NOTES. 



127 



certain the periods of drought and of un- 

 due rainfall, the average direction of the 

 wind for the different months, in order to 

 learn how far they coriespond with the 

 phenomena of locust-life. Tliat there are 

 cycles of dry and hot seasons recurring at 

 irregular intervals, while the general aver- 

 age may remain nearly the same, century 

 after century, is supported, though it may 

 be vaguely, by observed facts. The author 

 thinks that the remedy for locust visita- 

 tions can be discovered and applied by a 

 cooperation between the Signal Service and 

 skilled entomologists employed by the Gen- 

 eral Government and the States most direct- 

 ly concerned. 



NOTES. 



It is proposed to occasionally issue from 

 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

 a " Circular," containing notes and queries 

 on physical and chemical apparatus, pro- 

 cesses, etc. It will be printed by the papy- 

 rographic process, and will be sent free to 

 chemists and physicists, on condition that 

 they from time to time communicate to the 

 editors descriptions of apparatus and pro- 

 cesses which they may have found conven- 

 ient, and which are not in general use in 

 laboratories. Applications for the " Circu- 

 lar " must be addressed to Chas. H. Weng, 

 at the Institute of Technology, Boston. 



A COMMITTEE of the New York Medico- 

 Legal Society, appointed to investigate the 

 subject of " School Hygiene," recommend 

 that the minimum age of admission to the 

 public schools be six years ; that the maxi- 

 mum attendance at school, for children un- 

 der eight years, be three hours ; that the 

 schools be under medical supervision ; and 

 that schoolhouses should be surrounded on 

 all sides with adequate open space, to se- 

 cure light, ventilation, and play-grounds. 



Since 1821 twelve ships have been aban- 

 doned in the arctic regions by exploring 

 expeditions. Of these, but a single one, 

 the Resolute, sent out with others under 

 Sir Edward Belcher, in 1852, has been re- 

 covered. 



There were three hundred competitors 

 for the Boylston prize of the Medical Facul- 

 ty of Harvard University for the best essay 

 on the question of " Rest for Women." Dr. 

 Mary Putnam-Jacobi, of New York, was the 

 successful competitor. Her essay is said 

 to possess extraordinary merit, and is to be 

 published. 



The medium of light-vibrations in the 

 Torricellian vacuum is, according to Julius 

 R. Mayer, extremely rarefied air. Air ad- 

 heres to the glass and the mercury, and, on 

 production of the vacuum, expands, and fills 

 the space with a medium which conducts 

 light like the ether in cosmical space. 



A BRONZE statue of Livingstone, the mis- 

 sionary and explorer of Central Africa, will 

 be erected in Glasgow during the present 

 year. 



L\ San Pete County, Utah, the hills 

 abutting on Huntington Creek contain sev- 

 eral valuable veins of coal. Seven mines 

 have already been opened by drifts run from 

 the faces of the hills. The coal yields a 

 very fair quality of coke. These coal-fields 

 appear to be of very considerable extent. 



A PIECE of coral five inches in height, 

 six inches in diameter at the top, and two 

 inches at the base, was taken off a submarine 

 cable at Port Darwin, North Australia. As 

 the cable had been laid only four years, the 

 coral must have grown to its present height 

 in that time. 



Prof. Huxley, in a recent lecture at 

 the Royal Institution, on " The History of 

 Birds," said that, as they now exist, birds 

 constitute a perfectly well-defined group, 

 nobody mistaking the forms included there- 

 in. But, when we turn to the geologi- 

 cal record, the case is dift'erent. Fossil 

 forms are found that present definitions do 

 not embrace, indicating a wider range of 

 structure, and the existence of types inter- 

 mediate between birds and reptiles. 



According to the Oardener^s Monthly, 

 the Eucalyptus globulus can hardly thrive 

 in any of our States on the Atlantic sea- 

 board, with the possible exception of Flori- 

 da; there it is barely possible that a few 

 Australian trees may live. 



A correspondent of the Lancet writes 

 that, when traveling in the upper Sikkim 

 Himalaya, at elevations above 12,000 feet, 

 he toolc whiskey in small quantities, to 

 counteract the effects of strong exertion in 

 a cold, rare atmosphere. The consequence 

 was the reverse of what was expected, be- 

 ing drowsiness and lassitude, lasting an hour 

 or more. Cold tea, on the contrary, was 

 found to produce a feeling of exhilaration 

 and capacity for renewed efforts. 



In Calcutta the general death-rate of in- 

 fants under one year among all classes 

 of the population Hindoo, Mohammedan, 

 mixed race, and non-Asiatic reaches the 

 annual average of 480 per 1,000, the rate 

 ranging from 184 among the non-Asiatics 

 to 598 among the Mohammedans. Of ev- 

 ery thousand Hindoo children born in 1875 



