Copious Supply Research Articles

Sugarcane Cultivation. In the Northern taluks of Ganjam District.

The cultivation of this important, indus- trial crop is done in small and scattered areas in the district. Condi- tions in the Northern Taluks seem to favour more extensive and concentrated cropping. A copious supply of sub-soil moisture, plen- tiful rainfall from June to December and well drained loamy soils of a good depth help good growth, while the sugar factory at Aska creates a good demand for the raw material. However, in recent years, owing to the rise in prices, and the heavy cost of cultiva- tion, want of cheap credit, risky nature of cultivation, the area under sugar-cane has been on the decline. A deficient supply of water under the Rushikulya system, due to the uncertain pre- monsoon showers, and absence of a good number of wells in the cane growing areas, are responsible for the restricted cane area. The extent of cane cultivated by each ryot varies from one bharanam to four bharanams (one bharanam=20 cents)

Notes on the Discovery of Fossiliferous Old Red Sandstone Rocks in a Boring at Southall, near Ealing

Introduction I n 1911 my attention was called to a boring at the works of Messrs. Otto Monsted & Co. at Southall. The work was carried out by Messrs. Isler & Co., and I wish to express my indebtedness to the firms in question for the facilities granted for the examination of cores, and for permission to publish my conclusions thereon. The examination of the rocks was carried out in the Geological Laboratories of the Imperial College of Science & Technology, and the determination of the bulk of the fish-remains was made by Dr. A. Smith Woodward, who has added an appendix on them to this paper. I am also indebted to Dr. D. H. Scott and to Mr. A. J. Maslen for examining certain problematical fossils, which are probably of vegetable origin. Southall is on the Great Western Railway, about midway between Paddington and Windsor. The position of Messrs. Otto Monsted & Co.'s factory is about 100 yards south of Southall Station (G.W.R.). The purpose of the well was to obtain water from the Lower Greensand, which had been struck and yielded copious supplies of water at Slough, 9 or 10 miles farther west. As will be seen, the well was a failure from this point of view, as the boring passed from the Gault directly into Palæozoic rocks. But to the geologist the result is of considerable interest, because of the new light thrown by it on the age of the Palæozoic rocks of the London area. Particular references

The Stassfurt salt industry

The salt deposits of Germany occur over a vast area in the northern portion of the Empire, and beds of various Potash salts are found capping these in many localities, especially in the plains surrounding the eastern and northern slopes of the Harz Mountains, though they have also been worked at places as far south as near Eisenach, and as far north as Jessenitz on the frontier of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The town of Stassfurt, where the oldest and most important mines are situated, lies about 30 kilometres south of Magdeburg in the Prussian province of Saxony. At many points in this district the underground waters reach the surface as brine springs, and the soil itself is sometimes so impregnated with salt that it is characterised by a flora of a markedly littoral type, comprising for example such species as Salicornia herbacea L., Triglochin maritima L., Spergularia salina Presl., Glaux maritima L., and Aster tripolium L. The brine springs of Stassfurt gave rise to an important salt industry from a very early period, and are said to be mentioned even in the beginning of the thirteenth century, while it is known that in 1452 wells were sunk to a considerable depth in order to obtain a more copious supply of brine than was afforded by the natural springs. But by the year 1839 it had become no longer possible profitably to extract the salt from the brine springs, and it was plain that either the industry must be abandoned altogether or new

Observations on the functions of the intestinal canal and liver of the human fœtus

From the circumstances of the early development of the liver and intestines in the fœtus, of the copious supply of blood which they receive, and of the great space which they occupy in the abdomen, the author was led to the conclusion that they performed some important functions in the fœtal economy. Although no nutritive matter can be furnished by the mouth, yet the contents of different portions of the alimentary canal were found, both in appearance and chemical composition, to bear a striking analogy to those of the same portions of the canal in the adult, where the processes of assimilation and absorption are performed. A semi-fluid matter, possessing all the characters of albumen, is found closely adhering to the inner coats of the small intestine; and is more especially abundant around the papillary projection, through which the common duct of the liver opens into the duodenum, and diminishes in quantity as we trace it towards the termination of the ileum. The great intestines are generally distended with a dark green homogeneous fluid, containing no albumen, and apparently excrementitious. No albumen can be detected in the contents of the stomach. Hence the author infers that an absorption of some nutritious substance, which he brings forward several arguments to show must be derived from the liver, takes place from the intestinal canal in the latter months of gestation. He states that in two instances he detected the presence of a substance, similar to that which he had found in the duodenum, in the hepatic duct itself; hence he is led to the conclusion that the function of the liver in the fœtus is not confined to the separation of excrementitious matter from the blood, but that it supplies materials subservient to nutrition. That the substances existing in the intestines of the fœtus are not derived from the mouth, is proved by their being equally found in acephalous children, or where the œsophagus is impervious, as where no such mal-conformation exists. A note is subjoined to this paper by Dr. Prout, giving an account of the mode by which he ascertained the chemical character of the substance referred to his examination; and the paper is accompanied by drawings of the intestinal tube in the fœtus.