NOTES. 



S7S 



twenty-two years old, from syncope brought 

 about by cold and over-exertion attendant 

 upon a bicycle-ride of forty miles, the Lancet 

 remarks : " It appears that this young man 

 was a practiced bicycle-rider, and to such 

 forty miles could hardly be considered an 

 excessive run in a day ; but, besides distance, 

 many things have also to be considered by 

 the judicious rider for instance, the nature 

 of the roads, the weather, and perhaps, above 

 all, the pace. We know that the new ma- 

 chines are capable of attaining a speed never 

 thought of a few years ago. A high speed 

 through such cold air as prevailed on Good 

 Friday must often be very dangerous, as likely 

 to cause pulmonary congestion, to overcome 

 which the heart will work at a high degree 

 of tension, and, like any other muscle, it is 

 likely to become paralyzed from overwork ; 

 and herein lies the danger from swift and 

 hard riding. It would be well if our young 

 men would remember the advice that an emi- 

 nent English physiologist gave to a young 

 man some years ago, ' Observe your strength, 

 and keep within it.' " 



NOTES. 



Between four and five acres have been 

 assigned in the forthcoming World's Colum- 

 bian Exhibition to the Educational Exhibit. 

 This is a much larger space than ever was 

 offered before to this interest at a World's 

 Fair. In order that the most advantage 

 may be derived from this large privilege, the 

 Bureau of Education has published a circular 

 of suggestions of details as to the arrange- 

 ment of the exhibit, in order that it may be 

 made as comprehensive as possible, and as 

 accessible in all its parts. A statement con- 

 cerning the National Catholic Educational 

 Exhibit, which has been determined upon, 

 is printed on the same sheet with the de- 

 partment's circular. 



It appears, from M. W. Brennaud's studies 

 of the Surya Siddhanta, a book which con- 

 tains the astronomy of the Hindus, that they 

 were acquainted with the precession of the 

 equinoxes and its effects, and with the 

 theory of lunar and planetary movements. 

 They had determined with fair exactness 

 the diameter of the earth and the distance 

 of the moon; they could calculate the or- 

 bits of the planets by the aid of the 

 moon's daily motion in its orbit ; could cal- 

 culate and predict eclipses of the moon and 

 the sun ; and had a respectable knowledge of 

 most of the fundamental problems of astron- 

 omy. 



Observations made by M. Obrecht, at 

 the observatory in Santiago, Chili, since 

 July, 1891, show that the ground in the 

 northwest quarter rises daily between noon 

 and nine o'clock in the evening, and then 

 falls back gradually till seven o'clock in the 

 morning. Furthermore, there is a continu- 

 ous rising movement of the southeast quarter, 

 and from September to November a continu- 

 ous rising of the eastern quarter. The daily 

 variations had been observed by M. Moesta 

 at the time the observatory was built, and by 

 Gillis. 



A few months since the Kew authorities 

 dispatched, per the steamship Atrato, a bo- 

 tanical commission to the West Indies with 

 a number of Wardian cases containing vine 

 cuttings and Gambier plants. Unfortunate- 

 ly, cold weather set in, and the efforts to 

 convey these tender plants, which had so 

 often ended in failure, threatened once more 

 to result in disappointment. The difficulty 

 was that if kept on deck they would be in- 

 evitably destroyed by the low temperature ; 

 while, if taken below, the absence of light, 

 which is so necessary to the existence of the 

 delicate Gambier plants, was almost certain 

 to be equally fatal. Under these circum- 

 stances it occurred to Mr. Morris to avail 

 himself of the electric light, of which there 

 was an abundance on board the Atrato. 

 The experiment proved in every way success- 

 ful. 



The extent of the influence a lake may 

 exercise upon climate is illustrated by the 

 statement of M. Forel that the quantity of 

 heat accumulated in Lake Leman during the 

 summer is equivalent to that which would be 

 given out by the burning of fifty-one million 

 tons of coal. A railroad train carrying this 

 coal would be eighteen thousand kilometres 

 long, or nearly the length of the earth's me- 

 ridian from pole to pole. 



A story is told of a brown retriever dog 

 in London which was sent to carry a letter 

 in its mouth to drop in the post-box at Pic- 

 cadilly. It got to the box just as the post- 

 man, having emptied it, was starting away. 

 The dog seeing him, ran after him, caught 

 up with him, put the letter in his hand, and 

 then went off with the satisfied air of a dog 

 that had done its duty. 



Op the " rare metals," didymium is quoted 

 at $4,500 a pound; barium, at $3,700; 

 beryllium or glucinum, at $3,375 ; yttrium, 

 at $2,250 ; rhodium and niobium or colum- 

 bium, at $2,000 each ; vanadium, at $1,875 ; 

 iridium, at $700 ; osmium, at $625 ; palla- 

 dium, at $500 ; and platinum, at $350. The 

 price of the last metal, however, fluctuates 

 between those of silver and gold. 



M. Berthelot has traced the derivation 

 of the word bronze to the city of Brundu- 

 sium, now Brindisi, where was the seat of 



