NOTES. 



255 



and the second is, that it should be so varied 

 as to afford at the same time pleasurable 

 mental excitement or occupation. In both 

 of these points the theory of the " health- 

 lift " is faulty. It calls into action almost 

 exclusively the extensor muscles of the 

 lower extremities, and the erection of the 

 spine with the associate dorsal groups. As 

 far as the upper extremities are concerned, 

 the only muscles called into activity are the 

 flexors of the fingers ; those of the arm and 

 shoulder are simply put on the stretch, an 

 operation which, without corresponding con- 

 traction, weakens rather than strengthens 

 muscular fibre. At the same time, the liga- 

 ments of the joints are violently stretched, 

 which must tend to diminish the complete- 

 ness of the apposition of the joint-surfaces, 

 and thus diminish precision and rapidity of 

 motion. As regards variety and occupation for 

 the mind, the " health-lift " confessedly pos- 

 sessess no such quality. Finally, the " health- 

 lift " is not a safe mode of exercise. It tends 

 to produce apoplexy, rupture of blood-ves- 

 sels, hernia, and other serious evils. The 

 author concludes with these words : " Con- 

 centrated exercise is as unsatisfying to the 

 muscle as is concentrated nourishment to 

 the stomach. The latter demands bulk in 

 its contents, the former a certain duration 

 in its period of activity." 



NOTES. 



The third session of the Bowdoin Col- 

 lege Summer School of Science will open 

 on July 15th, in the Cleaveland Lecture- 

 Room, and will continue for six weeks. 

 Three courses will be given, viz., Chemis- 

 try, by F. C. Robinson, Instructor in Chem- 

 istry in the college ; Mineralogy, by H. Car- 

 michael, Professor of Chemistry; and Zo- 

 ology, by L. A. Lee, Instructor in Natural 

 History. This school is designed to give to 

 teachers, gradates of colleges, and others, 

 of both sexes, a practical acquaintance with 

 science. 



Dr. George M. Beard is collecting ma- 

 terials for a work on " writers' cramp," and 

 other diseases of an analogous nature, as 

 the cramp of artists, pianists, violinists, te- 

 legraphers, etc. He invites those who pos- 

 sess any information regarding these sub- 

 jects to communicate the same to him. He 

 will supply blanks on application. His ad- 

 dress is " 41 West Twentv-ninth Street, New 

 York." 



Captain Lunginers, of the Danish vessel 

 Lutterfeld, reports that while off the coast 

 of Terra del Fuego, latitude 65 15' 10" south, 

 longitude 15 12' 10" west, at 3.30 a. m. of 

 December 10, 1876, the man on the lookout 

 espied at no great distance a considerable 

 mass of land rising above the surface of the 

 water in the shape of a hill about thirty me- 

 tres high. As the charts had no mention 

 of an island in that place, the captain re- 

 solved to lay-to till morning so as to inves- 

 tigate the discovery more fully. The next 

 day at 5.30 a. m. the island appeared to be 

 much smaller, but he went to visit it with a 

 boat's crew. The island was found to be 

 spherical in shape, its sides pretty steep. 

 One of the sailors sprang ashore, but he had 

 to return to the boat quickly, for the ground 

 was intolerably hot. The island continued 

 to sink, and at 8 a. m. it was no more to be 

 seen ; and one hour later the vessel passed 

 over the place where it had stood. 



From a series of observations made by 

 Dr. Jarvis Wight, of Brooklyn, it appears 

 that in at least seventy-five cases out of every 

 hundred the lower limbs of human subjects 

 are of unequal length ; nor does this differ- 

 ence exist in the total length of the leg alone, 

 but also in the length of the several long bones 

 which constitute its skeleton. The inequality 

 varies from one-eighth of an inch to one inch, 

 the average being one-fourth. 



Prof. Cope, it is stated in the American 

 Naturalist, has received from Oregon a col- 

 lection of fossils from a Pliocene lake-bed, 

 including, with others, Elephas primigenius, 

 Equus occidentalis, and many other extinct 

 species. But a circumstance of uncommon 

 importance is that, in the same deposit in 

 which these fossils were found, occur numer- 

 ous flakes of obsidian, with arrow and spear 

 heads of the same. All were lying mingled 

 together on the surface of a bed of clay, 

 which was covered by a deposit of volcanic 

 sand and ashes, of from fifteen to twenty 

 feet in depth. 



According to Prof. F. J. Burrill, of the 

 Illinois Industrial University, the catalpa 

 possesses great advantages as a timber-tree, 

 being the cheapest and easiest grown of all 

 our forest-trees, native or introduced, and 

 also the most rapid in its growth. On the 

 same ground it has outgrown the white or 

 American elm, white-ash, European larch, 

 Osage-orange, black-walnut, etc. It is not 

 attacked by insects, and is free from disease. 

 A board sawed from a catalpa-log, which 

 had lain on the ground for one hundred 

 years, was found to be perfectly sound and 

 strong, and susceptible of a fair polish. 



Julius Robert Mayer, who shared with 

 Joule the honor of working out to a demon- 

 stration the mechanical theory of heat, died 



