NOTES. 



767 



A New Theory of the Flow of Sap. 



In a new theory of the ascent of sap in 

 trees, proposed by Joseph Bbhm, the elas- 

 ticity of the plant-cells plays an important 

 part. When the superficial cells have lost 

 through evaporation a portion of their water, 

 they partly collapse under the action of the 

 air-pressure ; but, like elastic bladders, they 

 tend to resume their original form. This 

 they can do only by drawing in either air 

 or water from without. But since moist 

 membranes are but little permeable by air, 

 the cells draw from the cells farther toward 

 the centre a portion of their liquid contents ; 

 these in turn draw on the cells farther down, 

 and so on down to the roots. The author 

 illustrates his theory by an apparatus which 

 represents a chain of cells. A funnel closed 

 by a bladder represents the evaporating 

 leaf; to it are connected below several glass 

 tubes about two inches wide, closed at one 

 end with a bladder, and joined together in 

 series by means of thick caoutchouc tubes. 

 As evaporation goes on, the membrane which 

 closes the funnel-mouth is bent inward, and, 

 when it has reached a certain tension, water 

 is sucked into the funnel out of the cell 

 next below, which covers its loss in the 

 same way. Manometers connected with cer- 

 tain cells of the apparatus indicate the 

 amount of suction at different heights. 



NOTES. 



Complaint is made in the newspapers 

 that fish and fowl are dying by millions in 

 different parts of the country, poisoned, it 

 is supposed, by Paris-green. In the valley 

 of the Connecticut Paris-green is freely used 

 to destroy the potato-beetle, and the recent 

 heavy rains have washed it into the rivers, 

 together with untold millions of poisoned 

 beetles. It may be doubtful whether the 

 Paris-green suspended in the stream could 

 destroy many fish, but there is little doubt 

 that eating the poisoned beetles would prove 

 fatal both to fish and fowl. " There is no 

 reason advanced," says the Hartford Cou- 

 rant, " to explain the wide-spread destruc- 

 tion of fish more plausible than this, and it 

 is a singular fact that sportsmen on land 

 have complained of a fatality among birds, 

 the same as fishermen do of the fatal effects 

 upon fish. Quail have been found dead in 

 various parts of the State, and there is no 

 doubt that the death of the birds is due to 

 agricultural poisoning." 



According to a Pittsburg newspaper, 

 Messrs. Gemill and Wampler, of McKees- 

 port, at 10 p. m. of July 11th, while ob- 

 serving the planet Jupiter with a five-inch 

 telescope, noticed on the eastern limb a 

 dark round spot, just above the northern 

 belt of the planet. Soon it moved rapidly 

 westward, just touching the belt and pass- 

 ing off the face of the planet at 1.24 a. m. 

 of the 12th. It had the appearance of a 

 perfect sphere much larger than any of Jupi- 

 ter's satellites, sharply defined, and intensely 

 black. It could not have been a spot on 

 the disk of Jupiter, for it passed over the 

 face of the planet in three hours and nine- 

 teen minutes, while a spot would have taken 

 five hours. Neither was it a satellite, or the 

 shadow of one, for all the four Jovian satel- 

 lites were in full view the whole time. 



Dr. Hermann J. Klein, of Cologne, has 

 discovered a new crater on the moon's sur- 

 face, situated in the Mare Vaporum, a little 

 to the northwest of the crater Hyginus. The 

 new crater is nearly as large as Hyginus, 

 and is a conspicuous object. Klein, though 

 he had previously again and again observed 

 the same region, had never seen this crater; 

 neither had it been noticed by other sele- 

 nographers. The inference would appear to 

 be that volcanic action is still going on in 

 the moon. 



During a session of an educational com- 

 mittee, the Bishop of Gloucester in the chair, 

 one of the members lamented the very im- 

 perfect education given to girls under the 

 present system. "The fact cannot be de- 

 nied, I fear," said the chairman, " but there 

 is one consolation the boys will never find 

 it out." 



A numerously- attended meeting, of per- 

 sons of both sexes, was recently held in In- 

 dianapolis, Indiana, for the purpose of form- 

 ing a cremation society. A committee was 

 appointed to draft a constitution and by- 

 laws. 



It is a pleasing picture that Sir David 

 Wedderburn draws of the social usages of 

 the people of Japan " a country where men 

 never lose their temper, where women and 

 children are always treated with gentleness, 

 where common laborers bow and beg pardon 

 of each other if they happen to jostle acci- 

 dentally, where popular sports do not inflict 

 suffering on the lower animals, and where 

 cleanliness takes such a high rank among 

 social virtues as to be carried almost to a 

 ludicrous excess;" and their courtesy is 

 " singularly free from servile or mercenary 

 considerations." 



Some twenty-five years ago the British 



Association for the Advancement of Science 



met in a certain cathedral town, and in the 



Geological Section a rather warm debate 



i arose about the truth of the Mosaic account 



