NOTES. 



43i 



uralized themselves in Europe, and are be- 

 coming troublesome. All weeds are capable 

 of being made useful as manure by plow- 

 ing them in while they are green and before 

 they have seeded. 



NOTES. 



A new feature in the summer courses in 

 chemistry at the Harvard University Labo- 

 ratory this year, will be a course comprising 

 the work required iu preparing for the ad- 

 mission examination in chemistry for the 

 freshman class at Harvard College. It is 

 based on Prof essor Cooke's recent pamphlet, 

 and is offered to students and to teachers in 

 preparatory schools. The usual courses in 

 general chemistry, qualitative and quanti- 

 tative analysis, and organic chemistry, will 

 be given, and possibly a course in miner- 

 alogy. The courses will be under the direc- 

 tion of Arthur M. Comey, Ph. D., and will 

 open July 11th and close August 20th. A 

 course in practical botany, designed special- 

 ly for teachers, will be given at the Harvard 

 Botanical Garden, from July 6th to August 

 6th, under the direction of Professor Good- 

 ale. Further particulars will be furnished 

 by the assistant in botany, Mr. J. E. Hum- 

 phrey, No. 6 Divinity Hall, Cambridge, 

 Massachusetts. All these courses are open 

 to women. The total number of students 

 in the chemical courses last summer was 

 forty -three, and in the botanical course 

 thirty-three. 



M. Chevreul, one hundred years and 

 eight months old, presented to the French 

 Academy of Sciences, on the 9th of May, a 

 memoir by M. Arnaud, recording the con- 

 stant presence of the red-coloring alkaloid, 

 carotine, in the leaves of all plants. The 

 illustrious "dean of the students," whom 

 M. Stanislas Meunier does not recollect to 

 have ever seen " more alert, more enthusi- 

 astic in the exposition of natural truths, or 

 more youthful in action," insisted on the 

 precise character of the paper, and empha- 

 sized the association of chlorophyl with 

 this substance of complementary color to 

 its own. At the end he promised to revert 

 to the subject and to discuss some other 

 points in a future memoir. 



It seems probable that for any further 

 increase of speed in steam-vessels we must 

 rely upon the engineer rather than upon the 

 naval architect. The lines upon which our 

 fastest ships are built can hardly be im- 

 proved upon ; but in the matter of power 

 there is still an enormous waste. It is esti- 

 mated that only one half of the total power 

 exerted by the engines is effective in pro- 

 pelling the vessel. In addition to this, a 

 very considerable portion of the heat-energy 



of the fuel escapes through the funnel in- 

 stead of producing steam. Attention is now 

 given to economizing in these matters as 

 well as in the space allotted to engines, 

 boilers, and fuel. The separation of freight 

 from passenger traffic, after the system pur- 

 sued on railroads, is destined to be an im- 

 portant factor in facilitating the construc- 

 tion of passenger-vessels of increased speed. 



According to Dr. Charles H. Burnett, 

 of Philadelphia, the use of properly con- 

 structed ear-trumpets improves the hearing 

 permanently as well as aids it for the time. 

 The cause of deafness being usually anchy- 

 losis produced by a catarrhal thickening of 

 the mucous membrane of the auditory parts, 

 passive motion overcomes the immobility 

 that has been induced in them. The form 

 of passive motion which acts most naturally 

 here is that of sound. This form of passive 

 motion, augmented as it is by means of the 

 ear-trnmpet, acting frequently and system- 

 atically upon the ear, prevents further an- 

 chylosis, and the fatty degeneration of the 

 auditory nerve that comes from desuetude. 

 This, of course, tends to a permanent im- 

 provement of the hearing, and in some cases 

 patients come to hear without the trumpet. 



Preparations for the New York meet- 

 ing of the American Association, to begin 

 August 10th, are being carried vigorously 

 forward. The President of the Local Com- 

 mittee of Arrangements is Dr. F. A. P. Bar- 

 nard, the local treasurer is General Thomas 

 L. James, and the local secretary is Profess- 

 or H. L. Fairchild, Columbia College, New 

 York. The Vice-Presidents are Chauncey 

 M. Depew, Mayor Abram S. Hewitt, George 

 William Curtis, Vice-Chancellor Henry M. 

 MacCracken, Professor J. S. Newberry, Mor- 

 ris K. Jesup, and Judge Charles P. Daly. 

 The whole committee numbers nearly five 

 hundred. There is a large Ladies' Commit- 

 tee, of which Mrs. A. S. Hewitt is chairman, 

 Mrs. Nicholas Fish, first member; Miss 

 Winifred Edgerton, secretary ; and Mrs. 

 Sylvanus Reed, treasurer. The sessions of 

 the Association will be held at Columbia 

 College, where the rooms are ample for the 

 several sections. A Dumber of receptions 

 and excursions have been spoken of already, 

 but nothing definite can be said about these 

 until the sub-committees report. The out- 

 look is very promising, and the hope is in- 

 dulged that the New York meeting will be 

 the most successful in the history of the 

 Association. 



M. de Quatrefages and M. H. Chevalier 

 have given their adhesion to the theory, 

 which is taught, as to the Aryan race, in its 

 earliest records, that the migrations of peo- 

 ples in remote antiquity were provoked by 

 the gradual increase of cold in the northern 

 regions. 



