The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-13 00:00:00

CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.

At the regular meeting on Monday evening, May
18, several very curious and interesting subjects were
discussed, Vice-President Dr. James Blake was in
the chair. We are indebted to the Mining and Scien-
tific Press for the following epitome of the principal
points engaging attention :-
- "Dr. Kellogg reads communication from Mr.
E. W. Burr, accompanying a curious specimen of
insect life, found only and recently on a single
pine in Monterey, with a request that the Aca lemy
would examine and report upon the same. The
insect appears to be increasing rapidly. The
subject was referred to Dr. Behr for exami-
nation and report. Some discussion was also
indulged in concerning the periodic development
and disappearance of insects, and the transmission
of predacious insects from one country to another.
With reference to the latter fact, the President
mentioned an insect which was imported to England
from America, against which nothing of great injury
was known in that country, but which spread with
wonderful rapidity all over England, and destroyed
very many apple trees. It was known as the
" American Blight." Dr. Behr stated that the weevil
was imported to America in a cargo of grain from
New Zealand. Until then nothing was known of it.
Dr. Kellogg said that the Hessian flv was supposed
to, have been imported during the Hessian war. Dr.
Kellogg presented specimens of the holly-leafed
cherry (indigenous), found in the neighbourhood
of San Francisco, and supposed till now to have
became extinct—and a specimen of real Prenus
Virginiana found on the Potrero, and commonly
known as the choke cherry. The doctor re-
marked that the Indian name of this tree is
Is . ; and that the creek of that name, flow-
ing through the southern portion of the city,
derived its name (given by the Indians)
from the great numbers of this tree which formerly
grew. upon its banks and about its source. Dr.
Gibbons stated that- the taste of both these cherry
species cannot be distinguished from that of the
Eastern wild cherry, the hydrocyanic odour being
distinguishable in the blossom, some discussion
followed upon the question whether hydrocy-
anic (prussic) acid exists in the cherry, peach,i
and almond species, naturally, or whether t
is a product of certain chemical changes ; the
latter is the opinion generally entertained by
chemists. These changes take place after the plant
or fruit has been macerated ; a period of some
twenty-four hours being usually allowed for the
fullest development of this acid. This accounts for
the fact noticed that while cattle may eat freely and
with impunity of the branches of the wild cherry
immediately after they have been removed, death
or dangerous illness often follows when such
branches are eaten after they have been lying for
some time upon the ground in a mutilated con-
dition. Mr. Bloomer propounded the query
whether a poison introduced into the cells
of a plant would communicate itself from cell to
cell, and permeate the whole plant. Lie instanced
the case of an experiment by introducing strychnia
into the cells of a cabbage leaf. A member stated
that there were but one or two substances which
were capable of poisoning plants. There were
several instances, however, of colouring matter
permeating plants. Dr. Gibbons claimed that there
was a power of waste which enabled plants to select
and avoid according to their necessity. The Pre-
sident thought the spongy roots of the plant alone
could exercise such discriminating power ; that
when these were severed it
.became nothing more
than a lifeless mass of capillary vessels, through
which poison could have willing access. Dr. Behr
stated that in the Middle Ages persons were killed
by eating plants watered with poisonous solutions
with murderous purpose."

Frank Leslie says, "Professor Longfellow, the
poet, has met a most flattering reception in England,
where his reputation as a writer is as fully recognized as
at home. The University of Cambridge has made him a
D.0.L., Doctor of Civil Law, which he was informed of in
a Latin speech from the V.ce-Chancellor of the University.
We suppose the University intended this as a compli-
ment, and it really seems to have been the only one they
were able to give. But why we should dub a poet Doctor
of Laws, any more than Judge or General, is not clear. If
we must have complimentary titles to dispose of to de-
serving or popular literary men, let thorn at least be ap
posite ; say F.C.P., Ffrst-Class Poet, or G.S.T., Groat
Story Teller, for Sylvanus Cobb and Mr. Dickens; T.T.
Thunderinr, Traveller, for Mr. Pu Chaffin and Ross
Brown ; Al., Able Editor, for Ifora,:e Greeley and the
conductor of this paper, and so on. But why should we
solemnly declare •Mr. Longfellow a Doctor of Laws, be-
cause he sung the song of Maxvittlia, is not clear.

The Fren-th Gove-rnment on Monday last granted
to Baron Emil Erlanger, Paris, and Mr. Julius Reuter, of
London, an excllsive concession for 20 years, to lay and
work a submarine telegraph cable between France and the
United States.

The negotiations respecting the treaty between
the United States of America and Wurtemberg in reference
to naturalized subjests commenced at Stuttgardt last Tues-
day, Mr. Bancroft representing the former, and the
Minister of State, Baron Varnbuler, representing the
latter.

The prices of Horniman's Teas are greatly reduced; their
well-known superiority has attracted a host of spurious
imitations; therefore notice all. Genuine Packets are signed,
" Horniman (.f. C 0.," London. 300 Confectioners are Agents
in London and 2,200 Chemists in the Country.

4d.
STAUPED 54.

RAILWAY !MEL LIG CE.

The , New York Ci'y Underground Railway
Company has organized,- an I will begin the con-
struction of its roads as soon as poes:ble, which
eventually run frotn the City Hall Park to Harlem-
bridge, though above Ninety-sixth-street a surface
line is contemplated. The capital stock is
$10,000,000, and William B. Ogden Clarence S.
Brown and William E. Dodge are atmng the
thirteen direcl-ors. The fares for distances legs
thin three miles are fixel by the charer at six
cents.

A judgment of nearly five million dollars has
been rendered against the Union Pacific Railroal
Company. The suit was brought in the Supreme
Court by John Ross Robert M. Steele, and Edmund
Trowbridge, who were the• contractors for the con-
struction of the Kansas branch of the Union Pacific
Railroad, for damages of breach of contract, and
for the value of the work actually d3ne in building
that branch of the road. The case was referred on
the motion of E. R. Maude, of New York, the
plaintiffs' attorney, . and has occupied some six
months in trial. The plaintiffs' claim was substan-
tially that they entered on the fulfilment of their
contract and were progressing as rapidly as the
contract required, when they were stopped by the
officers of the road, of whom Mr. Hallett, who
was afterwards shot, was the leader, who called the
aid of the United States Dragoons, aad this male
the old statement of trespass vi it anhis good.
A satisfactory arrangement has been arrived
between the parties interested in the Atlantic and
Great Western Railway. in consequence the
securities of the company have risen considerably,
notwithstanding that the traffic receipts for the
second week in June amounted to $89,615, and for
the corresponding week last year to $10,291, show-
ing a decrease of $12,779.

AMERICA AT THE HAVRE EXHIBITION.

Among the objects exhibited by Americans we
find the following :—A model of a fishing smack,
by E. P. Beckwith, which is much admired for its
symmetry ; a model and scale plan of the U. S.
steam sloop Idaho, by Henry Steers, ship builder,
of New York ; the " leakage alarm gauge," by E.
B. Massey, of New York, who also exhibits his boat
detaching apparatus. Both these inventions are
highly spoken of, and the last ranked first, among
43 models submitted last year to the Congressional
Committee. Silver's Marine Governors, to prevent
screw engines from "racing," now generally used,
attract attention. James Dixon and Company, of
New York, have sent specimens of their plumbago
crucibles. Messrs. Blanchard and M'Kean, of
Paris, agents for Massey, Silver, Dixon, and Com-
pany, have here a new steam packing, by which oil
is entirely discarded around pistons. It consists of
a loosely woven cotton eight-stranded rope, the
heart being filled with a composition of which the
principal item is soap-stone. It is very durable,
and often lasts five months, whereas the ordinary
piston packing is generally renewed once in two
mouths. Mrs. Coston has sent her Night Tele-
graph Signals : her husband was a gunner in the
United States Navy, and. was the inventor, but the
United States Government paid the widow several
thousand dollars for the signals, which are those
now in use in the United States Navy. Victor
Giroud, of New York, exhibits his astronomi-
cal clocks, for which he has already re-
ceived a gold medal from the American
Institute of New York. Mr. Winslow, of Havre,
an American by birth, and the father of French
whaling, makes a fine display of whaling gear.
Brown and Leval, of New York, have their boat-
detaching apparatus, and Emile Rousseil, from West
Newark, New Jersey, shows a new life-saving con-
trivance. The National Life-saving and Ship Bal-
lasting Company, of New York, exhibit their appa-
ratus. The dress consists of an india-rubber suit,
made in one piece, large enough to put on over the
ordinary clothing of the wearer. The only openings
are at the head and the wrists ; the latter are
doubled, so as to confine the wrists and prevent the
entrance of water. The suit fits close to the neck,
and water cannot easily get in. Metal sandals are
worn on the feet, which, acting as ballast, keep the
body upright in the water. A folding contrivance
which is buckled on the hand, furnishes artificial fins
or paddles, so that the wearer can—propel himself
through the water. Each suit will be provided
with a can buoy, in which several days' provisions
can be placid. Edward Perry, of New York, ex-
hibits one of his life rafts, which are so good that
one or more of them should be placed on every ves-
sel, especially those which carry passengers. The
American Buttonhole, Over-seaming, and Sewing-
machine Company, Philadelphia, exhibit several of
their ingenious machines. We may again recur to
this subject.

THE III?ST DISCOVERY OF THE STARS AND

STRIPES.

Captain G. H. Preble, of the United States
Navy, collecting material for a history of the
American flag, informs the Historical Magazine
that he has now no doubt that the stars and strips
were first displayed on the Thames by the ship
Bedford of Nantucket. The Bedford was a whaler
which left Nantucket under a pass from Admiral
Digby, and arrived out on Feb. 3, 1783, twelve
days before proclamation of peace was made, and
only a week after the London newspapers had got
hold of the terms of the treaty. In the London
Political Magazine of Feb. 8, of the year above
mentioned, is a passage which treats as follows :
" The Thirteen Stripes are in the river.—Mr. Ham-
met begged leave to inform the house of a very re-
cent and extraordinary event. There was, he said,
at the time he was speaking, an American ship in
the Thames with the thirteen stripes flying on
board. This ship had offered to enter at the cus-
tom house, but the officers were at a loss how to be-
have. Hismotive for mentioning the subject was that
ministers might take such steps with the American
Commissioners as would secure free intercourse be-
tween this country and America." It is a curious fact
that the Maria, a vessel that has been named by
some writers as a contestant for the honour due the
Bedford; and which certainly was in the Thames
in the course of the year 1783, is still afloat and in
use. The Confederate States cruisers forced the
old ship to take refuge under the Chilian flag, and
she now sails from Talcahuana as a whaler. But
the first display of the thirteen stripes in England
was not from the masthead of a vessel. When the
king, on the sth of December, 1782, in his speech
from the throne, recognized the existence of the
United States as a nation, Mr. Copley, the. painter,
who was among his hearers, went home and put the
new ensign in the background of a portrait, that of
Elkanah Watson—which he had upon his easel at
the time. He had kept the background unfinished,
reserving it as a place " to represent a ship bearing
to America the intelligence of the acknowledgment
of American independence,
.with the rising sun of
the new-born nation streaming from her gaff."

The Simooni, screw troopship, Capt. T. B.
Lethbridge, is under orders to sail this morning from
Portsmouth for Ireland, to convey back to England Royal
Marine Artillery and Light Infantry.

An American paper says—" 'rhurlow Weed, the
well-known journalist and New York politician, was for-
merly a cabin boy in a North River sloop. For fifty years
he was the political Warwick of the country, holding in
his gift more offices than the President. Although
in his 71st year, he devotes three hours a day to his
paper, the Commercial Advertiser, and then holds a levee
at Room No. 11, Astor House, where one hundred men,
from a United States senator to a tide-waiter daily
seek his advice and aid. He is a tall, stooping man, care-
lessly dressed, with a shambling gait, hurrying about as
if he had a note to pay in fifteen minutes and wanted to
borrow the money. His manners are very pleasant ; he
understands human nature and quickly reads men, and
possesses the art of adapting himself to their peculiari-
ties. His ambition is power, which he secures by using
his influence for others. He is said to be very rich, and
to expend a large portion of his income in charity."
The Springfield Institution for Savings has de-
clared a dividend of 31 per cent, for the last six months,
payable July 6, amounting to $76,500. The institution
has now on deposit two millions and a half.
The party of emigrants which recently left North
Bridgewater for the West has taken 1,450 acres of land
on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, 17 miles from
the latter place.
The New York Tribune declares that the great
speech of Horatio Seymour on the 25th June was a bid
for the Presidential.

Boston is to have a skating ring on a grand scale.
The company have a capital of $lOO,OOO, and have begun
to build a brick building in an ornamental style to accom-
modate 1,500 skaters and seat 5,000 spectators. It is to
be finished by September 1, floored and made use of in the
political campaign for mass meetings.
Portland boasts that it has the best hotel in New
England in the new Falmouth, which cost $400,000. It
is a six-story edifice of Nova Scotia sandstone, with 180
guest rooms ; the furniture cost SBO,COO.
SIXTY-FIVE lIUNDRED TONS OF TEA.—It IS
estimated that 13,000,000 pounds of tea will bo shipped
to the United States this season from China.
EXCLUSIVE, VERY IMPORTANT, RARE, AND VALUABLE
are the properties of Lamplough's Pyretic Saline, curing the
worst headaches, sickness, skin, or biliary affections. Pleasan
palatable, and invigorating. Sold by all Chemists.—[Advt.]

~~

, , ° - 2

COIiPVCE COMMISSIONATIZES:

Sunday being the grand muster day of the year, his
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales commanded the
attendance of the Commissionaires at Marlborough House.
After hearing Divine service at their usual place of wor-
ship, the corps, headed by its fine band, marched into
the private gardens, and, the ranks being opened, his
Royal Highness made a minute inspection, expressing
himself much gratified with the smart appearance of the
men and the success that had resulted from the establish-
ment of the institution. Previous to the inspection by his
Royal Highness, an unusual number of officers and gentle.
men interested in the welfare of the army and navy
assembled ,on the parade-ground of the corps, at ten
o'clock, to receive two distinguished officers who
had signified their intention of being present at
the annual muster—Field-Marshal Sir J. Burgoyne,
G.C.8., who has lately accepted the office of trustee to
the Endowment Fund, and General Si Robert Napier,
G.C.8., an old and ardent friend of the corps. Soon
after his arrival Sir Robert Napier, in company with
Sir John 13urgoyne, who on this occasion gracefully con-
ceded his precedence, passed down the ranks of the men,
entering into conversation with several whose decorations
proved their share in many a hard fight. The men appeared
thoroughly to appreciate the compliment paid them, the
more so as it was the second occasion within the last two
years on which the gallant soldier had testified his regard
for them in so marked a manner. Before leaving the
ground Sir J. Burgoyne and Sir Robert Napier compli-
mented the commanding officer and the rest of the working
staff on the admirable appearance of the men and the
efficiency of the institution.

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