NOTES. 



H3 



Jenner Weir of a goat and its kids in the 

 Zoological Gardens. A chain was attached 

 to the animal's neck to keep him from jump- 

 ing over the fence. He became accustomed 

 to take the chain up by his horns and move 

 it from one side to another over his back ; 

 in doing this he threw his head very much 

 back, so as to place his horns in a line with 

 his back. His offspring have inherited this 

 habit, though it has not been necessary to 

 put chains upon them. 



NOTES. 



According to Mr. F. F. Payne's paper 

 in the Canadian Institute, the Eskimos of 

 Hudson Strait have a right to be called 

 keen observers of nature. The author found 

 them of great assistance while he was mak- 

 ing his collections of birds, insects, and plants. 

 " If an insect was shown them," he says, 

 " they could usually take me where more of 

 the same species might be found. On the 

 approach of summer, they watched with 

 more interest its signs, and often would bring 

 to me insects which they believed were the 

 first of the season.'' 



The use of borax for the preservation of 

 milk, which has become quite common when 

 the milk has to be carried for a considerable 

 distance, has suggested the question wheth- 

 er we may not have in this a means of pro- 

 moting immunity against scarlet fever. Re- 

 cent investigations have shown that this dis- 

 ease is often carried by milk, and in all prob- 

 ability frequently starts from cows. It has 

 been remarked by Prof. W. Mattieu Will- 

 iams that in all the cases where an outbreak 

 of scarlet fever has been traced to milk, the 

 dairy has been a local one that is, a dairy 

 that has supplied milk to families in its own 

 immediate neighborhood, or so near as to 

 render the use of borax unnecessary. 



Fish-meat according to Prof. Atwater's 

 researches, does not contain more phosphorus 

 than ordinary butcher's meat. The benefit 

 which brain-workers are said to derive from 

 a diet of fish should therefore be ascribed, 

 not to the phosphorus, but to the greater 

 digestibility of the fish. The excess of phos- 

 phorus in the urine of such persons need not 

 be regarded as a resultant of brain-work, 

 but as an indication of the disordered diges- 

 tion to which sedentary persons are liable. 

 The recent researches of Zuelzer and others 

 seem to indicate that excessive elimination 

 of phosphorus by the urine is associated 

 with nervous depression rather than with 

 nerve activity. 



Several instances of apparent counting 

 are mentioned by Sir John Lubbock, in his 

 " Sonses of Animals," as exhibited by insects. 



The several species of Eumcnes, for instance, 

 supply their young with definite numbers of 

 victims ; and, while the males are smaller 

 than the females, and require less food, the 

 insect seems to know whether the egg will 

 produce a male or a female grub, and ap- 

 portions the quantity of food accordingly, 

 giving five victims to the male and ten to the 

 female. It is suggested by Mr. G. A. Free- 

 man that the matter is one of physiological 

 interval. The male eggs follow one another 

 in less time than the female, giving time to 

 store a smaller number of caterpillars be- 

 fore the next egg has to be provided for. 



Powdered milk is prepared by reducing 

 fresh milk, after having removed a portion 

 of the cream, in a vacuum-pan, to the con- 

 sistency of ordinary condensed milk. Gran- 

 ulated white sugar is next added, to render 

 the mass sufficiently friable, and the tem- 

 perature is lowered some twenty or thirty de- 

 grees. The contents are then removed from 

 the vacuum-pan, and distributed in lumps, or 

 reduced to a powder. It is claimed that pow- 

 dered milk possesses excellent keeping quali- 

 ties, even in moist air at high temperatures. 



Dr. B. W. Richardson sounds the praises 

 of a vegetarian diet when he assumes, in 

 his lecture on " Ideal Foods," that what is 

 commonly called happiness lightness of 

 heart, rapidity of thought, and all else that 

 springs from a happy life is connected with 

 what we take as food. That happiness is 

 best sustained by those foods which minis- 

 ter quickest and with least trouble to the 

 digestion, and therefore to the wants of the 

 body. Sir James Hannen had been struck, 

 when he changed from animal food to a 

 nearly vegetarian system, by the state of hap- 

 piness that he experienced, compared with 

 what he had felt before. The speaker had 

 also felt this in his own life, and most when 

 he was most nearly a vegetarian. 



Although it was written in French and 

 translated from that language into English, 

 Prof. Guyot's " Earth and Man " has only 

 recently been published in French for the 

 first time. 



The security of the Davy safety lamp 

 has been partly improved, while a remedy 

 has been found for the obscurity produced 

 by the use of Marsant's safety bonnet, by the 

 application of Mr. Andrew Howat's " deflect- 

 or." The leading feature of this device lies 

 in a flanged ring which is to be fitted tightly 

 between the outer metal shield or bonnet 

 and the gauze cylinder, by means of which 

 all the air admitted for combustion is car- 

 ried under or near the bottom of the bonnet 

 and passed through the gauze into the burn- 

 er part of the lamp. A brilliant light is 

 thus obtained. This lamp has been passed 

 through some severe trials, and has always 

 been extinguished at once when exposed in 

 a current of explosive mixture. 



