NOTES. 



127 



by the revolutions of the nearest axle under 

 the car. A lead-pencil placed about the 

 centre of the paper indicates by its mark 

 the condition of the track. The more un- 

 even the track the longer will be the mark 

 made by the pencil. Another way of show- 

 ing the inspecting party that the track is 

 uneven is by an horizontal piece of iron or 

 steel, which oscillates like the pendulum of 

 a clock as the train moves. When a very 

 defective point is reached, the pendulum 

 comes in contact with a metal on each side, 

 circular in shape, which gives a sound like 

 a bell. 



Physiological Action of Coca. The phys- 

 iological action of the leaves of coca or 

 cuca {Eryihroxylon coca), a plant indige- 

 nous to Peru, has been the subject of much 

 discussion lately in England. Sir Robert 

 Christison, whose reference to the peculiar 

 properties of this plant, in his address to 

 the Edinburgh Botanical Society last No- 

 vember, gave rise to the discussion, has 

 since taken up the subject again, in a paper 

 read before the same society. The author 

 gives an account of experiments made by 

 himself and by fourteen other observers, 

 under his instructions, with a view to deter- 

 mine the physiological action of coca and 

 its principle, cocaine. His conclusions are 

 that 1. When taken in quantities of two 

 drachms by healthy persons it has no un- 

 pleasant, injurious, or suspicious effect 

 whatever; 2. In a very few cases this dose 

 of an inferior sample had no effect at all ; 

 3. In by far the greater number of instances, 

 and with a fine sample, extreme fatigue was 

 removed and prevented from returning; 4. 

 It does not in the end impair the appetite 

 or digestion, although hunger, even after 

 long fasting, is taken away for an hour or 

 two ; 5. The use of it is incompatible with 

 the use of alcoholic liquors, except when 

 the latter are taken in very small quantities. 



NOTES. 



In a recent Miscellany article on the 

 cruise of the Challenger, it was stated that 

 4,9*73 fathoms, or five and a half miles, is 

 the deepest trustworthy sounding yet made, 

 excepting two by the Tuscarora, which 

 showed a depth 600 feet greater. A cor- 

 respondent has called our attention to a 



statement in No. IV. of the "Science Prim- 

 er Series," to the effect that between the 

 Azores and Bermudas a sounding had been 

 obtained of seven and a half miles. This 

 sounding was made twenty years ago, by 

 Lieutenant Berryman. It was in latitude 

 32 55' north, and longitude 47 58' west, 

 but it is not now regarded as trustworthy. 

 A fruitful source of error, in this and other 

 early soundings, was the curving of the 

 line by currents, etc. 



S. W. Burnham, Esq., of Chicago, has 

 been appointed director of the Dearborn 

 Observatory in that city. Mr. Burnham's 

 contributions to observational astronomy, 

 mostly published in the " Transactions " of 

 the Royal Astronomical Society of London, 

 have earned for him prominent rank amon^ 

 astronomers, both at home and abroad. 



In a recent Italian work, measurements 

 are given of the skulls of Dante, Petrarch, 

 Ugo Foscolo, and Volta. Volta's skull is 

 of extraordinary capacity. In the skull of 

 Petrarch the Etruscan type is evident, viz., 

 a voluminous brain, strongly developed in 

 all its parts, and of superior psychological 

 power ; but the posterior predominates over 

 the anterior portion, leading to the conclu- 

 sion that the sentiments and instincts pre- 

 vailed over the intellect. 



It is asserted, by Prof. Isidor Walz, that 

 vanadium is a general constituent of Ameri- 

 can magnetites. This conclusion is based 

 upon examination of twenty-seven speci- 

 mens of magnetites from different localities, 

 in the United States and Canada. 



In Austria, according to the Moniteur 

 Industriel Beige, dynamite has been em- 

 ployed with success in vine-culture. In 

 order to loosen the soil and permit acces3 

 of air and moisture to the vines, cartridges 

 of dynamite were placed in holes three 

 metres deep, at such distances from the 

 plants as to obviate the danger of injury to 

 them from an explosion. The result of the 

 explosion was that the soil was perfectly 

 broken up to the depth of two and a half 

 metres. Furthermore, the phylloxera com- 

 pletely disappeared. Certainly a novel use 

 for explosive agents. 



Died June 27th, at the age of eighty-two, 

 Christian Gottlieb Ehrenberg, the eminent 

 microscopist. In 1820 he was attached to 

 a scientific expedition into Egypt, and for 

 six years devoted himself to the microscopic 

 investigation of the lower animal forms of 

 that and the neighboring countries. On his 

 return home he was appointed a professor 

 in the medical faculty of the Berlin Univer- 

 sity. In 1829 he accompanied Humboldt 

 to Central Asia. He was the author of 

 numerous works upon microscopic organ- 

 isms. 



