NOTES. 



719 



of chromium increases the strength of gold 

 enormously, while the same amount of bis- 

 muth reduces the tenacity to a very low 

 point. Chromium, cobalt, tungsten, titani- 

 um, cadmium, zirconium, and lithium are 

 already well known in the arts, and the 

 valuable properties which metallic chro- 

 mium and tungsten confer upon steel are 

 beginning to be generaUy recognized. 



NOTES. 



The Electrical Engineer begins the new 

 year with the publication of the first of a 

 series of articles on the electrical and mag- 

 netic discoveries of Prof. Joseph Henry, by 

 his daughter, Miss Mary A. Henry, of Wash- 

 ington, with notes by Mr. Franklm Leonard 

 Pope. Additional interest is given to these 

 articles by the fact that the author will en- 

 deavor in them to substantiate the claim 

 that Prof. Henry was the original discoverer 

 of magneto-electricity. 



A German physician, Dr. Krug, claims 

 that he has discovered how to make an eat- 

 able and nutritious cake with wood. His 

 method consists in transforming the cellulose 

 into grape sugar, a substance assimilable by 

 the animal organism. The biscuit is made 

 by adding to this about forty per cent of 

 meal of wheat, oats, or rye. Phosphates 

 and all the bone elements may also be nitro- 

 duced. This bread of wood-glucose is in- 

 tended to be fed to cattle, for which it will 

 take the place of oil-cakes and other feeds 

 composed of industrial wastes. 



TiiK Council of the School of Mines in 

 England has determined that the room at 

 South Kensington containing the library of 

 research presented by Prof. Huxley to the 

 institution, and in which he taught for nearly 

 twenty years, shall be entirely set apart as the 

 Huxley Laboratory for Biological Reseach. 

 An endowment of one thousand pounds be- 

 queathed for the establishment of a prize 

 or scholarship in biology, has become avail- 

 able, together with the scientific books and 

 instrum"ents, and its proceeds will be appro- 

 priated annually in aid of a student in this 

 laboratory, which now has provision for two 

 students. 



Ma. Albkrt Koebele, of our Bureau of 

 Entomology, who is studying the enemies of 

 insect pests in the Australasian colonies, 

 was recently introduced by Sir James Hec- 

 tor to the Wellington Philosophical Society, 

 New Zealand, as a naturalist whose work in 

 securing the'Vedalia lady-bird to destroy 

 the Iceria pest of the California orchards is 

 " one of the grandest things in the interest 

 of fruit and" tree growers that have been 

 effected in modern times." 



A CORRESPONDENT of the Gcncva (Switz- 

 erland) Tribune relates that his family were 

 disturbed one evening by a mysterious nng- 

 ino- of the electric bells all over the house. 

 Investigating the cause, the writer found 

 that a large spider had established itself at 

 a point where the bell and the electric light 

 wires ran close to one another, with one leg 

 on either wire, thus establishing a connec- 

 tion. 



A SPECIMEN of prehistoric hatchets of pe- 

 cuhar form was exhibited by M. Villanova, 

 of Piera, at the meeting of the French Asso- 

 ciation. About two hundred of them had 

 been found at Elcho. They were simple em- 

 blems or images of a hatchet, made of a 

 thin blade of metal, ornamented on both 

 sides from one end to the other, and without 

 edges. At the top is a kind of cup suggest- 

 in^ a socket that does not exist, and repre- 

 senting, probably, the jet of the casting. 



Java is said to be the region of the 

 globe where it thunders oftenest, having 

 thunderstorms on ninety-seven days in the 

 year. After it are Sumatra, with eighty-six 

 days- Hindustan, with fifty-six; Borneo, 

 with fifty-four ; the Gold Coast, with fifty- 

 twe ; and Rio de Janeiro, with fifty-one. In 

 Europe Italy occupies the first place, with 

 thirty-eight days of thunder, while France 

 and "southern Russia have sixteen days, 

 Great Britain and Switzerland seven days, 

 and Norway only four days. Thunder is 

 rare at Cairo, being heard on only three 

 days in the year ; and is extremely rare in 

 northern Turkistan and the polar regions. 

 The northern limit of the region of thunder- 

 storms passes by Cape Ogle, Iceland, Nova 

 Zembla, and the coast of the Siberian Sea. 



A PRIZE of four hundred kronen is of- 

 fered by the Royal Danish Academy of Sci- 

 ences at Copenhagen for investigations on 

 the exact nature and proportions of the 

 more important carbohydrates present at 

 different stages of maturity, in the cereals in 

 most general use. 



The use of aluminum is recommended by 

 Mr. G. L. Addeubrooke, instead of brass, for 

 the framing of photographic lenses and the 

 metal parts of cameras ; for the revolving 

 tripod heads fixed in the base-boards of 

 cameras ; and for developing dishes, for 

 which he regards it as very suitable, for the 

 action of most of the chemicals used in pho- 

 tography is very slight upon it, and, when 

 there is any, the compounds formed would 

 not be harmful. 



In the course of an account of various 

 marriage customs. Dr. A. H. Post refers to 

 a strange sort of symbolical marriage with 

 plants, trees, animals, or inanimate objects, 

 which is supposed to have originated m In- 

 dia. If any one proposes to enter upon a 

 union that "is not in accordance with tradi- 

 tional ideas, it is believed that the ill luck 

 which is otherwise sure to follow may be 



