FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



143 



em hemisphere, but it is not easy to land 

 upon when the sea is at all rough. It is but 

 little visited. It bears a few plants which 

 have not been collected and studied, and is 

 the resort of numerous sea birds. The curi- 

 ous peak is situated at a greater distance 

 from any mainland than any other isolated 

 rock of like dimensions in any part of the 

 world. 



Old shoes are not lost by any means. 

 In this country they are dissected and sub- 

 jected to a course of manipulations by which 

 they are converted into a kind of artificial 

 leather, which is made to look very fine, and 

 may be elegantly ornamented. In France 

 they go through a less elaborate transfor- 

 mation. At the military prison in Montpel- 

 lier the shoes, the majority of which come 

 from Spain, are ripped apart ; the nails are 

 drawn out. The parts are softened in water, 

 and are then cut up by a machine into vamps 

 for children's or little girls' shoes. The soles 

 are likewise utilized. The smallest pieces are 

 used to make the Louis XIV toes which were 

 in fashion a few years ago. Pieces a little 

 larger and thinner are made into the soles of 

 babies' shoes. The nails of iron are sepa- 

 rated by means of a magnet from copper 

 nails, and the latter are sold for a higher 

 price than the others. The manager of the 

 prison represents that the returns from this 

 manufacture nearly equal the cost of the old 

 shoes. 



NOTES. 



Hon. David A. Wells's chapters on The 

 Principles of Taxation, the publication of 

 which has been unavoidably suspended in 

 the October and November numbers of the 

 Monthly, will be renewed in the December 

 number, and regularly continued thereafter. 



The British Association has resolved to 

 invite the president, vice-presidents, and 

 officers of the American Association to at- 

 tend its meeting next year at Toronto as 

 honorary members ; also to admit all fel- 

 lows and members of the American Associa- 

 tion as members of the British Association 

 on the same terms as old annual members 

 namely, on payment of 1 (or $5), without 

 requiring an admission fee. 



In regard to the proper designation of its 

 vice-presidents, the American Association 

 directed that that term be used in official 

 publications in expressing the relation of 

 the presiding officer of any section to the 



association, and the term chairman in ex- 

 pressing his relation to the section ; and 

 that the term vice jrrcsident precede the 

 name of the officer and chairman follow it 

 when both relations are to be expressed. 

 When referred to, these officers are to be 

 termed vice-presidents for, not of, the 

 sections. 



Prof. Wolcott Gibbs, the new President 

 of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, Rumford Professor 

 and Lecturer on the Application of Science 

 to the Useful Arts, is the oldest living pro- 

 fessor in Harvard University, though not 

 now in active service. 



A very satisfactory dressing for wounds, 

 consisting of bags of straw charcoal, is used 

 by the Japanese. It fits perfectly to the 

 wounds, and has considerable absorbing 

 power and antiseptic properties. The char- 

 coal is prepared by burning straw in a cov- 

 ered vessel. 



A SHRUB in Madagascar, called the vonim- 

 perono, bears a seed, the feathery tuft of 

 which possesses some of the qualities of 

 silk, and may be found useful in the arts. 

 The flower and the pod, as pictured m La 

 Nature, suggest affiliation with the Ascle- 

 piads ; and the tuft does not contradict the 

 suggestion. It is a little more than an inch 

 and a half long ; its fibers have considerable 

 strength ; and, according to M. Georges Cha- 

 pin, they form a veritable vegetable silk. 

 The people of the western coast of Mada- 

 gascar collect it, and, often without taking 

 the trouble to remove the seed, make soft 

 cushions and pillows of it ; and the Hova 

 ladies use it for stuffing the seats of their 

 flanzanes or sedan chairs. 



Thb term roches moutonnes, used by ge- 

 ologists to describe a peculiar topographic 

 appearance resulting from glacial action, is 

 usually interpreted as meaning resembling a 

 flock of sheep asleep, and that is the expla- 

 nation given by M de Lapperent in his ge- 

 ological treatise. The dictionaries, however, 

 define moutonne as meaning frizzled like 

 sheep's wool. The term was first used by 

 De Saussure in his Voyages dans les Alpes ; 

 but the passage had escaped recent observa- 

 tion till Mr. Whymper found it. It reads, 

 translated, " These contiguous and repeated 

 roundnesses produce as a whole the effect of 

 a well-grown fleece, of the wigs which are 

 called moufo?i7iees." Mr. Grenville A. J. Cole 

 in Nature cites this passage to justify his 

 comparison of these shapes to the mammilla- 

 tions upon an antique wig. 



A PAPER read some time ago in the Lin- 

 nffian Society by Mr. R. Morton Middleton, 

 recording the observation of Mr. Miltiades 

 Isigonis of the use of ants by the Greek bar- 

 ber surgeons of Asia Minor for holding togeth- 

 er the edges of a cut, brought out the fact that 

 the same custom exists in Brazil as among 



