NOTES. 



383 



into fragments does not appear. It must 

 have had a large collection of waters, a 

 sea, which has likewise been dispersed, 

 and which now is to be found in meteoric 

 swarms, and in comets. The peculiarity 

 of meteorites, as compared with our globe, 

 consists, he says, in the circumstance that 

 we find in the former more products of 

 reduction, and, except the earths, no per- 

 fect oxides. Thus, in meteorites we find 

 no ferric oxide, but metallic iron, sulphide 

 of iron, and phosphide of nickel-iron. Upon 

 our globe phosphorus occurs only as phos- 

 phoric acid. Hence the hypothetical planet 

 where the meteorites originated must have 

 been smaller than our globe, and have had 

 a less dense atmosphere containing less free 

 oxygen. The specific gravity of most me- 

 teorites agrees with the calculated density 

 of the planetoids between Mars and Jupiter. 



A Sonnd-prodnciug Spider. In the "Pro- 

 ceedings " of the Bengal Asiatic Society is 

 given an account of a gigantic stridulating 

 spider, from Assam. The sound-producing 

 apparatus of this spider (a species of Mygale) 

 consists of a comb, composed of a number of 

 highly-elastic chitinous rods, situated on 

 the inner face of the so-called maxillae, and 

 of a scraper, formed of an irregular row of 

 sharp spines on the outer surface of the 

 antennal claws. This apparatus is equally 

 well developed in both sexes, as in most 

 coleopterous insects, and is not confined to 

 the males, as in the Orthoptera, Homoptera, 

 and the stridulating spiders (Theridion), ob- 

 served by Westring, in all of which the ex- 

 clusive purpose of the sounds seems to be 

 to charm or call the opposite sex. 



NOTES. 



The Royal Society of London has re- 

 ceived from Mr. Phillips Jodrell 6,000 to 

 be applied, principal as well as interest, to 

 the encouragement of original research in 

 the physical sciences. Mr. Jodrell's object 

 in making this gift is to ascertain, by prac- 

 tical experiment, to what extent the progress 

 of original research is retarded in England 

 by the want of public support, and in what 

 form an increased measure of support would 

 be most likely to promote its development. 



Chlorine was first employed industrially 

 by Robert Hall, at White's bleach-works, 

 near Nottingham. He procured from Ger- 

 many a vial of chlorine-water, but the first 



experiment was not successful. The solu- 

 tion, being too strong, destroyed the fabric, 

 but by degrees the new agent became man- 

 ageable. The use of lime by Tennant, of 

 Glasgow, in 1798, as an absorbent of chlorine, 

 seems to have over-shadowed these early 

 results. 



In the Tribune mention is made of a 

 paper recently read before the French Acad- 

 emy of Inscriptions, upon the determination 

 of the age of the third pyramid at Ghizeh. 

 It appears that M. Chabas, an Egyptologist, 

 has succeeded in deciphering in the Ebers 

 papyrus a certain hieroglyph, which he finds 

 to represent the name of Menkeres, the 

 builder of that pyramid. An astronomical 

 note in the manuscript states that the helia- 

 cal rising of Sothis (the star Sirius) occurred 

 in the ninth year of the reign of Menkeres. 

 The astronomer Biot now made calculations 

 to fix the time of this heliacal rising of 

 Sirius, and found that it must have taken 

 place between the years 3010 and 3007 b. c. 



Dr. W. B. Richardson attributes the 

 high vitality of Jews, as shown in statistics, 

 to their strict observance of certain sani- 

 tary laws respecting diet, cleanliness, and 

 abstinence from strong drink. 



A Tasmanian correspondent of Nature 

 relates an instance of extraordinary tenacity 

 of life exhibited by an eel. Seven years ago 

 an eel, which had been slightly injured, was 

 placed along with other eels in a tank from 

 which they were taken as required. This 

 tank was fitted with finely-perforated zinc 

 at each end, through which nothing but the 

 most minute organisms could pass ; other- 

 wise it was perfectly tight. The injured eel 

 was left after the others had been taken out, 

 and so on again and again, when other lots 

 were put in and removed. " It is still in 

 the tank, perfectly transparent, and quite 

 white, and is to all appearance healthy and 

 lively enough." 



Died, March 2, 1876, in Washington, at 

 the early age of twenty-eight years, Archi- 

 bald R. Marvine. In an obituary notice, 

 published in the American Journal of Sci- 

 ence and Arts, it is stated that Mr. Marvine 

 graduated in 1870 from the Hooper Mining 

 School, Harvard University; the same year 

 he accompanied the Santo Domingo Expedi- 

 tion as assistant geologist ; in 1871 he served 

 as astronomer to the Wheeler Expedition, at 

 the same time doing work as a geologist ; 

 in 1873 he was appointed geologist of the 

 Hayden Survey Expedition. The hardships 

 and privations he endured in the wilderness 

 of Colorado undermined his health, and 

 since the early winter of 1874-75 he had 

 been incapacitated for field-work. 



The decrease in the number of small-pox 

 cases in the Punjab, since the introduction 

 of vaccination, is very striking. In 1869 



