OTAGO INSTITUTE

Evening Star, Issue 16782, 10 July 1918, Page 7

OTAGO INSTITUTE

A very interesting even nig was spent by members of Otago Institute last evening at the Museum, 'or ah hough there wsa no set subject, a .number of short addresses were delivered by Drs Fulton, Benham, and Malcolm on a variety of topics, ranging from the invasion of Stewart Island sanctuary to the habits of the hermit crab. WAR RELICS. Dr Benham, amongst maaiy exhibits, showed some war relics—an Austrian shrapnel helmet, two types of gas masks, tho shell of a .75 millimetre Italian gun, the head of tho shell thrown by an Austrian big-calibre gun, a small type of Austrian machine gun, and, as a curious contrast alongside this weapon which throws its hundreds of missiles a minute —an old flint pistol. A CASE OF ATAVISM. Dr Benham next related some interesting laboratory observations, particularly an atavism found by one of Ins students in the arterial system of a frog—namely, tho persistence in the adult of tho four arteries which were always found arising from the heart of the tadpole, but one of which disappeared when the tadpole became the frog. This particular frog retained the fourth, embryonic or larval artery, which he had never before observed in the thousand or more frogs lie had examined in Dunedin. It was a very interesting fact, because in tho allied forms—the salamander, for example—there v/ero four arteries permanently. EXPERIMENTS WITH TUTU. Dr Malcolm's subject embraced an account of some work lie was doing on the tutu fruit. The fresh juice had been expressed from ripe berries and evaporated down. It proved to be non-poisonous, confirming the statement made as to the us:; of the juice by Maoris and early settlers in making a kind of alcoholic beverage from it. The juice was {'omul to contain a large amount of sugar. _ The seed 3 were found to be twice as toxic as other parts of the plant. The green berries were weight for weight, more toxic than the ripe," as the green fleshy petals at thi3 stago contained almost the sanw percentage as found in other green parts of the plant. A great problem for invest!, gation was the mode of conversion of these green petals into the ripe, non-tox'.c juice. Possibly the plant contained a ferment capable of doing so, and if it could bo isolated a-ud concentrated, such a_ ferment would be of some use in destroying tutu in the paunch of animals before it was absorbed into the blood. Possible commercial uses of tutu were mentioned, such as the production of a fine powder for killing insect pests. Again, the sugar of the berry could be used for feeding animals, and for bees, and for the production of commercial alcohol ; while the oil could be used for lubrication, timber preservation, and fuel. Other topics, dealt with by Dr Fulton, and provoking some, discussion, are summarised in another column.