NOTES. 



863 



waterfall, and others cutting out separate 

 channels to the great gorge, some four hun- 

 dred feet deep and sixteen miles long, worn 

 in the solid granite. These streams form 

 many rapids, and, when the river is half 

 full, rise and form over a hundred separate 

 cascades, unsurpassed for beauty and pict- 

 uresque grandeur. When the river is full, 

 many of them join to make one mighty 

 sheet of water, rivaling the great Niagara, 

 as it pours into the abyss nearly four hun- 

 dred feet below. At low water, the only* 

 time it can be approached, the Hercules 

 Fall is one hundred and sixty-five feet high, 

 with several smaller falls at the sides, which 

 are three hundred and fifty feet high, and 

 are caused by the same water before it 

 reaches the main fall." 



NOTES. 



Pertinently to an expression of doubt 

 by Mr. David A. Wells in one of his articles 

 on Mexico, as to the Aztecs having knowl- 

 edge or making use of metal tools, Mr. W. 

 W. Blake, in the " American Antiquarian," 

 mentions as being on exhibition in the Ar- 

 ch;eological Rooms of the National Museum 

 of Mexico, idols, beads, and engraved clasps 

 of gold ; lip-ornaments and other articles of 

 silver ; numerous tools, weapons, and orna- 

 ments of copper; and " chopping-knives " 

 of copper, which are supposed to have been 

 used as money. 



Nine tenths of wild animals in confine- 

 ment are said by a medical writer to be sub- 

 ject to heart-disease ; but all animals have 

 their peculiarities. Elephants are subject 

 to many diseases, the mo3t common and fa- 

 tal of which is rheumatism. Monkeys and 

 baboons generally die from bronchial affec- 

 tions and heart-disease, and suffer much from 

 typhoid fever. Animals of the feline race are 

 most subject to dysentery and heart-disease ; 

 and their prey, deer, antelopes, etc., are most 

 liable to the same afflictions. Animals of the 

 canine tribe are the healthiest, but too many 

 wolves must not be kept together, or they will 

 eat one another. 



Dr. R. W. Shufeldt believes that the 

 veterinary staff of our army needs improve- 

 ment, and has suggested a plan for its re- 

 organization, with a corps of officers care- 

 fully chosen. Thus properly organized, it 

 could form an invaluable nucleus on which 

 to build in time of war ; in time of peace 

 could do service to science by making com- 

 parative studies in diseases and injuries 

 among all the domesticated animals ; could 

 more fully develop the morphology and 



physiology of our mammalian fauna a 

 work in which there is need for immediate 

 action before some of the types shall be- 

 come extinct. 



In a paper on " Indicative Plants," Dr. 

 R. W. Raymond considers a connection 

 which is reported to exist between certain 

 plants and the metallic contents of the soil 

 on which they grow. Among the instances 

 cited are the zinc violet ( Viola calaminaria), 

 of the Calamine Hills of Rhenish Prussia 

 and Belgium ; the lead-plant (Amorpha ca- 

 nescens), believed by American miners to 

 grow only in localities containing galena; 

 and the silver-plant (k'riogonum ovalifo- 

 lium), which is regarded as a sign of silver- 

 ores. The theories on this subject, if there 

 be any, still lack the essential elements of 

 verification. 



General Pkjetalsky is to be present- 

 ed by the Imperial Scientific Society of St. 

 Petersburg with a gold medal which has 

 been specially struck in his honor by order 

 of the emperor. It bears on the obverse 

 the initials of the recipient, and on the re- 

 verse the inscription, " To the first student 

 of the natural history of Central Asia." 



Indian botanists report upon a plant 

 which has the singular property of destroy- 

 ing the taste of sweetness. It is an ascle- 

 piad, and is called Gymnema sylvestre. Aft- 

 er chewing a few of the leaves for a short 

 time, if sugar be taken, the palate is found 

 to have become insensible to all of its pe- 

 culiar qualities, and it will have no more 

 taste than sand. General Ellis has found 

 that the Gymnema has also the property of 

 abolishing the power of enjoying a cigar. It 

 also destroys the bitter taste of quinine ; but 

 it does not affect pungent and saline things, 

 astringents, and acids. The peculiar prop- 

 erty of the leaves is dissolved out by alco- 

 hol, and appears to reside in an acid which 

 is called yymncmic acid. 



The Swedish count, M. Bjornstjerna, sug- 

 gested more than forty years ago, in a book 

 on " The Theogony of the Hindoos," that, 

 as both poles must have been cooled to a 

 suitable temperature at the same time, the 

 earth might have been peopled from the 

 north pole with its white races, and from 

 the south pole with its colored races. 



Observations made at the late South 

 Kensington Aquarium upon the effect of 

 temperature on fish, show that the dogfish, 

 mullet, conger, skate, flounder, bass, cod, 

 trout, catfish, pike, and carp are extremely 

 hardy, and can exist in a temperature rang- 

 ing from 34 to 71. The gurnard, wrasse, 

 bull-head, sole, bream, cray-fish, blennie, 

 perch, dace, tench, minnow, chub, roach, and 

 gudgeon are sensitive to extremes of tem- 

 perature. 



