NOTES. 



287 



Thk deleterious effect of arsenic upon 

 the siiin was recently discussed in the Patho- 

 logical Society of London, after a communi- 

 cation by Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson. The 

 skin is the tissue on which arsenic has per- 

 haps its most marked influence. The poi- 

 son may spoil the complexion instead of im- 

 proving it, by making it muddy and un- 

 sightly. A similar action is exhibited in 

 all parts of the skin, and may lead to the 

 development of soft corns, not warts, in the 

 palms of the hand and soles of the feet, 

 where a roughened condition also grows up 

 under its influence. Mr. Hutchinson ex- 

 pressed the belief that arsenic can produce 

 epithelial cancer. 



Assuming that the coincidence of the 

 earth's perihelion passage with the summer 

 solstice every twenty-one thousand years 

 marks the regular recurrence of a northern 

 glacial period, M. Adolphe d'Assier has cal- 

 culated that the last glacial period reached 

 its culmination in 9250 b. c, and that the 

 alternating period of greatest warmth in 

 the northern hemisphere occurred a. d. 

 1250, after which we immediately began to 

 move toward the next glacial period, which 

 will reach its height in, say, a. d. 11,750. 

 Hence the north must have been growing 

 cooler during the last six hundred years. 

 Evidence is not wanting, M. d'Assier as- 

 serts, in changes that have been observed 

 in the northern limits of growth and ripen- 

 ing of certain plants, that this has been the 

 case, and he names several instances. 



Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, in a paper on Dr. 

 Thomas H. Street's collection of birds' sterna 

 and skulls, mentions as a fact long well 

 known to him, which is illustrated by speci- 

 mens in the collection, that there are a 

 great many species of North American birds 

 that gradually increase in size as we pass 

 from the southern parts of the country to- 

 ward the north. 



The Congo in the neighborhood of Stan- 

 ley Falls, according to the account of an 

 English engineer formerly in the service of 

 the Free State, is so full of islands that an 

 uninterrupted view from bank to bank is 

 obtained at only three or four points. The 

 misleading statement, without mention of 

 the islands, that both shores are seldom 

 visible at the same time, has given rise to 

 mistaken and exaggerated ideas of the size 

 of the river. The great plain, some five 

 hundred miles in extent, through which it 

 runs here, is covered for the most part with 

 dense tropical jungle, abounding in rare 

 and valuable forms of plant-life. Tree- 

 ferns, and many varieties of orchids yet 

 undescribed, are common, as well as the 

 wild coffee shrub, several kinds of plants 

 yielding India-rubber, mahogany, and other 

 splendid timber-trees. 



A CURIOUS combat between two hawks 

 and an owl is described in Major-General 

 Ncwhall's "Highlands of India." The 

 three birds first performed a preliminary 

 series of upward gyrations, each endeavor- 

 ing to get a position of advantage above the 

 other. Finally one of the hawks made 

 good his stroke, and both birds fell to the 

 ground Uke a stone. When the author rode 

 up, the little hawk was standing in the atti- 

 tude of a conqueror on the owl's body, 

 whose head he had twisted off and held in 

 his claw. 



The world consumes annually, accord- 

 ing to an English authority in the trade, 

 about 650,000 tons of coffee, and produces 

 a corresponding quantity. Estimating the 

 average price at $400 a ton, this represents 

 a value of $260,000,000. Jamaica coffee is 

 the finest grown, but only furnishes about 

 5,000 tons. East Indian and Ceylon coffees 

 are of very high quality, but they do not 

 together produce more than 25,000 tons. 

 The Ceylon crop used to be more important 

 than it is, but has been reduced in conse- 

 quence of a disease of the plants. The 

 average crop of Java is from 60,000 to 90,- 

 000 tons, and that of Brazil from 340,000 

 to 380,000 tons. Costa Rica and the other 

 Central American states also export coffee. 



While it appears from the records of 

 English health officers that some diseases 

 have special seasons in which they are most 

 likely to prevail, it is not shown that occa- 

 sional variations in temperature have much 

 influence in the matter. Scarlet fever is at 

 its minimum from January to May, and at 

 its maximum in October and November. 

 Diphtheria is more evenly distributed 

 through the year, and is most dangerous a 

 little later than scarlet fever. Measles and 

 whooping-cough seem to be somewhat as- 

 gravated by cold weather, but are most fatal 

 in May and June. Hot weather is adverse 

 to small-pox, and favorable to disorders of 

 the bowels, particularly in children. 



Running to catch trains is declared to 

 be dangerous, not only on account of the 

 immediate perils it involves, but also be- 

 cause it tends in the long run to shorten 

 life. We — at least persons who have passed 

 middle age — have only a certain amount of 

 reserve force, and all that we draw upon in 

 hurries is abstracted from that which should 

 be distributed through the remainder of 

 life. The secret of longevity is probably 

 skill in so economizing the reserve of vital 

 energy as to make it last out an unusual 

 period. Persons who begin unusual exer- 

 cises in youth may adapt their constitutions 

 to the habit, and may thereby hold on to 

 their full term of life ; but this can not be 

 done safely if one waits till mature age be- 

 fore beginning. 



