NOTES. 



719 



storm, and it will frequently happen that 

 the thunderstorm and the souring occur to- 

 gether, not because the thunder has hastened 

 the souring, but rather because the climatic 

 conditions which have brought the storm 

 have at the same time been such as to cause 

 unusually rapid bacteria growth. 



A vivid sketch was given by Prof. 

 Gruber, of Roumania, in the International 

 Congress of Experimental Psychology, of re- 

 markable associations of color and sound 

 which he had been observing for many 

 years. To a small number among his best- 

 educated patients the sound of the vowel e 

 was accompanied by a sensation of yellow 

 color, of i by blue, of by black, and so on 

 through all the Roumanian vowels and diph- 

 thongs, and to some extent with numbers. 

 The same color was not always induced by 

 the same sound in different persons, but the 

 observations had been carefully tested. 



The Superintendent of the Natal Observa- 

 tory, in his report for 1890-'91, acknowl- 

 edged his obligations to seven ladies, without 

 whose zealous assistance, he says, the greater 

 part of the astronomical computations, etc., 

 would not have been carried out. 



The programme of the sanitary exhibit 

 to be held in connection with the Chicago 

 Exhibition defines its purpose to be to show 

 as adequately as possible the position in 

 which the theory and practice of hygiene 

 stand at the present day. The programme 

 itself is a full one, and includes classes of 

 physical exercise, alimentation, hygiene of 

 dwellings, hotels, lodging-houses, etc., pub- 

 lic baths and lavatories, and numerous other 

 features entering into the detail of hygienic 

 management. — Id connection with this sub- 

 ject we notice a paper on Typhoid Fever in 

 Chicago, by William T. Sedgwick and Allen 

 Hazen, in which the disease is shown to have 

 increased in the city at a fearful rate within 

 recent years. The cause of the increase is 

 attributed to polluted water supply, which 

 efforts are now being made to remedy. 



A new coating for the protection of 

 metalwork and woodwork from the effects of 

 the weather or of water is based on the 

 adaptability of cotton-seed oil to unite with 

 lead. Melted lead is poured into cotton-seed 

 oil under continual stirring, and the mixture 

 is allowed to cool. When the oil is poured 

 off the lead will be found at the bottom, 

 but reduced in weight by the absorption of 

 a part of it in the oil. The operation is 

 repeated, with the lead left at the end of 

 each trial, five times. W T hen cold, the oil 

 has the appearance of thick varnish, and is 

 ready to be applied with a brush or a sponge. 

 This coating unites quickly and firmly with 

 any material. 



The price of platinum recently rose, un- 

 der a speculative combination, nearly to that 

 of gold. This stimulated the discovery of 



new sources of supply, and the price of the 

 metal went down again. There are now 

 forty mines along the course of a single 

 river in the Ural. The grains of ore are ob- 

 tained from the sand by washing. The 

 metal as found is usually associated with 

 gold, iron, osmium, iridium, and other rare 

 metals, and has to be purified from them. 



It is related by the British consul at 

 Cadiz, Spain, in illustration of the perfection 

 with which natural wine can be imitated by 

 modern chemical methods, that he and a 

 friend, visiting one of the native sherry cel- 

 lars there, were given two samples of wine to 

 drink which seemed to be almost identical ; 

 and were told that one was a natural product 

 and very costly ($250 a bottle), while the 

 other was a manufactured product, the mar- 

 ket price of which was only a few cents a 

 bottle. In making the imitation, the natural 

 product is first analyzed, and the chemist, 

 ascertaining the exact nature of its constitu- 

 ent parts, is able to combine them and thus 

 nearly reproduce the original compound. 



The longest balloon ride on record is de- 

 scribed by M. Maurice Mallet, in L'Aeronaute. 

 It was from La Villette, Paris, to Wahlen, in 

 central Germany, and occupied thirty-six 

 hours and ten minutes, from October 23 to 

 the morning of October 25, 1892. The 

 flight was disturbed by snow in the upper 

 regions of the atmosphere, which melted in 

 the lower. During one of its descents the 

 balloon, as is characteristic of the border 

 land, was stopped and examined by a Prus- 

 sian guard, who had galloped after it for a 

 considerable distance. 



The celebration of the three hundredth 

 anniversary of the beginning of Galileo's 

 labors as professor in the University of 

 Padua, December 6, 1892, was attended by 

 the Americans, Prof. William James, of 

 Harvard, and Prof. Allan Marquand, of 

 Princeton. The commemorative oration was 

 by Prof. Antonio Favaro, who has been for 

 fifteen years a student of Galileo, and is 

 editor of the national edition of his works. 

 He spoke chiefly of Galileo at Padua. He 

 was followed by about a dozen of the foreign 

 delegates and some of the Italian delegates. 

 University honors were conferred upon seven 

 foreign scientific men, representative of their 

 several nations, including Prof. Newcomb. 

 Besides some memorial works published by 

 the ancient Academy of Padua, and by the 

 university, the students of the university 

 are about to issue a collection of documents 

 relating to the sojourn of the philosopher at 

 Padua. 



Herr Nagel has succeeded in localizing 

 the sense of taste of sea anemones in their 

 tentacles. A piece of sardine brought care- 

 fully to the tentacles of one of these animals 

 was seized at once by the one touched, then 

 by the others, and was swallowed. A piece 



