there is in the earth an equable distribution of radio-active matter in de]jth, then there must be some agency, such as pressure, which is able to restrain its activity in depth or altogether prevent its atomic disintegration. The results of various observations, deductions, and experi- ments, however, tend very clearly to show that radio-active substances can, apparently, undergo disintegration persistently and uniformly under all known terrestrial conditions, and so their action is probably not controlled or influenced in any way by pressure or temperature. These considerations certainly point to the conclusion that the radio-active elements are practi- cally confined in their occurrence to the crustal portion of the globe. The evidence of concentration that I have already referred to tends to support this view, althouo-h the very fact that concentration and diffusion has. and no doubt still is, taking PRESIDKNTIAL ADDRESS- -SECTION B. 2/ place would naturally lead us to suppose that at one time they had a more uniform distribution. Professor Strutt concludes that a distribution of radium. equal to that observed in the surface rocks, down U) a depth of 45 miles, would supply sufficient heat to account for the observed temperature gradient of the crust of the earth, while Joly's estimate for the thickness of the radio-active crust is approximately 20 miles. These views, however, apparently take no account of heat derived from other sources such as movements within the crust, chemical changes, etc. ; nor of loss of heat by volcanic action. As further supporting the idea of the great influence of radio-activity on the internal temperature of the crust, it is of interest to note that Joly's investigation into the radio-activity of the Simplon and St. Gothard rocks Ijrought out a remarkable correspondence between the estimated radium content and the oliserved temperature gradient, the higher gradient corresponding with the higher radium content, whereas in the case of the lower gradient the rocks examined showed a decided fall in the amount of radium present. Let us now see whether the more generally accepted views as to the constitution of the inner earth support the idea of a comparatively thin radio-active crust or not. Although there are some who hold contrary opinions, it is certainly widely accepted that the earth is solid throughout, and consists of a dense metallic core probably approximating in composition to that of the heavier class of meteorites, which consist almost entirely of nickel-iron, surrounded by more stoney material, showing, on the whole, a gradual decrease in density towards an outer crust. The arguments from specific gravity and pres- . sure support this view, and the more recent hypothesis of Chamberlin as to the origin of the earth involves the building u]) of an essentially solid globe, this being eft'ected, according to his view, by gradual aggregation and accretion from minute bodies, or planetesimals. constituting portions of a spiral nebula. The results so far obtained by various workers from investi- gations into the phenomena of earthquake waves unfortunate]}- difi^er somewhat amongst themselves. But, in any case, they demonstrate that the interior of the earth is very much denser and more rigid than the crust, owing to the much higher velocity at which the earthquake waves travel through it than through the material forming the crust. Professor Milne has calculated that the change in velocity due to change in the condition of the interior commences at a depth of about 30 miles. R. D. Oldham also found a marked difl^erence between the crust and the interior, but he divides the interior into two zones, the inner being of unknown composition owing to a decrease that he claims to have observed in the velocity of certain of the waves as they traverse the central core. Further, from the results of recent observations carried out in Germany, it is concluded that beneath the outer crust there are four zones, the innermost 28 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION IJ. having a density (of y.S to 8), approximately equal to that of metallic iron. The evidence from earthquakes, therefore, though not altogether conclusive as to the structure of the internal portion of the eartii, is certainly consistent with the conclusion arrived at from the study of radio-activity, of a relatively thin superficial crust, differing essentially in composition from the interior, and probably varying in thickness in different parts of the globe. It will be interesting now to inquire how far the facts observed concerning meteorites bear upon the structure and composition of the earth and the idea of a radio-active crust. First of all a few words as to their nature and origin. Meteorites are peculiar solid bodies which are continually entering the earth's atmos|)here fnmi outer space, and occa- sionally reach its surface. There are two principal kinds, metallic and stony, and between these there is every gradation, and altogether four fairly distinct classes can be recognised according: to the relative amount of metallic and stonv matter present. These are : — T. Holosiderites, consisting almost entirely nf a coarsely crystalline alloy of nickel and iron. 2. LitJiosiderites, consisting of a nickel-iron matrix, enclos- ing granules of basic silicates, such as olivine and l)ronzite. 3. When the nickel-iron occurs in grains embedded in a matrix of the silicate minerals, they arc called Sidcro- lifes. 4. The Sto)ix Meteorites, which are divided into Chondrites and AcJiondrites. according t«« the j^resence or absence of i:)eculiar more or less rounded grains of Olixine or Pyroxene, known as (lioiidri or CJioiidndes. In addition to the above, there is a remarkable group of bodies, which are supposed 1)y Suess and other authorities to be of extra-terrestrial origin, and therefore, are regarded 1)y them as meteorites. These are called Tektites. and consist of peculiar button-.shaped masses of glass, and have been found in Bohemia and Australia. If these are to 1)e included among the meteorites, they are exceptional, as they contain 80 i)er cent, of silica, whereas the stony meteorites do not contain more than 40 per cent. Others assign a terrestrial volcanic origin to these bodies, but the possibility of their belonging to the meteorites should be borne in mind. From the fragmentary nature of most meteorites, it is evident that thev are merely fragments of larger bodies. In some of their characters thev resemble terrestrial rocks, while in others they show striking dift'erences from them, — thus many of the iron meteorites closely resemble the native iron occurring in the Greenland basalts. On the whole, nickel-iron is apparently more abundant in meteorites than stony material, the metallic meteorites are usually PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION 1!. 29 the larger of the two kinds, and occasionally have fallen in large masses weighing several tons. The stony meteorites are smaller, and probably fall more frequently, but are naturallv more likeh' to be missed than the others, and more likely to become decom- posed and disintegrated after their fall — and so lost. The meteorites actually known probably, therefore, do not give us an accurate idea of their average composition. If this were known it would doubtless be found to show a somewhat lower proportion of iron than has commonly been supposed to be present, and, at the same time, it would give us the average composition of the body or bodies from which the meteorites have been derived. Various theories have been advanced as to their origin, but that which best fits with their characteristic features is that they owe their origin to the disruption and fragmentation of some small atmosphereless tody or bodies in space, resembling the satellites or asteroids. They now constitute fragmentary masses, which travel in space in an erratic manner, and with a high velocity which has been estimated in some cases to be as much as 40 or 50 miles per second. The meteors which exist as swarms and appear as showers of so-called " shooting stars " at definite times, such as the August and November meteors, are apparently of a dift'erent class, as they follow definite orbits about the Sun, and a])pear to be closely connected in some way with comets, and do not usually reach the Earth. It is f|uite probable, however, that in composition they closely resemble the iron and stony meteorites. A brecciated structure is very common in many meteorites, and occasionally these contain fractured chondri among the included fragments. As chondri are structures known only in meteorites, this implies that fracturing or brecciation and re- cementation took place in the parent body ; larger chondri also sometimes enclose fragments of smaller ones. Slickensided surfaces and veins are also sometimes present in meteorites, which implies movements and fracturing in the parent body. The very coarse crystallisation of the nickel-iron meteorites indicate that their substance cooled slowly under a high tem- perature and pressure as might be expected to be present in the inner portion of the body from which they were derived. Also the crystal form of the nickel-iron is usually octahedral. which indicates that the metal must have been heated to a tem- ]>erature of, at least, 860° C. before cooling. The occurrence of diamonds, which has been i)roved in two cases, also indicates a high pressure. Many of the stony meteorites contain a considerable pro- portion of glassy matter ; this implies rapid cooling, such as would take place at the surface of the parent body, and is analogous to the formation of glass from rapid cooling in terrestrial lavas. 30 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SEe'lION ii. Certain meteorites contain hydrocarbons — compounds re- sembling terrestrial bitumens or petroleum. These are volatile and combustible substances, and their presence shows thai such meteorites could not have been subjected to great heat subse- quent to the formation of the hydrocar1)ons, and that the heating, as the pass through the earth atmosphere, has been only superficial. All meteorites contain included gases, such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, marsh-gas, and sometimes nitrogen. Terrestrial igneous rocks can also be made to give off similar gases. In contrast to the average rocks of the Earth's crust, meteorites show an excess of iron, nickel, and magnesium, and what is especially noteworthy an almost entire absence of water, free oxygen, and free silica. The more important rock-forming minerals of the earth's crust are absent, such as quartz, ortho- clase, the acid plagioclases, micas, and amphiboles, the chief minerals of the meteorites being present only in small proportion in the crust. The crust rocks of the earth abound in free silica. lime, alumina, and alkalies, while meteorites abound in iron, nickel, and magnesia. The minerals of meteorites are always unaltered, and show no signs of weathering; there are no hydrated minerals, and there are no minerals present (such as the zeolites, cpidote, tourmaline, etc.), in the formation of which water or water-vapour takes part. These facts point to the conclusion that the jjarent body from which meteorites were deriv^ed had no water nor an oxygen-bearing atmos])here, having ])robably been too small to retain their gases in a free state. In this case there could have been no selective weathering of its materials, and no mineralogical differentiation of the terrestrial type, and therefore no forma- tion of the terrestrial type of crust. The atmosphere and water of the earth have been largely instrumental in the forma- tion of its particular kind of crust, and the free silica of the earth's crust is easily accounted for l)y tlie working over and over of its original constituent materials l)y their agencies. By the exposure of the silicates to car])on dioxide the bases are changed to car]:)onates, and silica is set free. Most of the above facts regarding meteorites and what they imply have been pointed out Ijy Farrington and others in their studies of the structure and composition of meteorites, and Farrington also concludes from their structure, that the material of the parent body was arranged according to density, and had cooled from a liquid or semi-liquid state before disruption. Finally, Chamberlin further considers that the meteorites of the erratic type are merely the incidental products of stellar systems, and that the meteoritic condition does not seem to represent a generative method whereby stellar systems are evolved. It is not unreasonable to suppose from the characters of meteorites, and in view of the known uniformity of matter in PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS- -SECTION 1!. 3 I space, that the constitution of the meteoritic parent body might show us to some extent the constitution also of the earth. We cannot, of course, say that the two would be identical in com- position, Ijut, at the same time, the strong analogy between meteoritic and terrestrial materials cannot be denied. Thus, Suess, arguing from the chemical characters of meteorites and their relation to those of terrestrial ultra-basic rocks, has suggested that the earth consists of three principal zones — 1. A metallic barysphere. rich in iron and nickel. 2. An intermediate zone, rich in magnesia and silica ; and 3. An outer crust, rich in silica and alumina. Holmes supposes that there is a terrestrial zone correspond- ing in order of density to each of the ])rincipal types of meteorite. Daly, in his recent work on the igneous rocks and their origin, also advocates a coarse stratification or zonal arrangement of the materials of the earth according to their density. With regard to the radio-active characters of meteorites, we have so far very scanty information. The results, however, of Holmes' analyses show an absence of radium in the iron- meteorites, which, in view of the analogy between meteoritic and terrestrial material, strongly supports the conclusion of the absence of radium and, therefore, of uranium from the metallic core of the earth. The stoney meteorites showed, on the whole, a radium content rather less than that of terrestrial ultra-basic rocks, while a considerably lower amount appears in the iron- stone class, the radio-active matter occurring in verv minute quantity in the silicate minerals. In the meteorite parent body, then, evidentlv, the radium content decreased with depth until it died out altogether, and showed, to some extent, a similar general type of distribution to that which we have seen apparentlv obtains in the earth. The inference is that radio- activitv, and, therefore, the amount of radio-active materials tends to increase towards the sin^face of such bodies, and would show a jjroeressive decrease with increase of depth, and of density of the constituent materials. On the whole, the evidence from meteorites certainly lends support to the conclusion that the radio-active elements in the earth are concentrated towards the upper part (^f the crust. The concentration on the earth, however, is of a more advanced order, having been probably to a great extent controlled by selective mineralogical differentiation assisted by aqueous and atmospheric agencies, which we have seen were apparently absent on the meteoritic parent body, so that it may be supijosed to have proceeded f^ari f^assu with the evolution of the more acid or siliceous rocks. The problem of geological time is another of the cjuestions which is being reconsidered in the light of radio-activity. In 32 PKKSIDKNTIAL ADDUKSS SECTION B. the minerals in which uranium and thorium occur, radio-active changes have been going on continuously for vast periods of time. Hence, we should expect to tind in these minerals the ultimate products of the atomic changes which have taken place, and the older the geological formation to which the mineral belongs, the greater ought to be the quantity of the products. It was found that these minerals contained the gas helium, and it is known that helium is one of the products of radio-active sul)Stances. and is being evolved by them at an uniform rate. If, then, calculations could be made of the amount of the stored- up helium, and of the elements giving rise to it, from these data the age of the minerals containing the radio-elements might be estimated. There is always the prol)ability, however, that the helium may escape from the containing mineral, which would naturally invalidate any estimate of this kind. A variation of the above method has been applied to the pleochroic halos surrounding minute ,i;rains of radio-active minerals, occurring in the mica of certain granites, the halo having been caused by the action of the helium produced. Lead is also supposed to be a i)roduct of the disintegration of uranium and thorium, and various estimates have been made on this basis as to the geological age of minerals of different geological periods, containing uranium and associated with lead. The ages assigned to geological periods by Strutt and others by these methods are considerablv greater than those arrived at by other methods such as that from measuring the thickness of the sediments and their rate of deposition, and amount to several himdreds of millions of years for some of the earlier geological systems. The whole subject, however, is exceedingly complicated, and the present state of our knowledge of the exact nature and results of radio-active changes is hardly sufficient to justify thorough reliance on these methods as yet for estimating the age of the earth ; though as cliemical and geological investigations progress side by side, the radio-active method may become an imjjortant line of research. The whole studv of radio-activitv in its bearing on geology has, I am sure, a great future l)efore it, and in opening up to our knowledge such vast and unexpected stores of energy within the earth's crust, it gives a new significance to many problems, such as volcanic action, magmatic movements, and differentiation, and to the whole historv and evolution of the earth, and of the structure and condition of its interior and of its crust. Section C— BACTERIOLOGY, BOTANY, ZOOLOGY, AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY, PHYSIOLOGY, HY- GIENE AND SANITARY SCIENCE. President of the Section : C. P. Lounsbury, B.Sc. F.E.S. WEDNESDAY, JULY 7. In the unavoidable absence from South Africa of the President, the following address, prepared by liim for delivery, was read by Mr. C. K. Brain: — SOME PHASES OF THE LOCUST PROBLEM. Before proceeding to the subject of my address, I feel that an explanation and an apology for my personal absence are due to the members attending Section C. When the Council of the Association was pleased in Alarch to offer me the presi- dency of the Section for the current session, I quite expected to be able to fulfil the functions of the office, and, sensible of the honour conferred on me, I gratefully accepted. It was not until some weeks later that I found it would be impracticable for me to attend the session ; but when I sought to withdraw from the presidency, your secretary was good enough to ask me to retain the position and to leave my address to be read in my name. I sincerely regret having to miss the pleasure of being with you. A presidential address is generally supposed, I believe, to give a review of the progress made in the arts and sciences encompassed by the section ; and in following the lead of some of my predecessors in departing from this time-honoured custom, I crave the indulgence of the meeting. So many and so varied are the subjects covered by Section C, that only a man with enclycop^edic knowledge could hope even to touch upon all of them satisfactorily. Keenly conscious of my limitations. I have chosen to address you on locusts, a subject that, I think, has the merit of general interest in this country. After all, I think I could show you that locusts, to some degree, concern all of the eight sciences comprised in the section. A connection with bacteriology, for instance, is evident inasmuch as the use of bacterial diseases for the decimation of locusts has been widely advocated; cultures of one organism (Coccobacillus acridiontm d'Hcrcllc) for the purpose are now obtainable at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Any link with sanitary science is less apparent, but now and again our town engineers are called upon to guard reservoirs and streams against pollution by the insects, and the time has been even at Cape Town when decaying myriads of locusts have been thrown back by the sea greatly to the distress of the dwellers in the mother city of our Association. 34 PRKSIDENTIAL Ai)!>KKS.S SKC TIO.N C. In selecting locusts as my subject, I am influenced by some- what selfish official considerations. In my estimation, there is reason to believe that the Union is entering upon a cycle of years when swarms of locusts will be widespread and destruc- tive ; and l)y drawing your attention to these insects, I hope observations may be ]n"om])te(l tliat will help to elucidate the mysteries now surroundnig the origin, development, decline and absence of locust eruptions. Not until the entomologist knows the causes underlying these i)henomena will he l^e in a satis- factory position to recognize and interpret aright the happenings that portend a change from one condition to another. Within a few months locusts have appeared in small numbers here and there all the way fr^ m Ikisutoland on the east to Namaqualand on the west, and some have been observed as far north as Francistown in Southern Rhodesia, and as far south as Cradock in the Cape Province. Because the occurrence has followed close on a general drought, and after an interval of locust absence, it is conjectured that a new locust cycle is impending or. rather, has begun ; and, in consequence, the Government is making expensive and troublesome ])rei)arations to fight the pest at a time when the condition of the public treasury renders strict economy essential. But as I shall undertake to show it is not really known for certain that severe and general devastation by the pest is threatened. It may be that there will be fewer locusts in the 1015-16 season than there were in the 1014-1^ one. The advisers of the Government, the entomologists, owing to the present imperfect state of knowledge resjiecting the canses of locust abundance, may not be reading nature's signs as they should be read, or may be overlooking important indications. Therefore, public funds may be needlessly expended, and the ]ieople of the country needlessly agitated. On the other hand, far greater trouble than is now imagined may be imminent, and thus the Government's preparations prove inadequate. The term "locust " is somewhat vague in its application to insects. I here use it to refer only to naturally gregarious, short-horned, so-called grasshoppers that are capable of long- sustained flight. Such insects are found on all the great con- tinents, and by causing famines for man and beast, they have attracted attention from time immemorial. Chinese records of famines due to their depredations extend back over 2,000 years, and old Roman writers refer to parts of Italy being laid waste before the Christian era, while Biblical references will recur to you. At the present time great trouble with them is experienced in certain provinces of Russia and in Argentina. That Europe is involved may surprise some of you; but most of Europe south of the Baltic has been repeatedly ravaged, and in one great irruption in the middle of the eighteenth century the pest reached the British Isles, penetrating into Scotland and Wales, and being especially destructive in the midland counties of England. The invasions into Western Europe have always been from the East, PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION C. 35 and their in frequency in the last hundred years is not improbably due to the country in the path the swarms would follow having been brought more and more under cultivation. Locusts were observed in Table Valley by visiting mariners long before the settlement of Cape Town by the Dutch, and V^an Riebeek experienced losses bv them during his first summer in this country, 1653. A quarter of a century later, 1687, they again ravaged the gardens of the little colony, as recorded bv Theal in his " History of South Africa." Apparently there was more trouble witli the insects a few years later, but Theal observes that from 1695 until the closing days of 1746 the colony was free from them. On the 28th of December, he then records. They found their way in such vast numbers into Table Valley that the air seemed filled with them, and in few days there was nothing edible left, not even leaves on the trees. The devastation in Uie .surrounding country was equally severe, and the price of meat in the little colony doubled because so many cattle and sheep perished from starvation. History further records that the Cape authorities at the time were having a mole, or breakwater, constructed for the pro- tection of shipping. The work was suspended owing to the fall in revenue and the increase in costs brought about by the locusts, and it may be added that it was never resumed. The name " Mouille Point " — that is, " Mole Point " — however, has survived for the place where the start was made. In February, 1843 — that is, nearly a hundred years later — the Cape and surrounding districts were again visited by locusts. Crops, vineyards, and pasturages were greatly damaged, but, as it came later in the season, the daiuage was not so serious as on the previous occasion. Enormous numbers of the insects were blown into the sea and afterwards washed up. Mr. H. C. V. Leibbrandt. late Keeper of the Cape Archives, told me ten years ago that he clearly remembered tlie incident. The locusts, he said, lay nine inches deep along the beach at Sea Point, and created an intolerable .stench. I inake special metition of these visitations to indicate that the south-western districts of the Cape Province are not entirely safe from a scourge of locu.sts, and that the residents in that comparatively thickly-settled part of the Union should feel it to their interests to grant the Government 'help to combat the pest when it ravages other parts of the country. Inland parts of South Africa are frequently devastated by locusts. One cycle of their abundance appears to have begun about 1797, eleven years after GraafT-Reinet. the first Karroo town, was founded, and to have continued until 1808. In 1824 the country, from the most northern settlements south to Bedford, was overrun, and the plague lasted until about 1831. The period 1842 to 1854 seems to mark their next invasion, and that from 1862 to 1876 the one following. Then for fourteen years 36 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION C. the country generally is reputed to have been free from them, but there are references to some occurrences in north central districts of the Cape Pn)vince during this interval. In 1890 they again appeared, and in the succeeding years — the coimtry being more settled further inland — their depredations were greater than in any previcjus cycle. F^rom 1(890 onward they have been reported from somewhere or other within the confines of the Union every year, but I think the cycle, or series of cycles, may be considered to have ended in 1909. It seems probable that, for several years previous to the present year, locusts have been really as scarce as in any period since the settlement of the country. The railway, the telegraph, and the newspaper and agricultural publications now serve to bring to public notice, and to place on permanent record, occurrences that half a century ago would have excited only local attention, and have nowhere been recorded in print. The locusts that ravage South Africa are of two very distinct species — t'he Brown Locust, Locusta pardalina (also called the Old, Small, Yellow and Khaki Locust, and often referred to Parhytylus sulcicolUs and P. capensis) and the Red Locust, Cyrtocanthacris scptemfasciata (also called the New. Large, Coast. Red-winged, Purple-winged, and Egyptian Locust, and referred to Schistoccrca or Acridium purpurifentm). So far as known to me with certainty, no other true migratory locusts occur in South Africa. However, specimens of swarm locusts of the Brown type caught in the country have been referred to Locusta danica {P. cincrascens) and of the Red tyi)e to C. interncxa; and in the South African Museum are Nama- qualand specimens labelled Acridium peregrinum. The last- named insect and L. danica are North African locusts. The mature Brown, and much more so the mature Red locust, varies in colour and markings with age, and the Brown locust sometimes has greenish markings that give it an altogether strange appearance. It is not my purpose, however, to describe the insects. I merely wish to make it clear that, so far as my knowledge goes, at present there are two species, and two only ; but I shall add that the simplest character by whicli the two may be distinguished is by the presence or absence of a prosternal spine. The group to which the Red Locust belongs has the spine ; that of which the Brown is a member lacks it. It is very distinct in the Red Locust, a thorn-like projection on the underside of the neck. The Brown Locust is congeneric with the migratory locusts of Europe and Asia, and is the commoner of the two South African species. It is pre-eminently an inland species, partial to grassy plains, and is the locust of the several cycles of which I have spoken. Sometimes it has migrated to the sea coast between x\lgoa Bay and the Kei River mouth, but I do not know that it ever reaches the Atlantic coast within the Union, or penetrates to the sea west of Cape St. Francis. At long PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION C. 3/ intervals it gets as far south-west as the Ceres district, and about 1898 a small swarm flew into the Hex River Valley above De Dooms, but in general the western Karroo seems too barren for its welfare, and it rarely crosses to the fertile coastal dis- tricts. The Kalahari Desert seems to be the starting place of great swarms that overrun German South-West Africa on the west, Rhodesia and the Transvaal on the east, and the Cape and Orange Free State Provinces on south and south-east. The Red Locust is congeneric with the large North African locust, and also with the locust of Argentina. In Natal and the Cape Province, it is essentially a coast-frequenting insect, but in the late visitation it showed itself to be quite at home in Rhodesia and in the east of the Transvaal, and for a short period it spread over parts of Namaqualand, Bechuanaland, Griqualand West and most of the Transvaal, Orange Free State and northern and eastern districts of the Cape Province. Some, probably all. of the locust visitations to the Cape Peninsula were by this species. It gives serious trouble in South Africa at much longer intervals than the Brown Locust, but seems to occur concurrently when it comes. Great swarms of it have come out of the Kalahari ; but its liking for arboreal vegetation, and its marked preference for and persistence in tracts where there is a heavy growth of trees or bush, suggests that its really permanent abode is not in that almost treeless region. The last invasion of the colonies now comprised in the Union began about 1893, in which year it appeared in Natal, and was observed near Lake N'gami. Early in 1895 it was found in small swarms in Griqualand West and elsewhere along ;he northern Cape border, and also along the Transkeian coast, and late in that year it came south in tremendous swarms, seemingly across the whole country from Natal to Bushmanland. The swarms from Natal bore along the coast, and those from the Kalahari direction south-east, keeping to the east of the Carnarvon and Victoria West districts. Thus the invasion converged on the coast near Port Elizabeth ; but it was continued westward in a broad belt along the south coast, becoming slower and diminishing in volume until it ceased in the Robertson and Swellendam dis- tricts early in March. The locust was recognised by the oldest inhabitants as one that had similarly swept over the country about fifty years before. It did not remain long on the southern seaboard nor in far inland districts, but it continued prevalent on the Natal coast, and generally along the coast eastward from Port Elizabeth, for many years. It fluctuated in abundance from year to year, but, on the whole, gradually retired farther and farther nortward. At the same time, it gave trouble in low veld parts of the Transvaal and Swaziland and in parts of Portuguese East Africa. Since 1909 it has given no trouble anywhere in South Africa, but last year it was reported to be rather prevalent in the north of German East Africa. Very little is known about its earlier occurences in South Africa. As 38 TRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION C. already stated, it ravaged parts of the Cape in the early forties of the last century. From 1847 to 1853 it was prevalent in Natal, so abundant at times, I have been told, that great branches were broken from trees by the sheer weight of resting flyers. A reliable correspondent (A. Meiring, Graaff-Reinet ) has informed me that he saw a huge swarm at Kenhardt in 1869. The years 1842 to 1854, 1862 to 1876, and 1890 to 1909, it should be noted, were periods when the Brown Locust was also present in the country. The Red Locust was observed at Kuruman in 1826 l)y Missionary J. B. Moffat, and he wrote of it as if the natives knew to expect it after the Brown Locust came. The Brown Locust usually appears on the wing in great swarms in March or later, and deposits its eggs before winter. The eggs hatch with the first soaking rains of the warm season, generally in October, and the insects become winged about two months later. The swarms then depart, their usual direction of flight varying in different sections of the Union, and being, perhaps, chiefly dependent on the prevailing winds. If the rains come late, the insect develops correspondingly late ; and this fact being well known, late-appearing swarms have been regarded as late-developed swarms when the appearance of the insect indicated, as is often the case in the autumn, that it could not have been long on the wing. Rarely, apparently, do swarms develop both early and late in any one season at one place. It is therefore not surprising that the insect has been regarded as having only one generation in twelve months. Such an opinion is generally held, but conclusive evidence has accrued showing that the insect must have two generations in twelve months whenever it meets with soaking rains in the spring, and again after three to five months. The swarms that depart at mid- summer are not the swarms that come three or more months later. The latter are later developed swarms, and may be, probably often are, the immediate descendants of the midsummer swarms. This condition of aff'airs was suspected in 1907, but was not proved until the 1913-1914 season, when two generations were experienced in an isolated outbreak in midland districts of the Cape Province. A scrutiny of old reports of locust occurrences, in connection with rainfall records in the light that two generations are possible, shows that two generations doubt- less occurred in several years during the last great locust cycle. Eggs are deposited by the first generation about a month after the winged stage is reached, and the hatching may occur within another month. One record states that eggs laid in the middle of January, 1907, hatched within fourteen days. The eggs, as already implied, require moisture for their development. Popular tradition has it that in the absence of adequate moisture and warmth, they may retain their vitality for fourteen years. Tests made by the writer showed that they would hatch after three and a half years, and there is no reason to doubt that suitably preserved eggs would hatch even after a much longer period. pkesiii)-:ntial address — section c. 39 i However, most of the stories of eggs hatching after many years have arisen from no better foundation than hoppers unexpectedly appearing after the lapse of so many years since locusts were last observed, and as I am now clear in my mind that locusts may occur in considerable numbers unobserved, I discount these stories heavily. Nevertheless I have records of eggs hatching after the lapse of ten years that I do credit, and I think it not at all uncommon for eggs to lie over one season. The Red Locust has not been suspected of having more than one generation in tv/elve months, and there is no acceptable evidence that its eggs retain their vitality into a second season, nor that soaking rains are essential for their development. The adult insects live through the winter, most of the time, it is believed, in the shelter of forests or " bush," but occasionally venturing abroad. In the spring they mate and move about locally, or migrate in great swarms, evidently seeking feed- ing grounds and favoural)le ])laces for eo;g deposition. Onlv the few general migrations alluded to in a preceding paragraph have been recorded, and it is really not known whether or not the descendants of the invading locusts of 1895-1896 were ever re-enforced by new invading swarms from a great distance. Egg-laying has been observed in Natal in early October, but early December is considered the normal time in that Province, and hatching is expected about thirty days later. In the Cape Province, egg-laying seems to average much later, and often to be prolonged into February and March ; but hoppers in all months from October to June have been reported along the coast. Hatching in the abnormal months are. I think, owing to belated and irregular development, there having been nothing in the instances recorded to suggest a second generation. I have given this almost too extended outline of our two locusts merely as a necessary preliminary to speculation on the causes that underlie locust visitations in South Africa. Be it understood that at irregular intervals, sometimes after no locusts have been observed for over a decade, vast swarms sweep out of the Kalarhari or down from uncertain regions in the north, spread over a tremendous area that may extend to two-thirds of the Union, do enormous damage to crops and to veld, and that thereafter, for a series of a dozen or more years, extensive areas are liable to be more or less devastated every season. In general, the plague is at its worst two or three years after it first manifests itself. One common feature that the locust problem in South Africa has with the locust problem wherever else it occurs in the the world, is obvious association with large tracts of naturally arid country where the rainfall is both scanty and erratic. A little reflection will, I think, satisfy you that a gregariously- inclined migratory plant- feeding creature, be it springbuck or locust, or anything else, has decided advantages for continued existence in such a country over any similar creature that is 40 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION C. non-gregarious and non-migratory, and also that the former creature is out of place in a well-watered, humid country. Gregariousness in a humid country would increase the liability of the locust to bacterial and fungoid diseases, potent checks on multiplication where the air is moist, but almost inoperative in arid regions ; while migration in a well-watered country is quite unnecessary as a provision against starvation. In an arid country with an irregular rainfall, such as the Kalahari, vegetation grows rapidly, and is plentiful after good rains. But most of the rains are local, and fall now in one place and now in another, thus tending to make any one place a land of plenty for plant-feeding insects at one time, but very liable to be a land of great want in a few months. Under such conditions it must be a great advantage to locusts to be able to seek pastvires new. The insects must at times become very scarce indeed, and the instinct for them to keep together on their migrations, aside from probably affording some direct protection against complete extirpation by enemies, presumably acts indirectly to ensure the perpetuation of the species. If necessity to migrate arose when the numbers were small and each locust went its own way, comparatively few, I imagine, would meet with mates when the time for breeding came. Hence it appears to me that the gregarious migratory locust, capable of long-sustained flight, is a very natural development in a wide expanse of arid country with a desultory rainfall. It has been recognised by most students of locusts that their migrations may be divided into two distinct classes, which, for convenience, I call local flights and true migrations respec- tively. Local flights are now in this direction, now in that, sometimes are only for a mile or two, but often for a score or more, and they seem prompted chiefly by a restless searching for suitable feeding grounds and for suitable places for egg deposition. True migrations are in some one general direction that is pursued by immense swarms day after day and sometimes week after week, and they are broken only for feeding and during unfavourable weather. Various theories have been put forward in explanation of these general flights, but I confess I And none of them satisfactory. Lately I have come to think that, despite all that has been written to the contrary, the keeping to a more or less set direction may be due chiefly to prevailing winds at the time favouring that direction. At times birds undoubtedly tend greatly to keep swarms in motion, and it may be that the fly parasites have a similar harassing effect ; but the leading factor that keeps both the winged and hopping insects so continuously on the move may, I venture to suggest, be merely the irritating effect of their being crowded together at a season when they are naturally active. I imagine a swarm to grow like a rolling snowball as it traverses a thickly-infested region. Then that, as it passes onward, it gradually loses in volume through the dropping out PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS — SECTION C. 4I of mating couples and spreading out from the sides, the impulse to migrate further in the one case being overcome by the encum- brance of developing ova, and in the other by liberation from the dense mass. The effect is to spread the insects over an area extensive enough to promise ample sustenance for the next generation, when even they themselves might perish through starvation if they were to remain in the region of their origin. The chain of reasoning I have followed supposes locusts to be continually present in arid regions, from which occa- sionally they come in swarms ; but, as a matter of fact, almost nothing is known of locusts in the intervals between their periods of abundance. Here is one important point on which reliable observations are necessary before our knowledge of the locust problem can be considered satisfactory, and it is a point which I think might easily be settled in South Africa with respect to the Brown Locust. I am inclined to believe this species to be permanently resident not only in the Kalahari and Bushmanland, but in Griqualand West, the eastern half of the Orange Free State, and northern and central parts of the Cape Province. By permanently resident, I do not mean that I think it common enough to attract casual attention, but that a careful watch would show it to occur in small numbers here and there in localities specially suited to it. It seems to me probable J:hat even in the regions where the greatest swarms develop, it is for years at a time an inconspicuous insect. The present year is not a suitable one for observations on which to base definite conclusions regarding the hal)its of locusts between periods of abundance. This Ijecause, swarms l^eing here and there in the country, it cannot be denied that scattered locusts might possibly be stragglers from swarms that may be imagined to have passed by unobserved. However, after the public was urged by repeated newspaper references to be on the watch, specimens reached the Division of Entomology from a number of points far distant from where any definite swarms were known to have been for years. And, moreover, the locusts in the parts that were most infested occurred principally in loose, open swarms, or clusters of a few score or a few hundreds, or even as scattered indi- viduals or couples. There was a notable scarcity of compact swarms this year, and up to the time of preparing this address \- k. T. A. In.xes, I'".K..A.S., F.R.S.E. FRIDAY. JULY g. 12. ^lodern topographical methods and instruments. By W. C. van deu Steer. 13. Preliminary notes on the intensitv of rainfall in tlie Transvaal. By G. W. Co.x, F.R.Met.S. Section B. — Chemistry, GE0L()(;^•, Metallurgy, Mineralogy, AND Geography. TUESDAY. .lUEY 6. I. Address by the late PI Kvvasto.x, M..\., F.G.S.. President of the Section. 2 The mineral spring on the farm Rietfontein. District I'.randtort, O.lvS. r.v'Prof M. R IN- 111., ing.l). 3. Notes on the chemistry of the IXaras { Aii.iillin.s'icyos licrrida Nook). lly \V. Veksfelii, I! A., D.Sc, and (i. \\ l!KiTTK.\,r...\. 4 Contriliiitions to tlie cliemistrv i>\ the Sova bean, lly Prof. P. D. IIahx, M.A., Ph.D. 5 Note* on the chemical composition of Karrtio .Vsh. B\- C. h. Jlritz, M.A., D.Sc, F.l.C.' TBANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 5/ WEDNESDAY. JULY 7. 6. The intrusions in the Parvs granite. Bv Prof. S. J. Smam). Ph.D., D.Sc, F.G.S. 7. The Fault Systems in tiie Soutli of South -\frica. By Prof. E. H. L. ScH\v.\Kz, A.R.C.S., F.G.S. 8. Some features of the Rand Gold Mining Industry. By W. A. C.\ldi> COTT, D.Sc. g. Radioactive minerals in South .Africa. Bv Prof. P. D. H.vhn. M.A., Ph.D. 10. Can lithia be a constituent of plant food? By Prof. P. D. Hahn, M.A., Ph.D. 11. .\toms, old and new. By Prof. D. F. du Toit Malhekbe, AFA., Ph.D. 12. The Rand Gold. By Prof. E. H. L. Schwakz, A.R.C.S.. F.G.S. FRIDAY, JULY g. 13. The profession of Pharmacy: suggestions for reform in its mode of attainment. By Prof. J. A. Wilkinson, M.-\., IvC.S. 14. Loog-as ; or the ash of the alkah Inish. By A. Stead. B.Sc, F.C.S. 15. Geography. By J. Hutched.x. A1..\., F.R.G.S. Section C. — Bacterioloca', Botany, Zoology, Agriculture, Forestry, Physiology, Hygiene and Sanitary Science. TUESDAY. JULY 6. I. On the v;n'iahility in tlie nature or temperament of wild animals in captivity; with special reference to South .African species. By -A.. K. ll.VACNER, F.Z.S. _>. The effects of droughts and of some other causes on the distribution of plants in the Cape region. By Prof. R. M.\rioth. AF.A., Ph.D. 3. South .\frican agriculture: an analysis. I!y P. J. in' Turr. 4. The ostrich feather industry in South Africa. By R. \V. Thornton. 5. -A factor in the evolution of i)lants. By Prof. H. A. Wacjek, A.R.C.S. 6. E.xi^eriments in crossing Persian and .Merino sheep. Bv J. Burtt- Davv. F.L.S.. F.R.G.S. 7. Some observations on tlie life history oi the Pepper-tree caterpillar (Boiiibycoinorflia pallidn). l'>y D. Gunn. 8. On the desirabilitv of ft)unding a South .African I'Jitomological Society. By .A. J. V. Janse, F.E.S. 9. .Anti-venomous serum and its ijreparation, l)V V. W. l<"rrzSiMONS, F.Z.S., F.R.Al.S. WEDNESDAY, JULY 7. TO. Address ])y C. P. Lou.x.siu'uv, B.Sc, I'\E.S., President of the Section. 11. The Miners' Phthisis of the k;iri(l. \\\- W. Watkins-Pitchford. M.D., F.R.C.S., D.P.H. 12. The peril of Pvorrhea, and th^ results of three years' experimentation. By F. W. FJTZ.SIMOXS, F.Z.S., F.R.ALS. 13. The problems and principles of malaria prevention. By A. J. Oren- STEIN, Al.D. 14. The effects of snake venom on domesticated animals, and the pre- paration of aiili-veuomous serum. lU- D. T. Mitch ell, M.R.C.V.S. 15. Notes on the functions of colour in certain Soutli .\frican reptiles anil amphibians. By J. H. Power-. 16. Notes on a few trap-door and other spiders of .Alicedale, Cape Pro- vince, By F. Cruden. 58 TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. THURSDAY. Jl'LY 8. 17. Pri-limiuary list of South African fungi, represented in Mie Myco- logical Herbarium. Pretoria. Bv I. P.. Pole-E\ans. I\1.A., B.Sc., F.L.S.. and Miss A. M. Bottomlev, B.A.^ 18. On the occurrence of Bacterium cainpestrc (Pam.) Son. in South Africa. By Miss E. M. Doidge, M.A., D.Sc. F.L.S. 10 On a method of making- permanent preparations of superhcial fungi. By Miss E. M. Doidge, M.A., D.Sc, F.L.S. 20. Some notes on the Soutli African aloes. By I. B. Polk-Evans, M.A., B.Sc. F.L.S. 2i. A new smut on Sorci/iuiii halcpciisis. which may possible afYect Soudan grass. By L B. Pole-Evans, M.A.., B.Sc, F.L.S. 22. Xote on the genus Coitiothccitiiii Corda, with special reference to Coiiiot' eciuui clioinatosponiiii Corda. Bv P. A. v.\N der Bvl, M.A., F.L.S. 2^. Die-back of apple trees caused by Cvstospora Icitcustonia (Pers.) Sacc. By P. A. van der Byl, M.A., F.L.S. 24. Notes on some of the South African Stapclkc. By Miss S. M. Stent. 25. South .\frican Hepaticcc, or Liverworts. By T. R. Sim, k'.L.S. FRIDAY. JLA.Y 9. 26. A criticism of L,ulsv's theorv of cvolulmn. By Prof. S. ScikiNl.knd, M.A.. Ph.D.. F.L.S. -,. Dietetic de.hency. B\ IL H. Giieen. B.Sc, I'.C.S. 2"^. On tlie preservation of the monuments of Xature. Bv II. C Bri;vku. Ph.D. 20. The ijroblem of horse-sickness. By Sir A. Theiler. K.C.j\l.(i., D.Sc. ,iO. Ostrich chick diseases. By J. Walker, M.R.C.V.S. ,51. Sarcosporidia. By G. van de \\.\ll de Kock, M.R.C.V.S. .32. The agglutination test, with particular reference to its use in the con- trol of contagious abortion in cattle. Bv E. M. Robinson, M.R.C.WS. ,3,^. Observations on the evolution of birds, with si)ccial reference to South African forms. By A. Roberts 24. Game and bird protection in South Africa; a short comparison with some other countries. By A. K. Ha \(;ner. b'.Z.S. ,^5. 1 he influence le transt'eral)le vote. I'.v 1. r>iv:i\vx. .M.D., CM., P'.R.C.S.. L.R.C.S.l'.. o Some proldenis of physical continnit\-. ])v Re\-. S. R. W'lxru. 15. .A., D.D., Pli.l). ic. Medical inspection of schools in relation to social etficiencv. Bv C. R L. Lkipoij.t. F.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. THL'RSDAV. Jl'LY 8. 11. Address by J. E. .\i).\m.son, ]\I.A., President of the Section. 12. The constitution nf the Senate. By F. Flowers, F.R.A.S., F.R.G.S, 13. The sitnplihcation of English. By Prof, A. S. Kidd, M.A. FRIDAY. .11' f A' Q. 14. Rhodesian ruins and Native tradition. Bv Rev. S. S. Dorxax, A1..\., F.G.S. 15. The literature of I'rance during the great Revolution. By Prof. R. D. Xaut.\. 16. An inquiry into the origin of some South African jilace names. By Rev. C. Pi:ttm.\x. 17. The economics of the East Coast Fever. Bv Rev. J. R. L. IxixcoN. -M.A. F.L.S. 18. Xative .Agriculture. By Rev. J. R. L, Kingox, M.A., F.L.S. ig. Practical education. By W. J. Horxe, A.M.I.E.E. 20. Slavic Austria. By Rev. W. A. X'orton, B.A. 21. Proportional representation. Bv R. P. Kilpin. 22. The relation of hodv and mind. Bv Rt. Rev. A. Cii.xxdlkr. A[,.\., D.D. TERMITE ECONOMY. By ClaudI'. Euller, I'.E.S. I sh.ould like to touch Ijriefly upon some of the new facts regardino- termites which have come under my i)ersonal ol)serva- tion during the past two or three years, and to refer to one or two features of their economy which a])i)ear to me of ])articular interest. It is not proposed to deal at length with any one phase, and my contribution will have served its purpose if it shows that some achance has been made, and better still if it should awaken some more general interest m these insects. A considerable amount of data regarding the dislril^ution and behaviour of the A'arious s])ecies has yet to be obtained, and this can only be so gained b}' accessions to the ranks of obser\'ers, at i^resent no stronger than the writer, his ofhcial colleagues, and a few non- scientific friends. I think it may be safely said that the biological interest attaching to termites is very nmch greater and \t'r\' nuich more varied than that pertaining lo any other insect grou|). Their social habits, the systematic cultivation of fungi by some, the singular i)re])aration of stomodseal and i^roctodaeal foods, the mul- ti]:)licit\- of forms displayed ])y any given species, the ])eculiar insect-creatures which associate with them, their general parasi- tism by infusoria, their mining and architectural activities, are all both separately and collecti\el\- arresting; and, at the i)resent moment there is no telling {n what remarkable revelations the elucidati( n of any one of these aspects may lead, nor what important liearing it may have ui)on some other ob.scure i)roblem which Nature presents. Here in South Africa the oi)portunity for all to make some novel discoxery regarding termites stands e\er reach' to be embraced. The i)ractical interest the_\' evoke is rather general, l^ecause of the mischief done by some to woodwork, to fruit-trees, and to croi)S. Here at least one would expect to find the field well explored, but this not the case. Much has yet to be learned because, whilst damage is often heard of, and wonderful tales are often told, the actual culi:)rit has but seldom been determined — it is just a white ant — and in some cases habits ha\'e been attributed to species which do not possess them. Somewhat ai)art stands the relationship I)etween the activities of termites and the sjjread of trees and bushes, and together with this feature the good they do. or at least, ha\e accomplished through past ages as soil im])rovers. According to my references, we have quite a number of dif- ferent species in South Africa, but the list probably indicates more kinds than have really vet been discovered, notwithstanding the fact that as many as eight new species have quite recently been added. This peculiar position arises out of the fact that TKRMITl': EC()N;)MV 6 1 ■seme species have l)een erected upon winged forms alone and others ui)on the soldier caste only. Of ccmparatively few kinds are the win^-ed and soldier castes definitely associated, a matter which is onlv jDOssible when the op])ortunity occurs to secure both castes from the i^arent nest. Ag-ain the list is without doubt amplified, because many of the criteria relied upon for the difiter- cntiation of species are not so reliable as thev have been taken to be. Upon the other hand the country as a wdiole has been so little surveyed for termites that there must remain a number of kinds still unknown to science. For example, I know of no species having been recorded from Basutoland or Gri(.|ualand East. Very few indeed have been recorded from the Caj^e, and but two of some seven that I have obtained from the Orange Free State haAC been jjreviously mentioned from that Province. It occurs tc me that a further knowledge of distribution mav show that environment has a marked efl:'ect upon the variation of several species, in both form and habit. The conditions under which the nests of certain rermites and shrubs and trees are associated have led me to the conclusion that '' park-formation," as we know it in this country, is entirely due to these insects. It is extremely probable rhat, apart from untoward circumstances, a colony of termites exists for a consi- derable period ; some species thriving much longer than others. What that period is, cannot be said for any kmd, still there is some evidence to show that Haviland's natalciisis thri^■es for a decade or more. But it must be conceded that ultimately the colony dies out. In the case of mound-building kinds, as long as the colony exists, the natural weathering is repaired, but when it dies the mound erodes and incidentally forms a piece of culti- vated ground. Ample evidence has been collected to show that these old sites are again and again re-colonised, and with every successive occupation they increase in area, if but little in height. Both the weathering of the occupied mound and the erosion of the deserted mound afiford shrubs and trees, that cannot gain a foothold in normal grass-veld, a suitable spot in which to thrive. How their seeds get to the mound matters little ; how the variety of plants becomes so great as it is, is readily understood, because such park-formations are only met with in grassy countrv more or less continguous to timber belts and in and about what we in South Africa call bush-veld. That certain termites derive some direct advantage from the presence of trees and shrubs u]^on their mounds is evidenced by the fact that whilst they do not permit grass to grow upon the mound, they do not interfere with deep rooting and stronger growing plants. To a large extent the advantage is against the full effect of storms, and possibly the root svstems of the trees afford some barrier to the predatory incursions of the aard- vark. Up to the i)resent I have not been able to locate a clump of trees of typical park-formation in which the soil is not raised E 62 TERMITE ECONOMY. abo\e the level of that surrounding, and in which a termite colony is not established. It may be urged that the termites select the tree clumps and do not originate them, and there is ample eyi- dence to show that the species which commonly inhabit the clumps select the shelter of trees when a\ailable. Thus in many hedge- rows and beneath ornamental trees, particularly about Pretoria, nests occur which are younger than the plants which shelter them. So corrsistent a feature indicates that the termites have selected the sites in which their nests are found. Again, I recently explored an orange grove on the Buzi River, near Beira, in which, beneath the shelter of almost every large tree, motmds from 5 to 8 feet were built up around the trunks, by Hagen's var. mossojiibica of Tcnnes bcllicosits. But against this is to be set the fact that the commonest species associated with park-formation in Natal abounds and flourishes far afield in the open savannahs of the high lands, demonstrating at once that it at least is not dependent tipon tree protection. An examination of the underground workings of several common kinds has brought to light one or two features of more than passing interest. The Harvesting Termites (Hodotermes) familiar as grass- cutters and despoilers of lucerne and oat and wheat crops, were foimd to excavate large subterranean cavities for the storage of their ha}', tilling them with tiers of shelving composed of carton and i)aijer-like material of (|uite a unique form, and possessing quite peculiar architectural features. In the case of two species an additional form or caste was found, the significance of which is at in'esent o1)scure. The termite whose nests are recognised by the great air-pits which thev make in the soil, or the chimneys with which these are often surmounted, was found to be a harvester of grass and grass seeds. It jjossesses granaries peculiar to itself and quite apart from the nest and its annexes. These granaries are cavities, empty except for a most complicated system of clay shelving, and remarkable because the har\est of seed is buried away in the surrounding soil. It is well known that many true ants store up seeds in their underground caverns, but this habit has not jjre- viously been recorded for any termite. Concerning the commonest of African termites ( Eiitcrmes trinervins) whose rounded mounds are the one striking feature of the landscape in many parts, it was found that wherever these abound the nests are in more or less direct communication with one another. From all radiate permanent uniform roadways, almost exactly an inch below the soil surface, and much of the length of all seems to be the common property of several com- munities. These roadways lead cut to the feeding grounds to which the insects journev each night to collect grass. All along them are small purse-like extensions, remarkably uniform in both shape and size, in which much of the grass is deposited as harvested. This termite is commonh- regarded as a harmless TKKMITl-: liCOXOMV. 6^ creature, useful to the farmer as chicken food, to the household as providing- suitable material for making- dargai floors and to- the " sport " as an excellent thing for tennis courts. Ample evidence has, however, been collected to show that in drier ])arts of the countrv, not only does it remove a larg-e ])roportion of the g^rass, but renders patches of the veld practically sterile. In short, it seriously reduces the feeding value of any piece of g^round it occupies, and, in tin.ie of drought, its depredations are of vast sig-nificance. Speaking of termites as a whole, my investig-ations have shown that grass is their normal food. The majority prefer it dry, and those that collect green grass deliberately make hay,. or rather chaff, of it. The destruction of living trees is restricted to \ery few species and seems to occur only when the natural sur- roundings of the nest have been arbitrarily interfered with. The predilection which all except the harvesting termites display for dead and, especially, decaying wood is so very marked that this may be said to be their food by preference. Up to the present, the evidence connecting species directly with damage of the sort usually comj^lained of goes to show that only a few species are involved. AH the damage to buildings which I have olxserved has been done by one of two species,. Haviland's iiatalcnsis and badius, the latter being very rarely the culprit. The bulk of the destruction of young trees is done by nata/ciisis. and it is oid\- occasionallv that otlier sj^ecies are con- cerned in it. Perhaps the principal feature of interest that I have been able to establish is that the oft-repeated statement to the eft'ect that the adults or winged insects are incapable of founding a new colony, unless adopted by stragglers from another, is incorrect. Up to the present I have been able to induce four different species to establish voung colonies and maintain themselves and their progeny under most artificial conditions for periods now ranging from three to six months. From the progress made in this connection, it would ai)pear that the adult termites are able to sustain themselves and at the same time feed and rear a number of young, without taking nourishment. Nothing is perhaps more elusive than the impregnation of the female termite, and nothing indicating direct relations between the two sexes has yet been observed. Whilst this is the case, and the fertilising of the ova is still a mysterv, mating, under natural conditions, during the marriage flight has been noted in the case of five S])ecies. In each of these the details of the procedure diff'ered in small l)ut essential particulars. In every case mating occurs after the insects come to rest, and it is always the female wdiich first alights, and no sooner is this done than the creature endeavours to attract a male to her, by inflating her abdomen and directing it uj^wards. In all cases it would a])pear that the male is directed by an olfactory sense, and 'it is obvious- that some females are much more potent in attracting than are others. In one species, th.e females, when coming to rest, throw <64 TlIR.MITl-: ?:C()NOMY. off their wings before attempting- to influence a male, and wlien attracted, the male also dealates and seeks his spouse on foot. In the case of others, the female attaches herself to a prominent •object, clinging head downwards, some kinds resting quietly, as if content in the strength of their special aroma, an.other violently agitating the wings, as if conscious of the weakness of its aroma, and the desirability of aiding its distribution. In all cases the male insect, upon first meeting the female, ■combs her caudal aj^ex with his mouth i)arts; then in nearly all •cases dealation takes place. With two species, however, the wings of the male are dis- 'Carded, and the female flies off a short distance with him clinging tenaciously to her abdomen. In every species it is the female that directs all movements subsequent to these unconsummated nup- tials. She leads the way by the shortest route to the ground, the male following her closely behind, and she then selects the site where the two burrow into the earth tosretlier. TRAXSACTIOXS OF SOCIETIES. South African Institution of. Engineers. — Saturday, April loth: E. J. Way, A.M.T.C.E., Presick^it, in the chair. — " The status of an cugi- jiccr" : J. B. Roberts. Tlic author discu.ssed the position and functions •of engineerintf societies, and compared their activities with those of other professional societies. 1 lie mining regulations m force in the Union were commented oi;, i'.nd tlie requisite training for the engineer l)riefly considered. Saturday, May 2yth : !■.. J. Way. A.M.I.C.E.. President, in the chair. — "The Iiifluciice moisture in the air has on mine ventilation" : A. C. Whittome. The author einpliasised the need of provision being made at every working place for a sufficient weight of oxygen to ensure an atmosphere suitable for breathing, and tlie necessity of attention l)cing given to the modification of requisite volume involved in varying density and atmospheric humidity. It was suggested that medical investigation should be made into the effects on human beings of («) the inhalation of varying volumes of air, consequent on change of pressure and temperature, in order that the requisite weight of oxygen shall reach the lungs; (5) the further modification of these volumes by the presence of a saturating amount of water vapour; and (c) the condensation in the hmgs of watei" .vapour from air at a temperature considembly liigher than tlie body temperature. Geologtc.\l Society of South Africa. — Monday, April 19th : Prof. R. B. Young, M.A.. D.Sc, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., Vice-President, in the chair.— ^' Notes on a graphic intergro7vth of Diotsidc and Ihiienifc finni the ■Benihesi Diamond Field. Southern Rhodesia": A. M. McGregor. A mixture such as that described i.i fairly common in the concentrates left lay prospectors. — "Notes on the occurrence of radioactive minerals in South Africa": Dr. A. W. Rogers. The first group of radioactive minerals described from South Africa seems to have been the monazite and substances allied to euxenite and fergusonite from Emliabaan •'! Swaziland, described by Dr. G. T. Prior. A mineral resembling the •euxenite has been found in the course of geological survey work in Ken- liardt. Radioactivity has also been found associated with specimens of columbite and tantalite from Little Namaqualand. ^^lonazite, the com- mercial source of thorium anrl cerium, has been found in South Africa •only in Swaziland and on the farm Houtenbek, 60 nnles north-east of Pretoria. THE PROBLEM OF HORSE-SICKNESS. By Sir Arnold Theiler, K.C.M.G., D.Sc. I need hardly apologise for introducing the subject of Horse-Sickness at present, seeing that the country has just passed through a very severe season, perhaps the most severe experienced within the past 25 or 30 years. All farmers long for a remedy, either in the shape of a cure or of a preventive. To lind this remedy seems to solve the problem of horse-sickness. To show that this ])ri)])lem can l)e solved, and how it must be solved, is the object of this ])a])er. Ajjart from its economic importance, the subject is of general biological interest. (Jur present knowledge concerning this disease allows us to draw certain conclusions which suggest the solution. This paper will indicate the lines for furtlier investigation. In order to l)ring my points out clearly, it will be necessary to enter some- what into the nature of the disease, and to show — (i) that it is caused ])\' a micro-organism; (2) how this organism finds its entrance into the susceptible animal; (3) where it will prob- ably be found under natural conditions ( the reserA-oir of the virus). (4) The cjuestion of immunity, the result of our experience, will be dealt with rather extensively. At the outset I must admit that many points are as yet of a hypothetical nature, but b}' analogy with other and similar diseases in which our facts are proved, we are justified in accept- ing the theory brought forward about horse-sickness as being well founded. The difficulties of bringing the actual proofs will be ]3ointed out in the course of this ])aper. I. The Cause of the Disease. The micro-organism of horse-sickness belongs to the group of the so-called ultravisibles, whose size is beyond the resolving powers of our best microscopes. The dark-field illumination has not shown anything specific in those body liquids which we know contains the infection, neither has any attempt to culti\ate it_ been successful, as, for instance, can be done with the filtrable virus of pleuro-pneumonia of cattle, where the micro-organisms show their presence as a cloudiness in a clear, suitable liquid medium. Since neither form nor shape of an organism can be detected, it is the common practice to speak of it as a virus. All horses which suiter from horse-sickness contain this virus in their blood, whether it be the Dunkop or the Dikkop form of the disease. By means of the injection of such blood into fresh, susceptible horses, the disease can be reproduced after an incubation period of three to thirty days in extreme cases. Whether Dunkop or Dikkop develops depends on the virus injected, and on the individuality of the horse itself. Accord- ing to our experience the appearance of Dikkop is somehow A 66 THE PROBLEM OF HORSE SICKNESS. connected with the resistance of the horse. AUhough the impossibility of ciUtivating the virus in artificial media un- doubtedly represents a great obstacle, it does not debar us from studying its character or from utilising it for the purpose of immunisation. It is a peculiar fact that horse-sickness virus retains its virulence in defibrinated blood for a considerable length of time, even four years or more, and frequently under the conditions of a polluted medium, the pollution giving rise to abscesses and gangrene in the injected horse before the disease develops. On the other hand, a virus ma}^ lose its virulence at any time, and particularly under the influence of some specific contamination not yet clearly elucidated. With proper care the virus will maintain a definite virulency for at least three years. Virus is onl}- \irulent as long as it is in a liquid medium. Of such a virus less than t-^o-q of a cubic centimetre is recjuired to i^roduce the disease when injected into a susceptible horse, whereas when virus is given through the mouth comparatively large doses of e\en loo or 150 c.c. or more are necessary. Taking this fact into consideration, it becomes exident that the froth discharged from the nostrils shortly ])efore or after death, and which contains the viru^, cannot be made responsible for the maintenance or the propa- gation of the disease outside an animal's body, neither the dead iDody itself. 2. The Transmission of the Disease. The (|uestion arises here : In which way does \irus gain access into the body of a suscejjtiljle horse? Here ]j()siti\e l^roofs are lacking, but facts so far collected allow of onl\' one interpretation, vi.":., that the disease is communicated to animals by means of winged insects. This view was in the first instance suggested l)y the fact that malarial fever in man and horse- sickness in equines are usually found under identical telluric and climatic conditions. It is true that in bad seasons horse- sickness appears before malaria, and has a wider range, s])rea(l- ing more ra])idly and breaking out at higher altitudes. It was evident that the sinfilarity was coincidental; it led to the con- clusion that l)oth diseases are pro]jagated in an identical manner. Malaria iii man is spread b}' mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles, and likewise horse-sickness must be spread by some insect, but not necessarily by the same species or even genus. Indeed, seeing that horse-sickness has a wider range, this fact should be interpreted to mean that a difl:'erent insect was responsible. It is true that the analogy between the two diseases only holds as far as the transmission is concerned, and not to the cause. In the case of malarial fever the micro-organism is well known. It is a Plasmodium, and its cycle within the hosts has been studied in detail. There, are. however, other ecjually well- studied diseases in man carried by winged insects which are due to ultravisible micro-organisms, such as the yellow fever trans- mitted by the genus Stegojiiya and the Pa]:)patacci fever trans- THE PROBLEM OF HOUSE SICKNESS. ^J mitted by the genus Plilcbotomiis. The exjierience that the exclusion of winged insects from a stable excludes horse-sickness must be regarded as a support of the theory- Experiments to this effect were carried out many years ago. Onderstepoort has been renowned for horse-sickness for many years ]Dast, and this was the deciding factor in the selection of the place. The laboratory has its stables so built that they can be made insect- jDroof, and during the horse-sickness season, when the horses are stabled, and no other iMxcautions were taken, no cases of spontaneous horse-sickness ha\e occurred. Nevertheless, the direct proof of transmission as it was forthcoming in the case of malaria, or in the case of the tick-borne diseases, is lacking. \\"e do not know which genus of insects has to be made respon- sible. Persistent attempts to find this genus have been carried out e^"er since we occupied the place in 1908. Blood-sucking insects of nocturnal jjrevalence were trapped and collected. This was done by means of so-called " mosquito traps," viz., small houses with sufficient room to hold a horse, open to the access of blood-sucking insects. A horse was placed in these houses during the night, and next morning a collection was made of the insects, principally blood-gorged mosquitoes, that were found on the ceiling and walls. This collection was carried out through a number of years, and it enabled us to find out which mosquitoes were most prevalent during the horse-sickness season. The collections were submitted to Professor Theobald, the well-known authority on mosquitoes. He identified the species and described the new ones. In the second rei)ort on the mos- quitoes of the Transvaal, published in the second report of the Director of \'eterinary Research, he enumerates the species found in the Transvaal, a total number of 52. Of these, 46 species and some varieties were found at Onderstepoort, vh., of the sub-family Anophaelinae : Genus — Myzomia, Pwotophorus, Ccllia, Mycorhyiichiis, NyssorJiy)icliiis: of the sub-family Culli- cina? : Genus — Mucidus, Stcgomyia. Sciifoinyia. Pseudo- hozcardina, Tlieobaldia. Citlc.r, BankscncUa, Clirvsosonops, Taciiiorhyticliiis, Psciidotcciiiorhyiichns ; of the sub - family Uranotajninse : Genus — Uraiwfcriiia. Grahhaiiiia'; of the sub- family .T^dinae : Genus — Mansonia. In the same traps were also caught other biting nematocerous flies, viz., of the genus Culicoidcs. the si:)ecies Citliooides milnei Austen, and of the genus Phleboiomns, an undescribed new species, also a simulium of a new sj^ecies. The latest experiments undertaken wdth mosquitoes can be grouped into three classes. The first series were carried out with the mosquitoes col- lected in the trap-boxes in the season 1913-14 between the 3rd December, 1913, and the 2nd May, 1914. They were released in an insect-proof box, built for this purpose, and containing a susceptible horse. The following species were used: — Culcx paUidopnnctata, Culcx transvaalensis, Culcx tJicilcri, Banksenella luteolatcrolis. 68 THE PROBLEM OF HORSE SICKNESS. Pxrctoplionts aiireosqiiam\(j("y, CcUia squamosa, Alycorliyiic/nis manritiaiins, GrabJiamia caballa, Ciilex ondcrstcpoortcnsis, Nyssorhxiichiis prctoriensis, Stcmgoniyia argentcopiinctata, N\.':orh\nchns prctoriensis, var. ritfipcs, PyrctopJioriis costal is, MyzomyJ.a fnnesta. Some of these species were represented by only a few numbers, whilst others were numerous. The sum total so collected and let loose amounted to 461 individuals. In no instance was the disease transmitted. The second series of experiments were carried out with the engorged mosquitoes collected in boxes wdiich contained horses suffering from horse-sickness. They were then liberated in an insect-proof box containing a suscejjtible horse. 1. Of an imdescribed Cidicoidcs sjjecies were liljerated in two boxes — in the first, a total number of 144 females from the 22nd March to 29th March, 1915; in the second one, 150 females between the 26th March and 31st March, 1915. 2. My::orhyncluts maiiritiamis: 31 engorged females were liberated between 17th March to 17th April, 191 5. 3. Myssorhyiiclius prctoriensis: 25 engorged females were liberated between 15th March to 14th A])ril. 191 5. 4. A^y::orrhyncliiis prctoriensis. xiir. ritfipcs: 10 females were liberated between 27th March to 6th April, 1915. 5. Cellia squamosa : 42 engorged females were liberated from 15th March to 14th April, 191 5. 6. Pyrctophorus aureosquamigcr: 3 engorged females were liberated from 31st March to Sth A])ril, 191 5. 7. Banksinella luteolateralis: 6 engorged females were liberated from 23rd March to 2nd April, 191 5. 8. Pyrctophorus costalis: 4 engorged females were liberated on 31st March, 1915. In the third series of experiments the mosquitoes, caught engorged in traps containing a horse suffering from horse- sickness, were kept in wide glass cylinders closed on both ends with muslin. These cylinders were pressed against the skin of the suceptible horse, when the mosquitoes would sometimes feed. The mosquitoes were fed on siisceptible horses at intervals of two to five days. The following species were selected, being the most commonly found: — Pyrctophorus costalis, Cellia squamosa, Myzorhynclius mauritianus, and Culex transz'aalensis. These experiments were all under the care of Mr. Bedford, the Entomologist of the Division. It is regrettable that all efforts were negative. They can, however, not be interpreted as showing that the species concerned do not transmit the disease. The failures are, in our o|Mnion, due to a number of circumstances — z'ic, the dilffcultv of keeping mosquitoes alive in an insect-proof loose-box together with a horse for a sufiiciently long time, or even in a glass cylinder when feeding them individually. It is true some mosquitoes did live in captivity, but it must be remembered, in analogy to THE PROBLEM OF HORSE SICKNESS. 69 malarial fever and yellow fever in many, that not all mosquitoes become infected. By analog-y with the fly-transmitted trypanosome diseases,, a direct transmission of the d'.sease by a winged insect is feasible, in which case a definite host would not even be required. If the transmission is effected by the same adult insect which sucks the blood, then the proof will be forthcoming; one day. , Should, howexer, the xirus go throug'h the progeny of the insects, as is the case in the tick-transmitted diseases, then the question becomes more difficult, since it is very difficult or imi>ossible to breed some species (in particular of the sub-family Anophelinas) in captivity. Notwithstanding- our failures, we are so convinced of the correctness of the insect theory, that we feel sure that one day the exact proof will l)e forthcoming. 3. The \Trus Reservoir. The third question to be answered is : Where does the insect host obtain its infection? Once the horse-sickness season has started, every equine suffering- from the disease will in turn infect the sucking insects. It is an experimentally well-estab- lished fact that, besides horses and mules, donkeys also contract the disease, but seldom die from it. It has also been experi- mentally proved that dogs can comparativeh^ easily be infected with horse-sickness, either by injection with virus, or by feeding on carcases of horses that died from the disease. In our ex- periments on 54 dogs utilised for virus, nine died of the disease and 30 showed symptoms and recovered. It is noteworthy that we succeeded in transmitting the disease in dogs through 49 generations, and that, notwithstanding tlie adaption to the canine, the virulency in no way abated for the equine. Angora goats occasionally develop a typical fever to the injection of virus, and blood obtained during the reaction i)roved to be virulent for dogs. A curious fact in connection herewith was ol^served. The blood of the injected goat would ])rove to be infective for a dog and for a goat, but not for a horse, and only the blood of the dog would serve again as a virus for the horse. This transmission was, however, only ])Ossible for a few generations. It is likely that other animals as well are susceptible to horse- sickness, and serve as carriers of the virus. iVe tried sheep and cattle, but failed. It is an important fact that the immune animal no longer contains the virus in its circulatory blood. All attempts to this eft'ect have failed ; once the horse has recovered, the ])lood is no longer infective.- The same holds good as far as dogs and goats are concerned. From an enzootological point of view, and in analogy to other diseases, we require an animal from which the insect obtains its infection as a virus- carrier other than those mentioned. To demonstrate this, I wish to mention that horse-sickness exists in localities where, perhaps on account of horse-sickness, there are no equines. and for various reasons there are no other domesticated animals, and in which localities the disease can be contracted at almost 70 THE PROBLEM OF HORSE SICKNESS. any time of the year, altliough more at certain seasons than at others. In the case of the tsetse-fly disease, the game acts as virus-carrier, or as a virus reservoir; in the case of ])iroplas- moses, the recovered animal, cattle or horse, does. The reser- voir for horse-sickness is not known. The analogy is, how- ever, not a com])lete one. The Ijlood of trypanosome immune game and that of ]Mroplasms immune animals, is infective w^hen injected into suitable suce])tible animals ; that of immune horses recovered from horse-sickness, however, is not. Perhaps this ■could be explained by accepting that the virus only becomes virulent after it has passed through the insect, similar to the observation, made in b^.ast Coast fever, that blood of an ox suiTering from East Coast fever can be safely injected into a susceptible animal; the group of the brown lick, however, trans- mitting the disease ])romptly. But here also the simile is not quite analogous; the immune East Coast fe\er ox nn longer acts as a reservoir. The experiments explained in connection with o-oat and dog blood indicate that the virus can be ])resent in one animal (goat) without being infective for the horse, l)ut becomes so as soon as it has passed through a second animal (the dog). If it could be shown that a winged insect becomes infected on the reacting goat, most discrei:)ancies would dis- a])pear. Quite a number of inoculation exjjeriments were under- taken to find this reservoir. It is a fact that many birds live or perch near rivers during the night, and many of them are infected with bird malaria (Profcosoma ), which is transmitted by Culicida?, a sure indication that they must be bitten l)y mosquitoes. A bird might act as reservoir. During the horse-sickness season we shot systematically a number of birds along the Aapies River, and their blood was injected into susceptible horses. There were a tota.l number of i;^/ injections, for Avhich purpose the blood of 2/ birds was used, t'/rr. :— Elaniis ca-ntlcus (black-shouldered kite). Ccrchncis nauniLinni (lesser kestrel). Ccrchncis riipicoloidcs (larger kestrel). Bnteo dcsertoniiii (steppe buzzard). Bitteo jackal (jackal buzzard). Scopus uiiibrcita (hammerkop). Ceiitropits scnegalcnsis ( lark-heeled cuckoo). Circus pygargns (Montague's harrier). Ardea inelanoccpJiala (black-headed heron ~^ Ardea purpura (purple heroir). Turtur scucgalcusis (laughing dove). Coluinba pJuconota (speckled pigeon). Qlna capcnsis (Namaqua dove). Asia nisuella (marsh owl). Strix capcnsis (grass owl). Bubo maculosus (spotted eagle owl). THE PROBLEM UE HORSE SICKNESS. Jl Laiiiiis collaris {cnuMmm fiskal shrike). Crc.v crc.v ( Iuiroi)ean corn crake). Coliopasscr procnc (long-tailed widow bird). Cicoiiia cicoiiia (white stork). Hrrodias gar::ctta (little egret). Stcphaiiibya coroiiafus (crowned bapwing). Astiir poliicoiiaidcs (a hawk). Scrpciitariits sccrctariits (secretary l)ird). Corz'iis scapnlatits (pied crow). Nicroiiisiis gahar (goshawk). And a wild duck, s|)ecies not identified. <)f wild mammals the \)\oo(\ of the following s])ecies was injected: — jackal, hedgehog, rock rabbit, bats, striped mice, grev mice, field bats, zebra and yellow meercat. A total number of 67 injections were made. Of reptiles, the bluod of the com- mon iguanas and water tortoises was utilised. A total number of eight injections was made. Of Amphibia, the blood of frogs (a non-determined species) was injected. Twelve injec- tions were made. In addition to these, the blood of domesti- cated ruminants, born and kept on a horse-sickness farm, was injected, via., of cattle, Africander goats, sheep and lambs, and dogs, also blood of salted horses and mules running on the farm ( Onderstepoort) for a number of years. The blood of four natives, who volunteered to a tapping, was also utilised. Taking into consideration the difficulty of tracing the reser- voir, the negative results cannot be taken as final. The geo- graphical distribution of both disease and certain animals could give a clue as to the direction in which further experiment should be undertaken. It is known, for instance, that horse- sickness does not occur in ^\>stern Africa from north of Angola as far as North-East Africa, but is present right through Central and East Africa to the shores of the Red Sea. 4. Im^funtt'^'. From a ]:)ractical ]3oint of view, the question of immunity is of great im])ortance. Immunity is only observed in diseases caused by certain groups of micro-organisms, and may be of a shorter or longer duration. The practical side of immunitv is its application for the protection of susceptible animals. It is necessary to ascertain first under what conditions and to what extent immunity is found in horses that have recovered from horse-sickness. It is well known that e(|uines can recover from horse- sickness, from either the Dikkoj) or Dunkop form : such horses or mules are known under the term of " salted." The mere fact that such salted horses are of greater value, and that a guarantee of '' salting " is asked for by buyers and given by sellers, indicates that such horses are thought to be ^2 THE PROIJLEM OF HORSE SICKNESS. not susceptible, or, at least, less susceptible than horses uot immune to the disease. It is, however, on the other hand, an equally well-known fact that salted horses may again sicken from horse-sickness (which fact is expressed by the term aanmaaning or "relapse ''). This relapse is generally of a less severe nature than the primary attack, many horses recovering again. Furthermore, the ex- perience has been made that salted horses can die of the disease, and that they die more in some localities and in some seasons than in others. The term aauuiaaning or " relapse " is open to misinter])re- tation. It is usually explained by analogv to the experience in malarial fever in man. There is a difference. In malarial fever in man the germs are still ])resent in the apparently healthy man, and develop again under some external influence such as cold, change of climate, etc., and at any time of the year, whereas in horse-sickness aainiiaaniuc/s are only noted during the horse-sickness season. Indeed, it is not a relai^se in the true sense of the word; it is a new infection. This has experimentally been proved. As a result of our investigations into immunity. I have been able to devise a means of protection by a combination of serum and virus injections, which wdll be explained later. A great number of mules and a number of horses have been im- munised and sul)iected to tests on their immunity. In this way definite conclusions were arrived at as to the extent tc which immunity is conveyed b}- an attack of horse-sickness. For our initial experiments we used a virus obtained from a horse in Pretoria. We soon found that some of the mules exposed in various parts of the country again contracted the disease — it is true only to a small extent ; some recovered, whilst others died. Material was obtained from these cases of iMxak- down, and used for further investigations. With the object of giving the salient facts, without going too much into detail, I have selected the two chief viruses that have been used through- out my investigations, being the Pretoria ordinary strain re- ferred to above, and the Tzaneen strain obtained from the first authenticated case of a breakdown in an immunised mule. The experiments relate to horses only. The following figures have been compiled from the results of a number of experiments in which the immunity in particular was studied from the injection of the two viruses. A total number of 1,078 animals come into consideration, of which 327 horses were first injected with ordinarv virus, and 7=;i with Tzaneen virus. With the object of facilitating comparisons, percentages have been used through- out : — THE PROBLEM OF HORSE SICKNESS. 73 A. Result of Injections. Ordinary Tzaneen Virus Virus per cent. per cent. Not reactin.!.,' to the injection (non-reactors • . 20 28 Reacting with a Dunkop to the injection (Dunkop ] ] recoveries) . . . . . . . . 18 ^^ 24 , Reacting with a Dikkop to the injection (Dikkop 1 i reco\eries) .. .. .. .. 18/ 19' Deaths from Dunkop . . . . . . 26 ) 10 • ^q ,, Dikkop . . .. .. 18)"'^"^ 19/ ■'^ Abstract. Total survi\ors from injection . . . . • • 56 71 Dunkop form produced in . . . . . . 44 34 Dikkop .. ,, .. .. ..36 3S It is thus quite clear that, in the first place, a certain per- centage of animals do not react, and that this figure varies with difterent viruses. We can, therefore, speak of weak and strong viruses, Tzaneen being a weak virus, and ordinary a strong virus. This conclusion is also supported by the percentage of mortality caused by these viruses, the weak one killing 29 per cent., and the strong one 44 i^er cent. This point in itself is particularly interesting, seeing the Tzaneen strain broke down the immunit}' given by the ordinary virus in the case of the mule just referred to, and in many others. The failure of a certain percentage of animals to react can be explained in two wa} s — firstly, a naturalh" acquired immunity to the virus, and secondly, their individuality. It can be readily understood that, in experimenting on so many animals collected from all parts of the Union, we must expect to come in contact with horses that have salted as a result of natural infection on the veld, and that their immunity is sufficiently strong to afford protection against one injection of virus : there may also be horses not sus- ceptible to horse-sickness. A discussion on the question of the individualitv of an animal Avould take up too mucli of our time, and is rather out- side of the scope of this paper, but experiments have definitely proved that it is a factor which cannot be ignored. It will be sufficient to say now, that although a horse may not react to a virus at one moment, yet when re-iniected with the same virus at a later date, death may result. This is particularlv the case with an attenuated virus, as, for instance, the Tzaneen virus. The second point of interest that arises from the above table is in connection with the percentage of cases of Dikkop produced by the injection of virus as compared with the cases of Dunkop. With ordinary virus more horses die of Dunkop than of Dikkon. With the Tzaneen virus the reverse is the case. I mentioned before that the appearance of 74 THE PROBLEM OF HORSE SICKNESS. Dikkop is connected both with virus and the individiiahty of the horse. With a very virulent virus more Dunkop will result ; the animal has less time to put up a defence. With a \veaker virus a Dikkop appears ; the incubation period being- longer, the animal can put up a defence. B. Result of Tests. — The majority of the horses that survived the injections just referred to were later tested on their immunity, using- both the same virus as that utilised for injection, and, in addition, fresh viruses. These latter viruses were obtained in many Avays : some from horses or mules that contracted horse-sickness or died from horse-sickness in various parts of South Africa, others from immunised mules that died of breakdowns or showed relapses, and others, again, from naturally salted horses and mules that showed aaimiaaniiiqs or died. Finally, compound viruses were obtained either by mix- ing two or more viruses or l\v injecting various horses with dJilerent strains, thus gradually amalgamating the viruses until all were present in one horse. The actual numl)er of tests carried out on each horse, and the kind and c|uantity of virus used, varied to a considerable extent. .Some horses were onlv tested by the injection of I or 2 c.c. virus, whereas others received as many as ten or twelve different injections, of wliich perhaps three or four consisted of 2 or 5 c.c. virus each, whilst the remaining eight or nine injec- tions consisted of io,ooo c.c. each fhvperimmunisatiiMiV In other words, no horses received as a test less than an amount sufficient to kill over i,ooo horses, whereas others received suffi- cient to kill over to million animals. Out of t'lie original num- ber of 1,078 horses used for injection, 670 were suljsequently tested, and the following figures represent some 1.7.^8 tests, an average of roughly three tests per horse. The individual figures are: 1,187 tests carried out on the 494 horses that survived the injection of Tzaneen virus, and 551 tests on the 176 horses that survived the original injection of ordinary virus. ( i) A!iiiii(i!s that Failed to React to tJic Original Injection. Immune to . Tzaneen Ordinary \'irus per cent. per cent. Again failed to react to any tests . . - . 20 11 Showed one or more Dunkop reactions and recovered ^1 94 ^"' ^^ Dikkop ,, ,, ,, 15) " If. I reactions and finally died of Dunkop 481 c^ 44) ^ Dikkop 81 ' 12 1 Abstract. Total survivors from tests • . . . . . 44 44 Dunkop form produced by tests in . . . . 57 dl Dikkop ,, ,, ,, .. ..23 28 THE rR()l!LI':M Ol-- IIOKSK SICKNESS. 75 (2) Animals that Slunccd a Dtinkop Reaction to tlic Orif/ina! Injection. Immune to _ Tzaneen Ordinary Virus per cent. per cent. Now failed to react to any tests • • . . 71 18 Sliowed one (a second) or more Dunkop reactions and | ) recovered - • ■ • • • • • 4 - 4 19 1- 30 Showed one or more Dikkop reactions and recovered Nil) llj Showed one or more reactions and finallv died of Dunkop J5 I ^_ 45 1 -, Dikkop Nil J -^^ 7i ^^ Abstract. Total survi\'ors from tests . . • • • • 75 46 Dunkop form produced bv tests in • • ■ ■ 29 66 Dikkop ,, ,, ,, •• ..Nil IS (3) Animals that shozced a Dikkop Reaction to the Original Injection. Immune to Tzaneen Ordinary- \'irus per cent. per cent. Now failed to react to any tests • • • • 77 _'l Showed one or more Dunkop reactions and recovered Nil | 4J j Showed one (a second) or more Dikkop reactions and [• 6 - 54 recovered .. .. .. .. 6J llj Showed one or more reactions and finallv died of Dunkop 15 i.„ IS I ^. Dikkop 2 } 11 1"-^ Abstract. Total survivors from tests Dunkop form produced by tests in Dikkop 83 75 15 61 S 18 (4) Total Number of Animals that Reacted (both forms) to the Original Injection. Immune to Tzaneen Ordinary Virus per cent. per cent. Now failed to react to any tests . . . . 74 19 Showed one or more reactions (either form) and rectnered 5 42 died 21 39 In considering these results, it will be noted : I. That there is still a certain percentage of horses that completely fail to react to all injections. (By failing to react, I mean that no febrile reaction occurs, and the horse does not show any clinical symptoms of horse-sickness.) In the case of ordinary virus, this percentage is 20 per cent. — that is to say, 4 per cent, of the original nuniber of horses completely resisted 76 THE PK015LEM OF HORSE SICKNESS. the injection and tests. With Tzaneen virus the percentage of II corresponds to 3 per cent, of the original number; accord- ingly it can safely be concluded that out of every 100 horses taken at random, about three or four will resist all injections of virus, and can be considered as completely immune. 2. The fact that a horse does not react to one injection iloes not necessarily mean that it possesses any immunity ; in fact, it can be seen from the figures given that the disease was contracted by 80 per cent of animals in the case of ordinary virus, and by 89 per cent, of animals in the case of Tzaneen virus, of which 56 per cent, died in both instances. In other words, out of 100 horses that do not react to one injection, 56 Vv'ill (lie when tested later. :;. ( )\ the horses that reacted to the original injection, con- sidering both Dunkop and Dikkop forms together, a far better immunity was given by ordinary virus, the survivors amount- ing to 79 per cent, as compared with 61 ]Der cent, from Tzaneen A'irus. It is, however, evident that even in the case of the strong virus (ordinary), a reaction does not constitute immunity to subsequent injections. That is to say, out of 100 horses that recover from horse-sickness, and which are considered " salted," anything from 26 to 81 can be expected to contract the so-called "relapse " or aanmaanings, the number varying according to the strength of the virus, conferring what I may call the " ground " immunity. 4. On comparing the results of the tests on the horses that obtained their ground immiuiity as a result of a Dunkop re- action with those that obtained it from a Dikkop re- action, the advantage of a Dikkoo immunity is at once noticed. In the case of ordinary virus only 17 per cent, of the Dikkop reactors died on test, as compared with 25 per cent, of the Dunkop reactors, whilst with Tzaneen virus the difference is even more marked, the respective figures being 25 per cent, as compared with ^2 per cent. From a practical point of view, therefore, a horse that has " salted " from the Dikkop form of horse-sickness has a better chance of resisting later infections than a horse that salts from the Dunkop form. Recovery from one attack of Dikkop is. however, not a guarantee against later attacks of the same form. Amongst the horses referred to, 15 per cent, of Dikkop reactors contracted the same form for the second time. 7 per cent, died at the seconcl attack, whilst 1.5 per cent, contracted it three times, of Avhich 0.5 per cent, died at the third attack. 5. I have not given anv special statistics relating to the " breaking power " of any particular virus, and have onlv men- tioned the one case of the breaking power of Tzaneen virus on the mule that salted to ordinary virus. This point was also experimentallv investigated, and whilst it held good that Tzaneen virus could break the immunity given by ordinarv virus, yet the reverse also applied when ordinary virus broke the immunity THE PROr.LIiM OF HORSE SICKNESS. 77 conferred by Tzaneen virus. In fact, after we had collected all the different strains of virus from all parts of the country, we found that practically any virus could break down the im- munity given by any other virus. Accordingly, although ordinary virus can be spoken of as a strong virus, yet it has practically no greater " breaking power " than any other virus. 6. Some special consideration merits the degree of immunity apart from the quality. A horse that reacted to the minimum test dose of at least 2,000 fatal doses of ordinary virus cannot be infected with horse-sickness if we use the same virus as a dose of a million times or even more. The horse will not show the slightest reaction. It produces, nevertheless, as a response to this injection, anti-bodies. This is the principles of hyper- immunisation. Notwithstanding the presence of anti-l)odies in the blood-stream, the horse can contract the disease again, when a virus of a higher generation of the same strain is used, and likewise, such horses exposed to natural conditions ma}" con- tract the disease as well. For protection, therefore, the degree of immunity does not seem to come into consideration, Inu the quality, a point wdiich has already been brought out. The Soliitio)i of ihc Frohlcui is the Discovery of a Cure or a Method of Prevention. I shall deal with the cure first. Under natural conditions about 90 per cent, of all sick horses die. The disease is usually only detected in its final stage, or at a time when the destiny of the horse is already settled one way or another. It is an old maxim in medicine, *' To cure the disease, remove the cause." The removal of the cause means in all infectious diseases the destruction of the parasites. This is done by so-called specifics. Only for a few organisms of the protozooic kingdom are speci- fics known, vis., the plasmodium of the malarial fevers, which in the merozootic stage can be attacked by quinine ; the group of Babesia, which yield to the aniline dye trypan-blue ; and the spirochsetes, which are susceptible to organic arsenic com- pounds, in particular salvarsan, as are also some of the trvpano- somes. It was the merit of Ehrlich to have shown how the action of these drugs can be explained. Based on his lateral chain theory, he assumes that in the micro-organisms are certain chemo-receptors, which fix the chemical compound, and through the bridge so formed acts the toxophoric group of the com- pounds, viz., the arsenic. Most of the chemical compounds which could be utilised as parasiticides act principally on the cells df the body of the host ; they are, in Ehrlich's language, organotropic, and hence damage the host. To find " para^itio- tropic " drugs is the aim of modern chemotherapy. Thanks to the assistance of Ehrlich, I have been able to try quite a number of these drugs on horse-sickness, in particular, arsenophenvlgly- cin, salvarsan, novoflavin, and some aniline dyes. I am 7b THE PROBLEM OF HORSE SICKNESS. sorry to say that in none of these modern drugs has a cure yet been found. Another method of attacking the causal organism in the system is by means of the serum therapy. Immunity in an infectious disease is usually accompanied by the production of specific anti-bodies usually found in the blood-stream. By means of hyperimmunisation an increase of immune bodies in the blood-stream can be effected. They are present in the serum withdrawn from such an animal, which, properly pre- served, represents the remedy. These anti-bodies are either anti-toxic — z'ic. they neutralise the toxin produced by the organism — or anti-infectious — z'ic, they kill the organisms. Also in horse-sickness we can produce an anti-serum, notwithstanding that the micro-organisms is ultravisible and not cultivable. It is done simply by transfusing the blood of a sick animal which contains the virus into an immune animal, and in due time, about 14 davs later, the serum of the immune animal is ready for use. That such a serum is powerful is shown by the fact that the addition of serum to a quantity of corresponding virus renders this virus harmless ; it is also capable of arresting the evolution of horse-sickness in a horse which has been injected with a strain of less virulency than that which served to produce the serum, and is even so powerful as to turn a reaction pro- duced by such an attenuated virus to a recovery in a great number of cases. The activity of the serum on the fully- developed disease, as recognised bv the layman, even when due to a weak virus, is almost nil. The lesions produced by the horse-sickness organism seems to be irreparable after they have reached a certain stage. Serum is. therefore, of but little use from a curative point of view. An attemi^t for the solution of the problem must be directed towards the prevention of the disease. This can be undertaken in two different wavs. The one, the radical one. which goes at the root of the evil, means the eradication of the disease ; the other one, of a temporary character, means the protection of the animals agfainst the attacking transmitting hosts, or bv means of immunity against the causal organisms injected by the transmitting hosts. The eradication of the disease would be the ideal solution of the problem. Can it be achieved? In the chain of events which lead to horse-sickness there are two links, which, when they could be broken, would lead to this great object. The one is the destruction of the virus reservoir (the virus carrier), the other of the virus transmitting insect. Since the virus carrier is not as yet known, further suggestions are out of place. The question is nevertheless of theoretical importance. The destruction of the transmitting agency would be possible, although we do not as yet know it exactly. In the past we have not pressed home this point as much as it deserved, simplv because we did not, and do not, know the actual insect. We do not know its whereabouts, its THE PROBLEM OF HORSE SICKNESS. 79 breeding-places, etc. We assume it is a mosquito or an insect with similar haljits. The destruction of all mosquito-life would, in all i)rol)a1)ility. remove the disease. This is an undertaking which might be carried out in definite localities, and should be encoiu^aged. It would, however, be an undertaking of enor- mous magnitude if undertaken over a large area. That is can be done has been shown by the anti-malaria and anti-yellow fever campaigns in the various parts of the world, the striking- example of some magnitude being the sanitation of the Panama Canal zone. Tbcre remains, therefore, at present the alternative, via.. the protection of the individual er|uines. The susceptible equines must be considered from two points of view, z'ia., whether thev can be stabled during the dangerous season, or whether they have to be kept in the open. Stabled animals can be protected against the disease effectively, provided the stable is insect proof. The efficacy of this method cannot be doubted; where it failed, the cause of failure can be found. Unfortunately stabling is not always applicable ; horses and mules must be used at any time, and frequently during the night. Under such conditions a protection applied to the skin comes into consideration. For the past 15 years the Veterinary Division has advocated this method, and has recommended the use of paraffin, or a mixture of paraffin and oil, su])pliefl as a simple and convenient remedv. The use of paraffin and oil suggesterl itself from the observation made during the war. Horses hadlv suft'ering from mange were treated with a mixture of paraffin, linseed oil, and sulphur, and were allowed to run during the horse-sickness season. It was a striking fact that horses so treated did not contract horse- sickness. Paraffin has since for many years been made use of by Transvaal farmers. The method is not infallible, and could be inij^roved. Antiseptics of the tar-derivation group have been tried as well, and are used by many, and in particular as a spray. Avith diff'erent results. Where a great number of horses are concerned, the ap]:)licatinn of similarly acting remedies in a convenient and economic manner becomes necessary. Since the introduction of the dipping tank, the tank suggested itself for this purpose. Our first exneriment. undertaken in 1912 in Natal, with the usual arsenical dii)]Mng fluid, was, however, not en- couraging. Of six horses which were regularly dipped at weekly intervals, four contracted horse-sickness and died. There was a doubt about the diagnosis of the disease, but it was sup- Dorted by subsequent tests. In the pamphlet oublished in 1912, dealing with the result of diopinp- cattle in Natal, reference is made to the results obtained with dipping horses exposed to horse-sickness. They were indifferent, and not conclusive. Very enc'^uaging results were obtained by the De Beers Company, who, during the last year, dipjDed their horses and mules at regular intervals in a cattle dip to which was added three gallons of lin-eed oil and two gallons of paraffin oil for every 300 horses So THE PROBLEM OF HORSE SICKNESS. going through the dip. The losses were only ;},/ horses out of a total number of i,o66. This result is better than we can expect to obtain from preventative inoculation. This observa- tion deserves full attention. Experiments to obtain a Ijetter protective substance to be applied to the skins of horses by means of spraying or dipping have been for some time, and are still, undertaken by the Division. The prevention of the disease by rendering the exposed animals immune would undoubtedl}' represent the most economic way, and would meet all requirements, provided a simple method could be found, which could be apjilied with none or but little risk, and which would give the maximum of immunitv. The method which conforms to these requirements does not exist; the inoculation of mules, as introduced about ten years ago, seems nevertheless to answer most practical requirements. This method consists in a simultaneous inoculation of protective serum and virus under the skin, the virus producing the disease, the serum modifying it so that recovery ensues. The virus utilised is the Pretoria strain, which, as previously has been shown, gives a good immunity. Breakdowns and deaths due to natural exposure do occur, and vary in different seasons. A mortality of 5 to 6 per cent, is probably the average loss. For horses we have not yet been able to overcome all diffi- culties, and they are more numerous than we anticipated. A simple method, as in the case of mules, seems to be excluded. The injection of serum simultaneously with the adequate Pretoria or ordinary virus is followed by heavy mortality. The factor Avhich assists the mule to pass through the disease is absent in the horse. It is probably the factor inherited from the ass. A weak virus, on the other hand, when injected simultaneously with the serum, is acted upon by the serum, and no disease develops and no immunity ensues. Of the Tzaneen strain we possess two varieties, a virulent one and an attenuated one. Both qualities have been obtained by the same process, 7'ic.. by passage from one animal to another. It is difficult to say what is the modifying agency which converts the virus into either a weak or a strong virulency. Experience has shown that it is the horse or mule in which the virus develops which supplies it. It is probably a quality of all viruses to undergo these modifications. The virulency of the same generation, obtained from different animals, varies according to the animal from wliich it is obtained. No definite law can be laid down. It is a matter of experimenting to find a virus of suitable viru- lencv. In the case of Tzaneen strain a lower generation will break the immunity conveyed by a higher generation, and in the case of the ordinary strain the higher generation will break that conveyed by a lower. Ordinary virus through a great numl)er of generations has become verv exalted in its virulency. We immunise at present horses by injecting first attenuated Tzaneen virus — we may call it the virus-vaccine — then serum calculated THE pk()i;li:.m o/ iioksk sickness. 8i according to the body-weight, injected some days subse(|uently. The most suitable period proved to be the sixth and tenth day. The serum checks the development of the virus and modifies the disease. In our experiments with a selected virus and serum, we were able to obtain in several instances lOO per cent, recoveries, and this on a fairly large number of animals. The problem of successful inoculation could thus be solved, but. alas! not that of successful immunisation. Indeed, the immunity is not a complete one, not even in horses, which passed through the Dikko]:) form of horse-sickness due to the inoculation. This fact has nothing surprising in the light of previous statements. For some time means were devised to overcome the difficulty. In a horse successfully inoculated with a series of diiterent viruses the chances of breakdown are reduced in proportion to the number and quality of viruses injected. Based on the observation shown before that the ordinary virus gave a better immunity than any other, experiments were undertaken to incorporate this virus into the process of inoculation. It was found that, simultaneously with the second dose of serum, the injection of ordinary virus could be undertaken with a certain amount of risk, varying in the various experiments. The immunity so obtained was better than that obtained with one virus alone, but still not so good as in mules immunised with the same virus. It is possible that under the influence of the active immunity produced by the first Tzaneen virus injection, together with the passive immunity of the two subsequent serum injections, the develoinnent of the ordinary virus is completely arrested in many horses injected, and hence the immunity not improved. That this must be so can be seen from subsequent tests with ordinary virus, when breakdowns are produced which no longer should occur. The superplanting of a second immunity on the first one ofifers. nevertheless, a good prospect for the practical solution. The experience of this year supports this : Of 49 horses possessing an immunity to the highest generation of ordinarv virus exposed to the verv severe natural conditions prevalent this year, 4 per cent. died. This is probably the optimum result we can expect, but it could only be obtained at the expense of a high mortality from immunisation. This latter difficulty has not yet been overcome. It should be clear that in horse-sickness we cannot expect an absolute immunity, vis., an immunity which protects all horses under all conditions against the disease. The protective inoculation has therefore its limits, but it has also, as it stands to-day, its limits from a technical point of view. Three inoculations are required to convey and modify the two necessary attacks of horse-sickness, and a period of four weeks to recover. Furthermore, only a limited quantity of serum can be made under present conditions. It is evident that the protective inoculation cannot yet be looked upon to be the final solution of the problem, even if we are able to pass all horses through an attack of the disease, and we can B 82 THE PROIJLEM OF HORSE SICKNESS. safely say that most likely it cannot be solved in this way alone, simply beceause the immunity obtained is not a reliable one. Immunisation, therefore, is only a temporary remedy, but it will have its practical usefulness as long as the disease is pre- valent in South Africa. On the other hand, it has also its drawbacks. The immunity of the salted horse lulls the pro- prietor into a false security, and he takes risks which he other- wise would noc take, frequently with the result that the immunity breaks down. Conclusion. The solution of the problem of horse-sickness for the time being lies in the protection of animals against infection. The selection of the methods to obtain this end depends entirely upon the number of animals to be protected, upon the conditions under which they are held and exposed to infection. Thar horse-sickness can be prevented should be clear, but success entirely depends upon the energy of the individual who applies the methods. The final solution of the problem is the eradication of the disease from South Africa. That even this is feasible, and will one day be possible, should be the conclusion that can be drawn from this paper. MeSEMBRIANTHEMUM TortUOSUM.— Under the head- ing " Channa, a delicacy of the Hottentots," the Journal of the Chemical Society^' quotes some results of work done by Hartwich and Zwicky on Meseiiibriaiithemiiin torttiosiini L. and M. expan- siiiii I.., the former of which is commonly known as Hottentots koinvgoed, the name Gaiiiia being applied not to that genus at all, but to Salsola aphylla. The active constituent was found to be the alkaloid mesemlirine. ChiHtciO^N. of which the leaves contain .3 per cent, and the stems and roots .86 per cent. The alkaloid dissolves freely in chloroform, alcohol, or acetone, sparingly in ether, water or alkalies, and very sparingly in light petroleum or benzene, ^^^ith vanadic sul])huric acid it gives a brownish-red solution, a green tint developing on warming, and becoming bright green after 24 hours. Mesembrine is unsaturated, acts as a phenol, and has an action somewhat resembling, but distinct from that of cocaine. Every branch of the mesembrianthemum family includes species which do and which do not contain this alkaloid. A wax containing 25 per cent, of saponifiable material was found in the epidermis of the leaves. The unsaponifiable part is a mixture of mesembrene CagH^,;, and mesembrol, CsiH^.^O, or CgoHesO. * (1915) 108, Abstr. [1], 710. FIRE-RESISTING MATERIALS IN BUILDING CONSTRUCTION. By Arthur Henry Reid. F.RT.B.A., F.R.SanT., F.R.S.A. The increasing congestion of habitations in towns renders the study of materials used in building construction one of vital interest to the community. The following notes, though gathered into a small compass, are the results of investigations made during the past decade, and in this record I have en- deavoured to combine some indication of underlying principles with suggestions regarding problems that still await solution. Further research may yet discover materials that are suitable for the purposes of insulation and protection, which may combine easy mani])ulation with moderation in cost. The knowdedge we possess is not altogether satisfactory in many respects, and the subject is one worthy of our widest and most careful considera- tion. The author, in submitting this paper, wishes it to be under- stood that its scope is confined to " Materials " only, and is not intended to cover the constructional features of fire resisting buildings. It may be fairly claimed that no construction is absolutely fireproof, and that even iron and masonry, in their crude form, could with propriety be designated as " slow burn- ing." Steel has, in the process of manufacture, been smelted in a furnace which produced little greater heat than would some of our modern buildings with their contents when in a state of full combustion. It is, therefore, necessary to cover and protect steel units with non-combustible and non-conducting material to prevent exposure to fire and consequent expansion or distortion. It is proposed to review the leading classes of material that are used in buildings, and to enumerate the peculiarities of each as well as the precautions that experience has shown to be neces- sary for their protection. Steel. — Wrought and cast-iron may be regarded as practically obsolete for structural purposes, though both have the advantage, under certain circumstances, of being less liable to corrosion than steel. Mild steel, containing a proper percentage of carbon, is produced by the Bessemer and other processes. In the former molten " pig " iron is blown through, the carbon and other elements Ijurnt out, and then the desired proportions of carbon and manganese are added. Steel is about universally used for the purpose of reinforcement in fire-resisting construction, and ordinary " mild " steel is preferred of an ultimate tensile strength of, say, 64.000 lbs. (30 tons) per square inch. Mild steel that has been rolled possesses an ultimate strength of about 89,000 lbs. (40 tons) per square inch, but it has been found that 84 FIRE-RESISTING BUILDINGS. such material loses strength, when heated, more than mild steel, and is, therefore, not favoured for fire-resisting construction. Reinforcement. — Various types of bars, expanded metal and wire mesh fabrics are used as reinforcement of concrete, and small members are generally favoured as they give a greater proportionate surface for adhesion, and are more easily manipu- lated. Each has its strong and weak points, according to the work allotted to it, which alone can be judged by the designer. Structural Allocation of Materials. — Generally speaking, it is admitted that stone should be avoided where there is any •chance of exposure to excessive temperature or flame. Sand- stones, limestones, and granites are dangerous, as they crumble away or split into pieces if water is suddenly applied when they •are subjected to continuous extreme heat. For this reason they should never be used for staircases or as piers to support superincumbent walls. Cast-iron, wrought iron, or steel, when exposed to heat, appear at first to increase slightly in tensile strength, but as the temperature rises their strength falls rapidly. This is especially the case with wrought iron or steel, some descriptions of which may lose strength to the extent of 70 to 80 ])er cent, before a distinct red heat is reached. Cold water suddenly applied to cast-iron, when highly heated, may cause it to crack or fly to pieces. Wrought iron or steel, under similar circumstances, would become considerably twisted or distorted. Irregular heating, such as may take place when a stanchion is partly buried in a wall and one or more faces exposed to the heat, creates internal strains that tend to induce distortion or twisting, and the same applies to floor beams that are partly enclosed in concrete, and have their lower flange exposed. The efficient j^rotection of metal from excessive or irregular heating is therefore essential. For the convenient allocation of fire-resisting or protective materials to the several constituent portions of a building, it will be well to sub-divide the same into sections, separating the horizontal from the vertical units. The former consist of floors, ceilings, roofs and staircases, and the latter of walls, piers, and partitions. Floors. — Solid wood baulks, hollow terra-cotta slabs and reinforced concrete cast in situ are generally accei^ted as the most effective materials for the construction of fire-resisting floors, but the latter, on account of its cheapness, is generally adopted. The following remarks upon concrete will, of course, apply generally to piers and other horizontal and vertical units. Fire-resisting concrete recjuires an aggregate of material that has already been burnt, such as broken brick, burnt ballast, pumice, furnace slag, clinker of a hard and weight-bearing structure, and metamorphic stone generally. Concrete is, compartively speaking, strong in compression and weak in tension, the ratio of compressive to tensile strength being about as from 6 to 10 is to i. Its lack of tensile strength FIRE-RESISTING KUILDINGS. 85 renders reinforcement necessary where tensile strain is applied- When properly embedded in suitable concrete, steel is protected against the destructive influences of damp and heat. Coke breeze and cinders are not favoured for reinforced work as the possible presence of sulphur would act deleteriously upon the steel. Portland cement is universally adopted as the matrix of fire resisting concrete, and only very finely ground and medium setting cement should be used for the purpose. The coefiicients of expansion for concrete and steel being practicallv the same, a combination of these materials secures homogeneity, and ensures that the two materials will act together, and not throw undue stress upon either. This is most important, for otherwise a rise in temperature, say, by the application of fire, would cause the two materials to separate. Success again depends largely upon the adhesion of the concrete to the steel, and this depends, to a great extent, upon the contraction that takes place during the " setting " of the concrete. An adhesive strength of lOO lbs. per square inch is generally recommended, though 250 lbs. at the age of one month is attainable with care. It may be interesting to note that slightly rusted steel bars give better adhesion than clean ones. Painting or coating prevents adhesion, and is therefore to be avoided. Practical tests have proved that concrete, with the best aggregates and cement when mixed 4:2:1, possesses a com- prehensive strength of about 1,800 lbs. per square inch at the age of one month, while broken stone concrete, mixed 6:3:1, should give a tensile strength of about 350 lbs. per square inch. The effect of heat is to reduce the strength of concrete so that a varying factor of safety has to be decided upon. Experiments made by Professor Woolson, in the United States of America, showed that concrete, with an aggregate of trap rock mixed 4:2:1, gave a compressive strength per square inch as follows : — Jnheated. 500 °F. 750° F. 1,000° F. r,25o°F. i.500°F. 2.000° F, 1,900 lb. 1.850 lb. 1,800 lb. 1,400 11). 1,200 lb. T.OOO \h. 700 lb. Four inch cubes were tised in the tests. Fire tests with flours of dift'erent types, as made by the British Fire Prevention Committee, have proved that, as far as the concrete itself is concerned, the following prevented the passage of fire when exposed to temperature varying from 1,800° F. to 2.000° F. for several hours: — 1. Coke breeze and Portland cement mixed 5 :i and 5" thick. 2. Blast furnace slag, sand and cement, mixed 3:2:1 and 5/4" thick. Became red hot. 3. Broken brick, sand and cement, mixed 3:2:1 and SV^^' thick. 4. Broken granite, sand and cement, mixed 3:2:1 and S^-^" thick. 86 Fir.E-Kl-:SJ STING liLMLDlNGS. 5. Burnt ballast and cement, mixed 5:1 and 5/^" thick. 6. Furnace clinker, sand and cement, mixed 3:2:1 and Sj^" tliick. Became red hot. 7. Thames ballast, sand and cement, mixed 3:2:1 and 5/1" tdiick. Became red hot. The general result was in favour of Nos. i. 5 and 6, and details of the gauge of aggregates, quantity of water, and method of mixing and depositing can be ascertained by referring to the committee's literature and reports. It is thus evident that burnt aggregates should be used, and materials containing latent heat avoided. The committee's experiments with timber gave the follow- ing results, though, of course, the varying bulk or dimensions ■of the specimens render them comparatively valueless. Karri Wood : 2 hours' exposure — maximum temperature 1,800° F., charred depth 3//'. Jarrah Wood: 2 hours" exposure — maximum tem])erature 2,000° F., charred depth y^" . Fir: 2 hours' exposure — maximum temperature 2.000" F., charred de])th 2". Oak: 4/ minutes' exposure of 23-I" boards in a horizontal position at a maximum temperature of 2,000° F., consumed them. The Karri and Jarrah wood was proljably specially selected for the tests. Causes of Failure. — When not caused by earth([uakes, explo- sions, lightning or other shocks, which may be classed as " unavoidable causes," failures are due to more or less '" pre- ventable causes," and, as a rule, can be attributed to carelessness or incompetence in the design or execution of the work. Failures due to Materials. — Failures due to the careless selection or manipulation of materials are commonly found to come under one or other of the following heads: — (a) The use of inferior, unaerated. damaged or too f|uick setting cement. (b) The use of unsuitable or inferior aggregates, such, for instance, as contain only very coarse material, or have been insufficiently graded or carry too much sand or loam, or by the presence of free lime in the stone. ( e) The use of water containing clay or injurious chemical constituents. The use of too much or too little water in the process of mixing or the imeven application of same. Failures due to other Causes. ( (/) Carelessness in the proportioning or mixing of the aggregate with the cement. {e) Disturbance of the concrete after the "setting" has progressed. FIRE-RESISTING P.UILDINGS. 8/ (/) By tlie remixing and use of old concrete after it has set. ((/) By excessive ramming or tamping or violent trowelling of the surface. {h) By placing new concrete on old and dry work without first saturating and preparing the latter. ( ; ) B}- allowing the concrete to freeze or by deposit- ing same in liot weather, which induces an initial " set "' when mixing, which becomes broken in the process of deposition. (7) The premature removal of " forms " or centres, or the insufficiency or careless arrangement of same or their supports. J'ailiircs due to lack of Scientific AppHcation. ( k ) B}' errors in design or calculation. ( / ) B}- the misj)lacement or omission of proper rein- forcement. ( ;/; ) By inefficient supervision coupled with careless or incapable workmen. It must be patent to anyone, versed in the principles of sound construction, that a concrete building is a monolith, and as such is subject to extreme strains in case of a contiagration, due to the expansion and subsequent contraction of its sub- stance, or ])ortions of same, which is accentuated by the appli- cation of cold water to its surface. This operation inflicts a comj)oun(l destructive factor in the ];ossible disintegration of the protective covering of the rein- forcement. The absolute necessity of laboratory tests and analyses of materials is an established fact that no designer is justified in overlooking when such structures are under con- sideration. Cciliiujs. — Susj^ended or appended ceilings of incombustible material are valuable factors in the protection of wooden floor joists, and also of concrete floors. The types generally adopted are those formed of metallic lathing with plaster applied, sheets of compressed asbestos and cement, slag wool faced with metallic sheets, and slabs of compressed pumice and cement, with plaster applied. Alost of the foregoing types can be constructed in double thickness, as w'itl'L an air space between them, Init in the case of a new building, the cost would be more than that of a concrete floor. The report of the British Fire Prevention Committee in 1899 proved that by covering both sides and the euds of wooden floor joists with i" of slag wool, and by securing I94" of the same material to the underside of joists with //s" boarding below same, a fire of one hour's duration, with a maximum tem- perature of 1,800° F. resulted in little or no damage to the wooden joists or to the floor boards on the upper side of same. 56 FIRE-KESISTING iiUlLDINGS. Roofs. — For ordinary roofs no better material than rein- forced concrete is known, though, having no loads except snow or hail to carry, the construction would naturally be of a lighter description than that of floors. The outer surface requires the ap]jlication of weather resisting material to it, of which none better than natural asphalte exists. Such a roof, without the asphalte, will prevent the spread of fire from, or to. any roof that nlay be constructed above it. -V test made by the British Fire Prevention Committee in 1902 showed that a flat roof was constructed with deal joists (as a floor), and covered with i^" boarding and three thick- nesses of asphalted felt, finished with 23//' of sand and gravel. The underside was protected with wooden laths ij4" X 34", to which was applied i" of lime and sand plaster, with a small admixture of plaster of Paris. When dry, the structure was exposed to a fierce fire, with a maximum temperature of 1,500' F. for 1 hour. In 40 minutes the plastering began to fall, and at the ter- mination of the hour's exposure the fire had not passed through the roof, and it was sound enough to be walked upon. Stairs. — Stone, especially of the calcareous description, must not be used for stairs, for if subjected to intense heat, though they may appear to be intact, they may collapse when stepped upon, or when water is applied. Concrete stairs, with a small T iron in each riser, are quite reliable. The landings should l)e of reinforced concrete, as to tlie floors, and at least 6" thick. All doorways and ])assages oj^ening upon staircases should be fitted with self-closing, fire-resisting doors, and the ceiling, at roof level, should be of concrete. These precautions prevent draught, and the spread of fire from floor to floor. Walls and Partitions. — No safer material than brick in cement mortar exists for outside walls, though terra-cotta, backed with brick or concrete, is an excellent substitute. For solid internal partitions, bricks, slabs of ])orous terra- cotta, or fireclay, concrete of suitable material and cement or gy])sum plaster slabs are safe, and for hollow partitions the following are recommended : — Hollow terra-cotta slabs ; ex- panded metallic lathing on both sides of steel studs, plastered with suitable material, and with air space between ; sheets of compressed asbestos and cement secured to uninflammable im- pregnated wooden studs. In all the tests made, it api)ears that water aiJ])lied to plaster when hot does as much, or more, damage than the fire itself. The following list of tests, made by the British Fire Pro- tection Committee, speak for themselves, and prove that the a])plication of water had the least eft'ect upon No. i (the hollow porous terra-cotta tile partition). No. I. — Partition of hollow porous terra-cotta tiles, 12" _X 12" X 2]4", laid in cement i to 2, plastered on fireside with M" of asbestic, sand ar.d .'?rc\- lime The tiles were rendered FIRE-RESISTING -BUILDINGS. 89 porous by mixing sawdust with the clay, which was consumed during the firing process. Stood 25^ hours" exposure to maximum temperature of 2,000" F., and neither fire, water, nor smoke passed through it. Xo. 2. — Partition of slabs of pumice, volcanic sand, and Portland cement 21" X n^" X 2^" thick, plastered to make total thickness of 3^/'. Stood 2 hours" exposure to maximum temperature of 2,000° F.. and neither fire, nor smoke passed through it. No 3. — Partition of slabs of plaster of Paris and coke breeze i to i ; 24" X 12" X 2%'', with one-sixteenth wires in joints, and plastered with ^'' of plaster of Paris, and coke dust I to I. Stood ijA hours' exposure to maximvmi temperature of 2,100° F., and fire did not penetrate it. No. 4. — Partition of slabs of pumice, slag sand, hydraulic lime, tan and plaster of Paris, say, 4.0" X n'' X 2^)4", with five-sixteenth iron rods passing through same vertically at 12" centres, and with -)4" plaster on fire side. Stood 1% hours' exposure to maximum temperature of 1,800° F. No. 5. — Partition of slabs of plaster of Paris mixed with cocoa-nut fibre and cork dust and with reeds embedded horizon- tallv. Slabs set in mortar composed of plaster of Paris, lime and sand mixed 2:1:2. Plaster 1 14" (over two sides) thick. Slabs 4' 10'' X 10" X 2y» or finished 3^^". Stood il-i hours" exposure to maximum temperature of 2,000° F. No. 6.— Partition of bricks 133-^" X 7->4" X 3f4" composed of plaster of Paris, hydraulic lime, coke, sand, asbestos and sulphuric acid laid in mortar of hydraulic lime and sand, and plastered with fireclay on fire side, finished thickness 3J^". Stood I hour of maximum temperature of 1,800° F. No. 7. — A partition of terra-cotta and wired lathing plas- tered three coats both sides to a finished thickness of 23/2", the plaster being of lime, sand, and plaster of Paris. Stood three-quarters hour exposure to maximum tempera- ture of 2,000° F. Hollozc Partitions. — Partitions plastered both sides with steel or other inflammable lathing have proved to be prac- tically useless when the studs to which the lathing is secured are of untreated timber. If the timber is rendered " non - flammable " by the process hereinafter referred to, the result would no doubt be more satis- factory; but, generally speaking, the cost of rendering hollow lathed and plastered partitions effective, even as fire resisters, entails so much labour and material that ii is cheaper and better to adopt the solid partitions. The British Fire Prevention Committee, however, found as follows: — go FIRE-RESISTING I'.L' ILDINGS. A. A j^artition of corrugated helical steel lathing of -'^-4" mesh, secured to i" X i" vertical iron studs at 24" centres, Avith l^" X /V iron bars fixed between them at 12" centres, and running same way as the studs, plastered both sides with lime, sand, and hair, with 5 per cent, of Ir^ortland cement added, finished 2-)4" thick. Stood i^ hours' exposure to a maximum temperature of 2,000° F. B. A partition with 4" X -" timber studs at i4/^" centres, covered both sides with wire netting, and over that ■;4" matched boarding ; the whole space between studs being filled with silicate cotton (slag wool). Stood three-quarters hour exposure to maximum temperature of t.8oo° F. The fire did not pass through the partition, though the inside l)oarding was consumed and the studs charred ;?/4" deep. The outside boarding and the rest of the studs were intact. C. A partition with 2" X ^Vs" deal studs at i; 4/2" 20 lb. steel stanchions 13' o" long, and loaded up to three tons, exposed for 2^^^ hours to a temperature from t,8oo° F. to 2.100'' F.. encased as fol- lows : — No. 1.— With 4->'s" terraw ode l)ricks, 9" X aW X 3". un- plastered. Maximum temperature between encasement and stanchion, 310° F. No. 2.— With ly/' terrawode tiles. 9^%" X 12" X 2]//', un])lastered. Maximum temperature between encasement and stanchion, 1,100° F. In both cases the stanchions were apparent!}' unattected. The following are tests upon unprotected columns : — No. 3. — A steel column composed of two 10 inch 15J/ lb. steel channels, fixed 6^" apart, web to web, with 12" X Ya" plates rivetted to flanges of both channels, giving an over-all sectional dimension of 12" X 10", with over-all length of. say, 14' o" and load of 46 tons. Buckled at maximum temi)erature of 1,200° F. No. 4. — A cast-iron column, hollow, round. \" metal. 8" external diameter, over-all length, say, \2>' o". with load of 84 tons. Column red hot, and flecidedly bent, at maximum tem- perature of 1.200° F. Protected Steel Girders. — The following are tests and results of same upon 7" X ~%" steel joists, say. 10' o" between bearings, and not loaded. Joists covered with -i^". 24 gauge. No. I expanded metal, and 3^'^" of a composition of water, plaster, hydraulic lime, coke sand, and asbestos, with an addi- tion of sulphunc acid. FIRI':-RI-:STST1N<^, I'.LMLDINGS. ()l .\fter ex]josure for one hour to a temperature from 500° F. to ],6oo° F., followed by application of water at 25 lbs. pressiu-e from a J//' nozzle, the result showed that, though the encasement w^as cracked and sodden, it remained attached all around, and the girder was unaft'ected. Non-Flaininablc JVood. etc. — The treatment of wood. paper, or textiles to render same firc-rcsisting is of three kinds ; those which on heating leave an earthy deposit to ])rotect the combustible material, those which fuse and t>orm a glassy protective coating, and those which ,give off gases which stifle combustion. That under the first-named class is aluminium hydroxide ; of the second and third, ammonium borate, and phosphate, giving off ammonia, and coating the material with boric or phosphoric acids. In the case of wood, the solution has to be forced in under pressure. Tests made by the British Fire Protection Committee in i8(j9-yo i)roved that with identical partitions constructed of t" boards, both sides, those that were untreated communicated tire to an adjoining room in 18 minutes; whereas those constructed of non-flammable w^ood did not, after 45 minutes' exposure, when the test was suspended, and a maximum temperature of 1,545° F. had been registered in the i^yrometer. Textiles. — The tests upon textiles ])roved be}-ond douljt that •even the most inflammable can be rendered slow-ljurning, and that asbestos blinds are valuable as protection to doors and windows. Doors and JViudoi^'s. — Doors and windows are amongst the most dangerous agencies for spreading tire in a l)uild- ing. Before going into the comparative values of materials, as proved by the tests of the British Fire I'revcntion Committee. I would remark that even if a door is abso- lutely fireproof, there is the danger of the Are spreading through the buckling and twisting of the door, or througli the failure oi its hangings and fastenings. Stone Hntels should never be fixed above door openings on account of their liability to split, crack, or flake away when heat and water are simultaneously applied. In all cases woodwork should be avoided for linings or architraves to fire-resisting doors. The results of tests upon several classes of doors have been as follows : — Solid Wood Doors, 2" thick all over, nicluding the ])anels. Oak. — Flame appeared outside in 30 minutes. Teak. — Flame appeared outside in 24 minutes. Deal. — Flame appeared outside in 20 minutes. Pitch Pine. — Flame appi)eared outside in 20 minutes. Jarrah {iVf," thick, prol)ably specially selected samples). — Flame appeared outside in 60 minutes. Karri (ij-^" thick, probably specially selected samjjles). — Flame ai')]:)eared outside in 46 nnnutes. Deal. — Ledged door 1" boards, 3 ledges 6" X i". 4 minutes. Composite Doors. — 2" solid door, with core of bui't-up g2 FIRE-RESISTING BUILDINGS. Strips of pine, covered both sides with ^s" asbestos boards, and each side tinisiied with 3 1^,1 " of oak veneer. Fire at a tempera- ture of 1,500° F. did not pass through in 60 minutes. 1/3" sohd door, core of two thicknesses }i" pine, covered both sides with 26 B W G tinned steel sheets. Flame appeared outside in 12 minutes. 2^" door, core three thicknesses of Js" pine, covered as last. Flame appeared in 30 minutes. 2 1,4" door, core two thicknesses of Ji" pine, covered both sides, with Xs" asbestos boards, and 26 B W G tinned steel sheet- ing. Flame appeared in 70 minutes. HoUozu Metallic Doors. — i ik " thick, with two ik " panels, all of 20 B W G tinned steel |:)lates, with hollow between, fitted with two Vs" thickness of sheet asbestos with layer of impreg- nated felt between them as non-conductor. Fire at a temperature of 1,570° F. did not ]:)ass through in 120 minutes. Xoii-I'laminablc Wood Doors. — lyi^' solid deal. Fire at a temperature of 1,680*" F. did not penetrate in 60 minutes. Solid Iron Door.—y^ thick plate all over with 3" X >4" stiles, and three rails of 3" X li'' ii'on, screwed to the plate. Through Ijuckling, the fire passed through open si)aces at the top and bottom in 19 minutes. Concrete Doors. — 2" tliick. with casing of 20 B W G steel plates, stift'ened and reinforced by vertical steel bars, at 8"" centres, with ^" cross bars to stiffen same. The space between casing filled with concrete composed of innnice to pass I/2" ring, 48 })arts : sand 16 parts: and Port- land cement 15 parts. Fire at a temperature of 1,800° F. did not pass through in 240 minutes. Shutter doors. — Rolling shutters, constructed with inter- locking strips or slats of steel, have proved eft"ective checks to fire, especially when placed on both sides of a wall. Being thin, however, the one directly exposed soon gets red hot. If pro- perly fitted, with properly protected gear boxes, they have with- stood a 4 hours' exposure to a temperature of 1,800° F., and even then the outer shutter could be raised and lowered. Jl'lndozcs require the most careful treatment, for if air can be excluded from a room, fire is naturally extinguished. If the glass of windows or skylights is broken by heat or water-jet, a fire raging inside a building would be intensified, and the flames would burst out and attack other windows across courts or areas. Wired glass has withstood severe tests, and can be considered a reliable material for the passage of light and resistance to fire if pro- perl v mounted, but the danger still remains in the frames or sashes that hold the glazing. Electro-glazing, wherein bars of metal and small squares of specially-prepared glass are electri- callv fused into one homogenous slali, is the best known material,. FIRE-RESISTINC, l!UlLDlN(rS 93 and is superior to wired glass, but very expensive. Wired glass must be of the best material as the cheaper makes may crack when exposed even to extreme sun. The cracks then get dirt-laden, and admit damp to the wiring, which corrodes and causes failure when an extreme test is applied. Electro- glazing has the advantage of being entirely transparent, and though it may crack w^hen exposed to extreme heat, the pieces will be retained by the bars, and not fall out. The safest types of sashes are those made of hollow metal, steel or hardwood, according to circumstances, and the frames should be of the same material, carefully stopped around their joints with the walls, with incombustible and permanent material that will resist displacement when exposed to fire or water. As a rule, it has been found, when an actual conflagration occurs, that water applied to hot glass causes a more dangerous disintegration of the material than the fire itself, and that hard wood is less afifected than metal framing. The results of tests upon several classes of windows have been as follows : — Horizontal Sashes to Skylights. — >^" wired rolled glass to concrete reveals sight sizes 2' o" X 2' o" withstood a maximum temperature of 1,520° F. for 60 minutes. The same glass secured to teak frame of sight size 4' 7j^" X 2' 6" withstood a maximum temperature of 1,475° F- for 30 minutes, but bulged 2" in the centre. Vertical Sashes. — 32 oz. sheet glass 3' o" X' 4' o" to teak frame. Maximum temperature 1,050° F. failed in 6 minutes. Lead glazing in 4" squares. Maximum temperature 1,500° F., collapsed in 7 minutes. J4" plate glass 3' o" X 4' o" to teak frame. Maximum temperature 1,550° F., failed in 12 minutes. ^4" wired rough-cast glass 2' 3" X -' 3" to teak, inni and brick reveals maximum temperature 1,500° F., withstood for 45 minutes. %" wired rolled plate glass 4' o" X 2' 10" to teak frames buckled, and let fire pass at maximum temperature of 1,600° F. in 30 minutes, and at 1,715° F. the glass fused in 7 minutes. Electro-glazed sheets 4' X 3' with 4" X 4" prisms, teak frames, at maximum temperature 900° F., bulged 2" in 12 minutes, and at maximum temperature 1.315° F., the glazing sagged and left frames in 21 minutes. 7 out of 324 prisms were fractured, and the teak frame charred y/\ with maximum temperature of 1,520° F. in 30 minutes. Electro-glazed sheets 2' o" X 2' o" to steel frames at maximum temperature 1,630° F., glass sintered, bulged J<^", and solder melted, but fire did not pass in 90 minutes. The above tests proved that the larger sheets of glass are less efifective than the smaller. It is to be hoped that tests wnll 94 FIRE-RESISTING I'.UILDINGS. be made of lights composed of mica plates secured to asbestos framing, and of glass bricks set in gypsum. Conclusion. — In conclusion, I would express the hope that at our next congress we may be favoured with a paper dealing with fire-resisting " construction " in buildings, and upon the application of the materials I have dealt with, and others to their best uses. The two subjects are naturally allied, as the one depends upon the other. The object of fire-resisting construction is the employment of such materials and systems of construction as will retard an outbreak of fire on the one hand, and its progress or develop- ment on the other, thus preventing a dangerous conflagration in a building, and giving sufiicient time for the escape of the occu- pants, the salvage of the contents, and the arrival of the fire brigade to cause its extinction. Everything seems to depend upon the planning of a build- in? so that all chances of a fire spreading are reduced to a minimum, and this can only be secured by dividing it into a maximum number of safe units both horizontally and vertically. This is absolutely the work of the architect, and one that no engineer of repute should undertake unless he has also been trained as an architect or co-operated with one who has had the necessary s])ecial experience in that class of building. Poisoned Bait for Biting Flies. — During ex periments made by Mr. C. W. Mally, Government Entomologist, at the Entomological Exi)eriment Station, Rosebank, Cape Pro- vince, the biting house fly, Stonioxys calcitrans, was destroyed by means of a liquid poisoned bait, containing i per cent, of sodium arsenite and lo per cent, of sugar. This has suggested the possibility of destroying other biting flies, r.r/., tsetse flies and certain Tabanid?s in the same way. The Tabanid Hcrniatopota occUata Wied is very abundant around the vleis in the Cape Flats this season, and an effort is being made to determine whether this fly can be attracted to poisoned bait in the field. ANHYDROUS LIQUID HYDROCYANIC ACID FOR FUMIGATION PURPOSES. By Charles William Mally, AI.Sc, P'.L.S. For the destruction df insect pests on fruit trees by means of hydrocyanic acid gas the usual practice is to generate the gas by the action of dihite sulphuric acid on potassium or sodium cyanide, either ( a ) dry or ( b ) in solution. Either method leaves much to be desired, for it not only takes time and care in preparing the chemicals, but there is also the danger of burn- ing the tents by acid coming in direct contact with them through handling them ; or the absorption of fumes or vapours driven off during the generation of the gas may result in the familiar " rotting " of the canvas. The above factors are of special importance in connection with vineyard fumigation for the destruction of the mealy bug, Pseudococciis capciisis Brain, because the vines, whether trellised or " bush," must be covered with long, narrow sheets of gas-proof canvas, almost the whole of which is in close proximity to the freshly-generated gas by whatever means it is produced. The space enclosed is very small, and hence only a small amount of gas is required. On account of the shape of the tent, the gas should be liberated at several points to secure a quick and uniform distribution. This means ^a number of small generators or points of introduc- tion from an external generator. In military work the trouble with acid and cyanide and generators increases the amount of strict supervision necessary, and the time required to do the work. On going into the matter of possible ways of improv- ing on present methods, I decided to trv to make use of the fact that the gas readil_\- condenses on being subjected to a low temperature, and ])roduces the anhydrous liquid hydrocyanic acid. The matter was discussed with the Government Analyst, Dr. C. F. Juritz, and later on, with the assistance of Mr. W. W. Brighton-AIanning, in arranging the details of a small ex- perimental apparatus, a small quantity of the liquid acid was l^roduced at the Entomological Experiment Station, Rosebank, Cape Province. The li(|uid acid proved to be much easier to work with than was anticipated. ( )n testing it with dift'erent insects, T came to the conclusion that the gas arising from the liquid dift'uses more quickly, and is more violent in its action than that from an ordinary generator. This is probably due to the absence of moisture or other impurities, which may, in the case of (icticrator gas, have a retarding effect. If this holds in practical work it is an important item, for it involves a smaller amount of gas or else a shorter exposure. 0 HYDROCYANIC ACID FOR FUMIGATION. Portions of ordinary silk ribbon, muslin, and boat-sail drillincj saturated with acid showed no ill-etfects after a fort- night. This also is of considerable practical importance, for it indicates that the " rotting " of fumigation tents under present methods is due to impurities from the ordinary generator. Whether there is a corresponding reduction in the injury to plants has not been determined. The dangerous nature of the acid must not be overlooked, although, on the whole, with equal care in giving instructions as to its use, I consider that it is no more dangerous than bisul- l)hide of carbon. Under normal trade conditions, it may be possible for manu- facturing chemists to produce the anhydrous liquid acid economically, possibly from low-grade materials that are not suitable for fumigation under present methods, and ship it as a commercial article in place of the cyanide and acid. In such case, it will simplify practical work, because the acid which vaporises very quickly on exposure to the air, can be injected through suitable openings in the tent or otlier enclosed space, and thus do away with disagreeable and cumbersome generators and the accompanving byproducts. The practical results should be more reliable than by present methods. A lareer apparatus is being arranged with a view to ]:)roduc- ing a sufficient c[uantity for field tests. AlcohoLOMETRIC Tables. — In connection witli tlie article " Alcoholometry " in Sir Edward Thorpe's Dictionarv of Aj^plied Chemistry, a series of tables is given for ascertaining, from the si:)ecific gravity of mixtures of alcohol and water, the l^roportions of alcohol and of proof spirit in such mixtures. These tables have recently been extended, and are now published in book form.* All who have to carry out frequent and accurate determinations of alcohol, in liquids presumed to contain it, will welcome the appearance of this handy little book. The names of Blagden and Gilpin, of Tralles, Gay-Lussac and Sikes were long familiar in connection with earlier tables, but those of Sir Thomas Stevenson, compiled t,-^ years ago, were never surpassed in accuracy or completeness. Sir Edward Thorpe has carefully sifted all previous records, and the present volume is the final result. For laboratory use its columns of widely spaced figures in heavy Clarendon type ofTer the advantage of rapid and easv reading for all who, in the distillation of industrial or other spirits, desire special accuracy. The introduction preceding the tables has an interesting account of the history of alcoholometry. Rapidity of reading would be further advanced in future editions by the provision of a marginal (thumb-hole) index to the tables. * " Alcoholometric tables." By Sir Edward Thorpe. C.B.. LL.D., I-'.R.S., pp. xiv, QT. London : Longmans, Green & Co. 1915. 3s. 6d. net. ECONOMICS OF THE WAR. By E. C. Reynolds. The economical effects of a European war have been the subject of discussion for many years. The interdependence of the financial and commercial relations of the leading nations has increased so rapidly within the past half-century that the problem has become one of extreme complexity, and the old days, when a nation was more or less self-contained, have long since passed away. Unfortunately, the commercial rivalry and the land hiniger of those nations having steadily increasing populations have been backed by the establishment of immense armaments, and the menace of these armaments has been particularly grave for the last five or six years. It was hoped that the great economical sacrifices that war involved, would prevent a general coniiagration, and a school of thought, of which '\h\ Norman Angell is the exponent, has shewn, and in my opinion con- clusively shewn, that the economical advantages to be gained by war are a myth. Prior to the war, the opinion was freely expressed by prominent commercial and financial authorities that, for economic reasons, a European war could not last many months. The food supply, and also the supply of the raw material necessary in connection with the highly complex business of modern warfare, such as petrol, nickel, copper, and many other items of this nature, would be exhausted in the very early stages, and importations would be prohibitive. Fur- ther, all importations would have to be paid for in gold or by the realisation of foreign investments, and such a drain could not be met for any extended period. A very severe and disastrous financial crisis in London and the foreign capitals was anticipated, — the extent of which could not be foreseen, but at which the financial world shuddered. These forecasts are of no particular value now, but are interesting as indicating how exceedingly difficult it is to follow out the ramifications of modern finance and commerce, and the effects of a general disturbance such as we are now passing through. I am. of course, dealing with the material side of the question, leaving out the pain, anguish, and sorrow caused by war under the most humane conditions. Before war actually broke out, the financial barometer plainly shewed that storms were ahead. Prior to the declara- tion of war by Austria and Germany against Servia, Russia, and France, a depression had come over the various bourses of the world which, to those not behind the scenes, could not be explained. We now know that Germany, particularly, was selling a large portion of her foreign securities through the agencies of the German Banks, and, further, the German and Austrian Banks, having foreign agencies — particularly in G 9^^' ECONOMICS OF THE WAR. London — were calling in their loans on the Stock Exchange. This had a similar effect as though they were selling securities. Germany adopted this course in order to increase the rapidity at W'hich she had been accumulating gold in recent years. She had been importing very heavily, and consecj^uently the selling of investments was the only means of adjusting her exchange; otherwise the payment of her imports would have necessitated parting with gold. Germany's action naturally had a depressing effect on the market, and, when war actually did break out in August, it was necessary for each belligerent and neutral power to carefully examine its national balance-sheet. I specially mention Germany, as that nation, from the point of view of armaments and the temper of its military caste, was the most important factor in the situation. The assets of a nation — in times of peace, developing on ordinary lines and becoming wealthier each year — are valued in accordance with the means they give of steady growth in wealth and importance. In face of war, however, when a country has to defend itself against the aggression of its neighbours, the value of its assets alters considerably. This will be illus- trated if we view the position of some of the countries before the war broke out, and later review the position after some months of war. Germany. At the outbreak of war Germany had a population of 66,000,000. Her national debt, including state debts as well as the imperial debts, was £1,030,000,000. Her imports were £535,000,000, and her exports £500,000.000, the balance being settled by interest on invest- ments and services rendered. The holding of gold by the Reichsbank had been steadily increasing of late years, and had reached £60,000,000. In food- stuffs she was very nearly self-supporting. Taxation Avas heavy, but there w^as no direct taxation in the form of income- tax. ' She was spending at the rate of £70.000,000 a year on her army and navy. Estimates of expenditure, 1914. were £175.000,000. Credit was good. Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary's population was 57,000.000. Her national debt was £794,000.000. Her imports Avere £140,000,000, and her exports £114.000.000. The holding of gold was £51.000,000. In the necessities of life she was more or less self-sup- porting. Her annual budget ha^ The United Kingdom. The population of the United Kingdom was 46,000,000. Her national debt was £720,000,000. Her imports were £750,000,000, and her exports £500,000,000. The very large balance of imports over exports represents the return for capital invested abroad, and also for large ser- vices rendered by shipping. The gold held by the Bank of England at the outbreak of war was £36,000,000. The free importation of food supplies is necessary for the existence of the population, and safety in this respect has been assured by our financial sacrifices to insure our naval supremacy. The annual budget had shewn a revenue of £200,000,000, and in 191 3-14 a surplus of £750,000 was realised. British credit was the best in the world on a 3 per cent, basis. The British Dominions. The population of the British Dominions is 388,000,000, including all races. Excluding India, 65,000,000. lOO ECONOMICS OF THE WAR. In nearly all cases the Colonies are developing, and there- fore absorbing large amounts of capital, for which they come to the Mother Country. Colonial credit was good. The gold from South Africa, the grain from Canada, wool and meat from Australasia, cotton, grain, etc., from Egypt and India were all-important factors in supplying the requirements of the thickly populated European countries. To summarise, the above nations were all in a flourishing condition. They had each a reasonable army and a fleet to protect them against any foreseen aggression. Their poi)ulation and wealth were increasing on normal lines. Immediately war broke out one item of their resources at once assumed immense importance, and that was the provision they had made for war. To keep a large standing army, to ])rovide food and arms for the possible mobilisation of all available forces, to provide for a large and important navy, and for the recent developments in air-ships and aeroplanes, means a great tax on the resources of a country. All countries have appreciated the necessity of making sacrifices in this direction, and in many cases, Avith the idea that such sacrifices were un- necessary. The brains that are devoted to the invention of engines of destruction could be better utilised in evolving inventions of direct benefit to humanity. The years given to military service by conscripts in those countries where service is compulsory could be better employed in fitting the individual for his ulti- mate si^here in life. It is only natural, then, that a nation should hesitate at the sacrifice necessary for its security. In practice, it is often extremely difficult to persuade an individual to insure against contingencies and nations have shewn the same hesitanc}^ The first eftect of the declaration of war was to paralyse the foreign exchange markets. London, being the clearing- house of the world for the exchange market, suddenly found that some of the spokes of the wheel were broken, and until, speaking figuratively, the wheel could be adjusted, it caused great disturbance, to such an extent that a moratorium had to be proclaimed at most of the large centres of the world, and to avoid a panic at the Stock Exchanges all the bourses were closed. The Bank of England rate jumped suddenly on the 29th July from 3 per cent., and rose rapidly in two or three days to 10 per cent. On August 8th it was reduced tg 5 per cent., a more or less normal rate. Fortunately, so far as London was concerned, the August Monday Bank Holiday intervened, which gave the Gov- ernment and the financial heads a day or two to consider the situation, and they very wisely extended the Bank Holiday from the Monday until the following Friday. ]\Ieanwhile, many arrangements were made, and by the time the Banks re- opened on the Friday the situation had been explained to the Ka)N().MICS OF THE WAR. lOI public, and a panic was averted. At first, business was naturally very restricted, but in so far as the financial centre, namely, London, was concerned, the Government and the business heads worked in ])erfect unity for the common good, and the arran_^ements made to meet the great crisis seem to have been almost beyond criticism. It was arranged by the Government with the Bank of England to discount, or advance against, the bills in the hands of the financial institutions, and the knowledge that these bills could be renewed at maturity gave breathing time to the commercial world. The result, so far. has been that few failures have been recorded in England or her Colonies conse(|uent upon the war. The London .'^tock Exchange was closed from the end of July. 1914, until the commencement of January this year, and when it was reopened nfinimum prices were arranged for cer- tain stocks, so that dealings could not take place at below that minimum, the idea being to avoid undue selling and the resul- tant great losses. In the first instance America felt the war very keenly because of the derangement of her imports and exports, and, to begin with, their indirect losses were very great, but after the first few months the orders from the belligerents for munitions, foodstuft's, etc.. were so large that that country has, no doubt, prospered rather than otherwise. The exchange position was relieved by New York bankers depositing £20,000,000 at Ottawa, to be held there on behalf of the Bank of England. Further, an arrangement has been come to under which the movement of large quantities of gold to settle exchanges will be obviated. Not all countries, however, had these compensations. Brazil, for example, was very adversely affected, in the first instance owing to the fact that it was just arranging a big loan Avith the European countries in order to settle some out- standing matters when the war broke out and stopped negotia- tions. The chief products of Brazil are coffee and rubber, and for the former article Germany and Austria are probably its largest customers, but on account of the Avar these shipments have been stopped, and the result has been great depression, the country defaulting in payment of interest on public debt. The Argentine and other South American countries find the greatest difficulty in obtaining freight for their surplus pro- duce, which is the main source of their wealth, and it has resulted in the Province of Buenos Aires defaulting in paying the interest on their public loans, whilst some of the railways have also failed to provide the interest on their debentures, etc. We, in South Africa, have much to be thankful for. Immediately it was known that war had broken out in Europe, the Government called a conference of bankers, mining houses, and merchants, and the machinery to arrange many matters was formed in case of necessity. The most vital matter, namely, the financing of the gold industry and the shipment of that I02 ECONOMICS OF THE WAR. product — Avhicli involves approximately 36 millions sterling per annum — was arranged by the Bank of England, through the British Government with the Union Government, so that the Banks could advance the gold-mining companies here against the delivery of their gold, and, in turn, the banks obtained from the Bank of England in London the equivalent. Directly this matter was arranged, South Africa could breathe freely, because, had it been impossible to ship, and had the Bank of England not devised this safeguard, the closing down of the gold mines and the cessation of what, after all. is the chief industry of this country would have followed. The Govern- ment also arranged with the banks for the financing of the wool industry, and many other smaller but important matters were satisfactorily provided for in case of contingency arising. Unfortunately, the diamond mines had to be closed down be- cause their product, being an article of luxury, the demand suddenly ceased, which entails a temporary loss to South Africa of approximately 12 millions a year. The ostrich-feather market in London was sui:)ended, but has since been partially reopened. As against this temporary loss of turnover, the Government's expenditure connected with the war in German South-West Africa and the Rebellion has to be taken into con- sideration. "This, however, is of only artificial assistance to the countr}^, as taxation must be imposed to meet the costs of the abnormal outlay, the cessation of which, moreover, must naturally be felt by the commercial community in the Union. The large fabric of credit, which supports the commercial Avorld, has stood the strain remarkably well, and the disastrous forebodings of the pre-war prophets have not been realised. When the first blow of the declaration of war has passed, and the initial financial crisis has been tided over, the economic effects are n-^t intmediatelv felt. The Government regulation of food-stuffs may be necessary; the abandonment of many luxuries is forced upon the nation ; and there are many cases where manu- factures have to be given up owing to the difficulty in obtaining raw material. On the other side, however, there is the immense demand for men for the army, the activity in the military and naval factories, and also ni those centres engaged in supplying the needs of an army. It is very probable that in the belligerent countries trade is not feeling the eflfects of the war yet to any great extent, because the huge expenditure necessary to keep the large armies in the field and the manufacture of munitions keeps labour more than fully employed, and, even if one trade is tem- porarily closed, the relative labour can be transferred to the making of munitions and so forth. In the meantime, the various Government expenditures avoid any very great distress Ijeing felt, and unless some of the belligerents find it difficult to obtain food-stuffs on account of maritime blockade, it is quite probable that trade in all the countries at war is, on paper, quite good in the meantime. ECONOMICS OF THE WAR. IO3 Redistribution of employment soon takes place, and the Government, by running up large debts, hides from the ])ublic, for the time being, the sacrifices being made. We can now examine the position of the principal countries after eight or nine months of war: — Germany. By the establishment of War Credit Banks and the issue of notes by the Reichsbank and these institutions, with denomi- nations as low as is., gold has been diverted from the pockets of the public to the National Treasury, whose holding of gold has increased from i6o,ooo,ooo to £120,000,000. It is estimated that the total amount of gold obtainable in Germany is 150 millions. The notes are legal tender and inconvertible. The total amount of the issue is not available, but they must have now reached enormous figures, and when the war is over the country will be faced with a very grave problem when required to re- deem these promises to pay in gold. Germany has raised loans on a 5 per cent, basis which, as far as can be ascertained, total about 570 millions. At the outbreak of war, taxation had reached a limit as regards indirect taxation, and the country is now faced with the problem of having to lew some direct tax in the nature of income tax. Owing to the falling off in foreign trade, the return from indirect taxation has decreased at a tremendous rate, so that the problem to be faced is a serious one. Very nearly 50 per cent, of their foreign trade was with the Allies, and the trade they have been able to conduct with neutral countries cannot possibly have replaced this shrinkage. The foreign exchange rates since the war have been against Germany, and increasingly so. They have already had to forward five millions of gold to Denmark and Scandinavia. The falling oft" in their exchange rates is partly accounted for by the depreciation in their currency, and as time goes on they will no doubt, in order to adjust matters, have to export large amounts in gold. They are supposed to have an army in the field approxi- mating five millions, and their industries generally have been mobilised on a war basis. It is presumed that their supplies of war materials in many cases are becoming exhausted, but in- formation on this point is exceedingly difficult to obtain. With regard to food, the matter was exhaustively gone into by a com- mittee of German scientists at the time England declared her blockade of food-stuffs. The results of their investigations were published in the German Press. It was found that a certain quantity of food-stuff's was required to keep their popu- lation in normal health and strength ; this was about, roughly, two-thirds of their consumption before the war. Their supplies at the time fell slightlv short of this ref|uirement, but by saving 104 ECONOMICS OF THE WAR. and by increased production, it was shown that their resources could supply well in excess of their minimum requirements. Austria-Hungary. In Austria-Hungary War Credit Banks have also been estab- lished, and a note issue forced on the public on an inconvertible basis. The banks published no statements, so that it is impossible to say whether the gold reserves of their banks have been increased. At the outbreak of war they held 50 millions. It is believed that some of the gold has been transferred to Ger- man}-, but an estimate gives the present figure as So millions. They have raised internal loans of £130,000,000 for Austria at 5 ^--2 per cent., and £60,000,000 for Hungary at 6 i)er ccr.t. A further loan approximating £200,000.000 has been issued, the result of which is not known. The counlr}- had a form of direct taxation, but what has ha]:)pened in this direction since the war is not known. The position of their credit, however, in their budget must be an extremely unfavourable one, and the}' are estimated to show a deficit of ^t, millions for the current }-ear. From a quarter to a third of their foreign trade was done with the Allies. Owing to the Adriatic being closed, their over-sea trade generally has sufifered severely. They are forced to rely on their internal resources. They are estimated to have in the field an army of 3,500,000 men, and, as in Germany, their in- dustries have been mobilised to meet the new situation. Tlieir supplies of material for the conduct of the war must be limited. With regard to food, however, they appear to have no serious difficulties to meet. France. The Bank of France have increased their note-issue from 240 millions to 460 millions, and it is inconvertible. The gold held is 170 millions, as compared with 140 millions. France has raised loans mainly by the issue of Bonds of National Defence, carrying interest at the rate of 5^ per cent., to the extent of 400 millions. In addition to this, she has recently placed 10 millions of one-year bills in New York, and I under- stand that Germany also placed a small amount. In order to adjust exchange, the American bankers placed, at the time of the war, 20 millions at their disposal, as they had done in the case of Great Britain. Since then six millions of this have been withdrawn to adjust exchanges. France's shipping has been practically uninterfered with. Information is not available, but there is no doubt that they have bought very largely in America, with the result that a big balance will have to be met by the sale of foreign securities or export of gold. France is estimated to have in the field an army of four million men. and the whole of the male population, between the ages of 20 and 48, has been called to the colours. As every man in France is a soldier; it has been easv for that countr\- to ECONOMICS OF THE WAR. 105 effect a thorough niobihsation of its industries, and there has been, so far, no hint of any hitch in organisation. France has the sea open to her, and her suppHes of war material and food are only limited by the freight difficulties which now exist. Russia. Russia has increased her note circulation from a normal amount of 50 millions to 222 millions. Her holding of gold is 171 millions, as compared with 160 millions ; she has, however, exported eight millions of gold to England. Russia has raised internal loans of £200,000,000 on a 5 per cent, basis, and in addition to this the British Government lent her 12 millions to pay the coupons on her debts maturing in December last. The Russian budget has been seriously aft'ected by the pro- hibition of the sale of vodka, which brought in a return of 40 millions. It is, however, a country of enormous resources and a population of 170 millions. It is anticipated that they Avill have no serious difficulty in arranging their finances, although it is probable they may require further help from their Allies until their resources are better organised. Her foreign trade, particularly her grain export, has been seriously aft'ected owing to the closing of the Dardanelles and Baltic. It is thought that operations now in progress in Gallipoli will eventually release the grain ships and adjust this position. Russia is estimated to have actually in the field an army of five million men. The provision of ef|uipment and munitions has, however, been a very serious problem. Reliable information on this subject is not obtainable, but there are indications that the Russian retreat in Galicia has been mainly owing to the lack of munitions. This difficulty will no doul)t be (Overcome in time. Great Britain. Great Britain has partly met the position by the issue of Treasury Notes, but to nothing like the extent of her Continental neighbours. The total did not exceed £50,000,000, and although the gold holding of the Bank of England has increased to 56 millions, this amount is quite uniniportant when the country's commitments are examined. During the first eight months of war the revenue was £226,700,000, the exi:)enditure was £560,500,000. The deficit of £330,800,000 was met by the loan of 350 millions at 4 per cent., issued in November last year. ^Ir. Llovd George, in his Budget speech, disclosed the following estimates for the year April ist. 1915, to April ist, igi6. on the assvmi])tion that during the whole of that period we should be engaged in war : — Revenue £270,000,000 Expenditure £1,132,600.000 Leavino- a deficit of £862.600.000 106 ECONOMICS OF THE WAR. In order to meet this deficit, the Government have to raise further internal loans, and the public are now asked to subscribe to a 4>< per cent, loan for practically an unlimited amount. The result of this loan, which is not yet closed, is of course unknown, but it is confidently hoped that the appeal to the patriotic spirit of the nation will make the scheme a success. The estimated savings of the country in peace time are annually 300 to 400 millions, and Mr. Lloyd George states that if the nation will realize the position and save 20 per cent, of its income, the deficit can be met. The addition of 1,000 millions to our national debt, bringing it to 1,720 millions, will only represent a mortgage of 9 per cent, of the actual value of the national property; after the Napoleonic Wars, a hundred years ago, the national debt was 33 per cent, of the estimated value of the national property. Of the expenditure this year. 200 millions represent advances to the Allies and Colonies, — the remaining 932 millions is for our own expenditure. A large proportion of this abnormal expenditure will be made in the Colonies, America, and neutral States, with the result that the exchanges against England will be very seriously affected. It is estimated that during the year the imports will exceed the exports by 400 millions. This balance will require to be settled either by the sale of foreign securities or by the export of gold. We have already paid New York 6 millions from the reserve established at (3ttawa, but our holding of gold in Great Britain will not stand any serious withdrawals. It would appear, therefore, that the realization of securities will have to be faced. In order to avoid the complication that has arisen, the British Government have foreseen the necessity of taking in hand at once the mobilization of our industries on a war basis, so that we can avoid purchasing abroad and supply our own wants. The problem had already been dealt with by Germany and France, but we are only now realizing the impor- tance of the step. The present conditions open an extremely promising field for the Colonies, and especially in South Africa, to establish an export trade in grain, meat, and wool on a firm basis, which I trust will be taken full advantage of. It is estimated that 2 million men are under arms, which is extremely small in comj^arison with the population of the British Empire. We have control of the seas, and need not fear for our supplies of munitions and food. The great difficulty our statesmen have had to face, has been to bring the British public to appre- ciate the necessity of submitting to Government regulation until the present crisis is over. Italy. I must also mention that Italy, after having kept her army mobilized practically from the commencement of the war, has now actively undertaken operations against Austria. Italy has a population of 35,000.000 people, and her army, on a war footing, is estimated at 2.000,000. ECONOMICS OF TMF. WAR. lO/ At the outbreak of war, the Ttahan debt was i522.000.000. All Italian securities, since the beginning of hostilities, have shown a very heavy drop, and her credit is only fair. To meet war ex]:)enditure,. Italy is now raising an internal loan. Italy exports £100,000,000 per annum, and imports £145,000,000. Thus another important nation is now diverting her energies from productive channels to unproductive war expenditure. Turkey. Turkey's position, either economically or financially, has never been good — the second being the result of the first. The Ottoman Bank, just prior to the outbreak of war, refused to pay out coupons except in Constantinople. Turkey's finances have gradually drifted to the control of the German banks, and the present position is obscure. It is to be hoped that, in the case of Turkey, the strain of war may tend to the development of sounder principles in Government. I have briefly reviewed the position with regard to the principal belligerent nations, and it is not possible, in a paper of this short extent, to make much reference to the smaller communities afifected by the war. I may mention that our ally, Japan, spent just over £5,300.000, which was paid out of surplus revenue. It will thus be seen that the principal steps taken bv the nations involved have been : — I. — To encourage the issue of notes of small denomina- tions in order to divert gold to the public Treasuries, so that an ample reserve is maintained to settle the large balance of imports over exports necessi- tated by the consumption of war material. 2. — Raising of enormous internal loans to provide for the payment of troops and provision of munitions. 3. — The mobilization of all industries with a view to insuring that, as far as possible, the requirements of the Government shall be met within the State. The importance of this step has only recenth^ been appreciated in England. 4- — Public appeals to the country to reduce the consump- tion of luxuries and loyally support the Govern- ment in the prosecution of the war by avoiding all internal trade disputes. As I have previously stated, the cost of the war, including the loss of life, the decrease in production, and the destruction of property, is not immediately felt. The bill will have to be met eventually, and it is necessary now to review the cost. To try and ascertain what the economic result of this gigantic war means, we have to realize that practically every- lu8 ECONOMICS OF THE WAR. thing spent on war material is directly unproductive outlay, and consequently the bulk of the capital spent is destroyed for all time. Naturally, if a country spends a certain sum on war and through spoils of victory obtains valuable territory, or other similar consideration, then it is a question of calculation as to whether the considerations make the expenditure produc- tive— the gains are often found by examination to be illusory. Speaking generally, all war expenditure is a loss of capital to the world. It is estimated that the cost to the Government per day of the war in England is £2,700,000 — the other chief belligerents must be spending more, — the total cost can be esti- mated in the neighbourhood of £12,000,000 per diem. An interesting article appears in The Economist, of 9th January last, giving an estimate of the cost of the first six months of the war for the five principal nations involved. This showed the following totals: — Armies involved, 18 million men. Cost to the Governments involved, 1,660 millions. The estimated value of lost production, 2,240 millions. The total population of the countries was 374 millions. The total foreign trade was 3,523 millions. The national income of the individual nations was esti- mated : — Germany 2,100 millions. Austria-Hungary 900 „ France 1,250 „ United Kingdom 2,250 „ For Russia the fig'ures are not known. The national wealth of the nations is estimated: — Germany 16,000 millions. Austria-Hungary 9,000 ,, France 13,000 „ United Kingdom 18,000 „ Figures for Russia are not known. The proportion of direct cost to the national income for both sides is estimated at 43 per cent. The proportion of total costs to the national income is estimated at 96 per cent. The above takes into no account the loss of capital repre- sented by the loss of life or the destruction of property. The capitalized value of the loss of life in the war over a period of one year has been estimated as follows : — Great Britain 300 millions. Germany 79 ,, Belgium 40 „ France 348 „ x\ustria-Hungary 240 „ For Russia the figures are not given. ECONOMICS OF THR WAR. lOy The value of property destroyed is given as : — Belgium 250 millions. France 160 „ Austria-Hungary 100 ,. The low value of the loss of life to Germany appears to be based on the fact that the German population Avas increasing very rapidly — by 1,000,000 per annum — with no outlet in German territor}-. It is estimated that Ooo.ooo Germans emigrated annually to other countries. Estimates on a really reliable basis are impossible, and the end of the war is, unfortunately, not yet in sight, and it is (juite impossible to forecast the other losses involved. The extra- ordinary progress that the world has made in the last century in science, literature, and humanity, has received a rude shock. The mechanical and scientific inventions have been turned to destroy tlie very progress which gave rise to their existence The efifects can be considered briefly under various heads : — Population. A human being, even though he may have no material efifects personally, is worth a certain amount of capital to the nation, and the nett capital value of a soldier killed, who is a man in the prime of life and at the highest point of his produc- tive powers, has been estimated at f8oo. The following factors enter into the calculations : — I. — Taxes paid by each man killed. 2. — Cost of supporting those originally supported by him. 3. — His buying power. 4. — Profit due on work done by him. 5. — His savings. On this basis, if, during the first year of war, one million men are killed, there has been a loss of capital to the amount of 800 millions. Probabl3^ however, the loss may be very much higher. This loss of manhood cannot but have far-reaching results to the nations involved. One result of the war will pro- bably be the increased number of women employed in commer- cial life. Scarcity of labour has already led to the enlistment of female service in many branches of trade and business where duties were hitherto performed by men, and that the innovation will, to some extent, be continued appears to be very probable. Whether it is wise to encourage this tendency, because of the ousting of male labour and the consequent reduction in wages is to be doubted, but for the present the times must be served. Capital. Directly the war ceases, some of the belligerents Avill for a time experience imprecedented distress ; many unemployed, industries temporarily closed down or trade so dislocated that no ECONOMICS OF THE WAR. employment cannot be found for the labourers. Taxation in some countries will, of necessity, have to be so abnormal as to become almost impossible to meet, and even those countries where towns and factories have not been destroyed will be in the position of a tirm re-starting business with very largely diminished capital. A country, after all, like an individual or a firm, cannot trade without adequate capital. One serious efl:ect of the war, as concerns the wealth of individuals, is likely to be the serious loss in the value of securities. I am afraid that some countries must of necessity default after the war ; that is, they will be unable to bear the burden of paying interest on the huge loans they are now contracting. Some smaller States must also keenly feel the pinch, because of the diminished spending powers of larger countries who were formerly their best customers, and to whose markets they chiefly looked for the sale of their products. All this must react severely upon the value of many investment stocks, and the individual investor will suffer in loss of capital and revenue. Just after peace, it is true, there must inevitably be a strong demand for capital wherewith to make good the ravages of war. Reinstatement of property on a large scale will be under- taken and interest in consequence may be high, but when this artificial activity has subsided I fear we shall see an era of considerable depression. The great loss of capital brought about by the war must, on the cessation of abnormal expenditure, reflect itself in diminished volume of trade and lesser spending power of the people. Not all countries will, of course, suft'er alike, for to son^e — not directly penalised by the war — will have come oppor- tunities for capturing and retaining trade of which the present conflagration has deprived others. It is difficult to express an opinion as to the probable cost of living after the war. Reverting to our argument that practi- cally all expenditure on war means the total destruction of a corresponding amount of capital, this line of reasoning should lead to the conclusion that living costs will be greater after the upheaval. Taxation, in the belligerent countries, must be greatly increased, and drastic economies will have to be practised, not only by Governments, but by individuals. There would appear to be no question that what is termed the leisured class, Avhich is dependent on revenue from invest- ments, Avill find its income seriously curtailed. This depletion maynot only be caused by taxation, but also by reason of the possible default of certain Governments to pay interest on their loans. The capital of this section of the community will thus shrink as a consequence of the fall in the value of some of the securities in which it is invested. On the other hand, those who are fortunate enough to have cash capital in hand may be able to employ it profitably. As concerns the working ECONOMICS OF TIIK WAR. Ill classes, if I am correct in assuming that the cost of the neces- saries of Hfe is to be greater then without higher wages, these will also be worse off. I, however, am inclined to the view that wages will have a tendenc}' to increase more or less in proportion to the rise in the cost of living, and the eft'ects of the war should be felt to the greater extent by the leisured class. The demand for luxuries has, during the last fifty years. increased enormously, and retrenchment in this regard will, I am convinced, be one of the inevitable consequences of the war. Capital, hitherto invested in the manufacture of articles of luxury may, it is true, be diverted to the production of necessi- ties, but this I am afraid will not effectually stem the increased cost of living. Since the war prices have risen in England by about 27 per cent. There is one possible bright side to the war, and that may mean, from a sociological point of view, the introduc- tion of many reforms. For instance, if it were so decreed that, in future, armaments, navies, and all the huge outlay incidental to sustained preparation for war, were to be materially curtailed, this would, to that extent, balance the expenditure on the present Avar. The employment of so much less capital in means of defence and aggression, Avould release a large portion of the national income for devotion to reproductive purposes. One of the minor good economic results which may result from this war is the prohibition of the manufacture of vodka. This, it is generally supposed, was the cause of a great deal of misery in Russia — through the over-indulgence in this spirit much impoverishment amongst the peasantry was occasioned. In a lesser degree, the prohibition in France of absinthe may also be to the benefit of that nation ; and, although England has not taken up any Government prohibition in respect to the manufacture of alcohol, still, the example of the King in abstain- ing during the period of the war, may have a very far-reaching effect ujion the nation in permanently reducing any over-indul- gence. Although this may not appear to be an economic point of importance, it has, in reality, a very great bearing upon the tinancial status of the people. I have very briefly dealt with a few of the economic pro- blems raised by the war, but my remarks have only touched the fringe of a very wide subject. Almost every aspect of the question is capable of broad treatment. The subject bristles with problems of a most serious nature. The calculations in- volved, and the human interests involved, are staggering in their magnitude. We can only hope that out of great evil some per- manent good will result. The student of political economy has an important part to play, for we shall undoubtedly require the keenest intelligence and foresight in. order to solve the grave problems that the future holds. Only a careful study of the problems before us will ensure that sound judgment and com- mon-sense is brought to bear on these matters. 112 TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES. South African Institute of Electrical Engineers. — Tluir^day, April 15th: B. Price, President, in tlie chair. — "Prof. Bcraonic's chair for ilic treatment of obesity and heart trouble": W. H. Perrow. The ol:)ject of the chair is to impart to the patient muscular contracticns similar to those produced by walking". The muscular contractions are set up to the same number as the beats of a metronome provided with dipping contact in mercury, and capable of being set to any required number of beats per minute. Thursday, May 20th : B. Price, President, in tlie chair. — "Fuiidaiueiital hrinciflcs involved in the lay-out of a iclei-hone exel!an,c;e systeiii": T. Pearson. The paper was devoted to a description of ground-work t'.etails, ^.,i,^. the consideration of a central location, the determination of a suitable telephonic centre, and tlic eslal)lis]imcnt of subsidiary ex- changes. Thursday, June i/th : B. Price, President, in tlij chair. — "Water f^ozi'er /^lanls: leith special reference to the power plants of the Rezende Mines. Ltd.. PenlwAouiia, Sontiiem Rhodesia" : El. "Wragg. The I'mtali River enters the Penhalonga Valley over a diorite dyke with a free fall of 3S0 feet. The water is led ah ng a 1,500 yard flume with a capacitx' of 200 ft. per minute, and drives double 40-inch Pelton wheels. This Umtali River electrical scheme is m good order after 15 years' con- tinuous work Seven miles to the north flows the Odzani River, in con- nection with which two power schemes havt been installed. In scheme No. I. 2,400 cubic ft. of water per minute are carried along a flume on a trestle bridge to three Pelton wheels. Scheme No. 2 takes in the water discharged from No. i Station, and the two Odzani systems together supply 25 motors with an aggregate of 1,600 h.p. South African Society of Civil Engixeers. — Wednesday, ]\Iay 12th: R. W. .Alenmuir, A.jM.I.C.E., Vice-President, in the cliair. — "' S'oles on rall- "djay construction in the Katanaa, Belgian Congo": _E. A. Browning. A general description of the country and its typical features was given, together with an account of the labour conditions. The construction of the line had to be preceded by making a clearing through the forest, and a special feature of the earthworks was that necessitated by the enormous size of the ant-hills, which ranged up to 20 ft. in height, with a diameter of 60 ft. at the base. The removal of one such ant-hill involved the excavation of 1,200 tons of earth. Wednesday, June 9th: R. W. ]\[cnmuir. A.^I.I.C.E., \'ice-President, in the chair. — •" L'jiit stresses in rein forced concrete: from a railzi'ay engi- neer's point of view." W. H. Clark. The author suggested that in testing the strength of concrete the stresses to be allowed for purely static loads should be determined, and that live stresses should be reduced to that basis by impact allowance. He proceeded to discuss what impact allowance added to the live load, should be considered as reducing it to an equivalent dead load. It was considered that reinforced concrete will be more used for railway Avorks than in the past, though probably not as extensively as had once been imagined. — ■■ Tlie parabolic reinforced cov.crete arch " : A. H. Henderson and Prof. A. E. Snaps. The use of the parabolic form of arch considerably simplifies calculations. Various conditions were considered generally and in particular applications. Chemical, INIetallurgical and IMining Society of South Africa. — Saturday, May 22nd: Prof. G. H. Stanley, A.R.S.M., M.I.M.E., :M.I.M.M., F.I.C, President, in the chair. — " Xotes on the practical testing of ivorkinq cyanide solutions " : E. H. Croghan. The author showed that consider- able diversity of results might be obtained in testing working cyanide solutions in consequence of lack of uniformity of practice in regard to the end point of titration. He suggested a discussion as to the most suitable methods for uniform adoption, and quoted his own practice in such cases. SOME FEATURES OF THE RAND GOLD MINING INDUSTRY. By W. A. Caldecott, D.Sc. It is now twelve years since the writer submitted to the South African Association for the Advancement of Science a paper entitled, " The Development of Gold Extraction Methods on the Witwatersrand," and tw-enty-tive years since his experience began of life and work on the Rand. During the years that have passed since 1903 the metallurgical progress made has been considerable and continuous, though its rate has varied. This has been in spite of industrial and seditious troubles and the present world-wide war, in which South Africa is involved, but which has not prevented the steady daily production by the mines for shipment to London of £100,000 worth of gold, the material basis of credit. Since 1903 the technical details of much of this progress has been ably reviewed at meetings of this Association by Messrs. J. R. Williams and H. A. White, and more recently by Professor G. H. Stanley. Under these circumstances, the author proposes to include in his review certain general considerations, which are not the less important, because in some cases their influence upon g( Id extraction is indirect. The tabular statement on page 1 14 shows the main results of the operation of the Witwatersrand gold mines during the past twelve years, and is compiled from figures published bv the Government Mines Department and Transvaal Chamber of Mines. 114 THE RAND GOLD MINING INDUSTRY ■s. c o u > i; r- rt u w x: 13 _3 O n a; 3 C > ■ D ft; lU > 3 5^ c o (U — o =rt •5 ^ -a > <: 2 13 ii u g = £ u &E>r C 3 2^ rt^<;0 13 u 1-1 u > o cj s O 3 > c en 12 "o O fc o 13 U o x; rn 3 o o C4 1) -t a\ ^ "^1 <^i u"j vo <^i C 1^ ^1 On ''O LO O ir> (N i-O oo' m5 "' >o' ui d 00 r^ 1^ '^r -f- t^ ro t^ >0 — O uo IN. lO t-T r<5 VC In ^' K. d <^, -T 1^ <^ d .— — F-^ >—»—>— '^I '^J '^j '^l "^l '^l •rs tN t^ Ov O O r<^ O, "^ ■4- 1'"^ '^r \d ir-> VO ^ -- ir~, \o -r <^ 00 ^7 00 tN U-, OC 00 On 0\ 'TS o' rN <^ d ^. t ■-' ro ■-' >r-, — ' d o' '^ "^ ^' '^' -f 'O u~, o> ^ '~1 — O O ^ X H- f^) O -f On NO "t Xj^ On fN 19 "_^ X_ ^- im' i/i d r-^ ^' x' d> d <^ i-N Lo Tt NO IN"^, -tfNXNO M ^IXX O — t-^- "-^r^, '^l r^"^— 0\0 0\^N "~. O "I" ir, '^1 ir, ■— '^ X_ u". On 10 ^f X' O d d 'N d x' no' r^ d f^ X, ^. •> "? "^1 *> 0 ^. °^. '> T o, N r^ -f- 10 NO no' t-N K. IN 00 X' X' XVO "N -tONONONI-nX — '^1 -Y O 1^ M m f^l X 10 ^ 10 NO "^ in On In, -r in !» in In. in ^1_ r^ -t Oi ■-' ^1' d ^-'' "^ no' i^ '^i' x' no' x' ■-' I^^IVO I^Cn) CN-fr^XX S ri <-• -„ J2, ' >- 13 .t^ ID '-C ;o ij o ^ £ p "^ o ;? c x: o c ■~'Jk *" 5'^ =^ t:ii S o a; tu 1- -4-» •o t« ' S = 2 :"-E .= > rt -L 1; -w n -^ u j3 i-i- c aj o o '-' P •_i ^. -^^.^ -~ ^ o -^ - c -r; ;: I; o 5 '£13 ^ P "^ 0 5 «i O G O en o & be P ^ ii c.S ^'S ."> — -^ 2 S O 1' ^ [« OJ X .r; ^ 2 - -"^ -- " "^ "a) "U .!_, XI >.— I ' oj 5 -^n iw ^ ^ !u' '^ p *^ r' 'S > 5^ ^ = "5 53 o ^Z- '^ t« ^ -"-' u -- oj ^ jj (u -o en ." O -' O '^• — N^ +j V- X -^ 2 -^ ^ ^ -f i:£ O -^ o .- # >+- O £ g-^ ^. = 5— r3< t; ■+-J cfi n •x; C w u 0 U -4-* u. ^ OS ^f Xi '-J y r- 0 0 0 rt S 5: OJ 13 rr i> X o ^i px: « eg -^ n ^1 ■ -" rt p ^ C rt (1^ p. - rt 13 O n! 13 .T3 O (L* ^ ■^•p5 c >^ ?i zi; O C <^ >'0 O'r- gj /^ n > n ■^ P aj.ti g or. P en c« " >- O— O ^ b£^ -^ ■^ ^ >-. ti^';:'cn'^ -^ '/) CLi 13 '^■" ~ m -J u 0/: ^ c THE RAND GOLD MINING INDUSTRY. II5 From that table certain conclusions are apparent : (a) The tonnage of ore crushed has increased fourfold since IQ03, and is still increasing. ( h ) The total mining dividends attained a maximum in 1909, and the gold yield in 1912. (c) The percentage which the Rand gold constitutes of the world's annual output has doubled since 1903, and is now equal to about three-eighths of the total. (d) The yield, cost and profit per ton of ore have all decreased to about two-thirds of the 1903 figures, the present cost being somewhat more than two-thirds, and the profit somewhat less than two-thirds. (c) Working costs per ton of ore were the same in 1914 as in igoi), but the working profit about one-fifth less in 1914. (/) The value of the present average gold yield per worker on the mines is 9s. iid. per day. Working costs would doubtless be lower now than in 1909 but for heavy increased expenditure due to safety and hygienic measures in various forms, such as dust-allaying and ventilation underground, relief to disabled workers, expenditure due to industrial disturbances, and to the increased cost of mining sup- plies. As it is, the larger scale of operations and the continual advance in technical details promoting efficiency and economy have only served to offset the additional expenditure due to the causes stated. As regards the cost of supplies, it is considered by one school of economists that the greater the success attained in the exploitation of auriferous ores, the more does the in- creased production and abundance of gold tend to raise working costs through enhanced prices of mining supplies and commodi- ties generally. Though the average working costs during recent years are over 17s. per ton of ore, yet individual groups have obtained costs of under 14s.*, and individual mines under 12s. f per ton. This to a great extent has been due to the large scale of opera- tions employed in such cases, and to the constant pressure caused by the necessity of profitably handling low-grade ore. If such differences are applied to the total ore tonnage of the Rand, the amount involved is nearly £4,000,000 per annum, and the fact that the foregoing relatively low costs have been achieved is of promise, inasmuch as similar conditions should in time induce a general lowering of costs to conform with lower average ore values, and thus prolong the life of the Rand by bringing within the region of profit much ore which at present cannot be profit- ably mined. Reviewing generally the position as displayed by the figures in the table in conjunction with the evidence of the Transvaal Chamber of Alines presented to the Economic Commission in 1913, which forecasts the future decline of the gold-mining industry of the Witwatersrand, it might be concluded that this industry has attained its zenith, and that whilst possessing the vigour of maturity, it will gradually become a less important factory in South African and the world's affairs than hitherto. * Report of Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa, Ltd., for year ended 30th June. 1914, p. 23. t Ibid., p. 30. Il6 THE RAND COLD MINING INDUSTRY. But even if this were the case, the experience of CaUfornia and AustraHa has shown that the influx of an enterprising population, and the money rendered available by the exploitation of the natural capital wealth of these countries in the shape of gold reefs, has so stimulated permanent agricultural and pastoral production that the annual value of these latter products now far exceeds that of the gold output at any time. The maximum gold production of California for one year was during 1852. and amounted to £17,000,000, whereas the annual value of farm produce at the date of the last Federal census was £27.500,000. The gold output of Australia for 1853 was £12,757,000 (mainly from Victoria), and for 1903 was £16,295,000 (mainly from Western Australia) ; whereas in 191 1 the value of agricultural, pastoral, and dairy products w^as £108,606,000. The present paramount importance of the mining industry to South Africa, and the equal necessity for stimulating permanent agricultural develoj^ment, are emphasised by the members of the Dominions Royal Commission, who, in their Third Report (p. 11). pub- lished in 1914, formulate the following conclusions: — (a) That the purchasing power of South Africa, under existing con- ditions and pending more complete development of its agricul- tural resources, is dependent to a peculiar extent on the produce of its mines ; (/') That the prosperity, the maintenance, and llie development on economic lines of the mining industry are therefore not merely matters of importance to the shareholders, or to the population of the mining centres in South Africa, or even to the Govern- ment of the Union, but concern the Empire as a whole; and (c) That as mines are of the nature of wasting assets, the permanent prosperity of the country also demands urgently the further scientific development of its agricultural wealth. Since the white population of the Rand is about one-sixth of the white population of South Africa, the importance of the mines as employers of labour is very great. Broadly, the mining industry spends yearly seven million pounds for white labour, five millions for coloured labour, and ten millions for supplies. In addition to the above, about three millions are expended yearly on head office costs, mining taxation, claim licences, directors' fees, etc., so that nearly 15s. out of every sovereign's worth of gold extracted is spent locally. The rates of pay on the mines, as compared with other parts of the country or of the world, are high. In the reduction works probably a majority of the workers have been brought up in South ^Africa, under- ground a great deal fewer, but all except a very small perceiv tage of the mechanics are from oversea.* Various causes have * In his recent report to the National Advisory Board for Technical Education in South Africa, Mr. Percy Coleman states : — '■ The aim of all organisation of technical education in this country must be a very great increase in the employment of South African born white labour. To a remarkal)le extent constructive work of all kinds is carried out under the direction of foremen and managers from overseas by coloured and native labour, whose ability and quantity are rapidly increasing. In many towns one is assured that no skilled mechanic can be found who has been trained in South Africa, and yet the returns which employers and others have been good enough to send to the National .\dvisory Board show that openings are abundant and prospects excellent for workers who are prepared to undergo the necessary training." THE RAND GOLD MINING INDUSTRY. II7 been adduced for this last state of affairs^ the chief reason being probably that the demand for skilled workers can be more readily supplied from among imported men than by training apprentices. Efiforts are, however, being made to remedy this condition, since the existence of large numbers of an untrained rising white generation in South Africa — unable to compete economically in unskilled labour with coloured workers, or in skilled labour with immigrant artisans, or even with coloured artisans in other parts of the country — is a problem of very serious importance. As in most gold-mining communities, the average length of service underground in one mine is short, but in the reduction works this is not the case, and as an illustration of this fact, it may be mentioned that on one group during one year, out of 257 reduction works employees other than learners, there were only fourteen dismissals and twenty-eight resignations, so that the average term of service was over six years.* No doubt the desire of the mining companies to retain skilled and reliable workers by considerate treatment, leave allowances, facilities for recreation and other privileges, is largely account- able for this result, but in view of the migratory nature of a mining population, it is somewhat remarkable that such a con- dition has been attained. So far as ore treatment is concerned, the law precludes anyone from rising to the position of manager of a company who has not been engaged for three years in work undergroundf. The result is that most able and enterprising technical graduates prefer to engage in mining rather than metallurgical work in the hope of ultimately attaining a manager's position, and since the number of such men is strictly limited, the progress of ore treatment is not adequately advanced by the energy and capacity of this class. As elsewhere than on mines, the worker's success in competition is largely the resul- tant of will and ability, and the objective of the first decade of working life should usually be experience, matters of position and pay being considered as secondary until a later period.!. Although the Rand is often regarded outside its own boun- daries primarily as a share-dealing centre, this business really affects its great industrial population and welfare only to a minor degree. Whilst the sale of shares serves as the readiest means of raising capital for mining enterprises, yet the share values of a producing mine are of comparatively little importance to the bulk of the population of the Rand and of South Africa. A poor mine pays wages and indirect taxation, and consumes sup- plies and maintains its workers in the same way as does a rich property, in proportion to its scale of operations. Since divi- dends mainly go overseas, a large low-grade property is of much * Annual Report of the Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa, Ltd., for year ended 30th Juno, 1913. p. 31. i Journal of S.A. Inst, of Eng.. 13 (1915), 177. t P. Cazalet : " The Position and Prospects of tlie Young Mining Engineer on tlie Rand." in South African Mining Journal Anniversary Number (icji2). Il8 THE RAND GOLD MINING INDUSTRY. greater value to the State, and supports a much larger proportion of the community than does a small rich mine. A mine crush- ing ore under 5 dwt. per ton in value contributes nearly half as much again of the indirect taxes included in working costs per ounce of gold recovered as does a 7}^ dwt. mine. The value of the gold-mining industry to South Africa is peculiarly evi- dent at the present time, when, but for our gold export, the whole country would have but little to send in return for its many million pounds' worth of imports in the shape of food- stuffs and manufactures. The paper b}- the author previously referred to was written shortly after the ending of the South African War, when the mining industry had hardly recovered from a prolonged sus- pension of its activities. Large though the scale of operations was at' that time, the scope of these has now greatly increased, and various possibilities foreshadowed in the paper are now routine actualities. Among these is the economic increase of the percentage recovery of the gold contents of the ore, then estimated at 90 per cent. The possibility of increasing this per- centage to any desired figure by finer crushing of the ore, causing more perfect exposure of the gold particles, and more efficient cyanide treatment, was indicated ; the use of tube-mills for finer crushing has now enabled the amount of gold lost per ton of residue to be reduced to one-quarter of the pennyweight per ton of ore, then stated to be the usual total residue value. At the present time, in a well-equipped and adequate modern reduction plant, and at a cost well under the value of i dwt. of gold, a total residue worth only about is. per ton can be pro- fitably obtained,* which, on ore assaying 8 dwts. per ton in value, would be equivalent to an extraction of 97 per cent. This per- centage would be capable of still further increase but for the consideration that " metallurgy "' is the art of making money out of ores," and that the treatment operations involved must hence stop short of the point where any additional gold re- covered would cost more to obtain than its value. Such limit is not, however, a fixed standard since a variation in the cost of any factor involved in ore treatment, such as labour, power, stores, or changes in local conditions, immediately raises or lowers working costs, and consequently the " economic limit "of extraction. With reference to the improvements in metallurgical methods, detailed progress is constantly being made, which in the aggregate is of great importance, although a device or method merely " dift'erent " is liable at times to be mistaken for something " better." Radical improvements, however, occur seldom, and in the history of the Rand few can be reckoned as such beyond the application of the cyanide process, first for the leaching of sand, and subsequently for the decantation treat- * Annual Report of the Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa for the year ended 30th June, iqt-I. P- -^o- THE RAND GOLD MINING INDUSTRY. II9 ment of slime ; the application of the zinc-lead couple for the precipitation of gold from very weak cyanide solutions ; the recovery of water for re-use direct from the overflow of the slime-collecting vats ; the building of very large and relatively cheap plants composed of correspondingly large units grouped together to deal profitably with low-grade ore ; the introduction of heavy coarse-crushing stamps with secondary re-crushing in tube-mills* ; and the gradual improvement in simplicity and efficiency of pulp classification methods. The employment of vacuum slime filters has enabled a better extraction of the gold to be obtained from slime, particularly when relatively high in value, than the ordinary decantation process ; and the use of scoop discharges in tube-mills materially increases their crushing capacity. f Although sand-tilling is essentially an underground operation, yet the transportation on the surface as pulp of the sand residue employed has been greatly developed, $ and pro- blems such as the neutralisation of acid mine water under- ground with limestone crushed to the fineness of cement, and the allaying of dust from the sand dumps by covering with a thin layer of mud from natural clay or slime residue, are still engaging attention. § A very small proportion of the numberless proposals for improvements in current ore treatment methods has proved of sufficient utility to fulfil the hopes of those who brought them forward. As a rule, most real advance has been of gradual growth and development, || unsuited for protection by letters patent, and hence benefitting the mining industry in general rather than any individual. Besides proposals emanating from an imperfect knowledge of actual local working conditions, many schemes are merely inferior variants of common practice. Very often more discernment is required to realise the need for an improved process or device than ingenuity to supply the want. New proposals can only be safely adopted as an essential part of ore treatment after tests have been successfully and continu- ously carried out on a working scale for a considerable time. In the spread of technical knowledge and the advancement of metallurgical practice the Chemical, Metallurgical, and Mining Society of South Africa has played a very important part, and the eight thousand pages of its Journal, published during the twenty-one years of its existence, constitute a mine of informa- tion for everyone engaged in the extraction of gold from its ores. The price of gold being non-competitive, has facilitated the publication and discussion of current practice or proposed developments, and the realization of the obligation that each "" Journal Chcm. Met. and Min. Soc. of S.-L. 10, loS, 358. t W. R. Dowling: "The Use of Scoop Discharges in Tube-Mills," in Journal Chem. Met. and Min. Soc. of S.A.. 15 (1915), 214. % Journal Chcm. Met. and Min. Soc. of S.A.. 14 (1913). 119. ^Ibid. 15 (1915), OT. 174- II H. A. White: "Evolution in ]\[etallurgy." in 21st Anniversary Number of South African Mining Journal (1912), 59. I20 THE RAND GOLD MINING INDUSTRY. worker owes to his fellows of contributing to the common stock* his quota of information in return for the far greater amount which he has received from others has hitherto weighed with a sufficient number of those concerned to very fully justify the Society's activities for the benefit of the gold-mining industry. The existence on the Rand of a number of groups under different controls has also been a factor in progress, since the friendly competition for better results, and the diversity of opinion and methods employed to attain this end, have prevented the paralysing effect upon varied advance, which extreme con- centration of technical control might cause. At the same time the group system, embracing several mines in each group, allows the cost of trials to fall lightly upon individual mines, as well as affords a ready means of ensuring the prompt adoption of any improvement on all the mines of the group. The group system and organisation, which is more highly developed on the Rand than on most mining fields, facilitates the provision of capital for opening up new mines or extending the scale of operations on producing mines, as well as renders available for each mine a specialised technical staff', whose cost would be an unwarrantable expense for any individual mining company. The scale of operations on the Rand may perhaps be best realised by a few concrete illustrations. For instance, the addi- tional refining charge of one penny per ounce of bullion recently imposed on the Rand output by the London refiners amounts to about £40,000 per annum. The previous costs of transport, insurance and refining the Rand bullion production of about one ton daily amounted to about i per cent, of its value, or, say, £350,000 per annum. A penny (0.02 dwt.) per ton of ore in- creased or decreased working cost, or variation in gold extrac- tion, is equivalent to £100,000 on the tonnage of ore milled yearly on the Rand. In a plant such as the Knights Deep, Limited, crushing 3,500 tons of ore daily, twelve times this weight in all is elevated and transported as pulp, and the gold precipitated daily from i-/4 million gallons of gold-bearing solu- tion. A slime charge of four hundred tons of solids with suffi- cient solution to form a fluid pump is pumped within an hour to make room for a succeeding charge, and in general, cheap and speedy transport of solids, fluids and pulp constitutes one of the main factors in the efficient and satisfactory operation of a modern reduction plant. A feature of the development of ore treatment, which has not been generally realised, is the great decrease in the capital cost of reduction plant. Plants erected in 1903 cost about £215 per ton of ore treated per working day, which was much less than previously ; but the increased scale of operations, larger size of all units — stamps, tube-mills, vats, pumps, and piping — and simplicity of design have reduced the cost in recent years * Dr. Jas. Douglas: "Secrecy in the Arts," in Proc. of Aiitcr. Inst, of Minima Eiig.. 38 (1907), 455-. THE RAND GOLD MINING INDUSTRY. 121 to about iiO/ per ton for a plant crushing, say, 3,000 tons per working day.* In the older plants much of the advance made during recent years in economy and efficiency has been secured by application of the foregoing principles, which has frequently involved elimination of existing devices and appliances. Among these are the entire elimination of stamp-mill amalgamated plates, f the substitution of a few large steel cone diaphragm classifiers for existing nests of numerous small pyramidal wooden spitzkasten4 and the continuous collection of sand by vacuum sand filter tables, § thus avoiding the cost of sand coUec- ing vats for drainage and storage only. At the present time the process of application and of full utilisation of the knowledge already gained is more pronounced than any apparent impend- ing new developments, though minor advances are continually in progress. In considering the local conditions of gold extraction, to the prime factors of continuity of large scale operations, the cheap cost of coal for power, a healthy climate and accessible locality, must be added the simple nature of the banket ore, and its amenability to amalgamation and cyanide treatment. Consist- ing, as the ore essentially does, mainly of silica with some com- bined silicates and about 3 per cent, of pyrite, its constituents offer few difficulties in treatment, and the chemistry of the processes involved has been worked in its essentials. || The possible greater compactness due to greater compression at in- creased depth merely involves somewhat finer crushing, though in no case has the proposal, based on experience on other fields, to all-slime the ore in place of crushing to fine sand and slime been found either necessary or economically desirable. On cer- tain mines on the Eastern Rand portion of the gold appears almost uniformly diffused in an extremely fine state of division throughout the siliceous matrix, and in such case very fine, though leachable sand, is desirable. Similarly, the various costly attempts in the past to concentrate out the bulk of the gold into a rich pyritic production of small weight and to discard a valueless tailing has proved futile, since the gold and pyrite are not proportionately distributed in the ore, and hydraulic classification for the re-crushing of the tailing pulp ensures the proportionately finer reduction of the specifically heavier pyritic particles, which their value warrants. Attempts, accompanied by considerable expenditure, for rapid continuous treatment of the ore as one product, or of slime, have likewise failed. This was mainly because a considerable time is required to dissolve the gold particles in banket, and to separate the gold-bearing * Chairman's speecli at Simmer Deep Meeting, xSth March, 19T0; also "Rand Metallurgical Practice," 2, 291, 2>2>7- \ Joiirn. Chem. Met. and Miii. Soc. of S.A. 11 (1911), 4i4- t "Rand Metallurgical Practice," 1, 99. ^Journ. Chciii. Met. and Min. Soc. of S.A.. 10 (1909), 43. II W. Bettel : "The Cyanide Process on the Rand," in 21st Anniversary No. of S.A. Mining Journal, (1912), 274. 122 THE RAND GOLD MINING INDUSTRY. solution from residual slime, the power and maintenance costs of maintaining large tonnages of pulp in motion for long were excessive, and the ordinary methods commonly employed as a result of a quarter of a century's experience and development have gradually attained a degree of economy and efficiency which are difficult to rival.* As everywhere with every ore, the best method is that which conforms most closely with the characteris- tics of the ore, and utilises most fully local conditions. Another method which has been practised on a working scale is the use of a dilute cyanide solution in place of water for crushing, which is frequently associated elsewhere with the treatment of silver sulphide or gold telluride ores. In the case of banket ore, how- ever, this procedure involves the abandonment of a cheap and simple means of recovering half to three-quarters of the gold in the ore, and necessitates a much larger cyanide plant and more prolonged and expensive cyanide treatment. In addition to the foregoing objections, there is liability to loss of gold- bearing cyanide solution, and difficulty in obtaining accurate screen values. The retention of amalgamated plates, when crushing wdth cyanide solution, results in their gradual corrosion, and the deposition of the dissolved copper on the zinc shavings. f The importance of good classification upon crushing so as to prevent oversize particles escaping from the crushing plant has already been referred to ; but the necessity is no less for ensuring proper separation of sand and slime, so that each may receive the cyanide treatment by leaching or settlement to which it is adapted, and in order that the sand residue be ultimately well suited for mine filling. The presence of either product in appreciable quantities in the other interferes with the extraction, slime in sand causing non-permeable sand charges, and sand in slime causing pump wear and slow dissolution of gold in slime charges. At the present time a tailing pulp classifier should yield a slime overflow, of which 99 per cent, passes a screen of 200 holes to the linear inch. Among the features of ore treatment practice, in which progress has been much marked, is the increased weight of stamps, and their duty in tons of ore crushed per 24 working hours. In 1903 a 1,250 lb. stamp with a 5-ton duty was con- sidered to be doing good work with fine screening, whereas most recently erected stamp mills have been equipped with 2,000 lb. stamps, giving a 20-ton duty with coarse screening up to ^-inch aperture. The number of stamps installed on a mine has therefore long ceased to be any criterion of the tonnage of ore crushed monthly. This advance has been rendered possible by the use of tube-mills for re-crushing the coarser particles in the screen pulp, and has great advantages both in saving capital expenditure and operative crushing costs. In a modern plant * Letter by F. L. Bosqui, in Mining and Scientific Press of 2nd May, 1914. and in S'.A. Mining Journal of 6th June. TQ14 t E. L. Bateman in Metallurgical and Chemical Engineering, p. 672, Dec, iQi,3; and S.A. Mining Journal, p. 46g, loth January, TQT4. THE KAND COLD MINING INDUSTRY. I23 about two-thirds of the crushing is done in tube-mills, of which about three hundred have been erected on the Rand, having a crushing capacity of over a million tons of ore monthly. In ordinary battery practice, reduction of the ratio of water to ore, combined with high stamp duties, has greatly decreased the cost of pulp elevation and return water pumping costs, whilst the lesser volume of pulp has likewise decreased the classifier capacity necesary per ton of ore crushed. Owing to the tube- mill hydraulic classifiers determining the size of particles leav- ing the crushing plant instead of the aperatures of the battery screen, exactitude of the latter has become of minor importance. Grading analyses of various crushed ore products have become as much routine tests as are assays, in view of the fact thalt percentage of gold extraction is a function of crushing, whilst the relative crushing capacity of stamps and tube-mills is deter- mined from grading analyses on the " nominal crushing luiit " system.* In cyanide practice the influence of temperature upon the rate of slime settlement and of gold precipitation upon the lead-coated zinc shavings has been fully realised. The tempera- ture of mill service water and cyanide solutions is therefore regularly recorded, and artificial heating employed in winter where economically practicable. Another development which has become generally accepted in Rand reduction works is the system of circuits, whereby over- size ore particles are returned for further comminution, or water and cyanide solution for re-use. A reference to a flow-sheet diagram t will show that in addition to the tube-mill circuit and the mill service water circuit, both sand and slime solutions and residue discharge trucks have their own circuits, with the result that only the ore passes through the plant, carrying with it to waste, when discharged as residue, a certain amount of water in the form of dilute poor cyanide solution. This circuit sys- tem is largely the result of a limited water supply, and of the flat or gently sloping mill sites on the Rand, and is a distinct variation from the steeply inclined mill site in favour under other conditions, w'here the ore descends by gravity through the various stages of treatment, and the final tailings or residues are disposed of in a creek at the foot of the plant. The author's sincere thanks are due to Air. D. W. Rossiter for furnishing much of the statistical data contained in this paper. Brevium, a New Element. — Uranium-.Y consists of two elements, Uranium-A', and Uranium-.Y^, wnth half-periods of 24.6 days and 1.15 minutes respectively. To the latter the name Brevium has been given : it is a near analogue of tantalum, and occupies the last line in the fifth group of the periodic system. | * " Rand Metallurgical Practice," 1. 136-7. f'Rand Metallurs,ncal Practice." 2. 6. 7. tJoiini. Chciii. Soc. (1915). T08. Abs. 12]. 665. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE CHEMISTRY OF THE SOYA BEAN. By I^rofessor Paul Daniel Hahn, M.A., Ph.D.* From time immemorial the soya bean has played a ver}- prominent part in the household oi the Eastern Asiatics; in fact, it is next in importance to rice. It is almost unthinkable in Japan that a meal could be completed without the soya bean figuring in the menu in some form or other. The soya bean, consisting principally of fat and albuminoids, is the very comple- ment to the starch-containing rice, the staple food in Japan. China is supposed to be the home of the soya, where it has been under cultivation for over 5,000 years. About thirty years ago the soya began to occupy a place in the world's trade. Owing to the ever-increasing demand from purveyors for vegetable fats and oils, the English oil-mills have made great use of the soya bean, which contains about 20 per cent, of oil. In 1908 not less than 200,000 tons were imported into Europe from China, and in 1909 over 500,000 tons. During recent years many publications on the botany and the cultivation and practical uses and applications of the soya bean have appeared, of which one deserves special mention, giving a full account of the numerous methods of preparing the soya bean for consumption.! In the South African Agricultural Journal articles on the soya bean have also been published, and these have induced some zealous students to undertake certain experiments and investi- gations bearing upon the soya, grown in South Africa. Two kinds of soya beans were available for these experi- ments, a large white bean, directly imjiorted from Manchuria^ and small black bean grown on a farm in the Cape Flats. The Large White Vakietv. This sam]:)le of soya was by no means fresh, being at least three years old at the time when the experiments commenced. The amount of moisture was therefore much less than that of the fresh beans subsequently obtained. The beans were found to contain : — Moisture 4.80 per cent. Inorganic Constituents (ash) . 4.22 „ Organic Constituents 90.98 „ ^- Nearly all the anal\-ses given "in these notes were made by the late Mr. Morris Anderson, B.A., who died of fever in France while a member of the Royal xA.rmy Medical Corps. Mr. Anderson was an enthusiastic and successful student of science, and his untimely death in the service of his country is mourned by none of his friends more deeply than by the writer of these contributions, which liave lieen compiled from the notes left by his departed friend. fLi-Yu-Ying: " Le Soya, sa culture, ses usages alimentaires, therapeu- tiques, agricoles ct industriels." Paris (1912). CHEMISTIO- OF THE SOYA BEAN. 1 25 The ratio of inorganic to organic constituents is accordingly I :22.82. The composition of the air-dried beans was: — Water 4.80 per cent. Albuminoids 34-0/ ?> Nitrogen-free Extract .... 27.99 " Ether Extract ( Oil) 17.68 Crude Fibre 11 . 17 „ Ash 4.23 This analysis does not afford any fresh information on the soya bean ; it only confirms that the soya is very rich in oil and albuminoids. Numerous experiments carried out in physio- logical institutions prove that the constituents of the soya bean are most digestible. The composition of the ash of the soya bean illustrates in a striking way that the requirements of the plant, so far as plant food is concerned, are principally potash and phosphatic manures. The results of the analysis of the ash of the largest white soya bean were as follows : — Silica 5-56 per cent. Calcic Oxide 5 • 60 „ Phosphoric Oxide 30 -46 ,, Sulphuric Oxide .. 3.71 ,, Potassic Oxide 50-36 Sodic Oxide 2.41 Ferric Oxide .58 Magnesic Oxide 1.40 In the village of Swellendam a small plot of ground was planted with soya beans of the same sample ; it was a fairly rich alluvial soil. The beans were planted towards the end of September, 1914. and harvested at the beginning of February, 191 5. During the period of growth they were twice irrigated. They grew into shrubs of five feet high, and the weight of the air-dried plant was on an average 6 lb. The average number of beans in pods was three, and the weight of 100 beans 17.438 grammes, corresponding to 2.7 grains per bean. The beans obtained from these plants grown at Swellendam contained : — Albuminoids 25 . i ^6 per cent. Oil 18.783 The other parts of these plants also contained much albu- minous matter, and supply an excellent fodder for horses and cattle. The pods contain 2.63 per cent, of albuminous substance. The hay contains 4.02 per cent, of albuminous substance. The leaves contain 10.40 per cent, of albuminous substance. >f J) 126 chemistry of the so'ia uean. The Small Black Variety. The beans of the small black variety of soya, which were experimented with, were found to contain : — Aloisture n -35 per cent. Inorganic Constituents (ash) 4-9/ „ Organic Constituents .... 83.68 ,, The ratio of the inorganic to the organic constituents in the small black beans is therefore i : 16. 83. The air-dry black soya beans were found to contain : — Albuminoids -9-50 per cent. Oil 1 1 . 60 The results of the analysis of the ash of this variety of soya also demonstrate that phosphatic and potash manure is principally required by the soya. The results of the analysis made of the ash of the small black variety of bean were as follows: — Silica 2.93 per cent. Calcic Oxide 5- 13 v Phosphoric Oxide 38 • 36 „ Sulphuric Oxide 3 -09 ^ Potassic Oxide 45- 18 ,, Sodic Oxide .40 „ Ferric Oxide .40 Magnesic Oxide 4 -So Of this small black variety of the soya bean also some were planted on a plot of ground on a hill at Swellendam at the same time as the white variety was planted, and was also harvested at the same time as the white variety. The soil of this plot was poor virgin soil {" Nabank"). Although the ground was not irrigated during the period of growth, the yield of beans was very large. The average height of the mature plant was 3 feet 6 inches, and the average weight of the air-dry plant was 1.83 I1x The average number of beans in a pod was two to three, and the average w^eight of 100 beans 8.664 grammes, corresponding with i .34 grains per bean. The beans obtained from these plants grown at Swellendam contained : — Albuminoids 26.95 per cent. Oil 17.43 The pods contained 2.187 per cent, of albuminoids. The hay contained 4.37 per cent, of albuminoids. The leaves contained 11.59 oi albuminoids. THE MINERS' PHTHISIS OF THE RAND. By Wilfred Watkins-Pitchford, M.D., F.R.C.S., D.P.H. The gold-mining industry is at the present time the most important industry of South Africa. Like so many of the principal industries of the world, it has its special industrial disease, and the nature and characters of this particular disease cannot fail to be of engrossing interest to all Africanders of liberal mind. The limitations of the space at my disposal preclude any ex- haustive treatment on the subject; I propose, therefore, to omit all reference to the statistical and economic sides of the matter, and to review briefly the salient points in the causation of the disease, and the essential characters of the changes which it produces in the lungs. Considerable misunderstanding exists as to the exact scope of the terms pulmonary silicosis and miners' phthisis. In general it may be said that although the terms are synonymous, the technical discrimination lies in the fact that pulmonary silicosis, or briefly silicosis, does not become miners' phthisis until the affected lungs are invaded by the tubercle bacillus. Pulmonary silicosis implies an excess of silica in the lung tissues, and the direct effect of this excess of silica is to pro- duce an overgrowth of the connective tissue of the organ, and thus impair its function. The condition so established is rarely fatal in itself ; the fatality is usually consequent upon an infec- tion of the damaged lungs by the tubercle bacillus. In illustration of the fact that silicosis by itself is not neces- sarily a fatal disease. I may state that I have recently examined the lungs of a man who worked underground for eight years, when the conditions of labour were very bad, and who, as the microscope showed, developed silicosis during this time. He then quitted his underground occupation and, seven years afterwards, died of the ordinary type of pneumonia to which we are all liable. The infection of the silicotic lung by the tubercle bacillus gives rise to a form of phthisis (miners' phthisis), w^hich differs from the ordinary form of consumption in two important re- spects. In the first place the tuberculous infection very rarely, if ever, spreads to other organs of the body, and, secondly, the infection is very rarely communicated to other people — unless their lungs also have been previously damaged by silicosis. Pulmonary silicosis is caused by the inhaling of air in which particles of silex are floating, and the forced respiratory movements which occur during severe muscular exertion facili- tate the entrance of the dust-laden air into the deeper air pas- sages. All the silica detectable in lung tissue has entered the body with the inspired air; the swallowing of siliceous dust, i.e., taking it into the stomach, is incapable of producing pulmonary silicosis. Although silica is so abundant in the bodies of certain 128 THE miners' phthisis of the rand. plants, it is not an original component of the bodies of the higher animals. The lungs of an infant do not contain any silica, but as life advances the amount of this extraneous material gradually increases, and by the time adult life has been reached it forms from lo to 15 per cent, of the ash. In contrast with this figure the analyses of Dr. J. McCrae show that the ash of a miner's phthisis lung yields from 30 to 50 per cent, of silex. Anyone who engages in a dusty occupation is liable to the accumulation of minute particles of foreign matter in the tissues of the lung, and to this condition the generic name of pneumono- koniosis is applied. Special names are given to the condition when it is due to particular varieties of dust : thus particles of iron and iron oxide give rise to siderosis ; if the dust be that of coal, the condition is one of anthracosis ; clay dust produces aluminosis, and dust which is mainly composed of siliceous par- ticles is responsible for silicosis. It is a noteworthy fact that, contrary to popular belief, most varieties of dust, even of mineral dusts, are not acutely harm- ful. Careful enquiries have shown that there is no industrial phthisis amongst operatives who habitually inhale the dust from coal, chalk, plaster of Paris, bricks, tiles, emerv, slag-wool, glass, and Portland cement. The dust which, before all others, possesses power for evil is the one to which we have already referred, 7'ic.. siliceous dust. It is siliceous dust (the particles being of silica and not silicate) which is responsible for that in- dustrial disease which a])])ears in different industries under such names as grinders' rot. potters' rot. stonemasons' rot, and miners' phthisis. Tt was formerly thought that needle-grinders and fiour- millers developed their phthisis in consequence of inhaling par- ticles of steel and flour respectively ; it is now known, however, that the grindstone, and not the material ground, is responsible for the trouble. The old-fashioned p-rindstone is made of French buhrstone, millstone grit, or other very hard sandstone, and it is the refacing of the grindstone or the running of it in a drv condition which has. in the past, been so prolific a cause of industrial phthisis. Flint is practically pure silica, and it is the use of finely ground flints in the ceramic industries which has been responsible for the phthisis death-rate in the potteries. Granite contains about 30 per cent, of silica, and the harder varieties of sandstone contain much more; it is amongst the men who cut such hard siliceous stone that stonemasons' rot is pre- valent. Marble-workers and cutters of limestone no not appear to be materially more liable to phthisis than other peoeple. Quartz is pure silica, and the dust which is primarily re- sponsible for the production of gold-miners' phthisis is that which is derived from quartz, and the siliceous rock known as quartzite. An interesting confirmation of the specifically injurious in- THE miners' phthisis OF THE RAND. I29 fluence of silex dust has been obtained amongst the flint-knappers of Brandon, by Dr. E. L. ColHs, H.M. Inspector of Factories. When the surface of a flint is flaked ofif by a blow a fine smoke of siliceous dust arises, and the worker who is exposed to the repeated inhalation of such dust is unusually liable to develop the form of phthisis known as knappers' rot. Flint-knapping, as Dr. Collis remarks, is probably the oldest of the world's indus- tries; it is an interesting speculation as to the extent to which our troglodyte ancestors suffered from silicotic phthisis. True miners' phthisis is found in Great Britain among the tin miners of Cornwall and the ganister miners of Yorkshire and elsewhere. It is. however, very encouraging to find that the mortalit}' from this cause amongst ganister miners has now almost disappeared, owing to the enforcement of common-sense precautions. Ganister is an extremely hard sandstone, containing from 97 to 98 per cent, of silica. It is ground to powder, mixed with lime water, and compressed into fire-bricks for lining steel con- verter-furnaces. The gold-bearing reefs of the Rand are a conglomerate of fjuartz pebbles in a siliceous matrix, and this conglomerate lies, for the most part, embedded in extensive deposits of quartzite. The gold-bearing conglomerate contains about 86 per cent, of silica, whilst the quartzite, which has to be tunnelled through to reach and expose the reef, contains an even higher proportion It is the drilling and blasting of such deposits which gives rise to the dangerous siliceous dust. A description of the clinical features of gold-miners' phthisis is unnecessary here ; from the physiologist's stand- point, however, it is of interest to note that the outstanding feature of the disease is a progressive loss of the normal elas- ticity of the lung. The normal lung, being elastic, is capable of following the movements of expansion and contraction of the chest walls. The lung of the silicotic patient, on the other hand, is increasingly resistant to inflation by the current of in- spired air, and the ultimate result is that as the lung cannot follow the chest wall when this expands, the chest wall becomes more and more fixed in the position of expiration. The most forcible inspiratory efforts eventually fail to elevate the chest wall against the pressure of the atmosphere. A striking and apparently consistent peculiarity of the sili- cotic lung, as found on the Rand, is the deposit in it of ex- traneous pigment in conjunction with the extraneous silica ; the result of this peculiarity is that the degree to which silicosis has advanced can be roughly estimated by the extent and character of the deposits of pigment in it. The normal lung has but very little extraneous pigment in it ; in the early stages of silicosis we find very numerous, small, discrete islands of pigmentation ; in the middle stages these islands have become so numerous that many of them coalesce with their neighbours, and thus give rise B 130 THE miners' phthisis OF THE RAND. to a sort of ragged network of pigmentation ; in the advanced stage the whole tissue is more or less uniformly pigmented. The onset of infection by the tubercle bacillus, which may occur at any stage of silicosis, is usually indicated by the appear- ance of small areas of light grey fibrous tissue of very charac- teristic appearance and structure. As time advances these areas of new, grey tissue are liable to undergo necrosis — that is, local death and disintegration — thus giving rise to cavities or to collections of fluid, which are dark grey or almost black in colour owing to the pigmented particles which have now been liberated from the dead tissue. Silica is a very hard and brittle substance, and when crushed breaks up into a powder of minute angular fragments, many of which are elongated. We are all familiar with the conchoidal fracture of flint, and it is interesting to remark that traces of this characteristic fracture are also to be found in the microscopic fragments which are given off when siliceous rocks are abraded by drilling or shattered by blasting. If we make an ordinary microscopic examination of a sec- tion of silicotic lung, we shall find evidence of fibrosis — that is to say, a great increase in the number of connective-tissue cells normally present, and an encroachment by these cells upon the cavities of the air vesicles. We shall also find that the collec- tions of pigmented matter, which are so conspicuous to the un- aided eye, have been first laid down around the smaller blood vessels and air tubes. The pigmented matter itself we shall find to consist of carbonaceous particles, many of which, when viewed under higher powers, are fovmd to be contained within the bodies of phagocytic cells. When we come to look for fragments of silica, however, we shall fail to see them, unless we are very experienced, for they are translucent, and do not hold the stain with which the section is coloured. In order to make the siliceous particles visible, we must first polarise the light, and then view our section through an analyser ; with the Nicol prisms crossed most of the particles of silex stand out as bright specks and spicules. We shall now be enabled to measure the particles with a micrometer, and to discover the fact that they are of very small size. The peculiar areas of light grey tissue, which usually indi- cate the onset of tuberculous infection, are found, by micro- scopic examination, to enclose in their meshes collections of pigment and mineral fragments. The silica among these frag- ments will not become obvious, of course, until we polarise the light and put on the analyser. It is probable that all the fragments of silex found in the lung tissue have first been taken up within the bodies of living leucocytes and other wandering cells, and then conveyed by these sightless porters along the lymphatic channels of the organ. These wandering cells are unable to transport particles, which are much larger than themselves, and it is this fact which ex- THE miners' phthisis OF THE RAND. I3I plains and justifies the conclusion that it is only fine siliceous dust which is dangerous to the lungs. We have thus seen that the miners' phthisis of the Rand is due primarily to the breathing of air carrying minute siliceous particles, and secondarily to an infection of the damaged lung b}^ the tubercle bacillus. It is therefore obvious that the sup- pression of the disease will be obtained by action in two direc- tions— preventing the workers from inhaling the dust, and detecting and excluding from the mines all those who are expec- torating the tubercle bacillus. I shall not make more than a brief reference to the principle involved in the various precautions now adopted to prevent the worker from breathing dust. Machine drills, the attendance on which has been such a prolific cause of the disease amongst hard-rock miners both here and in other countries, are now so constructed that they auto- matically deliver water along a channel in the drill into the hole which is being excavated ; the dust produced by the abrasion of the rock is thus immediately converted into a very thin mud. A further improvement in this type of machine would be a device which could Ijc fixed around its neck to collect the water escaping from the hole, and enable the machine to be used for drilling overhead rock without inconveniencing the worker by the falling mud. Such a device would probably take the form of a deep- guttered tray, or funnel, fitted with a drainage tube to conduct the slime into a bucket or other receptacle. Dryness of the underground workings, paradoxical as it may appear, is inimical to health. Whilst the flinty powder, pro- duced by drilling and blasting, is held in the form of mud or slime, it is innocuous ; the danger arises when it is allowed to dry on the hands, clothing, implements, or any other surface which is liable to be disturbed. The past experience of the pottery industry in this matter is very instructive. What appeared to be one of the most potent causes of potters' rot, in the past, was the handling of the dry biscuit ware, from the sur- face of w^iich a fine siliceous dust was liberated when it was touched with the hands. As the biscuit ware could not, of course, be wetted, this particular source of danger has been re- moved by the aid of powerful extraction fans. Blasting is an operation which inevitably liberates a large amount of dust, mainly, of course, from the shattered rock, but partly from dust-covered surfaces which have been allowed to become dry, and which are disturbed by the concussion. The amount of dust liberated into the air of the underground work- ings by blasting is greatly reduced by the use of water-blasts, sprays, atomisers, water-screens, and other devices. Despite all such expedients, however, a fine, impalpable, and often in- visible dust hangs in the air for several hours afterwards. The worker can be prevented from inhaling such air either by secur- 17,2 THE miners' PHTHISIS OF THE KAND. ing its removal by active ventilation or by forbidding all entrance to the particular working for a sufficient length of time. It is of practical interest to note that even the most efificient respirator yet devised is incapable of arresting the fine, siliceous dust, which is the essential factor in pulmonary silicosis. The other direction in which miners' phthisis is being com- bated is the detection and exclusion of those workers, who are expectorating the tubercle bacillus, and who are therefore active distributors of infection. Investigations in this matter are being pursued by more than one administration, but I am not free to make any statement, at the present time, concerning certain con- clusions which appear imminent. Bearing in mind that pulmonary silicosis has been very pre- valent amongst flour-millers and metal-grinders, as well as amongst hard-rock miners, the following facts are of interest. The substitution of steel rollers for grindstones in the milling industry has practically abolished phthisis. Twenty years ago friendly societies would not accept millers as members, but no objection to their membership is now heard of. The steel- grinders of Solingen, during the year 1885-95. <^icd at the rate of 20 per 1,000; precautions were adopted, with the result that, in 1905, the mortality has fallen to 10 per 1000. Amongst miners engaged in quartz-rock mines we notice that those of the Waihi mines of New Zealand, where precautions against inhaling dust are enforced, are much less affected with pulmonary disease than the workers in less favoured mines of the same country. In the ganister mines of Yorkshire the mor- tality from phthisis had been "officially" reduced 15 per cent.- between the years 1900 and 1912; and upon visiting these mines in September, 1914, I found, to my surprise, that the workers admitted that the disease had been practically abolished from amongst them. Turning now to the Witwatersrand, we find that the President of the Chamber of Mines has recently an- nounced that the applicants for relief under the Miners' Phthisis Compensation Act have decreased 50 per cent, since the promul- gation of the measure in 1912. The proposition of abolishing miners' phthisis from the Rand is an entirely feasible one, provided always that the worker and the management co-operate loyally in the common cause. The degenerate and inhuman sentiment revealed in the dictum of '" my class, right or wrong," is antagonistic to all communal progress ; such an influence can only serve to still further post- pone the time, desired of all true scientists, when a man shall be appraised, not by his services to his class, but to humanity. NOTES ON THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF KARROO ASH. By Charles Frederick Juritz, M.A., D.Sc, F.I.C. At the joint meeting of the British and South African Associations for the Advancement of Science, in 1905, a paper by Mr. E. H. Croghan, F.C.S., was read, entitled " A fuel of the Midland Districts of South Africa."' The paper was subse- quently printed in full in the proceedings of the meeting pub- lished by the South African Association,* but for the present purpose it will suffice to quote the summary thereof printed in the British Association Report.! This summary is as follows : The region known as the Midland Districts is dry and treeless, with a scarcity of rainfall. The better part of this region is suitable for sheep-farming, being sparsely covered with bushes, the foliage of which constitutes the chief food of sheep and cattle. These bushes are very hardy, and have an enormous root system, penetrating to a great depth. They are of great nutritive value, as they contain a comparatively large (|uantity of digestible carbo- hydrates, principally starch. These carbohydrates are associated in the plant system with potash compounds ; therefore we also find a large quantity of potash in sheep excreta. This manure accumulates in considerable quantity in the kraals (a sort of paddock near the homestead). The farmer has no use for this manure as such, because he has no water for irrigation, and gets a very indifferent supply from his wells. In some parts of the sheep districts it is a well-known fact that the drought is often so severe that the lambs are killed to save the ewes. The farmer there- fore uses the dung only as fuel. He has it dug out and cut into bricks, somewhat resembling those made of spent tan, which in some continental countries are similarly used as fuel. The ashes are thrown aside, and frequently accumulate as small mounds near the homestead. These ash-heaps, as well as the manure itself, are of great economic value, more particularly for heavy, clayey soils. The Cape farmer obtains a fair su])ply of guano from the Guano Islands along the coast, and if he were to supplement this with ashes of sheep dung, thus supplying the necessary potash (guano being principally of a nitro- genous and phosphatic nature), he would secure an excellent manure for raising all kinds of grain and root crops, espe- cially potatoes. For industrial or domestic purposes these ashes may be used for the production of potassium car- bonate, which can be employed in making soft-soap, since '^Addresses and papers read at the joint meeting of the Brit, and S.A. Assns. for Adv. of Se. (1905), 1, 237-246. "fRept. Brit. Assn. for Adv. of Se., South Africa (190.S). 2>7i' 374- 134 CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF KARROO ASH. fat, tallow, and beef -suet are also by-products on most farms. As potassium carbonate is, so to speak, the starting-point in the production of all potash compounds, its uses are many, one being the formation of cyanide of potassium, employed largely in gold extraction. To the above excellent summary of the conditions under which Karroo ash comes into existence, it is not necessary to add any further explanation. Mr. Croghan, in the course of his paper, presented a series of twenty-five chemical analyses of the sheep or kraal manure, from which the Karroo ash is derived. Of the samples analysed, 14 were produced within the Cape Province, and 11 in the Orange Free State. In each case the manure was allowed to become air-dry before being analysed, and it will serve a most useful purpose to tabulate the following summary of the results so arrived at : — Moisture. Organic Matter. Ash. Potash. Lime. Phospho- rus Pent- oxide. Nitro gen. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Cape Province — Maximum Minimum Average . . . 10.50 - - 5-34 - • 7-^7 71.02 38.15 55.58 55-88 21.68 36.55 5.86 1.23 4.02 4.94 2.20 3-58 1.28 ■45 •79 1.40 •55 1. 14 Orange Free Maximum Minimum Average . State — • - 9-32 • - 5-32 • ■ 7-49 66.21 30.36 50.30 61.47 26.96 42.11 5-03 2.13 3-64 4.06 1-34 2.68 1.04 •38 ■77 1.68 1. 12 1-33 Calculated on the perfectly dry material the above averages become : — Organic Matter. Per cent. Ash. Per cent. Phospho- Potash. Lime, rus Pent- Nitro- Per cent. Per cent. oxide. gen. Per Per cent. cent. Cape Province 60.33 39-67 4-36 3.89 .86 1.24 Orange Free State . . . 54.37 45.52 3.93 2.90 .83 1.44 , Basing the assumption on these figures, the average Karroo ash, if perfectly pure, would contain the following percentages: — Potash. Lime. Phosphorus Pentoxide. Cape Province 10.99 9-8i Orange Free State . . . . 8.63 6.37 The better quality of the ash from the Cape Province, as well as its smaller proportion in the unburnt manure, was prob- ably due to the Orange Free State samples having been more largely mixed with sand than those from the Cape. How curiously such admixtures afifect the quality of the manure when burnt we shall see later on. 2.17 1.82 CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF KARROO ASH. 1 35 Mr. Croghan found the following maxuna and minima per- centages in the ash of the manures analysed by him: — Potash. Lime. Phosphorus Pentoxide. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Cape Province — Maxima 18.57 16.82 3.50 Minima 3.56 4.53 1.32 Orange Free State — Maxima 16.50 14.16 2.95 Minima 3.74 3.66 1.20 The wide variations between these maxima and minima point to a considerable variation in the purity of the several kraal manures examined. Some of them must have been con- siderably mixed with sand. And the consequence of such ad- mixtures is that the manures so contaminated yield ash of very inferior quality, even when carefully burnt under all the advan- tages of a chemical laboratory. When roughly burnt on the farm, an additional variation is introduced, depending on the degree of completeness to which combustion is carried ; and after the manure has been burnt, and the ashes are collected, a further contamination may arise by scraping earth together with the ashes. So we see that Karroo ash is subject to three sources of variation of composition: — 1. The original kraal manure may be more or less mixed with sand. 2. The manure may be incompletely burnt, and may there- fore contain much unburnt carbon or charred material. 3. The ash, after burning, may have been mixed with earth. It may be that, either by force of circumstances beyond control, or through carelessness, all three sources of contami- nation may operate in one and the same case, and then we have a very inferior Karroo ash indeed; and, on the other hand, the greatest care may be exercised in each process, and combine to produce an excellent ash. What the result of repeated incor- porations of unburnt material and sand at each of the three steps indicated above may be, we can imagine when we find that, in spite of professional care exercised in the chemical laboratory when burning the manure and collecting the ash, so much earth had got incorporated with the original manure as to lower its quality to that of the minima for the Cape Province jn the last of the above tables, for, as a matter of fact, these three per- centages belong to one sample, and represent the ash of what was evidently a very impure kraal manure from the farm Sekre- taris, in the Kimberley district. Here I take leave of Mr. Croghan's work for a while, in order to turn to some investigations carried on at intervals during 136 CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF KARROO ASH. a long stretch of years in the Government Chemical Laboratory in Cape Town. The object of those investigations was not to ascertain what kind of an ash may be produced in the laboratory from a manure that originally might have been either excellent or poor, but to gain reliable information with regard to the usual composition of Karroo ash as prepared, from start to finish, by the farmer and his men, on the farm. It was as long ago as 1890 that the first steps in this investi- gation were taken. Samples of Karroo ash were obtained, during that year, from the neighbourhood of Grahamstown, in the Albany Division, from the farm Tafelberg, in the Division of Middelburg. and from Victoria West, and in these samples, numbered respectively i, 2, and 3 in Table I, appended to this paper, determinations of potash and phosphorus pentoxide were made. Reference to the table will show at once that the Albany sample was very impure, and practically worthless as a fertiliser, and that from Victoria West somewhat better, though also very impure, while the Tafelberg ash was of excellent quality. In 1893 information was received that a ([uantity of kraal manure ash was being ofi^ered for delivery at Fraserburg Road Station, at a cost of £3 15s. per ton. A sample of this ash (No. 4) was procured and analysed, and was found to be equal in ([uality to the average ash afterwards obtained by Mr. Croghan in his laboratory from Cape Province kraal manures. In addition to its plant-food constituents, it contained about 13 i)er cent, of common salt (-7.91 per cent, of chlorine) and a good deal of carbonate of soda, so that it would have had to be used with great caution on lands exhiljiting a tendency towards " brack " or " alkali." It was probably with reference to lands of such a character that a farmer once wrote to the Cape Agricultural Journal : " Where I spread kraal manure ash only ' ganna ' and ' brakbosjes ' thrive."* During 1895 a sample of raw — i.e., unburnt— kraal manure (No. 5) was procured from the Victoria West Division, and, although better than that previously analysed, it still showed the defect of a large admixture of earthy material. The sample, as received in the laboratory, contained 37.42 per cent, of water. f Analysis of the ash showed that the sample was a manifest improvement on that previously examined from the same Divi- sion, though evidently, capable of further purification from sand and earth. In 1896 three more samples of kraal manure ash were examined, two of these again from the Divisions of Fraserburg and Victoria West, and the third from the Prince Albert Divi- sion. The first two (Nos. 6 and 7) showed a most excellent advance on the previous analyses, but the Prince Albert sample (No. 8) was only partially analysed, on account of the large * C.G.H. Agric. .fourii. (igoT,). 23. 240. t It is obviously uneconomical to transport a manure with so high a water content as this. CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF KARROO ASH. 1 37 amount of earthy material which it contained. Nos. 6 and 7 were received in the unburnt state, and were carefully reduced to ash in the laboratory, a circumstance which accounts in part for the high proportion of fertilising constituents found in the Fraserburg sample. The amount of the undesirable chlorine, it will be seen, had been reduced to less than half that of the previous sample from that locality. No. 7, before burning, was found to yield 22.37 P^'" cent, of ash, and only .34 per cent, of nitrogen, which shows that there would have been no advantage worth considering in transporting it any distance in the unburnt condition. When the preliminary investigations had reached the stage above indicated, the facts elicited thereby were placed before the Fruit-Growers' Congress which met at Worcester during May, 1899, whence they passed to the Cape Horticultural Board, and, in response to resolutions passed by those bodies, steps were taken to procure specimens of kraal manure from different parts of the Colony, for the purpose of ascertaining the pro- portion of ash which they were capable of yielding, and of determining the manurial value of the ash. It had been generally realised that the bulkiness of the unburnt kraal manure rendered its transport by rail very costly, and it was thought that the reduction in bulk conse(|uent on liurning might, without causing excessive loss of valuable constituents,'^ so facilitate transport as to place the resulting ash within easy reach of localities where its use would be advantageous. Aided by the co-oj^eration of Mr. A. G. Davison, at that time Chief Inspector of Sheep for the Colony, representative samples of kraal manure were obtained from the Divisions of Cradock, Beaufort West, Colesberg, Steynsburg, Aberdeen, Graaft'-Reinet, ^liddelburg, Laingsburg, and Swellendam, and, in addition, samples of farm- burnt Karroo ash were obtained from Middelburg. Klipplaat (Jansenville Division), and V'ictoria West. These samples exhibited considerable variation in degree of desiccation and state of disintegration ,t and their analysis, entrusted to Dr. J. * When an article like kraal manure is burnt, tlie inorganic plant food materials — potash, lime, phosphorus pentoxide — become concentrated in the ash, and are at the same time reduced to so finely divided a condition that they are, after burning, in a state well adapted for absorption by plants. On the other hand, all the organic matter in the manure is destroyed, including tiie nitrogen, which is a most valuable plant food. Hence those beneficial effects which the addition of organic matter to some classes of soil confers arc sacrificed by burning. There are, how- ever, soils which already contain excessive quantities of organic matter, and are acid or " sour " in consequence. For such soils the disadvantages of adding more organic matter are obviated by reducing the manure to ash. t Many of them were saturated with moisture, and would therefore have had to be submitted to thorough drying before being transported m bulk. Others were in large matted lumps, while others again were dry and in an excellently fine state of division. Xot only the chemical composi- tion, but also factors such as those just mentioned, influence tiie value of the raw article. 138 CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF KARROO ASH. Lewis, was proceeded with on the following lines : The samples were all exposed to the air until air-dry, and the percentages of moisture in the air-dry samples were then determined. Portions were then burnt to ash, and the ratio of asli to the raw manure determined, after which the chemical analysis of the ash itself was proceeded wnth. Mention has already been made of the fact that the manure heaps are often allowed to accumulate for many years. In the Cradock Division one such heap was sampled, hrst at the top (No. 9), then at a depth of four feet (No. 10). and finally six feet deep (No. 11). Table I shows the percentage results of the analyses of the chemically pure ash of each of these. The other samples collected were: Nos. 12, Beaufort West; 13, Colesberg; 14, Steynsburg ; 15, Aberdeen; 16, Graafif-Reinet ; 17, Middelburg ; 18, Laingsburg ; 19, Swellendam ; 20, Middel- burg; 21, Klipplaat, Jansenville; and 22, V'ictoria West. It is worth drawing special attention to the fact that the phosphorus pentoxide in all the above samples proved to be citrate-soluble — i.e.. it was in a form readily available as plant-food. In Table I, Nos. 20 to 22, like the other analyses of this set of samples, represent the chemically pure ash, not the ash as obtained in the first instance on the farms, that ash having under- gone a further combustion in the laboratory in order to yield tht results above tabulated. For the purpose of comparing the farm-ash and the laboratory-ash, the following table furnishes the full results of analyses of Nos. 20 to 22 after their first burning — i.e., just as they arrived in the laboratory: — Nfo: Water. Organic Matter. Potash. Lime. Phosphorus Pentoxide. Chlorine Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. 20 2.17 II. 31 4-55 16.09 2.59 .48 21 2.78 II .02 8.10 16.42 3-II 2.62 22 1-75 II .60 10. 14 18.40 2.38 I .92 If the manures represented by the above table of analyses had been burnt on the farms, the ash obtained would have been more impure, for it would in each case have contained a great deal of charred organic matter, which, while adding to the bulk of the ash, adds nothing to its fertilising value. During the year 1900 two further specimens (Nos. 23 and 24) were examined, at the instance of the Fruit and Vine Growers' Association. Stellenbosch. Only one of these. No. 23, was a farm-burnt Karroo ash, obtained from the farm Zout Kloof, Laingsburg, and was not expected to be a fair sample, as only a small quantity of manure had been burnt, and so it would necessarily be somewhat mixed with ash derived from the wood used for starting the combustion. This would not be the case when a kiln of the manure is allowed to continue burning day and night without being supplemented by wood. No. 24 arrived in the laboratory in the unburnt condition, and was there reduced to pure ash, the raw manure containing 15.37 per cent, of water, and yielding 39.99 per cent, of ash. Of CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF KARROO ASH. 1 39 these two samples, it is plain that the raw article from which No. 23 was derived was the purer, notwithstanding the farmer's expectations. Towards the end of 1901 another sample of Karroo ash (No. 25) was received in the laboratory, but I am not sure of the locality whence it came. It contained 13.22 per cent, of sand. Another kraal manure from Laingsburg (No. 26) was analysed in 1902. For several years after this the subject of kraal manure and Karroo ash remained dormant, but in 1909 another sample of kraal manure from the Fraserburg Division (No. 27) was obtained and analysed. The manure, like some of the others above referred to. contained a considerable amount of moisture (vis., 37.5 per cent.), and it was therefore first of all allowed to dry by exposure to air. The air-dried manure, which still contained 17.92 per cent, of moisture, yielded 29.05 per cent, of ash, and about 18 per cent, of the ash consisted of potash. Of course, this proportion could not be expected in the crude Karroo ash of the farm. In 191 1 three samples of kraal manure and four of Karroo ash were analysed in the laboratory, at the request of the Paarl Farmers" Association, in connection with its w^ork as a medium of distribution for the Western Province farmers. The un- burnt samples were : — 28. From Letjesbosch Siding, Fraserljurg Division. 29. Very wet sample from Letjesbosch Siding. 30. From Stein's Siding, Beaufort West Division. These samples w^ere allowed to become air-dry, after which the percentages of moisture, ash. and plant-food constituents in each were determined, and the results given in Table I repre- sent the manure after air-drying. No. 30 was certainly the worst of these three samples. The four Karroo ashes analysed at the same time Avere as follows : — 31. A dry, well-burnt sample from Tromps Graf Siding, Victoria West Division (freshly burnt). 32. A dry, well-burnt sample from an old heap of ash on the same farm as No. 31. 33. A well-burnt ash from Stein's Siding. Beaufort West Division. 34. From Letjesbosch Siding, Fraserburg Division. No. 34 contained no less than 23.36 per cent, of pebbles over I mm. in size, together with orange peel, acorns, oak leaves, and feathers, but had apparently, before receiving all those admix- tures, been a w^ell-burnt ash. On account of the quantity of small stones in this sample, the percentages of plant food after removal of the pebbles were calculated, and worked out as fol- low^s : — 140 CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF KARROO ASH. Potash 9.55 per cent. Lime 19.04 ,, Phosphorus pentoxide . . . . 2.72 ,, Towards the close of 191 1 the Civil Commissioners of the Divisions of Victoria West, Laingsburg, Cathcart, Kingwilliams- town, Humansdorp, and Malmesbury were each requested by circular to obtain for analysis from some reliable farmer in their respective Divisions 25 lb. samples of kraal manure, and also, in districts where it was customary to convert the manure into ash, 10 lb. samples of such ash, care being taken, in the collec- tion of each sample, that it represented the bulk, and not merely the surface of the kraal or heap. As a result of this circular two samples of Karroo ash and seven of unburnt manure were received in the Government Laboratory. The seven samples of manure were as follows : — 35. From Gauze Kraal, Victoria West Division. A very old and lumpy sample. 36. From Rietvlei, Klein Zwartberg, Laingsburg Division. A good sample. ^J. From The Towers, Darling, Malmesbury Division. Sample mixed with stones and rubbish. 38. Another sample from The Towers. Apparently very old, containing a large amount of stones and straw. 39. From Zeekoe River, Humansdorp Division. Sample contained a fair amount of soil. 40. From an old kraal belonging to a native in the Isinyoka Valley, Kingwilliamstowm Division. A very poor sample, stated to be more than ten years old, and apparently more a soil than a manure. 41. A good sample from Winston, Cathcart Division. Only potash determinations were made in these manures, the results of which are arranged in Table IL Nos. 37 and 38 contained respectively 28.2 and 21.5 per cent, of stones larger than I mm. diameter. These two fertilisers were therefore sifted prior to determining the potash which they contained. The percentages of potash in the sifted samples were: — No 37 1.64 No. 38 2.76 On the whole, judging from their physical appearance, this last set of samples cannot fairly be regarded as representative, and the determinations made would therefore afford only a vague idea of the general composition of kraal manures, hence the fuller investigation that had been hoped for still awaits per- formance. The two samples of Karroo ash received, together with the last lot of kraal manures, were : — 42. A well-burnt grey ash from Winston. • Cathcart Division. 43. A good sample of ash. with little sand, from Ganze Kraal, Victoria West Division. In these, too, only potash was determined. CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF KARROO ASH. 141 TABLE I. Analyses of Karroo Ash.* . * Black type indicates farm-burnt samples ; ordinary type indicates samples burnt in tbe laboratory. No. Potash. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 42 43 Per cent. .54 13.70 2.30 11.96 5.1B 19.27 15.09 7-65 15-27 14.92 6.54 3.79 3-25 8.86 571 7.08 340 5.26 9.39 11.43 12.02 7.00 11.41 12.07 1 8.04 10.43 10.66 7-SS 12.48 9.04 11.44 7.32 4 01 9.33 Lime. Pvr cent. 10.19 34-30 26.94 20.77 25-93 24-85 14.29 10.18 8.67 31.08 19.69 34-90 14-15 10.46 18.62 19.05 20.76 36.99 KJ.50 33.83 36.54 32.43 24.55 21.52 16.09 19.40 15.66 15.56 14.59 4.99 22.67 Phosphorus pentoxide. Water Citrate Total. Chlorine soluble. soluble. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent 1.35 1.89 .37 4.80 2.17 1.45 7.91 2.84 4-74 3-45 2.04 1.17 .59 2.25 2.25 2.48 2.50 2.50 8.03 3-07 3.07 6.37 1.74 1.74 3.41 3.07 307 •35 2.27 2.27 .28 4.65 4.65 7.46 2.30 5.66 2.30 5-66 4.26 1. 21 6.76 .86 6.76 .86 3.20 .64 3.00 3.00 .56 3.61 3.61 2.80 2.68 2.68 2.24 2.00 12.02 .20 1.30 2.48 13.44 1.67 1.84 1-75 2-93 2.83 2-93 2.83 3-07 3-07 3-57 3.31 3-57 3.31 2.97 2.97 3.05 3.05 2.08 2.08 Excluding- the seven samples whose analyses were less com- plete than the others, namely, Nos. i, 2, 3, 5. 8, 42, and 43. the results obtained from the remaining 29 Karroo ashes may be summarised in the same way as the analyses of Mr. Croghan were earlier in this paper — 142 CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF KARROO ASH. Potash. Lime. Phosphorus Pentoxide. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Maximum Minimum 19.27 3-25 36-99 8.67 6.76 .20 Average 9-85 21.81 2.86 It must be admitted that there are great differences between these maxima and minima, but, however incomplete the whole investigation may be, it must also be admitted that, taken all in all, the average Karroo ash is an article that deserves a far more widespread employment than it receives. Large quantities of it are lying practically waste in the Karroo, and, by reason of its rich potash and lime content, it is just the manure, as Mr. Croghan rightly said, to be used by way of supplement to the guano from the Government islands, which, in its turn, supplies the nitrogen that is lacking in the Karroo ash. In order to make this record as complete as possible, the following table is appended, showing the composition, in their unburnt state, of those kraal manures which were burnt not on the farms, but in the laboratory : — . TABLE IL ] Phosphorus No. Water. Organic Matter. Nitrogen. Ash. Potash. Lime. Pent- oxide. Chlor- ine. Per Per Per Pel Per Per Per Per cent. cent. cent. cent. cent. cent. cent. cent. 5 37-42 34-04 :1>^ 28.54 1.48 .81 7 .34 22.37 3-38 6.03 -46 9 19.44 36-59 1.40 44-97 3-44 9-34 1. 01 I. II 10 12.87 57.86 1.26 29.27 4-47 7-49 ■7'}» 2-35 II 14.17 54-60 1.05 31-23 4.66 7-76 .96 1.99 12 9-56 35-29 1.62 55-15 3.61 7.88 .96 1.88 13 9-93 41-43 .98 49-64 1.88 5-05 1.48 -17 14 8.45 32-14 1-47 59-41 1-93 5-15 r-35 .16 15 16.39 54-81 1. 19 28.80 2-53 8-95 1-34 2.14 16 14-30 47.16 1.54 38-54 2.20 7-59 .89 1.64 17 10.64 56-92 1.68 32-44 1-59 7-83 1-25 -45 18 12.83 3380 1. 12 53-37 3.86 /•DO 3.61 1.71 19 20.10 48.64 1. 12 31.26 1.06 3-27 .2-] -14 24 15-37 44-64 1.88 39-99 2.80 7.S0 .08 1.38 27 17.92 53-03 1-45 29-05 5-24 9.42 .85 28 12.33 38-89 1-44 48.78 5.09 11.98 1.38 29 12.09 34-80 1-54 53." 5-66 11-43 1.63 30 10.81 61.78 1.58 27.41 2.07 4.41 1.05 35 4.58 7-7^ 36 3-52 5-93 Z7 1.64 1. 91 38 2.76 2-75 39 2.01 2.06 40 -87 1.92 41 3-T4 2-73 143 TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES. RovAL Society of South Africa. — Wednesday, J\lay 19th : L. A. Peringney, D.Sc, F.E.S., F.Z.S., President, in the chair. — " The equiva- lent )iiass of a spriu,s: vibnitiuf:^ loii,s:itiidiiially " : Prof. A. Broiwn. The paper dealt with the allowance to be made for the mass of a spring when a weight attached to it is oscillating under gravity and the tension of the spring. Experiments were described confirming the theoretical results. — "The occurrence of Dinosaur Bones in Bushiiianh^nd " : Dr. A. W. Rogers. Dinosaur bones were found in a well in Bushmanland at 112 feet below the surface. The well is in an old valley cut in gneiss and filled in with local debris. Probably the climate became dry while the dinosaurs lived there, and since then the valley has been steadily filled up. "Description of the Dinosaur bones from Buslnnanlaiui " : S. H. Haughton. The bones discovered by Dr. Rogers consist of a maxillary tooth and portions of the hind limbs and caudal vertebra of a medium- sized Ornithopodous Dinosaur. They were described by the author under the name Kangnasaurus Coetzeei. The form is younger than Campto- saunis, but no estimate of its exact age could be given. — " The Coccidcc of South Africa " : C. K. Brain. The paper, which is the first contribution to a catalogue of the Coccicte of South Africii, dealt with five sub-families, vis: — Pseudococcincc, OrtJiesiince, Coccince. Monoplilebincr, and Margaro- dincc. Sixty-three species and two varieties were described, thirty-two for the first time. "A Note on the molecules of liquid crystals" : J. S. van der Lingen. The object of the paper was to show the effect of bi-prisms on the Lane spots. Experiments carried out with prisms of sodium chloride show that the spots are " fluted," and that the central spot is elliptic instead of circular. — ''On the 'lines' within Rontgen interference photographs" '. J. S. van der Lingen. These lines are due to the ruptured surface, which will most probabh' resemble an echelon grating. Sodium chloride, quartz, silicon, and magnesium hydroxide photographs were described. These show " irregular spots " under certain conditions. Wednesday, June 16th : L. A. Peringuey, D.Sc, F.E.S., F.Z.S., Presi- dent, in the chair. — " Osteology of Palccornis with other notes on the genus " : R. W. Shufeldt. A description was given of one of the most abundant parrots of India — Palccornis torquatus, or the ring-parrot — so named for the reason that in the adult a ring or collar forms part of the plumage of the neck. These birds are supposed to have been known to the Greeks and Romans, but they were not considered as a sub-familv of parrots until 1825. — "Note on apparent apogamy in Pterj'godium New- digatas " : Aliss A. V. Duthie. A cleistogamous variety of the South African orchid Ptcrygodiuni Nezvdigatce, of special interest because cleis- togamy, rare enough among orchids, appears here to be accompanied by apogamy. Sections of the ovary and column at various stages of deve- lopment show no trace of pollen tubes. The gland-like " pollen masses " do not appear to develop beyond the mother cell stage. — '" A Record of plants collected in Southern Rhodesia " : F. Eyles. This record includes representatives of 160 families, 869 genera, and 2,397 species, besides 112 varieties. Wednesday, July 21st: L. A. Peringuey, D.Sc, F.E.S.. F.Z.S., Presi- dent, in the chair. — "A nezv Type of Fossil Reptile from the Karroo." S. H. Haughton. A somewhat incomplete skull, with associated limb-bones and vertebrae, from the upper Tapinocephalus zone of the Beaufort West District were exhibited. In general form it recalls the Dinocephalia, although much smaller ; but in the possession of a few small palate teeth, in the vertical occipital plate, the shallowness of the basicranium and some other features it recalls the Gorgonopsia. — " Note on Conus shells illustrat- ing variation in markings '' : K. H. Barnard. A series of shells was exhi- bited, showing gradation in the pigment from a condition in which the coloration is strongly marked to that in which the shells are practically colourless. The question of the origin of the pigment and its relation to the environment and heredity of the mollusc was discussed. — (T) "Simple apparatus for finding g"; (2) "Simple apparatus for standardising a 144 TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES. sivcn I'ibrator " : J. S. van der Lingen. The apparatus described does not involve assumptions of dynamical quantities that the student cannoi determine for himself, and is adapted to give him some definite idea about the acceleration of a freely falling body. Apparatus was also described by which velocities and accelerations may be determined without assuming the time of vibration of some vibrator. — "Note on Astronomical PliotODictry." Dr. J. K. E. Halm. An account was given of a method which claims to derive from the measured diameters of the star discs on a photographic plate the brightness or " Magnitude " of any star on a self-consistent basis. The results obtained for the stars of the Cape x\strographic Zones demon- strate a perfect agreement of the Cape system with the Harvard photo- graphic system. Comparisons between the photographic and visual magni- tudes lead to the conclusion that the "colour" of the stars is a function of their brightness, faint starts being slightly redder than bright stars. This fact is tentatively attributed to the existence of absorbing matter in space. It is also found that, on the average, stars are actinically brighter in the .Milky Way than in other regions. — " The Electromotive Changes accom- panying actiz'ity in the iiiaininalian ('refer": Prof. W. A. Jolly. The neuro-muscular duct leading from the kidney to the urinary bladder was removed from a recently killed rabbit. A glass canula was inserted into the ureter at each end. It was then placed in a moist chamber, kept at body temperature. When warm salt solution is passed at low pressure through the ureter from the upper end, waves of muscular contraction pass over it. Connection with the string galvanometer was made and the deflec- tion of the instrument caused by each wave of activity recorded photo- graphically. The curve resembled in all essentials that obtained from the lieating heart. — "A new Aloe from Swacilaiid" : I. B. Pole-Evans. A new species of Aloe, found in Swaziland by Mr. R. A. Davis, was described and named Aloe suprafoliata. It has rigid, somewhat Heshy distichous leaves. The flower spike is slender, unbranched, and bears rather loosely-attached rose doree flowers. Wednesday. August i8th : L. A. Peringuey. D.Sc, P\E.S., F.Z.S., President, in the chair. — "The Grozvth Forms of Xatal Plants": Prof. J. W. Bewfs. The autlior gave a detailed descrii)tion of his work on the growth forms of Natal plants. — " The South African Rust Fungi (i) The Species of Pitccinia on Compositcc " : I. B. Pole-Evans. Descriptions were given of the species of Puccinia based mainly upon material which tlie author and his colleagues had collected during the past ten years in South Africa, and which is now represented in the Mycological Herba- rium at Pretoria. The object of the collection was mainly to elucidate the life-histories of various rusts destructive to economic crops. — " Heating and Cooling Apparatus for Rontgcn Crystallographic Work'': J. S. van der Lingen. The apparatus described was devised by the author to facilitate the work of those who v/ish to carry on research on the deter- mination of the energy of an atom at zero temperature and at verv high temperatures. NEW BOOKS. Lewin, E. — "The Germans and Africa: then aims on the Dark Conti- nent and how they acquired their African Colonies." pp. xviii, 317. Map. London: Cassell & Co. 1915. los. 6d. nett. Hartill, Marie. — "Elementary course of South African History to 1820." i2mo. Maps and illus. pp. .xiv, 182. Capetown": T. Maskew Miller. 1914. Stoneman, Dr. Bertha.— ••p/(/;;f.y and their zvays in South Africa." Crown 8vo. pp. xii, 387. New ed. revised and enlarged. London : Longmans, Green & Co., 1915. 5s. SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTURE: AN ANALYSIS. By P. J. DiT ToiT. In considering the agricultural condition of a country one has naturally to take account, among other factors, of the people first of all. A correct appreciation of the characteristics of an old, a settled people, of one nationality, is, perhaps, not difficult to acquire ; indeed, it would be intuitive. But, in circumstances such as ours, we are concerned not only with the characteristics of men of mainly three European nationalities — Dutch, French, and English (in the order of their advent) — or the descendants of those men, but also with the effect each of these has had upon the other, with other changes produced by environment, with the effect brought about by contact with native races, and with the results that followed on great political changes. So we have a complex problem in the main factor which I have referred to. First came settlers from Holland, who gradually spread out over the 'districts in the neighbourhood of Table Bay, built comfortable homesteads, ]:)lanted trees, beautified the land they occupied, and provided from the soil what was necessary for their own existence and comfort, for the requirements of the East India Company, and for the ships that called at the Bay. In the earlier part of this ])eriod, which extended over one hundred and fifty years, came the Huguenots, who brought with them a good knowledge of grain-growing, viticulture and horti- culture, settled among the Dutch Colonists, intermarried with tliem in course of time, and blended, or rather r.:lxed, in various degrees, attributes of men who had sprung from two different races. Lastly, we have the advent of the English, extending over more than a hundred years, both as agriculturists and in other vocations, but chiefly the latter. The last-mentioned section of the European community has not. so far, intermarried with the two earlier sections to a great extent, or vice versa ; so, for our purpose, we may accept the usual division of the Euro- ])ean population into two sections. So far as agriculttn^e is con- cerned, one appears to be distinguished, as a whole, by caution, love of freedom, endurance and tenacity ; and the other by enterprise, activity and self-reliance. It seems a matter for congratulation that we have these varying qualities constantly acting and reacting upon one another, though doubtless, if they were fused, the advantage to the country would be the greater. On the whole, we have a farming community whom adversity or discomfort does not daunt, and is firmly attached to the soil ; and in this we probably have the reason for the peopling of the most arid parts of the country — I refer to the far Western dis- tricts— and the rearing of flocks and herds there under conditions of isolation, uncertainty, and disappointment that would drive a less tenacious people into the towns. Here was a vast country in the hands of, at first, a few white inhabitants, men who had sprung from a sea- faring, courageous, freedom-loving people — a people who extended 146 SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTURE: AX ANALYSIS. commerce to many parts of the globe, and were imbued with a colonising spirit. I refer, of course, to the Dutch of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. And not only was this new country vast, but it was also a fair, a most attractive land. All who know what is now called the South-Western districts could easily realise how great must have been the call of the magnilicent mountain ranges, the well-watered valleys, the immense stretches of cultivable land, the certain and adequate rainfall and the glorious climate, to the early settlers and their descendants and to the Huguenot refugees — men with the spirit of pioneering, the instinct of freedom, and the courage of inde- j)endence. To so small a population the land was limitless, and distance from the only market necessitated that they should be, as far as possible, inde]:)endent for their livelihood of the town population ; and so, to a large extent, they became their own blacksmiths, their own carpenters, their own l)uilders, their own harnessmakers, their own farriers, their own booimakers, their own handymen. Occupation of the land extended inland, and gradually spread to distant parts of the Cape. When, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Cape of Good Hope was definitelv annexed by F.ngland, and a new rule was imposed on the country, there was a human ])roduct in this land such as I have tried to sketch — one that loved to be free, and did not fear to rely upon its own right hand, its own strength of character, and its own resourcefulness. This human product, no longer wholly Dutch or French, but doubtless in the space of a century and a half changed by its environment, though still retaining largely the characteristics of its ancestors, chafed under the new rule ; and, thirty years after British occupation, the Great Trek commenced — an undertaking which the environment of this older section of the people made j^ossible. In course of time this country, now the Union of South Africa, with an area of, roughly, 477,000 sc|uare miles, became occupied from end to end by a very small Juiropean poi)ulation, the rural section being owners of large farms, removed from the advantages of good education and of easy intercourse, and having a limited market for their produce and their live-stock. Here. then, was produced in the main, in the course of two centuries, a situation the exact reverse of what was recjuired for the advancement of agriculture : instead of small holdings intensively cidtivated were Parge farms hardly cultivated at all, and used chiefly for the rearing of herds of cattle and flocks of sheep ; instead of proximitv to large markets, rapid transport, much intercourse and good education, were distant markets, slow wagon trans- port. infre(|uent association, and scarcely anv education. So we are impelled to the conclusion that, while the (jualities required for i)rogress in agriculture were always and are possessed by the South African farmer, political and other considerations dispersed his activities over so great an area that for generations production languished. It was inevitable, moreover, that native wars^ and different aspirations of the white races, should absorb a vast amount of soirii AFRICAN a(;.kicultijK1': : an analysis. 147 attention until contentment and a common feeling of unity had been ])roduced, and that agriculture should be thrown into the crucible. Now, let us consider for a moment the eiitect which the contact of the European population with the native races has had on the farmer. On the European was laid the task, for his own protection, as well as on higher grounds, of civilising the barbarian. The latter gained, but it was inevitable that the former should lose. In the sphere of labour the native exerted a marked influence on his European master, to the latter's detri- ment. The native, in the course of time, became the worker, and is to-day the worker, physically, mentally, and morally im- proving himself at the European's physical, mental, and moral expense, producing an unfortunate class whom we know as " poor whites." But the native's labour is not efficient ; and who shall estimate the retardation from this cause alone? If we take a rainfall map, we find that, generally speaking, and excluding the coastal belt on the West and South Coasts, the rainfall increases as one goes east or north: that is, the '■rainfall is lowest in the West, and increases as one goes east; lower in the South, and increases as one goes north. Again, excludino- the West and South coastal belts, the soil is richer in the West than in the East, in the South than in the North. The poi)ulation is distributed less, however, according to rich- ness of soil than according to rainfall, especially regularity of rainfall, which determines the productivity of the soil and the ability of the soil to sustain i)oi)ulation. But, unfortunately, nearly the whole of the country, so far as rainfall is concerned, is dependent upon a summer precipitation, somewhat irregular and uncertain, and over a huge area deficient as well. Rainfall must, to a great extent, dictate agricultural policy and methods. At the same time, there is a modifying element in the soil, in tliat richness, where it can 1)e turned to account by irrigation, will counterbalance the eiTects of a small or an irregular rain- fall ; and there is also this further modifying element, that the smaller the rainfall, the greater the freedom from stock diseases. However, under very varying conditions of soil and climate we have developed a variety of agricultural activities which it would probably not be incorrect to call unique, and which presage a hoj^eful future. Coming now to circumstances as they obtain to-day, we have a small rural population scattered over a vast area — a population possessing attributes inherited from virile, industrious, frugal, tenacious, enterprising stocks, moulded by physical and political conditions into a hardy, well-developed, assertive people, and inevitably being fused into an indivisible nation ; but, unfortu- nately (speaking from an agricultural point of view), labouring under the disabilities imposed by distance, by uncertain climatic circumstances, and by constant contact with an inferior race. Consider the length of railway lines and of roads that had, and still have, to be constructed, the cost and upkeep of these, the number and cost of bridges, the consequent cost of transport, 14t> SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTURE: AN ANALYSIS. and the expenditure of time in disposing of products or purchas- ing suppHes ; the cost of building and of education; the dearth of opportunity; the tendency to become self-centred, and, there- fore, the distrust of advice and teaching. Is it a matter for surprise that our agricultural advanc-ement ha« been slow? For two and a half centuries the tendency of the agricultural popu- lation was centrifugal. We have only begun to realise that it is our duty, our necessity, to become centripetal. We have reached the turning in the lane. I must now introduce more specific details and touch upon various agricultural industries which we have established, indicat- ing how the vie\vs I have ventured to advance seem to be borne out by statistics. Of our agricultural and pastoral industries, tlic breeding of wooled sheep is the oldest and the most important. Wooled sheep were first introduced by the Dutch East India Conii)any in 1654. or two years after the occupation by that Company of the Cape of (iood Hope. Tn 1680 the next im])ortation took place, also bv th4> Com- l)any. but this time from Spain. In 1790, Colonel (lordon, an ofificer in the Company's service, introduced a number of fine merino sheep of the Escurial breed. Other importations took place at about this time, since when the breeding of sheep for their wool began to be regarded seriously. The next introduc- tions were made by the British settlers of 1820, being sheep of the English breeds. Subsequent purchases were made in Saxony, and, still later, in France. Latterlv, fairlv large im])nrtations have taken place, princi- pally from Australia. We exported from the Cape of Good Hope in 1714 650 lb. of wool. 1835 215,868 „ 1855 12,016,415 „ 1875 40,339,674 „ 1895 65,632,613 „ 1909 (the last year before Union).. '. 101,007,893 „ Similar comparative figures for the other Provinces are not available, but note, from the exportations in the following years, the stagnation from 1890 to 1899, due probably to crippled earnings of farmers on account of locusts, disease, and drought : 1885 34,432,562 lb. 1890 65,655,917 <' 1895 65,632,613 „ 1899 69,289,606 „ On the other hand, note the progress in the Union since 1905 : 1905 77,187,226 lb. 1909 130,981,518 „ 1911 132,207,029 „ 1913 176,971,865 „ sofrii Ai'kicAX ACKicn/rrKi-: : an ANAL^•sIS. 149 Another pastoral industry, the breeding of cattle, and its concomitant, the output of dairy produce, bids fair to become important. One hundred and forty years after the occupation of the Cape of Good Hope by the Dutch East India Company tlie first introduction from oversea seems to have taken place, for crossing with native cattle. Tt was a century later before the importance of dairying began to be advocated. In the absence of the railroad, the Africander ox was depended upon for the tra-n sport of all supplies and all products. There being at the time practically no market for butter, there was little induce- ment for the improvement of the herds. Serious attention to the manufacture of liigh-class butter, and therefore to the im- provement of the milk-j)roducing capacity of our cows, com- menced twenty years ago only. Now we seem to be on the eve of adding meat and butter to (^ur list of exports. The ostricli feather industi") , at present going through a period of severe depression, but, I believe, destined to become again one of our chief sources of income, has had :. chequered, though interesting, history. Started in 1865, it was booming in the late seventies and early eighties, nearly extinguished in the later eighties, and revived in the later nineties; again, since eighteen months ago, it is in the depths of depression. The export figures form interesting reading : — Valued at Per lb. lb. i I s. d. 1870 28,786 91,229 3 .3 0 T875 49.569 304,933 630 1880 [63,065 883.632 580 I88.S 25i,g84 585.270 260 i8go 212,276 517.009 280 i8q5 353.626 -T,2~,-^2 T 10 0 igoo 412.832 879,751 2 2 0 rgos 471.024 T.08T.187 250 rgio 741,078 2,272,846 3 10 I9T3 r. 023. 307 2.953.587 2 18 0 Note here also the i^apid progress since 1905. Although the average value ])er lb. was in i';i3. the last year of prosperity, onlv half as much as in 1880, when the previous boom occurred, such great improvement in breeding and feeding had taken place in the last twenty years or so that the industry prospered at the lower realisatidti, and the ostrich farmer was the envy of other agriculturists. The first attempt to introduce the .\ngora goat into South Africa is said to have been made in 1825. Thirty rams and ewes were imported in 1856. and subsequent shipments arrived in 1857. 1867, 1879, and 1880. So much intelligent care was bestowed on, and so much industry api:)lied to the breeding of Angoras that in 189T there were 3,184,018 in this country, and some individual goats were superior to any which Turke\- pro- duced The shi])ments of mohair were: — 150 SOUTH AFRICAN A(;RU I'LTURE : AN ANAI,^■SIS. lb. Wihie. 1857 870 iio 1867 43,348 £4.985 1877 1,429,045 £116,382 1887 8,756,116 £268.446 1897 12,055,390 £676.644 1907 19-125,425 ^914-597 1913 18,523,197 £876.255 The stagnation observed with regard to the production of wool in the nineties is e(|nally apjjarent in the case of mohair during: the same vears. The exports were : — 1891 10,183.752 lb. 1895 10,354.870 lb. 1899 12,844,454 lb. T901 10.615.948 lb. In 1865, when our exportation amounted to 9.609 lbs., Tur- key exported to the United Kingdom 2,421.188 lbs. By 1887 we exported to the United Kingdom more than Turkey did — 8.756,116 lbs., as against 6,714,816 lbs. — and since then the Turkish export only twice exceeded our own — in 1895 and 1898. Since 1907 we have been sending to the United Kingdom nearly twice as much as Turkey, and we have maintained this lead, though average Turkish mohair still commands alxjut 2d. to 3d. per lb. more than ours. We do not find in mohair the excep- tional advance in the last decade which obtained in regard to the other pastoral industries I have mentioned ; but mohair is an article for which there is a limited demand, and the stimulus to production, after the Anglo-Boer War, in the case of wool, dairy ])roduce, and ostricli feathers became (|uicscent so soon as w^e reached the limit of successful competition with Turkey for the world's consumption of aljont 30.000.000 lbs. per annum, of which we jjroducc more than half. Maize w^e alwavs ])r()duced in sufficient ([uantity for local consumption, but when trial shipments indicated that there was a profitable market oversea, production increased. We exported in : — 1907 4''H.04i muids. 1908 464.485 1909 1.551,187 T910 . . 1.760,208 „ Then \ears of drought set in. and exportation gradually dropped to 234.676 muids in 1913, while in 19x4 it again rose to 1. 1 56. 247 muids. Our ])roduction in 1904 was 3,611,588 muids. and accord- ing to the last census it was 8.632,516 muids in T910; and this vear it is reliably estimated at over 10,000,000 muids. In 1891 the Cape of Good Hope produced 909,163 muids of wheat and 603.377 nnu'ds of oats. (Statistics are not availal)le SOUTH AFRICAN A( IKlCrLTL' Kl". : AN AN.^L^■STS. 151 for a comparative statement as regards other parts of the Union. ) In the succeeding years of the last century : — Wheat. Oats. (Muids.) (Muids.) t8c)2 1,296.966 545.706 1893 1.032.543 463.488 1894 821,564 325.782 189.S 729,216 551.501 1896 689,679 293,881 1897 650,277 482,451 1898 740.249 603,537 1899 Not available. After the Anglo-Boer War the production for the Union was : — Wheat. Oats. (Muids.) (Muids.) 1904 708,695 871,413 1908 1,150,000 1,750,000 1911 1,810,315 2,060,922 Again we observe the increase in production in recent years. Viticulture in South Africa is, on the whole, unfortunately, a stationary industry. If the restrictive policy now in force were maintained — and, so far as one can judge, there is no present indication that it is likely to be altered to the advantage of that indnstrx' — artificial means of creating an export trade wnll alone induce greater ])roduction. Under present conditions, the most that can be hoped for is increase in production in proportion, more or less, to increase of population exclusive of the Native races. For the purpose of the conclusion which I propose to point to, further remarks on the subject of viticulture are unnecessary. As regards tobacco growing, the only figures Avhich register the position of the industry in the Union, as a whole, are those for the census years 1904 and kjtt. when the production was 12.112,565 lbs. and 14,961,199 lbs. respectively. After 191 1 the production increased still more, but latterly drought, and prob- ably also mani])ulation of the market, caused a temporary set- back. It may be that, so far as internal consumption is con- cerned, production will increase slowdy, if at all. The immediate future pros])erity of this industry lies in so improving the quality that an ex]:)ort market can be developed. Fruit. l)eing a jjcrisliable article, is in a different category to any of the branches of agriculture already mentioned. Our ri])ening seasons l)eing tlie reverse of those in the Northern Hemisphere, where tbe largest markets exist, we are in a favour- able position for an export trade, and, therefore, production is regulated to a great extent by the quantities which these markets 152 SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTURE: AN ANALYSIS. can consume. While the census returns of production are so presented that a comparative statement cannot be given, it is generally known that exportation of fruit gave a great impetus to the growing of fruit. We have in fruit culture, as in maize- growing, a clear proof that the agriculturist, like every other class of the community, will invest when he sees the opportunity of doing so profitably ; he cannot be expected to produce until he can sell : market first, production next. The sugar industry dates back to 1849. Labour difficulties, among others, beset the venture. Even after these were over- come by the importation of indentured Indian labour, begun in i860, the market for Natal sugar was very small. " A welcome impetus was given to the industry," says David Don, " by the discovery of diamonds in (Iriqualand West," as a result of which four times the number of vacuum pans were installed. Better transport facilities raised the production to 19,369 tons in 1894. During tlie next few years the production was almost stationary, though it advanced somewhat after Natal entered the Customs Union with the Cape and the Free State in 1899. Soil, labour, and every requirement for production were there, but Natal sugar still groped for a wide market. It was the Customs Convention of 1906 that gave Natal sugar a free market all over British South Africa, and suitable protection at all the seaports. We see the results in the following tables : — Exports from Natal to otiirr parts of South Africa. IQ06. IQ07. 1908. 1909. Tons. . . 25.001 .... 26.226 .... ,^8.4.^Q 48.570 Since 191 o trade as between Provinces is not recorded. Oz'crsea Imports into .R:if'sh South Africa IQ06. 1907. 1908. 1909- Tons. . . 56.41 [ 53-^X^ 45.74.^ ■ • ■ 33.661 1910. 19TI. I9I-2- I9r3 1914- Tons 29,676 ... 36,482 ... 10.385 ... 29.227 ... 23.576 That is, as we facilitated trade locally, so importation de- creased. Now note the increase in production : — 1906. 1907. 1908. i9o<). T9IO 191 f- 1912. Toils .. .. 31.190 35.ICO 51.200 77.49T 84,437 92,000 96,000 About fifty-one years ago black- wattle seed is said to have been ])lanted for the first time in Natal, where the economic value of wattle bark was recognised by the late Sir George Sutton twenty years later. In 1887 the first shipment of bark oversea was made, and in 1903 exportation reached 13.591 tons. It is interesting to observe that as production increased prices declined. We produced in 1904 15,818 tons. 1905 17.512 .. 1906 16,607 - 1907 27,239 „ 1908 . . . 27,830 ,. SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTUKK : AN ANAL^ SIS. I 53 and thereafter rapidly increased the output until it reached in 1913 72,858 tons; but the prices realised in England fell from £8 lis. $d. per ton in 1904 to £/ 5s. id. per ton in 1908, and £6 9s. 5d. per ton in 1913; and now we have reached a point at which marketing in another form has to be resorted to in order to find a wider de- mand and so create stability or, we hope, greater prosperity for this industry, namely, by exporting the bark extract in place of the bark itself. If we analyse the statistics quoted, two outstanding facts are observable. Firstly, there was a period of stagnation as regards the production of wool and mohair in the last decade of the pre- vious century, attributable, in my judgment, as I have already mentioned, to diminished earning ])ower of farmers on account of disease among stock, periods of drought, and visitations of locusts, the destruction of which by arsenical poisoning was not then known. Secondly, a period of imparalleled progress com- menced in about 1905 to 1908, due to several favourable causes operating simultaneously. In examining these causes, the various products dealt with above fall into three grou]:)S : — r. Ji'twl and Ostrich I'catlicrs. — Much ijreatcr knovvlcdoe in l)rocriinL;, management and marketin*); had heen acqnired. II. Ostridi Feafhcrs. ]Jai:zc, Fruit, and If 'attic Bark. — Oversea mar- kets had either l)een created or had extended. III. Butter. U'licat. and Sugar. — .A free internal market had been established over the whole of British Soutli Africa by a Customs Unioii, and encouragin.t^ railwav rates liad been fixed. The lesson in regard to all three groups, and therefore in regard to all our chief agricultural and pastoral products, is that there is no educating factor as powerful as the creation of wealth. There are several direct agencies to l)e employed for this purpose. though some are more potent than others. Our needs lie in a number of directions, all of which will, when applied, place agriculture in the position, not of the chief industry, for that it is already, but in a far better position than it holds to-da}' : rail- ways to reduce distance ; suitable railwav rates ; better roads and bridges ; better management of markets ; more education, agri- cultural and general, and therefore a better opportunity to under- stand the needs of plants and animals, and to assimilate technical information; more irrigation, and better use of water; above all, more business in agriculture, and wider markets. Hut when this is said, what does it really amount to? At the bottom of all our difficulties is distance, and always distance, and, surely, the only ultimate means of reducing distance is population. We must look to iK>])ulation as the first essential in the advancement of agriculture : population to consume our products, population to supplv the farmers' wants, population to make railway and road extension economicallv advisable ; in short, pojmlation to 1=,4 SOUTH AFRICAN A(;RRULTUK1-: : AN ANALYSIS. create wealth, to make the return from the soil the greater, both to the individual farmer and to the people as a whole. It is the politician's sphere to say how that population is to be obtained. 1 may be permitted to say, however, that rural population follows on urban ; that greater market must precede increased production. The farmer will produce according to the market he has. He will not produce more, because, ob- viously, he cannot be expected to produce at a loss, or even at a less profit than that which he may consider a fair return for his labour and his expenditure. Where, then, is this market to be? Our oversea market, valuable as it is, is necessarih one in which the products of several countries compete ; it is one in which distance, freight, railway rates, etc., are weighty factors ; it is also one outside the control of ourselves ; it is one influenced by the vicissitudes of climate and also of ])olitics. It is, there- fore, to some extent an uncertain market. Is it not better to have a market in which distance and freight are eliminated, which is within our own control, which, when influenced by climatic conditions, yet gives us the benefits as well as the disadvantages of such conditions ; which, lastly, when influenced by politics, yet gives us a voice therein ? The closer an export market, capable of absorbing our ])roducts. is to our gates, the more would be the benefit we might expect to derive from it. .South Africa, however, is thousands of miles from any large market. Our geogra})hical situation demands a large internal market. The greatest advancement in agriculture tool< place after the Anglo-Boer War. Firstly, we entered upcjn more settled political conditions. For many years previously political con- siderations overshadowed the agricultural. Secondly, there was considerable expansion of the gold industry, and consequent increase in the consuming population. Thirdly, the producer was brought nearer the market by extensive railway construction, the mileage open being 4,534 in 1903 and 8,281 in T913, an increase of nearly 55 per cent in ten years. Agricultural industries (le[)end upon others, and other in- dustries upon agricultural. The two form a circular movement. I have endeavoured to indicate what is required to enlarge the circle. Let me express it in this formula : indu.stries, popula- tion, internal markets. I have attempted to show that our population, urban and rural, have inherited qualities that should hearten us for the future, 1)ut that certain easily recognisable causes have held back agricultural development in the past. What boots it that we have the material if Ave do not supply the means for employing that material to advantage? What value have rich soil and favourable climate if they are not turned to full use? We may devise ways of preventing erosion of the soil, preach conservation of water, encourage irrigation, demonstrate thorough tillage, facilitate importation of pedigree farm stock, protect our animal industries, aft'ord all the educa- SOUTH AFRICAN \( IK rc rLTl' l been determined by workers in this field of astronomical research. In the Southern Hemisphere continuous observations carried on at Lovedale for twenty-five year have revealed this fact: that the majority of short-period variable stars — that is. stars whose period amounts to a few da\s, and whose variation is in some as yet unknown way intiuu-itely related to l)inarv movement — is subject to a secular change in period. In certain cases this secular change seems to be that of regular acceleration or regular decrease ; change, no doubt, ex- ceedingly minute, but yet a])preciable in the lapse of years. Thus, if we imagine a star whose jX'riod is completed in five days increasing only o.oooooi day, every revolution, that is, one-tenth of a second, it would seem, at first sight, that such a change would, with difficulty, be detected. But when we deal with observations extending over a quarter of a century, the accumulated acceleration becomes api)recia])le and measurable. Thus, (;i5 periods during the first part of the twent\'-four years would be completed in 4575.42 dav^, and dm-- ing the second part in 4576.27 (la\'s. It is evident that minute changes in })eriod will thus be- come readil)' measuraljle when the star lias been regular! \ observed over an extended space of time. In the case of a few stars secular variation of a distincth circular type has been observed. That is the period decreases, increases, and then returns again to its starting point. The most remarkable star of this class is U Carin^e, whose average period is 38.7647 days. Its range of variations is ()./ m. to 7.8 m. It may be of interest briefly to state the nature and extent of the variation to which this star's period is subjected. The variation of U Carin^e was discovered at Lovedale in if^9i, and since then it has been under continuous observation up to the present date. Its rise to maximum brightness is extremelv rapid. Thus, instead of determining its period from maxima points. I have preferred to determine it from dates when the star passes through a definite brightness on its upward curve. The following table sets forth the data connected with the maxima dates thus determined. Column i is the rotation num- ber : column 2 gives the number of periods counting from the SECULAR (.HANCK I X THK PERIOD OF U CARIN.E. 1 57 epoch of first maxinmni in 1900: column 3 _ii;^ives the numher of maxima used to obtain the mean period for the year ; column 4 gives the mean observed maxima for any one year, all the observations of the year being combined to obtain this mean ; column 5 gives coiujjuted maxima from the elements. 2415032.60+ (38d.765)E: and column 6 gives the residuals (O-C). The remaining two columns. 7 and 8. will be referred to later. I. 2. ,1- 4- Mean 5- .Mean 6. 7- Final 8. :et. Epoch. No. of observed computed (0— C) computed (O-C) ^0. M axima. Maxima. Maxima. Maxima. r 80 5 2411932.17 24119,31.40 +0.77 2411932.14 4-0.03 2 72 4 2242 . 22 -'34T.52 -4-0.70 2242.27 —0.05 3 62 8 2629 . 94 2629.17 +0.77 2629.86 4-0.08 4 5.^ 7 2978.64 2978.05 +0.59 2978.63 -fO.OT S 44 3 33^6.90 ,3326.94 — 0.04 .3327.36 — 0.46 6 33 6 3753-51 3753-35 +0.16 3753 • 53 — 0.02 7 — 6 7 4799-53 4800.01 —0.48 4799.62 —0.09 8 + M 6 5575 - 10 .5575-31 0.2T 5574-74 +0.36 9 41 5 662 I . 02 662 r . 97 —0-95 6621.61 —0.59 TO 51 2 7009.41 7009 . 62 — 0.2T 7009.46 —0.05 II 71 5 7785-45 , 7784.92 +0 . 53 7785-19 +0.26 12 89 4 8482.95 8482.69 +0.26 8483.28 —0.33 r.^ 97 6 8793.67 8792.81 4-0.86 8793.46 -f0.2T 14 107 2 9181.08 9180.46 -j-0.62 9181.15 0.07 13 tt8 7 9607. 10 9606 . 87 +0.23 9607.51 0.41 r6 1^4 3 9840.14 9839.46 4-0.68 9840.03 -fO. II '7 i.^v 2 2420344.14 2420343.41 +0.73 0343.75 +0.39 18 + 1.46 3 0692 . 08 0692 . 29 — 0.21 0692.44 —0.36 If now the residuals ( ( )-C), set forth in column 6 be plotted down, the secular and circular character of their departure from the mean will be at once evident. It will appear that the cycle is completed in 180 periods, or 6978 days, the amplitude of variation being 0.65 days. We have, therefore, as a new determination of the elements ■of L^ Carinas, the following : — Max = 2415032.68 + 38.7647E + o^'.65 cos (212° — 2° E). The computed maxima determined from these elements are given in column 7 and the corresponding residuals in column 8. If we compare the values in columns 6 and 8, the nearness w^ith which the final elements given above are an interpretation of the light changes of the star will be manifest. The interpretation, put in words, is this : The star U Carinae varies in a mean period of 38.7647 days. But this period is constantly changing between the limits 38.73 days and 38.79 days, all the changes being completed in 180 periods, or 6978 days. 158 ■ SECULAR CHA^UE IN THE I'KklOD OF L CARIN.H. Of the direct and immediate cause of such variation of period as that of U Carinae we know practically nothing". When a period is uniformly increasing or decreasing, one of two causes may be in operation, or perhaps both. The matter of the star may be growing steadily less in bulk, due to the constant attrition of a near companion. Or tidal friction, due to the mutual attraction of the two bodies, may accelerate or retard the period of revolution, accord- ing to the relation of the period of revolution to the period of rotation of the component stars. But where the variation is circular in character, there is more difficulty in reaching a reasonable explanation. If we imagine the orbit of the binary star to be sensibly elliptical, then l)inary rcA-olution, >vith its corres])onding tidal action, must produce certain changes in the form of the orbit. These changes will become manifest in an alteration in the light period of the star. Or we imagine such a system a.-^ U Carin?e to revolve round a large and central body in a period of 19 years. The variation in |)eriod, 0.65 day, would then be a measure of the radius of the system. The difficulty here is that we have to imagine a central body three thousand times more bulky than the sun. Whatever be the explanation, we are at present only groping dimly towards it. But we are sure of this, that the facts we obtain will one day be of service in definitely ascertaining and defining the causes which produce variation in tlie period of sucl'. stars at U Carinie. It is in this expectation that the present brief exposition of the light changes of L' Carin?e are offered. Active Principles of South African Plants. — The South African Medical Record, of i.^th November* con- tains a paper read by Dr. C. F. Juritz before the British Medical As.sociation, Cape of Good Hope (Western) Branch, on the 27th August, on " The urgency of a definite forward movement in the study of the active principles of South African Plants." Radium in Japan, — Dr. Ishidzu, of the Tokyo Hy- gienic Laboratory, has been investigating the hot and mineral' springs of fapan with a view to ascertain the quantities of radiuni which they contain. It is reported that, as a result of his investi- gations, he considers Japan to be the richest radium countrv in the world. Considerable proportions of radiuni are declared by Dr. Ishidzu to be present in the waters of a mineral spring in the Yamanashi Prefecture, and radium-bearing water also occurs in another spring at Chuggoka. *(1915) 13 [21]. AN INQUIRY INTO THE DERIVATION OF CERTAIN SOUTH AFRICAN PLACE-NAMES. By Rev. Charli-zs Pettman. I propose in this paper to discuss a few of the place-names of this country which have given rise at one time and another to no little controversy as to their origin. It will be remem- bered by those who were present last year, that the paper on " The Place-Names of South .\frica "' which I had the honour of submitting to the Association, evoked a very interesting dis- cussion as to the derivation of the name Bloemfontein, which the paper said was " redolent of flowers and springs." It was contended, in opposition to this view^ that the name was derived from a certain Jan Blom. wlu) was, at the latter part of the eighteenth or the beginning of the nineteenth century, a fugitive and outlaw from the Colon}-. In early days, with his band of Bushman, Koranna, and Hottentot marauders, he was said to have established himself at a certain spring, which became known as Jan BIimii's Fontein ; it was asserted, further, that this name subsequently became Bloemfontein, and that [an Blom's Fontein and Bloemfontein were one and the same place. Let me say at once that there is no question as to the existence and outlawry of the man Jan Blom, nor as to his having established himself with his robber band at a certain fountain, nor, further, as to the fountain having been known as Jan Blom's Fontein ; the points to be decided are, whether Jan Blom's Fontein and Bloemfontein are identical, and whether the name Bloemfontein originated in the name Jan Blom's Fontein. It was not possible for me at the time to advance all the reasons which decided me in favour of the derivation I sug- gested, but to show that it was based upon something more than merely aesthetic leanings T would like to submit the following l^oints for consideration. 1 confess that I should be somewhat diffident, in view of the high authority quoted against the flower derivation in the discussion referred to, but I cannot convince myself that it is wrong; in fact, further enquiry has strengthened the conviction that the flower and spring derivation is the correct one. It will help to solve the difficulty perhaps if we can secure two or three fixed points on the map concerning which there is no uncertainty ; let us try. There is no question as to the locality of Griquatown (formerly known as Klaarwater ) ; further, the map shows that Kuruman (named by early travellers Lattakoo) lies almost due north of Griquatown: and further, it shows a mountain on the road from Griquatown to Kuruman lying sliffhtlv west of the line l)etween the two places, known as the Blinkklip. With these three points fixed, and remember- l6o ORIGIN OF CERTAIN SOUTH AFRICAN PLACK NAMES. ing that Bloemfontein lies nearly 200 miles to the east of Griqua- town, there should be no difficulty in locating Jan Blom's Fontein. The traveller Lichtenstein*, whose travels covered the years 1803-1806, when on a journey to the Bechuanas, shows that he passed from Jan Blom's Fontein to Blinkklip in a few hours. They had camped at Jan Blom's Fontein, and on leaving it he says : — A considerable hill, with a liigh conical summit, was the first object worthy of remark that presented itself as we proceeded on our way. . . The colonists call the mountain lUinklip (glittering rock). Campbellt tells us that he left Klaarwater (Griquatown) by wagon for Lattakoo (which was a little beyond the present Kuruman) at 4 o'clock p.m. on the 15th June, 1814, and that on the 17th June, at ii o'clock a.m., he reached Jan Blom's Fontein. He says : — - This fountain derived its name from a person who died about four- teen years ago, who was a runaway from the Colony, and put himself at the head of many Bushmen, Coraiinas, and Hottentots, and lived on the plunder of other kraals. As he resided chiefly at this fountain, it was called by his name.J Leaving Jan Blom's Fontein at 2 o'clock ixm., Campbell continues : — At four we halted at Blink Fountain, at tlie bottom of Blink (or Shining) Hill. Blink Hill is Campbell's rendering of Blinkklip. the name l)v which the mountain is still known. Burchell§ says that on the 17th June, 181 2, he arrived at a spring where there was still abundance of good water. This was called Bloem's Fontein after a man named Jan Bloem, who had for- merly resided in the Colony, but who stationed himself at this spring, and continued for some years to lead a lawless life. At this spring a buffalo was killed by some member of the party, which was cut up and dried. Burchell continues : — i8th. — As the business of cutting and drying our buffalo-meat had detained us till a late hour, we advanced but a few miles, and halted for the night at the foot of a hill known to the Klaarwater Hottentots by the name of Blink-klip (Shining Rock). These quotations go to prove that the Blinkklip spoken of is to the north of Griquatown, on the road to Kuruman, and that Jan Blom's Fontein would be from six to eight miles from the Blinkklip. Bloemfontein lies, as we have said, nearly 200 miles in a direct line to the east of Griquatown, and supposing that it had then been in existence as a kraal or dorp, was that much out of Campbell's and Burchell's line of travel, and would be much the same distance from the spring then known as Jan Blom's Fontein, to say nothing of the short time (two days) in which Campbell trekked by wagon from Griquatown to Jan Blom's Fontein. *2, (1815) 271-275. t Travels in South Africa (1815), 224. $ P- 230. §" Travels in South Africa" (1824), 249-255. ORIGIN OF CERTAIN SOUTH AFRICAN PLACE NAMES. l6l I can find nothing anywhere to substantiate the statement that the present site of Bloemfontein was at any time the head- quaters of the outlaw Jan Blom, and can, from the above data, come to no other conclusion than that Jan Blom's Fontein and Bloemfontein are two quite different localities. Then, with reference to the name Bloemfontein, we have the ex])licit statement made in a letter written by Mr. G. H. Warden (son of the Major Warden who was British Resident in the Orange River Sovereignty), and published in the Bloem- fontein Friend in May or June, 1912, that his father bought the farm in 1846 from one Jan Britz, and gave it the name of Bloemfontein, owing to there heing so much wild clover; the valley above the fountain was covered with wild clover. The above facts appear to be conclusive, and to prove that the name Bloemfontein is " redolent of flowers and springs," and is in no way connected with the marauder and inurderer, Jan Blom. (It may be observed here that there was a place called Bloemsfontein near the Tanqua River, in the northern part of what is now the Ceres district. Borcherd,* who was a member of an expedition which left Cape Town for the interior on October ist, 1801, tells us in his itinerary that on the loth October they proceeded from Tanquas passing barren country and the Gousldoemsfontein, Bloems- fontein, Windheuvel, and Moddcrfontein.f There is also a Bloemfontein, marked on the map of South Africa in the Times Atlas, to the north-west of Upington.) Another name of interest is Walvis Bay. The recent Government announcement that the bay, which w;is retained by Gieat Britain when Great Namaqualand was handed over to Germany, was to be known henceforth as Walvis Bay. gave rise to no little discussion in the public Press and elsewhere. Tt was contended by some that it should have been Walwich Bay. I remember reading somewhere — I regret that I failed to make a note at the time, but I believe it was in an early volume of the first series of the Cape Monthly Magazine — that this bay had been called Walwich Bay after the captain of a whaler which frequented the bay. But I am satisfied now that the earliest form of the name was Walvisch Baai. Just how the corruption Walwich came into existence I have not been able to ascertain ; it appears, however, to be due to the sailor. The name Walwich seems to have been applied to this bay over a century ago. Certainly in Owen's '' Narrative of Voyages,":]: two forms of the name appear on the same page ; in the text the name is spelt Walfisch, while at the head of the page it is spelt W^alwich ; this is indicative of the confusion which then existed. But the latter name, Walwich, seeins to *" Auto-Biographical Memoir" (1S61), 4. t The traveller Thomson also mentions this Bloem Fontein (1827). 218. t2 (1833), 228. l62 ORIGIN OF CERTAIN SOUTH AFRICAN I'LACIi NAMES. have been in use some thirty years before that, for Mr. John Noble, who had been appointed to examine old papers relating to the affairs of the Cape of Good Hope, which were preserved in the Public Archives. London, in his Report to the House of Assembly, says that among papers dated from 1795 to 1802-3, he found one entitled " Report of H.M. Sloop Star," having- examined coast nortlnvards and found several bays affording good shelter and excellent anchorage, but destitute of wood and fresh vi-ater, amdnti those nientinned being Walwich Bay. in 22^ 15". Knowing Air. Noble as well as 1 did, 1 cannot think that a man so careful and exact would allow himself to alter the spelling of the name, but would give it as it aopeared in the docuiuent luentioned. If this is so, then we can trace the name Walwich Bay to 1803 at least, and apparently to a sailor origin. But I have been able to trace the name Walvisch Baai to twenty years beyond that — 1782. In 1792 the bay was taken possession of for the Dutch bv Chevalier Duminy as Walfisch Baai, but in Rochette's map. dated 1782, the name Walvisch stands opposite this bay, and I am satisfied that this is its earliest fonn. The name has assumed no small variety of forms — Walvisch, 'Walwich, Walfisch. Walfish, Walwish. Walviss, and now it is to to be Walvis. Theal says that it was also called by sailors Woolwich Bay, Init 1 have found no trace of that form. Neither have I been able to find on any maj) or chart available to me the name Bahia das Baleas (Bay of Whales) which Theal says the Portuguese gave to the bay, and wliich iie further asserts " the Dutch translated into Walfish." It would be interesting to know where this natue appears. The only references to whales that I can find in the nomenclature of the features of the West Coast of the sub-continent are the following:— (i) According to M. J. Codine,* the name Golfo de Balena ap]:)ears twice in the map of Martellus (1489), once slightly to the nortli. and once to the south of .\ngra Pequena. (2) On a map of Africa by John Senex, London (no date, but about 1719). there is a Gulf d'Baleines, south of Angra Peciuena. (3) On the map of South Africa in the Times Atlas there is a Whale Bay, also to the south of Angra Pe(|uena. So far as 1 have been able to trace the Portuguese name of this bay, it is invariably called Angra do Ilheo or Angra dos Ilhn)s, though this name appears to have been given originally by Bartholomew Diaz to the bay subsequently known as Angra Pequena. which lies much farther south. t M. J. Codine| points out that Barros also gives this name Angra dos Ilhoes to Angra Pequena: — * " Extrait du bulletin de la Societe de Geographie," Janvier, Fevrier et Mars, 1876, Paris. fVide Major's "Prince Henry the Xavigator.'' ( r-868), p. .343. {"Extrait du bulletin de la Societe de Geographie." O876), 28, note ORICIN Ol' CI'.R'rAIN SOiril \1--R1C.\X IT-ACI". NAMl'.S. 1 6,-^ Lc iiom Angra Pequena figure deja sur la carte de Gaspar V'iegas de 1534 bicii que tlarros I'appelle Angra dos llheos qui lui convient heaucoup mieux. Ihat there woiild be some confusion and difficulty in the identification of features on the coast in the early days can be understood when it is known that beside the duplication of the name (iolfo dt Balena mentioned above, there are also marked on the west coast on Ihe map of Martellus (1489) no less than three Serra Pardas (Grey Mountain) — the first sJightl}' to the south of Ani^ra das \^iltas. the second to the north of that bay, and the third a short distance to the north as^ain. rVnother name of interest is Algoa Bay. Theal, in a foot- note,* says : — In the Esmeraldo de situ Orhis of Duarte Pachaco, written before the death of Iving Manuel, a bay named Alagoa is mentioned, which is said to have been so called on account of a lake which was there in a marsh. It is described as having a small island in it covered with seals and sea- birds, but its position is given as fifteen leagues east of the Watering Place of S. Braz. that is, the locality of the Knysna inlet. This designation for that particular sheet of water was probably lost soon afterwards, as no other trace of it is to be found, and it does not appear to have had any connection with the naming of the present Algoa Bay. The name was next given to the opening in the coast now known as Plettenberg Bay — this would appear from the maps published in 1 502 by Nicholas de Caneiro and by Cantino, on which Alagoa Bay is marked to the west of Cabo de San Franc- cisco. .\ccording to Theal. the original name given by the Porfiiguese to the present Algoa Bay was Bahia de Roca (Rocky Bay), which it bore till I54a\' to the nortlT-eastward, nearly a league and a half in length, and ends at a place whi're there is a post of the Company, called Aluizenberg. *" Travels" 1 (179s). tP. 249. tP.267. §" Voyages to tlie ICast Indies" 1 ( I7y8\ 44. r66 ORIGIN OF CERTAfN SOITII AFRUAX I'LACK NAMKS. Stavorintis visited the Cape in 1774-5. Supposing Mr. T.eibl)randt"s contention to l)c correct, it only means that the relation of the names iMuizenlieri;- to the animal is one degree further removed — for that William Aluys himself pecognised that his surname was derived from the animal is obvious from the a])pearance of the three mice on his hatch- ment and one on the crest. We need have no surprise at this origin of his surname, for neither Mous nor Rat. nor for that matter Cat. are unknown as Rnglish surnames.* The origin of the place-name being forgotten, Folk-Etymol- ogy has intervened, and to give the name a meaning, some resemblance to a mouse or mice has been seen or imagined in the rocks on the mountain's summit. Lieutenant Patersont s]:)ells the name " Moesen Rerg." Lichtenstein is the only early writer whom I have found, who .spells it " Muysenburg." Duivelsberg, which Knglish Africanders have turned into Devil's Peak, it has been said, is a corruption of Duivenberg (Dove or T'igeon Mountain^ and that it received this name because of the numerous doves and pigeons of which it was the haunt. This suggestion appears to be one of comparatively late date, for except in a few recent works, T have not found it anywliere in ])rint, nor anything that would support it as far back as I liave been able to trace the name. The suggestion aj)pears to be a bit of Folk-Etymology originating in well- intentioned scru])les or ignorance as to the how or why of the name. The two names W'indberg and Duivelsberg seem to have run concurrently for some time — the former being apparently the older; for Kolbeni calls it "DerW'ind- oder Teufelsberg " ; then in " Historische Beschryving der Reizen," etc., printed by Pieter de Hondt, 1749, the name "Duivelsberg" is stated to be a sailor's name for the mountain (" Den Matrooz genoemd Duivelsberg," p. 201.) Thunberg.§ whose book a])i)eared in this edition 22 years after his visit to the Cape, calls it " The Devil's Mountain (Duy- velsberg)"; and on a ma]) undated, but apparentl}' at the latter part of the iSth cenlurv, this note is to l)e found: — The Devil's Hill, supposed to be so called from the furious wiuds thai issue froui thence when tlie top is covered with a white cloud. If it is a sailor's name as suggested above, it would, most likely, refer to " the furious winds that issue from thence," but tt mav, at the same time, be reminiscent of a name which the Cape itself is said to have borne at one time, %nz., " Capo l>i * Vide iJardsley's " EuKlish Surnames.'' t " Narrative of I-'our Voyages" ( i/Sy). ''1. j " Beschreibuns des Vorgeburj^cs dor (iuteu itoffnung" (I7-I5)- -210. § 1 (I7Q5). loi. ORIGIN OF C1-;RTAIX SOl'T!! A !■ K I (A X I'l.ACI". XAMKS. 167 Diab," or Devil's Cape. Unfortunately, I have not had access to Humboldt's woi-ks, hut in juta's " The Ca])e Peninsula "* the following passage occurs : — We clinil)ed liislicr and were soon in the shadow (it the Devil's Peak or Doves' Peak. Tlie name " Devil " mnst have drifted from the " Cape " to Wind Mountain. " Windherti " was the ordinary name for tlie Peak, and " Devil's Cape " was the name given to the Cape many years before Diaz's ship was driven round into the Indian Ocean. Humboldt, the German traveller, has interesting information about this name. He says that on Fra Mauro's chart, pul)lished between 1457 and 14S9, the Cape of Good Hope is marked " Capo Di Diab.'' Mr. Scullyt says :— This name ("the Devil's Peak'') used then to cause great scandal to the Dutch colonists — the term being an unconscious perversion by the l-Lnglish of the original name of " Duiven's " or " Doves ' Peak. But this statement does not appear to be borne out by the facts, the name Duivelsberg having been used of this mountain three parts of a century, at least, before the Cape passed into the possession of ( Ireat Britain. By the English the Devil's Peak was first called Charles Mountain, as the Lion's Hill was called James Mountain, but as we know the Dutch name in each case prevailed, and Duivelsberg became in English the Devil's Peak. The name Roggeveld, as api)lied to a considerable tract of countr}- in the Western Province, intersected by a chain of mountains known as the Roggeveld Bergen, has generally been regarded as embodying the Dutch word ror/, rye ; but a friend writing to me some time ago questions this, and says: " Rogge- veld means. T am sure, ' rough country.' Rye will not thrive there." That rye will not thrive there appears to be perfectly true, but that does not make Roggeveld mean " rough country." The fact is. as I have subsequently found, the reference of the name is not to the cultivated Rye at all, but to a plant which, in suitable seasons, is said to grow there in some profusion, and is known to the Dutch as "Wilde Rog " (Secale africannui). as appears from the following passage from Thunberg, who visited the locality in 1774 : — llere the country was called the Lowermost Roggeveld, not l)ecause it lies lower than the other Roggevelds (Ryetields). but because it lies farthest from the Cape, 'i'hese as well as the others have been so named from a kind of rye wbicli grows wild licre in abundance near the bushes. — Thunberg.t Lichtenstein, whose visit to the Cape extended from 1803 to 1806, who also travelled through the Roggeveld, writing of the district, says : — Rye ( roggen or rockeiD is not cultivated here, though the name of the district might lead to the supposition that it was a principal object of 'cultivation ; but the truth is, that the name is taken from a species of grass which grows very much among the clefts, resembling rye, and which the colonists call wild rye.§ ■■■ (1910), 43. t"A Vendetta of the Desert" (t8c)8), ()j. t2_( 1796), t68, § Lichtenstein, 1 (hSij). 100. l68 ORIGIN OF CERTAIN SOUTH AFRICAN PLACE NAMES. 1 can find nothing anywhere to suggest that the name refers to the rough character of the country, though reference »s made to that feature by more than one of the early traveUers. There is a very general idea abroad that the ill-omened name '' Slachters Nek " had its origin in the terrible execution of the men who were condemned to death because of their ])arti- cipation in what is known as the Bezuidenhout Rebellion. But the place had been thus named several years before these men were executed. Originally, it was known as Doom Nek or Van Aardt's Poort ; it lies not far from tlie main road between Cookhouse and Somerset East. This was the locality in 1811 of the murder by the Kaffirs of Mr. Stockenstrom, the Land- drost of GraalT-Reinet, who. with eight farmers forming his escort, was treacherously killed by the Kaffirs during an inter- view with them, in which he was endeavouring to dissuade them from war. Information being brought to the Kaffirs, \vhile the discussion was in progress, that hostilities hail already com- menced, and that blood had been shed, they fell upon the Land- drost and his escort and murdered them all. It was on accoimt of these murders that the place was given the name " Slachters Nek." When this place was made the scene of the execution of those who were condemned to death for their participation in the Bezuidenhout Rebellion. 18 15, it gave to the name Slachters Nek a still more sinister significance, and the hatred of the Dutch against British rule, intensified by these executions, became deep and lasting, and found constant expression in the mere repetition of the name. In spite of the utmost carefulness one d(^es not always escape the pitfalls that lie in the path of the student of Place- Names ; as a result he finds it necessary sometimes to revise his conclusions, and learns by experience that it is safest never to take the current explanation of a name for granted. Finding the name Kowie i)rinted in some fairly early missionary and other works with an initial C *. it appeared to corroborate a statement made to me 35 years ago, by a resident of the place, that the name was derived from a Dr. Cowie, who, in the early days of the Settlement, was the District Surgeon of Lower Albany, and who, with liis comi)anion. Mr. Benjamin Green, succumbed to fever on their return from an exploring expedi- tion to Delagoa Bay in 1828. This date should have been suffi- cient to put one on his guard, and have given one to see the necessity of looking elsewhere for the derivation of the Place- Name. The fact is, the name Kowie was in use long before Dr. Cowie had arrived on the scene; for in 1812 Lieutenant-Colonel J. Gfaham, writing to the Colonial Secretary, speaks of " the source of the Kowie River " ; then, in 1819, Earl Bathurst sent lengthy instructions out to the Cape as to the territory to be * ]\Ietlnien : "Life in the Wilderness" (1848), 31. Smitli : "South Africa Delineated" (1850), ^8. 39. ORIGIN OF CERTAIN SOUTH AFRICAN PLACK XA.MKS. l6g occupied by the Settlers of 1820; starting at Grahamstown, it was to include the country lying between the Kowie, Kasonga, and Kariega Rivers. The name must therefore have been in existence before the arrival of the Settlers. ' Further, a petition was sent to Earl Bathurst by the Settlers in 1823, in which the name is spelt with a K. which would certainly not have been done had the river been named by them after the doctor. The derivation of the Place-Name from the doctor's sur- name would thus a])i^ear to be another exam])lc of Folk-Etvmo- logy — attempting to give a meaning to a name from which the original meaning had departed. Like most of the other river names along this part of our coast, there would a])pear to be little question as to its origin ; among the Kaffirs the river is named i Qoyi (palatal click); this is almost certainly the Kaffirised form of an earlier Hotten- tot name. One old Hottentot told me years back that the name meant noisy, rushing, and Kronlein gives the Namaqua word X Kuwi as meaning to make a noise, to roar, and, as the click is the same as that in the Kaf^r name, the three words Kowie, i Qoyi, and | Kuwi may find a meeting place at this river. Another name of Hottentot origin that is of interest is Kny- sna ; it js of interest inasumch as two distinct meanings have been given to the name. It is commonly explained as meaning a fern leaf, or having reference to the great number of ferns growing in the neighbourhood ; but in a paragraph in Dc Kerk- bode*, it is said that the name has reference to the two steep kranzes between which men must pass to the little port inside. The old Hottentots, it says, spoke of a straight down cut as "tny or 'tnaai ; and because the two kranzes run straight down into the sea, as if they had been cut off with a huge knife, the place was named l)y the Hottentots 'tnaai 'tnaai, each part having an initial click. This derivation would apj^ear to be the more likely, judging from the fact that the wilder features of nature seemed to impress these peoples before any other. It would have been much more satisfactory, however, if the writer could have given the particular click used, it might then have been possible to trace the name with some degree of certainty to its origin. I can only hesitatingly suggest that the name may be connected with the Hottentot word ! gao || na, meaning, to cut off. There is a curiously-shaped mountam on the railway between Rosmead and the Stormberg known as the Thebus Berg. Many of the resid^'iTts of the neighbourhood, if asked the meaning of the name, will direct your attention to the box-like shape of the mountain, and ask if any name could be more appropriate. It is, say they, the exact reproduction on a magnificent scale of an old-fashioned tea-caddy (D. theebus). Others will tell you that the mountain was known originally as the " Phtebus Peak " ; that the original diagram of the farm, which was at one time in * November, 26th. foi^. IJO CIRIGIN OV CERTAIN SOUTH AFRICAN PLACK JNAMKS. a local office, bears the name Phoebus, and that the mountain was so called because it is the first point in that locality to catch the light of the rising sun, and that Thebus is a corruption of Phnebus. But when one finds on Lichtenstein's man ^hat this and the neighbouring mountains are marked as the " Taay Bosch Mountains" (Taaibos, RJnis oborota) , c[uite another derivation is at once suggested, and a derivation that one cannot help think- ing is a more likely one than those iireviously mentioned. Without venturing to assume that the derivations suggested above are in every case indisputable, it may be pointed out that there are other South African Place-Names, the origins of which might possibly be elucidated by a little careful research, which are at present somewhat of a mystery, e.g., Ceres. I have neither found nor heard anything that could be regarded as definite or conclusive as to its origin. Three dififerent deriva- tions have been suggested : ( i ) Ihat it was the name of a vessel which was wrecked in Table Tay. and that the name was trans- ferred to the place by some person who was in some way inter- ested in both the vessel and the place. (2) That the name was given by some patriotic Scot from the neighbourhood of Ceres, in Fifeshire. (3) That it is one of the few classical names to be found in our South African nomenclature, that the place was named after Ceres, the goddess of agriculture and fruits. One could wish that the last suggestion were the origin of the name as here applied, the appropriateness of which, for so fruitful a locality, would be at once apparent. Is it too much to hope that this brief enquiry into some of the puzzles of our South African Place-Names may evoke some- what of the interest in this interesting and instructive subject which it deserves? SOAII-: PROBLEMS OI- I'liVSlCAL CONTINUITV. Bv Rev. Sii)M-v Ri:ai) Welch, B.A.. D.D.. Ph.D. In modern science and pliilosophy the word " continuity " nas asstniied an importance hardly dreamed of b>' writers of nfty years ago. Its general meaning has been that of a certain [)ersistence, whether of movement or of being, through succes- sive stages or successive transformations. When theories of evokition were most popular in scientific circles, the persuasion of the existence of some kind of continuity crystallised into a conviction, often held \t'r\- dogmatically, that there was a greater uniformity in nature than it was ever possible to prove. But to-dav continuit)- is looked at more from the standpoint of the separate sciences which occupy the intellectual powers of men. In biology we discuss the continuity of life (biogenesis), of cells, of germ i:)lasms. and of variation through -^mall and con- tinued increments in one direction. Psychology sees shadows of the continuum in the operations of the human mind; not only in the continuity of con.sciousness, which some have regarded as the objective background out of which the more specialised processes (^f the mind are elaborated, but also in the motor- continuum, which is the ])hysica] counterijart of the constant readiness to act, and the memory-continuum, which is sometimes supposed to be integrated by means of the movements of atten- tion. And even the mathematicians claim to have discovered a vubtle attribute of the continuum, whicJT had escaped notice until the seventies of the last century, and was revealed b\- the acute labours of two German scholars, G. Cantor and Dedekind. who were Avorking independently. Lastly, Pragmatism has given con- tinuity an extraordinary extension and a new life, making it the basis of all i)hilosophv. But at the root of all these new connotations of the word lies the ancient and elementary meaning that it has always had for mankind — the unbroken line, or surface, or volume, that can be seen or felt. \"ery early Aristotle gave this subdivision of a categorv a ])hilosophical definition, which was a commonplace of Luropean philoso])hy for many centuries, in the Latin form in vogue with the Scholastics : Continua quantitas est ciijus partes ad iinum communein tennimim c<>i>"l''intiir. It goes without saying that stich a vague definition lent itself to various senses. But its most lucid exposition is to be found in one of the minor philosophical works of the great Aquinas,* which we may thus translate : We must iniagint' a iiidvinji point ( whicli is tlie indivisible in a line) which hy its motion produces the line, the mcA-ing I'ne produces a super- * " Logice Summa.' C. ill. As far as 1 know, no EngKsli translation of this work exists. 17-2 .S(;MK I'ROiiLli.M.S ()]•■ I'M \ SUM. CONTINUITY. ficies, a moving superficcs produces a l)ody, and a moving " now " pro- duces time. Tiiese things lieing so produced and imagined, though indeed they do not so talsc place in reality, we grasp the aforesaid defini- tion. For if a moving point produces a h'ne, all the parts of the line an- united hy the point. And since in every i)art of tb.e line we can in this way imagine a point, to which apart from all other considerations any other particle is constantly related, hence the line is called continuous. Yet this fundamental, and apparently simple, idea of con- tinuity is full of dialectical difficulties for the philosopher. The most ancient of the prohlems of physical continuity is one which still puzzles the logicians. Is the continuum in physics a reality, or just a delusion of the senses? More than 2,400 years ago Zeno of h^lea appears to have i)Ut forward a series of argument.^ that comljated the reality of motion and multiplicity. What Zeno's personal sentiments were W'e cannot now discover, since the only records of his ojHnions are in the words of hostile critics — Plato and .Vristotle. But one of his alleged arguments deals a clever blow at the very notion of continuity. It is the well-worn paradox of Achilles and the Tortoise, which every novice in " Logic "' has at some time set liimself to answer. .Vnd the sophism has received a new lease of life in our day on acct)unt of the respectftil agreement with which it has been revived liy Bergson and his followers. Let us suppose, Zeno might liave said, that there is such a thing as continuous fjuantity, say a racecourse where Achillea, the cham])ion runner, shall race with the tortoise. Give the latter the least possible advantage of a start in the race. Every time that Achilles reaches the ])oint wliere his slow cotiipetitor is, the latter will have moved on a little further. True enough, the tor- toise will have gained less and less over Achilles ; but since, t'.i hypothcsi couununi all continuous s]x-ice is infinitely divisible, it will take Achilles an infinite time to win the race, i.e.. he will never win it. And all because yoit have sitpposed an absurd thing — that continuous (|uantit}' is a real and not an imaginary thing. It is, in fact, a conflict of intellect and imagination, and one must check the fancy by the straight rules of Logic. Perhaps it might be better to overhaul the logical apparatu.> of the argument, in order to make stire that everythintr is quite in accordance with reason. It is ([uite clear that at no possible point postulated in the premises of this jjlausible argitment can Achilles overtake the tortoise, and, on the other hand, there is an infinite number of such points postulated. Outside infinity. where is one to find new i)oint> to save the credit of .\chilles? The most coniplete reply to this accumulation of sophisms that I have seen, was given by Mr. C. D. Broad.* two years ago. He begins b\- pointing out that you have not necessarily ex- hausted all the points in a series, because you take an infinite number of them. You might, e.g., take an infinite number of even numbers, and leave the etjually infinite number of odd num- bers. It is true enough that at no point given in the construc- * In Mind. April, 1913, S0M1£ PROBLEMS OF Pin-.SKAL CONTINUITN'. I73 tion of Zeno's argument can Achilles and the tortoise meet. But the possible points of meeting are by no means exhausted by thinking of the points where the tortoise stops before it is over- taken. Outside the large number of such points there may be one or more where the tortoise is actually overtaken. The whole argument is vitiated by the implicit refusal to consider such a point possible. This can best be illustrated fsays Mr. Broadj liy considering a series of numbers instead of one of points, and the real relation of "greater than" instead of that of " lieyond.'' Consider the series whose general term is 2 — — — — - where 11 can l)c any integral value including o. It is clear That its first term is i. It is further clear that it has an infinite (i.e., indefinite) number of terms. Finally, 2 is greater than every term of the series. Hence if we had an analogous proposition to that assumed by the supporters of the Achilles, we should have to say: "2 is infinitely greater than I, for it is infinitely greater than every term of an infinite series whose first term is i." Tlie obvious absurdity of this shows the absurdity of the implicit premises without which the Achilles cannot draw its con- clusions. There is, therefore, no sound reason to hold that our imagination deceives itself or contradicts the higher judgment of reason in holding that the continuum is both a reality and in- finitely divisible. But I am inclined to be grateful to Zeno for the worry that he has caused all the philosophers by ineans of this ingenious argument. He has taught us to sound some of the hidden depths of simple concepts. Or, to put it in the words of Mr. Wm. James* Zeno. Gives a dramatic character to llie difficulty inherent in understanding intellectually any phenomenon whatsoever of continuous change. The difficulty applies not only to continuous change, but to every species of continuous quantity. But when we Ijcgin to probe into the nature of physical continuity, we are faced with many of the special difficulties of the infinite. If the continuum were a reality, we are told by the old Greek sophist, you would require an infinite time to traverse it. For it can be divided into an infinity of points ; and no matter how small the period of time required to pass one of these i:)oints, the time required to pass the whole series would be infinite. Which is absurd : and so also is the notion of con- tinuity into which the eye and the finger decov us. The solution of this purely logical knot is nearly as old as the original difficulty. Aristotle, i who ])reserved the contuidruni, has also furnished us with the simplest solution of it: "Now it is not possible to touch things infinite in regard to number in an infinite time, but it is possible to touch things infinite in regard to divisibility; for time itself is also infinite in this sense. So that, in fact, we go through an infinite (space") in an infinite * Article on "The Philosophy of Bergson." in Hibbcrf .Journal. April, jgcq. t" Physics," 6 [2]. 174 SOME PRor.LEMS OF IMINSICAL CONTINUITV. (time) and not in a finite (time), and we touch infinite things with infinite things, not with finite things." Hence, if it could really be proved that the continuum is infinite because it is infinitely divisible, it would follow for the same reason that all time is similarly infinite. The two difficulties would cancel one another. For there is no intellectual difficulty in measuring infinite distance by infinite time. Yet this only brings the difficulty back to us in a more modern form. If we agree to think of continuous (juantity a:, an infinite series of terms, we are faced with all the confusion that arises when we try to imagine what an infinite number i> like. It is no (|uestion of imagining a series which begins in sight and travels beyond our ken. The infinite series which constitute a definite space of some continuum are all before us at the same time. A most ingenious attempt has recently been made by Mr. Bertrand Russell* to give an ade([uate answer to these queries by means of a new theory of infinite numbers. He finds the root of the difficulty in the common notion that we must be able to count a number. "If you set to work to count the terms in an infinite collection, you will never have completed your task" (p. t8i). But this possil)iHty of counting is not essential to the reality of number. We know many finite collections, such as " mankind," without being able to count the whole collection one by one ; and so, too, infinite collections " may be known by their characteristics, although their terms cannot be enumerated." After this preliminary statement Mr. Russell sets out to^ establish what he calls his positive theory on infinity. The need of it arises, or appears to Mr. Russell to arise, from the emergence of infinite numbers in the arithmetic of the continuous. The supposed difficulties of continuity all have their source in the fact tliat a continuous scries must have an inlinite number of terms, and the\ are in fact difficulties c( ncerning inlinit\ . Hence in freeing the infinite from contradiction, we are at the same time showing the logical possibility of continuity as assumed in science.! " What is a number?" Mr. Russell asks. If we count out a certain number of objects, their number is commonly thought to be that of the last object reached in consecutive order. But, says Mr. Russell, that is only true for finite numbers. Where infinite numbers are concerned, counting, even if it were practically possible, would not be ii valid method of discovering the number of terms in an infinite collection, and would in fact give different results according to the manner in which it is carried out. Hence he calls our attention to two differences, which he discerns, between finite and infinite numbers. The latter have a property of " reflexiveness " which the former have not, and" * ■' Our Knowledge of the External World." Lecture \'I1, pp. 18^-208 t"P. 15.=. 60ME i'KUULEMS OF PHYSICAL C( )NTIN L^l 1 ^ . 175 conversely, tinite numbers are " inductive," whilst infinite are not. A reflexive number he detiues as one which is not increased by the addition of I ; " inductive " numbers are all those that can be reached by successive additions of i. Beyond these are all the infinite numbers. The first of the infinite numbers has no immediate predecessor, be- cause there is no greatest finite number ; thus no succession of steps from one number to tlie next will ever reach from a finite to an infinite one. and tile step-by-step metliod of proof fails.* When we have realised the existence of these properties of number, we discover, if Mr. Russell judges correctly, that the supposed contradictions of infinite series are really only shocks to our ])rejudice, not to sound logic. But all this necessitates a new definition of " number," which Mr. Russeil claims to be the work of a great mathematical genius, Gottlob Trege of jena. There nnist be no counting in Mr. Russell's " number," as is obvious from w^hat has been said. In practical life two collections have the same number of terms when there is a one-one relation between all the tenns of one collection and those of another. There is a certain similarity between number and colour. " The number of terms in a given class is defined as meaning " the class of all classes that aie similar to the given class." This definition is held to have the supreme merit of showing that it is not physical objects, but classes or the general terms by which they are defined, of which numbers can be asserted. It must be admitted that Mr. Russell feels the full force of the instinctive oreiudice that "ill '^reet this definition; people will be at first inclined to resent its oddity as well as the peculiar behaviour of inlinite numbers. But Numbers, in fact, must satisfy the formul.T of arithmetic; any indu- bitable set of objects fulfilling this requirement may be called numbers. So far. the simplest set known to fulfil this requirement is the set intro- duced by the above definition. In comparison with this merit, the question whether the objects to whicii tlie definition applies are like or unlike the vague ideas of numbers entertained 1)y those who cannot give a definition is of very little importance. From these last sentences hardl\ anyone will be found to dissent, if the implied facts are accurate. It is undeniable that a definition of number must satisfy the formul?e of arithmetic. But where the formulae themselves are open to some doubt and discussion, no convincing theory can be built merely upon one interpretation of a debated theory. And here Mr. Russell seems to have had an experience like to that of the Pythagoreans narrated by himself. These philo- sophers held that " things are numbers," and they apparently conceived the continuum as a series of measurable atoms with empty space in between. But unfortunately for this philo- sophical system, Pythagcjras discovered the proposition that the sum of the s([uares on the sides of a right-angled triangle is * P 197 1/6 SOMli PROBLEMS OF PHYSICAL CONTINUITY. equal to the square on the hypotenuse. When he came to consider the case of a right-angled triangle with two equal sides, he found himself face to face with the hard fact that the dia- gonal and either of the sides were incommensurables. For a system of philosophy which placed the essence of the universe in a numerical relation, it was fatal to find two things which refused to be expressed by any possible ratio of numbers. In a similar way, Mr. Russell takes it for granted that the collection of possible points in any continuum must form a num- ber. But obviously the number of these points cannot be obtained by piling i upon itself, no matter how often the opera- tion mav be repeated. Our ordinary numerals are quite incap- able of expressing this number, because we can always imagine something beyond the largest assigned numeral. This means that no " finite " number can meet the case. " Irrational " numbers have long been used in arithmetic in order to indicate the ratio of incommensurable lengths. Acceptinj4 the view that a length is composed of points, the existence of incommensurahles proves that every finite length must contain an infi- nite number of points^ The property of being unable to be counted is characteristic of infinite collections, and is a source of many of their paradoxical qualities. So paradoxical are their qualities that until our own day they were thought to constitute logical contradictions.* But what reason is there to assume that the incommensurable is a real number, and not rather a symbol of something that cannot be expressed in numbers? A French inathematician of note, C. A. Laisant,t waxes indignant that anyone should question whether the ntmiber \' 2 exists. Autant se demander si 2 existe, je sais bien ce que c'est que 2 arbres. 2 anes ou 2 kilometres ; mais 2 tout seul, comme nombre abstrait, n'existe qu'a I'etat de creation du cerveau et de signe representatif. De meme \/2 a ime existence pareille, c'est un signe visible, qui represente une notion nettement definie ; c'est la traduction precise d'une quan- tite concrete, si je I'applique au metre pour unite, puisque je sais construire la longueur -^2. La seule difference, c'est que je ne pourrai appliquer le symbole d'un nombre incommensurable qu'a des grandeurs continues par essence, aussi bien que je nc peux appliquer le symbole d'une fraction qu'a des quantites divisibles. But it is stretching the language of arithmetic too far to say that V^ is the exact translation of a concrete c|uantity. It certainly may represent a definite length in continuous quantity, but in the discrete mediuin of numbers it can never be fully and accurately defined. The comparison with fractional terms will not do. Fractions define the divisibility of objects in numerical terins that leave nothing to the imagination ; but when you have exhausted your physical endurance in defining \f2 in terms of numerals, you still have room for enquiry. Ought we not rather to say that the incommensurable num- ber is a mathematical convention which symbolises a physical experience with regard to the " continuous " — i.e., that you can * P. 164. t" La Mathematique," p. i^. SOME PROBLEMS OF PHYSICAL CONTINUITY. IJJ go on dividing it for ever approximating to the actual value of V2? The two processes are parallel, but the discrete medium of arithmetic is not flexible enough to express all that can be put into the continuous line. The mathematician is in fact deceived by the analogies of the physicist and the metaphysician. The scientist deals with . continuity as it strikes the senses in rcrmn natura ; the meta- physician is free to consider all its fundamental aspects. Both can appeal to the possibility of an infinite (i.e., indefinite ) num- ber of points in the actual lines they perceive ; though they all confess that no available instrument has helped them, or can help them, to produce the infinite series of points, as distinct parts of the continuum, in the way that the microscope breaks up a uniform surface of some sea dust into organic animals. Mathematics can define the continuous only by means of the numbered points wdiich it is able to postulate as the starting places of its researches. The vital factor in the definition of the mathematical continuum is that it contains i)oints arranged in a certain order. The analogy of the other sciences would indicate that these points are infinite in number. But this infinity (in the sense of " indefiniteness ") cannot be turned into an infinite number, with mathematical precision, until the possi- bilit}' of " counting " such an infinity is shown. To point to " irrational " numbers (numbers which cannot be enumerated) is not so much a proof of the need of postulating the existence of the infinite number as an indication that certain aspects of physical continuity cannot be rationally represented in arithmetic. And this is perhaps only a particular instance of the warning that the great French philosopher and mathematician, H. Poin- care,* gives as to the limits of mathematical speculation. L'esprit a la faculte de creer des symboles, etc'est ainsi qu'il a con- struit le continu mathematique, qui n'est' qu'un s\'steme* particulier de synilioles. La puissance n'est limitee que par la necessite d'eviter toute contradiction; mais l'esprit n'en use que si I'experience lui en fournit une raison. The reason in this case would seem to be the need of ex- pressing mathematically the fact that there is no arithmetical equivalent for certain aspects of experienced continuity. For whilst mathematics has done much to lessen the logical diffi- culties of physical continuity, especially during the last fifty years, it has its own limitations, which cause it to need help from the other sciences and from practical experience, in order to express the full meaning of the continuous. * ■' La Science et I'Hypothese," p. 40. C NATIVE AGRICULTURE. By Rev. John Robert Lewis Kingon, M.A., F.L.S. The Transkeian Territories, occupying the Eastern portion of the Cape Province, cover an area of i8,i8i square miles, and support a total population of 908.706 persons. We have, there- fore, 49.98 persons per square mile, of which only 1.08 are European — or. to put it another way. 12.80 acres of land are available per head of population. In making a study of Native agriculture, one is impressed not only with the magnitude of the possibilities, but also with the extent of the actualities. We are too accustomed to think of the Natives as unjjrogressive and lazy, and do not realise how much in the aggregate is produced by them in spite of their wasteful and comparatively crude methods, nor, for that matter, how considerably would the production rise if better methods were introduced. In any case, so vast a source of employment (especially in conditions so uniquely favourable) should be carefully fostered and developed in the Ijest interests of the State no less than in the interests of the Natives them- selves ; and, moreover, if better methods of agriculture were employed, fewer labourers would l)e retjuired to do the work, and so, more would be set free to engage in other lields of production, while the land would become capable of support- ing a larger population than at present is the case. Before, however, we deal with Native agriculture in its varying aspects, let us see how much land is available, without which there could be no agriculture. This is hardly the occasion to enter into a discussion on land in its relation to the Natives — whether it is to be dealt with so as to secure greatest productiveness, or whether there is a higher and greater use involving the comfort and ])eace of those individuals who live upon it. In these days, when utility is regarded so highly, it may perhaps be pertinent at least to enquire whether, under certain given circumstances, productiveness should not be sacrificed, so that the ease and enjoyments of the occupants may remain undisturbed. With these questions, however, we are not now concerned, for our field of enquiry is confined to the amount of land available for agricultural purposes, and the use to which it is being put. The total extent of the Transkeian Territories (including Pondoland) amounts, roughly, to 5^ million morgen (about 11 million acres). The land lying fallow, together with the pastoral and agricultural land, amounts to some j^, 096, 6^:9 morgen (about 6^ million acres), the greater part of the remainder being made up of mountain areas impossible of use in these ways. In the surveyed districts this land is held on individual title, but most is still held under commvmal tenure, as will be seen bv consultino- Table A. NATf\i-: ac;ruulture. 179 QJ »0 L— >* C~. ^ — ' L-CNOQaoenco 0;r5i0t~--ix>0r-i CO C2 CO CO CO 0 CD rH ^3 10 >£l T-H 0 0 CO tti(M'*^L—'« lOQO-^THCO^rt'-H t- 0 tH — ■*! t- CO CM 0_ t- 0 "O^ 00 0^ CO TH 0^ 05 2C' r- TJI (M t- CC_^ >0 CQ^ 04 rH ^ rH CM cm CO CO q; .-1 "M r-i tH ^H 1— 1 rH f^ T— 1 T— t T— 1 ^ n3 fe c xi 0 tC CO 00 CI CN (M COCl'^rHOOO OOIL— -ccooo^oo CO 00 Tt< CM rH CO -* ^' (X) t- 01 0; 05 CN 0 C0»00^— 1— ' OCNCOCDCMi— 10302 02 >0 rH t~ CM 10 t^ y—i 'cS CO t:~ L~ ■<*< t- 0 10 t- 00 tM__ CD 0_ ■* CM 03 C0_ C<1_ rH_ CN rH CO rH rH CO a u rH H 33 t- 00 lO CO l« 00 -*lOT!XTXt- CO*< CO CO Tii 10 CO' cr^ 10 co r-1 ^^ ,-1 ,_( ,-H ro 0 I's 0 0 (M 00 "O >-i OCOOXlCCO XOOLOOOtMCMCO -H CD CD —' CO CO 0 Tt( "3 (-. oi L^ CM CT5 00 i-H m CMOO— lt~(MCO CMCDCO — iOi-ItH^ :;2 C2 — X CO t- CM X ■♦a 2 M 0_ C- t-^ CO 02 lO COiOt^CDi— lr CO i-T CO^ of lO -^ CO CO co" "m" — T lo' cm" l-^ cm* co' qo" lO lO CM 0 CD — 1 C0~ 00 "^S rH (M r— -H CO rH Soo ■ri -j-i ir. '' 'j: 'S: c/:(y:c/}cfic/;c/5 xc/}xc/:c/3c/:c/:a^ - ~ ""' ^ ""- ^ "3 ^0 != U (U U (U 1) >H>H>^>H>- >H>.>H>H>.>, >, >H >H >H >. >H >. >H ZZ>.^>-Z>H J5 0 0 ^'B M 13 (P >> CD > cfi X 1 c« X : 1) 3 'a. M ►-H 5-^ 0 t~ 00 (M 02 -tM COOOCOCOlOO "OiCt— lOt-03C0C0 CO 0 rH -O X 05 00 CO 02 t- CO 10 ^ CN COCOO0"OCOt~ iO^XCMcOO-*t_> CO X CM rH ^ 0 00 3^ CJ2 0 00_ CM -ai_ CO C-; C0__ OOi-i^cO-H -tiXiOXcOrH^ocD CO t~ ^^H 0 CD lO 00 r—i 0 0 CO" CD 0 .-T aS — " 10" oo" CO lo" CD x" 0" "o" t-^ CO cm" 10 -n" l~ lo" -#' co' C-^ t-" of (M CO CO CO "M -* (>ICOCOCO-^--l COi-Ht-hcMCOCOCOCO -tH CM CM -# CO 00 rH 00 i TS ^-. (-• CO .H 1 ■3 u a> .. 0 is rt X» •• g rt .- J:i > C -r .« t- >: t, -3 TO "^ b U u ^ .. •^ ^'5 3 .:; iS :£ 3 M re J? 5 wa:<^DX §SSS; •-^ 1— ( t— t 4-H •>■ do o 05 o CD CD oT a. o 3 w CD o t-^ 00 o o> i) «i c 0 3 O l8o NATIV1-: AGRICULTURE. In the course of our investigation let us first turn aside for a brief consideration of the question of the communications in relation to the agriculture of the Territory. I. Communications. Naturally the communications of any country and its geographical ]josition affect very closely the commerce - and agriculture. Where communications by rail and road are good we may expect the flow of exports and imports to increase steadily, demand reacting upon supply, and supply creating demand ; and conversely, where there are few railroads and main roads, and little coming and going, there we would expect a sluggish, heavily moving, trade of small relative dimensions. Where the transport is dependent upon oxen, anything in the nature of cattle disease on a large scale, or badly made, badly rei)aired roads, or even a mild drought which affects the pasturage along the road, increases the difficulties already pre- sented by the great distances, and by causing a rise in })rices, limits the exports and imports, and jirevents the development of trade. In some lands canals have been used with great success for the transport of goods from place to place, but in the Transkei no voice has yet been heard urging the building of canals. Practical difficulties, such as the conformation of the land and the supply of water, are very great. The future may yet prove that they are not too great. But canals were first built where the conditions were most suitable, and at a time when the motor had not as yet emerged from the visions of the inventor. It seems that the usefulness of the motor as a vehicle of transport is not yet realised, and that we may look forward to develo])ments that will revolutionise our present ideas on the subject. In the census returns of iqii it was gravely recorded that there were three motors in the Territories. I have been told 1)>' the pioneer who first introduced the motor into the Transkei that his car was fitted with solid tyres. To-day, nearly every village has at least one garage, and mam of the larger places have at least two and three garages. Cape carts and other horse-drawn vehicles are almost obsolete. It is surprising how many old colonists now regard the orthodox six miles an hour in their cart as a speed impossibly slow, and have betaken themselves to the more expensive but speedier motor. In this motor invasion of the Transkei we see, and foresee, an expansion of trade, and an all-round advancement of first importance ; for the Transkei can never go back to the days when all comings and goings from the centre and the west included of necessity the formidable and even dangerous post- cart journey of some 200 miles to the railway at Kei Road. Already in the south-west the railway has been constructed across the Kei River, and has, in fact, penetrated to the Bashee. NATIVE AGKICULTUkE. ie \\as used by the natives in the cultivation of their lands. .Vgriculture was relegated to the women and sla\es, while the men engaged in hunting and warfare, never in agriculture. In any case, the tribes wan- dered al)()Ut a good deal, sometimes attacking others, and at other times repelling attacks, and conse([uently, in the uncer- tainty, cultivation was neglected. The Rev. William Shaw, in his book'-'' published in i860, says that Multitudes perished b}- famine, while in stmie cases small tribes became cannibals, in consequence of the impossibility of obtaining the ordinary means of subsistence. There is reason to believe that during a period of about 18 years, terminating in 1835. "ot less than one-half of the entire population of the inmiense region described above was destroyer] by these terrific native wars. Chaka, chief of the Amazulu. living west of Delaooa Bav, trained his hordes and fought east, west, north, and south, over an area of more than 100,000 square miles. From Delagoa Bay to the Gri([ua country near Orange River, and from the Barutzee country in the north to that of Amampondo on the south, was one scene of war and desolation — i.e., 1820-1835, abotit. At this time, then, the women sowed the seed, and removed the weeds from the " cultivated '" land, and as the men were away all day hunting, or engaged in warfare, it fell to the lot of the w^omen to protect the iields from the depredations of The Storv of Mv Mission." 184 NATIVE AGRICULTURIi. animals and birds. In due course they reaped the harvest, and threshed it by a simple process of beating out the grain with sticks, winnowing it in the wind, and storing it for fuUu-e use in the curious mealie pits dug out under the cattle kraals. In this way the mealies could be stored for a cunsi(lcral)le time dry and free from the weevil. But with the advent of the British Government inl > these territories, there came greater security of tenure, and there was a disposition to take greater care in the cultivation of the fields. Mr. Shaw gives us a delightful little picture* of the introduction of the plough in his district. He writes : — When we introduced the plougli at Weslcyvillc. there was no small stir among great numbers of the people, who. although they had heard of such an implement, had never seen it in operation The people looked on with great surprise, and followed up and down the field, uttering all manner of exclamations expressive of their astonishment. One chief. " clapping his hands," shouted to a man on the hillside : " This thing that the white i)en]>le have brought into the country is as good as ten wives." The introduction of the plough at once created a landmark in the history of native agriculture, for the plough was drawn by oxeti. and no woman was allowed to work with the cattle, and conse(]uently all the ])loughing was done by the men. But the other work, such as hoeing and reaping, remained in the hands of the women. The invariable crops were Kafir corn, mealies, and pumpkins. Writing in 1822, the Rev. John L"am])bell. of the London Missionary Society, who had made extensive travels in South Africa, says : — Though fond of potatoes and other European articles of food, they have not been prevailed on to raise them. i)ecause to plant such vegetables would be an alteration or an encroachment ui)on the old system, which they venerate as established by their "ii'isc forefathers: . . . they sup- pose that by planting them they would be rendered unclean, and the fallin'.^ of rain be prevented. This attitude has been, and remains to-day. the root cause of the unprogressiveness in native agriculture, and anything done to destroy this attitude and to prove to the native that he has yet mucli to learn will be of inestimable value in his own in- terests, and in the interests of the Union of South Africa. Even apart from this aspect, there remains also the fear of being " smelt out " by the witch doctors as unclean. In the old days men thus " smelt out " were killed, together with their wives and children, so that the bad seed might be exterminated. The huts also were burned, and the cattle confiscated by the chief. To this day this very process is carried out in secret. .Seldom does information come into the hands of the luagistrate. In Tsolo District alone at least two well-authenticated cases are known to me. and I doubt not there are others; and the manner of Of>. cif.. pp. 419--120. NATIVE AGRICULTURE. 185 death is so awful that 1 am not surprised that the natives avoid, as far as they can, even the possibihty of an accusation of the kind. As we shall deal at a later stage with the influence witch- craft has upon the methods of native agriculture, let us leave this aspect for the present, in order to consider these methods as thev are employed to-day by the mass of the people ; and the first point is the manner of ploughing. Even so simple an instrument as the i)lough is not properly understood by the red Native, and conse(juently, instead of ploughing his fields properly, he succeeds only in scratching the surface. The seed is sown by broadcasting, and at one and the same time he sows mealies, Kafir corn, pumpkins, beans, and sugar-cane. The seed is ploughed in. and what escapes the plough is pressed in by hand, or with the aid of the hoe. The harrow is used only in rare cases. The seed is selected with some care, but the tjelection is not made on scientific lines, nor are they careful to reject the less mature grains at the extremities of the mealie cobs, usually eliminated by the process of " tippitig " and " butting." Year after year the same crops are gathered from the fields without the slightest attem])t at rotation, and most of the fields must by now be quite exhausted. In this connection one wonders whether there is no j)ossibility of securing the same result by simultaneous crops carefully chosen as one would by a rotation of crops. Evidently the genius of the small agri- culturist and his immediate reipurements preclude the adoption of rotation, and if the same, or even approximately the same, result were attainable, it would make a wider appeal to the people than the more scientific course. The present broadcast- ing method of sowing also tends to a haphazard distriljution oi" the seed both as to position and depth. Consequently, we get one plant interfering with the growth of another by overshadow- ing it, or by taking the nourishment out of the soil away from its roots, and in other ways. If the seed were drilled in. there would be a much better result, for the relative distances between the plants would be corrected, and^the seed would have a uniform depth; and, in addition, it would make a big difference in the amount of labour necessary in hoeing the ground. The introduction of better methods in this direction alone would make a great difference in the production. For one thing, the crops would stand the drought better, and if rotation were employed, there would be a notable difference in the resistance <>f disease. One result of the misfortunes which have befallen the efforts of Native agriculturists in recent years has l:)een the partial elimination of the poor mealies. Where the same mealies are used from vear to \ear for seed, there necessarilv is deteriora- l86 NATlVli A(,;RK L'LTlRi:. tion of type, and the Natives have for a long time been using their mealies in this way. When the great drought of 1912 came, large ([uantities of mealies were brought in from other parts of the country, and the introduction of fresh mealies has been continued every season since on account of the unusual series of droughts which have afflicted the country. All this has tended to improve the type of mealies produced by the Native. It will probably come as a surprise to many to hear that to this day it is customary for the heathen Natives to fear lest their fields should be bewitched by some neighbour. They still go down and burn certain medicines^ a collection of grotesque and fanciful odds and ends, in the middle of their fields, in order to prevent their fields being bewitched, or the worm from injuring their mealies, or the birds from eating their Kafir corn. Each man seems to have his own special " medi- cines," and he relies on these to ensure a good harvest. One may even say that in their view a good harvest is due to tlie discovery of some efl:ective " medicine "" rather than to proper cultivation. But experience speaks in loud tones. Already witchcraft is practised secretly rather than openly, and their belief in its power, while still a force to be reckoned with, may be described as passing. The growing class of school Kafirs laugh at the old heathen ways, and many of the heathen themselves doubt the efficacy of their sacrifices and medicines. Nevertheless, these are likely to linger for long in the Territories as a superstition at the very least; and at j:)resent this must still l)e classified among the old methods of Native agriculture. Where land is unlimited in extent, manuring is not very necessary, and until recent years the land was sufficient to support the population, even though no fertilisers were used and the most wasteful methods were em])loyed. But now we have come to the point wiien an increased i)roduction is a necessity, and the supply of available land having come to an end, it is essential for the people to become familiarised with intensive methods of cultivation. But in other ways, also, the influence of the past has re- mained with the Natives even to this day. As we have alreadv pointed out, the nomadic life tended to the neglect of agriculture, and the people learned to be content with their herds of cattle and goats, which could easily be driven to safety at the first suspicion of hostility. In fact, the old Kafir custom of ox-racing, which is now jjractically extinct in the Transkei, was ])rol)abh- due to a desire on the part of the Natives to train their cattle to hurry along at the first approach of danger. Largely as a result, then, of the strife of early times, the Natives became a ])astoral people, and even now their instincts remain pastoral rather than agri- cultural. N.MIVI-; XGRICULTlKi:. 187 4. !{\(L()srKi-.. dreat care is taken to enchjse a space tor a cattle-fold, but little interest is shown in enclosing their garden land. ( )f course, the communal system — which dates further hack than the tumult which arose less than a century ago — in itself was con- structed for, and by. primitive peoples, who did not wish the Trouble, if indeed thev had the means, of fencing their fields. Their dwellings were built on a given site, usually on the ridges which were not suitable for garden land, and often amongst the stones or in ])laces not readily accessible. Their gardens occu])ied the good land along river banks, in vallevs, and even chosen i)laces on the hillside, the gardens of the community being usuallv grouped together. Their pasture-land included all the remaining area, where the cattle wandered at will. For mutual self-i)rotection. reyT- lations were framed fining severely the owner of cattle which wandered into anyone else's garden, and the gardens themselves were scru]:)ulouslv protected from \-iolation."-'' "^A ith this tn' - dition deeply rooted in the Native mind, there has been little tendency to enclose, especially as under communal tenure the land does not become the possession of the individual. He is only given the right to cultivate it. But tlie Transkei i^ now at the transition stage. Several if the districts have alreadx' ])een surveyed, and fields have been given to the Natives on a burdened title. The more backward districts have not yet been surveyed, and these continue under the old communal system. With the completion of this tran- -ition we should see a great revolution in land-enclosure, for already one hears from the surveyed districts that the individual ownership is much ap])reciated. and is working changes in the minds of the ])eople. L'lUil enclosure has become nuich more general, we can hardly exi)ect nmch in the wa\- of accomplishment, and one catuK^t l)Ut ho]:)e that (iovernment will make enclosure of the land a condition of tenure. This is by no means an unreason- able or impossible condition. es])eciallv as in the surveyed districts endless trouble is being caused bv the secret moving, and removal, of the beacons placed by the surve}ors to mark out the allotment. If action is long delayed, whole districts may lie thrown into chaos, and so cause a most serious and regrettable setback in the transition from communal to individual Tenure. * I hclipve the sanctity i,f the j^arden land was maintained in large measure nn accnunt oi the universal fear of witchcraft. It was thought that one man might l)ewitcli another, or hewitch his garden, and if one were found in another's garden, at once the witchcraft cr\' would I)e raised, and the culprit would l)e c'-uelly done to deatli. No one wished to meet his death thus, and sr. eacli "(he r's garfUns were avoided, and even to this (]:\\ are axoided. l88 NATIVE AGKICULTLRK. Nevertheless, it is surprising how much land is enclosed by the Natives in spite of communal tenure. Many kraals have an area enclosed by a fence of sorts — sometimes a good strong wire fence with iron standards, sometimes a stone or mud wall. and sometimes the picturesque aloe. In the census returns for lyii, we tind that a total area of 572,107 morgen was then fenced in, and I do not doubt that the next census will show a remarkable improvement on that figure. ( )ne fact which surprises the observer is the very large number of small ];atches carefully enclosed and carefully tended, in which are grown the supply of tobacco for the kraal. Few kraals now-a-days are without the " tobacco patch." But the vast mass of cultivated land is still on the open field system. 5. Jkki(;.\ti()N. Perhaps the unfortiuiale liaison between " man's work and " woman's work " accounts in part for the unprogressive condition of Native agriculture. When the man has ])loughe(l the held his work is finished. The women of his kraal then enter into and complete his labours by hoeing the field at the apjjropriate intervals.* In norn.ial seasons, at least in some districts, there is no need for anything in the way of irrigation, l)Ut the absence of any elTort in this direction means that when the drought does come the crop is ruined — and this is the bitter ex])erience which the Transkeiau Natives have been having for the last four seasons. The drought of iyi2 is described by the late Chief Magis- trate, in his annual report, as the greatest drought since 1862. The ])eople were brought to the verge of famine. Since then three seasons have ])assed, and all of them yielded but a scanty crop. The ])eople have thns had a ver\- definite lesson, and perhaps where water is abundant there mav be a disposition to irrigate. About one-seventeenth of the land now under cultivation is irrigated. By far the greatest part is irrigated ])y furrows from con- stantly flowing streams, but storage dams and wells are not unknown. Already we have about 362,377 yards of furrow^. and the extent of land irrigated is 10,215 morgen. Apart, however, from furrows and streams, we have othei sources of w'ater which are sufficient to indicate the supply that is available. A number of boreholes have 1)een let down to a depth of 150 feet, anci these give a supply of pure water, most of whicii was used for irrigation jnirposes. Wells and fountains varying in tiuality to a similar extent, Init for the most part supplying * Broadly speaking, three or four weeks are spent in this w(irl< in the spring, and then some two months later; another three or four weeks is spent in tine hoeing. The men sometimes help, for tlieir time is now no longer spent in warfare and hunting excursions, as in 'iklen days. N.\ri\K A(;Kr( uLTrKK. 1S9 good, pure water, are also in use; and last, but not least, we have storage dams artiticially constructed. Some 228 are scattered through the Territories, most of them being con- structed of earth and stone. In the main, however, while it is true that we find some Traces of irrigation in the Transkei, yet, on the whole, the Natives have not discovered the value of assisting nature in its beneficent work. 6. Large Farms. So much has been made of communal tenure that our minds have become accustomed to think of the Natives as peasants rather than farmers on a larger scale. Nevertheless, there are not a few who possess and work farms. In some cases they secured these farms as special grants from Government as a reward for loyalty in the Kaffir wars, but in many cases the more progressive men bought these farms for themselves. In Matatiele district alone 25 farms, of an approximate value of £50.000. are owned by Natives, and in Umzimkuki district we find 50 farms belonging to Natives. It will thus be seen that the Native is capable of working, and does in fact work, farms of some size, that there is already a class of " landed gentry." In our survey, then, of Native agriculture we must realise that, besides the small peasant-farmer who attempts to produce in the main only sufficient food for the requirements of his own family, we have a substantial class, well distributed through the Territories, of large farmers who can. and do, produce large crops. E^xcept. however, in the case of a few individuals, we find that the methods of agriculture still belong to the old order of things. We have already pointed out that the fields arc not enclosed, and irrigation is but little practised by the people. The sugges- tion that the Government should make enclosure a condition of tenure in the surveyed districts, if adopted, would in itself work a revohition. Such a change would be fundamental, and besides making possible the employment of better implements and methods, enclosure would give to the Native a new idea of the ownership of land. These ideas are now very rudimentary, but what a change would result if all the owners of property in the Transkei realised what was involved in ownership — the id^as concerning the values of the land, and of improvements, wastage due to non-improvement, the need for making the most of the limited amount owned* — in a word, revealing to them the duties as well as the rights and privileges of ownership. * The interpretation to them of tlie fact that the amount of availahle land is not unlimited. 190 NAT1VI-: AtiRH La/tUKIi. 7. Agricultural Education. Fhe reality of the danger caused by an increasing population on a limited area of land has been recognised by the Transkeian General Council, and a notable advance has been made to meet the future. In the h.rst place, large farms were acquired at Tsolo, Mqanduli, and Libode, for experimental purposes, and many thousands of jjounds were spent in the ef|uipment and stocking of these places. Reliable experiments are carried out under expert supervision, and above all, the Natives may see for themselves what modern farming means, and ac([uire the best stock at nominal prices. Already a series of experiments is in hand dealing with cotton as a suitable crop for certain Transkeian districts, and so far the results have proved quite satisfactory. Tobacco, t(JO. is being ilealt with, and all manner of (juestions relating to stock-raising. More important still is the establishment of an Agricultural College, under Mr. Sidney G. Butler, at Tsolo. It still is in its infancy, and as yet comparatively few Natives have been attracted to it, but the days of small things cannot continue. .\ sound course of agriculture in all its branches is provided, and the results obtained are astonishing. Courses are ])rovided in agriculture, fruit culture, stock and stock-breeding, elementary economics, elementary entomoU)gy and veterinary science, and the students are taught both the theory and the practice of these subjects. The Agricultural College at Tsolo cannot but be of the highest value to the Natives, especially as they come to understand it better, and their son> are attracted to it. But surely every Native Institution in the country should have such training provided as a part of the regular curriculum, and if they have not been thus ])rovided, it has been because of the cast-iron mould ap])lie(l to the Natives by the Cape Kducatiori Department. The whole educational system has l)een so moulded to produce Native teachers that at present the rank and tile cannot understand the possibility of any other kind of education ! Indeed, it is a serious weakness in our system that the Natives are compelled to accept the school standards of the white race rather than allowed to develop along their own national lines. The two races are different by tradition, origin, and circum- stance, and instead of each being alkjwed to develop along its own lines, the one is arbitrarily compelled to follow the standards of the other. In this paper, however, we are not specially interested in the education of the Native except insomuch as it concerns him from an agricultural point of view. If every district in the Transkei had its own Agricultural College, a great contribution would be made — at great expense — towards the introduction of improved methods in agriculture. But a far greater contribution would be made without anv additional expense by including agriculture as a suliject in the school TRANS. XCl'IONS OF SOCIETIES. iain beinuccess of this plan, it is necessary to make a careful preliminary study. The points to be determined are : — (0) The incidence rate of malaria in the locality. {b) The species of Anophelinse prevalent in the locality. (c) Which of these species are capable of transmitting malaria. (d) What are the life cycle and breeding habits of these species. (c) What are the probable flight ranges of these species under the existing climatic conditions. In connection with the last, and to show the importance of such a stud}'. I might mention that we were ver}- much sur- prised in Panama to discover that the malaria-transmitting Anophcle-> prevalent there travelled more readily against the wind, piovidcd its velocity did not exceed about five miles per hour, than with the wind, as is generally assumed to be the case. The discovery resulted in the saving of considerable amount of money in the drainage and treatment of certain areas. We actually were able to leave untreated considerable areas to the windward of certain villages without in any way influencing the malaria rates of these villages. Having obtained the data outlined above, it should be possible for a competent man to prepare a map on which mos- fiuito-breeding areas of the territory in which the dangerous species of Anophelinse breed would be shown, and to prepare a scheme for effectively treating these areas, together with a reasonably correct estimate of the costs involved. Anopheles-hvetdxng areas vary from flowing streams to marshes the consistency of porridge. Some species breed in fresh water only, and the larvae die out with an apparently insig- nificant admixture of sewage or salt water. Other species will breed in water considerably contaminated with sewage, and in almost pure sea water. Some species breed in small collections of water such as one finds in roof gutters, hollow trees, at the junction of the leaves with stems of such plants as the banana, etc. Each one of these breeding places must be treated in the manner appropriate to the case and consistent with the economical claims of the community, such as the reasonable claims of the agriculturists, the household owners, the gardeners, the power plant owners, potable water reservoirs, the cattle owners, who may object to their watering places being contaminated with PROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES OK MALARIA PKEVKXTION. ly/ chemicals, etc. All these points must be given due considera- tion, and the campaign must be so planned as to secure the maxi- mum of effect at the minimum of inconvenience to the population and damage to property, and at a cost consistent with the re- sources of the people and with the improvement in health, as well as probable increase in land and property values, which may reasonably be anticipated. Filling, various drainage schemes, deforestation, grass cutting, training of stream banks, oiling and treatment with chemicals, all have their proper uses, and all must be considered. (3) The Protection of the Individual against Mosquito Bites. — Under this head come — (a) The ofticient screeninti nt dwellings. (b) Tile catching of inosquit')s within dweUings (t") The nse of mosquito nets over heds. The effectiveness of these measures depends upuii the principle that most bites by infective mosquitos occur at night. The value of these ])rotective measures is in the order I have stated them, but one cannot hope to effectively protect a fixed population by the adoption of either or all of these. At best, they are merely measures of amelioration, and their fields of usefulness are temporary hal)itations, such as camjis. military or civilian, isolated farms and individual households in a com- munity non-progressive enough to delay undertaking public measures for its protection against malaria. A few words in connection with the use of mosquito nets and the screening of houses. I have seen, times without number, nets hung over beds in such a manner that instead of being a protection to the sleepers, they were a menace. It is not suffi- cient to merely drop the net over the bed, on the outside of the frame. The net must be tucked in carefully all around tmder the mattress inside of the bed frame, and the net must be abso- lutely free from even the smallest of tears. It is a fact that mosquitos will enter through a very small ajXM-ture in search of food, but do not seem to be able to find their way out again. On this fact rests the princi])le of most mosquito traps. The bed must be reasonably wide, so that the sleeper would not be fairly certain to lie close to the net and be bitten through it. One must make sure also, before tucking in the net. that there are not mosc[uitos within it. To make a house mosquito-proof requires ver\' careful plan- ning and a good deal of special knowledge. Most houses that are supposed to be mosc[uito-proof are merely mosc|uito traps. A few e>sential points are : — The mosquito gauze must have sufticiently small meshes to prevent mos([uitos from crawling through ; 256 to 324 to the s(|uare inch are usually required, or what are known as 16- and 18-mesh gauze respectively. The exact size de])ends on the prevalent sjjccies of mosquitos. B}- choosing gauze made of pure cop|)er or bronze, and thus securing the maximum of open 198 TROBLEMS AND PRINCIPLES OF MALARIA PREVENTION. space without unduly weakening the fabric, the air space will not he reduced more than about 35 per cent, and that does not matter much even in a tropical climate, provided the ventilation spaces are properly designated and the gauze is kept reasonably clean by brushing. The window screens must be fixed, not of the sliding variety. Experience has shown that sliding screens are seldom kept shut and in a mosquito-proof condition. It is advisable to screen the verandahs, and not the windows only. Verandah screens do not deteriorate as rapidly as window screens, and are thus, in the long run, cheaper. Screenqd venm- dahs also insure greater protection to the household by providing it with a mosquito-proof lounging space for the hot season, and the ventilation of the house is not nearly ?^o much interfered with as when windows only are screened. The house must be carefully examined for openings in the floor, ceiling, ventilators, around chimneys, etc., and all these must be made mosquito-proof. In one-storey houses with straight, short chimneys from fire-places, these should be made mosquito proof by inserting well-fitting panels when the fire- places art not in use. All outer doors must be made to open outwards, must have efficient self-closing devices, and must make a mosquito-proof joint with the frame. wScreened vestibules, or what are generally called " double doors," are necessary only in localities where mosquitos are very al)undant. Mosquito catching, by means of suitable trajis or with the aid of slappers, chloroform tubes, and similar devices, is a very useful measure if systematically carried out. It should be done twice daily — early in the morning and just after sunset. (4) The Protection of the Individual by Medication. — Quinine, when taken regularly in proper doses, is a fairlv efi'ec- tive measure of prophylaxis. It has been applied with success in the malarious part of Italy. Its exact value in eradicating malaria in a fairly large territory is still a debatable matter, but it is unquestionably valuable to the hunter, prospector, troops •campaigning in malarious districts — in other wiiKe the middle of 1914. the Sarcosporidia have come to be regarded by the veterinarians in South Africa as the most important groitp of organisms that may be responsible for disease amongst some of the domestic animals. That this is the case will be comprehended when the results of the recent researches of Professor Hedinger into the disease lauiciektc amongst cattle in South Africa are considered. The Professor holds that the cause of the lesions in the muscular and nerv<3us systems of the cattle that have died of lani:^icktc is considered to be due to the action of the toxin and the presence of parasites in the muscular fibres, which parasites belong to the group of he Sarcosporidia. He thinks that the jM-esence of these Sarcosporidia ex])lain the pathologx', clinical sym])toms, and epizoology of the disease. Can Sarcos])()ridia be the cause of undoubtedly the most troublesome and pt.M-lia])s the least understood of all South .\frican diseases? Can it be true that these parasites arc responsible for the detri- mental effects and financial depression in some of the best stock- raising and cattle-rearing districts? Aioreover, McGowan. of the Koyal College of Physicians' Laboratory, Edinburgh, in his investigations into the disease amongst shee]) called scrapie, makes special reference to its association with sarcosporidiosis. This disease has of late years become widely known in some of the border counties of Scot- land, and has only within the last few years, owing, possibly, to it^ ra\ages and the conse([uent effects on the value of the breeding stock, been more oj^eidy discussed. Of great interest is the fact that both Hedinger and ]\lc(lowan. working on tw(» different diseases (one affecting cattle, the other sheep; one occurring in South Africa, the other in Scotland), arrived at more or less the same conclusions. What raises further interest in this order is the fact that, although Sarcos])oridia are verv common parasites of domestic animals, yet our knowledge of their structure and life history is in a very confused and incomjilete state. Classification . Sarcosporidia are protozoon organisms, and have been generally given a ])lace in the class Sporozoa. However, the jMiylogeny of the Protozoa is still a matter of s])eculation. and to a large extent of i)er.sonal oi)inion. rather than direct obser- vation, k-ven the class Protozoa in light of recent researches ceases to be amenable to strict verbal definition, and it is not surprising that the limits assigned to it have varied at dift'erent times, and are now even debated (Minchin). The modern tendencv is rather to split U]) the vast assemblage into smaller groujx. and to abolish the Sporozoa as a primary subdivision. SAKCUSI'OKIUIA. 20I The class has, however, been retained in deference of custom and convenience. Other points relating to the further grouping" of the Sarcospori(ha in the class Sporozoa will he considered further on. Blanchard proposed to divide the Sarcosporidia into two families, as to whether they are found in the muscles (Miescheria ) or in the connective tissues I Balbiaiia). These two families were recognised as comprising three genera, which were differ- entiated b}' the thickness of the envelojiing membrane or cuticle of the ])arasite. The genus Miescheria inchuled the intra- muscular species surroimded by a thin mcmljrane. and the genus Sarcoeystis the intranuiscular species which had a thick cajisule, penetrated bv fine canaliculi. The genus Balhiaiia comprised the parasites found in the connective tissues, and these had a thin cuticle. These so-called genera are, iKnvever. merely stages in the life history of the same parasite.* Moreover, there is no ground fctr separating the order into Balbiaiia and Miescheria depending on their presence in the muscle fibre, or in the intra- muscu'ar ccninective tissue respectively, since the}' only represent different forms of growth of the sarcocyst.t In old infectious the parasite may have destro>ed the muscle fibre completel}', so tht\t the Miescheria tubes lie in the connective tissue {Miescheria) . To avoid ftu-ther discussion here on the classification, the Sar- cosporidia will be considered an order of the Sporozoa, the order being rejjresentcd 1)\' a single genus Sareocysfis with several species. Ilie following arc some of the principal species that have been recognised 1)\ f the liver and nniscles nf a Sudanese. (c) Balbiaiia inucosc, found Ii\ Pdanchard in the kani^aroo. and in the connective tissue of a Suchniese. (/) Sarcocystis blaiichardi. a parasite of Kurojiean and. Javanese buftaloes. (.e) Sarcocytis ,iiii::c!l(C. found liv i'.alfour (kjij) in the striped muscle of a Ga.zcUa rufifrai's. etc. However, in light of recent researches by \'an Betegh and Doreich (T912), the creation of these different species may not be justifiable, for their researches tend to show that possibly the same sjiecies of Sarcocystis may occttr in a ntmiber of dif- ferent species of animals, and indifferently in birds and mamm;ils. Hosts of the SAucospoRiDrA. In 1843 Miescher discovered in the muscle fibres of the house mouse a peculiar form of parasite, the aggregation of which, in tubular form, were visible to the naked eye. These *Laveran and ^fesnil. + Kvrfram and Van Ratz. 202 SAKCOSPORIDIA. for want of more exact nomenclature became known, as Aliescher's tubes. Herbst afterwards found them in the muscle fibres of the pig (1851). Van Hessling, who in i!S40 , had observed them in the breast muscle of a roebuck, discovered them also in the myocardium of the ox, calf and sheep ;: and Rainey, in 1857, saw them in the muscles of a pig. Since then similar organisms, mostly of microscopic dimensions, have been observed in most of the higher vertebrates, especially tlie mam- mals, e.g., swine, sheep, cattle, goats, mice, rats, monkeys. Inick, deer, camel, dog, cat, rabbit, kangaroo, horses, etc. ; Sarcosporidia have been found in man by Baraban and .Saint Rainey in the vocal cords of an executed criminal, and on another occasion by Hoche in the muscles of a person who had died of tuber- culosis. Kartulis found a sarcosporidium in tlie liver and muscles of a Soudanese. The parasites found by lladden, Klebs, Koch and Eve in the kidney, and by Rosenberg in the nuiscle of the mitrale valve of a woman, are considered ( by some) to be the other instances of sarcosporidiosis in man. \'uillimin thinks that systematic investigation Avould show Sar- cosporidia to Ije a nmcli more common parasite in man than is generally believed. A sarcosporiditun which is parasitic to elks and deer is also said to be capable of infecting nian.'^' No Sarcosporidia are known to be parasitic in the invertebrate hosts of any kind. Occurrence in the Host. In their hosts the Sarcosporidia are tissue parasites occur- ring principally in the striated muscles, but occasionalh" in the unstriated. In a few cases they are found in the connective tissues, but this ap])ears to be a secondary condition, in which the ])arasite living in the muscle filires becomes free from them at a later period. In cattle Professor Hedinger nearly always found these Sarcosporidia exclusively in the muscle fibre^i. and very seldom in the intramuscular connective tissue. In most of the animals that died of laiuzicktc the Fleischer's tube.- were present in nearly all muscles, regularly in the heart and tongue. In sheep and pigs Sarcosporidia have been fotmd in great nttm- bers in the mtiscular layer of the oesophagus, and secondarily at the base of the tongue, muscles of the pharynx, cheeks, neck, abdomen, thorax and other skeleton muscles ; cysts were also being seen beneath the pleura and peritoneum. .\ccording to the above investigators, .Sarcosporidia have also l)een mc" \\\\\\ in other tissues than the sarcous tissue. ■:'/.;■., liver, kidne\. Spores of the Sarcosporidia have often been encountered in blood smears, sometimes in great nmnbers. ever since the exami- nation of blood diseases was commenced at the Laboratory, Pretoria. Cow No. 2.403. that died of poverty at Armoedsvlakte, * Brooks. SARCOSPORIDIA. 203 showed two spores in the spleen smear. In muscle blood smears from 100 carcases (cattle and sheep that died at Armoedsvlakte ) -|0 per cent, showed either sarcocysts or sporozoites, or Iwth. McGowan states that nothing of the nature of a sarcocyst, spore, or a possible derivative from such was ever seen in the l)]<)()d of shoe]) suffering' from scritf^ic. Morphology. As a rule the Sarcosporidia appear to l)e harmless j.arasites which do not make their presence known by any s}-m])t()m> of disease, and can only be detected by post-mortem examination, and often onl}' l)y histological examination. The sarcocysts may present themselves as opaque whitish bodies, usually elon- gated and cylindrical in form, their long axis running with llie long axis of the muscle, enc)'sted in the infected animal, and known commonlv as Fleischer's tubes. They may be distinctly visible to the naked eye. and often very large. Sarcocysts in sheep reach a length of 16 m.m.. while in the roebuck cysts of 50 m.m. in length are recorded. According to some the cysts are yellowish-Avhite in colour, and may varv in size from a millet seed to a hazel nut. with a pus-like contents. Sarcocysts of the mouse, according to Blanchard. is only in the mature state visible to the naked e}e. when it appears as whitish streaks running parallel to the fibres of the voluntary muscles. When teased out of the fresh tissue, these streaks resolve themselves into opaque, thin-walled tul)es, densely packed with crescentic bodies, the so-called sjjoroznites. Balfour in 1012. in the Gasella ntfifrons. described the ATeiscber's tubes as possessed of a fairly thick cuticle ; they measured on an average 4 m.m. in length, and contained the usual sjiorozoites lying in a milk-white and cheesy medium, which could he easily smeared on a slide, and contained what looked like minute crvstals. The Sarco- sj/oridia encountered in certain cattle that had died of lauLciekte and in the sheep that had died of poverty at Armoedsvlakte were not recognisable macroscopically ; cysts as described above were not seen. The Professor gives the size of the very small tubes as 40-68 /u in length ;uul 10-20 /a in breadth. These figures taliate more or less with those of the sarcocysts seen in the muscles of shee]i at .\rmoedsvlakte. Under a higher ])o\vor Sar- cosjwridia appear to be bodies of a complex structure whh a granular ap])earance. The latter is due to vast nmnbers of crescentic-sha])e(l bodies, the so-called sj^ores. sporozoites, sickles, or Rainey's cor])Uscles. lying in clumps or bunches contained in small oval chambers. The chambers are separated from one another by ])artitions. which are contiguous with the enveloiie, which surrounds the Avhole organism. The membrane enclosing the tubes is at first a fine, structureless cuticle, but before long it thickens and becomes channelled by mimerous fine canaliculi arranged for the most part transversely to the long axis of the parasite, but towards the extrenuties directed obliquely, and at 204 SARCOSI'ORIDIA. tlic u\> lying in the direction of the long axis. According lt> Fielnegcr. the striated membrane is not ectoplasm, but altered muscular tissue. Some hold that this cuticle is transversed by tine pores, which are very minute, and not of such a size as to give <»ne the idea that a body of the size of the sarcosporidial sickle or spore could pass throtigh them. As the ])arasite grows it gradually distends and destroys the muscular t"il)re, in which it is parasitic, until linally it is sur- munded merel\- l)y the sarcolemma and sarcoplasm, and drops out into the connective tissue. This, then, is the way in which the intramuscular parasite { Sarcocystis ) becomes the conneciive tissue ]iarasite { Halhiiina ) . .^i'()K]-:s, .Si'(»K()/.()iTi:s, OK l\.\i N i-.n's C(»ri'L'scli-:s. \'ery little is known about the life history of the Sarco- sporidia. and the exact structmx" of the spore is still a matter of dis])ute. More(^)ver, it is ])Ossible that there is more than one kind of s]>ore even in the same species of animal. The lengths of tlie s])ores kw.ve l)een given by dilferent investigators from 4-S- 10-13 /<• •"^'' ''1*-' breadth from 1-2-^^-5 u. lUanchard teased out the cysts of the Sarcocystis imiris, and found tliat the sporozoites exhil)it ])eculiar tuovements when observed in a salt solution in a warm stage, and soon change iheir form slightly. Motih't\- of the spores seem to l)e a feature of some s])ecies. The s])ores are very fragile, and can easily l)e dis- sociated by kee])ing them in a moist clianil)er. or l)y treating them with \er\ dilute acids or alkalis. Its rel;iti\e fragility, the action ot water on it, etc., a]ipears to indicate that the s])ore does n(»t I'epresent the form under which the ]>arasite ])reserves itself in the outer world. Negri. i-"iel)iger, \'an []etgh, 'I'eich- man, believe that the so-called spores of the sarcocysts of the moust-. liorse and shee]) re])ro(lnce themselves by fission, and so are not spores in realitx. ."^ome l)elieve that several Iointed at one end. The distrilnuion of the chromatin is the same in both. ( /) ) In the more elongated form at the pointed end there is a dense mass of chromatin comi:)letely filling in the end. no proto])lasni being visible between the chromatin and this edge of the parasite. This structure would correspond with the i:)olar capsule as described by Taveran and Mesnil in the more complex form of si:)orozoite. At the o]:)posite end is another mass of chromatin, which is not terminal (the nucletis of T.averan). Protoplasm can be clearly seen all rotind it. and the appearance of the chromatin is quite different to that of the other end ; the latter stains dee|)ly and uniformly, the former takes a paler stain, and has more deeply-stained chromatin grains scattered through it. Balfour in 1912, in his description of sporozoites seen in a Gazella riififroiis, sa.ys that when stained with giemsa the above description serves very well, except that the more elongated spore forms in many instances are distinctly crescentic. Also the presence of vacuoles, sometimes small and duplicate, sometimes single, rather large and central, should be mentioned. In the case of the spores stained l)y I.eishman's method the chromatin of the i:)olar capsule was seen to be distinctly granular. Balfour, however, maintains that very different appearance was presented in vital staining with toluedin blue, as employed in the manner described by him in 191 2. This method quickly dififerentiated two very distinct forms of (para- sitic) sporozoites. (a) One was stout, markedlv more rounded at one end than the other, took on a dark blue (^olour. especially at its centre, and in nearly all cases exhibited a large vacuole towards the more pointed end. This vacuole, which in some spores was very large, was not terminal, and between it and the sharper end was an area of cytoplasm, some of \\ hich stained * Minchin. 206 SARCOSPORIDIA. as darkh' as the central area of the spore. The cytoplasm at the blunt end tended to be lighter coloured. (b) The other form was distinctly t)t a crescent shape, and in many cases was very definitely crescentic, possessing ])ointed ends, one of which has, as a rule, a little blunter end than the other. The cytoplasm generally stained a very pale violet colour, in marked contradis- tinction to the deep blue of the stout spores ; at or near the centre were grouped violet-colom-ed granules. In some in- stances the granules were found rather siiattered in the spore cytoplasm. As regard to size, there does not seem to be much difference. According to McGowan ( 1914). if the sporozoites or sickles be emulsified in a to i)er cent, acetic acid solution, deeply tinged with thiom'n IjIuc, a nuiu))ei' i»f imjjortant points can. be observed. In tlie hrst i)lace it will l)e ^-een that a definite capsule surrounds the i)rt)t()plasm of the sickle. Further, b}' the cdjove method the unstained hyaline ca])sule is easily seen by contrast with the stained protoplasm of the ])arasite. Especially is this so at the sharp end of the sporozoite, where a V-shaped space is left between the rounded end of the protoplasm and the capsule. Pdssip.li-: I)K\'KLorME.\'j' Stacks of the Sarcocyst. Theobald Smith found that when muscular tissue contain- ing matured sporozoites was fed to mice, no evidence of any invasion of the muscular tissue could be observed until the forty- iifth (lay. when the smallest parasites were detected. These Avere fusiform in shape, consisting of a delicate structureless membrane, with hyaline contents. As the ])arasite grows and elongates, its substance becomes divided into a number of fusi- form bodies whose long axes are nearly parallel to that of the mother tube. This |)rimary stage of the fusiform bodies is soon followed by another, seen first in the central ])art of the tube. Here the parasite becomes broader and more opaque. In about seventy days after feeding the parasites enter the stage of spore and sporozoite formation, the substance of the jjarasite being made up of relatively large roundish or polyhe- dral masses of a finely granular appearance. These sporoblasts soon break up into the sporozoites, probably eight from each sporoblai^t. Negri was able to infect guinea-pigs with the sar- cocyst of the mouse by feeding them with infected mouse flesh, and found that in the guinea-pig the parasite appeared with different characters from those which it presents in the mouse. Erdmann infected mice with the sarcocyst occurring in sheep. According to Erdmann. the spore germinates in the intestines of the new host, and the first act of the spore is to liberate a toxin, W'hich causes the adjacent epithelium of the intestines to be throw'n off. At the same time Amcebula is set free from the spore, and in virtue of the toxin liberated by the spore, the Amoebula is able to penetrate into the lymph spaces of the submucous coat and establish itself there ; sinmltaneously with the secretion of the toxin the metachromatic grains disappear, and it is suggested that the toxin is contained in these granules. SARCOSPORIDIA. 20/ The liberation of the Anuebula from the spore initiates the first period of development, and is passed in the lymph spaces of the intestine, and lasts some 28 to 30 days. For this reason Sarcosi)()ridia have been classed as belonging to the suli-class Neosp(tridia of the Sporozoa. Minchin says a ty])ical member of the Neosporidia is a parasite of which the life cycle is ini- tiated bv the liberation from the spore of one or more Amoebnlse within the body of the host, in the digestive tract in all known cases. In no case does it remain in the lumen of the digestive tract, but ])enetrates into the wall of the gitt, and in most cases migrates thence into some organ or tissue of the host, where it lives and multiplies actively, being usually at this stage an intracellular parasite. The second period of development begins with the pene- tration of the Amoebulae into the muscle fibre, in which the parasite grows into the Miescher's tube and forms spores. Ac- cording to Negri, the intramuscular development of the parasite begins by the multiplication of the nuclei to about 12. forming a Plasmodium. According to Meischer, the ])lasmodial stage is very characteristic of the subclass Neosporidia ; it represents the princi])al or adult " trophic '' phase of the parasite, and is also the spore-forming ])hase ; and, as the name Neosporidia implies, the production of spores begins, as a rule, when the Plasmodium is still young, and continues during its growth. Further, Negri holds that the plasmodium next becomes divided u]). in parasites about 30 days old, into scj^arate cells or sporants, which multiply actively by division. This form of the parasite now becomes elongated. This stage is reached at about 48 to 60 days. At this point the parasite may disintegrate, setting free the sprouts, or may develope into a Meischer tube, (a) In the first case the sporants wander out and establish themselves in other muscle fibres, when its sporont initiates a fresh develop- ment, (b^ In the second case a membrane is secreted round the body, w^iich forms the striated envelope, prolonged inwards to form the chambers. This body then consists of a peripheral zone of sporants multiplying actively, and a central region in which sporants are differentiated. In the development of the spore, the sporant becomes sausage-shaped and multiplies by division. Finally, the sausage-shaped bodies become spores, and are stated to be at first binucleate — probably one nucleus is that of the Amoebula, the other that of the capsulogenous cell. Fully formed spores are found in the parasites from 80 to 90 days after infection of the host. Symptomatology. As a rule the Sarcosporidia appear to be harmless parasites, which do not make their presence known by any symptoms of disease. However, a marked contradiction exists as to the power these parasites possess in producing serious and recog- nisable diseases. There are comparatively few instances in the literature where symptoms have been observed during life of an animal at post-mortem which has its muscles heavily infected Ifti 208 SARCOSPORIDIA. with Sarcosporidia. Jardin says that in s])itc of the statistics of Sarcos])oridia in sheep, it shotild be difficult to admit the absolute harmlessness of Sarcosi)oi"idia, if we call to mind what we know to-day of their evolution in the tissues, and of the elaboration by them of a toxic principle. Their ])resence can, without doubt, remain for a long time unperceived. although the muscles oug^ht to lose in time their elasticity and normal ])liability ; but it a]:)pears illog^ical that their appearance in s^reat numbers in the important organs, such as the heart in particular, is incapable of causing death. On the other hand, if the toxin elaborated by the Sarcosporidia, the sarcocystin, does not kill the animal, has it not, as all tonic substances, an unfavourable action on the nutrition? And, asks McGowan, in the oedemas. the emacia- tion, the cacexia — in all these so often concomitant ])henomena, ought the toxin not to be taken into consideration? Moule has found the parasite in q8 per cent, of cachetic sheej), and they were very numerous in proportion as the cachexia was more accentuated. Sometimes there were regularly five, six, or more in a field of a microscope in each ])rei)aration. Roloit found very large numbers of the sarcocysts present in the nutscles of sheep which had died in an emaciated condition in Germany. Watson in 190Q stated that sarcos])oridiosis may be closely asso- ciated with, and is probably a frequent secjuel to, the disease of horses and cattle known as loco-disease. It may com])licate the diagnosis of this disease, and also the dourine, and probal>ly of some others, and retard or prevent recovery from tht---_- and similar cachetic conditions. In Kpj^ Alinchin stated that Sarcosporidia in the pi< pro- duced paralysis of the hinder extremities, a skin eruption, general sym])toms of sickness, such as thirst, increased body tem- perature, and dim, streaming eyes. According to Professor Hedinger, Sarcosporidia may be responsible for lam.zicktc in its different phases, and produce — T. Alterations in the cross-striated muscles. 2. Alterations in the peripheral nerves. 3. A toxic substance, wliich is specific for the central nervnu> system. According to some authors, symptoms of illness are often exhibited in horses. In the sheep and goat difficult respiration was noticed (Dammann and Niederhausern). In an ox stiff' gait was noticed (Brouweir), in a pig paralysis of the hind quarters (\'irchow), in a horse hardening of the tongue (Hoflich). Moussu and Coquet saw a hard, diffuse swelling of the head of the horse, similar to that seen in ])urpure ; further, urticaria -like swellings on the side of the body, neck, and under the chest ; also a diffuse swelling under the belly and sheath, as well as wooden tongue. All these swellings were firm — of a consistence of cartilage— and situated under the skin. Micro- scopical examination of an excised node showed the existence of sarcosporidiosis. The taking of food and water was made difficult by the changes caused, and movements were executed l^ain fully and slowly. In another case Lienaux saw similar swellings present, and lameness fir-^t in the one leg, then in the SARCOSPORIDIA. 209 Other, and then in several legs ; in the extirpated pieces oi muscles sarcosporidiosis was found. Watson saw dejection, aimless walk- ing about with slow, short step, swelling of the bones of the skull. Sebrazes, Marchal. and Muratet noticed fibro-sarco- matous swellings in the lower chest, and a considerable hard swelling of the metacarpal bones, with the formation of nume- rous exostoses ; further, progressive anaemia . emaciation leading to cachexia, were noticed. According to AIcGowan. scrapie would appear to be due to a mass infection with the Sarcocystis tcnclla. Sarcocystis tcnclla may be present in lOO per cent, of sheep ; in a large number of sheep this parasite does not increase to any extent, and such sheep show no signs of disease (see McGowan's statistics) ; but in a certain proportion the parasite overruns the host. When this occurs, then, in his o]>inion. the animal shows evidence of it by exhibiting the sym])t(«ms of scrapie, in whole or in part. Cultivation of the Parasites. On this point there seems to be little or no information. Piana left Sarcosporidia isolated from the muscular tissue in sterile capsules with a little sterile water or gelatine prepared with Fiicns crispus, according to the method of Celli and Fiocca, for the culture of the Amoebae. The falciform corpuscles de- composed and set at liberty little hyaline globules, which gradually increased in volume and acquired a contractile nucleus. They took Amoeboid forms, were motile for several days, then encysted, and underwent a true encapsulation, and entered into a state of latency. He observed these ])henomena to take place in a space of 25 to 26 days. In 1912 Balfour took the Aleischer's tubes from a gazelle, dipped them into spirit, then flamed and transferred them to culture tubes of Nicolle's blood agar; the cysts were then ruptured, thus seeding the medium Avith spores. He also made broth cultures in the same w^ay, but was unable to trace any development. Many of the spores seem to be quite unchanged after 44 hours at a temperature of about 33° C. Some become spherical in the broth, and thus ob- viously degenerate. The only point possibly w^orthy of note was that in both lots of cultures a number of small hyaline spherical bodies were found, many of which contained a dark motile granule. These bodies did not take on the vital staining, and he could come to no decision regarding them, though per- haps they were very young spores. McGowan made attempts to cultivate the sarcocyst in various media at different tempera- tures aerobically and anaerobically. Media used were broth, blood broth, ascetic fluid with fresh tissues, i per cent, glucose water, i per cent, glucose ascetic fluid. In all media, with the exception of those containing glucose, the sporozoites either remained unchanged or degenerate. In i per cent, glucose water, keeping it at room temperature for about three hours, one. sees that every spore has undergone a change. The evo- lution that takes place is as follows : A ripe normal sickle or sporozoite shows slight enlargement, and later on a slight billge 210 SARCC^Si'OKIDIA. on the concave side of the sickle, which is hlled with a material c.ontainin' of the sarcosporid is not sufficiently known, we can accept that the infection enters the host with the food. The infection can be a direct one from the grass, or can occur through an inter- mediate host. Finally, McGowan, in his recent report on scrapie in sheep, brings forward circtmistantial evidence which points to the possibility of a congenital infectiousness. Biological Chemistry. — Almost all the products of vital activity are compounds, or mixtures of compounds, of the element carbon, and, owing to the property possessed in so marked degree by the atoms of that element of combining with each other, the carbon compounds known at the present day number about 150,000. In these days of specialisation it is no matter for astonishment that so niunerous a class of chemical compoimds should have a branch of chemistry all to themselves, and this branch is known as " organic chemistry," because it is so indissolubly associated with bodies possessing an organised structure. The circle may be drawn even closer, and, when con- fined to the carbon compounds which are the constituents of living matter, whether vegetable or animal, and which are con- cerned in vital processes, is called biological or bio-chemistry. Plimmer's " Practical Physiological Chemistry "' was specially compiled as a handbook mainly for medical students, and has been employed for practical bio-chemical work in connection with University College, London. With a medical school gradually developing in South Africa the appearance of a con- siderably expanded edition of this work* will certainly be wel- comed, especially as in its new form it would be difficult to find its superior as an English text-book in practical biological chemistry. It treats bio-chemistry not only from the side of animal physiology, but also from the botanical side, and by means of marginal asterisks and different styles of type it indi- cates which portions of the book are suitable for advanced courses, and which experiments are within the scope of a pre- liminary course. The practical methods are presented as con- cisely and as clearly as choice of diction and arrangement of type can set them forth, and the book will assuredly prove of considerable value in all laboratories charged with the study or investigation of different phases of bio-chemistry, * R. H. A. Plimmer : " Practical Organic and Bio-chemistry," 10 X 6in. pp. xii, 635. London: Longmans, Green & Co., iQrs. 12s. 6d. nett. THE ECONOMICS OF THE EAST COAST FEVER AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE TRANSKEIAN TERRITORIES. By Rev. John Robert Lewis Kingon, M.A.. F.L.S. On three outstanding- occasions tlie natives of the Cape Province have suffered great losses of cattle. The first occasion was the extraordinary cattle-killing delusion of the Amaxosa in 1856-57, which took place at the instigation of Umhlakaza — some say that the real instigator was Kreli, and Umhlakaza was only the agent. But, be that as it may. it resulted in the death of many thousands of natives, and i\n unparalleled redistribution of the native population. Mr. Chas. Brownlee, the (jaika Commissioner, estimated that 30,000 Kaffirs entered the Colony and obtained work, 20.000 died, and at least 150,000 cattle were killed. He wrote on 27th October, 1857: — P'roni the Butterworth Drift to tlic I'honias River, all the cuuntry for 15 miles on either side of the K'ei is now uninhahited, with the excep- tion of a kraal here and there, containing a few individuals, who cannot lonjj continue to drag out the miserai)le existence they now lead. A'ly totn- on the Kei was shortened h\' the failure of provisions, caused hy sharing with the people 1 found hy the way. Dr. G. :McCall Theal says :— Between the lirst and last days of 1S57 the official returns of British Kafifraria showed that 67.000 had perished or dispersed. . . . The lowest computation tixes the numher of those who perished on both sides of the Kei at 25.000; ordinary calculations give double the number. The power of the Kosa tribe was for the time completelv broken. From these two quotations we see what very serious results followed upon the loss of cattle in 1856-57. In these days of rail and motor a similar situation is not possible ; but we see how serious is the situation following upon losses of cattle, and how it is modified by the operation of these factors. The second great occasion was when rinderpest invaded the Territory in 1897. It has been said that 90 per cent, of the cattle perished then,* and it will be remembered that the disease spread well into the Colony. As the eft'ects of the rinderpest are in the main similar to those which we shall consider in con- rection with the East Coast Fever, there is no need for us to deal with it at any length, except to show that the present experiences oi the natives are not the first of the kind; that since then the communications of the Transkei have been con- siderably improved by rail and road ; and finally, when we come to flealing with the probable effects of the present losses of cattle, we shall base part at least of our argument upon the experience of the rinderpest days. The third great occasion is that with which we are im- mediately concerned, the East Coast Fever. We shall attempt * South African Native Races Committee Report. 2. 266. 214 ECONOMICS OF EAST COAST FEVER. to give some idea of the magnitude of the losses sustained before we sketch the economic effects in relation to wealth, agriculture, health, education, and government. An outline of the expenses involved in dealing with the disease will be fol- lowed by an attempt to look forward. I. The Ma<;nitude of the Losses. The magnitude of the losses may be estimated by a con- sideration of the area aft'ected, and by the numbers of cattle which have actually died as a result of the disease ; for it must not be thought that the only loss is that of the value of the lost stock. P"or the whole system of transport in a Territory to be disorganised involves of necessity delays in the delivery of goods, increased costs in freight, a slower turn over, and other disabilities which, taken together, mean a direct setback to the commerce. Well, then, to consider the area affected we must realise that 2T, Magisterial districts, out of the 27, were involved, for the East Coast Fever found its way into all except Tsomo, Xalanga, Mount bletcher, and Matatiele Districts on the Northern border of the Territories. In this area there reside a native popula- tion of '/y2,22j\. persons, many of whom lost cattle belonging to themselves, and all of whom were closely aft'ected by those losses. It will thus be readily seen how the whole population were vitally and personall}' interested, and the effect of personal losses u]Jon units nuist be great when considered in the mass of the i)eo])le in their relation to, and thoughts of. the Govern- ment. Up to the present 1 have not been able to discover a re- liable and comprehensive estimate as to the number of cattle which have died, and tlierefore I do not propose to venture u|)on figures which may be proved inaccurate. It is sufticient if we limit ourselves to that which is more sure, and in estimates of the kind one may reasonably expect the official figures, given by the Magistrates concerned, to err on the safe side. The danger of exaggeration is probably reduced to a minimum. Bizana District reported a loss of 56,000 hend of cattle. Flagstaff is said to have suffered to the extent of 35,000 head. Ngqeleni reports The tcrrilile loss to the district occasioned bv tlie destruction of cattle from East Coast Fever. The estimated losses as stated probably exceed 40,000 head, which, based upon the high prices of cattle prior to the appearance of the disease, would represent n stim not far short of a piiarter of a inillioii strrliit^. Elliotdale reports : .Some three jears ago the estimated number of horned stock in this district was about 60,000; at the end of the year Tqi2, owing to the rav- ages of East Coast Fever, numbers alive might be placed at about 1,800. The ■Magistrate of Tsolo contents himself with the report that ECONOMICS OF EAST COAST FEVER. 21^ < »uin!4 111 the- ra sashes < great resotu'ces. Here at one blow the State loses one and a ([uarter million poimds in five districts — and as yet we have taken no thotight of the remaining i8 districts, all of which suffered heavily from this scourge. Unfortunately, so far as I know, no record was ke])t of the cattle in the Transkei prior to the i(;ti census, and so tlie figures returned of that date represent the numbers of cattle after the East Coast Fever had been at work for three years. Ihe mtmlter given in \<)\ \ was 1,111.705 head. The numl)er officially estimated in 1914 amounts to 434,063 head. As the tide has now turned, and the herds arc on the increase, we are entitled to bcliexe that this estimate only partially rej)resents the actual loss ; but he that as it may. the difference Ixlween these totals shows tlie decrease to be 677,642. Our estimate, then, is quite inade(|uate. and instead of a million and a quarter, we must write the loss at fotir million ])(junds sterling; and if only one in four had offspring, the loss would be increased to not less than five million pounds — lost for all time to the services of the State, and the enjoyment of tlie htinil>le ]>easant of the Transkei. It is a serious aspect (jf the existing situation that, e\en where the progress of the disease has been arrested to some extent, there a subacttte phase seems to persist, and as a result a very small percentage of the calves outlive the first year. Attention is now l)eing directed to this point by the experts concerned. Meanwhile we must add to the capital loss the loss of the increase, which is going on from day to day even now, and more than that, the further increase which, in the course of nature, would result. Census. Estimated.* /. Transkei: 1911. I0i4- P)Utter worth 24.6739<^ .x>ooo Tsomo -T.973 -5-303 Willowvale 4-2.3«^3 8,000 Kentani . . 37,7^^ 25.314 ''Annual Rciinrt. 1'ranskcian Tcrritorii-s General Council. i()i4. 2l6 ECONOMICS OF EAST COAST FEVER. Census. Estimated.* 11. Tcmbuland : 191 1. ^9^4- EUiotdale 16,705 2,500 St. Marks 42,089 3^'-37 Engcobo 66.686 10,000 Mqanduli 37'-i9 7,000 Umtata 55,547 8,580 Xalanga 20,932 18.000 ///. Hast Griqua'li 77 52,000 Mount r""rere 46,019 29,500 Ounibu 38,739 30,000 Tsolo 40,763 8,000 Umzinll^^lln 45,246 ^-5oo IV. Poudoland : i Bizana 51-972 10,000 Flagstaff 34-046 12,000 Libode 36.281 7-500 Lusiidsiki 51.850 20.000 Ngqeleni 40.294 7,448 Tabankulu 46.503 17,500 V. St. John.'; t 8,645 1,400 Totals 1,111,705 434,063 II. SoMK I'xoNOMic Effects. I. Oti Wealth. — The Transkeian natives, as one might expect, have few ideas on the subject of wealth. For them the horizon is bounded by oxen, women, and Kafir beer, and the chiefest of these is oxen ! While they are engaging in- creasingly in agriculture, and with a surprising degree of accom- plishment, nevertheless they are more truly a pastoral peo])le. It is stiil true to say that the native delights in his lierds, and watches eagerly for the increase. The aim and object in life seems to be to accumulate cattle, rather than to accumulate money in the form of gold and silver ; but in the ultimate analysis we see that cattle, in the mind of tlie primitive native, takes the place of the banks which we use. We lock our money up in banks ; he locks his up in cattle. We look for interest ; he looks for increase. Now. our system of banking is guarded most carefully by Acts of Parliament, and in other ways, for it is realised how profoundly the trade and commerce and welfare of a country would be affected by the failure of one such institution — not ' Annual Report, T T.G.C., 1914. ECONOMICS OF EAST COAST FEVER, 21/ to inerinon the failure of several. Some have said (surely with astoni>hing- ignorance) that the East Coast Fever has been a " blessing" in disguise." If it is a bless'ng for the whole l)anking system. of a territory to be destroyed, then the disguise is really quite ettective! We have already seen the magnitude of the capital loss, but there remain yet further considerations. In order that these may emerge more clearly, let us follow out in fuller detail the banking operations of the native. When money is needed for the purchase of goods, or the payment of debt> it is usual to sell one or more head of cattle. Thus is money withdrawn from " the bank." But the mere suspicion of infection was quite enough to bring upon a district sundry rules and regulations, and sometimes counter-rules and counter- regulati<:>ns. And even before any suspicions at all were aroused, already the district was placed under the general dis- abiliti,t'> which arose of necessity when the Territory was infected. Restrictions upon the moving of cattle paralysed the trans])(irt system, and those who had healthy cattle to sell were not able to move them to places where the\' could secure good prices. Consequently owners were frequently compelled to sell their cattle at ridiculous prices, rather than to keep them and run the risk of losing them at a later stage. Thus the East Coast Fever operated in a double wa};, either to the total destruction, or at least to the great reduction, of the capital. The very ctn-rency of the Territory was subjected to the closest scrutiny, and then the chances Avere against its acceptance, .^uch a condition of affairs could not but produce a great shock to the whole fniancial system of the Transkei. We cannot imagine the condition of a country in which the banks had lost all their reserves of money. In a modern community such a shock to security would amount to a catastrophe ; but in primitive society each man seems content to bear his Imrden, hope for the best, and commence at the beginning again, and that without anything like the feelings of los^ that would be experienced in civilised society. One thing seems clear in the face of these widespread and most serious losses to the Transkeian community, and that is that in the future we should exercise just as great care to ensure the security of the native " bank " as we take to safeguard our own banks. Not for one moment would we tolerate anything which undermines the securit\- of oin* financial system, and it is a duty which the .^tate owes to itself, and to the individual, to provide adequate safeguards against such serious outbreaks. This i- not the first time that the natives have been denuded of cattle: or, to put it another way, this is not the first occasion on which the State has suffered most seriously from an epidemic of cattle disease. Trade, naturally, suft'ered sericjusly. If ])eo])le have no money they cannot spend, and the disposition to give credit is hardly encouraged by the knowledge tliat a man has lost all his 2l8 ECONOMICS OF EAST COAST FEVER. cattle. Nor was the absence of money the only disal)ilii^ which affected trade, for, as we have already indicated, the-, whole trans])ort system was comj)letely disorganised. Restrictions on the movement of cattle, in conjunction with the extraordinary drought of 1912, which caused scarcity of pasturage, and the actual death of cattle due to the scourge, all combined to dis- organise transport. And so, just at a time when people had least to spend, the traders were compelled to pay higher freight for their goods, and therefore to charge higher prices. The cost of living rose appreciably. Thus do we appreciate the serious condition brought about in this wav upon the security, tlie tra. where white traders and others sent teams of oxen out on hire. It was (|uite usual to charge 5s. per acre for the use of the oxen, and as a last resort the native was compelled to accept these services or leave his field unjiloughed. The overseer who was in charge of the oxen naturally wished to do as much ploughing as he could in order to earn as much money as possible, and the result in too many cases was a mere scratching of the ground, a failure in the crops when the drought came — and the native tightened his l)elt. in a literal sense. ;ind hoped for a better season next year! It woidd have been surj)rising if. in these circinn--tances, there was a margin left for selling, ]>u{ the native is often so improvident as to sell in order to secure money for immediate needs, and then, at a later stage, b.e is com]iel1ed to buy back at a higher price the very me;dies he had himself sold. There- fore, at the end of all his troul)lcs, and on account of the trans- port difficultie>. he had no market for his crops except the local market, and the inducements lliere were reall\- very meagre. 3. ();/ Health. — The cultivation of fewer fields in itself was sufficient to mean less food.; but, to add to the difficulties of the situation, droughts supervened for three successive year-> ( 1912 E(().\(l.M US OF 1:AST coast fever. _'l(J was the greatest drought since i.SOj, and caused a most -crious situation on account of the conse([uent famine I, at a time when the trans[)ort arrangements were (hsorganised, and insects of all kinds were more abundant than usual, working havoc in the few plants which persisted through the drought. A minimum harvest was the net result. In addition, the milk supply of the people was cut off. The native has three staple foods — mealies. Katir l)eer. and aiiiasi, the last-named being milk partlv soured. Not onl\-. then, did the loss of cattle affect the whole ui)])l.\- being in many plncos cut off, an extra strain was thrown on the mealie pits. Soon these became exhausted, and a cal! was made upon the sli(>])s, whose stocks were inadequate for more than a passing demand. The . 6d. iier 100 lbs. being cTtarged for a journey of .^o miles; in places monev could not secure it. . . As the ploughing season jiassed without sign of rain, something like a |)anic seized upon the natives. . . . Traders' stores were thronged with would- be purchasers of grain; mealies soUl at as much as 55s. a ba.a:. Wliere nuiney was wanting or money could not buy, people were reduced to sub- sistence on roots ; else\\;]iere they abandoned tlieir homes for Ijetter >upplied localities. This graphic picture, as set forth in the olffcial report of the Chief ^Magistrate, mav be accejjted as at least not an over-state- ment, and therefore no one will be sur])rised to learn that the health of the natives suff"ered nuich under the ordeal. At no time are their powers of resistance against disease very high, and very naturallx' these powers were reduced still further, j^neumonia claimed many victiius. For the want of an ade- quate suppl}' of milk many jiatients, es])ecially the aged and th.e very voting, were overcome and died. It seems, too. that ;'.s a result of this shortage the rate of infant mortality was ( /uid still is) ver\- high — and the ."^tale cannot afford so great a loss as that of a single native child. In a territory in which Colonial law i> not yet fully estab- lished, and the registration of births and deaths is even yet imperfect, it is not possible to give accurate figures illustrating this ])oint, and in this statement one can oidy appeal to what has been observed in the course of one's movements among the \niiual Report, loi-'. p. i.^. 2JU ECONOMICS OF EAST COAST FEVER. peo]ik'. Really, no demonstration is required beyond the obvious statenieni that, as a result of the shortage in the milk supply, the rate of infant mortality has been, and is, abnormally high. Apart from the marked effect ujjon disease, we have also to consider the ettect upon the morality of the people. One of the greatest safeguards in heathen life against immorality is to be found in their customs relating to cattle. In the first place, a certain number of cattle are usually given to the father of the bride b}- the ])ros])Cctive bridegroom. It is said that no idea of "" sale " enters into the transaction; but, be that as it may, the fact remains that the custom of uknloholo involves a payment of cattle, and as the loss of cattle has been so general, there has been great difticultx' in many cases in securing the re(|uired number. Until tlie cattle were paid, the father was unwilling to allow his daughter to go, and the prospective hus- band, with every desire to ol)lige, found that he could not obtain the necessarv number. As a result, the impatience of the \-oung couples could not -^tand the restraint, and the morality of the nation suffered. Again, from another ]H)ini of view, we find that sins against moralitv. usually settled l)y the payment of cattle, remained unsettled because the cul])rit had lost all his cattle, and this happening in many cases would tend to break down the custom and encourage the bi^Uler spirits to commit sins of the kind. Anoiiier outcome of such a state of affairs was that nien who had n(j cattle Avith which to pay the fines were compelled to go out and work at the mines and elsewhere in order to earn the monev-e(|uivalent of their tine. Thus, in an indirect way, the flow of labour was affected. I'inally. the jiractice of i)ol}gam}- lias Ijeen appreciabl}' cur- tailed. In Kafirland the number of wives was w(int to proclaim the impiiitance of the indixidual, for it indicated that he must have i)ossesse(l many beasts in order to buy so many wives. Since the wholesale losses of stock, polygamy has automatically lessened, and ])robably the incidence of Colonial law in the interval will tend to prevent substantially the re-introduction of the I'ractice when once more the herds increase. In any case the introduction of individual tenure in the surveyed dis- tricts tends very definitely to linfit pol\gamy, for even though the Government is at present allotting land to each wife, yet it is clearly stated that after the first allotment none will be given in respect of future polygamous unions. It seems as if poly- gamy had received its death-blow. 4. 0)1 Ildiication. — The cultivation of fewer fields not only affected the food supply of the people, and in that way the health of the community, but also in a roundabout way it left its mark upon the education of the ]x^ople. Fewer fields to cultivate, and less cattle to herd, simply meant less work for the younger generation, and the setting free of the large class of young boys ECONOMICS OF EAST COAST EENER. 221 who usually spend their time herding. Consequently a large number who had been otherwise employed were set free to go to school, and a scrutiny of the school returns sho\v> that the increase in the number of schools, teachers, and scholars has been very considerable. In taking note of the figures on the next page, it is necessary to remind ourselves that more than one factor is at work, and therefore we cannot claim that all the increase is due to the East Coast Fever. In my best judgment, however, 1 believe that the influence of the disease, by killing off large numbers of cattle, set free for school attendance practicall\- the wliole of the herd-boy class. \Mien Ave read of one district alone losing 5(S,ooo. and realise how many boys are required to herd that number of cattle, then we may realise how large is the class of herd-boys set free in the twenty-three affected districts. A comparison of the returns of grants for education made by the General Council in 1906 and 1913 shows an increase of 50 per cent. Probal)!}', if the income of the Transkeian Council had been unlimited, there would have been a larger grant, but at this point we meet another side-current due directly to the fever. The income of the Council is limited, and as very large sums of money have been spent in combating the disease, by erecting dipping-tanks throughout the country at five-mile intervals, the result was that expenditure in other directions had to be cur- tailed. Education suff"ered equally with public works. The curtailment of the expenditure on education followed just when a large number of children had Ijeen set free, and so. while on the one hand we were presented with a great opportunity, on the other hand the difficulties of making the best use of that opportunity were increased. 5. On Government. — -We have already reviewed all the more important effects, and the one which remain^ i-; by no means the least in importance. PUuitus. in one of his comedies, has a passage not without aptness in this connection. Sagaristio asks another: "How doth the town seem to be fortified?" The answer given is this : " If the inhabitants be well governed and good. I think it will be well fortified." In any country it is essential for the relationship between Government and people to be of the very best. There should be no friction between the representatives of the Government and the people in normal conditions. Unfortunately this ideal, in the nature of things, could hardly be maintained under the pressure caused, by the East Coast Fever. On the one hand, we had a Government doing its utmost by rules and regulations to restrict the spread and the activity of the disease, in the interests of the State ; on the other hand, we had individual owners, suffering from these restrictions, objecting very much to them, and doing everythin;^ "In their power to avoid them. ECONOMICS OF EAST COAST FEVER. O L- O t-- L— O — Ol i-T — CM CC X — t Ci 'T'. CO ^ •£ Ci CC b- L f CC O — — ■-( cv) v: -4} L~ to ;c o t- cN c; I- o c- -re (N X c: -r ?6 1- X o t~ -^ X -^ X t- X »o CO c-i o CO '^ -H 30 lO o -f or X •■^ a; o CO —I X CO — ^ ■— I "M rH 01 C O -^ CO "O X — CT r: 0 CO "M ^1 <^ X o o 10 O -t- ~ ^ O) X "O C^l CO c t~ c; L- 'H CI -r ~. 00 G^J L-~ CO CD o L— O CD O CO ^ O CD X ^ ,_ uo o C3 CO 5^ rH ■* X S CO c^ 52 . . o C . — ^ c ^ ai •a ' O ^ > > O u 2 z o M - X 0: CD ^ — X 0 —1 — 1 t— ( CO "N CD lO r-H 0 — lO 0 r-( L~ CO X — -H X l- '* -r 0 ^ -*■ CO — ' 0 -f CO CD r-l — CD X rti CO 10 tP X t~ •* rt c; 0 ^ ?.! XI L— CD "O 1909. ■o CO X 0 0 CO ^ CO CN CO 0 — 1 1-1 en X 0 iO -M X -f C > >- Cfl H-< <0 1 KCOXO.MICS OF KAST COAST I'FAKR. 223 Me could hardy expccL a [jriiuilivc people In lie patient under these rtiles and regulations, supplemented 1»\' special instructions to Magistrates, and supported by various proclama- tions and counter-regulations. That they were ])atient for so long s])eal\s well indeed for all concerned. Nevertheless, the by-products of all these attempts was a spirit lii \exation. and even open discontent. The Magistrate was in the inihapp\' position of insisting upon regulations which caused real hardshijj upon individuals, without securing any obvious advantage. Thus cattle were not to be removed from infected areas, or susjjected areas, and still the fever made its appearance in the isolated places ! Or, again, the native wishing to move his cattle to some place where he could sell them for a good price, found that certain regulations stood in his way, and so he was compelled to sell at a nominal price to some white trader. Understanding " the ropes," the trader was able to remove those very cattle to that very spot, and sell the cattle at a profit. Such a situation was hard to avoid in framing regulations for a jjrimitive commimity, and in i)ractice the regulations made possible to the white man what was debarred the native. A fence was made right across the country to kee[) the infection from spreading, and before it was finished, the infection had already passed at the completed end. Inoculation was resorted to, but unfortunately the virus seemed to lull more than it cured. Finally, dipping was proved to be efficacious, and accordingl}- an extensive programme of tank-building was carried out all through the Territories. At this point the native loyalty was strained to the utmost, and it is not surprising that the discontent o'erflowed. We live in days so full of great events that our minds speedily forget even important occurrences. The im- ])ortant occurrences to which I refer will be gauged when ac- counts come to be settled up; already they have been the subject of a special inquir}' and special report to Government. It is sufficient for the purposes of this paper to make my point and pass on. The di.scontent of the people — for the most part, but not wholly, passive — must have had no small effect upon the administration of the Territories, demanding, as it did, the mih- tary occupation for some months of three disaffected districts. III. The Expenses Inclrred. It had been ni)- purpose to develop at some length not only the losses to the State in the manner already described, but also the cost to the State of the various attempts which sought to restrict the activities and stamp out the scourge. Unfortunately, much of the information is not yet available, and I have been able to consult only a part of that which is available, and there- fore I do not propose to more than indicate the directions of 224 ECONOMICS OF EAST COAST FEVER. expenditure. The simple statement in itself will indicate suffi- ciently the values involved. (a) \n the first place, a wire fence was made from the Natal Border to the Western Border, some hundreds of miles in length. A\'e have already indicated that the fever crossed at the completed end before the fence had been carried to the other terminus, and thus perished the first attempt, and with it all the money needed for so great an undertaking. Even after the infection had crossed over the fence, the police arrangements were carefully maintained, at great expense, on the i)r()verbial stable-door princi])le. (/') In the second place, it was at one time believed that inoculation was a certain cure for the disease, and a regular cam- paign of inoculation was organised. But the natives opposed this movement to the utmost, and only yielded with the greatest unwillingness ; and the adverse results which followed in not a few cases rendered these difficulties all the greater. A native farmer near to me sent 119 beasts for inoculation, and only six were saved ! Occurrences of that kind, for which not a farth- ing of compensation was forthcoming, certainly did not en- courage other natives to agree to the inoculation of their cattle. Of 158,884 cattle inoculated, it is roughly estimated (very roughly, and perhaps too liberally) that the survivors amounted to about 33 per cent. Those that did survive certainly were immune, but the cure was rather too drastic, and the amounts involved in these ()])erations include not only the loss of the cattle, but also the expenses of the veterinary staff, together witli the expenses of experiments and the advice of experts. (c) In the third place, dipping-tanks were erected through- out the length and breadth of the country at a five-mile radius. fn the latest returns I discover that 181 tanks were in use and 28 under construction, as at ist January, 1914, and additional to this we have an estimate of £16,193 for construction of tanks in 1913-14, and a rough estimate of £19,600 to be spent in 70 tanks to complete the programme. In the estimates, £280* is allowed per tank. We thus have the cost of 209 tanks, -j- £16,193 -|- £19,600. which gives us the total of £94,313. The capital cost, however, does not exhaust this item, for a charge is levied of J^^d. per head for the dipping of the cattle, and while at present there seems to be a deficit in the working, yet in time, no doubt, this will be a source of revenue. It was estimated that the fees should yield some £17,740 in 1914. It will thus be seen that considerable sums of money are involved in this undertaking, and the economic effects are of no slight importance. (d) Finally, it will be realised that all these expedients would cause some strain upon the police arrangements of the Territories. If the fence was to be made an effective barrier, it * Some tanks cost twice that amount. ECONOMICS OF EAST COAST FEVER. 225 must be made impossible for any parties to break it at an)- point at any time. As a matter of fact, in spite of precautions, cattle were driven through at various times ; at any rate, the oppor- tunities were reduced to a minimum, Init only by the ceaseless activity of the S.A.M.R. Again, the enforcement of inoculation regulations threw some strain upon the ])olice, as also did the establishment of the dipping tanks. In the case of the last item the expense was enormously and unexpectedly increased by certain occurrences at -Matatiele, to which reference has already been made. L'ossibly that expense will be found (^when the figures are pub- lished) to exceed by far the total cost of the building of all the tanks. But, be that as it may, we have said sufficient lo show that the amounts involved form no inconsiderable item, and play no small part in arriving at an estimate of the effect of the East Coast Fever. I\'. Reconstruction. We have endeavoured, almost at too great length, to trace out the effects of this disease from an economic standpoint. It is, indeed, surprising to follow out the actions and interactions, and to realise how f arreaching they are in their effects. One point of considerable imj)ortance which has not yet been mentioned is reserved for consideration at this stage of our enquiry, namely, the eff'ect \\hicli lias been produced upon the supply of labour. The loss of all these cattle has meant that when the native desired ready cash he had no cattle for sale in order to realise the amount required. Consequently, he has been compelled to go to work, a compulsion which has grown stronger Avith the successive droughts of recent years, and the question of highest economic interest in all that has happened is this : Will the East Coast Fever be to the natives of South Africa what the Black Death of 1352 was to the people of England? Will it release labour for the agriculture, and the industries, of South Africa, and will it afford new opportunities to the people? These ques- tions no man can answer with certaint^^ The natives are a peculiar people, and there is no saying what they will, or will not, do. But to begin with, we must remember the radical eff'ects of tlie cattle-killing of 1857 — how the distribution of the people was completely altered. At this period they were living between the Kei and Bashee rivers, but after 1857 'the survivors lived, where they had fled in search of food and work, in the Colony almost as far west as Port Elizabeth. This redistribu- tion was accompanied by the loss of almost, if not all, their cattle, together with the loss of all their other possessions. If any revolution was to take place in their outlook and manner of life, surely it would be after such a rude awakening. Again, in 1890, we had a succession of droughts which c 226 ECONOMICS OF EAST COAST FEVER. " destroyed* 100,000 cattle," and in 1897 tlie rinderpest carried oil nearly all their cattle, and yet these people have experienced no outstanding change in their manner of life. rossil)l_\- there may have resulted great and outstanding changes following the rinderpest had not the war come upon the country, causing the dislocation of everything requiring lahour, and while men's minds were filled with other thoughts the opportunity passed. That the results which followed upon these events were not com- parable to those attendant u])on the Black Death might lead us to expect a repetition in this case of negative results. The fact is that the Territories cannot be ([uite the same after this widespread loss of cattle — that some advance has been made h\ the very shock to the tribal system, and tribal tradition, and tribal customs ; l:)Ut Ave need hardly look for immediate and revolutionary change, .\lready the change is stealing over the land quite rapidly enough in some wa}'s, and acceleration may not be altogether an advantage. The Black Death ati'ected the people in their relation to land ami wages. Not the cattle merely, but the population of the countrx', was reduced by one-half, and more. And so it seems to me that once again the natives will stand their losses bravely. Thev were accustomed to lose their all in the days before the Transkei was taken that Referendum X'otes have a conservative leaning. The bLarl of .Selbnrne, in his interesting work " The State and the Citizen," refers to the Referendtnn as the simplest device ever adopted b\' democracy, and says that the Referendnni. tlierefore, may claim some part of the blessiii.ti- ijnmnunced hy DisraeH upon tliose who are wise enou.sjh to trust the instincts of a people. Manganese in Wheat.— 'I"he Journal of Agricultural Research'''' contains an article on the occurrence of manganese in wheat by \\\ 1*. ITeadden, Chemist of the Colorado Agricul- tural lix])erimeut Station. In examining the mineral con- stituents of wheat, the author was struck h\ tin.' fact that there -was uniformly enottgh manganese present to come down with the calcium oxalate and to impart a decided brown colour to the calcium oxide when ignited. Further investigations fr)llowed, leading to the conclusion that manganese is present in wheat wherever grown, irrespective of the conditions of soil and climate. The author also found that the manganese is present in the wheat kernel in about the same proportion as iron, not- withstanding the predominance of iron in the soil, and that fertilisers a])plied to the soil did not alTect the amount of manganese stored in the kernels, nor was this amount aitected by variation in the quantity of water ap])lied. The author thinks that facts seem to support the vicAv that manganese is an essential constituent of wheat, and possibly also of rye, oats, and other cereals. * (TOT.;) 5 181 M9-3S5- X()TI-:S ox THE CHEAJISTRY OF THE INAKAS. (ACAA'THOSJCYOS HORRIDA HOOK.) B\- \\ iLLK-M V'eksfeld, E.A., D.Sc.^ and Gilbert Frederick Britten, B.A. {f'lalcs 2-4) Some years agu inquiries were made b}- the Soudan .Government as to the possibility of cultivating the valualile .INaras plant in the deserts of Northern Africa. Experiments were made with seeds procured from Waltish Bay, but aiiparently without success. It was in connection with these experiments that investigations were made by the writers as to the nature of the jjlant, and the character of the soils on which it grows. It was. not uniiaturallv, assumed that, since this plant ti()uri>he(l ai)parentl_\- onl} under desert conditions, such con- ditions were necessary for its development, and that the water- less deserts of Northern Africa could also sup])ort it. The results of recent investigations have proved that the ! Naras plant of W'alfish Bay is, after all, not so very wonderful, being very well su])])lied with both food and water, and that it thrives not l)ecause of, but in spite of, the desert conditions. Its only really remarkable proi)erty is the ease witli whicbi it overcomes the ])liysical difficulties connected with life on a moving sand- dune. Occurrence and Distkh'.ution of tiii-: Plant. The ! Naras ])lant. which was disco^■ered by the botanist Welwitsch, is found in considerable quantities at Walfish Bay, and in smaller quantities at a few localities on the coast further north in the neighbourhood of Mossamedcs. The particular state of development at which this ])hun has arrived has so obviouslv been evolved from the unusual combination of circum- stances under which it grows that it is unlikely that a similar plant will be found, or even be made to grow, in other places where different conditions obtain. These conditions, as far as we know at present, are a very dry and warm climate, a loose sandy soil produced in the disintegration of rocks rich in plant foods, almost incessant winds and a good su])ply of deep-seated water. In tlie neighbourhood of Walfish Bay, the chief centre from which the ]ilant has s])rea(l ai)i)ears tf) be at Sandfontein, about four miles east of the bay. From this point it has spread some distance inland, and also to Haigamchab, on the Swakop River, and to Pforte, about 40 miles east of Swakopmund. In the sand-dune region along the coast the plant gives rise to the formation of dunes, the growth ])roviding a barrier for the The ! represents a palatal click. *r^.^'^. .\ ^-r-^-^^.<^r^ c si "a. be c 3 o -a c C4 m o o re Z re Z -J CO J Q. in UJ O z UJ 5 CO > a < cr O u. z (/) CO < < CO 3 a! z S.A. Assn. for Adv. of Science. 1915. Pl. 4, Section of ! Naras root shewing air and water channels. [Twice natural size). W. Versveld and G. F. Britten.— The ! Naras Plant. NOTES ON THE CHEMJSTRV OF THE InARAS. 233 clriftiiii;- sand. It occurs most plentifully in what was once the wide estuary of the Kuisip River. Since this estuary was formed the amount of water brought down by the river has decreased until at present there is very rarely sufficient to flow over the surface of the sand which has been blown into it from the south. A considerable amount, however, finds its way to the sea under- neath the sand. The ! Naras fields occupy practically the whole of the estuar_\- with the exception of about three miles at the coast. The south bank of the estuary coincides roughly with the southern boundary of the British territory of Waltish Bay. Nature of the Plant and Fruit. The ! Naras (^Icaiithdsicyos liorrida ) is a cucm-])itace()us plant, belonging to the same family as the cucumber, pumpkin, and the various melons. Unlike the other members of the famil}-, which ])ossess highly developed leaves, this plant has no leave-- at all, unless the tin}- scale-like growth, which ai:)pears on the young plant, but soon (lro])s oil, can be called by that name. This i> a provision made b\' Nature to allow the plant to remain unhampered by the weight of the sand which is constantly blown upon it. The plant forms an almost impenetrable hedge of interlacing twigs, carrying ])airs of straight thorns at very short intervals — -less than an inch in the case of the smaller twigs. The roots, Avhich are usuall}- of enormous length, since they reach from the vine on top of a sand-dune to the water below it, reseml)le bundles of capillary tubes arranged roughly in lines radiating from the centre, with a layer of i^rotecring bark out- side. These tul)es, which are large enough to admit a small ])in. form the cliannels throngli which water and air are supr)Iied to tl^e whole plant. The brandies and thorns contain chlorophvll. and tlius perform the functions of leaver in absorbing carbon dioxide from the air. The frtiit. which is light green in colour when ripe, is a small melon about 6 inches in diameter, covered with small protuberances. It consists of an outer rind and six segments (similar to those of an orange) e(intainine it is necessary to go back to the earlier stages of the growtli of an. individual plant. It is absurd to imagine that a voung Naras seedling can be jilanted on the to]) of a large dry 234 -M)T1-,S nX THE (11 li.M J STR^ ( iF THE !N.\T;AS. sand-dune with any chance of surviving. When a seed ger- minates in damp soil in which the water gradually subside-, the young roots will naturally extend deeper and deeper in search of the water. But it ma}- also happen that the plant, little by little, gets covered up with wind-blown sand. In such a case the shoots succeed in growing through the overlying sand. This process is carried on until the top of the plant is as much as 6o feet above the spot where it first grew. It has been stated that some roots are 350 feet long, but this is hard to l)elieve, as the dunes do not attain to that height. It is evident that what we now call roots were in many cases orginally the stems of the plants. One can understand that under sucli circum- stances leaves wotild be a serious encumbrance to the growth of the plant, besides being easily scorched by the sun. In course of time leaves have been entirely discarded, their functions being performed by the shoots and thorns. The flowering season commences about October, and the fruit ripens about Christmas time, and remains in season f'T four or five months. Uses of the Fruit. Fish and ! Xaras fruit form practically the only articles of diet of the wretched desert dwellers of the Walfish Bay territory — mostly To]jnaar Hottentots ;ind ihishmen. During tl'ie --ca^on the fruit is simpl\- con-^umed as re(|uirefl. l)ul to make i)ro\iely bitter when green. The roots and twigs also have a very bitter taste, and are used medicinally bv the natives. The seeds are eaten both raw and boiled. The natives usually grind the seeds, including the husks, between two stones, and l)oil the meal thus obtained. The seeds have a rich nutty flavour and a high feeding value. The boiled seeds, which contain less oil than the raw, but have a richer flavour, at one time formed an article of trade under the name of " Butterpits." These are eaten like nuts, and are also used in the making of confectionery. There is no doubt that if a regular supply were aassured, the demand would increase verv considerably. Composition of the Fruit. It was with great difficulty that ripe fruits were procured for the experiments, the results of which are given below. On .NOTES ON THE CHEMISTRY OF THE InARAS. 235 one occasion all the fruits sent were spoiled, though plucked from the jilant hefore they were ripe. On another occasion only two surxived the long journey to Capetown. Thet^c were examined separately. The seeds from the over-ripe fruit> were also analysed. The rind of the fruit was in each case separated from the pul|) and the husks of ihe seeds from the kernel <. The following results were ohtained : — Air-dried Samples. Diget-tible SlIlilllCI' Fl'llit: Moisture Protein Fat Ash Carbohydrate-- I ibrc percent, percent, per cent, per cent, percent, percent. Kind 2.09 9.63 2.22 12.43 45 -^'3 28.00 I'ulp . ._. .. .. 3.41 11. 38 ;.o4 14.31 5(..84 7.02 Husks of seeds 15.54 3.07 0.75 0.^7 21.57 S'^^^o Kernels of seeds ii.2(S 38.^)8 44.44 3 - -8 - ■ ci- Larc/er I'niit : Rind --73 10.72 2.00 io.8[ 45. 'j4 27.80 T'"lp 1-73 14-44 10.69 12.71 54.93 5.50 ITusks of seeds tC).8t 2.71 0.67 0.76 19.78 50.27 Kernel -^ o f seeds 20 . T,y 30 . 22 44 . 28 3 . 30 i . 83 Ovcr-ripc Fniit (a) : Husks of seeds 9.95 3.<;4 ].-^y 1.23 18.97 O4.54 Kernels of seeds 6.50 35-73 5-2.17 3-50 1.27 0.83 Ovcr-ripc fruit (K) : • Husks of seeds 9.45 3- 50 1.34 1.14 10-3t (^S--^^ Kernels of seeds 5.20 35.30 53.30 ^.-^ 1.53 0.92 When calculated on the fresh fruit, which contains a con- siderahle amount of moisture, the following tiguro are ohtained for the rind and l^ulp : — Diujestiblc Slllilllcr Fruit : Moistme Protein Fat Ash Carbohydrates Fibre percent, percent, percent percent, percent, percent. Rind 82.67 1-70 0.39 2.20 8.08 4.96 Ridp 83.29 1 .()7 1.22 2.48 i).i^7, 1. 21 Lari/rr F niit : Rind -'-^3-^6 T.79 0.33 1.81 7.67 4.64 Rnl]) 9' -45 I --'6 0.92 I. 11 4 -78 0.48 Ihe total sugar (reckoned as dextrose) in ihe pul]) of the larger fruit hefore drying was found to amount to 4.13 per cent. -3^J x()fj-;s (ii\ Till': ciuiMisTin- uk tui-: '.naras. I he tolldwing- delerniinations were also made: — Over- Over- Smaller Larger ripe ripe Fruit. F'ruit. Fruit. Fruit. (a) ib) Weight lit fruit'- 5.^^-5 682.5 Percentage of rind 28.85 ■29-79 Percentage of pulp 57.09 61.74 Percentage of seed 14.06 8.47 Diameter of fruit 11 cm. 15 cm. Thickness of rind. 35 to .7 cm. .35 to .7 cm. Xnml)er of seeds IQ5 148 200 200 Weight of seeds 74. y ^j .8 66.6 52.6 Average weight of each seed .384 .390 .^^^ .263 Weight of husks 3i-t) 20.2 25.1 21.0 Weight of kernels 43.3 37.6 41.5 31.6 Percentage of husks 42.19 34-95 37-69 39-9-' Percentage of kernels . ... 5781 65.05 62.31 60.08 Length of seeds i.3toi.6cm 1.31111. 6cm. Thickness of seeds 4 to .6 cm. .41(1 ,6 cm. Tliickuess (jf husks 3tii .4 mm. .310 .4 mm. II will be seen from the above figures that the ! Nara.s trtiit has excellent feeding (|tialilies, the l»idp being rich in carbo- hydrates and the seeds in protein and fat. The " ! Naras cake," which is stored away for food when the frttit is out of season, should lie similar in composition to the air-dried samples. A peculiar propert}- of the jttice of the fruit is its action on milk. In connection witli this matter, experiments conducted some time ago 1)\- Dr. K. .Marloth showed that the juice of the fresh fruit cmitains a non-volatile active i)rincipU' which has an effect on milk similar to that of rennet, and that (jne teaspoon ftd of the juice can coagulate one and a half gallons of milk. .X.viTRt: oi" W'ai.fish Ba^' Soils. The i|uestion of soils and plant foods is (jf very great im- portance— far greater than one wotild imagine on hearing that the ! X'aras plant grows on sand-dunes. The term " sand- dunes " immediately suggests white or yellow (|tiartz sand ])rac- tically devoid of any ])!ant food. The Ktiisip River soils, how- ever, are of an entirely different type, as will appear 1)elow. The soils examined were the following: — A. — Scils ill z^'liiili .' Naras plants ,s;row — 1. Surface sample from three holes at Haroas. 2. Sulisdil (if .\(i. I. 3. Surface sam|)le from three holes at Wortel. 4. Sulisoil of Xo. 3. B. — Soils ill i^'liich ' Xdras plants K'Hl not grow — 1. Surface. 2. Suljsoil. 3. Lumps of dark shalv matter found in X^o. i. C. — Soil from X'^amieh Desert taken at Trigonometrical Station L'.P.2 at deiJth of 12 inches, the coarse white sand on the surface having been removed. * This weight and all other weights in this table are expressed in grammes. J> NOTES ON THE CHEMISTRY UE THE INARAS. 237 D. — Soil taken about one mile from W'alfish Bay, north of the Kuisip River, where Dr. Alacdonald indicated the possibility of cultivating large wheat fields. All the samples in series A and B are from the Knisip River estnary. These are of a most unnsnal character, differing most essentially from ordinary desert sand, which consists almost entirely of quartz grains, by having a large proportion of sinall particles of white mica, a mineral containing a large percentage of the valuable plant food potash. Sample A4 contained less mica and more quartz than the rest. Sample Bi contained a large proportion of various-sized lumps of dark shaly matter, greatly decomposed. As these lumps are very different from the surrounding sand, but are soft enough to be penetrated by roots, they were separately analysed (see B3). Partial mechanical analyses were made of these soils, and for the purposes of this paper it is sufficient to say that the general type is a line sandy soil, perfectly porous, containing little or no clay, and very uniform in grain, the particles being mostly just under ^/-millimetre in diameter. The results of the analyses for reserve of plant foods are given below in detail, the figures representing percentages, cal- culated on the original air-dried soil. A. — Soils in which the I Xaras B. — Soils in which the Plant thrives. ! Naras plant will not grow. A I A 2 A3 A 4 Bi l^2 B3 Moisture 0.54 0.73 0.48 0.16 .. 0.50 0.53 14.84 Loss on ignition ... 2.30 2.51 2.32 0.67 .. 5.14 1.91 9.25 Chlorine 075 .152 .034 .011 .. 3 -.=169 1.099 7-02r Si\ THE CIIEMISTRV OF THE !nARAS. than in the case of most agricuUural soils, except with regard to nitrogen, of which the ! Naras soils contain only traces. The plant, however, does not seem to mind this deficiency. Does it get its nitrogen directly froni the air? We see. thus, that the nnsnitahle soils are little, if at all, inferior to the others — in fact. the\' have considerably more nitrogen. It is when we come to look at the figures for chlorine and soluble salts — the injuriotts constituents — that a marked difference is seen. It is evident that the inferiority of the B series of soils is due entirely to their containing a very large amount of injurious salts, mostly common salt. It is absurd to expect any i)]ant to grow in a soil containing from 2 to ii per cent, of common salt. This appears to be the condition of all the soils within three miles of the coast. which the authoress makes plain, and the future astronomical specialist may find himself in an eiiibarras dc richcssc when he reads of star clusters, of nebuhe, of the milk\- wa\ . cjf variable and eclipsing stars, and of double and multiple stars, snlijects which are at the same time dead}- and concisely explained. The book is written for those who have not read nmch about astrononn*. and who have only an opera-glass or small telescope, or perhaps no instrument but their unaided eyes for examining the stars, but one may safely predict that all who thus practically ap])ly the chapter on double star^ will be strongh- tempted to ac(juire more ])Owerful instruments. Amongst the southern doul)le sta.rs enumerated is, of course, a Centauri. our nearest star neigh- bour, and. in addition, the reader is impelled to personal obser- vation by reading of such tine coloured ])airs of stars as a Scorpii. one of whicli is white, and its neighbour blue; ^ Corvi. pale yello\\- and bluish ; 32 Eridani. yellow and blue- green ; /3 Capricorni. orange yellow and blue; 7 T.eporis with its crimson companion, and so on. From these the observer may be led to the study of such coloured doubles (not neces- sarily southern) as 7 Andromedie. orange and green; a Canum Venatici, golden and lilac ; a Herculis, ruby and emerald ; 94 Aquarii, rose and greenish ; 77 Cassiopeit'e, golden and purple. From the mere popular point of view, there is scarcely a more attractive pursuit for the embrycj astronomer than the study of the great number of coloured double stars, and here, as in other respects, he will find sufficient in Airs. Evershed's little book to stir him up to seek further knowledge. TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES. GEor.OGrcAL Societv of South Afric.x. — Mondav, June T4th : Mr. D. Wilkinson in the chair. — ''The Upper Jl'ificatcisrand System": Dr. E. T. Melfor. The general features of the Upper Witwatersrand System are well known : the author, however, considered that there were uncertainties in several directions that needed clearing up, and tliis was Mie main object of the paper. Particular consideration was given to the degree of conti- nuity of the various members of the system, and the variations in thick- ness which they exhibit when followed from end to end of the Rand. The author's descriptions and conclusions were mainly based upon ol)servations made during five years occupied in mapping the whole Witwatersrand area, during which period the underground workings of a large number of mines were visited. *M. A. Orr: "Stars of the Southern Skies." pp. xii, g2. 8 X 4]in-. illus. London : Longmans, Green & Co. iQi.S- 2s. 6d. 240 NEW BOOKS. Monday. Julv 5th: Prof. R. B. Young. ^I.A., D.Sc, F.R.S.E.. F.G.S., Vice-President, in the chair.— " 7//r East F^ami " : Dr. E. T. Mellor. Some of the main features of the .theology of the Eastern Witwatersrand were dealt with on hues similar to those adopted Iw the author in previous papers relating- to the Western and Central portions of the Rand. Monday, July 26th: Prof R. B. Young, ^I.A., D.Sc, F.R.S.E.. F.G.S.. Vice-President in the chair.— " T/;c Geolot^v of f^art of Nainaqualaiid '' : Dr. A. W. Rogers. A geolo.gical description of the north-western part of the Division of Xamaqualand. inclusive of the coast belt, a cimsitler- able part of the Xamaqualand highlands, and tlie slope connecting tliose two regions. Onh- the structure of rocks of pre- Karroo age was cril)ed —■•The Jhu'yka Scries in Soutli-U'est Africa": Dr. P. A, Wagner. An account of the author's observations and c inclusions with regard to the Dwyka series as met with in the Protectorate uth-\Yest Africa (late German South- West Africa), incidentallv obiection was taken to the indiscriminate application of the term " tillitc " to true murainal dei:)osits as well as to the southern " Dwyka," a nurma! sediment laid dnwn under water. The author proposed to api)lv the term " Dwyka conglome- rate " only to the true bedded and boulder conglomerates of the series, reserving the term "tillite" for de))osits of morainal character, and ■' Dwyka boulder mudstone " for the peculiar rock extensively developed in the southern i)art of the Cape Province, lioulder mudstones present- ing ])recisely similar feature to the latter occur over wide areas of the Keetmanshoop District. The i)rinci])al geological formations of the area are ( i ) superhcial deposits, comprising Kalahari sand and Kalahari limestone. (2) Karroo System, Dwyka Series, and (3) Nama system, I'ish River, or Zwart Modder Series. -The intrusive i.gneous rocks. Karroo dolerite and Kimberlite are also represented : the latter, in a fairly large pil)e apparently barren of diamonds occurs at Rietfontein. Gordonia. Sot'TH African Society of Civii. I'^kgixhers. — Wednesday, .Vugust nth: R. W. Menmuir, A.M.I.C.E., \'ice-President, in the chair. — "Road constntction and maintenance iii Jolianncsluirs" : G. S. Burt Andreiws. Road construction and maintenance in Johannesbin-g suffer from >i)ecial disadvantages, such as (i) excessive length of roads compared with poijulation, (2) difficulty of obtaining suitable material, (.3) climatic condi- tions and traffic, (4) method of obtaining funds (.s) lack of re.gulations for development of townships, (6) the extraordinarily rapid .growth of the town. One of the most difficult problems in Johannesburg is the upkeep of unmacadamised roads, and on the macadamised roads one of the .greatest drawbacks is the formation of dust in dry. and of mud in rainy weather, the dust nuisance being particularh^ noticeable. The initial cost of the macadamised roads is £2,640 per mile, and the cost of maintenance about £XSo i^er mile per annum. — '"Constniction iiiauac/enient" : F. T. Patterson. The author urged that young engineers, trained in South Africa, should lie assisted to develop the energv and ability essential in rapid and econo- mical carrying out of engineering construction. The management of labour forces for engineering works must be scientificallv carried out. The policy of the future should be to encourage rather than drive em- ployees to return good output for wages received, and the fundamental basis of a civil engineer's professional training must include the study of difficulties and devising ways of overcoming them. As evidence of the need of change, it was emphasised that the cost of carrying out works is probablv higher within the Union than anywhere else in the world. XE\V BOOKS. Eveleigh, Rev. W. —-Soutli-lJ'est Africa," 7i X 5^ in., pp. viii. 260. London : T. Fisher Unwin. 1915. 5s. nett. Macdonald, William. —" 7/;r Settler )ind South Africa" 7^ X S? in- pj). 150. illus. London: LInion-Castle Line. 1914. 6d. Ritchie, Moore — " ll'lth Botlia in tite field." i2mo. Maps and illus. London: Longmans, Green &- Co. iQi.v 8 oz. 2s. 6d. THE BAGAXAXOA UK AiA-LABOCH : NOTES ON THEIR EARLY HISTORY, CUSTOAIS, AND CREED. By Rev. Noel Roberts. (Plates yy.) The Ba(janaiioa. The Bagananoa, or 3»Ialaljoch, are Bantus speaking a lan- gtiage akin to Scpedi. They occupy a strong position on the ijlaauwljcrg Mountain, in the Northern Transvaal, which they liave licld lor about a century and a half. riie information in this paper has been gathered almost «fntirely from the natives themselves, chief among whom may be mentioned the present ruler of the tribe. Kgalushi Malaboch, and one of his head indunas. l^special mention should be made of Mr. C. A. T. Winter, who has not only acted as interpreter on several occasions, but has done everything in his power to hel]) me in getting information. The Bagananoa, like other Bantu triljes, regard themselves as a distinct species of the genus Bantu, and the conception of a Specific or Tribal Spirit or Soul, uniting all members of the tribe, is strongly developed. Further, it is believed that this Tribal Spirit is boimd by the closest ties of kinship to the Spirit uniting all individuals in a species of animal, the particular species in each case being known as the Siboko, or Totem of the Clan. In the minds of most natives there is considerable confusion between their conception of the human Tribal Spirit, and it< animal counterjjart the Siboko, and it will be found that the two are regarded as identical, or, at least, co-incident. Their real relation can best be illustrated Ijy means of a diagram as follows : — Individual mem- 1 united by A\- hers of Malaboch - cestral Spirit Tribe | of Tribe. Collective Life of which Siboko. unitmg All animals of the Species Duiker. to form \ Malaboch * Tribe, a unit in the Individual mem- united by An- bers of Alalabolo I cestr.^l Spirit Tribe, of Tribe All animals of | CoUgctive Life of the Species Wild ,- which=SiBOKO, Pie:. 1 uniting to form f M A M A B o L o Tribe a unit in the Bant i- Race. S e k u k u n i people etc. Porcupine or other Totem animals. Ancestral Tribal Spirits. I unitmg Tribal Sibokos. to form S E K u K u N I or other Tribes, units in 242 THE UAGANAXOA Ok Al A-LAIJOC Jl. Since all members of a clan in communion with one species of animal are regarded collectively as a unit in the Bantu race, it naturally follows that the tribes should be distinguished from one another by their Siboko. As an interesting illustration of this, it ma}' be noticed that the system of divination most widely practised among the Bantu peoples is that of Astragalomancy. If a witch-doctor's set of " bones " be examined, it will be found to consist very largely of the huckle-bones of dilterent animals. Each astragalus represents the animal from which it was taken, and therefore the tribe of wiiich that animal is Siboko. In a case of theft, for example, the signs pointing to the huckle-bone of a pig w'ould be quite sufficient evidence in the eyes of a native to lav the guilt at the door of a nieml)er of the " pig " tril)e. ]\loreover, certain hgures, rej^resenting the motions of the sibokal animal, are performed in the course of their ceremonial dances, so that the triljal origin of a man ma}' be known by his dance. Therefore, when a native wishes to know the tribe of a stranger, he will invariabl}' ask: "What dance do you dance?" There is an apparent confusion w'ith regard to the Siboko of the Bagananoa, for if this question be addressed to one of the people of Malaboch, he will reply: " Di c'lociic" (i.e.. the Baboon). A further question, however, will elicit the infor- mation that the Baboon is not regarded as the Siboko of the tribe, and this is proved by the fact that the Bagananoa eat the flesh of a Baboon with relish. Their Siboko, he will tell you. is the Piiti. or Duiker ( OeplialopJius Griiiniti Gray). In ex- planation of this the present generation sa}' that the nickname " Baboon " was applied to them on account of their inaccessible position among the rocks of the mountain, and that the name has clung to them.* The totemistic position of the tribe is further complicated by the fact that though the Duiker is treated wdth all the honour accorded to a Totem {i.e.. it is Taboo to all members of the tribe) the animal whose spirit is believed to be in communion with the Spirit of their forefathers is the Kueiia. or crocodile. An image of this animal is actually worshipped, as I shall presently show, and I was told by 'Sir. Key that when he was Sub-Xative Commissioner at Blaauwberg. great oftence was given by one of the police there who killed a crocodile, and hung the skin up on his verandah as a trophy. This puzzling position is partly explained by ]\Irs. Franz, who tells me that it is usual for a clan leaving the parent tribe to adopt a new Siboko — the first animal seen on arriving at their new home. The facts are not without value as they provide evidence in confirmation of some of their traditidus, and helj) us to trace the evolution of the tribe. * According- to Stow, the Baboon was the Siboko uf the Ba-!uirutsi, from whom the Bagananoa are probably descended. THE liAGANANOA ()K .M A-LA r.( )t 1 1 . 243 Traditional History. The Baganaiioa are supposed to be an offshoot of the Bahurutsi,* one of the divisions of the Bakuena who invaded the country from the North. The earhest known chief, accord- ing to tradition, was Mahti, who settled down in some mountains in Northern Bechuanaland, which were called after his name. This Maliti was the great-great-grandfather of the present chief, Kgalushi Alalaboch. He had two sons. The younger of these, Lebogo. seems to have been a man of fine character, and great ability, and as he grew up a rivalry between him and his elder brother, the rightful heir to their father's throne, was inevitable. A gentle disposition and courteous manners, com- bined with tmquestionable boldness and courage, and an indomitable will, secured for Lebogo a large following in the tribe, but under the wise and firm rule of their father, no open rupture between the brothers took place for many years. At the time our history commences, the whole country, in what is now the Northern Transvaal, was suffering severely from drought and famine. The scarcity of food led a party of Modjadji's people to leave their homes in search of supplies. Tliey carried with them a number of iron hoes of their own manufactm-e to barter for food. By the time they reached the Bahurutsi. however, they were nearly dying of starvation. One of the leaders of the band was a princess of the royal house of A'lodjadji. a winsome maid, who at once captured the heart of Lebogo. He took her to his home, fed her. and cared for her till her health and strength were restored. The bundles of hoes carried by the strangers seem to have awakened the curiosity of Lebogo, and in answering his ques- tions, the girl was astonished to find that the whole tribe sub- sisted chiefly on meat, and knew nothing whatever about agriculture. She therefore promised Lebogo that she would teach him the use of the hoe, and instruct his people in the art of planting seed, and tilling the ground. When the time came, however, her labourers in the field were greeted by derisive cheers by the Bahurutsi w^omen, and as the days passed, atid their prognostications of failure seemed as though they would be realised owing to the parched condition of the ground, slie turned upon Lebogo in anger and reproached him for not pro- viding rain. The foreign maid came from a country whose chieftain queens were recognised throughout the Bantu world as the greatest rainmakers upon earth, and according to the current belief of the time, that the power of rainmaking was vested in the royal family, she naturally expected that Lebogo, or at least his father, would be able to control the rain in his own district. Lebogo convinced her of his ignorance, so she determined to impart all her own knowledge on the subject (which must have been considerable) to him, lest her lesson in * Cf. Govt. Report. .244 THE iiAGAXANOA OK MA-LABOCH. agriculture should fail and she become an object of ridicule in the tribe. The magic of Lebogo, carried out under her direc- tions, was successful. Clouds appeared, the sky was darkened, the lightning flashed, the thunder rolled, and in the abundance ■of rain which followed, the claims of the foreign maid were fully vindicated. A few weeks later, when the seed she had sown had sprimg up, and she had reaped a good crop of grain, her reputation for wisdom was firmly established in the tribe. The Bahurutsi women were not long in following her example, and soon a brisk trade in hoes was followed by the establishment of agricultural labour in the fields, and to this day the Avomen still hoe the ground, plant seed, and reap the crops. The magic rights and formulae used in the art of rain- making are still jealously guarded by the chiefs of the tribe, and •even now T^Ialaboch enjoys a reputation second only to that of Modjadji as a rain-maker. The efifect of these incidents on the political situation may -well be imagined. The hands of the Lebogo faction were greatly strengthened, and the elder brother saw that his cause was "becoming hopeless. There was a way out of the difficult}', how- ever; if he were to marry this wonderful stranger, a blow Avould be struck at the prestige of Lebogo, and he would regain much of the power he had lost. He therefore tried to induce her to become his wife. With fine scorn the girl rejected his advances, declaring that had it not been for Lebogo, she would have died the death of a dog. The young chief was furious. Nay more, he was desperate. If he wished to secure his position as his father's heir there was only one thing to be done. Lebogo must die. A plot to assassinate him was therefore set on. foot, but news of the conspiracy reached the ears of the chief, who there- upon informed Lebogo, and advised him to leave the tribal home and settle elsewhere. The young man determined to act on this advice, and taking with him a band of chosen followers, he crossed the Magalakwin, and made for the Blaauwberg, on the pretence of hunting conies. The mountain was then occupied by the jNIagoela. Lebogo visited the chief of that tribe, and begged permission to come and settle in the district with his people. Permission was refused, so spies were despatched to every kraal of the ^lagoela, and an estimate of the fighting strength of the tribe was made, with the result that Lebogo decided to take possession of the mountain by force. The party then returned home. Secret instructions were at once issued to all those who supported the cause of Lebogo, and in the dead of night the exodus of the Ma-lehogo was successfully carried out without being dis- covered by the rest of the tribe. The old chief advised Lebogo to make a forced march to " the river," and then to entrench himself on the further bank. S.A. Assn. for Adv. of Science. 1915. Pl. 5. Chief Malaboch at home. The " Kgolego." Rev. N. Roberts.— The Bagananoa. ■4 Q Q Z o u UJ ^^ r/J 4J TtI ^ -^ a; H -<-• . i; +j C,^ 73 2 tn ), the front of which is faced by a low stone wall. When the pre- j)arations have been completed, two fiat stones from the hearth ■of the chief are brought down the moitntain and iixed in posi- tion close to the northern side of the western entrance, outside the M photo. This is the Mocjalabye (^old man), or Circumcision Chair ( Plate 6. Xo. 4 ). The l:)0\"s who are to be initiated are summoned to the headman's kraal the night before, and at dawn the whole party marches out to the Mpliato. They halt near the eastern gate, and the " stert-riems " of the boys are removed, and hung up •on a thorn tree hard by. Afterwards the best of these are picked out by the Chief Indunas for the use of their children ; the rest are burned at the close of the ceremonies. Each initiate (Modikcma) is now ])laced under the care of a youth, who has already been initiated, usually an elder brother or some near relation, who accompanies liim everywhere outside the enclo- sure, and waits on him, or bullies him at other times. These wardens are called Maiiiatsahoaua (little stones used for sup- porting a pot over a camp fire). The "stert-riems" having been removed, the initiates are surrounded 1)\' MiUiiafsalinana, and men, and a great noise of shotiting and singing is com- menced, and kept up without intermission until the hrst part of the ceremony is over. The chief's son, or the boy of highest rank, is taken out from the rest, and walking by the side of •one of the Maniatsahoaiia, hidden under the skin cloak of the former,* lie is led round the outside of the enclosure to the western entrance. Here he is seated on the Mogalahyc. with his legs wide apart. Two warders seize him by the ankles, two more grasp his arms, and a lifth, standing behind him, blindfolds the boy by holding his hands over his eyes. Before him squats the surgeon, the 'M pakana oa hanna (the little knife of the men), armed with his knife and a cloven stick. The foreskin is clipped between the blades of this primitive forceps, the head depressed, and the operation per- formed. A soft, woven ring of fig-tree fibre (Ficiis clasfica?) is then pushed over to the base of the organ, and suspended by cords from the boy's waist. This ring, called the Kgolego (the * Cf. "Customs of the World." 1, 141. Till'. i;.\(,,\.\A.\OA Ok .MA-LAi;()c II. 2_j.J bond) (Plate 5, Fig. 2) not only acts as a toin-nic(uet. but serves as a support and keeps the bleeding wound away from the scrotum. It is worn until the scar has completely healed. A stock of these rings of different sizes is prepared beforehand, and is kept ready for use within the surgeon's reach. The Kgolcgo rejoices in the " honour-name of Le Iwniia Ic Ic nyjinc le tshca iiiang/ Lc tshca Kyulcyo Moratlii.'* The operation, of course, is exceedingly painful, but the cries i>f the patient are drowned by the noise of the s;houting and singing of the rest. When the operation is over the boy is led away by his warden to a spot a few yards distant, where he is hidden from view, and another victim is brought to the chair in the same waw and this procedure is repeated until every ])0}- has been circumcised. When this done, the boys are taken away from the Mpliafo to some secluded s])Ot in the near neighbourhood, where they are not likely to be disturbed, and here they remain ((uietl)' until towards evening. They are not allowed to touch any food all day. While some of the Manialsalioana remain to guard the boys, the rest go off into the veld, or wander about the mountain side in a body, wildly singing and shouting all the time, and collecting wood for the evening fire. This is done to mislead the women and children of the kraal, and to make them believe that the whole party, including the boys, is wandering about. All through the time of the initiation rites deceptions of this nature are practised, for the luen entertain the greatest horror of allowing the women- folk, and the uncircumcised, to know what is taking place. Late in the afternoon the Avandering Maiiiatsahoana rejoin their companions, and tlien. before the sun sets, the whole party enters the M photo for the first time, through the Tsela ed Baloi. (Plate 6. No. 2.) A fireplace is now prepared by building two long walls of stone across the enclosure immediately against the front of the men's ])latform. ( ."^ee Plate 6. ) The wood which has been collected during tlie day l)y the \vandering Maiuatsahoiuui is laid in order, and fire produced by the Icshana. or fire drill. Once the fire is lighted the tlame is not allowed to 'lie out until the rites are over, some three months later. This is made doubly sure by keeping the tire going all da\' immediatel}- in front of the Chief's Seat, about the middle of the fireplace, and by appointing one of the Initiates as Keeper of the Sacred Flame. This is an important post, and the boy to whom it is assigned has to carry a burning log with him all day when the party leaves the enclostire. The fireplace is about three feet wide, and extends from near the eastern fence, close to the spot where the Nut of the Crocodile is built later on, about two- thirds of the way across the enclosure to the western gate. The first night the boys slee]) in the open on their backs, "See Passwfirfl : Resi)nnscs 57 to 6n. -24'^ THE Bx\GANANOA OR ilA-LABOCH. with their legs wide apart, and cradHng their heads on their clasped hands, and are allowed to use a covering of blanket from the waist upwards. The Mcuiiatsahaona are not allowed to sleep at all that night, but have to watch their Avards to see tliat these rules are kept. Early next morning they begin to prepare sleeping sheds. The whole of the men's platform is roofed in, and a shed (Plate 6. D) divided into c(jnipartnient>, each holding from three to six boys, is built against the southern fence on the inside for the use of the Initiates. But this is not all done at once. The ground plan of the boys' dormitory, in- cluding the dividing walls of the cubicles, is marked out by a low wall of loose stones. Then a number of short poles, forked at the upper end, are planted in the ground. Other light poles are laid across from one support to another, and rafters are fixed across from the uprights to the outer fence of the enclosure, thus forming the framework of a long, low shed. The shed enclosing the northern part of the Mpluito is l)uilt in a similar fashion by planting poles about five feet high in a row along the front edge of the platform, above the ti replace. Rafters run across from these to the fence at the back, forming a suj)port for the thatched roof. (Plate 6.) The thatching- is done piece-meal, a little every day. Every morning after the first day, when the morning meal has been disposed of, the Initiates and their Keepers sall\' forth from the M [^hatu into the veld, not returning until shortly before sunset. When they return each boy is expected to bring a bundle of wood as a contribution to the fire for the following night, but on the first few days he must also bring a bundle of thatching grass. This is collected as follows : Each Initiate ])rovides himself with a short ])ole, about four or five feet long, as he goes out in the morning. During the day he collects a bundle of grass. wRich he ties round the head of the pole like a besom. The Chief's son, however, does not collect his own grass. When the rest of the party go out foraging he remains with the Keeper of the Sacred Eire, and contributions of grass are brought to him by the other boys. Even the tying of the bundles on to the pole is done by them. The pole he uses differs from the rest, being composed of three stout sticks bound together. When the partv returns to the Mplialo. these grass besoms are carried upright as far as the gate. The bundles of grass are then re- moved, and stacked together, and the poles stacked in another place. These poles are not used again for the same purpose ; fresh ones have to be obtained every day. Late at night, after the evening meal is over, when the hymns have been sung and the dances performed, the boys go out and return each with a bundle of the grass and range themselves on the southern side of the fire. They then throw the bundles across the fire into the hands of their Maiiiatsahoana,'^' who stand upon the plat- Proliahlv a magical rite to ensure fertility of .yrass. THE CAGAXAXOA UK MA-LADOCIJ . 24O form to receive them. These bundles of grass are used for thatching^ the roof of the men's platform. When this has been done, the grass which is collected by the boys every day is used for thatching their own sleeping shed. On the fifth day after the circumcision three poles of Molioio wood (a wild fig tree), which have been specially selected, are taken from the hiding place, where they have been stored for some weeks. They must be perfectly straight, with- out any twMgs or branches throughout their whole length, and must otherwise fulfil the conditions already mentioned in con- nection with the gate-posts of the Tsela ea boratatanxc. Two of these poles are fixed upright in the ground, about eight feet apart, in the open space in from of the Chief's seat. (Plate 6, No. 3.) The upper ends of the poles are notched to receive the third, which is laid across them, so as to form a " horizontal bar." This structure represents the Tlo otshe, or sacred elephant. (Palate 6, N. 6.) Tt remains in ])ositi()n until the Mpliato is destroyed at the close of the ceremonies. When this sacred symbol has been erected, after the Initiates are asleep at night, one of the Manialsalwana climbs up on to it, and clutching the horizontal bar with his legs, he hangs head downwards and chants " The Song of the Elephant," while the rest of the Warders join in the chorus. The Tlo otslir is treated with very great veneration, as it is regarded as the emblem of wisdom and the source of knowledge. All instruction in the Lodge is delivered " from the elephant " b)' one of the Maiiiafsahoana, specially chosen for the office, who mounts the " bar " and repeats the sacred formuUe, after assuming the dependant position described above. These formukx? are jealously guarded by the Initiated, and are committed to memory word for word, though many of the words are obsolete, and their meaning unknown. The dialectical difference be- tween the language of the Bagananoa and that of the Bapedi is considerable, but many of the formulae used in the Initiation rites of the Sekukuni are identical with those used by the people of Malaboch. A careful study of the sacred formular and hymns of the various Bantu " Schools " would probably be of great help to the student, who wishes to get back to the original stock language of the race. When the " Commandments " are recited from the Th otshc. the wooden posts of the Tscia ea borafafanye are st'aick. The food of the Initiates consists of Kaffir-corn pap (specially prepared for each boy by his female relations at the kraal), and water. The water is drawn by some half dozen or so of boys, who are told oft' for the task. They fetch it every day, under the care of their Maiiialsahoaiia, in little calabaslie^. or sometimes in horns. Only two meals a day are provided — one before they leave the Mphato in the morning ; the other after their return at night. 2^1) Till-: r.AtiANANOA OR .M A-LAIU )rri. When tlie paj) has been cooked at the kraal, it is heaped on tu a clean dish painted white, and then formed into a long, narrow cone, surmounted by a head — the true phallic pattern — with flat, wooden spatul^e. When all are read\- the girls place dikhari (the rings of woven grass, generally used as a support for liurdens ) upon their heads, and on these the white dishes of pap, and sally forth in procession, singing, to a chosen spot some distance from the Mphato, where a number of up- right stakes are driven into the ground. When the Mariiatsa- hoaiia hear the sound of their singing, they go out to meet them at the same spot, and after the exchange of jests of an extremely questionable nature, the youths take up the burdens and return to the Mphato, and deposit them outside the Tsela ea boratataiiyc. The girls deposit their dikhari over the stakes above-mentioned, and return home. The Mamatsahoana then enter the Mphato singing and shouting and dancing as if nothing had happened, but at a given signal they commence whistling softly, exactly as natives do when trying to soothe or catch a startled horse. As soon as the Initiates hear this they immediately drop on one knee, and bending forward, lay their foreheads upon the palms of their right hands upon the ground, so that their eyes are covered. The Alamatsahodiia then announce: "There is a binich of Kaffir-corn coming for you to eat." They all reply: " \\'e are most grateful to have anything to eat." The dishes of food are then brought in and ]:)laced before the Initiates. When they open their eyes and find dishes of food there, they are sup- posed to believe that it has been miraculously provided. Before touching it, however, the " head " of each cake must be broken off by the Mamatsahoana, and these heads, together with the hard skin, which always forms on Kaffir-corn pap wlien ex- posed to the air, and any other refuse of food is thrown on to the fence of the enclosure, where it will be destroyed in the last great burning. After the first Month of Instruction, a new means of getting rid of the refuse is provided. One night, after the Initiates are asleep, a small hut, made of fig leaves, is built against the eastern fence, directly opposite the western gate. ( Plate 6, No. 5. ) While this is being done some of the Mamatsahoana are despatched to a secret cave up the moun- tain side to fetch the image of the Sacred Crocodile, which is hidden there. This hideous creature (date 7), crudely carved from a single block of wood, about six feet long, and painted wldte for the occasion, is safely stowed away inside this hut before they retire to rest. . Early next morning the Initiates are assembled before the door of the hut, and as they prostrate themselves on the ground l>efore it, the image is brought forth by the men, who nial 3. La re : kgocdi tshaba 4- ji 4. Kgoedi tshaba kudu. 5. j> 5. Batlio rca fcla. 6. ,, 6. Rea fcla m el eke. 7- ,, 7. Mcleke iiielelo. 8. •5 8. Melelo radisho. See note. Appendix. 252 THE BAGAxN'AXOA OR MA-LABOCH. MOSVVAK A TAU: 9- M aloha: lO. II. 12. 13 14. 1.5. 16 17 18 19 20. 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 12 -1 — 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 J* \'lSITOR : 9. Dislio tsha ngo holo, 10. 7\v/ia /lort' di isoa. 11. 7>/ja kgobokaiia. 12. Difise khuidiri. 13. Khuidisaiia Ida. 14. La ra nioncnyana. 15. L(7 /io/r /f' t".yofl. iG. La tsosha kgetoa. 17. Kgetoa kerc tsoha. J 8. Bafctsoa Ic tsliahc. K). Banna Ic c one. 20. Lt' /zo/it' d\ opo. 21. i>i o/'o niathuma. 22. Tsa bopea tsana. -o- Tsa)ia ratsifsaiKi. 24. Phuni niuntloana, 2^. Pele ha hard. 26. Barei hoinang.' 27. 5o ratsJictshanc. 2'S. Scheie kotshoana. 29. Koto lea fotshoa. 30. Lf' fotshctshoa kac? 31. P<:'/r /r nwralw. ;^2. Moraho le tshoang. ^7^. Le soele di batoe. 34. Di batoe nienoana. 35. Menoana c koto. 36. Eseng e koto. T^y. Mebedi ea Tsoho. 2i^. Ea ho tsoara tsoara. 39. L t so ere nyape. 40. Nyape raphese. 41. Phesc se re gasoa. 42. O mo hang-hang'. 43. Oa tsheloa nietse. 44. O tsene se rare. 45. Se rare 0 polo. 46. Xtsoa raniahuiti. 47. Maronoa a ho to oka. 48. Le inotha ke tooka. 49. Ke ea tooisliishoa. 50. Le bo scboloane. 31. Lr bo se bopyane. ^2. Ba hore ba le etshe. 53. Ke eale niakhereng. 54. ba a lora toro. ^'^. Toroana eo oe. 5(>. F.kang ke le 'lui. JVlOSWARA TAU : 57- Mat oh a! 58. 59- 6o. 6i. 62. 63- 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. /I- 7^- 73- 74- I 75- 76. 1 / / • 7S. ' 80. 81. 82. 83- 84. 86. 87. 88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93- 94- 95- 96. 97- 98. 99. 100. 101. 102. 103. 104. THE BAGANAKOA ( IK MA-LAnOClI. 253 Visitor : 57. Lchuana Ic Iciiyaiu. 58. La o tshca mangf 59. Lc tshea Kgdlego. 60. Kfjolcgo morathi. 61. MoratJii a ratJia. 62. A rathaganye metse. (>^. Mctse ea bornaiigf 64. JSabo mo ho lo he. 65. Mo ho lo I'a hola. 66. Ka soaba di iiaiina. 67. Monyanc ka hola. 68. Ka hotsJia iiiaroota. 69. So the mat oh a. 70. Polofolo iioku. 71. A^oku oa mosekoa, ']2. Ea mpea pelo. j^. Ka iiiabala a aeo. 74. Marongoa roiigoane. 75. A ho sega thcbc. 76. Thebe di malota. //. Malota di koiiia. 78. Koma di mephete. 79. Mephete me dii oe. 80. Mcduela ton. 81. Ton se moncne, 82. Ba Iwlo ba hona. >^l. Bale bo mnthe. 84. Bare ba robetshe. 85. Detsetsoana fsha tnela. 86. Tsha me'la teiiwng. >tudy of Ethnology reveals an extraordinary similarity in the practices of uncivilized man in different parts of the world. As an illustration of this, we may take the use of the " fire drill " for producing new fire on ceremonial occasions, and the custom of never allowing a fire to die out. Among the Bagananoa these customs are observed not only during the initiation rites, but also on other occasions. The fire which burns in the Khoro of the Chief is extinguished * Cf. Pliiri. ceremony of Sekukuni land. Also see Appendix, note 2. Till'; n.vt.AXANdA ui< MA-LAiuicn. 255 when he dies, and every family tire is put out as >oon as the news of his death is heard. The following day the new Chief produces a fresh flame by means of the Lcsliaiia, and this is never allowed to die out until it is extinguished at his death. The tires on every family hearth are re-kindled from the new Chief's tire. The same practice is followed in some or all these details by native tribes in Angola, the Congo, Uganda. and many other parts of Africa ; but, what is more striking, we see the same idea existing in places as far apart as Samoa on the one side and among the people of the Xatchez tribe of Indians in North America on the other. b^jr a full discussion of the subject, giving many illustrations, ancient and' modern, see Frazer : "Golden Bough: The ^^fagic Art," 3rd edit., vol. ii, chap, xvii, etc. The most interesting point to be observed in these customs, however, is to be found in the apparent resemblance to some ancient rites which became crystallized in the Egyptian Ritual, and wliich are recorded in " The Book of the Dead." Dr. Churchward, in " Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man," draws attention to the widespread practice of a rite which represents in symbol the ancient legentl of Sut and Horus. So far I have not been able to get any evidence as clear as that of the WcUunqua ceremon\- practised by the Warramunga tribe in Australia,* but there are many points of contact in the rites I have described in the foregoing pages, and if it can be proved that these esoteric rites are derived from some ancient common source, the value of the careful study of the customs of the Bantu will be evident to everybody. The legend of Sut and Horus was this : Sut was the God of Darkness ; Horus was the God of Light. Sut was the supreme deity till Horus came on the scene, when a tierce battle enstied. and the God of Darkness was overcome. Being hard pressed. Sut transformed himself into a snake and disappeared into a hole in the earth. In order to keep him there, Horus placed a magic pole with his own hand upon it over the spot. It appears that wherever traces of this myth are found, there will be seen the emblem of the snake, the hole into which it disappeared, and the footsteps (of the purstiing Horus?). Sut, and consequently the serpent, was regarded as the Spirit of Evil. From a careful study of the Bantu folk-lore, we find that among the tribes of the Northern Transvaal the hyaena, and not the snake, is regarded as the embodiment of evil. This gives us a starting point. The Bapedi custom of laying the spoor of the hyasna round the Mphato is singularly reminiscent of the spoor of the man described elsewhere. Further, the image of the crocodile worshipped by the Bagananoa is called "The father (or grandmother) of the Snake." It is taken from its retreat in the bowels of the earth * Spencer & Gi'l-ti. "The Northern Tribes of Central Australia." 2.s6 111-: DAGAXAXOA OK M A-LAI!()('] I . and worsliii)i)e(l, l)ut is then turned upon its hack, and kept in that position under the 77c) otsJic — the source uf knowledge and light ! Is not this symbolic imagery of the victory of Horus r It must be confessed that the evidence adduced above is very slender, and based largely on surmise, but the existence of so manv well-known legends and beliefs ( e.g., the snake spirits that are supposed to haunt rivers, the widespread belief that snakes become the "hosts" of departed human spirits, etc.), Avhich may be relics of an older serpent worship, has led the writer to add this note in the hope that it will lead to further and more careful study of our native customs in all their details. Note. — The writer is very grateful to Miss Wilman, of the IMcGre^or jNIuseum, Kimberley, for drawing his attention to a rude intaglio on the rocks at ^letseng, which evidently repre- sents the snake, hole, and footsteps of the Sut and Horus legend. Food Value of Kaffir Corn. — Three samples of Kaffir corn have been recently investigated in the laboratories of ;he Imperial Institute, and found to be very similar in composi- tion and valne to Indian " dari."* A few years ago an article on " The utilisation of Sudan Dura '' was ]jublished by the Inijjerial Institute. t and it is now stated that for all uses of the Sudan d'ara referred to in that article, the Soutli African Kattir corn would be equally suitable. The following comj^arative ana- Ivtical results are recorded in this connection . — Kaffir Corn. White Red ^ Dura: Sorghum; Indian. White. Red. Mixed. Sudan. Zanzibar. Dari. Per Per Per Per Per Per cent. cent. cent. cent. cent. cent. Moisture ii-93 12.00 11.73 8.45 10. o 12.5 Crude protein .. 9.79 10.83 10. 01 13.06 11.2 9.3 Fat ^.22 3.37 3.06 3.30 2.8 2.0 Starch, etc 72.50 71.01 72.58 72.45 72.1 /2.^ Fibre j.27 1.28 1. 14 1.03 1.8 2.2 Ash 1 . 29 1 . 5 1 1 . 48 1 . 7 1 2.1 1.7 ■ Nutrient ratio ..1:8.2 1:7.3 1^8 1:6.1 1:7 1: N.25 Food units .. .. 105.0 106.5 i05-2 ii3-3 107 loi ■■Imp. Inst. Bull. ( 1915), 13, 379, 380. t /;»/). Inst. Bull. (1913), H, 33- A CRITICISM OF LOTSY'S THEORY OF EVOLUTION. Bv Prof. Selmar Schonland, M.A., Ph.D., F.L.S.. C.M.Z.S. The enorniuiis amount of work which has been done on the theorx- of evolution since the ptibHcation of Darwin's " Origin of Species, in 1861, leaves one with a feeling of disappointment. It cannot be denied that the facts which have been accumulated during tlie last 50 years have made it quite plain that evolution has taken place in the organic world, but hardly two biologists agree exactly as to the means how it has been brought about. Both Darwin and Wallace were of opinion that the origin of new species (into which evolution ultimately resolves itself) was due to natural selection in the struggle for existence. We need not cavil at the term " natural selection," which even Darwin, in chapter IV of the *' Origin of Species," considers a false term, if literally taken. Those wdio do not like it may substitute " natural elimination " for it, as Professor Lloyd Morgan did. Both Darwin and Wallace started from the fact that the individuals of each species are not exactly alike, that they, as it were, oscillate round a type, and that the fittest will survive. Asa Gray said* in 1880 (in a lecture before the Theological School of Yale College) : Xatnral selection l)y itself is not a hypothesis, nor even a theory. It is a truth — a catena of facts and direct inferences from facts. . . . There is no douI)t that natural selection operates ; the .open question is, what do its operations amount to? He clearly saw that natural selection does not go to the root of the matter. In his " Evolutionary Teleology " he states : Xatural selection is not the wind which propels the vessel, but the rudder which, by friction, now on this side and now on that, shapes the course. The rudder acts while the vessel is in motion, efifects nothing when it is at rest. Variation answers to the wind. ... Its course is controlled bv natural selection. This proceeds mainly through out- ward influence. But we are more and more convinced that variation . . . . is not a product of, but a response to, the action of environ- ment. Variations are evidently not from without, but from within. Even Darwin himself has explicitly stated that natural selection has been the most important, but not the exclusive, means of modification. There have been many who have followed Wallace in ascribing to natural selection exclusively the power of bringing about evolution. Amongst them w'as Weismann, who, by his theory of Amphimixis, tried to remove an obvious difficult}' presented by the vmdoubted great stability of specific types even if taken in the Linnean sense. The fundamental f|uestion, how new variations arise, is hardly touched if we substitute Lamarckismf for Darwinism, or even if we accept * Sereno Watson in " Memorial of Asa Gray." Cambridge Uni- versity Press. 1888. p. 42. t Compare Herbert Spencer, " The Inadequacy of Natural Selection," in Cnntcmporarv Rcviciv, February, March, and May, 1893. B 258 lotsy's theory of evolution. De \"ries' mutation theory, and in both theories the theory of natural selection is required, at all events as a subsidiary theory. Darwin tried to get an idea how external influences may cause variations by means of his " formal " theory of pangenesis, while De Vries, objecting to the direct influence of external circumstances, tried to explain variation by his theory of intra-cellular pangenesis." During recent years the question of the origin of species has been brought into a new path by the re-discovery of Mendel's laws, which fitted in with many of Weismann's speculations, and also with De Vries' theory of pangenesis. Thus, in his very first publication on Alendelism, " Das Spaltungsgesctz der Bastarde " ( Vorlaitfige Mitthciluncj), De Vries states at the beginning:* According' to pangenesis, the whole character of a plant is composed of definite units. These so-called elements of the species or elementary characters are imagined to be connected with material bearers. There are no transitions between these elements, just as little as there are none between the molecules of chemistry. It seems that this view can hardly be maintained any longer. Thus Bateson states :t Some of my Alendelian colleagues have spoken of genetic factors as permanent and indestructible. Relative permanence in a sense thev have, for they commonly come out unchanged after segregation. But I am satisfied that they may occasionally undergo a quantitative disintegration. But if I understand this rightly, it means that they may dis- appear altogether, and such characters as, e.g., hairiness and smoothness of plants, will pass into one another, and natural selection will have to come in not only with these characters, but also with correlated characters. t Bateson does not specu- late on the evolution of species. The thought uppermost in his mind is that knowledge of the nature of life is too slender to warrant speculation on these fundamental subjects. But the sentences which I have quoted above seem to me to >ho\\ L'iat lie overstates the case when he tcU^ usc' that Jordan was perfectly right. The true breeding form which he dis- tinguished in such multitudes iire real entities, though the great system- atists dispensing witii them have pooled them into arbitrary Linnean species for the convenience of collectors and for the simplification of catalogues. On the same page he says : Lotsy has lately with great courage suggested to us that all varia- tion may be due to crossing. || I do not disguise my sympathy with this ■' Ber. der deutsch. hot. Grs. (1900), S3. tRept. Brit. Assn. for Adv. of Sc, Australia (1914). t6. t For instance, in certain species of Cotyledon, as in C. orbieulata L. the nectar chamber is closed by tufts of hairs on the filaments, in others closely allied in all other characters as, e.g., in C. vcliitiua Hook f. the hairs are gone, but the filaments are broadened at the base, and perform the same function. § Op. cit. 15. il Lotsy states plainly that Kerner was the first to su.ggest that new species arise through crossing, and he shows how far his conceptions differ from those of Kerner. ■ LOTSY S THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 259 effort. . . . After the blind complacency of conventional evolutionists it is refreshing- to meet so frank an acknowledgment of the hardness of the problem. Lotsy's utterance will at least do something to expose the artificiality of systematic Zoology and Botany. The poor hard-working systematists might well, after these com- placent words throw tip the sponge in despair, but it may be just as well to examine Lotsy's theory for ourselves, and see whether it can influence us in our future work. Lotsy starts from the assumption that evolution is possible if species are constant, and that crossing is the means by which it is brought about.* It appears to me, however, strange that he based his theoretical views on the results of crossing Linnean species of the genus AntirrJiinnui — which, if I tmderstand him rightly, are heterozygotes — and consequently the very argu- ments which he uses to demolish De Vries' mutation theoryf can be urged against his. However, we shall let that pass. Lotsy defines his position in the concluding paragraph of his paper| as follows : Briefly stated, I mean that a species, a hymozygote combination, is constant ad infiiiifuiii. that it reproduces itself until its reproductive cells become combined with those of another homozygote (or heterozygote), and thus an exchange of " genes '' becomes possible. On the preceding page he says : I am thus of opinion that at the present time, apart, perhaps, from loss- mutants, § only one kind of formation of new species has been proved, namely, new combinations by crossing of " genes " which were alreadv present in the parents, and that a homozygote modification, namely, a pure species, is constant, apart from non-transmissible modifications caused by external circumstances. From this follows — r. AH differences between the individuals of a species are non-trans- missible modifications. 2. There are (perhaps with the exception of loss-mutants) no here- ditary mutations or sports within a pure species. All that has been described as such is the result of the splitting (vegetative or generative) of heterozygote combinations. 3. A transmission of acquired characters is impossible. 4. All "genes" (Anlaji^en) present in higher organisms were present already in the totality of primitive organisms (Uror^anismen) .^ This does not necessarily mean that there ever was one primitive organism \vith all these " genes '" ; on the contrary, it appears to me prob- able that each primitive organism possessed only few " genes,'' and it is just this small number of " genes " which I consider to be the cause of their very limited pov.^ers of development, and I am confirmed in this view by the fact that all living beings which reproduce themselves only asexually have comparatively simple structure. * " Fortschritte unserer Auschauungen iiber Descendenz seit Darwin und der jetzige Standpunkt der Frage " : J. P. Lotsy in " Progressus Rei BotaniccT," 4 (1913), 37S. tOp. cit. 372. t Op. cit. 388. § Caused by the loss of one genetic factor from a gamete. II The question how these Urorganisinoi acquire their "genes" is not discussed Ijy Lotsy, and perhaps wisely so, because he would then have had to show that the very difficulty which he fails to overcome as regards higher organisms confronts us in the lowest, if Lotsy's views are correct. 26o LOTSV'S THEORY OF l^'OLUTION. Only sexual reproduction, that is, crossing, brought together the "genes" of different primitive organisms, and thus created the basis for higher development and progressive formation of species. It will be seen from these statements that Lotsy means by his s]iecies the so-called " petites especes " of Jordan.* I have already on a previous occasion pointed out that it is not advisable to retain the names " species " for these units, since the term ordinarily is used in a much wider sense. They should rather be called Jordan's units, and the term " species " should be used in the usual sense. Lotsy's theory to a certain extent resembles Nageli's ortho- genesis. Given certain primitive organisms, and a thorough Ivuowledge of them, and the trunk and tusks of an elephant can "be predicted from them with mathematical necessity provided the circumstances permit of their formation ; with the same necessity arise the brain of man, the stinging hairs of nettles, the tendrils of the vine, and millions of other developed Anlagen, Stated in this almost brutal nakedness, the theory appears absurd at sight. That my way of putting it is not unjustified follows from Lotsy's own words. Thus, on page 371 he writes : The "gene" (Aiilagc) for legs can, r..?., very well have been present already in an evertebrate animrd, but has only been able to come into effect after it had come by crossing into an organism with the "gene" of a vertebral column. This organism can either have had formed already the vertebral column or may still he evertebrate when it was still without the " gene " on which the " gene '" for a vertebral colunm has to act. Thus, both " genes," that for a vertebral column and that for legs, may be present in an evertebrate animal. In other words, according to this theory, the " genes " for legs and vertebr?e may already be in amoebas. This is more easily asserted than disproved, but to my mind nothing wilder was ever propounded by the exponents of the much-ridiculed German NatitrpJiilosophie of about a hundred years ago. On the one hand the primitive organisms are supposed to be so very simple ; •on the other hand they are supposed to contain already certain peculiarities (by whatever term we may designate them), which include the germs of the countless specific characters of higher plants and hig^her animals At the same time, I do not at all agree with the view that the simplest organisms are as simple as they are usually repre- sented. In fact, having followed carefully the recent discussion of the possibility of creating artificially living beings, I was simply amazed at the fact that prominent men lead their authority to the belief that this may be possible. Haagedorn,f at all events, expresses this very cautiously as follows : I do not think the possibility is excluded of creating " living " organ- isms by a combination of not-living things, like the "filterable viruses" * Or. more strictly speaking, Johannsen's pure lines. t " Vortrage und Aufsiitze iiber Entwicklungsmechanik der Organis- men herausgegeben von Roux," Heft 12. lotsy's theory of evolutlon. 26 r and other autocatalytical substances, in thus choosing" tliem to create a system of structural relations, and thus a "body" for the comljination. * He points out that one can, e.g., separate by filtration the active substance of the tetanus bacillus and of the yeast plant, and that these essential parts of the bacteria and yeast celk are combined in these organisms by surface-tensions and other forces to form the specific organism, while through pressing they have lost this form. I am afraid I cannot follow this reasoning. If I remove the motorcars from a motorcar factory, I get some idea of its activity ; but without having seen such a factory I have no idea how the building and the machinery it contains are constructed, and how a motorcar is manufactured, and no amount of motorcars put together will make a motorcar factory ; and the same applies if in the same factory other vehicles or tools are also made. In other words, the substances produced by cells do not give us any idea of the ultimate struc- ture of their vital parts, the protoplasm; and while one may even admit that the metabolic activities of protoplasm are carried on largely by catalytical substances, this does not mean that we have any insight into the structure of protoplasm which manufactures them, and how, e.g., it can react to stimuli, how the protoplasm of dift'erent parts of the same organism reacts in opposite directions to the same stimulus, how it can change its reactions, and so on. Lotsy, believing in the constancy of homozygotes, naturally asked the question how this belief can be harmonised with a belief in the evolution of species. The answer is, according to him, as mentioned above, indicated in crossing of different Linnean species of Antirrhiiiuin. He showed with Baur that these possess segregating Mendelian characters which hitherto were supposed to be restricted to varieties, and by crossing these, there arise, sooner or later, sometimes in Fo, some homozygote combinations, thereore iieic sj^ecies. It seems to me, however, doubtful whether — , (i) The i-esult of his experiments can only bear the inter- pretation which he ascribed to it ; (2) They can prove that species may not arise by other methods. In view of ^Mendelian segregation and comliination of characters, it is generally assumed that the chromosomes during mitosis bear definite hereditary tendencies. 1liis may be con- ceded ; but when these tendencies are pictured as something tangible, something which is. as it were, bodilv included in the nuclear substance — something that, if our methods were refined enough, could be separated and perha])S iniected into other organisms with the result of giving them additional properties, then I cannot accept the view. We know {e.g.. in Polysiplioiiis, dicfyota) that haploid individuals may have the same external * As quoted by Lotsy, p. 386. 262 lotsy's theory of evolution. characters as diploid individuals of the same species. We know that diploid prothalli of ferns may produce ripe sexual organs (even motile spermatozoids with the usual chemotactic reactions). The majority of hereditary tendencies may, there- fore, be carried by half the number of chromosomes, and different sets of characters may be carried if the full number of chromo- somes is present. As far as we can tell, the nuclei in the second case mentioned are sporophyte-nuclei, yet something must have happened to them to make the production of the prothallus possible, although it is a prothallus in which sexual reproduc- tion is impossible. To my mind the assumption of an internal rearrangement of the essential components of the protoplasm is sufficient to make these facts intelligible, however far from an explanation this may be. The advantage of Lotsy's view, according to him,* consists in creating an analogy between the living and non-living world. He says : Roughly speaking, the " genes " correspond to the elements, the con- stant species to the constant compounds; and just as the constant com- pounds can only form with one another new compounds if separating- their elements, so also the constant species can only form new species if in reproduction the system of " genes " fall apart, and with other disinte- grating systems of "genes" (Gciieiicoiiiplcxe) form new compounds of "genes" which represent new constant species in so far as they are or become homozygous. However, I venture to think that if the analogy is closely examined, it does not bear out Lotsy's contention, and yet if it could be strictly insisted upon, it would bring certain facts int(^ stronger light. If a disaccharide is hydrolised, and by addition of water two molecules of hexoses are formed, no separation into the elements takes place. Moreover, the properties of the elements as such bear no direct relation to the properties of the compound from which we started, and the compounds at which we arrive, and yet the compounds amongst themselves are what we might call different species of the same genus. This point need not be laboured further. It can be illustrated by innumer- able similar facts taken from organic chemistry. Now. if we assume that the protoplasm of a species is composed of a definite chemical compound or a series of them united in a hitherto not understood manner, we arrive at the notion of con- stant species, or, to put it more precisely, of relatively constant species, and I do not see any difficulty in explaining with this assumption the existence of Jordan's units and of species in the ordinary sense. The protoplasm, as stated before, must be something different from the enzymes to which nowadays most of the vital activities of plants and animals are ascribed. In plants glucosides and appropriate enzymes do not exist in the same cells, so normally there is no decomposition. They are l:)rought together should the cellular structure be damaged, and in some instances during germination. * Op cit. 3S3. LOTSV'S THEORY OF EVOLUTION- 263 It has l)een shown 1)\- 11. R. and E. F. Armstron." that a variety of substances, having the property in common that they have hut little atfinity for water, are able to penetrate the walls of certain plant cells. As a consequence, alterations in equilibrium are set up within the cell, and changes are induced which involve alteration of the concentration and the liberation of hydrolytic enzymes. The general name hormone has been applied to the substances active in this manner ; it has been shown that the group includes not only carbon dioxide, but materials such as hydro- gen cyanide, hydrocarbons, alcohols, esters, aldehydes, mustard oils, etc., all of which are normal products of plant glucosides. . . .The materials so formed will be active in st:Jl further stiinulafiiiii chaiuje.'^ One cannot help admiring these and so many other marvel- lous results which workers in biochemistry have achieved during recent years, yet one cannot get awa}' from the impression that, instead of getting us nearer the understanding of the basis of life, they have opened our eyes to our utter ignorance of it. There is not the faintest indication of any fact that helps us to understand irritability. There is no indication of any explana- tion of specific characters. There is nothing in them that gives us a hint as to how evolution is brought about. There is nothing to give us any idea how we can picture to ourselves the pangenes of Darwin, De Vries, or Lotsy, and I am afraid that Lotsy's theory has not brought us a step further in our search for a vera causa of evolution. I thoroughly agree, however, with Lotsy that species are not mere shifting phantoms, but definite entities. I have on a previous occasion t pointed out that while one can speak of species as constant, this does not exclude that they exhibit a wide range in fluctuations or. as they are usually called, variations. The basidiomycetes appear to me to furnish convincing proof that species formation is not always due to the exclusion of " genes," or, in other words, to loss-mutants. The nuclear fusions known amongst them, Avhich may be equivalent to sexual reproduction, take ])lace between nuclei that must in each case ultimately have been derived from one and the same nucleus. Provided that only previously existing " genes " are available, formation of new species could, indeed, only proceed by the loss of " genes." Nobody will suggest that the simple basidi- omycetes have been derived from the most highly differentiated ones ; on the contrary, these evidently stand at the end of the series of development in this group. According to Lotsy. we must then assume that the characters of these (e.g.. of Phallus) were hidden in the simpler ones, but they cannot have becoine apparent by the shuffling of the " genes " of the simpler ones, as crossing between different species is impossible so far as our experience goes. They must have been hidden in single species, which, to say the least, is not likely. In many of the parasitic basidiomycetes, moreover, we are well-acquainted with --o-called physiological races, some of which are easily produced. Their * E. F. Armstrong. "' The Simple Carbohydrates and the Glucosides," 2nd ed. Longmans. Green & Co. Cigi2), 127. tRept. S.A. Assn. for Adv. of Sc, Grahamstown (1Q08), 148. 264 LOTS^'s THEORV OF EVOLUTIOxX. dilTerences can only be explained b\' the assumption of slight differences in the C(jniposition of their protoplasm, and I think it is not far-fetched to assume that such physiological races may form the material on which natural selection can act in the pro- duction of new species. The almost incredible persistency of species through vast geological ages and the enormous present distribution are proofs that we cannot look upon species as mere creations of syste- matists. I have referred to a few striking examples in my paper just quoted, and I w'ill refer here only to one case which I have recently studied with the aid of an almost overpowering mass of material. Crassiila miiscosa (L.) Roth (= Tillo:a luuscosa L.) is a well-known annual first described from Central Europe. A large num- ber of allied species were described from the countries round the Mediterranean, Persia, India, Tropical Africa. South Africa, Australia, Xew Zealand, Tasmania, South America, and a small part of North America. A most careful study of thousands of specimens has convinced me that they all belong to one specie.s. Some specimens from Europe agree exactly with some from South Africa, except that they dift'er in the number of floral parts (a common variation in many Crassulas), yet the typical form is absent from Tropical Africa, India, and Australia. There are a number of ferns which grade into one another, and there are, lastly, some from India, Tropical and South Africa which stand by themselves, being perennials (one wdth a tuberous root), which I shall for convenience' sake treat of separately. Now here are thousands of specimens from different parts of the world sticking persistently to a number of easily recognisable characters. Is it not reasonable to suppose that they all had a common origin ? Is it not reasonable to give them a common name, and note simply the characters in which they vary? There is no fact known to me that its wide variations might be due to crossing. To my mind the " seed-pan botanists," however valuable their work has been, are apt to rather over-estimate their work and obscure the issue. They seem quite to forget that the term " species " denotes an entity in a logical sense only, and that it is just as easy to defend the assertion that there is no such thing as an individual as to say that there are no species except so-called " homozygotes." But to come back to Lotsy's theory. As stated above, I miss in his paper any reference to the countless number of fungi in which crossing is impossible. How^ have such species arisen? Lotsy's theory cannot supply the answer, and, if it is thought to be generally applicable, it must fall, unless such cases are satisfactorily explained. It seems to me also that, if it were generally applicable, it should show^ itself in two facts. Fi)^stly, the genera with the most numerous species should lotsy's theory of evolution. 265 be those in which the species most easily hybridise. I doubt wliether this is so, although the European flora seems to afford good examples to make this supposition probable. Secondly, genera in which cross-breeding in a state of nature is of frequent occurrence should show few well-defined species. It is, e.g., a well-known fact that one cannot breed aloes true in South x'Vfrica or in countries where they can be grown in the open, when you have a number of species close together and natural hybrids are also common, yet a large numljer of species which grow under conditions where hybridi- sation is possible have, to our certain knowledge, persisted as far as our knowledge of them goes back. The same applies to Stapelias. I have purposely refrained from touching on zoological evidence that may be brought forward against Lotsy's theory. But I think I have said enough to show that while I am far from asserting that hybridisation may not be one of the factors which have brought about evolution, I cannot admit that Lotsy's theory has brdugln us nearer the knowledge of the vera causa of evolution. This is still, as S. Laing would have said, A PROBLEM OF THE FUTURE.* Drought in the WateRBERG.— The Annual Re- port of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington City, U.S.A., for 1914, just received, contains, by special permission, a reprint, iit extenso, of an article by Adv. E. N. Marais, of Rietfontein, Waterberg, taken over from the .-l(/ricii!titral Journal of the Union of South Africa,'' and entitled " Notes on some effects of extreme drought in AA'aterberg, South Africa." * The very interesting ovarial treatment of Scrophiilaria by McDougal with a dilute solution of potassium iodide which yielded two aberrant individuals deserves great attention in connection with the matter under discussion, especially as evidence has been produced by F. E. Lloyd that the reagent penetrates to the egR-apparatus. It is too early yet to base and definite conclusions on the results, though carried alreadv to the F- generation. However, the changes produced are not premutational or cumulative, but are induced by direct physico-chemical action. They seem to show that " some departures might be evaluated as losses of characters, others are increased differentiations," which of course Lotsy would explain as more or less dormant " genes '" let loose. See ■' Yearbook of the Carnegie Institution of Washington,'' 13 (1914), 77-81. THE AIEASUREMENT OF THE NATURAL lONISATION OF THE AIR. By Edouard Jacot^ B.A. Various types of apparatus have been designed for observa- tions on the natural ionisation of the air. Elster and Geitd, who were the first to attempt such observations, used a very simple form of Apparatus. A charged conductor, carefully insulated, was exposed in the open air and connected to an electroscope. The rate at which the conductor lost its charge was taken as a measure of the state of ionisation of the air near the conductor. The apparatus is still used, but the results have little useful meaning. Meteorological conditions have an im- portant influence on the measurements. The presence of dust, or moisture, or wind of any kind, seriously affects the observa- tions. Thus, the ionisation measured in fog or a dusty atmos- phere is unnaturally small, as there is necessarily an unnaturally rapid rate of recombination between ions when particles suitable for nucleation are distributed in the atmosphere. Other methods of measuring the ionisation have since been devised. The Gerdien and the Ebert forms of apparatus are the best known. The principle of both is essentially the same. The Gerdien consists of a central horizontal metal cylinder, some 25 cms. long and i . 5 cms. in diameter, mounted within a large cylinder 56 cms. long and 16 cms. in diameter. The inner cylinder is connected to an electroscope and insulated from the outer, which is earthed. A current of air is drawn through the apparatus by means of a fan ; and, the inner cylinder having been charged, the rate at which the electroscope leaves collapse is noted. The conductivity of the air can then be calculated. Gerdien's expression for the conductivity is as follows : — 12 /o-e ''ol To and /'i are the radii of the outer and inner cylinders respect- ively; / the length of the inner; C is the capacity of the inner cylinder and the electroscope ; n is the number of ions per c.c. of air, positive or negative, according to the charge of the inner cylinder ; and v is the mobility of these ions ; c is the electronic charge. If the potential of the inner electrode falls from l\ to V. in a time r, the expression gives the (juantity ncv. the con- ductivity of the air. If the inner electrode is initially charged positively, the quantities n, e, v would refer to negative ions ; and vice versa. THE lONISATION OF THE AIR. 267 For practical use, Gerdien's expression is incorrect. The I expressions log^ r„, which is, of course, a theoretical expression ''i for the capacity of a simple concentric cylinder condenser, can- not be used in this instance. The point is important ; for results obtained with the help of Gerdien's formula have been found to differ by as much as 40 per cent, from results given by the amended formula : where A' is the meastn"ed capacity of the system made up of (i) the outer cylinder; (2) the inner cylinder: and (3) the thin support to the inner cylinder which connects it to the electroscope, and is necessarily itself exposed in part to the air current. The Ebert form of apparatus is much the same in jirinciple as the Gerdien. but is more self-contained. The concentric cylinders are vertical. The radius of the outer is of the order of 2 cms. instead of 8, and the inner cylinder is fitted directly to the leaf system of the electroscope. Air is again drawn betw^een the cylinders by a turbine actuated by clockwork, the number of c.c. passed per second being automatically recorded by a calibrated andlemometer. Various observations allow of the quantities //. 7'. and iicz' being separately calculated. Observations with the Ebert apparatus are tedious, and unless the ionisation is abnormally great, cannot be conducted quickly. This is an important disadvantage, as the state of ionisation of the air, except under peculiarly favourable condi- tions, varies continuous!}-. With the Gerdien apparatus, on the other hand, the necessary observations for the calculation of the conductivity can be made in a few minutes. Both the Gerdien and the Ebert types of apparatus have come into general use, and, rather unfortunately, both are often accepted as standard instruments. The writer has made observations in the open air at the South African College with both instruments. The observations were made in the most favourable weather conditions. The instruments were set up near one another, and measurements with each were made simultaneously. Values of the conductivity iicz' as given by either instrument were found to be reasonal)ly consistent. But there was never any agreement between any one value as given by the Gerdien and the corresponding value as given by the Ebert. Thus, the conductivity measured by the Gerdien was found to be con- sistently of the order of lO"^, the conductivity contributed by the positive ions being generally in excess of that contributed by the negative ions. On the other hand, the conductivit}' measured 268 - THE IONISAT[ON OF THE AIR. by the Ebeit was dlzvays less than lo"' ; values given b-y the Gerdien Ijeing sometimes as much as 50 times greater than corre- sponding values given by the Ebert. We conclude that each instrument measured some definite (juantitx , l)nt that the meaning of the quantity differed in the two cases. We proceed to an examination of the exact meaning of these (juantities. The ions present in air at an\' time are of different kinds. The simplest types are ions which have about the same mobility- as the ions produced in dust-free air by ordinary ionising agents, such as the rays from radio-active substances. Ions of this kind carry a simple charge c, and have a mobility of i.o to I.S cms. per second per volt per cm. A second type of ion is the Langevin ion, very complex in structure and of low mobility, varying from .0008 to .0003 cm. per second. The nature of this ion is im])erfectl\' understood. Pollock has recently advanced the view, based on a thermodynamic argument, that it is a com- plex ion carrying absorbed moisture in the Uquid state. The ion does not exist in dust-free air; so that the nucleus is probably a dust particle. In addition to these two types of ions, a class of ion intermediate in size and mobilitv is ncnv recognised. Pollock argues that these ions are surrounded l)y an envelope of water vapour. Their mobility varies between .07 and .007 cm. per sec. The number of these three types per c.c. varies. Pollock, at Sydney, found that the number of small ions of any sign varied from o to i6o; the ninnljer of intermediate ions from 200 to 1,000; while the number of Langevin ions varied between 600 and 5,500. At the Cape, as will be seen later, the number of small ions probal)l\- never falls to zero ; and the total number of small and intermediate ions is certainly always greater than the corresponding average number given by Pollock. Now the conductivity iic7' of the air, as it appears in the expressions of Gerdien and Ebert, involves 11, the number of ions of any one sign per c.c, and z', the mobility of these ions. But since z' is not a constant quantity, and since /; is made up of different numbers of different ions, the conductivity could be better expressed as 2 /icz' — the summation to include all types of ions and all mobilities; and any instrument, if it is to fulfil a useful function, should measure either this total conductivity or any one of the terms iiez' which make up this total conductivity — that is, the instrument should be designed to catch all ions, or some definite type of ion only. The two forms of apparatus under discussion do neither ;, and, further, the quantity actually measured by the one apparatus is not the (juantity measured by the other. Ions caught by the Ebert apparatus are not the same in number or in kind as are those caught by the Gerdien apparatus, and, in consequence, the average conductivity as determined from results obtained with the one cannot agree with the corresponding quantity obtained THE lONlSAtlON OF Till-: AJK. 269 from the other. The following consideration shows this clearly : — The equation to the path of an ion at a distance r from the common axis of two concentric cylinders of the Ebert or Gerdien type is : Where U is the velocity of the air stream parallel to the axis of dr YLv ~dx """T7 the cylinders, i.e., the x axis ; and E is the electric intensity at a point distant r from the axis, and acting at right angles to the axis. If Q is the charge on the inner electrode, and / is the length of this electrode, A -rr Q E = 2 TT I- I Hence -. — <^-i' = 2 tt r C dr. If a is the radius of the innter electrode, and h is the inside radius of the outer cylinder, an ion initially at a distance r=h from the axis will be caught by the inner electrode after travelling a distance x parallel to the axis, where x is given by X = / 2 TT /- dr. TT 0- — TT a-J 1 .V where N is written for the quantity of air drawn from between the cylinders per second. Hence all ions of mobility v which enter the space between the outer and inner cylinders will be caught by the central elec- trode, provided / is made just greater than x; I N i.e., I > 4 TTV Q C V 1 or -— -— > A^ 4 TT V where C is the capacity of the innter and outer cylinders, and V the potential to which the inner is charged. Hence, if an inner electrode is to collect all small ions — that is, ions of average mobility, i . 5 cms. per sec. per volt per cm. — the condition to be satisfied is : 270 TME lONISATION OF THE AIR. C V 1 > \ A^ 4 TT y I 5. 300 C V or ^i-l > 00018. A' (C and V are here expressed in electrostatic units, N is measured in c.c. per sec. ; and v is therefore reduced to cms. per sec. per electrostatic unit per cdl.m.) Similarly, if the apparatus is to collect all ions of the second class, i.e., ions of average mobility, .038 cm. per sec. per volt per cm., C V 1 1 > N 4 TT X 038 300 C V or ^-1 > 007. And if the ions collected are to include the Langevin ions, C V 1 1 > A' 4 TT X 00055 300 or £-K > -48. A^ Now, in the case of the Ebert apparatus, C is 17 cms.; V is of the order of fgg electrostatic units, and an average value C V for iV is 1,150 c.c. per sec. This gives for —^ a value .0095- O V In the case of the Gerdien apparatus -rp is about .22. A comparison between these numbers and those derived above shows that results obtained with the two instruments are not comparable. For whereas the Gerdien type of instrument must collect some Langevin ions in addition to all others, the Ebert certainly does not. The Ebert apparently collects all the small ions and all ions of the second or intermediate class. Values obtained with the Ebert for the number of ions per c.c. and their average mobility otherwise confirm this. During a series of observations the number of positive ions per c.c. varied between 1,134 and 1,800; and the corresponding numbers for the negative ions between 1,157 ^^'^^ 1. 68 1. The ratio of the number of positive to the number of negative ions varied between the limits 1.08 and 1.02, and was therefore fairly constant. The values of the mobilities of ions of either sign varied between .058 and .736. i\lso, when the number of ions per c.c. was small, the mobility was high ; while the mobility diminished as the number of ions increased. Now .058 and .736, the limits for the observed mobilities, are values intermediate between .038 and 1.5, the THE lONISATION OF THE AIR. 27I average mobilities of the first and second class of ion respec- tively. Hence, during the actual observations both these types of ion must have been present. Thus an average mobility of .058 would indicate the presence of a large number of the larger of these ions and only a few small ions. An average mobility of .736, on the other hand, would suggest an important diminu- tion in the number of the larger ions, and hence a diminution in the total number of ions per c.c. We should therefore expect to find associated with low average mobilities high values for the total number of ions, and vice versa. If the Gerdien and Ebert instruments are to give results C V . that are at all comparable, the quantity^y^ derived above must be chosen of the same order for both. With the present designs of apparatus this is almost impracticable. Thus, in the case of C V the Gerdien the value of -^ - could be made to approxmiate to that for the Ebert by reducing V and increasing A''. The design of the Gerdien electroscope, however, does not admit of any important reduction of T'. while the large dimensions of the outer cylinder make it difficult to increase A^ beyond lOO c.c. per sec. On the other hand, a decrease in A'' in the case of the Ebert is not convenient ; while the range over which V can be varied C V is again limited. I have brought the quantity —^ for the Ebert apparatus nearer the corresponding quantity for the Gerdien by increasing the capacity of the Ebert with the help of a parallel plate air condenser ; and values given by the instrument so modi- fied certainly approach those given by the Gerdien. Unfortu- nately, the increased capacity of the Ebert, reducing as it must the rate of leak of the electroscope, has the eft'ect of greatly, and probably prejudicially, extending the time required for making the necessary observations. Soluble Phosphates. — Prof. W. Bottomley has patented a novel process for the manufacture of soluble phos- phates for fertilising the soil. The specification claims the manu- facture of soluble i)hosphate from mineral phosphate by mixing the finely sub-divided phosphate with a small proportion of a suitable food for micro-organisms, and with aerobic organisms from putrefying organic matter, and maintaining the mixture at a temperature considerablv above the normal. It is also claimed that the soluble phosphate may be produced from mineral phosphate by moistening the latter, after having been finely sub- divided, with a putrefying liquor, and maintaining the mass at about 30 degrees Centigrade for about a week. THE OSTRICH FEATHER INDUSTRY IN SOUTH AFRICA. By RussEL William Thornton. Historical. — The Ostrich is mentioned, and one may even say described, in the Bible, so that there is Httle doubt that a great deal was known about this bird for many centuries before domestication took place in South Africa. Ancient Egyptian inscriptions and accounts by Greeks and Romans show the anti- quity of this species. In the reply of the Lord to Job, the habits of the Ostrich are as clearly described as we might describe them to-day. Distribution. — The geographical range of the Ostrich was very extensive, and is not nearly as extensive to-day as it was. At the present time the Ostrich is found distributed over the greater part of the African Continent, but has, to a great extent, become extinct in Asia, though there is little doubt, as is shown by fossil remains, that at one time the Ostrich extended as far as the North-East of India. Variety. — Although the Ostriches through the Continent of Africa may be classed as one species, they may be split up into four varieties. First, the North African {Stntthis camclus). These are found all along the northern part of the continent, ranging eastwards to Egypt and Abyssinia, and south to the Southern Soudan, and it was a subdivision of this variety which formed the shipment introduced into South Africa in 1912. The characteristics of the North African Ostrich are: the bird is very long in the legs, the colour of the skin in the hen is a creamy or very light salmon colour, and the cock, when in full sexual vigour, is a bright scarlet. The top of the head in both sexes has a bare, horny patch quite devoid of hair or feathers. The shell of the ^gg is quite smooth — i.e., quite free from pittings, as is the case with the egg of the South African variety. Second, the East African Ostrich (Stnithis inassaicus), found princi- pally in Massai Land. The characteristics of this variety are not well defined, and in many ways it appears intermediate between the North African and the South African. It has the same bare patch on the head as the Northern bird. Third, the Somali Ostrich (Stntthis molyhdophanis), so called from the colour of its plumage. It is found principally in Somali- land, and is the smallest of the four varieties. The skin coloura- tion is a dull bluish-grey or leaden colour. Fourth, the South African Ostrich {Stntthis aitstralis). The skin colovu'ation of this bird is a dark bluish-grey. The bare patch on the head is absent, and the shell of the egg is pitted and thicker than that of the Northern bird. Some verv interesting cross-breeding experiments have recently been carried out between the imported North African and South African Ostrich. The external ap- pearance of the cross-bred chicks is more like the North African parent stock. In the case where the North African hen was mated with the South African cock, a peculiar feature was noted, Till-: i.)STKi(.ii i-i-;ATii i:r lXl)L'^■n-:^ . 2";^ namely, thai the eggsliclls of this cross were only pitted in certain patches, other patches being quite smooth. Domestication. — Until recent years it was thought that the Ostrich was first domesticated in South Africa, the approximate date of this domestication being 1863. In recent years it has, however, been discovered that the Ostrich was and is kept in a state of domestication in the Soudan, and has been kept in this state, as far as can be ascertained, for centuries. The method of keeping birds in domestication in the Soudan is, hoxAever, entirely different from that practised in South Africa. Both methods started in the same way, viz., by catching- chicks of the wild birds and raising these by hand; in the Soudan this practice has always been continued. Chicks are caught, raised by hand, and kept until the birds become too old to produce feathers of paying quality, when in many parts they are killed and eaten in exactly the same way as cattle or any other class of stock. The system of farming these birds is to enclnse each bird in a small circular mttd wall or enclosure, about 8 feet in diameter ; the birds are never given an opportunity to breed, and this practice, being continued for centuries, has led to the belief that the Ostrich will not breed in captivity. This state of affairs is now being remedied, both in Egypt, British Nigeria, and the French territory adjoining British Nigeria. The system practised of removing the feathers from these domesticated birds was the crudest possible, and, in fact, was and is governed by the fact that if one of the native farmers requires money, he pulls as many feathers from the bird as it possilile to remove and sells these. The stage of the growth of the feather is not considered to any extent, and for this reason the feather sockets are damaged, and in the course of two or three years the bird ])roduces worthless feathers. This practice is being remedied, and in course of time will undoubtedly be re- ]jlaced by the methods practised in South Africa, where the Ostrich is the best-cared-for and most pampered animal in existence. In .South Africa the practice dift'ered from the North in this way : that when the wild chicks reached the age of ma- turity these were allowed to breed, and from these our domesti- cated stocks have been produced, and, due to the careful handling and selected breeding, the feathers have been vastlv improved. The methods of handling and the taking of the feathers will be dealt with under the headings of clipping and quilling and management. Chick-Rearing and Artificial Incubation. — As before stated, the Ostrich was domesticated in 1863. There are several claims for the post of honour of the first domesticator of Ostriches, and it is difficult to decide as to which farmer reall\- first .domesticated the Ostrich. Prior to 1863 all the feathers ex- ported from South Africa w^ere taken from wild birds which were killed by hunters. Incubation and Chick-rearing may be classed under two c 274 '^'^^'- OSTKR'II FEAT II KR IXDLSTK^'. headings, '* Natural " and " Artiticial." In the natural order of things, when the Ostriches reach their full maturity (generally from two to three years, they make their hrst nest. Jf un- limited hens are available, a cock will usually mate with at least two ov three hens for a single nest. Under improved farming conditions, however, it has been found that the best results are obtained b\- mating a cock with one or two hens, and enclosing these in a small paddock about two acres in extent. The birds usually select a sandy spot for their nest, which consists of a hollow or saucer-like depression in the ground made by the cock bird, and it is not an unusual sight, when Ostriches are nesting, to see the cock bird resting on his breastbone scratching up the ground for this purpose, in much the same manner in v,hich the ordinary barndoor fowl does when taking a sandbath. In the completed nest the hen lays anything from 8 to 20 eggs, at the rate of one every second day. Incubation is then started ; the hen hatches by day and the cock by night. This is con- tinued till the fort3-second day, when the chicks make their appearance. Artificial incubation is carried out by means of incubators. The heat is general!}' conveyed to the eggs either by means of .a hot-water tank or by hot air. In both cases the heat is generated b\' an oil lamp, which is placed at the side of and connected with the incubator by means of pipes. The temperature in the egg drawer is kept at from 09° to too° F. (the normal tempera- ture of the Ostrich is 103^ F.). The eggs have to be turned twice a day to prevent the germ adhering to the side of the shell. As the evaporation from the eggs is very great, moisture must, in artificial incubation, be supplied from time to time. In natural incubation this moisture is al)sorbed from the ground and the body of the bird, but in artificial inculiation it must either be supplied by damping the eggs from time to time, or bv means of a tray of water inserted imder the drawer which contains the eggs. It has been found that if the temperature in the incubator is kept fairly high the chicks hatch sooner, and z'ice versa; but. as stated above, the best results are obtained bv keeping an even temperature of 99° to 100° F. In this case the chicks Avill generally emerge from the shells on the forty- second day. After the chicks are hatched they should be kept without food for about three days (until the swelling behind the head disappears) : they may then be allowed to pick up broken eggshells, grit, finely-ground bone, crushed mealies, and a moderate amount of green food, such as lucerne, rape, etc. In natural rearing they are allowed to run with the parent birds, who teach them to eat a great variety of foods, and thev are also given a great deal of exercise. This has. up to the present, been found to be quite the healthiest method of rearing the chick, but may i>ossiblv be superseded by an improved method of hand-rearing in the near future, should the experiments in this respect prove wholly successful. iilli O-STKRU J-L:AT11L-.R l.XDLSTKN'. -/ r in artiticial rearing the chicks are placed in charge of a herd, who should be instructed to take the chicks for a fairly long walk on the veld every day. They are thus enabled to pick up the grit required by their digestive organs, and also procure a fairly wide range of foods. The exercise is very essential to then' well-being. Under this system of rearing the chicks become \er\- tame, which is a great advantage when the\- become older. Internal Parasites. — With the exception of its su>ceptibility to internal parasites — tape-worm and wire-worm — the Ostrich is an extremely healthy bird. The losses caused by these two pests is, however, at times very severe. Tape-worm usually makes its appearance in the chicks when they reach the age of two weeks, and may be detected by the small white specks which appear in the freshly dro[)ped dung. These are sections of the tape-worm, and are tilled with spores. The medium of infec- tion has not yet been definitely ascertained. The tape-worm itself may be from 6 to 36 inches in length. The usual means employed for checking this parasite is dosing with either petrol or turpentine, and the dose should be administered every fort- night or three weeks, and is often continued until the chicks reach the age of 18 months. When three years old the birds are no longer troubled by this parasite. Wire-worm usually makes its appearance when the chicks are about six to nine months old, and is a much more serious parasite than the tape- worm. Beyond the rapid falling-off in condition of the bird, there are not many symptoms by which it can be detected. On making a j)ost-mortem examination, however, the lining of the proventriculis or glandular portion of the stomach will be found to have a thick layer of jelly-like substance adhering to it. On scraping this away thousands of wire-worm will be seen adhering to the tissue of the stomach. In appear- ance they are red in colour, about the thickness of a human hair. The usual means employed in combating this parasite is dosing either with sal-ammoniac and lime, carbolic acid, or carbon bisulphide, but as all these remedies are rather severe in their action, they should only be administered when really necessary. Feeding and Management. — The comparative ease with which the Ostrich may be fed is one of the points that has ren- dered its domestication an easy matter. It feeds readily on all the ordinary fodders which the farmer, and especially the Karroo farmer, usually grows for his other stock, such as sheep and cattle. Thus with a great number of South African farmers Ostriches are run more or less as a side-line in addi- tion to their other farming operations. The best albuminoid ratio for breeding birds has been found to be i :4.5, and for feather growth about i : 6. The foods most commonlv used are mealies, Kaffir corn, oats, barley, prickly pear leaves, aloe leaves (Aqave Americana), monketaan (desert melon), mangel. J276 THE USTKICH FEATliliR INDLSTKV. green lucerne, rape, kale, green barley, lucerne hay, bran, etc. A certain amount of bone should always be supplied to the birds, and if the pasturage be devoid of grit, this should be supplied; for this purpose white quartz has been found to give excellent results. The Ostriches swallow the grit readily, and the grit .assists the digestion by grinding up the food, Avhich the Ostrich swallows whole. Grit is so essential that in some parts of the country it is carted by waggon or by rail for many miles, as it was found that without it the birds would not thrive — in fact, could not exist. Clipping Olid Oiiilling. — The method of taking the feathers from the bird as practised under Sotith African farming metliods is as follows : — When the chick reaches the age of five to six months, the iarst feathers are cut from the wings. These are known as " spadonas," from their spear shape. The quills of the feathers are then allowed to remain in the wings until all the blood has receded from them, and they become quite dry and hard. This takes from two to three months, and the dry quills can then be drawn from the wings without causing the least pain w loss of blood. If not drawn, they are pushed out by the next crop ■of feathers, l)ut the moulting. is uneven, and hence the method •of removing the quill stumps artificially is recommended. In six months' time the next crop of feathers will be ready to clip, and three months later the quills may again be drawn. This alternate clipping and quilling is then continued for the rest of the bird's life. This practice can be carried on very successfully in parts enjoying a fairly even temperature, but in districts where the winters are very cold it has been found advisable to take only one clipping each year, for the young feathers do not start evenly from the wing when the bird is quilled in very cold weather. Quilling should only be carried out w-hen the bird is in good condition, and this condition should be maintained through- out the period that the feathers are growing. Condition has been found to have a most marked influence on the feather growth, and, generally speaking, the better the condition of the bird, the better and sounder are the feathers produced ; thus it will be seen that it behoves the Ostrich farmer in his own interests to keep his birds in the best of condition, and give them the best treatment possible, and it may therefore be stated, without fear of contradiction, that at the present day the Ostrich is the most pampered creature in existence. Marketing of Feathers. — As a general rule the farmer -ends his clip of feathers as the feathers come from the bird, without any previous sorting or grading, direct to his market agent, who sorts them into grades to suit the buyers, and places them on the market, where they are sold bv public auction. The buyers ship them overseas, chiefly to London, Paris, and New York, where they are disposed of to the manufacturers. Those TliE OSTKlCll 1-KAT111-:k I^"L)U^TkV. 277 feathers going" to London are again sorted on reaching there — tliis time according to the manufacturers' requirements, whicii is a ver}- much tiner process. They are then catalogued and placed on view for a fortnight, to enable prospective buyers to estimate their approximate value, and are then again disposed of by public atiction. The greatest bulk of feathers goes to Great Britain^ France, and America, and a smaller portion to Austria, Ger- manv, and Russia, etc. Of recent years several attempts have been made to introduce feathers into China and Japan, but the difficultv up to the present has been that the people of the East verv seldom wear hats, and when they do, they are purely as a protection against the weather, and not as an article of decora- tion, as in the West. It is to be hoped, however, that with the spread of European fashions, and the carrying out of schemes recenth- evolved for the purpose of popularising the Ostrich. feather, the desire for this beautiful article of decoration w'ill be increased, and that the luarkets for Ostrich feathers will be ver\- much extended in the future. r.vcVs- of the Ostrich Feather. — When one considers the enormous variety of uses to which Ostrich feathers are put, it is hard to conceive of such an industry becoming an absolute failure, and although the market will always be subject to- fluctuati'vu. It contained more caoutchouc and less resin than the material derived from Euphorbia Tirucalli, and was therefore su]:)erior to the latter. The coagulated latex of Coiio- pharyiu/ia clcgaus from the Transvaal was also examined. Ilere again the sample was found to be ver\- resinous, and it showed but little elasticity or tenacity. It was valued at ,^d. per II) in Etiro])e. a price at which its collection in the Transvaal is hardlv^ likelv to l)e renmnerative. * (1915) 13, 361-372. THE RELATJOX OF BODY AND :ML\D. By Rt. Rev. Artiil i< L ii \M)Li:r. .M.A.. D.lJ. This problem might be descriljed as that with which all philusoph}' from the Ijeginning has been dealing in some sense or other ; but it has lately acquired a fresh and urgent interest from the investigations of physiological psychology. We start with a rough common-sense dualism of mind and bodv as distinct things, which, though very different in character and operation, necessarily influence each other, and which, being bound to live together (like Boer and Briton), have to establish a modus Vivendi as best they can. But if we are actuated by that curiosity which we are told is the starting-point of philosophy,, we are constrained to go on and ask what is the nature of this reciprocal influen.ce, how a spiritual or immaterial principle and a spatial network of nerves can act upon each other, and how far either of those two factors is deflected from its natural mode of operation by such inter-action. The difliculty of understanding how an immaterial and ci material something can find a connecting ground on which tluy can get at each other and co-operate or even conflict with each otlicr, leads obviously and naturally to a rc-statemcnt which declares that the two ]jrocesses, the mental and the ])hysical, simpl\- operate side by side without really touching each other or influencing each other at all ; ;ind here we have the theory of " psycho-]jh}-sical parallelism.'" When we think of anything or desire anything, the mental thought or desire is accompanied by a certain change in the nervous tissue ; the two processes are parallel with e;ich other without any causal influence being exer- cised by the one upon the other. Such a theory may be formu- lated, but it simjily shelves, and refuses to face, the ])roblem ; it is difficult to hold it at all without introducing a dciis ex macliiiia in the shape of some ])re-established harmony which ordains arbitraril\- that there shall be such a state of things; and. further, it fails to satisfy the claims either of common-sense or ])hysical science. Common-sense asserts that this mental process does not merely run parallel with the physical process,, but dominates and controls it, exercises a causal influence upon it ; and, on the other hand, physiology repudiates such intrusions on the i)art of a mental factor, holds that the nervous system is an indei)endent, self-working entity, and that such mental pheno- mena as thoughts and desires are casual efifects thrown off by the nervous system in the course of its own strictly mechanical opei'ation. This latter contention gives us the theory (^f " epi-])heno- menonalism," according to which the brain is a machine whose operations ;ire causally determined by mechanical laws and by nothing else, each mental disturbance being a nece?sar\- result THE RELATION OF i'.ODV AXU MINI). 281 of its material antecedents, and in no sense affected by such mental states as desire or volition. But. as an}' machine does its work, sparks may fl)' ont, or an engine may whistle, and there are regnlar rhythmical pulsations of sound, things which result from the working of the machine, but which are ([uite unim- portant and irrelevant by-products of its action, and that is the position which this theory assigns to all mental processes ; they are merely effects of bodily processes, and imimportant casual effects into the bargain. The only criticism that we need pass here i> that, however much one may wish to disparage the work of the mind, we cannot disguise the fact that it is at any rate different in kind from that of the body — lower and less important if }"0U like, bitt at any rate belonging to a different level or order of things. The fact makes the illustrations I have given qtiite futile. The whistling and clanking and throbbing of an engine are on the same level as the more important movements of its pistons and wheels : Ijut desire, thought, and volition are not on the same level as the afferent or motor discharges of the nerves. There is not sufficient common quality to enable us intelligently to call the one effects of tlie other. We can say that the two processes go on together, but not that the mental process is the product, however casual, of the bodily process. In other words. we are forced bacl< to ])arallelism, which at any rate recognises that Ijrain processes cannot be said to cause mental states. And we seem to be brtiught lo the same pass if we take the opposite view to epi-phenomenonalism, and regard consciousness or conscious states as the sole reality, and the bodily states as a delusive appearance, as a sort of shadow thrown b\ the mind. According to '* psychical monism," everything is soul or soul- stuff ; but one sottl can only manifest itself to another in material bodily form: body is the unreal appearance of soul. i'.ut it is difficult to tinderstand why even this unreal a])pearance should exist: if soul is everything, why in the world should it a|)pear as bod\'? Why shotild not soul act directly on soul, as there are indications of its doing in cases of teleoathy? If the body is real, it i^ ol)vious that soul can onlv reveal itself to soul through l)0(lil\- action and ap])earance. But if bod\' does not exist. Avh}- should soul insist on masqtieraduig in bodih' frjrm? Thi'; =ecms to be ns awkward a question for ])svchical monists as it is for Mrs. Tuldy and the Christian .'scientists. It seems just as impossible to regard body as a shadow cast by soul, as it is to regard soul as a phosphorescence cast b\- body. Neither soul nor body can be reduced to the same order as the other, ex])lained in terms of the other, and made the ghost or the bond- slave I if the other. L'nless. then, we retmm to parallelism, and sa\- that tlie two orders exist side by side without touching or influencing each other, we must proceed to some theory of their mutual inter- actioTi. And. bv talking of interaction, we allow that both mind 2^2 Tiii; ki:lati()>; of jjody and mind. and Ijiuly are equally real and reciprocally act upon and inriiicnce each other. To nie it seems fairly clear that we must lutld some theory of interaction — that the mind does in some \va_\- control and set in motion processes of the nerve-system, and that the body intiuences the mind in materialising its thoughts or making them symbolical in character. But as the theory of interaction is usually stated, it seems oi)en to very serious objections. The brain is presented to us first as an independent svstem. actuated exclusively b\- mechanical laws of natural causation, and then, "because such a system so actuated cannot explain ])sychical facts, another inde])endent principle, called the soul or mind, is ])rought in and is rej^resented as influencing and controlling a system which, we were just before assured, was a swstem operating exclusively by mechanical laws. I think Clifford speaks some- where of a train, in wdiich the luggage van is connected with the rest of the coaches bv the feelings of friendsbip l)el\\eLn the guard and the engine-driver. Ilow^ can a system governed by mechanical and chemical laws and w^orking by natural causation tind room for the mind with its implications of freedom and pur])Ose and intelligent choice? Does not the theor\- of interaction simply try ti> mix up things which are mutually incom]\'itible ? According to it body becomes a mechanical system which fails to act by mechanical law (so far as an influence of mind is admitted ). and mind becomes a s])iritual system which does not act spiritually, but mixes itself up in mechanical processes. Both systems fail to be true to their own special and characteristic i)rinciples. It is difficult to understand whether mind interferes occa- sionalh' with a ])rocess which is normalK' mechanical, or whether it is essentiallv mixed u]) in these processes; and equally diffi- cult to understand how either one or the other is possible. In order to illustrate what seems to me the way out of the difhculty, let us consider the case of an ordinary machine. Here pur- posive contrivance and dead mechanical action are both ])resent. Each part of the machine has its ])urpose in connection with the whole, and the whole again has its purpose in connection Avith the needs or comforts of human life. But this puri)()sive ele- ment is im])orted from within. It was located in the mind of the engineer who made the machine; the machine itself knows nothing of such jiurpose ; no cog or ])iston or wheel recognises anv community of interest with the others, but all work in blind obedience to mechanical law and in .absolute inditi'erencL- h> any useful result that may ensue. But let us imagine a machine which is itself active and pur- posive, instead of having its i)ur])Ose im])arted to it from withmit; and we shall have a i)icture of the interaction that we want. The influence of the life and the mechanism will be recii)rocal. On the one hand the i)ur])osive life will only be able to manifest itself under material conditions; will have to grind itself out Till-: RIXATIOX OF BODY AND Ml. Ml. -'■'^.^ piecemeal and in lime; but, on the other hand, the mechanism ^vill be controlled throughout by the purposive life which per- vades it in every ])art. And, moreover, the two will develop together. As the ]iurposive life grows, the mechanism will alter and modify itself, and, rice -c'crsa. the increased complexity of the meclianism will enable the ]nirposive life to become richer and fuller and more far-reaching in aims and ideals. And this seems to be what has actually happened in the course of evolu- tion. All life is ]iur])osive, and contains the germ of the most advanced developments of mind. It seems futile to say that at no point in evolution can we detect the emergence of mind, and that, therefore, there is no such thing. Mind is ])resent in all life; the purposive character of life is its mental character; at the earliest stage that purpose is faint and primitive. C(^rre- sponing to the undeveloped structure of the organism. The amteba manifests ])urix)sive life in protruding or contracting itself in accordance with the bodies with which it comes into contact. .\nd as the organism becomes more complex in structure, the ])urposive life becomes subtler and fuller: It is a vital unitv interfused with the material structure and govern- ing and regulating the action of that structure. Tints a ]')uv- posive character is im])ressed at everv stage upon the structure : at every stage it is soaked in mentality : it is just the instrument used by the life which indwells it with the object of avoidin;^ collisions or obtaining nourishment, and so on. At a later period, coincident with the fitrther development of the structure of the brain, the organic life itself becomes more complex, and manifests itself in those cognitive, conative, and aftective as]>ects which we know as reason and will, and desire, but which are simply aspects of the organic life in its advanced stage, and to which we tend to ascril:)e far too much in the way of separate- ness from each other. .\nd by this time the nervous svstem has become a highly elaborate, minutely diiterentiated structure, sutliciently com])lex and delicate to ex])ress these various depart- ments of the indwelling life. In other words, what we come to see is this : instead of the crudely dualistic conception of a purely immaterial mind inter- acting somehow or other with a i)urely material bodilv mechani>m. we have the concrete conce])tion of a single living organism in which whole and parts are mutuallv dependent on each other : the vital unity is the whole, and the nerves are the parts. The life is the whole which directs and gives ])urpose to the ])arts : while the i)arts in their turn build ui) and su]:)port the whole. Roughly, then, the relation of mind and bodv is the relation of the whole to the parts, of the life and the organism. The value of such a conce])tion is that on the one hand it maintains a real distinction between mind and l)odv. and provides for the growth of both through their interaction> with each other, avoiding the static immobility which theories of monism seem to imply : and on the other hand, it make? 2^4 Till: RliLATlON OF JJUDV ASiJ MJ \1). intelligible the fact of interaction, which remains a problem or an impossibility on strongly dualistic theories. Dn the one hand, mind and body are for ever distinct, they cannot be identiticd. nor can either be sacrificed to the other — made a shadow or a spark casually effected by the other; their distinctness, their interactions, their occasional warfare, is the source of all progress in science and morals. On the other hand, though distinct, they are not aliens. It is not true that the one is absolutely spiritual and the other entirely material. If that were so, there could never be any interactions, but only juxta])ositir)n of the one with the other, and perha])s the annihilation of one by the other. ijut as a matter of fact, througli their constant interfu>ioii with each other, the mind has become materialised and the nervous system mentalised. The mind is just the purposive whole controlling the parts ; it has al\va)s been limited to the use of those parts; it works piecemeal and in jerks, not in timeless contemplation, just because successive nerve stimuli and nerve reaction are the instruments it uses ; its ideas, again, on the most spiritual themes are symbolical, are pictures or parables from the material sphere, because it only has matter to work on. The mind is free and purjiosive ; but its freedom is exercised upon,. and its pur])oses are wrought out in a material medium. The mind is just so far distinct from the body as the whole is from the parts, as life is from the organism. The life is interfused with ever}- ])art of the organism; it depends on the organism on the one hand, and directs it on the other; and one aspect of this organic life is what we call the mind. Thus we have, in Bosanquet's words, a " moulding of the soul through its sur- roundings— the modification thus brought to these surroundings., and the results achieved through them." And on the other side, we must remember that the cerebral: system is itself moulded and constituted by purposive action in the past. It reacts to-day in a certain wa} . its motor discharges are in a certain direction, because of the purposes to which it has been made instrumental yesterday and the day before. It is not a blind immaterial mechanism, but is charged with instincts, habits and automatic arrangements, which are due to mind and' make it akin to mind. It is a system of mentalised ])arts al)le to interact with a necessarily materialised living mind. It is a system of parts which imply and demand the whole, just as the whole is limited to the use of the |)arts. .\nd I might just suggest, in conclusion, that this conception of whole and parts is fruitful beyond the sphere of the individual life. Just as in that individual life the mind, as the whole, uses the body as the parts, so in social life the individual freely surrenders himself as a part to be used in the service of a larger whole. He and other individuals together make up that whole, they are saturated with the spirit of the whole, the\- wake up to their true nature as members of the whole; and on the other hand, this social Tin-: kklatidn hf \An>\ and minh. -'■'^5 whole is limited in its action to the use of the individual mem- bers ; it waits upon them, cannot go beyond what they are pre- pared and able to do, is built up of their individual will-- and convictions and desires. And it is the same in religion, where individuals aoain surrender themselves as instruments to be used by a divine life which realises its ])urposes through them; so that they become " members in particular " of Christ, and Christ is fulfilled in them. Thus the relation of the whole and the parts, of the life and the organism, seems to run t'lrough and throw light on the relation of mind and body in the individual, and in the relation of the individual to the larger spheres. TRAXSACTIOXS ( )I- SOCIETIES. SoiTH African IxsTmriox of Exgixfers. — Saturday, August 14th: W. Ingham. M.T.C.E.. ALTAT.E.. President, in the chiur.—- Description of collapse and recnrcry of central incline shaft. Bantjes Consolidated Klines, Ltd." : P. Cazalet and W. W. Lawrie. The subsidence was due to a decomposed dyke l)ecoming saturated with water from lieavy rains and being converted into a pla-tic mud. Tlie whole weight of the satur- ated mass was thrown on tlte roof of the shaft, which fractured under the stress. I !n- weiglit was tints transferred on to the steel shaft framing. Avliich collapsed with practically no warning'. The steel setts collapsed totally for a distance of 95 feet, and partially for 35 feet more. The author proceeded to outline the method of recovery adopted. Travelling timlxr setts were lirst introditced; permanent caps of pitch pine, fitted on the lop with Ixixing. were then placed in i)osition. and finally concrete walls, extending 40 feet above and 45 feet below the fall, or 180 feet in all. were built up, and just two months after the accident hoisting recommenced — " Xotes on Monel metal": E. GofFe. Monel metal, the natural alloy of nickel and copper, reduced from its ores without change of combination, resists corrosion to an extraordinary degree. The author detailed certain tests made m the testing laboratory of the Government Mines Department, which clearly demonstrated the alloy's strength, ductility and toughness. Chemical tests had shown that the action of ordinary mine water on monel metal is inappreciable, that immersion for two days in 3J per cent, sulphuric acid affects the metal only slightly, that a . 12 per cent, solution of potassium cvanide has no greater effect during five day^ immersion, and that free hydrocyanic acid ( .05 per cent, solution ) acts on iron with five times greater strength than on monel metal. Saturday, October 9th : W. Ingham, M.I.C.E., AI.I.M.E., President, in in the chair. — "Machinery Accidents on the Gold Mines of the Witivaters- rand" : C. B. PattrickC The author furnished tables showing the pro- portions of casualties due to machinery and the number of these classed as preventible, the effects of personal and of impersonal causes in general, and with special reference to preventible accidents. Compensation tables were added showing inter alia, averages per casualty for white and col- oured persons, and for fatal and non-fatal cases. Saturday, October 9th : W. Ingham, M.I.C.E, M.I. ALE.. President, in the c\\3.\r.—" Preparation of large type Babcock and Wilcox boilers for test": H.Martin. The author beg^an by describing the construction of the boilers, and then described the preparations made for a large number of test observations and operations, concluding with an outline report on the Victoria Falls and Transvaal Power Com- pany's last official " taking over " test at Brakpan Power Station. 2><(> TRANS. \CTIO.VS OF S(i( I i-.TI i;S. Saturdax. Xerxations in South Africa during the years 1Q14-1915": Prof. J. C. Beattie. The declination, dip and horizontal intensit3- were given for 27 st.itiiins, including two repeat stations in the Free State, Transvaal, and Cape Provinces. — " True Isogonics and Isoclinals for South Africa for the Llpocli 1st July. 1913 " : Prof. J. C. Beattie. The results at about 700 stations have been reduced to the epoch from observations at about 40 repeat stations fairly distributed over the greater part of the region. The westerly declination has decreased in the ten years 1903-1913 by about l| degrees in the west, and 2 degrees in the east. In the same period the southerly dip has increased by approximately I degree in the east and i^ degrees in tlie west.- — " Descriptions of some neiv Aloes from the Trans- vaal " : I. B Pole-Evans. The author described the following six new species of Aloes: — A. vereciinda, A. Simii. A. Barbertoniae. A. petricola, A. sessilifolia, and A. Thorncroftii. — "A nczv Harmonic Analyser": Prof. J. T. Morrison. In many physical researches, especially in meteorology, it is necessary to enquire whether a fluctuating quantity, such as atmos- pheric pressure, daily or monthly rainfall and the like, shows signs of regular periodic variations, and the necessary operations are performed mechanically bj^ the harmonic analyser described. South African Society of Civil Engixeers. — Wednesday. September 8th: R. W. Menmuir. A. M.I.C.E., Vice-President, in the chair —" /^!>/f r- maritchurg-Riet Spruit Deviation, Natal Main Line " : D. Wilson. An '^— TRAXSACTIOXS OF SOCIliTIKS. 28/ account was gi\tn dt the v.irinus surveys undertaken in order in improve the Natal ^[ain Line between Pietennaritzlnirg and Riet Spruit, and of the main economic features of tlie deviation eventually decided on. and now under construction. — " XoIl's en the rL-coiistntctioii of railz<.'i.iy. Li'idcr- itzbucht to Ji'iiidltiik : W. G. Cocks. Tlie wliole distance from Liideritz- bucln to Windinik'. in (ierman South-West Africa, is approximately 540 miles. A general description of the line was given, followed hy an outline of the reconstruction work. The plate-laying was carried out by a day and a night gang, each comprising some 150 natives, under control of a railway engineer officer, and accompanied by the necessary complement of sapper plate-layers. Ahead of tliese gangs was a permanent fatigue part.\ 'if rco Kattrarian Riiies. clearing b:dlasi. getting sole plates ready for the reception of rails, etc. In advance of these was a rail-cutting party of 160 natives. Examples were given of the nature of the work done hy these: thus, l)etween jnd April and 17th [May. a section of the line 76 miles in length, whereof ever\ rail had been destroyed, was recon- structed and opened for traffic. The total number of rail cuts was 49.5j6. With regard to bridges, 42. principally plate girder and truss types, which had been destroyed, were repaired, bird-caged, and trestled. At the watering staions, 21 in number, the pump heads had been destroyed in nearly every case, the boreholes plugged with debris, and all the wells had been poisoned. A section of the Engineer Corps was detailed to obtain water and repair the boreholes ahead of the construction feeding prohlems, and the significance of certain constituents of feeding- stuffs for the maintenance of hfe and health. By way of introduction, it may he recalled that, until within comparatively recent \'ears, the classification of the earlier physio- logists, resulting in a difterentiation of foods according to the proportion of proteins, carhohydrates, fats, and minerals which they contained, was regarded as fairly adequately representing all the constituents which had to be taken into account in consi- dering the nutritive value of a diet. A sharp distinction was of course drawn between the diges- tible and indigestible moiety of each constituent, and a great deal of classical work had alreadv been done upon the digestibi- Ht\- of the various components occurring in dift'erent natural foods as fed to man and to live stock. Long before the end of the last century, the compilation of tables showing the digestive coelticients and ntttritive vahie of such food-stuff's was well advanced. A clear distinction was drawn between the metabolism of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and minerals, and the broad functions of each in the aniiual economy was understood, although at the same time the distinc- tion between different forms of these basal constittients was little more than recognised. The physiological sigr.'iicance, for ex- am])le, of difference in kind of protein, was largely a matter of conjecture, and it was customary to measure the protein value of a food by its total nitrogen content, and to measure ]>rotein meta- bolism in the body by the excretion of total nitrogen in the urine. Definite relationships between the calorific value and intermeta- bolic e(|tiivalents of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, were established, and feeding standards laid down for different classes of animals tinder varying conditions, due respect being paid to energy requirements and to the quota of protein necessary for the repair of waste tissue. Concerning the more intimate processes of the living organism in relation to the destiny of ingested food, little was known. As Cathcart* ptits it : — Carl \'oit, even in 1902, after forty years of sirenuous work, could say no more than that "' the unknown causes of metabolism are found in the cells of the organism. TItc mass of these cells and their power to decompose materials determine the metabolism." We are still in much the same position to-day, but yet the beginning of the present century may be regarded as bringing with it several strikingly new developments in the luore detailed *" Physiology of Protein Metabolism" (1912). A 290 DIETKTK" DEFICIENCY. studj' of nutritional problems. The pioneer work of liniil Fischer upon the chemical constitution of the protein molecule opened up a new field for research. His demonstration of the fact that the protein molecule can be broadly rej:(arded as a com- plex structure of amino-acid units led to the study, by numerous investigators, of the constituent units of the different proteins of plant and animal origin, which could be isolated in a stifificient state of purity for detailed examination. .Linked to this came the study of the physiological significance of these units. About the same time came a growing emphasis tipon the " lipoid " portion of a diet — i.e., of those constituents, including the fats, which had hitherto l)een classed amongst the fats on account of their similarity in physical and solubility characters and their association with chemical groupings characteristic of the known fats. (irowing im])r(;vements in the technique of biochemtstry have sinuxltaneously resulted in a more detailed ■studv of the part ])la\ed l)y carbohydrates and minerals in the animal economy. We are, however, in the present discussion, concerned not so much with the destiny and function of the numerous chemical compounds Vv'hich at the present day represent the sub-divisions in the classification of the earlier physiologists, as with the condi- tions arising when any essential one of them is missing. That is to say, we are concerned with the i>roblem of " dietetic defi- ciency." We need not discuss in detail the gross deficiency of all food which leads to death by starvation ; nor protein-hunger, which may be regarded as a form of delayed general starvation; n ;r need we deal with the abnormal conditions arising on a diet of pure fat where both protein and carbohydrate are excluded from the food. The problems associated with mineral deficiency must also be left aside except in so far as incidental reference requires. Mineral metabolism is still on speculative ground, but we know of no clear case of s])ecific disease arising through any but the grossest omission of essential inorganic constituents. Theoretically, any mineral constituent required in the con- struction of any animal tissue must of course be present in the food in adequate amount, and insufficiency may give rise to a generalised malnutrition, or to a specific set of pathological symp- toms clinically recognisable as a specific disease, or to both. As a passing example of the efifects of gross omission of an important mineral constititent from a diet, we may quote the following figtu"es* of some recent feeding experiments where maize grain, which is notably deficient in calcium salts, was used as main component of the food. I. Calcium-rich Diet. 2. Calcium-poor Diet. 90 per cent. Maize. .Same diet without chalk. 10 per cent. Gluten Meal, plus chalk fCaO = 0.448 per cent.) ( CaO = 0.055 per cent.) * Weiser. Biocliciii. Zeitschr.. July, 1914. DIETKTIC 1)I:KIC1KN(. ^^ 2gi At the ct)ninKnceineut of feeding, three pigs on Diet I together weighed i/./ lones — Skull .i,?i4 per cent. 30.01 per cent. Ribs 23.75 per cent. 13.88 per cent. Fore-legs -^5-21 per cent. 18.87 Pn(l 68 63 June 1 7th 82 high as 14 ])er cent, (jrowth on the maize products was normal, but the growth failure on the wheat ration was most marked. No com- plete explanation of the difference can be given (the authors suggest "toxity in wheat kernel"), but in the experiments cited the substitution of 2y2 per cent, of casein for the 2j/ per cent, of wheat gluten sufficed to induce normal growth. ( )sb(^rne and Mendel, in 1914. showed that if ])tirc giiadin — i.e., the principal protein of wheat — be fed to yoimg rats as exclu- sive ])rotein in the diet, growth is restricted irrespective of the amount given. They have also shown that rats do not grow on a diet consisting of certain ])i:re isolated ])roteins along with -Starch, lard, and ])roteiu-free milk. l\. however, the lard is re])laced by butter, or if a little whole milk be added to the (het. the symptoms of ill-health (diarrlKea) disa])pear, and n(;rmal growth is maiiuained. Other investigators have obtained analogous results, certain of which will be discussed presentlw If we accept the experimental evidence as sound, we have here two types of deficiency suggested : — ((7) A deficiency arising from the kind or the (|Ualit\- of the protein irrespective of its (|uantity ; * Journal of Biological Cheiiiisfry. Xoveml)cr, 1014. 294 DIETlCnc Dia-'ICIENCV. (b) A deficiency which is not attrilnitable either to the protein fed or to possible lack of suitable mineral com- ponents, since the simi)le substitution of lard by butter sufficed to correct the deficiency. Deficiency in the Kind or Quality of Protein. — C"arl X'oit, Panum and Oerum, and others, long ago recognised that a marked difference existed between gelatine and other proteins, and had shown that gelatine was incapable of functioning as sole protein in a diet, although it could to a large extent replace or " spare " the catabolism of other |)roteins. Munk, for exam])le, found that with dogs on a mixed diet not (|uite four-fifths of the total protein in the ration could be re])laced by gelatine. To understand such facts, it is necessary to consider the constitution of the ])rotein molecule. As already mentioned, the proteins, however complex in themselves, may be broadlv re- garded as compounds built up mainly of comparatively simple amino-acids. Up to the present time at least i8 different amino- acids have been definitely determined as protein units. These are: glycine, alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine. phenylalinine, tyrosine, serine, cystine, asjmrtic acid, glutamic acid, arginine, lysine, caseinic acid, histidine, proline, oxyproline, and trypto- phane. Any given protein may contain all of these or few of them. Thus nearly all are to be found in the proteins of blood, whereas silk fibroin, the simplest protein known, is su]:)posed to contain only three — glycine, alanine, and tyrosine. The simplest protein molecule, however, contains a ver\- large number of amino-acid units, even if they be few in kind. In some ])roteins one parti- cular amino-acid may preponderate very largely over all others. Thus, for instance, the salmine of fish s]:)erm contains over 80 per cent, of arginine, and is therefore built up chiefly of this one amino-acid, although others, such as valine, serine, and ])roline, are also present. The proteins of leguminous seeds, such as beans and peas, most nearly approach muscle protein in composi- tion, and this is jM^obably the explanation of their high value as food-stuffs. To return to the gelatine feeding experiments. Investiga- tion of this particular protein has shown that three important amino-acids are missing — tyrosine, cystine, and tryptophane. Tf these three units be isolated from other sources and added to a diet containing gelatine as sole protein, it is now found that life and tissue-equilibriiuu can be maintainetl — for short periods, at least. Thus Kaufmann brought himself into nitrogenous equili- brium on a diet in which caseinogen was the protein contained, and then found that if he re])laced the caseinogen nitrogen by nitrogen from gelatine 93 per cent., tyrosine 4 i)er cent., cvstine 2 per cent., and tryptophane i ])er cent., the mixtiu-e ])racticallv sufficed to prevent loss of body protein. The experiments of TTo]ikins and W'illcock' in IQ07 with sein, one of the proteins contained in maize, yielded evidence DIETETIC DEFICIENCY. 295 similar to that of the gelatine feeding experiments. Zein con- tains no tryptophane in its niolecnle. although some of the other maize proteins do. Mice were fed on a mixed diet, in which, however, zein was the only protein j^resent. and it was fonnd that yy per cent, of the mice died within 20 days. The addition of tyrosine to the diet produced no effect, bttt after the addition of the missing trvtophane the mice lived tnuch longer, and showed a much better physical condition. Results such as these are easy to understand when we remember that the higher organisms i)robably cannot synthesise their own amino-acids to any appreciable extent, but must receive them, or most of them at least, ready-made in their food ; and. further, remember that the composition of anitnal tissues is constant and. broadly speaking, incapable of varying in response to diff'erences in the composition of the food eaten. The so-called " law of the minimum " finds a simple application here, and the protein demands of an animal are seen to be con- ditioned not so mucli b\ the gross quantity of protein eaten as by the quota of those necessary units contained in smallest amotuit within the protein molecule. To return now to the recent experiments of Osborne and Mendel. These authors are of ojMuion that amino-acids contain- ing cyclic nuclei can never be synthesised de novo by the animal cells as they are in plant life, and hence that proteins poor in units such as tyrosine, tryptophane, and l\sine. are of inferior value as foods, especially during growth where new tissue- proteins are being formed. Trytophane is credited with playing a imique role in preserving ma'inicnaucc. and is contrasted with lysine, which is regarded as indispensal)le for growth. In one series of experiments ( )sborne and Mendel added lysine to their previous zein-feeding mixtures, and for the first time successfully reared ( not merel\- maintained ) rats on a diet contaim'ng zein as sole protein. \\'ith these few illustrations of dietetic adequacy or inade- quacy in respect to the i)rotein moiety of a food we may pass on to the question of deficiency of the second type. Deficiency of Subsfcuiccs Mechanically or Chonically Asso- ciated ivith the Lipoids. — If a feeding composite be extracted with certain organic solvents, a fraction is obtained which, for ^vant of a better name, is shtmped under the term " lij)oid." This fraction may contain the true fats, the li])ines — i.e.. bodies analo- gotts to the fats, btit containing phosphorus or nitrogen, or both {e.g., lecithin), bound up with fatty-acid groupings; phytosterol or cholesterol derivatives, waxes, essences, and numerous other bodies. The quantity and nattire of the li})oid fraction depends on the material extracted and on the solvent used. It is not neces- sary to go into the classification of this group here ; suffice it that the substances concerned are numerous, and in many cases not yet clearly defined, either chemically or physiologically. It will be sufficient to discuss a number of cases in which the absence of 296 1)1KTI;TIC' Dl'.FUIF.NtN'. certain .sul).stanccs mechanically or chemically associated with the lipoid groti]). i^ives rise to dietetic insufficiency. So far back as 1881 Lnnin described experiments in feeding mice upon a synthetic diet of caseinogen, fat, cane sugar, and the ash of milk, and showed that, in si)ite of the abundance of l)oth protein and n()n-])rotein in the food, the mice died in from 20 lo 31 davs, whereas if fed upon simple dried milk they were still aliv-e at the end of 2I2 months In 1896 Hall carried out similar ex])eriments with similar results; on the artificial diet the mice died within 40 days, although they fed greedily at first. The experiments of Lunin attracted considerable attention, and in the light of knowledge current at the time were caj^able of explanation in several ways. They established a marked difference between the dietetic efficacy of dried milk, and a ration simulating it in all gross ])artictdars. They did not. however, allow a decision to be made as to whether the lacking factor Avas organic or inorganic. There was no guarantee that the ash of milk supplied the necessary inor- ganic constituents in suitable form of combination, wdiile on the other hand, there was no evidence to show that any specific forms of chemical combination within the mineral moiety of a diet were necessary. R(">hmann in 1902 fed mice on so-called ])ure diets, but with greater variation, and found that his animals remained healthv for ^uuch longer i)eriods. Unfortunately his synthetic diets were far frtjm pure, and his sitggestion that varioits proteins might vary greatly in ntitritive value, although subsequently shown to be correct, had ])robably no real Ijearing on his belief that the negative character of the eaidier experiments on synthetic diets was due to variation in the nature of the ])rotein fed. At this time very little was known concerning the true nature of the deficienc\-, and Knapp. even in 1909. on the results of experiments w'ith rats on a diet containing seven dfferent varieties of j^ure proteins together with cholesterol, lecithin, car- bohydrate, fat and salts, in which the animals died in from (j to 16 weeks, could offer no adecfuate explanation of the instifficiency. He fiu'ther found that on a fat- free horse-flesh ration there was a tendency to early death. This ol)scrvation is in accord with the suggestion of .Stepp, made in the same vear, that the faihu'e to maintain life on artificial diets was due to a lack of " lipoid "' extractable from food bv organic solvents. Ste]j]> showed that mice fed on milk bread thr(jve i)erfectly well, but that after extraction with alcohol and ether the milk bread no longer sufficed to maintain life, 'idie restoration of the extracted lipoids t(j the extracted diet ])artially restored its maintenance capacity, although comparison with controls on unextracted bread suggested loss or destruction of some important lipoid constituent during the process of extraction. Ho])kins in 1906 had alreadv suggested that certain materials taken in the food v^ore essential to the organism without actually DIETKTIC DEFICIENCY. .297 C(intribiitinsT to the formation of tissue, and in i(ji2 TTopkins and Neville ])nbHshecl results analogous to those of Sle])]), in which they eni])hasisecl the importance of the alcohol-soluble fraction of a feeding composite. The general position, then, a few years ago, may l)e summa- rised by saying that the dietetic significance of certain " minimum substances " was recognised ; which siibstances might either be lipoid in character, or nitrogenotts bodies cont;!ining nuclei like those occurring in the ainino-acids of i)roteins. While all this work on feeding problems was ])roceeding — i.e.. from abotU the beginning of the present century onwards — a great deal of research was also being carried out u])on the natiu"e of certain obscure diseases, notably beriberi, the origin of which ap])eared to be traceable to dietetic deficiency of a sjiecific kind. About T912 Casimir Ftmk introduced the name " vitamine '" to denote a specific class of food constituent, the absence of \\hich in an otherwise normal diet involved metabolic disturbance resulting in malnutrition or in specific disease. " The " vitamines " belong to the group of " accessory " or " minimal " sul)stances already mentioned, which are almost inva- riablv present in all ordinar}' foods, but which under al)normal circitmstances may l^e al)sent. Within the last few years h'unk has made a special stud\' of these substances, and done a great deal towards elucidating their chemical natiu-e. To a condition resulting from a vitamine deticienc)' he ap]:)lies tlie term " avita- minosis," and within the categor\- of such diseases he brings either definitely or tentatively : — (1) The Beriberi grou]). including ])olynem"itis in birds. (2) The Sctirvy group, including Barlow's disease. (3) Pellagra (and Si>rue). (4) Rickets and Osteomalacia. (5) Diseases knoMU in Ormanv as " ]\Tehlnahrscliaden " and " Milchnahrschaden." (6) T.amziekte and stijfziekte in cattle. Under a final heading he also discusses the \itamines in relation to growth, to the problem of cancer and tumour growth, and to various ])r()blems of ])lant and animal metabolism. It would occu])y too much of your time to present all the aspects of avitanunosis as raised by ]^\mk,* and since much of his disctission, thotigh in itself very illunu'nating, is speculative, we may first confine our attention to those instances of \itamine- hunger in which the evidence is clearest. Beriberi. — It was in the study of this disease that the experi- mental evidence ultimatel}- crystallising in the concejition of vitanu'ne-hunger was chiefly obtained. The malady occtirs mainly in tropical and su1)tropical zones, and almost exclusively amongst rice-eating i)eo])les. Particidarlv during the last (|ttarter of a century it has excited enormous iiUerest, and yet tmtil recently * " Die Vitamiiu', ihre Bedentuno fiir die Physiohigie tind Patliulogie." (1QI4). 298 DIETETIC OKFJCIENCV. remained a mystery, in spite of strenuous research carried out from the bacteriological and pliarmacological ])oints of view. The apparently epidemic character of the disease naturally sug- gested a causal organism, although equally naturally any disease becomes epidemic whenever large num1>er of sensitive recipients are exposed to a common causal environment, irrespective of the nature of the cause. Toxic agency was also conjectured, and nuich fruitless labour was expended in seeking for the toxin. Even to-day eminent adherents both to the infection and to the intoxication theories are to be found, and even so recently as last year Abderhalden. of Halle, and Caspari, of Berlin, ex- pressed the opinion that the case for the '' deficiency theory " as against the " intoxication theory " was by no means proven. At the same time the evidence in favour of the vitamrne-hunger theory is strong enough to have convinced the majority of inves- tigators that inn' beriberi is to be regarded as the clearest exist- ing case of a deficiency disease. o - A brief historical resume of the main lines of investigation as reviewed bv Funk, and others, mav be given. Wernich, ( 1878) and \'an Leent ( 1880) are stated to be the first investigators who connected beriberi (kak-ke) with the consumption of rice, and in 1882 Takaki (working on the idea of protein deficiency ) effected an enormous reduction in the beri- beri mortality in the Japanese navy by the empirical introduction of a mixed diet in place of the earlier rice ration. Vordermann, on the basis of statistical evidence collected from Japanese prisons in 18(15-96, at the suggestion of Eykman, clearly demonstrated a close connection between the occurrence of the disease and the prolonged consumption of polished rice. Braddon confirmed this work in the Malav Peninsula, and ob- served that the Tamils, a class of natives who generally use un- polished rice, remain free from the disease. The clue to the connection between the ])olishing of rice and the occurrence of beriberi was in part suggested by the extraor- dinary increase of the disease which followed upon the spread of European culture in the East, towards the end of the nine- teenth century. The extensive importation of high-grade Euro- pean machinery during this ])eriod led to a higher degree of refinery of general milling ]>r()ducts. More ])articularly the clean- ing and de-branning of rice which had previously been imper- fectly carried out, chiefly by crude hand-mills, was now per- formed by subjecting to an extremely thorough mechanical polishing by leather straps. This effected a practically com])lete removal of the outer layers of the grain, and with them, as subse- quent research showed, certain physiologically essential com- pounds located on the exterior of the kernel — the " vitamines." Before passing on to a sketch of the work carried out in con- nection with the chemical nature of the yitamines, it may be of interest to indicate the clinical and i)athological findings of beri- DIETETJC DEFICIENCY. 299 beri in the Ininian siiliject and " experimental beriberi," or poly- neuritis galliiiantjii, in birds. In the hnnian, four main forms of the disease are usually distinguished, althouo^li coml)inations of the type forms may occm-. (i) The mild sciisory-niofor or ambulatory form is said to be the most frequent, and to be commoniy precipitated from the dormant state by over-exertion. The ])atient shows signs of weakness and uncertainty in the legs, and the calf nniscles are sensitive to pressure. Sometimes oedema in the lower limbs is observed, and palpitation of the heart after exertion is common. The knee reflex is at first intensified and subsequently weakened. Temperature is normal. This form, if free fron^. comjilications. is easily ciu'ed by rest and simple change of diet. (2) The dry atropJiic form involves nmscular atro]>hy and gradual paralysis, usually afifecting first the legs, then tlie arms and hands, and finally the trunk nuiscles. This form is also cur- able, and complete recovery is possible within a few months. Re- lapses, however, frequently occur, and often the cure is not com- plete. Chronic cases, involving ])ermanent contractures of the feet, and sometimes of the fingers and biceps, may also occur. These api)ear to be no lotiger cm-able, and the ])atient is reduced to crutches. (3) The dropsical atrophic form, sometimes diagnosed under the name " epidemic dropsy," is said to be characterised by dis- turbance of the circulatory system in addition to showing symp- toms analogous to those just mentioned. Tachycardia, dys|)noea, oliguria and indicanuria, < edema, hydropericard, and pleuro- hydrops, appear to belong to the symptoms of this form. [Para- lysis of the larynx, diaphragm, intercostal muscles, and less com- monly of the brain nerves, may f)ccur. Death is usually attri- buted immediately to vagus ])aralysis. This dropsical form is common in ])tierperal beriberi. In cases not too far advanced ciux may be efifected. and if so. is accoiupanied by diuresis and rapid disappearance of the ( edema. A\hereu])on the true nuiscular atrophy becomes apparent. (4) The acute or cardin-vascular form. This variety arises, either primarily, or from one or other of the already-mentioned forms — either spontaneousl}- or following over-exertion. It may appear quite suddenly, and even within a few hours very serious symptoms may develo]) — |)recordial distress, epigastric pain, dyspnoea, tachycardia, nausea, vonu'ting. 'fhe tem]:)eratm-e remains nonual and consciousness clear. The heart becomes enlarged, particularly the right A'entricle, and the whole heart region pul- sates in consequence of increased heart labour and paresis of the intercostal nuisculatiu-e. The pulse is increased to uo, and even to 140 in severe cases. Respiration is asthmatic. The voice is often hoarse or altogether lost. The urine gives a marked indican reaction, weak albumen reaction, and sometimes the diazo reac- 300 DIETKTK. DKKI ( [KNCV. tion. Death almost invariably su]K'rveiies within a few weeks, sometimes within a few day> or even honrs — with fre()uent pulse, cyanosis, and (edema of the lung^s. Posl-niorlciii . Ippcaraiiccs. — Those described natm-all\- deal with the most acute cases, and may include, singly or combined, oedema of the skin and nuisculatiu-e. cyanosis of the extremities. lips, and ears, subcut;uieous hcemorrhas^e, hydropericard. hydro- thorax, ascites, ecchvmosis of the stomach and duodenum, dila- tion and hy]iertro]:)hy of the heart with fatty degeneration of cardiac muscle, (vdema of the lungs, and minor changes in the kiho\\ the most alteration. The degenerative neuritis is said to concern chiefly the peroneal, tibial, and saphenous nerves of the legs, ulnar, radial, and median of the arms ; also the jihrenics and the \agi. The whole nervous sy.stem, "however, is i)robablv affected. Affected muscles show all stages of degeneration and atroph}-, the first indications boing a grow ing indistinctness of the cross striation. Polyneuritis (/alliitariini, or experimental beriberi in birds, i:> regarded as closely related to human beriberi. .Since the study of this disease, artificially ])ro(luced by l-'.ykman in 1897, and sub- se(|uently studied by innumerable other investigator.s. has done .so much to clear up the question of beriberi ])roper, brief refer- ence to it ma\' be made. rw(^ main types occur in pigeons. ( 1 I Acute Fonii. — To begin with, a general lowering of acti- vity is evident in which the bird shows disinclination to move, and if disturbed runs a short distance and evidences exhaustion by making use of its wings without definitely attempting to fly. This latent manifestation is not always recognisable, unless, or until, it passes over into the acute form projier. in which there is general incoherence of movement, more es])eciall\ of the head, or con- traction of the neck muscles resulting in a characteristic twist- ing back of the head. Mere handling, as in cramming, is often sufiicient to bring about a sudden transforniation from latent to acute form, and wdien this hap])ens the neck is tisua]l\ twisted back, the legs are drawn up. and the bird rolls head over heels backward — a rolling which may go on continually or intermit- tently for hours on end. unless restricted. The course of the acute form is rapid, and the bird usually dies within 24 hours, although, as we ourselves ha\e observed, s))ontaneous recovery may occur if the bird is starved. A second attack, however. almost inunediatel}' ensues if the bird is again fed on the causal diet. Minor variations of this most distinct form mav occur, and for pigeons hand-fed on about one-twentieth of their own weight DIETKTIC I)KFI(TKXtY. 30I of polished rice per day an attack is usually developed in about three weeks. (2) Chronic Form. — The l)ird sits motionless in its cage, and seldom moves unless comjielled to. Finally the locomotor ftinc- tions may even be entireK' lost. This form is not so easil\' dis- tinguished as the fu'st. Associated with both forms is a marked drop in weight — the more marked, the longer the l)ird survives. In acttte cas-:i coming on early the drop may only W lo ])er cent, or so. !•' chronic cases it nia\- l)e as high as 50 ])er cent. In both f onr. ■: death ensues if rigid adh.erence to the causal vitamine-])oor die^. is observed. Evkman recentl\ ( igr_-;) stated that he had observed reco- verv in pigeons after the injection of the mixed chlorides of sodium and potassium, but as we om'selves have observed similar temporary recovery following the injection of water, we consider such recovery to be spontaneous. Both forms are curable by sim])le administration of vitamine extracts either per os or subcutaneousK'. and it the bird shows temporary s|)ontaneous recovery it ma}- be ra])idly restored to complete health and original weight bv change of diet to food- stuffs rich in vitamine. The acute form is most easilv cured, and in an astonishingly short time. A bird ma\' l)e on the verge of death and yet be restored to apparently healtln- condition with'ii a few hours by the injection of vitamine extract. In birds the nervous degeneration observed after death from beriberi is usuallv ver}- characteristic. Chemical Naliire of Ihe Curative or Preventive Substances. — To Eykman ( iHc)- ) belongs the credit of the pioneer work. He found that the rice polishings.or ])ericarp and subi)ericar|)al layers of the grain. ])()ssessed the ])ower of ])reventing the outbreak of polyneuritis in birds fed upon polished lice. He, however, ex- ])lained his results on the sup]iosition that a to.xin was develo])ed from the starch of the grain which actefl injurioush- on the ner- vous system, and that the toxin action was ])revented bv some antitoxic body present in the pericarp. Eykman also observed ( 1906) that an aipieons extract of rice polishings possessed ctirative pro])erties. Frazer and Stanton showed t'at the active curative ])rincii)lc of rice polishings was solul)le in :il.:oliol, :in(! '-cmained in solu- tion after all ])roteins were ])recipitated. The\- carried out analyses of different samples of rice, and showed that a certain em])irical relationshi]) existed between the ])hos])h()rus content and the curative constituent, suggesting an indicator limit of 0.4 per cent. P^O-. Rice containing more than this amount of phos])horus was regarded by them as safe f( r sole consum])tion. without danger of beriberi. About the same lime (iryns contirmed l^ykman's earlier work, and suggested that the cause of the disease was delicienc^ of some substance necessarv for nerve metal)olism. Me also 302 DIKTK'riC DiavfCIKNCV. found that on heating to 120 degrees Centigrade the curative or preventative principle was destroyed, and he estabhshed its pre- sence in other food-stuffs, notablv beans. Breaudat in 1901 used rice pohshings therapeutically in the treatment of human beril)eri. with considerable success. Supported by the work of Frazer and Stanton, Schaumann in 1908 put forward the theory that deticiency in organically-com- bined phosphorus was the catise of l)eri-])eri. In 19JO he found that yeast was ])articularly rich in tlie curative substance, and in n^u Thompson and Simi)Son reported successftil utilisation of yeast in beriberi therapy. Eykman and Funk about the same time showed that the active principle could to some extent be extracted from Ncast by 88 per cent, alcoliol, although Funk points out that the extraction is very imperfect. Teruuchi in 1910 obtained an alcohol-soluble procluct from rice polishings which contained comparatively little phophorus, thus militating against the phosphorus deficiency theory of Schaumann. As to the state of knowledge in 1911. Funk summarises the position by saying that little was known beyond the fact that the curative substance was soluble in water and in alcohol, was dialysable, and could be destroyed by heating to 130 degrees Cen- tigrade. From this time onward a steady stream of papers appear in various English and ( jerman journals under Funk's name, bearing u])on the chemical and physiological behaviotir of curative extracts i)repared from various sotirces. He finally dis])osed of the phosphorotis deficienc\- theory by isolating, from rice polish- ings, a curative fraction entirely free from phos|)horus. By extracting with acid alcohol, lixiviating the evaporated extract with water, preci])itating with ])hospho-tungstic acid, de- composing the ])hosphotungstate with baryta and removing the barium, he finally obtained a highly curative fraction in crystalline form. The yield was extremely small — about half a gram per cwt. of rice polishings. A few milligrams stifinced to cure ])oly- neuritic ])igeons in a few hours. Since then he has described a series of fractionings from rice polishings, including cholin, betaine, nicotinic acid, and a crystalline vitamine to which he assigns the empirical formula C2(iH2„N40,j. From yeast he has isolated a vitamine to which he assigns the fornnda C24H19O9N-. Other investigators have also isolated comparatively pure crystalline fractions from rice polishings, but in a less definite form. According to Funk, the vitamines isolated 1)y him are closely related to the purins and pyrimidins. The difficulty in determining their constitution lies in the difficulty of obtaining quantities sufficient for investigation. Other Deficieiu'v Diseases. — Considerations of space do not ])ermit of an ecjually detailed resume of other diseases for which vitamine deficiency has been held responsible. DiETKTu; l)KFI^IF,Nc^■. 303 Scitrz'y, the earliest of the diseases recognised as dietetic in origin, has been long regarded as a type of " deficiency disease " arising wherever a supply of frcsli food became unavailable. It was most prevalent amongst sailors on long sea voyages in the old sailing vessels, and victims which siu'vived to reach port were found to be curable by change of diet to foods such as vegetables, fresh meat, fnn"t ancl fruit juices. So far back as 1795 a lime- juice ration was introduced into the English marine service as a preventative measm-e against scurvy. In the first Scott Ex])edi- tion to the South Pole an outbreak of scurvy occurred, btit this disappeared again as soon as fresh seal meat became available. The theories in regard to the causation of scurvy have been various. The phosphorus deficiency theory of five or six years ago has now given place to the avitaminosis hypothesis, and scurv}' is now regarded as due to the lack of a vitamine, analo- gous to the beriberi vitamine, but more easily destroyed, and therefore more likely to be lacking iu ]:)reserved foods. Barloiv's Disease, or infantile scurvy, has been attributed to the use of sterilised milk and artificial " baby-foods." Pellagra, a disease characterised by erythema, stomatitis, gastro-enteritis, and degenerative alteration of the central nervous system, and occurring chiefly in the countries where maize is the staple cereal, is held by Funk to be associated with the consumption of maize in much the same way as beriberi is with that of rice. The disease is most prevalent in Northern Italy, Roiunania. Southern Tyrol, and Northern America. Several other liypotheses have been ])ut forward to account for its occurrence, including an intoxication theory, an infection theory, a " photodynamic " theorv, in which the malady is held to be due to an increased sensitiveness to light on the part of the patient, brought about bv the presence of toxic light-sensitising bodies in sjioiled maize, and, most recently of all, a rather vague theorv which attributes pellagra to the ])resence of collodial silica in the drinking water. On the whole, the evidence for any one theory' is not conclu- sive, and at the ])resent day the infection theory still seems to claim the majority of adherents. Rickets and Osteoinalacia. — For these two diseases, in which bone lesions j^resent one of the most characteristic features of the trouble, the vitamine-hunger theorv has also been advanced. The supporters of the theory are, however, few as yet. and we may therefore omit these diseases from the discussion. Within the last few years the vitamine hypothesis has been boomed to such an extent that a tendency is sometimes shown to bring as yet unexplained diseases within the category of the avi- taminoses, whether the evidence really justifies it or not. C^ne of the difficulties in the way of explaining a variety of diseases on the same hypothesis lies in the fashion in which the hypothesis has to be stretched beyond the experimental evidence which gave it birth. In the case of the vitamine theory, the 304 DIETETIC DEFICIENCY. varying nature of the different maladies to which the same type of animal (man) is subject, suggests a variety of vitamines. Why should vitamine-hunger manifest itself in different ways — as beriberi, scurvy, pellagra, rickets, osteomalacia? Until more definite evidence is available regarding the precise circum- stances under which each disease occurs, we are not entitled to assume that there are several distinct and separate vitamines each ( when lacking) responsible for a dift'erent set of symptoms. At the same time there is evidence that different vitamines exist, and that the absence of these may manifest itself in diff'erent ways. A complete food contains all the constituents necessary for health, growth, and reproduction, and any train of pathological svmptoms arising from a dietetic deficiency may arise through a lack of either a single constituent or s group of constituents. Variety in the nature of vitamines is indicated by the obser- vation that substances protective against scurvy are much more easily inactivated than those protective against beriberi. The antiscorbutic vitamine may often be destroyed \)y the simple desiccation of substances containing it, while the beriberi vitamine is not only more stable towards heating, but, as its pre- sence in dried grains indicates, need not l)e seriously affected by drying. The distinction is further indicated l)y the observation of Hoist ( 191 1 ) that peas only protect guinea-pigs against scurvy after germination, and of Fiirst (1912) that the oat grain, on genuinating, develops an antiscorbutic substance which was l)reviously lacking. Yet both oats and peas contain the beriberi vitamine, and Funk makes the interesting suggestion that the beriberi vitamine is the comi)aratively stable form in which storage in the grain occurs, and that din-ing germination the beri- beri vitamine is transformed into the most labile sctu'vy vita- mine concerned with the active physiological functions of the plant. The antiscorbutic vitamine jirotects against both scurvy and beriberi, but the antilK-riberi vitamine d(^es not {protect against scurvy. Funk has also recently (1914) shown that a diet of red rice, fed to fowls, prohibits growth without, however, inducing polyneuritis. How nian\- diff'erent vitamines there ma}' be is still a matter of speculation. As yet, however, there is no clear evidence for supposing that the maize vitamines are sufficiently different from the rice vitamines to account for the difference between pellagra, which is credited to a lack of some constituent in the milled pro- ducts of the former cereal, and beriberi, which is established for the polished grain of the latter. Apropos of the use of milled maize as main native diet on the Rand mines, we luay mention that ])ellagra has not yet been reported in Johannesburg, and that although cases of scin"v\'. and scurvy of the beriberi type, are far from unknown, they represent a very small statistical ]>ropoition of the total native DIETETIC DEFICIENCY. 3O5 labour employed. The natives, of course, are not fed upon highly milled products, and althouj^h we have ourselves fed considerable numbers of pigeons exclusively upon the native meals, we have been unable to produce polyneuritis. At the same time there is no doubt that the vitamines of maize are located in the grain in nuich the same way as they are in rice, i.e., in the external layers. We have produced polyneuritis in pigeons fed U|>on " samp " (rasped mealies) in as short a time as on polished rice, and have satisfied ourselves that at least the high-grade milling-})roducts of maize (table meals) are deficient in vitamine. The deficient character of such preparations is, how- ever, of little practical consequence, since the highly milled pre- parations, being more expensive than the crude meals, are only used by well-to-do people, whose diet is sufficiently varied to ensure an ample vitamine intake from other sources. Laniziektc. — This disease of cattle, peculiar, so far as is known, to South Africa, but representing, now that rinderpest and East Coast fever are well under control, the most serious problem of the stock-raising farmers of the country, has also been maintained to be an avitaminosis. Deficiency theories of lamziekte have been on the South African market for a long time, and it is interesting to note that these have followed the prevailing fashions. The earlier calcium and phosphorus deficiency hypotheses correspond to the earlier theories for rickets, and for scurvy and beriberi. Lastly, the conception of vitamine-hunger was put forward by Funk in London, and, very enthusiastically, by Stead in this country. Theiler, in his last " Report of the Director of Veterinary Research," (1912) discountenanced the idea that lamziekte was a deficiency disease, and, without specific reference to the vita- mines, argued on general grounds that " lack of ^nutrition " failed to explain the facts observed in connection with the disease. At the same time many of the observations discordant with such a theory were not specifically experimental in character, while the view expressed by certain farmers that the disease was less prevalent amongst cattle not confined exclusively to veld pasture left legitimate room for difference of opinion. The question was therefore again taken up experimentally by the \''eterinary Re- search Division, and the vitamine hypothesis subjected to direct test. As applied to lamziekte, the hypothesis expressed by Funk is that the vitamines naturally ])resent in the grass on affected areas are destroyed by long-continued drought, and that, as a conse- quence, vitamine-hunger arises in cattle exclusively fed upon the parched jjasture. He drew an analogy between lamziekte in the bovine and beriberi in the human, and suggested that lam- ziekte belonged to the beriberi class of deticiencv diseases. Hq therefore advised that yeast be tried as a ])ro])hy]actic measure. We do not propose to go into the details of the experiments of the Veterinary Research Division on the subject, since these B 306 DIETETIC DEFICIENCY. are already in course of publication,* but a brief outline of the work may be of interest here. The main scheme of experiment in so far as it bears on the avitaminosis aspect of lainziekte may be indicated : — (a) An attempt was made to produce an avitaminosis in cattle by feeding on a known deficient diet. For this purpose polished rice was used, along with an extremely small ration of veld hay or autoclaved straw, so as to minimise digestive disturb- ance. If a recognisable disease had been ]>roduced, it could have been compared symptomatically with lamziekte. No specific disease was manifested, however, even after a full year of rice feeding, and from this it was concluded that if an avitaminosis exists in cattle at all, it must be a matter of very slow develop- ment. This was also acce])ted as evidence against the probability of lamziekte being an avitaminosis, since fresh cattle from a non-laniziekte area may, \vhen brought on to an afifected area, develop the disease in nmcli less than a year. (b) Feeding experiments with pigeons were carried out to determine the antiberiberi value, or vitamine content, of a num- ber of feeding stuffs which were fed as supplementary rations to cattle on lamziekte veld. (c) Cattle grazing naturally over lamziekte veld were su])- plied with rations containing vitamines in large excess of their probable metabolic requirements, calculated on the basis of the pigeon tests. The beriberi vitanu'ne was sttpplied in the form of beans, bran, maize, and yeast. The scurvy vitamine was given in the form of raw potatoes. The rate of mortality was then compared amongst cattle which had received su])plementary feed- ing and cattle which merely grazed on the lamziekte veld. No difiference was apparent, and it was therefore concluded that lack of vitamine Avas not the cause of lamziekte. (d) \'itamine extracts which were found highly curative for pigeons suifering from " experimental beriberi " w^ere adminis- tered to cattle sulTering from lamziekte. Tn no case could a cure be efifected. This was regarded as evidence confirming the results of the feeding experiments. {c) The rainfall and state of the herbage on the veld was noted during the experimental period. Lamziekte occurred even after heavy rains, wdien the veld vegetation was green and com- paratively luxuriant. This was regarded as disposing of the view that lowering of the vitamine content in the grass, through drought, was causally related to the prevalence of the disease. From this rough summary of our experimental results, it will be generally agreed that we are justified in concluding that lamziekte is not an avitaminous of any recogn.ised type. Deficiency Disease in Cattle in General. — Resides our own lamziekte. various other diseases in other parts of the world have * '' Contributions to the Study of Deficiency Disease,'' Theiler, Green, and Viljoen, 1"hird Report of the Director of Veterinary Research. DIETETIC DKFll JKXtV. 3O7 been from time to time attributed to dietetic deficiency. " Bush sickness " in New Zealand has been rej;^arded by B. C. Aston ((iovernment Chemist) and C. j. Reakes (Government \>teri- narian ) as due to fauky nutrition, but, until recently at least, em})hasis was laid rather on the idea of mineral deficiency than on that of vitann'ne-hunger. The evidence, however, for either view, is as yet tinconvincing-. A ntimber of obscure stock diseases goinjj under such vague names as " dry bible," " coasting,'' " en- zootic paraplegia," " impaction paralysis," and similar non-com- mittal names, have been ascribed to vitamine deficiency by Place in Australia. In luigland a similar hy])othesis has been advanced to accotmt for the difference between adjacent fields in certain areas (notably the Romney Marshes), which show marked differ- ences in the ease with which stock may be fattened upon them, while at the same time shownig no marked differences in the character of their vegetation. A few months ago Henr}-, writing from Australia, put on record a study of a new disease in the Bega dairying district of New South Wales, explaining it upon the theory of a deficiency of lime and phosphorus in the local vegetation. This Bega dis- ease seems to resemble otu" own lamziekte in many respects, and it is possible that the two maladies may ultimately turn out to be of similar origin. Meantime, however, we do not regard the defi- ciency theory for the Bega disease as adequately substantiated by the evidence brought forward, even although that evidence, such as it is, certainly suggests the interpretation Henr}^ offers. In concluding this cursory sketch of the vitamine aspect of dietetic deficiency, something should be said concerning the l)hy- siological r still a wide one. We may, however, perhaps be permitted to hope that South Africa will contribute as mucii to the store of human knowledge in this direction as she has already done in others. Rubber from Alcohol.— 1. i. ( )stronu'sk'nskij de- scribes in the Pelrograd .iffricitlttiral Gacclic a process i)atented by him for the preparation of rubber from alcohol. The ])rocess comprises two stages. Air is first pum])cd through the alcohol, and the mixed vapours are passed through copjx'r tul)es cf)ntain- ing spirals of red copi)er and silver gauze. The latter are at first heated, but during the subsequent process remain incandescetit. Acetic aldehyde and paraldehyde are thus formed. These are now mixed with more alcohol and passed over strongly heated aliuni- nium oxide, producing erythrene. which is collected in an auto- clave wherein a small quantity of a catalyst has been placed. Raw erythrene rubber, a pure chemical compound of fornuila (C.iH,;)n, is thvts obtained, identical with chemically pure natural rubber, but oxidising more rapidly, so that it is necessary to protect it from atmospheric action and fit it for use in other respects by adding about 15 per cent, of admixtures. These are tannins to resist oxidation, amines, mixed with lead oxide to aid in vulcanisation, and rul)ber resins, to increase elasticity. This method of syntlietic rubber production has been subjected to qualitative and quantitative tests by the Russian (lovernment. New PhOSPHATIC Ores, — According to the Chemi- cal Ncii's"^'', M. de Rolliere, of Paris, announces the discovery of a new ore of high phosphorus content in the granites of France. It is a manganese jihosphate, extracted from a blackish brown rock in cleavable masses, and has the following composition : — Phos])horic acid. 33 i>er cent.; lime. 2.5 per cent.; manganese oxide, 32.5 jjer cent.; ferric oxide, 32 per cent. * (iqt6) 113. 83. PRESENTMENT AND PROOF IN GEOMETRY • A STUDY OF THE ASSOCIATED CIRCLES OF A TRIANGLE. By Rev. Frederick Charles Kolbe, B.x\., D.D. There has been for a long time an earnest endeavour to l)etter the teaching of Geometry. The movement has not, I thiiik, gained (juite as much success as many of its enthusiasts had hoped for. If we may judge by the most-used text-books v.'hich the movement has protkiced, there seems to be some mental confusion as to the i)hilosophy and psychology of the sul»ject. or at least there has Ijeen some inconsistency in the a])plicati()n of the psychological principles. 1. We nuist hrst note a marked distinction in Mathematics itself corresponding to our root ideas of Space and Time. We always remain in physical touch with Space : Time, or Number, tends to become purely abstract. Working with sense-realities and working with symbols are two dilierent processes, and often a mind that loves the one will not love the other. I would almost say that Algebra is purr .Mathematics, while ( ieo- metrv is applied — (|uite as much api)lied as the Tlieory of the Laws of Motion. Of course ( leometry, hand in hand with Algebra, l)eci)mes a powerful instrument of symbolic calculation: even the Greeks, having no algebraic notation, made skilful use of it for this purpose, as we see in Euclid's Second and Fifth Books. But this was not the aspect of Geometry that Plato valued for education. It was because it is the first and most fundamental exercise of the idealising power, selecting from Nature and iliinking away the complexities and irregularities and imperfections, and so taking the first stei:)S towards that reaching after the One in the Many, the Absolute amid the contingent, the Infinite and Eternal within the limited and transient, whicii is tlie work of Philosophy. By its keeping hold of the tangible it goes beyond mere logic: it is, therefore, something more than proofs and puzzles. It is a Knowledge as well as a Process, and my conn)laint is that the process side of it is exaggerated. Symbolic calculation, like formal Logic, lakes no account of any relation between the contents of its terms. You have to inter])ret the realities into symbols, and with these you work away with the indifiference of a machine. If no error is made, your result will be consistent with the data, and you have then to retranslate it into realities. But the process is often wider 310 PRESENTMKXT AND PROOF [X Cil'.OM ICTRV. than the bounds of common-sense, and you may have to reject some of your results as not corresponding to reahty. The super-abstracted paradoxes of Hegel and the 4th and ;;th dimensions of some mathematicians are merely syml)olism divorced from reality, and therefore from truth. Both logi- cians and mathematicians need the touch of actualities to keep them sane. I think I detect a tendency to hurry tow^ards and exaggerate the symbolic side of Geometry — in the words of my thesis, to sacrifice Presentment to Proof. 2. Another im])ortant distinction is in our own nature. There is the intuitive power which looks into the essence of things and studies their character ; there is the rati'Ocinativc power which loves to prove theorems and to arrange them in order upon an irrefragable basis ; and there is the ingenuity which delights in the solving of problems and conundrums. These are not necessarily concurrent in the same pupil. To me the first seems by far the most important ; the usual exami- nation papers test only the second and third. The first corre- sponds to Presentment ; the second, to Proof ; the third to Puzzle : it is just a logical game, only it gets most marks in the test, and therefore teachers are led to try to inspire the faculty even into pupils who have no taste for conundrums. Again I say. our text-books and examinations seem to negle':*: Presentment for Proof and Puzzle. 3. A third distinction is also psychological. It seems obvious to say that the function of sense is to provide the raw material for thought, to explore the universe and submit its discoveries to the higher powers. But I notice a tendency in text-books and in the University Syllabus to make the students' drawing exercises retrospective ; they are carefully to measure figures whose properties they have already proved, in order, forsooth, to give them confidence that their reasoning has been correct. Surely this is very topsy-turvy. .\n army might as well employ its l)est scouts in consolidating the back trenches. Bearing these three distinctions in mind, I put forward a few maxims, which 1 believe are consciously or instinctively followed by all good teachers, but the theory of which seems to require a little urging. (a) Present merit goes before Proof. — Presentment means so to put facts before the senses as to make it easy to idealise from them, and so to put inferences before the mind as to make it easy to analyse, classify, and systematise them. We begin well in this matter. We teach our little ones in Kindergarten what they can grasp of the laws of form. But we do not persevere. Just as there ought t(^ be a continuous gradation of object-lessons leading up to some physical scien.ce to be afterwards logically studied, so we need a continuous course of drawing and other practical geometrical work to prepare I'RKSENTMENT AND PROOF TN CKOM FTR^'. 3II the mind for the period of proof. Pupils should not be be- wildered by a double simultaneous unfamiliarity. Woodwork ought to do much of this for boys; girls are usually without this advantage. (b) Presentment is often useful zcithout Proof. — In phy- sical science we do not prove everything : we tind it sufficient to train our pupils in the modes of proving, but when an investi- gation is beyond their reach, we give them results which others have proved. Why not also in Geometry? For example. I always let mv class of jiuiiors draw tangents to a circle with the ruler alone, because it is the most accurate way : hereafter they will better appreciate the theory of polars when they come to it. See also a clever specimen of such presentment in Professor Boys' charming little book on Soap Bubbles, where he shows how to get the Conic Sections by the shadows of a candlestick. At Matriculation stage, pupils may well be already drawing ellipses and parabolas in various ways, and even tracing simple forms of third and fourth degree curves. (c) Proof should follow the Path of Presentment. — Of' course, any valid proof will suffice for logical purposes ; but when a teacher offers proof, he is trying to educate as well as prove, and therefore he constantly bears in mind presentments that have been made or are going to be made. For instance, Euclid's 1.47 is an ideally perfect proof, because it anticipates the presentment, hereafter to be shown by proportion, that in a right-angled triangle each of tlie sides is a mean propor- tional between its projection on the hypotenuse and the hypo- tenuse itself. Other proofs of this theorem by dissection, etc., are interesting and ingenious, but do not look beyond themselves. (d) Presentment along zeith Proof should eome as early as possible in the ehain of reasoning. — See the judicious appen- dix to Euclid's 1.32, added by Simson, containing the well-known universal statements about all rectilineal figures. A still better example is Euclid's I./ — a i)ro])osition most unaccountably re- jected in some modern text-books in favour of a clumsy and uninteresting proof of 1.8. The reason of this rejection, they say, is " because I./ is only used to prove 1.8." But surely the meaning of 1. 7 is to assert the unique pro])erty of the triangle. tIc, that alone of all rectilineal figures it is unalterable in shape as long as its sides remain the same. The property is, moreover, of immense importance in mechanics. And it becomes possible to present this ])roperty as soon .as we know what a symmetrical triangle is. The property is true because two symmetrical triangles cannot stand askew on the same base. As soon as we know that proi^erty, 1.8 needs no further proof. (e) Appropriate Presentment often makes Proof Axio- matie. — This we have just seen in the previous paragraph. And this is the best kind of proof, enlightening the intelligence 312 I'KKSKNTMENT AND I'KOOF JN GEOMETRY. without obscuring the memory. A good deal of this excellent method may l)e seen in Henrici's most suggestive little work on Congruent Figures. (/) Proofs should be Generic and CJenetic rather than Iiujemous. — That is to say, if a hgure or a ])roperty belongs to a family, or may be regarded as having been generated in a special way, proofs should be so chosen as to show forth the relationships of the figure or property, and also, if possible, at the same time to reveal the process of development. Besides these maxims, 1 wish to complain that text-book treatment of (leometry is too disjointed. it seems as if some teachers, while rejecting some of Ruclid's best excellences, would have us stick to his antitiuated form. In Euclid's day, when Formal Logic was a new and fashionable game, nothing could be better than his rigid system of cogent syllogisms. Our minds now-a-days do not love to obtrude the skeleton of their processes, and Euclid's method is now to us tasteless and for- bidding. I fear the convenience of having a clear-cut " lesson for to-morrow," or a useful memory-bit for examination ])ur- poses. is deciding in favour of an inferior educational form. .Ml tliat I have said hitherto 1 am now going to try to illustrate by a study in the associated circles of the triangle. I may ]M-emise that all the proofs I give are my own, with one exception, and even that excejHion I have so transformed as to give it a new aspect. Not having access to a mathematical librarv. I liave no means of knowing if an\thing I say is really new. 1 merely say that this mode of teaching, and these proofs, have not found their way into any text-book 1 have seen, as it is my belief thev should. The diagrams arc from my own drawings, not ex post facto, but those from wdiich I made the actual studv. I put them forward as illustrating Present- ment. Eet me begin with the most fundamental of the associated circles, somewhat quaintly called the Nine-points Circle. And let me give the actual way T introduced it to my junior girl- student class, the members of which hate Geometr)-, and cannot endure to have to prove anything — " What's the use," they say, "when we can see it must be so?" 1 did it in three lessons. The first was a bit of drawing. " Draw a circle, and take anv point inside or out. Rule to or t2 chords through the l)oint. Bisect all the chord-segments. What is the locus of all tho.se mid-points ? " " .\ circle." " How do you know ? " " It looks like it." Then I show them an ellii)se that looks very like a circle, and in one case where there is some inaccuracy in the bisections I show a fourth degree curve more like that locus than a circle. Thus they feel the need of proof, and a little judicious guidance brings us to that proof as indicated in the thick lines of Fig. i. PRESENTMENT AND TKOOF IN GEOMKTRV. 3'3 Fig. I. Next time, after recapitulation, we clenched the matter by the question, "How many points determine a circle?" "Three." " If, then, from any point O I draw three lines to a circle with centre S, and bisect those three lines, and draw a new circle throuo^h those three mid-points, what do \()n know about that circle?" " It will bisect all the other chortl-segments." " And what about the size and jKjsition of it?" " Its radius will be half of that of the original circle, and its centre half-way between O and S." "Very well, then ; now we will do a little Kinder- garten. Draw a large circle and cut it out. Fold over three arcs of it so as to make a contained triangle, irregular and acute. Prick a ])in-hole where two of the folded arcs meet. Fold over the third arc, .and see if it passes through the same point." " It does." " Do you recognise the point?" " It looks like the orthocentre." " Prove that it is so by folding the sides on themselves." This done, " Prove it now geo- metrically l)y considering the angle BOC and the arc opposite A" (Fig. 2.) 11iey succeeded in this. "Now fold over one of the three arcs again, and trace its outline through O. What kind of a figure have you got?''' "A symmetrical figure like a shuttle." Fie. 2. 314 PRKSENTMENT AND PROOF TN GKOM FTRV. "Then what can you tell me about the line OP to the circle?" "It is bisected at P." ."Why?" "Perpendicular to the axis." " And what about OD?" " Bisected at D." " Why?" " It's the centre." " As it is the same for the other sides, what can you tell me now about PCJR and DEF?" "A circle will pass through all of them." "And what else will it do?" "Bisect all the chord-segments from O." "Especially ?" " OA, OB, OC." " Well, then, you have proved the Nine-points Circle. And its size and position?" " Radius half the circum- radius, and centre the mid-point of OS." Now the proof given in Mackay's Euclid is based on the following figure (Fig. 3), and everybody can see how uncharac- teristic and repellent it is. And even so, a separate proof depending on a ditTerent principle is required for the size and position of the circle. Fig- 3- This is as if we set out to ])rove the rationality of man. and started by showing historically that man is " a biped which cooks its food," and so bring it in as a corollary, " hence it should seem that man has some claims to be called rational." Our third les.son on the subject was pure Kindergarten. The final result of it is indicated in Fig. 4 ; but I would advise the A^oung teacher to do it with me step by step. " Cut out a large triangle — scalene and acute, because we want the per- pendiculars inside. Pinch the mid-points of the sides. Fold over the joins of the mid-points, and open the triangle again. Now mark ABC and DEF as usual. On the reverse side of the angles ABC mark them PQR. Now fold over A as before: will P fall on BC?" " Yes: the triangles are equal, halves of a parallelogram." "Will P be on the same circle as DEF?" " Yes : the angle P or A is the same as D, opposite in the paral- lelogram." "Then PQR and DEF are on the same circle?" "Yes." "But what are the points PQR?" "Feet of the per- pendiculars." " Fold so as to show this. How do you know it?" "Because when you fold over a triangle you make a symmetrical figure — -a kite ; and its diagonals are at right angles." " Then the last three folds were concurrent in the point ?" " O." " So it's our old friend again. Now pinch the mid- points of OA, OB, OC— call them UVW. What can you see about the triangle UVW?" " Its sides are parallel to those of i'Ki:si-:.N"rMEXT a:^I) pRf)OF in gf.omftry. 3 [5 ABC." "And size?" "Half of ABC?" "Half?" "Well, the dimensions are half." " Now look at ( ) in that triangle: what is it?" '' Whv, it's the orthocentre of that, too." "And are OP. OQ, OR hisected?" "Of course." "Then what do you know of PQR from our last Kindergarten lesson?" "They are on the circum-circle of lA W." " So we have the Nine- points Circle again." " T^ut if it does all that, why do they call it the Nine-])oints?" That. 1 told tliem. is jireciselv what I am asking the mathematicians. This dialogue, though of course comi^ressed, is not exag- gerated ; and perhaps it will illustrate my thesis if I sav that these girls, who give such intelligent answers and make such a shrewd comment at the end, are ([tiite likeh' to fail in mathe- matics at the next Matriculation. l)ecause Proof hewilders them and Puzzles annoy them. .My contention is that such correct intuition as they constantly show ought not to be ignored in any educational scheme or test. The proof I have just given may l)e shown, ])erliaps more to the satisfaction of a matliematician, l)v invoking another principle. When we draw or imagine a figtire on a plane, we see only one side of that plane. But there is another side to it, and Nature never forgets this. She persists in looking at the " wrong side of the ]jattern " as well as the right. Or, to l^ersonify even more. Nature likes to look at herself in a mirror, where the right hand becomes the left. Hence in (Geometry the mirror is a very useful instrument of Presentment. It reveals symmetry where it has been retained, and restores it where it has l)een Icjst. I hnd. moreover, in teaching, that a mirror with a class of girls has a singtilarly effective power of ri\eting the attention, though they always indignantly deny that it is .so. In doing the last exercise with a mirror, one wants to see throtigh the mirror as well, and in this case it is better to use a bit of plain glass and get one's iiuimIs to look through it at the angle of total reflection, when the whole symmetry will be admirably shown. For drawing jmrposes I shamelessly use tracing paper. Pet not the trained mathematician scoff: a teacher must .gather geometric gear by every wile that's justified by honour. If I may sa^• so. T do not vistialise easily myself, and this des])ised trick has helped me considerably. So v>-e draw a triangle, calling it ( pro])hetically ) DEF ; trace it on the transparent paper ; now turn the triangle round, first on EF. then on ED. then on DE, and mark the new vertices PQR. (Fig. 4.) Rule the new sides, and com])lete the larger triangle ABC. We have now a fresh proof of the Nine-])oints Circle, wliich T need not elaborate. \\(> 1M<1:SKNTMENT AND PROOF IX (;KO^^■:TR^ Fig. 4 These })roofs have been genetic rather than generic ; that is, they show how the circle may be supposed to have been gene- rated, but they do not place it in relation to the other circles of the triangle. Yet even here we see a family of circles. The orthocentre is ])erhaps the most fundamental point of the whole triangle, and if the lines OA, OB. OC are divided in various proportions and the points of division joined, we have an infinite series of triangles with their circum-circles, such that O is the centre of homology and of similitude and the orthocentre of the whole group, and all the centres lie on ( )S. If J be the moving ))oint. when the ratio ( )| : jS i^- n. we have Ihc starting point; when it is i, the Nine-points Circle; when 2, the circle whose centre is (i ; when oo^ the circum-circle. The family, however, is not very important to the triangle, since the only other obvious common propert)' seems to be that they cut ( )A, OB, OC antiparallel to the oi)])osite sides. .^till, there is the family, an infinite series of circles alternately Nine-])oinls and Circum-circles to one another. Tile last proof was got by reversing the triangle on its sides ; a far more fruitful ])rocess is to reverse it on its angles. (See Figures 5 and 6.) The chief result of this is that all transversals and all lines through the angles become antiparallel to their former selves, and antiparallelism is a prolific source of symmetry. After a diligent course of drilling with the aid of tracing paper, even the most backward jnipils get a clear notion of the properties of auti])arallels, c.(/. : — ( I ) Every transversal with its antiparallel and the sides makes a cyclic c|uadrilateral ; (2) Every ])arallel to a makes with its antiparallel the angle B -- C, etc. ; (3) All antiparallels to the other two sides make the angle A with a. B with b. C with c : therefore on each side of the triangle there fall two sets of antiparallels, making isosceles triangles on it. The drilling in this matter Ts so important that 1 add a special exercise. Draw any angle BAC. and suppose a point PRKSKNTMENT AND PROOF IN GEOMETRY. .^17 P to move along any line AD throngh A. Drop the perpen- diculars PX, PY. and join XY. Do this from more than one position of P. Now turn the whole tigure round and it takes the form (2) in Fig. 5. Then if (with tracing paper, and afterwards mentally) the figure (2) he imposed upon (i), it becomes axiomatically evident ia) that A'D' is antii)arallel to AD; (h) that the pro- portion of the perpendiculars (which determines the interior angle) is reversed; and (c) that Y^X^ is antiparallel to XY. These results will be useful in a future proof. The method goes further still and brings out a most vital property of the triangle. Consider the following figure (Fig. 6) :— Fig. 6. Here we have the triangle AF5C turned on its angles so as to form three symmetrical arrow heads. We see at once that the one thing remaining constant is the in-circle with centre I ( the Nine-points and Circum-circle have been unnecessarily drawn). Any other point besides I takes up three new posi- tions on the lie of its antiparallels. I have marked those of O ,^io also Ci has its corresponding point K. In these two cases S and K, Ijy virtue of the properties of U and G, acquire a whole set of new symmetries. S of course ( 1 do not pause to prove it) is the Circum-centre, and K ((juite undeservedl}- neglected in elementary text-books ) may be called the Anti-centroid. It has l:)een called the symmedian, as being the point of concurrence of tlie synnnedians ; but it seems to me more convenient to reserve that adjective for the lifics; otherwise why not call the centroid the median? These are the two principal pairs ; but it is evident that every point in the plane is given by this triangle its correspond- ing point — its affinity, so to speak. In other words, each triangle polarises the whole plane in its own way point by point, just as each circle polarises it circle by circle, though of course the polarising differs in the two cases. This is a most fimda- mental property. Mr. Johnson, in an admiral)le chapter on the Geometry of the Triangle in his Trigonometry, calls all such pairs of points Anti-centres. I do not like this use of the word centre for points which have nothing really central about them ; I suggest the term Twin-points. Obviously the in-centre is the one point in the plane which is its own twin ; it must be regarded as a double point. It will be found that every point on each of the sides corresponds to the opposite vertex; conse- quently we have to strain the meaning of tunn in the three cases A, B, C: the family becomes rather large. But it is quite as much a strain to say that the whole side I'.C produced to infinity is the anti-centre of A. Now this expansion of the triangle through the whole plane, with its scheme of antiparallel^ and the resulting twin-points, opens up a wide range of geometrical ideas. Let us hrst take antiparallels by themselves. They will provide us with both a new i)roof and a new view of the Nine- points Circle, which from now I am going to call, from its development, and from its centre being the mid-point of OS, the Ortho-centric Tw^in-point circle. One day, after my class had bisected the sides of a triangle and drawn the consequent triangle of parallels, I told them to draw a transversal anti- parallel to each side. As they had no tracing-paper handy, they hesitated. Thereupon, foreseeing what they would do, I re- minded them of the cyclic property. At once they drew a semi- circle on each side. Then followed a surprised exclamation : " Why, it forms another triangle !" " Just so," I said : " now w^hat triangle is it?" They soon recognised it as the ortho- ■centric. (Fig. 7.) " So, then, looking for antiparallels, you find O again. Now, by the way, what's O to that triangle?" PRESENTMENT AND PROOF IN (JEOMETRY. 3I9 Ig- " It looks like the in-centre of it." " Can we prove it?" " Yes (after thoug'ht). because the antiparallels make the angle A with a so that OP bisects RPQ, and so with the others." " Very well ; now can we prove that DEF and PQR are on the same circle?" Here I had to help them out. By antiparallels, DPQE is cyclic, so is QERF ; here, then, are two circles with two points in common : if they have a third, they are identical. But by equality of the angles marked ( FP^FB, being radii), F is concyclic with DPE ; hence we have once more the Ortho- centric Twin-point circle substantially proved (the other three points being easily brought in), and we recognise it as the laringer together of parallels and antiparallels into one bond of symmetry. Now we have seen that S and K correspond to O and G ; AO, BO, CO are perpendicular to the parallels, therefore AS, BS, CS are per])endicular to the antiparallels. AG, BG, CG bisect the ])arallels ; therefore AK, I'lv. CK bisect the antiparallels. Then, since pairs of antiparallels to two sides make equal angles with the third side, their perpendi- culars will do so also; hence SA and SB, being perpendicular to lines making the angle C with c, form a symmetrical triangle with the angle 90° — C. at the base; SB and SC behave similarly ; hence SA, SB, SC are equal, and we have the Circum-circle from a new point of view. Again, owing to this property, through every point within the triangle there pass three antiparallels, making symmetrical triangles on the sides (I refer again to the tracing-paper drill). But as K is a point, and the only point, where all these three antiparallels are bisected, we see that K is a point, and the only point, from which as centre a circle can be drawn cutting the sides of the triangle at the ends of three diameters. Now, as these diameters are antiparallels to the sides, it follows (from the cyclic property) that the other chords across the triangle are parallel to the sides. This, then, is a simple proof of what is called the Cosine circle — I should prefer to call it the Anti- 320 PRKSENTMENT AND I'ROf)K IN GEOMKTKV. ceiitroid circle : the utiier name is .derived from a subordinate property. FiR. 8. 'I'he Anti-centroid circle, as we shall see presently, is the minimum member of an interesting group of circles, each cutting the triangle so as to have three transverse chords parallel to the sides, and three antiparallel to them. Let us now intro- diice a new member of the family. Through K draw three parallels to the sides ; these, of course, form three parallelograms with the sides (Fig. 8) ; and KA, KB, KC bisect the other dia- gonals. But the transversals which KA,KB,KC bisect are the anti- parallels ; and parallels with antiparallels form cyclic quadri- laterals ; thus the six ends of the parallels through K are four and four concyclic in three sets. The centres of these circles are where the symmetrical bi.sectors of the antiparallel chords meet. But these bisectors are parallel to SA. SB, SC (which are respectively perpendicular to the antiparallels), and as they start from the midpoints of KA, KB, KC, they must be con- current at the midpoint of SK. The three circles, therefore, are the same, and this is a simple proof of what is called the Lemoine circle. It is easily seen, as Johnson points out — and it can be proved by quite similar reasoning — that if KA, KB, KC are divided in any other ratio, a set of circles all centred on SK cut the sides of the triangle with parallel and antiparallel transversals. If again J be the moving paint, then, when the ratio KJ : JA is o, we have the minimum, the anti-centroid circle; when i, the Lemoine ; Avhen o© , the Circum-circle, because there the parallels merge into the sides and the antiparallels vanish into the vertices (i.e., the tangents to the Circum-circle at the vertices are antiparallel to the sides). The whole family is called the Tucker circles ; I do not see why we should not call them the K-circles, and the Lemoine the mid-K-circle. The other names seem to give Messrs, Lemoine and Tucker some- thing too much of precedence in Geometry. It will be observed that here again the Circum-circle occurs not as a primary, but as a derived adjunct to the triangle, PRi:Si:XTME\T AND I'ROoF IX Cl'J )>.n-:TK^'. ;^-'i ihoug-h in our rudimentary studies we first came upon it as the result of the continence of three easy loci. About this series of K-circles Mr. Johnson makes the curious remark that it is unicjue in having its transverse chords parallel to the sides ; but surely he has forgotten the Ortho- centric Twin-point circle, which does not have its centre on SK, but which has this property, and which, indeed, seems to insist on belonging to every family of circles the triangle possesses. And now for the last family. As it is not yet named, I am going to call it the Twin-point famil\-. It depends on the fundamental ])roperty of Twin-points. Mr. Johnson puts this property (juite at the end of his chapter as an appendix. Its presentment should come earlier, llie property is that if from each of a pair of twin-points we draw ])erpendiculars to the sides of the triangle, the six feet of the i)er])endiculars are con- cyclic on a circle whose centre is tlie mid-point of the join of the twin-points. Let us prove this at (mce. (Fig. 9.) .A Fig. 9. \Mien we were reversing the triangle bv means of tracing- paper, it l)ecame obvious that any line through a vertex with its series of perpendiculars on the sides and of bases joining the feet of the per])endiculars would ( i ) become antiparallel to its former self, (2) reverse the proportiim of the perpendiculars, and (3) make the bases anti])arallel to what they were. In this figure (9) let any ])oint P be taken and BQ, CQ be drawn anti- parallel to F>P. CP; we must now first show that AQ will also be antiparallel to AP. It is obvious that QH and QG reverse the })roportion of PE and PD ; similarly, QK and QG reverse the proportion of PF and PD ; combining these proportions, we see that OH and OK reverse the proportions of PE and PF — i.e., Q is on the antiparallel to .\P ; therefore, if P be any point, the antiparallels of PA, PB, PC through the vertices are con- current. Then, since the bases HG. etc., are antiparallel to their former selves (DE, etc.), DGEH is cyclic; so is EHKF. The centres of these two circles are v,-here the symmetrical bisectors of DG, EH, KF meet: but these, running midway l)etween the perpendiculars, are obviously concurrent at the mid-point of PQ. Hence the six feet of the perpendiculars of twin-points are concyclic ; and the centre of the circle lies mid- way between the two points. c 2)22 PRESKXTMENT AN'D PROOF J N C.KO.METKV. Simple and obvious as this proof is, I cann<_)t help thinking- it is new; for if it were known, AJr. Johnson would surely not hsve been content with the complex, tliough ingenious^ proof he actually gives — a proof depending on the property that (T being the mid-point of PQ), TD^ = TP= + PD, QG." This property can hardly be called fundamental. I did not know it myself, and had to prove it before 1 could proceed, and I should certainly not expect my pupils to remember it.* Let me also remark here how the same proof does for both the K-circles and the Twin-point. If you want to kill birds, it is surely good economy to kill two birds with one stone — best of all if you can bring down two whole flocks with one shot. Here, of course, is a fresh proof of the Orthocentric Twin- point circle. O and S are twins, therefore DEF, PQR are concyclic, and the centre of the circle bisects OS; and if U be the mid-point of OA. U is on the same circle, either because it is the centre of the circle OQAR, and therefore OUR ^2A = supj)lement of QIMv ; or because FU and EU are parallel to BO and CO, and therefore contain the supplement of A, so that FUE and FDE are supplementary. In fact, there seems to he no limit to the proofs of this wonderful circle. The In-circle is. of course, a special case of this family. The twin-points coinciding, the six feet of the perpendiculars coincide two and two. and the circle touches the sides. It is the minimum of the family. Perhaps the chief interest of this family lies in the tangency between the Orthocentric and the In-circle (there is no time to discuss the r-circles). A very good way to see the relation l)e- tween the two is to draw tangents to the (Orthocentric parallel to the sides, turning the circle into an In-cirde. ( I'"ig. lo.) I'he joins of corresponding vertices, as the drawing shows, meet where the circles touch. The point II, then, the centre of homology and similitude, may be regarded as generating the whole figure, and we have an infinite series of circles alternately In-circle and Orthocentric to one another. Fig. lo. * If I criticise Mr. Johnson, it is honoris causa; I wish to give my argument an a fortiori value. His treatment of this topic is the best I know, and I desire to say empliatically that 1 owe it to himself that I am r blc to criticise him at all. PRKSK'.STMENT AN-1) F'KOOF I X GKi»M1:TRV, 323 But this tangeucy is by no means unique in the Twin-point family. Indeed, at first I thought it was the usual thing. Several times, drawing at random, I found other Twin-point circles behaving just like the C^rthocentric towards the In-circle —e.g. m Fig. II. Fig. IT. However, on carefully choosing points in all i)ortions of the triangle, I got a very interesting result (Fig. 12). Obviously there is a complex locus of points whose Twin-circles must touch the In-circle. One circle cannot pass continuously into or out of another without touching it. The locus must have double points at the vertices and at I, and apparently passes twice through each side. This becomes evident while we draw the successive circles and imagine those that intervene. To get the full value of this presentment, the student niu ^t have the indus- try to do it for himself. Fig. 12. Algebraic calculation gives me an equation of the 8th degree for the l". DX is the mean proportional between DL and Di' ; this, there- fore, is the property we necessarily use. Now, when the triangle is reversed along AL (the angle-bisector), the tangent LX becomes LX\ and being now antiparallel, is, of course, at an angle C-B to its former self. Now take the three points X\. L and P (characteristic points respectively on the In-circle, the triangle and the orthocentric twin-point circle), and describe a circle through them, cutting the In-circle again at H. Fig- 1.3- Now IIX^ will meet BC at its mid-point; for DX\ DH = DX- (for one circle), and = DL. DP (for the other). There- fore DX is the mean proportional between DL and DP, and consequently D is the mid-point of BC. Again, the angle IMIP being in a cyclic quadrilateral = the angle DLX^, i.e., = C-B. But C-B is the angle which DP subtends in the orthocentric twin-point circle (a well-known property, easily proved). Therefore H is on both circles. And because XI X^ at the centre = C-B, the angle DHP at the circumference is bisected by HX. and therefore HX bisects the arc DP. Hence the joins of the ends of two sets of parallel radii meet in H, which is therefore the centre of similittide, which, being on the circles, must be a point of tangency. Here, again, we see how the triangle subdues the whole plane to itself. There are three of these auxiliary triangles and circles, one for each side of ABC. H, being a centre of homology, may therefore be regarded as a point generating four infinite series of circles, each series being in contact at the start- ing-]:)oint. And as the same holds for the t^-circles, we have sixteen such series sweeping fan-shaped through the plane. It is a kind of geometrical picture or analogy of the Avay in which each individual mind polarises the whole universe to its own personality. Comet I9I6a. — C)n the 2-ith February an apparentl\- short-j^eriod comet was discovered at the Simeis Observatory. Crimea, by M. Neujmin. It was then 6° south-west of Mars and of the eleventh magnitude. St)L"TIl AFKU'A.X ML'SllUM. 325 South African Museum. ^The Director of this Aiu- seuni, in his report for the year 1915. states that he has instituted an osteological gallery in a building erected as a store room two vears ago. In this gallery 247 skeletons and skulls have recently been placed, ranging from the largest mammals to l)ats and frogs. A collection of 150 httman crania has been arranged on specially- made stands. The Director de])lores the fact that tnve large skeletons of whales, hitherto exhibited in the oi)en, are fast decaying. A 19 feet long s])ecimen of Orca gladiator has recenth' l)een added to this collection. CJne hn whale from the South African seas is as yet unrepresented, and a skeleton of the s])erm whale is still at Cape Point awaiting transfer to the Museum grounds. ( )f insects, 2)'7S- different sjjccies were received during the year, 1,015 being new to the collection, and a large number of s|iecies remain unidentified. In the mineral collection the work of rearrangement of the crvstals, determina- tion of faces, and labelling, carried out by Prof. Shand, is neai"- ing completion, and constitutes a new feature in South African Museum work, and will be foiuid most adA^antageous for students of minerals. An assortment of minerals, rocks, and fossils from Australia forms an important addition to tiie geological, minei"a- logical, and pala?ontologicaI de]jartment, ancl includes a col- lection of Australian radio-active minerals. The Karroo fossils have been arranged in stratigraphical order, and the fine skeleton of ParciasitcJius is now eft'ectivel\' displayed. A cast of Rliiiic- sitchiis scnckalensis and a complete skeleton of Sinttluocephalus 7vhaiisi are amongst the more important additions. Soil Science. — A new monthh- journal is about to be published in the United States of America, under the name of Soil Science. It will l)e international in scope, confin- ing itself to i)roblems in soil physics, soil chemistry, and soil biology. The editor in chief will be Dr. |. (1. Lipman, of the New jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, and there will be associated with him a consulting international board of soil investigators. Twelve of these will be amongst the leading authorities on soils in the United States and eleven representatives pf other countries. The Royal, Society. — Amongst the names recom- mended by the Council of the Royal Society ( Tondon ) for elec- tion as Fellows are Dr. G. G. Henderson, Professor of Chemis- Xr\ in the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, who was Recorder of Section B of the Briti.sh Association during its visit to South Africa in 1905; Mr. John E. Eittlewood, a son of the Principal of the Roys' High School, Wynljerg; Dr. H. H. \\'. Pearson, Professor of Botany at the South African College; and Mr. J. 11. Maiden, Government Botanist at Sydney, N.S.W., who was for many years a generous contril)utor of specimens of Australian flora to the Cape Government Plerbariiun. GEOGRAPHY 11\' Ia.mi:s Hl'Tc-I£i-:(~)N, M.A.. F.R.S.C.S. What is Geography? The question is one which has been engaging the attention of geographers for many years, and even to-day there is consideraljle uncertainty as to what is the exact scope of the science. In South Africa, of late, few subjects have been more frequently discussed in educational circles, and, as this .Society is a patron of science, it seems meet that a few minutes should be spent in an endeavour to discover the true sphere and to discuss the prospects of a subject which is of so great importance to men, both indivi(hially and collectively. In order to understand more clearly the ])rese'nt signi- ficance of the term, it may be helpful to glance at the develop- ment of the subject from early times. To the inliabitants of the Nile and Euphrates \'"alleys it meant what we now regard as surveying, and they first used it in the apportioning of their fertile lands, and, later, in dealing with such problems as the size and shape of the earth. According to several authorities of to-day, this is the only phase of the subject which is worthy of any serious consideration. In the sixth century h.c. the first map of the world was c(im])iled, and about a century later Ilerodotus wrote his first treatise on descrii,)t!vc gco- graphw As new regions came under the sway of the Southern Empires, descriptive geographical literature increased. It was at a much later date, however, that the scientific treatment of the subject began, when, from being a mere collection of un- related facts, names, and figures, geogra])hy became a synthetic science, investigating the control of man's activities by the interaction of numerous causes and effects known in geo- graphical terminology as the milieu. As in other sciences, there are three stages, namely, the collecting, the classifying, and the explanatory. It is not one of the fundamental sciences, since it builds, as it were, with the bricks supplied by the geologist, meteorologist, anthropo- logist, etc., and in this respect it is not unlike sociology. But it is altogether erroneous to imagine that it is com- posed of a chaotic medley of " snippets " from other sciences. Doubless, in several cases, the phenomena under investigation are the same, but the points of view are totally different, for Geography is interested in the various distributions only in so far as they have human significance. It is a mistaken conception of the relation of Cieography to the tributary sciences that has given rise to the encyclopaedic connotation of the term, which is so frequently brought forwanl as an objection towards its inclusion as a subject for study in higher educational institu- tions. There are, indeed, several schools of GeograpliA', but onlv GKOC^KAPJIV. ^2J two receive anv degree of recognition — the physical, and the human. To the latter, which regards the scope of geography to be the study of the intiuence of environment on tlie life of man, and his reaction on that environment, belong more than a half of the world's geographers. 1'here is an idea abroad that the geographer is an authority upon most stibjects, and is fairly conversant with all. De- signate astronomy " astronomical geography," call surveying " practical geography," and he is frecjuently expected to be able to solve the numerous pri)])lems whicli confront ex])erts in these branches of knowledge. It is only natural to expect that teachers of geograph}' who have approached the subject through the avenues of other sciences will be biassed in their treatment of it. If geologists, then ])liysical geography will attract them; if economists, com- mercial geography; but, although a general training in geology, meteorology, anthropology, etc., is essential to the understand- ing of many problems in geograph}' proper, it is as unreasonable to expect the student of geography to possess a thorough know- ledge of these sciences as it is to imagine that the doctor who employs the results of geogra|>hical inc|uiry in order to hnd suit- able climates for his inx'alids, is a trained geographer. Some consider as essential a knowledge of survexing, which they name "practical geography"; but if the word " practical " is intended to convey a meaning similar to that in the case of "practical botany" it is a misnomer. Obviously, it is not possible for the geographer to l)ring his material into the 'laboratorv ; in most cases it is not convenient for him to make personal observations in all parts of the globe, hence there arises the necessity for a notation ; but all that can be said in favour of the absolute necessity of an intimate knowledge of the making of maps is, that in the case of a geographer exploring unaccompanied by a survevor, it is indispensable. In these days, however, wherever work of real im])ortance is being carried on, such cir- cttmstances are practically non-existent. The relation of sur- veying h) geography is much the same as a knowledge of printing scores is to the interpretation of mtisic. Tt wotild appear, then, that the term " ])ractical geography " should be applied only in the case of actual investigation " in the field." The world is the laboratory, and man, in his environment, the material. The geologist concerns himself with the past history of land forms, while the geographer deals W'ith their present state of devdoiMuent. treats them as the home of i)lant, animal, and man, and notes the influence of configuration, minerals, etc.. on the distribution of pojndation, industries, commerce, and trade routes. The geographer need not trespass on the realms of the ])hysicist or the meteorologist in order to explain exhaustively the varior:S factor^ determining climate. The question he nuT^t ^2^ GFCOCRArjn'. answer is, " How do certain given climaiic conditions affect the life of man?" Of all the external modifying forces which in- fluence mankind, there is little doubt but that climate is. in the main, responsible for the different stages of his physical, mental, and moral development. The almost innumerable gradations from stunted I^igmy to stalwart Dane, from loin-cloths to furs, from bread-fruit to blubber, from palm-hut to igloo, from lethargy to energy, and from infanticide to high morality, are in no small degree determined, directly or indirectly, by atmospheric con- ditions. Climate controls the vegetable and animal products which form the basis of man's food, and change of latitude or elevation necessitates a variation of diet. The luscious fruits of the tropics would make an ill substitute for the wholly animal fare of the Arctic regions. Perhaps the most obvious examples of adaptation to climatic environment are found in a survey of the world's modes of dress. Tlie flimsv tropical cotton makes as striking a contrast to the thick ])olar furs as do the dull clothes of the grey North to the gay garl) of the sunny South. Architecture also reflects climate, for dwellings are to a great extent built at the dictates of tem]:)erature and rainfall. Flat roofs are an indication of rapid evaporaticm of rainfall, tlie steep roofs of snowy countries are self exp'lanatorw while pile or tree dwellings are characteristic of lands subject to floods. Nomadic l)eoples in search of pasture or water inhal)it temporary, movable structures, but in settled agricultural or industrial regions are found large, sul)stantial edilices. The ornamentation of the latter, also, is regulated by the weathering agents. Climate in- fluences even religious beliefs, for tlie hell of the b^kimos is a region of darkness and intense cold, while that of the Jew is a place of eternal Arc. We have quoted only a few instances, but the studv of the influence of climate on sports, customs, social conditions, literature, place-names, intellectual pursuits, and temperament is one of the most fascinating I)ranches of geo- graphy. Investigation ])roves that there is scarcely any phase of human activity l)Ut bears the stani]) of climatic environment. The distribution of plants and animals are of interest to the geographer onlv to the extent that thev have a Ijearing on tlie hfe of man. A knowledge of geography is of much greater value to the historian than a historical training is to the geographer, for geo- graphy is the stage on Avbich the tragedies and comedies of history are enacted. Similarly, economics enters into the arena of tlie geograi^her only in so far as industries, power, labour su]:)plv, markets, etc., are determined by the geographical iiilUcit. The foregoincr sketch will help to show that, although there may easily exist many differences of opinion regarding^ ]:)oints of minor importance, the province of the geographer is fairly clearlv deflned, n;niiely, the study of man's "passive" and (".RocRArifv. 329 " active ' relation to liis natural environment. It is v,-ell to note here that there is fre(jnentl\- a tendency (Ui the part of the oco- .yrapher to attribute too nnicli to environmental control: in his devotion to " determinism "" lie i'^ apt to neglect " free-will." Besides, owing to uniA-ersal evolution and to man's own " con- (juest of nature," environment is constantly varving. Man. like- wise, is changing, and hence the conclusions of the geogra])her must necessarily be of a temporary nature — thev applv onlv to one particular time. As regards the future, they can only sug- gest ])Ossil)le de\elo])mcnts. Let us attempt to indicate briefly the future work of the geographer, making special reference to South Africa. -Vs fcva iiicoi/iiita is now alnnjst un]ent and pa.-^t distrilrutions of forests and rainfall, and of drained land and malaria, will prob- ablv receive more serious consideration; even statistics may ])Ossess some charm if ]iresented in map form. The geologist nia\- hel]) 1)\ indicating the presence of valu- able or useful minerals, and may lead through the avenues of ])aleontolog}' to the worlds of the ])ast. Recent marine catastro])hes, even in the nictst fann'liar higli- Mays of the sea. have revealed the fact that on every hand lurk sources of danger which fleniau'I the further attention of the cceanographer. AltlKiugh the meteorologist cannot alter the courses of cyclones, he ma\ be able to •suggest new means of modifving. to some extent, the re-^ults arising from local climatic conditions, in order to make i)ossible the more com])lete Kuropeanisation of tropical lands with their almost unlimited productive poten- tialities. Here the burning '|ueslion seems to lx\ "Is South .\frica drying up?" The preparation, distribution, and intelli- gent interpretation of meteoroloeical charts are absolutelv essen- tial for sale navigation. ])rofitable fishing, and thoroughlv sue- 33© (.KUCKAl'lIV. cessful farming. The bearing of meteorology on aviation is of premier importance, and Ijefore long aerial conveyance is likely to demand very serious consideration from the geographers of commerce. Botanists, zoologists, anthropologists, etc . after more com- prehensive observation and exhaustive investigation, in which innumerable indirect causes will not fail to receive due considera- tion, may discover laws regarding man's distribution and racial characteristics which will stand the test of universal applica- tion. (Questions regarding a topographical nomenclature for general adoption, the distribution of tropical diseases, the world's decreasing coal suiJi^ly, the latent itower of oil. water, tides, and the sun and the alteration of the great trade routes, giving rise to such local questions as shipning accommodation, storage, etc.. must all receive attention from the geographer of to-morrow. The establishnient of an Imperial ( ieographical Information Bureau, which would collect and distribute information regard- ing all matters geographical, would prove a tremendous boon. In such an institution could be ke])t series of maps, saiuples of products, lantern slides, geographical literature, etc. In .^oulh Africa tlie da_\' of geograi)h\' is just dawning. During the jjast twelve months no fewer than three syllabuses for advanced examinations in geograph\- have b-en arranged, and various courses of training have been esta])lished bv the Provin- cial and Union bxlucation nepartinents for teachers desirous of obtaining special qualihcations in the subject. To man\- who left school in the \ears gone by, even after completing a " secondary " course, their own country w^as little more than a " L^ark Continent." Xow. from the points of view of cultural, disci])linary, imaginative or utilitarian education, few countries in their geogrn])hical study offer trrcater attractions than Africa. The fascinating story of its discovery, the apparent relation between its economic development and its geological structure, the numerous illustrations in recent times of the im])ortance of military geography, its extensive range of climatic conditions and their influence on man and his work, the varied nature of its bio-geography, its cosmopolitan population, its dependence on other countries, together with the fact that it can boast of no mean portion of the world's grandest topo- graphical features — all would seem to advocate a more com- prehensive study of the subject than has hitherto existed. In the past, geographical enthusiasts have been faced by many difficulties, but these are gradually being overcome. De- tailed contour maps of several districts are now available, books written from the South African ])oint of view are on the ma'-ket. and as " home geography " is so orominent a feature in all the afore-mentioned syllabuses, several gentlemen, who are forming themselves into the nucleus of a Geographical Society, are con- sidering the advisability of instituting what may be termed a (;i-:()<;rai'HV. 331 " Geograj^hical Census," in order lo obtain from every possible source information with a view to the preparation of geographical monographs. The following is a res nine of the proposed scheme of local investigation : Indicate on the enclosed map the area to be dealt with. (N.B. — In dealing with the various distributions — geological, climatic, plant, etc. — supreme importance is at all times to be attached to their bearing on the life of man.) Where possible, indicate distributions on maps. (iive a general description of the region, noting conhguration, ex])osure, drainage, forest, bush. pasture, cultivated land, and desert. State directions, ai)proxi- mate distance.^, areas, heights. Remarks regarding the relation of scenery to geological formation, nature of soil. Notes on topographical features of sj-ecial interest — c.;j., results of de- nudation, periodicity of rivers, alteration of water-courses, hot springs, caves, vleis, etc. .Supplementary remarks regarding local methods of preventing erosion. Clnnatc. — Average summer temperatiu"e , average winter temperattu'e ; variation of temperature (day and night,, summer and winter) ; prevailing winds (their origin, characteristics and seasons); average rainfall (characteristics). Further remarks regarding climatic phenomena. Information concerning local causes of above; effects of storms on crops; " wash-awavs "" ; means em])loyed for encouraging rainfall, etc. Production. — General description ;^f natural vegetation. Note anv local causes of outstanding importance that have led to the present distributions. Economic importance of vegeta- tion; methods emploved for the destruction of unprofitable plants. Lniid under Culfiratioii. — Trees — (1) firewood; (2) timl)er, useful or ornamental; (3) fruit; (4) for any other purpose. Cereaks — other vegetable products of economic importance. Note any local conditions specially suited fi^r the ]M-oduction of al)Ove, and name other plants which you consider may be successfully cultivated. Note any special adaj^tation of vegetation to local conditions. (rive partictilars regarding an\ reaction of vegeta- tion on climate or water supply, etc., diseases or pests hindering cultivation, methods of agriculture peculiar to the district and necessitated ])y the geograjihical environment. Animals. — Wild animals, birds, fish of the district which are of economic importance. Domestic animals- -their value to man, their food and methods of storing it. Note how local conditions have affected the rearing of certain animals. Note any relation between animals and the distribution of diseases affecting man. Minerals. — Local distribution (indicate on maps). Note the relation to geological structure. Useful minerals, annual output; valuable minerals, annual outpiU ; local uses of minerals. hhdusfries. — Chief local imlustrie^. Remarks regarding — (i) labour sup])ly ; (2) distribution of industries among inhabit- 33-^ (UCOGRAI'llV. ants of different nationality; (3) sources of ])o\ver ; (4) local conditions specially favourable or unfavourable to the develop- ment of present or future industries. Industrial i:)rcaucts. Exhorts. — Chief exports and their markets ^home and foreio^n). Conditions affecting markets, and amount of export. Imports. — Chief imports ; their sources, conditions regulat- ing importation, and means of distribution in the locality. Means of Trasporl. — How controlled Ijv local conditions. Chief Trade Routes. — How hxed by local conditions. Re- marks regarding any pro])osed routes; their probable effect on local industries, distribution of population, etc. Notes on points of strategic importance. Means of C'onuuiinicatlnn. — Note anything of special local importance. Centres of FopukiHon. — Note local conditions which have led to rise of towns, villages, and settlements. Distribution of races and nationalities; causes leading to same. Notes on the folloxving : — Influence of local geogra])hical conditions on the physique of the inhabitants; habits; customs; sports; punish- ments; character and beliefs; dress; houses; place-names; literature. Give particulars regarding birth and death rate, diseases prevailing in the locality, and of the t}'i)e of invalid, if any, for which the locality is specially suital)le. Indicate any relation between above and local geographical conditions. An\- supplementary information, with ([notations or refer- ences to authoritative local papers, magazines, or other works. Where possible, paper cuttings containing relevant information. ])hotographs, etc.. illustrating local geographical phenomena, should be forwarded with the above.. ^lle hrst imi^ression gained from a i)erusal of the scheme is that it is inordinately comprehensive. It is difficult to dispute this, but although the gathering of the information will be no easy task, the chief difficulty will lie in selecting what is of truly geograjihical importance. Nevertheless, it will surely be allowed that the usefulness of such a compilation is sufficient justification for the labour entailed. In closing, ])crmit me to remark that if anv valual/le research work is to be accom])lished at the higher centres of education here, geographical instruction in schools must receive every encouragement, and, in this connection attention should be drawn to the fact that although geography has been introduced into the Junior Certificate Examination, candidates will not con- ider it advisable to select it until they are allowed to continue its study as a subject for Matriculation. On the whole, however, there is certainly no occasion for dissatisfaction, for a survey of the ])rogress of the subject in South Africa during the past two years leads to the conclusion that slowly but surely are being laid the foundations of a geo- gra])hical education which shall b? wide in ranee, scientific in method, and. let us hope, ])roductive of much good, commercially, civicallv and culturallv. ON THE DISCRIMINATION OF THE GENERAL CONIC By Prof. John Patrick Dalton, M.A., D.Sc. In the teaching of mathematics more than in that of any other snliject we snffer from the influence of tradition. To within a few decades ago the subject was an ordinary item in the educational cnrricnhim, justifying its position by the mental stimukis provided, and the conse(|uent sliarj)eniiip of tlie logical faculty; but with modern developments of applied science there has arisen a chiss of students — now forming the larger T'roportion of the mathematical classes of the Universities — who are inter- ested in the subject, becatise it afl:'ords powerftil methods of solving the technical difficulties encountered in their work. On these students methods of purely historical interest and discus- sions of more or less metaphysical nature are wasted. A mathe- matician, of course, cannot encourage the teacliing of certain inadequate methods of comparatively recent origin unhappilv termed " practical mathematics." for, if he is to be in a position to use mathematical methods with certitude and facility, the technician must be as rigorous as the theorist; but one should aim at develo])ing the mathematical training of the technical students upon as broad a l)asis as possible, and ensuring that his methods are of wide applicability, while specialized processes of juirel}- historical interest or of limited power should be relegated to a stibordinate position. These considerations strike one rather forcibly in connection with the study of Conic Sections. The importance of Conies is, as a whole, somewhat overrated, and much time that is spent studying ingenious corollaries to their fundamental properties could be more tisefully employed otherwise. For the technical man has to deal more frecjuently with transcendental curves, or with algebraical functions of degree higher than the second; and, moreover, pnx^esses which gave Plato pleasure in the early days of geometry, or which delighted Des Cartes when he inaugurated analysis, are not necessarily those best adapted to ])resent needs. Conies, like other curves, should be studied by means of their slope, and. having once defined a differential coefficient, tangent and normal properties ought to be deduced by its means, and not by repeatedly proceeding to a limit. The object of the present paper is to show how the discrimination of the general conic may be eftected from consideration of its slope by methods such as could l)e usefully and effectively employed in the dis- cussion of higher curves. General Conic — Co-ordinates of Centre. — Students first obtain an idea of the shapes of conies from the usual locus definitions, and, in particular, their attention is drawn to the double and single symmetry respectively of the central and non- central curves. The general quadratic function — 534 DISCRIMINATION OF THE CONIC. S =--= ax^ -f- 2 hxy -f hy^ -f 2^^/.r -f- 2/v + r = o ( i ) is then taken in hand. Its slope is nv -4- hv 4- n (2) dy 8x ax + hy + g dx ~ SS ~ hx + by + /. e locus By dy — \ dx where X is an}' constant, is a straight line joining points on the curve, at which the slope is the same. For all vakies of X the line passes through the intersection of the lines hS hS — - = o and -^ —o. (4) ox oy It follows from considerations of symmetry that the inter- section of these lines must be the centre of the conic. Solving etjuations (4). the co-ordinates of the centre are obtained - 16/1 - f ^^ I a h '// h ah hi) (5) Non-central Conic. — If ab = h'-, then the centre of the conic recedes to infinity ; that is the case of single symmetry. Equa- tion (I) takes the form (ax + ^y ) \ H- 2gx -f 2fy + r = o, (6) while its slope at any point is d^- V ^ ' ..R ,--U R-^,.-i.-fl (7) Parallel Straight Lines.— When g and / both vanish, the slope of the non-central conic is single-valued and constant ; hence it degenerates into a pair of parallel straight lines. Parabola: Its Vertex and Axis. — When g and/ do not vanish simultaneously, the slope is a function of the co-ordinates, . , . ci and the curve becomes a parabola. The slope at mhnity is ^ ; the axis of the curve is therefore parallel to the line /3 v + o.r = o. Chords perpendicular to the axis are given by ay — (Sx = yu. The value of ft. which makes this line a tangent, is •easily found to be {f^^gay--c(a^-\- ^^Y 2{fa~gl3) (a-^-f ^'). This gives the tangent at the vertex, and from it the co-ordinates of the vertex, and the equation to the axis are easily obtained. DISCRIMINATION OF THE CONIC. ,^5 The Central Coiiie. — If ab — //- is not zero, the co-ordinates of the centre of the conic are finite. Transform the equation to parallel axes through the centre, and it becomes y = n.r- -f 2hsy + ^V" + c' = o (8) where _ _ c' =ax- + 2kxy -f ^v- + 2gx + 2fY -|- c, (9) X and _v being the co-ordinates of the centre. The slope of the central conic is then dv o.r -|- /r3' _ h , li^ — ah iio Tzvo intersecting Straight Lines. — If c' =r o. the slope is double-valued, and is independent of the co-ordinates. Subject to this condition, therefore, the equation becomes as- + 2lixy --f- by^ = 0. (11) and must represent two straight lines of different slopes, and therefore intersecting. The condition may be written in the form g-v + fy + c = o, (12) and therefore 2fgli -f abc — af — bg- - ch-= o. (13) Tangent at Infinity. Hyperbola and Ellipse. — If c' does not vanish, the slope is a function of the co-ordinates. The slope of the tangent at infinity is, from ( 10) —r ' j~± j~y/lr — ah. (14) dx -V —^00 b h ^ ^ ^' ]f /;'- > ab, these values are real, and the conic is a hyperbola; if h'- < ab, the}- are imaginary, and the conic is an ellipse. Axes of a Central Conic. — The method of (i) is again a|)plied to determine the axes of a central conic, .9' = o. \\^ith the same centre describe a circle — C = x^^y^ = r\ (15) The slope of the conic is dy ax -\- hy dx^ hx -{- by The slope of the circle is dy _ X dx„ ~~ y. The locus d\ dv (16) (17) (18) c/.v, dx^ or, hy- — hx- = xy(b — a) (19) according to ( 1 1 ) represents two intersecting straight lines pass- ing through the origin, and from (18) they must be lines passing S^(^ DJSt'KIMlXATKjX dl' 1 HE CONIC. through pairs of points on the conic and circle where the slopes are identical. h>(jm symmetry they must, therefore, be the axes. Asymptotes of Hyperbola. — Since the asymptt)tes pass through the centre their equalion. deduced from ^14), must be L i V + [ .r ) + ^ V Ir —ah x\ [ {y + J ^^ — I V h'—ob .r J = o. (20) that is as- + 2 li.ry + hy- == o. (21) TRAXSACTJOXS OF SOCIETIES. Sdi'TH African Society (if Ci\'ij- Encinefrs. — \Veilnescla\-. October 13th : R. W. Alenmuir, A..M.1.C.E., Vice-President, in the chnir. — " The appticatioii of reinforced concrete to small conduits for iniiiation pur- poses": J. C. Hawkins Tlie author describee! the design and con- struction, and furnished particulars with regard to the costs of furrow- linings, t^umes, and siphons constructed in reinforced concrete, in the Gamtoos River Valley, Division of llumansdorp. Cape Province. Sb'uTH' African iNSTrriTiox of Engtnerrs — Saturday, Feb- ruary t2th : W. Ingham, .M.I.C.E.. .M.l.Al.E., President, in the chair. — "Belt Conveyors" : A. Robertson ^nd A. AlcA. Johnston. The authors discussed the transport of materials by means of endless bands and their accessories, and, in particular, the handling of specihc materials taken from gold and base metal mines which have to be transported in accordance with established mining j^ractice, and to suit locnl and climatic conditions. — "A pre-lieated blast cnpola": J. A. Parsons. A type of cupola was described in which the- air blast, instead of lieing cold when coming into contact with the ci>lumn of coke which is ordinarily placed within the furnace on tiie kindling wood, is passed through a series of tulcs in the top cr chimney of cupola, and reaches the coke bed, after the lilast has been on for some twentv minutes, at an increased temperature over one-third of the total temperature to be imparted to the iron. It was claimed that such a cuitola economised coke, improved the quality of the metal, prevented by the slagging up of the tuyeres, permitted of a temporary holding up of the furnace, w-as cheap and easy to manu- facture, and ))iissessed a cai)acit\- nuich in excess of that of the ordinar.v cupola. SorxH African IxsTrri'TF of Ei.kcirical Enginkf.rs. — Thursday, February Jjth : Prof. W. Buch.anan. M.LE.E , President, in the chair. — Presidential address: Prof. \V. Buchanan. A review was given of the life and work of Lord Kelvin, with personal recollections of his activities in the science and practice of electricity. Chemical, Metat.lurcical an'd AIixing Society of South Afric.v. — Saturday, February 19th: J. E. Thomas, A.I.M.M.. M.Am.LE.E., Presi- dent, in the chair. "The conglomerates of the IVitzuatersrand " : Dr. E. T. Mellor. The geological features of the Witwatersrand were compre- hensively described in their bearing u]ion the conditions of deposition of the gold-bearing conglomerates, considerable attention being devoted to the sedimentary features of the conglomerates, their probable mode of origin and their relation to the other portions of the Witwatersrand system. The author proceeded to discuss the origin of the gold and its distribution within the conglomerate beds and throughout the Witwaters- rand system. In conclusion, the author considered the bearing of his deductions on economic cmestions connected with the conglomerate, par- ticularly in the Eastern Rand, which he held to be the most important goldfield at present awaiting development. THE EFFECTS OF SNAKE VENOMS ON DOMESTIC ANIMALS, ANU THE PREPARATION OF ANTI- VENOMOUS SERUM. By Daviu Thomas Mitchell, M.R.CA'.S. From time im.memorial, and among all races, even where a fairly advanced state of civilisation existed, snakes have been looked upon as objects of dread and typifying mystery and wis- dom. In more recent years, the progress of science has to a great extent dispelled the feeling of fear and repulsion which is associated with snakes, but yet it is impossible to regard without feelings akin to dread an animal which is capable of biting and causing changes which may result in the death of even the strong- est animal in a very short space of time. The nattire and mode of action of the more common snake venoms has been the subject of careful research in the last qttarter of a century, and the results have been very hopeful. It has been found that the active principles of snake venoms are soluble l)roteids belonging to the same class as enzymes and toxins. It has also been ascertained that immunisation can be carried out in the same way as in the immunisation of animals against contagiotts diseases, and that the serum taken from animals so immunised possesses anti-venenes wliich are specific. In order, therefore, to be successful in the treatment of snake-bite with such serum, it is necessary to have some idea of the species of snake which has inflicted the bite. For this rear.on I propose, before entering into the question of venoms and anti-venomous .seriuu, to give a short classification of venomous snakes. Reptiles of the order Ophidia, to which snakes belong, are distinguished by their elongated limbless bodies covered with horny epidermal scales, by their extremely flexible mouth, by the absence of eyelids, of a tympanic cavity and external ear open- ings, by having the cloacal orifice transverse and the penis paired, For the accurate identification of the various families and genera it is necessary to be acquainted with the terminology of the scales, especially those covering the head, and also to know something about the skull and dentition, but as tliis would take up too much space, it is not my intention to enter into this subject in detail. There are about 1,700 species of snakes known, of which some 300 have efficient i)oison fangs, and so must be classed as venomous, while 300 more possess a type of grooved tooth, and, therefore, while they cannot in the true sense be called venomous, as they are capable of instilling a secretion — whether saliva or venom — into the wound made, they nuist be regarded with suspi- cion. These species are distributed atnong nine families, two of which include the venomotis and suspicious species. In the light of past experiences it is well, however, to avoid completely ignor- ing those varieties which are looked upon as harmless. A ^^^enings present are one near the base to which the end of the orifice of the poison duct is a])])lied, and another near the free extremity of the fang. Qi:ANTi'r\ oi" Venom. The amount of venom which can be obtained at one time from a snake depends on a number of factors, vie, the species, condition and size of the indiviflual, whether the animal is fasting 340 EFFECTS OF SNAKE \EN()MS ON DOMESTIC ANr.MALS. or full, whether it has bitten recently or not, ^md whether it has been for a long time in capitivaty or not. The largest amount can possibly be obtained from the King Cobra, and the smallest from some species of Hydropinse. 200 mgs. of dried venom, repre- senting about 670 mgs. of venom, have been obtained from a cobra {A^oja Ilajc) in an experiment lasting over a i)eriod of four months. Chemical and Physical Proim-:rt[i:s of X'exom. The different venoms vary very much in ])hysical characters. Cobra venom is a clear, yellowish Huid, slightly viscid, and may sometimes be slightly opaque owing to the presence of epithelial scales. It is i)ractically odourless, has a disagreeable taste, a very high specific gravity, and is acid in reaction. \\'hen dried rapidly in the desiccator, it solidities into a transparent layer resembling gum arabic, this layer cracking in various directions on further desiccation. The venom of Crutaliis varies from a pale emerald green to orange or straw colour, and when dried resembles dried albumen. It has neither taste nor smell. In this condition venom can l)e kept indelinitely, if protected from light, air, and moisture. It is freely soluble in water, and the resulting solution retains all the original properties of the venom. \'enom owes its virulence to the |)resence of soluble pro- teids, some of which — esj^ecially those which ])redominate in the venom of the X'iperidre — are coagulated and parth' destroyed by heat, and are completely destroyed by gastric juice. Others — principally those which predominate in the venom of the Colu- bridse — are unaffected by gastric digestion or heat under boiling- point. All are. however, destroyed by pancreatic juice and pro- longed boiling. Strong caustics, and strong oxidising agents which destroy i)roteids, or preci])itate them from solution, render venoms inert. Oi such agents hypochlorite of lime and perman- ganate of potash are good examples. General Actions of Venoms. The general actions of venoms have been studied by numer- ous observers. The ancients recognised snakes which they described imder the names of Echis and Colitbra, and their methods of treatment were based on attempts toi prevent absorp- tion, namely, ligation, scarification, and subsequent cupping or sucking of the wounds made. The effects of viper bites on ani- mals were studied experimentally in the sixteenth century by Ridi and Morse Charas, and the important fact that the venom pro- duced coagulation of the blood in animals bitten was noted. These workers came to the conclusion tliat the coagulation was the cause of death. Weir Mitchell and Peicbert, in 1886, i)ublished a very com- prehensive paper in which tliey stated that the active ])rinciples of snake venoms were globulins and peptones. This was later confirmed by Wolfenden^ and Karlbach. and the theory of the KFFKCTS VV SNAKI'; \l':.\ ( ) M S OX DOM i:STK' ANIMALS. 34I alkaloid nature of venoms projiounded l)y Hlyth and Gautier was disproved. In 1892 Martin and Smith, studying the venom of Australian snakes, came to the conclusion that the venom con- tained three proteids, a hetero- and proto-proteose, and an albu- men, the hetero-proteose alone heiui^- virulent. During this period, which may l)e termed "the one-venom period," there was a general belief that all snake venoms had virtuallv the same active ])rinciples, which were thought to be of a i^roteid nature, and that differences in the effect j^roduced in animals bitten were ])rinci])ally due to variation in amount of venom injected, thus being merely a quantitative difference. The next period, which may be termed "the period of more than one venom," extends up to the ])resent time, in which it is considered that there are at least two separate types of venom, one of which may be called the Viperine type, having as its example Vipcra RusscUii, and the other the ("olubrine type, which may be exemplified by the Naja tripitdiaiis. There are, in addi- tion, however, venoms which show characteristics of both types, and in which either the ("olubrine or \'i])erine element may ]ire- dominate. It was shown b}' Tveicliert and Weir Mitchell that there was a considerable dift'erence 1)etween the venoms of \ i]X'rinje and Colubrines, and Martin, working with a Colul)rine { Pscudcch: -"^ , discovered that the venom prodttced intravascular clotting, and suggested this action as an explanation of sudden death resulting from the venom of i'ipcra Rnsscllii. This theor}- was later con- firmed by Lamb and Hanna. In 1902 Flexner and Nogttchi i)ublished a paper on venoms, showing that, in addition to the neurotrophic i)rinciples, venom contained separate Ivsins for the erythrocytes and leucocytes, and agglutinins for the erxthrocvtes and leucocytes, which were probably identical. They also noted that \-en()m contained h;emorrhagins. and lessened the bacterial action of the blood. The work (jf various investigators has shown th;it snake venoms are \'ery complex li(juids containing- some of. but not all in any one venom, the following active ]~)rinci])les : — (1) Neurotoxins — (a) Acting princi])ally ovi the respiratory centre; ( b ) Acting principally on the vaso-motor centre ; ( (• ) Acting princi])ally ujjon nerve and plates in striated nuiscle, ];articularly iii tliose of the phrenics (2) Agglutinins. (3) Cvtolysins — ( (/ ) Hsemolysin.^ ; ( b ) Leucolysins. ( c ) Hsemorrhagins. (4) A fibrin ferment. (5j A proteol} tic ferment. (6) Antibactericidal substances. 342 EF [•"!•: CTS OF SNAKli V1-:NU.M.S ON ])O.Mi:S'rU ANIMALS. ( >f these the more imi)ortant are the neurotoxins, the c\'toly- sins, and the fihrin ferment. These various active principles will now be considered briefly. Neiirotoxiiis.-The neurotoxins are the most important active principles of many snake venoms, especially those of the Colubrine type. They have been studied in the Ancistrodon contorti-ix by Flexner and Noguchi. who tested the power for anchoring- of the various tissues in the body for venom. As a result of their cx- l^eriments it was found that while the control guinea-pig died in 45 minutes after injection of two minimal lethal doses, when three minimal lethal doses were emulsified with two grammes of brain substance, inculcated for an hoin% centrifugalised. and the super- natant fluid collected and injected into a guinea-])ig. death did not occur for 19 hours, and when two minimal lethal doses were used the guinea-pig survived. From these ex])eriments it was concluded that snake venom contained a neurotoxic ])rinci]:)le, which is the principal toxic element, and wliich unites the nuilti])le minimal doses with the nerve cells; but even when this neurotoxic principle is removed, there is still sufficient ha?mol\'sin left to produce fatal results. Rodgers has shown tliat this neurotoxic substance — in the cobra and I l\droi)inc'e — when given in small doses, causes a temporary stimulation, and in large doses attacks the respiratory centre, and causes the res])irations to 1)ecome slower and less in amplitude minute by minute, until they eventu- ally cease. He also has shown that ])aral\sis of the end ])lates of the phrenic nerves in the diaphragm occurs soon after failure of the respiratory centre. In the medulla neurotoxins do not seem to affect the blood pressure; in fact, the circulation can be kept going by artificial respiration for a long time. The neurotoxins in \'iperine venom, on the other hand, were shown by Rodgers to act on the vaso-motor centre in the medulla, causing a variation in blood pressure. It will thus be seen that there are in snake venom two groups of neurotoxic elements. ( I ) Colubrine neurotoxic elements, acting on the respira- tory centre of the med;tlla. and on the end ]clates of the phrenic. (2) Viperine neurotoxic elements, acting on the vaso-motor centre. The agglutinins present in venom can be demonstrated /;; vitro by adding to a series of test-tubes containing normal saline and washed corpuscles a solution of venom A-arying in strength from o.oi i)er cent, to 10 per cent., and ])lacing in the thermostat. Agglutination occurs at a time varying according to the concen- tration of the venom solution. These agglutinins can be destroyed by heating to 80 degrees Centigrade. The cytolysins were shown by Flexner and Noguchi to be of the nature of amboceptors which require a com])lement. which is obtained in the serum of the victim. lience they are capable of not only jjroducing hsemolysin, but also diminishing the bac- teriolytic action of the blood. Further research on this sulcject l)v Kves and Sachs showed that while in the ox. shec]) and goat ICJ-FKCTS OF SNAKl; \KNOM;-. ON DOM!".STK' ANIMALS. 343 haemolysis could be produced in the presence of venom by the addition of complement, in the horse, man, dot:", rabbit, and guinea-pi.i^f the venom alone could haemolyse the washed cor- l)uscles. and they cairie to the conclusion that there was an endo- complentent present in the red cell itself, attached to the stroma. Thev conchided. fiu-ther. that it is the lecithin of the stroma which acts as a complement. Kyes found that the lecithin was acti\e with the blood cells of all the species which he examined, and that the qtiantit} necessary for haemolysis was the same for the blood cells for the various s])ecies of animal. At present it is therefore considered that snake venom pro- duces hccmolysis 1j_\- its ambocejjtors uniting with the comple- ments contained in the sera of the majority of animals, and that these com])lements beloncr to the class of fatty acids and soai)s. and. further, that in certain species there are endo-complements in the erythrocytes attached to the stroma of the corpuscles of the same nattire as those in normal sera. Hconorrhagin. — Investij^ations into the action of Crotalus venom showed that when this venom was applied to the mesen- tery, blood escaped from the vessels owing- to damage to their walls. Flexner and Nogtichi. working in this connection, fotind that this ])roperty was lost if the venom was heated to 75 degrees Centigrade for 30 minutes, and they named the toxic jirinciple liKmorrhagin. Its action was studied \)\ intra-peritoneal injecti(jn of venom and subsequent examination. It was found that the extravasa- tion of blood |irodticed was not dtte to diapedesis, but to actual rtipture of the walls. ai)parently due to a cytolytic action of the venom on the endothelial cells of the capillaries and smaller veins. I'ihriii Ferine II I. — A hbrir. ferment was shown to be i)rescnt in the venoms of the X'iperiche. and also in some of the Colu- bridae by Martin. In the former it is the active princi])le which causes intravascular clotting in small animals, associated with sudden onset of convulsions and death. Natl'RK and Action of N'fnoms. From a biological point of view, venom may be regarded as essentially part of the digestive mechanism, and to an animal which swallows its prey with the integument intact, it is of con- siderable advantage to be able to impregnate it with ])owerful solvents and ferments. It is generally agreed that in the venom of the ColubridEe. neurotoxins, with a specific affinity for the respira- tory centre, prepondei'ate. and that in the Viperid?e toxins, which act on the blood and circtilatory system, preponderate ; while among Australian Colubrines venoms are found which are rich in both classes of toxins. In the Hydropinse the venom is almost purely neurotoxic in effect. It must be understood, liowever. that in any given venom, especially those which act chiefly on the blood system, one toxic 344 EFFECTS OF SNAKE VENOMS ON DOMESTIC ANIMALS. effect or another may be emphasised or marked according to the amount injected, and the rapidity with which it is absorbed. Owing to the difficulty of obtaining information regarding the species of the snake which has bitten, under what may be termed " natural conditions," one has to resort to animal ex- perimentation in order to form an idea of the symptoms pro- duced Ijy the various species. For this purpose I propose to detail the results produced on animals as a result of the bite of known species. (i) Cohihrinc Venotn. — The typical venom of this class is that of the Naja tripiidiaiis, and the eff'ects produced by this venom are as follows : — Salivation, slowing and subsequent cessa- tion of the respirations, whicli cease some considerable time before the heart stops. In smaller doses the paralysis becomes more marked, and as death does not rapidly ensue, the following additional symptoms become apparent. Local inflammation at the site of the l)ite, lachrymation, salivation, mucous discharge from the mouth and nostrils, which are occasionally blood-tinged, but there are no marked hremorrhagcs from the mucous surfaces. There is obvious pain at the site of the bite, and engorgement of the vessels causing swelling, due to eff'usion into the tissues. In cases of recovery, the local lesion may suppurate an.d slough away. The most evident paralysis is iliat shown in the tongue, larynx and pharynx, causing salivation, inability to feed or swallow, due to the action of the venom on the medulla. On post-inurtcni examination it will l)e seen that there is a considerable haemolysis, and tlie coagulal>ility of the blood is reduced. The tissues are blood-stained, and the urine blood tinged if the animal has survived for some time after the ])ite. Rigor mortis is well marked. There is congestion of the lungs and bronchial nuicous membrane. The right heart is distended with blood, the liver dark and congested. The kidneys are con- gested, pulmonary (edema is common and is associated with congestion in some cases f)f the ])ulmonary tissue and bronchia! mucous membrane. Intestinal lia-morrhages may be present. but are not common or extensive. The ])redominant actions of Colubrine venom are therefore seen to be as follows: — General paralysis and sj^cial ])aralysis of the breathing mechanism, due to neurotoxin, and the more or less delayed onset of symptoms. Observations on the effect of the bite of a few Colubrine snakes, including N. haja, N. flava, and Scpcdou hceinacJialcs. on animals were noted at Onderstepoort by Andrews, and the fol- lowing is a resit uic of the results obtained. The clinical symptoms recorded were divided into groups. A local swelling was sometimes present, which was either soft, insensitive and pendulous, or tense, hard and very sensitive to the touch. Out of seven animals bitten by A', haja, four died without showing any local swelling, but this was noted in the animals which recovered. Four animals bitten by iV. flava. all died. A mule which died five hours after the bite developed a EFFECTS OF SNAKE \"EN()MS ON DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 345 hard painful swelling, and a horse which died after 42 hours showed a large, soft, insensitive swelling. With Scpedon Jucmachatcs, three horses bitten all developed a large painless local swelling and recovered. Resolution in these cases occurred without complications. It would appear that the formation of a large local swelling subsequent to the bite of Colubrine snakes denotes a subacute case which will prob- ably end in recovery. The effects of the local lesion were in most cases due to the pain and swelling, causing a limb to be carried or moved rest- lessly or causing mechanical interference with a joint, if in the region of one. General symptoms due to pain were noted, viz., restlessness, sweating, hurried respirations and a frequent hard pulse. Nervous symptoms indicated by excitement or depression were present in some of the animals under observation. Symp- toms of excitement were shown by the restless movements of the animal in the box. accompanied by excessive movements of the tail, head, and jaws. Quivering of muscles or even spas- modic contractions were in some cases observed, either local or general, and in the final stage of asphyxia there were in some cases general convulsions. Other symptoms suggestive of excitement which were noted w^ere as follows : — (Grinding of the teeth, frequent movement of deglutition, copious defecation and urination, freqvient deep respirations and a rapid pulse. The symptoms of :iervous de])ression were shown by a torpor varying from a slight dulness to ]:)aralysis, either local or general, and finally paralysis. The animal in the dull stage remains a long time in one position, with head hanging and the eyes closed. Co-ordination of movements are impaired and nnis- cular tone is lost in voluntary and involuntary muscles. In one horse and sheep bitten b\' N. Iiaja general dulness and weakness was very marked, and in a horse bitten by A'. ftava, progressive paresis and incoordination of movement v, as well show^n. The general effects of Colubrine venom on domestic animals mav l)e summarised as follows: — A })eriod of excitement occurs within an hour, and this is followed by a ])eriod during which the animal aj^pears normal. Muscular contractions develop in from one to a few hovu'S. these becoming more and more intense, and the animal dies in a short period from asphyxia. Animals not succumbing rapidl)' to the effects of the venom exhibit a stage of general depression interrupted by ])eriods of restlessness and motor excitement, and the condition fre((uently ends in death. The post-mortcui lesions found in animals which have died as a result of poisoning by Colubrine venom may be briefly stated as follows : — 346 EFFECTS OF SNAKE N'EXOMS ().\ DOMESTIC AXO.IALS. Rigor is delayed; serious infiltration of the lesion may be present with a few haemorrhages into the substance. The fluid in the serous cavities mav be blood-tinged in the case of N. flofo. T.ungs mav shov,- sub-pleural haemorrhages. (2) I'il'crinc J^cnom. — The action of venom of the llpcra nisscUii mav he taken as a good exam])le of this ty])e of venom. The exjieriments by Wall in the dog with this venom show that death occurs very rapidly in five minutes, and post-iuortein examination shovvs some intravascular clotting, especially marked in the portal vein. In smaller animals bitten liy this snake, the intravascular clotting of the blood is very well marked. Hoemorrhages will be found into the area of the bite, and also in the kidney and into the intestine. In cases where the dose injected is insufficient to kill rapidly, local symptoms appear, these being more or less exten- sive subcutaneous haemorrhages and an area of ]:)rofuse redema. The extravasated blood may be alxsorbefl and resolution occur without com])lications. or the ]ian may slough or an abscess form, or spreading gangrene ma\ follow. (ieneral sym])toms may develop, of which the following arc the most un])orrant : — Ra])id emaciation, profound anaemia and lethargy. ha;nu:- turia. and occasionallv internu'ttent discharge of blood-stained f;eces. There is a fall in lilood i)ressure due to vaso-dilation in the portal systeiu. Init no ])ron()unced alterations in the peripheral circulation are seen. In chronic cases, Laml) and Hanna have pointed out a decrease in the coagulaliility of the blood. Cessa- tion of resi)iration in fatal cases is due to failure of the circula- tion, but there is no direct effect on the respiratory centre, and the phrenics are not paralysed. The heart-beats are continued some time after the respirations have ceased, l)Ut their frequency and volume is very nuich diminished. It will therefore l)e seen that \'ii)erine venoms contain toxins which ( 1 } particularly affect the blood and vascular systems, (2) cause sudden onset of sym])toms. and (3) liability to ex- tensive gangrenous destruction of the local lesion if the animal's life is prolonged beyond the acute stage. The effects of Vi])erine venom on animals have been recorded Ijy yXndrews, who utilised the venom obtained from two species, Bitis aricfans (puff-adder) and Caiisits rhouibcatus (night-adder). His results may i)e sunimarised as follows: — A local lesion was invariably develo])ed, varying from an infiltration, only apparent on posi tnortcm. to an enormous swelling. Its onset was rapid, and was in all cases appreciable one hoiu" after the bite was inflicted, from which time onward it rapidly increased in size and tended to gravitate to dependent l)arts. The lesion was hot and i)ainful to the touch, and resolu- tion was slow. A discharge of fluid through the skin and slough- ing was noted in one animal l)itten b\- tlie puft'-adder, and then only on being bitten a second time after recovery. Sym])toms of pain were i:)ronounce(l in all cases, \\ith the KFFKfTS Ol-- SNAKK \HN(1.MS (>\ DO.MI'STR' AXiMALS. ^4/ exception of a horse bitten ])y i'aitsns rhoiiibcal its. which animal was onl}' very shqlitly affected 1>v the bite. The nervous syni])tonis conUl not l^e easih' (hstinguishe'V from those produced by Coliibrine venom. Dej^ression occurred in the earh'er stages, and this w:is later followed by twitching of the skeletal muscles, frecpient defa?cation anci micturition, spas- modic contractions of the abdominjil and limb muscles being noted in some cases. The ])ulse was fref|uent '.\u(\ weak, and the respiration laboured. Death was preceded b}' a comatose con- dition, in which stertorous breathing and a weak, infrequent pulse were the ])rincipal features. No .symptoms of incoorditiation of movement or paresis were observed. In the posl-inorteiJi examination it v/as found that the tissues underlying- the skin at the site of the bite were infiltrated and h?emorrhagic. Blood-tinged exudates occurred in the serous cavities. Hypera^mia of the lungs and bronchial tubes was present, and hsemorrh.agic areas were present in the alimentary tract. Exann'nation of the blood obtained from animals recently l)itten by (.'aiistis rhouibcatus and Bitis aricfaii^ showed that the venom produced no h3?molysing effect on the corptiscles, nor was any diminution of coagulability of the blood apparent in l)lood acted on by the venom of Causus rhouibcatus. A marked anti-coagidative effect was. however, jirodticed in the l)1ood of animals l)itten by t'itis ancfaus. Having now consital'.is venom. Experiments on similar lines fr)llowed, and in iS(;2 Calmette showed that by repeat e that, although Calmette's serum was active ag;iinst cobra-venom, it, was not ttseful against Mperine venom. Me also showed that ;i preci})itin was present in anti-venomous serum, and he asstinied that these principles were specific. The failure of Calmette's scnnn to protect against X'iperitie 34"^ i:fi-"ixts oi' sxaki'. \i-;\(jm.s o.x noMi-.siii animals. venom was due to the fact that the venom used in its preparatioit. being of Cokibrine origin, contained ahnosl i)ure neurotoxin, and and ])ractically no hctmorrhagin. wiiiclt is the prejxjnderating constituent in the \'ii)erine vencjm. Several pure sera have heen from time to time prepared against the venom of particular snakes; the chief of these are as follows : — Lan.ib's pure Xaja Iripiidians serum, which, is strongly anti- toxic for cobra venom. Laml)'s [jure / "ipera nisscllli serum, antitoxic for Viperine venom. Noguchi's j)ure Crolalas serum, antitoxic for Viperine venom, but having no effect on cobra. Noguchi's pure . Incistrodon serum, antitoxic for Vi]:)erine venom, particularly Aiidslrodoit. but no effect on Colu- 1>rine venou'. 'J'he preparation of a ])ol\valent sertim has been attemjned with fairly successftil results, Inu it is not yet possible to pre|)are a serum sufficiently polyvalent to satisfy all requirements. Calmette ol)tained his serum from horses hy])erimmimised against cobra venom in the following manner: — Small doses of the vencjm with hypochlorite of lime were first injected subculaneously. The quantity of venom was gradu- ally increased and the hypochlorite diminished, and injections repeated ever)- three or foiu* da}.s, administration being regulated by the condition (*f the animal. ]>ater a lieated mixture of cobra and adder venoms was used containing 80 ])er cent, cobra and 20 per cent, adder. When the animal resists tlie injection of a minimal lethal dose, the injections are pushed rapidly and continued until the animal can withstand without ill-effects a subcutaneous injection of 2 grammes of dried cobra venom — that is, about 80 times the minimal lethal dose. During the immunisjition many complica- tions arose, such as endocarditis, acute nephritis and abscess for- mation. The time re(juired for the imiuunisation under favour- able conditions was about 16 months. Senun was obtained from an animal so treated, and tested, the serum being considered to be sufficiently antitoxic when i c.c. of serum luixed with o.coi gramme of cobra venom produced no symi)toms of intoxication on subcutaneous injection into a rabbit, and \vhen 2 c.c. of serum injected into a rabliit of 2 kilos, i)rotected it against an injection of 0.00 1 grannne of venom two hoin-s later. The results oljtained from the use of Calmette's servmi have been very good, Init it nuisi be remembered that the serum is almost ])urely anti-neurotoxic, and if sitccessful restilts are to be expected it can only l)e used in cases of bite by Colubrine snakes. The necessity of a sertun whicii would protect against South African snakes primarily was realised in iqoi by Watkins- Pitchfortl, working in Natal, and he commenced the preparation EI-FKCTS OF SNAKl'; \'KNOMS ON DOMKSTIC ANIMALS. 349 of antivenonions serum a'sjainst the comtruMier varieties — namely, Bitis aricfaiis. Naja uigricoUis aiul Pla^'a and Sepcdon hcciua- tochilus. Unfortunately tlic records of these earhcr experiments are not available, but antivenomous serum of an activity equal to Calmette's for use ag'ainst jiuff-adder and cobra was issued from the Pietermaritzburi^ Laboratory about i^o^. Watkins-I'itchford employed horses and mules, and in the earlier stages the tech- nique was based on that of Calmette. namely, subcutaneous injec- tions of venom at definite intervals. It was found, however, that the (juantity of ven<)m re((uired successfullv to immunise a horse was so great that there was much difhculty in obtaining sufificient sui)plies. and, further, that this meth(xl. owing to the variable production of an extensive local lesion at the site of injection, could not be successfully carried out with puff-adder venom. It was. therefore, decided to endeavour to hyperimmu- nise the animals by intravenous injections of venom. This was done, and the results were so satisfactory that the method was adopted, and is still being utilised for tlie jiroduction of anti- venomous serum. The advantages over the method of Cahuette are: (i) 1liat a very much smaller quantity of venom is ref[uired to produce serum having the necessary acti\'ity. (2) That it is now possible to produce an anti-viperine serum without delay due to abscess formation and other complications affecting the site of injection. (3) There is practically no loss of condition in the animals mider treatment, such as was reported by Calmette. (4) The antivenomous activity of the serum is found on test to compare very favoura]:)ly with that produced by Calmette. The method, however, has two disadvantages — (i) the ten- dency to thrombosis of the vein into which the venom was injected; (2) the very acute reaction which follows almost imme- diately after the venom is injected, due to the very rapid distri- bution of the venom through the system. The details of this method are as follows : — The animal selected should be young, but full grown and in good condition. Horses of a dull, lethargic temperament do not appear to stand the injections as well as those of a more spirited nature. The neck should not be fleshy, as in such cases if the venom accidentally gets into the subcutaneous tissue surround- ing the vein a swelling results, and the vein becomes difficult to punctm-e. The dose of prescribed venom to be injected is carefully weighed and dissolved with from 5 c.c. to 10 c.c. of distilled water, and sucked into a suitable syringe. A needle free from venom is then introduced into the jugular vein, which has been raised by digital pressure, the syringe is connected to the needle, and the piston is then raised until blood is drawn into the syringe. The pressure on the vein is released, and the contents of the syringe slowdy injected. It is a good plan to have the jugular vein compressed so that a little blood is again sucked up into the syringe, which, when injected, ensures that all the venom solution 350 I'ZFFLCTS OF SKAKh: \KX()MS i>X DOMESTIC ANI.MALS. has been administered. The syi'inge needle is then \vitli(h"awn. Aseptic precautions must be observed throns^liout the operation. It the injection has been i)roperly performed, no local lesion will develop; but it the venom is allowed throu^^h carelessness to come into contact with the sui)cutaneous tissue, a swelling will develop, which, if it does not result in abscess formation, will at any rate obscure the jugular \cin, and render successive inocula- tions more diltictilt. These remarks apply in partictilar to the use of Viperine venom. The reaction begins in about ,^o seconds after the injection of the venom, and lasts from 1 5 minutes to one hour. The severity of the symptoms shown dejjend oti the increase of dose given, and also on the specific idiosyncrasy of the animal. Very great differences have been observed in the resistance shown by various animals, some showing otily slight reactions to a compara- tively large increase of venom, others showing violent reactions after each inocttlation. The symptoms shown depend on the origin of the venom, whether Viperine or Cokibrine, and the following are the more im])ortant sym|)toms of marked reactions in the order in which they appear : — (i) Viperine ( Puff-Adder (.—Respirations temporarily in- creased, followed In' a \cr} marked slowing, which is frequentlv so marked that for a few minutes respiratory movements are almost t]nai)])reciable. (General dullness and depression, head drops, and the blood in the jugular veins stagnates and causes them to become very prominent. TIk- eyes close and the animal sways as though semi-comatose, in which conditions it often neighs. At this stage the animal may fall unless supported. The visible mucous meml)ranes are injected, and the pulse rapid and intermittent. Stretching of tlie legs occurs, the limbs being alternately lifted and extended as though the animal was suffer- ing from crani]). S])asm of the al)dominal muscles is frequent. Later these .■symptoms may subside. .Symptoms of colic appear, the animal turning its head towards its side, kicking the abdo- men with its hind-legs. These do not usually last for more than 15 minutes. Free def^ecation occurs, sometimes followed bv slight diarrh(ea, which may last for a few hours. (2) GjLcr.Kin.E i Naja Flava and Nigricollis). — The first symptoms observed after injections of cobra venom are inscribed respirations and turning up of the upper lip, indicating nausea, and general sym})toms of excitement. There is (piivering of the muscles of the limbs, especially marked at the flank and shoulder, and profuse sweating. The pulse is increased in frequency. Marked iircoordinatiori of movement is present, the animal stag- gering from side to side, crossing the legs, and in some cases falling to the ground unless supported. x\t this stage the Ijreathing is laboured and chiefly abdominal. The nostrils are distended, the neck held low, with the head thrust forward. Actite sym])toms of colic ma)- lieveloj) later, the aniinal kicking at the abdomen and turning the hea«4- to the fiank, but these i-:FFECTS OF SXAK1-: V1:NC)MS on DOMKSTIC ANl.MALS. ^5 1 symptoms usually result in tree deffecation which is not accom- panied h\- diarrhoea, and the suhsecjuent recovery is rapid. Mamba venom produces an acute and violent colic accompanied by increased peristalsis and frequent discharg^e of fsecal matter; later the discharge becomes fluid, and frequently death results. For treatment of an animal during reaction, inhalations of ammonia seem to have a good effect. })articularly in the case of the reaction following injection of puff-adder venom. The onset of the symptoms of colic can be to a great extent ])revented by the administration of a bran mash on the evening preceding the injection. The (juantity of venom required to hyperimmunise a horse varies considerably, but in no case has the quantity exceeded 2 grammes. It would appear that the more severe the reaction produced, even in cases where the increase was com]jaratively small, the more rapid did the serum develoj) antivenomous pro- ])erties. Owing to the variations in toxicity of venoms obtained from dift'erent sources, it will be found advisable to procure suffi- cient venom to complete the hyj^erimmunisation before commenc- ing inoculations. These various venoms should be mixed toge- ther so as to obtain a mixture of constant toxicity, and thus one will be enabled to control the reactions resulting from an in- creased dose, and the increase can be regulated with more accu- racy. The initial injection of venom should be regarded as a test of the animal's -powers of resistance to the venom employed, and should in no case exceed one-quarter of the minimal lethal dose. As a result of a number of ex])eriments, it has been ascertained that inoculations at lo-day intervals produce the most satisfactory results, and give rise to less risk of dangerous anaphylactic reactions. The rate of increase of the venom de- pends uj^on the susceptibility of the animal, and one has to be guided by the severity and duration of the resulting reactions. With cobra and adder venoms an initial dose of 5 mgm. can be given in most cases with safety. The increase at first must be slow, but will depend on the reaction developed^ and after a few- injections the animal will tolerate an increase of 5 to 8 mgm. at each injection. In the case of mamba, the initial injection must not exceed 2 mgm. and subsequent increases must be carried out carefully. In most cases it wall be found that an animal will stand an increase of 2 mgm. at each injection, after some immu- nity has been developed ; but it must be remembered that, as in the cobra and puft'-adder, no definite lines can be laid down, and the reaction must serve as a guide. The time necessary to produce a serum which will be suffi- ciently active depends to a great extent on the animal, as immu- nity, and as a result more active serum, develops more ((uickly in some horses than in others. In the case of animals being hyper- immunised against cobra and adder, the serum v/ill be found to be sufliciently active when the animals stand an intravenous injec- tion of 75-100 mgm. of described venom. It is the practice to test the animal's serum when no reaction occurs after an injec- 352 EFFECTS OF SNAKE VENOMS ON DOMESTIC ANIMALS. tion of 50 mgm., and thus to obtain some idea of its antivenomous properties. The sernni is considered to be ready for isstie when i c.c. mixed with i mgm. of venom produces no symptoms on being injected into a rabbit; and when 2 c.c. of serum protects a rabbit of 2 kilos, against an injection of i mgm. of venom two hours later. This is a rough-and-ready method, and gives no idea of the actual valency of the serum, so, in order to obtain definite infor- mation on this point, it is necessary to carry out a series of tests on rabbits to ascertain the amoiuit of senmi required to protect against a minimal lethal dose per kilo, of venom to be used for test purposes. (Jwing to the wide variations in toxicity which occur in venoms collected from different snakes, it is necessary to ascertain ])reviously the minimal lethal dose ])er kilo, of rabbit by experiment, otherwise the results of the serum test cannot be taken as absolutely accttrate. As a guide I give herewith the minimal lethal dose of venoms from the more common poisonous Sotith African snakes. The figm-es have been com]:)iled from a series of experiments carried out on rabbits at Pietermaritzburg Laboratory : — Minimal Lethal Dose per Kilo. Snake. Animal. Intravenous. Subctitaneous. mgm. Bitis arlclans Rabbit 0.5 .... Dendraspis ., 0.225 .... Naja iilgrlcollis . ... 0.9 .... N'aja fia7'a 1.5 .... Caitsiis rhoifibealiis . . ., 4 .... Scpedon hccuiorlwlcs 0.21 .... In the intravenous niethcxl of antivenomous serum ])roduc- tion, serum can be produced of more than three times the activity necessary to fulfil these conditions. This is specially the case in. \'iperine antivenene. A polyvalent serum has been prepared at the Pietermaritz- burg Laboratory against mamba, puff-adder, and cobra venoms, and the results in the case of the two latter snakes' venom have been extremely satisfactory. No opporttmity, so far as I am aware, has ever occurred for testing its efficacy against mamba venom, and as applications for serum containing mamba are so rare, this venom has now been omitted from antivenene work. The preparation of a polyvalent serum requires more time, and its production is attended with more risk of death of the animal being hy])erimmunised than in the case of serum ])rei)ared against one species of snake. It is also difficult to obtain maxi- mum activity of all its components, and it is often found on test that one or other is deficient. I am therefore of the opinion that a much more constant and efiicacious polyvalent serum could be prepared by mixing monovalent sera of maximum valency. This, so far as I am aware, has not yet been tried, but I see no reason why the results should not be successful. The method mgm. T , ■ / 0, ■325 f , •25 2 7 • ■ D .^ EFFECTS OF SNAKE \l-:N(nrS ON DOAIESTIC ANIMALS. ^5,^ woidd uncloubtedly simplify ]»()l\valent antivenomous scrum pro- duction. Animals whose serum has Ijeen tested and found up to stan- dard, are bled ten days after the last injection. The quantity of blood taken de])ends on the si.ze and condition of the animal, but averages 7 litres. The animal can be bled twice later at hvc-day intervals, and 4 to 5 litres taken at each bleeding. Ten days after the last bleeding, injection of venom can be recommenced, and the administration can now be more rapidly pushed than on the former occasion. The serum collected from the l)lood taken is distributed under ase])tic conditions into ampulla? of 25 c.c. capacity, which are hermetically sealed. These ampullar are heated in a serum inspissator for one hour at a temperature of 58° C. on three suc- cessive days, in order to ensure absolute sterility. The serum thus prepared will retain its antitoxic ]iro])erties unimpaired for about two years if kept from sunlight and stored in a cool place. After some time the serum becomes changed owing to the occurred and absor])tion has taken place, it is best to inject all the serum into the flank, or in cases where symptoms of serious collapse are ])resent. it is preferable to inject the serum directly into one of the large veins, the most suitable being those of the inner side of the forearm just below the elbow. If this method is carried out, it is necessary to avoid injection of sera containing flocculi, either by careful decantation of the clear su])ernatant fluid or filtration through filter paj^er. Antivenomous serum can be desiccated, and in this form IS much more portable, and it has the additional advantage of retaining its antitoxic properties indefinitely if kept hermetically sealed. Rx])eriments carried out with desiccated serum j^repared against puff-adder venom at i*ietermaritzburg J.aboratory have shown that it is not only e(|ual in activity in fresh solution to ]mff-adder antivenomous serum, but also, if used locally in the dried form after free incisions into the area bitten, its action is much more rapid in neutralising the injected venom than per- manganate of potash. Serum on desiccation becomes reduced to about one-eleventh of its original volume, and thus 2 grammes of the powder are •equal to about a dose of the serum. When required for use the i)Owder can be added to 20 c.c. of water which has been boiled and cooled, in which it fairly readily dissolves, and injected in the same manner as antivenomous serum. 354 EFFECTS OF SNAKE VENOMS ON DOMESTIC ANIMALS. The preparation of desiccated antiveiiene is as yet only in the experimental stage, but the advantage which it has now over the ordinary antivenomons serum, and the success which has been experimentally obtained with its use in the general and local treatment of snake-bite, leads one to believe that its success in practice is assured. In the case of snake-bite, even where antivenomons serum has been administered, it must be remembered that local treat- ment of the area bitten is also necessary. Ligation where pos- sible, and free incisions into the site of the bite by preventing or delaving absorption, will assist in preventing onset of the symp- toms produced by the venom until such time as the serum injected has had time to exert its action. Treatment of the general symptoms must also be carried out. but a discussion on these points docs not come within the scope of this paper. The Structure of the Universe. —The Journal of the Astronomical Society of ludia^ contains an address bv the Hon. \^^ A. I.ee. F.R.M.S.. President of the Society, on ''The centre of the visible universe." Mr. Lee points out that the direc- tion of the centre from our .system corresponds very closely with the direction of Canopus. He estimates the distance of the centre from us at 400 light-years, while the distance of Canopus is calculated as nearly 500 light-years. He declares that the enorn:ious mass which Canopus is reckoned to possses — prol)abl\ . 1,400.000 times that of our sun — is such as to account for the latter's motion in space crosswise to Canopus, namely 3.86 miles a second, or just the speed which would result from the movement of our sun in an orbit round Cano])us if the mass of the latter star were as above stated. J- H. Jeans, using the phenomenon of star-streaming as a means of exploring the structure of the universe, comes to the conclusionf that all hope must be abandoned of unravelling the mechanism of the universe by assuming it to be in a steady state. Our direct observational knowledge of the movements in our universe is so limited that any attempt to explain star-streaming as a steady state ])heno- menon must inevitaljly fail. At most wc may regard star- streaming as a motion of parts of the unixerse in process of taking up the position or motions which they will ultimatel}' have in a steadv state which has not vet been attained. *6 (1915). 6-iT. f-Munthly Xotices, R.A.S., Dec, 1915. NOTE ON THE INTERSECTION OF TWO CURVES, WHOSE EQUATIONS ARE GIVEN IN POLAR CO- ORDINATES, WITH AN ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE. By Prof. Lawrence Crawford, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S.E. (With two text figures.) I. The point with coordinates (r. 0) may also be written as the point ( — r, i8o° -{- 6)- From this it follows that the inter- sections of two curves / {r, 0) = o, F {r, 0) =: o are not necessarih' completely given by finding the points on the two curves for which the r and the 0 are the same, the points (r^, 0^) on the first and (r.^, 6*2) ^^ the second, for which ^3 = — r-^, 0^ = 180° -r- O- must also be considered. I have not seen this men- tioned, though it is implied in the standard question, to find the / equations of two common chords of — =^ i -\- e cos {0 — 7)^ r L _ = I + ^' cos (^ — S).* r An illustrative example is the intersection of two -conies with a common focus and axes perpendicular,. / /' whose equations may be written — := i -j- ^ cos 0, — = r r I -j- c' sin 0. The points for which i\ t=z ;%, q^ = ^^ are given by /' (i -j- ^ cos 0) = I (i -{- e' sin 0), i.e., e'l cos -j — e'l sin 0 = 1 — /'. This equation can only give two values of 0 between 0° and 360°, and therefore only two points of intersection of the conies. The other points of intersection are those for which r., I = — 'fi, 60 = 180° -f" 01^, and are given by — = i -}- e cos ^1, I' — = I -f e' sin 02, rn= — r„ 0. = 180° -f $^, r, /' . • . = I — e' sin 0^ ri . - . ^1 is a root of /' ( i + e cos ^) = — I (i — ^' sin ^) , i.e., el' cos 0 — e'l sin ^ = — / — /'. No root of this equation can be also a root of the other equation, or differ from a root of that equation by 180°. It may be noted that the points for which rj = n, 0^ = 0o lie on l—V — ■=^ e cos 0 — e' sin 0, one chord through two points of Clement-Jones, Introduction to Algebraical Geometry, p. 379. 356 NOTE ON THE INTERSECTION OF TWO CURVES. intersection and the points for which ro = — )\,0.,=^i8o° -\-^j^\iQ "t)n = e cos 0 -\- e' sin j?, another chord through two points r •of intersection. Both these chords pass through the intersection •of the directrices corresponding to the common focus. 2. The points of intersection of /(>, 0)=^ o, F{r, ^)=omay be completely given by finding the points on the two curves for which the ;- and the ^ are the same. For example, r = 2 a cos 0, r cos () = a have all their inter- sections given in this way. In their cases, the points {)\, ^■^), (-fi, i8o° + c/i) are both given on the curves, and each equa- tion is unaltered by writing — r for r and i8o° + $ for (j. I Again, tlic curves — r= i — c cos fi. >' = -o. cos (y have all r their intersections given in this way. These points are given by 2ae cos -0 4" 20 cos 0 = 1, and the roots of this equation in ^ are a, 360° — a, /], 360° — fS, say ; for each there is a corresponding value of r given by ;- = 2a cos 0. The points for which r, = / — r^, 0., = 180° + 0^ are given by — = i 4- c cos 0^^. r.. = 2a ri cos ^\, I'o = —i\, 0. — 180° -f 0^, I, ..-. — = I -\- e cos 01, — r^ = 20 cos (180° + 0^), i.e., )\ i\ = 20 cos 0-^, . • . the equation for 0.^ is the former equation for 0 and the points of intersection found are the former points. In general, if the substitution of — r for r and 180*^ -f B for ^ leaves the equation of one of the curves unaltered, say F {r, 0) = o. all the intersections are given in this way. For the other points would be given by — / (''1, 0i) =0, F (r„ O.) =- o, r. = — i\, 0, = 180° -f 0„ • •• by / (r„ 0^) =o,F {—i\, 180° + 0,) = o, ••• by / {}\, 0^) = o, F (ri, 0^) = o, which gives the points already given by f (r-^, 0^) =z o, F (r,. ^o) — o, r^= rj, 0., = 0^. 3. Return to the example given in Section i. Two points of intersection are given by el' cos ^ — c'l sin 0 =^ I — /, '(A), and therefore are real points if e-r- + e'-i- > (i — ry, a condition which must be satisfied if the conies are parabolas or hyperbolas. The other two are given by cl cos 0 — c'l sin 0 ■= — / — I', (B), and therefore are real points if c^l'-^ j^ e'-^l^ > (/ + l')\ a condition which cannot be satisfied if the conies are ellipses. A distinction can be drawn between these pairs of points in the case of the intersection of two hyperbolas. If the first conic is traced by taking values of 0 from 0° to .360°. for all NOTE ON THE INTERSECTION OF TWO CURVES. 357" points on one branch r is positive, and for all on the other r is negative. Call these I-\- and / — . I-\- is the branch nearer to the common focus. Similarly call the branches of the second conic // -f- and // — . The solutions of equation (A), taken between o° and 360°, give the intersections of / -(- with // -(-. ^i^d those of / — with // — , while the solutions of equation ( B), also taken between 0° and 360°, give the intersections of / -j- with // — ,, and those of / — with // -j-- I In Figure i two hyperbolas are drawn, — rz: i -(- ^3 cos 0,. 2r I — =1-1-2 sin (), intersecting in four points. Equation ( A) gives an intersection of / -j- with // -|- and an intersection of / — with // — , the chord joining these being shown by a dotted line. and equation (B) gives an intersection of / + with // — and an intersection of / — with // -]-. these again being joined by a dotted line. 358 NOTE ON THE INTERSECTION OF TWO CURVES. I In Figure 2, two hyperbolas are drawn, • — r= i -|- y3 cos 0, 2)' ^ 3 . . . . — = I H sin 0, intersecting in four points. Equation (A) 2r 2V2 liere gives two intersections of / -f~ with // -|-> ^i — i^ot cuttin / — , and equation (B) gives two intersections of / — Avith // -\-, II — not cutting / -)-, the corresponding pairs being joined by dotted lines, as before. In the figure II — is not drawn. Since here / = I', the common chord through the intersections of / 4" NOTE ON THE INTERSECTION OF TWO CURVES. 359 M'ith // -|- goes through the common focus. In tlie figure / -|- is not produced to the lower point of intersection. / /' Note. — Idiat the hyperl)olas — ^^ i -\- c cos 0, — = i -{- e' r r sin 0 intersect in four points and each branch of the one cuts each branch of the other, the necessary condition (I give it without the working out) is independent of / and /', and is e"^ e'~ > c- -\- c'- In Figure i, ^- ^ 3, e'- = 4, and the conchtion is satisfied, but in Figure 2, r = 3. 8^'- = 9, and the condition is not satisfied. Fossil Man. — The Hriti'^li Afuseum has recently issued a guide to the fossil remains of man in its Geological and I'akeon- tological Department. After explaining the significance of the various specimens comprising the exhibits, the author states the general conclusion that man, having a skeleton essential!}- iden- tical with the existing one. lived in Western Europe long before* the British Isles were separated from the mainland. His imme- diate jiredecessor. the Neanderthal or Mousterian man, more nearly approached the apes in the retreating forehead and other features. The still earlier Heidelberg man had a much more retreating bony chin, and the Piltdown man, probably older than the Heidelberg race, had both lower jaw and front teeth as nearly on the ape-pattern as was compatible with their working on a human skull of normal width: thus, the furtlier that liuman remains are traced back in geological time, the more marle are ti> be found in onl\' one or two localities. Although the Union of the several Provinces of South Africa became law five years ago, the consolidation that was expected and ho])ed for in many respects has not yet been achieved. Provincial administration still rules in matters pharmaceutical, and the range of vision over this field is in con- sequence restricted to circumscribed geographical areas. With impending consolidation of interests reforms are possible, and as this is a measure with respect to Pharmacy, which will pro- bablv not now l)e long delayed, reference will be made in the following to a condition of affairs such as it is hoped may be brought about after this has been reached. In a paper read some five years ago before the Pharma- ceutical Societv of the Transvaal." an outline was given of the conditions as they existed in the four Provinces at that period, and as far as can be ascertained there has been little, if any, change since that period, probably owing to the expectations of legislation Avith each new session of Parliament. ^^'hen consolidation has been accomplished, uniformity in procedure is a necessary sequence, and the various steps may now be considered in order. Under present conditions not only " TriULnval Medical Jourval Ytqto') 8. 171. r\\\: l'K()Fi;S.S10X OF i'llARAlACY. 361 rcgi^iration 1j\ tlie x'arious I'liarmacy I'oards, hut also inden- tures between the apprentice and his employers, are optional. The first step in reform is to make these conT])uls(try l)y Act of Parliament, in order to ensure that the training subse(juently undertaken shall be efficient. I'.etore indentures are allowed to be taken out, registration with the Central Board should be re(|uired, and this should not be granted, until the preliminary examination has been passed. The latter should be of such a nature as to be easily accessible throughout the L'liion, such as the Matriculation or school examinations of the University of the Cai)e of Q^od Hope. No great difficulty is im[)osed in pre- scri1)ing these examinations, owing to the fact that good schools nciw exist in every part of the Union. ( )f the tests mentioned, the Matriculation examination is to be preferred, as it is the usualh' accepted entrance to all other professions; but the diffi- cult\ . ofttimes experienced, of obtaining recruits has sometimes led to a relaxation of standard in thi^ respect, which for the sake of the profession it is ho])ed will cease to obtain. If registration be granted before the preliminary test has been successfull}- attained, a condition by no means rare hitherto, a division of lalH)ur is caused with its usual attendant evil con- sequences. Several cases of this Icind have come under the author's notice aniniilar rank, or to a practising pharmacist. in this the assumption is made that the suggested reforms have been accomphshed and the examinations conducted in two stages. Indeed, the subjects necessary for qualification readily lend themselves to such a division. In the first examination the fundamentals of Chemistry, both Inorganic and Organic, Physics, and Botany would be taken, and in the second the applied portions of the subject, including Materia Medica, Pharmacy and Dispensing, Toxicology, etc. If a student elected to attend a University College, he should be able to complete the courses and present himself for the first examination at the end of his first }'ear, and this course of action should not only be alloAved, but encouraged. In fact, it would not be a disadvantage entirely if this year at college were allowed to rank as equivalent to the ordinary first two years' indentures of a pharmacy. In the examination given at the end of this period, special stress should be laid upon proficiency in practical work in every branch, since courses in this form now an integral portion of the instruction given. Should it be impossible for this course to be pursued, it is o])en to the student to apprentice himself to a practising pharmacist in the ordinary way. In order to prepare himself, however, for the qualifying tests, he is com- pelled to seek the aid of his employer or other private tutor, or of evening class instruction in public institutions. Of the latter there are few which ofTer special courses for this work, prob- ably owing to the fact that the number of candidates at any one time is. comparatively speaking, small. On the other hand, it should be remembered that the call for good apprentices has always existed in this country, and has never yet been fully met. Importation still continues, in spite of the fact that in England the demand exceeds the supply, and this has greatly increased since the outbreak of the war last August, owing to the calls made for service in the cause of the sick and wounded. It is, however, a matter of experience that the provision of special facilities soon brings its own reward. On the one hand the classes grow both in (juantity and quality, and on the other hand the presence in the pharmacies of apprentices eager to qualify soon creates an atmosphere in which the imqualified intruder finds no place. The present system of crowding all the subjects into one test is a serious deterrent, owing to the fact that the number is too great, and would be even for the college student, assuming a high ef^ciency throughout, and also for the fact that the average apprentice finds it almost an im- possibility to keep all the subjects going at the same time at concert pitch; and so long as this lasts, a lovvcr standard of 3* '4 TIIK l'K(JFi:s.SI(jX OF I'llAK.M \C\. ctiiciencv tlian is desirable in the interests of the profession and the eonntry is of necessity attained. Jjiit even with the subdivision proposed, it is a tax upon the student after a day's work in the pharmacy to l)e recjnired to ])rc|)are himself for a strenuous examination, unless si)ecial means of assistance are at hand ; hence the necessity for the provision of such courses by pul)lic institutions, especially those with departments for evening nistruction. This is even more particularly the case in this country, on account of llie dearth of private instruction of a suita1)le character. Lack of these facilities, public and ])rivate, has caused much migration to England in the ])a^t. If the would-be candidate should be serving his indentures at a country pharmacy, he has, generally speaking, but little ho-pe of assistance other than that which his employer is willing to render, since at present there is no scheme in force by which he can effect a temjjorary exchange of posts in order that he may bring himself within reach of such facilities as do exist. In Australia such exchanges are effected through the agency of the local Pharmaceutical Societies, an exam])lc which might be followed with advantage in this country. In the subjects of the fmal examination, which are of a miirc >trictly professional nature, it is even more diflictilt to iind the necessary instruction other than that wiiich is learnt in the ordinary rotitine work of the pharmacy. Pliarmaceutical lal)oratories, such as are to l)e foin;d in the College of Pharmacy referred to above, are practically non-existent in this country, and in conse(|uence the studv of i)ractical pharmacy, except on a small scale, is denied. This condition may be expected in a comjxirativel}' new country like this, bitt there are man}- who ih.ink that a necessity of this nature should soon be forthcoming, 'i'lie ])ractical utility of such a laboratory would soon prove itself in com])etent hands in manv ways, not least in the investi- gations of the toxic i)rinci])les of South African plants, most of which have hitherto been carried out in Ruro]ic. The Poor- L::w Commission considered the f|uestion of the establishment of pulilic dispensaries, and the utilisation of these as a training school for fiUure pharmacists would be attended Avith gn-at benefits. The mere existence of examinations accompanied 1)\ a Wcun of means for passing them is not sufficient attraction, but rather the opposite, and until this state of aft'airs is remedied, n.iigration to F.ngland is sure to continue. In some respects a year's study in Pngland is regarded In- man}' as a Wniidcr/uhr : hm there is another reason of a more important nature which at the present moment impels many, who otherwise might deem it inexpedient, to pursue this course. The certificates granted by the English authorities are valid throughout the Empire, whereas at the moment those granted THE PR0Fi:.SSlO.\ OF I' 1 1 ARM A( ^'. :;fi5 by each of the four Provinces of the Union are invaHd outside the boundaries of the Province which granted them. The latter .anomaly will disappear upon consolidation, but reciprocit)- with England and other portions of the Empire — in other words, t^ie right to practise as a pharmacist in any part of the Emi)ire on ihe l)asis of a certificate in South Africa — is a question which will be somewhat difficult to solve. The true solution will lie in the nature of the examination and the tests imposed therein. T'le standards to be aimed at must be higher than those pre- vailing elsewhere, and, as has been shown above, this can be achieved primarily by a subdivision which must of necessity connote a'l Increase in the ])roticiency required of candidates. In thi-^ connection it is worthy of mention that the number of pharma'XMUical candidates in England who proceed to Uni- versit}- d.egrees or diplomas of recognised Scientific Associations is mcreasing. In the Colonies, on the other hand, the final examination is in most cases looked upon as the consummation ■of attachment to things scientitic. During the last few years the Australian Pharmacy Boards have interc-ted themselves in the (juestion of reciprocitv with England, and as a conse(|uence. after much labour, the basis ■of the principles upon which reciprocity could be carried out has been arranged. On 3> larch 6th, 1912, the Privy Council .appro\'ed the scheme *' ])roviding for the registration, tipon pay- nient of {he prescribed fee, as ])harmaceutical chemists, or chemists and druggists under the Pharmacy Acts 1852 and 1862, without ex.-'.mination of any persons iiolding Colonial Diplomas." The valu.e of the reciprocal recognition of diplomas lies not so much in the remission of the work necessary to pass fresh examinations for (jualification in luigland or the Colonies, as the ca:;c may be, as in the advantages which are made possible to Colonial practitioners in a ll'a)idcrjaiir. and this ])oint of view should be kept in mind more particularly, should reciprocity be ■oblairable on mere application. It is but seldom that a Colonial pharmacist returns to practise permanently in Great Britain, and hence to the great majority reciprocity has little or no value other than that of sentiment. In the opportunity presented, however, for keeping abreast of advances in pharmaceutical knowledge it has a value commensurate with the uses to which it can be i)ut. and it cannot be denied that these are great and manifold. In this sense it is a privilege worth great efforts to obtain. The present time is noteworthy in the annals of i)harnia(\ •owing to the appearance of a new edition of the British Phar- mocop' tangential pressure resulting in the squeezing upwards of a ridge. A fold may break along the axis, and one portion may be pushed over the other, but such reversed faults are more pro- perly called thrusts, and have nothing in common with the normal tension fault. In the second place, a fault being the result of a sinking of the ground, somewhere in the neighbourhood of any given fault there must be another fault ; that is to say, if we come across a fault runm'ng east and west with a down-throw to the south, somewdiere to the south of the line of outcrop, we must find a second fault with down-throw to the north. The simplest case is in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, in which one looks across from the one plateau to the other, and in be- tween there is a strip of country let down vertically several thousand feet, between two faults, yet having all the surface- features the same as those on the plateau of which it once formed a part. Now, this second fault need not necessarily be a direct break, which is the essential feature of a fault. Supposing the .strip of earth'.s crust sinks along a certain line, it may happen that instead of breaking away on the far side, the strip may simply bend without breaking, hingeing, as it were, on a line T,C)^ THE FAL'LT SYSTEMS IN SOUTH OF SOUTH AFRICA. which, with a greater tension, would become a second fault. >uch a fold, having all the effect of a fault in that it lets down ^i strip of the earth's crust, is called a monocline, because, un- like other folds, it has an inclination in one direction only. What I want to emphasize here is the fact, often lost sight of in practice, that a fatilt must have a companion, or counter- fault, or a monocline in the near neighbotirhood. If the earth is pulled apart, and two slips are faulted down with a zone lietwecn them that remains tmatifected, this zone will become relatively higher than the rest; it will constitute a block-motuitain, or horst. This peculiar structure is common in the plateaux of Utah and Colorado, and the gridiron country of von Richthopen in China, and is exemplified by the fault- block of Madagascar, which has a fault in the east and a mono- cline in the west. In the area with which we are dealing, there are no examples of block-motmtains. In the third place, faults have a limited horizontal exten- sion, which is self-evident, as otherwise they would go right roiuid the world. The way a fault dies away, however, is not so obvious. At Worcester, for instance, Ave tind the l^cca beds brotight down on a le\el with the Alalmesbur\- clay slale-~ ; at Robertson the Dwyka Conglomerate, luiderlying the Ecca, touches tlie Aialmesbury beds ; further east, the Witteberg underlying the Dwyka Conglomerate, and still further cast, the Bokkeveld luiderlying the \\'ittel)erg, and then the Table Mnuii- tain Sandstone underlying the Bokkeveld, in turn come level with the :\Ialmesbur\- Clay Slates ; finally, at Swellendam the fault dies out with the Table Mountain Sandstone on the south of the line of fault-arching over the Malmesbury beds, and joining the Table ^fountain Sandstone on the north of the line. The downthrow at W<^rcester is two miles vertical on the south side, and this is reduced gradually in the east to nothing. It will be found in the secjuel that the post-Cretaceous faults have this pro}:)erty of disappearing very markedly developed. A fault in this system, after l)eginning (juite abruptly along a cer- tain line, lets down the faulted area to its maximum within a short distance of its commencement, then as abruptly jjeters out. leaving the grotmd quite ttnaffected for a certain distance ; then the fault appears again, the same downthrow occurs, and the fatilt again peters out. and so on repeatedly. This may be, per- haps, better illustrated by taking the (ireat Rift \'alley again; then the floor is sometimes very deep with great lakes, such as Tanganyika, in the bottom, and further on the bottom rises, and the rift apparently dies out, only to recommence after an interval. The relationship between faults and folds is never rigidly uniform ; generally we can state the relationship in terms of time and space. For the first, we may say that a fault usually follows a fold. W'hen pressure accumulates in the earth> crust, and a folded mountain range is produced, the resulting fabric is usually greater than the pressure warranted, and as a TliK FAULT SYSTK.Mi; IN SOUTH OF SOUTH AFRICA. 3(19 result a tension ensues, causing the faults. There may Jje cautious mountain ranges where the folding is just equal to what the pressure demanded, but I do not know of them. Nature, even in her grander works, shows a generous recklessness, and this makes our mountains more interesting than had they Ijeen huilt in a sjjirit of hard calculation. Faults, on the other hand, may occur without any [Pressure preceding or following them. The whole of .Vfrica, leaving out the Atlas Mountains on the north-west, together with the peninsula of India, and in all pro- bability the Indian Ocean between them, is a faulted block of the earth's crust. It is true it is bounded on the north by the great folds of the Alps-Himalaya System, which are contem- poraneous with the post-Cretaceous faults, and so in a way we may say that the faults of Africa have some relationship with folds. In this matter, however, tlie area is so vast that no one has yet been able to grasp the general outlines of the case. To me it has seemed as if the faulting, fracturing, or smashing up of the Indo-African Continent resulted in a spurting up of the earth's crust in a ridge round the edge, this ridge being now represented by the Ali)s, Himalayas, and Burmese Mountains, with the Aleutian chain, the Rocky Mountains, and the Andes as an outer and lesser rim. Such a smashing up could only have been etlected by a blow from the outside, whicli could lie brought aboiu b\- the in falling of a giant meteorite on to the earth. A meteorite 1,000 miles in diameter, or, say, half the diameter of the moon, could have fallen into the Indian ( )cean between the Peninsula of' India and Somaliland, north of the Sevchelles, and had it so fallen in the period between the Cretaceous and Eocene periods, it would have produced all the fracturing observed. As regards the ridging u]) of the earth round the fractured ]jortion. T liave endeavoured to reproduce the conditions experi- mentallv 1)\- m< muting a large glo1)e of modelling clay on a ])otter's wheel, spinning this round at a great rate, and then shooting on to it a ball of clay of the same relative dimensions to the laree gflobe as a meteorite of a 1,000 miles diameter wotild have to the whole earth, that is to say, the projectile w^as one- eighth of the diameter of the globe. I obtained a splintered area Avith a ridge round it, where the ball of clay entered the revolving globe, but the effects were not sufficiently clear for demonstration purposes. The experiment failed because of the want of tenacity of the modelling clay when spun round so rapidly, for the large globe tore away from its axis. It is neces- sary to have a more or less plastic substance, as very large objects as the earth as a whole, and even a meteorite half the diameter of the moon, act as plastic bodies owing to the want of cohesion due to their bulk. I have not yet succeeded in find- ing a suitable medium. The whole experiment was designed to i^how more than the fracturing and ridging of the globe. The area struck by the infalling body became dented; I had c 3/0 THE FAULT SYSTEMS IX SOUTH UF SOUTH AFRICA. alsu hoped that this dent would gradually heal itself by the forces acting" on the plastic medium due to the rapid revolution. In the case of the earth, had such a meteorite fallen, then the dent would have been a seething cauldron of molten rock due to the heat caused by the impact. This would crust over by dissipation of heat into space, and a region of tremendous volcan- ism would result, such as we know existed in the North Atlantic between the north of Ireland and Iceland, extending to Green- land. It is, however, not within the scope of the present ])aper to follow out this particular line of reasoning. I have men- tioned the experiment to show how possibly faults may precede folds, although this fact is not yet established by direct observa- tion. In regard to space, faults, generally speaking, are deep- seated, and folds are superficial. In crossing folds and faults the fold would ride over the fault. There are no good in- stances in this country, but what is meant can be illustrated by the rift valley in which the upper Rhine Valley lies. The great fault-trough of the Red Sea is followed, after an interruption in the Sinai region and in the Mediterranean, where surface features are hidden by the water, by the fault-trough of the Adriatic. North of this there is the great barrier of the Alps, and vet to tlie north the fault-trough, much diminished it is tRic, appears along the Rhine. The fault-trough has dived, as it were, beneath the Alps. Another branch of the Red Sea trough, which runs up the (lull of Akaba, forms the walls of the Dead Sea and the Valley of the Jordan, and ends at Lake Tiberias. Here there are the feeble outposts of the fold-system of Eurasia, which have proved sufficient to stop the further pro- gress of the fault. In this latter case, then, the earth-crack has not been sufficiently powerful to overcome the barrier of the fold. So much for the bearing of faults on the country through which thev pass. In regard to the details exhibited by faults. we have many very excellent and characteristic types in S( per cent, of the mean — the minimum for the four summer months during the last 25 years is T.27 — i.e., 2)7 -7 pei" cent, only, and in some neighbouring districts, vi:~., Wellington and Piquetberg, it sometimes happens that no rain whatever falls during this period. These are the years which decide the fate of many a plant which may have spread beyond the former boundary of the species, the fate of many a foreign tree, which may have grown to a considerable size during tlie years with an average or spe- cially-favoured summer. The sumiuer of 1914, 15 v.-as such an extreme season, for not only the meteorological records, but also the effects pro- duced, show it to have been so. In the neighbourhood of Capetown one may see a good many full-grown trees of various kinds which died during this season, viz., Aurac aria (Norfolk pine ), Cnpressus maeroearpa (cypress), Sehinus mofle (the pepper tree), lin.ealyptns ficifolia (the red flowering gum), and various other eucalypts, among them also the usually drought-resisting Eucalyptus globu'liis (blue gum). ( )f the latter species some fairly large trees, probably 50 years EFFECTS OF DROUGHTS ON DISTRIHUTION OF PLANTS. ^Sj lold, succumbed, there being a whole row of such trees on the lower slopes of the Devil's Peak above Upper Mill Street. Of the indigenous trees only the silver tree ( Leitcadciidron arycntcum) became conspicuous in this way, (juite a number having died on the slopes of the Lion's Head and the Devil's Peak. The summer was an exceptionally dry one, and the inhabit- ants of the Cape Peninsula will remember it for a good many years, for hardly within the memor\' of man had there been such a long spell of rainless weather. Royal Observatory, Summer, 1914/15.* Total Dec. Jan. Feb. March. 4 months. 0.51 — — 1.82 2.33 Dec. Dec. March. Three months, 12 Dec- 12-24 -24-31 1-15 15 March. 0.13 — — 0.13 From this table it will be seen that December, 1914, brought only 0.51 inches, and that during the period 25th December to 15th March, 191 5 — that means for nearly three months — there was no rain at all. The total for 3^ months (December, January, Februar};, half March) was consequently only 0.51, while the average for the three months December-February is 2.27 inches, hence the season just passed brought only 22.5 per cent, of the mean. As the summer advanced, the effects of the drought on the vegetation of the hills and slopes became more and more ap- parent, and at the beginning of March most of the purely her- baceous vegetation had disappeared. It will be convenient to group the observations und.er two headings according to altitude. A. Western Slopes of Table Mountain (Camps Bay side) BETWEEN the PiPE TRACK A.ND TPIE BASE OF THE CLIFFS. Altitude about 800 to 1,500 feet. These slopes were formerly entirely occupied by a typical Cape Macchia, but, owing to the many veld fires which have swept over this area from time to time during the last century and even more recently, few arborescent elements of the original macchia have survived outside of the valleys cut by the streamlets which descend from the ravines of the mountain. All of these belong to Proteaceae, viz., Lencadendron argenteum, the silver tree, and Lciicospermum conocarpum, the kreupelhout, the former in a few specimens only, the latter scattered about or *From data kindly supplied by Mr. S. S. Hough, H.M. Astronomer Royal at the Cape. 38S EFFECTS OF DROCCflTS ON DIS'JKIBUTIOX OF PLANTS. forming open groves. More socially were grov/ing Protea Lepidocarpodoidron and Lciicadciidroii phiinosnuh of whicli one may meet some closely-set thickets not far from the Kloof Nek. The principal shrubby constituents (4-6 feet high) of this impoverished macchia are Cliffortia niscifolia and C. polygoni- folia, Passerina fiUiformis, Aspniathits chcnopoda. Erica baccans, and Thcsuim strictitiii. while among the still lower shrnbs (24 feet high) none is more conspicuous than Bninia nodi flora. Scattered among this world of pinoid, myrtilloid, and cupressoid foliage appear the large-leaved, but through bush fires much stunted and dwarfed, shrubs of Protea grandiflora. which in other more favoured and not fire-haunted localities grows to good-sized trees with trunks 12-18 inches in diameter. It would take us too far to consider all the lower shrublets one or two feet high, for many s])ecies of heath, Thvmela?acece, Penseaceje, Legimiinosie, Rutacese, Composites, etc., abound here intermingled with several specially resistent species of Restiacese (Elegia, Rcstio) and Cyperaceae {Tctraria ). It is among this vegetation that the effects of the severe drought of last summer have become '^jit^ciolly conspicuous. I. Plants observed Dead. Lencadendron argeiiteiini. Here and there, Protea grandiflora and Leucospernium conocarpnni. PhyJica biixifolia and Coleonema album. All those which had strayed too far from the borders of the ( winter) streamlets. Muraltia Hcisteria. Frequently dead. Anthospermum crthiopienin. Here and there. Borbonia cordata. Psoralea pinnata. Some large patches in the Platteklip Gorge (juite dead. Alciope tabitlaris, Eitryops crithurifolius, Osteospernuiin nunii- Ufernm, and Elytropappus rliinoccrofis here and there. Erica baccans, E. Plukcneti. and Lobostenion glauciini. Occa- sionally. Phylica capitata. This does not occur on the western slopes, but numl)ers of it were dead in Orange Kloof. 2. Plants With Much Shrivelled Foliage, or. Although as a Rule Evergreen, noiv JVi^hout Eeaves. The most conspicuous plant of this group was Pelargoniuui cucuUatum, which in specially favoured localities had retained i*s foliage, but had dropped it in many other places. The bare stems, however, put forth fresh leaves soon after the first rains in March. Others are: Cluytia pulchella, Peucedanuni Galbanum, Leanotis Leon- urus, Salvia aiirea, Polygala myrtifolia, AthanOsia parviflora. 3. By way of contrast, it is worth noting that the foUozving EFFECTS OF DROUtillTS Oi\ DIS'l KI I'.l'TK )X OF PLANTS. 389 shrubs showed no effect of the drought, some of them looking as robust in their dark or dull green foliage as at ordinary times ; Brunia nodiflora, Asclepias arbor esc ens, Gymnosporia laurina, and U. bu.vifolia, Pufferlickia pyracantha, Campylos- tachxs cernua, Jihus inucronata (with young foliage and fresh fruits), and Fhilippia Chaiuissouis, the largest representative of Ericaceae in our flora. 4. The foliozidiig plants zcere found in flozver ( March 7th) : Blaeria ericoides, growing socially on some of the slopes ; Cainpylosfachys cernua, Diosma vulgaris. Salvia Africana, Lobelia pinnatiflda. Fagelia bituiuinosa. B. The Mount.aix Region On previous occasions* I have drawn attention to the great difference which exists between the mountains and their slopes with regard to the supply of moisture to their vegetation during the summer. While the records of rainfall for Cape Town or the Observatory actually indicate the amount of moisture deposited in their immediate neighbourhood, those of the moun- tain stations, say, above 2,500 feet, if we consider Table Moun- tain, give us only a portion of the total moisture deposited there, vis., that fallen actually as rain. Another considerable supply is, however, obtained by the plants from the south-east clouds, and this quantity has been shown to be very considerable. A dry and rainless summer like the last provided a remarkable demonstration of the efficiency of this last-mentioned source of supply. On the lower plateau of the mountain, altitude 2,450 feet, where the south-east clouds occur only occasionally, quite a number of dead shrubs and shrublets or other perennials were met with. I saw some dead shrubs of Frotea eyiiaroldes and Lcucadcndron salignuin. some patches of Bercelia hviuginosa, isolated shrubs of Siilbe vcstita, and considerable patches of Centella eriantha, wherever this plant had strayed too far from the banks of a streamlet. A con- spicuous sight was also formed by the patches, or belts, of the dead plants of I'illarsia oz'ata, which, during the period of an ampler summer rainfall, had been able to spread to many spots where it could not j^ersist during this season. Quite a dift'erent condition, however, existed on the sum- mit of the mountain and the higher sloj^es. The onlv dead plants which T could detect there occurred on the outer edge of several swamps, which had become considerably smaller this year, as the second half of the summer brought comparativelv little south-east wind. TTcre the dead leaves of Villarsia ovata and the dead culms of Restio dichotomus formed a brown belt aroimd these spots, but in the remainder of this whole area I ' Marloth, R., " Results of Experiments on Table Mountain for asecrtaining the Amount of Moisture deposited' rom the South East Clouds." Trans S.A. Phil. Soc, (1903) 14 : (1905) 16. 390 ICFFECTS OF DROUGHTS ON DISTR I I'.UTION OF PLANTS. could not find a single shrub, or shrublet, or other perennial which had died during the summer. There is no doubt that the south-east clouds wei'e the cause of this difference, and just as in the more outlying districts of the Cape region, eg-, on the Bokkeveld. the Zwartebcrgen, the Wittebergen, etc., the lower limit of the Cape flora, as such, ex- tends only as far down the mountain as the summer clouds reach, so we find on the Cape Peninsula the lower limit of the mountain flora at the lower level of the clouds, which, as far the northern and western sides of Table Mountain are con- cerned, would be about 2,000 feet above sea level. In the absence of exact records it is impossible to say whether, through such an extreme summer, any species would become actually extinct within a certain area, but that many species are prevented from extending ilieir domain, or rather. from retaining any new territory occupied in the years of good or average rainfall, must l)e obvious from the foregoing obser- vations. Potash in Alsace. — The scarcity of ])otash for man- urial and other purposes, v hich is at present being felt all over the world, is drawing forth man) suggestions for its extraction from sources either discarded or disregarded. Meanwhile M. Henri Blin, in the Revue Generalc dcs Sciences, describes the potash dei)osits of Alsace. The beds are estimated to contain 3,000,000 tons of ])ure potash, almost enough for a five centuries' supply at the present rate of demand. Sylvinite — which mainly consists of potassium chloride — is the i)redominating mineral in the Alsacian de])osits. Astronomical Discoveries. — According to the re- port of the Council of the Royal Astronomical .'Society, submitted at the 96th Annual General Meeting, 56 minor ])lanets were dis- covered and five comets observed during 191 5. Oi the comets, two, Winnecke's and Tempel's were returns of periodic comets of the Jupiter family previously observed, the former in 1819, and the latter in 1873. Two of the remaining three comets were discovered by J. E. Mellish, at Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A., during February and September respectively. The fifth comet of the year was discovered by C. J- Taylor, at Claremont, Caj^e Province, on November 22: it was also a member of the Jupiter family. AN ACTUARIAL ANALYSIS OF THE LOAN SCHEMES OF CT^RTALN RAND RUH.DING SOCIETIES. H\ I'n.f. jon.x I'atku K Dalton, M.A., D.Sc. §1. Rand Biiildiiii;- Societies cater for three groiii)s (if clients : — ( /') Soi'iiigs Bank Dcfusitors, who are content with a comparatively low rate of interest (4 to 44 per cent.) in return for the greater security offered by lirst claim on the assets ; iii) hivcstors. who take sliarcs in the Society and run greater risks in the Iione of realisino- larger profits (8 to Q per cent.) ; and (in) Bonxnti'crs. tt) whom the Society lends the capital provided l)y depositors and investors, and who, having to provide the inter- est thereon as well as the expenses of management and ordi- nary profits (if any) of the Society, are called upon to pay interest at still higher rates (10 per cent.). §2. Before entering ti])on detailed criticism, .'i little theory might well be reviewed. Whenever money is advanced on mort- gage of depreciating securities, as is the case in Building Society operations, the loan is generally redeemed by a ])rocess of amor- tisation. The theory of the operation is sim])le. 'Jdie loan repay- ments constitute a terminable annuity, of which the borrower is the vendor, and the Building Society the jntrchaser. The jnir- chaser expects to obtain interest on his loan at a definite rate, and, furthermore, to have his cajjital still intact at the end of the term. Each payment, therefore, made by the borrower must be regarded as consisting of two jjarts : one, the interest element, providing interest on the loan at the rate agreed ujjon ; and the other, the capital elemeiU, or sinking fund, constititiing a repay- ment of capital. The sinking fund may be treated in either of two ways ; it may be directly applied to the reduction of the capi- tal debt, thereby reducing the interest element and increasing the capital element contained in Ihe succeeding instalment; or, it may be carried to a separate capital redemj^tion account, there to accumulate at the given rate until at the termination of the annuity, it amounts to the original value of the loan. As long as a single rate of interest convertible with the same frequency is involved, there is no difference between these methods of treating the annuity i^ayments ; it is merely a matter of accounting. Thus, a loan of ii is repaid by /; equal periodical instalments. iiUerest being at tlie rate of £i per £ per period. The n "' +'-*" instalment payable is X . Of the first such jiayment *^( T -f i)"~~ I interest absorbs £{, and the rest, say £f, goes to the reduction of capital. If the debt is diminished at once by this amount, the capital element contained in. the next instalment is equal to / plus the interest saved by the reduction of the debt — that is to say, the cajiital element in the second payment is / ( i + i) ; this 39- LOAN SCHEMES OF CERTAIN RANn lU'ILDING SOCll'.TIES. is just the same as if the capital debt had remained unaltered and the sinking fund, /, had been invested at the rate / for the period. The capital element contained in the /i-th instalment is / ( I -j- i) f''^ ; when that instalment has been paid the total reduction of capital ( or the accumulated value of the sinking ( I + /,)^ -I fund) is — . and consequent!}- the redem])tion value, fi + /)" -I that is, the balance reniaining- unpaid at that stage is (i+i)"-(i+ /■)■" . To a Building Society whose members have (i+i)« -I the right of redemption al any time, it is of importance that redemption schedules should be constructed for each of its loan tables, giving such an analysis of each repayment into its interest- and capital-elements ; for the assets of such a Society, in so far as its loans on mortgage are concerned, consist of the unpaid balances thus determined ; the profits during any period consist of the sum of the interest elements of all repayments made during that period, and, where such concerns are subject to income-tax, only the interest elements of the various repayments are taxable. §3. All Building Societies operating on the Rand charge interest on their loans at a rate higher than any they could hope to obtain with safety from other investments. If, then, the sinking fund is not invested in the security of the debt itself, as is the case when each capital element is directly applied to the redtiction of the loan, they are comj^elled to let it accumulate at a lower rate. In this case the annuity ])ayments must be fixed so that the Society realises the higher (remunerative) rate on the loan during the whole term, while the sinking fund accumu- lates at the lower (reproductive, or accumulative) rate. This scheme is naturally less advantageous to the borrower than a single rate annuity at the same higher rate, for, not only has he to pay the higher rate on the unpaid balance, but he nuist also, during the whole currency of the loan, bring u]) to the higher rate the interest being earned by the sinking fund accumulating in the hands of the lender. When, however, the remunerative rate in a double rate annuity is less than that charged under a single rate scheme, a special calculation is needed to ascertain Avith which the advan.tage to the borrower lies. §4. Rand Building Societies may be criticised from two points of view. In the first place an examination may be made of the soundness or otherwise of the attempts made at putting into practice recognised princi])les in tlie theory of finance — a startling commentary upon financial life in Johannesburg that such criticism is needed; and, secondly, an examination may be made of the terms offered to the borrower under the different schemes. LOAN SCHEMES OF lKRTATN RAND FiriLDIXG SOCIETIES. 393 §5. Bank Ovcrdraii Scheme. — Of seven of the chief societies operating on the Rand wliose schemes here come under review, three (St. Andrews. IVemier. and Goldfields ) g^rant loans on the hank overdraft jn'inciple. Tn the first-named, a loan is granted at 8 per cent. The borrower guarantees a certain mini- mum repayment, btit beyond that tliere is no fixity ; the borrower may repay as nnich of his loan as he likes at any time, and future interest is chargeable only on the uiii)aid balance. This Society makes a feature of tht- fact that " there are no more complicated tables to consult "' ; but one one would think that dispensing with tables is practicable only in a small Society. The other two have regularised the scheme more. .\ loan is granted and is to be I repaid in. say, n instalments ; each instalment consists of — -th n of the loan together with interest on the un])aid balance, so that the actual sum payable diminishes each month. It is easily shown that for each unit of the loan under this scheme the capital ele- I ment of the p-\h pax'mcnt made is — . the int^erest element is n i (1 ), and the total stmi actually paid for the accommo- dation is (T -\- I I. As far as total cost is concerned, this 2 method is theoretically less onerous to the borrower than an ordinary annuity at the same rate of interest. The total cost of 111 (I + /)" the latter is . 'Yh\^ is alwavs the greater, for the (I -f i)'- — 1 ditterence between them is iii ( 1 -f- Tr- / // -\- ] - [ ( I -f /)" — 1 ^ ^ Which may be written {u - \)ii ( II -\- I ) i'-' 1 2 3 -j ^r L _(;,_2)/ -^^ (n-2) ('u-:^)r-^.. 2 f ( I + / ) " — 1 1 L^ I 4 ' 5 ! a quantity which i> essentially j)0<;ifive. pjut the j^ractical drawback to the scheme is the comparative largeness of the payments whiclt mtist be made during the early years of the loan. To take an illustrative example, suppose a loan of £ioo is to be repaid bv Ko monthlv instalments, interest being charged at the rate of lo per cent, per annum. Repaying by single-rate annuity t-ach instalment would be £[ 14s. 4'/4^v. an(i the total cost £137 H';. 4d., whereas, on the 394 L<->AN SCIIKMKS uy li'.KTAlX KAXD i;UILDIN(; SOCIKTIES. fixed capital-reduction scheme tlie first instalment should be £2 IS. 8 0 ,, 2nd ,, 5 0 !> 3rd 4th 5th 6th ., ... ... 5 5 0 0 0 0 ,, remaining S months .1 0 nterest. s. d. 17 6 1 i 2 rotal. s. d. 2 6 14 1 1 12 3 9 7 7 0 19 1 1 17 3 14 7 12 0 4 S r 6 9 5 6 6 Althotigh the capital is being reducefl monthly, the interest payable is constant during each year ; the borrower is therefore de])rived of the interest on his sinking fund during each year, and gains no financial credit whatever for the monthly redtictions of his loan. Moreover, the interest is stated to be 6 per cent. On the contrary, the rate is 10V2 per cent at the beginning of each year, and, owing to the non-crediting of interest to the sink- ing fund, the rate rises to 121/' pc cent, at tb.e end of each year. §6. Single-rate Aiitorllsatiuii. — The single-rate annuity scheme is favotired by three Societies — the Rand Provident, the Alliance (which has also a double-rate scheme), and the United. The interest charged is nonfinally 10 per cent. ])er annum. Oi these Societies, the repayment schedtiles of the first-named are nearly, but not qttite, accurate, those of the second are not dis- closed in its prospectus, while those of the third are constructed on a peculiar and unsound basis which may rc])ay more detailed consideration. In §2 it was shown that the capital element contained in the p-\h payment of such an aniun'ty is x' per unit •=*^(i 4- /)"— I of the loan; hence the capital elements contained in successive repayments form a geometrical series. In tb.e repayment .sched- ules published by the United Building Society, on the other hand, these elements form as nearly as [possible an arithmetical series. This, as a matter of fact, does give an a|)i)roximation to the correct value for the shorter period schemes ; for, calling the LOAN SCHEMES OF CKKTAIN RAND BUILDINO SOfJKTIKS. 395 capital element of the first instalment, C\. that of tlie p-lh is Cj ( I -f /)^"\ which may be written p-l . p-2 C\{1 + p-i . i -\ . r + . . . -h i I"-') 2 ! Hence if we were to neglect second and higher powers of /, we should obtain cai)ital elements increasing uniformly. Ci ( I + /' - I • 0 ; ^"^ ^^^^ neglect leads to serious error, espe- cially in the longer period tables. The consequences of this un- sound method of construction of the rej^ayment schedules are far- reaching; the following extract shows that, according to the Society's own figures it expects to earn up to 170 per cent, on the loan outstanding towards the close of the transaction. 'fe Eight Years' Table. Interest Rate Months Redemption Value I'Jement in Instal- per cent. run. during this month. ment just paid. per amnnn. £ s. d. s. d. 72 32 13 10 5 9 TO. 6 84 17 10 II 3 II 13.4 96 I 6 5 3 g 170 Comparison of these wnth the correct values given below shows that the outstanding debts, and conse(|uently the assets of the Society, are consistently undervalued : — Interest Rate Months Redemption Value l^lement in Instal- ])ercent. run. during this month. ment just paid. ])er amnnn. ^£ s. d. s. d. 72 34 ^ 4 3 '"^ TO 84 18 12 3 3 I TO 96 1 K> I o 3 10 And we see how the neglect of s(|ua'-es and higher i)owers leads to cunmlative errors which make their presence felt towards the end of the teruL Perhaps the most interesting result to which this basis of calculation leads is the following gem extracted from this Society's five years table : — MoNTin- Jnstalmknt. £2 2s. 6d. Months run. Kedemption Value. 59 2 3 1 60 o o o 396 LOAN SCHEMES OF CERTAIN Ra.xd r.U ILDI X( , S( K IF.TIKS. With one month still to run the debt amounts to £2 3s. id., at the end of the month it is only £2 2s. 6d. It is surely a new theory in financial practice that a debt grows smaller as it grows older. §7. Doitble-rate Ainortisalion. — Two Societies — the Alliance and the S.A. Permanent Mutual — offer a double rate annuity scheme. In its prospectus the former does not disclose the remunerative rate, while its reproductive rate varies with the profits earned. Tlie latter's scheme is clear and well-defined. The renumerative rate is 8 per cent, per annum, payable in monthly instalments ; a reproductive rate of 5 per cent, per annum is guaranteed for the sinking fund, and to this is added extra profit, which has hitherto averaged 2 per cent. This scheme is reasonable and straightforward in its operation, and. as we shall see just now, it is more advantageous to the borrower than the ordinar}' 10 per cent, amortisation, even if the extra profit is only I per cent. §8. Comparison of Benefits. — Having once settled which Societies are able to operate their schemes correctly, the bor- rower next incjuires which scheme will offer him the least oner- ous terms. A common monthly payment seems to be the most satisfactory basis of comparison ; for this ])ayment we shall take the instalment jiayable in the case of the ordinary single-rate n ' <^ + ^^" annuity, which amounts to 4- per unit of the loan. **^(i -f /■)"-— I Now if a payment a is made 77; times a year in amortisation of a loan on which interest is charged at the rate of t'/, pet' i per annum, likewise ])ayable in ;// instalments, the sinking fund accumulating at £/. per £ per annum, the accumulated value of the sinking fund at the end of // years is I -f ;V' - 1 h III y. — . Ill - I ) h I" 2 This result is used in the calculation of the figures given below. The first column gives the number of years during which pay- ments are to be made; tlie second, the monthly payment made; and the other columns contain tlie sums to which those pavments would amount under the different schemes, at the termination of the annuity. Remunerative Remunerative Remunerative 10% Rate 8% Rate 8% Rate 8% Yeais Snipfle Reproductive Reproductive Reproductive Pay- Mimtl iiy Rate Rate 5% Rate 5% Rate 5% able. Instalment. Annuity. Profits iti/. Profits 1% Profits 2% £• s. d. £ £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. 2 4 12 4 100 99 6 10 100 5 6 lOI 4 2 4 2 10 9 100 98 18 4 100 16 II 102 16 2 6 I 17 i 100 99 0 4 lOI 19 TI 105 I 4 8 I ro 4 100 99 13 " 103 16 6 laS 2 2 LOAN SCHEMKS OF CKRTAIN RAND liUILDlNG SOCIETIES. 397 The existence of Building wSocieties which charge lo per cent, for their loans so as to be in a position to pay high divi- dends to their shareholders depends vipon the failure of the class of borrowers for whom they cater to recognise that, consi- dering an ordinary loan on first mortgage can he raised at 7 per cent., a 10 per cent, rate is excessive. The i^recariousness of the ])osition created by charging more than their money is worth is shown by the case of a wise borrower who takes up an ordinary bond at 7 per cent., and usues the Building Society only for the purpose of forming a sinking fund either in the Savings Bank department at 4 per cent., or by taking investor's shares earning, say, 8 per cent. Years Pay- able. Monthly Instalment. £ s. d. 10% Single Rate Annuity. £ Remunerati\e Rate 7% Reproductive Rate 4% £ s. d. Remunerative Rate 7% Reproductive l>;ate 8% £ s. d. 2 4 12 4 100 100 15 I 104 16 10 4 2 10 9 TOO loi 17 10 1 10 12 9 6 8 I 17 I I 10 5 100 100 103 14 8 106 7 3 117 14 4 126 6 8 Borrowers are, of course, the life of a Society of this nature, and if, as is seen to be the case with those which oiTer a 10 per cent, amortisation, it pays borrowers to make other arrangements, the position of such Societies becomes essentially unstable. Eugene Woldemar Hilgard. — Prof. E. W. Hil- gard, Al.A., Ph.D., Pi..D., formerly Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of California, died on January 8th, three days after attaining his eighty-third year. Born when Liebig was thirty years old, Hilgard was for fortv years the contemporary of the father of modern agricultural chemistry. During those forty years he became so thoroughly imbued with the ideals which formed the motive power of Piebig's enthusiasm and fame that the editor of the United .States Experiment Station Record* could truly say that his death marks " the ])assing of the last of the earlier group of pioneers in agricultural education and research." To-day, wherever agricultural chemistry is studied, the name of Hilgard, like the names of Gilbert and Pawes, ]>ossesses a wide- spread recognition approximating to that of I>iebig himself. In Germany, the land of his birth, and in the United States, the land of his adoption ; in Scandinavia, Hungary, and France ; in Britain and in her colonies, his name and work have been honoured and esteemed. Piebig was fifty years of age when Heidelberg bestowed on young Hilgard the degree of Ph.D., and during the Piebig centenary Heidelberg reissued this degree to Prof. Hil- gard as a " golden degree," in recognition of a half-centtu-y's work for science, while the Academy of Sciences of Munich * (1916) 34 [4] 301. 398 E. w. HiLr;ARn. bestowed on him the Liebig gold medal " for distinguished achievement in agrictilttiral science." The universities of Missis- sippi. Michigan, Columbia, and California conferred on him the flegree of LL.D., and the expositions of Paris. Rio de Janeiro and St. Louis presented him with medals for collaboration in agricultural research. Hilgard's father, Chief Justice of the Court of Apjjeals of Rhenish Bavaria, emigrated to the United States when the boy was three years old, and settled on a farm, where the lad acquired a practical knowledge of agriculture. Judge Hilgard personally prepared his son for a university career, and at the age of 16 Eugene returned to Europe, studying at Zurich, Freiberg, and Heidelberg; graduating at Heidelberg with honours, and obtain- ing a doctor's degree suuuua cinn laiidc. His thesis was the structure of the candle flame, in which he was the first to define four parts and to describe the chemical reactions proceeding in each part. Two years later Dr. Hilgard became assistant state geologist at Mississippi, and in 1858 state geologist, continuing meanwhile detailed investigations of the botany and agriculture of the State. It was then that he noted the sharp demarcations in the indigenous tree and plant growth on tlie difi:'erent types of soil, and there the foundations were laid of the views which he afterwards developed in connection with agricultural investi- gation and soil surveys — views which have ])ccn worked out in detail in his many ptiblications, and especially in his classic treatise on " Soils,"' published in 1906. Prof. R. H. Loughridge, once Hilgard's pu])il and afterwards his colleague — who retired from the professorial staff of California University simulta- neously with his veteran friend and quondam teacher — says, in this connection : — ■■''■'- While Hilgard was not the first to make a soil survey and chemical analyses of soils, he was the lirst to interpret the results in their relation to soil durahility, fertility, and crop production. He was the first to maintain that the physical qualities and chemical characters of a soil so hand in hand in determining its cultural value, and he maintained that the complex character of a soil demanded an investigation into its chemical, physical, mineral, and biological characters if vvc would under- stand it fully. The present writer had the privilege of receiving at different times from Prof. Hilgard many of his publications and the ad- vantage of his criticism and counsel. He expressed himself on one of those occasions — in 1908 — as greatly interested in the chemical soil work that had been undertaken in South Africa, and — two years later — as greatly pleased that in the initiation of that work regard had been given to the views from which Dr. Eoughridge now' quotes. At the close of the civil war in America, Hilgard became Professor of chemistry in the University of Mississippi, and in 1871 his title was changed into Professor of experimental and agriculttiral chemistry. In the following year he transferred to * Science ( 1016) 43, 452. TRANSACTKINS OF SDCLETIKS. 39g the University of Micliit^an. and in 1874 to the University of Cah'fornia. where he remained nntil his retirement at an ad- vanced age a few years ajt^x). During his whole career flilgard was an active author: the writing of official reports and memoirs, of papers in scientific and agricultural |)eriodicals, and of books — amongst the latter the treatise alreadv mentioned — ke])t him constantly busy when not occupied in lecturing or in scientific investigation. The world needs men who will i)ersistently lay stress on vaguely- grasped or forgotten truths. Hilgard was such a man. In the special branch of science which gave him fame he repeatedly emphasised sitch ])oints as the })otential fertility of arid soils, indigenous vegetation as a means of recognising soil character; the nature and reclamation of alkali soils; the distinction between what he called the " permanent stock of fertility "' in soils, and their immediate productiveness; the need of imifying methods of soil analysis ; and, last, but not least, the im])ortance of giving the judgment of the ])ractical farmer a patient hearing, and of discovering the scientific Ixisis for that judgment. Hilgard retired from his position at Berkeley Agricultural Ivxperiment Station. California University, in 1909. and in the following- May he wrote somewhat sadly : "I have been unable to read or write for several months past, and the end is not yet." He was fortunate in having lived long enough to realise the esteem of his confreres the world o\-er. It is not generally known that he was at one time offered the post of United States Commis- sioner of Agriculture; and, on a subsequent occasion, the port- folio of Secretarv of Agriculture : he recognised that his province was scientific rather than administrative, and so he declined the offers, and completed 35 years in the service of California Uni- versity. TRA\S,\C'I1()\'S OF SOCIETIES. SdUTH Afrkax Association of Analytical Chfimists. — Thursday, }-fliruary 17th: J. Moir, M.A., D.Sc, President, in the chair.— " 7/it? Jiidusfrial Fixation of Xitroi^cii " : If. Schwarz. The various methods suggested and adopted for the fixation of nitrogen were discussed, special consideration 1)eing given to Serperk's plant for the manufacture of aluminium nitride. "' Rnntiitc fcstiitc/ in a Dynamite Works Laboratory'' : J. A. Campbell. Details of tiie metliods adopted for testing the various products produced in a Dynamite Factory were considered. Thursdav, :v[arch i6th.— J. ^[oir, AT. A., D.Sc, President, in tlie chair. - Xotcs on the Kuils Rirrr Tin Mines": Prof. G. H. Stanley. A short account of the occurrence of cassiterite and the method of hy- draulic extraction was givev..—" .-IptHcation of synthetic dye-stuffs and substitutes to cotton": 11. R. Adam. The method of dyeing cotton was described, consideration being given to substitutes probably now m use owing to war conditions,--" Z^'w^ajf.? of the Respiratory Organs m Miners, as recorded by Af^ricohi " : Dr. J. de Fenton. A short account was given of the life and career of Agricola (1404-1560) and mstances were mentioned where the translation by Hoover appeared to give a false impression of Agricola's knowledge of miners' diseases. 400 NEW P.OOKS. Geological Society uf Soi.'tu i\FRicA. — Monday, March i.sth: P. A. Wagner. Ing.D.. B.Sc. President, in the chair. — " A'otcs on the Karroo System in the Southern Kalahari" : Dr. A. L. du Toit. The solid geology of the Kalahari is scarcely known because of the great develop- ment of superficial deposits over the area. During the military opera- tions of 1915, when a continuous series' of boreholes was being sunk. the author was enabled to examine the sections of Karroo beds so ex- posed. The information gathered sheds light on the stratigraphy of the Karroo beds much further north-north-west, within the South-West African Protectorate. The author proceeded to set forth his views on the correlation of these beds vyith those already well established. Thror.gh lack of pala?ontological data, however, it is not yet possible to conlirin those views in all respects. South Aki:ican Institctk of Electrical Engineicrs. — Thursday. March i6th : Prof. W. Buchanan, M.I.E.E , President, in the chair.— "Description of the Kleinfontein Pozver Association's Phnit " : d. Graham. The author gave a brief account of the scope of the Associa- tion and of the site of its power station, and then went on to describe the system of supply, the plant and its operation, the l)oilers. feed pumps, turbines, and condensers, circulating svater jiumps, generators. exciters, switchgear, and auxiliary supply. Chemical, Metallurgical, and Mk^jin*. Society of South Afrk a. — Saturday. March i8th : J. K. Thomas, A.I.M.M., M.Am.l.E.E., President. in the chair. — "Notes on rare minerals in Madagascar" : T. P. "Waites. The central portion of Madaga.scar, about 100 miles south-west of Tana- narive, is extraortlinarily ricli in uranium and nio'iium minerals, wliich occur in pegmatite. Analyses were given of four uraniferous minerals. Blomstrandite. Betahte, Samiresite, and Ampangabeite. containing from ig to 26 per cent, of UO3 and from 23 to 45 i>er cent, of NbaOs. The author predicted that the district will Itocome the prenuer producer of uranium. and will enable radium to be obtained at a cost wliich will render ir much more freely available than hitherto. Near Antsirabe, in a deep river cutting, a deposit of uranium phosphate is exposed, and it is also found in the district of Analalava, in the north-west of the island. — "Analysis of Niobiuin.-titaninni minerals, ivith some new tests for niobium. tantalum, and titanium": Dr. J. Moir. The author described an im- proved process for separating the constituents of euxenite, peschynitc, pyrochlore, and similar minerals. The method is not quantitative. Four new reactions of niobic acid and niobates were described. The autlior also stated that niobium and taiUalum, separately boiled in concentrated sulphuric acid, gave different reactions if treated witli phenolic bodies on cooling. This led to the possibility of confirming niobium in the presence of tantalum. It was further stated that the thymol test for titanium is much intensified Iw adding sulphocyanide after reducing with zinc and hydrochloric acid. — "Some nciL' methods of tcstiw^ for molybdenum": Dr. J. Moir. '{'lie blue colour produced in the reduction of mohbdic acid by nascent hydrogen is obtained as a specially sensitive test if the molybdic acid solution is faintly acid with mineral acid, and a few drops only of highly dilute stannous chloride are added. Hydrazine forms the best reagent for developing the blue colour Other modifications of and improvements upon well known tests for molybdenum were described. XEW BOOKS. LeiKin, Evans — " The Germans and Africa" Qi X (>2 '"• PP- >^^ iii- 317. Map. F. A. Stokes Co.: New York. rgis. $3.60. Werner, A — "The language families of Africa." 7^ X 5 in. PP- viii. 150. Sketch map. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 191 5. 3s. 6d. ON THE OCCURRENCE OF BACTERIUM CAMP EST RE (PAM.) SM., IN SOUTH AFRICA. By Ethel M. Doidce, D.Sc. F.L.S. (Plates 8-11 and three text fijjures.j In volume 2 of his work on " Bacteria in Rehition to Plane Diseases," Dr. Erwin F. Smith states that nothing is known of the occurrence of Bacterium canipcstre outside of Europe and America, except that Kirk has recently reported it from New Zealand. It has been known for some years that a disease similar to that caused by this organism has been found attack- ing cruciferous plants in this country, but only recently has a favourable opportunity occurred for studying it in detail and establishing the identity of the causal organism. Investigation has shown that the trouble is extremely common and very wide- spread, and I think largely responsible for the failure of cab- bages orown during the summer months. Geographical Dtstributton. The first record which we have of the disease is of a num- ber of cabbage-leaves sent for examination from Barberton in 1906, and a little later from Mooi River, in Natal. In both cases the specimens were characterised by the blackened vessels of the fibro-vascular bundles, and yellowing of tlie affected ])arts. Bacteria were present in large numbers in the bundles. In 191 2, a farmer at Piet Retief reported the disease in two fields of cabbages and caulitlowers 150 yards apart; he complained that the leaves withered and turned yellow, ai-id that some of the heads were quite rotten inside. Some time before writing, in looking through his crop and selecting cabbages for the market, a large cabbage fell to pieces as he was examining it to see whether it was hard enough to cut ; later this plant developed a number of small heads, one of which he sent for examination. This specimen also showed the characteristic blackening of the veins and yellowing of the leaf tissues. The same symptoms were observed in some cauliflower leaves sent from the same locality, and in both cases there were innumer- able bacteria in the fibro-vascular bundles It was an outbreak of the disease in the writer's private garden during the winter of 1914. which afforded a favourable opportunity for studying the disease in the laboratory. A num- ber of cabbage plants were attacked which had been obtained as seedlings from a local seedsman — a fact which will be re- ferred to later in discussing the origin of infection — and this led to the discovery that the disease is very widespread and extremely common, and that in the neighbourhood of Pretoria anywav it would be difficult to find a garden entirely free from 402 13ACTERIU.M CAMPESTKE IN SOUTH AFRICA. it. In discussing the subject with local gardeners, 1 have found it extremely difficult to convince these men that their losses were due to a specific disease which might be prevented, and not owing to an inherent tendenc}- of cabbages to " go wrong on account of the climate." Up to the end of 1914, the " black rot " had only been observed in cabbage and cauliflower plants, but at the beginning of this year some experimental plots of kohl-rabi at Groenkloof were found to be badly infected. This was not to be wondered at, as the plots were not far distant from some cabbage plants which had been severely attacked. In March of this year a crop of swedes in the neighbour- hood of Johannesburg was attacked ; the tops were fairly healthy, but the roots failed to swell out, and began to rot. The source of infection in this case is not evident ; the discolouration was only present in the lower part of the root, and no blackened veins were observed in the leaves ; but Smith and other investi- gators state that infection through the root system is not known. Inoculation experiments, which will be described later, showed this trouble, and that in kohl-rabi were identical with the " black rot " of cabbage and cauliflower. Signs of the Disease. Some of the signs of the disease have been indicated in the previous paragraphs, and there is usually little difficulty in deter- mining its presence ; a more detailed description o f the appear- ance of affected plants will, however, not be out of j^lace here. In cabbage and cauliflower the first sign of infection is tlie blackening of some of the smaller veins, usually in the neigh- bourhood of a water pore or of an insect injury. The tissues in the afl^ected area become yellow, wilted, and rather leathery in texture (Plate 8). The dark brown or black stain soreads along the vascular system, and eventually invades the midrib of the leaf and the main stem of the plant. The stain in the thick petioles and main stem is frequently only visible on cutting them through (Plate 10. a). Severely affected leaves fall to the ground, leaving con- spicuous leaf scars, and badly diseased plants present the appear- ance of a small terminal head separated from the roots by a long stem bearing the conspicuous scars of many cast-ofif leaves. Plants attacked early in the season or in the seedling stage are either killed outright or become so deformed and dwarfed that no head forms. Cauliflower plants are affected in a similar way : the leaves show blackening of the veins and yellowing of the surrounding tissues ; when badly diseased they fall, leaving conspicuous leaf scars, and frequently at the time when the head should be form- ing the plant consists of a scarred stem 2 to 3 feet long, sur- mounted by a loose terminal tuft of leaves. Cavities are formed in the stem, and the whole of the pith mav be destroyed. S.A. Assn. for Adv. of Science. 1915. PL. 8. E, M. DoiDGE. --Bacterium CAMPESiRt. S.A. Assn. for Adv. of Science. 1915 PL. 9. E, M. DoiDGE— Bacterium Campestre. S.A. Assn. for Adv. of Science. 1915. Pl. 10. a E. M. DoiDGE.— Bacterium Campestre. S.A. Assn. for Adv. of Science. 19(5. Pl. M. E. M. DoiDGE —Bacterium Campestre HACTKRIUM CAMPJ^STRE IX SOUTH AFRICA. 403 The staining of the veins of the fohage leaves is also evi- dent in diseased kohl-rabi, and the fibro-vascular bnndles in the swollen stem are also conspicuously blackened ( I'late ii, a). The stems fail to increase in size as they should do, and finally necrosis takes place and results in a large central cavity with a brown fibrous lining (Plate ii, b). Before they reach this stage, however, the plants are frequently invaded by soft rot bacteria, which rapidly complete the work of destruction. In the specimens of swedes which have come under my notice, the leaves were comparatively healthy, but the roots failed to develope in the normal manner. \\^hen cut open the fibro-vascular bundles were found to be blackened, and in the majority of cases a central cavity was forming similar to that described as occurring in afifected kohl-rabi plants (Plate lo. b). The above-mentioned hosts are the only ones which have been found to be afifected in this country up to the present, and the inoculation experiments conducted with pure cultures of the organism have been restricted to these plants, but in America Smith has also observed the disease in collards. kale, rape, ruta- baga, charlock, and radish, and has successfullv inoculated the majority of these plants. It is probable that, with continued observation, additions will be made to the list of hosts in which the organism occurs in South Africa. Etiology. A yellow, one-flagellate bacterium was isolated in Septem- ber, 1914, from cabbages in the writer's garden, Pretoria, which showed typical signs of the disease. On September 25th, four young cabbage plants were inoculated by placing small quantities of an agar streak culture on the edge of the leaves ; the plants were kept moist by covering them over with a bell- jar for 24 hours after inoculation. This precaution was also observed in all subsequent experiments. On the tenth day, small areas near the edge of the leaves were slightly wilted, and a closer exam- ination showed a distinct discolouration of the veins ; these symptoms were much more mai'ked after another five days. Microscopic examination showed ihat the fibro-vascular bundles were covered with bacteria, and the organism was re-isolated without any difficulty. In another two weeks these seedlings were completely wilted off; the controls were perfectly healthy. A second experiment was carried out under similar condi- tions, using young plants in pots. Six cabbages and three swedes were inoculated by needle pricks with a culture obtained from the same source as that used in the previous experiment. All the cabbages showed distinct signs of infection on the eleventh day; the swedes, unfortunately, were completely destroyed by insects. All the controls remained clean. An experiment with swedes carried out on a larger scale was also unfortunate, the ])lants being destroyed by hail before anv results could be obtained. 404 BACTERIUM CAMPESTKE IN SOUTH AFRICA. A small plot in the laboratory grounds was planted with about 36 cabbages in six rows. On November 24th these plants were all apparently quite healthy, and six cabbages in the row- nearest to the fence were inoculated with a pure culture of the same origin as that used in the previous experiments, two by needle pricks in the midrib of a leaf, and four by placing traces of the culture on the leaf margins. The weather was warm and moist, the rains having set in during November, and signs of infection were quite evident on December loth on the inoculated plants. All the j^Iants on the remainder of the plot were per- fectly clean, and remained so up to the middle of December, when the writer left F'retoria for a month. During that time the same weather conditions prevailed, over 20 inches of rain falling during December and January. On the 20th January the six cabbages inoculated were very badly diseased, consisting of a long stalk with cons])icuous leaf scars surmounted by a loose head, and surrounded by fallen and decaying leaves. One of these was ohotograDhed, and is re])roduced in Plate y a. The disease had spread rieht through the ])lot ; those in the row most remote from the inoculated plants only showing a very few water-pore infections, but those in their immediate vicinity being badly affected. On March 19th, a similar disease was noticed in some kohl- rabi plants at Groenkloof Experiment Station; a yellow organism was plated out from these plants, and four young cabbage plants inoculated with the cultures. These readily contracted the disease, infection being ver\' evident after about two weeks. The controls remained healthy. A similar experiment was carried out using cultures obtained from diseased swedes ; this inoculation was also suc- cessful. It has been mentioned in an earlier part of this paper that the cabbages in the writer's garden which developed the disease had been obtained as seedlings from a local seedsman. On visit- ing the nursery where they had been grown late in November, I found that the disease was present right through the seed beds, and was thus being distril)uted right through the district, as people with small gardens usually buy seedlings rather than raise the plants from seed. An inspection of other nurseries would most likely lead to similar discoveries. In the case in question, the evidence pointed to the seed as the source of in- fection, and the nurseryman very kindly furnished me with a sam])le packet of each variety of seed which he had planted, and which had been imported from England. From these seeds a yellow organism was isolated ; two cabbage plants were inocu- lated with the organism, and they readily contracted the disease. It is evident, therefore, that at least one source of infection is imported seed, it being impossible at this distance to ascertain whether the seed has been obtained from a healthy crop. BACTERIUM CAMPESTRE IN SOUTH AFRICA. 405 During the summer months, especially during the rainy weather, the disease spreads very rapidly, and develops rapidly in plants which are attacked. In winter, however, when the temperature is comparatively low, and there is no rain, the spread of the disease is reduced to a minimum, and in plants which become infected its progress is very slow. The central plant in Plate (-), a, was photographed two months after inoculation, the two months being December and January, when the weather was warm and moist. In winter it takes six to eight months for the disease to affect plants to the same extent. Fig. 1. The question as to how far leaf-eating insects are respon- sible for communicating the disease in this country has not yet been fully dealt with. It is certain that a number of infections begin in close proximity to a hole made by such an insect, and a number of experiments have been started to discover how many of the common cabbage pests are responsible for the carrying of the disease, but no definite results have yet been obtained. These are being carried out with the co-operation 4o6 BACTERIUM CAMPESTRE IN SOUTH AFRICA. of Mr. D. Gunn, of the Entomological Division, and it is to him that I am indebted for information with regard to insect pests of cruciferous plants. During the summer cabbages are infested with the larvae of the cabbage moth (Pltitelki cruciferarum), and slugs are fairly numerous ; both these pests disappear in the winter. The cabbage butterfly {Pliisia orichalccc) is known to occur, but is not plentiful. During the winter months the Eagrada bug {Bagrada liilaris) occurs very plentifully; it does not entirely disappear in summer, but becomes so reduced in numbers that it is a negligible quantity. The cabbage aphis (Aphis brassicce) is also a great pest during the winter. Fig. 2. Smith has succeeded in transmitting the disease by means of the larva of the cabbage butterfly (Pltisia orichalecc), so there is every reason to suppose that the larva of the cabbage moth {PlutcUa cruciferarum) is also capable of carrying the infection. He has also found that the disease may be carried by slugs, and Brenner reports successful transmission by aphides. It has yet to be determined whether the disease can be transmitted by the Bagrada bugs. Water-pore infections, however, are by far the most com- mon ; during the summer weather a considerable number of these frequently occur on a single leaf. bacterium campestre in sol'tii africa. 407 Morbid An atom v. This is for the most part a disease of the vascular system, to which in early stages it is contined. The vessels of the fibro- vasciilar bundles, especially the spiral and reticulate vessels, are filled with innumerable bacteria ( hg. i). Hacterial occu- pation of the vessels is followed by the appearance of a brown stain in the walls. The vessels in the softer parts of the plant frecjuently become destroyed, and the bacteria invade the sur- rounding parenchyma (fig. 2). Cavities are formed, frequently involving the whole of the ])ith of the stem in cab- bage, cauliflower, and kohl-rabi, and in turnips the entire root frequently becomes hollow. The Parasite. The organism causing the cabbage disease in South Africa is undoubtedly Bacterium campestrc (Pam.) Sm. A short Ox, c \ Fig. 3. resume of the characters of the bacterium isolated from diseased plants will be found to correspond in detail with the characters of B. campcstre as worked out by Smith and other investigators. The organism is a yellow schizomycete with a single polar flagellum (fig. 3) ; it is not, as a rule, motile v.'hen taken from the host plant, but is active in young cultures. It occurs singly or in short chains, but most frequently in pairs, and no capsules or spores have been observed. Its extreme measure- ments are .7 — 3 /^ X -4 — -5 /"-, the length being much more variable than the breadth. It stains well with Ellis's modifica- cation of Loeffier's flagella stain, ihc single polar flagellum being two or three times the length of the bacterium. The organism is yellow on all media ; on a thinly-sown agar plate (+15 Fuller) kept at 30° C, in five days the organism developed thin. flat, circular yellow- colonies up to 6 mm. diameter. In crowded plates the colonies are much smaller^ 408 BACTERIUM CAMl'ESTKE IN SOUTH AFRICA. Submerged colonies were small, ellipsoid. Numerous feathery X-shaped crystals developed in old agar colonies. On potato and cocoanut cylinders standing in water the organism formed a smooth, wet, shining yellow growth. A similar growth was produced on turnip cylinders, but was in this case accompanied by a brown discoloration of the medium. ( jelatine is slowdy li(|uefied ; in a stab culture the surface becomes liquefied, then the liquefaction extends downward, the solid surface of the gelatine being always more or less horizontal. Litmus milk is blued and the casein slowdy thrown down ; it is not coagulated into a stiff mass, and the whey is extruded slowly. The optimum temperature for growth is about 30° C, and the death point about 51° C. The organism is aerobic, and there is no growth or tage A-—a + a, where a vanishes in the limit. So B = b +' jS. Therefore A+B-^a + b + a + /3 -. and AB^ ab + al3+ba + a3. Now in the limit fi + fS, af3, ha and a/3 vanish (assuming a, b linite). Therefore Lt.(A+B) a \-h and Lt. (AB) ub. II. Rate of increase of sin.v is Lt.sin.v'— sinA- j. sinA-(A-'— a')/2 x' + x ' -, ="-Lt. -—-, r^ cos -- X - X X -A (a ~x)l2 2 J. sin(A-' — A-)/2 T^ -t'+a- ,. 1 ^ /^, , — i^t. -7^ -y — , Lt. cos ~, which— I. cosA (the angles (a —x):2 2 being in circular measure). c ,u * r • L- . ■ T . tauA — tauA J. sin(A'— a) bo, the rate 01 mcrease ot tauAisLt. -, "^Lt. a'--a (a' — a)cosa COSA' which =, as before, secV. 1 1 T T- -1 r sni A -^ SUl A 111. For sm A, Lt. : : — — , ^^ay. Lt A —A ' " sin^ — sin^ cos^ I VI-A^ Similarly tan 'a gives . I+A- IV. a' needs special treatment. D{h+v)=D}i + Dv without dithculty. D{uv)==iiDv + vDii as usual. and D(//0=Lt.-^V=>^ Lt. -^"~-^" . ^' A - A „ - „ .V - A =Lt.-^V==^'. Lt.'-^;^=/0.). Du. N — II X — A DK) =Lt.^^^=« l.t.'^'zi ^/^^ x'-x 0 The question now arises whether — ^ has a ' limit.' Our previous work has given us no great acquaintance with such an expression. It might tend to become 0 or «; or ^-^ X might tend to one limit as x approaches 0 by such steps as i( /2.' I2-! V2O) ^"d to a different limit when t approaches it ^y ±{h 3. 4- • ••)• If ^^■*" could ignore this latter difficulty, and FROM ELEMENTARY AHiEBKA TO THE CALCULUS. 4I3 assume that it certainly tended to a '.imit uni ormly, il at all, we could make :v approach 0 by being continually halved; then, since —^ ; = I («■' + i) , which is greater (or less) than i when a>i, ^x X a" — 1 according as x is ±. /. [iov a > i) — —^ by this method of approach, continually diminishes when .v is + , and continually increases when % is - . Now -^ =«", which becomes X - X I when X =0, [and \t a < i, the function increases when x \> + and diminishes when .v is-1. Thus -^-— is defined as the value to which "' - converge 0 ±x (for we have proved that thev do converge) as x tends to 0. As there is nothing to indicate anv connection of this value with previously known functions, and as it presumably depends on a only, we give it a new name — the " (natural) logarithm " of a. [The old word ' logarithm,' to base lo, as used in previous arithmetic, is better not used — replaced by " ten index " : it is ignored in this paper.] We proceed to prove from this definition the fundamental properties of this logarithmic function, and shall afterwards give a proof of its existence which does not assume uniform convergence. Lt. {a'y~i I t a"' -1 Since log «" = ^ n — ^ = ^ n :^ "" ^ x^O X (ia; = U ax :. log rt" = a log a. (i). And log {ab) --= (assuming h -^a' ), log a'+' = (i + O- ^'^S « = log a + log a' = log a + log h . . . (ii). (i) includes log i/a= -log a and log i=0. The result obtained in the course of the proof : log ^ lies between N (a^ - i) and X (i - (/" >•). is often preferable to expansion . Excursus. — To remove the unsatisf actor}' assumption of uniformity of convergence we need to establish an inequality which is quite elementary, but is unfortunately deferred in our text- books while infinite series are (not very satisfactorily) discussed. Viz.{'L + x)" lies between {i + nx) and [1 + nx. (i + a;)""'] for ali values + and - of w and x, prov.ded always that we remember that the theory of general indices assumes + bases to the indices. This proposition may be approached in two ways — (i) by establishing the (infinite) Binomial Series for negative integral indices, which is not difficult, and is perhaps desirable in an elementary text-book ; or (ii) by proving that the geometric mean of a number of quantities is less than the arithmetic mean. Following this latter method, (i) if a +h' = a + b, a'h' = a' [a + b - a') = ab+ {a- a') {a - b). Therefore, if a lies between a and b (and therefore b' also), the product a'b' is greater than the product ab. 414 FROM ELEMENTARY ALGEIiRA TO THE CALCULUS. I.e., a product is increased if tlie factors are replaced by two which leave the sum unchanged, but are more nearly equal. Now consider ah c . . . z, the product of n quantities. Let jjt be their arithmetic mean, so that a + h+ . . + z = nfj. Choose two of the quantities (a. z), so that a is greater than ^, and z less than fx (this is always possible, of course). Then az <^i {a + z- n)—c2il\ the latter factor z' . Therefore ahc . . . z < ja. he . . . z , where h + c+ . . + z' = (w- i) /u., and .-. fj. is the arithmetic mean of &, c, z' . Make a similar change in the product he . . . z ; and, continuing the process, we get finally ahc . . . z i + nx/n. or, in other words, (Ht.t)" >i + nx, if w >i. I Now I +x =1 say. n Therefore (i - x)"" > i + nx^i -n + n (i + x) =i - w + — — — .-. (i - x) ' " > (i - n) (i - x) + w = i- (i - w)x. But, n being > i here, (i - w) = any negative quantity .-. generally {i-\- x)" > i + 7ix when n is - ''" , And, finally, (i + x)" < i + nx, according as x lies between 0 and i. or does not. Again, if {i + x)" ^ i+nx, which = (i + .r) + (« - i) x, Dividing by (i + x)" , i ^ (i + .v)' "' + (n - i) x (i + x) ' , therefore (i + xf^" >■ i + (i - w) ^ (i + -y) " . But (i — n) lies or does not hv between 0 and i exactly as n does, J.. r / \„ T 1 X I I + w,T I for all possible therefore ( I + .r) lies between , , , v„_i ^, ^ ^r ^ ^ ' I i + nx{i + X) ' I values of w and a:, {i + nx) being the upper limit if n lies between 0 and i, but the lower limit if n lies outside 0, i. We may write the result in the form —, < „, ■' n{a - 1 I « /y' § (l'^' T /7^ T \ T whence, writing a' for a and - for n, \ - , - -^ ) < '^ X ^ X X -^ \ <^ Whence follows the reasoning by which on a previous page we established the existence and properties of ' the logarithm,' and we have D (a^) = rt'' log a. ,/) -1 FROM ELEMENTARY ,\L(;EBRA TO THE CALCULUS. 415 Since a" is a continuous function of a (so long as a is -f-), it follows from the above that log a ( i, is necessary n as a test of the intelhgibihty of any infinite series that may arise : but it is unnecessary and undesirable to nterpose some- what amorphous Higher Algebra between simple Algebra and the Calculus. The trend of modern mathematics is to jett son this Higher Algebra; and the one object of this paper is to attempt to show how this can he done with not loss but gain of security and completeness in our foundations, and so to show how the Calculus can be made readily accessible to the average Cape Intermediate student]. Since /(a) - f{o) = I f\x) dx (changing .v to x - z). I f'{x-z)dz. Integrating by parts, -xfo^j z. j"\x-z)dz. = xf'o-\- I f'\x-z).dz- J o ' 2 .-\nd repeating this process, fix) -fo^-xf'o-\-%f"{o)+ .... -l-g' /-\ /-'' z' /■''{x - z).d^ with the conditions, involved in our proof of the Summation Theorem, that /(v), f'{x) and the higher derivatives are con- tinuous from 0 to x of the variable. Thus Maclaurin's Theorem holds as an infinite expansion /-^ z'' ^{x - z) ^_ tends to o as N — >- oo Lagrange's remainder follows easily, and is not, it seems to me, worth proving in any other way. But, as is well known, Lagrange's remainder fails to settle the convergence of the Binomial and logarithmic series. These are settled by means of a simple change of variable in the above Integral. The processes are hardly worth our time in such a gathering as this — but were too much for Honours students last year. I will conclude m\- paper with two more abstruse remarks : — (i) Differential coefficients versus Differentials. Differentials {i.e., bare dx, dy) can be used in an expression whenever the omitted denominator can be regarded as implied — e. ''•i'- FR()^i i:lemi:ntar\' algebra to the calculus. 417 x'-\-y'-^d- giv^es xdx-\'ydy ^0, because "division by" dx gives the proper Leibnitz form; hut udx -{- bdy = c is mean- ingless. (ii) One often wonders what ' expansion ' in power series means psychologically — why sliould we be so anxious always to expand in powers of x ? We can answer the question in the case of our ordinary decimal notation : the process is an extremely convenient way of counting with 10 (or rather 9) figures and recording each complete cycle. But the more general process involved in Maclaurin's Theorem has a more elusive vaison d'etre. Is it really, as it seems to us, logically inevitable ? Could mathematical reasoning have developed satisfactorily on other lines and missed ' expansion ' ? The only semi-answer that I can give myself to these questions is that expansion is a form of integration by parts, which is apparently an inevitable sequel of integration itself ; and integration is a fundamental logical process, inevitable to the human mind. South African Homoptera — of all the orders of insects in South Africa, the Hemiptera, and i)articularly the sub- order Homoptera. have been studied the least, and the list of described species would scarcely numl)er more than one hundred. Mr. E. S. Cogan, M.A., has recently contributed to our know- ledge of South African I-Iomo])tera the results of his study of a series of South African Cercopida' and Jassoidea, hitherto scarcely known at all, whicli had been sent to Ohio State Univer- sitv by Mr. C. W. Mally, of the Department of Agriculture, Capetown. In all some 38 forms were studied, and the results have now been published.* In the course of his descriptions the author observes that the practice of burning the veld, though not very strongly recommended by botanists, nevertheless serves to keep down the grass-feeding species of Jassids. The pro- tective resemblance to plants and flowers borne by many African Homoptera are specially mentioned. ''Ohio Joiinial of Science (1916) 16 [5] 161-200. B THE AGGLUTINATION TEST; WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO ITS USE IN THE CONTROL OF CONTAGIOUS ABORTION IN CATTLE. By Eric ]\Iaxwell Robinson, M.R.CA'.S. To the student of general biology there are few subjects which are of more interest than the properties of the blood- serum of an animal, including the reactions to invasions of foreign elements, such as bacteria, protozoa and albuminous substances of various kinds. It is with one class of antibodies produced as a result of the invasion of the animal body by bacteria that I wish to deal in this paper, namely, the agglutinin^ or substances which cause clumping of the invading organisms. For the detection of the presence of agglutunins in the serum of an animal, a test has been devised which is called the agglu- tination test or Grunbaum-Widal reaction. The agglutinins and aggliuination will first be described, after which the actual technique of the test will be given and its application discussed in connection with the control of such a disease as contagious abortion in a herd of cattle. The presence in blood-serum of substance which could cause the agglutination or clumping together in masses of organisms was first noticed by (iruber and Durham in 1896, during some experiments with antiserum against the cholera organism. These workers found that the serum produced by immunising an animal against cholera had the power of agglu- tinating cholera organisms. In their experiments they added cholera antiserum to a broth culture of cholera organisms, with the result that the organisms formed small visible clumps in the fluid, which fell to the bottom of the test-tube, leaving the ])re- viously turbid Ijroth perfectly clear. This agglutination wa.s found to occur with other organisms and their antisera, and it was then recognised that agglutinins were produced l)y most kinds of bacteria. The process of agglutination can he watched in a test-tul)e containing a faintly turbid emulsion of an organi.-^m and its antiserum. The process takes place most rapidly at the tempera- ture of the animal body, i.e.. 37° C. or thereabouts, so that the test-tulie has to be incubated. If one closelv observes the turbid fluid, one first notices that it is becoming finely granular, which is best seen by comparing with a control tube containing only bacteria without any antiserum. These fine granules will be seen to be moving, some rising, others falling, but eventually larger granules form, and then finallv small masses of bacteria, which fall to the bottom of the test-tube, and the fluid is left (juite transparent and clear as water. An ordinary suspension of organisms remains turbid for a long time, and never leaves a clear fluid over the deposit at the bottom of the test-tube. Complete agglutination usually takes about a day. but the length Till-: ag(;luti.\ati!jn test. 41^ of time required varies greatly with the particular organism and the strength of the antiserum. The deposit in complete agglu- tination is (juite typical as compared with an ordinary deposit of organisms. In the latter case the deposit is round and well- defined, occupying the least possible space, and when examined under the microscope the organisms will be fomid to be packed neatly together. In the former case the deposit resembles either a thin veil with waving edges or an irregular star-shaped mass, and on microscopical examination the organisms appear to be lying in disordered masses as if they have suddenly been thrown together without any attempt at arrangement. In a hanging-drop preparation, which is made by placing a drop of the culture and its antiserum on a cover-sli]) and inverting it over a slide with a well in it, one can watch the whole process of agglutination under the microscope. In this case one notices first that the organisms, if motile, lose their motility, and then run slowly into masses, leaving the intervening fluid quite clear. Other cells l)esides bacteria may be agglutinated, and it has been found that fresh cattle serum possesses the power of strongly agglutinating the red blood cor]:)Uscles of various 'other animals, though these agglutinated corpuscles usually after- wards undergo haemolysis, that is 1^0 say, they are destroyed and their hremoglobin liberated. .Sheep's blood corpuscles are agglutinated Ijut not haeniolysed by fresh cattle serum. It i^ not intended in this paper to describe any agglutinins except those which are produced b\ Inicterial infection, as the agglu- tination of red corpuscles is a study in itself. Speaking generally, the reaction of agglutination is specific, and the antiserum against the tyi)hoid bacillus will not clump the cholera or Malta fever organisms, and the serttm of a cow infected with contagious abortion will not cUunp the glanders bacillus, etc. (irottp reactions with closely allied species of bacteria do, how^ever, occur, a case in point being the agglutina- tion of tvi)hoid and also paratyphoid bacilli by the .same anti- senun. The difficulty in such a case can be overcome by using very dilute antiserum, as it has been found that the anti-typhoid serum will agglutinate typhoid bacilli when diluted 80 or more times, whereas it will not agglutinate paratyphoid bacilli when diluted more than at most 50 times. These grouj:) reactions are very useful in the classification of bacterial species, and have added much further evidence to that previously obtained by comparison of size, special staining reactions, appearance of growth in particular media, etc. Bacteria which have been acted on by an agglutinating serum are not in any wav altered either in appearance or viru- lence. What the actual benefit the animal receives by agglu- tinating invading bacteria is not known, but it has been thought that by being rendered immobile they are made a more easy prey for leucocytes, though it has been noted that ingestion of bacteria or phagocytosis may be almost absent in a disease 420 THE AGGLUTINATION TEST. where agglutinin production is very marked. The amount of agghitinin present in an animal's serum is no index of the degree of imnumity possessed by the animal, and it may be immune to a disease after it has lost the power of agglutinating the organism which caused the disease — in fact, agglutinin pro- duction only continues as long as the organism is in the body. Agglutinins are thermo-stable antibodies, which means that thev will resist heating to 56° C. for half an hour without losing their properties. At a temperature of between 62° C. and 70° C. they become what is called agglutinoid, which means that they combine with the bacteria without causing them to clump at all. Curioush- enough, it has been noticed by Dreyer that agglutinoid when boiled for an hour or longer will regain the power of causing agglutination of bacteria. The fact that agglutinoid combines with the bacteria is easily proved by adding a serum Avhich has been heated to 70° C. for half an hour to an emulsion of bacteria. The mixture is centrifugalised, and the sedimented bacteria are taken away and added to a fresh serum which is known to agglutinate the species of bacterium which is being used "^n the experiment. No agglutination will now take place. l)roving that the bacteria have combined with the agglutinoid. and cannot, therefore, take up agglutinin. Agglutinins are relatively highly resistant bodies. They will stand drying for months even when fully exposed to the air. Light has little effect on them, and putrefaction even in a marked degree causes very little loss of agglutinating power. This resistance is in very marked contrast to that possessed by most of the other antibodies [produced as a result of bacterial invasion or existing naturally in the serum of an animal. Normal sera often possess agglutinins, which in these cases would be natural. The horse's serum is very rich in them, and will often clump the bacillus of glanders when diluted 300 times, so that when the agglutination test is applied for the diagnosis of this disease this natural antibody is allowed for, and only a horse whose serum. >vhen diluted 500 to 1,000 times, will still agglu- tinate the glanders bacillus can be considered to be suft"ering from the disease. Very feeble agglutinating powers have been observed in the serum of young animals, and even fcetal blood has been shown to possess them in some slight degree. Natural agglutinins are probably produced as a result of sub-infection from the intestines, or bv mild attacks of disease which pass unnoticed. A fairly strong agglutinating serum has been observed in a three-weeks old calf which was born to a cow which had become infected with the contagious al)ortion organ- ism, and whose serum would agglutinate it in a dilution of I :i,ooo, though the cow did not actually abort. The serum of the calf agglutinated in a dilution of i :200, the limit of normal agglutination in this disease being put at i :50. By inoculating an animal with an organism a tremendously powerful agglu- tinating serum can be produced. Such a serum is ]-)roduced by THE AGGLUTINATION TKST. 421 inoculating- witli graduall}' increasing closes of the organism at intervals of a week or so for a long period. Agglutinins are often found in milk and tears, therefore they are probably got rid of in the excretions. Tlieir actual seat of production in the animal body is not yet known, but it has been noted by various observers that they are found at an early date after injection in the lymphoid tissues, such as the spleen. Removal of the spleen, however, j;loes n.ot in any way affect their ])roduction, and an extract of leucocytes does not afford any agglutinin at all. No agglutination of bacteria by a scrum will take ]:)lace in the absence of salts, though combination takes place as with agglutinoid. Sodium chloride is the usual salt used, though other salts may and have been used. .'^odium chloride solution in a strength of 0.8 per cent, is always used, as it has been found that this is the amount present in normal serum. Tubercle bacilli in 0.8 per cent, salt solution will occasionally agglutinate spontaneously in the absence of serum, but by reducing tlie salt content to o.i per cent, this can be avoided. Certain non- specific substances such as i : 1,000 corrosive sublimate solution, hydrogen peroxide, various stains, such as fuchsin and safranin, can cause agglutination in an emidsion of bacteria >\hich closely resembles that ])roduced by a serum. We can now go on to a discussion of the various theories put forward at one time or another to explain the mechanism of agglutination of bacteria. A similar phenomenon ma\- be observed in a suspension of small particles of clay in water to which a little salt is added. The particles run together and commence to sediment, leaving the water clear. The same phenomenon has lieen put forward to explain the formation of mud-banks at the mouths of rivers, where the fresh and salt water meet. With bacteria, however, agglutination, except in the spontaneous cases previously mentioned, is always a result of the addition to them of an agglutinating serum. Gniber thought that agglutinin caused the enveloi)es of the bacteria to become sticky, so that they adhered together. This theory explains why bacteria which have once comejn contact with each other stick together, but fails to explain why they approacli each other, and also does not take into account the possible fact that the phenomenon is in part physical. Nicolle thought that the agglutinin precipitated the agglutin- able material in the bacteria, causing them to become swollen and viscous in the outer cover, and thus to adhere to each other. This theory is essentially similar to ( iruber's, and has the same faults. Palta!tone or tree, and Iv/ight green or glaucous on the otlier side, with every gradation between, hence the futility of tru>ting to ci'>lour as a specific character, except in a general wa} . A s|)ecies. where loosely attached to a stone or stumjj, may develop a depauperate condition very unlike an adjoming \igorons patcli : or an exten>ion of the patch iiito dense shade, ^uch as under a stone. ma\- become weak, etiolated, sparse-leaved and flagelliferous ; hence the neces- sity of knowing each ]>lant in nature, under its varying circum- stances, rather than accepting a single herbarium scrap as a specific type. The variation of leaf-form, arrangement, margin, texture and size, and also of the folioles. tioral leaves and perianth, even ui)on a single stem, are often niost confusing, and emphasise the necessity of studying many specimens in a tuft l)efore arriv- ing at a conclusion as to the general t\'pe-form and th.e range of its variation, one of the greatest difficulties being that related species frequentl}- range more or less in the same direction, though normall)- ])osses-ed of characters which render tiiem f(tiite distinct. And perhai^s one of the greatest difficulties to tlie Ijeginner is the frequent intermixture of s])ecies. often clo>el\' related, which has to be very carefullv guarded against in order to avoid confusion. Some of the thalloid s])ecies are annual or u>uall\- annual. others are perennial, and in the fcdiose group ] am not aware of an\- anntial species under conditions suitable for ])rolonged life, but many in that grou]j continue to gro^^• on b\' means of ter- minal or lateral innovations, while the older portion^ d.ie away, and in certain genera it i- tlie haliit for mature stems to become ])r()strate (resembling rhizomes), and ro i)roduce adventitious innovations wdiich become new stem*, therebA' perj^etuating the grcnvth from time to time and forming loose ctishions. No true roots occur, but long, one-celled rhizoid- take their ])lace, sometimes (among thalloid species) of two distinct kinds, the one lar^-e and oi^en. like a vessel in i^'O'-enchvmatous tissue, antl evidentl)' intended fr)r the free flow of sap in quantity, and the other more slender and ])rovideil \\ ith Avartv excrescences on the inner surface, whicli formatiori is ex])laincd to be intended, or at least to act, as an a^->istance in \\ater-carriage where air is ])resent in the cell, which might otherwise form a fttll-sized bubble and stop the ])assage of water, the excrescences holding the bubble in the centre of the lube and allowing water to ]iass alongside. Another explanation is that the projecting pog> lead to an increase on the total area of the ectoi^lastic mcmln'ane which lines the protoplasm of the cell inside the cellwall. and is known 428 SOUTH Ai-KICAX HKrATlC.K. to have important functions in connection with the absorption of water and mineral sahs. Be this as it nia\ , these tuberculate rhizoids, though usually produced on the under-surface of the thallus, extend in some cases from the common receptacles of the fructitication down special almost enclosed grooves in tlie peduncle, and along the under-surface of the thallus t(j the ground-suriace — a distance occasionally of two inches — whicli is held to be a proof that in these cases the i)eduncle is an ad;'.])tation of part of the thallu> itself to a special jjurpose. In certain am])hil)ious Riccicc rhizoids occur on the land form but not on the floating form, where there is no use for them, and on R. nutans they are replaced on the floating form by })rotective flat, serrate scales containing chlorophyll and act- ing as leaves. In the case of epiphytic species the rhizoids are sometimes forked and discoid at the end. for the puq^ose of adhesion. These rhizoids frequently occur in the mo-^t unnatural positions, thus in Ditinorticra. which grows almost in water. they occur on the under->urface of the stalked common recep- tacle, and are specially protected in channels sunk into the peduncle down to the ground ; in many Lejeunece tiiey are grouped on a wart i)roduced on the outer surface of the foliole, and in RaduUi the rhizoitl-producing wart occurs on the infolded lobule of the leaf. The more frcfjuent position, however, is on the under-surface of the >tem. either toward its base only, or occasionally along its entire length, and especiallx in etiolated flagelliferous portions. The ITepaticre, having no true roots, are usually epiphytes, and often adhere very tenaciously, by means of the terminal discs of their rhizoids, to mosses, tree-bark, stones, or other hepatics. They are not known to be parasites, and ])robabl\- never are so ; they are always chloronhyllose. and the chemical ^alts neces- sary for their nutriment thc\' are al)le to absorb directlx', with water, over their surfaces, so that the i)urpose of the rhizoids is, in part at least, the fixation of the ])lant to its host or site; on the other hand, the greater vigour of an undisturlied patch com])ared with that of an adjoining patch which has been more or less detached, shows that either the rhizoids al)'^orl), or they keep the olant in such close contact with the host or site as to render absori^tion easy. There are certain thalloid tienera in wliich water is not absorbed bv the ui)per surface of the thallus, but rhizoids occur on all parts of its under-surface. connecting with central com- mon strands reaching the ground surface. wherei)\ irrigation of the whole thallus is maintained by the rhizoids and by capillaritv between them, apart from the usual osmotic circu- lation within the plant. The special contri\ances found in thi> i^rou]) for tlie reten- SOUTH AFRICAN H lU'ATl C'.K. 42C) tion of water supply, and to prevent (1_\ ing out. are extremely wonderful. In the thalloid grouj) the mass of overlapping thalli, held in position by rhizoids, is i)roof against nmch desiceation; in Finibi'iarid and some others the under-surface of the thallus, which curves round and comes more or less uppermost when dr}'. is ])rotected by radiating plates or ridges ending in scale- like a])])endages, which in youth ])rotect the growing point; in -T/t'to/r/'m and m Riccia alho -luan/iiiata the margin of the thallus is protected by cellular hairs, whicli. when dr\', lie Hat, or fold under the thallus and form w;iter-retainers ; in many foliaceous sj)ecies the leaves are closely imbricated, or even julaceous ; some have the leaves finely divided, and when dry curled inwards; in others the two e(|ual lobes of the leaf are more or less closely pressed together and retain water between them ; in others, again, the upper lobe is large and complanate, protecting a smaller lobe i)ressed against its tmder-surface or concave under it, and so holding moisture. In Fntllania the smaller lobe is convex toward the other, but is more or less pcuiched. forming a pitcher protected by the upper lol)c ; in a few species succulent and almost leafless liasal shoots are pro- duced as resting^ shoots in others { Lricimcac ) restino- Ijuds occur as undeveloped lateral branches. In most of the foliaceous species the perianth is more or less tubular and erect : in Kantia, which grows on exposed clav banks, it is succulent and pendu- lous, i^roducing rhizoids, while in Lindujina the tuberous down- ward elongation of the sporogone enters the soil and anchors that uortion of the plant, besides i)roducing rhizoids.* In manv species succulent gemmre are produced, which act as resting buds, or idtimatelv as detached plantlets ; in others the more or less succulent old stem survives and performs the functions of a rhizome; while there are those which produce special rhizomatous branches. In man\- thalloid kinds a water- proof UDDcr surface protects a succulent formation in which assimilation is performed only bv special cells enclosed within protected cavities, and is most of the thalloid. as well as some foliose species, oil is stored abundantly in the cells. By one or other of all these means, or by other means not detected or not mentioned above, the apparently delicate Hepaticc-e survive many climatic vicissitudes. Strangelv enough, a few species are so regularly aquatic in their habits that they have to provide special means of obtaining air. and some which are amphibious undergo modification to suit their environment. * This peculiar structure has heeii noted elsewhere, and Prof. Shiv Ram Kashyap, in reference to West Himalayan Liverworts, says : " Dur- ing the rainy season 4 or 5 inches of rain in 24 hours is not unusual, and occasionally the rainfall may reach 8 to 10 inches. The force of the water on the slopes is naturally very strong, and the plants liave to he firmly fixed in order to escape l)cing washed away." — ( A'Vzc Phylolo;^ist, June-July. I9r_i, p. 207). 43,0 SOUTH AFKUAX HEPATIC^. Sexttal reproduction i> by means of antheridia (^male organs) and archegonia (female organs) almost as in the mosses. The sexual arrangements are found to take four principal forms, z'i::;. : Synoicous, when the antheridia and archegonia occur mixed together; monoicoiis. when they occur on ditierent parts 'of the same plant; dioicoiis. wlten they occur only on different plants; paroicous, when the antheridia occur in the axils im- mediately below the archegonia; but it occasionally happens that more than one of these conditions cati be found on the ^anie species. In the greater numl)er of foliaceous Hepaticje the fertile inflorescence is at first terminal on a stem or branch, but by the growth of one or two innovations immediately below it, its position often appears a little later to be either lateral or in a dichotomous fork.- This constitutes the section AcroiiytKc. In the section Anacro(jy}uc it is not terminal, but either on the surface of the stem or thallus, or on short special l)ranch- lets. Among the thalloid llepaticae highly specialised modifica- tions of parts of the thallus occur, in some cases as elevated organs acting as common receptacles of the sexual ]3arts ; in others, pits are sunk into the thallus itself, in which these sexual organs occur,' and it is mostly upon the variations in this res]:)ect that systematic arrangement is based. In addition to sexual reproduction, many species have the power and habit of producing plants from gemma;, which are adventitious asexual reproductive organs, produced in some cases on the leaf margin, in other> on a special di.scoid stem- apex, and in the thalloid genera in special gemmae cups. This means of reproduction is freriueiit in certain si')ecie-, and is altogether absent in others. In some species it occurs usually on .--terile parts or plants; in others this is not so, but its effectiveness is seen in Lnindaria, apparently an important plant to Soutli Africa, in which sexual reproduction has not been observed here, though its reproduction by gemmae and distribution with greenht)use plants has carried it to many localities, and the same has happened to it in Northern Europe, its home being the Mediterranean region. Goebel goes .so far as to say: " I have been led by my investigations to the view that every cell in the Hepatic^e has the latent capacity to develop furth.er. like the spore, but this is only called forth if there is an enfeeblememt of the vegetative body."* Certain species have also an abnormal multiplication of parts, a sort of crested or double condition which seems to be vegetative only. This occurs in Anthoccms, Fossombronia, Aneura, and possibly others. In most of the foliose Hepaticse the leaves are alternate and comi^lanate, i.e., flat in two rows, though the mode of attach- * Goebel, "Organography of Plants," (1905) 2, 52. SULTli Al-Rir.\.N HEI'ATIC.E. 4^1 nient varies considerably. BuL in many cases there is a third row, consisting of small leaves (^foliolesj placed on the under- surface of the stem, nearly opposite every second leaf, thus completing a normal tristichous leaf-arrangement, although species occur in which 'these are irregularly present, and this sometimes happens in regard to different branches of one plant. These folioles, characteristic, of many Hepatic?e, are pre- sent in very few cases among the mosses. The hepatic capsule is usual!}- a tender hyaline structure, which at maturity bursts almost or (juite to the 'base, either inegularly or into four or eight valves, in 'which latter case it somewhat resembles that of the Andreaeace'ae among tlie mosses; indeed, in the earlier systematic works, the s]:)ecies of Andresea were included in the hepatic genus jungermannia. But the HepaticcC have a hyaline seta also ( wlien a seta is present), and have the habit of retaining the capsule in the perianth till the spores are mature, at which stage the' delicate seta develops rapidly — often in one day — to its full length, which may be up to an inch or more ; then the capsule bursts, disperses its spores, and then disai)pears as rapidly as it arrived. In view c^f this Ijeing the usual case in nature, it is worthy of mention that in carefully dried specimens the l)urst capsules are as easily preserved as the foliage, and I have man}- South African specimens 25 years old, and some European specimens 50 years old, in which the burst capsules, as well as the spores and elaters. are in good form, and as ht for examination to-day as when alive. 1 have already referred to the spiral elaters foutid in the capsule among the spores, and would only add that either these elaters, or in the lower forms sterile cells, are i)resent in ever\' case in the Hepatic^e except Riccia, and never in the mosses. In their early stages the\- are shortly cylindrical cells, often loose, in each of which either one or two S])iral bands are closely coiled. Before maturity of the spores the cell-wall of the elater entirely breaks down, releasing the coil, which lengthens out, but still retains its spiral or two-s]:)iral form, these respective conditions holding good through large orders, which are evi- dently homogeneous, quite ai)art from this minute character. The function of the elater is still undecided, some claiming that its contents aid the nutrition of the young spores ; others that it aids spore distribution. Probably it has its use in both these directions. What has been said so far has been culled from South African examples, though, of course, much of it applies to Hepaticc'e in general. But in regard to the Hepatic^e of South Africa it may be further stated that the list attached hereto shows that the local flora is fairly representative of the Hepatic flora of the whole world. Tn a general way it may be said that almost all the 43^ SOUTH AFRICAN HEPATICE. South African genera are widely distributed in similar climates; also that nn)St of the genera found in similar climates elsewhere are represented in South Africa, though there are a few excep- tions both ways, mostl}- in exceedingly local or monotypic genera. There are tropical genera which have not yet been recorded, but our tropical regions have not yet been well explored in this connection. There is also a scarcity of certain conduplicate- leaved cold-region forms ( Scai)ania. Lophozia, etc.), which may also to some extent be removed when the mountain streams of the Drakensberg are further explored. Btvt there is no distinctively South African group, such as occurs among the Phanerogams ( Protea, Restio. Erica, Mezem- bryanthemum, etc.), the nearest approach being the tendency toward a succulent sporogonium found in several genera ; also the 2/ species of Lejeuneaceae may be compared with the absence of that Family California.* In regard to the (listributi(jn of genera, one has to consider along with that the limitations of these genera, on which point ©pinions still vary considerably, antl may do so for ages. But in regard to species, although many are of wide range, a very considerable number of the names on the list rejM-esent what are regarded as South African endemic species, though closeb' related and sometimes almost identical with species which occur elsewdiere. On this point Spruce, after describing minute characters wherein one South African plant differs from its European relative, very appropriately says: "Now the question is, are these differences to be accounted specific or merely varietal? The same question recurs almost whenever a European species reajjpears in South America and Africa, for the coincidence of structure is scarcel}- ever exact, and although we are sure that these analogous forms have had a common ancestor at no very remote period, we find it difiicult to so bridge over the oceanic interval as to account for the very wide dispersion."! C. F. Austin, in dealing with the forms of a certain moss, says : " These forms clearly depend upon external causes — as matrix and climate — for the development of their peculiarities ; fn fact, so far as I have observed, there is no sitcJi thing as variety among any of the Cryptogams in the sense in which the term variety is applied to Phanerogams ; none of them having the power to rei:)roduce their peculiarities under a change of matrix, or of climatic influence." + T^articularly in regard to colour and vigour, on which many .so-called species have been founded, does this hold good. If Austin's view is accepted, then we have local conditional forms. subject to circumstances which may or may not be of a per- * •' The Hepaticse and Anthocerotes of California." by M. A. Howe. rSgg. t Spruce, in Pearson, Hepaticcc Xatalensis. (1886) 10. i Bot. Cazcttc. October 1877. page 14.3- SOU'J'-II AFKLCAN llKl'Al'IC.'E. 433 iiianent or general nature, rather than varieties, and it is quite probable that some local so-called ciideinic species come under that head. As some of the South African species are known to also occur in India, China, Japan, Java, Australia, North, South, and Central America, West Indies, and many oceanic islands, as well as in Europe and in other parts of Africa, there would be little reason for surprise if others, now regarded as South African only, prove eventually, when better known to a larger circle, to be also represented elsewhere ; nor is there any reason for surprise if many further foreign species be still found in South Africa, where so man\- different climatic conditions occur. And it must be rememl)ered tb.at in many cases a herbarium expert deals with a specimen, or even a scrap, rather tham a species, and would give a different verdict if he could combine abundant held work, in many countries, with his microscopic study. It is evident that the main groups and even the larger genera are practically cosmopolitan, a proof either that these types are very primitive or that their trans-oceanic distribution is more easily accomplished than is that of Phanerogams. How that distribution occurs has not been proved, but it seems prob- able that the spiral elaters may be at least one factor, since the spores often adhere to the elater, which may act as a float in long-distance wind currents. If this be so, it indicates extra- oidinary endurance on the part of the spore — an endurance also exhibited against extreme cold in arctic and antarctic regions, and against extreme drought in desert rc,:^ions — and it also points to a use for the papilla? which cover the spores of many species. It is believed that the Hepticie are a very primitive group, but if the world-wide distribution dates back to remote ages, under different geographical and climatic conditions, then one would expect more ])ronounced local specific and even generic variation than actually occurs, were it not that the environment has remained more or less the same, being a water environment. A good many species have identical characters in all parts of the world : are these fixed types which have remained un- broken through countless ages, or are they more recent types, possessed of long endurance in the spore condition and well- developed though still undetected or unproved powers of trans- portation ? Strong arguments may be ])roduced in favour of either view ; for the foriuer is the fact that the same cosmopolitan character is seen among the green fresh-water Alga;, and these could not have been distril)uted by wind or even by salt water ; for the latter view is the fact tb.at some of these world-wide species are ubiquitous where conditions are favourable, occurring even in remote oceanic islands and in spots far distant from the nearest locality suitable for and inhabited by the same class c 434 SOUTH A1'RRA>4 HliPATIC.?!. of Hepatics, a circumstance which, so far as we know, could only occur through wind transportation and the continual free distribution of spores, even at the cost of very many lost through failure to hnd a suitable nidus. But the subject of trans-oceanic migration is further com- plicated by the fact that while the more or less xerophilous forms usually have small spores, destitute of chlorophyll but possessed of a special protective covering, often papillose and sometimes more or less ribbed, there are other He})atics. especially those of hygrophilous nature, whose spores are tliin-walled and chloro- phyllose, and usually germinate as soon as mature, sometimes even l^efore they are shed from the parent plant, and still some of these are widely distributed. Wide exotic distribution is, however, more frequently the case with aquatic or amphibious plants, even in the higher Phanerogamic orders, than it is among other and particularly xeroph\tic plants. In connection with this and with ihe whole ((uestion of evohition of mosses and Hepaticse from a common source. Goebel sums up the matter thus :* — From the varying vegetative organs " we gain the impression that the Hepaticcc, apart from the Anthoccroiccc. are a younger group, still in a condition of flux as compared with the older more hxed Musci," but the structure of the sexual organs " appears to he an inherited portion from common ancestors. In other words, if we assume a descent in general, it follows that the vegetative organs must have been greatl}- changed in different directions, while the sexual organs have altered but little." South Africa was early in tb.e held in regard to the study of Hepticre. for wdiile I-innseus. in his " Species Plantarum " (1764). had only 2^ species from the whole w-orld, Thunljerg added some from South Africa in his " Prodomus Florse Capensis " ( 1 794- 1 800 ) . During the first half of the nineteenth century further r]jecimens were collected in South .\frica, mostly near Capetown, by Bergius, Breutel. Menzies. Mund, Ecklon, Drege, Krauss. Gueinzius, and Dr. Pappe, \vhich were sent to Europe and classified and described by experts there in many publications and under many synonyms. Chaos w^as reduced into order by the publication in 1845- 1847 of Gottsche, Lindenburg and Nees' " Synopsis Hepati- carum," in which the Hepatic?e of the world, as then known, were dealt with, and that work still holds an honoured place, and is indispensable to the student of South African Hepaticde. More recent collectors include Rev. A. E. Eaton (Cape), Iverson (Knysna), Bertelsen (Natal), Rehmann, Dr. Wilms, IMacLea. Bachmann, etc., whose specimens have been dealt with and new ones described, by Mitten, Pearson, Schiffner, and Stephani ; Cavers recently described the interesting Riella •■'Goebel, " Org^anography of Plants," (1905) 2, tacles), which are either sessile or more or less pedunculate. No columella present. Family 2. Txtcciace.e. Antheridia and archegonia im- mersed singly in cavities of the U])pcr surface of tb.e thalhis. Sterile cells not present among the spores. Coins 2. Eiccia. Small terrestrial or aquatic thalloid plants. 2. R. albomarginata Besch. 3. R. bullosa Link. 4. R. concava Besch. 5. R. fiuitans Linn. = Ricciella. 3b. R. fluitans Linn. z-ar. angustifolia. (S. R. limbata Besch. 7. R. natans Linn. := Ricciocarpus. 8. R. purpurascens L. & L. = Ricciella. 9. R. sp. Family 3. Targioniace.^. Archegonial group terminal, sessile, enclosed in two scales ; antheridia on special short branches. Elaters 2-3-spiral. Genus 3. Targionia. Small thalloid plants, on alluvial soil. 10. T. capensis Hiib. Family 4. AIarchantiace.^. Antheridia and archegonia in separate grou])s : archegonial groups placed on peduncled recej)- tacles ; sterile cells (usually spiral elaters) present among the spores. Section i. Operculatae. Capsule dehiscing irregularly, or liv its lid becoming detached in one piece. Sub-section i. Carpocephala dorsal, produced in succession on the thallus surface, the peduncle not grooved or furrowed. Coins 4. Plagiochasma. Involucres i to 4, with one arche- gonium in each, and erect through absence of dorsal ti>sue on the rece})tacle. 11. P. sp. Rhodesia. Sub-section 2. Carpocephalum terminal, its peduncle grooved (except Lnnuliiria } . Involucres horizontal or ])endent, often containing more than one archegonium. Coins 5. Rebotilia. Capsule cap falling away in frag- ments. Perianth none. 12. R. hemispherica Raddi. = Marchaniia hoiiisphcrica Linn. Asterella lionisplierica P. de B. Coins 6. Grimaldia. Capsule ca]) se])arating as a distinct Jid. Perianth none. 13. G. sp. 4.^8 SOUTH AFRICAN HEPATIC.l'.. Genus 7. Fimbriaria. Special perianth present, consisting of many membranous segments, permanently protruding from the involucre. 14. F. Bachmannii St. Pondoland. 15. F. marginata Nees. Common. 10. F. muscicola St. 17. F. Wilmsii St. Section 2. Compositae. Each involucre contains a grouj) of archegonia. Capsule splitting into 4 to 8 teeth. Gouts 8. Lumularia. I'eduncle of receptacle not grooved. Antheridia clusters sessile ; antheridia stalked. Gemmae-cups crescent shaped. 18. L. crnciata (Linn.) Dum. = Marchaiitia cniciata Linn. Lnnuloria vuhjavis Mich. Exotic? usually in green- houses or verandahs. Not seen fertile in South Africa. Genus 9. Dumortiera. I'eduncle 2-grooA'ed. air chambers and pores usually absent ; antheridiophores nearly sessile. No gemuKC-cups, or gemmse. 19. D. hirsuta (Sw.j R. Bl. t^c N. =^Marchantia liir- siiio Sii'.; D. irrigua R. BJ. & N.: /). hirsuta Tcir irriijua Spruce. Frecitient in forest streams. Genus 10. Marchantia. Peduncle 2-grooved ; air-chambers and pores conspicuous ; antheridiophore pedunculate. Gemmge- cups round. 20. M. Berteroana L. & L. 21. M. tabularis Nees. = pclyinorpha L. cr L. (not Linn. ). 22. M. Wilmsii St. 23. M. ])olymorpha Linn. Order IIL jUNGERMANNL\LES. Plant foliose in most cases, tlialloid in some ; when thalloid the thallus is not ditterentiated mto layers of different tissue, and is without ]iores. Tubercular rhizoids not present. Sexual organs usually in groups, but not on special pedunculate recep- tacles, and seldom immersed. Caiisule, which is usually on a long seta, is destitute of lid, opens by 4 valves, and contains spiral elaters as well as spores. Apical growth of stem or thallus proceeds from a single apical cell. Sul)-()rder t. ANACRC XiYN.E. Archegonia on the upper surface, not terminal ; involucre of sexual organs conseciuently not representing leaves. b^amily 5. Aneurace.i-:. Plant thalloid. Sexual organs from marginal or ventral branchlets. Elaters unispiral. Ela- terophores remain as tufts on tlie apex of the capsule valves. SOUTH AFRICAN Hril'ATIC.K. 439 Coins 11. Aneiira. Sexual organs from short lateral mar- ginal branches. Capsule ovoid. Thallus often without midrib. 24. A. compacta St. 25. A. fastigiata L & L. = Jung, fastigiata L. & L.; Riccardia fastigiata (L. cr L.) Pears. 26. A. multihda (Linn.) Duni. = .fiiitg. iiniltifida Linn. Riccardia iiiiiltifida Gray. 27. A pinnatifida Nees. Gciiiis 12. Metzgeria. J-'exual organs on branchlets from the midrib on the under surface. Capsule spherical. 2S. M. furcata (Linn.) Dum. = Jung, furcata Linn. 2g. M. nudifrons St. Family 6. Blvttiace.e. Plant thalloid ; sexual organs from the upper surface, not marginal ; capsule ovoid ; elaters 2-spiral ; elateroi)hores absent. Ring-fibres absent from cells of capsule wall : dehiscence of capsule valves incomplete. Genus 13. Blyttia. Perianth present; calyi)tra thin. Grows on moist soil. 30. B. Stephani (lack). = Pallavicinia Stephani Jack. 31. B. Lyellii G. L & N. =-- Jung. LyeUii IJk.; Palla- vicinia L yell a Gray; Dilccna Lyellii Dum. Com- mon. Goius 14. Symphog'yna. Perianth absent, calyptra succu- lent, bearing the archegonia on its upper portion. Grows on moist soil. T,2. S. Harveyana Tayl. ;^T,. S. Lehmanniana M. & N. = Jung. Lchmanniana Mont. Jung. Lyellii L. & L. 34. S. podophylla AL & N. -= Jung, podophylla Thun. 35. S. rhizoloba Nees. = Jung, rhizoloha Seine. Family 7. CoDONI.\CE.^i. Plant with stem and leaves. Cap- sule globose. Genus 15. Fossombronia. Folioles absent. Rhizoids pur- ple. Frequent on moist soil in shade. 36. F. crispa Nees. = Jung, pusilla Leiini. 37. F. leucoxantha L. & L. = Junq. leueo.vantlui L. & L. TfS. F. ]wsil]a ( Linn. ) Dum. = Jung, pusilla Linn. 39. F. tumida Mitt. Sub-order 2. ACR()GYN.li. Archegonia terminal on stem or Ijranch, the involucre ( ])erianth ) representing true leaves. Antheridia borne in axils of more or less modified leaves. Stem always producing two lateral rows of leaves, and an additional row of small leaves (= folioles or amphigastria) is often present on the lower surface. Tribe 1. Jubuloide.e. Elaters few, with only one spiral fibre, and fixed by one end to the capsule-wall, and pendent, extending to the base of the capsule-cavity. Archegonia usually 440 SOUTH AFRICAN HKPATIC-IJ. I to 4. Leaves incubous, usually complicate — 2-lobed, the lower lobe (lobule) small. Folioles usually present ; perianth usually ridged, and contracted above to a narrow mouth till burst by the capsule. Seta short ; capsule globose, the lower })art solid. Family 8. pRULLAXiACE.ii. Branches intra-axillary ; inno- vations rarely present. Archegonia usually 2 or few in a group. Lobule convex toward the upper lobe, and usually pouched, galeate, lunate, cylindrical or crested, with a short attachment to the larger lobe, and separate from the stem, a small subulate process being usually present between. Genus 16. Frullania. Characters of the family. Usually epiphytic. 40. F. apiculata Nees. = Jung, apiculata Hep. Jav. 41. F. brunnea Spreng. = Jung, bninuea Spreng. 42. F. caffraria St. 43. F. capensis G. 44. F. diptera Nees. = Jung, diptero L. & L. 45. F. Ecklonii (Spreng.) L. &. L. ; --= .lung. Rcklonii Spreng; .lung, arecce Spreng.; Fr. M undtiajia L. & L. 46. F. Lindenbergii G. 47. F. squarrosa L. & G. = Jung, iuherculaia L. & L. 48. F. serrata G. 49. F. trinervis L. & G. ; = Ju)uj. lobulata Spreng.; Jung, dillatata L. Cr L.; Jung, obsrura L. & L. 40,'^. F. trinervis L. & G. z'or elongata =^ Jung, elon- gata L. & L. 50. F. tamarisci (Linn.j Dum. = Jung, taiuaiisci Linn.; Jubula tamarisci Duiu. Family q. Lejeuneack.i:. Branches infra-axillary; innova- tions usually present immediately below the female inflorescence, which is monogynous. Lobule usually present, concave toward the upper lobe, or flat, usually with a long attachment, and often attached to the stem also; sometimes the lobule is absent or only the lower margin inflexed. Capsule wall of 2 layers, the inner thickened irregularly. Usually epiphytic. Genus 17. Lejeunea. Involucral leaves like the others; lobule of leaf various. (The sub-genera given below are often treated as genera, and may be .>o by me in future. ) § Acrolcjeunea. 51. L. cucullata Nees. 52. L. Pappeana Nees. = OmPhahirithus Pappeaiui H. dy N.; Phvagiuicoiua Pappeana Nees. § Anouialolejeunea. ^2,- L. pluriplicata Pears. = Anoni. pluripHcata Spruce. § Archilejeunca. 54. L. chrysophylla L. &: L. = Jung, chrysopliylla LeJnu. -SOUTH AFRICAN IIEI'ATU'.K. 44.I =;5. T,. rotun(Hsti])ula Ldbg. = Jiiiu/. rotiindislif^ula Ldb(j. 56. L. unciloba Ldbg. S/. I.. xanthocar]:)a L. & [,. = Jiiiu/. xaiilJiocarf^a L. & L. § Colotcjcituea. 58. L. niinutissima Duin = Coldcj. iniiiiillssluia {Dum) St. § Diplasiolejeiiiica. 59. L. Kraussiana Ldbg-. =: Piplnsiolcj. Kraussiaiia ( Ldbcf. ) Si. § Drcpanolejeunca. 60. L. bamatifolia Dum. = Jitinj. haiiiatifolia Unok. Drepanolejeiiiica liainatifolia {Dtdii.) St. § Fiiiosiiiolrjcunra. 61. L. trifaria Nees ( inchKllng T.. rufescens Tjlbg.) = Eiiosiiiolcjcuiica nifcscrns [Ldhij.) Si. § Enlejcuvea. 62. ].. BrenteHi St. 63. ].. caespitosa Ldbg. 64. I., capensis (i. 65. L. cavifolia (Ehrh) Ldbg. --= Jkiu/. scrpyflifolia Dicks. Lejeuuca scrpyllifolia Lib. 66. L. Eoklonii Ldbg. ; == Jiinr/. St-rpyllifolia L. vr L. 67. L. flava Sw. = .lung, flavo Si<\ ^'/S- L- flava Sw. var convexiuscula I 'ears. d^. L. laeta L. & L. 69. L. isomorpba (Cl.) = Etilcjcintca isDiiiorplia G. 70. L. tabularis (Spreng.) L. & G. = Jung, tabuhiris Sprcng. yi. L. Wihiisii (Step.) rr:^ Rulcjcunca W'ibusii St. § Microlcjcuuca. 72. L. gracilHma Mitt. J2)- L. Helense Pears. § Ptycholejeunea. 74. L. striata L. &-. L. = Plyclianllius squarrosus Lcliiit. § Strcpsilejeunca. 75. L. krakakamniie Ldbg. § Ta.vilejcunca. 76. L. valHs-gratise St. Genus 18. Thysantbus. Invohicral leaves two. different from the others. uiKXiually 2-lobed. Lower margin of leaf inflexed. yy. T. africanns St. Tribe IL Jl'Nckkmanni.i-:. Klaters many, variously arranged but never as in Jubuloidecc. Elaters with 2 or more sjjiral fibres in each. Archegonia usually numerous in a group. 442 SOUTH AFRICAN HEPATIC.E. always more than four. Leaves various ; perianth often not ridged ; seta long ; capsule 4-valved. bursting to the base. Family 10. Porellace^. Leaves incubous. complicate-2- lobed, the lower lobe the smaller. Capsule wall of 2 layers, the inner thickened irregularly. Folioles present. Perianths ter- minal on short lateral branches, free. Genus 19. Madotheca. Characters of the family. Both epiphytic and on soil. 78. M. capensis G. = Forclla caj^cnsls Mitt. 79. M. sp. 8g. M. sp. Family 11. Radulace.e. Leaves incubous. complicate-2- lobed. the lower lobe the smaller. Ca])sule-wall of two layers, the inner thickened irregularly. Folioles absent. Perianth usually terminal on the stem, compressed, free. Rhizoids often produced from a wart on the lobule.. Genus 20. Radula. Characters of the family. Fpipbytic or on wet mud. 81. R. at[uilegia Tayl. =: R. f^liysoli)ha Moiit. 82. R. capensis St. 83. R. complanata Dum. =: Juufj. coiuphuiala Linn. Jubulo coiuplanata Corda. 84. R. Lindbergii G. = R. coiuimilata G. Family 12. Scavaissiaceal. Leaves transverse or succubous, comi)licate-2-lobed, the upper lobe the smaller, or the lobes nearly equal. Folioles often i)resent. Genus 21. Schistochila. Peric^iUth connate with the caly]:)tra into an erect fleshy marsupium. Rhizoids red. Foliole bififl and toothed. 85. S. alata (Nees) = GottscJica alota Ners. Familv [3. Ptilidiace.ti. leaves either incubous or almost transversely inserted, deeply cut into two or more segments, not conduplicate ; folioles i)resent, similar and almost as large. In- volucral leaves polyphyllous. Perianth plaited at the mouth, often concrescent with the involucre. Genus 22. Chanondanthus. Inflorescence terminal. Leaves deeply several-lobed. dentate at base; folioles similar and about as large, but 2-lobed. 86. C. hirtellus (Web.) Mitt. -: Jung, hirtella IJ'eh. Jung, fimbria I a Rich. Genus 2T,. Anthelia. Inflorescence terminal on stem and branches, leaves imbricate, keeled, with 2 equal acute lobes ; folioles similar. Involucral bracts adnate to the base of the perianth. Sy. A. africana St. Genus 24. Herberta. Inflorescence terminal; leaves secund. deejily 2-lobed ; lobes long and narrow with a central band of long cells resembling a midrib. Perianth free but nearly con- cealed among bracts. 88. H ochroleuca. (Spreng.) = Jung, ochroleuca Spreng. ; SOLTFI AFRICAN IIKPATK-K. 443 SoidtJici'.i ochvoJenca Nccs ; Lepioma f^chrolcuca Sprctu). : Jitnc/. hirsiila Arcs: Scliisnta ochrolcuca Pmii. (iciins 2>. Lepicolea. [nrtorcsccncc cl:Kloi^"\noiis ( I.e.. on sliort lateral l)ranchlets ) . Sq. T.. sp. Family 14. Ci:phalozjaci:.1':. Leaves not complicate, usually cut into two or occasionally several sefmients, in some species entire ; folioles usually |)resent. Perianth sometimes cylindrical, luore usuallv triangular in cross section with one side of tlie triangle on the upper surface. Female inflorescence usuall}' on short branches from the lower surface. § 1 Feaves rounded, succnhous ; marq-in entire or toothed. Genus 26. Odontoschisma. Leaves entire, oblifjuely in- serted; folioles small and sulxilatc, or al:)sent. ( )n clav banks, yo. O. denudatum ( Xees) Dum. == .fitiig. dcniidatum Nees: CcpJialozia dcnudala Mart: Sphaguocetes coinumnis Nc'c.^. I'or niacrior \ccs. Genus 27. Adelantbus- Leaves transversely inserted, more or less secundly 1jein downward, the up])er margin entire and inciu"ved. the lower margin dentate. Folioles absent or rudi- mentary. Stem ascending, not rooting. Marsujiium -hort. Genus 2H. Alobiella. T. eaves entire or bidentate ; stem pros- trate, rooting. 93. A. sp. § 2. Leaves incubous, entire or 2-t, dentate. On soil or among mosses. Genus 29. Kantia. Feaves entire or bidentate: folioles present; often bitid or emarginate ; marsupium tubular, fleshy, pendulous, investing the mature sporogonium. 94. K. arguta Ldbg. =: Calypogcia arguUi X. or M. 95. K. bidentula (Web) I'ears. =: Calypof/eia bidcniula N^ees: Cinciiiiiiiliis bidcniiila {ireh) St. (jC). K. fusca (],. tS: F. ) Steph. — .fuiuj. fusai L. & L., Lejcunca fusca L. & L. 97. K. sphagnicola Arn. .Jt Pers. ; = Galypogeia spJiag- nicoJa J1'. c'- /..,• Galypnacia Irlchniminis var sphanicohi Mcvlan. 9S. K. trichomanis Lindb. = Mnniui Irichonianls Linn., p.p.: Calxpogcia Irichonianis Coi'da : C. fissa far inlcgnfolla Raddl: Cinciiiiiiiliis Irichoiiutnis z'ar coninninis Boulay. Genus 30. Bazzania. Leave-^ obli(|ue. from a wide base, narrowed to a rounded or 3-toothed a|)ex. Folioles present. 99. B. convexa (Thun) Alitt. = Jung, convc.vu Tliuri; Jung. Thunbcrgii Mcisn.: Jung, nitida Web.; Masligobrxjun coniwvuin Ldbg.: Pleuroschisma conz'c.va Stcph. 100. B. exile ( Findbg. ) ::= }laslig(ibr\uni c.vile J^dbg. 5^3. Feaves 2-l(^ljcd, succnhous. /{/| I SOUTH AI'KKAN Hl£I'ATK'.i:. Genus 31. Cephalozia. Lca\t'.s tiai or somewhal c(^ncave, obliquely inserted. Small tendei plants, on soil or among- mosses. loi. C. ljicns]>i(lata (TJnn.) Spruce: Jung, hiciisf^idafa Linn. 102. C. connivens ( Dicks j Ldbj^. = Jung, bicuspidata Dicks; Ccplt. uiuUiflora J^dbg. 102I3. C. communis var flagellifera Pears, jo^. C. divaricata ( sm ) Spr. ^^ Jiuk/. divaricala h'.UQ. Bot. 104. C. heteromorpha ( [.ehm) Pears. = Jung, hctcro- niorpha L. cr L. 105. C. Kiaeri (Aust) = Jung. Kiacri Au.'^lin. io(). C tenuissima Lehm. = Junqcrmannia tcnuissnna L. &■ L. Genus 32. Nowellia. Lca\es transversely inserted, very concave. 2-lobed, the lobe^ with long filiform ])oints consisting of one row of cells ; the leaf-margin on the under side of the stem infiexed and saccate, forming a lobule in an unusual position. 107. X. curvi folia (Dicks.) Mitt. = Jttng. curvifdhia J)icks.; Ccphalo.'^u'i runnfolia Dam.: Jung. Baiirri Mart. § 4. Leaves deepl) cut into two or several segments. Usually on soil. Genus 33. Lepidozia. I.ca\e> incubous, obli(|ue, deeply cut into 2 to 6 long narrow segments. Folioles similar but smaller. 108. L. bicruris St. loy. L. capillaris Ldbg. =.////;//. edpillaris Ldbg.; Jung. hippurioides J\iyl. 109/3. L. capillaris Ldbg. var minor, no. L. chiTtophylla Spr. --- Ccplialo.':ia nematodes iG.) Aust.: Jung. nen\atodcs G. IIO/9. L. chjetoph\lla Spr. var tenuis Pears. 111. L. l.'evifolia Xees. = Jung. hcTifolia Tayl. 112. L. setacea (Web.) Mitt. = Jung, setacea IVeb. Blepharostoma sctaceum Dum. 113. L. truncatella Xees. -= Jung, euprcssina Lehm.. Jung, cupressina Lehm. z'ar capensis L. & L. 1 1 3/3. L. truncatella X^ees var minor. Genus 34. Psiloclada. Leaves succubous. 3-3 ]>artite. 114. P. sp. Familv 15. LopiioziAn-.i;. Leaves succubous or trans- versely inserted (not incubous), entire or dentate or 2-lobed. Folioles absent or rudimentary. Perianth when present either laterallv compressed, cylindrical or o\atc. or if triangular in cross section having one side of the triangle on the lower sur- face. Infloresence usually terminal <^n stem or larger branches. except in Chiloscyphus. so I'll I AFRICA X nKI'ATIC\?2. 445 § 1. J.eaves entire or slightlv eniarginate, snccu])ous, alter- nate except in Liudujina. Cfcuiis 35. Jamescniella. Leaves entire, si-mi-aniplexicaui. decurrent, those on either side ut the stem pressed face to face. Folioles al)sent excejjt in the invohicre. TnvoUicral leaves somewliat laciniate. Perianth free, terete-plicate, contracted at the niouth. 115. I. colorata ( S])r. ) Schiffn. ; = Juiui. colorata LcJun. 116. I. sp. Gcitiis 36. Aplozia. Leaves entire, liardly decnrrent ; folioles absent or minute. Perianth free or almost free, terete- plicate, contracted at the moutli. Involucral leaves similar to the stem leaves hut larger. 117. A. Kehmannii (St.) = Jkikj. Rchniainiii St. 118. A. Cc-espiticia ( Ldhg. ) Diuii. = Jitiuj. ccrspiticia Ldb(/.; Solciiostrniia (-(cspiticia Si. (iciin.s^ 37. Notoscyphiis. Leaves entire, not decnrrent, the cells containing oil Ijodies. Folioles present, lanceolate, subulate or bihd. Perianth included in and concrete with the involucral bracts and the hollowed out stem-apex, forming an erect succu- lent marsupium, sometimes having a succulent bulb at the base. ivhizoids white. 119. N. lutescens (L. & L.) Mitt. = .fiiiuj. lutesceiis L. & L.; GyiHiioiiiifrii(m hitcsrciis G.L.N. 120. N. variifolius Mitt. 121. N. vermicularis ( L. (& L. ) == Aliciilaria vcrmi- ciilaris L. & L. 122. N. flcxuosa (Nees), = Aliciilaria flc.vuosa Nees. Genus T^'f^. Nardia. As in Notoscyphus except : — Ivhizoids liuii)le; folioles minute or al)sent, wlien present bifid. 123. N. jackii St. 124. N. stolonifera St. Genus 39. Lindi9ina. Leaves entire op]>osite, scjmewhat connate at the base, closely imbricated: folioles absent. Mar- supium succulent, long, descending into tb.e soil. ( GnugyJanthus ill Marloth's Flora of S. Afr.) 125. L. prostrata G. 126. L. reni folia Mitt. 127. L . scariosa ( Leiim.) Mitt. =^- J iiru/. seariosa Lehm.; Gyiinioiiiifriiin scariosuiii A^^es. Genus 40. Chiloscyphus. Leaves (juadrate, entire or slightly emarginate. Folioles bifid, segments often with a lateral tooth. Inflorescence on short lateral branches. Perianth cam- panulate with wide 3-lobed mouth. (Not well distinguislieil from Lophocolea.) 128. C. expansus Nees -= .///////. e.vpausiis Lehm.; Lophocolea expansa Nees. 44^J SOUTH AKKlCAiX ni:PATlL.'E. J2y. C. fasciculatus L. & U. = J uiiy. fasciciiiatiis Ncis; Jung. Beryiana L. & L. \2gj3. C fasciculatus z'a-' Dregeana. i29f. C. fasciculatus var exarita. 130. C Lindenbergianus Xees. 131. C. lucidus Nees =- Jung, lucidus L. c'r L. J 32. C. oblongifolius Mitt. = C. dubius G. 133. C. polyanthus (Linn.j Corda ; .htng. polyanthus Linn. § 2. Leaves succubous, more or less longitudinally inserted. simple, not concaA-e, usuall\' more or less toothed or spinose. Genus 41. Lophocolea. Leaves alternate, nearly longi- tudinally inserted, with 2-3 large tapering teeth. Folioles bifid, with a lateral tooth on each segment. Perianth terminal on stem and main branches, 3-anglcd and shortly 3-lobed, the angles often winged. 134. L. aberrans L. il^. Li. 135. L. bidentata (Linn.) Dum. = Jung, bidentata Linn. 135,-;^. L. bidentata var capensis. 136. L. coadunata Sw. iS: Xees. ^= Jung, coadunata Sic. 137. L. diversi folia G. 13S. L. heterophylla ( Schrad) Dum = Jung, hctcro- phyUa Sclir. \;^emiteres (Lchm; =•-= Jung, scniitcrcs Lehni : Chiloscyphus seiniicrcs L. & L. J 43. L. setacea St. Genus 42. Leptoscyphus. Leaves >al)-op})Osite, entire or with 2-T, teeth. Foliole attachcri to the adjoining leaf, bifid and toothed. Perianth terminal on main stem, inflated below, laterally compressed above, 2-labiate, lips toothed. .^tem pro- cumbent, with rhizoids. 144. L. Iversoni ( Pears. ) ^ Leioscyphv.s Jvcrsoni Pears. 145. L. sp. Genus 43. Tylimanthus. Leaves with 2 or more large teeth at the apex. Folioles present, small, subulate. Stem sub-erect, with rhizoids in lower part. Marsu])ium solid. descending.. 146. T. africanus Pears. Genus 44. Plagiochila. .^tems erect, without rhizoids. rising from a prostrate rhizome-like structure. Leaves decur- rent ; lower margin straight, apex and upper margin rounded and dentate, or with long spinous teeth. Perianth terminal, laterally compressed, the motith dentate or ciliate. Ejjiphytes or sub-epiphytes. SOUTH AFRICAN llEPATIC.li. 447 147. P. asplenioides (Linn.) Dum.= Jung, asplciiioidcs Lin II. 148. P. corymbulosa Pears. 149. L\ crispulo-candata G. 150. 1'. heterostipa St. 151. 1*. liottscheana Ldbg. = Jung, re panda Schw (of Sprcngcl). 152. P. javanica N. & Al. = Jung, javanica Swartz. 156. P. sarmentosa Lehmn. 154. P. mascarena G. 155. P. natalensis Pears. 156. P. sarmentosa Lehni. 157. 1'. spinulosa (Dicks) Dum. ^ Jung, spimilosa Dicks. § 3. Leaves cc^ncave, 2-lol)ed, transversely inserted. Genus 45. Anastrophylluni. Leaves ovate-])ointed. shorth- and unequally 2-lol)ed, transversely inserted, the base decurrent on the upper side of stem. Folioles usually absent. Perianth terete, ])licate upward ; mouth ciliate. 158. A. sp. Genus 46. Marsupella. Stems sulj-ercct with rhizcjids near the base onlw Leaves equally 2-lobed, transversely inserted, complicate-concave, Folioles absent. Inflorescence terminal ; involucral leaves large, connate below^ and also \Aith the perianth, which is immersed lielow, free above, making an erect marsupium. 159. AL auritus (Nees), == Jung, aurita LcJiui.; Sarco- scYphus auritus Nees. Order IV. ANTHOCEROTALES. Plants thalloid, with smooth rhizoids, and with one large chloroplast in each cell. Antheridia sunk in the tipper surface of the thallus, ultimately bursting free. Sporogonium with a bulbous foot, a sheath, and a long sessile capsule, bursting from the top downward into two valves, with a central columella between. Spores matttring in succession from apex downward, and having sterile cells intermixed. Family 16. Anthocerotace.^. Characters of order. Always on moist soil. Genus 47. Anthoceros. Thallus often flabellate, usually without distinct midrib. Ga])si!le linear, 2-vaived. the valve- surface having stomata. 160. A. crispulus (Mont) Douin =-- A. pu.nctafus var crispulus Mont. 161. A. punctatus Linn. 162. A. minutus Mitt. 163. A. sp. 44<^ TkANSACTIONS OF S( ;ci i-:Tii':s. TRAXSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES. South Akricax Institltjox ok Engineers. — Saturday, April i^tli \V. Ingham, M.I.C.E.. JNI.T.M.E., President, in the chair. — '" The Johannesburg Municipal Electric Pozver Station " : J. H. Dobson. After a few preli- minary remarks on the growth of population and area of Johanneslnirg, whicl: now has a quarter of a million inhabitants, the author devoted the first section of his paper to an account of the gas engine scheme, which was initiated in 190.4, and. after some time of unsatisfactory operation. abandoned in 1907. The present power station steam plant was then exhaustively described, together with some account of the working results and tests on various portions of the plant. During the last six years the number of connections to the mains have increased from 5,720 to 16.091, the total units generated from 12,694,367 to 26,426,072, and the total num- ber ving through space together, or technically, are moving with common proper motion. In dealing with double stars, certain simple fornrcike are wanted, and for purposes of easy reference these are relegated to- an appendix to this paper. Table I contains all those double stars for which fairly reliable orbits have been computed. The magnitudes and spectral classes have been taken from the Harvard Annals. Col. 8 of this table ( H} pothetical Radial) gives the distance in radials for parsecs ) to which the Sim would have to be removed to shine with the same magnitude as the double star. With this hy])o- thetical radial and P, the period, col. 9 has been computed ; it gives the mass or the gravitative power — the expression " gravi- tative power "' appears to be preferable, as mass suggests a body of matter, and it is an assumption to consider mass as equivalent to gravitative power. Col. 10 gives the measured parallax for those stars for which it is available ; col. 1 1 is the reciprocal of this parallax or the radial. Col. 12 gives the magnitude of the Sun if removed to the distance in col. 11. Col. 13 repeats the calculation of col. 9, using, instead of the radial derived from magnitude, that derived from parallax measures. So far as this, table alone goes, it is evident that many of the parallax measures are very weak, and that the distance, upon the simple assumption that all stars have the same brightness as the Sun. is about as trustworthy. 454 -M.XS.SK.S OF \ISU.\L lilNARY ST.\RS. H Flint. Flint. Slocum Slocum & Miller. Miller. Chase. Elkin. Slocum. Russell. Orbit by. ...ni.. " " ' 0 0 .t: ' " Doohttle. Zwiers. Aitken. See. Voute. Doberck & Grossmann c < Star's Gravity. M M 0 w X ro 0 0 • 0 w M • . t^ 0 0 IN M l^, fo 00 99 -1^ • r^ r<^ f^ re C . -r • • • • X t-i Sun's Mag. at dis- tance. 0 ■-^. -H -1 IN 0 • C-l • u~, 10 M 9 . r^ . . . . 1— ( K-l 9 '?■ -f ■ ri t^ " • • 0 - M 0 1-1 0 M . LT; . . . . CI Mea- sured Paral- lax. = ::::::: IN • i;^ 9 9 • ■ 0 0 "000 ' 0 0 w -1- X 99 . «-, . 9 00 0 ' 0 . 9 • . . . 0 Measure of Gravity. C CO <^, -f O '^'i 9 ro 9 o o c o o o o -r C — -r w -'-, ^) 0 0 C> r-i ^1 C 0 1^ 0 00"0N000 -1-x -f -r -^ i-H ro M C) C^i -r 0 Tt 0 0 ^1 C t^ -^x 0 0 ^1 ^e M 0 0 !>• 0 in 0 0 0 0 in Hypo- thetical Radial. o t^ -rco r~~o oo^^c^c^"^. 0>T) o X M w >n t^ ^e O^ "-) 00 N C I') 0 t^ On N t^ re ON re t^ 0 X " t^ 0^ "^ ^ 1^. M « 0) ^ i-t ro C^ -r >C *H M M M 1-1 1-1 1^ M rex X M 1-r. C IN M " 1- 1^1 'O -r w 0 1-1 c< X M M u o C/5 =* IN N "^1 •-< N *-! lO r<-. 0^ 0 t^ li X CI 0 N 0 0 0 X -r N w X CS ■* -rt-O c^ ^. C N X X X -1-0 0 N Th re re • ^ t^ 0 O 0 O O 0 0 o occccooo M 0 0 ic « c 0 ^- 0 0 i-i ■6 o 'C o O X r-- N o " r^ '1-1 -t- C^ "^ 0 1"^ 0 -•', -r r^ "O 'C 11-1 M I-^O iC 1-1 0 0 ^ u". re N 0 u^ 0 r< .re :^x ?s « 1-1 M >-i M 1^. 'C 10 >'-. u~. C M ^ OtMiNriNCSrOro Tt- in,o 0 M " ro ro ro T) — r -r ri '-e -)- tT u-j Spec- trum. iC >r; X X >0 N fe ;l, ;x< tn ki< ^ < r, 0 .9 10 >0 ; 0 \—<^ — ^- ^ ^< r-H 0 "^- IT: le, M C r h ^ r^ f;^ ^^i ■ ■ ! ; le, 0 X 1 ■£ d ^ -t- (^ t^x o w O M IN -r 1- !^ r^ ^ -1- 1-1 t-^ lO IN M >o^^»-^x r^ii-)^ 0 0 0 X c- >o 0 C^ IN -i-X C XXX -)-o M I-^ 0 -T-O 1-1 N -1- lO -rvC r^.O N iri 10 ic -r "~. ^. t^ 10 re t^ t^ 0 "1^. in 0 O' ^''.•o -^ "-) d o Q O G> M C^ t^ ^ i-( 0 O -1- "~. "". C C 0 4-14-14-4-1 inx CT' t^< 1^. u"ix 0 M 'e M ^, M 1/-) >n M '^, u~.X 'C -t-X t^ l-l M C4 1-1 iM ►^ "-. 4-1 14-4-4-4-4- t^ 0 c^ 0 re 0 -5- w IS 10 re M C^ 0 le -r 0 re M re re re 4-4-4-4- 1 4- 1-1 Tt- ino •^ -r t^ • X iH N c^ CI M re 4-4- 4-14- < -> O w w N U-, C^ N 0 "N IN -< 0^ OX 'T 10 0 "^ M 1- - reO m, ON re A O 0 O re M lO O C ro "i- rO -i- Tf in „• 1- o ■- X X -i-x — M N >- 1-1 -)- r^ IN in 0 MX t^ ro 'I- ^ lO CO irj "^ ^. r- C -^, -^- 0 -^. M t-i ^ ^ ri .-1 t^ c) u-1 -r M 0 re w IN re 1- hi vD 0 re t^ r^ in M M - ►- X rj ■ X X re -1- -t- ■ M in in ^ t-^ f inx Star. , ••::::::::::;:; :::;:: :;:;:: i I Equuleus 13 Cetus . . K Pegasus Aitken 88 f Hvdra . . /•< S83 'C Sagittarius . . . aj X . . . .CQ i£ 3 .a, 0 C ac Cm 0 i- iN t* 10 0 4; — 1 r^ a; « 1- O^OP-I ^ , .o o Hussey. Celoria. Aitken. Norland. Doberck. Aitken. See. Aitken. Burnhain & Hussey. Sec. Lohse. Lohse. See. Aitken. See. Lohse. V. Bies- broeck. star's Gravity. M -f ro M m M M -t- • N ro • ro -^ ro O 1.0 00 0 • 0 M . .0 MM 0 Sun's Mag. at dis- tance. • ■ 0 o 9 r~ • C 1^ • 'O vo ro 0 ■ 0 ro ■ • — • • • Ha-, dial. ■ • 0 0 o • C 'o • in ^1 ro in ro • M -f • -CO . . . Mea- sured Paral- lax. = • • 9 o ON ry-. 0 M T^ 00 •CO • M O 0 0 VO 04 01 . !>. CS ■ • M Measure of Gravity. o ■*- 1^^ O M O (N ro u-1 O M O ON M M 9 9 -fo 71- 0 0 N 0 0 M 0 -1- M CO tn N ro 0 M \0 00000 M 0 0 0 0 •■ M On -t- 0 -r ro 0 C ro C 0 0 T- -r ON in M 0 M 0 0 Hypo- thetical Radial. On 00 O IT) O. CO CO ■:1- CO 0 t^ N rooc N t^ ON -+■ 0 t^ -i-co 0 0) ON 0 0 in onO i>. CO' M 0 M f-. to w 0< c 0 r-l re M iri M M ro 0 M 0 PI 0 M M M M C) in M c 01 -0 -r 01 0) ro CO 0 00 04 04 04 Orbit. O u-j On to 00 0 CM ro ■ 00 -f On 0 0 inco r-- 00 0 ro t^ in in 0 01 o< ■ • ro r^ in 0 0 -r T -r -^ GO in ro MOO c^ 0 COM 0 M 0 0 0 0 t>. .;!- M 0 0 M coo 5 O lO 0 ?^ ■ ■ ■ >o o t^ ':^ -^ -:)- ri ro On -f 0 • t^ 9 M UO 0 00 ON lO 10 10 10 M 0 CO ON in 0 rooo M Tf 0 0 0 c-^ r^ 9 7-' 9' 9 9 . . t^ ON r^oo X c t^ t-^cc 00 CO 0 9 __ Ol 0 0 1>- 0 ON On Spec- 2 'o : 0 ^ rM <^ 0 in ; 0 n 1 1- -M rO N CO =0 CO 00 ro M 0 0 M 00 >nco 0 M uo r^ -^ M 0 M -1- M ON M t^CO 0 C ON 0 0 roco t^ 04 Tj- ro in 04 U-, t^ rr; M 1 in 0 0 t-- CO in >n n t>. 00 -f 01 0 t^ (^o r^ oo. 'J On "~, r^ ^ iri re rr-, 1 4- 4- •n m O 1— 1 1 M 00 r^o in ro M • 0 CO N -r -1- ro ro 4- 4-4-4- t-- rooo CO On in ro ro ro ro t^ 0 t> M ro M ro 'C -f- 4-4-14-4- 0 in M in t^ c ■n 04 ro 01 M in M 0 r^ CO vC m. + 7 4- 1 4-4-' 0 ^eco -r -1- re in 01 -r ro Tf- + + + ON n 04 00 -1- M 01 ro re M ^ M -tX '1 — C M M M M 0 in M — -*- Tt- 0 ON n- M M M star. ... 1 cn 3 ro C 1■ -. ir-.O c?5 'W 0 3 0 ;., S .i: rS CO ■' c c ):', ^ X -< < . . '-^ ►^. !i Cancer 99 Hercules 8 Sextans 0 2 235 . . „ 400 . . f tn . 73 5 i£ • • -t- rt 'C rt .2 • ■ r. i^ » CO -Z 'O 04 f ^1 - 456 MASSES OF \'IS'JAL I'.IXARV STARS. K O « K u O' ^ . Cj r- '^ . O — . — . O ?r -^ ^ 1> f?- O -C :r -^ -r ^ -r ^^ ^1 ^—1 f^ I . '^^ ^--H '^^ ^^ ^*— • ("1 I . I-—" 1 . I— ^ooo-^o-oorto^-t^o.tio Qc))H-lW<^ :r.; O -r • (s . . • (s • o "~, • 1^. ■ • • -^ ■ m -t- • U-, • ■ • (j\ • \n ; c- r- •':*"T' o o o o OOOOOOOONMrV) r^iO'^0<^. -t->-iCO o-wO C^OO^rn 00<^. >-iOOONOi-Hi-iOO'^. OO OO-^ OON"^. OCmQCCCCCC'vCOmCOOC ^CO C0>Oi-i ^4 N o M ^» T^co -^ M 00 r^ r^ t-^o mn'o '^. -^ xvoo 1^, ro -1- O '^X OswOOt^OC^iOMOM ■"", -t" •u^0^l-| r^ ro i>-oo o r-~ N vo O O "^.^C lo roo x o ■ C -^ • m rj-o ?^, • •■ . • • • OOOi-'i-'i-iNNNrriroro>OOt^t^X "". -1- l-O-S- •X t '■- X i: c3 rt s s o w pq o o s '-> E O X N . O "^ IT) O o "OX S a; uiM mO CTiiOX IN N iOm C^O i-iX oo X M vC -^ r^C "~,'- "~, ro tTO V.C C^ iC -l-X r^- M X ■ -C -C -^ M ic re o o o r^ i0(v-)ioir-~0 M N O O -^O 1-1 ^~O^M-C~ rewio i-trot-ttHMirjtH fOro lO"^ ThOvt^rO O CNN r^ONX C--\C a>(^-fj-c r^ + + + + + + +I+ + +I+ + +I I no M O O iH HH O* r^OO C\ T}- )-i 00 M '^vC CO ^- O N O O lO C^O 00 O O CO O ^O -^ Oi ^ '— t-H M WM W fVlMI-ll-IM X t^ • (N O t^ ro in U-, + + + 1 + X t^ N o o U-, 0 ir; N • X O 0-; X in r^ M c in ° . . o 0 . 22 5 . o r^ o 'C X « s X o V o ^ i -M o +e bcn X T o o o •- ,h J'l -1-iJ/ >l -^ J- ?-. =' p ' ^ ^ X o •r ro o ;<, Bootes Castor p Eridanus »; Cassiopeia MASSliS (IF \1.SL".\L i;iX.\li\- STAR.s. 437 Table II is a list complete for the first two hours of 1\.A.. and coni])lete to magnitude 5.3 for the remainder, of all stars given in Bnrnham's General Catalogue for which the ty])e of spectrum is given in Harvard Annals, Vol. LVI, No. 7 (Spectra of 745 Doubles by Annie J. Cannon), for which the apparent distance is under i" .2. Stars appearing in Table I are excluded. TABLE II. 1 1900. Annual Annual star. Magni- tude. Spec- trum. Dis- tance. Motion in Motion I for Sun K.A. Dec. Angle. Type. h. m. s. 0 f // 0 0 K-Scuhitor • 4 3 -28 33 5-46 F2 0 -95 0 -o 9± V 13 " 0 10 6 + 7b 24 6 -23 A 0-78 0-7 7 X Cassiopeia 0 26 2 + 53 59 4-88 B5 0 -50 0-5 40 8 393 0 32 2 -25 19 5-7 Ko 0-5 20 /3 495 0 43 5 -I-18 8 7-6 F5 0 -60 0 -o 4 66 Pisces . . 0 49 3 + 18 38 5-8 Ao 0-5 2 -o 20 li 1099 0 30 8 + 59 50 5-5 B8 0 -20 3-6 95 Ho. 213 0 5« 5 + 34 55 7-2 Ao 0-3 2-4 15 (p Andromeda I 3 7 + 46 42 4-28 B8 0-33 I -7 100 /^ 303 I 4 3 4-23 16 6-6 Fo 0-6 0 -o 8 1^ 235 I 4 6 + 30 28 6-9 F2 0-8 0-6 4 /S iioo .L^ I 7 7 4-60 21 7-3 A 0-7 0: 2 /.^ 4 . . I 16 I 4-II -I 6-9 Fo 0-4 0-4 12 Hu 6 I 17 0 + 57 37 6-4 F5 0 -6 li 1 163 1 19 4 - 7 6 6-0 F2 0-4 0: 22 95 Pisces T 22 4 + 4 51 7-3 K 0-4 0: 9 0234 I 38 8 + 80 23 7-2 A 0-5 0-5 7 Ho 311 I 45 7 4-24 10 6-9 A5 0-4 0-3 10 2 186 I 50 7 4- I 21 6-2 F5 0-7 4 9 48 Cassiopeia I 53 8 + 70 25 4-61 A3 0-8 8 -o 20 t Aries 2 53 5 + 20 56 4-64 A2 I -2 0 -2 15 jj Orion 5 19 4 - 2 29 3-44 Bi I -lO 0 -o 25 32 „ 5 23 4 + 5 52 4-32 B3 0-6 0-9 40 29 0 4-30 46 5-21 K2 0-4 I -5 40 : Signifies angular motion doubtful but very small. It is to be expected that the knowledge of double stars will aid in solving the problems of the stellar system. If we could look at the Sun from a distance re])resented by a parallax of i", we should see the Earth revolving arotmd it at a mean distance 45'> MASSliS UF VISl'AL lUNARY STARS. of i" in one year. Actually we would not be able to see the Earth because it would be too faint. But there are other systems ; let us take a Centaurus. for example ; it is a double star with a parallax of o".76 (radial or distance = i ■^2) with a mass ecjual to 1.9 times the Sun's mass. The chief star of a Centaurus appears to be an exact duplicate of the Sun. We can therefore ask if replicas of this system are to be found elsewhere in the heavens. Thus, if there is a similar system ten times as far away, it would appear to us as a 5th magnitude pair with a period of 80 years and a mean distance or semiaxis major of i".8. Table I will enable us to answer this question by inspection, and it shows us that in the quarter of a million stars examined by double-star investigators there are but two or three stars which api^ear to be of the a Centaurus or Sun type ; of the remainining millions of fainter stars (loth to T3th magnitude) it can be safely inferred there is amongst them no double star of this type. Table I may be considered complete for all stars brighter than the 8th magnitude, and Avhose periods are less than 90 years, and which are not closer than o".4. This being so, we remark first that, excepting the double companion of fi Her- cules, there is no star so faint as 8th magnitude in the list. Let us consider what this means. If the Sun was removed to such a distance that it was of the 8th magnitude, it would then be 40 radials away (it = o".02^), and a companion at an angular distance of ©".50 would revolve around it in 90 years. We can safely say that there is no such double star in the heavens. There are very many pairs of stars about o".5 apart, and with a combined magniture of S.o. but their motion is so slow that their periods must be not only greater, but very much greater than 90 years. Hence the evidence of the known douljle stars is that stars of the 8th magnitude have less gravitative power than the Sun, probably without any exception. This line of argument applies to all magnitudes. Thus, if the Sun was removed to such a distance that its magnitude w^as 5.0, its radial would be 10 (corresponding to tt =: o". 10), and com])anions to it would have semi-axes and periods as follows : — Distance or Period. Semiaxis. Year. 0. 10 1 .0 0.30 .5-2 0.40 8.0 O . 50 I I . 2 0.60 14.7 0.80 22.6 1 . 00 31-6 A comparison of this table with Tables I and H at once shows that few of the double stars therein have gravitative power equal MASSES OF VISUAL HIXARY STARS. 459 to that of the Sun ; but we can go much further, and show that most of the double stars fall far short indeed. For this purpose the data can be arranged differently. In comparing the gravitative power of the Sun with that of a double star, we may consider the two extreme cases. In the two-body motion, the total mass is Mi-|-AL,MjDeing the mass of the primary. Mo of the second?fry. In the solar system M^ would be the Sun, M^ the Earth ; in this case AL is so small, compared to AI^ ( i 330.000), thai it becomes negligible. At the other extreme M.^ may be equal to M^, as is the case with many double stars. It is highly improbable that we could see the com- panion in any double star system where the ratio of AL to M^ is only i to 330,000. Sirius and Procyon have very faint com- panions, btit their gravitative powers are not widely out of pro- portion to those of their primaries ; thus, in the case of Sirius we have M^ ^2.4 and Mo i.i. the unit of gravitative power teing that of oin- .Sun. TABLE III. Magnituoes of Solar-Type P.mrs for DiKFi-RrxT Masses. m, Combined magnitude; lll■^. magnitude of cliief star; ///_,. mag- nitude of companion star; .1/. mass or gra\'itati\e power of system; M^, mass of chief star; M.^. mass of comjianion star. ;// Wi VI. ^ M M^ M.^ o . 00 o . 00 6 . 00 I . o 1 . 00 o . 000 -o.oi 0.00 5.00 i.o 0.999 o.ooi -0.04 0.01 3.33 T.o 0.99 o.oi -o . 06 o . 02 2 . 83 1.0 o . 9(S o . 02 -o.io 0.04 2.17 1.0 0.95 0.05 -0.15 o . 08 1 . 67 1.0 0.9 0.1 -0.20 0.16 1. 16 1.0 0.8 0.2 -0.24 0.26 0.85 1.0 0.7 0.3 -0.25 0.37 0.66 1.0 0.6 0.4 -0.25 0.50 0.50 1.0 0.5 0.5 m., - nil MJM.. 0.0 1.0 1.0 4.0 2.0 15.8 3-0 63.1 4-0 251.2 5.0 1000. o If. as stated earlier, the Sun was removed to a distance of I radial (parallax i"). it would shine as a star of the 0.0 magni- tude, and the Earth would revolve around it under a semiaxis of i" in one year's time. If. however, the two bodies were equal in size — which we may imagine would be got by creating two 460 MASSES OF VISUAL BINARY STARS. globes out of the solar orb — the niagnitiide would no longer be 0.0, because the light emitting surface has now been increased. The increase in magnitude is = — 5/6 log. 2 = — 0.25, or each Star would have the magnitude of 0.50, whilst, as before, the semiaxis would be i" and the period one year. This would be a model system resembling oiu" Sun in sur- face brilliancy and gravitative power. The magnitude, ])eriod, and semiaxis of any double star in themselves tell us nothing about its distance because of spatial relations. Let us consider two systems of equal emissive bril- liancy })er luiit area, but one twice as far from us as the other. If the further one has eight times the mass (or gravitative power ) , it will have four times the area, and therefore the same apparent Ijrightness. Hence, as seen in the sky, these tw^o sys- tems would appear to be identical in every respect. Because we know the parallax of a Centaurus, we have learnt that its mass is 1.90 (nearly twice the gravitative power of the Sunj. If its parallax had been half what it is, then its visual appearance would have been the same if its mass had been 15.2 O. And generally, as the distance increases p times, the mass increases /i" times, if the visual appearance remains unchanged. In this argimient an assumption has crei)t in, namely, that the spectral type is independent of the mass. We have no proof that stars eight times the mass of a Centaurus could exhibit its spectrum. At the same time we cannot assert that a star's spec- trinn alters with its mass. It has also been assumed, and will be maintained, that that stars of similar s])ectra have equal emissive power or brilliancy per unit area. In all the cases where we have both good determinations of the orbits and parallaxes of double stars we find that their gravi- tative power does not differ greatly from that of the Sun ; let us take tlie most reliable results from Table I. Star. Spectrum Gra\ itative Power 85 Pegasus G 1-13 ^ Hercules G 3-03 Procyon F. 3.16 1] Corona Borealis G 079 'Sirius A 3-17 a Centaurus G-K 1-95 70 Ophiuchus Ko 1. 16 r; Cassiopeia F. r.oo by a simple and rapid insjjet :tion the n T(j find out betneen mass, magnitude and distance,- Table I\' has been pre- pared. The right-hand portion of Table T\' within leaded lines may be omitted, as no known double stars fall within it. Excei)ting the columns " Radial for (iiven Masses," the table i,s to be interpreted as actual experience. Thus, if there was in the heavens a double star with equal-sized components, whose magnitude is 3.75, and whose angular separation is 9". if it is MASSES OF NISU AL lilNARY STARS. 461 Distances. ,_ Q 1^ •■1 -t- ^^ t^ -f 1^ 3\ 3^ 3" 1-H ?) i^ -1- C) »H 0 10 1^ rc) ►— « ^ * t^ 00 •r c) 0 rf~. ^ 0 0 Ti- c« 10 0 ro CI r^^ C) ^ r^. 1^ X r*( 30 ^ C) ^ ■X. ^ ^- CI — 1- Cl 0 H >-H 0 0 I/O r^. ^^ 10 Cl Ji, d Q < X) O^ -1- Cl' ~* Z 0 ^"~ H >o 0 ^ CI ^ X 0^ 3- S -1- 0 1'^ C^ -i- t^ m ■■^ 0 q 10 r^> — ir. ci t— 1 d d ^ d d •< •* ri "■ i/i ttj p rO i^ m < -t- ^1 kM »-< 1/", C| MM H w Z "Qn 0 t~;« f^. 1^ z; -t- C( — q q 0 ■3; HH 0 re; " d - d - Q ~ d Annuai 0 'O Cl ,__ 0 a ^ 0 _ ^ X yj -t- Cl — ^ 3 'O r>' 00 -J- i^ '■^, 0 q q -_ q 0 "", '^i — 3 d d 6 3 ^ d z a Eg 0 - - - q 0 q 0 q ; q ^ ^ i^ 5 6 J. n fr-^ -i- in ^' 1-^ X :^ c < ^ ^ V H X = . 0^ < z . > J < U "re i/~. 10 IC >r, '^. 'O ir. 11", in 1/-, in 0 C/2 d d l^ 1^ CI -i- 10 0 X d- a 0 J G X >rv 0 »^i CQ CI -1- sC q 0 10 q f- Z C d c _^ ^ CI -i- ^ 0 ^ in ■0 < 0 H 0 Cl 1—1 S 0 li-i X CO 0 c) 0 q c Q HH ci f , >o X r*-. 0 Cl 0 -1- PS X " Cl ro m < r^-JO ►J 0 © q 0 ir. Z rO z < , HH ^ ci ■rt 0 0 0 ir C ro 0 ^ to w X Cl -1- 0 0 CO CO hH < •a: ® q CI q q -j- Pi z X cs rO 10 yi c-l 0 CI *. C 0 0 (I] 0 CO ir X Cl 0 0 -H > > CO < w^ ^-^ ; f^. s: '^-^ -^ -; 0 vO m c CO 0 z- '1 0 ~2 ^ X CI •+ 0 0 in 10 0 to -t ►J < \o 0 5 ir. -1- 3C „ >o -.., 3N 0 0 ^ ^ X t-t ci c^* 0 C\ \r Cl 0 0 fO ^J q X oc f; C C( ri 0 0 X CI 0 Cl X rn in 0 0 1: •^l u. .•J 0 vO >o 0 rr~. 0 X X 0 0 X '^t -1- 0 Q. 10 ir 0 rcj 0 0 5 -■ — '1 r^. 0 0 -Z. 0 462 ' MASSES OF VISUAL lilNARV STARS. a solar typo star, the annual change of position angle would be about o''.S4, but its distance and mass are indeterminate. It might be any of the following : — Mass Distance (Sun Unity). (in Radials). 1,000 63 512 50 216 ..~ 38 64 25 8 13 I 6.3 y^ 3-2 1/64 1.6 so far as the table goes. It can be continued further by the factors at the foot of the hrst eight columns, which will furnish the 'inverse or reciprocal masses ; thus, if we read the first column, not as 1,000 times the Sun's mass, but as i/ioooth of it. we must multiply the radial distance by i/'iooth. and so on. yielding the example — Mass Distance (Sun Unity). (in Radials). i/iooo 0.63 1/512 0.78 1/216 I.I 1/64 1.6 1/8 3.2 coming again in the last two cases to figures already tabulated. Intermediate numbers can be found from the relation — Mass/ (Radial)" =r Constant, but the table need onl}- be used for qualitative inspection. As already stated, Table I\', in the columns headed Magnitudes and Distances., covers all our observational experience ; that is, we know nothing of double stars fainter than loth magnitude (cor- responding to about 9.3 in the B.D. scale of magnitudes), the case of unequal pairs such as, say, 10. i and 12. i, or of 9.75 in the case of equal pairs, and as regards distances, we know little or nothing of pairs under o".25 apart. The table can perhaps best be interpreted negatively. \\"e know that a Centaurus at 17". 7 moves over ^°.35 a year. Is there any similar pair, nearer or further away ? It is unlikely that any are nearer, but within a space covered by 100 radials we might expect to find 1,000,000 stich pairs, ranging to the 9.75 magnitude if of the mass of the Sun or of (1,000") if of 1,000 times the mass of the sun. because for such stars the limiting radial is 1,000. There are about six such pairs. Hence stars of the size of a Centaurus are very few indeed — they are excep- tional stars. Then, we know of several pairs of stars revolving in about .>rAssi-:s oi' \ isuAL iuxarv stars. 463 40 years at a distance of about i" with measured parallaxes of about o". I, or at a radial distance of 10. These stars, it is at once apparent, are of about the Sun's mass. Are there any of these stars nearer than 10 radials ? The table says, No! Are there an^• of these 40-year stars (9° i)er annum) of enormous mass and at great distance but about 5th magnitude? Again the table replies, Xo ! Do we know of any very close pair o".25 or so, and faint, say yth magnitude, moving over 9° a year? If so, it might be a very massive star at a great distance. Thus a double star 1,000 times the Sim's mass, at a radial of 1,000, and at a distance of o".2^, would move over 2°. 8 a year. There is no such jiair. When every allowance is made for the weakness of some of the assumptions, it is still impossible to resist the main conclu- sion to be drawn from the tables, namely, that the stars are not models of the Sun — that in general their gravitative power is very much smaller indeed, and in some cases, as is shown in Table II, seems to be quite insignificant. This especially applies to the spec- tral classes B, A, and F. Classes O and M are not represented in either table, indicating, again, very small gravitative power, whilst classes G (solar type) and K have in a few cases gravitative power of the same order as the Sun. If we take the simple means of Col. 9 in Table 1 by the classes A, F, G, and K, we find the gravitative ])Ower is as follows: — A 0.02 F 0.27 G 1 . 23 K 330 And this table contains all the best-known and nearest stars. The enormous disproportion thus revealed between lutninosity and energy should not be surprising — a rude analogy is fur- nished by considering a locomotive and its electric headlight, in which practically all the energy is in the nearly black body of the locomotive, and all the luminosity in the small lamp-filament. The cases of a fe\\- t}'pical pairs will be specifically dealt with. X Orion. — Magnitude 3.49 {components 2^.66 and 5.56). Spectrum Oe^. This is one of the few double stars of the Oe class, and like them all, show's no change whatever. That this is a real and not optical pair is proved by their common pro]^er motion o".028, which in the century this pair has been under observa- tion, would have increased the distance by 2". 8, or from about 4" .4 to y" .2\ there has been no change. The effective gravita- tive power of this pair and of all other Oe stars must be quite trifling. There are no double stars of spectral type Oa to Od. The spectrum Oe has helium and hydrogen lines and two bright bands at 4633 and 4688- metallic lines are absent. 464 MASSES OF VISUAL BINARY STARS. a Crux. — Magnitude 1.05 ( couipcvioits 1.58 a)id 2.0*9). Spectrum B\. These two bright stars forrii one of the most beautiful double Stars in the whole sky. Their distance apart is 5". Although they have been measiu-ed frequently since 1S26. it is still quite uncertain if there is any change. Certainly the angle is unchanged, but the distance may have decreased slightlv. If we assume that a solar-type double star of equal size would shine as a star of the 4th magnitude at the distance of a Crux, then it would revolve at the rate of from i to 2 degrees a vear. There is no such change in this pair. Let us liear what Xew- comb says concerning the somewhat similar jjair t* 'rion. Mag- nitude 1. 91 (components 2.05 and 4.21.) Spectrum Bo: — This star, in the belt of Orion, is of the 2nd magnitude. It has a minute companion at a distance of 2". 5. Were it a model of the Sun, a companion at this apparent distance should perform its revolutions in 14 years. But, as a matter of fact, the motion is so slow, that even now, after 50 years of observation, it cannot ])e determined with any precision. It is probably less than o°.t in a year. The number expressing the com- parison of the density and surface brilliancy of this star with those i)f the Sun is probably less than o.cooi. The general conclusion to Ijc drawn is obvious. The stars in general are not models of our .Sun. but have a much smaller mass in proportion to the light they give than has our Sun ("The Stars: A Study of the Universe." t>. 200). Gravitational motion is, however, exhibited in some of the earlier B type stars. Thus with a Orion, magnitude 3.94, Spectrum Bo, the angle has changed 28° in 13 years, the distance remaining constant at o''.25. If this star had been a model of the Sim, the change would have l)een about 180° a year, or 2,300° instead of 28°. The spectra Bo and HI have intense helium lines ; there are no metallic lines. SiRius. — Magnitude -1.58 (couipouoits -1.58 and 9.0). Spcc- truni ^i. Auwers found 2. 125 for the ratio of the mass* of the larger and brighter component to that of the smaller. t Hence we have for Sirius 2. 16 0, and for the companion i .01 0. At the distance represented by the parallax o".39, the Sun Avoidd shine as a star of the 2.04 magnitude. Solar-type stars of the masses 2.16 and i.oi woitld shine as stars of the 1.48 and 2.03 magnitudes. Thus, so far as concerns Sirius, we can say that, mass for mass, it emits so much more light that it gains 3.06 magnitudes — that is. an A type star, mass for mass, is three magnitudes brighter than a G type star. The spectrtmi of the companion has not been determined.! * Using " mass " as the equivalent of gravit^tive power. f.4st. Nach., 3085. t Since the above was written, a note dealing with the spectrum of the companion of Sirius has been published by Dr. W. S. Adams, in the December, 1915. issue of the Publications of the Astron. Soc. of the Pacific, pp. 236-7. He finds that the spectrum of the companion is" iden- tical with that of Sirius. but that there appears to be a slight tendency for ilie c( ntinuous spectrum to fade off more rapidly in the violet region. MASSliS OF VISUAL ]'.INARY STARS. 465 There is no contrast of colour as seen in the telescope ; indeed, the hue is so similar that it is often difficult to distinguish the companion from pieces of the diffraction rings which surround Sirius or from ghost images of Sirius formed hy reflexions within the eyepiece. It may therefore fairly be assumed that the companion has a similar type of spectrum. But, mass for mass, it only shines as a star of the 9th magnitude against the Sun's 2.03 magnitude at etjual distance — a loss of no less than seven magnitudes, or, in other words, its light emission is only 1/631 that of the Sun. One is forced to acce]>t the difficult conclusion that the light of the com])anion of Sirius is in some way affected by Siritis itself. Otherwise we should exj^ect to find some other stars of about the 9th magnitude with similar gravitative ])ower, but there are certainb none whatever known. Spectral class An. of wliicii Sirius is the typical member, has the hydrogen lines at their niaximnni intensitx . Metallic or solar lines are present, hut are very fainl. fM Hkrculks. — Triple Syslciii. Chief couiponeni . iiiac/iiifiide 3.48. Spectrum (^5. Binary com-panioii, magnitude 9.C)8 ( 10 and 11 ). The parallax of yu Hercules has been determined twice: — Russell ( photographs ) . . . o" . 038 i o" . 036 Chase ( heliometer) o". 122 -!- o".028 To shine as a 3.48 magnitttde star the Sun must be removed to 4.97 radials (parallax = o".20). The spectral class G5 has weak hydrogen and very strong- metallic lines. Strttve noted the colotir.s as yellow and blue. Yet the binary companion is 6.2 magnitvtdes fainted than its primary. Gkavitativh P()Wi:r of the BiiNarv Compaxion of fx Hfrcules AT \^\riol'S Dtstan(.i-:s. Parallax. Gravitative Radial. " Power. 5.0 o . 20 0.15 6.0 0.17 0.25 7.0 o. 14 0.40 8.0 0.12 0.60 lO.O O. 10 I . 18 12.5 0 . 08 2 . 30 20 . o 0.05 9-40 25.0 0.04 18.35 The magnitude of a solar type star at these distances and powers would remain constant at 6.55. Thus, the companion, in spite of its bluish tint, is three magnitudes fainter than a solar type star of similar gravitative power would be. We may ask the question : Are there similar pairs to this binary companion of the 9.68 magnitude with a semiaxis of I ".30 and a period of 43.2 years? None are known, but few B 466 MASSES OF VISUAL P.INARV STARS. Stars so faint as 9.68 magnitude have been followed up as double Stars. But if this binary was only one of many to be found at varying distances then it has no rejM-esentatives amongst stars brighter than itself. We may therefore conclude that it is an exceptional pair, like other pairs found in proximity to a bright star. (See, for examples, Oo Eridanus and a Bootes in Table i.) It would seem from from these cases, and the faint companions to Sirius and Procyon, that the j^roximity of a bright star in a binar}^ or ternary system has some ])ower of inhibiting the emis- sion of light in its attendants. Alderaran.— iWa_i7;;/7//^t^ 1.06. Spcttniiii I\2. This bright star has a 13.5 magnitude companion at a dis- tance of 31". 2, which is travelling with it through space with an annual velocity of o".i88 (Auwers), but since 1877, the year of its discovery by Burnham. up to the last measures made there has been no relative change of lueasurable amount. According to Elkin, the iiarallax of Aldebaran is o".ii, giving as its radial 9. If we can assume that the companion is at its mean distance, and assume its radius vector is inclined (yo° to the tangent plane, its semiaxis major is of the order of ^zy units. The Sun would compel a body at this distance to revolve around it in about 6,000 years, making an angular change of about i^° in 28 years. It is certain that the companion of Aldebaran has not changed by that amount, and therefore the period of revolution is longer, and consequently the mass of Aldebaran smaller, than that of the Sun. A star with so strong an absorbing atmosphere as is indicated by the spectrum K2, loses probably i .06 magnitudes at least as compared with a solar tyjie star. I,et us consider this assumption for a moment. It would mean that the distance of Aldebaran is only one radial. At such a distance the gravitative power of the Sun would force a planet at the distance of Aldebaran's companion to move over 2° a year, or about 50 degrees in 28 years. As no such change occurs, it is evident that Aldebaran is not similar to the Sun in gravitative power. Besides this, the Sun at 9 radials distance would only shine as a star of the 1.56 magnitude, or ]/> a magnitude fainter than Aldebaran, in spite of the latter having a strongly absorbent atmosphere. Again, let us assume that Aldebaran is more distant than its measured parallax indicate. Let us suppose it is 100 radials away. The Sun at such a distance would shine like a loth mag- nitude star. At this distance its gravitative power upon a com- panion so distance as 3] ".2 would be insignificant, and therefore comparable with Aldebaran's. But allowing for absorption, this would mean that Aldebaran has 25,000 times the Sun's mass, and that the comj^anion moves through about 10° in 28 years — so that this assumption must also be dismissed. Thus we are involved in contradictions every way, and we can only escape from them by acknowledging that Aldebaran MASSKS OF XISLAI, l;l^^\R^- STARS. 4^ / as it is could not have evolved from a solar type star bv a process of cooling. The spectral class K2 shows a general faintness towards the violet end ; bands K and H are very strong. Antares. — Magnititd'e 1.22. Spcctnnit. Ma, peculiar. This bright star has a 7.0 magnitude companion of a bltiish tint at 3". I distance. Neither angle nor distance are changing, or if the angle is changing, the change is under o''.o5 a year. It is remarkable that when the colours of a double star are con- trasted there is seldom atiy motion, and no orbit has yet been found for stich a pair. (Jn the contrary, in the cases of well- known binary pairs, the htie or colours of the stars is almost identical. In a Centaurus botli stars are yellow, btit the fainter star is decidedly yellower, the respective spectra being Go and K5. or in contiguous classes, and even this slight difference is unustial, the fainter comj^onent of a double star being usu- ally bluer than the brighter. Antares and its companion have a small common proper motion which is more than large enotigh to make it certain that they form a system, but the bond of union is not that of gravitation. The spectrum is peculiar in showing- indications of an A type spectrum, in addition to an ordinary Ma spectrum, btit this is probably due to the companion, which is perhaps not so faint as 7.0 magnitude. It is probable that the strongly absorbing atmosphere of Antares, as indicated by its spectrum, reduces its magnitude by three steps at least, so that, were it not for its absorbing atmosphere, it would shine as a star of the -T.8 magnittide. A solar-type star of that magnitude would cause a com]:)anion at 3" to move over from 30 to 9c degrees a year. There is no such motion ; the inference cannot be avoided, namely, that Antares and its companion have exceed- ingly small gravitative ])ower, of if they have it, that it is in some way neutralised by some other force. Dr. Coblenz, of Washington, lias recently put a new instru- ment at the disposal of astronomers which measures the total intensity of radiation. With this instrument it is fottnd that if otir eyes had the same sensitivity curve as the radiometer, An- tares and Betelgeux would be the two brightest stars in the sky. Hence we must conclude that stellar radiant energy is not related in any simple way to gravitative power. For a description of the new " stellar radiometry '' reference may be made to Dr. Kevin Burns's ]Daper in the June number of the Publications of the Asfroiioiiiical Society of fJie Pacific. The si)eclruni Afa is handed: the two hands faintly seen in K5 are now well marked. a Hercules. — Magnitude 3.31 { conihoneufs 3.46 and 5.54). Spectrum Mb and {A). ' The principle star is variable (3.1 to 3.9), and the com- panion is 4". 6 distant. They form a system because they have common proper luotion. The position is slowly changing, btit. 58 MASSES OF VISUAL i:iNAK\- STARS. according to Lewis, the relative motion is convex, so that the gravitative force is more than negatived by some other force. The spectral class Ml) has nunierons hands. ^ 5{: :Jc ^ ;■; :|t Let tis arrange the stars of Table I in their spectral classes A. F, G, and B, and compare the ntimber of each class with expectancy. According to Prof. E. C. Pickering ( Harvard Annals, Vol. 56, p. 19. Table \'I), the proportionate number of stars all over the sky are : B A F G KM 2 81 25 II 34 2 As Table I just contains 25 stars of class F, we should expect to find the other types in the same pro])ortion ; actually we have : o 12 25 14 60 or. in percentages of expectancy, 14 TOO 128 16 ... percent. There are too lew B and M type stars to afford us any information, but the low percentage of A and K type stars is remarkable, and it appears that G type stars are somewhat over- represented amongst the rapid binaries. The argument used in the previous pages renders it now very certain that, in spite of their great ntmiber, the A type is poorly represented amongst binaries, because stars of that class have but little gravitative power, for all their brilliancy. In the case of the K type, the scarcity would appear to be solel}- due to the long periods of such pairs — but long periods can only be due to absolutely large mean distances. Classification b\' si)ectrum strengthens this suggestion. Table \' is arranged accordingly, and in order of period. The stars in this table l)el(nv the broken lin.es have ])criods of over a century. The third column in each class gives the mean distance in terms of the Earth's mean distance from the Sttn, found by multiplying the mean distance in seconds of arc by the number whose logarithm is the star's magnitude divided by 5. When these columns of the four classes are considered, it will be at once remarked that no binary stars with distances under o".57 appear in classes G and K — nearly all the very close pairs are found in classes A and F, but nearly all in F. Thus, of systems under o".7o in any given class. Class A has 60 per cent. Class F has 64 per cent. Classes G and K have 20 ])er cent. There is no self-evident reason why there should not be close and rapid binary pairs in the two last classes. The smallest semi- axis major is that of 0^1400 = o".57, and why should there not be many pairs at half that distance and of about one-third of the MASSK.S OF \-T.SU.\L P.INARV STARS. 469 < w 0 10 D 0 0 0 M M M m 0 1-0 M M CO ■ 0 M vO ^ 0 vO 00 U-) 0 0 M •:^ M •;^ 9 7^ M M +-> C/) i8 39.5 2 3121 Melb. 8 70 Ophiuchus ^ 0 5 0 0 -. CO a. ■ d 0 00 10 -n 0 0 "-) oooooc 00000 IT) 10 000 M 0 >n M -h -1- -^ iv, 0 f^.OO r-- w 0 ^ 0 M 00 M -r t-. 3^M00 0-. -I-OCC NO t^t^ C 30 ^.00 C 0 00 C>00 U-) ■ -i- t--NO 00 On On 0 ^0 i OOmOmmOi-hOOm •-;aj--t-oot^Mc«C1-C -< Ph ii 0 -t M t. nJ , ,

- t^ONN ^^0^00 rnO^f^. 0 f^OO On lO 00 t^ N M 00 0 -* ^ N 0 re "^ M 0 vO M OCOCCOOOCOO'OCOmOOOO 0 11 ot 0 en 0 .^ .... .... 0 i .... j^ ... . rSro 0 ^ -.g M (J j^ ^ ^ 8 8 >.5: „ t^ HI Si •< :») CO.'C M-'32. M no. Ph ^u I, On 0 "55 2 'S ■ 3.- a ■ '^< b 0 0 M H-i 0 g'-S nj wS> ;-.Ti- ^-s- < 6 e (N C Pi 0 N 0 c^ r< On 100 NO 00 0 0 00 00 t^ i^ M u-> ro rr; ro r<~, fj lO 0 0 On 10 M M 3 1 ^ 00 >o >n >o N N lOrNiirjporoom 00 w M rooo On 0 M 10 >0 0 C !>• 0 0 M 0 0 0 w 0 t-- 3 0 X; ^ ■£ -< C> sj 'c -y. ^x 3 »s X : : "i X 7; -Or* 0 IN CQ f ^ W ^.J S-l P. ' 470 MASSES OF VISUAL I'.IXARV STARS. period? There are certainly no such pairs in the northern sky where they would most likely be found, and it is doubtful if there are such elsewhere. We are forced to assume that solar-type Stars cannot exist in binary combination when their mean dis- tance apart is much below five times the distance of the Earth from the Sun. In this connection the problem of the Cepheid variable stars may have some bearing ; these are all solar-type stars which vary in brightness; their brightness increases when they are apj)roaching the Rarth. and vice versa. When it is assumed that the changes in their spectra can be dealt with upon dynamical principles —that is, when the changes are sup])Osed to be due to the revolution of one body around the other — it is found that their distance apart is under one unit. The double star of known smallest mean distance amongst the G stars is ^ Hercules, and it is interesting to recall that although it has com- pleted more than three revohitions since its discovery, and it is never a difficult pair to measure, its orbit cannot be found with any accuracy. Mr. T. Lewis, of the (jreenwich Observatory, considers its period to be increasing. It is unfortunate that so many of the short-period binary stars of Table I have not had their parallaxes measured, as they are almost certainly amongst the nearest stars. Reflecting upon the above conclusions, and u])on the failure to detect parallax in many stars of large proper motion, one is tem[)ted to speculate both tliat gravitative power does not play a leading role in the movement of the stellar universe, and that the star clouds of the Milky Way are as near or nearer to the Sun than many of the proper motion stars are — or. in other words, that the stars of the Milky Way are faint, not because they are very distant, but because they are very small, and that many of the bright stars we see are really beyond the main girdle of the Milky Way. A very rough analogy would compare the sn^-all stars of the Milky Way to the zone of small planets travelling between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and the lucid stars to the major planets, the Sun again being near the centre of the system. If we could carry out the operation of dividing a star mto two equal masses as suggested earlier in the paper, would the spectrum of the new bodies be similar to that of the old body? This is hardly likely. It seems to be more probable that the spectrum varies with the mass or quantity of matter and its gravitative power or pressure. It would be too dogmatic to assert that if the spectra of two stars were absolutely identical, then the stars themselves would be absolutely identical in every other respect, but it is worth considering as a working hypothesis. In the solar system, evidence of light-])ressure is only exhibited by comets, and then only when they approach closely to the Sun. It is doubtful if there is any manifestation of this pressure when comets are at greater distances than five units. The planets, being composed of matter in a cohesive state, show no evidence of light pressure. If they were gaseous bodies of MASSES OF VISUAL IMNAR^- STARS. 47I very small density, they would no doubt react strongly to the Sim's light-pressure. It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that when a double-star system is composed of two bodies of great luminosity and small density (such as the double star a Crux) light ]M-essure ])lays an im]iortant part — it may even neu- tralise gravitative power, and o])pose by its disruptive force the formation of close binary systems. Besides light pressure, it will probably ultimately be found necessary to consider the absorption or dispersion of atomic energies. Speculation is so easy that it should not be encouraged ; what is really wanted is further research and more facts. APPENDIX. FoR^rUL.E, ETC. M := Gravitative power of the system, often for short, called the mass of the system, R = Distance of the star from the Sun measured in radials, one radial being the distance indicated by a parallax of one second of arc; if tt is the parallax in seconds of arc, then 1 R = - TT N.B. — The parallax of a star is the angle sub- tended by the Earth's mean distance from the Sun as seen from the star. Hence one radial is equal to 206.265 times the mean distance of the Earth from the vSun. « = Semiaxis major of a binary system measured in units of the Earth's mean distance from the Sun. a m Semiaxis major of a binary system measured in seconds a of arc. Ta = — . Inn as the tangent is indistinguish- R a from the arc at verv small angles, we can w^ite a ^ — • R 111 = Magnitude of a star. ;//.' =: Its magnitude, if brought to unit distance. ;;/' =: ;;/ - 3 log R. The Sun's magnitude at any given distance is equal to 5 log R, so that at unit distance its magnitude is 0.0. This assumes that the Sun's magnitude, as seen from the Earth, is -26.57, and that the logarithm of the light ratio from one magnitude to another is 0.4 (See Union Ohscn'olury Circular, No. 5). Conversely, if we put ;;/' = 0.0 = ;;; -5 log R, we have the distance R at which a star of magnitude ;/; would shine as a star of magnitude 0.0. that is. as brightly as the Sun would at unit distance. 472 MASSES OF VISUAL lUNAKV STARS. P = The period of a binary system in years : M nz a \'P- = R^a-/P' (} =: Annual anjs^ular motion in degrees or 3607F. Then we have 360- M :r= R^a'0\ or, by using logarithms. log 0 = 2.5563 + jA (log M - log Rci If we can suppose that in stars of the same spectrum or constitution, the density and surface brilliancy are constants for every mass or volume, then for n times the diameter we have n- the surface and ;;' the volume, and therefore )i' times the mass. If under these sui)positions m is the magnitude for mass M, the magnitude for mass )iM will be 5 ;// log ;/. 3 If, again, a star of magnitude m is divided into /; stars. each of the same emissive power as the original star, the mag- nitude of each would be .S 111 -\ log II, and the magnitude of the resulting cluster, omitting chance eclipses, would be 5 w/ :rr ;// log H 6 Thus, \{ 11 := 2, we have log 2 = 0.301 and /;;' = /;; — 0-25. We learn, incidentally, that the mass of a cluster remaining unaltered, the smaller the stars of which it is composed the brighter the cluster. The cluster w Centaurus, which shines as a hazy star of the 4th magnitude, is comjjosed of 6,400 stars. If these could be combined into one star of the same emissive power, its mag- nitude would be 5 4 H log 6400 = 7.2, 6 so that it would be invisible to the naked eye. So that the implication may not be missed, another example may be given. The Sun, if removed^ to a radial distance of 100 (parallax = o".oi). would shine as a star of the loth magni- tude. A cluster of t.ooo solar-type stars at that distance, each -MASSKS OF VISUAL I'.INARV STARS. 4~_^ of the 15th magnitude, would liave a total mass ec|ual to that of the Sun's, and yet its combined light would result in the mag- nitude 7.5 or 2.5 magnitudes brighter than the Sun at the same distance. In all but the very largest telescoi)es, such a cluster would be irresolvable into stars. Si'MMARv. — Few double stars have gravitative power so great as that of the Sun. (iravitative power is small in stars of spectral classes B and A, n.ioderate in F". and large in G and K. It seems to be absent in classes Oe and M. Inhere appears to be a limiting distance below which double stars cannot exist, and for solar-type stars this appears to l)e about five times the Earth's distance from the Sun. \''ery faint binary stars are only found in {)roximity to bright stars. It is suggested that light-pressure may partly or whollv neutralise gravitative ])ower in stars of great luminosity and small tenuity. Carbon Bisulphide and Plant Grow^th. — In 191 1 E. B. Fred, Agricultural Bacteriologist, in the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Wisconsin, ])ublished data to show the l^eneficial eltect of carbon bisulphide on the soil flora.* The increased plant grow^th following on tlie addi- tion of carbon bisulphide is in many cases enormous, a small application often cavising an increase in yield from 100 to 200 per cent. But in some cases carbon bisulphide not only fails to cause an increase in plant growth, but, on the contrary, has caused a decrease. The author of the former ]ia]ier accordingly studied some of the factors that might influence this peculiar action of carbon bisuli^hide, and has recently jniblished his results in the Joiinial of Aijricitiiural RcscarcJi.i The addition of carbon bisulphide to soil, he states, exerts a decided efifect on the fauna and flora of the soil. This is characterised by a temporary reduc- tion in the number of micro-organisms. Later, an enormous multiplication of bacteria takes place, and an almost parallel increase in production of by-products or soluble nitrogen is noted. The ammonia-content seems to follow^ the curve of bacterial growth, and later gives way to larger amounts of nitrate. From the evidence it seems that carbon bisulphide in soil produces an increase in soluble comjjoiuids of nitrogen and sulphur. It is clear, however, that carbon l)isulphide does not act alike in all soils, or tow^ard all crops. * Ceutralblatt fiir Bakferiolofiie 31, 185-245. t ( if;i6) 6 [t i 1-20. Ti:!'". INFLUENCE OF THE CLfMATIC AND TEL- LURICAL FACTORS ON THE DISTRIBUTION AND SPREAD OF CERTAIN ANIMAL DISEASES, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE CONDITIONS OCCURRING IN SOUTH AFRICA. By D. Kehor, M.R.CA'.S. It is the belief of the writer that the interest attached to the collection of results obtained throug^h specialised researches, and the co-ordination of these in such a way as to jwint out their influence on conceptions reo^arding- the relationships existing" between certain causes and certain effects, is in itself sufficient justification for presentation of a paper of the nature of the following to the members of an Association as ours, consisting as it does of persons who are interested not only in the advances made in their own particular branches of science, but who are also interested in learning of general advances made in fields outside of their own. If, however, justification were needed for the selection of the subject, it is to be found in the marked interest shown by the majority of the members of our commu- nity in South iVfrica in the marked prevalence of certain of our stock diseases luider the rather unusually wet climatic conditions prevailing during the early part of this present and latter part of the past year. At that time one was often asked for an explana- tion of the state of affairs existing in regard to the prevalence of these diseases, and equally often limitations imposed by time enforced a brief reply to such queries. In the paper which follow's, however, an atteiupt is luade to furnish a general reply to questions of this nature, although even here the same limita- tions as those before referred to do not allow of any more than the main points to be dealt with and the outlines of the subject to be indicated. It is, however, hoped that these outlines given here may furnish some ideas of the relationships existing between certain diseases and the environment in which they occur, and if this paper should stimulate an interest in the subject in those who, having no specialised interest in disease problems, }'et have that general interest in all problems aff'ecting the welfare of the community which is demanded from every th.inking individual, the purpose of the writer will have been fulfilled. With these remarks we shall, then, first proceed in an intro- ductory fashion to a more general consideration of the subject, later coming to examine the matter in fuller detail. Now, many of Our South African, stock diseases are of such a natiu-e that they hapi^en to be included under the headings of tropical or subtropical diseases, and here we meet with two terms which in themselves suggest a classification based on clima- tic distribution. If we enquire into this grouping- more closely, however, we find that a classification of this nature is one founded on considerations of convenience rather than of accuracy, which IXFLUENCK OF CLIMATK ()\ ANIMAL DISKASK. 475 latter is only found in a (yroiipinj^- of diseases acconlin^- to their wtiolog}'. If, to make this point clearer, we enquire still further into the matter, taking the collection of animal diseases met with in South Africa to illustrate our remarks, we are met hy the fact that certain of the diseases U])plied in oi>timum degree in tropical and sub-troijical regions. 4/6 ]Nflui-:nck of ilimati-: tn\ ammal disease. This question of envirf)iiment we may examine in a little more detail, as it is connected with the later part of our subject. If we do so, we soon meet not only with the importance of the climatic factors of sunshine and rain actin^^ as the direct sources of supply of the warmth and moisture necessary in the above connection, but also with the importance of other factors which, in the title of this paper have been referred to as tellurical. Under this latter term we recognise all those ])eculiarities in regard to character and nature of soil, vegetation, geological formation, minor surface relief and water supj^ly of any given locality, and the importance of these in regulating the retention and distribution of the heat and moisture supplied by the climatic elements is obvious. In the following paper, however, the attenn)t is made to make an additional importance of these conditions more evident in the present connection, and this by jjointing out how through soil or vegetation, or collections of water in the form of rivers, streams, pools, marshes, vleis, pans, etc., or a combination of these, they may provide habitats suitable to the existence and development of either a transmitting or interme- diate host of a disease-causing organism, or a disease-causing organism itself. These remarks bring us nearer to our main subject, and it is unfortunate that time and s])ace do not allow of these general considerations being further ])ursue(l. If they did, we might have dealt with the interesting ])art that civilised man has played in the distribution of trojjical and sul)tro])ical diseases through his habits, and the changes he has produced in the tellurical con- ditions of the countries where they occur, 1)v the methods he uses in o])ening u]) and developing these newer lands and fur- thering his agricultural and pastoral pursuits within them. We might also have pointed out how tiie sjiecial i:)roblems which these diseases otter have atttracted a certain bodv of workers to study them, and how the results of their researches have come not only to give the terms tro]>ical and subtropical diseases the .significance they [possess in medicine at the present day, but also to furnish man with measures for combatting these diseases. thus giving him further scope in influencing their distribution. These considerations, liov.^ever, would furnish materials for several papers in themselves, and hence we must leave them in proceeding to the more detailed examination of our subject. In doing this latter the writer may mention that he does not intend to enter into a description of the climatic and tellurical condi- tions existing in South Africa — conditions with which the reader is no doubt well ac(|uainte(l — but. taking them as they are. in- tends to attempt to exjjlain their influence on the spread of disease, illustrating this in taking as exam])les animal diseases commonly occuring in this sub-continent. For this purpose a convenient grouping of the tyi^es of diseases dealt with will be necessary, and perhaps the most suitable procedure is to group them under the four headings of — Ii\P"LL'KNfK OK CLIMATE ON ANIMAL I)[S1:A.SI-:. 4// 1. Bacterial diseases. 2. Tick or insect-borne diseases. 3. Diseases caused by belminthic ])arasites. 4. Diseases due to toxic plants. Of tbe tirst .c^roup it is not intended to say ver\ much, and space only permits of one example of this type being dealt with. This example, h.owever. has a general interest, and is met with in the disease anthrax. In anthrax we have an example of a bacterial disease of jiractically world-wide distribution, and to which all of the domesticated and many non-domesticated animals are susceptible. The organism rcsponsil)le for the disease is a bacillus known as the Bacillus anthracis. a facultative parasite of aerobic habits. It is known that the disease can be contracted through the channels of inoculation and inhalation, but the commonest route of infection in the lower animaU is ap])arcntly ingestion. In- fection through this channel follows the ingestion by the animal of either food or water con.taining the organism, or more par- ticularly its spores. The importance of foods grown on infected areas or special foodstuti's ])re])are(l from contaminated material serving as vehicles of infection is recognised in this connection, l)Ut the part played by infected j-astures acting as sources of infection to the animals grazmg over them is the aspect which is of most importance for oin^ present consideration. In many parts of the world the tlisease is regarded as being- associated with certain, localities, and these frequently resemble each other in Iteing places situated in the neighbourhood of water or in tlie soil being of a moist or damp character. Instances of stich localities are marshes, swamps, near natural water pools, along river banks, and on plains which are periodically flooded, such as recognised flood-plains, and river deltas. These are widely-recognised facts, but in order to explain them and also other observations made later on, it is necessary that we should learn something of the ])iology of the bacillus causing the disease, and hence we may pause here in order to do tliis. A great deal is known about the biology of this bacillus, but we will only deal with the points of greatest importance to us. The Bacillus anthracis is an oganism which is a facultative ])arasite — that is to say, it is an organism capable of existing or leading a saprophytic existence outside the animal body, two of its common habitats under these conditions being soil or water. In cultivation it is an organism reciuiring free oxygen for its development, hence it is referred to as bemg aerobic in character, and it is also known that the bacillus which represents the multiplicative phase of the organism is capable of multiply- ing at temperatures between 12" C. and 45° C, the optimum temperature being about, 32° C. to 35'' C. The bacillus itself is not very resistant to adverse circumstances, behaving as most ordinary bacteria do under these conditions It is soon destroyed 47^ iXrLL'ENCE (;!• CI.l M ATi'. i i\ ANIMAL DISKA.Si:. by ordinary chemical or physical germicides, aiid can only with- stand dessication for a matter of days. , On the other liand, we know that under certain conditions the bacillus is capable of giving rise to a v^egetative form known as a spore, which is extremely resistant indeed. Two conditions are neces.sary for the formation of these bodies; one of these a supply of free oxygen, the other being a suitable temperature: the optimum degree of the latter being about 30° C. although their fonnation can occur at any temperature inside the minimum limit of 16° C. and the maximum limit of 42° C. That they are extremely resistant has been proved from their behaviour when subjected to the action of the usual chemical germicides, or when under the influence of [)hysical agents, such as heating to a high degree, and their resistance to desiccation is remark- able, inasmuch as they have been ksiovvn to survive in this dried condition for over ten years. Putrefactive changes are not inimical to them, and here again they differ from the bacillary form, wliich is soon destroyed in the presence of these changes. These spores are not formed by the bacillus when it is pre- sent in the bodies of animals suffering from the disease, nor are they formed after the death of the animal ])rovided the carcase is unopened, owing here to the lack of free oxygen necessarx for their production. Under tliese latter conditions decom- position occurs in the usual way, and the bacillary form of the organism is soon destroyed in the presence of the putrefactive changes then occurring. On the other liand, when the body of an animal dead from the disease is opened u]) soon after <^leath, the bacilli escaping with the blood and other body fluids and organ juices soon find the supply of oxygen necessary for spore formation, and spores are rapidly formed. If now, as very commonly happens, the carcase is opened on the ])asture or veld, it is not difficult to see how the soil and ])erhaps water may become infected through material containing the organism and its spores. Infection of soil has been known to follow the use of manures prepared from contaminated hides or bones, or following irrigation by water from knackeries or tanneries where infected hides had been dealt with, but under natural conditions, and especially in this coimtry, the commxonest method of original soil infection is prob- ably that above mentioned, namely, the opening up of carcases on the veld soon after death. Once the soil is infected it is easy to understand how this infection is maintained through the presence of the spore, which is so resistant, and which, as mentioned above, is capable of surviving, even under desiccation. for ten or more years. It is also believed that in warmer coun- tries the organism cannot only exist in the soil, but even multiply when a sufficiently suitable temperature is present. These facts will explain, in part, why certain areas may come to be regarded as '' anthrax localities," but we must now note some facts in regard to the association of the spread of the dis- 1NFLUENCI-: Ol' CIJMATE ON ANIMAL DlSKASE. 479 ease with water. This association is one which has long been recognised, and reference has been made to it previously in this paper when s]:)eaking of the prevalence of the disease in the neighbourhood of swamps, river courses, pools, etc. Numerous observations have been made in tliis connection, and the import- ance of flowing water in distributing anthrax spores or of stationary collections forming resting-places for them has been referred to. It would be interesting to luok into these observa- tions here if we could afford to do so. but as we cannot, refer- ence may be confined to one or two of them. One that might be specially mentioned comes from a worker in Tfungary, who. having to deal with an outbreak of the disease in cattle, came to the conclusion that the source of infection must have been the drinking water. The cattle in this case were watered from pools formed along the bed of a river which had run dry following a long period of drought, and it is noteworthy that the cattle which died were those which were in the habit of drinking last from the pools after the other members of the herd had stirred up the mud from the bottom. Having come to the conclusion that the drinking water was the source of infection, he made a bac- teriological examination of samples of the water and also the mud from the bottom of these pools, and as a result of this examination, and by using special methods, he was able to prove the existence of the antlirax organism in these samples. Another observation which is interesting to us, thougli not so conclusive as the last, is made by Smith in referring to the occurrence of the disease in India, which, to use his words, is a notorious anthrax country. He refers to the soil conditions there being suitable for the development of the disease, and points out that the diseases is seasonal. According to him, the disease is practically limited to the wet season, and almost invariably asso- cited with recent rainfall. The explanation he suggests for this is that the rain-water acts as a distributing agent for the anthrax spores, washes these into the pools formed during the rains, and that animals become infected from food washed in these pools He states that in India it is a practice to wash grass or hay in pools before feeding it to animals, and that with abolition of this practice througli the efforts of the Veterinary Department, a great reduction in the number of anthrax outbreaks has occurred. Now these particular observations have been introduced and stress purposely laid on them here because of the apparent im- portance which water has on the sj)read of the disease in .'^outh Africa. In the Transvaal, whilst the disease is met with all the year round, it is in the wet summer months that it is most jireva- lent, and its association with pans or other collections of water where animals are watered has been noted. That similar condi- tions are met with in other parts is evident. Mr. Dixon, Gov- ernment Veterinary Surgeon of Cape Province, states that in that Province the disease is widespread, the only area in whicli it is not endemic being the Karroo, and that it shows a season- able prevalence, the greatest incidence falling within tlie summer 4(So INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON ANIMAL DiSEASE. wet season. He also specially refers to i)aiis and edges of vleis in Griqualand West as being repognised hotbeds of the disease. In the Orange Free State it is also, according to information received from the \^eterinary Department there, a disease of the wet season, and it is said to have been usually. ])revalent there during this year. Again the connection between rainfall and the spread of the disease can be brought out in the unusual prevalence of the dis- ease on the VVitwatersrand area of the Transvaal during the early part of this year, the rainfall at this time being unusually heavy. All of these facts, then, seem to point to the great importance of water in the spread of the disease in South Africa, and it may be stated as the opinion of the V^eterinary Research Divi- sion that collections of water, such as i^ans, etc., from which animals are watered, very probably play a large part in the dis- semination of the disease in this country, these collections of water being probably infected through the rain washing into them anthrax spores derived from soil infected in the way already indicated. That water may possibly also be important in spreading the disease in another way in this country is shown by Theiler's remarks in writing about the outbreak of anthrax amongst ostriches in the Oudtshoorn district, in which case he thinks that the water used for irrigation purposes must be held largely responsible for the spread of the disease in that ])lace. These, then, are just a few of the ])oints we meet with in studying the effect of climatic and local conditions on the spread of one disease of the bacterial group. Black-quarter is another disease with a very interesting distribution and occurrence we might have dealt with, and two other diseases connected with soil, such as malignant (Txlema and tetanus, we might also have briefly referred to if we were not forced through consideration of time to dro]) our considerations of the bacterial diseases at this point. Let us remark, however, in passing, that in regard to the actual conditions of life in the soil of disease-producing organ- isms little is really known, although our knowledge of their behaviour in the animal body and in culture media is extensive. It is only within the last few years that the importance of the protozoa of the soil as agents influencing the prevalence and acti- vity of soil bacteria has been brought into prominence through the researches instituted by Russell and Hutchinson. This im- portance is one which, owing to the recent nature of the study, has not yet been grasped in all its details, but it is to be expected that in the future the work of those who specialise in the study of soil biology will throw much light on the life-history of those bacteria in which we are particularly interested. Leaving, then the bacterial diseases, we proceed to the second group, taking first into consideration the diseases carried bv ticks. INFLUENCli OF CLIMATE oN ANIMAL DLSEASE. 481 Tick-j:urne Diseases. When we come to look at the hst of diseases transmitted in this way, we tind that in South Africa they are well represented. Amongst the babesioses or piroplasmoses we find diseases of cattle due lo Babesia b'ujciiiiiniui ( " red\\ ater "" ) and Babesia mutans (producing a form of so-called "gall-sickness"). In the dog Babesia eaiiis is responsible for " biliary fever "' or ■" ma- lignant jaundice " of tliis species. The Theileriases are repre- sented in the luist Coast fever of cattle, and in tlie same sjiecies of animal occurs a disease anaplasmosis, due to a ])arasite described bv Theiler as Aiiaf^lasiiia iiiarcjiiiaie or its variety eciitralc. In ■" biliary fever" of ec|uines. we have Nuttalliosis rei)resented, whilst spirocheetosis is met witli in cattle and other species and in " heart-water" of cattle, shec]), and goats we have a disease due to an organism of the filterable variety. In this class of diseases we find from tlie biological point of view an extreme!}- complex state of afi:airs existing in the inter- relationshij)s between the disease-causing parasites, their verte- brate hosts, and their rlefinitive invertebrate transmitting hosts. The disease-causing parasite needs the presence of both types of b.ost for its full development, although the forms met \\ith in one host, sa}' the vertebrate, are capable of existing for long periods in the absence of the other invertebrate host, and viec versa. Hence a study of eftect of climate and local conditions on the spread of these diseases nn'ght include a study of these conditions in their influence on the distribution of both types of host. In this paper, however, we conline our attention solely to the study of the eliect of these conditions on the life history of the invertebrate host, the tick. In order to do this, we nuist first briefly enquire into the life-history itself, the essentials oi which are as follows. The mature female tick having engorged herself with the blood of the vertebrate host, and having been at the same time fertilised by the male, dro])s from her host to the ground, and after a varying ])eriod ( pre-ovi])osition period) lays her eggs. These eggs sooner or later hatch, and from each of them emerges a six-legged or hexapod larva which must undergo a moult or ecdysis before passing to the next or nymj)hal stage. The nymphal stage is represented by an eight-legged or octapod form, which resembles the adult except that it is sexually im- mature, and it must also undergo an ecdysis before it can ])ass to the final stage of the adult or imago. Thirs we recognise four stages in the life-history, namely, the Qgg. the hexajjod larva, the octopod nymph, and the imago or aduh male or female. The conditions under which these dift'erent stages occur vary, however, with the different species. In one species, for instance, the larva hatched from the egg having climbed up a grass blade, and thence passed on to its host, the tick may then pass the rest of its life-cycle tip to the adult stage on this same animal. This occurs, for example, in the case of the " one- Iiost " group of ticks, an example of which is found in RJiipiec- pJialiis decoloratus. In another case the larva, gaining its host 482 INFLUENCE OF CLI-MATE uN ANIMAL DISEASE. in the same way, ma}- engorge and moult to the nymphal stage on the host. The nymph then engorged drops to the ground to moult to the adult stage, when a new host has again to be foiuid. Species with a life-cycle of this kind are included within the " two-host '" ticks, and here an example is R. cvertsi. Another condition of affairs still exists in those cases where the tick drops from the host, first between the larval and nymphal stages, and then again between the nymphal and adult stages. These ticks have thus to find hosts first as larvje, then as nympha% finally as adults, and hence are known as " three-host " ticks. An example of this kind is R. appendicidatus. To learn now something of the eft'ects of climatic and tellurical factors on the development of some of these species in South Africa, we shall take as exam])les the blue tick Rhipiccpha- liis dccoloraius), the brown tick { RJiipiceplialiis appendicidatus), and the bont tick (Ainhlyonima Hcbracitui). The first of these is perhaps the^most common South Afri- can species, and is very widespread in distribution. Iniller, speaking of it in the Cape Province, says tliat it is the most M'idely-distribtited tick in that Province, and Theiler, speaking of the, Transvaal, says that it occurs everywhere, but is certainly less frequent on the high than on the middle and low veld. It is known to be responsible for the transmission to cattle of the protozoan parasites causing redwater. anaplasmosis and spiro- chsetosis. and is a '' one-host " tick. The moults between larval and nymphal stages and between the latter and the adult stage are thus ])assed on the animal host, and because of this fact little or no variation is met with in this portion of the life-cycle when summer and winter seasons are com])ared. Tlie usual time occupied in both seasons is about 23 days. The effects of climatic conditions are, however, seen when we examine that portion of the life-cycle between the time when the female drops from the host and the time when the larvre emerges from the eggs which she has laid, and to illustrate this point we may quote from Fuller's and Theiler's observations in this respect. The former says : The female, after dropping from the host, starts laying in from five days to two weeks in summer, while in winter at Capetown, at a tempera- ture 65° to 70° F., she delays until the third or fourth week has passed. Similarly the incubation period of the egg varies from three weeks to three months. At a temperature of 85° to 90° in the incubator, hatched egRS have been obtained in four weeks from the dropping of the mother tick, which shows heat hastens development. Some moisture appears necessary during the incubation period, as several batches of eggs kept in drv boxes have shrivelled and failed to hatch. And again he says : The entire life cycle may be passed in two summer months, but, in fact, probably seldom takes less than two and a half or three. There is a possibility of three broods a year in our Cape climate, and a prob- ability of at least two broods. In the climate of the Transvaal and in summer Theiler has noted that the female usually begins to lay in five days after dropping from the host, but in winter several weeks may elapse INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON ANniAL DISEASE. 483. before she commences this operation. The eggs laid usually hatch in three to six weeks, with an average of 36 days, in the A\armer season, whilst in winter many weeks ma}' pass before hatching occurs. He also remarks : The complete life-history requires, under tlit- uiost favouraMe condi- tions, little more than two months. So much for the blue tick here, and now let us consider our^ other examples. Both of these are " three-host " ticks, and having thus to pass the periods between larva and nymph and nymph and adult on the ground, it is ea.sy to see that the climatic and tellurical conditions will affect their life-histories much more than in the case of a " one-host '' tick such as the blue tick. Taking first the brown tick {R. appoidiadatus), which is one of a number of species capable of transmitting East Coast fever, and ]^robably the commonest agent in doing so, we shall cjuote Theiler in regard to its life-history in the Transvaal ; but it should be remarked that observations in regard to the effect of climatic and local conditions on the development of this tick have also been made in the Cape Province by Lounsbury. Theiler, speaking of it, says : I-t is principally a summer tick, during- which time it is found on ^^rious domesticated animals .... and prefers as its habitation warm stretches of the country. It is abundant in the low veld, less fre- quent in the middle veld, and is very rare, often entirely- absent, on the plateau of the high veld, but it may be found there where in protected vallej's the vegetation grows higher. The influence of climate on its development he has shown in observations which may be condensed as follows. The female tick, after dropping from the host, may commence to lay eggs in six days, and in the summer these may hatch in an average time of 28 days (the shortest period recorded being 13 days), whilst in winter hatching may be delayed for several months. The larvai now pass on to their host and there engorge, an operation which may only occupy a period of three days. Hav- ing done this, they drop to the ground to moult to the nymphal stage, which moult occupies a period of 21 days on an average in summer, whilst in winter it is increased in length. The shortest period recognised in this part of the life-history was 16 days under the most favourable conditions. The nymph now engorges in the same way, and in about the same time as the larvae has done, and then again drops to moult, and in this case the average time occupied was about 18 days. Theiler estiinates that the whole life-cycle of this tick may thus^occupy about 73 days in summer, and under the most favourable conditioits, whilst in winter he believes that it may take over six months for its completion. The other tick of the *' three-host " group, namely, the bont tick {Amblyomma hebrccum), has been taken to illustrate a point referred to later on. This tick is, as Lounsbury has shown, the agent responsible for the transmission of that disease of cattle, sheep, and goats known popularly as heart-water. Speaking in 484 INFLUENCE OF CLOIATE ON ANIMAL DISEASE. 1899, Lounsbiiry said that it was known to occur from Hunians- ■dorp and Uitenhage in the Cape Province, eastward to Natal, and inland for about 50 miles from the coast, and that it ])rob- ably occurred for a long distance up the East Coast. He also stated that it was recognised prior to 1835 in Lower Albany, being then regarded by the farmers there as a curiosity. I'ii the Transvaal Theiler has pointed out that this tick is limited to the bushveld proper, occurring only in those parts of the low veld where real bush is met with, and not appearing in the middle veld. This point will again be referred to, and it is cliiefly because of this limitation of distribution that 1 have introduced this tick here, but at the same time it is very interesting to note ■certain ])oints in connection with its life-history. Thus we may mention that, according to Theiler, the period occurring between the dropping of the engorged female from the host and the laying of eggs may vary from two weeks in summer to three months or more in winter time, and the eggs •deposited may hatch at the earliest in summer -in about 10 to ii weeks, whilst in winter this may only occur in as many months. Lounsbury states that if kept too dry and >\arm, the eggs may •cave in all along one side and shrivel up, but that it takes very little moisture to keep them alive, and that hatching does not •depend on rain, as is often popularl\- believed. The period occupied by the moult from the larval to the nym])hal stage is from 25 days to four months under natural conditions, accord- ing to Theiler, and Lounsbury has shown that where this process was artificially hastened in the incubator the jjcriod occupied was reduced to 16 days. In two batches of ticks ke])t in a sunny, sheltered place during the daytime, and placed indoors at night, this latter observer noted that moulting at this stage did not occur until seven winter weeks had expired, and he therefore believes that under veld conditions in the Cape Province the period must vary with season and situation probably from one to three months. The engorged nymph in moulting to the adult stage may take, according to Theiler, from about 25 days in the summer and t6o days in the Avinter in the Transvaal, whilst in the Cape Province Lounsbury noted that the period was variable, and that whilst in one individual of one batch of ticks the nymphal skin ruptured as early as the eighteenth day, in another batch this only occurred about the eleventh week-. These facts will suffice to show the importance of climatic and tellurical factors in affecting the development of these ticks, and similar observations pointing to the great importance of heat and the lesser importance of moistitre on tick development have been made on the same and numerous other' species in many parts of the world, and largely in Europe and America. Enough, however, has been said to explain the points which are of special interest to us in considering the prevalence of the diseases transmitted by these arachnids. It is. for instance, now not difficult to understand the greater prevalence of tick-borne diseases during the months of summer and autumn as compared IXFLUKXCF. OF CLIMATE OX ANni \L DISFASE. 485 \\'ith the winter months. Dnring the former time the warmth sO' necessary for their development is sni)])he(l to them in greatest degree, and hence the ticks increasing in activity and number, the greater prevalence of tick-borne diseases is only to be ex])ected granted that the stiital)]e vertebrate hosts are ijresent. We can also understand how it is that ticks are generally more prevalent in the warmer, low-lying l)nsh\eld and coastal belts than in the middle and high veld areas, a distribution which, as Theiler remarks. the South. Vfrican farmers recognised when they applied to the tick the generic nauK' of Bos! ins. If we take a disease such as redwater, transmitted b\- the blue tick, we can exjilain why that, although cases of the disease are met with all the year roitnd. they are more markedl\- i^revalent in the summer and autttmn months, and we also can explain its greater general pve- valence in low-lving. warm areas of the bush veld or coastal regions, as in the Transvaal low veld, in Natal, and in the eastern,, southern, and south-western portions of Ca])e Province, when these areas are compared with the higher \'eld areas of the Trans- vaal. Orange Free State. North-\\'cstern C^pe districts, and Basutoland. It is recognised that other condition.s affecting the distribution of the disease, such as trekking from high to low veld pastures, will influence the spread of the disease, but these considerations and others, such as the non-occtu-rence of the ved-^\•ater in alleged susce])tible cattle when jjlaced in contact with alleged infected cattle in the presence of the blue tick in the Karroo region of Cape I'rovince, must be left over for another time. Reference has already been made above to the brown tick in considering the eft'ect of climate on its distribution and life- history, and we might, if we wished, sho^^• how our knowledge of the distribution and occurrence of East Coast fever fits in with what we know of the habits of this and other ticks transmitting the disease, but it does not seem necessary to do so here. Due observation mav be mentioned, however, as, if correct, being still' unexplained. It has been said that when the disease was gener- ally prevalent in the Transvaal some years ago. it tended to dis- appear very quickly from the high veld areas when introduced' there. It was also pointed out that this could not be explained as being due to the absence of the transmitting ticks, since, although the brown tick is rare in this region, the red tick is also- to be found there. Theiler does not believe that the cold condi- tions of the high veld can be held directly responsible for this occurrence, and one suggestion put forward was that it perhaps depended on the fact that regulations restricting the disease were more strictly complied with in the high veld, where the native ]iopulation is smaller than in the low veld regions, and in which latter places illicit movements of animals by natives was very often practised. Further explanation is. however, necessary, but it is interesting that Theiler showed, when experimenting in this connection, that infected brown tick nympha;, ke])t for half an horn- at 0°C. every dav for three weeks, were still infective in 4^6 INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON ANIMAL DISEASE. the adult stage, and that the onl}' effect of this temperature was to increase the jieriod occupied by the moult occurring in this change. He also studied the influence of low tem])eratures on the larvse of the blue tick, and it is interesting to record the results obtained as showing the eft'ects of the temperatures used. He noted that Rhipiccphalus larvfe did not die when exposed to minus i8° C. for 15 minutes, but that exposiu'e to the same tem- perature for 30 minutes did cause their death, and also that whilst the larvje of the same sj^ecies resisted a temperature of minus 5° C. for 24 hours, the majority of them died when sub- jected to the same tem'perature for 48 hours. We may, however, finish now with this part of the subject in referring again to that disease of cattle, sheep, and goats known as heartwater, and trarismitted by the bont tick. In speak- ing of the habits of this tick, it has been mentioned already that in the Transvaal it is in the bush veld that it has its home, and does not seem to hnd the conditions of the middle or high veld suitable for its existence and development, although it has been introduced into these areas on several occasions bv cattle return- ing there in summer from their winter bushveld pastures. The high-veld farmer has long ago had these lial)its of the bont tick impressed u]Kin him as a result of his i)ractice of transhumance in trekking with his stock in winter to the low bushveld pastures, where he meets with the disease it transmits. He has also long recognised that in trekking back to the high veld in summer he leaves the disease behind him, but it is only as a result of com- ])aratively recent researches that we now find an exj^lanation for these observations. Here, then, again we have had an example of how climatic and tellurical conditions will influence the dis- tribution of a disease through the influence exerted by them on the transmitting tick agent, and as the eft'ects of these factors on ticks and the diseases carried by them have been sutticiently indicated, we may now pass to consider how these same factors may influence the diseases carried by insects. Insect-i'.orxk Diseases. It may here be exjx-cted of the writer that he should deal in some details with such diseases as are well kn<)\vn to be fly- borne, examples of which are to be found amongst the trypano- somiases, but let it here be stated that such is not his intention. What has already been written in other ])laces concerning the bionomics of the flies transmitting these diseases is enough to fill several large-sized monogra])hs, and the writer wishes more particularly to refer to certain well-known South African dis- eases which, though not definitely known to be insect-trans- mitted, are suspected of being carried in this way. For this ]'>urpose special reference will be later made to such well-known South African diseases as horse-sickness and l)lue tongue of sheep, but, in passing, brief reference may be made to trypano- somiasis as far as this ])ortion of South Africa is concerned. It is, for instance, interesting to note that in Zuhiland, where lM-'LL"liXCli OF CLIMATE Oi\ ANnJAL DlSliASlC. 4S7 Bruce made his original observations, the disease is stih cxi-tent. Following- the outbreak of the epidemic of rinderpest which, entering the northern portion of South Africa in the }ears 1896 and 1S97. s\\-e])t down tlirough this country, the number of Clos- siiia tiies is said to ha\'e decreased in Zululand simultaneously with the decrease in number of the game animals killed there by the epidemic. Since the time, however, that the rinderpest disappeared, both the " tiy " and game have increased in number up to the present day. In tlie Transvaal, on the other hand, and following the same epidemic, trypanosomiasis and the " tiy "" carrying it disappeared entirely from the east i)ortion of this territor}-. I^revious to the rinderpest the tly was well k'nown in this part of the country, and that it ma\- h.ave had a wider distril:)ution is indicateil l)v a fact referred to by Theiler, which is that on an old map of the Transvaal, ])ublished by Jeppe many years ago, the country above a certain line is m;irked as infested with " fly." This line has its lower extremity situated near the jimction of the Marico and Crocodile Rivers, and from here runs north-east through the Waterberg district u]) to the Lim- popo. Theiler also mentions certain " voortrekkers " as having told him that 30 or 40 years ago they n;et with tlie " fl\' '" north of Pretoria, and not far from the Magaliesberg. Into this point;, however, and also the explanations suggested tb accoiuit for the disappearance of the " fly " from the North-East Transvaal, we cannot further enter here, but these remarks, ho\\ever, made here chiefly because of their general interest, will also show that, whatever parts certain hosts may play in determining the distribu- tion of flies of the genus Glossiiio. the climatic and tellurical con- ditions of the North-East Transvaal Avere suitable to the existence of the " fly " there some years ago — and they ma}' still l)e so — and that in Zu.luland they are suitable to the fly even at the present day. Let us then now pass from trypanosome diseases and pro- ceed to consider the two other diseases needing no introduction in South Africa, namel\-, horse-sickness and the disease of sheep known as blue tongtie or malarial catarrhal fever. To commence with horse-sickness, we may note that it is not a disease peculiar to Southern Africa, but has also been recorded along the East Coast as far ui^wards as the Italian Colony of Eritrea; in the Soudan; in some ])laces towards more Central Africa ; and on the West Coast up to St. Paul de Loanda. So far, it is not known fin-ther north on this latter coast — as, for instance, in the Congo region — but its prevalence in what was knowai as German South-West .Vfrica has been l)r()Ught home forcibly this year through the numbers of e(|uines dying from the disease dtu-ing the operations of the Union forces in that territory. It has been noted in the areas where the disease is i)resent in South Africa that it does not present the same degree of severity in every year, "and certain epizootic ravag^es have even become historical. One of the earliest of these referred tc is 488 INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON ANIMAL DISEASE. •i that of 1780-81 in Ca])e Colony. Others are those of 1801, 1819, 1839. 1854-55 in Cape Colony, of 1888 in Natal, of 1891 and 1892 in Cape Colony again, and 1893-94 in the Transvaal and Orange Free State. In the Cape in 1854-55, according to Eding- ton. the nuniher of horses alone dying from the disease was 64,850. representing a value of £525,000, at this time a commis- sion being ai)pointed to en(]nire into the disease; and in the ejMclcmic of 1891 and 1892 it was estimated that 13.979 horses and i4(j nudes succiunl)ed. Apart, however, from such great epizootics, it is recognised that in certain localities the disease shows a well-marked annual seasonal ])revalence, although in certain tropical areas and also stibtropical 1)elts the disease may be met with m11 the year round. In the first-mentioned localities the greatest ])revalence is met Avith in the warm wet months of summer and early autumn, and the areas of these localities which are most affected are the lo\v- Iving ones. It must be ])ointed out. however, that it is not the absolute altitude of a r(?gion tha.t is so inijiortant in this connection, but rather the com])arative altitude, and that the disease may occur in the low-lying portion of a region which lias an elevation above sea-level of even several thousand feet. It is true, generally S])eaking, that very high altitude, such as that of the W'itwaters- rand, may, in ordinary years, give a certain amount of protec- tion against the disease, but that even such places are not pro- tected !)}• their altitude in years when the disease is very preva- lent is shown by the heavy mortality occurring on the Rand area during the years 1907 and 1915. Tlie more im])ortant factors in determining the ])resence of the disease, howe\-er. seem to be the ]->resence of \vater and also moisture. That this is so is indicated by a number of facts such as the following. This disease outside of certain regions before referred to shows its greatest prevalence during the wet summer months, and then it is most common in the lower lying areas and in the neighbourhood of rivers, spruits, vleis, ]:)ans, or dams. It is known also that the prevalence of the disease varies with the quantity and distribution of the rainfall — that the earlier the rains apjx^ar, the earlier the disease ap]:)ears. It has also been remarked that if two seasons in which the total rainfall is about equal in amoimt are taken, the disease is not so prevalent in the one in which the precipitation is fairly ec|uall}- distribttted throughoitt the season, as in that in which the maximum rainfall occurs inside a short i:)eriod of time — an occurrence noted as more usually happening in the later ])art of the horse-sickness season. It is also generally known that the ravages of the disease in any given horse-sickness season cease with the a]:)pearance of the first frost, and that cases occurring after this time are the ex- tremely rare occurrences, which, however, have been met with. These are facts which are generally recognised, and that a number of them were known to the farmers of Sotith Africa even as early as t8ti is shown in a letter quoted by Edington INFLUENCE OF CLniATE ON ANIMAL IHSKASi:. 489 and from the traveller Burchell. who visited this country abov.t that year. Writing at that time from the Roi^seveld Mountains. he says : — Tlie Hantclicrg district. Ix-ini; in tlie dircctinn of iKirth iKirth west from tlie Ro,t>Keveld mountains, is said to be very higli land and remark- able for bein.ti' 1 nc of a few situations in this part of the countr\- where horses arc not liable to tb.e horse-sickness which rases during the sunnner season, and annnall.\' carries off oreat numliers. Sjieakinjj' of Klaarwater. lie stated: -\ftcr the months of Octolier no frost is expected for seven months, but in tlic mornins of .May it is always found to return, and is tlie signal for the return of the I'oer's horses from the Ro.nye\eId. whither they are sent in January to avoid the Paardczicktc. a fatal distemper to which they are liable in the hotter months. Those who object to sending their horses such a long distance from tiie settlement are content to run the risk of keeping them in the Landsberg. an elevated mountainous country lying in north north west direction. This, liowever. not being so cold as the Ro.ggeveld, is less safely to lie depended upon. It does not seem that the distemjier acquires its fidl force until the beginning of Feliruary. but after then the lower districts of the whole of the extra tropical parts of South Africa are as far as my experience enables me to speak. subject to its baneful eft'ects. Experience has shown that the hrst frost. whene\er it happens, fortunately puts a stop to its further ravages. Tints wrote Bitrche-11 over a hntidred )ears ago, ])aying a high tri])nte to the observation of the Dutch farmer even at that time. It has, moreover, been observed that a certain amount of safety is conferred on horses in bad districts by stabling them during the night, and from shortly before stinset until some time after sttm^ise. If we V. ere now to consider in detail the di.sease known as l)lue tongue, we could bring out exacth' the same jioints as we ha\e noted in regard to horse-sickness. It also is a disease of the wet sttnuner season and of low-h'ing places near the vicinity of water. It is rarely met Avith after the first frost has a])iieared until the next summer sets in again, is rare in shee]) stabled in closed sheds between siuiset and sunrise, and it is a disease especially |)revalent in exceptionally wet seasons. The similarity between the conditions under which the diseases occin-red is. indeed, so striking that the Boers observing it, and also noting that in certain cases of horse-sickness the tongue assumed a slightl}- bhtish colour, came to the conclusion that both diseases were really due to one catisal agent acting on two different species of animals. The latter conclusion has, however, since been shown to be wrong b\- ])roving that each of the two diseases is due to a distinct and separate filterable virus. Here, then, we have two diseases, influencing the distribu- tion and prevalence of which the climatic and tellurical factors are seen to be of extreme imj^ortance ; hence it is of especial interest to see if we can explain the reasons for this influence. Such an explanation, however, cannot be found in exactly the same way as we have seen in the cases of the other diseases hitherto considered. In those cases we were dealing with condi- 490 IXFLL'KNCE Ui" CLIMATE ON ANIMAL DISEASE. tions wliere the natural mode of transmission was known. Imt in the case of both horse-sickness and blue tongue the manner in which the disease is transmitted in nature still remains to be definitely determined. We can. however, find an explanation in accepting the hypothesis which, amongst those acquainted with the problems that both of these diseases ofifer. is regarded as being so extremely feasible as to be very ])robably correct, though still lacking in direct experimental verification. This hypothesis is one which I am siu'e that most of you have heard of before, and is that both diseases are transmitted by winged insects of noctinmal habits, and most probably n^.embers of the group of Culicidas or mosquitoes. Now in accepting this theory as we do here it is n_ot neces- sary to go into the evidence in support of it, although this would be extremely interesting in itself. Such a consideration would occupy much time, and it does not seem quite necessary to do so. For our purposes it is necessary to see whether, having accepted the theory, we can ex])la]n the influence of the climatic and tellurical factors on the distribution of the disease. This ultimately, then, really resolves itself into a consideration of how these factors influence the transmitting agent, which in this case is sup])osed to be one of the CulicidcC. Let us. then, enquire into the bionomics of this grouj) in order to see what information Ave gain in this resiiect. NoA\', if we follow Theobald on this i)oint, we find that the mosquitoes are of wide-world distribution, the majority Ijeing vegetable feeding (the blood-sucking varieties being in the minority), and that in the life-cycle four stages are recognised, namely, egg, larva, pupa, and adult, or imago. That water or dam]) mud is absolutely essential to their development he shows in ])ointing out that it is only in ])laces oft'ering such that the larval and ptipal stages can be ])assed, and that water influ- ences the distribution of the adult form is seen from the fact that the adults occur in greatest abtmdance in damp marshy places, along river coiu'ses, and the borders of large lakes, and althougli they may be met with in some bare, rocky spots, yet even here water determines their i)re valence, since the_\' must for breeding purposes use the small collections of water such as are formed in the hollows of rocks or boulders. He points otit also that heat imi^ortantb' influences the rate of their develop- ment, acting more marked^ on the puj^al than on the larval stages, and he remarks that in warm climates mosquitoes may continue to breed all the year round in small niunbers, although during the dry seasons they rest, and that in temperate and cold regions they pass the winter as either adults. larv;e. or ova. Altitude he refers to as offering no protection against their pre- sence, and instances the fact that they swarm at a height of 13,000 feet in the Himalayas. Discussing the effects of weather on mosquitoes, he points out that they are very susceptible to weather changes, and that a certain rainfall is necessary for their development, this giving them the breeding facilities whicli are IXFLUKNCK OF C'Ll.MATE OX ANIM.VL lJlSi;ASr.. 49 1 ni)t present under the conditions of a lon_i^- i)eriiul of (lr\- weather. and it is important that moderate rains are more favoiu"able to their increase than very heavy torrential rains, whicli latter may even be harmful through washing out small ])ools and vessels, thus destroying large numl)ers of larv;e and i)U]);e. Finally, we ma}- (|Uote his remarks th.at although not all of the most[uitoes ie^cl at night, and manv Anoy^heles commence to bite before sunset, yet the rnajoritv of tlie Culicidre are known to be of noctiu'nal feeding habits. These facts, then, are sufficient to indicate that the climatic conditions which are favourable to the i)resence of horse-sick- ness and blue tongue are those which at the same time are fav- ourable to the development of the moscphto, and that these latter insects are ver\- ])revalent in areas wiiere the diseases occiu" has been a matter of observation. Even the remark made above as to the harmful eilect of torrential rains on tlie develoi^ment of the moscpiito also has an im])or;ance to us, since it has been observed that following extremel)- heavy rains the pre\-alen_ce of the diseases may be rem]^orarih- checked. Thus we see, then, that through accepting these diseases as being mosc(uito-borne. we can explain the points noted ])reviously in regard to their distribution and i^revalence. The fact remains, however, that ex])erin.iental verihcation of this theoretical ex- planation is still lacking, and that some insect other than the mos- quito may eventually be ])roved to be the culprit in transmitting the disease. Even if such should eventuall}-. however, jjrove to be the case, it will be seen that this will most probablv prove to be an insect with habits ver\' similar to that of the mosquito, as have been described above, auvd with the conditions influencing" its distribution ])ractically the same as those aj^plving to the members of the Culicidae grou]). There seems little doubt that time and further ex])eriments \y\\\ furnish us with the direct jn'oof that both horse-sickness and blue tongue are diseases which are insect-borne, and that is the reason that they have been included in this section of this present paper, and there would also seem to be little doubt that, in a similar way, we shall find that other of om* South African diseases are transmitted in a like manner. In the case, for instance, of ephemeral fever, a disease due to a filterable virus, there is already strong presumi)tive evidence for believing it to be insect-borne in this countrv. and in the case of another disease due to a virus of the filterable group, namely, equine infectious anaemia, recently shown by Theiler and the writer to be present in South Africa, the evidence coming from Japan points most strongly to the disease being transmitted chieiiy through insect agency, the particular flies on which suspicion rests in that country being included within the group of the Tabani(Ue. It is therefore ]:)ossible that in .South Africa insects or ArachnidcC ma>' be found capable of transmitting this disease. in addition to the mode of transmission, through the ineestion of the urine or material contanu'nated bv the urine of aft'ected 4les, we will hrst deal with the conditions due to the iilatyhelminthic parasite, and the particular form of distomatosis to which we shall refer is that caused by the presence of the j^arasite known for a long time as Disfoiiiinn licpaticiini. now more correctly referred to as Fasc'wla hcpatica, and ])opularl}- known as tlie " liver fluke " or sim])ly " fluke." This parasite Fasc'wla hcpatica is one which is met with in more than one animal species, but is perhaixs best known as a parasite of the bile-dttcts of the sheep, and the disease caused by it in this case has been recognised all over the world — as, for example, in Europe, North and South America, Australia, Japan, China. India, Africa, North as well as South, and in other ])laces as well — as, for instance, the Sandwich Islands. It is thus a ver\- interesting" disease frf)m the point of view of distribution. influkncl; of climati-: hx axi.mal disease. 493 and we shall see the importance of the factors which determine this distribution as we proceed to examine the manner in which the parasite is transmitted from one l;ost to another. Now in the case of this disease the imi)ortcmce of both sets of factors with which we are concerned is brought out. but the necessity of certain tellurical conditions for the development of the ])arasite is made very evident, for it hap])ens that wherever the disease is met with, the conditions under v,hich it exists always resemble each other in su])plyino" water in the forms of pools, streams, etc.. and thus it is a disease associated Avith pas- tures of a marshy, undrained. or oenerally wet character. This fact is, indeed, so striking that in many places where this disease occurs pastures of this nature are often referred to by farmers as being " flukey " of " fluke-strucl<."' It is also, however, recog- nised that ])astures of this nature favour the development of helminthic ])arasites generally, and hence, to sec the especial im- portance which they have in relation to the development of the river fluke, we must enter into some consideration of its life- historv, which may be as briefly as possible i)Ut as follows : — The adult fluke is met with as an inhabitant of the bile- ducts of affected animals, and in this ]K)sition lavs the eggs pro- duced by it. which eggs, i^assing to the intestine, leave this in the fccces of the host animal, to be distributed on the pasture. The next thing that happens is that these ova so de]X)sited now hatch under suitable conditions within a Aariable time, usually a few weeks, and from them emerges the next stage in the life-cycle, known as the ciliated embryo or miracidium. So far the life- history is, comparativel}' S])eaking, uneventful, but at this mira- cidium stage a crisis occurs in the life of the liver fluke, for if at this point a certain intermediate host animal is not met with, no further development can occur, an.d the embryo under these conditions may die in about 36 hoiu-s. I'rovided, however, that the suitable host, which hai)pens to be a species of fresh-water snail, is present, then the further development ])roceeds. In this case the embryo bores its wav into the body of the snail, and there passes to the next stage in its development, which is known as the redia stage; this redia stage ma}- now in turn give rise to another generation of redia forms ( daughter-redia ) . but eventu- ally these redia forms give rise to the last stage occurring within the body of the snail, a tailed form which is known as cercaria. The next thing to happen is that these cercaria; leave the snail host, move about until they meet with the stem of some aquatic plant or with blades of herbage, up which the}- crawl, and, hav- ing lost their tail-like appendage, they there become encysted. It is now finally this encysted form ])resent on the lierbage which, being swallowed by a suitable animal — the sheep in this instance — develops within this animal to the mature adult stage, and in this form, and having reached the bile-ducts of its host, it there again lays its eggs to start the life-cycle afresh. These facts, broadly stated, will thus show what an interest- ing life-history the parasite possesses, but for us they bring out 494 INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON ANIMAL DISEASE. something more than this, and fin-nish ns with the explanations for the peculiarities in regard to its distribution, for we have seen that Avithout the intermediate snail host the complete development of the parasite cannot occtn\. and hence the distri- bution of this snail host must regulate the distribution of the parasite worm. In this fact. then, we have the key to the importance of the tellurical conditions and the presence of water in regard to the distribution of the disease, and in knov^ing that the snail host is incapable of existing in the absence of water, although its habits are amphibious rather than aquatic. In Etn^ope this snail host is Liiiuva fniiicatiilns or miiiittits, a fresh-water snail which is found in the neighbourhood of ponds, ditches, and streams. According to Theobald, it is to be met wdth in elevated as well as in low-lying places, occurring in the Pyrenees at a height of 4.000 feet, and he also remarks that the smallest natural collec- tions of water can serve for its development. This snail, how- ever, though of very wide distribtition. is not a species met with in everv coimtry where the disease due to the parasite worm is encotmtered. In these in.stances, however, and where the in- termediate snail host has been determined, this host has been foimd in a snail possessing habits in regard to w^ater similar to those of Liiniid-a tntucatula. Thus in the Sandwich Islands Limncca cahiiciisis is mentioned as the intermediate snail host, wdiilst in North and South America L. limiiilis and L. viator respectively figure in this role. In Sottth Africa we find the same tellurical conditions influ- encing the distribution of the disease as we find elsewhere. It is a disease associated with marshy places or vleis, or along the edges of motmtain streams and the pools formed by them, where these streams occur, and is especially prevalent in these places during very Avet periods. Dixon states that it is especially preva- lent in the Cape, Stellenbosch, Paarl, and Worcester dis- tricts of the Cape Province, and also that in very wet seasons it causes great trouble and losses to owners of sheep in the Cathcart and Stutterheim districts, and on the Stormberg and Sneeuwberg ranges. That it has been present in the Cape Province for a long time is shown by the fact that the Commission appointed to enquire into the diseases of cattle and sheep in that Colony in 1877, even then met with the established disease from the Wodehouse district, through the Stormberg range, to as far as the Molteno district. At that time also the association existing between the presence of water and the prevalence of the disease vvas recognised, and it is interesting to note that the Commissioners state in their recommendations that, in order to prevent the occurrence of the disease, the sheep in the places where ft occurred would have to be kept away from marshy or boggy places or neighboiU"hood of streams or pools of water. So far we do not know the details of the development of the parasite or the nature of the intermediate host in this country. INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON ANIMAL DLSI'.ASE. 495 There is ])ractically no doubt, however, that the development is along- similar lines to that described above, and the occurrence of the disease is indicative of the habits which the intermediate host must be expected to possess. Gilchrist would appear to be the only worker who has entered into this qtiestion to any depth, and it is ver\- interesting to note that his work indicates the intermediate snail host as being most ])robably existent in the snail Physa tropica. In this species he claims to have found the redia and cercaria stages of the fluke, but the non-detection of the encysted stage and the consequent alisence of infection ex- periments unfortunately leave the matter awaiting final settle- ment. Here, then, having seen from this example how the climatic and tellurical conditions may influence the distribution of a parasitic disease in what we may speak of as a rather indirect manner, let us now. in considering the other disease we have selected, study the more direct influences of these conditions on helminthic development. The particular exam])le which we have here chosen is the disease recognised as occurring in sheep consequent upon the presence in this animal of a parasitic nema- tode worm, formerly known as Slroiif/yliis coutorfns. but now designated Hccmonchus contortus. This worm, though met with in other ruminants, is most commonly a parasite of the abomasus of the sheep, and from this facts it has in many |)laces earned the popular name of thC'sheei)- stomach worm." In this country, however, the common name ap])lied to it is that of " wireworm " or '" haarworm," and under these synonyms is known to sheep-farmers throughout the whole Union as causing a disease in sheep, and especially young sheep, which, under certain conditions, may be very serious. In some places where the pastures are of a wet or damj:) character, it is more or less always prevalent, whilst in other j^laces its prevalence is usually most marked during the annual wet season. During very wet seasons, however, it becomes more generally and markedly l)revalent than usual, and may then cause serious losses, especially in younger animals, unless preventive or curative measures are adopted. The importance of the disease in this country, therefore, lends a review of the observations on the development of the parasite, an interest additional to that which it has for us in our broader considerations. In order to review these observations, however, we must, as w^e have already done in the case of liver fluke, first consider the life-history of the worm, and this is briefly the following : — Commencing with the adult sexually mature parasites, we fin.d tiiese occurring in the abomasus or stomach of the sheep, and in this position they may be encountered in a large proportion of animals examined. The numbers, however, in which the para- sites are found vary in difl'erent individuals and with certain con- ditions into which we shall not enter here. All animals carrying the parasite, however, do not necessarily show symptoms of 4yO IxVFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON AM.MAL i)lSl-:ASi:. its i)resence, except on microscopic examination of tlie fasces, when the eggs of the worm may he fotnid, and a very large nnmljcr of adnlt sheep may be found to harbour at least a few incHvidnal worms. These, as meritioned before, may not pro- duce any symptoms of their presence, but the imi)ortance of the animal carrying them in acting as a constant source of infection to the pastures over which it grazes will be ai)parent. Continuing, however, with the life-cycle of the ])arasite. we note tliat, following the general rule, this does not occiu" vvitliin the body of the host, but can only occur outside it. The eggs must, therefore, reach the exterior, and this the\' do in the ffeces of the host animal. Having done so. the next thing to occur is that they hatch, and form them emerges a form which is known as the larva ; this larva now proceeds to feed, and having grown and cast its outer skin on tw^o occasions, we finally meet with it in an ensheathed form in which the sheath possessed by it is formed from the retained cuticle cast at the last moulting. Now it is this stage which represents the infective form of the para- site, the eggs and earlier larvse stages being incapable of produc- ing infection, and for develo]:)ment to maturity to occur this form must again find its way into the host animal. This is accomplished, however, by th.e larva through climbing up the blades of grass and herbage in its vicinity, with which herbage it is consiuned by its host, or ])erhaps in rarer cases though being consumed with drink'ing water, and now having gained the stom- ach of the sheep, it loses its sheath, undergoes further develop- ment, and within about three weeks' time is to be met with in the stomach as the adult sexuallv mature worm. Tn coming now to consider the more detailed observations made in connection with the rate of this development we shall, therefore, speak of the different stages occurring outside the body of the animal as the eg^:, or ovum stage, the immature larval stage, and the mature larval stage, and in dealing with the sub- ject reference may first be made to the work of Ransom on the subject performed in America, the work of Veglia in this country being mentioned later. The life-history of the ])arasite, as described by both of these workers, is essentially th.e same, but in regard to the biology of the worm some differences are to be observed in the results obtained. These differences, however, will not be discussed here, but the main facts observed by both workers are here set forth as evidence of the marked effect of heat and moisture on the rate of development of the worm, and some of Ransom's observations are as follows : — According to this observer, the eggs do not hatch if the tem- perature is below 40° F.. but tmder such conditions he says the eggs remain in a dormant state. Provided they are not destroyed "by freezing or drying, to both of which they are very susceptible, he states, they ma}' survive in this dormant state for two to three months and hatch, if a favourable opportunity occurrs. Above 40° F., however, hatching does occur, and from 40° IXFLL'E.XCE OF CLl.MATE ON ANIMAL DISEASE. 497 F. to 50° F. this time may var_y from a coui)le of weeks to a few hours. The effect of temperature is further noted in examining- the rate of development from the egg to the infective larval stage. According to Ransom, the rate of their development at different temperatures is as follows: — At a constant temperature of 05 " F. this period occupied three to four days; at 70° F., six to 14 days were occupied ; whilst from 46° F. to 57° F. the time occupied may be from three to four weeks. The im])ortance of moisture Ransom refers to in dealing \\-ith the hnal infective larval stage, for here he jioints out that *' it is only when moisture is supplied that these larvae can crawl up the blades of grass from which they gain access to their host." Even here, however, he states temperature is again an important factor, since below 40° F. he found the larv?e to show little or no activity. Provided, however, tliat the temperature is suitable, these larv?e, he says, crawl u]) the grass blades during wet weather and dewy nights, ceasing their migrations when the humidity of the atmosphere falls below saturation point or when the dew evaporates. Their movements, he further says, resume or cease according to the presence or absence of moisture, and thus they moiuit higher and higher up the grass glades, propor- tionately increasing their chances of bein.g consmned by a host. The importance, however, of actual collections of water such as pools he regards as being indirect rather than direct, in ]xjint- ing out that the larvcC tend to fall to the bottom of these, and will only be ingested if sheep in drinking stir up the mud from the bottom of such pools. He believes that the chief importance such pools possess is in keeping the earth surrounding them moist, and at the same time raising the humidity of the air in their neighbourhood. Observations made in regard to the effects of the reverse conditions of coldness and dryness are as follows :- — Drying, he states, speedily kills the eggs and immature embryos, and a 24- hours' freezing may prove fatal in a number of cases. On the other hand, the sheathed infective larval stage is, according to Ransom, very resistant to drying and freezing. Thus he men- tions that this form resisted drying for 35 days in fseces, and that, placed out of doors for a continuous period of 85 days, they were still alive at the end of th.is time, although for 494 hours of this period the temperature was 30° F. lower, the larv:^ being thawed out 32 times and remaining continually frozen for over 48 hours on three different occasions. Coming next to the observations made by \>glia in .South Africa,* we may note some of his results in the same way, and the more important to us are the following: — * These results, obtained by Dr. Ve.glia. liave not as yet Iseen published, but will sliortly appear in the Report of the Director of Veterinary Re- search. The remarks made here refer to information verbally communi- cated to the writer for the purposes of this article througli the kindness of Dr. VeRlia. D 4y8 INFLUKNCE OF CLniATE oX ANIMAL DISEASE. The shortest time observed by Veglia as occurring between the eg",s^ and the final infective stage larvse was three days, and this was noted at a temperature of from 22° C. to 35° C. The effect of decreasing temperature in retarding the rate of develop- ment is again seen in the fact that the same developmental period as that just referred to occupied six days at 15° to 18° C. ; eight days at 15° C. ; and 12 days at 15° to 13° C. In making field experiments, he noted in one of these, made in March, 1915, that the final stage infective larvae were to be met with after four days, the maximum temperature recorded during this time being 26° C. whilst the minimum was 15° C. ; in another field experi- ment, where these limits were 26° C. and 12° C. respectively, it was only on the seventh day that the larvae were found crawling up the grass blades ; whilst in a third and similar experiment, but with temperature limits of 26° C. and 8° C. only 10 per cent, of the larvae were found on the tenth day to have reached the final and infective stage. In regard to the eft"ects of drying and freezing, he has noted that eggs resisted freezing up to 36 hours, and some for even 48 hours, and that, kept at 4° C, they died in from 40 to 50 davs. llie immature larvtC in some cases ap])ear to resist freezing for 24 hours, but at tem])erature descending from 10° C. in- creasing numbers of them die when exi:)6sed for a similar length of time. He also noted that this larval stage in one ex])eriment was not able. Vx-h.en present in faeces, to resist drying for mf)re than ten days. The resistance of the infective larval stage is evidence by the fact that after an exposure to a tem])erature of 0° C. from the 30th July, 1914. to the 21st December, 1914. 30 per cent of this stage larvae were still found to survive. In regard to the effect of drying on this stage. Veglia remarks that when spread out in thin layers on either glass plates or dry grass blades, and not allowed to collect in the form of clusters (in which formation original moisture is retained longer than when the individual larvfe are well separated), they are invariably found dead in four dav's time. In faeces, ho^\•ever, kept in the field, and thus deriving a certain amount of moisture from the soil, he has found 50 per cent, of this stage larvae surviving from the 2nd April. 1915, to the 22nd Jtme, 191 5, but in another similar experi- ment, however, he found the same stage larvae placed in a similar position on the 8th September. 19] 4. to have died out in June. 1915- Another observation to which, reference is made here be- cause of its general biological interest and importance is the extremely interesting observation in regard to the eff'ect of light on this larval stage. The writer may point out that the effect of light in deter- mining movements and activity of certain animals is an effect which has been before recognised, and especially in regard to larval forms. This subject is one which has been studied under the name of heliotropism. and according to whether light exerts INFLUENCK OF CLI^IATE ON WnfAL DISEASE. 499 an attractive or repulsive influence on the i)arricular form of life studied, two forms of heliotropism. a positive and a negative form respectively, have come to be recognised. A very interesting discussion of the purposefulness of heliotropism may be found by those interested in the subject, in Jacques Loeb's essays, col- lected under the title of " A Mechanistic Conception of Life," and many references to its possession by different living forms are there met with. So far as is known, however, it has not been before noted in regard to the larv?e of H. contortns. X'eglia found that in the case of these larvae the phenomenon of negative heliotropism was exhibited and first noted this when watching the development of the larvse in cultures kept in glass jars. In keeping them under such conditions and exposing them to lights of different intensities, he has noted that whilst in the ])resence of dift'use light or darkness they tend to crawl up the sides of the vessel in which they are kept (temperature and moisture condi- tions of course being suitable), and to heights increasing in a certain proportion as the light supply is lessened, they, on the other hand, are caused to quickly move down the sides of the con- taining vessel, into the layer of faeces at the bottom, when this glass vessel is exposed to a bright light such as sunlight. He has further observed that alternate upward and downward move- ments of the larvae can be induced by alternating exposure to subdued light or darkness, and bright light respectively but after repeated excursions of the larvae induced in this manner, they appear to become exhausted, for some time at any rate, and they retire into the layer of faeces, or earth containing faeces, placed at the bottom of the jar, and i)lacing the vessels in dark- ness no longer stimulates them to moA^e up the walls as before. The duration of this phase or its ultimate termination have not yet been fully determined. The actual destructive eff'ect of sunlight on the larvae is also included in Veglia's observations, and he attaches considerable importance to it. Detailed reference, however, to all of these points will appear later in his publication on the subject. This effect of light on the migrations of the larvae will thus be seen to be of extreme interest, but the part which it plays m the biology of the v/orm under natural conditions, and how far it acts as a factor in regulating, along with temperature and moist- ure, the migrations of the larvae up the grass blades during the night or in cloudy weather, and how far the harmful efi"ect of direct sunlight on the larvse may come to be exerted under natural conditions, are all matters requiring further investigation. We may leave this part of the subject here, however, and go back to our former remarks on the effect of heat and moisture on the rate of development of the worm. Recalling these facts and bearing them in mind, it is hardly necessary to emphasise their importance any further, and the importance of the part played by wet or damp pastures and wet weather is made evident. The facts, however, which have been 5O0 INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON ANIMAL DISEASE. thus dealt with in regard to the hfe-history and biology of H. €outortus are, when broadly generalised, applicable in a general way to most other nematode })arasites causing stock diseases, and we find that vrarmth and moisture pla}- the same general role in the development of the parasites causing them, and hence in the prevalence of the diseases themselves. This therefore explains the reason for the greater preva- lence of parasitic diseases of this nature on damp, marshv or undrained pastures during wet weather, and es])eciall}' in those parts of a coun.try where the wet and warm season happen to coincide, as happens over the greater part of this country. It is not without interest, also, to note the association of certain diseases during these wet summer months and their increased prevalence. Thus the marked jjrevalence of horse-sickness, blue tongue of sheep, ])ai-asitic diseases gener- ally— but especially of infection of sheep by //. contortiis ( " wire- worm" infection) — and of ephemeral fever or three-days sickness of cattle during the early part of this year, and their similarly marked prevalence in the summer of 1907. and similarly under very wet climatic conditions ( e])hemeral fever then entering the country from further north), is an association which lias been observed. Such an association is, however, one which is cajiable of explanation along the lines Avhich have been laid down in this article, and it is hoped that the ex])lanation has been sufficiently clear to allow of its appreciation. Having now seen from all of our ])revioi;s considerations how the climatic and tellurical factors may exert their influence on the distribution of diseases of bacterial or helminthic charac- ter, and on those borne by either ticks or insects, we near the conclusion of our consideration, for, although the subject of the diseases caused by toxic plants is a fascinating one, we have not yet obtained, so far as South Africa is concerned, sufficient data to illustrate the jjoints with which it would 1)e of interest to deal. This point to which I refer is the effect of climate and soil in ■determining the actual toxicity of the plant itself, and it is regrettable that we have not more exact data concerning this subject in South Africa, as it is a matter of general scientific importance. There is little doubt, however that time and other suitable conditions will remedy this state of affairs, and that our Ivnowledge of this subject wall then become amplified. Ostertag and Zuntz, in Germany, have pointed to the produc- tion of toxic substances in grasses grown under certain climatic and tellurical conditions, which grasses were not toxic when the conditions were altered, and, as I am sure you all know, an ■explanation of the causation of lamziekte has been given follow- ing similar lines by Theiler, and it is therefore of importance that we should know under what exact conditions we may expect such occurrences, and investigations into the matter will have the highest interest. There are, however, a couple of observations which have a bearing on the point, and to which reference may be made. INFLUENCK OF CLIMATE ON ANIMAL DISEASE. 501 (_)ne of these is the observation made in rej^ard to the toxicity of the SlViccio species, and in this case, whilst it was shown by Robertson and Chase that a form ()f Hver cirrhosis could be produced by feeding' animals with the plants obtained in the Cape Province, yet the same s])ecies of ])lants collected at a later date, and in Xatal, did not ])rodnce a similar affection when fed to animals in experiments made by Webb. '!'he other observation is one of the writer's made in connection with the toxicity of Cotylcdo)! orblculata when fed to fowls. In this case it was noted that whilst the ])lant collected near Pretoria was toxic. 3'et the same species collected in the Cape Province ( and with only a coti])le of weeks' difference in time of collection) did not prove toxic. The specimens of each i)lant were submitted to Dr. Schonland. of (irahamstown. an atithoritv on the South African Crassulacere. but he stated that he was unable to make even a variable dift"erence on an\- t^n'ounds outside of this variation in . toxicity. This indicates, therefore, that there is still an interesting" field of research open in this direction for the chemist and phar- macologist, and it is to be ho]:)ed that the gaps in our information on these and similar points may soon be filled u]). These remarks conclude om- examination of the broad outlines of the subject with \\liich we are concerned. The pre- sentation of the subject is admittedly im])erfect. and this must necessarily be so. but if the writer has succeeded in arousing a more general interest in the subject than had ])reviously existed^ he will feel satisfied in regarding his object as achieved. Hydrocyanic Acid in Sorghum. — The Juunial of Agriciiltitnil Nc'scarclr'''- con.tains an account by J. J. \\'illaman and R. M. West on a series of experiments conducted by them in order to ascertain the eft'ect of climatic factors on the propor- tion of hydrocyanic acid in sorg;hum. They foimd that unhealthy plants usuall)- contained more hydrocyanic acid than healthy ones, that an inadequate water-su]:»ply is generally accom])anied by high hydrocyanic acid content, and that there is a pro])ortion- atelv smaller amount of the cyanogenetic glucoside dhurrin in thick heavy stalks than in slender ones. The large amount of hydro- cyanic acid which accompanies inadecjtiacv of water is ascribed to need of glucoside stinuilation when the water supi)ly becomes low, while in the case of unhealthy plants it is thought that a larger c|uantity of glucoside may be produced for the piu'pose of stimulating hormones. * (1916) 6 [7], 261-272. RHODESIAN RUINS AND NATIVE TRADITION. By Rev. Samuel S. Dornan, M.A., F.R.G.S., F.G.S. {Flairs 15-iS.j The ruins scattered over Rhodesia have given rise to a hot •and somewhat acrimonious controversy regarding their origin, uses, and age. Archccologists and popular writers have solved the ])rohlem in two different ways. A halo of romance has been woven around these ruins, and they have been projected back to the age of King Solomon. On the other liand, they have been reduced to late Middle Age in date, and degraded to the level of a glorified Kaiir kraal. Bent and Hall drew lively pictures of a lost civilisation Avhich IMacivcr rudely dis- pelled. All these writers have dealt with the problem from the archc'eological side. Imt none of them attacked it from the side of native tradition. It would have been worth while to have devoted some time to this line (jf investigation, and to have endeavoiu-ed to discover if the natives now residing in the area ■covered l)v these ruins had any traditions regarding their origin and use. Dr. Alaciver, in his " Medieval Rhodesia." does not raise the (juestion at all. while Air. R. N. Hall, in his " Prehistoric Rhodesia," clo.ses the matter by stating that: — TIk' MakaraiiRa. who liave occujjicd ^rashonaland and Matabeleland and the innnediate liinterland of Sofala tor the best part of a thousand years, have no tradition or even legend of tlie erection of the Zimhahwe Temple and its associated ruins, except that they say that tlie teiniik- was Iniik liy the devil, just as their ancestors, more tlian five Inmch-ed years ago, stated tliat the temple was erected hy the devil* He ((uotes De Barros. an old Portuguese chronicler, in support of this .statement, and also gives other proofs that the ]\rakaranga know nothing whatever about the origin of the old ruins. I hoj)e to show in the course of this paper that these assertions require very serious qualification. In other words, I shall endeavour to ])rove that the natives have some traditions regarding these buildings, whatever reliance may be j^laced upon them. With regard to Hall's statement. I should like to make the following observations. Everyone knows that, in dealing with natives, one must have a thorough mastery of the language, and their complete confidence, before one can obtain trustworthy information, and then only with the greatest patience, care, and caution. Statements have to be tested over and over agahi before they are accepted, and even then one never knows how much one mav have been told that the natives saw one wanted to be told. After a fairly long experience in dealing with natives, T can most i)ositively affirm that I know no class of people more susceptible to suggestion in the way of imparting * Prehistoric Rhodesia," 149. RlLdUESiAX KI"1XS. 3O3 information, so tliat anything in the \va}- of leading questions must be avoided. 1 tlnnk that the natives who now hve in the neighbourhood ct Ziivil)al)we, Thaba's ka Alambo Khan^.i, and other ruins deak with here, do not know most about them, nor are they most wiHing to teh what the_\- know. Everv native fears every other. This was what led Hall astray. There have been great mtn-ements of population in Rhodesia within comparatively recent times, and we must go farther afield for our information. Not only has there been a great immigration into this country from across the Zambesi within the last ,^oo or 500 years, but we have as well the various Zulu incursions within the last century. .Ml this has led to a great shifting of tribes and clans. Hence it is that in comparativelv unsus- pected places, and amongst relativelv small tribes, the nK)st important evidence has come to light. ^^'ith regard to the veracity of the old Portuguese writers. ver\- dilterent opinions have been held. Many of them are fairly trustworthy ; others are full of unsifted and unveracious statements, which have to he accepted with great reserve. Mr. Hall apparentl\- considered them all as of equal value, and used them without caution. I have read several of them, and do not attach more importance to their information than T do to Haklttyt's "Voyages." for example. There are two theories of the origin of the Rhodesian ruins before the public. The first, identihed with Bent, Peters, and more especially Hall, asserts that they are very ancient, pre- historic in the sense of the term as applied to South Africa, that they were built by Semites, or under Semitic influence, ranging in })oint of time from something like 2000 B.C. down to about (jOG .\.D. The natives are held to have been qitite incajyable of erecting such buildings, and that they neither now nor at any ])revious time did actually erect them. Further, thev are stated to have attemi)ted to co])}- the designs of the original architects in a ^'ery crude and ignorant manner. .A formidable array of proofs, arch?eological, ethnological, botanical, and architectural, are brought forward in support of this theory, so that at first sight it a])pears quite irresistible. But the statements are so general in their character, that, when examined critically, they fail to convince. Taking a few examples of so-called proofs of antiquity, this is what we tind. It is commonl)- held by Hall and others that Zimbabwe is the oldest and best of the buildings, and therefore the ]H-otot\pe and pattern of all the others. Yet PTall asserts that Kliami and Dhlo-Dhlo contain all styles of building, from the very oldest Zimbabwe type down to the newest, and were erected about 900 .\.D. liie fact is, there is no difference between the style of arcliitecture at Khami and that of Zimbabwe except size and better preservation. The valley ruins at Zimbabwe are in much the same state as Khami. The signs of later and decadent walls are similar in both instances, and 504 , KHODESIAN RUIxXS. what in one case is regarded as a later and decadent wall at Zimbabwe is simply a fracture in the wall caused by a sub- sidence of the ground. It is also asserted that the Maho- bohobo tree was introduced by the " ancients," and is therefore not a native of the country. Mr. C. H. Munro has shown that it is not confined to the gold belts or ruins areas, but is an indigenous tree. It is of the genus Photiiiia. is often called the wild locjuat. and is of pretty coiumon occurrence.* All this only shows how general and how unsifted much of the evidence really is. But apart from all this, the Semitic theory assumes two things that themselves require to be proved. First, that there was an}- Semitic occu])ation of this coiuitry before the thirteenth century a.d., or nitich between that date and the coming of the Portuguese at the beginning of the sixteenth. Second, that tlie natives are or were incapable of producing unaided such buildings. A further jiroof is sometimes advanced that the natives of Zimbabwe and other districts have been largely influenced mor])]iologicall\- and culturally l)y the Semitic colonists. < )f the first, no satisfactory- ])roof has l)een forthconung, beyond vague inferences which mean little or nothing. The second rests upon the fallacious assun-iption that because the natives could not build these ruins, or do not build similar ones now, ergo the\- did not l)ifild them. The third ma\- l)e disnussed with the remark that general agreements in a])pearance and customs can be found amongst widely separated peoples, who have otherwise no near relationshi]:) at all. Lord Kingsborough attempted to show, for instance, by the resemblances in cust(Mns and architecture, that Mexico -was colonized by the Israelites ! But the fact is the Makaranga of the Zimbabwe and other districts have no special Semitic or even Hamitic character- istics, and their language has not been influenced to any appre- ciable degree, either in grammar or vocabulary, yet Mr. R. N. Hall states that the Bantu arrived south of the Zambesi River some time about 300 b.c. Idiey would thus arrive in the n-iiddle of the Scnfitic colonization, and yet they show no trace of foreign influence. The second theor}- is identified with Maciver, thotigh others had suspicions before him. whose investigations were carried out on scientific principles. They led him to the conclusion that these ruins were medieval and post-medieval, that they were built b_\- negroes, and that in the case of Zinibabwe itself not earlier than the fourteenth or fifteenth century. The evidence was convincing enough. Nothing but native work was found in or about the ruins with the exception of Persian fayence and Nankin China, the introduction of which was easily explained. When the buildings themselves were examined, the * Professor H. H. W. Pearson informs me tliat little evidence can be adduced of Semitic inllnence from the distribution of vine or orange, t Prescott : " Histor}- of the Conquest of Mexico." KUODliSl.sX KL'INS. 505 testimony was the same. Thex- were tv])icall_\' African negro, they were round or oval, the courses were irregular, and they had l)ecn built on no dehnite i>lan. There were no square corners, and the stones had not been dressed in the proper sense of the term. The natural fracture of the rock had played a large part, and the best face of the stone was ])lace(l outward. All this the writer can personally conhrm, as from a careful examination of Zimbabwe and its associated ruins, 1 became convinced, if further c(in\-iction were needed, oi the truth of Maciver's theory. What specially stritck me was the new- ness of the buildings. The\- had no ancient look about them. There was no sign of weathering to suggest high antiquity — the faces of the stones were too fresh for that — so that they could not have been more than 500 years old, and probably nntch less. The following notes on the various ruins were made at the time: — "The walls are very new; there is no ancient look ab.out them. The courses are irregtilar. and the otttline is not tmiform. The}- could not have been built with the aid of a batten gauge, as no two coiu'ses have exactly the same batten when carefully meastired ; thtis there could have been no definite plan. The stones are only roughly dressed, the natural cleavage of the rock ])laying a considerable jiart. 'J'he best faces are oittward, and the others not dressed at all, and hence the stones have (|tiite a fresh appearance, and there is no sign of long weathering about them. The btiilding of the wall really amotints to erecting two outer walls and filling in the space between with fragments, withotit any attempit to lay courses. The " Temjjle " is not a tem])le at all; it was the residence of a chief. The duplication of the walls had nothing to do with worship, and was simply for the purpose of ])rotection ; the stmken passage from tlie x-alley ruins to the temple proves that. The supi)Osed resem])lance to the temple at -\Iarib in Arabia is purely fancifttl, and the herring-bone pattern at the to|) of the eastern wall to the inscription on the Marib temple is equally ima- ginary. Th'e herring-bone itself is nothing remarkable, and occttrs in all the ruins that I have seen, some better and more elaborate than that of Zimbabwe, as for instance, Khami and Nanatali, as may be seen in Maciver's book. The cones were built over the graves of chiefs, hence the great cone marks the grave of some great chief, and the idea still siu^vives in piles of stones or low conical acctmiulations of stones over the graves of chiefs in other parts of South Africa. The other ]:»art of so-called temple was the residence of chief's wives, and ])Ossibh' also some of his indunas. The monoliths of soapstone were not all origin- ally on the walls ; they have been placed there subsequently, but some were used as door-posts, as can be seen in the valley ruins. Soapstone pillars with crocodiles and hawk-like Ijirds carved tipon them, stood at the entrance to the kraal of the great chief or great doctor. They were the totems of the tribe, and hence the insignia of his office. The same thing can be seen at the 500 KIKJDESIAN RUINS. Acropolis ruins. < 'nly the .granite pillars appear to have been on the walls at the beginning."^ The valley ruins were the dwellings of the common people. This is evident from the construction. There is no sign of the later and decadent walls. The slipping of the foundations in two cases has been mistaken for such. The sunken i)assage was for communication with the fortified kraal of the chief in case of attack. It would be easy to assault the dwellings on the plain, and everything inside stiggests native occupation, and at a fairly recent date. The Acroi)olis occupied a ])osition of strength in case of attack. There were sunken ])assages comnmnicating with the hill, ddie traverses have rotmd corners, anfl the rock passage was suggested bv the natural cleft in the rock, while tlie west passage is similar to that between the tem])le and the valley ruins. There are probably other passages undiscovered. All the buildings, temjjle, and valley ritins. were originall}- enclosed bv a low ring -wall, of which only the portion l)el(jw the Acropolis now remains. Large ])its now full of water remain to show where the clay was dug from to fill u]) the floors on the Acropolis and other ruins. These are quite visiljle in tlie southern and western valleys. 'I^he floors were raised as the occu])ati()n la>t/ed, and thus the walls had to be raised. This is evident on the Acro- polis. The so-called cement is nothing more than native dagga, and is simplv granite soil. Excavations were being carried on at the time of my visit, l^vo native axe-heads had been found 8 feet below the present surface of the grotind. They are indis- guishable from axes used to-day in the cotmtry, and on the Zam- besi. Two native hut foundations were also uncovered. The marks of the floors with the smearing as to-day, and the corrti- gation of the poles of which they were built, still remain. The soil inside the walls and forming the platform upon which these huts rested was carried u\) on the heads of the occupiers, and is exactly similar to the granite soil at the bottom of the hill. This had been worked into a paste with cow-dung, and formed the cement of which the floors had been made. The successive smearings could Ije seen. This siliceous granite soil sets as hard as cement. There was no stratification of the floors to be seen. They presented a uniform appearance as far as the excavations had gone, which indicated continuous occupation l)v natives, who threw out their rubbish and ashes and gradually raised the sur- face. One was also able to see where huts had been burnt down accidentally or otherwise, and then rebuilt, and also where fires had been lighted for domestic purposes. The excavations in some cases had reached the granite foundation, but the toj) of the hill is very irregular, being comjjosed of granite Ijoulders, some of enormous size. '■'" Monoliths or pillars are not confined to the Rhodesian ruin-, jjut have been found at Ilife, in Nigeria, where the people speak of them as '■ Sta\-es of the Gods.'' ( Frolieniiis : "Tlie Voice of Africa.'' 1. jqS. S.A. Assn. for Adv. of Science. 1915. Pl. 15. a Rev. S. S. Dornan.— Rhod -sian Ruins and Native Tradition. S.A. Assn. for Adv. of Science. 1915. Pl. 16. a 1 •' ■ % Rev. S. S. Dcrnan — Rhodesian Ruins and Native Tradition. RIlUDESJAN RL'INS. ^O/ The inhal)itants of tlie district have no si)ecial Semitic or Hamitic characteristics that 1 coiikl see. 11ie qolcl iiKhistry was rather crude, and the amount extracted from the ground much exaggerated. Zimljabwe is not in tlie gold 'belt, and so if it had to be stored there was brought from a consideral)le distance. The same apjdies to 'l"hal)a"s ka Alambo and Khami. Zimbabwe being the residence of tlie chief, woukl naturah) l)e ilie dei)0t for gokk tusks and ostrich feathers. The foreign inliuence theory nuist be given uj). Zim1)al)\ve was buik by natives, inliabited b_\- natives, and recenth- al)an- doneck ])rol)al)l}- not more tlian _:^oo voars a<2"o. These waU> are so badly built that the\' would have fallen in ruins if the\' had been 1,000 years old or anvtliing apjjroaching tliat, not to speak of being ujnvards of 3,000 years. The}- were i)m'lt l)y natives, whose descendants mav still live in the countrv. or who were recentl}' " wij^ed out."" Confirmation of these notes \\ill Ije forthcoming in ihe following pages. As I am dealing nKistly with native tradition, i shall now give three statements made to me at different times by intelligent natives regarding the origin and use of these buildings. They are tyi)ical of man}' others that I have heard, bni I give theui because the}- were made hy men who were unkn')wn to each other, and who came from widely separated localities, and belonged to different triljes. k^very effort was made to test their truth at the time and subsecjuentl}'. I shall also give some corroborati\'e e\'idence from otlier sources bearing on the subject matter of the statements. My hrst informant is named Chapa, and resides at ln\-ati. about 50 miles from Bulawayo, lie was chaml>erlain lu Loben- gula, and came u\) from the Transvaal v.ith L'mzilikazi in 1839 or 1840. He was a small boy at the time, and thus, when he gave me the information in i()ii, was an old man of u])wards of 80 years. His faculties were c|uite unimpaired, and he was, moreover, intelligent and fpiite clear as to ^vhat he saw with his own eyes, lie even drew a plan of Zimljalnve in the sand for me, to ex])lain some of his statements. 1dn's was ver}' close to the real thing, wonderfully so for a man \\-ho had not seen the l)lace for over 40 years. Here is his statement: — " \Mien the Amaswazi arrived in Rhodesia ( the first wave of Zulu inunigration ) the Alambo* was living in his castle at Thaba"s ka Alambo. Thus we were not the first to destro}- these fortifications. The}- were ruins l)efore we arrived. ( The Ama- swazi destroyed them. The Amasv\azi came here and remained about two years). They were here to eat one corn and to see another corn in the gardens. They came immediatel}- ])efore us, about two or three years. That is why we got such an easy conquest, because the Amaswazi had killed the Maml)o'> ]ieoi)le. The Mambo went U]) our river (the Inkwesi), where he Inu'lt another fort, which still exists, about eight miles from here (Inyati). They had not the trimmed stones u]) there; the\- liad * Maiubo is the Karan.u'a or Shnna word for cliicf. 508 KUMDESIAN RUINS. to take the stones as the\- found them (as they had not time to trim them. The son of tliis Mamho, whom we killed, went over to Chibi to the Zimbabwe there. Inyaningwe is the name of the mountain near the ruins (Zimbal)we). Inhamohamo was the name of the cliief. J le was the son of this Maml)0. lie built it first. "The same Mamijo (of Thaba's ka IMambo ) who built 1 )hlo-J_)hlo. when the .\niaswazi drove him out of Dhlo-Dhlo eame over to '1 lialKi's ka Aiaml)o and built it. The stones were onl}- for the fort ; the houses inside were ordinary hitts. They were hidint,'- in the towers dm-ing" the hghtino-. The river at Zimljal)we is a sliort distanee from Zimbabwe. (Here my in- formant drew a plan, wonderfully aeeurate, to explain the posi- tion of the various ruins at Zim1)abwe). He had taken his first wife (would i)^' al)out iS or 20 years of a^^e). When he tirst went to the ruins, he found }()un,<;- trees growing" in them. They (the Alakaranga ) l)uilt them, as we do now, with dagga. We Ijuilt f(jrmerly with sticks thatched over with grass. \\'hen he was grown up these walls did not look new. I have lived with the old slaves who liave actually seen with their own eyes the Abagamaml)o (people of the Mambo = Mak'aranga) l)uild these walls. The white i)eople from whom they (Abalozij bought things first were Portuguese, h^or instance, the two old camions were brought 1)\' the Abalozi ( Al)a;:;a".r.andjo ) from the I'ortuguese to resist us." 1 mav explain that Alakaranga in Shiswina or .Seshuna, as it is popularly called, becomes Alakalanga in .Sindebele, so that Abalozi, Alakaranga. Abagamambo and \'aroswe are ])ractically synonymous terms for what we collectivelv call the ATashuiua tribes. Alakalanga becomes Alakalaka in Sechuana, and so on. In the al)ove statement I have not indicated the qttestions, bttt they can be easily gathered from the context, and the words in jjrackets are only added to coiuplete the sense. They were written in at the timt- the conversation was taken down. It was much more detailed than the above summary indicates, and was re])eated in man\- different ways to test accuracy. But the old man was quite clear and |H)sitive on one thing — that the Abalozi or Abagamambo (Makaranga) built these ruined towns, at a recent date, and that some of them were inhabited by the Alaka- ranga at the time the Amaswazi and Matebele came into the countrv. This is strengthened by evidence from another source. It is stated that some of these defeated people fled to the Wankie district, where the}- found a refuge amongst some of ihcir brethren who had migrated about 50 years before, and had l)ui]t a similar town on the Bombusi Valley. I shall give the stor\ of the migration when dealing with the statement of my third informant. With regard to what Chapa says about Zimltaljwe. I do not place too much reliance upon it, as he apparentlv had not been strtick with any difference between it and the other castles, as he called the ruins, and I am of opinion that Zimbabwe had been abandoned then. But it may only have RIIODKSIAN RI"1NS. 5O9 been abandoned by its occupants after the incursion nf the Abotshangana (Shangans). This seems to be Ijorne out ii\ a reference to Wihnot's " Monomotapa." P'ather Xicokn) of Tete writes (,1586} : — The Zimbas or ^Nluzimbas arc new people who from iheir ntitive kraals have entered Ethiopia, killing everything, eating human Hesli. Thev are to this country what the Goths, Huns, and A'andals were to F.urope. They advanced quickly through many lands, and as they met with no resistance desolated all. The natives hide their jirovisions. and join -these barbarians to escape death and their tieth. They ran through three hundred leagues on the shores, entered ^ilonomotapa. entrenched themselves, and went out on excursions. The Portuguese forlilied them- selves on the Zamliesi, at ])laces distant sixty leagues from the other, one of these places being Sena and another Tete, both under the cn^ders of the Captain-General of Sofala. Tiiese ])laces serve as factories to cillect gold.* It is strange that Wihuot (Hd nut see the intphcation of this quotation himself. Here lies the true explanation ijf the abandonment of these fortified towns by the irruptions of maraudins: hordes like the Alautatees and Tembus of more recent times. This must have occurred often in the history of Monomotapa, and 1 am inclined to think that the actual abandon- ment of Zimbabwe was considerabl}- later than the date of the aboVe passage, possibly as late as the attack of the Shangans. This was ]\Iaciver"s explanation, and I have little doubt that it is the correct one. The destruction of Varoswe ( Abalozi) civilization was not at all accomplished liy one tribe, or at one time. It probably extended over several centuries, and may well have begun before Father Nicolao wrote, and ended by the arrival of the Matabele in 1840 or thereabouts. It may be assumed that after each successive attack of barbarians rebuild- ing and reconstruction would be hurried, and hence would cause a decline in workmanship. It is said that down to the time of Augustus, Rome still showed signs of the haste with which it had been rebuilt after being burnt by the Gauls. This would readily account for the diiTerences of style and execution ob- served in the various ruins, and is borne out l)y vrhat Chapa says of Thaba's ka Mambo. I now pass on to my second informant, a Shangan named Bote from Alount Silinda in Mashonaland. one of Zwengcuda- ba's people, who came from Natal about 1836, and attacked the Makaranga in Rhodesia. He is an intelligent native, and has been employed for some time as a teacher. He says that he merely rej^eats what he has heard the old people, both ?^lakaranga and Matabele, says many times. This is his story: The Makaranga sav that thev paid men (Arabs) to 1)uild these places for them to worship their Amadhlozi (ancestral spirits) m: that they were built a long time ago. so long that they cannot name the chief under whom they were -built. Thev also say that one of the men who lielped to build some of the palaces like Zimbabwe came back long afterwards, in the early days of Lobengula, to look for the mines where they used to * Wilmot : " iSIonomotapa," 21,3. 510 RTIODESTAN RUINS. di^ tho yold, and Lobengula refused. He went back, and Lol)engula sent an impi after Iiim and had him killed, because he was spying out the mines. Jena and uld IMakaranga told me this at my home (Mount Silinda). He died last year (rgi,^). These Arabs wrought the mines, and used to light fires, and then when the rock got heated picked it out with picks, and then they made a lire and the metal ran ;0ut. The ^laka- ranga were working with the Arabs, and when the Portuguese came the Makaranga worked the mines for them. The chief of Monomotapa ( Mambo) paid the Portuguese elephants" teeth for their trade goods, cloth, and so on. The Alakaranga called the Arabs Mugaiig' aiitare. which means the "' iron wearers,"' because their clothes looked like iron, and tlie Portuguese were called Klaiicaiii, because, like the fish, they came from the sea. The Arabs were not long away before the Portuguese came. Just after the Portuguese were awaj', the Amaswazi came, and since they came there have been three kings of the latter, Nyamande. Umzila, and Gungunyama. The Arabs came from the north, and mar- ried the Makaranga women, and when they went away, left their families and servants ^lazungu (white people) to this day. Thi.s statement contains several most important items of information. We are told that the Arabs got the natives to dig the gold for them, and that the Portuguese did the same; that the natives got the Arabs to build the walls for them to worship their Amadhluzi or ancestral spirits in. Regarding the state- ment that the natives dug the gold under the supervision of, and for the Arabs, and subsequently for the Portuguese. Ave have the >tatements of the old Portuguese writers themselves in con- firmation thereof, quoted by Wilmot. The Emperor prayed the Portuguese to take possession of the gold and silver mines. The expedition could not proceed to seize these sources of wealth. Leather ^lonclaios (1572) says pointedly, "Others have written descriptions of the great quantities of gold and silver in the mines, but in the main all that we know is much less than is announced in Portugal. They are digged out when people intend to buy stuffs for clothing: the King of Alonomotapa had given such mines to some Portu- guese who had gone to his court, but they soon abandoned them, as the trade in stuffs and Indian mantles was far more important and profit- able." Father Manuel Barreto says ( aliout 1550), "All Mokaranga is a perpetual mine of gold."' He says that the gold from the rivers was pre- ferred to that from the mines. Pits were made and at certain times a ladder was let down, and the Jvaffirs extracted quartz gold. When an irruption of water took place the work was suspended.* Yet in spite of all this Hall, in his " Prehistoric Rhodesia," quotesf a formidable array of Portuguese writers in support of his statement, that in the time of the Portuguese the natives knew nothing whatever about digging gold from the mines, and only knew of washing the gold-dust from the river sands. It is certainly strange that he should have overlooked these and other similar passages, if he had read his authorities with care, but the fact is Hall was too prone to accept statements without verification, and was thus led into grave errors. In fact, many of his references have been borrowed from other writers. That the natives did actually extract gold from the rock until com- parativel}- recent times is a fact according to Mr. F. C. Selous * Wilmot : " Monomotapa," 209. t Hall : " Prehistoric Rhodesia," 32. KiJoDESlAN RUINS. 5II and others. It is not so very long ago since they did so in the :\laz<^e Valley, as an official of the British South .Vfrica Com- pany intornied me. Mr. .Melons thus writes The .mjld niiiiiiiy went uii withuut iiUerruption till early in the present century, and the old men among- the Matabili who took part in the first raids made amongst the Mashunas hy Umzilikazi's warriors state posi- tively that they found the Amaholi ( Alakaranga ) workino- for gold in the Aiiuiguti/'- i.e., the deep holes l)tween die Zweswi and the Umfuli rivers. An interesting confirmation of this statement lies in the fact that at the bottom of an old shaft, 120 feet deep at Concession Hill, Mr. Cock in 1801 found a Inicket and a rope made of niachahel bark, besides some iron implements. Now this bucket and rope evidently intended to haul quartz up from the bottom of the shaft, being made of such perishable materials as bark, could not possibly have been of any very great anti- quity, whilst the iron axes, etc., were absolutely the same as those in present use anningst the Mashunas and showed no signs of age. ]\Ir. Rolken, the American mining expert latelv in Mashunaland. also told me that, from the condition of the heaps of debris at the mouths of some of the shafts, he was convinced they had not been long- abandoned. f Mr. Seloiis also gives a quotation from Baines, " The Gold Regions of South-East Africa," containing the statement of an eye-witness, ^^Ir. George Wood, as to how the natives extracted the gold, which the latter repeated to Selous, so that the fact is Ijeyond question. The quotation reads as follows : — G. Wood took me to a place in which he had seen a heap of quartz burn.ed and another heap piled with wood amongst it readv for burnin"-. The crushing stones, like a painter's slab and muller, had also I)een lyin'; in a hut near, but at the time of mv visit these were removed and the calcined quartz: Init the other heap bad been fired and r.ow lay mingled with the charcoal ready for crushing. Mr. Selous also states that he was at Tati himself, and per- sonally inspected an old shaft with a heap of roasted quartz heside it ready for crushing, and several round stones to be used for grinding the quartz. The roof was supported with inopani logs cut with native axes, and covered with the original Ijark, so that he concluded that the shaft was abandoned about 1840. when the Alatebele came into the country, and this was on their route. Yet in spite of all this, and much more infor- mation of a like character personally known tO' the writer, we are gravely informed that the natives knew nothing about gold mining. As a large part of the Semitic theory of the origin of Zimljabwe and its associated ruins rests upon the ignorance of the natives of rock mining and the excessive antiquity of the mines, the bottom is absolutely knocked out of it by these and similar facts. ^Ir. Selous Avas in Rhodesia long before any Europeans settled in the country, and he had am])le ovjportunities of obtaining first hand information. Few men, if any, have had more. Next let tis take the statement that the Mambos got the Arabs to build these towns and " temples " for them to worship their Amadhlozi in. There may be a certain foundation for it in * Correct form iiiinv^odi or iiiii:j;i>di. t Selous : "Travel and .Adventure in South-Rast Africa." .^;,6. 51-2 KHODESIAX RUINS. this \vay, that the Arahs may have acted as clerks of work.N, while the chiefs supplied the lahour. From what we know of the power of native chiefs in recent times, it is quite certain that they could have commanded the services of thousands of labourers ; forced labour, of course. The thing is possible, and may have been done in this way, and if so, it would altord an explanation of the supposed Semitic characteristics of the walls, and would bear out the assertion of late medieval date. As to tlie object for which the buildings were erected, to " worship their Amadhloz: in," that is quite in keeping with Dr. Alaciver's suggestion that part of Zimbabwe was used as a temple by a witch doctor or priest king, and this is borne out by the re- ligious customs of the Makaranga, where The chief acts in the capacity of high priest. The persons possessing second sight or prophetic inspiration (nioiidoro) assist liim in the per- formance of the rites. The nioitdoro. h\' reason of being inspired by the shades of the departed, can give the nature of the sacrifice \vhich will propitiate tlie ofYended s))irits.* That the Mashuna have considerable ritual competent observers are now agreed. Dr. Wilder, in his ])aper on '" Xdau Religion " in the Hartford Seminary Record for 1907, shows clearly that the Ndau people, who are a 1)ranch of the r\Iaka- ranga, have a large and fairly elaborate ceremonial, just such as would be required by a building like Zimbabwe. Not all Ziml)abwe was used for this exclusive purpose, but as the chief is the priest and rain-maker, the two offices were discharged by the same person in the same place. This is cer- tainly a remarkable confirmation of ]\Iaciver's shrewd guess at the object for which Zimbabwe was built. ]\Iy infor- mant also told me that there w^as a smaller Zimbabwe on the Sabi River, in Portuguese territory, and that a king lived there till the Amaswazi came, and that they killed him and drove the peoj^le out, and that they never went back ; that this king was also the head doctor of that tribe. He gave me his name, but I neglected to write it down at the time. I now come to my third witness, Chiminya, a Batonga from the neighbourhood of the A^ictoria Falls. Fie is neither Mate- bele nor Mashuna, and so his testimony is all the more valuable on that account. He is an intelligent man, and has resided in Bulawavo for many years, and I have found him careful in all his statements. I have repeatedly raised this f|uestion with him. and he always gave the same version each time. It runs as follows : T have heard from the old \rakaranga and Matebele that the Mambo lived at Thaba's ka Maml;o. built Thaba's ka Mambo and Khami. I have heard them say so many times. He did not use these places to live in. but he used them to figlit in, when anybody came to fight him like the Amaswazi (i.e.. he used to retire to these places for defence). I have heard it said that the Mambo of Thaba's ka Mambo ruled as istr * Posselt : " Social Condition of the Natives of Mashonaland,'" — Proc. Idihodcsia Scicitfific Association. 12, 1,31. RHODESIA X RL-INS. 513 as Chil)i ( Ziinbalnvo ) and that those towns were Intilt by his orders. I have never heard it said that he employed Arabs (Alazungu) in luiild tliem. luit I liave often heard that there were plenty of Arabs in the country at the time, and that the Portuguese drove them away. P>ut not all of them, as some of them were married to native women. They caine for gold and elephants' teeth. There were many of them, and they built themselves houses. Here, again, we have definite information connecting the ruins witli the natives, whose descendants live in the country at the present time, and that the_\' were bitilt by those people. I do not attach great weight to the statement that the Alamljo. of Thaba's ka Alambo built Zimbabwe, although my first witness Chapa .^aid tlie same thing. I think a Alamljo was meant, one who lived a long time ago, but the way the statement is made shews that there is an intimate connection between Zimbabwe and the other ruins, such as Khami, Dhlo-Dhlo, and Tliaba's ka Maml)(). Further investigations may yet prove that Zimbabwe is }ounger than these ruins, and is, so to speak, the finished article. These Mambos were powerful chiefs, and had a cer- tain degree of civilization. They were not warlike, and made but a poor fight against the fierce ^latebele and Amaswazi. who swept everything before them from Natal to the Zamljesi. and far be\'ond. So many disi)lacements and so nuich destruction of populatiim have taken place in South-East Africa that the his- tor_\- is now ver\- confused and hazy, and with the passing of the it1d luen will l)e lost altogetlier. ReQardin"- the building of Khami, the assertion of Chiininva receives confii-mation from quite an unexpected source. ^Iv. II. X. llemans, formerly Native Commissioner at Wankie. in- vestigated the history of the Abenanzwa tribe, who are an oit- shoot of the Mambo's people of Thaba's ka Alambo, and who migrated to their present location about a century ago under a chief called Siawanka. The account was derived entirely friim native sources, and may be taken as correct, the greatest care being taken to check the infornnation obtained. Air. Hemans thus writes : Siawanka. at the P>oml)Usi ( Ri\er ) built a laree town, the priiicipal houses being built of dressed stone, with roofs of poles and grass A couple of feet from tlie tops of tlie walls tliemselves the stones were arranged in herring-lione pattern, or else diagonally, as an ornamentation, which would appear to be very similar to the effects of the walls at present standing at Zimliabwe. (The Abenanzwa attach no mea-iing to this variation in the laving of the courses). Spaces were left for the doors, which were made of dressed timlier tilled in with reeds. Ri und and about these houses of stone were built ordinary pole and dagga huts for the tribe as a whole, the more imposing and substantial houses being, reserved for the king and his family and the chiefs. Remains of this town are still to be found at Bombusi, and have been thou^dit. Init t-rrn.- neously, in have been built at the same time as the ])uildin,^s wlrich rcma'n on the Khami and Lundi Rivers.* Now all that is said here of the ruins at Bombusi is true of tliose at Zimbabwe and other places, so that when we read ■^ H. X. Hemans: "TTistory of the A''"^anzwa Tribe.'' — Proc. Rhodesia Scientific Association. 12, ^y. 514 I-UIUDESIAX RUINS. that Klianii contains all kinds of architecture from the best pre- historic Zimbabwe period down to the most recent Kafir hut, while Bombusi of the same kind is thus far younger, one won- ders on ^vhat evidence the various styles of architecture are separated and assigned to distinct dates, and on what grounds such separation is upheld. Apart altogether from native tradi- tion, we have the testimony of the buildings themselves. Messrs. Garbutt and Johnson, in an article in Alan for July, 1912, gave cogent reasons for regarding a five-chambered hut at Khami, of which tlie}" give a plan, as contemporary with the Avails them- selves, as it was built on the same principle and in the same way. Many such huts inside various ruins in the country were recklessly destroyed because they were considered to be long subsequent to the walls, as of native origin, and therefore worth-^ less as archaeological data. Treasure hunters and R. N. Hall bimself admit having destroyed some, thus their evidence is not now available for settling the dates of the various ruins. I again quote ]\Ir. Hemans : Siawanka buiU Iiis town at the Bombusi in imitation of Ziml)ab\ve,. which, although they have never seen it, the Abenanzwa describe as of great size. They say that their ancestors buih Zim])abwe (which is a name only, with no meaning, saying it was the place of the Mambo). Prior to their trek into ^Nlatabeleland, which they made by way of Selukwe, they had already lost the name of Zimbabwe, and had been in the haliit of speaking of the place as " Maduiia a ka Mainbo " or Xfaba ^i ka .Ma'iihi->:' by which name they called their new settlement at Inyati.* That the natives have not lost the art of building in dressed stone several competent observers have assured us. I shall quote only one, namely Mr. F. C". Selous : Whilst speaking of these carefully fitted stone foundations on which to build huts, I may mention that in the centre of Umtasa's deserted town on the Chodzani River — a town which he built himself, and from whicli he was driven a few years ago by the Abagaza — will be found a similar hut foundation, very carefuli}' built of small slabs of granite beautifully fitted without mortar or cement, w'hich proves that the art of building w^alls of carefully-l'.tted granite stones is not even yet dead among the Mashunas. ... About half a mile from this old walled town was the burial place of Chipadzi, one side of which was enclosed by a beautifully- built wall about 10 feet high, of evenly-laid and squared granite stones. most carefully htted together without mortar or cement of any kind. This wall was an exact facsimile of the best-built portions of the great Zim- babwe, and no otie who has examined both these relics of a bygone age can doubt for an instant that thej' were both built by the "same race of people-1 ]Mr. Selous further says that the builders of Zimbabwe were very rude people, possessing no instruments of precision for lay- ing down accurate lines, and this is exactly the same impression that has been made upon others. It is rare that one finds a wall for any considerable distance quite straight. I have examined most carefully the buildings at Zimbabwe, Khami, and Selukwe. near where Mr. Selous found the old shaft "^H. N. Hemans: "History of the Abenanzwa Tribe." — Proc. Rhodesia Scicnfiiic Association. 12, 91. Selous: "Travels and Adventure in South-East Africa." .^40. \ 3J m < (X OD I O o > ■l 3D I o o m > z C 2 > z o Z > < m > o z -**■.- CO > > CO RHODESIAN RUINS. 5 1 5, on the Klein Tati River, and I could see no signs at any of these places that the builders had worked from any detinite plan laid down beforehand. The walls of these various buildings are ovals, and not even then are they uniform in height or thickness. They twist in and out in such a manner as to convince one they were built piecemeal. This is furtlier strengthened by the blind courses and other indications of haste and want of intelligence. In fact, only their great thickness prevents them from falling into ruins. Signs of rapid decay are evident everywhere. A more detailed description of the ruins at Seiukwe may be of interest, as they have not previously been described. The hill itself is the middle one of three fairly high kopjes running east and west from the eastern bank of the Klein Tati River, and is about 200 feet in perpendicular height. The northern and western sides are precipitous, or very steep slopes. The rock itself is an outcrop of ejiidiorite. and is part of a large intrusion, covering several square miles of country. The walls are built of slabs and fragments of this rock. No special pains have been taken to dress the stones, which are of all shapes, but mostly roughly triangular or oblong. The rock is hard and tough, and it requires considerable force to detach a large frag- ment. The walls are built on rotighly the same plan as Khami, but the stones are not so well dressed. Following the natural features of the hill, first a wall in the form of a retaining wall with a considerable batten has been built right round the hill. At the top there is a fairly high parapet. Between this and the hill the ground has been filled in with fragments and chips, and over that is a la}-er of ashes and refuse of various kinds. Very often the walls have been built up against projecting rocks, and these have been utilised for the platforms with the aid of earth and stones in very much the same wa}' as at the Acropolis, Zimbabwe. Some of the terraces are as much as 30 feet broad, and as the hill is quite a mile in circumference the amount of labour needed to accomplish the building of such was im- mense. There are entrances here and there with traverses as at Khami, and the foundations of the huts are visible in several cases, built of the same kind of blocks as the walls. The hill must have been taken by assault, as the walls are pulled down at various points, and pieces of calcined pottery and rock are met with frequently, showing where the huts had been burnt down.* Near the top there is a second terrace similar to the first, but not so large or so well built. Every advantage has been taken of the defensive features of the hill. I cannot see any signs of great antiquity or of great skill in building, and if the hill were cleared of bush much of interest would hk found. I cannot think that the hill was abandoned before the Matebele incursion in 1840. Where the buildings are better * T found a portion of a grinding stone on this hill, similar to those of to-dav. ol6 RHODESIA N RUINS. they are not so much due to higher skill as better materials to work upon, and the builders seems to have preferred granite, as the ruins are better in the granite areas. Mr. H. B. Maufe, Director of the Geological Survey of Southern Rhodesia, in- formed me that the impression he got from an examination of Khami was that the blocks had been broken with iron hammers, and I can confirm this from other ruins, as when they are exam- ined with a fairly strong glass, they seem to be quite fresh ; too fresh to be really ancient. The hammers employed to break up the stone did not seem to have been very heavy, not heavier than modern native axes. The stones are far less weathered than one would expect. This feature of all the ruins that have come under m}^ observation appeared to me to be a weak spot in the prehistoric theory. In face of the internal evidence yielded by the buildings themselves and the confirmatory native traditions, I do not see how one can resist the conclusion that these ruins were built by a race of negroes, and most likely by the ancestors of those who still live in the country, and at no very distant date. I cannot see what is to be gained by refusing to the forefathers of the present Makaranga tribes, for the ruins are practically conterminous with the former distribution of these tribes, the ver\' moderate degree of skill and ])atience needed to erect them. It is just as probable and equally scientific to assume that the old natives could, and did. attain a sufficient degree of intelli- gence and skill in building, than to postulate some unknown foreign race, who came from where is not clear, nor for what purpose, erected these structures, and then as mysteriously vanished, leaving no other trace of their presence. Such a method of explanation, however romantic or alluring, is only a modern example of the old fallacy if/iiotiiiii per iguofiits. a re- versal of the process of evolution in respect of human culture. Explanation of Plates. Plate 15 a. — The summit of the Acropolis, showing- small por- tion of excavation. (Photo by Rev. A. M. Filmer.) Plate 1=; b. — '' Herringbone " at Zimbabwe. Photo by Rev. Neville Tones.) Plate 16 a. — The excavations on the Acropolis. (Photo by Rev. Neville Jones.) Plate 16 b. — Portion of valley ruins, with monolith in position in doorway. (Photo by Mr. M. Murray.) Plate 17 a. — Makaranga girls near Zimbabwe. (Photo by Rev. Neville Jones.) Plate 17 b. — Terrace at Selukwe, about 12 feet high. Plate 18 a. — Conical tower. showing false courses of masonry marked with a cross. (Photo by Rev. A. M. Filmer.) Plate 18 b. — Passap^e between outer and inner wall of " Temple," showing false courses of masonry marked with a cross. (Photo by Rev. A. M. Filmer.) A FACTOR IN '\:HE EVOLUTiON OF PLANTS. By I'rof. Horace .\ti[elstan W'ager^ A.R.C.Sc. Water is of the utmost importance to all protoplasm, not only for strtictural ]nirposes, but for all its chief functions. At the beginning of the evolutionary scale both animals and plants were aquatic. Water is tal. As plants became more complex the process of osmosis was extended to include not only absorption of water from without, but also the ]:)assage of water from cell to cell. It was this extension that enaljled plants to commence a terres- trial nidde of existence. Complexity could only increase if water conduction became improved. In this respect diiferen- tiation first apjjeared in })lants in the form of a special part set aside for water absorption, that is, rhizoids. roots, etc. Then a special tissue for water conduction became differentiated. This consisted of cells in definite longitudinal rows becoming fused and forming long tube-like structiu'es called vessels. These vessels were sj^ecially thickened in \arious ways, and many of the cross walls disappeared. Water appears to pass up such vessels, although still by osmosis from cell to cell, with more readiness than in ordinar\- cells — osmosis taking place through the parts of the vessel walls left tinthickened. These vessels lose their protoplasm and become mechanically ftinctional for water conduction. They pass right throtigh the phmt, and are continually being lengthened both at the apex of the stem and the apex of the root. It nnist be noted that these vessels never have continuous cavities. The length between cross walls varies to a great extent in different plants, but a millimetre may be considered long for stich divisions. The vessels are produced in the first instance at the growing points, and are continuous right through the plant. In many ])lants the number of vessels so produced suffices for its needs. Now. it is well-known that these vessels, although produced for a definite purpose, can only function for a short time as water carriers. Why should these vessels, which act on a jmrely mechanical principle, so soon fall out of use or even fall out of use at all, or wh} did not plants, as it were, discover a more lasting kind of vessel? We must take it for granted that plants did the best imaginable consider- ing all the difficulties that had to be overcome. However, seeing the distance that water travels in some plants, we are dealing Avith the most wonderful system of water conduction in the world. The explanation of the disuse of the vessels appears to be thic. All water contains a certain amount of air in solution,, the amount varying according to the temperature and pressure. Water passing up a vessel is exposed especially to variations in temperature, so that of necessity a small amount of air must come iiut of solution when the tem]:)erature of the water rises. This air cann(^t pass through the vessel, so that it collects in smalt bubbles in the segments of the vessel, whilst the water which gave it out passes on. As more water passes up, and as the temperature a^ain varies, it is possible that the air is again taken into solution, but the final result is that more air comes out of ^l8 A FACTOR IN THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTS. solution than is taken back into the continuous current. In this way bubbles of air must collect in the segments of the vessels. It must also follow that the bubbles slowly increase in size until the amount of air so imprisoned in the segments of the vessel interferes with its function. The time comes when the vessel is thrown completely out of action, and the vessel becomes simply full of air. The length of life of a ]jlant, there- fore, depends upon the length of time that its vessels can func- tion as water carriers. The period of functional activity is obviously difficult to arrive at, but it is usually considered to vary from a few months to not much more than a year. We now know, of course, that the length of life of a plant is con- comitant with its ability to produce more vessels. The special method by which this is carried on is well known. It is in trees that longevity, together with secondary thickening, has l)ecome most marked. The usual explanation of secondary thickening is that it takes place in order to keep tip a supply of water to the increasing plant, or that the trunk of a tree increases in size in order to uj^hold the ever-increasing crown. Now, all forms of life possess great latent powers which can be brought out at any time. In plants this is shown by the power to survive unfavourable conditions, to recover from wounds, devastation by insects, etc. As vessels are permanent structures, stems that l)roduce more vessels must, of course, increase in girth, and in the nature of the case the new wood produced would be likely to be more rather than less that already produced. The response to this would be that the latent povrers in plants would allow for an increase in the foliage, so that as the wood increased the foliage would increase rather more in proportion. The crown of a tree, therefore, is the outcome of the latent power possessed by the tree, and is ])roduced more as a response to the necessity of the tree to supply water-conductive tissue to rei:)lacc that thrown out of action. In plants, in which more water is carried up proportionately, the (juicker will the vessels be thrown out of action. This is the case with most annual herbaceous plants, i.e.. sunflower, dahlia, etc., so that secondary thickening is neces- sary in such ])lants. l^lants that have no secondary thickening are in |)ractically all cases short-lived, i.e.. monocotyledons. ?^ran\- monocotvledons are perennials in so far that by storage in bulbs, tubers, etc., they can send up new shoots in each ensuing growing season, i.e., lilies, asparagus, etc. Any mono- cotvledons wdth persistent stems, however, have a special mode of secondarv thickening, i.e.. ]'itcea. Draecciia. etc. Ferns and grasses, with underground stems, continuallv send out new roots, whilst the stem dies away behind. Ferns, however, together with mosses and liverworts, have great powers of absorption of water by the leaves, and in most cases these plants ran only live in damp places. The highest ty])e of plant life is exemplified in a tree, and this state has been reached in evolu- tion ]:»robably along the lines of water conduction.. The physical propertv of water, therefore, of holding air in solution in vary- in? (luantities, has in all probability played an important part in the evolution of plants. GAME AND BIKD l>R( )TEC'ri()X TX S( )LnM-l Al^-KICA: A SHORT COMPARISON WITH SOME OTHER COUNTRIES. Bv Alwjn K. Ha.\(;nf.r, F.Z.S. With the fast-vanishing herds of nol)le game animals in South Africa, and the indiscriminate catching and shooting of smah birds in many of the districts, not to mention town lands. it is time more thoroiigh and stringent laws for the adequate ])ro- tection of game animals and wild-bird life were passed. Eor the pur])oses of this paper it will ])e advisal^le to divide it into several portions, dealing re.spectivelv with the laws — both Government and nuinici])al — and with reservatinns. Avhether Government, municipal, or jirixate. Gamk Eaws. In South Africa the ( icUue Laws come under the Provincial Governments, and are different for each State. Idiese provide for a closed season, and an open season for the shooting of game under a licence ; the total protection of certain game for certain periods ; and the limitation of certain s]:)ecies as regards the number to be shot on any one ])ermit. The (lame Laws of South Africa are fairlv good — some, indeed, as comprehensive as they can w^ell be got. but the vast- ness of the countr}-. together with the ignorance of the majority of the population in matters i)ertaining to natural history, make the task of game, and especially of bird ]irotection. a very diffi- cult one. It is next to inijiossible to have territories like the Pretoria. Ritstenbitrg, and Waterberg " bushveld '' adequately policed, and much illicit shooting and i:)oaching goes on. vear in and year out. Now and again the police make a cajittire and a ])rosecution follows, but from my o\\'n observations in the country named, I shotdd think these convictions do not rei)re- sent lo per cent, of the poachers and illicit hunters. The Trans- vaal Game Protection Association has done its best, btit it is sadly hampered by lack of ftmds. The South African farmer does not seem to realise the importance of the ])rotection of game, and, as for bird protection, this is to him a blank or dead- letter. That he may the better understand and appreciate the possible benefits wdiich can be obtained. I have taken the trouble to collect from various sources some statistics from other cottn- tries, chiefl}' the United States of America. Let him see Avhat these countries have done in comparison with ours ! In America the bison, which roamed the prairies not many years ago in countless herds, to-day exists only in a semi-domes- ticated condition, by the grace of God and the strentious efforts of the American and Canadian Governments to establish, and keep, herds of these noble-looking animals in the game reserves. Let this be a wanu"ng to us. and let us do our titmost to ]M-event a like occurrence with our sjilendid heritage, the noble game 5^0 GAMl-: AM) i;iK]) rR()TK<;TI()X. aninuils of onr siinii_\' country. The bontcbok is alre;ul\' in the sacl position of the bison. 1'he springbok and Ijlesbok are now a niere shadow of what they Avere in former times. It is the duty of the present generation to see that tlie heritage left them by tlieir forefathers is carried on for those that follow them, their children and children's children. I cannot do better than quote Ur. W. T. Hornaday. the Director of the New York Zoological I 'ark, who in a well-illustrated ])am]jh]et of the Zoo- logical Societ\' Bulletins entitled " Wild Life Preservation Number," i)ul)lished m June, 1909, says: — As a duty which it owes to tlie people of America and to Science, the iiroservation of wild life is one of the three great ohjects to which the New York Zooloi^ical Society has constantly devoted attention and effort. lie then gives ns 15 cardinal principles altecting wild game and its ])ursuit, which he ])ro])osed on 17th April, h,)o8, and called a " S])oriman's Platform": — 1. The wild animal life of to-dav is ma to do with as we please. The orii^inal stock is tiixen to us in trust, for the henelit hoth of the present and the future. We must render an accountin.n iif this trust to thos(.' who come after us. 2. Judiiin.y from the rate at which the wild creatures of Xorth America are now heint>- destroyed. 50 \ears hence there will l)e no lar.t^e game left in the L'nited .States, nor in Canada outside - of ex ery good citizen, to ])romote the protection of forests and wild life, and the creation of game preserves while a supi)ly of game remains. Every man who linds ])leasure in Innning or fishing should he willing to .spend hoth time and money in active work for the protection of forests, hsh and gann-. .^ The sale of game is incompatihle with the perpi'tual preservation of a i)ro]KT stock of game; therefore it slmnld lie iiroliihited h\ laws and !)>• puhlic sentiment. 4. In the settled ;ind civilised regions of Xorth America, there is no real iiecessitx' for the consinnption of w^ild game as human food, nor is there any good excuse for the sale of game for food purposes. The maintenance of hired lahourers on wild game should l>e iirohihited every- where, under se\-ere penalties. 5. An Indian has no more right to kill wild game, or to sul)sist upon it all tlie year round, than any white man in the same locality. The Indian has no inherent or God-given ownershi]) of the game of Xorth .America, any more than of its mineral resources; and he should l)e governed hv the same game laws as white men. 6. X'o man can ])e a good citizen and also he a slaughterer of game or fishes heyond the narrow limits comi)atihle with high-class sportsinanship. 7. A game-hutcher or a m.arket hunter is an undesirahle citizen, and shouU.l he treated as such. 8. The highest purpose wliich the killing of wild game and game fishes can hereafter be made to serve is in furnishing objects to over- worked men for camping and tramping trips in the wilds ; and the value of wild game as human food should no longer he rei^arded as an important factor in its pursuit. 9. If rightly conser\'ed, wild game constitutes a valuable asset to any country which possesses it; and it is good statesmanship to protect if. to. An ideal hunting tri]) consists of a good cmnr.ade. line country, and a very few troiihies per hunter. 11. In an ideal hunting trip the death of the game is only an incident; and by no means is it really necessary to a successful outing. 12. The best hunter is the man who tinds the most game, kills the least, and leaves liebind him no wi'uiuled rniimals. GAME AXD lUkl) I'KOTKCTInX. 52I TJ>. The killing of an animal nic-ans the end nt its must inlcrcsting peri'ul. When the conntry is line. i)ursnit is more interesting than |)Osses- sion. 14. Tile killing' uf a female hoDied animal. sa\'e for siieeial preser\-a- tion. is regarded as incompatihle with the highest sporismanshi]) ; and it slionld everywhere be prohibited by stringent laws. 15. A particularly line photograiih of a large wild animal in its haunts is entitled to more credit than the dead troi)hy of a similar animal. An animal that has been photograi)hed never should be killed, unless |)re- viously wotmded in the chase. If we substittite the word " native " for the word " Indian " used above, and the name of our country, we can ap])lv these admiraljle ])rinci])les to ourselves with advantaj»e. Let us now take a roitgh surve}- of the Game ] .aws in force in South Africa. It would be out of place to refer in this paper to those of the various Provinces at any great lenu^th. and it must suffice if attention is drawn to the more imjjortant features. In Major Steven.son i lamilton's book. " Animal Life in Africa,'" the ( iame Laws of most of th.e Provinces and States will be found printed /;; c.vtciiso. i. ape Province. — 'i he Ca])e Administration i.sstied a pam- ])hler. ■' The ( iame atid Troitt Fishing Seasons, 1915." This details the close seasons for the various districts, which varies from the ist July, ist August, or ist Sej^tembcr to 31st March, and from the i6th August to the 30th AjM-il, in the several dis- tricts. An ordinary game licence costs los. In the Knysna Forest and the Addo Bush, elephants, btif- ialo and koodoo are protected, and may not be shot withoitt a special permit from the Administrator. In the Oudtshoorn and Cradock districts herds of mottntain zebra still exist, and are protected by a special ])ermit for capture. L'ufortunately, a number of pernu'ts seem to have been issued of late vears, as I know of several shi|'»ments of mottntain zebras to Furope by ain'mal dealers. I note. hoAvever. with great satisfaction that no })ermits will be issued dttring 191 5. In the Caledc^n and Swellen- dam Division, a few herds of bontebok still linger in a semi- domesticated condition, and are jM^eserved by the praiseworthy efforts of the All)ert}-ns and \'an der B}ds. '\\'otild that we had a few more like them I The hitnting of game after certain hoitrs is jM'ohibited in certain districts — for instance, between 6 ]).m. and 6 a.m. in the Britstown, Mossel Bay. and Uniondale districts ; from one hour after sttnset and one liotir Ijefore sunrise in the ^^\')rcester, East , London, and Cambridge districts, etc. This is a regulation I shottld like to see in force in the Transvaal, as nearly all the buck-i)oacliing in the l)ttsl-i\eld is done at night, the nomadic Boers l>'ing in wait for the bttck after nightfall in tlie regitlar ]Kiths or runs of the ariinials. i'he sale of game is ])rohibited in the .Albany, Beaufort West, and Mafeking Divisions. All game is jjrotected on the Government farms in the Clanwilliam Division. Royal game includes elephant, eland, zebra, bttffalo, bontebok, blesbok, gems- bok. hartebeest. kocjdoo, reedbuck. wildebeest, and klipspringers, Z,22 CAMK AND IWKD I'KOTI-X'TION. which may not be hunted without special permission ivuni the Administrator. TraiiSc'cial. — In this Province the game is divided intrj two divisions for the ]nn-poses of the administration of the law. " ordinary "" and " big " game. The former sciiedule contains the various smaller buck, hares and warthog, and includes the various varieties of game birds and water fowl. The latter schedule contains the larger and rarer forms of antelope, and the buffalo, as well as the crested crane, the wild ostrich and the l)aclnderms. No game may be shot without a licence b\' any- one except the owner or lessee of a farm. This costs, for ordi- nar\' game, 30s. for the whole open season, and T5S. for any one month during the open season, fiig game can only be hutited on a l)ig game licence from the Administrator, formerly costing £25, but now at such rate as the Administrator may deem fit. The exception given to farmers from taking out a licence to shoot dues not include big gainr. so that in the Transvaal, at any rate, these noble animals are now virtitally protected by law. A game licence restricts the shooting of game to the open season only, which in the TransAaal extends from the ist May to the 31st August inclusive. It can be made to restrict the number of any given species allowed to be shot, or the sex of such species. The destruction of any ])artictilar kind of game can l)e pro- hibited from time to time; owners of farms are not allowed to shoot such prohibited species (as. for instance, springbuck were strictly preserved on the " Springbuck Flats " for a term of years). The reservation of game on private farms is a sore point with many farmers, and there are many, even scientific men, who advocate the total exception of the farmer from the game laws, so far as his own farm is concerned. I am very much op]:)osed to this, as I think such an exception woitld sound the death-knell of many scarce species. Many a farmer has not the slightest interest in the antelo]:)e from a scientilic. or even aesthetic, point of view^ His interest is often limited to the meat or biltong he can get from the animal, and little does he care for such ideas as the jjerpetuation of a s])ecies. Apart from all this, in most of the Provinces there is a clause safe-guarding the farmer from the overstocking of his farm by game, and he has only to apply to the Administrator for the necessary permission to thin out his herds. The sale of game meat in the Transvaal is only permitted under certain restrictions, and may be retailed only by a licensed butcher or market master under a special licence costing ±3. The export of game. Avhether alive or dead, trophies, horns and hides of game is only allowed under a special permit obtain- able from the Administrator. Rewards were ])aid for the destruction of re;cognised de- predatory animals (classed as "vermin") ranging from 2s. 6d. for a silver jackal to £1 for a n'ild dog. These rewards. CAMI-: ANi) I'.IKl) I'RdllXTION. 323 however, have heen sus])en(le(l for tlie ])eriod of the (hiration of the war. Utihtv birds ( from an economic standpoint ) are ] protected under the (iame Laws. l»ut I shall deal more fully with this under the headin_^ of " Bird I'rotection." Natal and Ziilitland. — Idie ojien season lasts from the i st May to 15th August, a fortnight shorter than that of the Trans- vaal. The capture of game by any kind of traj) or snare is for- 1)idden. The use of the shot-gun is restricted to the smaller antelope only. Penuits to shoot or capture the large game, or game with.in a reserve, are obtainable from the Provincial Secre- tary for a fee ranging from £=. upwai"ds. An ordinarv game licence costs £i for an open season. Permits for the killing of smaller game will be granted to landowners free of charge for a period not exceeding six months, if they can ))rove that such game are destroying their cro])s. Permission may also be granted to residents and native chiefs to kill a limited number of head of game for food. The sale of game meat is also restricted, as in the Transvaal. Bcchiiaiialaiid. ^-The oi)en season is from ist March to 30th September. Large game is protected by a licence, costing front £2 for a fortnight to £20 for the full season. Tlie resident Com- missioner has the power to issue permits witJTout charge to certain persons, such as bona-fidc travellers, etc. Portuguese Soiith-East Africa. — (iame was formerl\- very abimdant in the Portuguese Territories, but has become consi- derably scarcer of late years, and the Portttgttese ( iovernment have now prohibited the indiscriminate slaughter of game, and a permit is necessary, procitral)le from the (iovernor of the Pro- vince. Oraihje Free State. — The (jame ( )rdinance of 2ytli July, 1914, provides for the legislation of game-hunting much on the lines of the other Provinces. The closed season is from ist August to 31st ALirch. Shooting is ])rohibited on Sttndays. There are also restrictions on the sale and ex])ortation of game. North-U^est Rhodesia. — A gaiue licence costs £1 for small game. A special licence costs £5 for residents and £25 for non- residents. For larger game an Administrator's licence is neces- sary, which costs £50 and entitles one to shoot ele])hant, rhino, "■iraft'e. eland, koodoo, mountain zebra, ostriches and white-back duiker. There are restrictions as to the ntunber of certain game which can be killed tinder the special licence. Gamk Reskkvks IX SorTii .\fru a. Li my opinion there are not enough reserves in the country. especially small reserves, where a particular species could Ije preserved. In the Transvaal we have — (a) The large Game Reserves of the Sal)i and .^ingwitzi on the Transvaal-Portugttese Border (under the care of Major Stevenson Hamilton, as Warden). These have been recently extended to include the area between the two reserves. ( )nlv 524 CAMK AKD DIKD PKOTECTIOX. certain roads nia\' Ije used for traversiii"- the Sabi and Sing^witi Reserves, and no firearms ma\' be carried witliont special per- mission from the W arden. ( /' ) The lV)n_oola Reserve, in the District of Piet Retief .-aid ( c ) the town lands of Pretoria. Until this year there was also ( (/ ) a reserve in the Rustenberg District, which has been recent!}' done away uith, l)iit all _i^anie has been protected by special enactment on all (lovernment farms within the area of the old reserve, and jjolice posts h.ave been established at several points to enforce the regulations. Xalal ami Ziiliihiiid. — A large reserve exists in Zululand, which is under the care of Major \'aughan. Kirl\v as Warden, and another smaller one at (liant's Castle, tinder Mr. Synions. In the latter a tine herd, of eland exists. Certain regulations exist as to the management of the reserves, and the shooting of game, etc., for information on which we must refer the reader to Proclamation Xo. 221 of i(;i2 ( Xatal Province). Cape Froz'incc. — (lame reserves ]i;i\e Ijeen established in Nama(|ualand, Gordonia, and Kuruman Di\-isions. No shooting permits are granted to shoot in these. Forest reserves also exist, which require a special i:)ermit from the Administrator for royal game, and ]:)ermission from the Forest Oftlcer, besides the ])ayment of a licence of 10s. per gun per day. Xorlli-U'cstcni Rhodesia. — There are tv/o game reserves in this large territory, one in the Diowa District and one in the Kafue. BiRn Pk(/n-:(Tiox ix South Afkmca. .So far little lias l)een done out here in this important work. The Transvaal Game Protection Asscjciation was instrumental in the Provincial Administration to enactment of a law on the tlie 'ith Ai)ri!, i(j[5. ])roliibiting the liunting or destruction of certain birds on account of their general utility. This is Proclamation No. 20 (Administrator's) of 1915, and ])rotccts the l)irds set forth in the .Schedule as follows : — SCHEDULE. Ge.vekai. Ctjlitv Birds .axu Loclst Destrovkks- Eiii/lish Contnioii Xdiiu^nchitiiri . Scientific X oniciiclnliirc. St(.)rk, \\ hiic Ikllied. Alniimia ubdimi. Stork, \\ liite. Cicouia ciconia. Starling, Wattled. Perissuniis caniiicalgtus. Eyret, Jiuff-hacked. Buhiilciis ibis. Euro])can Ruller Jays (Blue Jay) Coracias garnthis. Raci|uet-tailed Jays. Cormias sfatulains. ]\l(/sihkatza's Jays. Coracias candatn.w P'urple Jays. Cnracias iiiu.zanihiciis. Cinnamon Jays. Eiirystoinus afcr. All l)ir(ls ])eli)nL;in,ii to the families CEdicnemidjc, (ilariolidie, and Charadrida'. or the Order LimicoLT, including the wbole of the plover- species, and in ])articular the following: — i;A:Mii AND i;iKi) priiti-xtidn. 525 Iiiif/lisli Cuiiniioii Xoiiiciuiiitiir( . Si-iriiti/iL' Xoiiicnrhitiirc. ]!lack-\vin,t;ed Pratincole. Glarcola nicknioMcra. Red-vvingcd Pratiuci)lc. Glarcola fuse a. Dikkop or Thickknce. (Ediciiciiius caf-ciisis. Writer Dikkop. (Hdiciicnnis iwinicuUiliis. Burchell's Courser. Ciirsoriiis nifiis. Two-lianded Courser. Rliiuoptilus africanits. Crdwned Lapwing. Strfl'i^'U'l^y-^' coronatiis. lilacksmith Plover. Hopiof^lcras sj'cciosus. Cape Province. — In the Cai)e I^'ovince birds and their eggs are protected by enactment of the Provincial Council tinder Section 85 of the South Africa Act, 1909, at the re(]uest of any nninicii)ality. IJirds were accordingly })rotected for a term of three years in the following town lands : Aliwal N'jrth. Aber- deen, Beaufort West, Bedford. Butterworth. and the native loca- tions. Cathcart, Ceres. Cradock, Cambridge. Ca]:)C. East London. Kinp'williamstOA\n. Komeha. Alaraisburg, ]\Ionta"ti, Mount Ayliff. Port St. John's. \\'orcester, \\"almcr (Port Elizabeth). in all of which the various protected birds are scheduled, and Qtieenstown (all birds). In the Cape Province generallx' and the Transkeian Territories, all tlie so-called locust Ijirds are ])ro- tected. It is to be ho])ed that when the three vears expire the ]jrotection -will be extended for a further term. A Committee of the South African ( )rnithologists' Union might be formed and empowered to go through the schedules and cor- rect them as far as they can do so with the ])resent l^now ledge at our disposal. Under the Game Laws flamingoes are i)rotected throughout the Ca]ie Province until 25th May. 1916. ( lame birds are protected l)v close seasons in the various di-itricts. which vary for each district, and so in sonie cases l\v total pro- hibition for a term of years. NatCiJ. — The species of guinea-fowl, francolin and Inistard (korhaan). and dikko]) are included in Schedule A (^ordinary game) of the Natal Ordinance (No. 2, 1912). whereby they are protected by the same close season as small game. The plovers are better protected under Schedule B ('s])ecially l)rotected game), while the crested and Stanley cranes are in- cluded in Schedule C, royal game. The young or eggs of game birds are protected by paragraph 22 of Proclamation Xo. 221 of 13th November. igi2. Proclamation No. 33 of 1896 specially protected " certain insectivora and other wild birds." The schedule includes the locust birds, white stork, tick bird (red-billed ox-])ecker). swal- lows, and wagtails. Proclaiuation No. 200 of 23rd October, 191 2. protects a long list of genera] titility birds as well as their eggs, and includes seed-eaters, barbets. bee-eaters, cuckoos, egrets, hoop- cos, ground hornbills, gallinules, herons, hammerkoj^s, fly- catchers, flamingoes, and the species of ibis. It will thus been seen that Natal and Cai:ie Province are ahead of the other two Provinces so far as bird protection is concerned. 526 GAME AND BIRD PR( ITF.CTION. Orange Free State. — -According to Game Ordinance, 1914. all game birds are protected by a close season from ist August to 31st Alarch. This includes, besides the francolin and guinea- fowls, the dikkop. waterfowl, plovers, and lapwing snipe. The taking of the young and eggs is also prohibited. Locust birds are specially protected. Mr. C. McG. John- ston, the Secretary of the Orange Free State Agricultural Society, informs me that the Provincial Council have now com- pletely protected the whole of the bustard and plover families in the Free State area, and that in consequence korhaan are becom- ing plentiful again in some of the districts. It is also thought that the protection of these birds is already mitigating the termite pest. The South African Ornithologists' Union, which was founded in 1904, and whereof I am Hon. Secretary, has a Bird Protection and Migration Sub-Committee, but hitherto little has been done owing to the unsettled state of the country, politi- cally and otherwise. But. as I stated in a pamphlet on the econo- mic relations to man of the variotis South African birds of prey, little can be done by Legislature while the present ignorance on matters of natural history prevails in South Africa. What is the use of prohibiting the killing of certain birds, when the vast majority of the inhabitants do not know these partictilar birds from a crow or "vink"'-: We must educate them first, and to this end I wrote, in collaboration with Mr. R. IT. Ivy, my "Sketches of South African Bird Life," of which the second edition is now in the press. This is proftisely illustrated by means of photo- grajihs. The South African Ornithologists' Union was also instru- mental some years ago in bringing about the issue by the Trans- vaal Education Department of well-coloured wall pictures of some of the more useful birds and migratory species. These are the lines upon which we have to develop, and the rising genera- tion must be educated up to the principles which I have tried to expound. The late Dr. Gunning. Mr. Austin Roberts, and Dr. Warren have each written popular articles upon the economics of South African birds in the Transvaal and South Afriean Agricultural Journals, and more of such papers are wanted. Game and Bird Protection in America. Now let us for a moment glance at what is being done in some other countries in the matter of game and bird protection. In America the game reserves, bird preservations, fisheries, etc., are under a Sub-Department of the L^nited States Depart- ment of Agriculture, the '' Bureau of Biological Survey," w4iose chief was Dr. C. Hart Merriam. Dr. H. \\\ Henshaw is now in charge, under whom Dr. T. S. Palmer is the assistant in charge of game preservation. There is a large stafif of assistant biologists, who issue most interesting reports from time to time, such as an annual report on the game protection, pam- phlets bearing upon " National Reservations for the Protection CAMl". AND 1!1RD PROTECTTOX. 527 of Wild Life." " Private Game Reserves and their Ftiture," " Game Commissions and Wardens : Their Appointments. Powers, and Duties." "The Game Laws of iQii," "The Game ^\■'arden of To-day." etc. With a large stafif of scientists, foresters, wardens, commissioners, etc.. under an efficient de])art- mental head, it stands to reason that the protection of game and 1)irds must Ije nearly as thorough as man can make it. I quote, from the circulars of the Bureau of Biological Survey, some figures which may be a revelation to many in South Africa : — Xational Reservations. — In 1912 the total number of re- servations was 95, whereof 66 were under the Department of Agriculture, 12 under the Dejxirtment of Literior, g under the Department of Commerce and Labour, 5 imder the War Department, i under the Navy Department, and 2 others. These were made up as follows : — 10 national parks, 5 national military parks. Q national game preserves, 56 national bird reservations, 10 reservations for water birds, and 7 national reservations made game preserves by law. Some of these reserves were, of course, created for other purposes — as, for instance, the military parks and national monuments — l)ut they now serve as bird sanctuaries as well. So far as actual game protection is con- cerned, we need only concern ourselves with the 10 national parks which serve as game reserves, chief of which is. of course, the famous Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, of 2.000.000 acres in extent. The total acreage of the 10 i)arks is given l)y Dr. T. S. Palmer at 4.320.490. The Yellowstone Park contains a herd of the pronghorn antelope, mountain sheep, bison, deer, moose, bears, and beavers, and is said to contain the largest herds of elk on the American Continent. The game is protected by comprehensive laws for the pro- tection of wild life enacted in 1897. A])art from the foregoing State Reservations, private game preserves liave been established, including deer parks and en- closures for big game, unenclosed uplands for big game or game birds, and duck marshes or preserves. These are the pro])erty of private individuals, clubs or corporations. British Columbia has now a game reserve of about 450 square miles in extent, situated between the Elk and Bull Rivers, and around Lake A'lonro. I shall now quote Dr. Palmer : Game protection in the United States has ])een developed along some- what broader lines tlian in other countries. Its object is not solely tn preserve a few animals and liirds to furnish sport for a limited class, but to protect and increase useful species for the benefit of the people in general. It preserves, not onh- game animals and game birds, but also Ijirds of song and phimage and those which are benelicial as scavengers or as destroyers of injurious insects and noxious weeds. Lie then goes on to detail the relation of the farmer to the Game Laws, and the direct and indirect benefits which h.e derives from such. ^2H GAME AXI) lUKD rKOTECTK )N. National Bird Preservations. — These consist mainl' of small rocky islands or tracts of marsh land of little a,u;"riculrural value, with a few exce])tions, notahly the Niobrara J\e.-erve. Nebraska, which includes an area of from 10,000 to 12.000 acres. The birds on these reservations are i)rotected bv a s]>ccial Act of Congress and by the State (kuue Laws. ^^'ardens are stationed on the more im])i)rtant rescrxarions for the better i^rotection of the birds. Not content with such a thorouoh Government or State su])ervision. the National \sso- ciation of Audubon Societies, who are largel}' instrumental in the existence of many of the reserves, renders the Dei)artment of Agricttlttire much assistance and co-operation in protecting bird Hfe. Egypt and the Sudan. In 1Q12 important steps were taken towards protectino- the native fauna of Egypt by two laws, one of the 4th Alay, 1912, regulating the hunting of game ; and law No. q of the 20th May, 1912, protecting certain birds itsefttl to agricttlttire, a list of which is given. A Department of Zoological Service. was formed, whereof the Director of the Zoological Gardens of Gizeh (Captain S. S. Flower) was pitt in charge, with Mr. M. J. Nicoll as Assistant Director. I am indebted to Captain Flower's annual reports on the Zoological Service for 1012 and 191.^ for the information herein included. Gazelles were protected in the Alexandria District by a Pro- clamation of 28th February, 1910, and ttnder the above-mentioned law of 4th May. 1912. a ])roclamation was issued on 20th Jantt- ary, 1913, prohibiting the shooting or hunting of gazelles near Tel el Azouk without special jiermission from the (jovernment. Captain Flower gives us an account of the ]:)reservation and furthering of the colonies of egrets. He savs that from 12 to 15 years ago no scene of Egyi)tian agricultural life v.-as com]>lete without these beatitiful white birds in parties of 10, 20, or n.iore, walking throught the fields searching for their insect food. For the sake of the long gracefttl pltuues Avhich the egrets develop in the nesting season, they were systematically shot off in colony after colony by the plume-hunters. This was the case uf the heron in Atistralia until the Government intervened at the insti- gation of the Ornithologists' Union. Egvpt has now taken strong measures to protect these beautiful birds, with exceed- ingly satisfactory results. Captain Flower says that in 1912 only one breeding colony remained in Lower Egypt, which would also have been extinguished but for the j^rotection of the Government. ( )ver 500 young birds were reared under natural conditions, but under the care of a Avatchman of the Zoological Service. Artificial colonies were started in various places. Hungary. Li this country economic ornithologA^ plays an important role, ro important that a special branch of the Agricitltural De- CAMl". AND r.lRD PROTKCTION. 529 partmeiit exists, termed the Royal Hungarian Bureau of < )rnitho- logy. This has been for years under the direction, of Dr. ( )tto Herman, who has made migration his s])ecial stud}-. The bureau issues a comprehensive annual re])ort dealing with the migration of birds in Hungary; the food of birds, which receives the s])ecial study of a cou])le of the assistants, or statt; the pro- gress of bird protection, etc. The members of the staff collect an enormous amount of data as to the insects and other food eaten by birds with a view to obtaining an accurate insight into the economic value of birds in regard to agriculture — T'/r., the S]:»ecies of noxious insects and harmful weed-seeds which the birds eat — and so the exact status of each birvl in relation to agriculture is eventually arrived at. Not only are birds of un- doubted or proved economic value ])rotected by lav;, but all .-orts of devices are adopted for their increase and well-being — as. for instance, food shelters in win.ter, where the bii-ds may obtain both shelter and a regular supply of food placed at their dis- posal bv man ; artificial nesting ])laces in the sha|)e of hollow boxes, hollow trunks, etc. In concluding my ])aper, let me (|Uote the following iiara- graph from the interesting book, " P.irds Useful and Ilarmful," by Dr. Otto Herman and Mr. J. A. ( )wen : Tlie question of usefulness and noxiousness of l)irds durinii the nhole of the Nineteenth Century was treated only approximately upon the assertions of authorities. When, later on, Congresses JK-gan to embrace the cattse of bird-protection and the question of the usefulness and noxiousness of each :-pccies assumed a r(Jle of tlie lir^t importance, it turned out that there was no firm basis upon which tu rel.\-. in passing jud.^nient. Eminent ornithologists were often at variance wiili re.uard to the usefulness or noxiousness of a particular species. Where Nature is intact, the number of l)irds is autumatically regu- lated in accordance with the natural development of their surroundings. The conception of "Useful" and "Noxious" are merely human ■ones, and man can. by cultivation, or the contrary, alter tlie normal con- ditions, and may consequently, modify the character and habits of birds also. Agriculttire on a large scale, modern forestry, the draining of territory — all these things alter the fundamental conditions of animal life and in consequence of bird life also: and if these modifications in respect to birds are injurious to man. it is in tlie interests of man to iidai^t them artificiallx- for the benefit of birds; and if 1)v cultivation, man deprives useful liirds of their natural nesting f.acilities. lie o'.-:ght to provide them with artificial ones. Tobacco Ash. — In view of the serious shortage of potash com;)ounds, which is now being experienced all over the world. Mr. B. A. Burrell draws attention in the Cliciiiical !\'c-u's to the fact that the tobacco and cigars consumed in the United Kingdom during the course of a year yield a total of about 13,400 tons of ash, cf ntaining 2,672 tons of potash, or the erjui- valent of 21.376 tons of kainit, a quantity worth £51,000 before the war, and now worth three times as much. He therefore urges the organised collection of tlie tobacco ash which is now T3eing wasted. F MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS IN RELATION TO SOCIAL EFFICIENCY. By Christian Frederick Louis Leipoldt, F.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. The medical inspection of schools presents so many interest- ing points for discussion that it is difficult to select any special aspect of the subject for detailed consideration without appearing to lay undue stress upon the value of a component part of an all- round valuable and important whole. All will admit the intrinsic importance of the medical inspection of schools ; all Avill agree that no branch of social, educational, or medical work is strengthened by standing by itself, but only by its co-partnership with correlated work ; and, finally, all of us will readily confess to the creed that there is no real best where the degrees of com- parison are so unequal as they are bound to l)e in any work that is rudimentary and pioneering. School medical inspection is, to some extent, yet in its embryonic stage. It is true it has already been in working, in some countries, for more than a decade, but when we consider it in relation to broad (|uestions of public health and national efficiency, we find that it has hitherto been largely haphazard. The Legislature has, as it were, made a junij) into the middle of a ])roblem which should have been attacked on its outworks. We started with the seemingly axiomatic assumption that where the State imposes obligation it must hel|) those who are unable to fulfil their civic duties. In a phrensy of fine altru- istic philanthro])y we plunged into medical inspection and super- vision of schools, with all their attendant difficulties, and added communal obligations. Let us be grateful for that. One step in the right direction counts far more than a parallelogrammatic circumvallation of the whole objective. But siege engineers have a defi.nite aim, and the laws that guide them are not fixed but fluent, as Vauban showed. Above all, they have in view two objects to be achieved — thoroughness and efficiency gained with the minimum of energy expenditure. In England, however, to cite one instance of an almost universal tendency, the State has disregarded A'auban's rules, and by a cu.rious gymnastic effort, highly creditable to its agility, but hardly conclusive proof of its logicality, it has started progress in the middle instead of at the beginning. For it seems to me to be wrong to suppose, and to act on the supposition, that the State is concerned with the health of the growing citizen solely when such health, or the want of it, is a factor in estimating the degree to which a child can respond to the educational call made upon him by an Act of Parliament that prescribes school for every young citizen be- tween the ages of five and fourteen. The health of the child concerns the State directly, inasmuch as it is the well or ill being of a unit of the community ; indirectly, because the safeguard- ing of the sanity of the mass of young citizens safeguards at the same time the sanity of the race, and consequently the econo- mic V'.elfare of the nation. The obligation on the State is far MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS. 53 1 greater than is generally admitted by schemes of medical inspec- tion of schools that deal, for the most part, merely with children of school-going age. It is the obligation to ensure physical effi- ciency in every child. To be strictly logical, the State should medically inspect every citizen. In other words, school medical inspection should be a branch of a State service of health, linked up with the department that controls the drainage and public health measures generally. Prevention of physical defects in infants before they are of school-going age is in general easier and better than prevention later on. Nor is it sufficient that the child should be examined when he leaves school. The State should follow him up. It should see that he is placed in an environment calculated to ease instead of adding to whatever burden ])arental indiscretion or natural insufficiency has thrown upon him ; it should attempt to supervise his life in these surroundings, and should offer him facilities for correcting new defects that arise through indus- trial or economic causes. I think it is this aspect of school medical inspection, in its broad relation to social efficiency, that I may preferably submit for consideration, conditioned by the suggestion that it is not the only, although possibly the most important, aspect of the work that the Education Department of the Transvaal Province has recently initiated. Perhaps I may, as a preliminary, indicate what are the basic requirements of any scheme of medical inspection of schools that aims at the practical, as apart from the purely theoretical, im- provement of the children of the race. In the first place, it is essential that such a scheme should be co-ordinated to the exist- ing system of education, and make due provision for local con- ditions and circumstances. The decentralisation that obtains in France or Italy is, for example, quite impossible in the Transvaal or in New South Wales, where medical inspection of schools must, for the present at least, be under the direct control of the central departmental authorit}^ and not delegated to the local authority until such local authority is in a position effectively to superintend its administration. Indeed, it is questionable if certain aspects of medical inspection of schools can adequately be visioned from a purely local, one might almost say, from a Medical Officer of Health's point of view. Take, for example, the investigation of and the provision for mentally defective chil- dren. The percentage of such children in scattered rural areas is usually low, but for the whole Province, and, moreover, for the entire Union, it is high enough to warrant special recogni- tion, leading ultimately to precautionary or remedial treatment on a scale which necessarily will involve capital expenditure that cannot be debited to local areas, but must be borne by the whole Province, and perhaps ultimately again by the Union. Next, take the matter of the incidence of infectious disease in schools. At present it is regarded as purely a matter of local interest in which the Medical Officer of Health for the district is primarily 53-2 :\1K1M(AL IXSPECTIOX OF SCHOOLS. ■concerned. Rontine school ins})ection in larj^e areas such as those controlled by the London County Council has, however, fairly clearly demonstrated the fact that systematic investigation by school doctors and careful schedtiling of schools on a basis of liability to infection tends to limit the spread of epidemic of measles and scarlet fever, and to some extent also of diphtheria. Bluntly stated, if you know the percentage of immunity in cer- tain schools in a specified district, you are far better able to control the spread of a disease in that district than if you did not know how riianv children were ])OtentiaI infection carriers. Where the percentage of immune children is ttnknown there is no alternative to school closure, a coin"se of action that necessa- rily entails complete dislocation of the educational machinery in that district, and that Ijy no means warrants the supposition that the e])idemic can be limited or checked, since it is now fairly well established that in such diseases as measles and whoo])ing-cough extra school infection is ])robably as i:)otent a factor in spreading the disease as is class infection. Local School Board areas are, 'from the point of view of the epidemiologist, arbitrarily demar- cated in the Transvaal Province, and unless the data with regard to immunity are collated with those of neighbouring districts, it is unlikely that they will prove of much ])ractical valtie should an epidemic of infectious disease break out. I do not by any means minimise the importance of the work now being done by local Medical Officers of Health, but it nmst be admitted that such work w"ill be greatly aided, and its ])ractical value greatly enhanced, by the complementary work of the school doctor cen- trally conducted and regulated. Further, it is necessarv that the school medical officer shall be directly responsible to the Education Department, no matter whether such a Department is controlled bv the Provincial or by the Union authorit}'. This is the ])rinciple which has been adopted by the English Board, A\here the Chief Medical Dfficer, while working in close harmony with the officials of the Local ■Government Board, preserves an independence of ftmction and control that has had the most satisfactory results so far as im- provements in the hygiene of the national schools are concerned. It is of even greater importance in this country, where decen- tralisation, to the extent obtaining in Great Britain, is at present impossible. Secondly, the important essential is that any scheme of medical inspection of schools for the Transvaal Province, or, indeed, for any community, shall concentrate its main attention upon the removal of defects discovered in school children at the routine inspections. The mere statistical elaboration of figures showing the tirgent need to co])e with juvenile invalidity serves no useful purpose in a civilisation that already recognises the desirability of dealing with such invalidity on logical lines, and is therefore largely a waste of time and of energy. Dr. Hackworth Stuart, Medical Adviser to tb.e ilanley* MKLniAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS. ^^T^ Education Committee, has ])nt the case succinctly when lie remarks : Statistics of defects in the schnol puinilatiun are not onl}' i)leiuiful, but have de^ne tlieir \vori< in securing powers to take the lirst steps in the direction of liavin.j th.ese defects dealt witli. U was not to enforce the onipilation of national pediatric statistics that educationists have pleaded the cause i>f inspection. It was not to satisfy an appetite for liaures. or to know which country has the liulkiest l)abies. that the lonc;-suffering" ratepayer hailed. v»'ithout ])rotest, the prospect of a further rise in the price of citizensliip. Let us preserve a littin.y pro])ortion between pro- ductixe work by skilled obser\ers and figure compiling by less skilled workers. Let statistics be relegated to their jiroper suljsidiary j^lace in this connectiiiu., and their chief function be to indicate the methods. of inspection whicli are most productive of resulting- remedial action. I'he \ ital need at present is to get to work on the existing mass of disease in the schools, by means of inspection, by enlightening the parn.s. and by enc'iuraging them to act. This is the |)ro])er view to take of medictil inspection in a cottntry where statistics of juvenile invalidity are alreadx' avail- able, ijut it must be slightl}- modified in a Province sttch as the Transvaal, where we have no data to pernnt of a reallv scientific comparison beinc( made between the normal child in our schools and the normal child in schools in Rngland. Some of the l)ioneering work that has been done elsewhere must fall to the lot of the school doctor here, in his own interest, because he needs a basis for coin])aris(»n. and in the interests of the children and the community, becattse we are faced with diseases which do not confront th.e edttcatiom'st in lutro])e, with malaria, with l)il- harziosis. and with endemic typhoid fever. But we have this advantage, that we start without the handicap of professional and ])0]iular prejudice. 1 believe I am right when I state that in this Prijvince at least most edttcationists and medical men cor- dially a])itr()ve of the i)rinciple of medical ins])ection of schools,. and that there is ])ractically a unanimous desire to co-o])ei"ate and assist in the working of any scheme that promises to deal with the matter in a practical way. We have, fttrther, the advan- tage that our juvenile popttlation is comparatively small in nttm- bers, that we possess a central authority, and that ottr schools, both primar}- and secondary, are essentially democratic and peopled by children from all grades of society. Against these are the disadvantages that many of ottr schools are in small rtiral areas, difficult of access, with a scattered school population under widely (littering economic conditions ; that we have no proper basis of scientific comparison for our normal children ; and finally, that ottr resources of treatment, in contrast with those existing in England and elsewhere, are limited, ft is fairly obvious that it is in our interest to concentrate upon the practical, and to make the ptirely scientific aspect of school medical inspec- tion a secondar\- consideration. Yet it is desirable that scientific data, for purposes of comparison, should not b? neglected. We need an anthropometric stirvey of our pO])ttlation, and school medical inspection ofifers a means of obtaining a sttrve_\' of the jttvenile section at least. The problems that need investigation 534 MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS. possess not merely an abstract scientilic interest. Ijnt have an important bearing upon onr social, economic, and racial evolu- tion. In the United States important data have been obtained with regard to the ])revalence of hook-worm disease among school children, and measm-es are now being adopted to cope with this plague, which shotild considerably improve the econo- mic efficiency of the industrial population in the southern States. In the northern districts of this Province, we have a disease whose incidence is as great as that of hook-worm disease in America, and whose efifects u])on the liealth of the growing chil- dren of our population are, from the point of national efficiency, most pernicious. This is malaria. I have had tlie opportimity of noting the detriment caused by this disease in school children in two districts, and I confess that it has been a most unpleasant and saddening revelation. In the district of Pretoria we have another disease, red-water, or bilharziosis. which, although far less openly detrimental to the school efficiency of the children, is ])robably responsible for some degree of dete- rioration, and, in certain serious cases at least, undotibtedly affects the wage-earning efficiency in later life. There are, fiu'- ther, the many defects of early childhood, preventable or remov- able, that one meets with during rotitine inspections — defective teeth, catising constant absor])tion of poisonous products, gastro- intestinal defects, im|)erfect vision, liodilv deformity, defective hearing, malnutrition and anaemia. All these nnist have an im- portant bearing upon the national physique, and must, therefore, be dealt with as speedily and as radically as the means at oiu" disjiosal allow. Moreover, we have stn-ely some obligation to investigate the eft'ects of certain of oiu- industries and occu]^a- tions upon the develo])ment and ]^hysical and mental evolution of our growing citizens. It is not merely a question of landing otit by how many centimetres oiu" girls and boys fall short in stattire when compared with cliildren of a similar age in Queensland or Canada, by how many decimals of a kilogram they differ in weight from children elsewhere. Interesting as these data are from a purely anthropometric point of view, they are insignifi- cant and of little value unless they supply us with information that we may adapt to j^ractical use with a view to imj^roving the conditions which are the primary causes of racial deterioration. In the third ])!ace, medical inspection of schools must stinni- late public and ])arental interest in problems of juvenile hygiene and social efficiency. Without such interest its eff'orts will be barren of useful collective results, devoid of that driving force that creates progress in spite of great obstacles in its way. Especially in a new country, where the means of communal instruction by precept and example for the population is not so apparent as it is in an older civilisation, is such stimulation of popular interest most necessary. The creation of a liealth conscience [remarks a School Medical Inspector of Victoria in liis last annual report] of a sort of extra sense ■ — sanitary sensitiveness — will eventually, by its preventive value. i)rove MKDH AL I XSIM-HTIOX OF SCIKlnl.S. 535 the best and most endtirin.t; of uur cffcirts. Legislative action, entiuisiasm for reform, inclividnal strivings, all wait on a public desire fm- health progress, an uplift that may come only with a new generation — the generation at present in our schools. Hence, the teaching of hygiene in schools, though of little direct value at present to the conmumity, is nevertheless educationally of vital and immediate imp<''rtance. for as the years pass by increasing waves of hygieuically-disposed minds ari.- enter- ing the ocean of our civilisation to remedy the stagnation of ignorance and superstition. More and more, teachers will be on our side as to the value of fresh air; but above all the children of the open-air class- rooms and schools will grow up living examples and missioners of the gospel of fresh air. Every swimmer taught in our schools will revive in our nation its lost desire for the water and remove its present dislike of contact. Every Australian boy and girl growing up will regard no longer as a menace, but indeed as our finest possession, the glorious sun- shine of this southern continent, ^'et to-day the three things most feared are fresh air — draughts — cold water, and sunshine — sunstroke. These fears arc as visionary and as unreal as former beliefs in witches or in fetishes— lieliefs even uK^re firmly held, yet now exploded. I (jtiote this ])ai-tTOTaph becatise. with all dtie respect to otir own conimtinitv, the criticism is singtilarly apposite when applied to tts. In our schools, too, we see filthy children, verminous heads and bodies, and disease bred by want of cleanliness, tear of cold water, and exclusion of sunliijht and air. These three factors are responsible for more ill-health in our schools than are under-feeding or infectious disease. " My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge !" sang the prophet Hosea. eclio- ing his predecessor, Isaiali. It needed e])idemics of cholera and typhus to bring something of this knoAvledge to the public in England ; we. forttmatel}-, have had no Ijlight severe enough in its national destruction to instil the commonplaces of sanitary science into otir people. School medical insiiection, if its object is to increase national efficiency and be of real value to the com- mtinity, .should forestall jilagtie and fever as educative forces. Finally, school medical inspection mitst strive to |)romote the betterment of industrial, domestic, and ecottomic conditions which adversely influence the rising generation. Its work in this direction is intiinately connected with its duty as an educative factor in matters of ])tt])lic health, and it can only achieve useftil and practical results by investigating problems .-md co-o]:)erating with the health attthorities. I may allude to the good work that has been done by school medical oBicers in connection with juve- nile employment and vocational training both in England and in Italy, and l)v the stimulus which certain investigations b\' sucli officers have given to improvements in factory legislation. The work mtist be largely indirect, but it luust l)e grounded on patient and solid research ; the em])loyment of the method of resi- dties, wdiich students of ^.lill still regard as a legitimate way of scientific investigation, will not do. As our economic condi- tions imj^rove and otir ])opulation increases, we shall be faced by new problems of work and industry, and their influence u]nm the evolution of the race. At present we have already certain (|ues- tions that have hitherto been discussed from a ])urely ])olitica] or economic, rather than from the sounder sociological aspect — the 5,V> Ali.DU'AL INSna'TJiiN OF SCHOOLS. (|Ucstion of the ])oor white, and the ahuost more im]jortant ijroh- leni of masked paui)erism presented by units of the commumty following certain underpaid occupations in rural and urban areas. The effects of these factors of poverty, disease incidental to occu- ]jation or to residence in unhealthy areas, and defects due almost direct!}" to preventable ignorance, uncleanliness. and neglect, upon the physique of the growing generation can hardlv l)e esti- mated at present with ;iny degree of scientihc })recision. since we entire!} lac!< t!ie data for com])arison. Rut as school n.iedical ins])ection ])rogresses, such data wil! accumulate, and will i)rove of immense \alue when tliese matters come under discussion in tlie future. Suc!i, t!ien. are to m\- mind ,tlie essentials of anv scheme of ratinna! medica! insj^xnion of schools that, wiili a broader ])ur- vIqw and a wider sens" of its ol)!igations. visions its work as a systematic atttick not UjKjn isolated defects discovered at school, but u])on the root factors t!iat account for national inefficiency due to preventable disease. It is impossil)le to deal at length with tlie maimer in whicli it is ])roposed to ensure tlT.'it tliese essentials shall !)e inevitable concomitants of anv scheme e!al)orated for the 'I'ransvaal. but 1 may !)rietly sketch the general lines upon whicli it is suggested that medical ins])eclion of schools should jM-oceed. With regard to the tirst essential, co-ordination with the central authorit} . \\ e have started S(|uarely, inasnuich as we have made medical ins]:)ection of schools an integral part of the func- tions of the De]>artment of lulucation. and have not divorced it from the central atithority b}' pigeon-holing the new service into another Dejxirtment. The medical insjjector of schools is now one of the departmental ins])ectors, directb' res])onsible to the department for carr}-ing out a scheme which has been drawn up after consultation v.'ith the departmental officials, and with due regard to local and dei)artmental necessities. This ])revents overlap] )ing, obviates friction, and maintains luiimpaired the functional integrit}' of the new service on the same basis as that under the English Board of Education. Matters of public health affecting local communities are dealt with in consultation with local medical ofHcers of health, whose authoritv. in their own dis- tricts, nmst be su])reme. Unfortunatelv there are still many districts where no local medical officer of health exists, and where the local district s;u-geon has a kind of semi-official authority, with usuall}' no power to enforce it. Questions of procediu'e during an outbreak of infectious disease in such unserved dis- tricts present certain difficulties which nuist remain at ])resent until the ])ublic health service in this countrv is controlled on scien.tihc lines by a strong central authority. The want of such central control is one of the difficulties that school medical offi- cers in this country will have to struggle against. Another diffi- cultv is the absence of any legislative sanction for the work they are exj^ected to carry out, and the dual control that now exists in some districts in consequence of the loosely-framed regulations :mi-:du'ai. ixsim-x'tiun of sciuxils. ^^^y governing the procedure in certain i)iiljlic health (|nestions. These difficuhies one can meet with ])atience. fortified by the reflection that thie service is new in this country, and thiat Sottth Africa as yet does not possess a pnbhc heahh con>cience in the true sense of the term. ( )nce this latter mentor is aroused, the ])ul)lic will not tolerate a state of things that allows the ( iovernment to make game ])reser\atii n and forest conservanc\- matters of more vitallx' national inii)ortancc than the Ivalth of itf. citiz.~ns. With regard to the second essential, it is ])ro|)osed to deal -with defects discovered at routine ex;uninati(jn as ])rom])tl\- and as ade(|uatel}" as otir somewhat limited means allow. We have no hosjiitals in the Iuu"oi)ean sense of tlie term in this cotmtrv ; our institutions for the sick are either nursing homes for pa\ing jjatients or patiper asylitms analogous to the nutch-maligned and itnpopular " infirmaries " in Ivngland. A child whose ])arents cannot ahord to i)a\' toi- medical or surgical treatment — and please remember that such inabilit\- to pa\- does not mean ])atiper- isni in the sense that it imjflies in Kngland, where the rates charged for such treatment are far lower than here — must at present he either lett uiureated or nuist a])])lv to the magistrate for treatment as a pau])er. Add to this the fact that our hos- l)itals do not ])ossess otu-patient departments which are worthy of the name, and th.'it they serve white and colotu"ed jiatients at the same time, hor obviotts reasons I refrain from discussing the subject of the e.^cienc\' of these instittuions. Mv point is merely that if it is i)racticall\ unsound to send defective school children to hos])itals in Rngland — a matter on which there exists almost tinanimit\- ot o])inion — it is still less sound to send them to hos])itals here. In l^ngland and in Atistralia — where hos])ital facilities are better than the\- are here — this ])roblem of the treatment of defective children has been sohed, 1 believe, on economically sound lines, and certainh- on a. basis that is ])rac- ticall} ettective — by the establishnient of school clinics and tra- velling -school hos])itals. The same alternative to hosi)ital treat- ment ])resents itself here, and in the scheme for school medical ins])ection in the Transvaal i^-ovision is made for the establish- ment of school clinics, travelling dental clinics, and probal)lv a travelling hospital. hA-en at ])resent the medical inspector is forced to take with him a su])])l\- of drtigs and tonics, and the school lutrse a su])])i\- of dressings and nn'nor essentials, to deal with urgent cases on the spot. .School clinics, while ])racticable for the larger centres, are out of the (|uestion for small rural areas; in such Ave must have a iravelling hos])ilal, i)eregrinating around its area once every year, and dealing with all defective children within that area who cannot att'ord ])rivate treatment or — and tliis is a ])oin.t I would lay some stress ujion — who prefer, for |)a\-ment, to be treated by the s])ecialists attached to the hos- pital. Concentra.tion u])on this important (juestion of treatment is most desirable in view of the grave defects that arise through neglect of such defects, and jiersonally I should much prefer to see the facilities for treating defective children extended to see- 538 MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS. ing the staff of inspectors augmented by assistants. An increase in the nursing staff is indispensable, for the school nurse is, and must be. a most important adjunct to any scheme of remedial treatment of defects. It is possible to dilate upon the question, and to point out the good ^vork that has been done in Australia itpon lines similar to those ]:)ro])osed for this Province, but the reader will doubtless fully realise the intrinsic interest of the matter, and expand these argiunents at his leisure. I pass to the third essential — the stinudation of public interest in the work, the creation of a iml)lic health conscience. It is pro- posed to attack this side of the matter directly by lectures to parents and teachers, and to the ])ublic at large, and indirectly through the influence of rotitine school inspection upon the chil- dren themselves. The value of a good school ntu-se's example is, so far as the children are concerned, incalculable, and the Trans- vaal is forttmate in its first school nurse, whose tactful and simple service in this respect has been ])roductive of the happiest results. Ignorance, more than wilful neglect, is responsible for nuich of the misery of children in this l^'ovince, and a part of this ignorance at least the school nurse and the school doctor can eft'ace by judicious and kindly talks. The travelling hospital, with its magic lantern and set of slides, should ])rove here, as it has proved elsewhere, of signal service. To interest the teachers alone will be an immense means of aclvancing the caiise. I look forward to the time when every school in this country shall be able to have its school joiu-ney — pro1)ably the most important asset that the school doctor has a1 his dis])Osal practically to inculcate the elementary rides of sanitary art and science-its school garden, and its regtdar class in domestic hygiene, and the care of the body. But before these reforms are possible, it is imj^erative that our locally recruited teachers are themselves educated to recognise the supreme importance of attention to these points. At present — I say it with regret and with a full consciousness of my responsi- bility— it appears to me that in some schools the teachers more than the scholars stand in lu-gent need of a simple lesson on the necessity for cleanliness and fresh air. Finally, we have the fourth essential, that school medical inspection nntst endeavoitr to ])romote the amelioration of domestic, industrial, and economic conditions that adverseh:! aft'ect the rising generation. Obviously, it is much too soon to outline the manner in which we in the Transvaal can usefully deal with the various problems that confront us, for we lack, as yet, the data to enable us to form definite conclusions for con- structive eft'ort. Patient research and investigation must pre- cede any trial, and it is possible that we shall have to experiment, and lose money and energy over the trials, before Ave achieve results that are enduringly satisfactor\'. Once more I may refer to the mentally defective child, the uwron who is incapable of concentrating his mind and of reaching a stage of development sufficiently high to fit him for anything above the simplest em- ployment in this complex civilisation of ours. At present we MEDICAL INSI'IUTIOX OF SCHOOLS. 539 deal with them on ])itrely repressive hues, just ;'.s we deal with the native eriniinal. and with as little eiiect. Ir.discriminately we hmi]) together the ahnornial child, who through environment or direct parental education hecomes a ])Otential criminal, and the moron and mentall\- defective child, who through ante- or post- natal causes entirely heyond his control or otirs is an utterly irresponsihle being. The one should he dealt with on what are. after all, fairly well-known rules of modern i:>enology ; the other needs much more carefid study, and \vhat we are to do with him is a problem that Avill have to be very carefully dis- ctissed. S])ecial schools, farm colonies, and sjiecial legislation ' to follow up the work of these institutions and tu prevent it from being wasted — all lliese will have to be considered, and in their consideration. I venture to think, the information and statistics collected by the medical insi)ectors in the sch'uils will weigh to influence the final decision. Lately I have been i^rivileged to supervise the medical inspection of all the liurgers recruited for tlie various com- mandoes in the Transvaal Province, and I have been struck, in collating the reports on these inspections, with the fact that the percentage of men rejected for i^reventable and remediable defects is far higher than it is in conscrijjt armies in countries where medical inspection of schools has been in vogue for some years. Above all. it was strikingly shown that the j^ercentage of defectives was far higher tlian the i)ercentage registered diu-ing the ins])ections for peace training. T ascribe this differ- ence, which is too high to be wholly natural, to the laxity shown at previous examinations, and to the inexperience ui the ex- aminers in regard to the nature of certain defects. Whatever the cause, it is clear that there is a large percentage of our adtilt population sufl'ering from remediable and preventable defects that appreciably aft'ect their wage-earning capacity and conse- quently the national efficiency. I started this ])ai)er by insisting upon the larger obligations of the State ; I conclude it by suggesting that here in this country, where we already ])ossess. to some extent, the machiner\- for the inspection of the adult males, school medical insi)ection should be linked Uj), on the one hand with the voluntary inspection of children before school-going age, and on the other with the_ en- forced inspection of at least all males between the ages of i6 and 45. This latter inspection should be carried out by specially qualified officers ai ^pointed by the Defence Force, who_ should have access to the school medical records of the recruits they examine. In this way we have the nucleus of a i)roper anthro- pometric survey ready at hand. Tt only needs co-operation and attention to develo]) it. by means of accretion, into a real national service of health. " JX)OG AS"; OR, THE ASH OF THE ALKALI BUSH. By Arthur Stead, B.Sc, F.C.S. There is a plant, Mcsciuhi ianthcnium junceiiiii, which grows luxuriantly in many of the Karroo districts, i.e.^ the districts of Aliddclljurg, Colesherg. Hanover, Richmond, Britstown, Vic- toria West, Prieska, Carnarvon, Beaufort West, Fraserhurg, and De Aar. The jjlant attains quite a respectahle size, it heing not uncommon to see hushes of ahout three feet in height and four to five feet in diameter. It is frequently stated, in reference to this hush, tliat it is killing off the useful herhage of the veld; but probably this is a case of a bush being able to thrive under soil conditions which do not permit of the growth of the plants useful for fodder purposes, which it is supposed to be destroying. Sporadic attempts are made to eradicate the weed, but without much suc- cess. It is cut off near the ground and does not grow again, l)Ut, Ijcing a prolihc seeder, many young plants usually spring uj) for every one eradicated. The cut-off bushes are collected and burnt to an ash, which is pm in l)ags so as to make up from 140 to 150 lbs. in weight. The best time to burn is from April to ^lay or June. Last winter the Middelburg municipal authorities burnt 692 bags of ash, hrstl\- to give employment to out-of-works, and secondly, to attempt to clear a portion of the commonage, of which the bush had taken almost complete possession. The cost of burning, bagging and cartage worked out at ai)proximately 2.2 shillings i)er Ijag of 140 lbs. of ash ])roduced. " Loog as " as at one time ver\- much used in making soa]). That was before the advent of railways and caustic soda. The hitter has now a])])arently almost totally supplanted it, with the result that one now seldom receives an offer to burn one's ash bushes on the halves, or. indeed, on any other terms, as was formerly the case. In order to ascertain its manurial value, a sanij^le of last year's 1 turning was obtained. On analysis it was found to contain : Moisture , 5-3 l^er cent. - Ins:)luble inorganic matter 37.0 Water soluble Potash (K,,()) 22.2 K.,CO., 32.59 per cent. Water'solu'bie Soda (Na.O) IT.2 Xa.X'O.. 19. 15 ])er cent. In addition, there were small (|uantities of soluble phos- phates, chlorides, and sulphates. The alkalies are present almost entirelv as carbonates. The manuarial value of this material calculated on its potash content- only is about double that of the normal i)rice of kainit. At the present time, however, it is impossible to obtain quotations for potassic fertilizers of any description owing to^ i,( i( )(;-AS. 341 the fact that the output of tlie Stassfurt mines is no longer available on account of tlie naval blockade. The present market value of " loog: as " as a source of potash for agricultural pur- ]Joses is_ doubtless, therefore, more than twice the normal value of kainit. The attention of manure merchants is directed to " loog as," in the hope that they will be able to make up in some measure for the temporary loss to the world of the output of the Stassfurt mines. In Middelburg alone it is estimated that, without any fur- ther burning operations, there are at least too tons of the ash . available for immediate use. It must be borne in mind that the " carbonate form has considerable drawbacks from the manurial point of view. Its use in the drier localities is not to be recommended, except on soils which contain soluble calcium salts, ])ut there would seem to be no reasonable objec- tion to its general use in the more moist districts. It Avould prove an excellent source of potash in the case of soils which have a tendency to acidity, and is therefore likely to prove valuable for the grain-growing areas in the Western Province. With regard to its use as a soap-making agent, its local value ai^pears to vary between 3s. 6d. to 5s. per 150 lbs. The following recipe is given for its use as a soap-making agent : — To two iiuckets of asli add four to five of water. Then either hoil for an hour or two or allow to stand, with occasional stirring-, for 48 hours. Whichever method is adopted, the resulting solution is allowed to clarify, after wliich it is drawn off. The solution is tasted liv wetting tlie finger and applying it to the tip of the tongue. Tf a burning sensation is experienced, the solution is of sufficient strengtli : if not, a larger quantity of ash must be employed. A Inicketful of tlie extract is then placed in a kafiRr iron cooking pot together with 30 lbs. of fat. The whole is brought to the lioil and main- tained at that temperature for several hours during each of the ne.xt eiglit or ten days. The mixture is repeatedly stirred, and fresh additimis of the w-ater extract are made from time to time, so as to approximately maintain the original Inilk of the contents. The end has been reached when on taking out the stirring spoon, it is found that the watery fluid runs away from tlie soap. Two or three pints of salt are now added, and the boiling continued until a " honey-looking " appearance is noticed. The salt effects the complete separation of the soap from the liquid, with the result that the former, on cooling, forms a crust with the liquid below it. The next operation consists in cutting the soap crust up into bars. In practice it is not always possible to hit off the exact quantities of fat and of extract to take. .An excess of the former is indicated by the cracking of the resulting soap, a deficiency by its "biting" properties. In the former case the mass is again boiled up with the addition of more extract, while in the latter case it is boiled up again after the addition of salt water. The Chemistry of the process is something like the follow- ing I. The treatment of the ash with water dissolves out the potassium with sodium carbonates. 54- LOOG-AS. 2. The action of the alkahne carhonates on prolonged boiling is to split the fat into glycerine and fatty acids, which latter, reacting with the alkaline carbonates, form sodium and potassium salts of the fatty acids, viz., soaps. 3. The addition of salt causes the separation of the soap curd from the glycerine-containing liquid, while during the subsequent boihng, some of the potassium soaps are converted into sodium soaps which ensures the end jn-uduct being a hard soap instead of a possible soft one. In some cases the method used includes the addition of slaked lime as follows : — 25 lb. of fat. I Bucket of ash. I Plate of slaked lime. The ash and slaked lime are boiled with water as in the former process. The soap making in this process, however, takes only about 30 hours' boiling. The explanation is that by the addition of slaked lime to the ash and the subsequent boiling caustic soda and potash are formed, and these are able to " split " the fat much more easily than the carbonates. To return to the purpose of this paper. At the present time " loog as" is undoubtedly a valuable product; but the main question requiring answer i> this : " Is it not possible in normal times to make still more profitable uses of the ash bush than those of soap-making and manuring?" It would seem to the writer that it should be simple and practicable to obtain almost pure sodium and potassium car- bonates from "loog as," or even to transform them into nitrates and cyanides. The evaporations of the extracts could be carried out largely by the heat obtained on burning the bush itself and other useless vegetation. Besides this, the sun is hot in the Karroo and the air is extremely dry. It would, therefore, appear that the concentration of the extract would prove a simple matter. So simple does the process appear that it is suggested to chemical manufacturers that the utilization of " loog as " is worthv of their serious consideration. In conclusion, thanks are tendered for valuable assis- tance rendered by. and information obtained from Messrs. Thornton, van der ]\Ierwe. Lamont, and M. Lundie, of the Government School of Agriculture, Grootfontein, to Mr. Pole Evans, of the Botanical Division, De])artment of Agriculture, and to Mr. Stahl, Mayor of ^liddelburg). Martian Seas. —The Rev. \\'. F. A. ElHson, in the Joitnial of the Brifish Asironomical Association, directs atten- tion to the significance of the low albedo of the darker parts of Mars. He is of opinion that their albedo cannot be far from zero, and points out that we know nothing capable of so eating up light as to reflect practically none of it except a deep layer of something transparent. He therefore considers the evidence irresistible that the dark areas on Mars consist of deep water. A NEW SMUT ON SORGHUM HALEPENSE NEES. By Iltyd Buller Poi.i^ Evans, M.xA.., B.Sc. F.L.S. [Plate 19.) Towards the latter jxirt of February, 191 5. Mr. J. A[. Sim, of Maritzliurg-, Natal, sent me for identification a smut on the common Johnson grass (Sor < o z CO < CO UJ en z Ul Q. UJ J < I S D I a q: o CO z o I- s CO I. CO z < > UJ o Q. d DIE-BACK OF APPLE TREES, CAUSED BY CYTOSFORA LEUCOSTOMA (PERS.) SACC. By Paul Andries van der Byl, M.A., D.Sc, F.L.S. {Plates 20-25 ^"^ fo\tr text figures.) Introduction. Aderhold (1) (1903J describes a very destructive disease in cherry trees in the districts along the Rhine as due to Valsa leucostoma, Fr. The fungus attacks the larger branches and main stems of the trees, gaining access, in part at least, through the injuries caused by late frosts. From these centres it spreads, causing a one-sided growth of the twig and presenting a cancer- like appearance, accompanied by a copious exudation of gum. The parasitism of the fungus is definitely established by numerous inoculation experiments, and the relation of the fungus to frosts discussed. Ellis and Everharl (2) record it on peach, plum, and almond trees in Carolina, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and state that it probably exists throughout the country where these trees are found. It is also reported as parasitic on stone fruits in Aus- tralia (3). Rolfs (4) in 1 907 contributed to om* knowledge of the parasitic nature of the fungus, and showed it to be an active parasite attacking the twigs, limbs, and trunk of peach, plum, apricot and cherr}' trees. On the peach he found infection to take ])lace at an}- time during the growing season through wounds, being most noticeable in the s]:)ring months. Alternating freezing and warm periods during the late winter months were found favourable to infection. Twigs killed during the winter months at first have a dark i)urplish skin, which later, on the infected areas, becomes leathery and shades into a scarlet and purple. The leathery, coloured areas finally change to drab, and the skin on diseased tissue becomes loose and wrinkled. Black fruiting bodies {Cytospora riihescens Nitschke) appear on the drab-coloured areas, enlarge and jnish a white disc-like cap through a transverse slit in the epidermis. During wet weather these black Cytospora bodies push out very fine red threads, which are composed of masses of spores. These spores are soon scattered by rain and insects, and start new points of infection. The diseased portion of the twig soon becomes constricted, making the division between the dead and living tissue ver^• marked. Gum pockets, which rupture the epidermis and pro- duce a copious flow of gum, also frequently form. During the spring and summer months the foliage of infected twigs frequently wilts and takes on a brown, blighted appearance. This efifect is produced by the fungus girdling the twigs. A A 54^ DlE-i>ACK OF APPLE TREES. gradual killing is less frequent. Infections on older Ijranches during the winter months produce oljlong wounds extending up and down the stem. The lips of the bark formed over these wounds do not meet, leaving scars, and in very severe cases where there is a constant enlargement about the point of injury rough, black, barrel-shaped enlargements are produced. The disease also causes large cankers and so-called sun-scald wounds on the trunk and larger limbs, and in cases large limbs and even whole trees in ditierent states of vegetation and at different times of the year die suddenly. The foliage of limbs or trees, which die suddenly late in the spring and summer, takes on an unhealthy, starved appearance, and wilts suddenly. The leaves of those that will die in the following winter in most cases also take on a yellowish colour and fall prematurely. The author also cites a number of inoculation experiments on peach and plum trees, which leads to the conclusion that Cytospora rubescens Nitschke is the conidial form of Valsa Icucostoma Pers. The pustules of these two forms he constantly found intermingled on limbs and trunks, but on the branches only the Cytospora form. Inoculations with Valsa spores pro- luced wounds on which developed the Cytospora form. Rolfs (5), in a later publication, mentions that the hyphae of Cytospora cincta are usually found associated with a condi- tion in peach trees frequently referred to as winter killing, cankers of the limbs and sun-scald of the limbs and trunk. The perithecial stromata he found abundantly on the limbs and trunks, whereas pycnidial stromata develop freely on the twigs and branches, and also occur on the trunks and larger limbs. Cultures of the fungus were obtained from cultivated cherries, wild cherry, peach and plum trees, and it is claimed that there are sufficient variations to warrant the formation of two distinct varieties, viz., V. Icucostoma cincta n.var. on cultivated and wild cherry and peach, and V. leiicostoma nibesccns n.var. on the apricot and plum. Wormald (6) describes Cytospora Icucostoma on young bearing cherry trees at Wye, where in 1910 it caused the death of a large number of trees. Affected trees are described as show- ing a general yellowing and wilting, commencing at the tips of the shoots. The leaves begin to wither in May, and the whole of the upper part of the tree is dead bv October. Cytospora has been detected on the following fruit trees in South Africa : — Apple, Maclear, C.P., February 26th, 1912. Apricot and plum, Swinburne, O.F.S., May 17th, 1912. Apple, Great Brak River, C.P., November 14th. 1912. Apple, Pietersburg, Transvaal, February 17th, 1913. Apple, Muiden, Natal, April ist, 191 4. Apple, Swinburne, O.F.S., August 8th, 1914. Peach, Pretoria, Transvaal, March 23rd, 191 5. DlE-i)ACK Oi'" Al'i'Ll-. TRI-IES. 547 The genus has thus been reported from all the four Pro- viaices of the Union, but it cannot be said that it has thus far caused a general epidemic. Wherever it is found it is con- sidered a most serious pest, against which little can be done. One farmer said : " This is the most serious disease I have on" my farm." The present investigation was undertaken j^rimarily to in- vestigate further the parasitic nature of the fungus, and to carry- out cross-inoculations. The fungus here described was isolated from a diseased apple branch. Recently it has also been isolated from a peach branch, and a comparative study of the two is now in progress. During the season it is hoped to obtain cross- inoculations with fungi from these two hosts, and thus further to study the life-history and parasitism of the genus. The following appear to be synonyms of C. leucostoma : — Sphceria leucostoma (Pers. Syn., page 39). Valsa Pcrsoonii (Nits. Pers. Germ., p. 222).* Valsa leucostoma (Fr. Surnm. Veg. Soc, p. 141).* The Disease. Symptoms. — This disease, as observed in apple trees in South Africa, frequently shows at the trunk of the tree near the ground as a coiTee-coloured discoloration, and from here spreads upwards. The trees die outright, usually the second summer after they are attacked. On the trunk canker wounds, resembling those caused by Diplodia psciidodiplodia Del., are frequently formed. f Specimens of diseased twigs have also been submitted for examination, and there can be no doubt that as well as attacking the trunks the disease may also start on the branches and spread downwards, this producing a condition which has frequently been observed on peach trees in this country, vis., a die-back of the branches, accompanied by a curling and yellow- ing of the leaves of infected branches. The skin of diseased branches is decidedly leathery, and in later stages becomes loose and wrinkled. The colour varies from a lightish purple tint to a black purple. The entire dead portions later become dotted over with the black, silvery-capped pustules of the fungus. These pustules form below the epidermis, gradually enlarge, and finally break through a transverse slit in the epidermis, and appear as having a white disc-like cap (Plate 20, a and h). Dead twigs 14 inches long had these pustules throughout their entire length. A branch with numerous pustules was placed in distilled water in a moist atmosphere, and soon the spores of the fungus issued out as chocolate-brown curls. Blackish pycnidia breaking through a transverse slit were also observed (Plate 20, c). * Sacc. 1, 139. t " Observations in the Field," by Mr. P. J. Pienaar. 548 DIE-BACK OF APPLE TREES. These spores are readily washed away by water, and thus further infection is brought about. Etiology. — This malady, like so many plant diseases, is caused by a fungus that lives as a parasite on the affected tree. This particular fungus on apple trees is known as Cytospora leucostoma (Pers.j Sacc. The genus Cytospora is placed in the group of fungi — " Fungi Impei'fecti'' — the complete life-history of whose mem- bers are as yet imperfectly known. For many of the fungi of this group later researches have traced their complete cycle, and the majority of these have been referred to the Asconiycetes. The conidia of Cytospora are produced in distinct pycnidia, and the genus is thus placed in the " Splucropsidiales " of the " Fungi Imperfecti." As mentioned in the introduction. Rolfs, by cross-inocula- tion, has demonstrated that the perfect stage of the Cytospora infecting stone fruits belongs to the genus Valsa of the x\scomy- cetes. The only fruiting body of the fungus noticed on diseased apple trees has l)een the conidial fructification, and the complete stage failed to develop in cultures in the laboratory. The media on which, and the cultivations under which, cultivated were evidentlv not suited to the formation of perithecia, which, as far as I am aware, has never yet for this genus been ol)tained in pure cultures. Just how this parasite enters the trunks, etc., is not known. Wounds would form favourable places of entrance, particularly on the trunks and thicker branches, and it is not unlikely that infection may also take place through the buds of young shoots. This would explain the dying back of the branches. Conditions favouring the development of this disease have not thus far been studied. As reported by Rolfs, it will pro- bably be found that trees growing in unhealthy surroundings or subjected to frequent extreme climatic conditions, or trees with an unhealthy root-system will be particularly liable to infection. A section through a diseased twig shows the brownish- coloured mycelial strands of the fungus ramifying in the cells of the host (Plates 20 d, 21 a and Fig. i ). The strands, which are septate and branched, measure between 3.08— 6.16/A* across The individual cells are often peculiarly swollen, particularly at the ends, and this leads to the shorter cells being somewhat pear-shaped. The hypliK are at times closely attached to the cell-walls, and they are also capable of invading the middle lamellae of the cells, though this is not always easily made out. The ]wcnidia (PI. 24, a) are borne in distinct stromata, which are lens-shaped, subcutaneous, and later erumpent, breaking through with a ])lane whitish disc. (PI. 20, a-b). The begin- -■* A micron (» is .ooi of a millimetre, or .0004 of an inch. S.A, Assn. for Adv. of Science Science. 1915. Pl. 20. f • m r -J ^^^IHRpI ^KmWm ^H ■ ' » HMCiisitH HwvS k *'V ■ '"^^'Wm ^»S > J 1 w 1 .^IV ?.sm-JbK;. ' * j % '^^Kt \ l^^r^ ^Ppwi - .■'•««K)I '' - z < > a! UJ o z Ul o ■CO c > < Z CO -<0 DIi:-r.ACK OF APPLE TRRES. 00 ^I B. Grozuth on various media. The fungus grew well on the media tried, with the exception of liquid beefbroth, which does not appear to suit the require- ments of the fungus. An ascus stage failed to develop, the media used and the conditions under which grown being pro- bably not suited to their formation. Potato Plugs (PI. 23. b-e, and Fig. 2).— At 25° C. and 30° C. the fungus within iive days forms a delicate pure white somewhat powdery growth. After eleven days the growth, while mostly flat, was of an iron-grey, and covered the whole of the potato. The growth also extended into the cotton wool, which was coloured madder-brown (PI. 27,, b). Where fungus, glass, and medium meet, a madder brown coloration is produced. At 25° C. the fungus within eleven days forms small raised greyish bodies, which are frequently tipped with a " dewdrop." In these bodies are borne the pyncidia, either in a stroma or aggregated together (PI. 23, e), though single pycnidia also occur. At 30° C. within the above time there are numerous black bodies (PI. 23, c), and sectioning shows that the pycnidia here are mostly simple (PI. 23, c) ; aggregate pycnidia as at 25° C. were not observed. The mycelium on potato measures 5.95 — 8.25;a across, and 552 DIE-r.ACK OF APPLE TREES. except for the younger branches, is brown in colour. It is richly branched and closely septate. The individual cells, which are vacuolate, are from 13.2 — 39.6/x long. Mycelial threads running close together are frequently united by cross-connections (Fig. 2). The pycnidia, as noted above, are either single or aggregated together. Of the latter, there appears to be two types: (i) The pycnidia, while each having their own wall are enclosed in a common wall, and may thus be said to be borne in a stroma. The walls separating individual pycnidia become confluent, much as occurs normally on the host-plant. (2) The pycnidia, while aggregated together and with thick walls, are not enclosed in a common wall (PI. 23, c). May be this condition is ai^parent rather than real, and results on the way the sections are cut. The above types are found at 25° C. Fig. 3. At 30° C. the pycnidia ap])ear to be always single, and the walls thin (PI. 23, d). This tyi)e also occurs at 25° C. The spores (Fig. 2) are minute, hyaline, allantoid, and measure 4.62 — 6.16 X I-54M- Turnip tubes (Fig 3). — At 30° C. the fungus, Vvnthin five days, formed a vigorous flat, greyish growth, which after eleven days was an ashy grey, and just above the cotton wool and along the glass a madder brown. Where medium fungus and glass met, the colour was of a dark neutral tint. After one month the growth was a mouse colour, with a dark neutral tint above the cotton wool. Cutting the turnip through, it was seen to be dark red all over. Small ]:)ustules containing spores were evident on the surface, and raised, hummock-like bodies, containing pycnidia, were also present. DIE-BACK OF APPLE TREES. 000 The cells of the mycelium measure 13.6 — 33.O/A X 5-45 — 6.6fj., and are often somewhat swollen (Fig. 3), thus having the general appearance of resting cells. Connections between individual hypha? (Fig. 3) iiave also been observed. The pycnidia, which are abundant, are usually scattered. Pear Agar slants (PI. 24, b). — After five days, at both 25° C. and 30° C, there was a vigorous, distinctly-raised growth of a violet lilac colour. This growth within 11 days became velvety, and was more of a mouse-grey ; in places were the raised, hum- mock-like bodies containing the pycnidia. Where the fungus extends over the glass, the colour is madder-brown, and where glass, fungus, and medium meet, it is again of a dark neutral tint. Fig. 4. The m\celium is most frequently 4.4^1^ across, and the individual cells from 14. 85 — 39-6/* long. BcerK'ort Agar slants (PI. 24, c, and Fig. 4). — Within five days, at both 45° C. and 30° C, a vigorous greyish, flat mycelial growth appeared, which within 11 days had become more dense, and varied from light to ashy grey. The colour of the mycelium along the glass, and where the fungus, medium and glass meet, was as in previous cases. After 23 days the ashy growth had become dotted over in places by a lighter grey, which in regions looked as though they might lead to the formation of the hum- 554 DIE-DACK OF APPLK TREES. mock bodies. After a month small pustules, with Cytospora spores, were observed along the surface, and in places hard, whitish, raised bodies. The mycelium is often closel}' septate ; the cells, which are usually swollen at the ends, measuring 16.5 — 33.0|U, X 5-95 — 6.611. The cells frequently have a jointed appearance, brought about bv the swollen ends. Individuallv swollen cells, resembling resting cells, have also been observed. Apple Agar plates (PI. 24, d). — On the 17th September, 1914, plates of the fungus which were incubated at 20° C. and 25° C. were poured. On the 19th there was a good growth at both these temperatures, and on the 24th there were small bodies in the medium resembling fruiting bodies, but in which no spores were found. The plates were not again observed till the 20th November, 1914, by which time the medium had dried up, and raised greyish bodies (whitish in earlier stages) were present. These bodies resemble the hummock bodies already referred to, and contain pycnidia. Sterilised PeacJi fzvigs (PI. 24, e; 25, a-b). — Within a month the fungus covers the twig as a mouse-grey mycelial growth. The flap of growth over the water is of a dark, almost black, colour, and where the fungus comes into contact with the glass it is a dark brown. In places are raised whitish to greyish bodies ( PI. 24. e ) , in which again are the pycnidia. The mycelium, which is richly branched, measures 4.95 — 13.2/Z, across. The individual cells are from 6.6 — 33.0 long, are frequently swollen at the ends, giving the hyph?e a jointed appearance. Cells 19.6)11 broad have also been seen, though though not in quantity. A section through the hummock bodies (PI. 25. a-e) shows them to contain numerous pycnidia. These pycnidia are situated on a dense stroma, and appear frequently in a ring along the rpper surface (PI. 25, c) of the hummock body, but also at the sides (PI. 25 b). The walls of ])ycnidia here, too, have Ijeen observed to become confluent, and the pycnidia thus become united (PI. 25, a). The spores, which are of the typical Cytospora type, measure 3 . 08—4 . 64^, f . 77— 1 . 1 5 5/x. C. Temperature Relations. Experiments were not specially devised for studying the relation of the fungus to different temperatures, but incidentally, in the course of the work, the conclusion was arrived at that the fungus has a wide range. Plates of Beerwort agar incubated at 20° C. and 25° C. gave growths about equally strong, and the same result was obtained in tube cultures at 25° C. and 30° C. No growth resulted at 40° C. Growth probably takes place considerably below 20° C, as is evidenced by the fact that, though considerably delayed. S.A. Assn. for Adv. of Science. 1915. Pl. 25. P. A. VAN DER Byl.— Die-Back of Apple Trees. DlE-I!ArK OF APPLE TKEES. 555 it ensued in tubes in an ice-incnl)ator, which, unfortunately, how- ever, was not constant at o^ C. Summary. 1. The paper describes under the term " Die-back," a disease in ap}>le trees caused by the fungus Cytospora leucostoina (Pers.)- Sacc. 2. The same fungus has also been reported on peach, plum, and apricot trees, and investigations with the object of learning in how far the fungus isolated from one host is capable of infecting any of the other hosts, and in how far the fungus from different hosts differ in cultural characters, are now in progress. 3. In apple the disease usually shows as a cofifee-black colouration near the soil, and from here spreads upwards, but it has also iteen observed on twig'- and branches. Diseased trees usuall}' die the second summer after being attacked, and on the trunks canker wounds frequently result. The skin of diseased branches is decidedly leathery, and later becomes loose and W'rinkled. Peach trees which previously looked healthy, have been observed to die suddenly fmm this disease, and on apricot and plum the malady showed as a dying back of the branches, accompanied by a yellowing of the leaves. The entire dead portion of alTected trees later becomes dotted over w'ith the blac k, silvery-capped pustules of the causal fungus, which then is readily recognisable. 4. Wherever this malady has occurred, it is recognised as a most serious disease, against the spread of which all precau- tions should be taken. 5. Methods of control should be directed towards the de- struction of all diseased ]:)arts of infected trees, and further spread of the fungus guarded against by cleansing sprays in the winter. 6. In apple trees the fungus lives in the cells of infected branches, and is also capable of invading the middle lamellae of the cells. It reproduces itself by minute, hyaline, boat-shaped to allantoid spores, which are borne in p\cnidia situated in lens- shaped stromata, which at first are subcutaneous, and later break through with a wdiitish disc. The sjwres measure 4.62 — 6.16/* X T.I 55/,',. and the basidia bearing them taper towards the end, and are most frequently 8.24 — 12.32^^ X i-Si^. The mycelium in the host is septate, branched, and the indi\idual cells frequentlv swollen at the ends. 7. The fungus has been grown in the laboratory on a num- ber of media, and did well. Pvcnidia were readil}' obtained, but the ascus stage has thus far failed to develope. 8. Though the exact relation of the fungus to various tem- perature-- was not determined, it ap])ears to have a wide range. Growth was equally vigorotis ;it 25° C. — 30° C, and from a few cultures tried also at 20° C. At 40° C. there was no growth, 55^ DIE-iiACK UF APPLE TREES. and there are reasons for believing that growth takes place con- siderably below 20" C. 9. The introduction contains references to previous work and the distribution of the malady. Literature Cited. 1. Aderhold, A. — "A Cherry Disease; its Cause and Preven- tion." Exp. Stn. Records, 15, 270. 2. Ellis, J . B., and Everhari, B.M. — •" North .Vnierican Pyreno- mycetes " (1892J, 4S5. 3. Mc Alpine, D. — " Fungous Diseases of Stone Fruit in Aus- tralia " (1902). 115. 4. Rolfc, E. j1/.—" Die-Back of Peach Trees {J'^ilsa Icncosfoma Pers.J." Science, N.S. (1907J, 26, 87-89. 5. Rolfe, E. M. — " Winter Killing of Twigs, Cankers, and Sun- scald of Peach Trees." Expt. Stn. Records, 24, 450. 6. IVonnald, H. — " l^hv Cytospora Disease of the Cherry." Exp. Stn. Records, 30, 352. Explanation of Illu.s.trat]()N.s. The drawings were made with the aid of Edinger's drawing apparatus, with wliich also the photomicrographs were taken. Plate 20, a. — Photograph showing silvery-capped pustules on apple twig (Herb. No. 8,831). b. — Pustules on stem of ai)ple tree (Herb. No. 7,734). c. — Photograph showing blackish pycnidia breaking through in moist atmposphere. d ( X 600). — Photomicrograph. Mycelium in cells of host. Plate 21, a ( X 600). — Photomicrograi)h. Alycelium in cells of host. b (X 600). — Photomicrograph indicating the dense hyphal mass from and in which the pycnidia are formed. At the bottom is a portion of the stroma. Plate 22, a (X 600). — Photomicrograph of section through pycnidia, and showing the boat-shaped spores. 6 (X 600). — Photomicrograi^h showing the peculiarly swollen cells in the stoma of the stroma. Plate 22), a. — Photomicrograph of section through j^ycnidia on oatmeal agar ; 48 days. b. — Growth on potato, 14 days, 25° C. c. — Growth on potato, 11 days, 30° C. d (X 300). — Photomicrograph. Section through pycnidium on potato at 30° C. e (X 300) — Photomicrograph. Section through pycnidium on potato at 25° C. Plate 24, a. — Photomicrogra])h of section through i^ustule. b. — Photograph. Growth on Pear agar ; 27, days at 30" C. die-i;ack of apple trees. 557 c. — Photograph. Growth on Beerwort agar; 23 days at 30° C. d. — Photograph. Growth in Apple agar plate; two months, 25° c. e. — Photograph. Growth on sterilised peach twig. Plate 2^, a. b. c. — Photomicrographs of section throngh hummock hody on sterilised peach twig; one month, 25° C. !Fig. I (X 600).— Drawing of mycelium from apple twig. Fig. 2 (X 600). — Drawing of mycelium and spores from potato culture at 25° C. Fig- 3 (X 600). — Drawing of mycelium from turnip at 30° C.; 30 days. Fig. 4 (X 600). — Drawing of mycelium from Beerwort agar slant. Note. — The illustrations have been reduced ni reproduction for the purposes of this ])aper, and the following allowances must be made for those of which the magnifications are given above : — Plate 200? reduced 10-/3 (= X 400). Plate 21 a and b reduced to 7^ (= X 400). Plate 22a reduced to ^ (== X 375 )• Plate 22b reduced to */ ,, (= X 480). Plate 23c? reduced to >< (= X 150). Plate 22>c reduced to V,., (= X 250). Fig. I reduced to 73 (= X 400). Fig 2 and 3 reduced to -^^ (= X 450). Fig 4 reduced to 7<3 (=- X 400). Status of Chemists. — In a circular recently issued in cunneclion with recruiting in Great Britain hve classes of men were referred to : {a) navvies, tunnellers, and chemists ; {b) skilled workmen, such as artisans, etc.; (c) St. John's Ambulance men, etc. ; {d ) pharmacists and other specialists for the R.A.M.G. ; (c) men who are not eligible for infantry, but suitably for Departmental Corps, A.S.C., R.A.Al.C., etc. It was stated that "men of the classes [a] and (b) will, if tbey pass the the necessary trade tests, be finally approved of for ti._Mi respective corps." Sir William Ramsay thereupon made the following comments in the Movnuig Post : — " It will be noticed that the classes are arranged according to rank, and that chemists are included in the lowest classes. It is charitable to su])pose that this has been done in sheer ignorance ; but is it not time that men of such gross incapacity as the framer of this leaflet should no longer have any voice in national afifairs? This is no isolated instance. My experience has shown me during many years that Government officials, from the Ministers to the subordinates, are disgracefully ignorant, not merely of the nature of the work done by chemists, but also of their pro- fessional and social standing." OSTRICH CHICK DISEASES. By James Walker, M.R.C.V.S. (Abstract.) It is only within recent times that ostrich farming attained considerable importance, and for these reasons a study of the diseases affecting the ostrich chick has only lately demanded serious attention. Dift'erent observers have recorded, at various times, diseases affecting the ostrich chick. It is noteworthy that perhaps the more important of these, namely, yellow liver or chick fever, was recorded as far back as 1881 by the late Hon. Arthur Douglas, of Heatherton Towers, C.P., in his book, entitled "Ostrich Farm- ing in South Africa, 188 r." In November, 191 1, the writer noted the occurrence of a Leucocytozoon infection in chicks of from three weeks to seven months old, for which the name Leucocytozoon struthionis was proposed, for a description of which see second report of the Director of \'"eterinar\- Research, October, 1912, page 384. Up till then Leucocytozoa had been found to exist chiefly in wild birds, new species had been described in a few instances in game birds, and less rarely in domesticated birds, and consequently from an economical point of view, its occurrence was not consi- dered of much importance. During the course of investigations in connection with Leucocytozoa infection a number of post- mortems were made with the result that, in many cases, chicks showing this affection were also found to be infected with Stron- gyhts Douglasil and Taenia. The absence of intestinal parasites was, however, noted in some instances, and the cause of death had thus to be disassociated with wireworm and tapeworm infection, and the writer is of opinion that in cases which show an acute infection Avith symptoms of anremia, Leucocytozoon struthionis is responsible for deaths among young chicks, at an>- rate when associated v.ith intestinal parasites it may cause a heavy mortality. Leucocytozoon struthionis being a blood para- site, its presence can be determined on microscopical examination of blood smears from aft'ected birds. Although the natural method of transmission has not been determined (transmission experiments with blood of aff'ected birds were negative), it is probable that an intermediate host is the carrier. In October, 1912, the writer recorded the occurrence of aspergillosis in the ostrich in South Africa,* and later noted this infection in cases of so-called yellow liver or chick fever. With the growth in importance of ostrich farming, the demand for chicks from good feather strains and the rearing of ostriches increased considerably, so much so, that artificial incubation was * Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Afr. 3 (1913), 35-38. OSTRICH CHKK DISEASES. 559 resorted to on a much larger scale than hitherto. Unfortunately, with the increase in production chick fever became more preva- lent. For the purpose of noting to what extent aspergil- losis existed, a careful examination was made of all chicks sent in for post-mortem, and cultures were made from infected and suspected infected tissues, with the result that in a number of cases in which the owner ascribed the cause of death to yellow liver, aspergillus infection was found to be responsible. {A. funiigatus being the commoner and more pathogenic species.) During the course of investigations a number of experiments were made for the purpose of ascertaining the natural methods of infection, with the result that aspergillosis was found to be contracted by chicks from — (i) Infected straw used in the chicks' sleeping boxes; (2) From infected incubators; (3) From infected eggs. The infection of the incubators was traced to infected eggs. Aspergillus fumigatus exists frequently in the air cham- ber of eggs, and was found to be transmitted through the shell from contaminated to clean eggs in the incubators, and dissemi- nation occin-s when the shells of infected eggs are broken or opened, e.g., at time of hatching, etc. The examination of decomposed and unfertile eggs collected from incubators showed that in all cases in which the contents were decomposed, a bacterial infection was found to exist, in some instances in which the contents had no perceptible bad odour, the medium remained sterile. Aspergillus funiigatus spores were found lodged in the air chamber of some eggs and cultures made from the inner mem- brane of the shell of others resulted in the growth of a fungus with a sterile mycelium. It is important to note that the bacteria found in decomposed eggs show considerable motility, and that in many cases the contents were found escaping through the shell wall. The prac- tical importance of these observations lies in the fact that in contact, eggs may become infected and that the bacteria escap- ing with the contents of decomposed eggs, may infect the incu- bators. In young chicks of a few days old the lirst indication that there is something amiss is a disinclination to feed. When watched closely it will be noted that the chick either picks at the food without taking any in the beak, or lifts some from the ground and allows it to fall. Chick appears dull and weak, eyes half- closed, moves about slowly or stands and frequently utters a plaintive note. The neck is usually flexed and the head lowered and kept close to the body. The abdomen soon loses the tense and full feeling found in healthy chicks, the respiration may or may not be visibly accelerated, in some cases at the later stages, the beak is partly opened from time to time, a long inspiration 560 OSTRICH CHICK DISEASES. being taken ; in other instances, the beak was found to be kept continually open. In some cases small whitish nodules, varying in size (averaging size of a pin's head), are to be fi-und on the buccal mucous membrane and other positions in the mouth. In visibly-affected chicks the temperature was found to be irregular, a characteristic being the marked variations between the morning and evening temperatures 3 to 5 degrees Fahr. ( in healthy chicks the rule is to find a difference of about 2 degrees Fahr., 102-104 degrees Fahr.). Death is usually ushered in with a pronounced fall of tem- perature. Death occurs in a few days from the appearance of the symptoms. It is the exception to find an affected chick recover. Lesions are chiefly confined to respiratory tracts i lungs and air sacs). It is usual to find on close examination of the lungs at least some nodules, yellowish-white in colour, varying in size that of a pin's head. The inoculation of potato medium \\\{\\ infected tissues results in a growth of aspergillus within 2.} to 48 hours, visible on close examination with the naked eye. Prevention consists in the use of — (i) Non-infected incul:)ators ; (2) Non-infected bedding in chicks' sleei)ing boxes; (3) Infected eggs should be removed from incubators as well as chicks from infected incubators. For sterilising purposes boiling water has given satisfactory results. Observations and experiments have shown that aspergillosis is responsible for the more prevalent of the chick diseases, namely, yellow liver and chick fever. ACOKANTHERA VENENATA. — The last Report of the Director of Veterinary Research, Pretoria, contains an account of an investigation of the physiological action of Acokanthera venenata Don, undertaken by Dr. J. H. Burn, of the Wellcome Laboratories, for the Imperial Institute. The experiments were made with a solution of the bitter principle corresponding to a I per cent, infusion of the plant in water. Half a milligramme of the bitter substance (corresponding to half a gramme of the plant) was found to be the minimum lethal dose for a 25 gramme frog. For a 300 gramme guinea-pig the minimal lethal dose was 3 milligrammes of the bitter substance, and the cause of death in such a case was paralysis of the respiratory centre. Only with much higher doses was the heart found to be tightly systolic. The Acokanthera bitter principles are extremely like those which occur in digitalis, and this resemblance comes out in full detail when the preparation is examined on the isolated perfused mammalian heart. THE KGOMA, OR INITIATION RITES OF THE BAPEDI OF SEKUKUNILAND. Bv Kev. XoEL Roberts and C. A. T. Winter. (Plate 26 and three text figures. ) Introduction.'*' A great deal has been written about the history and customs of various Bantu tribes, but as far as the writer is aware, no complete or consecutive account of the Initiation rites has been given to the public. This is not to be wondered at, for every- thing connected with these practices is kept profoundly secret, and none but the initiated are ever allowed to be present at the ceremonies. The men are exceedingly reticent when approached on these matters, and refuse to give any information about them, even after they are converted to Christianity. As a rule they are afraid, for the ])enalties imposed on those who reveal the secrets are dreadful in the extreme, and to this day there is danger of being done to death for doing so. For this reason I have suppressed the names of any Natives who have supplied me with information. In spite of these difficulties, however, it has been found that, with tact and patience, and the skilful handling of any slight knowledge already possessed, it is possible to gain infor- mation, either new, or in confirmation of that received from other sources. A description of these rites, which forms the basis of the l>resent paper, was taken down in Sepedi direct from the lips of M. S. by Mr. C. A. T. Winter, the son of one of the early missionaries sent out to this country by the Berlin Missionary vSociety. Mr. Winter was born in the country, and speaks the native language perfectly. The evidence of M. S. is of unique value, since he held the position of chief Rahadia of his tribe before he was con- verted to Christianity. Using his account as a basis to work from, further infor- mation has been gathered from other sources, chief among whom is a native witch-doctor, a relative of the Paramount Chief. Whenever possible, we have tried to get independent testi- mony without asking leading questions. The value of this will be appreciated by anyone who knows the readiness of the natives to answer in the affirmative if they expect the answer " Yes." At the same time, we have tried to guard against errors creeping in through natives trying to throw one off the scent by giving false information. The present paper does not claim to be a complete or perfect account of the ritual, but the information is derived from the best sources available, and it should at least serve as a starting-point for further research. Any criticisms, corrections, or additional information will be gratefullv acknowledged if addressed to the Rev. N. Roberts.! * By Rev. N. Roherts. fThe Vicarage. Orchards, Johanneslnirg. B 562 INITIATION RITES OF THE l!APi:i)I. In conclusion, 1 wish to bear record to the excellent work of Air. C. A. T. Winter. His knowledge of the language and of the native mind has been invaluable, and I cannot adequately express my thanks to him for the trouble he has taken in getting information for me, and for his help in other ways ; indeed, without him these notes could never have been written. The present writer's work has practically consisted of directing the course of the enquiry amongst the natives, revision, and render- ing into English — the real credit belongs to Mr. Winter. The Kgoma. Every Mopedi boy must submit to circumcision, and per- form the other secret rites of the Kgoma, or " Native School," as it is popularlv called, before he can claim the privileges of manhood, including the rieht of marriaee in the tribe. These initiation ceremonies are performed periodically, and always commence when the Kaffir-corn ripens, i.e., about March or April. The ])roceedings are divided into two parts : 1. The Bodika, which lasts for about three months; and 2. The Bocjoera. The BoniKA.* A month before the opening ceremonies, the young men of the tribe who have already been initiated are sent out by the chief to gather quantities of long, slender rods of Morctloo.f These are tied in bundles and buried in the cattle kraal. ± They are to be used for thrashing the boys, and are said to be toughened by this treatment. The Director of Ceremonies, or Master of the Lodge, is called Rahadia. He has absolute control of all the proceedings, and his word is law. Under him are the Miditi (H^erders). These are youths chosen from the ranks of those who were initiated during the previous " School." They accompany the Badikana (Initiates) everywhere, combining the duties of Instructor, Lictor, and Warden. When the day chosen for opening the Lodge arrives, the Chief and the Men of the kraal gather in secret conclave, and choose one of their number as Tipane (Cutter), whose duty it is to perform the operation of circumcision. As soon as he is elected, he is sent out to choose a suitable spot where the opera- tion may conveniently be performed. In the meanwhile all the Mashoboro (uncircumcised) are summoned to the fireplace of the chief. Each boy brings a bundle of firewood as his contribution to the Chief's fire. There they sleep that night. Very early next morning the Tipane leaves the kraal secretly, and repairs to the place of circumcision. This is * Bodika = something private ; not supposed to be seen. f Moretloa ^= Lycium rigidum. Largely used in basket-making. X See Appendix, Note B. S.A. Assn. for Adv. of Science. ^?4«.. Dance of Initiates. 1915. Pl. 26. I Til Iff si. Gari ca Moretloa. Rev. N. Roberts.— Initiation Rites of the Bapedi. INITIATIUN KlTliS OF TUK liAPl'IDl. 5^-3 always situated in the water's edge, in some secluded spot in a ravine. Arriving at his destination, he selects a large flat stone, and placing it in position on the brink of the river, he sits down and awaits tlie arrival of the Badikana and Men. Soon after the Tipanc has left the kraal, the Initiates, under the care of the Miditl, and accompanied b}' the Men of the kraal, proceed to the mouth of the kloof. Here the Initiates are placed in a thicket, and surrounded by a guard of Miditi and Men. The Im'tiate of the highest rank is taken from the rest, and led to the place where the Tipanc is waiting for him. When he reaches the spot, he is seized and made to stand on the flat stone close to the pool of water ; his stcrt-riem is removed, and the operation of circumcision is performed. (See Note A, Appendix.) For the support and protection of the wounded organ a Garl ea morctloa (ring of Morciloa) is provided for each Initiate. It consists of a wicker ring woven of Moretloa bark and fibre, and is suspended by a string passing round the waist. (See Plate 26.) The operation over, the Initiate is ordered to " Hold the head " and enter the pool of water. Here he remains, submerged to the neck, while the rest of the boys are brought, one by one. and the same proceedings repeated till all have been circumcised. All this time the Men, and the Miditi in charge of those at the head of the kloof, keep up a constant noise by shouting and singing, so that the cries of those undergoing the painful opera- tion are drowned. The boys, therefore, have no idea of what is going to take place before the operation is performed. WHien all the boys haA e been circumcised, the Initiates are called out of the water on to the bank, and the following " psalm " is chanted by the Miditi : — Kijaii Madikaiia.'''- Kgan, Madikaiia — Follow me, () Initiates. Madika, le he Ic — Initiates, Listen. Le he le nkoago — Listen and hear me. Lena haiia hesliti — You our children. Tslioto maregere — The cartilaginous gland. Kc sishu sa ho noko — It is only a festering sore of the loins. Madipa kitdupa — ? Each line of the psalm is chanted in a monotone till the last syllable is reached, when the voice drops about two tones. All the while the Initiates kneel (before the fire, when sung again later j, and accompany the words with a soft humming chorus as fol- lows : — Yeh-e - e - e * The literal translation of this and the succeeding psalms is bv Mr C. A. T. Winter. 5^n INITIATION KITES OF TIIK liAPFDI. xA.t the conclusion of this psahii a party of Men is sent off to build the MpJiato or Lodge. This takes the form of a circular enclosure with two entrances : one, facing the east, is called the Khoro ca Banna (The Gate of the Men) ; the other, facing the west, is called the Khoro ca Baloi (The Demon Gate). The Khoro ca banna may only be used by Men who have been fully Initiated in the secret mysteries of the tribe; if one of the Initiates were to enter the M phato by that gate, he would imme- diately be put to death. The size of the M phato varies according to the number of the boys to l)e initiated. It consists of a fence com])()sed of ^^^'riTS'y BOYS' ENTRANCE Plan of the Mfliato or Lodge. 1. Kliorti c(i banna. 5. Eating place. 2. Khoro ea baloi. 6. Pliiri. 3. The Taiiana. j 7. Piskana. 4. Sleeping sheds ananoa Rites," Appendix. Note fl. 566 INITIATION RITES OF THE BAPEDI. kneel and receive their rations on the outstretched pahns of both hands placed side by side, and await the word of command to commence eating. When every boy has been served, the Miditi cry " Hlagarn " (Eat), and the Initiates stntT the food into their mouths. Sometimes the boys are allowed to help themselves from the bowls, but they may only do so by scooping out the pap with their two hands placed together in the ])osition described above. Sometimes the pap is cooked with milk. In this case it is called Kgongvjuna tonoiia (Little Bull). While it is being eaten the boys are thrashed with the long MorctJoa rods afore-mentioned, the Miditi crying " Di kgoma" all the while. The ceremony is called the Scnana thrashing. When eating ordinary pap boiled wtih water, the boys are thraslied in the same way, but the cry of '' Seremela" is used by the Mid III. Occasionally as a change in the monotony of the diet, the boys are allowed to toast their porridge at the fire. (See Apjiendix, Note R. ) After the meal is over the Miditi collect the wooden bowls, and with the fliitlsl l)rushes they scrub off all the whitewash in order to give the women more work and trouble. When asked by the girls what has happened to the dishes, they are told that the}' have been " T.icked by the Kgonut'' for no blame can be attached to anything done " by the Kgoma.'' Eacli Initiate slcei)s on the spot apportioned to him by the fireside. On the word of command " Tsal!" (.Sleep), each boy throws himself down on his back with his legs wide apart, and feet towards the fire, and remains there naked and \\ ithout cover- ing of any kind, all through the night. 1^he iire is kept up, how- ever, and ])rovides a certain amount of warmth. All are sup- posed to sleep until they are awakened in the early morning, but frequently the Miditi, who seem to be fiends incarnate, devise all manner of cruel tricks to be played ui)on the defenceless Badi- kana. One of these pranks is to awaken the Initiates secretly, (without the knowledge of the Rabadia, who would severely punish the Miditi were they to be found out), and to drive them forth out of the enclosure to some deep pool of water, where they are forced to enter the water and completely submerge them- selves (Kgotla). The moment they rise from the water they are mercilessly beaten across the head and forced to " duck " again. When tired of this, the Miditi give the order, " Tsa ka tsang!" In obeying this order, the Initiates are forced to wash the wounds left by the circumcision, and to scrape ofif any scab that may have formed — a most painful ])roceeding! Beaten as they are from the time they awake till all are asleep, cruelly knocked about and tortured, the Badikana have no spirit of rebellion left in them, and they dare not report the excessive tortures of the Miditi to the Rabadia. The Initiates are awakened very early in the morning, and sent forth, guarded by Miditi, to fetch water. The water is carried in horns. On their return to the Lodge, they again sing INITIATION KITI'IS OF THE IIAl'KUl. 56/ *' The song of the Kgonia " ( Krotection from grass or Imshes ; they are removed when halting, and w^hen the boys return to the Mphato, and are rolled Uj) and used as pillows at night. ( )n reaching their destination in the morning, the Initiates remove their Mitjaln^lo, fold them up, and place them near the spot where their fires will 1)e l)uilt later on in the day. This done, the Miditi cry " Hlahla !" The_v are then ordered to jump into the water and submerge themselves, and there they are forced to remain a considerable time for the purpose of softening the wound. When the Miditi deem tit they order the Badikana to come out again, and to remove the scab which has formed. When this has been done they return to the place where they left their aprons. The boys are now divided into small groups ; a hre is made in each camp, and sitting round it, the Miditi proceed to instruct the Badikaiui in the secret formulae M'hich are known only to the initiated. These formulae are generally ancient chants or incantations which have been handed down from generation to generation, and sometimes they are comi)osed for the occasion by the Miditi themselves. The procedure is as follows : A Moditi rapidly repeats a line of one of the chants he learned when he was initiated, and the Initiates are expected to rejjeat the words after him, using the same inflections and tones, accompanied by the same gestures. If the slightest mistake is made the offenders are beaten mercilessly. This is continued till the chant is known absolutely by heart. The Miditi, however, take advantage of the fact that the formulae consist largely of obsolete words, which convey no meaning to the boys, and they therefore invent all kinds of gibberish, choosing the most difficult combinations of words for the purpose of entrapping the boys. This device, of course, pro- duces the desired effect, for the youngsters stumble o\^er the diffi- culties, and provide their tormentors with endless excuse for their brutal amusement. The genuine incantations and chants are interesting, and may prove of value in many ways, and we have been fortunate to secure the texts of several. The first one given here is really a 568 INITIATION KITES OF THE HAPEDI. continuation of the Kgau iiiadlkana already described, and is said to be the most important of them all. They are generally known, as were the Psalms to the monks of old, by their opening words. No. I. MAN Kl KAN A. Mankikana! Mankikana! — ']>aitor ! Traitor! Khuiri inogoapaua ! — The little biltong* has disappeared. Piidi '-e lla mogain — A little goat is bleating in among the thorns of the Haakdoorn. Ella moa o bitslia iiiodishi — He is crying to call the herder. E re : Modishi nkgoli — He says : Herder come and pull me out. Modishi ore: Nka go golla ke le kae" — The herder savs : How can I pull you out when I am as I am. Ke fshaba digooe tsha titigaia — I am afraid of the branches of the thorn trees. Digooe fslia niigaia di kgoini ke ho fan — These branches are only negotiated by the lions. Na bonkoiie elego dilo tsha di luiiii — ( Jr by the leopards, because they are things that bite. Diletshi khateng ga tsela — Which are lying in ambush be- tween the roads. Di bona mofiti o fetago — To see every passer by. 0 feta le 'mpyana isha 'bo — He passes with little dogs of theirs. Thaiiiago le tilo — A speckled white and red, with a mottled brown and black. Bana ba tiloana — Children of a brown and black bitch. Esego tsha go tseua fzika — They are not fit to get into the rock. Tsha tsena tsha 11 11 Isha sebata! — They would not enter and drive out the brood, t Tohlanye! Tohlauye! Baeka! — Make a noise! Make a noise ! You Traitors. No. 2. GO EGO AN E! (Sung by the Miditi while the Badikana wash their wounds in the river.) Geogoane! Geogoane! nyama di metseng — Little frogs! Little frogs ! The flesh in the water. Ki dithoma mang? — Whom shall I send? J Mahndu monyane! — The little tortoise. Oa setang tang — Who is able to frisk about? (Bob up and down. ) Oa go tsela noka — Who can cross the river ? * I.e., prceptttiuui. '\I.e., the brood of the coney. t I.e., to catch them for me. — C.A.T.W. me. INITIATION KlTliS UF Til]-: llAIilDi. 5O9 Kgocrc ga le moshe — And when he is on the other side. Arc: tctelego! — He says: A ring. Thctelcgo di oloana! — A ring by the httle ant-hill. Ntsc go tsenangf — What goes in the ring? Go tsena monoge — A snake goes in the ring. Noga ca Mosinini — The Mosinini* snake. Morcto o fciig- — There is the stripe. Nkego oa Motadi — The same as that of the Motadi.f Tadc iiialiusoane — ( )f the young Tadi. Morcto o tcng — There is the stripe. Nkcgo oa Hioiiogc — Like that of the snake. No. 3. KGUERI, BITSANYANE. Kgucrl, Bitsanyanc — -I say, Bitsanyane. Tsha megoere ca Tshcdi — (^f the valley of Tshedi. Kgucrl re sa diitshr — I say, while we are still sitting. Lc methcpa ca gcsliu — With our girls. Ea tsipa ca tabana — On the iron of a little liill. Ka koa sc re kiito — I heard something knock. Na hatshnanyanc — It might have been Bitsanyane. Mogolo oa renn — Dur elder brother. No. 4. KATA KAEE MAGOPHRNG.t Kata kacc uiagopheng — I walked among the aloes. RcJiloa re ifslie too — I remained there quiet. Re gahlana kgalano — We met at the meeting-place. Lc Modi a Tsoku — With Modi of Tsoku. ? Modi oa Tsoku se rikgafe — Modi of Tsoku. don't trample on Oa uipona kc hctla — Don't trample on me. Ke hctla kga uiclo — You see me that I am carving a bucket. Kga nielo ea di tshocui — The bucket of the baboon. Tslioeui Puleiig di a raga — The baboon in the rain always kicks. That a go raga set hi o dynana — Especially the little heifer. Malekgele ia di tsJiocnc — The i)recipices of the baboon. No. 5. SEDUMO: Seduino! Sedunio! — -The thundering roar! The thundering roar I * Mosinini = a harmless species of snake, with white stripes down the back. f Motadi = a species of mouse, probably An'icantltis puwilio. [N.R.] X According to a ]\Ialaboch authority, this is chanted when anybody appoaches the boys " in retreat." § Modi a Tsotin. Modi = a long grass rope stretched across a field, and supported by forked poles, and from which tins, rags, etc., are sus- pended. When this rope is pulled, these tins, etc, move. Tt is used for scaring away I)irds from the crops. Tso];it = red ochre. 570 INITIATION RITES OF THE I:API:[)T. Sa Ntloa niahura! — Of the Ntloa niahura..""' Ba godi hasona — They who catch them. Ra gold ra tslia Islia — We catch them and grease. Ra tsha tsha le naka — And grease the horn. Naka la morolo — The horn of the kndn. La morolo tona — Of a kudu bull. Tholo (ja dilcme — Kudus do not know how to curve, i Di no tlatlaretsha — The}^ only mix them up. Di ctshc Icshilo — They do it like a fool. La noka fslic kgoio — Of the big river Odi le otshaiia — The \"aal and the Little Yaal. Bana ba mosadi — The children of one woman. When lesson time is over, the Aliditi give the order to dress. The Badikaiia then assume their Miijahclo (aprons). This done, the Midili strike the boys across the throat with sticks in order to " break " their voices ( or, as they express it. " to give them men's voices "') ! The Initiates are then ordered to point out the Moroka pida (= Rain maker, the honour name given to the Rabadia). The next order is " Gen! Geii !" This means that the party is to spread out in two sections, one to the right, the other to the left, after the well-known manner of a Zulu impi, those leading the left wing bearing gradually to the right, those in front of the right wing bearing to the left, until the leaders meet, thus forming a complete circle. When this is effected they all act as beaters, driving the game which has been sur- rounded before them towards the centre. In this way they kill quite a number of hares and small game. If any animal escapes, the Badikaiia at that point in the ring where it broke through are severely punished. Sometimes a coney hunt is organised. Their method is to send dogs into the holes and crevices in the rocks and drive them out; or else they use long pointed sticks, by means of which they probe their hiding-places until they feel the " give," or the movement of an animal, when they rapidly twist the stick, pressing it against the unfortunate little creature, thus gaining a grip on the skin, enabling them to i)ull it out. The skins of coneys obtained during these hunts are the special perquisite of the Chief, and are carefully collected and stored. They are used for making karosses. As long as the Initiation rites last the Badikana are not allowed to use their ordinary names. Thus, if they address one another, or if called by one of the Moditi, the form used would be " Elc bya!" (Is it the witch?), and the acknowledg- ment would be: '' Lie byona'/' (It is the witch). Another way of attracting attention is by whistling. After hunting in the afternoon, the Badikana and Midiii *i\',loa malmra ^ a species of termite or flying ant. t Le., their horns. INITIATION KITES OF THE HAPEDI. 57^ return in a body to the Mphato, wbicli they must enter before sunset. The order of events is t'ollowed day after day until the wounds caused by circumcision are healed. Sometimes the Paramount Chief will visit a Lodge for the Kgonia dance. When he enters the enclosure the Badikana prostrate themselves, kneeling with faces to the ground, and claj) the palms of their hands together above their heads, remaining in this position for a considerable time. If another chief enters the Lodge he is greeted in the same wa}-. but the posture is not maintained for the same length of time. Visitors not of chietiy rank are greeted by the Initiates by clapping of liands only. When the w^ounds of circumcision have completely healed, the Lodge prepares for the Phiri* or " Ashes" ceremony. A large flat rock is selected, and upon this a huge tire of brush-wood is built. \\'hen the rock has become thoroughly heated, water is poured upon it.f and the rock cracks and split:? up into numberless small slabs. As the noise of the explosions is heard the Midifi cry " ()-hoo-oo-oo .'" lieat the Initiates and say: " There I Do you hear the hyrena?" ( )n the first da\- that this is done the Midifi choose out small slabs of stone, not more than eighteen inches across and about ari inch, in thickness, and grind the edges and polish them by rubbing them against other stones, showing the Badikana exactly how to perform the opera- tion. W^hen the slab is ]>erfectly smooth, a wicker covering of Morctlua is woven round it as a protection, and for convenience in carrying. On the following days these ])roceedings are repeated, but stone slabs have to be selected and prepared by the Initiates only, according to the instructions given them on the first da}'. When the time for polishing slabs exjiires, the Midili cry '' Sliibe Baloi!" { Come together, Baloi). [ The whole party then assembles, each Initiate bringing his wicker-covered slab. These are piled up in a heap, and then the Miditi. ])ointing at the stones, belabour the Madikana w'ith sticks and cry : " Kc Phiri c ishneu e tshupya. inoroa oa Marokane shiaf/ctshe gae, ea fslwa tscnna fsa geshu ea tsebatsebislia!" (There is the white hycena. without horns, the son of Marokane § who stole into our Kraal, and carried away our manhood, and danced about with it!) Then comes the following chant, during the singing of which each Initiate picks u]) one of the slabs, and the bundle of firewood he has collected during the day, and the party prepares to march back to the Mphato. * Phiri = Hycena bruuitca. t Some of our informants contradict this, and say that it is not neces- sary to pour cold water on the lieated rock, as the heating process itself causes the rock to split into slabs. t Moloi =^ a wizard, j'.i'.. a malevolent magician as distinct from Ngaka, a witch doctor. Moloi is an opprobrious epithet, but during the K_s;oiiia rites it is frequently applied to the Initiates. § Baroka = name of a tribe near Haencrtsburg. (In Sesutlio Mar oka = bad dreani>, or dreams abmu dead peojde. after wliich the dreamer must he purified.) 5/2 INITIATJOX KITES UF THE liAPl'Xj. The Song of the {^kuitning. * Koa mariitsi)ig~In the place where the Baz'iaaiistaarts grow. Ga mogala tladi — \\1iere the brilhant hghtning flashes. Phofolo ea ntshc — -The animal of that ])lace. E tsoala ka koto — Gives birth with the feet. Bono se la gona — Also it has a " bono." Ke mahlolodika — That is the miraculous sign. A mogala tlali — ( )f the lirilliant lightning. Then follows this chorus : — Tsoai! Tsoai! Tsoai! — Salt! .Salt! .Salt! Tsoai la ntsoctsocncnc! — Salt the delicious! La ntsoetsoencnc! — The delicious. The moment the first words of this chorus are sung the chief Miditi take their place in front of the jirocession, and the rest close in on every side of the Badikana, and the homeward march commences. Beating the ground with their sticks, the leading Miditi cry, " Tsoai badikana!" and the Badikana reply " Mafe- fu !' f The Badikana are severely handled all the time on the homeward march, being Ijeaten with sticks, and shouldered from side to side. Sometimes the Miditi will even cut branches of thorny bu.shes and throw theiu on to the heads of the luckless boys. All this cruelty is accompanied by the following chant, sung anti- phonally, the versicle l^eing sung by the Miditi, the response by the Badikana. Till'. .So.NG (IF THi: .Salt. V. Tsoai Madikana. — / '. .*>alt. ( ) Initiites. R. Mafcfn! K. Mafcfu! La ntsoctsocncnc — The delicious. Mafcfu. Mafcfu. La ga kc dya motho — Which says T do not eat anybody. Mafcfu. Mafcfu. Kc dya ca ndyago — I only eat those who cat me. Mafcfu. Mafcfu. Eo sa cndycgo — .\nd he who does not eat me. Mafcfn. Mafcfu. Ku slut pa ko 'ila — ? Mafcfn. Mafcfu. Ko nca ko kgoloanc — I am going to give Kgoloane. Mafcfu. ' " Mafcfu. Kgolt>a)ic Mashala — Kgoloane \\ho alw.iws remains. Mafcfu. ' Mafcfu. Mashala ra A/'oo/Zr-— Ixemains at " Xoatle " ( ? ). Mafcfu. Mafcfu. Ore go sliata b\ang? — He savs : How are \o\x going to remain ? Mafcfu.' ' ' Mafcfu. * According to a Malahoch authority this is a Bogocra chant, and does not belong to the Bodika. t Mafefii is a password, and its use is taliooed to tlic nncircunicised. INJTIA-llOiN KITKS OF Till-: HAT'KDl. 5/3 O shale o tseiic — Remain ami enter. Mafefu. Mafcfu. O tscnc ntlong ea sckgolo-Cm into the liouse of the great ones. Mafcfu. Mafcfu. Ea sck(/olo senu — The great ones of yours. Mafcfu. Mafcfu. () Icisoalc Icgcu — And cause to give hirth to the (.jeu. Mafcfu. Mafcfu. Gen Ic hubcdu — ( ieu the red. Mafcfu. Mafefu. Le ropa Ic kebva — W ith tlie grey thighs. Mafcfu. ' Mafefu. Eke Ic cudvago — Who a|)])ears to he eating himself. Mafcfu. Mafcfu. Dvagoanc tcna — < ) \ou self-eater! Mafcfu. ' Mafefu. Oa ga ra Scthianc — ( >f Ka-sethiana. Mafcfu. Mafefu. Namela scthala — Mount the .Sethala.* Mafefu. Mafefu. Ohlaptslie fshona — See if you can see the (trap?). Mafefu. ' Mafefu. Tshouia sc di hone — I do not see tlie (trap?). Mafcfu. Mafefu. Kc bona Icsiba — I only see the " Lcisiba." ' Mafefu. ' Mafefu. La ino sibegoauc — C )f the thitig which is struck down. Mafcfu. Mafcfu. Le sibega putJii — The entrapj)ed duiker. Mafefu. Mafefu. Pullil ca hiauka — Hie duiker of the servant. Mafcfu. Mafefu. Ea Islioa ea hlaiika—li al\va)s goes out as a servant. Mafcfu. ' ' Mafcfu. Gave ga digocra — In the place newly prepared for cultivation. Mafcfu. ' Mafcfu. Gocra tslia juasliciiio- —( )f the garden. Mafcfu. Mafefu. Bcng ba inasJicuio — The owner of the garden. Mafcfu. Mafcfu. Ba ga rarangoanc — That of the father of the assegais. Mafefu. Mafefu. Ba goga ruugoaua — TheA- |iull out the little spear. Mafcfu. ' Mafcfu. Ruugoaua la bona — Their o\\ n s])ear. Mafefu. Mafefu. Ba re : rea siba — Thev sa\- : We are going to stab. Mafefu. ' ' ' Mafefu. * Sethala = the elevated platform in the fields. ■\ Let siba = droppins^ spear trap (C.A.T.W.). 574 IXITIATIOX KITES OF THE J'.APEDI. Ba se siba coiia — And thev fail to stab it. Mafcfii. ' Mafefii. Ba siba phathana — They stab a little stick. Mafefu. Mafefu. Bathan ka pedi — l^\c) little sticks. Mafefu. Mafefu. Tslia Moshiieleshaiia — O.f the little "' Rooi-bos." Mafefu. Mafefu. Na niuduhlashana — ( )r the Mvdhlashana tree. Mafefu. Mafefu. During this stage of the Kgoma this hymn is always sung when marching away from the Mphato and on the return jour- ney. If by any chance they come to a river, they stop singing the chant, and the Miditi cry Taga tsha ka! (My yellow-fink.) As this tinch, a species of Hyphantliortiis. builds its nest over the water, this exclamation, in the secret or symbolic language of the Kgoma, is equivalent to the order, " Cross over the water!" While crossing the streatn the Initiates whistle in imitation of the notes of this bird, and when all have crossed, the Song of the Salt is resumed. As they near the Mphato they sing Tsoai, and return to the Song of the Lightning. This is a signal to the women at the kraal to prepare the evening meal. On arrival at the enclosure the Miditi show the boys where to stack their Phiri stones. The above proceedings are repeated every day until suffi- cient material has been provided for building the Phiri and Pisha)ia^ cones. The following day the Initiates are taken out himting and wood-cutting, in the care of the Miditi as usual, but the Men remain behind at the Lodge. When the party is out of sight the Men set to work on these structures. A site is chosen outside the Lodge, close to the Eastern Gate, and a circular hole about 12 inches deep and 30 inches in diameter, is dug for the foundations. The slabs of stone are then removed from their wicker coverings and carefully laid in the form of a disc, the spaces between the stones being tilled with ashes. Another layer of slabs and ashes is built upon this, and the jjrocess continued, each layer being slightly less in diameter than the lower one, so that a luound, slightly conical in shape, is produced, having a height of from 30 to 36 inches, and with a diaineter of about 18 inches below the rim at the top. The uppermost layer of slabs overlaps the edge in such a way as to form a broad circular rim, and is slightly depressed in the centre, so that the apex of the cone is concave. This erection is called the Phiri, or Hya?na. Another cone is then built in the same way, and of the same pattern, but of much smaller size. This is called the Pishaiia, or child of the Hyrena. When the cones are finished, ashes are strewn from the western entrance (Khoro ea Baloi) round the outside of the enclosure to the Phiri. * See Appendix, Note C. INITIATION KITES OF THE liAPEDI. 0/J The Initiates always approach the Lodge from the west, and when they arrive in the evening they discover the ashes. The Miditi ask them what it means, and being unable to give the correct answer, they are beaten, and told that the ashes are the droppings of the hyaena. The idea conveyed to them is that, just as the droppings of a hyaena outside the kraal are a sign to the inmates that one of those animals has been there in the night, so this is evidence that the mythical or symbolic Phiri, of which they have heard mention during the cjuarrying operations a few days previously, has been there, and if the spoor be followed up the animal may be found. The boys are led one b}^ one along the ash track until they come in sight of the " Cones." and are then told to look upon the sight " with amazement,' and asked to explain it. If they cannot do so, they are beaten with Morctloa rods and told: Ke Phiri c tshueu thamaga tsha mahyc! (That is the white hyaena, the spotted one of the stones ! ) . '^ <=^ The Phiri. .i-»->J^ When the Mphato and all traces of the rites are destroyed at the close of the ceremonies, these cones remain standing, the only relic of the Kgoma.- They are never used again, however, and the name by which the}^ were known during Kgoma is changed to Moruto. All the Badikana who were initiated at the same time are said to belong to the same Moruto or regiment, a name being- given to each Moruto. Only eight names are used for this pur- pose, and they are used in succession as follows : — Masoeni. (This is the name of the oldest Lodge known.) Magolopo. Matuba. ( This is the Moruto to which Sekukuni I be- I. 3- longed. 4- Manala. Makgolo. 6. Madikoa. 7- 8.. Madisa. Makgoa. 576 INITIATION RITES OF THE UAPEDI. The time is now rapidly drawing near when the ordeal will be over, and the Badikana will emerge from the Lodge as full- blown men. Before they do so, however, they must cast aside the name of childhood, and assume new names by which they will be known in the future. These names are given in the following way : — For some days the Men ( or it may be a single individual) who are most expert in the art of carving remain all day in the Mpliato, spending their time in carving wooden figures of animals, which are ornamented with poker- work. The most important of these carvings is the figure of a rhinoceros. As the boys sit by the fire in the evening this figure is drawn slowly past them on the ground. As it passes, each Initiate stabs at it with a miniature spear, declaring the honour name which he has adopted. At the same time he is expected to recount the explaits which he is going to perform as a man. The following oration made by Tlali, a son-in-law of the Chief Indnna of Sekukuni I, during his initiation is a typical example of what is said on these occasions. LITHOKO EA TLALI. " I am the lightning (Tlali) of the great kraal of Matsoshie (the Summoner), the relation of Manaka (horns). 1 am the brave member of a brave stock. I am the pursuer of the human being there at Mamarata maboe. I am the great donga of the river Mathsoane of Molepo. I am the river which took away the grain-bags of the Swazis. The men who rule the country by laying an ambush ; the Swazis. I looked into the donga and returned. I found the Matabili a writhing mass. They are called the Boctscma of Mahlaku of Makhoro. I say I will never go to Swaziland again. I declare that having touched the person of a Swazi child, it made my hand stink. They dress in kilts made of arrows. They dress in assegais of spotted colours. The assegais of the black men of Mogolopo. The great donga, the son of Maenche, of Molitele. They say you dress yourself in the chief's dress, though you are not a chief." When the honour-names have been given to all, the Madi- kana models of other animals are produced. Before this, how- ever, they are privately shown to the Miditi, and if they do not recognise the animals, they are beaten. When the figures are pro- duced before the whole company, Men, Miditi, and Badikana go through the action of stabbing each beast, at the same time repeating its " honour-name."* The following is a list of the animals represented in this way : — Rhinoceros, leopard, ostrich, a bird (?), coney, hare, guinea fowl, quagga, elephant, girafi^e, baboon, mongoose, tortoise, rooi- haas, another bird ( ?), hedge-hog, lion bufifalo, lizard, springbok, ape, ant-bear, waterbuck, centipede. * See Appendix, Note D. iMiiATidN i.rii-:s oi" Till-; i'.api-idi. '^~'] Tin: Closinc, CKRE:\roNiE.s. 'J'he closing ccrcniony is called Co aloaa, or The Gathering- iip* The father of each Initiate secretly ohtains possession of a slieefy-sk'm. These skins are brayed and used for making "" sicrt- riemen " and Hlabes for the Initiates. The Hlaba is a piece of sheep-skin, cut to an oval shape about 12 inches long, coloured red, and worn suspended from the right hip. It is worn by the newly circumcised for some time after their rettum home. When the skins are brayed they are handed over to the women, who grease them with a composition of red-ochre and fat, after which they are carried by the men to the Lodge at night, and spread upon flat skins stretched upon the ground outside the MpJialo. The next morning the Initiates are told that they are to go and cut lances, and while so doing they are informed by the Miditi that on the morrow they will see their mothers again. The morning following they are taken outside the enclosure, and standing on the outspread skins, the body of each Initiate is smeared with red ochre by some relative. He is then arrayed in " stert-ricni " and Hlaba, and at the same time severely beaten for the last time. A procession is then formed, which marches away from the Lodge to the kraal, singing songs of triumph and victory. Nobody is allowed to look back to the M phato. Each one carries a bundle of wood with which supply the fire at the Chief's kraal. If the party is so fortunate as to have any game to take back to the kraal for the Chief, he will kill an ox in its honour. Ox hides are spread on the ground around the Chief's fireplace, and here they must all sleep at night for a week or more, spending their time eating meat, beer-drinking, dancing, and singing. The Rabadia remains in the MpJiatu when the others leave, and piling up the branches which formed the enclosure of the Mpliato, he sets fire to them, and so removes all traces of the Lodge, with the exception of the Pliiri cones. APPENDIX. Note A. — " Ciarl ca iiiorcfloa," siibstajilia nigra tcijitnr. Ouum glandem pencni hoc circumdediint. centrum glandis dcpres- sitnr. .Mcmbranuhim prccputii turn trahifiir ultra fineni circi et " Tipane " prcvputiiiin project urn secat. Note B. — Ceremonial thrasliiiuj. — Most of the customs of the Kgonia are essentially magical rites. The thrashing of the boys may be taken as an illustration. t The custom of burying the Moretloa rods in the cattle kraal may possibly be done with the object of imbuing them with magical powers ensuring fertility. t The following explanation of the Sennanna thrashing was given to Mr. Winter by a native. When the pap is mixed with milk, * Aloga ^= gather up meal which has been spread in the sun to dry. t Cf. Frazer : " The dyins; god," p. 236. XCf. Frazer: "Golden Bough: The Magic Art," 2, 317. 578 INITIATION RITES OF THE I'.APEDI. the thrashing is not only supposed to teach the boys the duty of caring for their cattle, but also to give them power to win cattle from the enemy. The cry used when Tcaf^r-made pap is being eaten shows the reason why they are beaten again. The word Seremela signifies the heap of branches and trees gathered together for burning on virgin land which is being cleared for cultivation. The thrashing in this i)lace, therefore, is not only a warning against idleness in cultivating fields, or clearing ground. l)Ut may also be regarded as a charm to secure the fer- tility of the future crops. Note C. — TJic Pmiu cones. — It is i)ossible that these struc- tures may be regarded as " Phalli." but in the absence of suffi- cient evidence it would be unwise to exi)iess a definite opinion on the subject at present. Traces of phallism may be found in the customs of ]:)ractically all the native races of South Africa. The hymns described in this paper, and the symbolic use of cones and rinf/s in nearly every ceremony, bear eloquent testimony to their phalloid nature. The writer has in his ])ossession a stone phallus of perfect form discovered on the site of an ancient cemeterv in this country. Similarly the 7\'/7'/ stone of the Tzaau ( Bushmen) in all ])robability represented the female counterpart, used not onK- as a mechanical aid to the digging stick, but also as a " hom(e()i)athic " charm (as Frazer would call it) for ensuring the feitilitv of tlie ground or the reproduction of the plants ^\•hich were dug u]\ Note L). — The ceremony of naming and stabbing models of various animals is a magical rite for ensuring either: (a) Skill and success in hunting, or (/;) Success in war against other tribes. In this case the models of animals represent the tribes of which those animals are Sihoko. It is noteworthy that no model of the Porcupine, which is the totem of the Baj^edi of Sekukuni, is included in the list of animals stabbed.* Use of Blood in Bread.— R. Droste advocates in the Ckcmikcr Zcitung] that hydrogen peroxide should be used instead of yeast or baking powder when making bread to which blood is added. The blood .should be kept in a refrigerator for 24 to 36 hours : the serum is then filtered off and added to the dough. *S. 1 39 (1915). 634. * See Frazer : •"Golden Bough: Tlie ^NTagic Act," 1. 5;; also "Customs of the. World." 1. 148. THE MINERAL SPRING ON THE FARM RIETFONTEIN, DISTRICT BRANDFORT, O.F.S. By Prof. Max Mokkis Rindl, Ing.D. (Abstract.) This saline spring- is situated about two miles from the Haagenstad Salt-pan. and about 30 miles north-west by north of Bloemfontein. Extraordinary therajjeutic ])roperties are attributed to the water, and interesting fossils ( some described by Dr. Broom in " Annals of the South African Musetmi," 12) have been discovered in the spring. The spring issues from a sand-hill cajiped by a layer of peat, formed from roots of trees, overlying a bed of bones and fossil remains. In order to ofTer better bathing facilities, the owner has had part of the peat removed, and has erected a primitive bath-house. Through the sand floor of the bath streams of inflammable gas force their wav in hundreds of places. This gas consists mainl}- of a mixttu'e of marsh gas and h\drogen, and can only be a decomposition ])roduct of the peat. The mouth of the spring is approximately six inches in diameter, and tlie daily yield is said to be 600.000 gallons, but this figure is obviotisly considerably exaggerated. The bath is frequented by hundreds of patients every year, and many wonderful cures are reported. The water is reputed to l)e ])articularly efficacious in cases of sciatica and rheumatic com- ])laints. No analysis of the water has. to my ! nowledge. been l)ublished hitherto. The results of water analyses are usually expressed, more or less arbitrarily, in terms of qtiantities of different salts ])er gallon or litre. I have expressed my results in terms of ions, in accordance with the suggestions put f orw^ard by von Than and W. Fresenius. In most cases the valties are worked out for water of 4° C. The differences between the values at atmospheric temperature and 4° are as a rule negligible, except in the case of constituents present in tolerably large qtiantities. TcMipcrature. — Unfortunately, it w^as impossible to obtain a sufficient number of observations to establish seasonal varia- tions. The following readings were taken : — Temp. Temp. Date. of w. Date. of w. ° C. ° C. 2Qth March, to a.m 28 4th October, 10 a.m 28.2 29th March, afternoon 29 2nd December, midday 30 30th ]\Jarcli, ] t a.m 29 4th December, early morning 29.5 3rd October, 5 p.m 29.2 14th December, early morning 29.5 Density. — The density of the spring water at 25° (distilled welter 2S° = i) was found to be i.oom. 580 MINERAL SPRING AT RIETFONTEIN. Total Solids. — 250 c.c. of water of 15.9° were evaporated and dried at 140° C, yielding a residue of 0.5647 grams, so that 100,000 c.c. of water of 4° contain 228.1121 grams of dissolved solid constituents. Determination of the Anions. N Chlorine. — 100 c.c. of water of 20° C. require 36.725 c.c. — 10 silver nitrate (mean of two determinations): hence 100,000 c.c. of water of 20° C. contain 130.2269 grams of chlorine, and 100,000 c.c. of water of 4° contain 130.4578 grams of chlorine. Silica. — For the determination of silica, 3 litres of water were evaporated to dryness ; the residue was digested with a little hydrochloric acid, dissolved and filtered. The filtrate was evaporated to dryness, and the above process repeated. The residues, consisting of silica, with a trace of barium sulphate, were dried, ignited, weighed, and treated with hydrofluoric acid. The loss in weight after treatment with hydrofluoric acid repre- sents the weight of the silica. The' values ol)tained from three sets of determinations were as follows : — 1. 100.000 c.c. of water of 4° contain 2.2629 grams of SiC,. 2. 100,000 c.c. of water of 4° contain 2.0199 gi'ams of SiOo. 3. 100,000 c.c. of water of 4° contain 2.2746 grams of SiU,". Mean value 2.1858 grams SiO^. The silica is probably in solution as such. Hence the values // are not worked out for SiCJ, ions. II Sulphuric Acid. (SO^j. — The filtrates from the above silica determinations were used, and gave a mean value of o. 1766 of a gram, to which is to be added the SO^ from the barium sulphate precipitated with the silica, namely, 0.0516 of a gram, giving a total of 0.2282 of a gram of SO4 per 100,000 c.c. water of 4°. water of 4°. Alkalinity {HCO3'). — 100 c.c. of water at 15 -9° were neu- " ■ N tralised by i .53 c.c. — sulphuric acid (indicator methyl-orange) : 50 hence 100 c.c. of water of 15.9° contain (5.001867 of a gram of HCO:>, or 100,000 c.c. of water of 4° contain 1.86889 grams of HCO;^. After the water had been standing for some time the values for the alkalinity were much lower, a portion of the soluble bicarbonates having been precipitated as carbonates. Nitric Acid (NO/). — Determined by reduction with zinc- copper couple, distillation, and nesslerisation. It was found that there was 0.00037943 of a gram of NO, in a litre of average MINERAL SPRING AT R1ETF()NTEIN. 581 temperature 20.7° C, so that 100.000 c.c. of water of 4° C. contain 0.038013 of a gram of NO... The amount of nitrate increases very considerably on standing. From water which had been standing for several months values were obtained several times larger than the initial values. Corresjjonding to the increase in nitrate, a substantial decrease in the ainount of ammonia -was recorded. Pliosplioric Acid. — The water contains traces of phosphoric acid, obviously from the bones referred to above. A determi- nation of the amount was not made. Iodine. — The solid residue of three and a half litres was dissolved in the smallest possible quantity of water and poured into alcohol, in order to remove part of the sodium chloride. .After distilling oft" the alcohol, the residue was dissolved in water, and a little chloroform, as well as a few drops of " nitrose," added. The layei of chloroform showed a just per- ceptible violet tinge. Determinations of the Rations. C aid II in. — The calcium was determined volumetrically by precipitating with an excess of oxalic acid, dissolving the calcium oxalate in acid, and titrating; and also by determining the excess of oxalic acid in the liquid filtered oft' from the precipitate of calcium oxalate. 1. On titrating tiie excess of oxalic acid in the filtrate, 300 c.c. of water were found to contain 0.0274416 of a gram of calcium. 100.000 c.c. of water of 4° therefore contain 9.1686 grams of calcium. 2. Titration of oxalic acid in the dissolved calcium oxalate showed that 300 c.c. of water of 22.5° contain 0.027923 of a gram of calcium; hence 100,000 c.c. of 4° contain 9.3292 grams of calcium. 3. By adding oxalic acid and titrating the excess in the fil- trate, the calcium in 100 c.c. of water was found to be completely N precipitated by 4.70 c.c. of — oxalic acid. Therefore 100,000 c.c. 10 of water of 4° contain 9.5 183 grams of calcium. 4. Gravimetric determination : 3 litres of water of 24.3° gave 0.3915 of a gram ol calcuim ; hence 100,000 c.c. of water of 4° contain 9.3533 grams of calcium. Mean value for the calcium in 100,000 c.c. of water of 4° was therefore 9.34235 grams. Barinm. — Two determinations were made, each in three litres of water, with the f oUowing results : — 1. 100,000 c.c. of water 24.3'' contain 0.1270 grams BaSO^. 2. 100,000 c.c. of water 21° contain 0.1236 grams RaS04. Therefore the mean amount of barium in 100,000 c.c. of water 4° is 0.07374 of a gram. Maguesinm. — After precipitation of calcium as oxalate, the 582 MINERAL SPRING AT KIETFONTEIN. magnesium in the filtrate was determined as pyrophosphate. Three litres of water gave 0.0109 of a gram of Mg.P.O,, so that 100,000 c.c. of water contain 0.0794 of a gram of magnesium. Iron. — Determined colorimetrically with ammonium ihio- cyanate. I)ui)licate determinations were made, on 300 and 696 c.c. respectively of the ^vater. 'J'he quantities of iron found per 100,000 c.c. of water were respectively 0.0333 and 0.0335 of a gram, giving a mean value of 0.0334 of a gram of ferrous iron. Aiiiiiio)iia. — Determined by nesslerising 100 c.c. of water. Two determinations yielded, per 100,000 c.c. of water of 4°, res])ectively 0.0580 and 0.0598 of a gram of NH^^. Hence the mean value per 100,000 c.c. of water of 4° is 0.0623 of a gram of NH^'. The amount of ammonia diminishes raj^idly. and was found to fall to three-fourths of its original value in less than three weeks. The corresjionding increase in the nitrate content has already been referred to. Aliiiitliiiuin. — Two determinations were made, each on one litre of water ; in one case a precipitate of A\J )., -f- Fe..O., was obtained, \\eighing 0.0064 of a gram. Therefore 100.000 c.c. of 4" contain 0.21380 of a gram of ALO. -f FeoO.,of which 0.4775 of a gram is Fe^Os, leaving 0.16605 of a gram of ALO,. In the second determination the result was 0.15600 of a gram of AUG,,. The mean value is 0.08540 of a gram of aluminium per 100,000 c.c. of water of 4° C. Lifhiuni. — The lithium was determined by ])recipitating the calcium as oxalate, removing the magnesium in the filtrate as hydrate, and i)recipitating the excess of sodium chloride in the solution by means of hydrochloric acid gas. The solution was then evaporated to dryness, and the lithium chloride dissolved out w'ith water-free ether-alcohol. The lithium chloride was converted into the sulphate and weighed as such. Three litres of water of 20° gave 0.016:51 of a gram of Li,SO,. 100,000 c.c. of water of 4° gave 0.54463 of a gram of LioSO,. 100,000 c.c. of water of 4° contain 0.06927 of a gram of lithium. Sodium. — The water was evaporated to dryness, insoluble silica filtered ofif, precipitating iron and aluminium as hydrates, calcium as oxalate, and evaporating the filtrate, containing soditun, magnesium, and lithium, to dryness, with the addition of sul]jhiu-ic acid. Three litres of water of 21° C gave 6.9258 grams NagSO^ + MgSO^ -)- Li.SO^, corresponding to 231.3183 grams of mixed sulphates, in 100,000 c.c. of 4°, and to 230.3802 grams of sodium sulphate. Hence 100,000 c.c. of water of 4° contain 74.5934 grams of sodivim. An indirect determination was also made from the amount of chlorine (see under sodium chloride in the calculation of results as undissociated molecules.) >ll.\KK.\r, SPKINC AT RIETFONTEIN. 583 TOO.ooo c.c. of water of 4° contain 74.2160 grams of sodium. Mean value, 74.4047 grams of sodium i)er 100,000 c.c. of water. l\i;sL"LTs OF PRKCEniNc, Determinatton.s. Anions. Grams per 100,000 c.c. of water of 4°. Chlorine 130.4578 Silica (SiO.,) 2.1858 Bicarbcjuate ( 11 CC);/) i .86889 Sulphuric Acid ( SO/') 0.2282 Nitric xA.cid (NO/) ... 0.38013 Phosphoric Acid Traces Iodine Minute traces Kafions. Sodium 74.4047 Calcium 9.34235 Aluminium 0.08540 Magnesium 0.0794 Barium 0.07374 Lithium 0.06927 Ammonium (Nil/) 0.0623 Iron ( Ferrous ) o . 0334 CaLCL-LATK)i\S ()!•' THE RELATIVE NuMHERS ()!•■ lONS. Anions. 100.000 c.c. of water contain — Sum of atomic Monovalent drams. weights. X'alency ions. / CI 130.4578 : 35.46 = 3.67901 X 1 — 3-679^1 HC(_). ... 1.86889 : 61.008 = 0.03063 X I = 0-03063 S(J)^ 0.22^2 : 98.07 = 0.00233 X 2 = 0.00466 NO3 0.038013 : 62.01 = 0.00061 X i = 0.00061 Total of Anions 3.71491 584 MINERAL SPKINc; AT KlETFc )M1 EIN . Kalio]is. 100,000 c.c. of water contain — Sum of atomic Na ... Ca ... . Li ... . Al ... . Mg... . NH,.. . Fe ... . Ba ... . Grams. 74.4047 9-34235 0.06927 o . 08540 weights. X^alency 3.23499 X 23 40.09 = 0.23303 X 7.00 = 0.00990 X Monovalent ions. 1 = 3-23499 2 = 0.46606 "/ 0.0794 : 24.32 0.0623 : 18.042 0.0334 : 55.85 0-07374 1137 -37 Total of Rations 0.00315 X 0.00326 X 0.00345 X 0.00060 X 0.00054 X 1 = 3 = 2 ^=^ I = o . 00990 o . 00945 o . 00652 0.00345 0.00120 0.00108 3 • 73265 Calculation of the Constituents as Undissociated Molecules. Bicarbonates. — The water is slightly alkaline, and on ex- posure forms a precipitate of ferrous and calcium carbonates. The iron and part of the calcium can, therefore, be regarded as being present as bicarbonates. The ammonia might also be cal- culated as bicarbonate. 100.000 c.c. of water contain 1.86889 gnun of HCO3 ; 0.0334 of a gram of iron (ferrous) require 0.07297 of a gram of HCO., and form 0.10637 of a gram of ferrous bicarbonate, leaving 1.79592 gram HCO, for forma- tion of calcium and ammonium bicarbonates. 0.0623 o^ ^ gram of NH^ correspond to 0.21072 of a gram of HCO;,,, and forms 0.2730 of a gram of ammonium bicarbonate. The residual i .58520 grams of HCO. corresponds to 0.5208 of a gram of calcium, and form 2.1060 grams of calcium bicar- bonate. Barium Sulphate. — ( )n evaporating the water to dryness, after removal of the bicarbonates, an insoluble residue, consisting of a mixture of barium sulphate and silica, remains. The barium is therefore regarded as being present as sulphate. 100,000 c.c. of water of 4° contains 0.1256 of a gram of barium sulphate, corresponding to 0.0519 of a gram of SO4. Calcium Sulphate. — -Total SO4, 0.2282 of a gram; SO^ in barium sulphate, 0.0519 of a gram; the remaining 0.1763 of a gram of SO^ requires 0.07357 of a gram of calcium, and forms and containing 0.23154 of a gram of chlorine. MINERAL SPHJ^Nf.; AT RIETFUNTEIN. 585 Aliniilniitiii Oxide. — It is customary to calculate the alumi- nium as oxide. 100,000 c.c. of water contain o. ihio of a o^ram of aUuninium oxide. Magiwsittiii Chloride. — TVie mai;nesiuni in nn'neral waters is usually calculated as sulj)hate or chloride, sometimes as carbon- ate. In view of the fact that the total amount of S( )^ is less than would be required l)y the magnesiiun alone if regarded as sul- phate, the magnesium has been estimated as chloride. 100,000 c.c. of AN'ater contain 0.0794 *^*^' '^ gram (if magne- sium, corresponding to 0.31094 of a gram of magnesium chloride, and contining o.-?3i54 of a gram of chlorine. Sodium Nitrate. — 0.03.8013 of a gram of NO, requires O.01410 of a gram of sodiuni. and furms 0.05211 of a gram of sodium nitrate. Calcimu Chloride. — kxi.ooo c.c. of water contain 9.34235 grams of calcium, of which 0.5208 of a gram is required for the formation of bicarbonate, and 0.07357 for the formation of sul- phate. The remaining 8.74798 grams of calcium correspond to 15.47535 grams of chlorine ijiving 24.227,23 grams of calcium chloride. LitJiiiiiii Chloride. — The 0.06927 of a gram of litliium con- tained in 100,000 c.c. of water form 0.42018 of a gram of lithium chloride, requiring 0.35091 of a gram of chlorine. Sodium Chloride. — ( 1 1 Estimated from the amount of chlorine : Total chlorine, 130.4578 grams, of which are required for the formation of lithium chloride. 0.35091 ; for the forma- tion of calcium chloride, 15.47535; for the formation of mag- nesium chloride 0.23154. The remaining 114.4000 grams of chlorine correspond to 74.2019 grams of sodium, and form 188.6019 grams of sodium chloride. To the weight of sodium found above must be added tliat present as nitrate, namel\ . 1:1.01410 gram, giving a total of 74.2160 grams of sodium. (2) Calculated from tlie amount of sodiuni that has been directly determined — 189. 561 1 grams of sodium chloride. Mean value, 1S9.0815 grams of " a list of words and repeating them aloud to the subject, who has immediately to call out the word suggested to him by each word in the list. An instrument is used which records to a fraction of a second the interval in each case between the utterance of 596 FR,EUD's PSYCHO-PATIIOLOCWCAL TH l-:(JKIi:s. the word in the list and the response of the subject by calHng out the word sngo^ested. It is found that the interval is longer than the average when the word in the list evokes some associa- tion of an emotional character. In this way the wrong acts of persons, especially young persons, have been detected by the record of the fact that the intervals of responses are longer in the case of words in the list which are associated with the circum- stances of the wrong act. Such words touch a com]>lex of the subject ; and no doubt the same result would be ol)tained when the com])lex was of a more permanent description, such as an old grief or disappointment, or pleasure associated with a hobby. A complex forming in the mind of an individual may be one that his better nature condemns. A j^er^on mav have a passion for something that is forbidden, a weakness of which he or she is ashamed. Then arises a state of tension, a conflict between the complex and the higher social tendencies. In the mind of the better sort, the complex will have the worst of the conflict, and the result will be its repression. The repressed complex, on tlie other liand, need not necessaril\- l)e bad from a moral point of view. It may be innocent in itself, but opposed to conventional views, or even merelv condemned by j^rejudice. The idea of a mental conflict is one of the salient features of Freud's system. \Mien the complex is thus repressed, whether by the will or external forces, it is not necessarily eliminated from the mind. Driven as it were from tlic surface, it begins its underground working. Banished from consciousness, it still operates in the unconscious mind, and yet keeps striving to manifest itself in consciousness. It will seize an opportunity to do so when the repressing forces are not on the alert, when the mind of its victim is exhausted by illness or exertion, when he is dreaming or dav-dreaming, when he is under some relaxing influence, stich as alcohol or a drug. And in order to evade the vigilance of the higher feelings, it makes use of all sorts of disguises. Thus the delusions and hallucinations that show themselves in the mind of the insane and hysterical may have no a])i)arent connection with the repressed tendency or complex. For instance, a wonian whose insanity resulted from a disappointment in love had a hallucination in the form of a constant smell of burnt pudding. It was afterwards discovered that she had been making a pud- ding at the time of a crisis in her experience. In the same way the imagery of a dream may have little superficial resemblance to the tendency that was suppressed by the dreamer in his waking hours. Freud, who has written a work on the subject of dreams, describes their imagery as being symbolical of the repressed complex. He regards even the apparently meaningless symptoms of the hysterical person, such as repeated objectless movements, incapacity to stir a hand or a foot, loss of the power to exercise one of the senses — even these he regards as an attempt of the complex to express itself. Mistakes in speaking FREUD S P.SYCHO-PATH()L(i<;i(AL TMKORIl-.S. 59/ and writing;, forgetting words and names, he also treats as be- longing to the same category. To trace the connection between such pathological symptoms and the complex in which they originate, he applies the method of psycho-analysis, which involves the investigation of the ex- periences and mental associations of the individual. There is nothing very novel in this method. But I fancy that before Freud's time the alienist or specialist in nervous diseases paid little attention to the particular mjcanderings or delusions of his individual ])atient. And it may be that Freud, if he has not dis- covered an}- new region, has discovered that certain neglected regions are worth exploring. There is great divergence of opinion as to the utility of Freud's theories and consequent treatment of mental disorders. Dr. Mercier, who is no doubt an authority, in a recent issue of the NineteentJi Century refers incidentally to Freud's system, and appears to treat the whole thing as rubbish. But his dogmatic and intolerant attitude hardly inspires one with confidence in his scientific judgment. On the other hand, it is claimed that persons sufifering from hysteria and other nervous disorders have been benefited by being shown the origin of their delusions or mental disturbances. It seems to me, as a layman, that, even though there may be no special virtue in the Freud treatment, the patient in nervous ailments, even ni(»re than iu physical ailments, would be l)enefited by the relief afforded when the mystery as regards his complaint is removed and hi< mental disorder is explamed to him. But these are matters on which, as a non-medical man, I shall not venture an opinion. What we are justified in criticising is the bearing of Freud's theories on ordinary life. We are, sd to speak, invited by Freud to such criticism, as he has written an untechnical work (which has been translated into English), namely, "The Psychopathology of Everyday Life." This book, which, if not rigidly scientific, as at least sugges- tive and interesting, deals with such matters as the forgetting of names and words, and the substitution of wrong names and words, mistakes in speech, reading and writing, and in actions, forgetting of intentions, and other errors of every-day life. To explain these Freud applies his theories, his position! being that such mistakes are not merely mechanical or superficial, but the purposive or motivated operations of the unconscious mind, pro- duced by complexes, repressed or otherwise, just as the delu- sions and other symptoms of the insane. To give a typical example (before coming to the actual instances), in speaking you substitute the name Johnson for the name Jobson. This mistake would ordinarily be supposed to arise mechanically through the resemblance of the names. But you apply the meth'id of psycho- analysis to yourself, trying to trace any associations connected with the name Jobson. Perhaps you then remember that years ago a man of the name of Jobson insulted you or was your sue- 598 freud's psycho-pathological Tiii:()Kn:s. cessful rival in love or ambition. According to Freud's theories the reason why you substitute the name Johnson for Jobson is because the unconscious mind avoids the name associated with a painful complex, and substitutes for it a name similar in sound. Or the complex might operate b}- the mere forgettting of the name Jobson, although it would naturally be familiar to you. Freud does not deny that forgetting may occur in a simpler fashion; but he appears to believe that at least most cases of temporary forgetting are to be explained in this v\^ay. The following are some of his instances : A patient asks Freud to recommend him a sanatorium in the Riviera. Fie thinks of a sanatoriimi and recollects the name of the doctor in charge, but cannot remember the name of the small place where it is, and has to ask the ladies of his family. The name of the place turns out to be Nervi. This explains his for- getting. In his profession he has enough to do with nerves. ]\Ir. Y falls in love with a lady, who soon after marries Air. X. Mr. Y was an old acquaintance of Mr. X.. and still has business relations with him. But he ( Mr. Y) can now never remember his name, and on wishing to correspond witli him has to ask other people his name. A person, in taking an oral examination in philosophy, gained credit for greater knowledge than he possessed by saying he had long taken an interest in a philosopher Gassendi, whose name he had only heard by chance a few days before. He says, " I believe it is due to my guilty conscience that even now I cannot retain this name in spite of all my efforts." A patient telephoned to Freud for an appointment, and also wished to know r!ie fee, which was lo dollars. .\fter the examination he again asked the fee, saying: " I don't like to owe monc}- to anyone, especially doctors. 1 prefer to pay right away." Instead of pay he said play. He took out his purse ; but to his apparent annoyance found that he had only 4 dollars with him. He promised to send a cheque for the balance. Freud's opinion that the man was playiny^ with him was con- firmed when, on afterwards sending out his bill, the letter was returned by the post office marked " Not found." A lady patient, who had made an ap])ointment. wrote ihat she was s()rrv she would be able (meaning not be able) to keep it. Freud thought at the time she was merely making an excuse, and found out afterwards that she had been persuaded by her friends not to consult him. The motive of the unconscious mind sometimes appears to be praiseworthy; sometimes the reverse. Freud gives some in- iiances where his unconscious mind seemed to be more respect- ful to his wife than his conscious mind. On one occasion he had wished to make merry with an intimate friend over a state- ment of his wife a few hours before. But he fonnd he could not do so, as the statement had passed completely from his memory. FRj-:uD s psvc'ii()-i'A'iii(»i.<)(;kal tiii-"oriius. 599 He gives another case where a different spirit was shown. A man was nrged by his wife to attend a social fnnction. which did not interest him. He yielded to her entreaties, and hegan to take his dress-suit from a trunk, when he suddenly thought of shaving. After shaving, he returned to his trunk, ])ut found it locked, and. in spite of a most diligent search, the key could not be found. As it was Sunday evening no lock- smith was obtainable. The function had, accordingly, to be abandoned. ( )n the trunk being opened next day, the key was found within it. The man had unconsciousl\- dropped the key in the trunk and sprung the lock. As this paper may be too long, I shall not give more of Freud's examples. 1 shall state my own view of his theory; but I should also like to hear what others think of it. In order that the problems may be made clear, 1 shall ]iut them in an alliterative form. The first question is then : " According to your exi)erience, are mistakes generally motivated or mechanical.'" If they are motivated, then I think we should make a distinction which Freud, so far as I know, does not make, but which seems to me to be important. We should examine whether the motivated mistakes consist in some- thing being let out or expressed, which one wishes to conceal, as in the case of the man who said " play " instead of " pay," or the woman who wrote " I shall be able " instead of " not be able to keep the appointment " ; or whether they are the result of an unconscious striving to repress something that has un- jileasant associations, as in the case in which the man forgot the name of his rival. In other words, are the motivated mistakes the expression of a repression or the repression of an expression? Persons engaged in education have special opportunities of studying mistakes of others, and probably it is easier to trace motives in the comparatively simple minds of the young. I can only speak of my own mistakes. So far as my observation goes, my mistakes in words and forgetting of names are not moti- vated, but mechanical. When I use a wrong word it is simply because it resembles tlie word I intended ; or I repeat a word that I have used before ; or I use the word that is the opposite of the word I meant to use, as when in a law case I say " the defendant "' instead of the *' plaintiff." When I repeat poetry I use a wrong word in one line because I hark back to an earlier line, or anticipate a later line ; or I go wrong by using a word similar in sound to the word that ought to be used. For instance, in repeating Wordsworth's line. " With new-fledged joy still fluttering in his breast." I have said " blest " instead of " breast." In writing my mistakes are similar. In summing up the law on bills of exchange I noticed that where I had to write " or order " I tended to miss out one of the " or's." In fact. I have found, in my own case, no example of a motivated mistake. On one occasion it looked like one. I had to play in a golf competition with a man of the name of Warne. and 6oo freud's psvchu-pathological tiii-:ortf-s. I had seen the name on a list at the dub-house. But I got into my head that the name of my opponent was Cairns, the name of the professional at the Club. I even addressed a letter to Cairns at Mr. Warne's address, which the latter luckily opened. After tinding out my mistake I amused myself by applying the method of psycho-analysis, and seeing what associations I had with the name Warne. There came back to my memory the name of a lady acquaintance who had died suddenl}\ No douljt Freud would have explained the mistake by the unconscious striving to avoid a name with a painful association. But I am inclined to think the explanation would be incorrect. The name of the person I remembered was spelt Warren (not Warne); and although the sound is the same, 1 visualise words rather than go by sound. Besides, the association with the name wa> pleasant rather than otherwise, as happens when we have en- joyed the society of a deceased person, while we have only heard by report of his or her death. On the other hand, although I have not lighted upon specific instances in my own case, I cannot help thinking that we do for- get and make mistakes through the unconscious avoidance of painful associations. I have more than once remarked how soon unpleasant incidents seem to pass from the memory, especiall\- when body and mind are in a particularly healthy state. A a eil seems to be drawn over the recent unpleasant matter ; it seems already to belong to the remote past. As a member of the legal profession, I am inclined to agree with Freud, when he says that the conception of motivated forgetting has not yet been sufficiently recognised in the estimation of evidence or testimony in courts of law. A witness is bullied because he has forgotten something that goes against his sympathies in a Ccise. The forgetting may be quite honest, springing from an uncon- scious erasure from his mind of what was unpleasing. And just as the complex may have a negative, so it may have a posi- tive effect ; a person thinks he remembers what is congenial to his disposition. Some years ago there appeared a book by the late Countess of Cardigan, containing a number of scandalous reminiscences, many of which, T understand, were entirely untrue. One can well imagine that a coarse-minded person might easily have faulty recollections of a sort congenial to her mind. 1 also agree with Freud when he refers to the tendency to exclude from national legends and traditions anything that is painful to the popular feeling. We shall probablv have an un- fortunate example of this in the ease with which the German atrocities in Belgium and France will be forgotten by the Ger- man people, even if they are ever credited by it. It will be with the nation as Nietsche, in a passage quoted by Freud, says it is with the individual : " I have done that." says my Memory. " I could not have done that," savs my Pride, and remains inexor- able. Finally my memory yields. NOTES ON THE HABITS OF A FEW TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS FOUND IN ALICEDALE, CAPE PRO- VINCE. Bv Frank Crudex. (Jlatcs 27, 2^.) Many of our South African trap-door spiders have been named and described, but ai)parently few observations on their habits liave been recorded. My notes, thougli incom]:)]ete, may therefore serve the ptirpose of adding somewhat to the stock of human knowledge concerning the architecture and life-his- tories of these interesting creatures, a stibject which has always appealed greatly to the symjjathies and imagination of naturalists. These notes relate to rather more than half of the species which occur at Alicedale, where I have found (|uite a con- siderable trap-door spider fauna M'ithin the last two or three years. The localities occu})ie(l by the several species of any one genus are sometimes sharply separated, but in other cases are coincident. The genus Moggridcjca is represented by four species in this vicinity. M. crndeiii and M. rupicola often occur in close proximity to each other, but M. cocgensis and M. tcrrestris do not, as far as I have yet observed, live near an\- other species of this genus. The two local species of AcatttJiodon — -^braliami and Crit- dciii — are often found together, and also in com])any with species of other genera. In one small claybank I found both Acantho- dons, M. crudcui. StasiDiopus, and an Ariadne within easy reach of each other. At East London two species of Acanthodon were found together, t)ne with an overlapping lid. the other with a lid fitting closely into the mouth of the tube and flush with the ground. Our two species of Pehnatorycter I have never found together, but P. parznis and the two species of Acaiifhodoii often occur in the same spot. One of the species here dealt with (Bcssia minor ) seems to have quite a imique type of trap-door. Most of the technical descriptions of the Alicedale trap- door spiders have been published by Mr. John Hewitt in the Records nf the Albany .Museum, Grahamstown. StASIMOPUS. Si'. {aff. PAXERSON.E-H^Zt'zV/). (Rcc. Albany Miis.. 3. 30. ^2.) Locality. — This is the largest of all the trap-door spiders found in this neighbourh'xid. It u-^ualb- constructs its nest in 602 TRAP-lK)OR SI'IDKRS. clayey soil, most frequently on open flats, but occasionally in sloping banks or under the protection of projecting stones. Nests often occur in small groups. The Lid. — -The lid is circular in shape, and fits into the mouth of the tube, so that the upper surface lies flush with the ground. The inner surface is white, except the bevelled brown margin which fits into the expanded rim of the tube. Near its centre are several holes arranged, more or less, in a circle. Into these the spider inserts her fangs and claws when she has occasion to close her door against intruders, a considerable force being then required to pull it (^pen. The size of the lids of nests occupied b}^ adults varies somewhat. The diameters of three large ones T measured were 25, 25. and 32 mm., and the respective lengths of the tul)es 115, 190, and 180 mm. From 6 to 8 mm. is a common thickness for these lids at the centre. Lids often show clearly the successive stages in their construc- tion, and evidently indicate that the nest had originally been of very small diameter, and had Ijeen enlarged to suit the growth of the occupant. One lid showed eight distinct enlargements, the first or original lid being 9 mm. and the eighth 32 mm. in diameter. The newer lids are always constructed under the older ones, and attached to them. During the period of egg-laying, hatching, and evidently for some time after, the lids are fastened down securely by means of a plug of clay built downwards from and attached to the lid, and completely filling u]) the mouth of the nest. This to Stasimnpus. AcantJwdon Cnidcni and the various local is, as far as iVlicedale trap-door spiders are concerned, peculiar species of Moggridgea merelv fastening down their lids with web. As these clay plugs are milike the soil near the nests, the dif- ference in colour may be due to some softening medium sui)plied by the si)ider herself. The lower surface of these plugs is concave, and shows clearly the marks of the spider's fangs. Tube. — The nests usually enter the ground with a slight slant. Most of them have one bend, l)Ut nests with two or more bends are not uncommon. This, however, is only a matter of necessit}', because of stones or other obstacles in the way. The tube varies in diameter — ^one which was 25 mm. at the mouth was only 16 mm. at a depth of 25 mm. down the tube. Lining. — The lining is of tough, felted web, and is very white in colour. E.rcar'ating. — One one occasion T dug out a full-grown female, and took away an inch of the tube with the lid attached. This was sunk in very wet clay until the lid was level with the surface. The whole was allowed to dr-v- somewhat, the spider was returned to its ver\ much shortened abode, which it began straightwa}- to deepen by digging out the earth. It was seen to be busv. head down- wards. Presentlv it turned \\ith some dillicult\- in the TKAP-D(X)R SPIDKKS. • 603 tube, pushed iij) tlie li.i. an-l ai)peared with a ])ellet ot clay between its fangs. It then inserted the front pair of legs behind the ])ellet, and shot it out a distance of fnmi 12 to iS inches. This was repeated with great stea(hness for several hour>. neither light nor darkness making any marked difference to the rate of work. The spider left off only when she reached the bottom of the box in which the cla\ had been put. Feeding Time. — As they are very sluggish during the day, and lively and pugnacious when interfered with at night, it would seem more natural that the_\ should seek their prey in the dark- ness. For observation purposes I transferred three full-sized females, with their nests, to my garden. At night I have often examined them hv kuitern light, and have usually found the lids very slightl}' but distinctly raised. Dn drawing a straw, or twig, gently past the margin of the lid the spider, on everv occasion, shot out and caught hold of it. but relinciuished it instantly on hnding what it was. ( >nce I placed a beetle beside the lid and drew the straw past as before. The beetle wa> taken indoors instantly. The same hapjiened with a large moth. On no occasion have I seen any of these spiders completelv out of their nests. Males. — I have found in all 18 adult males of this species — all in lidded nests of -mall diameter. One nest was only 39 mm. in length and 7 mm. in diameter at the mouth. At the bottom it was somewhat wider, probably to permit the occupant to turn freely. In all cases these males were in nests whose lids were securely fastened dowm with small plugs of clay on the inside. The fany markings were \e.r\ distinct. The tul>es were lined with a very thin coating of web. very different from the tough thick felt of the nests of adult females. I have never fotmd a male .^tasimoj)us otttside a nest, and it must only be after very heavy rain that they are able to dig their wav otit. further ' )hser:-afi()iis. — < )n one occasion I placed three females in holes bored for them in the ground. Xext day all three were fotind to ha\"e hidden themsehes under a loose mixture of soil and web. .Secure under this protecting cover, two of the spiders comj>leTed the lining of their nests in three or four da}s. One of them, in a single night after rain, began aufl hnished its lid. The xeconfi had to construct her lid abotit an inch below the mouth of the tube, probably becatise of the looseness of the surface soil at that spot. The third spider did not take the- trouble to line her tube, and was flooded otit during rain. Oeeiirreiiee of Nests. — Nests of all sizes are very frequently found in close i)roximity to each other, and rarely occur alone. AcANTiioDON Crl-okxt fJeieltf (V\. 28 F ruid K i. (Ree. Albany Mas.. 3. iS. > Loea!ify.—'Th\^ species is found in sloping c!a\bank>. on 604 TKAI'-Dook S1'IDF-:RS. flats beneath trees and bushes. l)Ut very often right in tlie open without any protection of any kind. Lid and Tube. — The Hd is tiiin, D-shaped. and is ctjncave on the vnider surface. It does not tit into the tulie a.s in the case of Stasimopus, Init overlaps the mouth, which projects shghth- above ground. The margin of th.e mciuth is turned down into a sort of rounded rim \n which ])icces of dry grass or other material are attached. The>e. though n(jt very strong, mav perha])s strengthen the projecting portion of the tube. The centre ])art of the inner surface of the lid is made of white felted web, and fits the circular opening. Outside that is the concave projecting margin which overlaps the rim of the tube. During the incubation period the lid is fastened down by a collar of web joining the margin of the white central disc to the sides of the tube. The tube is usually from four to six inches long. When lifted and released, the lid shuts as with a spring. Were it not so arranged, its lightness would render it liable to be easily blown ojjen by the wind or lifted by the spider's enemies. On one occasion only have I seen a lid open during the day. but it was instantly closed on my approach. Occurrence of Nests. — Xests are often found in small groiijis. but isolated nests are quite common. Males. — I have found over half a dozen adult males in the months of February, March and April — all in lidded tul)es like those' occupied by females. At luist London, at the end of June, 1915. I found two smaller species of . Icaiilhodoii, and was ver}- fortunate in securing -everal males of both. In all these cases, however, the males were found in tubes rcjughly closed but without distinct lids. Piirllier Observations. — ( )n one occasion I ].)Ut a female into a hole bored in clay. The tube was lined, and the lid put on in a few hours. Small >havings cut from matches were placed near, and these the spider fixed all round the mouth of its nest. .\f.\NTHODox Abr.miami llci^'itl (Plate 27 D). (Rec. Albany Mus. 2, 473.) Locality. — This .species is commonl\- found under the lee of stones, and on sloping groiuid usually protected by vegetation. It has also been frequenth- found in horizontal rock crevices, but seldom on flat groimd. Lid and Tube. — The tube as a rule ])r(jjects from i to 2 inches horizontally above ground, and looks, to the casual observer, like an exposed dead root or dry stick. This part of the tube is very much thickened, and is in consequence much stronger than the part underground. The tubes are usually from 4 to 6 inches in length, and are seldom more than half an inch in diameter. They are often ver\- tortuous, being frequently founrl almost encircling stones. S.A, Assn. for Adv. of Science. 1915. PL. 27. 'i>^* F. Cruden.— Nests of Trapdoor Spiders. ■i'KAr-i)()()!^ si'ini'iRS. (105 Nests with several did lid? are often found, i^vidently when a new lid is deemed necessary the tube is elongated beyond the old lid, which is then left on the upper side of the tube, and a new lid is constructed. The lid always hangs vertically, and consists of two well- defined parts — a thin wafer-like disc, which fits closely into the mouth of the tube, and to which the spider holds firmly when Uie lid is disturbed, and a very heavy l)eYelled portion made of web and earth. This hea\y part is attached to the disc at its centre and hinge, but not at the margin. There are two holes on the outer hollow surface of the bevelled part, which lead through to the wafer portion, but of what use they are 1 cannot conjecture, as they do not in any way communicate with the interior of the tube, and in older nests they are often silted up. These holes are to be seen in the very smallest lids, not luuch more than an eighth of an inch across the hinge. The lid shutr^ quite close on account of the weight of the bevelled part, which is evidently expressly meant for that {)urpose. Lid Building. — On (October 28th I brought in a nest from the veld, embedded it in earth in a box, and cut off the lid. In order to observe it closely, 1 jilaced a good lens in front of the nest, and used the light of a bright lamp. In a few moments the spider came to the lidless mouth, at once turned on her l)ack, and worked on the remains of the old hinge with fangs and claws, evidently pre|)aring for the new lid. She then came to the entrance, and carried in a pellet of soil in her fangs. Turning on her back as before, she attached this to the l)ase of the old hinge with claws and fangs, and fixed it with web. This was done all along the base, after which she applied her spin- nerets and spun several strand? of web beliind and along the margin of the newly-attached earth, frequently carrying the threads from the hinge along the roof of the tube. To these new marginal strands fresh attachments of clay were made, and after each the spinnerets were again used. Frequently the spider was seen to knead the pellets with her fangs before fixing them. After the foundation of the lid had been laid, the attach- ments were made at the middle, and gradually the arc of a circle was formed. \'ery often the whole fabric was pulled inwards to ensure the free working of the hinge and the correct size of door. When this thin lid completely filled the mouth of the tube the spider closed it and rested from her labours — three and a f[uarter hours after commencing work. It should be mentioned that each time the spider went to collect earth she remained motioidess for a time at the mouth, ])erhai)s making sure that all was safe. This seems to indicate a certain degree of intelligence, but on the other hand, when using her spinnerets, she fre(|uently extended her abdomen well beyond the mouth of the tube in order to get longer strands of web, therebv exposing the most vulnerable part of her body to 6o6 TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. danger. On no occasion did she come right out of her tube to collect earth. I kept the nest vnider observation for a month in the expec- tation of seeing the bevelled portion added to the thin disc of the lid, but nothing was done. Concluding that the spider was dead, I broke open the nest, and found her carefully looking after a deposit of eggs enclosed in a snow-white sac, which was attached to the sides of the tube by a few strands of web. Evidently she was too much occupied with maternal cares to tind time to complete the lid. Males. — Two adult males were found in February, 1914. They were much lighter in colour than the females, and were living in nests of exactly the same type as those occupied by the females. The lining of the tubes, however, was of nmch whiter web. Of nine others found in b\i)ruary, March, and April, 1916, only one was in a nest with a properly constructed lid. All the others had lids fastened down securely, and these seemed to be very roughly finished oil. Occitrrciice of Xcsts. — Nests are often found in small colonies, but isolated ones are not uncommon. Besia Minor Hciciil { PI. 28 G, H and L). (Rec. Albany Miis. 2. 469.) Locality. — This species is never found here except under the shelter of projecting rocks and banks, usually in soft, crumbly ground, which renders it almost impossible to dig out the nests in a complete condition. Occasionally they are found in clay, and even in moss. Nest and Lids. — From a structural point of view the nest of this spider is the most interesting we have in this district. Unlike all the others, each nest has two lids, and is exceedingly short, being seldom more than an inch and a half from lid to lid. The lids are opposite and at the same level. The chamber between them is much wider than the entrances, and has a sloping bottom. In several cases nests have been found with a vertical tube leading down from the bottom of the chamber. This is exceptional. One of these measured 3 inches from the roof of the chamber to the bottom of the tube, while the distance from door to door was 1% inches. The doors across the hinge measured half an inch, and the average width of the vertical tube was three-eighths inch. There was a slight widening of the tube near the bottom, probably for convenience in turning. The lids, unlike those of any other trap-door spider here, are con- structed in halves, as shown in the plate. Owing to this peculiarity the lids remain open when pushed outwards, and can be closed very tightly when pulled inwards. The lids vary considerably in width ( from three-eighths to five-eighths inch) across the hinge even in the case of fully S.A. Assn. for Adv. of Science. 1915. Pl. 28, F. Cruden— Nests of Trapdoor Spiders. TK\1'-1H)()R Sl'lDKk-. (>07 developed specimens. In most cases the lids are slightly weighted by means of two carefully-prepared masses of clay placed one on each side of the sinus at the margin of the lid opposite the hinge. reeding Time. —On one occasion I placed a case-bearing caterpillar beside a nest kept for observation under glass. Next morning the case, torn and empty, was found l)eside one of the doors of the nest. Another specimen in ca])tivity was found \\'andering about at night near its nest, one lid of which was standing right open. These two instances would seem to indi- cate that night is the time for feeding. General. — On several occasions 1 have put a large blue- bottle fly in at one door of a nest, with the invariable result that the s])ider Ixilted out, evidently in terror, at the other door. Small houscflies. however, were accepted readily. The frequent opening of one lid annoyed one spider so much that it blocked up that entrance with earth and web, and used only one door afterwards. One si;ider during the egg-laying period wove a web across the opening, under the lid, but not attached to it. Whether this IS usual or not 1 cannot say, as I have never before found nests with eggs or young. When a spider is evicted from her nest, she seldom shows fight, as Sfasiinopns usually docs. Males. — I have found only two males of this species in the months of Feliruary and March, both occupying nests exactly the same as those inhaliited by females. Occurrence of Nests. — Nests usually occur singly. On no occasion have I found more than three nests at the same spot. MoGGRiDGRA Crudeni Ile'witl I V\. 2"- P> and C). (Ann. Transr. Mus. (1913) 4 [i].) This species was first found in earth-filled rock crevices and in close proximity to the nests of M. rnpicola. The lids of these were much thicker than those of M. rnpicola, and were smooth-edged and not quite oval in shape. Since then I have found many nests in the veld, under the protection of vegetation, but possessing in most cases very distinctly crenated lids of the D type. The tube is very short — seldom more than 2 inches long — narrow at the mouth, and expanding into a fairly wide chamber near the bottom, and lined with hard, smooth, felted web. The mouth of the tube has a horizontal expanded collar, 'ilie central part of the interior of the lid is white, and j)rojects somewhat. This, coupled with the overlapping of the scalloped edge, leaves a concave rim. which fits on to the expanded portion of the mouth of the tube. Lid Building. — On one occasion I put six females into holes bored for them in earth in a tin. This was at 6 p.m. Very soon all were busy lining the holes with web. By 9 p.m. two 6o8 TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. lids were sufficiently completed to cover the mouths of the tubes, but the spiders were still working at them, heads down- wards, and spinnerets busy on their under sides. On watching one which was not so far advanced with lid-making, it was found that every now and then she emerged to collect small (juantities of earth, with which she disappeared into the tube, to reappear presently and fix t^ie earth to the outer margin of the lid with fangs and claws. Judging by the interval that elapsed between her entering the tube and reappearing, one might suppose the spider had to mix the soil with some substance to give it the consistency necessary for building. After fixing, as already stated, she again turned her spinnerets to the new ])art. and strengthened it by several layers of web. By II o'clock a third spider had the opening covered by a full-sized lid, and by daylight all lids but one were completed. The last s[)ider remained inactive for several days before it set to work on its lid. Much had to be done towards thickening the lids and in making the crenated, over-lapping margin, Init this was at length accomplished by all. Males.- — One male was found in a nest with very small, almost round, lid in March. Incubation Period. — Eggs have been found in December, January, and February. .\t this time the lids are always firmly fastened down with web. Moggridgi:a Ru picola HcK'ili. (Rcc. Albany Mits. 2, 462.) The nests of M. riipicola are always formed in rock crevices, or attached to the underside of overhanging ledges. In the former case the lid has its hinge above the opening; in the latter it is below. The position of most of the nests suggests that the spiders choose narrow crevices, so that the top and bottom may be attached to rock. These nests are always strengthened with earth, and are never found except in a more or less horizontal position. They are always very short — from an inch to an inch and a half being usual in the case of those with adult occupants — and widen considerably towards the interior. The lids are very thin, fragile, and wafer-like, and are nearly circular. When closed they are very difficult to detect, as they fit very closely into the mouths of the nests. When disturbed the spider holds on firmlv with fanss and claws, which it inserts in openings in the centre of the lid. Fccdinci Tinic.--1 cannot say when this species usually feeds, but on one occasion, when looking for nests under a ledge, I was fortunate enough to see a spider secure its i)rey. A small flv was walking past a nest when, like a flash, the lid flew open, the fly was caught, and the spider vanished with its victim. TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. <")09 iWa/c.9.— The males of this species are found in nests exactly like those occupied by females. I found four in the months of March and April. MOGGRIDGEA CoEGENSIS Purcell (PI. 27 A). {Ann. S.Afr. Mus. 3, 71.) This is the largest of the local species of Moggridgca. They are probably fairly abundant, but so far I have found thetn singly and seldom. At Sidbury lately a group of about half a dozen was found at the base of an antheap. The nests are from 4 to 6 inches deep, the lids are D-shaped, and overlap the mouth of the tube. They are ver)^ thick, and are often disguised with pieces of grass and leaves worked into the upper surface. The inner surface has the fang markings very clearly shown. On one occasion, when digging up a patch of moss-grown earth. I found in its midst a nest whose lid was covered with moss, so that it was absolutely impossible to detect it when viewed from above. These lids are always fastened down witli web during the incubation period. The eggs are enclosed in a snow-white sac, attached to the sides of the tube, in such a way that the spider can easily pass. The lids of six adult specimens measured about an inch from side to side, three-quarters of an inch from hinge to front, and from one-eighth to one quarter inch at the thickest part. As vet I have found no males. MOGGRIDGEA TeRRESTRIS Hcivitt. (Rec. Albany Mus. 3, 13.) Up to the present this species has usually been found on bare flats under the shade of trees and bushes. The lids, which are D-shaped, lie flat, just above ground, but not flush with it. They are thicker than those of M. rupicola and M. cvudeni, and resemble the latter very closely except that they have no crenated edge. The white central portion of the inner surface of the lid projects slightly, and fits the mouth of the tube. The rim outside this is brown, and lies on the ground surrounding the tube. In all cases examined the tubes were longer than in either of the two species just mentioned. The longest I have found measured 3^ inches. At the mouth and halfway down the tube the diameter was a quarter of an inch. Midway between mouth and middle, and also between middle and bottom of tube, it widened to a third of an inch. This very distinct narrow- ing and widening of the tube occurs without exception in this species, but it is unusual to find the narrowing and widening repeated as in the case mentioned. The lining of the tube is not so thick and tough as in any of the other three local species of this genus. E 6lO TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. Nests are found isolated. I have never seen two together. Up to the present no males have been found. Pelmatorycter Parvus Hewitt (PI. 28 M). {Ann. Transv. Miis. 5 [3] (1916).) This species is usually found in loamy soil, not in clay. The tube bifurcates at the surface of the ground at an angle of about 120 degrees. The two branches project to a distance of from 18 to 20 mm., and to the casual observer look like dry twigs or roots. There are no lids, but the tubes are folded in at the mouth, and each ends in a point. When opened out and re- leased, the tubes immediately resume their folded position. The lining is of very white felted web. The nests are usually from 150 to 175 mm. in depth, and about 3 mm. in diameter. They occur in small colonies. Eggs and young were found in January and February, and one male was got in ]\lay. Pelmatorycter Crudenj Hezvitt (PI. 2y E). {Rcc. Albany Mits. 3, 72.) This species is much larger than P. parvus, and occupies a tube of relatively greater diameter — 7 to 8 mm. being usual in the case of adult spiders. As in the case of the smaller species,, the tube bifurcates, but this happens underground, and only one branch comes above the surface, the other being blind. The angle of bifurcation is between 90 and 100 degrees. The pro- jecting part of the tube is folded, as in the smaller species, but it is not pointed. It also, when opened and released, resumes its folded position. The length of the tube is much the same as that of P. parvus. The lining is less felted than in Stasimopus. but is is much whiter in colour. Usually they occur singly, but groups of three or four are sometimes found. Up to the present I have seen them only on clay flats, from which in dry weather it is very difficult to dig them. There is an easier way of getting them, however, for when the mouth of the tube is gently scratched the spider, either, suspecting danger, pulls the folds more closely together, or pushes open the mouth in the expectation of catching prey. It is quite easy, then, to cut off their retreat by pushing the blade of a knife through the tube below the point of bifurcation. On one occasion I put two spiders into holes prepared for them in earth packed in a glass jar. In a short time the upper parts of these holes were closed up to form the blind arm, and the other branch of each was excavated right to the surface and finished off wth the folded mouth. During the day the entrances remained closed, but when examined at night they were found to be wide open, the spiders lying in the mouth on the alert for prey. TRAI'-DOOK SPIDERS. 6ll Explaiiafioii of Plates. A. Moggridgca coegensis Purcell. — Entrance to the nest ; about natural size. B and C, Moggridgca crude ni Hewitt. — B is enlarged and shews the crenated margin of the lid and the entrance of the tube. C is only slightly enlarged, and shews the lower surface of the lids of two nests, the fang marks being clearly indicated. D. Acanthodon ahrahami Hewitt. — Lid and entrance to nest, about natural size. E. Pelmatorycter cntdeni Hewitt. — Shewing exterior portion of nest. F and G, Acantliodon crudeni Hewitt. — Shewing entrance to nest and lid in side view and front view. H, K and L. Bessia minor Hewitt. — H shews the lower surface of the lid and the entrance to the nest. K shews the two lids of a nest in dorsal view (this photograph is, however, a composite one taken from two slightly different points of view). L gives an end view of an open lid, also the entrance to a nest. M. Pelniatorxcfer parvus Hewitt. — Shewing the external bifur- cated portions of several nests. Scientific Research in South Africa. — At the invitation of the South African Institution of Engineers, a Conference of Scientific and Technical Societies recently took place in Johannesburg, in order to consider the desirability of establishing an Institution for Scientific Research in South Africa. Amongst the resolutions adopted at the Conference were the following : — " The members present recognise them- selves as bound to combine in taking such steps as may be in their power to hasten the scientific development of the resources of South Africa, especially in view of the coming commercial and industrial competition, and the obligations of this country to do its share in providing suitably for the present and future needs of the men who are fighting its battles, or who are dis- abled thereby, as well as the needs of their dependents, and the dependents of those who have given up their lives in defending the honour of the British nation " ; and " That each of the scientific and technical bodies to be subsequently agreed on, which join together as a result of the resolution already carried, shall nominate not more than three representatives to act as a Central Committee. Such Central Committee shall elect its own Executive Committee and sub-committees " ; also " That the members of Council for the time being of the various scientific and technical societies in South Africa and Rhodesia, to be agreed on in accordance with the previous reso- lution, shall form the General Committee." An Executive Com- mittee of five was subsequently appointed, comprising two elec- tricians, one mining engineer, an astronomer, and a metallurgist. ON THE VARIABILITY IN THE NATURE OR TEM- PERAMENT OF WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SOUTH AFRICAN SPECIES. By Alwin K. Haagner, F.Z.S. It has often struck me during my six years' connection with the Transvaal Zoological Gardens — first as Superintendent and then as Director how the temperament of a wild animal often changes in captivity — i.e., how different it may become from the ordinary nature of the beast in its wild state. One peculiar point in this connection is the fact — first noticed by the late A. D. Bartlett (for many years Superintendent of the London Zoo- logical Gardens — that, as a general rule, the descendants of wild animals boni in captivity are much wilder th.an those captured in the field and subsequently tamed. This is especially the case with deer and antelope. We have had buck captured when half grown which had become so tame and confiding that they came up to me when I called them, and others, again, born in the Gardens, which dashed off at the approach of anyone, even the men who worked with them daily. ( )ne reason for this is no doubt the fact that an animal which is born in captivity — in a Zoological Garden, at any rate — is hardly ever " man-handled." whereas a wild caught antelope, or similar aninial, would be almost continually handled by its owners or its caretaker on account of the artificial rearing which would be necessary. Another noteworthy fact is that animals vary individually amongst themselves to a considerable extent ; this remark will be made clearer at a later stage of my paper. Order Prim vtrs. The members of this order are, as a general rule, unreliable, pugnacious, and even vicious in captivity, although in the wild state fairly timid and shimning the presence of human beings as much as possible. As, however, they are of such varied size, temperament, and habits, it would be best to divide them into their natural groups. Manlike Apes iSiniid(e). — The late A. D. Bartlett, in his book, " Life Among Wild Beasts in the Zoo." remarks on the habits of a Chimpanzee received by the London Zoological Gar- dens in 1883, and which, partly on account of its habits, he con- sidered a new species. It subsequently proved to be the bald- headed Chimpanzee (A. cahnis), but a specimen of the common Chimpanzee in the Pretoria Zoological Gardens has developed habits akin to those of Bartlett's baldheaded animal, and yet it is undoubtedly the ordinary species. Bartlett. as before-men- tioned, at first considered the now historic " Sally " new to WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY. 613 science on account of the difference in its habits from those of former Chimpanzees in the collection. My personal opinion now is that individual animals of a species vary almost as much in temperament and behavioiu" as human beings, and no hard and fast rule can be laid down for their management. One has to learn to know the " ])ersonality " — to use an incongruous term — of each individual animal. 1 say this with reservations, but my meaning will become clearer as I proceed. Baboons and Monkeys. — The Chacma Baboon and the Vervet Monkey are both fairly shy animals in the wild state, descending from their mountain fastnesses or leaving their thickly wooded retreats for the vicinity of human liabitations, when driven to do so by hunger, or under cover of night. When young they make interesting and even lovable pets, but when adult their temper becomes uncertain, and they are not to be trusted. Individual examples, however, learn to love and fear their masters, and may be taught to do tricks requiring a con- siderable amount of intelligence. One individual — a Chacma Baboon — in the Eastern Pro- vince of the Cape, was so attached to its master, who was maimed., that it assisted him in his work in various ways. One Bonnet Monke}' in the Pretoria Zoological Gardens was quite untameable, and could not even be placed in a cage with its own kind. The keeper, however, maintained that the brute liked and respected him, and would play with the animal despite repeated warnings from me. The end of the matter was that, without rhyme or reason, the monkey one dav pounced upon its keeper and bit through his jugular vein. The unfortunate man was laid up in hospital for six weeks, and T had the animal destroyed. ^^'e liad some South American Capuchin Monkeys, bright and merry little fellows, full of fun and frolic, but ])ositive 'ittle bullies, and tliey led one of their number — a grizzled old chap, who was unfortunately an abject coward — a terrible life until he was removed. Their delight in teasing and biting the unfor- tunate one was almost human ( so far as the bullying element goes), and the natures of the animals were as dift'erent as one could possibly expect. The old chap subsequently became the staff pet, and was fondled and made much off by all the members of the staff, with the excejition of one, whom he could not endure, although the man had done him no harm. He never attempted to bite unless he was deliberately frightened, when his cowardly nature caused him to retaliate without actually meaning to do so. Many Baboons or Monkeys bite from j)ure "' cussedness '' or contempt of man, and not because they are frightened, although no doubf the latter is the reason zvhy most of them do bite. The following striking passage occurs in Bartlett's book, already mentioned : — The varialjlene.^s in the h.^bits and dispositions shown by the monkeys selected for performing is Avell worthy of notice. Many of the different 6l4 WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY. genera are mentally, so to speak, far removed from each other ; some of them are capable, by training and education, of being taught and made to understand the various duties that the teacher imposes upon them ; while others, as among ourselves, are found devoid of the power of learning. The trainers of monkeys well know the species best adapted to their various purposes. Another habit, or rather j)ractice, of the larger monkeys mentioned by Bartlett. and repeatedly observed by me, is that of yawning in order to show a new arrival their powerful canine teeth, and Bartlett interprets this as a warning or threat to the new-comer. They are quarrelsome in the extreme, and yet I have known Macaque Monkeys and even Baboons to be quite amiable in disposition. Carnivora. The following is Bartlett's opinion of a somewhat singular fact :— The Lion (Fclis Ico) appears to breed more freely than any other species of Felis, and the number of young at a birth is greater, not un- frequently four, and sometimes five, being produced in a litter. It is remarkable that these animals lireed more freely in travelling- collections (wild beast shows) than in Zoological Gardens; prol)ably the constant excitement and irritation produced by moving from place to place, or change of air may have considerable influence in the matter. This is a strange and certain fact, and is as true to-day as it was in Bartlett's days. In South Africa I have found it so. The Lions and the Tigers in the Zoological Gardens do not breed nearly so freely as those in the travelling menageries and cir- cuses which have toured the country, and Bartlett's explanation may be the right one. However, temperament may also have something to do with it, and when a Zoological Garden has the fortune to obtain a good captivity-breeding strain, the birth-rate is as prolific as that of most menageries, as, for instance, the Dublin Zoological Garden, famed for its Lion breeding; and here, in South Africa, the Johannesburg Garden has certainly beaten Pretoria in this direction. The members of the cat tribe are not famous for their fidelity or trustworthiness, so far as popular belief is concerned ; but the larger members of the family, at any rate, belie the repu- tation of the smaller to a great extent. The following is the late Carl Hagenbeck's opinion on this point: — It is a complete mistake to suppose that carnivores are vicious by nature ; they are susceptible to kindness and good treatment, and will repay trust with trust. Lions and Tigers, especially the former. v,-ould seem to be more to be trusted than Leopards and Lynxs, at least that is my experience. It was Carl Hagenbeck who first brotight the variability of animal nature into prominence in the training of animals, and by means of selection according to tem])erament, he was able to prove that wild animals could be trained with much less harshness and cruelty than was thought possible b}' WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY. 615 the older school of animal trainers. This is so well described in Hagenbeck's book, " Beasts and Men." that I give it /;; exfenso : — With the lower animals as with human heings, real insight into their character can only be obtained l)y treating them sympathetically. This essential fact, which is now understood by all successful animal trainers, ought in no way to surprise us, for the brute intelligence differs from the human in degree only, not in kind. Tt is now universally recognised that each animal has its own peculiar characteristics, its own idiosyncrasies over and above the general psychological character which it shares with all other members of its species. This is a discovery I had to make for myself, and a most important one it is for the trainer, for I say. without fear of contradiction, that no trainer is fit for his vocation who is unable to read the character of the individual animals which he has to train. And so it came about that when I introduced the humane system of training, as I may call it, I not only substituted for the whip and the red-hot iron a kindly method of educating the creatures (based upon an intelligent system of rewards and punishments), but I also instituted the practice of stud3-ing the character of each individual before including it in a troupe. In Pretoria we have three Lions (two females and a male. The yonng female, although menagerie-born, cannot be trusted, and always appears to be watching for a chance of seizing one. The old Lioness and the Lion, on the other hand, are tame and trustworthy, and during all the years that I have known them, have never attempted to bite or scratch me. They know me so well. too. that one call is usually sufficient to bring them out and up to the bars for the customary patting and stroking. The two Tigers which we possess, on the other hand, are fierce, savage brutes. They show especial animosity towards their keeper, and seem to dislike everyone connected with the Gardens. They nevertheless remain supremely indifferent to the general ])ublic. Hagenback mentions several cases, how- ever, where Bengal Tigers have been most trustworthy animals, and possessed excellent memories for the master whom they had learnt to know and to love. The Cheetah is. according to Bartlett, " timid, gentle, and verv excitable." I have found Cheetahs certainly gentle and rather shy, becoming excited at the approach of any unknown animal ; but most carnivores would do this. Cheetahs seem to be more trustworthy than any of the other larger felines, and, as is generally known, they are trained and used by the Llindoos to chase and capture game, especially Blackbtick. When brought up with another animal, they retain this friendship when full grown. A Cheetah in the Pretoria Gardens grew up with a Baboon, and they were firm friends until deatli parted them. There is at present a full-grown example in the Pretoria Gardens which has a common cat for its companion, and very good friends they are too. In the cage next door to the Cheetah is a Leo- pard of abotit the same age, and, like it, hand-reared. The difference in the natures of the two brutes can be seen any day at meal times, as the Leopard becomes nasty when it sees blood, and has to be chained up before the keeper can enter its cage 6l6 WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY. with the meat, whereas the Cheetah's cage can be entered as fearlessly at feeding times as on any other occasion. Ungulata. Pachydcniis. — Elephants are, as is well known, wonderfully intelligent animals, but the males, when adult, are of very uncer- tain temper. Bartlett, who devoted much study to these huge animals on account of his fondness for them, says in his first book, " Wild Animals in Captivity," that when the males are about 20 years of age they require careful management. He also makes the assertion that although he knew the attacks of wildness of the famous African Elephant " Jumbo " could have been subdued by reducing his food supply, chaining him up, and flogging him, he feared disastrous results would ensue from kind-hearted and over-sensitive ])eople. He goes on to say : — It is onl^' those who have liad experience in the management of an Elephant who are aware that unless the person in charge of him is deter- mined t(i be master and overpower him. that nerson \x\\\ lose control over him. And later on, in the same book : — The stupid interference of people ignorant of the subject would expose the people in charge to be condemned. Bartlett considered that, although African Elephants may not be as docile as the Indian species, they would prove quite as tractable and useful. " Jumbo " was exceedingly intelligent, and, as above mentioned, was an African Elephant. " Alice." the Elephant that followed " Jumbo," was also of this s])ecies. We possess a young African animal, answering to the name of " Dora," whose age I would now judge to be about ten or eleven years. Six months after we received her — she was wild caught in Rhodesia — we could ride and guide her about the Gardens as easily as the fuU-growni and well-trained Indian Elephant. She also learnt to beg within a few weeks, and is quicker and keener in this department than her older and better- educated companion. It is, therefore, a mystery to me why no use, so far, has been made of the African Elephants in this country, especially in Rhodesia. Hagenbeck says in his work, " Beasts and Men," when giving some of his experiences with Elephants, that " clever animals are liable to moods with which it is not always possible to reckon." He then details an accident that he had with a female Elephant, which nearly killed him out of pure " cussed- ness," although females are seldom dangerous, and in this are quite unlike the adult males. The latter, as I have previously mentioned, often get out of hand during the " must " periods. However, to emphasise the variation of temperament of indi- vidual animals of a species, it is worthy of note that one of the tamest, most intelligent, and most afl'ectionate Elephants ever possessed by Hagenbeck was an adult male. WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY. 6lJ The Rhinoceros is. un the other hand, a stupid animal. Bartlett says : — When very young and small it is usually not bad tempered .... but long before the beast becomes adult it is dangerous to enter tlie den or paddock when the animal is at liberty Hagenbeck says they are ea.sy animals to tame Avhen young-. This has been my experience with both our specimens. The male is now about eight years old, and just about adult. He is also beginning to become nasty, sometimes attempting to poke people who approach too near the fence. The little female purchased in December, 19 14, is ridiculously tame, and walks solemnly up to the fence as soon as she is called by name. With the lTipi)o- potamus I have not had any experience beyond the bull which has now been in the collection for over eight years, and which gets periods of unruly and uncertain temper much like the " must '' periods of a male Ele])hant. Deer and Antelope. — Bartlett has the following paragraph in his " Wild Animals in Captivity " : — t)n the other hand, take the vegetable-feeding class, such as stags, antelopes, oxen, sheep, or goats ; obtain any of these from their birth and rear them by hknd, and in all instances, with few exceptions, they become, when adult, the most savage and dangerous animals in existence. . . . Another remarkable fact connected with these vegetable-feeding horned animals that have Ijeen bred in capitivity (not petted and handled) and reared by the parent, is that they are the wildest creatures in the world if anything is attempted to be done with them in the shape of catching, packing up, or moving them from one place to another. This I can heartily endorse. The males of Deer ( Stags) sometimes become ver}- vicious in the breeding season, and Bart- lett says it is advisable to cut off the antlers of such males as soon as they become hard, in order to prevent them from in- juring the females. I have not yet tried this, but we have from time to time lost female Deer through the savage nature of the Stag, which had in j tired the hind so badly that she either died from the effects of the injury or had to be destroyed. For- tunately such instances have been rare in the Pretoria Zoological Gardens; but here, again, my former assertion holds good, vis., that one has to know the nattux of each individual animal. Some years ago we had a Samliur Deer Stag so vicious that he had to be destroyed. At present the Gardens contain three stags of this species, and they are the most sociable of animals. This applies to Red Deer and Rusa Deer Stags as well. W^ith reference to the Antelope, I have found Bushbuck and W'ildebeest the most pugnacious of animals in captivity, but even amongst these animals an occasional ram will be quiet and friendly. We had several bull Wildebeests and ram Bnshbucks which injured several females in succession, so that they had to be left without mates, but at present the collection contains males of both species that live amicably with their mates. The first I.echwe ram we possessed was an absolute terror, and had to be shut up in his night-house before the camp could be swept. 6l8 WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY. but the animal at present in the collection takes no notice of any one going into his camp, or merely moves further away from the intruder. The same applies to two Eland bulls that we had, the vicious one of which is now dead, but the quiet animal is still in the collection. In captivity, an animal will sometimes, if given a fair oi>])ortunity, revert to its usual habits when in the wild state, as, for instance, several of the Deer, and more particularly the Lechwe Antelope. These animals were formerly in camps, which admitted of the egress of the young ones. The latter would go out of the camp after their morning drink and lie hidden in some hedge or flower bed in the vicinity until sunset, when the time for the evening meal came round, and then the little one would return to its mother. In 1910 we possessed a pair of Gemsbuck, which were ulti- mately the proucl parents of two young ones in 191 1 and 1912. All these buck were tame and quiet, the ram to such an extent, that he preferred standing up to his attendants to giving way. He eventually became dangerous. All these died or were sold, and a fresh stock obtained from the Kalahari. This second lot of three, although hand-reared like the first, never became quite tame, and remained so shy and wild that when nearly full grown they came to grief by getting a fright and dashing into the iron fence of their camp, badly injuring themselves. Zebras. — Zebras are just as subject to individual variation of temperament as the other animals mentioned. Some are easily tamed, and can be ridden and driven without fear or risk. Others again are vicious, and kick and bite without provocation. They are thus with their own kind as well. as with the human race. We have at present two Zebra mares of two distinct species, which will not tolerate another animal of their own kind in either of their paddocks, not even of the opposite sex, biting and kicking with anything but friendly intentions. On tlie whole, though, Zebras are, both in the wild state and in captivity, sociable ani- mals, loving company. To finish up, let me quote a paragraph from Carl Hagen- beck's book, " Beasts and Men,'' which puts into a nutshell much of what 1 have tried to make clear in the foregoing pages : — There is no universal rule for tlie treatment of wild animals. Even individuals of the same species, so great is their variability of tempera- ment, have to be managed according to the particular circumstances of each case. The peculiarity is found, as my narrative has already sh'wn, among Elephants. It exists, in a greater or less degree, among all animals, and is a feature in his profession vi'hich no successful trainer can overlook. Moreover, it is difficult to foresee how animals will behave under any given circumstances, for they are swayed almost completely by the im- pulses of the moment, and it frequently happens that an occurrence to us apparently trifling will cause a perfectly quiet and well-behaved animal to become almost mad with terror. AFRICAN NATR'E MELODIES. By Rev. \\\ A. Norton, B.A., B.Litt. I had the privilege of reading a paper on this subject before the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, at its meeting at Bloemfontein in 1909.* On that occasion I merely discussed the (juestion in general, mentioning some of the material which 1 liad at hand to prove my points. I have long been wanting to publish the songs I have at various times col- lected, but have waited until now, partly from want of leisure, partly hoping that someone more adept musically than myself might do the work better. Rut time is going on, and every year I tind that native custom and language become more and more corrupt, and the true old African ring more and more obliterated by the flood of foreign modes. I feel, therefore. that no time is to be lost. If the ideal musicianK- student of native arts arrives, my own work may be of use to him — at any rate, it will be no drawback. If he does not arrive, there will be some record of what is passed away. How glad we should be to find remains, however imperfect, of the music of our heathen Teutonic ancestors, or even of the Keltic or pre-Aryan tribes which preceded them! Even so I venture to think that the Africander of the future, and still more the Bantu of the future, will be glad of some records such as these, and if someone can correct these, where they ma\' very well be astra>'. I shall only be too thankful. But here let me utter a warning. Primitive Bantu music, as Professor Meinhof and other workers have pointed out, depends not on the melod\-, which is often poor, and to our ears often unpleasing, but on rJiythin, which explains why the Suto word for a circumcision song corresponds with the Swahili word for a drum, the meaning apparently in original Bantu also ; and whv the Sechwana word for a hymn sc-opclu. is from the verb opa. originally meaning to clap, or beat a drum. Bantu music is pre-eminenth" percussive, as some of us maw have found to our cost when wanting to sleep o" nights, withotit realising the extremely elaborate character, artistic after its kind (if properlv performed), of what we may call the " drumnody." The amateur pianist or songster, the "' musical person" in the vulgar sense, is apt to ignore the art of drumming, as under- stood in militar\- music, and used with such effect with the organ in funeral marches, etc. It is natural, therefore, for those who are narrow-minded enough to suppose that no good thing, artistic or otherwise, can come out of the African native, to miss the artistrv of native rhvthm. Those who have =;een a really good war-dance at the mines, for example— the opportunity is rare elsewhere in the Union— or heard a good Chopi piano per- *Rept. S.A.A.A.S.. Bloemfontein (1909), 314-316. 620 AFRICAN NATIVE MELODIES. formance, with the resoundnig gourd-zither, will, if they have ears for rhythm, have gained some experience of its intricacy ; but even the humble lullaby (like No. 12 below), which may be heard in the backyard, w^ill be found often quite a problem to unravel. Indeed, had 1 possessed a rhythmometer, such as is now used by ethnological students, 1 should have been inclined to confine myself to rhythm ; but as my unaided ear was quite inadequate to the task of rhythm-record, I have fallen back on melody, which will, in conjunction with the rhythm of the Bantu words, sufficiently indicate, I hope, the beat. I have confined myself to melody, and this has the advantage of bring- ing out the scale and essential characteristics of the air, and avoidinsf the intricacies of harmonisation, which would have been within the reach of musicians only, and probably biit few of them. )iot including myself. Another point of warning: nu- experience is that if you hear the same song from several different groups, not only the 'harmonies, but the melodies, not to say the detail of the words. may be different each time, though the rhythm will probably remain constant. This illustrates what I have said above. The difference will often be due to diff'erent " parts " being really independent melody, as in counterpoint ; but it is, of course, a commonplace of folk-song, as anyone who has studied the history of our older European melodies will acknowledge. Permit me to refer those interested to my paper of 1909. published in the Bloemfontein Report, for the more general treat- ment, and let me recall that I had come, even then, to the con- clusion that the Bantu* scale was ])robab1y the Pentatonic or Scotch. I v.'ill give the melody of " .Vnld Robin Gray," or rather the melody, in the old Third mode, ending on I'l, to which Lady Nairn wrote, as T understand, the words of that familiar song, now, however, generally ])ublishe(l to another and ( I should say) later tune : — m s d' Is m r d r d My father couldna work, and my mother s 1 d' 1 s fin r d r d I toiled day and night, but their bread I couldna win. r' in' r' d' 1 s m' r' d'l s m r Auld Rob maintained them baith, and with tears in his ee, ms 1 d' 1 s in d' r' in' inf in Said, "Jenny, for their sakes, wilt thou marry me?" * Maybe even beyond their sphere in South Africa, An interesting book on American Negro melodies, whose author I forget, gives at least lour pentatonic in a collection of 15 or 20 : one especially interesting, with words handed down from the singer's grandfather's grandmother, who came as a heathen slave from Africa about 1700. Booker Washington's "Souls of Black Folk'' gives some "sorrow songs" of Afro-Americans. of which two at least are pentatonic. r in 1 couldna spin r in d' AFRICAN NATIVE MKLODIES. 62;i Except for the passing f in line 2, and the lift mf at the end, it will be seen that the scale runs : m' r' d' 1 S i»i. Let me take another example from the extreme East, from the other extremity of Eurasia, namely, from Corea, whence a friend was kind enough to procure me the following Pentatonic melody, a Confucian chant: — 1 1 , d r , I'l : d , r ni , m s , in : m 1 , s m , r : ni , s PI , dr , d 1 1 , d r , I'l : d , r m , I'l s , PI . It will be noted that this scale, so frequent in the corners of the earth (it is used in China also), has no interval smaller than a tone; the only other interval between adjacent notes is the minor third ; the semitone does not exist. Hence the fact, so often a trouble to missionaries here, that they cannot get semitones properly sung. I will now proceed to Suto melodies, that being the Bantu language I am most familiar, with, carefully observing any cases which do not conform to the Scotch scale above : — d r PI r d 1, 1, rd 1, s, s, 1. (Ue) Ue, Ue maloto, Klioashi (2) ; hulele, Khoashi (2). I have this song entered as a threshing song, but it is also used in a children's game with stones. They sit round, hold- ing them, tap on the ground at the three "lie's'' and the syllable /o, and ]Dass at the syllables in italics. The song is prob- ably old, and the sense of the words lost. Hulele means " draw to" one; some read Helelc, which is an interjection of surprise, and Khase. Z does not occur in Suto. It is a question whether these alternatives are corruptions, or original, derived from some other dialect and corrupted into the mere Suto forms first given, 2. PI r PI r »>) pir pi r Seotsanyana Ha a rohalc, Ka s-dkaiu'iig'' La jnanyamane does not sleep in the kraal of the calves PI r PI r d r 1| Oa qetlioha O etsisa Nkhekhenene he just lies on his back r d 1| d S| he pretends sleep. (The last line is sung twice, first to the melody above it, then to that below it.) Seotsanyana is a kind of Lob-lie-by-the-fire of the Basuto children. He does not lie on his side, like one really tired, but idly lolls on his back. 3. r d 1, s, Ha ke hide ke bapala I no longer play Ke se ngoana e monye-nyane I'm not a little child : Kulu-pana, Kulu-pana ! Wallow, roll on the ground ! * The accent of the native words is on the penultimate syllable unless otherwise marked. 622 AFRICAN NATIVE MKLODIKS. This seems to be a girls' Khiba song (a kind of heathen knee-drill). The last line seems to show that, though growing up, they have not yet put away childish things, and suggests with some humour the psychology of adolescence. A friend's collection gives a Suto threshing song, of which the melody of the second member of the couplet corresponds to this ; the former member being the same, one note higher, and still in the Pentatonic scale. d S| r d (1|) S| r d 1, s, 4. Likoche : ha ho sechaba se hlolang niakh(;oa I ( cf. No. 3 for cadence). i.e. " The Scotch ! There is no nation which conquers the white men." I am not sure v.iiich war's exj^erience this repre- sents. I think I was told the last, but it would probably be true of all as regards the kilted Scots. The natrves have a saying that thay dress like women, but tight like men. ( I might men- tion that I am in no wise Scotch myself. 1 From the African character of the tune, I should say that it was either an old tune adapted to these modern words, or else represents the experience of one of the earlier wars. m r d 5. Hele^ Saolel (E be e Ic Saole. " Perhaps it is Saole.'') m r d 1| S| I'll l|d O ba a c-ca kac Saole 11 ii " Where is Saole going? O ita lekola, a (le) Ic raretsa. " He has a crest which he draggles." O ba . . . . Hii (as before). This is a running song, going with the regulation war " double '' of a native impi, which is imitated in the war dance. The legend says that Saole was raiding cattle for his marriage, but was caught in a pass and stoned. Native Christians curiously connect it with Saul on the Damascus road. The song is said to be very old, at least before horses became known in the thirties of last century ; probably much older. s r s m r dl,s, 6. He, moloi ! Tlhaka ; A ua e sollisa (re fihla. Mankiane h'a e- ea mo sollisa). He, Moloi! sss. . . Tlhaka. The puzzle is sollisa Sola is to cause a rash. Sola is to throw off hair (moult) or skin (slough). SoUu is to wander, perhaps connected with the first, in regard to a rash changing place. Sollisa is the causative ; Tlhaka being a scar, either of the meanings seems possible. AFKR'\.\ NATIVl-: M I-XODl KS. 623 " Hey, wizard ! that scar, you soliisa it ; ( we are come. He has not soliisa' d Mankiane.)" The ])art in brackets does not always occur, and may be an addition. The woman Man- kiane, wife of A'lateka, one of Masopha's men, was said to be in Ladybrand not long ago after the rinderpest, so that part of the song cannot be very old. The hiss probably represents the pain, or spurt of blood, during the operation phatsa, inoculation kgainst witchcraft. m d r d m d 1, S| 7. Makopaiic (e! Oei ! Abe!) Ngoana 11 bone matJiiila-'kz.-hXoho. I'l ind rd mrd Abe, a-he. . Child, see the things knocking their heads to- gether. Kopana is to em])race : Makopane is the Mathnla-ka-hlolo , the Punch and Judy kind of doll {modiila), enormous, with a rag head and a feather crest. Two of these are knocked to- gether, and then embrace, as in our folk-drama. I cannot fix the tune of the former nonsense words, probably a variation of the latter. Hitherto our tunes have ended on s in the Pentatonic scale, having the single tone above the final: ri r d 1| S| This song, however, has the double tone above the final, virj.. Is mrd, and so corresponds so far with our major mode. The follow- ing appears to be similar. m rm rdr l|dS|rl|d 8. (He!) leqhekoanyana. lea bua ; le 'na. ke bue : hole le Sankoe. sm drdsmd S| r d S| I'll hoi hoi ! hoi ! ho Sankonini. I'l r d 1| S| (and also lea bua ; le 'na, ke bue as a variation of the upper tune). Hey ! the little old man, he speaks : let me speak. Here, hole le Sankoe may mean " far from Sankoe," appar- ently a place, possibly the speaker's home: ho Sankonini. on the other hand, means to a person of that name. These two names do not seem to be Suto : leqheku also, the diminutive of which begins the song, is the Zulu-Kafir ixegu, probably derived in its turn from Plottentot, like most clicked words. This dramatic little song is said to be fairly recent. I have included all my variations of tune as well as words, as they illustrate my pre- face. mrd m r d i'l r d d m r d m 9. Maribane O ribile A nts'a ts'oana : ts'oana li 'iiiele li iiutat extrudens album : alba sunt corpora r d mekatako (multitudines) . 624 AFRICAN NATIVE MliLODIES. From the simplicity of the tune, and matter-of-fact mys- tery of the words, I regard this as very old, probably a circum- cision song. Riba, is to nod up and down (leriba is the straw visor of the bale (girls undergoing puberty rites). Maribane possibly corresponds to Priapus among the Greeks ; in which case the song will be in some sense phallic. I have discovered very few of this sort ; the ordinary songs seem quite remarkably free from what one would have expected from primitive peoples. We now come to tunes ending on the third above or below the keynote, and thus correspond roughly to our minor mode. The scale in this case will stand: r d 1| S| nii or s PI r d 1| The second note shows the ditference betv/een the two forms. The remaining tonality : d' 1 S 11 r does not seem to occur, apart from m rd 1| S| , which we have already dealt with (Nos, 1-4). No. 13 represents the former of the two alternatives above, and Nos. 10-12 the latter. md md m (f) r d r 1, 10. Ua, Ua, Tsavi'o bitsn Morenu Hake (2). Go, call the King Vulture d t, r d Sin s f d f ni Ua ! A tVo pluDiya malana, re je. (2). Let him come pierce the maw, that we may eat. in r d li t| d Ntja e shocle le kokotoana. (2). The dog is dead, his skin is dry. This grim ditty, racy of the soil, interests me not only for the dash of rude poetry which pictures the crows with their " Ua, Ua," calling their royal cousin, the great aasvogel, to the feast they may not begin alone. But for this reason : the tune was first given me in the second form, and seemed to me curiously European ; it was only the other day that I heard the form which I have put at the top, and which is Pentatonic, and I believe original, or more nearly so. The third form is simply a variation to harmonise with the second, as I imagine, and prob- abl}^ the last also. s 1 sin r d sin r d (1,) II*. Mabele a oroha (2) re ee hae ; ( )ha (2) ha bots'oene. T]ie millet is going home, let us go home zvhere the mon- keys are. This is a harvest home song. Ohd is the monkeys' cry. I thought at first that the tune ended on d, but now have dis- covered a slight drop on the last syllable. We are using this tune in more than one language for a harvest hymn, and it is a * Cf. M. Tunod's " Sailor's sono on the Nkomati River '" : Is. Is, mrdd. Is. " AFRK AN NATIVE MELODIES. 625 gieat favourite, The first half easily adapts itself to Christian use. thus : l he corn goes home : The souls go home : Great is the har- vest ; The Chief will l)e there at the Feast : and will give His wages Needless to say, the hnal words have to be altered. Per- sonally, I think it a great pity that English hymn-tunes and translations of English hymns have been used for the natives. Both are often very poor, and the tunes entirely unsuital)le in rhythm. The dit^culty of unsuitable association is readilv got over by giving Basuto a Swahili melody, and "c'ice versa, and so on. If we were squeamish about origins or forgotten associa- tions, we sliould miss some very fine folk-melodies, which appear as modern English hymn-tunes. r Ism r iTl, 12. E . . 1 . . Uciia nana (or ngoana) E . . I . . Baby: ken pcpile : E . . I . . I have carried you. ka lithatsana In the little lithari. tsa-boiinuae Of your mothers. There is something very touching in this lullaby. It is long, very long, since I was sung to sleep Avith : " Rockaby baby on the tree top : When the wind blows the cradle will rock," but I seem to recognise the same tossing lilt in both. The native mother is, after all, radicall\ of the same stock as the European, but with a difference, at any rate in externals. Thus pepa is to carry on the back in the tliari, or sheepskin. The song seems to represent the rocking and tossing the child must get, as the mother raises and lowers her hoe at the field work. I should say that I am beholden to Dr. Frere, of Mirfield, a distinguished European scholar and musician, who was good enough to record Nos. 5, 4, 12, and 16 for me when on a visit once to ?\lodderpoort. (1) s PI r d 1 1 m rd r 13 (Se)phoko se linaka, thaka tsa me . . kuankuantsilo' ! ho S S PI ntsoe mane ! The horned owl, my mate let it out over there. Whether the word untranslated represents the owl's hoot, or is a name, I cannot tell: the piece is a leiigac. Maiigac ipl.) are odes sung in the intervals of the litJioko, the praises acclaim- ing a chief. Some of these are of real poetic value, but do not concern us here, as ( anciently, at any rate) they were not sung, but recited. The tuangac are, as it were, the choruses of a Greek play, or rather the lyrics which give variety to an epic 626 AFRICAN NATIVE MELODIES. poem, since the litlwko, though often higlily dramatic, are not in dialogue form. To illustrate, however, the whole primitive art-form, let me give an example which 1 have just discovered among old hoards: it is doubtless corrupt, but will give an idea of the real sense of composition which the native poets enjoyed: A : sephoko se liiiko tsa Takatsaiic. B : Ho nisoe tiuiiic (constant refrain) Wo. ..ho.. .ho... (B) i. Ekarc ha ke ctcla Thaha Piitsoa (B) ba nkalima e Ptitsoa pclcsatic (B) ii Patsoa (ii) C: Ho ntsue lele ntstie Iclc (B) ba nkalima e Patsoa pclesane (A, B, C, B) iii Chicha(Bj Chicha (B, C) iv Nts'o Nts o V. Lipifre tsa MaEngescniane bokiiebii .' Chorus : Kuankuantsilo' (constantly repeated). The first line is probaljly a corruption of the lengae above (No. 13). It would mean, literally, " Owl with the nose of T." Line i. is : When I visited the Blaauwberg, they lent me a blue little beast of burden, ii. : Dappled Mountain dappled . . . , and so with iii. and iv., where Chicha is " round " and Nts'o " black." v. reads : The horses of the Englishmen are bo-kuebn (said to mean "roan"). .A.s regards the geography, Thaba Patsoa is a mountain to the south of the line between Westminster and Thaba 'Nchn. (Marrismith is also the Black Mountain.) Thaba Chicha is a conical hill on a quad- angular base between Modderpoort and Clocolan, also in the Orange Free State. But what is a Chicha pelesane? A round ox is one with no horns. A round horse is presumably a fat one, but the former translation seems more likely. If our specimen is anything near 100 years old, the ])elesa (beast of burden) must be a pack-ox, and line v. a later addi- tion. When horses were first seen with their i^ale riders, they were taken for ghost cattle, which traditionally have no horns. The poem has omitted an important point : were the cattle lent ever returned? These are nearly all the Suto songs to which 1 have any- thing like complete notation. The others are interesting as ]3oetry, but must wait for another time. I will pass on, there- fore, to the allied Serolong, inserting, however, first, a Suto scrap in the Scotch scale, which suggests the lilt and tonality of the Chwana No. 15. S| d d d r s I'l d nid r d d 14. Mabele! (3) na lea tseba a lenc/oa joang inabeh^? Kafircorn ! Know ye how Kafircorn is hoed, s 1 s I'l d r d d 1 1 d in d mi d r d 15. Thibelele (2) Rakocha : Ai shi shi. At sht, O Rakoclia. Make a circle AFRICAN NATIVE MELODIES. 627 s m s PI r d d 1, d in d m d r d Ea Moroka (2) ea loaiia. E loaiia ka, e loaiia ka lithopi (2). The rArniy) of M, is fighting . with guns ! s 1 s m d r d d 1| d Klioino li ya scbokit. Ai slii shi The oxen are eating the grass This is a threshing song of the Barolong of Moroka, who migrated to Thaba 'Nchii from Bechuanaland in the tliirties, and assisted the Boers against the Basuto, who claimed to be over- lords of the Barolong: hence the guns. Dudley Kidd gives a Gazaland song something like this, and in the same scale; No. ly, though Setebele, also recalls the melody theme. S| S|d I'l r d r d r d r d 1| i6. U'lelauy? Oabo }na(;o a timana a tiina habclcgi (?) What are you crying for? Were your mother's people stingy with the nurse-girls ? There is a version of this added on to the words of the Suto lullaby, No. 12. It continues: . . . 'Mac a tiiiiana i:ania Ic His (that is the child's) mother boJiobe stints meat and bread. (It is the nurse-girl that speaks.) Ha kc nil) pcpUc When I carry him Ntaf'ac a timana sixpence. His father stints 6d. Ay, ee ! Tsela nka ea ka efc' I can go by Maseru. Nka ca ka Maseru. Which way can I go? The sixpence reveals modernity, and probably the Euro- pean nationality of the child. Well, it is good to see ourselves as others see us ; but I wonder if the nurse-girl had given notice according to law. The language in this case is Suto. Let us now pass to Setebele. The following is a war-song : I'l r d d r d 1, d| r, 17. Abamodandi bonke bati: Makivenkn'cshanc, siyakiifa. The men of Modandi all are saying: Mak. (name of the singer's tribe) we are dying. r d 1| S| I'll d| d| S| I'l, s t»i d 1, d Tinina^ Sibaqcdc. Oyayo. Oyayo. Hanibe kc! Wherefore so? W'e have finished them Then march away ! M. Junod gives a Ronga tune of similar wide compass, which I venture to transpose to shew its Pentatonic character: S I'l I'l I'l r r r d 1| • S| 1, l,S|l'l, S| I'l, s, Now all these South African tunes are in the Pentatonic or Scotch scale in one or other of their forms. I have found rarely 6^8 AFRICAN NATIVE MELODIES. any (but those frankly modern) which chd nut correspond to this scale, among the Snto and Chwana tribes. Also among the Bondei of East Africa 1 found the following: s t'l d r S| , then d d' S d' , then d' 1 d' 1 S 1 , but I confess that others of that part were otherwise. Also all but one of Father Torrend's collection, and all but one, I think, of the Zulu tunes of Father Mayr, whose sad death lovers of native lore must deplore. I found one Pentatonic only, but that a lullaby, and therefore ])ro- bably old, among those Baroness Posse so carefully collected, and allowed me to exhibit with my last musical paper. None of the native pianos I have tried are confined to the Scotch scale ; a Zulu Zanze, which I had tried or seen quoted somewhere, gives d' 1 s I'l r d 1| S| f| (!) Hi . All but the pemultimate note are in the Scotch scale. A si'folntnlo, however, gives d r d S| and a lesiba, in m s I'l I'l d : r I'l r d. Other pentatonic scraps my ear has caught are in Suto d' S 1 S Ml a threshing song ; S I'l S I'l r a dance tune ; d' r' d' 1 : S II r : S d S heard at Tsikoane in Leribe ; d' r' d' 1 , f S 1 : sl S I'l d r d I heard somewhere. The second is practically the former pentatonic phrase transposed a 4th. Examples of Modern Native Tunes (in the modern scale) by way of contrast : s I'l r d d, r d 1| S| s, 1. Ai-ko-na white man. Ai-ko-na black man. Whether it's a white man. Whether it's a black man. d r f s f r I'l d Mi-na hambi-le fu-na skof One's going round to look for skof ! d r I'l f s I'l f r s s s s 2. Siya ku bo-na Sonke kahle bitje-nya-na We shall all be glad to get a little bit. Hla-la la-pa pan-si ma-si-hambe. Sit here on the floor let us go! s d' t Is I'l I'l in f s :- r r r 3. Mosali Mo-ho-lo O'nti-mi-le jua-la nti-mi-le I'lf r d d d t|d Jua-la nti-mile jua-la d I'l Is in I'l PI f s r r r Sti-ma sti-ma sti-ma-na jua-la sti-ma-na PI fpir d d d t| d jua-la sti-ma-na jua-la i.e. — The old lady has stinted me of beer Oh don't do that ! Stiuia is presumably for 5^ tunc don't stint. in r PI f in r in f in r d r d 4. Ha le se le ka Paradeiseng : Oho m'nyako 'a Adam le Eva. ( sa?) When you were still in Paradise. Oh ! the gate of Adam and Eve ! ON THE GAMMA, OR FACTORIAL, FUNCTION. By Prof. W. N. Roseveare, M.A. Summary of Paper. 11 ! The Binomial Coefficient which can be written t- — ■, . . , when {n — i) I I I 11 is a positive integer, cannot be reduced to this simple form when n is more general, unless we can devise a meaning for n ! for other values of n. The continuous function so defined is known variously as the Gamma Function or Gauss' Function. I prefer to call it the Factorial Function and to represent it in Gauss' notation by Un. The general binomial coefficient I denote by («),, extending the symbol (;/)„ to represent the generalized =77 . ^ . where ;/, a ■' ^ ^ ^ '=' n(« — flj.na' ' have any values. In this paper I have attempted, first, to give a series of connected proofs of the main theorems. Proposition I. — On the existence of the function. (Excursus on ' a fair curve ' and * simple ' functions.) ,, II. — That Gauss' function is the unique ' simple ' function which generalizes / !. ,, III. — A complete analytical expression for e'Ux/x^'^K ,, IV. — Connection between Ux and n( — :x;). „ v.-n- n.v.n(.r-^)n(.r-?y . . n(.v-^yn(;u>). ,, VI. — The Factorial Function as Euler's Second Integral J AogM dx. „ VII.— f r( I - ByiW= ^ "f "I' , when finite (two I ^ ^ U{x-\-y+i) ^ proofs). ,, VIII. — Expansion of log Ux and n.r in power series. ;. ,, IX. — Fundamental proof that IT.v can be expanded in powers of .v when | .v ] < i. 6jo THE r.AMMA, OR FACTOkTAL, FUNCTION. Proposition X. — {n)a = — \z^"~'{i+z)"d2 round the unit circle 27riJ ii 11 > — I and a has any vahie. Propositions resulting from the above (proofs not given) on extended Binomial formulae and Fractional differentiation, with applications to Hypergeometric series and fractional spherical harmonics. The Propositions, though forming, it is hoped, a continuous whole, are not to any great extent interdependent. Some proofs are old established : some are new. The ordinary factorial of a positive integer is fully defined by the relation n\ = n («— i) !, with the special value o ! = i. If we had a meaning for .r ! when .r is not a positive integer, many algebraical formulae, especially the binomial coefficient, could be simplified. We proceed to discuss whether there is a simple extension of n ! to the general case. The conclusion to which we shall come is as follows : PROPOSITION I. If n.v is a function satisfying the relation n.v=.rn(.v— i), and equal to .r ! when .r is a positive integer, then there is an infinite variety of possible forms of n.r, but one special form which may be described as the ' simple ' form. The relation Ux=xU{x—i) leads of course to Ilx = Uix+N) {x-\-i){x-\-2)...{x+N) where A^ is a positive integer. And if n(.r+A^) can be determined when A^ — > oo the definition of Ux is complete. Now if a: is a positive integer U{N+x) = {N-i-x) (A^+.v- 1) . . . (A^ + i)nA^ which''' ii > b. It will be seen that the inequality admits of all the transformations of an equation. TITE CAMM.N. nU I" \i lOR I Al .. I'i ' \ ( -finX . C)1,J We may now assume this relation to hold when x is general : and so obtain n.v=I/. 7 — , — x -, — r-rrr as the definition of a possible Factorial F'unction. This formula was estabUshed by Gauss, and the function is known as Gauss'. Excursus oil ivliat wc propose to call ' simple ' "•- functions. It is known that if a^jb^^ ^2/^2, ^3/^3, • • • ai'C fractions whose denoiuinators are all positive, then Zaj'sJ} lies in value among the given fractions. It is also true that if nj/^i, ^2/^2, • • • are in ascending order, 2„rt/S„6, by which we mean (ai + <^2 + - • • '^«)/(^i + ^2 + - ■ -b,) increases with n: for I,„a/I,„b = (S„_,rt + rt„)/(2„_,6 + /)„), which lies between S„_,,), which lies between ajbi and S„_,«,+,/2„_,6,+,, whereas lies between S„_ia,4.,/2„_j6i+i and «,+„/6j-|-„, therefore the latter is the greater. Hence 2„rt,/S„&; increases with / when n is constant. Applying these results to the series of fractions fxj-fx fx^-fx^ ' I ' * ' ' ' where .v, .Vj, x^ . . . are increasing values of a variable, we find that if these fractions are in ascending order, {fX—fx)/{X — x) in- creases with A' when x is constant, and (J'(x-\-cx)—fx)/cx increases with X when dx is constant. These results hold if the intervals between .r, .Vj, X2 . . . are indefinitely diminished, in which case the set of fractions becomes f'x, f'Xi, /'.t'a, . • . Corresponding results hold, of course, if the original fractions are in descending order. Hence, if fx is a con- tinuous function of x such that f'{x) continually increases or diminishes throughout a certain range of .*■ (i.e. if/"(.v) is positive or negative throughout the range). • The word ' simple ' is used elsewhere of functions considered simple from other points of view : it is therefore impossible to stereotype the word as used in this paper. 'K^■^ TIIV: CA.AIMA. OR FACTORIAL, FUNCTION*. (I)- II. III. fX-fx ^ X-x \ f'X f'x f[x^lx)-J X . and .*. f'x fX-fx X-x x-k if A' > .V and I < x. ex increases (or diminishes) as ex increases, when .r is constant. f{x-\-^x)—fx . ^x increases (or diminishes) as .v increases, when ex is constant. A function for which f"{x) is always positive or always negative we propose to call a ' simple ' function. The more familiar types of continuous functions consist of a succession of ' simple ' functions : in other words, they may be represented by curves with only occasional points of inflexion. A useful application of (I) is to the approximate summation of series whose terms are of the form /'{x). x=X Thus, > t X . ex, when ex is constant, < .V, .J ; Z-J \ /A-/(t-ci') ,v=f C.J,. {a + ir I I a I I a — I a + n The 'summation theorem' of Integral Calculus is a special case. By means of II and III we will now prove Proposition II, that Gauss' assumption, in regard to the factorial function, that n(A''+^) — > A'*', n.r is the only assumption which makes log n.r a ' simple ' function (from .v = — i to .v = oo). . PROPOSITION II. f(x+N) We have fx = -, — r-^ / , ,.,, and for positive integral -^ (-v+i) . . . (a-+A^)' ^ ** values of .r, fx is the ordinary factorial, .r ! Since log fix + 1 ) - log /v = log (.r + 1 ) , log/, if ' simple,' must be an increasing function. Considering x to vary only from o to i and using N for a positive integer, 'I'lll--. CAM.MA, OK I'.\( TDRIA!., IUNlTIDN. log/(.V + .v)-log/(iV) ^'.^3 X by II and III above, < !, r/y,y,\ , /-/xf', x ^ ' \ ; log /(iV + .r) - log f{N + .V - I ) I I.e. log(iV+i) log (.V+.V) <^^=iog ; .v+ I N X /(A^+-v) ^v/A' and therefore Hence, Gauss' Definition II.v = Lt N+x\ -^> I as A^ increases. A'* . nA^ (.v+i)(.r+2) ...{x+N)^'"'^^ the only function with a ' simple ' logarithm which satishes the factorial law, and has /'(o) = i. That other (not ' simple ') functions satisfy the conditions is evident from the form n.r , jcos 2.V7r + (const.) sin 2.V7r[. One aim of this theory of ' simple ' functions is to reduce to logical order the somewhat nebulous ideas implied in the phrase ' drawing a. fair curve through given points,' which one meets with in graphical work. PROPOSITION III. .4 complete analytical expression for IT.v. Since log n(A;+i) — log Il^r^log (.v+i), •. |logn(.v+i)-(.v+i + c,)log(.v+i)} = I log Ux — (.v+ «) log {x + 1) } n arbitrary x-\-i = \ log n.v -(.V + a) log .V } - (.r + a) log — n.v ••• log -^a - (ditto .v+i) = {x + a)Av\-^^ = i+Av^^^ a-i+e = I+^2't X+I-6 • It follows at once from the definition of ' the logarithm ' that log x / V- i) being always Ihe upper limit. ^ x-i I I— - X t ' Avf{Q)' is here and elsewhere used for \f{Q)dQ. The notation is less cumbersome, and the special result Avd" =i/(n+i) is constantly useful in expan- sions (as here). 634 THE CAM MA, OR FACTORIAL. Fl^NCTION. Expand the last fraction in powers of 6 and carry out the integration (which is legitimate when x > o), and then we get ^n.r ,,.,^ . ^ V^ I (a- 1 , I I log ^^^ - (ditto m ^^^+^)=2_j{^+Yr'\j+^ + T+2\ o 2 1 ai+{2a — l) {.v+iy+' ' (/ + i)(/4-2)" o Hence, taking a = J, e'nx ,,. ^ . V^ I I- 1 log ^^i - (ditto in .r+i) = Z^V^i] [)' 2i{i-\-i) 2 [This choice of a makes log ^'T[.r/A-^+" converge most rapidly to a definite value when .v is big.] Writing down corresponding equations for values of -r increasing by unity, and adding them up, we get ..v + .Vt log _^-+i - log(^^.^;^).r+A+^ ~2_j /_j ' {x^ny 2i{i^\) ;i = I 1 = 2 and the second term on the left converges as A^ increases to (.v+iV)+log (.V-^nAO _(.r + Ar+ 1) log (.r+A^ wh ich -^ X + A^ + .V log A^ + log nA^ - (.v + A^ + \) (log A^ + xj'N) and this is independent of .r, when A' — ^ cc . Let L be the limit of e'^'nA^/A^^^^*. ii^en u — 1.1 ^A.^-i — Li (2A^)'^'^'+^ and so ,_r/Mll i^^y'^' _ J. 2.^...2N /(2\ ^ " n(2A0 ■ A'^^+' "1.3... 2N-1 ■ V \A7 ^^ . . Xir Xtrf X^\[ X- Now, since sin — = — (i — — l(i — — 2 2 y ~ J \ 4 we have Wallis's formula for tt, TT ^ ^^ 2- . 4- . . . (2A^)- 2 1.3=^.5^ ... (2A^-l)='. (2A^+ l) Hence J(») = Li ,^3^;;,^, . ^ (,VVt) = '" I'.i!; ^;\.\1MA. OK I A(.I<)KIAL, FUNCTION. 635 Hence Lt vj^v+r — \/(-^) (known variously as Stirling's or J, A. Serret's formula). We now have (if .r>o) e"n.r _\^4 l-^ _ V-< V~> I i-i 11 = 1 1 = 2 The right-hand expression can also be transformed by using the relations : _ p (-i + Q)' _r'^i^ ^ p e^tit; 00 f>^ ;i = o When X is big, this can be shown to lie between i/6(2.v+i) and i/6(2.r) (using former Propositions for * simple ' functions). PROPOSITION IV. Connection behveen Ux and n( — .r). nN.nN Ux . n( — .r) = by Gauss' Definition, Lt -, — , — c 7 — tta (-.v+i)...(-.v+A^) I T = LI ~, r ; r- = Lt ■+7)-(>+i) (-■f:)-7:)--('-A^^ ('-i)-('-^) but sin XI, = Ltxiv ( I - '^ [x - '^^j . . . (i - ^y .-. II.v. n(-,Y) = ■'^"" , or n.r. n(-.r-i) = Sin xt: ' ' sin x-K 63^ TIItL GAMMA, OR FACTORIAI,, FUNCTION. Hence also n(x+i) . ll(-x-i-i) = ■ 7^ ^ - (-)' • T^ ^ ' ' \ ' sin (.v+/)'r sin . and in particular, putting .r = — ^, {n(-i)}^=7r, II(-|)=V^. Introducing negative values of .v in Proposition III, log -J — 77 : becomes log -7—77 ^^ — 777 ^: • -■ ^ \ e-''n{ — x) 2 sm xttJ t;-^n( — .1") V~\ 6^ .-. log _^ i7--~\ — log (I COSeC.VTr) — > Al' , - , .- ., PROPOSITION V n- ux . n(x-l) . iif^-^V . . n(x-'^ To prove that .^ "^ ^) /'^ ^ ^ (.-/.-. ■^ Il{nx) ^ ■ ■ C27rV"~'"' // IS a positive integer) js independent of x and = ^ — ^ — . \l n For I{{nx) = Lt ' {nx+i) (//.r+2) . . . {nx-\-Nn) n(;/.v+ nN) = It ""-^ lx+l\(x+l-\-i\ . . . (x+'^+N- I x + -](x+i + ^-\ ... Lr + r + .V-i nj\ n V n {x+i){x+2)...{x + N) which. Lf"""+"^'—^ " I .^- » I ... "M «"-v n(.+^^-i+.v) n(.-^-i+iv) nG^+^^) Till-: (;.\MAI.\. OK FA( 'I'MRIAI,, I'^l ' NcTION . 63; Now in the limit n(Nn + nx) = (Nx)'- . n(.V//) = {Nn)'--^ . 7(27r) . e"^'" (Nny"-^^ and in general, n(A^ + r) = A^^ . UN = A^-^ . J{27r) . e'" . iV-''+* llnx Ux.mx-^]...n X-" ^^ which = V(27r)-« . j^„.->.;.+i,.v,. + n/. • -1j^'A^= { 7(27r)} "- Q-^"^' C.™«.n..-,f.=o..n(-i).n(-f)..,n(-'I^) = y((^) PROPOSITION VI. The Factorial .Function as ^Ruler's Second IntegraV or the ''Gamma Function.^ We have approached the Factorial Function from Gauss' point of view, which has the advantage of a definition holding for all values of the variable. Euler studied it as a definite integral in a somewhat different form from that which we shall choose. We know that 6-^ - 1 +-V log-^ + f-; (iog-;)v . . . + ^' (log ij+... . for all positive values of 8 and for all values of x. .-. |V'^0^sfj£(log^)'./e, but «-\/0 = — -- (for all values of .v less than i) = Xv'. Hence i log -p. jd6 = i\ 638 Till': (;amma, or factorial, function'. Now consider the more general integral /. '=ih'e (id where x is not a positive integer. We shall prove (i) that it is finite if .v> — i, but infinite (i.e. meaningless) when a; < — i ; and that when x > —i, (2) its logarithm is a 'simple' function, and (3) it obeys the factorial law. Since Gauss' function has been proved to be the unique 'simple' function satisfying the law and agreeing with i\, it will follow that the integral (/^) = n(A) whenever a;> — i. (i) We know that log r ^ "^-^ ^; when n is positive. ^ -^ > 7/(1- v-'") ^ do n%i - d""y dd ! if X is positive, o 1 ^ ' n' therefore if x is positive, /^ < q-, n being chosen greater than X. Therefore /,. is finite when x is positive. Now, integrating by parts, .-=[<.o.i)-]; o •'o + \ dd. x[ log Now if A- > o, wflog-^j = o at both limits; but if a- < o, H lc)g nj — > + 00 when 6 — >i. And when a- > o flog ^j dd has been proved finite, .'. /,._, is also finite, .*. I^. is finite if a> — i. Again, if .r o , 1^ is finite, but /^ — a7,_, — > ao /^_, — > (+ 00 ), i.e. /^ is + 00 if A-<^ — I — 2 and as a- increases negatively (log i)^ becomes 00 of a higher order, therefore I-^ is meaningless if a- < — i, but finite if a; > — i. We have also proved that when a' > — i, I^^ obeys the factorial law. Till'. GAMMA. OK !• ACTdKl Al., I'UNCTION. C>;^() We now prove that log 7^. is a ' simple ' function. and in this case / ^ Av( log ^ ) , /'^^z^l^logy .loglog^j, f'^Avmog-'^ .(loglog^j ^ thus, writing / for log (i/9), we see that f"x .fx-{f'xy={Avl')Av{l'{\og l)^] - {AvFlogl}', which varies as S/j^// 1 (log Ij)^ + (log l^y — 2 log /, . log I^ \ (where the suffixes indicate any two values of /). Since this expression is necessarily positive, d^/dv" (log 7^.) is positive, therefore log7_j is 'simple' ; and, since Ilx is unique by Proposition II, 7^ = ILr when it has a meaning I d = e~' reduces 7^ to e~'z'dz PROPOSITION VII. f n.v iiv To prove ihat\ 6%1-eydd = „,, ,, .when (a + i) and (>' + i) arc positive, and for other values of x and y is infinite. This integral is known as Euler's First, or Beta, Integral : though it is usual in both the Gamma and Beta integrals to write (a — i) and {y—i) for our x, y. Calling the integral [x, y), we notice that (a, v) = {y, x). Integrating (a-, y) by parts, \ d^i-ey^'dd = ^^^\j)'-\i+dy+'^ + ^^U'^'{i-ii)\w . (i) •X) '1 ■■ ' •'o If j'+i>o and A-+i>c, the middle term vanishes; and we have (a-,j+i) = ^^(a+i, V) But writing (i + 9)^'^' = (i -9)-'(i -«), we get (a-, v+ i) = {x, y) - (a-+ i, v)- 640 TJIR GAMMA, OK l''A( 'l» )RI AT., FUNCTION. Hence (x, y) = ^^^ " (a-+ 1, r). Similarly (^-+1, y) = ~J^ (^^-+ 1, >'+ 1). therefore if (.v + i), (v+i) are positive, (^'>')= (.r+r)(.v+i) (-^+^'->>+i) . (11) Now in (f^'{i—dy'^'iiB all the elements are positive and less than unity, therefore the integral is finite. From (ii) it follows that (a-, v) is also finite, and we have JC + V4-2 and {x+N, y) = J r+-(i - BydB = J (i - ^K^^^^^ — /r _/lM+A'+IU' . III . ~V ^ A- + A'+I which — > I ^// _ ny /r v^ n(x+.v+i) n(ar+>>+A^+i) nv ^■'■^^' Ha: ~^ (x + N-\-iy+' ■ n(A: + (A- + .V+iy+' n(A: + A^) {x + NY+'Uy -^{x+N+iY^^ -^ ^y Ylx Hy •'• ^'^'■^'^ ^ ITC^^H^' ^^ ^^'^"^^^ ^"^ ^^^^^ ^"^^ positive. But if {y+ i) is a negative fraction, and a- has any value, (i) shows that (a-, y+ I) - -^-pY (a-+ I, v) = 30 ; and if (a;+i) is positive, (a, v+i) is finite. .-. (x'i-i,y) is + CO. TITK (lAMMA, OK 1- ACTi )RI.\L. FUNCTIDN. 641 Moreover any decrease in .v or ^ increases both 0' and (i —ft)" ; therefore, when either (.v+i) or (>'+ 1) is negative, (x, y) is infinite and therefore meaningless. W(i —OyiiO, whenever it has a meaning, = n(A-+3'+r)" Second proof that B{x,y) = ux n V . n{x-\-y+iy This all-important Proposition can also be proved as follows : Since TLx = ( log- j cW, if .v+ I > o, change d to fl^ where V>o. Then n.v log ^ Vfl'T-^' —. *y/ ft Therefore, /( r) being an arbitrary function of F, n.v2/(T')== ^ogl\'^l-:{AV).ft^V^^-\ Let V be log ~^J{V) ^ [^og '^\ and ^fV ^ C (lo^^y d.p ^ Uy. V If V + I > o, write / for log Then Ux Uy = /'■( - di) d )e=o Jo \ 0/ and 0lngi;0 ^ ^-log l/f^ . log 1/0 = G)-'-' (j=i Therefore n.v nv= I /^(-J/).| d^pllog-Y ^ \' V = o 0 / . in this equation, write ,, ,1 1,1 0'+' = u, log - = r"i — log -• r.42 Till': CAM MA, OK FACTOKIAL. FT'NiTloN. Then n^c Hy = dl . /^ j ciii flog - \ x+y+i (/+!) x+y-i-2 = n(^+3'+i) dl . I' jo(/+ir+-^^' i™^)=p(/T^) • {M{Thy=s?'-''^'-'^' PROPOSITION VIII. Expansion of log Ylx and Ux. From Gauss' definition : log n.v=I/ .V log .V + log nA' - ^ log (a- + /) 2>-.;.U.v^2.^, JV n'o = Lt '°8'^'-S / , ■^, which < x-{-i ^^„logn.r = (-r(,/-i)!^ L^^which <^( -)«(„- 2) I (^+1)"- TfTE GAMMA, ok FACTdKIAL, FUNCTION. 643 therefore, putting a- = o we get the convergent expansion (when X <^ _ ) log Ux = yx +-^'^S,- -'"'-.S3 . . . (-)-:'-" S„ . . . 23 11 where S„ = 2_jJ' I To expand ITa-, i- log Ha- = n^ - f "'■'■y--- n"o = (n'o)^ + .S, = y^ + S, n"'x n'An"A- , /r'aAs . s, , c so 3 — — ^ — • + 2 ( — I = ( - )3 2 ! S, ■■■ n"'o = 3y(y^ + S,) -2y3 = y3 + 3y 5^ + 253-253 and so on. We add a proof that if IIa- is expanded in positive powers of a, the ultimate remainder is comparable with (— a)-^ and therefore the expansion is possible if, and only if, a- <^ _ . The proof has some points of interest, but of course the case is covered by the theory of radius of convergence. PROPOSITION IX. Proof that Ux can be expanded in powers of a:, if a<^ _ . We have Ha = log^j de, if A' > - I, .-. n^x) =, £(log ^)'(log log -^ dB, = [ /^(log /)" . e-'dl. Divide the integral into two parts / = o to / = i and / ~ i to I = CO . The first part may be written ( — )" /^(?"M log j I , I . as {s-\-i — -jj^i, .-. L = X + I — gives a maxnnum value, therefore the integral is numerically less than ( - )"a" + 'e~ ''Z,^- . IT/;, Also it will be found that a''^'e~^L^ increases as a increases : therefore a = i/(.r + i) gives the minimum value. Hence this first part of the integral lies between {-)"{x+ I)-"-' . nn I r — 1 /•CO For the second part iU . /^e^'(log /)", let / = X~^ where /> is positive. /"I / -r \ II ; and, as before, We get /3" + " . c/\ log^ . i /«+'+'//3e-' /.r + i +//3^-.' has a maximum when / = .v + i + i//3 = L. Moreover ft"'^'L^e~^-^ as /3 increases, has a rate of increase varying with (?; + i//3— i//3* log I), which is positive if ;/ is big enough ; and, choosing ft to be small, ft"^'U-e~'^ is small : therefore the second part of the integral bears a negligibly small ratio to II/z, when n is big. •'n Now, the remainder after x-'"' ' in the expansion of T\{a-\-x) is T\^'^\a -\- X — z) . -r^, which by the above results (_)A- ^a+x-z+i) -JV-jJ^.V h' <-'l(^ a-\-x — z-\-i\~^~' ^dz < . , I "^'^ —. where ^ = ^ - - - 1 therefore remainder a-\-x-\-i This gives the required result for the expansion of lix^ when a = o, with the additional result that, when a-\-i > o, Tl{a-\-x) can be explained in powers of x when, and only when, \x\ < i. In all cases the range of {a + x) must not include — i, —2, . . . , where discontinuity occurs. THE GAMMA, OR FACTORIAL, FUNCTION. 645 PROPOSITION X. IT// The ex I ended Binomial Coefficient («)„ = 777 777- is the contour •■' ^ ' n(» — a)IIa integral — \{i+z)"z-"-'^dz round the unit circle^ ivhen «>— i and a has any value. r iiz Consider .i'*( I +5:)/^-" over the closed path OttOtt'O (unit circle). The whole integral being zero, the integral over the circle tt'ott , J'^dx , — ] {xe"'y{i—xy — {xe-"'y{i —xY\ which = 2i sin (ITT .r"'~'(i —xy^lx = Jo 2i sni air . lI(«-l)a/?_ n(a+/3y o > o and /5 > — I, and, by Proposition IV, Ii(-«) . 11« =a7r/sin ott, r 11/5 :/. . .«-(! +.). = ... •mi^+am^) = '^' • ^^^^-'- therefore when /5 >- I and a > o, (/3)_ . = -7-U/^.^"-'(i+2)'«round the unit circle ; call the right side Av z-'-'{i-\-zy ;i or (a— i, /j). We proceed to prove that the restriction o > o may be removed. 646 ■ THE GAMMA, OR FACTORIAL. FUNCTION. = (a — I, /3) + (o, /5) for all values of a, ft . (i) and, integrating by parts, T i'^ I _ Avz"-^{i+zy+' = - [2"(i+^)/3+i]_'-^Jl_ Arz'ii+zy. Now, if /5 > — I, and o is arbitrary, the limit terms vanish, and (o-I,/3+l) = '^.(«,y3). Hence, by (i), (o -!,/>) = ' — ~ (o, /3), whatever « may be, if /?> — I. Now, if o > - I, (a, ft) = (/3)-„-„ (--^^n)--:^^-- ri03+«+i)n(-a-i) -('')-" Hence it follows (if /3> — i) that {a — 2, /3) = (/3)-a + i, and so universally. The follow^ing Propositions follow from those proved in this paper, and are of some interest : — A. \ (>/')«_,(");=('" + ")« for all values oi a, if ;« + ;/+ i>o. PC B. {i-\-ii)" = \ (")« + ,""■*"', when 11 is any unit vector, if ;;>o. Defining fractional differenlialion by D"x"' = —, — ^;;^^ C. £)"(?«') ="y^(")e • D"-'u . Dh', but D';f{a+x) is «o/ /"(a+x). Till-: GAMMA, OR FACTORIAL, FUNCTION. 647 D. Legenclre's Coefficient in S}>herical Harmonic ics P = Ji^ D" (i"t"'\ " Tin ^^ y^ ^ ' where / = sin^fl/2, /' = cos^«/2, and ;/ has anv value. Ako, if cos 6 IS positive, I p" P»=2^l f/^ . (cos f>+« sin ft COS 'et no typical Coniothecium- spores. Do.v -j- .4 per cent Gallic Acid. — Jnst above liquid, along the glass, the growth had turned brown, and examination showed typical Coniothecium spores (PI. t^t^, a and b). On the 2T,rd February, 1914 — Do.v -\- 1.5 per cent. Dextrose. — Typical Coniotheeiiim spores (PI. 33, c and d, and PI. 34. a). Dox -{- .4 per cent. Malic Acid. — Coniothecium spores (PI. 34, b and c.) These experiments. I believe, are conclusive that the Conio- thecium under consideration is but a stage in the life cycle of the Plioma found. Often the mycelium was not quite as dark as that typical for Coniothecium, but this is only a minor point where the general form agrees well with the fungus in question. Not only was the Coniothecium produced by sowing Plioma spores, but the two were found intermingled on the majority of media, and even on the host. It was this latter fact which first suggested the relation between the species of the two genera in question. It is premature to predict that further research will result in the placing of all the Coniotheciums in the genus Phonia. The question can only be settled b}- the cultivation and study of these forms in the laboratory, but in such an ill-defined genus as Conio- fheeium. it is highly probable that it will ultimately l)e related to not one, l)ut a number of other genera. * Thorn, Charles: "Cultural Studies of Species of Penicillium," U.S.A. Bureau .\ninial Industry, Bull. 188, p. 22. 654 the genus coniothecium. General Considerations. On culture media the niycelium, at first colourless, later becomes dark brown and torulate. This torulate condition is also evident in the mycelium on the host. Fig. 1. Tn the media this condition results ultimately in the forma- tion of intercalary chlamydospores, and the packets of Conio- thec'ium spores evidently arise by these torulate cells remaining united, dividing, and the individual cells expanding. This is borne out by certain stages in the formation of these cells as observed in cultures. The mycelium on all the media is distinctly septate and branched. The individual cells are usually 13.2 to 26.4 ix long,, though longer cells are ])resent. The hyphae vary greatly in breadth, the coloured being invariably broader and firmer than^ the colourless, and usually measure 4.95 to 6.6 //. across. S.A. Assn. for Adv. of Science. 1915. Pl. 33. R. A. VAN DER Byl— The Genus Coniothecium. S.A. Assn. for Adv. of Science. 1915. Pl. 34. gS"' P. A. VAN DER Byl.— The Genus Coniothecium. THE GENUS CONIOTHECII'M. 655 In the greyish growth on sterilised apple-twig", large globular intercalary cells, somewhat lighter than typical Coniofhcciiiui, were observed, and similar cells formed on beerwort gelatine (PI. 34, d). On the latter there were also packets of typica' Coniotlicciitm spores, and the conclusion is arrived at that thvy result 1)y walls forming in the above cells. The formation of conidial masses {Coiiiotlicciitin ) where hyphas cross or touch have frequently been observed, and is in agreement with the observation of Gueguen on the formation of these bodies. Clamp connections between individual cells are fre(]uently present (Fig. i), but in no cultures have T observed anything reseml)ling the brush-like structures of Gueguen, though sim])le coremations (PI. 33, r), such as represented in Gtieguen's Fig. 14. are present. lUuls on the mycelium, as figured by Gueguen, frecjuently form, and are usually more or less rounded (PI. 34, d), and never fusiform or elongated. Attempts were not made to germinate Fig. 2. these buds, which at times are borne on a short stalk. These buds ap])ear to become detached after they have increased considerably in size. riv]:)ha? which enrol themselves were present, but were not observed in sufficient numbers to arrive at any conclusion. The enrolling observed ( h^ig. 2 ) appears to have much in common with the enrolling of the nodular swellings mentioned by Gueguen, though there is also evidence of the enrolling of hyphse directly (Fig^ 2). While the exact nature and object of this phenomenon is not known, it may be mentioned that they do not appear to have anything to do with the formation of the Phonia pycnidia. 656 THE GENUS CONIOTHECIUM . The Phoma pycnidia, judging by the spore characters, evidently belong to Phoma mali, Schulz & Sacc. The spores are hyaline, unicellular, biguttulate, straight to slightly curved, and measure 5.6 to 7.36 X 2-76 to 3.8 /x. The pycnidia formed on media are usually circular or sub- circular, and often more or less aggregated together (PI. 34, e). Depressed pycnidia, more typical of Phoma iiiaH. liave also been observed. Summary and Conclusion. The paper contains certain cultural characters of Coiiio- thecium chomatosponiiii, Corda, isolated from diseased apple- twigs, where the fungus j^roduces a blister disease. On the fruit the fungus causes " russeting," and if infected while young, the fruit cracks, or under certain conditions Vvathers and dies. The fungus also occurs on the branches of pear trees, and isolation yielded results agreeing well with that described for the apple. The Coniothcciinii developes between the cells. It invades the middle lamellae, and as a result the cells separate, thus ulti- mately ruptiu'ing the skin and producing blisters or russet mark- ings. The cracking of the fruit, caused by infection with this fungus, must not be confused with cracking brought about by physiological causes. The organism was isolated in 1913, and Phoma pycnidia formed abundantly in the original culture. Subsequently, by SfOwing only the Phoma spores, evidence was obtained that the Coniothecium condition is only a stage in the life cycle of the former — a view also advanced b}' Massec. The cultural characters have much in common with those of Coniothecium amcutaceaniiii. Corda. as described b}' Gue- guen, and had the investigation been completed, probably fm'ther resemblances would have come to light. The Phoma which (leveloi)ed in cultures is Phoma iiiali. Schulz & Sacc, and hence Coniothecium chomatosporum. Corda. must be regarded as but a stage in the life circle of Phoma mali. thus agreeing with the view of Massee. Our present knowledge of the genus CouiotJiecium does not warrant us to conclude that all the Coiiiotlicciiims will uhimately be related to the genus Phoma, and the subject is well wortii further detailed investigation. The Phoma pycnidia have also l)een observed on the host plants, though the Coniothecium stage is the more common in this country. The ascigerous stage — Diaporthc ambigua. Nits. — reported by Massee. has thus far not come to the notice of the writer. The paper contains references to previous work as complete as possible ^I'om the publications at the disposal of the author, and for further references the reader is referred to Gueguen's work quoted. THR GKM'S CO.\J(>ljll-C/('M. ()57 P^XI'LANATIOX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. The photoiiiicr()<;ra|)hs were taken with Edinger's drawing apparatus, and the ch-awings made witli the aid of a Leitz drawing ocular. PI. 29, a Apples witii "russet" markings. b Blisters on apple twigs. c Cracking in an api)le. d Coniofliccliiiii mycelitmi on an a))])le twig. c Phoiiia ])\cnidia formed on [^.eerwf)rt gelatine. PI. _^c), a I 600) Couiothccium stage on pear twig. /' {600) Section through hlister. Note the Conioflicciuin spores. c Original culttire on heer\vort gelatine from ])ear twig (seven days 20° C. ). d Grown on sterilised api)le ])lugs { 2~ days 20° C). P1.3i.(/ (440) Coiiiotheciiiiii stage from back of sterilised ai~)ple twig. /' (440) From mole grey growth on sterilised apple twig. PI. 32, (/ T\vcnidia on ])rune agar (six (la\s 20" C). /' Pycnidia on sterilised bean leaf. c (600) Section through ])ycnidinm on sterilised bean stalk. d Carrot agar (six days). c Treacle agar (six days). / Growth on — (i) Dox .4 per cent, gallic acid; (2) Dox .4 per cent, dextrose; (3) Dox .4 per cent, malic acid ( Febrtiary 7, 1^14 to March 26. 1914 ). PI. 33, (/ (600) From Dox .4 per cent, gallic acid. h (600) From Dox .4 ])er cent, gallic acid. c (440) From Dox 1.5 pe"r cent, dextrose. d (440) h^-om Dox 1.5 per cent, dextrose. I''!. 34, (; (440) l'"rom Dox T.5 ])er cent, dextrose. b (440) From Dox .4 per cent, malic. c C)riginal culture on becrwort gelatine from pear twig d (440) P'rom beerwort gelatine i)late. c (600) Section through ])ycnidia on cabbage. Fig. 1 (800) Clam]) connections and buds on mycelimn fr(im treacle agar (six davs 20" C. ). Fig. 2 ( 800 ) Fnrolling of hy])h;e in greyish growth on sterilised apple twig. NoTK. — The following allowances must be made for reduc- tions made in reprodttcing the i)hotogra])hs of which the n\'iguifi- cations are given above : — Plate a and /' reduced ■'/, (= X 34^)- Plate 30 a and b reduced to ->4 (= X 33o)- Plate 7,2 c reditced to V2 (= X 300). Plate ;^^^ a and /' reduced to >-2 (= X 3<^o). Plate ^7, c and d reduced to ]/> (=-- X 220). Plate 34 a, b, and d, reduced to Vn (^ X 200). Plate 34 r reduced to ^/.., (= X 270). A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE METHODS USED FOR COUN ITNG IN ELECTIONS BY THE SINGLE TRANSFERABLE VOTE. By John Brown, MT).. CM., F.R.C.S., L.R.C.S.E. SVN0PSI5. Introduction. I. Object: To find the Members most preferred by al! the Voters. Ten general principles, a — j. 2- The Relative Majorit}-. 3. The Absolute Majority and its Quota. 4. The Single 'i'raiisterable Vote- S- The Quota. 6. The Necessity of counting as many First Choices as possible, and of treating alike each Grade of Choice on all Ballot Papers. 7. Gregory's System of Correct Surplus Distribution. 8. Humphreys & Pim's support of Heading 6. 9. Hare's Quota necessary to carry No. 6 out. 10. To carry out the Voter's Wishes, no Higher Choice must be passed over to make a Lower Choice efifectivc. 11. How Droojj's Quota fails to carry out the Voter's Wishes. 12. Members can be duly elected without getting the Quota. 13. All Elections are over when the Member with the Fewest \'otes gets More than all the Outstanding Votes. 14 Requisites for a correct System of Counting. 15. Recapitulation. 16. Defects of the Senate Rules. 17. Cape Hospital P>oard Election, 1915, under Senate Rules, and under Suggested Rules. Comparison of results. 18. Illustration of a Displacement. Temporary Restdt Sheet. 19. Final Result Sheet under Suggested Rules. 30. Same Flection under Senate Rules, when every Transferred Vote is transferred in part or whole as a Lower Grade Vote to another Candidate than one marked on the same P>allot Paper to whom it is counted under tiic Suggested Rules, on a higher grade vote. 21. Demonstrated Results from using Droop's Quota in allotting the \'otes. Introduction. — lliis i)a])er i.s written to flemonstratc that the rules by which the votes are counted in all our Senate elections. and in all numicipal elections in the Transvaal, do not secure the objects sought by Andrae Hare and John Stuart Mill when they advocated the use of the siufj^le transferable vote in Parliamentary elections, nor do they use the means they proposed. These objects were, firstly, that every voter's vote should be luade effective for the election of the member he most pre- ferred, as far as ])ossible ; and secondly, that each luember should be elected by, and so represent, the largest possible equal number of voters ^ That ntimber was — , — large N divided by small ;/. where n large N is the number of voters and small ;/ the number of members, and it divides the whole electorate into the n largest possible equal sections : and by the use of the transferable vote it enables every voter who marks his preferences on his ballot paper to the necessary extent to make sure that his vote, like every other voter's vote, will help e(|ually in the election of the members. METHODS FOR t"(,)UNTIiN(; IN ELECTIONS. 659 The rules at present used divide the whole electorate not into n, but into [ii -f- i) smaller sections, and thereby deprive the additional section of any share whatever in the election of the members ; and in the case of very many of the other ballot papers which are used, fail to carry out the other voters' wishes as they have marked them at the poll. They are thus altogether incompatible with Hare's object, which was to make every single vote equally effective, in securing representation. This is a very important matter, and I have to ask your close attention while I demonstrate these facts to you by the critical examination of the choices marked and used on the ballot papers in two actual South .\frican elections, which, for- tunately. I am able to show you. I. Object — To find I he mciiibrrs iiiosl preferred by all I he voters — Ten General Principles. — In all elections the object is to choose out the members most preferred by all the voters. (a) In all elections the getting of Droop's quota, one more vote than iV divided by ( ;; + i ) , secures the election of a candidate ; and with the single non-transferable vote the elected candidate is proved to be one of the members most preferred Iw the voters, so far as the expression of one choice shows their preference. (b) When votes can be transferred, election no longer proves that the elected candidate is one of the members most preferred by tb.e voters. This can only be done, by alloting to each member Hare's quota, .V dixided by ;;. a larger number than that which elects the mem- ber, and in this way onh' can we get Proportional Re- presentation, that is the equal representation of every voter by the member he most prefers. (c) When a voter expressed onlv one choice he indicated the candidate he most prefers. (d) If we give him the opportunity of expressing a second choice, that second choice may become equally effec- tive as a vote, but it indicates a lower grade of pve- ference than his first clioice did. (e) Each voter's vote, his Ijallot paper, is alike, and is entitled to similar treatment and to e(|ual considera- tion, and the same i> true of each grade of choice; Ijut a first choice must be used, if possible, before a second choice, and so on grade by grade. (/) This is the case with votes and choices for the same candidate, and also with those inr different candidates. (g) But where the voters have given expression to their preferences for different candidates, we can find out which are the candidates they most prefer only by giving effect to their first choices to the greatest possible extent before we make use of their second choices, and so on downwards, grade by grade. (/;) All elections are over as soon as the member Avith the fewest votes gets more than all the outstanding votes. to 66o MKTHdDS FOR COUNTING IN ELECTIONS. (i) Where the preferences of the voter are marked to enahle his vote to be used, no vote of a grade lower than that at which the election can be finished shonld be used. (/') To use a lower choice on a ballot paper than the highest that can be made efifective is to fail to carry out the voter's wishes and directions. 2. The Relative Majority. — The usual method of electing town councillors or members of representative bodies in Eng- lish-speaking communities is by the single non-transferable vote in wards or constituencies returning one or more councillors or members, who are elected by •' a relative majority." In this method the quota, or number of votes sufficient to secure elec- tion, is a variable (|uantity in every election. It is one more than the number of votes obtained by the highest unsuccessful candidate. In almost every case the majority of the voters do not give an elTective vote — that is, a vote that actually helps to elect the member. The votes made effective in this relative majority method are the very smallest number it is possible to use. Where there are two candidates for one seat, as soon as the member secures a majority of .one vote, all the additional surplus votes he receives do not help his election, are not effec- tive votes. They are, so far as electing the member is con- cerned, as non-effective as are all the votes tliat the defeated candidate obtains. Thus, in every case where a majority of more than one is obtained, the member is actually elected by a minorit}^ of the voters. If A, the member, gets a large majority, say 68 votes, and the defeated candidate, B, gets only 17 votes, the number of effective votes thait actually elect the member is t^ecure election on the highest choices. Then, and not till then, is any transfer of the vote made. As soon as 'the d'stri- bution of all available second choices has been made, we must look carefully at the result sheet, to see whether any candidate, unsuccessful at the first count, could receive more first and second choices than the low^est of the continuing members. If this is the case, the former must replace the latter, and the counting must be carried out from the distribution of the un- successful candidate's second-choice votes with a new classi- fication of continuing members and unsuccessful candidates. Only after this has been done can the third count of the available third-choices be begun. If, at their distribution, or at any later count, a displacement of a continuing member occurs, the above proceeding must be followed out, and a new result sheet of the distribution of all unsuccessful whole choices made. It is only when this course is followed that the voter's wishes, as they express them at the ])oll, are carried out to the fullest possible extent. By the use of Mr. Pim's fifth rule and Hare's cfuota we can secure the following results : — (a) We use the greatest ])0ssible mmilier of first and higher choices ; (b) We show at what grade of vote the election is over ; (c) We use no lower choices than are absolutely necessary; {d) We elect the members most desired by all the voters; and (e) We reduce the non-effective votes to a minimum. 15. Recapitulation. — Droo]:)'s quota is advocated by Mr. Humphreys; it is advocated by Mr. Pim; it is used in all the authorised plans of counting ; it elects all our own Sena^tors and all the members of all the Alunicipal Councils in the Transvaal. This is my reason for recapitulating the facts I have found from the examination of the results of its use in many actual elections. Where the votes to be counted are uniform, are of one grade, where no votes can or need be transferred, it accurately counts all the effective votes and elects the members most pre- ferred by the voters. MKTliODS FUR COL'NTlNt; IN ELECTIONS. 66y Where, in place of the Hmited expression of the voters' preference that is possible when each voter marks one choice only, we can get the opinion of every voter as to the order of his preferences for the members he most prefers by means of the use of the transferable vote, Droo]^'s (juota fails to indicate the members most preferred by the voters. This can only be done when we make use of Hare's quota, by which alone we can, to give ]Mr. Humphreys' own words, " give effect to the first and higher preferences before making use of lower preferences " to ithe largest j^ossible extent. We can do this, because Hare's (jUota is the largest |x)ssible quota that can be used. In this way only, by the use of Hare's quota, can Mr. Pim's fifth rule, on which a correct system of counting must be founded, be carried out. The (transferable vote gives us grades of preference — a new feature. First-choice votes express a higher grade of pre- ference than second-choice votes, second-choice votes a higher grade of preference than third-choice votes, and so on. To make use of the grades of i)reference thus expressed b\ the voters at the poll, we must make use, to the utmost possible extent, of all the tirst-choice votes firstly before second-choices are considered, and so on successively, with each grade of choice. Under these circumstances. Droop's quota no longer elects the members mos: ]:)ref erred by the voters. It is therefore inadmiss- able : it is inconsistent with the use of the transferable vote — it fails to show the members mos:: preferred — when by tlie transferable vote the voters express fully their preferences. The highest number of votes a member can obtain is Hare's quota — the highest number all // members can each obtain. In this paper I have pointed out that in all rules of counting, where Droop's quota is .used to transfer the votes, we can only say that certain members are elected by the Continental plan of the absolute majority of one vote, but that we have no certainty that these are the members most preferred by the voters. I have shown that this was the very system Andrae, Hare, and John Stuart Mill wished to supersede by the use of the transferable vote, which enables every A'oter to help in the selection of the member he most prefers. I have demonstrated that the use of Droop's quota is utterly inconsistent with this object, and affords no security that the wishes of the voters marked on tlieir ballot- papers are carried out, and is inconsistent witli securing l'r(j])or- tional Representation. I have shown that by the use of Hare's (|Uota, (Gregory's .system of surplus distribution, and Mr. Harold Pim's method of the simultaneous distribution grade by grade of all available choices as marked by the voters, their wishes can be carried out exactly as they marked them with impartiality, certainty, accuracy, and despatch. I have drawn up a set of suggested rules which will, 1 believe, secure these results ; and 1 give here the working out of two elections under both systems, and a table of choices in 6/0 METHODS FOR COUNTING IN ELECTIONS. the smaller election, by which the truth or fallacy of the facts I have pointed out can be demonstrated. i6. Defects of the Senate Rules. — Under the Senate rules we find the following defective conditions : — A. There is no giving effect to all second-grade and lower-grade choices simultaneously. B. There is no indication of the grade at which the election can be finished. C. The smallest possible number of first and higher choices is made eft'ective through the use of Droop's quota. D. (a) There are consecutive distributions of each candidate's votes in a prescribed order (b) And in each case all available choices, however low, are at once made eft'ective, so that the voters for no two candidates are ttreated alike, and many hnver clioices are improperly made effective. E. (a) All the unsuccessful candidates except the highest are successively excluded, and (b) All further choices marked for them arc b\- rule directed to be ignored. ((•) No record is kept of ithe choices marked for ex- cluded unsuccessful candidates, so no evidence of a dis- placement can be obtained. (d) The original and transferred votes of thf highest unsuccessful candidate are not further examined, distri- buted, or used. F. Mare's plan of the transferable vote is used to ccn- duct an election with tlie quota \- i, tlie (juola used in every election by " the absolute majority " — the very sys- tem Hare aimed to supersede by the use of the transferable vote, and the division of the whole electorate into n sec- tions. (t. Neither of the two i)rincii)les, ad\-ocate(l l)y Mr. Humphreys and Mr. Pim. are carried out. The votes are not handled alike, nor is effect given to the highest choices as far as possible. The members elected under the Senate rules are those who obtain a majority of .01 of a vote, when on a section of the votes equal to one more than N divided by // + i all the choices marked for them, however Idw, on a single arrangement of ballot paiKM-s, are successively counted as eft'ective votes. These members are not necessarib those most desired by the voters, and at ever\' election under the Senate rules votes of a grade lower than that at which the election could be fim'shed are used, and sometimes elect members less preferred by the voters than one of METHODS FOR COUNTING IN ELECTIONS. 67 1 the rejected candidates. Hare's object was to secure representation for every voter by the use of every vote ; this can only be got by the means he proj^osed — dividing the electorate into ii equal sections. With Droop's quota they are divided into n -\- i sections. The two plans are incompatible. The two objects are difterent. Droop's object is the election of a member. Hare's object is the representation of every voter. Before we coimt the votes at an election with the trans- ferable vote, we must allot to each candidate those ballot-papers to which he has more right than any other candidate. To find out the candidates most preferred by the voters we must count the utmost possible numl)er of first and other high choices for each member, and this we can only do by the use of Hare's larger quota. If the number of votes a member gets exceeds Hare's quota, we cannot give that member the full value of all his votes, because, that would leave too few votes to give all the members Hare's quota ; but Hare's quota enables us to give to each member the greatest possible number or value of these first-choice votes, or of these higher votes that the member gets. If we use Droop's quota to select or find out the members, we stop counting these first or higher votes as soon as we have reached the number, that will give each member Droop's quota in place of the highest possible number. That is, we stop allotting first-choice votes as soon as we have reached the very smallest possible number, which will give the member one more vote than ii -\- i candidate could obtain, in place of the highest possible number that can be made effective, — Droop's quota is a totalh' dift'erent number from that which will make plain who are the members most preferred l)y the voters : which is the whole object of the use of the transferable vote, and of every election. If at an election the votes are allotted by Droop's quota, we never can get proportional representation. 17. Cape Hospital Board Election, 1915, under Senate Rules, aud under Suggested Rules. Comparison of Results. — W'e will now examine this election carried out under the suggested rules and imder the Senate rules, noting in the case of the transfer of the votes in each method the grade of vote we transfer. At the Cape Hospital Board election for the year 19 15, 658 voters elected four members from six candidates imder the Senate rules with Drooj/s quota of 132, while Hare's quota is 164. The election under the suggested rules is completed by the examination of all available second-choice votes, and to it, under these rules, I siiall first direct attention. 672 methods for counting in elections. Cape Hospital Election, 191 5. 658 voters elect 4 incnibers from 6 candidates. The Result Sheets gi\e thi-: Values of \'otes. Under Suggested Rules, Quota 164. I. II. III. IV. V. Eflfec- VI. Non- A-50 E60 F42 tive effective A214 11 1 164 12 B149 2 10 4 164 1 C123 40 23 9 164 31 D 70 4 14 21 109 E 60 3 7 10 F 42 1 50 2 60 42 3 658 601 57 658 Explanation of the Su(;(;ksted Rules Tapli-:. In Cohimn I we have the first-choice.s marked fur the five candidates. In Columns II, 111, IV we have respectively the values of the shares of A's surplus votes and of E's and F's votes, which the other candidates receive on the simultaneous distribution of all available second-choices. In Columns V and VI we have respectively the total effective and the non-effective votes, using- the \vord "effective" in the sense of effective in secur- ing representation. Under Senate Rules, Quota 132. VII. VIII. IX. X. XL XII. XIII. Effec- XIV. Non- A B C F tive effective A214 -82 42 132 B149 -17 132 C123 2nd 67 -58 132 ( 2nd D 70 ■ 3rd 4th 6 1 3 , 2 1 28 3 21 4 2 132 9 ( 2nd E 60 ■] 3rd i 4th 4 1 3 3 1 16 3 7 3 1 102 ( 2nd F 42 \ 3rd , 4th 2 2 1 6 2 13 Exhausted 4 4 Lost by 1 1 2 fractions — — — — 658 82 17 58 42 528 130 -^ II ^ 658 methods for counting in elections. oj^' Explanation of thk Senate Rttles Table. In Colinnn VII we have the first choices, as in CoUniin I. In Cokmin VIII on se])arate lines we have the curacies of the votes received by each candidate, so that we can compare the two methods: at the actual electioi there is. for example, only one entry of the value of six votes received by D from B, with no specification of the grade of each. Column \'1II enables us to see that three were second-choice votes, two third-choice votes, and one fourth-choice vote. In Columns IX, X, XI, and XII we have respectively the distribution of the values of the three surpluses and of F's votes to the candidates. Under Senate rules, E's 60 votes are not distributed. E receives the value of 67 second choice votes from A's surplus in addition to 123 first choice votes. This gives E a secondary surplus of 58 votes distributed in Column 11. Column XIII gives the effective votes, and Column XI\^ the non-efi^ective, non-effec- tive for election purposes, or representation, or for selecting the members most preferred by the voters. Comparative Results. Supraested Rules. Senate Rules. 00 Effective Choices. Non- Effective Choices. Non- 1st 2nd effective 1st 2nd 3rd effective A 164 A 12 132 C 9 D 32 D 9 B 149 15 B 1 132 D 30 E 102 C 123 41 C 31 123 F 13 D 70 39 E 10 70 39 Ex. 4 F 3 Fr. 2 506 95 457 95 57 39 130 32 601 + 57 == 658 528 + 130 = 658 49 fewer 1st Choice Votes. 56 fewer 2nd Choice Votes. 32 more 3rd Choice Votes. 73 more Non-effective Votes than under the Suggested Rules. EXPLAN.\TI0N OF THE COMPARATIVE RESULTS. We see that with Hare's quota. 164, and the sug- gested rules, the four members are elected in exact con- formity with the first and second choices marked on the ballot-papers, 506 first choices being used, and (;5 second-choices on the other ballot-papers, with 57 non-effective votes ; 32 of these are surplus votes, which have helped in the election of B and C; 12 are non-effeCtive second-choice votes for A. Of the remaining 13, 4 are from A's surplus. Column TI, and the others are 7 votes marked F E, and 2 marked E F. These 9 voters are the only voters not represented by the members marked first or second on their ballot-papers, and each of them had marked the member he most preferred as his third choice, and 674 MF.TrroDs for counting in elections. would have helped to elect him had he not already secured elec- tion on first or first and second-choice votes. Under Senate rules 457 first-choice in place of 506 are used; 39 second-choice votes in place of 95 : and 32 third-choice votes ; and the value of the non-ef¥ective votes taking no part in the election are 130, as compared to ^y, that is /T, fewer. Under Senate rules 35 third-choice votes for D. 2t, for E, and 7 for F, or 65 in all, along with 13 fourth-choice votes, 78 in all, are counted for the candidates, not one of which need have been looked at, much less counted, if E's original 60 votes had been distributed. E's original (x) votes, with the 42 votes transferred to E, and 28 other votes, take no ])art at all in electing the members. As the election can be finislied on second-choices, there is no need to look at, much less to count, third or fourth-choices. Yet we see that under Senate rules there is only one single trans- fer of second-choice votes alone of two votes marked A F in Column IX. On every other transfer on the sheet third-choice or third and fourth-choice votes arc counted to the \ alue of 78 votes ; not one of which need have 1)een looked at. much less counted. Owing to the use of Droop's quota under the Senate rules we have — (a) Three surpluses of the value of 157 votes in place of one of 50 votes. (b) Forty-nine first-choice votes from A and B are distri- buted as second, third, and fourth-choice votes to other candidates, \vhich can be used as first-choice votes in accordance with the voters' wishes. (c) Of the 363 votes received by A and B, a smaller share, amounting in all to 49 votes, was retained as first- choice votes for these two members. ( d ) Second-choice surplus votes for C, of a total value of 58 votes, were distributed as third and four-choice votes. In addition to these defects, we have, as in every election under the Senate rules — A, no simultaneous distribution of second and lower choices ; B, no indication of the grade of vote at which the election can be ended ; D, consecutive distributions in a prescribed order, wnth the use at each of all available choices, however low their grade ; E, the exclusion of all but the highest unsuccessful candidate, the ignoring of choices marked for him, no record of choices given to unsuccessful candidates (here I have marked their grade for purposes of comparison), and no distribution of the highest unsuccessful candidate's ballot papers, either those originally given to him or those transferred to him. Column III shows that E's votes, which are not distributed under Senate rules, give 10 second-choices to B, 23 to C, and 14 to D from his original 60 votes, to say nothing of the lower choices on the ;^/ second and third-choice votes he gets under the Senate rules. METHODS FOR COUNTING IN ELECTIONS. 67^ In spite of all these defects, it hapiiens that the same four members are elected under both methods. It is not always so, as we shall now see. 18. fHiisfralioii of a Disf^lacenicitf. Tciuporary Rcsuli Sheet. Illustration of a Displacement in a Tkansvaal Sknatk Election. 84 J'olcrs eleet 8 Members froiii 1,^ Candidates. Quota 10.5. Tentative: Under Suggested Rules. Distribution of Whole Votes given to Un- successful Candidates Distribution of 3rd and (Jth Choices counted on Grades. on Members' Surplus Votes. First '2nd 3rd 4th 6th Third Sixth Choices. G 10 1 10 2 M 10 1 K 10 I 1 2 B 1 3 A 9 2 C 9 1 E 2 D 2 1 K 7 H 6 L 7 Column II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII 12 HJCHMCBA HJM HJC HMC BAC HA .« ?J ?i .75 .5 .25 .75 .5 .34 .16 .25 W '^ 10 1 10 5 1 .75 10.5 1> c o 10 z .16 .16 1 1 .75 .34 can get 7.09 10.5 1 .75 .5 .25 .'.25 10 5 1.25 1 .5 .50 1 7 12 7o Note i. — Three votes, 21, D I M A C B ; 22. E I A J M C; 47. I D E B. appear in the column hea I. II. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX, X. XI. XII. XIII. V > G J M K I B A C E D 0 •66 •66 -66 ^66 107 135 -73 •74 2-49 4-81 G 10 9-34 - -•66 9.34 1) J 10 9^34 - -•66 934 0 M 10 9-34 — •66 9-34 Z K 10 9-34 — •66 934 A 9 2nd 3rd •07 1 —-73 9 34 C 9 2nd •07 07 9 34 3rd •73 4th •07 -•74 5th •07 6th .07 E 2 2nd 21 -07 3rd -21 D 2 2nd -07 1 7th -74 1 I 1 1 7 6 7 2nd •07 B 2nd •21 •14 F 2nd -66 •49 815 H 2nd 3rd 6th 7th 8th 9th 114 •14 •07 Eletced on four 7th, two 8th and one 9th choice votes. 07 21 ■07 1 1 •C7 1 9-34 -43 L 3rd 4th 10th •07 ^07 •07 Elected on two 10th choice votes. 107 1^74 9'34 60 Exhausted Gain 04 Elected G J I ■07 •04 04 = 12 VI K A C H L. Unsuccess: •07 Ful D E I F B. Gains •14 74-72 9-40 84^12 •12 Note. — The 'Senate rules elect L and H, two candidates very little preferred by the voters ; for the Table of Choices clearly shows that 29 of the 84 voters marked no choice for either of them and of the remaining 55, t^S marked L as their loth choice ; and 30 marked H as their 7th, 8th. 9th, or loth choice. The faults arise from the use of Droop's quota 9.34 to allot the votes. When all 8 members get Droop's quota, 74.72 are used up, and 9.40 are left; of which . 12 is a gain from counting the transfer value of 30 surplus votes for J, M, and K, see last entry in Columns V, VI, and VII, at .07 in place of .066. So subtracting .12 from 9.40, we get 9.28 votes left; which, owing to the use of Droop's quota, can take no part in electing the 8 members, and get no share of representation. The voters who gave these 9.28 votes are, in so far as those METHODS FOR COLKNTING IN ELECTIONS. 68l votes are concerned, totally unrepresented by the 8 members elected by the other voters' 74.72 votes. This is not proportional representation; for over 11 per cent, of the voters are, owing to the use of Droop's quota, totally unrepresented. For the same reason — the use of Droop's quota in allotting the votes, two men \evy little preferred by the voters, H. and L., have secured election. If we use Droop's ([uota ^o allot the votes, we never can be sure that we get the men most preferred by the voters. EXI'LANATION 0\- Till". Senah' Rrij-.s Tai'.lk. With Droop's smaller (juota, 9.34, four members get primary surpluses — that is, surpluses on first-choice votes. These have to be distributed consecutively in Columns IV, V, VI, VII, before the votes for any unsuccessful candidate. Each of the four surpluses is worth .66 of a vote. Their distributioji to the next available candidate on each ballot paper, as fractional surplus values calculated to two places of decimals, is given, with each grade of vote marked on the line, on 23 lines under five columns— I V^-VII and X and XJ. All these four i)rimary surpluses are due to the use of Droop's quota. Had Hare's quota been used, every one of the 40 votes the four candidates get would have been counted as a whole first-choice vote ; whilst under Senate rules every one of these 40 votes has .066, or .07, used as a lower-choice vote, of grades ranging from the second to the eighth, as showm in 28 entries on this result sheet, contrary to the first-expressed wish of each of the 40 voters, which first wish would be carried out if the rules fixed Hare's {piota, not Droop's. This is contrary to the principle enunciated by both Pim and Humphreys — that all first choices must be given elfect to firstly, before second or lower choices should be used. It is also contrary to the otlier principle — that of the efjuality of all choices, whole or frac- tional, of the same grade ; for, on every one of these 40 first- choice votes, .066 of the vote is not treated like the remaining .934 of the vote. It is used not as a first-choice vote, but as a lower-choice vote. Both these principles are violated in each one of these 28 entries. Further, we have seen this election can be finished in exact conformity with the voters' directions on sixth-ohoice votes. Nine of these entries are those of choices lower than the sixth; and therefore should not be used as they here are, securing the ejection of L and H. So much as to the wholly unnecessary and improper distribution of the 2.64 primary surpluses whicli the use of Droop's quota necessitates : in every one of the 28 entries a lower choice is used, down to seventh and tenth choices, in place of the first choice made efi^ective in the case of every one of the 40 votes when Hare's quota is used. Having seen that in every case of primary surplus distribution in this election Droop's quota necessitates that instead of the voter's first choice being made wholly effective for representation, £ 682 METHODS FOR COUNTING IN ELECTIONS. a lower grade of choice, running from the second to the eighth, has been used. Let us examine what haj^pens with the transfer of unsuc- cessful candidates' whole votes under Senate Rules. There are six such cases, and in every one of them a lower choice is used than is used with Hare's quota under the suggested rules. We shall take these six cases one by one. *Vote lo. BACMJIDHEL, used under the suggested rulc^ as a first choice for B, here helps to elect A second choice and L tenth choice, and owing to the use of Droop's quota, the third, fourtli. and fifth choices for C, M, J, respectively, cannot be used. The tenth choice for T. should not be used because other voters' choices higher than the seventh can become efl:'ective in this election in electing another candidate. *\'ote 21, DlMACBHJltL, used under suggested rules as a sfxth-choice vote for B, is here improperly used as a seventh- choice vote for K. The use of Droop's qtiota makes the third and fifth choices for M and C, respectively, useless. '''■Vote 23, EIAJMCDBHL, used under the suggested rules to elect A, goes here througli D as a ninth-choice vote to elect H iiuproperly, for other voters" choices higher than the seventh can finish this election by electing another candidate. Here, too, Drooj/s quota makes the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth choices for A, J, M, C. respectively, useless, for it elects them on (j.34 votes, while with Mare's (juota this vote might ba\'e heljicd them get 10.5 votes. *Vote 47, IDKBjMACHL, used under suggested rules as a fourth-choice vote for B, here goes as a tentli-choice vote to elect L. On it choices for J, W, A, C are rendered useless by tile use of Droop'? cjuota. *Vote 20. DCHIBEJALK is here used as a 1 bird-choice vote for M, while under suggested rules it goes as a second-choice vote to elect C, Here, too. Droop's quota makes the choices tor J- A useless. *LastIy, Vote 22, EBLHMJICDA. used as a second-choice vote for B, goes here as a third-choice vote for L, and Droop's quota makes the fifth, sixth, eighth, and tenth choices useless. In all six cases whole votes, as in all the 40 cases of surplus trrmsfers. have lower choices used for other candidates, while higher choices on each ballot paper could have elected other members. 21. Dciiioiistratcd Results from using Droop's Quota in Allotting the Votes. — I have thus shown that on every single ballot paper transferred in this election under Senate rules a lower choice is counted than is counted under the suggested rules. I have shown, too. that H and L are elected by seventh, eighth, m'nth, and tenth choice votes, which need not have been looked at, and should not have been used, as other voters' sixth choice votes conclude the election, electing B and F in place of H and L. MKTIiODS FOR e'OUNTlNc: IN ELECTIONS. 683 who are shown by the table of choices to be two candidates very little preferred by all the voters. Further, on every surplus ballot paper transferred at this election under Senate rules, Droop's quota causes the counting of lower choices than are counted when Hare's quota is employed, and in the six whole votes that are transferred makes choices expressed for tlie four most popular candidates useless, owing to their election on 9.34 votes in place of the 10.5 they can receive Avhen Hare's quota is used. They thus necessitate the counting of lower choices on these ballot papers, and it is on these lower choices that H and L secure election. At the J^th and oth counts these two votes zt^ and 44 would go to B, in j^lace of going, as they do here at the loth choice, to L. Beside all this, with Droop's quota, in this election 9.28 votes are necessarily non-efTective, while under the suggested rules every one of the 79 votes, which are left over after the five plumpers for L are subtracted from the 84 votes, take part in electing the eight members, and only a value of .95 on two of them is not actually used in their election. Here, as in the Hospital Board Election, the use of Droop's •quota under Senate rules gives four defects : — (a) Four primary surpluses in place of none. (5) The value of 2.64 first-choice votes on 40 ballot papers, distributed on lower choices from the second to the eighth, in jjlace of being used as first-choice votes. (c) On each of these 40 votes received by G, J, M, K, a smaller share, amounting to in all 2.64 votes, is retained as first-choice votes for these members. (rf) Lower choice votes than sixth-choice votes on these and the six whole votes of the unsuccessful candidates were counted, and elected two members — H and L, who were two members very little ])referred by the voters. These defects are in addition to the others common to every election under Senate rules; and all these defects can be avoided 1)\- the application of Mr. Pim's rule 5, and the use of Hare's (|Uota, with (iregor\'s system of surplus distribution, to select the members most preferred by the voters. By the use of Droop's quota we find the smallest number ■of votes by which each of several members can secure election, and by this quota we count the really effective votes in any election, effective, that is, in electing the members. But in elections by the transferable vote, our object is to find the largest possible number of votes which each member can obtain. We want to find the largest possible number of votes that can be allotted to each member, for it is only by so doing that we can find out the n members most preferred by all the voters, and give everv voter his equal proportional share of representation. In elections with the transferable vote we have different .grades of votes — the first grade of first-choice votes expressing 684 METHODS FOR COUNTING IN ELECTIONS. the highest grade of preference, the second grade of second- dioice votes expressing the next highest grade of preference, and so on downwards ; and to find the voters most preferred, we must count as many as possihle of these first-choice votes and other high grades. Our first object, before counting the votes, is to ahot to each candidate all the votes to which he has the best right. This must be done to enable us to find out the candidates most preferred. If we attempt to allot these votes by Droop's quota, we of necessity fail to carry out the funda- mental principle of " giving cft'ect to the first and higher pre- ferences before making use of lower preferences." We are compelled, as we diave seen in these two elections, to make use of lower choices than if we use Hare's ciuota,. and in this way we fail to carry out the voters' directions, as they have marked them. In both of the elections we have examined, Droop's ([uota makes use on our transfer sheet of grades of votes lower than those at which the election can \)c finished ; and in the last case two of the members are elected by grades of votes from the seventh to the tenth, while the election can be finislied on the examination and use of sixth-grade votes. In that election, under Senate rules every ballot paper is partially or wholly transferred on k)wer grades of vote under the Senate rules than under the suggested rules, owing to the use of Droop's quota. in the last Cape Hospital Bocird Election every entry but one on the result sheet of the transferred votes includes the value of third or fourth choice votes when the Senate rules arc used, while the suggested rules show it can be finished by the transfer of the value of 95 second-choice votes on the ballot-papers which are available after the first count. Hare's quota is absolutely necessary for the proper allotment of the votes to the candidates who have the best right to them, and to carry out the plan Andrae. Hare, and J. Stuart Mill advocated. In no other way can Proportional RejM-esenta- tion be secured. Ii! the other election by 84 voters, owing to the use of Droop's quota, 40 surplus votes are transferred on choices lower than the first, which is the only one counted if Hare's f[Uota is used. At this election, also, all six whole votes are transferred to candidates marked lower on each of the six ballot papers than are members wh >se election they help to secure when Hare's quota is used. Note (October. 1916). — The rules adopted by the Cape Pro- portional Representation Society last month, which provide for the use of Hare's quota, very much strengthen the case against the use of the Senate Rules and Droop's quota, as they finish this election by the transfer of eight second-choice votes. It is given below : — METHODS FOR COUNTING IN ELECTIONS. 685 G I M K A C B F L H E D I Exd. Total 10 10 10 10 9 9 1 7 7 6 2 9 .1 84 L 7 2 5 7 H 6 2 1 1 2 6 D 2 1 1 E I 2 1 1 1 1 Exhausted 5| 18 10 10-5 10-5 10 10 10 (S 7 Effective 74 [84 1-5 •5 N( 3n-eftecl tive 1 2 5 5) Effective votes 74, outstanding votes 5, exhausted votes 5. B. lowest member, has 6 votes. These 6 non-effective votes 44. HJCAMDIEB; 45. HJMCAB; 46, HMCJAB; three surpkis votes of the value of .75, .75. .5; and three whole votes. 23 E I A J M C D B : 21. D I M A C B ; 47, I D E B, by the fourth choices are all concentrated on the 8 members, giving sur- pluses of 1.5 to M, 1 . 5 to J, and i to A and i vote to B ; all these votes go to B, giving him 4 more votes, and securing complete proportional representation as far as the marking of the choices ■on the 79 ballot-papers will allow. J, M. A, C each get 10.5 = 42 ; B, G, K each get 10 = 30 ; and F has 7 ; — or 79 in all. This with 1 /s 5 plumpers =-- 84, giving as on 2nd choices complete Pro- portional Representation as far as the voters' marking of their choices will permit. SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE LIFE HISTORY OF THE PEPPER TREE CATERPILLAR, BOMBY- COMORPHA PALLIDA DIST. By David Gunn. '{^Printed as Biilletiii No. 5, 1916, of the Dizisioii of Entomology, Department of Agriculture. Union of SoutJi Africa.) NEW TOPOGRAPHICAL METHODS AND INSTRUMENTS. By W. C. VAN DER Sterr. {Printed in " Journal of the Institute of Land Surveyors of the Transvaal." Vol. 3, No. 8, December, 1915. pp. 346-368.) ATOMS, OLD AND NEW. By Prof. D. F. du Toit Malherre, M.A., Ph.D. (Not printed.) THE INTENSITY OF RAINFALL IN THE TRANSVAAL. By C;. W. Cox, F.R.Met.S. {With six text figures.) What would seem to have been the first observation on intensity of rainfall in the Transvaal, was made at Doornfontein, Johannesburg, on December i8th, 1896. At Joubert Park, in the immediate vicinity, similar records date from a few days later ; but the effort to obtain such data did not extend beyond these two stations until the inception of the Transvaal Meteorolgical Service in 1903. SEASONAL DISTRIBUTION OF RAINFALL AND FREQUENCY OF HEAVY FALLS. Fig. 1. The period covered Ijy the observations is therefore compara- tively- short ; yet the data now amount to some mousancis in number, and are fairly representative of all j)arts of the countrj-, excepting the unhealthy regions of the Low \'eld. Rainfall of no extraordinary intensity is, however, largely represented, and it is necessary to eliminate observations of this nature us far as possible. To effect this elimination, a somewhat arbitrary method is adopted, falls being rejected as unworthy of s])ecial notice when below : — 0.25 inches in 5 minutes. 0.30 ,. 10 RAINFALL IN THE TKANSVAAL. f)8; 0.35 inches 0.40 in m «^ ^ 0.45 0.50 0.55 0.60 0.65 0.70 0.75 0.80 0.90 1 .00 I .26 1.44 1' 5 minutes. 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 60 80 100 120 180 240 }) » .'J >> e'^sT ^ fr B I C A 3 d V 3 Fig. 2 688 RAINFALL IN THE TRANSVAAL. After removal of irrelevant observations, 1,557 records remain,, with a distribution over the year as follows : — - Jan. Feb. Mar. April. May. Tune. 319 281 151 83 17 2 July. Aug. Sept. (!)ct. Nov. Dec. Total. — 3 14 119 239 329 1,557 The curves of Fig. i represent this frequencv distribution, compared with the monthly rainfall. The former increases more rajjidly than the latter in the early ])art of the rainy season, reaching the maximum a month earlier ; a more rapid decrease in March is also evident. A greater ]irol)ability of heavy down- pours during thunderstorms suggests ])eriodicity in the different ty|)es of pressure distribution over the countr\- as an ex])lanati()n of these peculiarities. The most remarkable rainfall yet recorded in the 'J'ransvaal occurred at W'^olhuter Kop on February i8th. 191 5, when 4.19 inches fell in 30 minutes. Although exceptional, this storm is not without precedent outside the Transvaal. At Curtea-de- Arges, Roumania, on July 7th. 1889, 8.05 inches were recorded in 20 minutes ; whilst the United States have on record a fall of 8.80 inches in one hour at Palmetto, Nevada, during August, 1890, and another of about 11.50 inches in about 80 minutes at Campo, California, during August. 1891. There is some uncer- tainty about this last fall, the raingaugc having been washed away. These intense isolated rains, however, seem to be confined to Certain mountainous regions, and their significance is restricted. For the comparison of intensities experienced in dififerent coun- tries, or dififerent areas of the same country, a number of falls .scattered over an extended area furnish a better standard. es])e- cially if they disclose a more or less constant relation between time of duration and the amount of ]:)recipitation. In that case, by taking only the heaviest falls recorded during various intervals of time, some idea may be obtained of the probable maximum amount of rainfall to be expected in that area during a stated period. When seeking such a relation in the Transvaal, the decrease in rainfall from east to west of the Province, concomitant with increase of distance from the source of moisture su])ply and alterations in the physical configuration of the country, suggests a variation of intensities with geographical ]>osition. As this evidently exists it is convenient to consider the data under three divisions as shown in the map (Fig. 2), re]:)roduced by kind permission of Mr. Tudor (1. Trevor, A.R..S.M., F.G.S. The eastern slopes of the Main and Zoutpansberg plateaux and part of the north-eastern High \^eld fall under the Fastern Divi- sion ; the South-Western districts under the South-W^estern Divi- sion, and the remainder of the country under the Central. For the unhealthy parts of the Loiy \'eld onlv meagre information is RAINFALL IN TKE TRANSVAAL. ()89 2; o ■f. ;2 I/! 1- t/5 ;,,x : XX :xx,: , ^.i ■ 1 1- 1 ; 1 5t±-H-T--^---------+-^^-xF-~ -H 1 -H — — 1 1 j j- ~ ^ 1- ; 1 ' ' N i Ki It J. . . ,,. ._ ,. .4-- Hill ill |i|il||||i|i||||JffililllllililllUJ- rxxxxxxx::ix + xx:t±:i y. 4--~- |::::||:::::x::::x:4:::|g lX ±--\ -^-xi kS-^^ , u :xp||:::::|:=::::::|:g" ' ^ N MM - ''"XT-X = :::::::;:::::i::;:::::|$:g riiii III i| 1 II 1 ifiJiiUg :|xS:5x:S|x:x:x:±|2 t--i-i- 1 1 1 1 — 1 — 1 — 1 1 ,- XlX-^^^.X* X-^Xi -1 ■ ! ":|i"::x::::::g||^i Ij-l 4l._ T ^_ 09 OS ::2f::: 1_|— i --HXx-i — H t-l-i 1 -1 -r — 1 1 1 hji 1 1 1 1 M -fMmid; j 1 — 1 — III! 4-H — xx4: + :::::;::::;;:;::::Xtt: 4ii i|-i> ^ : ^ = : : 4-- X i^.^ ^ + r-rf-tX 1 1 +_| ^_Lt-|_L- h 1 1 ' M m ' ' M ' 1 ' ' 1 1 't^- 1 1 1 1 -H — V -+-r-^ ^-H 1 -^ -^ -^-^TXt -H-- — -M — H -444- —♦--»- xilxxxxxix^:^:^^ __l 1 L__l U s H-l -^ — Y^rr- 1 — 1 \ ^<= :|:::::::::::::::t:=:li^ ;±::xx:::;;;:::±:i^:±i::: 1 i M 1 1 h^Mtii 1 iM -f^ j-M [--^ "'T" '~ten~ JJ M-i ^ — ^-1 1 ^t— -J-b'a o -^ iC C^* o ::::::::jq; M — hr^ x:xi£:x::x|X;: tArr-t-trtx Xt±X:::::X:±±X --1--+ ^ rH — ++■ § — + -XX1X :xx:+tt^ 1 ^ 1 — xxxtxr+H^ i] 1 ! !> Mil!!' f4J U4-L+4-.*.-L4-U T^ — r-i4i 1-^^ hr ^X:^x::±X:::: :::;xt=±X:3J --+-H-i- + --^"t- + :4:x::±tt:x:; ;x+;::3itri: - _ — _^> 4- -4-4- ~i~ — --X ;X Xf- 4.. o 3 ;^±:xS 1 L--v4f>^4-U4- 4--4-f4 1 i 1 K <'i-vT J i_--Uuvxx ±:^:::;X!Xx4xtt 4 U i 1 1 1 1 N 1 -M~^4Ti-4--+4---rj III -4^--44-^ — r- Xtxxi:::^^ xrxxxxxtTX:Xfl — u - -t- --It --T- 3 8 1 1 ! ■; ' \ 1 ; i 1 1 1 1 [ i i ! ' ' -4 4-1 J-J- X;x::xixx:4X x:X4:::i^^Xrr _- xXX 'X-li^l- ;iTt4Xr;:.^-XXr;; T»X*' 4-y4-(--j-|--i--| 1 ill 1 i 1 ^ — >- 1 H- -4-4— O -4-1 r-l 1-*- — -1- 4-|- -]-i-^ ■ -i— ^ — — [-4-1 j 4-^ r! i K 1 I.I -i-t-X III 44-^^ 1 \ 1 1 1 1 i 1 ,-;XiH 4++- E5 4--U- tx S XX+---X- r-| h-^-i-^ Ual^NJlMihr: H-t-Xl H-t-->-+-i- r:t^ "J __l 1 — l.-J_ -l-:::-:::X^-^xlx "4XlUi:4^X^ pxix xrttl^ii^t^- l-X.X;-, ^XJ_ ? X -H+'-Hf^ ■*~-*--^-^ — I— 4V XXl-i-XXXi-lX-XC^ ^t^1^ \ — f -t-J.-, XL X- t 1 x~ s ^^T+4 -1 H M-l- -1 L^._L. -4_L+j. X:x::4:±::^'^ x-'--H--'--h-i-rT- ; r 1 1: Hi! , ,. -^+---^M--|4r^~4-»-- .:;: .uii li! ; \\"' . , 1 1 ^-M-4- ->-!-- T- -4 — WW rPttimWrf s xt±xr-±f X±:::::i:x_4 i L 1 1 • XXXi i 1 1 1 1 1 1 i 1 — 4 — ' — ~- IixL-Ixt:4Ui44— 3Xt±t|^::^f^ ::#::::::S| LX+:__x:±t:: 1 h- 41 3 690 RAINFALL IX THE TRANSVAAL. available, and they are therefore excluded. When so divided the greatest falls of not more than two hours' duration show an increase of amount with respect to time which may approximately be connected by an expression of the form : — h a (loK/)" The most probable values of the constants having been cal- culated from the data, the following equations are obtained : — 3n8i\ogj\ '318 2 5SC) ■436 ■tun C-v) Eastern Division. Central Di\ ision. South-Western Di\'ision. Easthkn DnisioN. Fig. 5. where h is amount in hundredths of an inch and / time of dura- tion in minutes. These are the equations to the curves of Figs. 3-5, some values of which are here given against actual amounts recorded : — RAINFALL IN Tilli: TRANSVAAL. 691 Value Actual Time of Curve. .Amount Re- corded. District. Station. Lat. S. LonK. Min- utes. Inches. Inches. Eastern Divisian. E, 5 0.87 0.81 Bethal Watershed 26°28' 29°38 ' 10 1.50 107 do. do. 12 1.70 1.37 Zoutpansberg . . Downs . . 24.09 30.11 20 2.32 2.61 Piet Retiet Cascades 26.47 30.44 25 2.63 2.52 Lydenbuig Schoongezicht 25.34 29.57 45 3.58 3.55 Barberton Castle Kop 25.40 30.56 55 3.94 5.07 Swaziland Bailey's Creek 26.20 31.06 60 4.10 4.02 Piet Relief Cascades 26.47 30.44 85 4.81 0.30 4.52 0.28 Swaziland Bailey's Creek 26.20 26.15 31.06 Central Division. 3 Witwatersrand .. Oakdene 28.03 H 0.75 0.60 Pretoria Pretoria 25.44 28 13 10 0.97 0.92 Marico Welbedacht 25.29 25 59 13 1.20 1.12 Potchefstroom . . Mooi River Estates 26.11 27.09 14 1.28 1.31 do. Haaskraal 26.50 27.03 15 1.35 1.25 Ermelo Clifton . . 26.28 30.28 16 1.42 1.64 Pretoria Pretoria (Irrigation Store) 25.45 28.11 20 1.68 1.85 Wakkerstroom . . Glenmore 27.18 30.00 1.60 Witwatersrand .. Rose Deep 26.12 28 11 25 1.98 1.95 do. Germiston 26.14 28. a) 30 2.25 2.18 Pretoria Pretoria (Municipal Works) 25.45 28.11 4.19 Rustenberg Wolhuters Kop . . 25.43 27.42 35 250 2.25 Pretoria Fountains 25 47 28 12 36 2.55 2.30 Pretoria Pretoria 25.44 28.13 40 2.74 3.50 Witwatersrand . . Vierfontein 26.16 28.01 45 2.96 3.26 Waterberg Grootvlei 24.32 28.42 2.95 Rustenburg Wolhuters Kop 25.43 27.42 60 3.55 3.15 Carolina Leeuwpoort 26.01 30.14 75 4.08 3.85 Witwatersrand . . Johannesburg (Jou- bert Park) 26.11 28.03 116 5.27 0.26 5.27 0.26 Pretoria Lyttleton Junction 25.48 27.55 28.12 South-wesi ;ern Division. 6 Bloemhof Christiana 25.10 10 0.50 0.51 do. do. 30 1.15 1.18 do. De Hoop 27.47 25.11 45 1.48 1.50 Lichtenburg Doornbult 26.48 25.38 50 1.62 1.57 Wolmaransstad . . Wolmaransstad 27.12 25.59 60 1.82 1.91 Lichtenburg Barberspan 26.35 25.35 80 2.18 2.17 Bloemhof Christiana 27.55 25.10 120 2.77 2.75 Lichtenburg Turf laagte 26 19 26.07 Two rains in the Central Division do not conf(jnii to the .e^eneral trend of the curve; the W'olhuter Koi) rainfall mentioned above, and another of 3.50 inches in 40 minutes, which occurred at Vierfontein on January 17th. 191 5. W'olhuter Koj) lies at the foot and to the north of the Magaliesberg, and \'ierfontein to the north of the Klipriversberg range. 692 RAINFALL IN TIIK TRANSVAAL. Fig. 6. RAINFALL IN TJIE TRANSVAAL. 693 In very few countries has much attention been devoted to intensity of rainfall during short periods, and the consequent paucity of information precludes comprehensive comparison be- tween the Transvaal and other areas of the world's surface. In the British Isles, however, where data has been assiduously col- lected, only one fall which would lie above the curve for the Eastern Division has been recorded during 46 years.* More especially over the longer periods, where errors of observation are relatively small, the British records fall well below the Trans- vaal. This single comparison at least serves to exhibit more clearlv the great intensities experienced in ]Kirts of this country, where both physical configuration and the character of the rain- fall combine to favour heav\- downpours. Thunderstorms are the principal agents of precipitation, and these storms, usually tra- velling from south-west to north-east, have a motion opposed to the prevailing surface winds. They are thus fed by an absolute movement of the air towards them, not by a relative movement such as would be associated with convectional thunderstorms, travelling in the same direction as the surface ctirrents. Incidentally it may be noticed that the December isobars at 4,000 metres, as com]:)uted by Teisserenc de Bort, would neces- sitate a circulation of the atmosphere at the height closely agree- ing with the direction followed by thunderstorms. f Whether the accompanying clouds travel at that height cannot be definitely stated at present, btit it may be remarked that a series of measure- ments made in connection with a storm approaching Pretoria gave 4,465 metres above sea-level as the mean height of their apices. With few exceptions, the rainfall data dealt with here are the results of observation with ordinary 5in. gatiges, exposed with their rims 4ft. above ground level. Unfortunately, only a few of the automatic instrttments tised in South Africa ])roduce records adapted to the extraction of short period intensities. ON THE DESIRABILITY OF FOUNDING A SOUTH AFRICAN ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. By Antonius Johannes Theodorus Janse, F.E.S. (Not printed.) SOME ASPECTS OF MODERN NAVAL DEVELOPMENT. Bv Harold Cecil Kenway. (Not printed.) * British Rainfall, (iqm). t Dr. J. R. Sntton states they approach Kimberley from north-west or west (" An Introduction to the study of South African Rainfall." S.A. Phil. Soc, 15. 25). PRACTICAL EDUCATION. By William James Horne, A.MJ.E.E. I have chosen a popular title for the remarks I am about to trouble you with, because I wish to interest that grreater number of parents whose children will l^ecome skilled artisans, working agriculturists or qualified clerical employes. Intended to catch the eye, this title does not define sufficiently clearly the scope of my observations: briefly, I wish to discuss the possibilities and requirements of vocational education. At this distance from the centre of things.* my ideas may be but crudely ex])ressed, and my remembrance of the work of others, here and elsewhere, somewhat sketchy. If 1 am able to say anything in a manner sufficiently new to interest educationists, I shall be doubly rewarded. When we regard a system of national education from out- side, it is important to consider first the minimum attainment that it should aim at; secondly, the maximum achievement that ought to be its ideal. Tlicre may be no limit to the ideal; but it seems to me that the lowest minimum we can allow is that the girls should become fit for motherhood and be mentally and technically fitted to manage a household, and that the boys should become fit for fatherhood and be mentally and techincally fit to earn a living wage in some department of labour. That is, each sex qualified to carry on the daily round in its own sphere, and maintaining a cheerful temper in doing so. Now nothing is more certain that the child whose education is stopped at the age of thirteen, fourteen or fifteen, cannot have received this minimum. That parent wdio says to the young boy or girl of fifteen: "You ha\e learnt enough foolishness at school, it is time you went to work," does an incalculable injury to the child and to its future \alue to the country. That parent who asks : "Why don't they teach children .something useful at school?" — meaning thereby a course of instruction that will create a demand for the child in the labour market, commercial or other- wise, does not understand the functions and necessary limita- tions of the ordinary school. The worst of talking about education is that so many still think of it as something put into the mind instead of as something drawn out of it ; that, in fact, the school is a kind of glorified warehouse dealing in intangible materials of which the pupils receive an assortment in quarterly instalments, which they will be able to retail at considerable profit, at some future fixed date in the examination market, even if the goods delivered by the pupil are considerably reduced in value bv the process. This attitude of mind, of course, is not conducive to education, and can only lead to the very state that jiarents and employers are ever ready to complain of, namely, scrappv knowledge on the part of the scholar. South Africa * This paper was written in German South-West Africa. PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 695 has been described as examination-ridden ; I regretfully agree. It is not the fault of the examining bodies ! neither is it the fault of the teachers. The peo])le get the Government they deserve, even in educational matters; the first step to a cure must be taken by the parents. As long as school committees foster the examination craze by gauging the educational abilities of the school stati' on the number of children " ])Ut through " any given examination, as long as parents measure the want of edu- cational attainment in their child by its failure at a certain ex- amination— so long will the present unsatisfactory state continue. The security of tenure and further advancement of the teacher de])ends. in too many schools, upon the number of " passes " that can be shown ; remove this incubus, and the teachers will heave a sigh of relief and pass from the cramming mill to his ])roi)er sphere, that of education. I would remove the vulgar — in the sense of po{)ular — view of education, and substitute for it the definition given by an eminent American commission of education : " Real education is the vital interaction between a mind and its world." The child's (nvn world is small, and he probably re-acts intelligently under its stimulus ; the world outside the child is large, and under its influence he re-acts more or less incoherently, more or less intelligentl}-. The child, as it were, is under the fire of an edu- cation battery of some four guns, each using very dififercnt ammunition, with the added disadvantage that the battery as a whole is not tuider the control and direction of a single com- mander, but that each gun is firing when, how, and where its individual gun-captain may wish. These agencies for education that I ha\e likened to guns arc: ( i ) home, (2) neighbours, (3) school, and (4) church. This distribution of educative power is not in fixed divisions, set once and for all by previous tradition or practice. Together these agencies carry out the total work of education witb the economy and such efficiency as comes through a division of labour ; a new sociological order and a more complex environment have weakened the powers of some of them, however. Thus the town homes of the artisan class have not that parental authority and control over children exer- cised by the family life of the farmers ; theological doctrines grip fewer numbers now than a century ago ; apprentices learn less of the intricacies of their trades in modern factories than their forerunners did when these trades were lodged in the employers' household; the junior employe in a mercantile house learns less of the ramifications of business methods now than his type did fiftv vears ago, when identification with " a house " meant, ])rac- tically, identification for life. Under the flux of changing con- ditions, those influences hitherto brought to bear by the other agencies are, as they become weakened and inoperative, demaiided from the school. As the moral training of the church and family life become insufficient, we find moral education included in the school curriculum. x\s children, owing to the restrictions 696 TRAlTItAL KHL^CATION. , imposed by city life and the ])r(>vision of cheap amusement, cease to develop robust physical activities in the open air, the school is called U])on to pr.)\ide systematic physical training. As the industrial ^vorksh()p and the commercial house become more scientific and specialised, anrl as the present system of ap- prenticeshij) fails to give the orounding and training necessary to the efficient and satisfied worker, so the obligation to make good the want is i)laced upon the educational system of the nation. This demand for xocational education is a rational one, considered in the light of modern industrial and commercial conditions ; it has lieen felt and met by other countries, resulting in a quicker output and a l)etter service, both without deteriora- tion in quality. What appears to Ije irrational, is the popular demand that vocational education should be ])rovided in the ordinary or prim- ary school. It has been pointed out that the primary school can give a general training for life as a whole, but that it cannot do so for the business side of life, exce])t in a very limited and restricted sense.* Even if the ])rimarv school teacher was a master in some craft, or an expert in some branch of btisiness, he could not find the time, either on his own part, or on the part of his pupils, to impart his vocational knowledge. It is essen- tial that the child's mind should re-act intelligently to external mental stimuli, so that the child may be fit as a member of the general commtmity. He is there to see that that vital interaction between the mind and its world, which is education, takes place ; and he does so b\ gradually widening the child's world, liere .softening one stimulus, there strenthening another, leading him to increase his perceptive ])owers. To efi:'ect this he has to teach his ])upils certain in'strumental subjects, namely, reading, writing, arithmetic and drawine. Super-imposed upon these, for the reasons already gi\ en, Biblical and moral knowledge and personal hygiene, with physical exercises for the body. Together with these, some cultural subjects are necessary, such as history, with geography, singing, a little general science, some manual train- ing, or hand work in wood or in metal, parallelled for girls by lessons in cookery ( in order to balance the effect of the other necessarily bookish subjects), and possibly, later on, an intro- duction to literature. Add to it all the necessity for dual lan- guage provisions, and it will be clear that both pupils and teachers, in the ordinary or primary schools, are very busy persons indeed. But, it may be urged, it is possible to give these subjects a more vocational basis than is already done during the ordinary primary school years. I do not think so. To take reading for example ; this subject is an "instrument " for inculcating the proper use of language ; for this purpose a large amount of reading aloud must be done; the subject-matter must be within the grasp of the pupils, and just sufficiently beyond their experience to be =♦ Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, in his Preface : " The Trades School in the Transvaal. " ' PRACTICAL KDUCATIOX. 697 interesting ; the proper use of books as treatises to be consulted for information, is not yet ; pupils " read for the story " well into their teens, because the spirit of romance is strong in youth ; it would be a grievous pity to kill endeavcnn- by stifling instead of directing this romantic spirit to useful after-effort, by substi- tuting the elementary technical manual or commercial text-book for the civic reader. To spelling, on the other hand, reformers on the look-out for economy in school-time, might well turn their attention ; memory work in this connection is nearly as wasteful of time and grey matter as our systems of weights and measures. To spell correctly in English is exceedingly difficult, yet I am no Carnegieite who would alter standard f (~)rms ; but perfection comes with practical use, and all that should be expected from pu])ils is the correct spelling of some two hundred words in common use with the intelligent handling of a pocket spelling guide, and not that they should be expert in all the words that can be found in a shilling dictionary. Scholars in primary schools have not now to suffer the astounding nomenclature, fantastic classifications and the distinctions with fine differences of formal grammar ; their acquaintance with it is limited to that required for the recognition of and ability to formulate a sentence. With regard to arithmetic, I do not see how a greater accuracy can be attained by substituting ])ractical calculations for pure arith- metic, by beginning early with concrete examples; I think the child's mind would be confused beyond hope. Much of the present arithmetic text should be scrapped ; I have already re- ferred to (Uir systems of weights and measures — those effete descendants of a defunct guild mysticism — arithmetical sub- tleties such as problems, however sim]:)le, based upon " remainder theorems " should go, as also those which apparently assume that the pui)ils are going to earn their livelihood by buying money when it is cheap and selling it when it is dear. The time saved should be spent in drill with " the four rules." Fractions should be begun with denominators in tens only, and non-recurring decimals introduced immediately ; further practice in the four rules should then be given with the decimal system with the gradual introduction of " approximations." The calculation of area should be followed by simple square root and of volume by cube root. Fractions with other denominators than ten and its powers would be the next step and, thereafter, problems includ- ing the use and sub-division of money. Everything else in arithmetic should be sacriffced in the primary school to accuracy and speed in this minimum equipment. Parents and others are apt to make the mistake of thinking that the manual training instruction given as part of the ordinary or primary school course is intended as a training for what I have already called the business side of life ; that the boy is being pre-trained as a w'age-earner ; that the school woodwork class is a kind of apprenticeship training in the trade of carpenter, and the metal-work instruction a kind of pre-training for that F 698 PRACTICAL EDUCATION, of the Steam-fitter. Nothing could be more erroneous. The aim of this kind of instruction is totally different to that of the trade workshop ; its object is to get the hand and the eye working together, to correlate the mind and the body; it is another method of getting the child to think by letting him work at something he imagines to be definitely useful in solid materials. Instead of dealing with an abstract problem he deals with something concrete and real, something that he can turn oxer in his hand and in his mind instead of only in his mind. 1lnis manual train- ing is mc^re than a mere counter-irritant to class-room or desk studies, and is essential if the intelligence and adaptability of the pupil is to be as fully developed as is desirable by the primary school course. No one will deny that a wide range of contact with tools and with the materials to which these tools can be applied, either at the bench or on the lathe, gives a boy a certain amount of knowledge which would be useful t(^ him if he were to enter a workshop as a learner ; but the aim of the training must be realised by the parents — it is training in forethought and, as I have already said, in correlation between the hand and the eye, and it is not a training directed towards a future entry to some trade. It is more nearly comparable with that development which results from the spontaneous " experience-getting " when engaged in such highlv-sjiecialised games as football and cricket. Its method may be summarised in the j^hrase " nothing made which has not been drawn, a'^id nothing drawn which cannot be made " ; that is, of course, made by the pupil. Thus the course of instruction must deal with forms based upon the ])upirs ex- perience— his world — advancing in difficulty along a parallel road, ^vith the classroom or desk subjects, and in such a way as will hel]) his progress along either road. In other words, the manual training instruction is correlated with arithmetic, drawing and science, and even with history and geography. Thus the motive of manual training is not that of vocational instruction ; its aim is not that form of vocational or trade efficiency which results from manual dexterity in some trade process— such, for exam]:)le, as the abilitv to use a joiner's plane to make a piece of wood dead true on all four sides. There are other ways in which manual training is limited in its possibilities for vocational efficiency ; beside the spirit of approach being educational in nature, and therefore partaking more of the amateur than of the tradesman style, and especially in those cases where the teacher has come under the arts and crafts movement, only a couple of hours each week can be allotted to it as a school subject ; it is thus only an incident in a general education ; again, the equipment and tuition in such a course lag very far behind the keen progress in either the wood or metal-working trades, because the use of modern labour- saving bench tools would lessen, seriously, the education to be derived from the instruction, even if the purchase of these tools were financially possible ; and again, the teacher need not neces- sarilv have been a tradesman. PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 699 Similarly for girls" subjects, sewing and cookery ; the sewing class is purely domestic in its aim, it can make no preparation for vocational efficiency in " gentlemen's vests " or " ladies' coats,'' or even in dressmaking, where both stitch and method are dififerent to those used in the home-life. Cookery, too, is tied by the " budget " of the home the girl may reasonably be expected to have ; it can make the pupil a more economical con- sumer and raise her ideal regarding simple dishes and the treat- ment of food for the sick, but it cannot provide that vocational efficiency expected in the woman chef. Thus, manual training (for either sex), and vocational edu- cation— in the sense of training for a particular vocation — have dififerent aims, and are controlled by largely different purposes ; each, however, contributes in some sort to the purposes of the other. Manual training, designed to give breadth to Hmited experience, to evoke interests and to stimulate a keen ap])reciation, cannot be identified with the intensive pttrpose and specialised nature of vocational education. Manual training is a part of general education, and as such must adhere closely to the con- temporary life of the pupil ; vocational education mtist be given under workshop conditions. From the evidence of an increasingly complex social order, of the increasing competition between nations, and of the fact that a general education must necessarily concern itself with abstract studies illustrated only by concrete examples to main- tain the interest and make the application clear — we are forced to the conclusion that \'ocational education must be given in a new system of schools specially devoted to this end. The evi- dence that the older agencies of vocational education — the home, the workshop, the free intercourse betw^een son and father, as a means of participation in productive industry — arc no longer sufficient, that modern apprenticeship, wdiere it exists, no longer gives the comfortable assurance of a complete all-round trade training, could be multiplied. It is one of the certain social facts of the age we live in. There can be no doubt that the time has arrived when vocational education, as well as general education, must be provided for the greater mass in special institutions care- fully organised for the purpose, deliberately selecting their courses and teaching staff, and shaping their methods to the end in view — the best type of worker and citizen. Many of the higher vocations have long been acquired under school condi- tions and often at public expense. The early universities had their schools of literature, law, medicine, and theology, each giving its own specialised vocational education for those seek- ing to enter one or other of the professions ; to these have since been added professional schools for architects, chemists, and engineers. Of these, the training of teachers and of soldiers — - both rank and file — is given almost, if not entirely, at the expense of the public exchequer. To train the leaders and not the ranks is suicidal, and the time is now come when it is necessary to 700 PR ACTUAL KDL'CATION. provide as careful and suitable a training for the industrial status as is considered necessary for the professional status. In fact, legislation for education in certain countries is already tending to make it compulsory upon every individual to attain some vocational education just as compulsion already exists to prevent illiteracy among the mass of the people. It is being recognised, gradually, that an educational system which ends with the end of primary school classes has not justified its exis- tence, and that it cannot be justified until the minimtim outfit for the business-side of life is the birthright of every child from the day it enters the ordinary school. Secondary education is the process that gives this outfit ; secondary education that is in close association with the office, the workshop, the farm, and with domestic life. Higher elementary teaching in the ordinary or primary school is nearly useless for this purpose ; that means that all education from at most the thirteenth year onward to at least the age of seventeen must be secondary in the sense just given. It is most desirable that this practical or vocational edu- cation of secondary type should be given in whole-time day- schools in view of the nature of the contemplated curriculum and on account of the pupils ; somehow the life of children from fourteen to seventeen is an all-important period requiring the most watchful care, for upon the mental and bcxlily growth dur- ing these years depends the quality of the future life of the nation. Parents, therefore, should realise the necessity of keeping their children as long as possible at the kind of day school shown to be necessary even if this involves severe sacri- fice on their own part. Circumstances, however, may render this impossible in some cases, and the makeshift of half-time or continuation schools be rendered neces,sary ; but these must be held in the day-time and not at night — i.e., not from 7 p.m. on- wards— as at present. Night school work has been definitely proved so to drain the physical energy of youth as seriously to reduce the value of this national asset ; it produces myopia, brain- fag, and even epilepsy in its victims ; in fact, for the great num- ber, it defeats its own object. If. therefore, it is our duty to consider future generations; if our imperialism is to take note of time as well as space — it is our duty as a nation to provide a minimum vocational education for the youth and to feed and clothe them, when that may be necessary, while they are under- going instruction. All this means two things, money and future employment ; vocational education is, of course, technical educa- tion, and technical education is. and always will be. expensive when its cost is compared with the few pitiful pence usually allocated to primary or ordinary education ; it will be money well spent, and in any case other countries have attempted it and are succeeding. As for the over-stocking of certain callings with too many workers and the economic problems arising there- from— these are matters for adjustment between the Boards governing the schools, the employers' associations and trade PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 701 unions. Unemployment is always larg'clv local, and can be greatly mitigated by governmental juvenile employment bureaux .n different districts. I ha\e illustrated my conce])tion of the relation between one type of educational institution and another, and the relation of ^.6.§ c ?^ J; ^ P uo/joonp-j jouoijoDO/\ D 702 prac:tical education. the whole to life, in the annexed diagram. The child begins in the primary school, the path from which to the university and thence to professional life is through the secondary educa- tion given in the high school; flanking the high school, should be trades schools — one for each sex— commercial schools and domestic schools ; opportunity for further study after leaving these vocational schools should be obtainable through contiima- tion schools. Between each institution there should be the freest interchange to a flank — towards the higher institution for the capable, towards the more elementarv one for those who have mistaken their ability or over-estimated their educational ad- vancement. Provision for the dull, the dependent, the delinquent, the defective — what have been called " the four D's " — -must be made at the primary school stage ; the necessary institution is the in- dustrial school, partaking partly of the nature of the primary school and partly of the nature of the trades school ; in country districts with a strong bias to the needs of the district — for boys, agriculture ; for girls, dairying. For convenience of treatment I have classified* the callings, into which the labour market practically divides itself, in four main divisions, namely : (a) Industrial, or those containing — (i) manufacture in- volving a mechanic's training, and (2) agriculture, in- volving a farm training. (b) Commercial, those ranging from shop-boy, cash-girl, etc., to those which rank as quasi professions. (c) Professional, or those noted for the extensive educa- tional training and elaborate development required be- fore they can be practised. (d) Domestic, including the commercial manufacture of cloth, bread, jam. pickles, etc., now produced in fac- tories. The mo.st complex of these groupings is the industrial ; it embraces all crafts, trades and manufacturing pursuits ranging from those requiring little or no training — i.e., mainly requiring *' labour " supplied in Europe by woman, children, and un- trained men, and, in this country, ])robably, by the coloured races, but perhaps not altogether by them — to the higher trades requiring almost engineering ability. Of course, the degree of educational preparation, or preparedness, varies for each of the groups named ; following the terminology adopted in the ordinary scholastic system, we may call that form of vocational education, which is adopted to the child of average ability under fifteen years of age, " elementary " ; and that which is suitable for young persons from fifteen to eighteen "secondary"; while * I have modified the classification adopted by the French. I'ij:. : I, Professional; II, Commercial; TIT, Ao-ricuUnral ; IV, Houseliold; V, Marine; VI. Industrial. PRACTICAL KDL'fATlUN. 7O3 that intended for those beyond eighteen and holding correspond- ing attainments, may be called " higher." Professional educa- tion is usually classed as higher education ; that is, students be- fore admission are expected to have completed their secondary and, sometimes, their collegiate education. It is also true that under some circumstances the character of the elementary and especially of the secondary edtication given, is largely determined by the probable or even actual reqtiirements of the profession to be studied for in the future by the pupil. For example, pre- paratory secondary education for the boy intending to adopt engineering as profession should be carefully considered. I have already had the honour of laying my views before you on this point on a previous occasion.* In the professional division the various University Colleges in the Union of South Africa make ample preparation for the higher technological, literary, and scholastic vocations ; it is. however, to the lower technologi- cal levels or industrial divisions that the great majority of xouiilJ people will gravitate, and it is to provide more extended oppor- tunities in the primary-cum-secondary vocational field for future wage-earners that Trades Schools have been established in the Transvaal. In the industrial sub-division of agriculture we now have under school conditions, controlled by the Agricultural Department, the beginnings of higher grade agricultural educa- tion and that of secondary-grade well established — these tenns being fixed partlv by the age of the pupils and partly by the qualitv of the general educational attainment required in the pupils before admission to such Agricultural dtlleges as Elsen- burg, Cedara. Potchef-stroom, etc. The primary grade edtication is still limited, however, as far as the Transvaal is concerned, to the manual work done in field and garden in all industrial schools and in some country schools ; this might be taken up as a school subjectt in certain of the larger country-town schools. Provision in the Transvaal is made for the commercial and domestic divisions respectively by the Commercial Secondary School and Schc^^l of Domestic Science, both in Johannesburg and Pretoria. Vocational education has many difficulties inherent in it. That acquired through actual contact with its form in the home and in the workshop is strong in certain ways on the practical side; its weak i)oints are — (i) the absence of theory, (2) its inability to provide an adequate understanding of the laws and princi})les underlying its practice, and ( 3 ) modern conditions — e.g., cheapened production — narrow the practice given to some restricted branch of a trade. On the other hand, the class-room is particularly able in imparting the theory or abstract phases of a vocation, and is onlv j)artially adapted to combine these with * ■■ The Relation of thf High School to the University 1 cchnical Col- lege,'" Kept. S.A.A.A.S., Lourenqo ]\larques (191.3) 54-63- 1 1 have sketched a suitable scheme in the pamphlet " The Trades School in the Transvaal." Argus P. & P. Co.. Star Office, Johanesburg. 704 PRACTICAL KDUCATION. actual vocational trade practice. We. therefore, arrive at the conclusion that a complete system of vocational education must provide training both in the practical and in the theoretic or text-book preparation ; these theoretics may themselves be divided into two groups : those subjects which are essential in vocational education, and those which are not actually essential but are very desirable ; the first group may be considered as containing technical subjects proper, and the second those of general vocational utility. See diagram on page 705. In (jreat Britain, particularly, there has been established a wide range of technical scho(^ls in which the instruction given is almost wholly in theoretics, such workshops as there may be being merely for simple handicraft work in wood and metal for, at most, two hours a week. Institutions of this type have been so multiplied and copied that educationists and parents think not infrequently of vocational education solely in terms of the tech- nical studies involved. Doul)tless this notion has arisen largely because the higher levels of all technological callings require so much book and class-room study as to make it ai)pear that abstract study is the essential factor. This, of course, is not actually so ; .such courses are always accompanied by very long and heavy courses of practical work in laboratories. Abstract studies, in fact, when divorced from concrete practice fail to produce the efficiency necessary. What is true in the training of the future leaders is more than true in the training of the future workers. Certain abstract studies are necessary, but they must accompany a consideral)le amount of actual i)roduc- tive work. I have already indicated why manual training can- not be considered as satisfying the needs of vocational educa- tion; with that 1 include those modified forms of practical work given in some sch«x)ls as suitable for commercial employment, and in others as suitable for domestic life. The reasons lie in the want of correlation with the necessary technical subjects and in their remoteness from the i)ractice adopted in actual produc- tion. It is, moreover, a matter of common experience now that technical stibjects. such as mathematics, science, drawing as an art, and so on, ])roduce the best results only when they are acquired in conjunction with the practical i:)rocesses calling for their acquaintance. It is also known that the study of such sub- jects, in close relation with the productive processes referred to, helps to expand rapidly the capacity of the worker. It is, therefore, clear that when, in the ()])ini(Mi of the ])arents. the time has arrived for the child to consider what he (or she) is " gt)ing to 1)e "' — it is necessary to provide contact with reality not only as regards what may be termed the external characteris- tics of the vocation chosen, possibly provisionally chosen, but also as regards the amount of study necessary and education required, the social circumstances or status attaching to it, the market \ alue it will give him as an employe, and so on. He (or she) needs to see dift'erent trades in actual operation; PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 705 THE LABOUR MARKET. Division. Vocation. J'rofession- Medical al. Practi- tioner. Teacher. Commer- Clerk. cial. Industrial. Engineers' Mechanic- Gardener. Domestic. Wife and Mother. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION. Practical The Di.ssecting Table. The Clinic, the Hos- pital. The Practising School. Book-keeping. Stenography and Typing. Business Prac- tice. Technical. Chemistry, Ma- teria Medica Anatomy. Phy- siology, etc. Metliods of Teaching. School Management. Child Psycho- logy, etc. Commercial Arithmetic. Commercial Geography. Commercial Law . Modern Languages, etc Genekai.. Medical Jurispru- dence. Medical Sociology, etc. History of Educa- tion Education- al Systems,. Reformers, etc. History of Com- merce. Political Economy. Mathematics of .Vctuarial Com- putation, etc The Bench. The Practical Mathe- The Iron & Steel Lathe. Other Power Tools. The Nursery, Green House and Garden. The Kitchen. The Laundry. The Sewing- room. The Nursery Creche. matics. Applied Mechanics. . Steam Macliine Drawing, etc. Botany, Chemis- try of Soils and Manures. Simple Entomology and Insecticides. Per- spective Draw- ing, etc. Weights. Mea- sures and Money. Simple Science of Foodstuffs. Common .\dult- erants and Pre- ser\ati\es Household Hy- giene Mother- hood and After- care. Civics, etc. Industry. Lives of In\encors. Trade Unionism & Industrial Co- operation, etc. Historic (lardens. Japanese Horti- culture Land- scape Architec- ture. Colour Schemes. Plant Evolution. Mendelism, etc. HigherLiterature. Historic Homes. .Vn Art-craft. Domestic Econo- my. Eugenics. Child Psycho- logy, etc. The Technology of the Vocation. Vocational Cul- ture. Vocational Efficiency. 7o6 I'RACTKAI, l':nuCATI()N. actual!)- working in ihcni as a probationer before a tinal choice is made. In all these points the young person requires the guidance and advice of a s])ecialist, who is acquainted with the general abilities of the pupil before the choice is ratified by the parents. The first stej) will be taken on the advice of the child's teacher at the end of the ])rimary or ordinary school course; that guidance will be limited, naturally, to the divisions of labour in which the child as a future worker may be fairly expected to reach the maximum expression of its final development ; that is, whether the aim should be to the professional, the commercial, or the industrial division. The natural avenue to the {profes- sions is through the secondary or high school, and thence thnnigh a universitv college; to commercial life, through the commercial school; and to industrialism, through a suitable trades school. The next step will come as to the particular branch of the divi- sion chosen, that will be taken on the advice of the principal of the vocatiiHial institution the pupil is then attending. In the trades school the ])Upil should be actually engaged in the workshop, workroom, field or garden where the simpler stages of productive work are begun, but under the conditions of actual production. The phase of the training should be such as to recjuire trade clothing, trade hours, trade standards of pro- duction, trade associations as far as possible, knowledge of the trade cost of the production, and, ])ossibly, a sharing of the value of his (or her) output. Being thus in contact with actual reality, some part of the time should be set aside for the study of the technical and more theoretical side of the trade now being followed. Here, how- ever, it is essential thai such necessar)' subjects as mathematics, applied science, art, history and civics for citizenship, should not recjuire such a style of presentation as to detach them from the pupil's experience. This has undoubtedly been a serious mistake in many schools and continuation classes for supple- mental education. There has been too great a gulf between the experience of the pupil and the school studies — too few points of contact for real vocational efficiency. The curriculum of the trades school must give the })upil manual dexterity with a know- ledge of tools, processes and materials gained through actual practical work carried out under trade conditions as nearly as possible — one of such conditi(»ns being that the instructor must be a (jualified tradesman with a certain amount of teaching abilitv. b^rom the class-room instruction a further knowledge of materials, methods, trade calculations and trade drawing must be obtainable. Other class-room subjects would be technical mathematics, to the extent recjuired in the industry in which a beginning as a worker is being made, and the applied science upon which the princij^les of the trade depend. Added to these would be such general subjects as office practice, geography of the world mainly as regards the production and transportation of raw materials, history and civics as a guide to citizenship. PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 707 The ideal ought to be to train for a trade as though it were a profession — to educate " the whole boy " ; to do more than merely produce workers who will render more efficient service to their employers, and to do this by instruction in the relation of the individual to the community, in his civic function, in the laws relating to personal and communal hygiene — in addition to offer- ing the pupils a reasonable prospect of maintaining themselves in adult life. Almost every possible variation in vocational schools has been tried. A big company will maintain its own technical institute where its apprentices are expected to attend for a cer- tain number of hours on certain evenings in the week. (jrou])s of workers may be brought together for a weekly talk 1)y a sub- manager. The advantages are that the instructicMi given is direct ; it can be adapted to every requirement of the particular business ; it is by far the most successful way of getting quick results for a given business. The objections are that the voca- tional education given is incomplete ; it deals wholly with the kind of employe that the employer wants and the training that he requires, which may mean that that worker is wholly or partially unemployable elsewhere; in other words, it is not able to assume the disinterested attitude of the publicly controlled form ; the point of view is limited to the creation of a potential wage earner or producer. Another method has been that certain firms have paid the fees of their apprentices, and even given them a bonus for a certain minimum attendances at certain specified evening classes ; this is jjn^baljlv one of the worst ways of all ; in the first place the employer had but a (|uestionable right of dismissing an employe who did not attend the classes ; secondly, those who did attend did that and nothing more, probably be- cause " too easy getting makes the prize seem light " — -they had not to pay fees, and the ac(|uirement of technical knowledge w^as not necessary in order to be employed as apprentices since they were already so employed under a signed agreement. There is no need to point out the disadvantages and drawbacks of attend- ing evening classes after a full day's lal)our in the works ; again, many looked for a rate of progress entirely ini}X)ssil)le on the pupils present educational ability whatever his previous attain- ment may have been. We are forced to the conclusion that voluntary systems are useless unless they are arranged to inter- cept the pupil as he leaves the primary school and before he gains the employment he desires — i.e., before the consummation of his young ambition. Yet another variety is the " half-time "' system, of which the l)est results are to be found in South Ger- many ; in luigland it has usually been " half-time " at the "wrong- time," and for an insufficient period itself confined to the con- tinuation of an unfinished ordinary school education. The National Advisory Board has ]x)inted out that hitherto many of our exi)eriments in vocatit)nal education have tended to be ob- scured by the " poor white problem." To help the poor is a 708 PRACTICAL KDUCATION. traditional impulse, and is justifiable if the aim of the help is to obviate the need of charity ; vocational education can do much in this direction for the dependent and the delinquent through that type of institution known as the industrial school. It is, however, " the normal boy and girl of the non-indigent classes " that form the greater national asset, and to whom we must afford every opportunity to develop their working power with the least waste to themselves and to the State. For these, trades schools are necessary as separate institutions. Other countries have long provided for the ordinary boy or girl who is unable to go on to the secondary school as a means of learning a trade. As early as 1857 Holland established its first trades school in Amsterdam ; there are now over forty such schools throughout the length and breadth of that country. The most complete of these is the Ambachtschool No. 3, in the magnificent new building on the Timorplein in Amsterdam. It has accommodation for 1,000 boys, and it was full in 1914. These are ])ure trade schools and not merely " technical insti- tutes," as we understand them ; specific trades are taught by tradesmen instructors to boys who have completed the ordinary or elementary school course; each boy enters at about 14 years of age, and the course covers three years; many boys remain for a fourth year. The trades taught include house-decorating and painting, masons' work, plastering and bricklaying, carpentry, cabinetmaking, electrician's work, and the trade of engineer's mechanic. Related school subjects are taught both for voca- tional efficiency and citizenship, the standard of the instruction in these subjects being partly a revision of the elementary school course, and partly secondary in treatment. There is no com- pulsion, the pupil is free to come or go as he pleases ; but no employer, no matter how small his way of business, will take an apprentice unless he can produce the standard trades school certificate. The surprising tiling is that such small towns as Alkmaar, Tiel, and Apeldoorn* have equally complete trades schools, but, of course, of smaller pupil-capacity ; it must not be thought that these are government forced institutions ; on the contrary, they are established by a species of local option, and the expenditure is met — one-third Iw the municipality, one-third from the Education Vote, and the remaining third from the Royal Treasury Funds — ^the source of revenue in all cases being the taxes. These boys' schools are parallelled by similar and other institutions for girls. The most coniplet'ely equipped domestic school is undoubtedly the Hiiishuudt School voor Meisjes in Amsterdam ; built in the newer residential quarter about two years ago to accommodate some 30 boarders, this institution is a kind of higher grade domestic science school for the daughters of the more well-to-do ; among many excellent features, mention must be made of the physiology clas.s-room, * Nos. of inhabitants, ronghly : Amsterdani', 590,000; Apeldoorn, 38.500; Alkmaar, 21,500; Tiel, 11,400. PRACTICAL EDUCATION. "JOC) where the arrangements for instruction to girls of the meaning of maternity and motherhood cottld not offend the susceptibihties of the most correct. The type of vocational school that would be more generally suited to this cotmtrv's needs is represented by the School of Rural Housekeeping at Bouchout — now most likely a shelled ruin — in gallant Belgium ; here girls from fifteen to seventeen took turns at marketing for the school, took turns at cooking, and worked successively in the laundry, the garden, the poultry yard, and the dairy. The school was free and the length of the course was one year or according to the age of the pupil and her circumstances. Wherever one may go on the continent of Europe, whether to the Swedish and Danish* vocational high schools and farm schools involving ])racticallv no ex])ense but board, to the higher commercial schools of Antwerp teaching its ]:)tipils commercial correspondence in at least three languages and where the most advanced course for the consular service is given, to the Ferine Eeole of France for peasants' sons, and her more advanced })ractical agriculture classes, to the Ecolc D' Horlogeric at Geneva, where the famous Cieneva Watch- making is taught ; to the German Ackerbauschulen, where strong lads of seventeen not only receive free instruction, but some pay on completing the course — we find a curricuhuii planned for workers, carefully graded according to their promise of ability, and containing all the Aocational fundamentals for efficient life. No reference to the progress of vocational education in Europe would complete without the fullest consideration of what has been effected in Germany. The horror we feel at her recent actions as an avowed enemy must not prevent that exam- ination of her educational progress in this one direction, which may enable us to defeat a more subtle r^rm of invasion, the swamping of the local workers by foreigners of better vocational attainment. A Germany conquered is not a Germany vanished ; the indemnity will have to be paid by her people ; her birth-rate is high, and her seething population must find an outlet. How else than by emigration, by a reduced cost of production, by competition at home and abroad, but — preferably abroad ? I write of things I have seen, and heed shotild be given to the warning " Mark over.'"t The system of vocational education in (iermany is supple- mentary, and is compulsory as soon as employment is obtained ; this requires part-time attendance for eight to ten hours a week during the day-tlme,% for which the emj^loyer must pay wages as if the boy or girl were actually employed in the shop or counting-house. If the young employe has not completed the elementary day school course there is no admittance to trades * Skibbet Skole fur Skibs Kokke. Copenhagen, Ships' Cooks School, t Enemy aeroplane approaching. Warning call in German South- West Africa. X " Day " ends at 7 p.m. generally. 7IO PRACTICAL EDUCATION. or commercial classes until he or she has f|ualified bv attendance at a PflicJitfortbildniuisschiilc/' Stringent regulations exist through which both employe and employer can be punished for contravention by fine or im- prisonment. It may be that a conscrij^t army has rendered possible the conscript continuation class and the iron discipline of the system; it began forty years ago. and has spread through the whole country as a nationally accepted system of education not, I think, because of conscription, but because it equips the ordinary individual with a vocational efficiencv initiallv unex- pected. There is one great difference in the working of the systems as between, roughly, north and south (Germany. In the south trades workshops are fitted in buildings specially provided for vocational teaching, while in the north the teaching is by theory illustrated by stereotyped samples and diagrams mounted on cards, the instruction being given by academically trained teachers from text-books prepared by a committee of each trade concerned, and in a class-room of the sort found in the older type elementary school. The older directors responsible for this system hold that the theory of the trade is all that need be im- parted when the commercial shop ])ractice actually engages the remaining time of the pupil. Tiiis has been a common argument in South Africa; here are three serious objections raised by Ger- man teachers themselves. The first and serious weakness is the impossibility of maintaining the interest of the pupil owing to the inelasticity and woodenness of the examples and ])roblems that must be used in the teaching, this residts in a deadening of the interest of the pupil during a particularly sensitive period of the child's education. The second and very serious weakness is the waste of time owing to an insistence upon obsolete teach- ing methods ; for example, an apprentice class for dental mechanics is expected to be able to recite by rote the constituent proportions of certain teeth fillings, the chemical action that occurs in each, and how the work is done. Again, hygiene is supposed to be imparted by learning off certain rules upon the science and an examination of some wall pictures. The third and very serious weakness is that the lessons given often do not cover the individual practical difficulties that the apprentices meet with in their work ; the difficulties referred to are those that depend, as a rule, upon the learner ; but there are others, in addition, due to the fact that the apprentice may be employed by a master who is acting as a sub-contractor, and therefore the work done in his shop does not cover the whole practice of the trade. This last point became crucial as soon as the academi- cally trained teacher was replaced by a qualified tradesman instructor, which usually occurred in the third or last year of the course, and because the apprentice often outran the teacher * Compulsory Continuation Ordinary School Classes in the afternoon. PRACTICAL EDUCATION. /I 1 in his handling- of a practical trade subject. This state of chaos was remedied by the semi-insurgent class being- handed over to the Meistcr,'-^ who taught in the Gesellc or journeyman class. This man is a modern past-master in his trade ; managers of the Fachforfbildiiiigscli!tlr)i'\ see to that. He was at variance with parts of the official instruction books, and could give valid reasons for his departure from the strict line; he knew more than many of the smaller emplovers, and was at once able to group the class according to the quality of their practice in the trade ; he saw that more than half his class had not seen the practice of the point under discussion, and he introduced models and pieces of his own work ; there were still some dull brains in his class, and the next step was simple : he put them to work with such scrap material as he could find. The old adage " that an ounce of practice is worth a ton of precept" was justified: Hercules had cleansed the Atigean stable ! The discussion be- tween the managers was heated, and the authorities were im- sympathetic, but he won in the end, and the Fachschulcn are to adopt the methods of Sotith Germany by basing the instruction upon demonstration, teaching and practice in workshops as an integral i)art of the vocational school. The centre of the South German system is Munich; here imder the gtiidance of Dr. Kerschensteiner the system has been perfected to a very high pitch. Munich has something over fifty trades, for which teaching is given, with over ten thousand boys and nearly an eqtial number of girls in attendance in well- equipped classes, and workshops all housed in splendid build- ings. The success of the system may be gathered from the fact that from 1910 ( ?) onwards only 8 per cent, of the boys of Munich did not enter some skilled trade. Practical men direct almost all the sub-divisions of the commercial, painting and decorating, building, printing, mechanical engineering, wood and metal working trades, besides such miscellaneous ones as shoe- making, wigmaking, baking, confectionery, and so on. The teachers are men taken from the trade and taught to teach; the reverse process has not been found satisfactory, but. in the event of tradesman instructors not being forthcoming, academic teachers are given furlough on full pay in order to learn a trade for a time stifficiently long to master it for the more elementary stages of the teaching.. In the tipper or advanced trades classes many of the instructors are part-time men, especially in applied art subjects like commercial photography and sculpture ; in the case of stucco work an artist instructs as well as an artisan. The age at which the selection of a trade is made would shock those who look upon the age of fourteen years as too early to begin to specialise; at about ten years of age the boys * The recognised grading in trades are, rmighly : Lenter, apprentice ; Gcselle, jonrneyman: Mcistcr, master workman. t Compulsory Trades School, Fachschulen abbreviated form. 712 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. planning to enter the professions are separated from the others to go then or later on to what corresponds to our high schools; it is practically a social separation, and the two divisions practi- cally never meet again. Tlie others, including the " needy " ones, are then grounded in the use of tools on a system par- taking partly of manual training methods and partly of definite handicraft instruction with the rudiments of mechanics. The girls of the same social status do simple clerking, a " needle " trade and house-keeping. These suhjects are not taught in the ordinary class-rooms. In the " common " school in the new Siebold Strasse, excellent and completely-ecjuipped workrooms exist for all these subjects together, with two fine bakeries e(juipped with the last word in modern ovens ; in the grounds is a large school garden for both vegetables and flowers with poultry runs, the instruction being given by the caretaker, whO' lives with his family (as in all (ierman schools) on the school premises. The boy in his last year as a pupil in the elementary or ordinary school course, who has made up his mind as to the trade he likes, usually finds employment either by en{|uiries con- ducted by himself or instituted by one of his parents; notices from employers requiring juvenile helpers, with or without pay, are addressed to the Principal* of the primary school, who affixes them to the school notice board. The parents seek the advice of the Principal, who consults the official census of occupations and employment, supplied him by the Ministerial Department of Trades and Industries, but refrains (by instruction) from ex- erting any influence on the choice of a trade. The management of vocational education for juveniles be- yond the age of fourteen is vested in a board distinct from that managing the ordinary elementary or primary school, and con- sisting of employers, master and journeymen members of the various trades guilds, reprcseiUatives of varicnis public commer- cial bodies, one or more educational officials, and often the principal teachers. This ensures that the interests of all concerned receive consideration, namely, workers, employers and teachers. The system of teaching and the system of control both indi- cate clearly that the trades schools of Holland have supplied the model for the day trade continuation classes of Munich, the main difference being that the Dutch boy gets his vocational training before he goes to employment, and from age 14 to age 17, continuing, after employment, in evening classes; while the German boy begins as soon after 10 years of age as possible, and when he has obtained employment, and continues until he has obtained from his guildf at least the journeyman's certifi- cate of Geselle, usually between the ages of 21 to 2-,. The Munich system has spread to Austria, and is being established * Direktor in German. t The German Trade Union which inchides both employers (if quali- fied) and men. l'R.\( TifAL EDUCATION. 713 in Switzerlaiul. In \''ienna there is a magnificent five-storey building in the Pragerstrasse which is a veritable vocational palace. The completeness of the arrangements may be gathered from the fact that in each of the four corners of this pile is an electric lift, any one of which is capable of transporting a class of forty from the basement to the top floor, as, for example, when the stone-dressing or plastering classes are required to attend the art class in the glazed and domed halls in the roof. It is not some trades that are tatight, but literally every one about the town where the school is, even to waiters and cabmen. Britain still relies largely upon the voluntary evening school and the vokmtary technical school, but these institutions, ad- mirable as they are, do not deter at least nine-tenths of the children from turning their backs upon avoidable knowledge at fourteen. Industry is entrenched, business is powerful, and it still seems to employers a long step to countenance a compulsory system of part-time schools in working hours, for which they have to pay. The child whose parents can afTord that it shall stay a year or two longer without wage-earning, can get day- training, but most apprentices must get their vocational training increased by attendance at night classes. Many day trades schools have been established throughout England, but these, in the thoroughness of the trade training given, lag considerably behind the same institutions in Holland. Many of them, indeed, give but a preliminary training in general wood and metal work, such as is obtainable in the Munich schools after th(^ age of ten. There are others, however, and, of these I saw, I must mention the excellent School of Photo Engraving and Process Block Produc- tion (London County Coimcil) at Bolt Court. London, where boys are given a three-year course, or until employment, which fits them for employment as improvers ; the equally excellent schools of girls' trades at the Borough Polytechnic, London, S.E., and lastly, the newer Stanley Trades School at Norwood, Lon- don, S.E., where boys are given a two-years' school and work- shop course as engineers' mechanics, fitting them for employment as leading apprentices in the various power tool-making works along the Thames. That these schools are a success is due, I am confident, to the fact that the curriculum is controlled by master craftsmen and women with the trades instructors staff in the ascendant ; those schools are weak in vocational result v/here the headship is academic with an academic teaching staff holding the power. I have shown in the diagram (p. 701) the children from various kinds of school passing through the Juvenile Employment Bureau into the labour market. In ?)ritain this is a Government institution which, although its officials have little or no proper in- formation about children's occupations, is doing good work by acting as a clearing house between the employer with a vacancy and the unemployed young worker. In Edinburgh this work is undertaken by the School Board ; all teachers are supplied with G 714 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. cards of the card-filing system pattern ; when a pupil intimates that he or she is leaving school for good, certain particulars are entered on the card, which is then sent to the ofiftces of the Board, and there collated and cross-indexed with others. Any applications to the Board from employers for juvenile assistants are intimated to likely ex-pupils in the order of receipt of their cards. Pupils are invited to report the progress of their search for employment to their teachers, and they are also ex- pected to notify the Board when they have been successful, with the nature of the employment taken up. As soon as this has l^een done, the parents and the pupil are advised of the desir- abihty of attending continuation classes ; suitable stibjects of study are suggested, and the name of the nearest school or insti- tution in which tuition is given is forwarded. The name and address of the yoimg employee is sent to the headmaster of the school named, and he writes inviting the pupil to call for advice. In this wav the Edinburgh School Board have compiled valuable statistics, while succeeding in making the evening continuation courses as vital and sticcessful as may be expected of such a voluntary system. The Board believe in the shop system of vocational instruction, and have e(juip])ed eighteen workshops for the additional instruction of apprentices employed in different trades. These are night classes (held in a special building on open ground at Tynecastle), but the Board are extending the ground plan in pre]:)aration for the time when continuation teach- ing bv daylight will be accepted as compulsory. The progressive members frankly discuss the possibility under the Scotch Edu- cation ( 1908) of allowing half-day employment, only, between the ages of fifteen and eighteen, which would force up local wages bv diminishing the supply of boy and girl labour. The system required for South Africa is the day trades schools of Holland, prcx'iotis to employment . and the Munich system of daylight continuation classes eoneurrcntly zvith em- plownent. I do not advocate com]nilsion ; I do not think that niachinerv could be found to give anything like full eft'ect to the compelling clauses of an Act. I think it reasonable to expect that the various unions of trades and associations of employers should, give the eft'ect of compulsion, as is done in Holland, by demanding from each juvenile a trades school certificate, and by basing further promotion upon attendance at vocational — not merely technical — continuation classes. The difficulties in connection with vocational education, and particularly trades schools, are many. For some time to come we may expect voca- tional education to continue its present tendency to be academi- callv theoretic and bookish, unless there is a frank recognition that technical studies must blend intimately with the practice of the trade to which they refer, unless there is that close correla- tion between trade practice and trade theory which alone can produce an effcient technology. It is admitted that the time is not yet when a standard type of vocational education can be PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 715 laid down that will include all trades. What the exemplary systems I have quoted prove is, that it is indispensable for com- ])lete vocational efficiency that the vocational school should repro- duce all the practical and theoretical conditions necessary in the trades it teaches, and that every trade requires such vocational school ; that is, to develop facilities for the acquisition of practical experience in the schools themselves. To achieve this end the proposed school must have the atmosphere of a workshop rather than of a school. In the length of day. shop surroundings, dis- pos.a\ of products, the training of teachers, and the maintenance <;>f discipline, shop and office standards rather than school stand- ards must prevail, and approach, gradually, those of productive industry. Herein lies one difficulty ; teachers must abandon a A-arietv of traditions common to the schoolmaster and inherent to the administration of the ordinary school ; a new series of educa- tional values is required, because the practical work already out- lined involves teaching methods and an administration fundamen- tally different from that found in most existing schools, especially in connection with the training of youth between the ages of four- teen and eighteen. The next administrative difficulty is that of providing, under public school conditions, for a wide range of trades with their expensive equipment ; the probability is that this can be dealt with by grouping similar trades together with the compilation of a common syllabus of work, through which, with a sufficient variety of alternative projects or operations, the future worker can obtain a sufficiently practical and fundamental training, and without sacrificing trade methods. The next diffi- culty is with regard to the disposal of products, since the idea of the trades school involves the idea that the output should have a commercial value. It is vocationally uneconomical for pupils to be confined to unproductive exercises, and their efforts could be greatly stimulated if the things made could be sold, partly to the profit of the school, and partly to the profit of the pupil- worker. The advantages of the school, however, must not be used to the detriment of outside producers. Here the practice of similar institutions elsewhere may be useful. The trades schools of Holland hold bi-annual, sometimes triennial, lotteries for the disposal of the made articles. The Munich schools are not allowed to sell anything produced in their workshops. The articles made belong to the person or body supplying the material ; if the school supplies the material, the school is the owner, and if an employer provides stuff', he is the owner — and so on. As the syllabus of the course of instruction has been prepared by trades committees for each workshop, and as these are adhered to, there is no abuse as might exist if a small em- ployer supplied a quantity of material in order to obtain certain articles " on the cheap." In any event, it would seem that the total output of such schools must be small relatively to the market, and provided sales are conducted in such a way as not to disturb prevailing prices, there should be small danger in this 7l6 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. connection. There is the difficulty of providing for the variety of calhngs as has been mentioned ; in addition, there is another — that of adapting the courses, in degree as w^ell as in aim, to the different capacities and needs of those desiring vocational train- ing; this means many changes in initial ideas regarding the or- ganisation of the courses of instruction, length of training, etc. The necessities disclosed by experience must be considered and provided for. Yet another difficulty is the want of adequate text-books and other guides to instruction ; it is likely that each school, to a considerable extent, may have to work out special syllabuses suited to local conditions, and draft a system of notes for the pupils, which may, after the test of time, become the printed text-book. Lastly, there is another market that the trades school pro- ducts might disturb, the labour market ; in nearly every trade the organisations of the adult workers has succeeded in estab- lishing certain standards of remuneration, and this wages level appears to be greatly dependent upon a certain limitation in the supply of qualified workers. It is conceivable that trades schools might co-operate to swamp the labour market in one particular trade, although to do so would be likely to inflict serious injustice upon its own pupils ; the solution of this difficulty undoubtedly lies in the careful consideration of supply and demand, as it will afifect the future of the pupil on leaving the school. If, there- fore, the future conditions in any trade are considered with a view to the prevention of undue hardship upon the young worker, that consideration is likely to serve equally the interest of the adult worker in competition with younger ones. In this con- nection the example of Holland should again Ije followed by making the school committees equally representative of employers and employes. It must be remembered that the ol:)ject of voca- tional schools Htust be to provide vocational training for as many boys and girls as possible, in the conviction that the presence in the community of a large number of unemployables, from insufficient training, or of unemployed — through overstocking the market — is highly injurious to society ; all that can be said is that what is likely to be the larger social need at the time of leaving school must control the administration. The expansion of vocational education must be constantly interpreted as a productive and justifiable form of social in- vestment to increase human power ; it involves protection of labour heretofore largely exploited, and nothing more important in this direction has been undertaken since elementary or ordin- ary education was made compulsory. The educational policy of all civilised countries has been distinctly opposed to the principle of individualism as inefficient and otherwise undesirable ; elemen- tary, secondary, and — to some extent — higher liberal education has been made freely available to the youth of the community, and it has pursued this policy partly out of regard for the in- PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 7l7 dividual — and. possibly, for a particular class of individual — but largely by the s])irit of higher social self-preservation. But even now the total outlay for education is but an in- significant jiart of the total social expenditure, yet that outlay is ])robal)ly one of the most effective for the social good ever devised. It would be interesting to compare the social expendi- ture upon advertising — which, though necessary, can scarcely be described as so socially productive as education. The State has fostered in the past public professional schools and colleges, normal training colleges for teachers, schools for military instruc- tion, and those for higher agricultural work and the engineering professions, and it has made vocational education a part of its contribution to dependent and delinquent children; it is now en- gaged U})on the question of general vocational instruction through the National Advisory Board for Technical Education, and it behoves every parent and every person with the social good at heart to demand, and to bear a share in meeting the cost of, efficient vocational education by daylight based ujx^n the best of all forms of comjndsion — the will of the people. THE RAND GOLD. Bv Prof. Ernkst H. L. .Schwarz. A.R.C.S., F.G.S. {Printed in " The South African Mining Journal." Jitl\. 1915.) EXPERIMENTS IN CROSSING PERSIAN AND MERINO SHEEP. Bv josi-PH Burtt-Davy. E.L.S., E.R.G.S. {Not printed.) PVORRHJEA ALVEOLARIS: SOME EXPERIMENTS AND THEIR RESULTS. Bv F. W. FiTzSiMONS. F.Z.S.. F.R.^T.S. {Not printed.) NOTES ON THE FUNCTIONS OF COLOUR IN CERTAIN SOUTH AFRICAN REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS. Bv I. H. Power. {Not printed.) THE REAL OBJECT OF NATURAL SCIENCE. By Norman Mudd, M.A. [Abstract.] The formulation of some general account of scientific know- ledge which can be subscribed t(i by all scientists, which can be comprehended by the scientific layman, and which shall enable him to understand the one or two things he really requires to know about science, is one of the most urgent duties of modern scientists, and one of the most present pul)lic needs. What is wanted is some such account of scientific knowledge as shall make comprehensible to the scientific layman what is the philoso- phic status of science, in order that he may have some means of judging what importance to attach to it in his general thinking. The object of this paper is to clear some of the ground as a necessary preliminary to the construction of such a general statement. In spite of much misuse, the term " science " and "scientific" have (|uite definite meanings when used by careful writers, mean- ings which may be. summarised in the following definition : " By science we mean a body of knowledge and assertion constructed from past experience by induction, and capable of being tested by observation and experiment." The suggestions which I shall put ftjrward in this paper are concerned with science as delimited by this definition. Now if we start with this definition of science, it seems to me that whatever the actual contents of science may be at any time, the following universal princij^les must hold: — 1. Scientific assertions are all. in logical intention, condi- tional promises, which, when translated out of their technical language, are of the form: " If you do so and so, you will find so and so — i.e., you will see. hear, taste, smell, or what not. some specified sensible quality." Scientific knowledge is the knowledge of what these promises should be, and of the grounds on which they are made. 2. Scientific assertions possess, therefore, that sort of cer- tainty which always attaches to promises, i.e., save at certain instants, when their truth or falsity may be known with a cer- tainty that passes all doubt, they .possess no certainty and no final- ity. They are merely waiting to be tested. 3. Scientific assertions are limited, with absolute strictness as regards their reference, to things which can be perceived by the senses. The first of these principles, that all scientific assertions are really conditional promises of things to be perceived, is to my mind quite the most fundamental fact about science. To con- ceive science in this way as a sort of empirical prophecy, makes clear, without the need of formal demonstration, such matters OBJECT OF NATURAL SCIENCR. "19 as that of the nature of scientific certainty (stated in the second principle), and that of the hmitation of scientific knowledge as regards scope (third principle). This doctrine as to the logical form of all scientific asser- tions seems to follow at once from the definition of science, as st)on as we ask ourselves what sort of assertit)ns are thev which observation and experiment serve to test. If a mere observa- tion serves to test an assertion, to reveal it as true or false, it can only be because the assertion, whatever its form, is an asser- tic^n as to what would be the result of such an observation. Consider again an experimental observation. This is an observa- tion or inspection following on an operation of some sort, and if a procedure like this tests an assertion, it can only be because the assertion is a statement as to what would be observable as the result of that oi)eration. The ])rinciple, therefore, as to the nature of all scientific assertions is a mere translation into logical terms of the conceptions of observation and experiment. Let me gi\e one or two very simple examples of the trans- lation of statements from the technical language of science into conditional promises expressed in ordinarv language. Consider the following two statements. (a) A point P moves with constant velocity, (b) If a point P is initially at A, and one second later at B. then at any other instant, say ii seconds •c\iter passing" through A, it will be found in the position C, where C is on A B and A C is ;; times A B. These two statements are logically equivalent. Either may be deduced from the other by processes of purely formal logic, once the logical definition of the technical term velocity is known. The difference between them is that one is expressed in highly technical scientific lan- guage which hides its logical form, the other is expressed in ordinary language which reveals its intention as a conditional promise. Consider next the following pair of statements, (a) The specific gravity of lead is 9.2. (b) Let a ])iece of lead be ap])lied in any definite manner to a deformalile system, and let some read- ing of this system taken in any definite manner be noted. Then if we apply to the system in the same manner a quantity of standard water whose volume is y.2 times that of the lead, the reading l)roduced will be fcnnid to be the same as before. Here, again, the two statements are logically equivalent, but the second is of such a form that its logical intention as a conditional ])romise is apparent. Now unfortunately a mere description of the philoso])hic nature of science is inadequate as an answer to the more im- portant question as to whether the influence of science on human thinking has limits. The reason is that it may be doubted whether all our knowledge is not in reality of the form " If you do so and so, etc." It may be doubted, that is, whether all our know- ledge is not scientific in form, and destined to actual conquest by organised science. 720 . or.JECT OF NATITRAL SCIENCE. There is at present in vogue in philosopliic and scientitic circles a doctrine known as pragmatism, which is in efifect the theory that all intelhgible knowledge and assertions are scientific in their nature. Pragmatism states itself as a theory of truth, namely, that all truth consists in a sort of working. Now this seems to me to imply that the meaning or intention of all asser- tions must be a promise of such zvorking, which is exactly the same sort of thing as the meaning (^r intention of a scientific assertion. 1 propose, therefore, to incjuire whether there are or are not intelligible assertions and regions of knowledge which are not scientific, and to which the ])ragmatic theory of truth does not apply. * In the case of a scientific assertion, its truth and the working of a belief in it are identical. If, for example, the jDredictions of celestial events based on the theory of universal gravitation radi- cally failed to come ofif, then the doctrine would ipso facto cease to be true. The reason is that the whole meaning and intention of the theory, once its technical language is vmderstood, is seen to be that predictions of this sort should come off, that the doc- trine should work in this way. Similarly, any belief whatever works to some extent in some sense or senses, and probably fails to work to some extent in other senses, and just in so far as it can be tested by observation and experiment, the working of a belief is one of the most im- portant things about it. People do, as a matter of fact, accept or reject beliefs almost entirely on the score of their working or not working. Now the pragmatist asserts that the working or not working of a belief is not merely one particular aspect of it. but is its very essence and meaning, that the working of a belief and its truth are indistinguishable. He asserts that the truth of an as- sertion consists in its pragmatic working, and that it is mean- ingless to think of truth in any other way. I am convinced that as a general statement this doctrine is false. The primar}- reason wh\' we are concerned in some cases to mean by truth something radically dififerent from anv sort of working is that the world of our interests transcends immeasur- ably that world of our mere acquaintance, actual or potential, which is open to our inspection. We are interested, and vitally interested, in things which lie together outside the universe of things that work. Further, it is in general true that our higher interests, our passionate interests, are almost, entirely simple direct interest in things which do. by their nattire, transcend (Uir acquaintance and inspection. Let us fix our impressions by considering certain passions, properly so called, such as jealous}-, indignation, pity. The more we reflect on these passions, especially if we refer to some vivid instance in our own experience or in imaginative literature, the more we shall see. I think, that the objects which these passions OBJECT OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 721 contemplate are metaphysical objects which lie beyond the world of our possible acquaintance and inspection. Let us suppose, for instance, that we are ordinary sensitive and human people, and are deeply revolted at the idea of dogs iDeing tortured for our profit, whether by vivisectors or others. Now the intellectual foundation of our attitude is the quite meta- physical belief that dogs do feel pain. It is a belief that cannot be verified or tested, it is a belief which can be, and has been, denied l\v various philosophers on various grounds. The pain, if it exists, transcends completely our possible acquaintance and inspection. And if the assertion that dogs feel pain is made, it is made as an act of faith. Now it is this assertion which touches so nearlv our passions, and not any recognition of the fact that the assertion works in various ways. The assertion does work, of course, in various pragmatic ways, and discussion about the truth of the assertion is usually merely a discussion of how it works. Thus, all the dog's l)eha\i(>ur suggests it, any religious theorv suggests and asserts it. any theory of evolution suggests it, scores of fine poems and moving stories would be unintelli- gible without it. The assertion does, therefore, most emphatically work, and the recognition of this is important, and gives mental ease and intellectual backing in our belief. But any such facts of w^orking are utterly alien from our intention when we make the simple assertion : " Dogs feel pain." The question as to whether the doctrine zvorks is one that mav lea\e us troubled, dissatisfied. intellectually doubtful indeed. But the question as to whether the doctrine is true, i.e., as to whether dogs do feel pain, is one about which our passions are moved in an altogether diiierent way. The inadequacy of the ])ragmatic theorv of truth is best seen, therefore, in the case of doctrines about which we are easily moved. It is necessarv to be ])assionatelv interested in a doctrine in order that the utter difterence between what we mean by its truth, and what the ])ragmatists assert we mean, may appeal to us with full force. If the dogma of the existence of God is for us merely an academic intellectual (|uestion. it is compara- tivelv easv for a sophist to ccjnxincc himself, and us, that its truth means and consists in the fact tliat it works, the fact, for instance, that it comforts people and gives them strength, and allows them to take moral holidays. But it is not ])ossible to talk in this manner to a passionate Ijeliever. the peace of whose soul is bound up in the dogma. The same is true of any meta- physical assertion whatever. It is metaphysical or non-scientific, because its reference transcends in sf)me way the world of possi- ble acquaintance and inspection, and for anyone to whom it is in itself a i:)assionate and vital concern, the pragmatic suggestion is wholly inadequate. THE INTRUSIONS IN THE GRANITE OF PARYS. ORANGE FREE STATE. By Prof. Samtkl Ja.mks Shand. Ph.D., D.Sc. F.G.S. [Abstract.] The granite of Parys is intersected by a network of apjxir- ently intrusive veins of a dense black rock, having the appear- ance of tachylyte. Close study in the field and in the laboratory shows that in some respects this material differs from a normal igneous glass, and it is thought that it represents a " melt " of granite, produced by mechanically developed heat. The question was discussed fully, and the nature of the intrusions was illus- trated by photographs and drawings. A second tvpe of intrusion in the same district is shown bv a great dyke, nearly 600 yards in width, of a granophyric quartz- dolerite. A full account of the phenomena has been communicated to the Geological Society of London. PRELIMINARY LIST OF SOUTH AFRICAN FUNGI. REPRESk:NTED IN THE MYCOLOGICAL HERBARIUM. PRETORIA. By Iltvd Bullkr Pole-Evans, M.A. B.Sc, F.L.S., and Miss A. M. f>OTTOMLKV. B.A. {Not printed:) ON A METHOD OF MAKING PERMANENT PREPARATIONS OF SUPERFICIAL FUNGI. Bv Ethel Mary Doidge. M.A., D.Sc, F.L.S. (A'ot printed.) NOTES ON SOME OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN STAPELLE. Bv Miss S. M. Stent. (Not printed.) ON THE PRESERVATION OF THE MONUMENTS OF NATURE. By Hermann (Gottfried Brever, Ph.D. (Not printed.) 723 SOME NOTES OX TTTE SOUTH AFRICAN ALOES. Bv Iltvd Bullkk I'ole Evans, M.A.. B.Sc. F.L.S. {Not printed.) OBSERVATIONS ON THE EVOLUTION OF BIRDS; WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SOUTH AFRICAN FORMS. By Austin Roberts. {Not printed.) ANTLVENOMOUS SERUM AND ITS PREPARATION. By F. W. FiTzSiMONS, F.Z.S., F.R.M.S. {Not printed.) THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE DURING TPIE GREAT REVOLUTION. By Prof. Renkus 1>)WE Nauta. {Not printed.) FOUR MONTHS IN SLAVIC AUSTRIA. By Rev. William Alfred Norton, B.A., B.Litt. {Not printed.) PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION. Bv RALIMi KiLPIN. {Not printed.) 724 TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES. South African Society of Civil Engineers. — Wednesday, May loth. Prof. A. E. Snape, M.Sc, A.MT.C.E., M.R.San T.. President, in the chair.— " Run-off at Dutoitspan " : W- Newdigate and Dr. J. R. Sutton. Dutoitspan is one of the most important of tiie dams and vleis round about Kimberley : the catchment area has been enlarged from time to time, and ranged from 12.5 square miles in 1905 to 26 square miles in 1915. The percentage of run-off decreased from 7.7 in 1905 to 5.0 in 1915, the decrease being mainly due to the softer ground intersected by the water courses at a distance from the pan. The more intense the rain- fall, the greater was tlie run-off: thus, the run-off on 37 occasions on which the rainfall was .5 in. or less averaged 3.1 per cent. The average was 7.7 on six occasions when the rainfall ranged from 1.51 to 2.00 inches, and on one occasion a rainfall of 3.02 inches resulted in a 19. 6 per cent, run-off. — "Construction and costs of reinforced concrete flume at Van Wylisdorp, C.P." Full details were recorded of the construction of a flume 60 feet long, in Anthus Kloof, a steep-sided water-course crossing the canal of the Buffelsfontein Trrigation Scheme. The total cost of the structure was fii.S. Wednesday, June 14th: Pn.f. A. E. Snape. M.Sc, .\.M.I.C.E., M.R.San. I.. President, in the chair. — " Xotcs on Toivn-Plannini^ " : D. E. liloyd-Davies. The author directed his remarks in particular to the application of town-planning to the requirements of Greater Capetown. In this connection the most urgently-needed regulations were indicated, and a number of suggestions made for improvement of the general out- line.— " Methods of uieasurin;^ zvork " : H. J. "Walker. In view of the necessity for an engineer engaged on the construction of a railway line to have at his command quick and accurate methods of measuring up works, the author described the methods which he had adopted in respect of banks and cuttings, classification of material, booking the measurements and making calculations from the 'ield entries. Royal Society of South Afkua. — Wednesdnv. Mav 17th: A. M. Wilson, M.D., B.S.. M.R.C.S., L.R.C-P.. Vice President, 'in the chair.— " (Ecological Notes on the District of Manubie, Transkei" : W. T. Saxton. The area comprises three chief plant formations, namely, wood- land, park-like grassland, and sedge vegetation. The soil, a fine red brown loam, is essentially uniform throughout the area. Xo marked differences in climatic or edaphic factors distinguish the woodland from the grass land, though these are of strikingly different appearance, and are separated by a sharp boundary line. (a) "Note on the Radiations emitted by degenerating tissues"; (b) "Note on the lonisation produced by degen- erating nerve-muscle preparations" : J. S. van der Lingen. Organic tissues may post mortem give rise to ionisation, which can be detected by the discharge of an electroscope. On the second and third days after death the discharge seems to attain its maximum. Radiation seems to be given (jff which can affect .photographic plates. Wednesday, June 21st: L. A. Peringuey, D.Sc. F.E.S., F.Z.S , Pre- sident, in the chair. — "Note on Protective Resemblance in post-larval stages of some South African Fishes": Prof. J, D. F. Gilchrist. In Hemi- ramplnis calabaricus the post-larva! stages of the fish have the size and colour of fragments of weed, which are found in the waters which the young fish frequent. When alarmed, the fish become rigid and float about in an apparently inanimate condition. It is then difficult to dis- tinguish them from the floating pieces of weed. In Klipfish (Clinus spp.) the young are born alive, and they are of a clear glassy transparency diffi- cult to detect in the water. The contour of the body is probably disguised by a number of minute dark dots. — " On the .\forphology of tlie Female Flower of Gnetum": Prof. H. H. W. Pearson. Diverse views recently put forward on the structure of the flower of the Gnetales were discussed in detail and comparerf with special reference to the author's own investi- TRANSACTIONS OF SOlTETTRS. 7^5 gations. — "Heart rot of Pteroxyk'n utile (Siwccnvood) caused by Fomes rimosus Berk. Dr. P. A. van der Byl. The distribution of the fungus {Fames rimosus Berk) and the effect it has on the wood of Pteroxylon utile were recorded. This fungus has thus far been reported in the Union of South Africa on ii genera belonging to eight different natural orders. The fungus attacks a large number of trees belonging to different orders. South African Institute of Electrical Engineers. — Thursday, May i8th : Prof. W. Buchanan, M.T.E.E., President, in the chair. — "Notes on Generating Station Reports'': V. Pickles. The author described the method of recording station reports adopted by the Victoria Falls Power Company, Johannesburg. Chemical, Metalluk-gical. and Mining Society of South Africa.— Saturday, May 20th : J. E. Thomas, A.LM.M., M.Am.I.E.E., President, in the chair. — " On some diseases of the respiratory organs incidental to miners, as portrayed by Agricola in 1550." : Dr. J. de Fenton. Centuries ago, lesions of the lung due to particles of dust — in other words, silicosis, or miners' phthisis— were known to exist among certain classes of mine workers, and the description given by Agricola definitely connotes that disease. Saturday, June 24th: J. E. Thomas, A.I.M.M., M.Am.I.E-E., Presi- dent, in the chair. — " The encouragement of Arst-aid work on the mines; some suggestio)is based on experience at the Crcnvn Mines. Ltd.'": A. J. Brett. An account was given of the scheme which had been carried into operation at the Crown Mines, with a view to arousing increased interest in first-aid work on the mines. South African Association of Analytical Chemists. — Thursday, June 22nd : J. Moir, M.A., D.Sc, President, in the chair. — Presidential address : J. Moir. The author laid stress on the unfortunate position which the chemist occupies in the mind of the Government and the public, due entirely to their ignorance of the importance of the chemist. It was therefore necessary to educate them to a proper appreciation of the pro- fession. The necessity of research in South Africa and the paucity of the country's industries were also pointed out. OFFICERS AND COUNCIL, 1915-1916. HONORARY PRESIDENT. HIS MAJESTY THE KING. PRESIDENT. I'lofessor L. CRAWFORD, M.A., 1) Sc, F.R.S.E. EX-PRESIDENT. K. T. A. INNKS, F.R.A.S., F.R.S.E. VICE-PRESIDENTS. Rev. \X. Flint, D.D., Libiaiian uf Pailiament, Capetown. Lieut.Col. J. Hyslop. D.S.O., M.I!., CM., Medical Superintendent, Gov- ernment Asylum, Maritzburg. C. F. Juritz, M.A., D.Sc, F.I.C., Gov ernment Chemical Laboratory, Cape town. 1. Okk. r..Sc., M.I.C.E.. Professor of Engineering, South African School of Mines and Technology, Johannes- burg. Sir A. Theiler, K.C.M.G., D.Sc, Director of Veterinary Research, Pre- toria. HON. GENERAL SECRETARIES. H. E. Wood, M.Sc, F.R.Met.Soc, Union Observatory, Johannesburg. HON. GENERAL TREASURER. A. Walsh. P.O. Box 39, Cape Town. ASSISTANT GENERAL SECRETARY. H. Tucker. Cape of Good Hope Savings Bank Buildings, St. George's Street, Cape Town. P.O. I'.ox 1497- (Telegraphic Address: " Scientific") ORDINARY MEMBERS OF COUNCIL. I. CAPE PROVINCE. Cape Peninsula. A. J. Anderson, M.A., M.B., D.P.H., M.R.C.S. Prof. A. Brown, M.A., B.Sc, F.R.S.E. T. LuNT, D.Sc, F.I.C. R. W. Menmuik, a. M.I.C.E. A. H. Reid, F.R.I. B. a., F.R.San. I. GrnlianistowJi. J^. SCHWARZ, A.R.C.S., Prof. E. II. F.G.S. Kimberlcy. Miss M. WiLMAN. Kingwilliainstoivji. A. W. Roberts, D.Sc, F.R.A.S., F.R.S.E. Middclburg. R. W. Thornton. Port Elisabeth. W. A. Way, M.A. Stelleiibosch. Prof. E. J. Goddard, B.A., D.Sc. II. TRANSVAAL. Johannesburg. T. Burtt-Davy, F.L.S,, F.R.G.S. W. A. Caldecott, B.A., D.Sc, F.C.S. P. Cazalet. W. Ingham, M.I.C.E., M.I.M.E. Prof. G. II. Stanley, A.R.S.M., M I.M.E., M.I.M.M., F.I.C. J. A. Vaughan. Prof. J. A. Wilkinson, M.A., F.C.S. Pretoria. I. B. Pole Evans, M.A., B.Sc, F.L.S. F. E. Kanthack, M.I.C.E., M.I.M.E. D. Kehoe. M.R.C.V.S. Prof. I). F. DU ToiT Malherbe, M.A., Pli.D. Potchefstroom. E. Holmes Smith, B.Sc III. ORANGE FREE STATE. Bloeinfontein. Prof. T. M. Forsyth, M.A., D.Phil. Dr. W. Johnson, L.R.C.P., L.R.C.S. I\'. NATAL. Marit.r^burg. Col. J. Dick. E. Harrison, M.S.Agr, B.Sc. A. McKenzie, M.D.. CM., M.R.C.S. G. T. Plowman, CM.G. Prof. W. N. Roseveare, M.A. Prof. E. Warren, D.Sc. V. RHODESIA. Bulazvayo. Rev. S. S. Dornan, M.A. F.G.S. VI. MOZAMBIQUE. S. Seruya. Endowment Fund. T. W. Jacger, F.S.S., M.L.A. W. Runciman, ^LL.A. .•\. D. R. TUGWELL. TRUSTEES. S.A. Medal Fund. W. E. Gurney. Sir T. MuiR. Kt., C.M.G., M.A. F.R.S.. F.R.S.E, W. Thomson. M.A., B.Sc. F.R.S.E. LL.D. LL.D. LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 1ST JTLV, 1916. * Indicates Foundation Members (30th June, 1902). f Indicates Life Members. Names of PAST PRESIDENTS OF THE ASSOCIATION are Printed in THICK CAPITALS. Names of Members ok Council for the 1915 Session are printed in Small Capitals. Names of Members whose addresses are incomplete or not known are printed in italics. Members are requested to notify tlie Assistant General Secretary (P.O. Box r^gy Cape Tonni) of any changes in address, or additions 7t'hich may he necessary as soon as possible. Year of ■ Election. 1902. t^-Ababrelton, Robert, F.R.G.S., F.R.E.S., F.S.S., Royal Institute, Northumberland Avenue, London, W.C. 1902. *Aburrow, Charles, P.O. Box 534, Johannesburg. 1905. Adamson. John E., M.A. ( Pres. 1), 1915), Education Department, Pretoria. 1904. Aiken, Alexander, P.O. Box 2636, Johannesburg. 1904. Ainsworth, Herbert, P.O. Box 1553, Johannesburg. 1915. fAkerman, Conrad, M.A.. M.B., Q.C., Conethmoar, Alex- andra Road, Pietermaritzburg-. 1905. Albu, Sir George, P.O. Box 1242, Johannesburg. 1913. Alexander, William, A.M.I.C.E., A.R.T.C, South African School of Mines and Technology, P.O. Box 1176, Johannesburg. 1910. Anderson, Alfred Jasper, M.A., M.B., D.P.H., M.R.C.S , City Hall, Capetown. 1902. *Andrews, G. S. Burt, M.I.C.E., M.I.Mech.E., M.S.A., P.O. Box 1049, Johannesburg. 1914. Angus, David, P.O. Box 230, Kimberley. 1914. Anstey, Norman, P.O. Box 1003, Johannesburg. 1903. Arnold. Frank Arthur, M.B., 'dP.H., L.S.A., P.O. Box 211, Pretoria. 1908. Arnott, William, Gas Works. Port Elizabeth, C.P. 1904. Auret, A. A., P.O. Box 838, Johannesburg. 1915. Austin, Robert Gordon Lefroy, M.A., Transvaal Eduo- tion Department, P.O. Box 432, Pretoria. H W LIST OF MEMBERS. Year of Election. 1913. Bachmann, Carl, Dynamite Factory, Modderfontein, Transvaal. 1906. Bailey, Sir Abe, Kt., P.O. Box 50. Johannesburg. J902. *Baker, Herbert, F.R.I. B. A., Exploration Buildings (165-8), P.O. Box 4959, Johannesburg. 1903. fBalmforth. Rev. Ivamsden, " Shirlev," (). Stephen .Street, Capetown. 1913. Barbosa, Joao Tamagnini de Souza, Engineer, Inhambane. Province of Mozambique. 191 1. Barratt, Gaston Frederick Sharpe, Bembezaan, Queque, Southern Rhodesia. 191 1. Barratt, Rowland Lorraine. Bembezaan, Queque, Southern Rhodesia. 1905. fBasto, H. E. Alberto Celestine Ferreira Pinto, 95, Rua Luiz-de-Canioes, Lisbon, Portugal. 1903. fBaxter, William, M.A., South African College School, Capetown. 1902. *tBeattie, John Carruthers, D.Sc, F.R.S.E. (Pres. A.. iQio). Professor of Phvsics, South African Collegre Capetown. 1915. Bedford, Gerald Augustus Harold, F.E.S., Veterinary Research Laboratory, Onderstepoort, P.O. Box 593, Pretoria. 1913. Beerstecher, T,eonard. P.O. Box 2888, Johannesburg. 1916. Bews. Jolm William. M..\.. D.Sc, Professor of Botany, Natal Cnivci"sity College, P.( ). Box 375. Pieterniaritz- burg. 1910. Bisset, James, M.LC.E., M.R.San.L, Beau^eigh, Kenil- worth. Cape Division. 1905. Blackshaw, George N., B.Sc, F.C.S., Analytical Labora- tory, Department of Agriculture, .Salisbury, Rhodesia. 191 5. Blundell, Frederick Moss. 308. r)rient .Street, Arcadia, Pretoria. 1906. Bohle, Hermann, M.LE.E., Corporation Professor of Electrotechnics, South African College, Capetown. 191 1. Bolus, Charles Arthur, 20, Steytler's Buildings, P.O. Box 232, Johannesburg. 1905. fBolus, Mrs. P., B.A., Sherwood, Kenilworth, near Cape- towai. 1913. Bonn, Adalbert L. M., CE. fPres. C, 1913), P.O. Box 204, Lourenqo Marques. 1913. Botelho, Lieut. Joao Baptista. Chief Veterinary Officer, Department of Agriculture, P.O. Box 255, Lourenqo Marques. 1906. Bourne. A. H. J., M.A., Principal, High Schools, Kim- berley, C.P. T913. Bracht, Oscar, P.O. Box 134, Port Elizabeth, C.P. LIST 01- MEMliliRS, V Year of Election. 191 5. Brain, Charles Kimberlin, M.A., M.Sc, Division of Ento- mology, Pretoria. 1902. *Braine, Charles Diniond Horatio, A.M.I.C.E., Devon Pen, Holmdene, Transvaal. 1915. Breyer, Hermann Gottfried, I'h.D., Director of the Trans- vaal Museum, P.O. Box 413, Pretoria. 1914. Brierly, James D., Department of Agriculture, Bloemfon- tein. 1910. Brill, J., Litt.D., L.H.D., Ph.Th.M., Lorothwana, 65, Park Road, Bloemfontein. 1905. Brincker, J. C. H., c/o The Montagu Co-operative Wines, Ltd., Montagu, C.P. 1914. Brinton, Arthur Greene, F.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., F.R.S.M., P.O. Box 4397, Johannesburg. 1910. Britten, Gilbert Frederick, B.A., Government Chemical Laboratory, Capetown. 1903. Bkovvn, Alexander, M.A., B.Sc. F.R.S.E., Profes.sor of Applied Mathematics, South African College, Cape- town. 1914. Brown, Rev. Holman, P.O. Box 82, Bulawavo, Rhodesia. 1910. Brown. John, M.D., CM.. F.R.C.S., L.R.C.S.E.. 14. Lies- beek Road, Rosebank, C.P. 1907. Brown, William Bridgman, M.A., Griffithville, Queens- town, C.P. 1913. Browne, Rowland F., A.M.LC.E., P.O. Box 432, Lourenco Marques. 1909. Brownlee, John Innes, M.B.. CM., Alexandra Road, King- williamstown, C.P. 1912. Briimmer, Rev. Prof. N. J., M.A., B.D., Victoria College, Stellenbosch, C.P. 1902. *Buchan, James, Assistant Resident Engineer, Rhodes Buildings. Bulawayo. 1916. Bull. Henry Walter, 352. Burger Street. Pietermaritzburg. 1916. Buntine. Robert Andrew. M.B.. B.Ch.. M.L.A., Pieter- maritzburg. 1905. Burroughs, Herbert John, ioa, Clarence Street. Troyeville. Johannesburg. 1903. fBuRTT-DAVY, Joseph, F.L.S.. F.R.G.S., P.O. Box 1148, Johannesburg. 1903. Caldecott, W. a.. B.A., D.Sc. F.C.S., P.O. Box 67, Johannesburg. 1902. *tCampbell, Allan McDowell McLeod, B.A., Resident Engineer, South African Railways, Bandolier Kop, Transvaal. 1916. Campbell, Samuel George, M.D., M.Ch., F.R.C.S.E., M.R.C.S., D.P.H.. 28, Musgrave Road. Durban. 1908. Carlson, K. A., Forestry Division, Department of Agri- culture, Bloemfontein. Vt LIST OF MEMBERS. Year of Election. 1913. Carvalho, Jose J. clA., Chief of Naval Services, P.O. Box 262, Lourengo Marques. 1910. Cattail, E. J., Chamber of Commerce, Capetown. 1916. Cawston, Frederick Gordon. B.A., M.B., B.C.. M.R.C.S,. L.R.C.P., 147, Loop Street, Pietermaritzburg-. 1903. fCAZALirr, Percy. P.O. Box 1056, Johannesburg. 1906. -'(Chainpiuit, Ivor Edzvard {address wanted). 1914. Chandler, Right Rev. Arthur, M.A., D.D., Bishop of Bloemfontein, Bishop's Lodge, Bloemfontein. 1913. Charters, Robert Hearne, M.LC.E., Professor of Civil Engineering, South African School of Mines and Technology P.( ). Box 1176, Johannesburg. 1903. Clark, John, M.A., LL.D., Arderne Professor of English Language and Literature, South African College, Cape- town. 1916. Clayton, Emily Jane Mason, 100, Market Street, Pretoria. 1916. Clephan, Ethel Llunter, Girls' High School, Park Street, Pretoria. 1903. Cohen, Walter P., F.R.P.S., Hon. Sec, Johannesburg Field and Naturalists' Club, P.O. Box 68, Johannestir 1908. Collie, |., c/o the Administrator, .South-West African Protectorate. Windhuk. 1904 Collins, Ernest A. E., 66, Pritchard Street, P.O. Box 723, Johannesburg. 1914. Collins, Louis Napoleon Buonaparte, P.O. Box 723, Johannesburg. 1906. Collins, M. R., Irrigation Department, P.O. Box 399, Pre- toria. 1915. Cooke, Howard, B.S.A., Grootfontein School of Agricul- ture, Middelburg, C.P. 1904. Cooper, Fred W., Public Library, Port Elizabeth, C.P. 1915. Cordiner, William Smallie, 121. Loveday Street, Wander- ers' View, Johannesburg. 1914. Cory, George Edward, M.A., Professor of Chemistry and Metallurgy, Rhodes University College, Grahams- town. 1904. fCoutts, Tohn Morton Sim. M.D., L.R.C.P., D.P.H., M.R.C.S. Britstown, C.P. 1916. Cox, George Walter. F.R.Met.S., P.O. Box 399, Pretoria. 1902. *tCox, Walter Hubert, Royal Observatory, near Cape- town. 1909. Crawford, David Chambers, M.A., B.Sc, B.Sc.Agr., Elsenburg. Mulder's Vlei, C.P. 1902. *tCRAWFORD, Lav^rence, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S.E. (Presi- sident). Professor of Pure Mathematics, South Afri- can College, Capetown. 1916. Cruden, Frank, Alicedalc, C.P. LIST OF MEMBERS. Vll Year of Election. 1903. tCullen, William, M.l.M.M. ((iKNi:KAL Seckrtarv, 1905-1908), British South Africa Explosives Co., Ltd., 612, Salisbury House, Finsbury Circus, London, E.C., England. 1903. Currie, O. J., M.B., M.R.C.S., Claremont, near Capetown. 1913. Da Silva, Colonel Pedro Luiz de Bellegarde, Surveyor- General of Mozambique, P.O. Box 288, Lourengo Marques. 1905. T3ale, Hubert, P.O. Box 632, Johannesburg. 1903. Dalrymple, Hon. W., P.O. Box 2927, Johannesburg. 191 5. Dalton, John Patrick, M.A., D.Sc, Professor of Mathe- matics, South African School of Mines and Technology, P.O. Box 1176, Johannesburg. 1913. Damant, E. L., P.O. Box 1176, Johannesburg. 1913. Daniel, John, Armley House, 30, Plein Street, Johannes- burg. 1910. Davenport, William John, P.O. Box 1049, Johannesburg. 1903. Davies, J. Plubert, M.I.E.E., M.I.Mech.E., A.M.LC.E., P.O. Box 1386, Johannesburg. 1903. Davis, Frederick H., B.Sc, M.LE.E., P.O. Box 1934, Johannesburg. 1916. Daymond, William Henry, P.C). Nigel, Transvaal. 1916. De Fenton, John. Ph.D., .Seymour Memorial T^il)rary, P.O. Box 2561, Johannesburg. 191 V De Klerk, Arie, 486, Schoeman Street. Pretoria. 1915. De Kock, Gilles van de Wall, M.R.C.V.S., Veterinary Research Office, P.O. Box 593, Pretoria. 1914. De Kock, Dr. Servaas Meyer, P.O. Box 321, Bloemfontein. 1913. Delbridge. William John, A.R.LB..\., P.O. Box 120, Capetown. 191 5. Delfos, Cornelis F'redrik, P.O. Box 24, Pretoria. 1904. Delmore, Dr. J. Schlesinger, P.O. Box 1455, Johannes- burg. 1915. De Villiers. C. G. S.. 681, Pretorius Street. .-Xrcadia. Pre- toria. 191 5. De Villiers. Louis Celliers, Ph.D., M.E., Lecturer in Geology and Mineralogy, Transvaal University Col- lege, Pretoria. 1915. Dk:k, Colonel Jami-:.^. St. Thomas Ivoad, Durban. 1909. Dodt, T- J-. National Museum, Bloemfontein. 191 5. Doidge, Ethel Mary, M.A., D.Sc, F.L.S., P.O. Box 1294, Pretoria. 191 T. DoRN.^N, Rev. Samuel S., M.A., F.G.S., P.O. Box 510, Bulawayo. 1908. Drege, Isaac Louis, P.O. Box 148, Port Elizabeth. C.P. 1914. Dreyer, P., Civil Commissioner. Civil Commissioner's Office, Kimberlev. VW LIST OF MEMBERS. Year of Election. 1915. Dreyer, Thomas F., B.A., Ph.D., Grey University College, Bloemfontein. 1906. Druce, P. M., M.A., The College, Potchefstroom, Trans- vaal. , 1902. *Drury, Edward Guy Dru, M.D., B.S., D.P.H., Grahams- town, C.P. 191 5. Du Boulay, Alice Mary Houssemayne, Transvaal Educa- tion Department, Pretoria. 1913. Du Toit, A. E.,M. A. .Professor of Mathematics, Transvaal University College, Pretoria. 191 5. Du Toit. Pieter Johannes, Under-Secretary for Agricul- ture. Union Buildings, Pretoria. 1906. Duerden, James E., M.Sc, Ph.D., A.R.C.S., Professor of Zoology, Rhodes University College, Qrahamstown,. C.P. 1915. Duniat, Henry Aylmer, IvLD.. hMv.C.P.E., 7. Devonshire Place. Durban. Natal. 1910. Duncan, A., P.O. Box 1214, Johannesburg. 1904. Duncan. Patrick, C.M.G., Sauer's Buildings, Johannesburg. 1909. Dunkerton, Edward B., c/o Messrs. Lennon. Ltd.. West Street, P.O. Box 266, Durban, Natal. 191 1. fDnthie, George, M.A., F.R.S.E. (Pres. D. 191 1), Director of Education. Salisbury, Rhodesia. 1912. Dwyer. E. \\'.. B.A., 192. \\'alker Street. Pretoria. 1916. Eadie, Duncan Maclntyre. 669, Cnrrie Street. Dur!)an.. Natal. 1904. Eaton. William Arthur. 74, St. George's Street, Capetown. 1909. Edwards, Charles J., c/o Messrs. Heynes Mathew & Co.,. P.O. Box 242, Capetown. 1914. El.sdon-Dew, W ihiam, M.I.E.E., [>.(). Box 4563. Johan- nesburg. 1910. jEngelenburg, Dr. F. V., Editor, De Volkssteni. Pretoria. 1910. Erskine, J. K., F.C.S., Willowdene, near Johannesburg. 1905. tIlvans,, li.TYD BuLLER PoLE. M.A., FxSc.. F.E.S.. (Pres.. C), Chief of the Division of Plant Pathology. Depart- ment of Agricitlture. P.O. Box 1294. Pretoria. 1905. Evans. Maurice Sniethurst, (,\M.(i.. F.Z..S. (Pres. D). llillcrest. Berea Ridge. Durljan. Natal. 1905. fEvans. Sanntel. 153. Nuggett. Street. Johannesburg. 1914. Eveleigh. Rev. William, 28, Gladstone Avenue. Kimberley,. C.P. 1904. Ewing. Sydney Edward Thacker, M.LE.E., P.O. Box 3,. Brakpan, Transvaal. 1906 Eyles, Frederick. F.L.S.. M.L.C. (Pres. C, 191 1), Um- sasa Farm, P.O. Mazoe, Rhodesia. LIST OF MKMBERS. IX /ear of Electio)i. 1915. l^'airbrid^e, William l{niest, !'.< ). \U)\ 1014. Johannesburg, 1905. Farrar, Edward, P.O. Box 1242, Johannesburg. .914. Farrow, Frederick Denny, M.Sc, Rhodes University Col- lege, Grahamstown, C.P. 1905. Feetham, Richard, Sauer's Buildings, c/o Loveday and Market Streets, Johannesburg. 191 5. Ferreira, Frederick Herbert, Resident Magistrates ( )ffice, Herschel, C.P. 1915. Fielden-Briggs. 11., M.D., L.D.S.. F.C.S., P.O. Box 1213, Johannesburg. 1915. Findlay, George Schreiner, 151, Esselen Street, Pretoria. 1913. Fischer, Christian Ludwig, B.A., 9, Ryneveld Street, Stellenbosch, C.P. 1913. FitzHenrv, Rev. J., Bedford, C.P. 1912. FitzSimons, F. W., F.Z.S., F.R.M.S. (Pres. C. 1912), Director, Port Elizabeth Museum, Port Elizabeth, C.P. 1902. *Flack, Rev. Francis Walter, M.A., The Rectory, Uiten- hage, C.P. 1902. Flanagan, Henry George, F.L.S., Prospect Farm, Komgha, C.P. 1902, ^''fFLiNT, Rev. William, i).D. ( N'ice-l'resident ; Pres. 1)., 1910). W'olmunster Park, Rosebank. C.P. 1902. ^Flowers. Frank, C.E.. F.R.G.S., F.R.A.S., P.O.. Box 1878, Johannesburg. 1909. Fogarty, Rev. N. W^, Director, Government Industrial School, Maseru, Basutoland. 1907. Foote, j. A.. F.G.S.. F.F..I.S. (Pres. D. 1913). Princijjal, Commercial lligh School, Plein Street, Johannesl)urg. 1914. Ford, Thurston James, Secretary, De Beers Benefit Society, Kimberley, C.P. 1914. Forsyth, Thomas M., M.A., D.Phil., Professor of Philo- sophy, Grey University College, Bloemfontein. 1914. Forsyth. Mrs. T. M., Eagle's Nest, P.O. Box 27,^. l)!oem- fontein. 1916. Fouche, Carl Hercules, M.A.. P.O. Bf)x T176, Johannes- burg. 1905. fFrames, P. Ross, P.O. Box 148, Johannesburg. 1906. fFrankenstein, Miss Adelia, B.A., 9, Knight Street, Kim- berley, C.P. 1915. Franklin, Leonard Joseph, African Banking Corporation. 4. Steyn .Street. Bloemfontein. 1916. Eraser, John. J. P., P.O. Box 149. lMeterniaritzl)urg. 1902. Fremantle, Henry Eardley Stephen, M.A., F.S.S., M.L.A,, Bedwell Cottage, Rosebank, C.P. 1913. Frew, John, P.O. Box i, Johannesburg. 1912. Friel, Robert, M.A., M.D., P.O. Box 144, Potchefstroom, Transvaal. 1916. Frood, George Edward Bell, M.A., M.T.M.M., Mines De- partment. Bloemfontein. X LIST OF MKMIiliRS. Year of Election. 1914. fi'rood, Dr. T. M., Rand Club, Johannesburg. 1902. *Fuhr, Harry A., A.M.I.C.E., Public Works Department, Kingwilliamstown, C.P. 1904. Fuller, W. H., Chairman. Public Lil^rary, East London, C.P. 1907. Gairdner, Dr. J. Francis R., 754, Church Street, Arcadia, Pretoria. 1903. fGalpin, Ernest Edward, F.L.S., c/o National Bank of South Africa, Ltd., Queenstown, C.P. 1913. Garbutt. Herbert William. F.R.A.L, J. P.. P.O. Box 181, Bulawayo, Rhodesia. 191 5. Garlick, Miss Winifred Marguerite, Thornibrae, Green Point, Capetown. 1902. *fGasson, William. F.C.S.. l)ut(iits])an Road, Kiinl)cr!ev, C.P. 191 5. Gatherer, John Frederick William. P.O. Box 433, Bloem- fontein. 1904. Gellatly, John T. B., M.LC.E., P.O. Box 2,7, Bethulie, O.F.S. 1912. Gibson, Harry, J.P., F.S.A.A., P.O. Box 1653, 85, St. George's Street, Capetown. 1902. *Gilchrist, John Dow Fisher, M.A., D.Sc, Ph.D., F.L.S., (General Secretary, 1903-1908), Professor of Zoology. South African College, Capetown. 1903. Gilchrist, W., M.S.A., Mariendahl. Mulder's Vlei, C.P. 1916. Gill, Harold Warren. B.Sc. F.I.C.. !'.( ). I'.ox \^y(K Johan- nesburg. 1902. ^Gillespie, John, A. M.LC.E., Railway Construction, Idutywa. Transkei, C.P. 1910. Ginsberg, Franz, M.P.C., P.O. Box ^, Kingwilliamstown, C.P. 1912. GoDDARD- Ernest James, B.A., D.Sc. Professor of Zoology, Victoria College, Stcllenbosch, C.P. 1913. Goddard, Mrs. E. J., Stellenbosch, C.P. 1902. jGodfrey, Rev. Robert. M.A.. Somerville Alission, i'solo, C.P. 1904. Gorges, Edmond Howard Lacani, M.\'.()., .Vdniinistrator. South-West African Protectorate. Windhul<. 191 5. Gould, Robert Howe. P.O. Box 4941. johaimeslnug. 1913. Graqa, Captain Alberto C. de Faria, Sub-Chefe de Estado Major, Quartel Geral, P.O. Box 485. l.om-enQO Marques. 191 5. Graham, George Smith. Avondale. P.f). Box 40. (Jueens- town, C.P. 1908. Grant, Charles C, M.A., Education 1 )e])artment, Bloem fontein. T914. Grant, William Frank, B.Sc, South African College High School, Capetown. LIST OF MEMiiEKS. Xt Year of Election. 1907. (iray. Chailes Joseph, i )t"ticc of ins])eotor of Alines, V.O. Box 405, Krugersdorp. Transvaal. 1907. Gray, James, F.I.C".. P. I). Box 5254, Johannesburg. 1915. Green, Henry Hamilton, B.Sc, F.C.S., Veterinary Labora- tory. Onderstcpoort, P.O. Box 593, Pretoria. 1906. Grimmer, Irvine Rowell, Assistant (ieneral Manager, De Beers Consolidated Mines. Ltd., Kiml>erley, C.P. 191 2. Gubbins. John Gaspard, B.A., Ottoshoo}j. Transvaal. 1913. Gundry, Philip G., B.Sc, Ph.D.. A.R.C.S., Professor of Physics, Transvaal University College, Pretoria. 19] 5. Gmm, David, P.O. Box 1013. Pretoria. 191 1. Guradze, Dr. Franz, Aice-Consul for Germany. German Consulate, Capetown. 1905. fGutsche, Phillipp, M.D.. \'illa Torrita, Kin,^\viUiamsto\vn, C.P. 1903. Gyde, Charles J., Public Works Department, Capetown. 1904. Haagner. Alvvyn K., F.Z.S., Zoological Gardens. P.( ). I'ox 754. Pretoria. 1904. tHaarhotl, Daniel Johannes, J. P., Market Street, Kim- berley, C.P. 1902. * HAHN, PAUL DANIEL, M.A., Ph.D. ( PreS. A, 1903, President, 191 1), Jamison Professor of Chemistry and Metallurgy, South African College, Capetown. icp7. Hall, Carl, A.M.LC.E., F.G.S., 2^, Club Arcade. Durban, Natal. 1910. Halm. Jacob K. E., Ph.D., F.R.S.E., Royal Observatory, C.P. 1 Sacc. • a cause of die-back of apple trees (Dr. P. A. van der By] ) ... ... ... 545 INDEX. XXIX Daltox (Prof. J. P.), An acUiarial analysis of the loan schemes of certain Rand Building Societies On the discrimination of the general coni Deficiency disease and cotton-seed poisoning ... r3E KocK ( G. van de Wall) Sarcosporidia Die-back of apple trees (Dr. P. A. van der Byl) Dietetic deficiency (H. H. Green ) Disease, Deficiency, and cotton-seed poisoning. . . Diseases, Animal, in South Africa, The influence of climatic an( tellurical factors on the spread of (D. Kehoe).. of ostrich chicks (J. Walker) DoiiH.E. (Dr. E. 'SD. On the occurrence of Bacterium cainpcsti; (Pam.) Sm., in South Africa ■ ■ , On a method of making permanent prepara tions of superficial fungi ... DoRNAN (Rev. S. S.) Rhodesian ruins and Native tradition Drought in tlie Waterberg ... Droughts, The etifects of, on the distribution of plants in the Cape Region (Prof. R. Marloth) Du ToiT. (P. J.), South African agriculture: an analysis East Coast Fever, The, Economics of, as illustrated by the Trans keian Territories ( Rev. J. R. L. Kingon ) . . Economics of the War ( E. C. Reynolds) , The, of the East Coast fever, as illustrated by the Trans keian Territories (Rev. J. R. L. Kingon) Education, The control of ( T. E. Adamson) ... , Practical ( W. J. "Home) ... Elections, Methods used for counting in (Dr. J. Brown) Element, A new : Brevium ... Englisli, The simplification of (Prof. A. S. Kidd) Entomological Society, An, for South Africa (A. J- T. Janse) Evening discourses Evolution, Lotsy's theory of ( Prof. S. Sch(">nl;nid ) of birds ( A. Roberts ) of plants, The, A factor in (Prof. H. A. Wager) Experiments in crossing Persian and Alerino sheep (J. Burtt Davy) on Pyorrlura ali'colaris ( F. W. FitzSimons) PACK. 382 200 545 289 382 474 558 40 r 722 502 265 383 T45 -^13 97 -'13 46 694 658 f23 589 693 xvi 257 723 517 717 7^7 Factorial function. The ( Prof. W. N. Roseveare) ... ... 629 Fault systems. The, in the south of South Africa (Prof. E. H. L. Schwarz) ... ... ... ... ... 367 Fire-resisting materials in building construction (A. H. Reid ) ... 83 FitzSimons (F. W. ), Anti-venomous serum and its preparation... 723 .Pyorrha-a alvcolaris : Some experiments and their results ... ... ... ... ... 717 Flies, Biting, Poisoned bait for ... ... ... ... 94 Flowkrs (F.), Tlie Constitution of the Senate .. ... ... 230 Food value of Kaffir corn ... ... ... ... ... 256 Fossil man ... ... ... ... ... ... 359 France, The Literature of (Prof. R. D. \"auta) ... ... 72:^ Freud's psycho-pathological theories (G. T. Morice) ... ... 595 Ft:LLER (C.), Termite economy ... ... ... ... 60 Fumigation, .\nhydrous liquid hydrocyanic acid for (C. W. Mally) 95 Fungi, South African ( I. B. Pole Evans and Miss A. M. Bottomley) 722 , Superficial. .\ method of making permanent preparations of (Dr. E. M. Doidge) ... ... ... ... 722 Game and bird protection in Soutli Africa (A. K. Haagner) ... 519 Gamma function. The (Prof. W. X. Roseveare) ... ... 629 Geography ( J. Hutcheon ) ... ... ... ... 326 Geological problems, Bearing of radioactivity on ( VI. Kynaston) ... 24 .IM-.r INDEX. PAGE. Geometry, Presentment and proof in (Rev. Dr. F. C. Kollie ) ... ,^09 Gold Mining Industry. The. of the Rand (Dr. W. A. Caldecott) . . . 1T3 . The Rand (Prof. E. 11. L. Schwarz) ... ... ... 717 Goold Adams Medals ... ... ... ... ..ix. xxvi Granite, Intrusions in the Parys (Prof. .S. J. Shand ) ... ... 722 Green (H. H.) Dietetic deficiency ... ... ... ... 289 GuNN (D.), Some ohservations on the life history of the pepper tree caterpillar, Bombycoiiiflrflsa /^aHicia Dist. ... ... 685 H.\.\GNER (A. K. ), Game and hird protection in South .-Vfrica: a short comparison with some other countries... ... 519 — On the variability in the nature or temperament of wild animals in captivity: with special reference to South African species ... ... ... ... 612 Hahn (Prof. P. D. ), Can lithia l)e a constituent of plant food? ... 227 ContriI)Utions to the chemistry of the soya bean ... ... ... ... ... ... 124 Radioactive minerals in South Africa . . . 449 Hepaticse or liverworts. South African (T. R. Sim) ... ... 426 Herbarium. The Mycological. in Pretoria (1. P. Pole Evans and Miss A. M. Rottomley... ... ... ... ... 722 Hilgard. E. W. . . . ... ... ... ... ... 397 History, The. of the Baganonoa or MalaI)och (Rev. N. Roberts) . . . 241 Homoptera. South African ... ... ... ... ... 417 HoRNE (W. J.), Practical Education... ... ... ... 694 Horse sickness, The problem of (Sir A. Theiler) ... ... 65 HuTCHEON" (J.), Geography.. ... ... ... ... ,326 Hvdrocvanic acid, .\nhydrous liquid, for fumi.gation ]3urposes (C. W. Mally) " ... ... ... ... ... 95 in sorghum ... ... ... ... 50T Industry. The ostrich feather, in South Africa ( R. W. Thornton ) 272 Infinite series. Transition from elementary algebra to the calculus without (Prof. W. N. Roseveare) ... ... ... 410 Innes (R. T. a.), Presidential address ... ... ... i The masses of visual liinary stars ... ... 453 Inspection, Medical, of schools in relation social efficiency (Dr C. F. L. Leipoldt ) . . ... ... ..." ... 5.^0 Instruments, New Topographical (W. C- van der Sterr ) ... 685 Intrusions in the Parys granite (Prof. S. J. Shand) ... ... 722 lonisation of the air. Measurement of (E. Jacot) ... ... 266 Isotopes ... ... ... . . ... ... 359 Jacot (E. ). The measurement of the natural ionisation of the air 266 Janse (A. J. T.), On the desirability of founding a South African Entomological Society ... ... ... ... 693 Japan. Radium in . . . ... ... ... ... ... 1.S8 JuRiTZ (Dr. C. F. ), Notes on tlie chemical composition of Karroo ash ... .... ... ... ... ... 133 Kaffir corn, Food value- of . . . ... ... ... ... 256 Kanthack (F. E.). Presidential address to Section A ... ... 17 Karroo ash. Notes on the chemical composition of (Dr. C. F. Juritz) 133 IxEftoE (D.). The influence of climatic and tellurical factors on the distribution and spread of certain animal diseases; with special reference to the conditions occurring in South Africa ... ... ... ... ... 474' Kelp, American, Potash from ... ... ... ... 226 Kenway (H. C.), Some aspects of modern naval development ... 693 K1DT1 (Prof. A. S.), The simplification of Er^glish ... ... 589 KiLPix (R.), Proportional representation ... .,. ... 723 INDEX. SXXi PAGE. KiNGON (Rev. J. K. L.), Native agriculture ... ... ... 178 — The ecoimniics of the East Coa.st fe\'er. as illustrated by the Transkeian Territories ... ... 21.3 KoLBE (Rev. Dr. F. C), Presentment and proof in geometry : a study of the associated circles of a triangle. . ... ... 309 Kynaston (H.) Presidential address to Section B ... ... 24 Latices from South -\frican plants . . ... ... ... 279 Leipolut (Dr. C. F. L.^ Aledical inspection of schools in relation to social efficienc}- ... ... ... ... ... 530 Library of the Association .. ... ... ... ..x.xxviii Literature of France, The, during the great Revolution (Prof. R. D. Nauta) ... ... ... ... ... ... 723 Lithia as a constituent of plant fo-nl (Prof. P. D. Hahn) ... 227 Liverworts, South African (T. R. Sim) ... ... . : . 426 Living matter, Problems of... ... ... ... ... 366 Loan schemes, The, of certain Rand Building Societies, An actuarial analysis of (Prof. j. P. Dalton) ... ... ... 391 Local Committee, Pretoria ... ... ... ... ... xviii Locust problem. The, Some phases of (C P. Lounsbury) ... 33 " Loog as '' ; or, the ash of the alkali bush (A. Stead) ... . . 540 Lotsy's theory of evolution, A criticism of (Prof. S. Schonland) . . . 257 Lounsburi^, C. P., Award of South Africa Medal to ... ... xxxii Lf)UNSBUKY (C. P.), Presidential address to Section C. . . ... 33 Malaboch, The, XotCh on their earlv history, customs, and creed (Rev. N. Roberts) '. . . ... ... ... 241 Malaria prevention, The, Problems and principles of (Dr. A. J. Orenstein) ... ... ... ... ... 193 Malherbe (Prof. D. F. du Toit), Atoms, old and new... ... 685 Mally (C. W.), Anhydrous liquid hydrocyanic acid for fumigation purposes ... ... ... ... ... 95 Man, Fossil ... ... ... ... ... ... 359 ^Manganese in wheat ... ... ... ... ... 231 Marloth (Prof R.), The effects of droughts and of some other causes on the distribution of plants in the Cape Region 383 Martian seas ... ... ... ... • • • .. ••• 54^ Medal, South Africa ... ... • • • ■ • • vii, xxvi, xxxii Medals, Goold .Adams ... ... ... ... ... ix , Rules for the award of ... ... ... ... vii Medical inspection of schools in relation to social efiiciencv (Dr. C. F. L. Leipoldt) . . ... ... ... ... 530 Melodies, African Native (Rev. W. A. Norton) . . ... ... 61Q Members. List of . . . ... • ■ • ■ - • • ■ • ■ • • "V Merino and Persian sheep. Experiments in crossing (J. Burtt Davy) 717 Mesembrianthemum iortuosum ... ... ... -.■ 82 Methods of counting in elections (Dr. J. Brown) ■•• , . ••• 658 making permanent preparations of superficial fungi (Dr. E. M. Doidgej ... ... ... ... ••■ 722 -, Topographical ( VV. C. van der Sterr) ... ... 685 Mind and bodv. The relation of (Rt. Rev. A. Chandler) ... ... 280 Mineral Spring. The, on the farm Rietfontein, District Brandfort, O.F.S. (Prof. M. M. Rindl) ... ... ... =,79 Minerals, Radioactive, in South Africa (Prof. P. D. Hahn) ... 449 Miners' Phthisis, The, of the Rand (Dr. W. Watkins-Pitchford) 127 Mitchell (D. T.). The effects of snake venoms on domestic annnals, and the preparation of anti-venomous serum... ... 2>2,7 Morice (G. T.), Professor Freud's psycho-pathological theories ... 59.5 MuDD (N.), The real object of Natural Science ... ... 718 Museum. South African ... ... • • • • • • • • • 325 Mycological herbarium. The, at Pretoria, South African fungi in (I. B. Pole Evans and Miss A. M. Bottomley) ... ... 722 S.VXll INDEX. PAGE. !Naras, The, (Acanfhosicyos horrida Hook.), Some notes on the chemistry of (Dr. W. Versfeld.and G. F. Britten) ... 2:},2 Native agricnltnre (Rev. J. R. L. Kingon) ... ... ... 178 melodies, African ( Rev. W. A. Norton ) . . ... ... 619 tradition and tlie Rliodesian ruins (Rev. S. S. Dornan ) ... 502 Natural Science, The real ohject of ( .\. Mudd) ... ... 718 Nature, The preservation of .the monuments of(Prof. H. G. Breyer) 722 Nauta (Prof. R. D.), The literature of France during the great Revolution, ... ... ... ... ... ... ^22, Naval Development. Modern (H. C. Kenway) .. ... ... 693 Nebulae, Dark ... ... ... ... ... ... 382 Norton (Rev. W. A.), African Native melodies ... ... 619 , Four months in Slavic Austria... ... 723 Officers and Council, 1914-1915 ... ... ... ... i , for 1915-1916 ... ... ... ... XX, i of former vears ... ... ... ... ... xiii Oil producing plants from South Africa ... ... ... 155 Orange Free State Philosophical Society ... ... ... x Orenstein (Dr. A. J.) The problems and principles of malaria pre- vention . ... ... ... ... ... 193 Organisation of science ... ... ... ... ... 588 Ostrich chick diseases (J. Walker) ... ... ... ... 558 feather industry. The, in South Africa (R. W. Thornton).. 272 Papers read at the Sectional meetings.. ... ... ... 56 Parys granite. Intrusions in ( Prof S. J. Shand) . . ... ... y22 Past Annual Meetings ... ... ... ... ... xi Pepper tree caterpillar. The, Life History of (D. Gunn) ... ... 685 Persian and Merino sheep. Experiments in crossing (J. Burtt Davy) 717 Pettman (Rev. C), An inquiry into the derivation of certain South African place names ... ... ... ... 159 Pharmacy, The profession of (Prof. J. A. Wilkinson)... ... 360 Phosphates, Soluble ... ... ... ... ... 271 Phthisis, The Miners', of the Rand ( Dr. W. Watkins-Pitchford) ... 127 Physical chemistry ... ... ... ... ... 647 continuity. Some prol)lems of (Rev. Dr. S. R. Welch)... 171 Place-names. South .African, .An inquiry int<» the derivation of (Rev- C. Pettman) ... ... ... ... ... 159 Plant distribution in tlie Cape Region, The effects of droughts and other causes on ( Prof. R. Marloth) ... ... ... 383 • food. Lithia as a constituent of (Prof. P. D. Hahn) ... 227 growth and carbon bisulphide... ... ... ... 47^3 Plants, A factor in the evolution of (Prof. H. A. Wager) ... 517 , Oil producing, from South .Africa ... ... ... 155 , South African, .Active principles of ... ... ... 158 , Latices from ... ... ... 279 Poisoned bait for biting flies ... ... ... ... 94 Poisoning by cotton-seed and deficiency disease . . ... ... 382 PoLE-Ev.\Ns (I.B.), A new smut on Sorghum halcpcnse Nees. ... 543 , Some notes on the South African aloes . . . 723 and Miss A. M. Bottomley : Preliminary list of South African fungi represented in the m\'cological herba- rium, Pretoria.. ... ... ... ... ... 722 Portland cement ... ... ... ... ... ... 425 Potash from American kelp.. ... ... ... ... 226 in Alsace ... ... ... ... 390 in tobacco ash ... ... ... ... ... 529 Power (J. H.), Notes on the functions of colour in certain South African reptiles and amphibians... ... ... ... 717 President's address. The ... ... ... ... ... t Preservation, The, of the nionuments of Nature (Dr. H. G. Breyer) 722 INDKX. .VAWni Pretoria, General Meetings at jSouth African fungi in the m^xological lierbariiim at (I. B. Pole Evans and Miss A. M. Bottomley ... Proportional representation ( R. Kilpin) Psycho-pathological theories, Frof. I<"reud's ( G. T. Morice) Pyorrhora alvcolaris ( F. W. l'"itzSiinons,) P.\GE. xvii 722 395 717 Radioactive minerals in South Africa (Prof. P. D. Hahn) ... 449 Radioactivity in its hearing on geological problems ( IL Kynaston ) 24 Radium in Japan ... ... ... ... ... ... i:;8 Rainfall intensity in the Transvaal ( G. W. Cox) ... ... 686 Ranching in Rhodesia ... ..". ... ... ... 594 Rand building societies, The loan scliemes of (Prof. J. P. Dalton) . . 391 gold, The (Prof. R. J:I L. Schwarz) ... ... ... 717 mining industry. The {Dr. W. A. Caldecott) ... 113 , The. Miners' Phthisis of (Dr. Watkins-Pitchford ) ... 127 Reception Committee. Pretoria ... ... ... ... xviii Reid (A.H.), Fire-resisting materials in Iniilding construction ... 83 Relation. The, of body and mind ( Rt. Rev. .\. Chandler) ... 280 Representation, Proportional (R. Kilpin) ... ... ... 723 Reptiles, P'unctions of colour in (J. H. Power)... ... ... 717 Research, Scientific, in South Africa... ... ... ... 611 Revolution, The, Literature of France during (Prof. R. D. Nanta) 723 Reynou)? ( E. C.) Econofinies of t^ie War ... ... ... 97 Rhodesia, Ranching in ... ... ... ... ... 594 Rhodesian ruins and native tradition (Rev. S. S. Dornm) ... 502 RiNnL (Prof. M. M.), The mineral spring on the farm Rietfontein, District Brandfort, O.F.S.... ... ... ... 579 Roberts (A.), (Jbservations on the evolution of birds, with special reference to South African forms.. ... ... ... 723 RoiiERTS (Dr. A. VV.), Secular changes in the period of U Carin;e.. 156 Roberts (Rev. N.) The Baganonoa or Malaboch : Notes on the early history, customs, and creed of... ... ... 241 and C. A. T. Wintep : The Kfjoina or initia- tion rites of the Bapedi of Sekukuniland ... ... 561 RoBiN.soN (E. M.), The agglutination test: with particular refer- ence to its use m the control of contagious abortion in cattle ... ... ... ... ... ... 418 Roscoe, Sir Henry ... ... . . ... ... 199 RosEVE.\RE (Prof. W. X.), On the Gamma or factorial function ... 629 , Transition from elementary algebra to the calculus without inlinite series.. ... ... 410 Royal Society. The ... ... ... ... ... 325 Rubber from Alcohol ... ... ... ..'. ... 308 Sarcosporida (G. van de Wall de Kock) ... ... ... 200 ScHoNL.^ND (Prof. S.), A criticism of Lotsy's theory of evolution... 257 .Schools, Medical inspection of, in relation to social efficiency (Dr. C. F. L. Leipoldt) . . ... ... ... ... 530 ScHW.VRZ (Prof. E. H. L.), The fault systems in the south of South Africa ... ... ... ... ... . . ■ 3^7 , The Rand Gold ... ... ... 7I7 Science, Natural, The real object of (X. Mudd). ... ... 718 , Organisation of . . . ... ... ... • • . 588 Scientific research in South Africa ... ... ... ... 611 Sectional Meetings, List of papers read at ... ... ... 56 Secular changes in the period of U Carinas (Dr. A. W. Roberts) . . . 156 Senate. The. Constitution of (F. FMowers) ... ... ... 230 Serum. Anti-venomous, The preparation of (D. T. Mitchell) ... 337 '- (F". W. Fit:^Simons) ... 717 Shand (Prof. S. J.). The intrusions in the granite of Parys, O.F.S. 722 Sheep. Persian and Merino, Experiments in crossing (T. Burtt Davy) 717 xx.rn' INDEX. PAGE. Sim (T. R.), South African hepatic* or h'verworts ... ... 4:26 Slavic Austria, Four months in (Rev. W. A. Norton)... ... 723. Smut, A new, on Sorghum halcfense Nees (I. B. Pole Evans j . . . 543, Snake venoms. The effect of, on domestic animals (D. T. Mitchell) ii7 Social efficiency, Medical insi)ectioji of schools in relation to (Dr. C. F. L. Leipoldt) ... ... ... ... 530 Soil Science ... ... ... ... ... ... 325 Sorghum hulepeiisc Xees, A new smut of (I. B. Pole Evans) ... 543 Sorghum, Hydroc3'anic acid in ... ... ... .. :;o[ South Africa, Animal diseases in. The influence of climatic and tellurical factors on the spread of (D. Kehoe) ... 474 — , Game and bird protection in (A. K. Haagner) . . . 519 Medal ... ... ... ... vii, xxvi, xxxii , Oil-producing plants from ... ... ... 155 , Radioactive minerals in (Prof. P. D. Hahn) .... 449 , Scientific research in . . . ... ... ... 61 t , The fault systems in the south of (Prof. E. H. L. Schwarz) ... ... ... ... ... 367 The occurrence of Bacterium campestre in (Dr. E. M. Doidge) ... ... ... ... ... 401 The ostrich feather industry in (R. W. Thorntt)n ) 27 > South African agriculture (P. J. du Toit) ... ... ... 145 aloes (I. B. Pole fivans) ... ... ... 723 birds (A. Roberts) ... ... ... ... 723 Entomological society, A (A. J. T. Janse) ... 693 fungi in the mycological herbarium at Pretoria (I. B. Pole Evans and Miss A. M. Bottomley) ... ... 722 hepaticse or liverworts (T. R. Sim) ... ... 426 homoptera ... ... ... ... ... 417 Museum ... ... ... ... ... 325 place names, An inquiry into tlie derivation of (Rev. C. Pettman) ... ... ... ... ... 159 plants, Active principles of ... ... ... 158 Latices f rotn ... ... ... ... 279 reptiles.Functions of colour in (J. H. Power) . . . 717 species of wild animals in captivity (A. K. Haagner) 612 stapelicr (Miss S. M. Stent) ... ... ... 722 Southern stars ... ... • • . ... ... ... 238 Soya Bean, The, Contributions to tlie chemistry of (Prof. P. D. Hahn) ... ... ... ... ... ... 124 Spiders, Trap-door, found in .Alicedale, Cape Province ( F. Cruden) 601 Spring, Mineral, on the farm Rietfontein, District Brandfort. O.F.S. (Prof.. M. M. Rindl) ... ... ... ... 57^ Stapelice, South African (Miss S. M. Stent) ... ... ... 722 Stars, Southern ... ... ... ... ... ... 238 , Visual binary, The masses of (R. T. A. Innes) ... ... 453 Steai) (A.), " Loog as," or the ash of the alkali bush ... ... 540 Stent (Miss S. M.), Notes on some of the South African Siapcliae 722- Tellurical and climatic factors and the spread of animal diseases in South Africa (D. Kehoe)... ... ... ... 474 Termite economy (C. Fuller) ... ... ... ... 60 Theiler, (Sir A.) The problem of horse-sickness ... ... 65 Thornton (R. W.), The ostrich feather industry in South Africa. . . 272 Tobacco ash ... ... ... ... ... ... 529 Topographical methods and instruments (W. C. van der Sterr) ... 685 Transactions of Societies ... 64, i r2, 143, 191, 239, 285, 336, 399, 448, 544, 718 Transferable Vote in elections (Dr. J. Brown) ... ... ... 658 Transkeian Territories, The. Economics of the East Coast Fever, as illustrated by (Rev. J. R. L .Kingon) ... ... 213 Transvaal, The, Rainfall intensity in (G. W. Cox) ... ... 686. Trap-door spiders found in Alicedale, Cape Province (F. Cruden) 6ol INDEX. XXXV PAGE. Treasurer's Report. 1914-1915 ... ... ... ... xxix U Carin?e, Secular change in the period of (Dr. A. W. Roberts)... 156 Universe, The, Structure of... ... ... ... ... 354 Van der Byl (Dr. P. A.), Die-back of apple trees, caused by Cyxo- spora leucostoma (Pers.") Sacc. ... ... ... 545 , Note on the genus Coniothenum Corda ; with special reference to Coniothecium chomatosponim Corda ... ... ... ... ... ... 649 Van^ der Sterr (W. C.) . New topographical methods and, instruments 685 Venoms, Snake. The efifect of. on domestic animals (D. T. Mitchell) 2>Z7 Versfeld (Dr. W.) and G. F. Britten : Some notes on the chemistry of the !Naras (Acatiihosicyos horrida PTook.) . . . ... 232 Vote, The transferable, Methods of counting in elections by (Dr. J- Brown) ... ... ... ... ..." ... 658 Wager (Prof H. A.), A factor in the evolution of plants .. . 517 V/alker (J.) Ostrich chick diseases... ... ... ... 558 War, The, Economics of (E. C. Reynolds) ... ... ... 97 Waterberg, The, Drought in.. ... ... ... ... 265 Watkins-Pitchford (Dr. W.) The Miners' Phthisis of the Rand 127 Welch (Rev. Dr. S. R.), Some problems of physical continuity ... 171 Wheat, Manganese in ... ... ... ... ... 231 Wild animals in captivity. Variability in the nature or temperament of (A. K. Haagner) ... ... ... ... 612 Wilkinson (Prof. J. A.), Tlie profession of pharmacy: suggestions for reform in its mode of attainment. . ... ... 360 Winter (C. A. T.) and Rev N. Roberts: The Kgoma or initiation rites of the Bapedi of Sekukuniland. . . ... ... 561 K 7^ % (IBL VVHOi Library - Serjais 5 WHSE 00058 m iii' >mm i mm >^m i. : ,If^ ^§t»^l^ i/;' mm& j<^r: