NOTES. 



43 » 



M. GtJSTAV Le Bon believes that a good 

 place to look for the oiigiu of cholera may 

 be in the volatile ptomaines, or alkaloids of 

 putrefaction emitted by organic substances 

 in the later stages of decay. The ptomaines 

 developed in the earlier stages of putrefac- 

 tion appear according to his researches to be 

 usually solid or liquid, and much less danger- 

 ous than those which escape at a later stage, 

 and which, being volatile, have thus far elud- 

 ed examination. But these last, when taken 

 into the system by the breath, produce deadly 

 effects. M. Le Bon's conclusions on this sub- 

 ject have been derived from observation of 

 the progress of cholera at Kombakonum, in 

 Southern India. 



J. Graber has made experiments with 

 animals of the classes of vertebrates, articu- 

 lates, moUusks, and worms, from which he 

 has determined that the sense of color and 

 the power of perceiving light are more 

 widely distributed than has generally been 

 supposed. The variations in the sense of 

 color among animals are very great. 



SuLiTJELMA, on the Norwegian frontier, 

 in latitude 67^°, 6,000 feet high, and Sar- 

 jektjakko, in Swedish Lapland, 1,000 feet 

 higher, have in turn been put forward as 

 the highest mountain in Sweden. They 

 both have now to give place, on the testi- 

 mony of Dr. Svenouius, to Kcbnekaisse, in 

 Lapland, which is 7,300 feet above the level 

 of the sea. 



Professor W. Mattieu Williams indi- 

 cates as probable sources of nitrogen in soils, 

 and serving as food for plants, the dead 

 bodies of insects, excreta of living insectSj, 

 invisible spores, microbes, and particles of 

 organic fluff which are always floating in 

 the air and liable to adhere to the moistened 

 surface of the soil and of the leaves of the 

 growing plants. To prove the existence of 

 such deposits on leaves, moisten a white 

 pocket-handkerchief and gently rub it over 

 the surface of the leaf of any growing plant 

 in dry weather. No matter how far from 

 the smoke of towns, the soiling of the hand- 

 kerchief will show a deposit of solid matter, 

 of which a considerable proportion is or- 

 ganic. 



Examination in the color-blind test is 

 now obligatory on candidates for masters' 

 and mates' certificates in the British mer- 

 cantile marine. Failure to pass the test does 

 not now prevent the candidate receiving his 

 certificate, as it did when the examinations 

 were first instituted, but the certificate is 

 given with the indorsement, ''The holder has 

 failed to pa-!s the examination in colors." 

 This examination is not yet made obligatory 

 on pilots and men on the " lookout," and 

 this ought to be regarded as a serious omis- 

 sion ; for collisions are certainly more apt 

 lo occur off the coasts, when the vessels are 



under the charge of pilots, than out at sea, 

 where they have been given over to the mas- 

 ters and mates. 



Dr. Hertel, of Copenhagen, has pub- 

 lished the results of a sanitary inspection of 

 the schools of that city, from which it ap- 

 pears that about one third of the pupils are 

 sickly. With respect to the girls, the fact 

 is brought out that " between the ages of 

 twelve and sixteen the number of sickly girls 

 increases till it exceeds that of healthy by 

 ten per cent, except at the age of fourteen, 

 when the figures are equal." Dr. Hertel also 

 made inquiries into the condition of some 

 German schools, and brought out the fact 

 that in a single group of them three fourths 

 of the pupils of the highest class have de- 

 fective eye-sight. 



The Japanese have promulgated a pat- 

 ent law, which seems to be a compilation of 

 various provisions selected from the laws of 

 other countries. The term of protection is 

 fifteen years. Articles "that tend to dis- 

 turb social tranquillity, or demoralize cus- 

 toms and fashions, or are injurious to 

 health," and medicines, arc excepted from 

 its benefits. Among the conditions on 

 which patents are granted, it is prescribed 

 that the articles must have been publicly 

 applied within two years, and that the pat- 

 ents shall become void when the patented 

 inventions have been imported from abroad 

 and sold. 



M. E. Senet claims to have employed a 

 process for electroplating with aluminum, 

 by which the deposition of that metal is 

 effected as easily as is that of copper or sil- 

 ver. He uses a saturated solution of sul- 

 phate of aluminum and a solution of chlo- 

 ride of sodium, keeping them separated by a 

 porous vessel. Under the action of the gal- 

 vanic current a double chloride of aluminum 

 and sodium is formed, which decomposes at 

 once, the aluminum being set free and de- 

 positing itself at the negative electrode up- 

 on whatever object may be placed there to 

 receive it. 



Mr. J. D. Hyatt, in his studies of com- 

 pound eyes and multiple images, remarks 

 as a curious peculiarity of the eyes of the 

 horse-fly that the lenses of the upper and 

 anterior part are much larger than those 

 situated below a median line, the larger 

 facets having at least twice the diameter, or 

 four times the superficial area, of the small- 

 er. The larger lenses form pictures at a 

 plane considerably above the focal plane of 

 the smaller ones. Thus these insects are 

 furnished with eyes of two varieties, corre- 

 sponding to our long sight and short-sight 

 spectacles ; in other words, with telescopic 

 and microscopical eyes, the telescopic look- 

 ing upward and forward and the microscop- 

 ical downward. 



