NOTES. 



575 



Ancient Maps of the Egyptian Desert. 



Mr. Cope Whitehouse called attention, in 

 the British Association, to some points in 

 connection with ancient maps of Egypt, 

 Lake Mceris, and the Mountains of the 

 Moon. The revised map of Egypt prepared 

 by the Intelligence Department of the War 

 Office shows a part of the changes effected 

 by the observations of the author. A critical 

 study of the manuscript and printed maps 

 attached to the text of Claudius Ptolemy 

 had enabled him to aver, as a crucial test of 

 their authenticity, that a depression would 

 be found to exist in the desert to the west 

 of the Nile and to the south of the Fayoum. 

 The physical conditions of this region have 

 now been determined with extreme accuracy. 

 The most important maps of the printed 

 editions of Claudius Ptolemy, of the six- 

 teenth and seventeenth centuries, have been 

 reproduced in the facsimile atlas of 1890. 

 Mr. H. M. Stanley's identifications of Ruwen- 

 zori with the Mountains of the Moon re- 

 versed this method. He found the mount- 

 ains and then examined the maps and the 

 historical evidence. The existence of ancient 

 originals from which the mediaeval copies 

 were made is no longer open to dispute. 

 They have never been submitted to critical 

 analysis. It is reasonable to anticipate 

 other important additions to geographical 

 knowledge as the result of the renewed 

 credit which will henceforth attach to the 

 only atlas which has reached us from ancient 

 days. 



NOTES. 



In reference to a note in the Monthly for 

 December, 1890, ascribing to Dr. Charles M. 

 Cresson the discovery of typhoid bacillus in 

 juices squeezed from celery, Dr. Cresson de- 

 sires to observe that the only publication 

 he has made in reference to the bacillus of 

 typhoid in connection with celery, bore upon 

 the practice of certain truck - farmers of 

 ladling upon the plants, for manure, un- 

 treated night-soil directly from the carts. 

 Some of the stuff is certain to lodge in the 

 interstices of the plant and not be washed 

 off, and that may contain typhoid bacilli. 

 No claim has been made or facts given that 

 would warrant the assertion that the bacil- 

 lus was naturally carried in the juice of the 

 plant. 



Prof. Pickering describes, in the Sidereal 

 Messenger, fourteen photographs of the 



planet Mars, which were taken on two suc- 

 cessive days, the 9th and 10th of April, 

 seven on each day, in the second of which 

 the southern polar white spot was much 

 larger than in the former series. In the 

 first day's photographs the spot was dimly 

 marked, as if veiled by fog or by particles 

 too small to be represented separately ; but 

 on the second day the region was brilliantly 

 white. The date of the event corresponded 

 with the end of the southern winter of Mars, 

 or with the middle of our February; the 

 event itself was a snow-storm. 



The fibrous plants of the island and their 

 capabilities will furnish an important depart- 

 ment of the exhibition to be held in Jamaica 

 in January, 1891. Among the native plants 

 of this class are those of the aloe, banana, 

 pineapple, plantain, and nettle families. 

 The managers particularly desire to have a 

 full showing of machines for extracting 

 fibers ; and liberal prizes have been offered 

 for the best, provided that no less than three 

 manufacturers compete. Small and inex- 

 pensive machines are preferred. 



Two theories in regard to the treatment 

 of milk have been tested at the Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, at Cornell University, 

 and both proved mistaken. The way gener- 

 ally practiced for getting the most cream 

 from milk is to set the milk in deep cans in 

 ice water. It has been asserted that the 

 addition of an equal quantity of water, either 

 hot or cold, to fresh milk in deep cans would 

 secure rapid and complete creaming. The 

 experiments show that the proposed treat- 

 ment is not nearly as effective as the ac- 

 cepted one ; moreover, when hot water was 

 added, the milk was sour at the end of 

 twenty-four hours, and in some cases the 

 cream was injured for butter-making. Set- 

 ting in shallow pans in the air was found to 

 give better results than any other practice, 

 except deep setting in ice-water. 



In a paper read at the meeting of the 

 American Association, Prof. J. E. Siebel 

 sought to show that certain fixed relations 

 exist between the quality of a water and the 

 geologic horizon from which it is derived in 

 a given locality, and that by measuring and 

 analyzing supplies of different depths, with 

 proper precautions, considerable informa- 

 tion can be obtained. In applying his meth- 

 od to the underground water-supply of Chi- 

 cago, the author found that at least six 

 waters could be differentiated in that neigh- 

 borhood, each having a well-defined and 

 pronounced character. 



Some new Indiana crustacean fossils, de- 

 scribed by Charles E. Newlin, are found 

 about half a mile south of Kokomo, in a 

 single ledge of the water limestone of the 

 lower Helderberg formation. They are foot- 

 prints, and appear to be new to the paleon- 

 tology of Indiana, 



