NOTES. 



719 



stances, be taken advantage of to check the 

 tendency to form fat, but these specialties 

 of the chemico-nutritive function are by no 

 means common ; and, speaking generally, it 

 must be said that, except by starving the 

 body as a whole, fatness can not be pre- 

 vented." The exceptions to this rule are 

 chiefly such as may be explained on the 

 principle of a special tissue appetite. Thus 

 some persons have a tendency to form mus- 

 cle in excess, others to build up the nerves ; 

 and the last will grow thin while feeding 

 well ; and there are, in this way, persons 

 whose specialty it is to make adipose tissue, 

 and they will wax fat even when other parts 

 of the organization are relatively in a con- 

 dition approaching starvation. These and 

 many other matters have to be taken into ac- 

 count when calculating the probabilities or 

 improbabilities of success in the endeavor to 

 diminish the fatness of any person by a sys- 

 tem of dieting. Drugs, except when intelli- 

 gently directed to some special morbid con- 

 dition, have just as little influence in the 

 matter. 



Inflncnza and Children's Growth. A 



systematic course of observations of the 

 growth in weight of the children in the Deaf- 

 mute Institution at Copenhagen has been 

 kept up for seven years. Among the most 

 striking results is the fact that the princi- 

 pal increase takes place in the fall months. 

 Last fall (1889) the influenza appeared in 

 Copenhagen toward the end of November. 

 Six of the professors of the institution were 

 attacked, while no pronounced cases were 

 developed among the pupils. At the same 

 time, for four weeks after the 23d of No- 

 vember, the weight of the boys increased 

 only two fifths as rapidly as it had done in 

 the corresponding weeks of the previous 

 years, while the girls gained nothing. It is 

 supposed that the vital force that usually 

 went to increase of weight was for this occa- 

 sion used up in resisting the germs of the 

 disease. 



NOTES. 



The conclusions expressed by Prof. Key, 

 in the November number of the Monthly, re- 

 specting periods of growth in school chil- 

 dren, seem to be confirmed by the measure- 

 ments of Dr. Henry P. Bowditch in the 

 schools of Boston. From these measure- 



ments, Dr. Bowditeh observed in the Na- 

 tional Academy of Sciences, it was shown 

 that the big boys and girls get their growth 

 earlier in life than the small boys and girls. 

 The latter make up their relative proportion, 

 but not till about aycar later in life. The same 

 fact was proved regarding height and weight. 

 There was also shown to be a period of what 

 the author called " female superiority," when 

 the girls are the superiors in height and 

 weight of the boys of the same age. This 

 age is from about fourteen to sixteen years. 



Experiments are being tried in Germany 

 in making horseshoes of a material the 

 chief constituent of which is paper. It is 

 said to fit to the hoof better than the iron 

 shoe, to be impervious to water, and to grow 

 rough under use, so as to become a safe- 

 guard against slipping. 



M. Armand Vire has discovered some 

 dozen rocks in the valley of the Lunain, 

 France, covered with smooth furrows run- 

 ning in various directions, which the people 

 there believe to be scratchings of the devil's 

 claws. They were used, it is supposed, dur- 

 ing the Quaternary epoch, for finishing off 

 the stone hatchets. 



A portable boat has been devised by 

 Colonel Apostoloff, of the Russian army, 

 which may be constructed instantly by mak- 

 ing a framework with the lances of the Cos- 

 sacks and covering with a tarred cloth. Two 

 boats are capable of carrying thirty-six men, 

 with their baggage and arms. 



MM. Fremt and Verneuil have contin- 

 ued their experiments in the manufacture of 

 artificial rubies, which attracted attention 

 several years ago, and, improving their pro- 

 cesses, have made it successful on a con- 

 siderable scale. They now obtain crystals 

 weighing a third of a carat. In their later 

 processes they add carbonate of potash to 

 crude alumina, with bichromate of potash 

 for color. The process, with the agitation 

 of fluoride of barium, is continued for a 

 week without interruption, at a temperature 

 of 1350 C. Several times in the course of 

 their experiments they have observed the 

 red crystals of the ruby formed along with 

 the violet and blue crystals of the sapphire. 

 Mineralogy as well as jewelry is likely to 

 profit by "these operations, which are destined 

 to cast light upon the coloring of gems. 



Painted human bones have been found 

 by Prof. Vasselovski in two prehistoric graves 

 in the Crimea. Such bones had previously 

 been found in three other graves. They are 

 supposed to belong to the original inhabit- 

 ants of the Crimea, the Cimmerians of Herod- 

 otus, who laid their dead on elevated spots 

 till the birds consumed the flesh, and painted 

 the skeletons, when they were bleached, with 

 some mineral pigment. Painted skeletons 

 have also been found in central Asia. 



