NOTES. 



575 



On examination of specimens of the stones 

 the author found their principal distinguish- 

 ing characteristic to be the presence of 

 spherical bubbles, rarely pear-shaped, or 

 having stringy portions showing how they 

 had moved, but with the ends always round- 

 ed, and presenting a cloudy appearance or 

 an arrangement in wavy groups. In natural 

 rubies the cavities are always angular or 

 crystalline in outline, and are usually filled 

 with liquid ; or, sometimes they are arranged 

 with the lines of growth, forming part of a 

 feather, as it is called by jewelers. In many 

 genuine rubies we find a silky structure 

 which appears under the microscope to be 

 a series of cuneiform or acicular crystals, 

 usually iridescent. No traces of these have 

 been found in the artificial specimens. The 

 stones are about equally hard and of nearly 

 equal specific gravity with genuine rubies. 

 Their color is good, but not so brilliant as 

 that of a very fine ruby. The syndicate of 

 diamonds and precious stones of Paris has 

 directed that all stones of this kind shall 

 be marked artificial, else they will be con- 

 sidered fraudulent, and sellers of them will 

 be dealt with accordingly. 



NOTES. 



The retiring President of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence, who will give the presidential address 

 at the New York meeting, is Professor Ed- 

 ward S. Morse, of Salem, Massachusetts, 

 lie will review what American zoologists 

 have done to advance the doctrine of evolu- 

 tion. Professor S. P. Langley, of Wash- 

 ington, will enter upon the office of presi- 

 dent at this meeting. The vice-presidents, 

 who are to preside over the several sec- 

 tions, are : A. Mathematics and Astronomy, 

 William Ferrel, of Washington ; B. Phys- 

 ics, W. A. Anthony, of Ithaca, New York ; 

 C. Chemistry, Albert B. Prescott, of Ann 

 Arbor, Michigan; D. Mechanical Science, 

 Eckley B. Coxe, of Drifton, Pennsylvania ; 

 E. Geology and Geography, G K. Gilbert, 

 of Washington ; F. Biology, W. G. Farlow, 

 of Cambridge, Massachusetts ; H. Anthro- 

 pology, D. G. Brinton, of Media, Pennsyl- 

 vania ; J. Economic Science and Statistics, 

 Henry E. Alvord, of Amherst, Massachu- 

 setts. 



The American Public Health Associa- 

 tion will hold its fifteenth annual meeting 

 this year at Memphis, Tennessee, November 

 8th to 1 1th. The topics to be considered 

 are: "The Pollution of Water-Supplies"; 



" The Disposal of Refuse Matter of Cities " ; 

 " The Disposal of Refuse Matter of Villages, 

 Summer Resorts, and Isolated Tenements" ; 

 and "Animal Diseases dangerous to Man." 



The Indian Government has arranged a 

 scheme for the complete and systematic 

 botanical survey of India, for which pur- 

 pose the country has been divided into four 

 great districts, with a superintendent of sur- 

 vey in each. The flora of the Philippine Isl- 

 ands has been under study by Dr. Sebastian 

 Vidal, Director of the Botanical Garden at 

 Manila and $he commission for studying the 

 forest flora ; and the work is provided for, 

 for still another year at least, in the public 

 budget. 



Sir Lyon Playfair, in opening a new 

 Industrial Institute at Bromley, England, 

 recently, said that hitherto the country had 

 prided itself upon the practical knowledge 

 of its artisans, but it had relied too entire- 

 ly upon that knowledge. The consequence 

 had been that the countries which nurtured 

 the intellects of the people had stepped in, 

 and with their superior mental education 

 had showed the world that the competition 

 of the day was not one of local advantages, 

 but a competition of intellect. England was 

 realizing her position now. and training her 

 sons by technical schools to compete intel- 

 lectually with the countries round her, from 

 whom she had learned her lesson. 



Mr. George II. Blagrove, in a paper 

 on "House Construction in Relation to 

 Health," suggests that great sanitary ad- 

 vantages might be gained if towns were 

 laid out with the streets in the diagonal 

 directions northeast and southwest, north- 

 west and southeast. Some of the suburban 

 towns near New York are laid out in this way, 

 and the sun shining into all the rooms 

 some time during every day in the year, and 

 nearly every day into all the windows the 

 effect is very cheering and salutary. 



The fact is suggestive of the intensity 

 of the strain of city life, that, while from 

 1852 to 1808 the population of Chicago in- 

 creased 5 1 times and the death-rate 3 - V 

 times, the draths from nervous disorders 

 increased 2o*4 times. 



Rats are accustomed to inhabit the 

 buildings at South Kensington while the 

 exhibitions are in progress. When the 

 exhibitions close, they become starved, and 

 leave the buildings in obviously great num- 

 bers. The rat population appears to have 

 been greater than ever during the recent 

 Colonial and Indian Exhibition, and they 

 appeared everywhere, even eagerly going 

 into the traps, which they avoided at other 

 times. At length they entered upon a 

 struggle for existence among themselves, 

 and kept it up till all the young and weaker 

 rats were devoured. 



