NOTES. 



143 



of Professor Isaac H. Hall. The manuscript 

 consists of the Acts and Catholic Epistles, 

 and the Pauline Epistles, with Hebrews, to- 

 gether with tables to find Easter, etc., tables 

 of ecclesiastical lessons, and a poem giving 

 the history of the genesis of the manu- 

 script. 



Professor Germain See, of Paris, re- 

 marks, concerning the alimentary impor- 

 tance of water, that it is essential to dissolve 

 the salts taken in with the food and elimi- 

 nate them from the system. He denies that 

 man can live on a purely vegetable diet, 

 and points out that the vegetarians them- 

 selves confess the fallacy of their theory by 

 using eggs, milk, and butter, by which they 

 make up for the want of solid meat. 



Professor H. A. Rowland, of Johns 

 Hopkins University, has completed a photo- 

 graphic map of the solar spectrum, from 

 wave-length 3,680 to 5,7^0, and has nearly 

 ready the portion above 3,680, to the ex- 

 tremity of the ultra-violet, wave-length 

 about 3,100. A scale of wave-lengths has 

 been added, and the whole is claimed to be 

 more exact and give greater detail than any 

 other map in existence. While the error in 

 wave-length at no part exceeds ttotiWi the 

 wave-lengths of more than 200 lines in the 

 spectrum have been accurately determined 

 to 5 00* 00 P art - 



A comical feature of the almanacs pub- 

 lished for use in Belgium has been brought 

 to light. With the exception of two scien- 

 tific works, whose editions are limited, they 

 are all 495,000 out of a total of 500,000 

 copies a year calculated for Paris. They 

 give the times of the rising of the sun and 

 moon, in which the local difference is often 

 fifteen minutes, for Paris, making at cer- 

 tain seasons the day half an hour longer 

 or shorter than it actually is in Belgium ! 

 Eclipses are calculated in detail as for Paris, 

 even if they will not be seen at all in Bel- 

 gium ; and, if such an event should occur 

 as an eclipse visible in Belgium which will 

 not be seen in Paris, the almanac will know 

 nothing about it. The " Grand double Al- 

 manack de Liege " does not recognize any of 

 the discoveries that have been made in the 

 solar system during the last three quarters 

 of a century! 



In addition to three cases previously re- 

 ported for the current season, the " Lancet " 

 records, in three weeks, three other deaths 

 occasioned by accidents in playing foot-ball. 

 In one case, the victim was kicked in the 

 stomach by an opposing player ; the second 

 case was also traced to a kick in the stom- 

 ach, followed in time by fits ; and, in the 

 third case, the player's head, in the rush, 

 was doubled under his breast, and the spinal 

 cord was ruptured. Evidently a reform is 

 needed in the conduct of this game. 



An Association for the Protection of 

 Plants was formed at Geneva in January, 

 1883. On the 1st of January, 1885, it num- 

 bered 226 members, resident in eight can- 

 tons of Switzerland, with correspondents in 

 France, Belgium, England, and Italy. It has 

 established a garden of acclimatization for 

 Alpine plants, and has distributed the seeds 

 of five hundred species for cultivation in 

 other countries. It has also received, by 

 gifts or exchange, seeds from other coun- 

 tries for its own botanical garden. Its latest 

 " Bulletin " contains a paper on a local flora 

 near Geneva, and a paper by Henry Corre- 

 von, director of the garden at Geneva, rec- 

 ommending the cultivation of the edelweiss. 



M. Forel has made a communication on 

 the behavior of rivers derived from glaciers, 

 like the Rhine and the Rhone, when they 

 run across lakes. They have been found 

 to preserve their distinct existence, and to 

 continue their course in deep ravines exca- 

 vated through the lake-bottoms. The ra- 

 vine of the Rhine in the Lake of Constance 

 has been traced for five kilometres in length 

 and to 1'65 metres below the level of the 

 water. Where it is most largely developed, 

 it is six hundred metres wide and seventy 

 metres deep. The ravine of the Rhone is 

 of similar dimensions, and has been traced 

 for six kilometres. The course of these 

 ravines is tortuous. They appear to be 

 of recent origin, or in course of formation, 

 and are a result of the superior density of 

 the cold, sediment-charged glacial water of 

 the rivers. 



The anti-vivisectionists predicted, some 

 years ago, that the investigators to whose 

 objects they are " anti " would come at last 

 to experiment on the human subject. Mr. 

 W. Mattieu Williams has become aware of 

 three instances in which this horrible pre- 

 diction has been fulfilled, in each case with 

 the full consent of the subject and without 

 injury to him. Pasteur has mutilated hu- 

 man skin and moistened the blood with 

 the poisonous secretions of mad rabbits. 

 Dr. B. W. Richardson has invented a pain- 

 less cutting-knife, and has tested it upon his 

 own arm. And Mr. Harrison Branthwaite, 

 in the interest of temperance, has adminis- 

 tered brandy, for the purpose of testing its 

 thermic effects, to three classes of persons 

 habitual drunkards, moderate drinkers, and 

 abstainers. 



MM. Millardet and Gayon, having ma- 

 nured the vine with sulphate of copper, 

 mixed with lime, find that most of the cop- 

 per is deposited in the leaf, while merely a 

 doubtful trace can be found in the juice of 

 the grape. Other experiments, with other 

 salts and other plants, indicate that the 

 chlorophyl of the leaves is the most active 

 agent in picking up the foreign matter. 



