NOTES. 



639 



Mental Disease in Animals. The pathol- 

 ogy of mind in the lower animals, and more 

 especially in domestic animals, is a subject 

 which, singularly enough, has hitherto at- 

 tracted very little attention, though it is 

 one that ought to possess the highest in- 

 terest to man. Dr. W. Lauder Lindsay, who 

 for a few years past has devoted himself to 

 the study of mental phenomena as exhibited 

 in the animal creation inferior to man, con- 

 tributes to the Journal of Mental Science 

 the results of his observations upon the men- 

 tal pathology of animals, from which it ap- 

 pears that in them insanity is virtually the 

 same as in man. He notes, however, certain 

 peculiarities in the case of the lower ani- 

 mals, the most important of which is the 

 facility with which artificial insanity ma.y be 

 produced in them, either by ill-usage or by 

 brain or blood poisoning; hence the whole 

 course of insanity may be very convenient- 

 ly studied in animals. This unworked field 

 of comparative psychology presents to the 

 ambitious young physician the opportunity 

 not only of earning distinction, but also of 

 adding to human knowledge, and thereby 

 to human as well as animal happiness and 

 well-being. " Let me," writes Dr. Lauder 

 Lindsay, " commend the experimental and 

 scientific study of the pathology of mind in 

 the lower animals to those capable youths 

 who at present fritter away their time, tem- 

 per, and opportunities, on subjects both trite 

 and trivial ; who expend their ingenuity in 

 improving upon Nature by drawing hard 

 and fast lines of demarkation where she 

 draws none ; who discover in the last fash- 

 ionable drug, or mode of drugging, a pana- 

 cea for all the ills of the insane ; who delight 

 in barren statistics that have already been 

 tabulated a thousand times, with results of 

 no practical value." 



Archaeology. The Lapham Archaeologi- 

 cal Society of Wisconsin is the name of an or- 

 ganization formed and located at Milwaukee, 

 Wisconsin, for the purpose of instituting 

 researches into the antiquities of that State. 

 It proposes to survey and register the dis- 

 covery of ancient mounds ; collect and pre- 

 serve the relics found ; and to publish from 

 time to time such information concerning 

 the results of its labors as will lead to a bet- 

 ter knowledge of the origin and character 



of the prehistoric peoples of the region of 

 the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley. 

 It has long been known that Wisconsin is 

 particularly rich in remains of the mound- 

 builders. In 1855 Dr. J. A. Lapham, after 

 whom this society is fitly named, published, 

 as one of the Smithsonian contributions, a 

 quarto volume describing and figuring such 

 as had then been observed. They have been 

 discovered in great numbers since, and there 

 is ample room for vigorous work in explor- 

 ing and describing them before they disap- 

 pear under the denuding operations of the 

 plough and the harrow. They are so widely 

 scattered and so small in size that their pres- 

 ervation is quite out of the question after 

 the soil begins to be cultivated. It is to be 

 hoped that the society will be able to push 

 its labors successfully, and that its action 

 may excite a spirit of emulation in other 

 localities. 



NOTES. 



A DESTRUCTIVE tomado visited the vi- 

 cinity of Elkhart, Indiana, on the afternoon 

 of July 2d. It completely destroyed sev- 

 eral buildings, and unroofed others, up- 

 rooted whole orchards, and distributed trees 

 and rubbish over acres of crops. The prog- 

 ress of the storm was from west to east ; but 

 the buildings and trees all fell toward the 

 south, as if they had been taken up by the 

 northern portion of the whirling column, 

 and thrown into the centre, which seemed 

 south of the principal track of devastation. 

 No one was killed outright, but one of the 

 injured has since died. A correspondent 

 suggests one fact connected with the work 

 of this tornado, which he thinks seems to 

 indicate the presence of a large amount of 

 electricity, if, indeed, the manifestation was 

 not chiefly electric. All the leaves on the 

 trees, all the corn, grain, and other green 

 things within the path of the hurricane, 

 were seared and shriveled, as if by great 

 heat. 



It has been found by Miiller, of the 

 Berlin Chemical Society, that steam at or- 

 dinary pressure, when sent into saline solu- 

 tions, raises their temperature considerably 

 above its own. A solution of common salt, 

 so concentrated as to have its boiling-point 

 127, may be raised to 125, by sending 

 into it steam at 100. The more concen- 

 trated the solution the higher the rise. 



The power of resistance to the action of 

 sea-water possessed by copper and phos- 



