FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



287 



study of the starry grasswort will be 

 suggestive in this line. The byways and 

 fields undoubtedly hold many incipi- 

 ently valuable decorative plants which 

 await the discoverer, as truly as do those 

 of the unexplored regions of Asia and 

 Africa." 



An experiment has been tried in New 

 York during the past summer in the 

 way of " vacation schools " for teaching 

 housekeeping and domestic economy. 

 Instruction was given daily in these 

 arts in the public schoolrooms in Front 

 and Oliver Streets and in Hester Street. 

 At Front and Oliver Streets girls were 

 taught to air, clean, and take care of 

 a bedroom; to set table, clean, and take 

 care of a living room; kitchen cleanli- 

 ness ; laundry work — one week being de- 

 voted to each course, and talks were 

 given on furnishing a fiat, the care of 

 a cellar, and the importance of air and 

 sunlight to health. The children were 

 also taught daily to cook appetizing 

 dishes and serve them. At Hester Street 

 more time was given to the cooking les- 

 sons, instruction was given on the feed- 

 ing of babies, and a class in nursing 

 was taught; among other things, emer- 

 gency bandaging, caring for helpless pa- 

 tients, and the hygiene of the sick-room. 



]\Ir. a. p. Coleman, during some 

 geological work last summer on the 

 north shore of Lake Superior, about 

 Heron Bay, discovered a new mineral, 

 which he has named Zyc/'OHife, and which 

 he describes at length in the Journal of 

 Geology for July- August. It is a dike 

 rock, consisting essentially of analeite, 

 orthoclase, plagioclase, and segyrite, the 

 analeite having the character of a base, 

 in which the other minerals form radiat- 

 ing groups of crystals. The analeite 

 clearly represents the magma left after 

 the crystallization of the imbedded min- 

 erals, and it is evident that it can • be 

 formed only from a magma highly 

 charged with water, and therefore un- 

 der pressure. 



From the examination of a number 

 of nearly pure hydrocarbons obtained 

 from American petroleum by Young, it 

 appears that the same classes of hydro- 

 carbons, paraffins, polymethylene com- 

 pounds of naphthenes and aromatic hy- 

 drocarbons are present in these and in 

 Eussian and Galician petroleums; but 



that Russian petroleum contains a rela- 

 tively larger amount of naphthalenes 

 and, in all probability, of aromatic hy- 

 drocarbons, than Galician, and Galician 

 a larger amount of the same hydrocar- 

 bons than American petroleum. 



NOTES. 



An old contributor, Dr. A. F. A. King, 

 of Washington, D. C., writes us calling 

 attention to the interesting fact that 

 we printed an article of his as far back 

 as September, 1883, suggesting the mos- 

 quito theory of malaria, and giving a 

 number of observations which seemed 

 strongly to support this view. 



Experiments made by F. H. Hall 

 and W. P. Wheeler, at the New York 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, re- 

 garding the best food for " chicks, pul- 

 lets, cockerels, and ducklings," seem to 

 indicate conclusively that part of the 

 protein must be drawn from animal 

 sources if we are to get the best results. 

 Rations in which from forty to fifty per 

 cent of the protein was supplied by ani- 

 mal food produced more rapid growth 

 and at less cost of production. 



Messrs. A. Stutzer and Hart- 

 LiEB, of Breslau, have detected bacteria 

 in Portland cements, which provoke the 

 liberation of the nitrogen from nitroge- 

 nous compounds in water, and the for- 

 mation of nitrous and nitric acids that 

 act upon the lime in the cement and 

 promote its disintegration. 



According to Industries and Iron, 

 the tides are now utilized for generat- 

 ing power at Pont-l'Abbe, Finisterre, 

 France, during fourteen hours per day. 

 At flood tide the water flows through a 

 canal two miles and a half inland into 

 a pond in the rear of the power house, 

 and returns to the sea at ebb tide. The 

 total fall is seven feet and a half, and 

 eighty-horse power is generated by 

 means of turbines. Means have been 

 considered for applying this method of 

 generating power to various industries. 



A PROPOSAL, for an International 

 Physical Congress has been accepted by 

 the authorities of the Paris Exposition 

 of 1900, and the congress will be held 

 from the 6th to the 12 th of August, 

 under the auspices of the French Gov- 

 ernment. It immediately precedes the 

 International Electrical Congress. So 

 far as has yet been determined, the sub- 

 jects of the addresses and i-eports will 

 be classified under the headings of the 

 definition and fixing certain units (of 

 pressure, scale of hardness, quantity of 



