NOTES. 



287 



ing, if it is not the original cause of, much 

 of the disease that afflicts country and city 

 alike. " The next step in the line of progress 

 is cremation, and it has already been taken 

 by thousands of households, . . . who cre- 

 mate all of their household wastes and 

 kitchen garbage, greatly to their comfort 

 and relief. The kitchen-stove is found to 

 be a convenient furnace, and into this every- 

 thing but excreta is dumped, to be utterly 

 consumed, and thus put beyond the process 

 of fermentation and slow decay." The 

 method of cremation is to be carried out in 

 London on a large scale, in an establishment 

 which has been erected for the purpose by 

 Mr. George Shaw. Its introduction into all 

 cities would relieve them of a multitude of 

 evils, and bring no new ones in. 



Early Mention of Maple Sugar. Messrs. 

 Editors : Professor H. W. Wiley, chief 

 chemist of the Department of Agriculture, 

 has recently published analyses of maple- 

 sugars and sirups (" Chemical News," Feb- 

 ruary 20, 1885), and says he is surprised to 

 find almost no data concerning the compo- 

 sition of maple-sugars in chemical litera- 

 ture. 



I can confirm this observation as to the 

 paucity of information, having had occasion 

 to institute a search for such literature. 



I have found an early mention of maple- 

 sugar, which seems to me to be of great in- 

 terest, and append the extract to this note. 

 The references to sugar from maize and from 

 water-melons are curious, and I should like 

 to inquire of your readers whether experi- 

 ments on manufacturing sugar from water- 

 melons have been made in more recent times. 

 If so, with what success? 

 Very truly yours, 



II. Carrixgton Bolton. 

 Hartford, Connecticut, March 14, 1SS5. 



Extract from ITo.w Robert Boyle's " Use- 

 fulness of Experimental Natural Philos- 

 ophy," Oxford, 1663, Essay iv, p. 112. 

 " Since the writing of these last Lines, 

 being visited by an ancient Virtuoso, Gov- 

 ernor to a considerable Colony in Northern 

 America, and inquiring of him among other 

 particularities touching his Country, some- 

 thing in relation to the thoughts I had about 

 the making of several kindes of Suger, he 

 assur'd me, upon his own experience, that 

 there is in some parts of New England, a 

 kinde of Tree, so like our Wallnut-trees, j 



I that it is there so called, whose Juice that 

 I weeps out of its Incisions, &c, if it be per- 

 mitted slowly to exhale away the superflu- 

 ous moisture, doth congeal into a sweet and 

 saccharine substance ; and the like was con- 

 firmed to me, upon his own knowledge, by 

 the Agent of the great and populous Colony 

 of the Masatlmsets. 



"And very lately demanding of a very 

 eminent and skilful Planter, why, living in 

 a part of America, too cold to bare Sugar- 

 Canes, he did not try to make Sugar of that 

 very sweet Liquor, which the Stalks of 

 Maize, by many called Indian Wheat, af- 

 fords, when their Juice is expressed ; he 

 promised me he would make trval of it: 

 Adding, That he should do it very hopeful- 

 ly, because that though he had never been 

 solicitous to bring this Juice into a saccha- 

 rine form, yet having several times, for try- 

 al sake, boild it up to Syrup, and employed 

 it to sweeten Tarts, and other things, the 

 Guests could not perceive that they were 

 otherwise sweetened than with Sugar, and 

 he farther added, That both he and others, 

 had, in New England made such a Syrrup 

 with the Juice of Water-melons." 



NOTES. 



The " Lancet " states that " a marked 

 increase in the death-rate from cancer dur- 

 ing the latter part of the present century 

 has for some years occupied the minds of 

 several well-known pathologists in endeav- 

 ors to reveal its cause." It being generally 

 agreed that the disease is prone to arise out 

 of prior morbid states which do not appear 

 to be directly or necessarily related to it, 

 among which are tissue exhaustion, the 

 " Lancet " adds : " If we admit, therefore, as 

 we consistently may, that tissue-exhaustion, 

 the result of toil, anxiety, or privation, and 

 whether inherited or induced, affords a suffi- 

 cient basis for the development of cancer, 

 we may not look far into the history of our 

 laborious age to find an explanation of a 

 rise in its death-rate which at first may seem 

 anomalous." 



MM. Fol and Sarrazin, of Geneva, have 

 been experimenting on the depth to which 

 light can penetrate the waters of the Medi- 

 terranean Sea. They find that at two hun- 

 dred and eighty metres the effect is about 

 the same as that of a moonless night, and 

 that the chemical rays cease to be felt at 

 four hundred metres. A curious result of 

 their experiments is the discovery that the 

 water of the Lake of Geneva is far less 

 transparent than that of the sea. 



Dr. James Paget, of London, has been 

 elected a corresponding member of the 

 French Academy of Sciences in the section 

 of medicine and surgery, replacing M. Bouis- 

 son, deceased. 



