NOTES. 



S7S 



tain pieces can not be printed or colored 

 anything but black. If fibers of such cot- 

 ton are looked at under the microscope after 

 being mordanted, some parts will be seen 

 prepared for coloring, and others where the 

 mordant has not taken hold. Cotton is often 

 badly damaged by poor ginning ; the fibers 

 are torn, and millions of short pieces to every 

 bale are broken off, which in spinning fly all 

 over the mill and machinery, and go into the 

 waste instead of being made into yarn. Much 

 has been said about "parallelism" of cotton 

 fibers in the manufactured goods, but, if a 

 bit of one of the best grades of cotton cloth 

 made is examined under the microscope, 

 there is seen to be no such thing as parallel- 

 ism among the fibers. 



Snow - Blindness. Snow - blindness, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Berlin, of Nordenskiold's 

 Expedition to Greenland of 1883, is met 

 with as far north as any arctic expedition 

 has penetrated, but is unknown, except spo- 

 radically in high mountains, south of cer- 

 tain degrees of latitude. It follows the 

 sinuosities of the isothermal lines. In the 

 arctic regions it breaks out usually in the 

 spring-time, but also occurs in summer wher- 

 ever snow remains. It appears during snow- 

 storms and fogs, as well as when the sun is 

 shining. The prominent symptom is an 

 intense burning pain in the eyes, beginning 

 with a prickling sensation as if produced by 

 a foreign body, with increased secretion of 

 tears, photophobia, and blepharospasm. The 

 visual power is not diminished, but the field 

 is narrowed. Most cases will get well at the 

 end of two or three days, if the patient 

 guards himself against the exciting causes ; 

 or the disease may, exceptionally, become a 

 serious matter. It is not a dazzling caused 

 by the snow, for dazzling does not produce 

 its effects, and it does not prevail everywhere 

 that there are snow and sunlight ; nor can it 

 be explained by the fact of the rarefaction 

 of the air. It is probably a result of the 

 low temperature and the want of humidity 

 in the air which characterize the places 

 where it prevails. As it is the humidity of 

 the air which principally absorbs the radi- 

 ant heat, the caloric rays of the sun must, 

 in those localities, manifest an intensity of 

 action far above the common. Observation 

 has shown that this is the case, for on high 



mountains and in the arctic regions exposure 

 to the sun's rays produces on the bare skin 

 an excessively painful dermatitis, which the 

 radiant heat reflected by the snow very much 

 aggravates. The effects of exposure to the 

 sun appear to be most severe in spring-time. 

 The eyes are affected simultaneously with 

 the skin or somewhat previously. The or- 

 dinary treatment of snow-blindness consists 

 in the use of spectacles of dark-colored glass, 

 with opiates to relieve the pain. Blacken- 

 ing of the nose has been found by several 

 travelers to be an effective remedy. 



The Great Hall of the Mammoth Cave. 



Some important new discoveries in the Mam- 

 moth Cave were described by the Rev. Dr. 

 H. C. Hovey at the meeting of the American 

 Association. They are connected with the 

 arrangement of the cave passages in tiers 

 and the great pits or domes. Following 

 the guide across a treacherous chasm known 

 as the covered pit, the author found a se- 

 ries of these chasms exceeding in size any 

 that had ever been discovered before. He 

 afterward visited the pits with a photog- 

 rapher, Mr. Ben Hains, and means for tak- 

 ing photographs. As measured from above, 

 they varied from forty-seven to one hun- 

 dred and thirty-five feet in depth. With 

 much difficulty and risk he succeeded in 

 reaching the bottom of Charybdis, the deep- 

 est of the pits, and there discovered, by the 

 aid of chemical fires, that the whole series 

 of pits, eight in all, were joined at the bot- 

 tom into one magnificent hall several hun- 

 dred feet long. This hall was traversed from 

 end to end. Dr. Hovey proposes to name it 

 Harrison's Hall, after the President of the 

 United States. 



NOTES. 



A bacterial disease of carnations was 

 described by Prof. J. C. Arthur at the meet- 

 ing of the American Association. It is re- 

 vealed by the presence in the leaves of 

 transparent dots that can be seen only by 

 transmitted light. These spots increase and 

 coalesce, and finally kill the tissues, when 

 the leaves dry up and the plant gradually 

 dies. The transparent spots are found, 

 under the microscope, to be due to the en- 

 largement of the cells with bacteria. 



When the governor of a province in 

 Madagascar wishes to issue a proclamation, 



