NOTES. 



863 



generally a sheep or a pig, and the sound in 

 the person's throat, as he begins to revive, 

 is taken for the bleating of the one or the 

 grunting of the other. Under these cir- 

 cumstances, they attempt to propitiate the 

 animal by putting grass into the man's 

 mouth, possibly under the impression that 

 they can entice the animal's spirit in the 

 man to remain till his own returns ; and 

 on no consideration will they remove him 

 till the fit is over, for, if they did, they be- 

 lieve his own spirit would not be able to 

 find him again, and he would die. 



NOTES. 



The American Association, recently in 

 session at Ann Arbor, Michigan, elected the 

 following officers for next year's meeting : 

 President, E. S. Morse, Salem, Massachu- 

 setts ; Vice-Presidents, J. W. Gibbs, New 

 Ilaven, Connecticut ; C. F. Brackett, Prince- 

 ton, New Jersey ; H. W. Wiley, Washington, 

 D. C. ; 0. Chanute, Kansas City, Missouri ; 

 T. C. Chamberlin, Washington, D. C; H. P. 

 Bowditch, Boston, Massachusetts ; Horatio 

 Hale, Clinton, Ontario ; Joseph Cummings, 

 Evanston, Illinois ; Permanent Secretary, 

 F. W. Putnam, Cambridge, Massachusetts 

 (holding over) ; General Secretary, S. G. 

 Williams, Ithaca, New York ; Assistant 

 Secretary, W. II. Pettee, Ann Arbor, Michi- 

 gan ; Treasurer, William Lilly, Mauch 

 Chunk, Pennsylvania. Buffalo, New York, 

 was selected as the place for holding the 

 meeting in 1886. 



M. Tacchini mentioned to the French 

 Academy of Sciences, July 27th, that red 

 sunsets, like those of 1883-84, though less 

 intense, had appeared again ; and said that 

 the present phenomena couid not be con- 

 nected with the eruption of Krakatoa. At 

 the same session of the Academy, M. Jans- 

 sen read a paper by M. Landerer on the reap- 

 pearance of the glows. This author thought 

 them of cosmical origin, and suggested that 

 they might be caused by the passage of 

 Biela's comet. 



Professor Peter T. Austen has inves- 

 tigated the relation of aluminic and ferric 

 salts to plant-life. He finds that these salts 

 have the property of precipitating dissolved 

 organic matters, and causing the coagula- 

 tion of suspended inorganic matters. The 

 substances thus deposited are of high value 

 as plant-food, and are placed in the most 

 available state and most assimilable condi- 

 tion. " Thus we see that when the soil is 

 unable directly to bind the plant nutriment, 

 the acid products of the death of the plant, 

 and probably also of the bacterial fermen- 



tations, supply agents which precipitate these 

 plant-foods in such a state that mere me- 

 chanical filtration will remove them, and 

 leave them stored up for future use by the 

 plants." These processes also serve animal 

 life by purifying the water. 



Dr. R. Harvey Reed, of Mansfield, 

 Ohio, after a study of the subject as it af- 

 fects his own State, concludes that among 

 the results of the destruction of the forests 

 and the drainage of the land are more wind, 

 more humidity, more rainfall, more dust, 

 more sudden dashes of rain ; more sudden 

 changes from one extreme to the other of 

 temperature and moisture ; more rapid trans- 

 mission of water from the periphery to the 

 great basins ; robbery of the natural regu- 

 lators of distribution; and diminution of 

 the common supply of springs and wells. 

 These changes have been followed by a de- 

 crease of all forms of malarial diseases, and 

 an increase of typhoid fever, catarrh, deaf- 

 ness, and chronic pulmonary troubles, and 

 the increase in wind and dust favors the 

 spread of zymotic and contagious diseases. 



A correspondent, noticing our reference 

 in a recent sketch of M. Chevreul to the dis- 

 crepancy in the age of the distinguished 

 chemist's father at his death, as given in 

 Larousse's " Cyclopaedia " (ninety -one years), 

 and by the " Lancet " (one hundred and ten 

 years), calls attention to another equally 

 curious mistake respecting M. Chevreul in 

 Schaedler's " Teehnologie der Fette und 

 Oele." In the historical introduction to 

 this work occurs a passage which we trans- 

 late thus : " Only thirty years after the dis- 

 covery of glycerine, in the year 1813, began 

 the researches of Chevreul (born 1786, at 

 Anders, died 1840)." On page 1105, the 

 author appends the correction : " The infor 

 mation was given me privately that Chev- 

 reul died in 1 840 ; but I have received from 

 M. J. Bang, of Marseilles, under date of May 

 11, 1883," the following literal statement: 

 ' I can assure you that Chevreul is still very 

 active, and continues his course at the Mu- 

 seum, and is present every Monday at the 

 Academy of Sciences. He is now ninety- 

 seven and a half years old, but is, they say, 

 livelier than ever.' " 



The authorities of Albany, Georgia, 

 have efficiently drained a troublesome pond 

 by boring a well-hole through the ground to 

 a deep subterranean stream. An outlet for 

 the sewerage of a large Western university 

 has been found in one of the numerous 

 " sink-holes " with which the cavernous 

 limestone of the country is marked, where 

 a similar underground stream carries the 

 stuff to parts unknown. Such expedients 

 are good, provided the subterranean stream 

 selected for the sewer-outlet is not a source 

 of supply for some well. 



