NOTES. 



863 



systematizing their work, and each selecting 

 a particular field, they can not only observe 

 with more satisfaction to themselves, but 

 may aid the progress of science. Some may 

 make real discoveries, and they are prom- 

 ised all the credit they may deserve for them> 

 if they give due early notice of the fact. 

 Steady and repeated observations of the 

 same object are wanted once or twice in 

 every month, in order to secure determina- 

 tions of their light -curves or variations. 

 This point has been heretofore to a large 

 extent omitted, and only the fact of varia- 

 tion, its period, and its extremes, have as a 

 rule been ascertained. Amateurs may do 

 service in this line, while professional ob- 

 servers are attending to more delicate points. 

 Professor Pickering has published a pam- 

 phlet giving directions and the other infor- 

 mation needed to secure intelligent observa- 

 tions, which may be had on application to 

 him at Harvard College Observatory, Cam- 

 bridge, Massachusetts. 



Roman Remains. Mr. Alfred Tylor has 

 recently described, before the Royal Institu- 

 tion of Great Britain, some Roman remains 

 that were discovered last year in London 

 about nineteen feet below the present sur- 

 face of the ground. They include several 

 cinerary urns, one of which, fifteen inches 

 high, was of glass, containing the results of 

 the cremation of human bodies, and a re- 

 markable turned vase of stone. Four of 

 the urns were inclosed in leaden ossuaria 

 without solder, in the inside of one of which 

 was found an emblem of Mithra, the Per- 

 sian sun-god. Some of the other urns were 

 protected by roofing-tiles. The coins found 

 during the excavations bore dates from a. d. 

 60 to 300. The Mithraic emblem was proba- 

 bly of a date soon after a. d. 50. 



Dizziness and Deafness. Dr. "William 

 James, of Harvard University, has made 

 some experiments to test the modern theory 

 that the semicircular canals, instead of be- 

 ing connected with the sense of hearing, 

 serve to convey the feeling of movement of 

 the head through space, which, when inten- 

 sified, becomes dizziness. It occurred to 

 him that deaf-mutes, having their auricular 

 organs injured, might afford some corrobo- 

 ration of the theory, if it were true, by show- 

 ing a smaller susceptibility to dizziness than 



persons with normal hearing. Of 519 deaf- 

 mutes examined by subjecting them to a 

 rapid whirling, 186 were wholly insuscep- 

 tible of being made dizzy, 134 were made 

 dizzy in a very slight degree, and 199 were 

 normally, and in a few cases abnormally, 

 sensitive. Nearly 200 students and instruct- 

 ors in Harvard College, supposed to have 

 normal hearing, were examined for purposes 

 of comparison, and but a single one proved 

 exempt from the vertigo. These results 

 seemed to Dr. James to support the theory 

 which was the object of his inquiry. It oc- 

 curred to him that those persons not affect- 

 ed by dizziness ought also to lose their power 

 of orientation when diving under water ; but 

 the experiments that were made to test the 

 correctness of this view were so varied in 

 their results that no conclusions could be 

 drawn from them. 



Errata. Messrs. Editors : Permit me to 

 call attention to a few errors in the first col- 

 umn of page 714 that make nonsense of what 

 I am quoted as saying of the supposed " lig- 

 nified snake." According to my remarks, 

 as published in the Washington " Star," in 

 line two, "rudimentary " should read " re- 

 jeetamentary." In line twenty-seven, "lar- 

 va " should read " liber." In lines thirty- 

 three, thirty-four, " without interference 

 with the growth or soundness of the tree " 

 should read "except where the bark is 

 already loosened, a supposition which in- 

 volves the idea of death or decay in the 

 tree, and consequent incapacity to renew 

 tissue. C. V. Riley." 



NOTES. 



In the twenty-third " Forestry Bulletin " 

 of the Census-Office, the total consumption 

 of wood for fuel in the United States during 

 the year of the census is estimated at 145,- 

 77S,"l 37 cords, the value of which was 8321,- 

 962,373. Of this quantity, 140,537,490 

 cords were used for domestic purposes ; 

 1,971,813 cords by railroads ; 7S7,SG2 cords 

 by steamboats ; 358,074 cords in mining and 

 amalgamating the precious metals; 266,771 

 cords in other mining operations; 1,157,522 

 cords in the manufacture of brick and tile ; 

 540,448 cords in the manufacture of salt ; 

 and 158, 20S cords in the manufacture of 

 wool. During the same year 74,00S,972 

 bushels of charcoal were burned, the value 

 of which was $5,276,736. 



