NOTES. 



863 



grandfather, who are near to N'yambe, pray 

 to N'yambe that the disease may be taken 

 from this man." When a great disaster 

 happened, as in the case of the river over- 

 flowing its banks, the people gathered around 

 the graves of the chiefs, and prayed, " You, 

 who are with N'yambi, pray for us." Pre- 

 vious to the present reign, the king was as- 

 sisted by a Great Council and a Privy Coun- 

 cil, and the cases of persons who were 

 thought to be guilty of crimes deserving 

 capital punishment were submitted to the 

 Great Council for decision. The present king 

 has abolished this usage. This king assumed 

 to have supernatural powers, and the people 

 believed in his pretensions and were afraid 

 of him ; but he attempted at one time to 

 exercise his powers publicly to secure the re- 

 turn of some chiefs whom he had condemned 

 to death and who had run away, and failing, 

 lost his reputation. The people are superior 

 to all the South African tribes in the char- 

 acter of their clothing, their skill in working 

 in ivory and metals, and their customs gen- 

 erally. They trade with the other tribes to 

 the north and to the west. They excel the 

 more southern tribes in mental ability, cul- 

 tivate music, and hold women in high es- 

 teem. 



Hygienic Conditions of School-Life. 



The " Lancet " has undertaken to inquire in- 

 to the hygienic conditions of school-life in 

 educational establishments, including those 

 in which only the most limited numbers of 

 pupils are taken. Aiming principally to 

 disclose defects which are generally over- 

 looked or little noticed, it invites and expects 

 the cooperation of the conductors of the 

 schools. It has framed a list of questions 

 relating to the character and capacity of the 

 premises, their original purposes and their 

 adaptation to the uses of a school, the accom- 

 modations for pupils, provision of air and 

 diet, the hours of school work and the time 

 given wholly to play, the general health of 

 the establishment, and the amount of illness 

 during the year, the appearance or non- 

 appearance of epidemic disease, the sanitary 

 arrangements proper of the establishment, 

 the provisions for isolation in case of a sud- 

 den attack of infectious disease, and the 

 system of medical inspection which may be 

 in use. The results of its inquiries as a whole 



will be given in the form of reports and sug- 

 gestions with a view of denning, so far as 

 may seem expedient, the conditions of health 

 in body and mind of youth attending school. 



NOTES. 



Mr. R. E. Earle, of the United States 

 Fish Commission, observed this year that 

 the Spanish mackerel {Cybium maculatum) 

 was spawning freely in Chesapeake Bay. He 

 reported his discovery to Professor Baird, 

 and then proceeded to hatch out the spawn 

 with most satisfactory results, getting about 

 half a million of fish in three or four differ- 

 ent lots. The fry, which were hatched in 

 water of 84 in eighteen hours after impreg- 

 nation, seem to be unusually hardy. Prep- 

 arations will be made to hatch out immense 

 quantities of fish during the next spawning 

 season. The fact is established by these 

 experiments that this fish is quite able to 

 live in brackish water. 



Professor E. B. Andrews died at Lan- 

 caster, Ohio, on the 21st of August, in his 

 sixtieth year. He was a graduate of Ma- 

 rietta College, in which institution he was 

 Professor of Geology from 1861 until 1869, 

 when he joined the Geological Survey of the 

 State. He is the author of some of the most 

 valuable reports of the survey, and to him 

 is due a careful study of the coal deposits 

 of the southeastern section of the State, and 

 of other of its mineralogical and geological 

 resources. 



It was noticed several years ago that, 

 when white light was mixed by the method 

 of rotating disks with ultramarine, the color 

 instead of assuming a paler tint of violet- 

 blue became more violet, and passed, when 

 much white was added, into a pale violet. 

 Professor Rood, of Columbia College, has 

 been trying the results of mixing white with 

 other colors, and has found that, instead of 

 giving lighter shades of the original color, 

 the effects are such as would be produced by 

 adding a quantity of violet light. Thus, ver- 

 milion becomes somewhat purplish, orange 

 more red, yellow more orange, yellowish- 

 green more green, green more blue-green, 

 cyan-green less greenish, more bluish, co- 

 balt-blue more of a violet-blue, ultramarine 

 (artificial) more violet, purple less red, 

 more violet. Only greenish-yellow is not 

 changed. 



The Society of American Taxidermists, 

 recently organized at Rochester, New York, 

 is believed to be the first of its kind ever 

 established. Its avowed object is to combine 

 the skill and knowledge of taxidermists in 

 the development of their art, and to raise it 



