NOTES. 



287 



the time of Aristotle. It consisted of two 

 exactly similar earthen vessels filled with 

 water, each provided with a cock that would 

 discharge an equal quantity of water in a 

 given time, so that the whole or any part of 

 the contents would escape in precisely the 

 same period from both vessels. On the sur- 

 face of each floated a piece of cork support- 

 ing an upright, marked off into divisions, 

 each division having a certain sentence in- 

 scribed upon it. One of the vessels was 

 placed at each station, and when either 

 party desired to communicate with the other 

 he lighted a torch which he held aloft until 

 the other did the same, as a sign that he 

 was all attention. On the sender of the 

 message lowering or extinguishing the torch, 

 each party immediately opened the ccck of 

 his vessel, and so left it until the sender re- 

 lighted his torch, when it was at once closed. 

 The receiver then read the sentence on the 

 division of the upright that was level with 

 the mouth of the vessel, and which, if every- 

 thing had been executed with exactness, cor- 

 responded with that of the sender, and so 

 conveyed the desired message. 



NOTES. 



Mr. John T. Campbell presented, in the 

 American Association, the evidence in sup- 

 port of his belief that there was, in the Wa- 

 bash River, one last great flood near the close 

 of glacial time, and that then the water-supply 

 was so cut off or diminished that there was 

 never another freshet large enough to wipe 

 out or modify the marks it left. This flood, 

 in the opinion of the author, carried about 

 one hundred times as much water as do the 

 great floods of the present time. 



The largest barometer yet made has been 

 put in working order in the Saint Jacques 

 Tower, in Paris. It is forty-one feet five 

 inches high. 



The International Medical Congress met 

 in Berlin, August 4th. Members of the medi- 

 cal profession were present representing 

 every state and city in Europe, and many 

 from North and South America. An open- 

 ing address of welcome was made by the 

 president, Prof. Virchow. Welcoming ad- 

 dresses were also given for Prussia and Ber- 

 lin. Dr. Lassar, Secretary-General of the 

 Congress, sketched the general plan of the 

 labors of the Congress, and gave some sta- 

 tistics concerning the representation of the 

 countries taking part in it. Dr. Hamilton, 

 Surgeon-General of the United States Army, 

 was the first regular speaker, and was fol- 



lowed by Sir James Paget and Sir Joseph 



Lister. 



The corrosion of steel by salt water is 

 said to be much greater than that of iron. 

 Mr. David Phillips stated, iii a recent address 

 before the British Institute of Marine Engi- 

 neers, that he had experimented from 1881 

 to 1888 with two plates of Bessemer boiler 

 steel, two of Yorkshire, and two of B. B. 

 Staffordshire boiler iron. The plates were 

 as nearly as possible six by six by three 

 eighths inches, and were kept immersed in 

 salt water. The results show a great differ- 

 ence between the behavior of steel and iron. 

 The steels lost 120 per cent more than the 

 irons the first three years, when the plates 

 were in contact; 124 per cent more the sec- 

 ond three years, when they were insulated ; 

 and 126 per cent more for the whole period 

 of seven years. 



Unless some of our investigators of bac- 

 teria are mistaken, there seems to be hardly 

 a situation where these minute organisms 

 may not be found. Thus Dr. Charles M. 

 Cresson claims to have discovered typhoid 

 bacilli in the juice squeezed from some cel- 

 ery grown near Philadelphia ; and the Johns 

 Hopkins Hospital Bulletin for May, 1890, 

 records some observations, by A. C. Abbott, 

 upon bacteria found in the interior of large 

 hailstones which fell during the storm of 

 April 26, 1890. 



The Australasian Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science will hold its third an- 

 nual meeting at Christchurch, New Zealand, 

 beginning January 15,1891. Sir James Hec- 

 tor, F. R. S., will succeed Baron F. von 

 Muller, F. R. S., as president, and will deliv- 

 er an address. Arrangements are making 

 to secure reduced excursion fares from the 

 other Australian colonies, and probably from 

 Great Britain. 



In his lecture on caves, at the meeting 

 of the American Association, the Rev. Dr. 

 Hovey exhibited a photograph made by L. 

 Farini, of Bridgeport, Conn., from an ordi- 

 nary negative, by means of the light of the 

 fire-fly (Elator pkocans). 



The object of certain experiments de- 

 scribed by Mr. W. Sharp, in the British As- 

 sociation, was to answer the question, What 

 is the action of the substances called drugs 

 upon the living body of man ? The conclu- 

 sions arrived at were the results of experi- 

 ments made upon men in sound health, with 

 different quantities of the same drugs. In 

 the case of fourteen drugs that were used 

 it was found that the smallest doses admin- 

 istered have power to act upon the living hu- 

 man body ; that the commonly received opin- 

 ion that the actions of drugs are simply in- 

 creased in degree, and not altered in charac- 

 ter, by increasing the dose, is an error ; and 

 that the actions of drugs are sufficiently dis- 

 tinct to admit of classification. 



