NOTES. 



767 



body was soon reversed, that is, with the 

 head turned in the direction toward which 

 the wind was blowing. Thus the long thread 

 which streamed out above the aeronaut in- 

 clined forward, and at the top was in ad- 

 vance of its head. It was also observed 

 that the legs were spread out, and that they 

 had been united at the feet by delicate 

 filaments of silk ; this gave to the body in- 

 creased buoyancy, owing to the increased 

 surface thus offered to the resistance of the 

 air. Before, or rather during its descent to 

 the earth, a small white ball of silk was 

 seen accumulated at the mouth of the 

 spider, which, with the peculiar movements 

 of the forefeet, palps, and mandibles, sug- 

 gested the drawing in of a thread. The 

 spider was, so to speak, taking in sail. 

 Exactly the same effect was thus produced 

 by the spider aeronaut, and by a strikingly 

 analogous mode, as the human aeronaut ac- 

 complishes when he contracts the surface of 

 his balloon by causing the inflating gas to 

 escape. 



NOTES. 



Many of the ills and diseases prevalent 

 among women in our day are, no doubt, 

 traceable to the sedentary mode of life so 

 common among them. The progress of 

 modern industrial art has done away with 

 much of the household drudgery to which 

 women were formerly subjected, and the re- 

 sult is in too many cases want of sufficient 

 occupation for needed bodily exercise; The 

 fruits of this state of things are strikingly 

 exhibited in certain observations made by 

 the late Mr. Robertson, a Manchester sur- 

 geon, who in his practice as a specialist for 

 women's diseases found that in women who 

 themselves performed all their household 

 work there was no trace of certain com- 

 plaints ; that these complaints begin to 

 make their appearance in women with one 

 servant, become more pronounced in wom- 

 en who have two servants, or worse still 

 with those who have three servants, and so 

 on. He showed statistically that the deaths 

 from childbirth were four times greater in 

 the case of women with four servants than 

 those with none. 



No doubt the most voluminous compila- 

 tion in any language is the " Illustrated Im- 

 perial Collection of Ancient and Modern 

 Literature," published by the Chinese Gov- 



ernment early in the eighteenth century. It 

 comprises about 6,000 volumes. A copy of 

 the work is on sale in Peking, and the British 

 Museum has entered into negotiations for 

 its purchase. 



During the year 1876, in India, 48,000 

 cattle were destroyed by wild animals and 

 venomous snakes ; 22,35*7 wild animals and 

 270,185 poisonous snakes were killed at a 

 cost of 120,015 rupees for bounties. In 

 1877, 19,273 persons were killed, and 54,- 

 830 cattle were destroyed. 



Regular professorships of hygiene are 

 to be established in the universities of Hol- 

 land. The Faculty of the University of 

 Utrecht has unanimously chosen Dr. Lud- 

 wig Hirt, of Breslau, to fill the new chair in 

 that university. 



The Parkes Museum of Hygiene at Uni- 

 versity College, London, is approaching 

 completion. The council of the college 

 have devoted an area of 3,500 feet for the 

 use of the museum, which is divided into a 

 library and eight classes. 



The thickness of the coal-measures of 

 Missouri is, according to Prof. Broadhead, 

 in the Western Review of Science, for the 

 upper measures, 1,300 feet ; for the middle 

 measures, 323 feet; and for the lower 

 measures, 290 feet. 



While collecting corals on the reefs of 

 Florida Mr. Pourtales often felt the urticat- 

 ing effects of contact of the hands with 

 millepora. It occurred to him to try the 

 effect of applying a fresh piece of mille- 

 pora to the tongue, when "instantly," he 

 writes, " a most severe pain shot not on- 

 ly through that organ, but also through 

 the jaws and teeth. The whole course of 

 the dental nerves and their ramifications 

 into every single tooth could be distinctly 

 and painfully felt." The pain remained se- 

 vere for about half an hour, but the sensa- 

 tion was perceptible for five or six hours. 



The President of the American Associa- 

 tion for the Cure of Inebriates in his anniver- 

 sary address quotes Dr. Magnus Huss as au- 

 thority for the statement that in Sweden 

 1,500,000 persons about one-half the popu- 

 lation annually consume 140 to 170 pints 

 of spirits each. By their indulgence in strong 

 drink the Swedes have deteriorated in stat- 

 ure and physical strength; new diseases 

 have appeared, and old ones have increased 

 fearfully. 



A summer school of zoology will next 

 summer be stationed either on one of the 

 Bahama Islands or at some point on our 

 Southern coast, for the benefit of students 

 of Union College, Schenectady. 



