864 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Experiments have been made by Mr. 

 Saunders, of the Experimental Farms, Otta- 

 wa, in the cultivation of grains from the 

 extreme north of Europe, for the purpose 

 of securing varieties that will ripen in the 

 shortest Canadian summers. Wheat from 

 Lake Ladoga, latitude 69°, ripened from ten 

 to fifteen days earlier than other varieties in 

 cultivation ; a difCerence sufficient to insure 

 its maturing soon enough to escape the ear- 

 liest autumn frosts. This wheat yielded 

 nineteen-fold, and was of satisfactory qual- 

 ity. Onega wheat, from latitude 62° ; bar- 

 ley, from latitude 66° ; and barley and rye 

 from latitude 67° — or from the extreme 

 northern limits at which cereals are grown 

 in Europe in a continental climate — are on 

 trial. 



How dependent schools were, and to 

 some extent still are, on books as contrasted 

 with individual power, is illustrated in the 

 life of the late Prof. Thomas Hill Green. 

 The first time he competed for the Queen's 

 medal at Rugby he complained that, though 

 the judges liked his essay the best, they gave 

 the prize to another boy, " because his essay 

 showed more labor, i. e., came out of thirteen 

 books instead of his own head." In the next 

 competition he was successful, contrary to 

 his own expectation, for the subject was one 

 for which, he says, he had " to consult a va- 

 riety of forty authorities, which I never can 

 succeed in doing well ; I always find that, if 

 I cram myself with the ideas of others, my 

 own all vanish." 



A NEW life-saving jacket — Mr. J. John- 

 son's "Eclipse Life-Belt" — consists of twen- 

 ty corrugated metal tubes joined with dura- 

 ble webbing, so adjusted as to give the tubes 

 a vertical position on the chest and back. It 

 has a supporting power of thirty-two pounds 

 in fresh water. The belt can be readily 

 adapted to the side of a ship's boat to ren- 

 der it unsinkable. 



A SUFFERER from sleeplessness avers that 

 he has found a remedy for his trouble by 

 holding his breath till discomfort is felt, 

 and repeating the process a second and a 

 third time. The " Lancet," while it admits 

 that this method may produce the desired 

 effect, mentions some dangers connected 

 with it which would make its general adop- 

 tion unadvisable. Another victim of insom- 

 nia, regarding the afiiiction as a consequence 

 of mental worry and deficiency of exercise 

 and fresh air, advises hygienic living, mod- 

 eration in eating and drinking, and absti- 

 nence from stimulants. In dealing with 

 severe nervous irritation from mental or 

 physical work, he has found a daily rest an 

 almost essential prelude to sleep at night. 

 This advice is pronounced sensible. 



M. Des Cloizeaux has become President 

 of the French Academy of Sciences ; and M. 

 Hermite has been chosen Vice-President, to 

 become President in turn in 1890. 



The Medico - Chirurgical Society of the 

 Canton of Berne, Switzerland, has offered 

 prizes for the best and next best essays on 

 the question, "Up to what point is there 

 ground for entertaining the criticisms which 

 have been made from a medical point of 

 view on the intellectual overpressure of 

 children in the schools of a Swiss terri- 

 tory ? " Essays of a purely theoretical char- 

 acter, and compilations from books embody- 

 ing facts which the competitor has had no 

 means of personally examining, will not be 

 considered. The essays may be in French 

 or German. 



Mr. Ill Thcrm noticed, in the course of 

 his explorations in British Guiana, that 

 tamed animals of many species — parrots, 

 macaws, trumpeters, monkeys, toucans, 

 etc. — were kept in some of the Indian vil- 

 lages. They take the place of currency. 

 These Indians, not having yet risen to the 

 civilization of a protective system, carry on 

 special occupations in their different vil- 

 lages : thus in one they spin, in another 

 make mats, in a third pottery, in a fourth 

 cassava-mills, etc. Some of the trading is 

 done by barter between the villages, and the 

 balances are adjusted with this living " cur- 

 rency." 



The seventieth birthday of Prof. Von 

 Pettenkofer — the father of hygienic science, 

 as the Gci'mans call him — was celebrated in 

 Munich on the 3d of December, with enthu- 

 siastic demonstrations by the students, and 

 visits and testimonials from scientific and 

 medical men of all parts of Germany. Among 

 those who thus honored him were the civic 

 dignitaries of Munich ; the National Liberal 

 party ; representatives of the royal family ; 

 numerous scientific and medical societies and 

 universities at home and abroad ; the Prussian 

 Minister of Education ; and old pupils. The 

 students had a grand torchlight procession 

 on the evening of the 5th, which was ad- 

 dressed by Pettenkofer, and ended with a 

 shout and a song. 



A COMPENDIUM of transoceanic weather 

 observations — from Walfisch Bay, South Af- 

 rica; Hatzfeldhafen, New Guinea; and the 

 coast of Labrador — has been pubhshed by 

 the " Deutsche Seewarte." The last observa- 

 tions were made by missionaries on the ini- 

 tiative of the "Seewarte." Such observa- 

 tions will hereafter be regularly published 

 in yearly volumes. 



Among the more important papers in the 

 " Year-Book " of the Italian Meteorological 

 Society for 1887 are those of Ferrari on the 

 relations of sun-spots to earth-magnetism, 

 of Pagliani on the relations of cholera and 

 weather, and of Roster on those of the air 

 and health. The "Year-Book" also con- 

 tains a bibhography of all Italian works on 

 meteorology that appeared in 1886. 



An Anthropological Congress is to be 

 held in Vienna in August. 



