NOTES. 



575 



A mode of filling teeth that has recently 

 been made practical in England is by inlay- 

 ing porcelain. The cavity is made perfectly 

 cylindrical, and a bit of specially manufact- 

 ured porcelain is turned to the exact size to 

 fit it. The inlay is then secured in its place 

 with sandarac varnish or very fluid white 

 filling. After this is set, the surface of the 

 inlay is ground to a proper contour and pol- 

 ished. An oblong cavity can be filled by 

 inserting two inlays. Of course, this method 

 can not be used, nor is it specially desirable, 

 for all cavities, but few will deny that a fill- 

 ing which matches the natural tooth in color 

 is far less conspicuous, and more agreeable 

 to see, than the glaring patches of yellow 

 metal, which are only excusable as saving a 

 worse disfiguration. 



The sum of six hundred dollars has been 

 appropriated by the National Academy of 

 Sciences for the construction of apparatus 

 to aid Prof. Cattell in his researches on the 

 time of cerebral operations. With the co- 

 operation of Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, Prof. 

 Fullerton, Prof. Dalley, and others, researches 

 are in progress at the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania on the rate at which impulse travels 

 in motor and sensory nerves and in the spinal 

 cord, the time of reactions and of more 

 purely mental processes, memory and the 

 amount forgotten in a given time, the time 

 of bodily and mental processes in diseases 

 of the nervous system, and in other direc- 

 tions. 



The effects of steam in the destruction 

 of bacteria do not depend, according to the 

 researches of Yon Esmarch, so much upon 

 the temperature as upon the degree of satu- 

 ration of the steam. If there is air with it, 

 the power of destroying organic germs is 

 very much diminished. 



A committee has been formed in Paris 

 for the erection of a statue of the late M. 

 Boussingault. 



During some experiments as to the tem- 

 perature of snow at different depths, it was 

 found that very little variation occurs in the 

 lowest layer, next the ground, while the tem- 

 perature of the upper layer is considerably 

 higher. 



A novel aspect of bacterial life is sug- 

 gested by A. de Barry in his Comparative 

 Morphology of the Microfungi. Writing of 

 Bechamp's theory of the microzymes, the 

 author says that these minute bodies not 

 only develop independently after the death 

 of the parent organism, but enjoy an almost 

 unlimited duration of vitality, since they 

 may lie during entire geologic periods in 

 such a rock as chalk, and yet retain the 

 power of development. 



Dr. R. Assmann, in a communication to 

 Das Wetter, namss, with especial reference 

 to influenza, as the climatic conditions favor- 



able to the dispersion of organisms in the 

 air : Dryness of the ground and absence of 

 snow ; infrequent rain and that light ; pres- 

 ence of fogs or low clouds; and predomi- 

 nance of high barometric pressures, with 

 imperfect intermingling between the strata 

 of the air. 



Celluloid artificial eyes are cheaper than 

 those of glass and have a good appearance ; 

 but Dr. Meurer, of Lyons, states that after 

 three or four months they are liable to cause 

 serious irritation, probably as a result of 

 some chemical change. He has repeatedly 

 seen this inflammation allayed by simple an- 

 tiseptic treatment after the removal of the 

 celluloid, reappearing,, however, as soon as 

 the old eye was put in again, but remaining 

 absent if a glass eye was substituted. 



The Scientific Publishing Company, New 

 York, announce as in preparation Systematic 

 Mineralogy, based on a Natural Classifica- 

 tion, by Dr. T. Sterry Hunt. 



The French Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science will hold its nineteenth an- 

 nual meeting at Limoges, from August 7th 

 to 14th. A number of English scientists 

 have been invited, who will be guests of the 

 municipality of Limoges. 



In a recent article on cyclones, Mr. H. 

 Habernicht shows that, if the globe were 

 covered with water, the general circulation 

 of the air would be very regular. He states 

 as the primary cause of cyclones the ob- 

 struction offered to the wind by the conti- 

 nents to the east and west of the Atlantic ; 

 and, secondly, the constant high barometric 

 pressure over the continent and in the arctic 

 regions during the winter. 



Dr. Fitch, former State Entomologist of 

 New York, gives a remarkable instance of 

 the long imprisonment of insects without 

 loss of life. In 1786 a son of General Put- 

 nam, residing in Williamstown, Mass., had 

 a table made from one of his apple-trees. 

 Many years afterward the gnawing of an 

 insect was heard in one of the leaves of this 

 table. The noise continued for a year or 

 two, when a large, long-horned beetle made 

 its exit therefrom. Subsequently two more 

 beetles issued from the same table-leaf, the 

 first one coming out twenty and the last one 

 twenty-eight years after the tree was cut 

 down. 



Some recent explorations in the famous 

 Adelsberg cave, Carniola, Austria, show that 

 the Ottaker cave discovered last year is a 

 continuation of the larger one. The explo- 

 ration was made by a party of Adelsberg 

 citizens and occupied six hours. It was 

 necessary to use a boat several times. The 

 explorers think the cave very much larger 

 than was formerly supposed. 



It is proposed in Paris to name a new 

 street after Darwin. 



