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The 361/2-ton meteorite which was brought to this country some years ago by Lieut. Peary has been removed from the Brooklyn navy yard to the American Museum of Natural History. It was necessary to use the big derrick owned by a wrecking company. The meteorite was landed at the West Fifty-fifth Street pier, Manhattan, whence it was brought to the museum on a large truck. Up to the present .it seems that hydrochinon has not been extracted from any living plant. It has now been extracted from the buds of the pear tree by Messrs. G. Riviere and G. Bailhache, of Paris. The buds are macerated in ether for a certain. time, and in this case they lose the viscous matter which adheres to the scales. . The ether solution is. evaporated and the matter which remains is slightly heated. It is sublimed and yields some transparent crystals. The proportion of crystalline matter which is obtained is. found to increase with the progress of vegetation. 'r:he experimenters show conclusively that the crystalline matter is hydrochinon, and they also prove that it exists in the buds themselves and is not a product of decomposition. What is somewhat singular is the relation between the pear and the apple tree in this respect. The buds of the apple tree do not yield, hydrochinon, but on the other hand they contain a considerable quantity of phlorizine, and this latter body does not exist in the buds of the pear tree. In this way the two different species are each characterised by an appropriate chern, ical compound. Among the most recent objects which have been found by the Rev. P. Delattre in the excavations at Carthage may be mentioned a sarcophagus of large size containing relief sculptures. The sarcophagus is of white marble and is painted, like some other specimens which have been found here. It was found along with some other objects at a depth of nearly 60 feet. On the two main faces of the sarcophagus is a relief which represents the monster Scylla with her arms extended. At the middle of the body are seen dogs which are facing in different directions, following the ancient tradition. The same subject has been found before upon a sarcophagus at Carthage, but in the latter case it is simply painted and not in relief. What is to be especially remarked concerning this group is that the same subject is found in the mausoleum of El-Amoroumi in Tripoli, which belongs to the later Punic period. It occurs among other well known mythological subjects. It is therefore of interest to find that at the Punic period of Carthage the myth of Scylla already occupies a prominent place. Up to the present it has only been found on Roman remains. .
