MISCELLANY. 



759 



some of its latent heat ; and it is precisely 

 this disengaged heat which raises the tem- 

 perature of the oxygen to such a degree 

 that it begins to attack the tissues of the 

 seed, and to awaken the life which lay dor- 

 mant in it. The authors hold the mech- 

 anism of germination to be as follows : 1. 

 Softening of the seed-envelopes by water ; 

 2. Penetration of gases and disengagement 

 of heat ; 3. Alteration of the principles con- 

 tained in the seeds by the heated oxygen. 

 A memoir, giving full details on this sub- 

 ject, will shortly appear in the " French 

 Annals of the Natural Sciences." 



Maryine's Survey of Western Colorado. 



From a letter of a New York Times cor- 

 respondent, we take the following notes of 

 the survey of Western Colorado, by Mar- 

 vine's division of Hayden's exploring party : 

 The most interesting section visited was 

 the high mesa lying near the head of the 

 White River. This mesa is nearly 1,000 

 miles in extent, and has an average altitude 

 of about 1 2,000 feet. A large portion of it 

 is a lava-bed, with innumerable lakes scat- 

 tered over its whole extent. The influence 

 of these lava-beds on the climate of this 

 section is very marked. The party reached 

 the mesa about the middle of September ; 

 it was almost enveloped in clouds ; there 

 were about four inches of snow, and the 

 thermometer was down to 6. The clouds 

 lay on the mesa for weeks, though in the 

 valley it was clear. On the east the mesa 

 descends in precipitous slopes to the flats 

 in Egeria Park ; on the west the great lava 

 plateau gradually falls and becomes well 

 timbered, chiefly with spruce ; the lava-top 

 ceases, and is replaced by the sedimentary 

 rocks rising from beneath it. The White 

 River country, lying north of the mesa, 

 constitutes the Ute Indian Reservation, and 

 is described by Marvine's party as a grand 

 hunting-ground, with game in abundance, 

 plenty of water and timber, and large areas 

 of fertile soil. It is the best portion of 

 Colorado west of the Parks. The country 

 in Egeria Park, east of the mesa, abounded 

 in a great variety of beautiful wild-flowers, 

 and raspberries of rich flavor. Mr. Barber, 

 the botanist of the party, secured a large 

 and rare collection. Toward the western 

 limit of the region explored, excellent coal 



began to appear, with the promise of much 

 beyond. 

 < 



Voelcker on the Quality of Milk. Dr. 



Voelcker, who holds high rank in England 

 as an agricultural chemist, asserts that, 

 owing to the natural variations in the qual- 

 ity of milk, it is utterly impossible, in all 

 cases, to ascertain whether a small quantity 

 of cream has been removed from milk, or 

 an inconsiderable proportion pf water added 

 to it. As the result of his own experience, 

 he states that milk may be considered rich 

 when it contains 12 per cent, of solid mat- 

 ter, of which 3 or 3 are pure butter. If 

 it contains over 12 per cent, of solid mat- 

 ter, and has 4 per cent, or more of fat, it is 

 of extra-rich quality. Good milk, of fair 

 average quality, contains from 10| to 11 

 per cent, of dry matter, including about "1% 

 per cent, of pure fat. Poor milk contains 

 90 per cent, or more of water. If milk is 

 both skimmed and watered, it yields less 

 than 4 per cent, of cream, and its specific 

 gravity is about 1.025. A great many ex- 

 periments have led the author to the con- 

 clusion that, within certain limits, the spe- 

 cific gravity is the most trustworthy indica- 

 tor of quality. Some of the objections to 

 the use of hydrometers are based on the 

 mistaken opinion that cream is lighter than 

 water. It is lighter than milk, but, com- 

 pared with water, it is as 1.012, or even 

 1.019 to 1.000. A low specific gravity thus 

 always indicates a large proportion of water. 

 From sundry observations, it appears that 

 good, pure milk has a specific gravity of 

 1.030, skimmed milk being a little lighter ; 

 and, further, that milk with a specific gravi- 

 ty below 1.025 is either mixed with water, 

 or is naturally very poor. A useful instru- 

 ment for approximately determining the per- 

 centage of cream is a graduated glass tube, 

 at the top of which the cream may be al- 

 lowed to collect, and its quantity may be 

 read off. 



The Royal Society of Great Britain. 



The origin of the English Royal Society ia 

 related as follows in the " Memoirs of the 

 French Academy." We give the passage 

 as translated in Nahire : " Full fifty years 

 had elapsed (in 1666) since the learned men 

 who lived in Paris began to meet at the 



