NOTES. 



H3 



Mr. H. Stuart 'Wortley, of the South 

 Kensing on Museum, has been led, by long 

 and careful attention given to the observa- 

 tion of animals, to consider that they have 

 true reasoning powers, and says on this sub- 

 ject : " I have frequently seen reasoning 

 power exercised after obvious thought over 

 the best course to pursue. Then, are ani- 

 mals speechless among themselves ? I think 

 not, and believe they speak freely to one 

 another at needed times, in their own lan- 

 guage. And I certainly with my own do- 

 mestic animals can understand in a certain 

 sense their language. I clearly know what 

 they ask for, or what they wish to call my 

 attention to, from the tone of the voice 

 and its modulations, and this is, I assume, 

 language as regards them." 



Professor IIelmiioltz has been appoint- 

 ed President of the Kuratorium of the 

 Physical and Technical Imperial Institution 

 which is to be opened at Berlin in 1888. 

 Dr. Werner Siemens, the founder of the 

 Institution, and Dr. FiJrster, the Director of 

 the Berlin Observatory, will also be cura- 

 tors. 



AccoRDiXG to Mr. John Ball's "Notes 

 of a Naturalist in South America," the vari- 

 ous ports along the arid coast of Peru, 

 destitute of verdure, reveal upon close ex- 

 amination the presence of plant-life. At 

 Coquimbo veritable bushes and a greenish- 

 gray tint on the surface of the soil were 

 visible, and specimens were obtained of 

 some curious and rare plants in flower pe- 

 culiar to the vicinity, among them a dwarf 

 cactus only three or four inches in height, 

 with comparatively large crimson flowers. 



An appearance as of being hollowed out 

 has been remarked ia the surface of the 

 hard, green sandstone rocks, near Lima, 

 Peru, and was ascribed by Sir Charles Lyell 

 to the result of water-action on ancient and 

 subsequently elevated sea -beaches. Mr. 

 Nation, of Lima, however, who has been 

 observing the rocks for twenty-five years, 

 is satisfied that the hollows are increasing 

 in size and in number. He believes that 

 they are the work of a cryptogamic plant, 

 a lichen, which is in active vegetation dur- 

 ing the foggy season, the swelling of whose 

 cells causes a scaling of the rock. 



A NEW telephonic apparatus, called the 

 "Micro-tehnhonc Push-button," has been 

 successfully experimented with in Paris. It 

 has the form of an ordinary electric push- 

 button, and is so sensitive that in speaking 

 at short distances there is no need to come 

 close to the instrument. Persons using it 

 may speak in their ordinary tone, walk 

 about, and act as if they were conversing 

 with some person in the room. The para- 

 graph from which we derive this item inti- 

 mates that the perfection of the instrument 



is due to the inventor having resided in 

 America, where his inventive talent was 

 stimulated. 



Mr. Clement Reed, of Oneglia, believes 

 that the destructive effects of the earth- 

 quake in the Riviera may have been more 

 owing to the method of building than to 

 the violence of the shocks. The walls of 

 the houses at Oneglia and at Diano Marina 

 are built of rounded stones or rubble, filled 

 in with stucco, and the floors with brick 

 arches, without sufficient care being given 

 to lateral support ; and the houses are usu- 

 ally three or four stories high. It is evi- 

 dent that even a slight shaking would be fa- 

 izA to buildings thus constructed. 



Mr. Chamberlain, in his monograph on 

 the Ainos, asserts, on the authority of the 

 Rev. Mr. Batcheler, who has lived among 

 that people, for many years, that intermar- 

 riages between them and the Japanese are 

 not fruitful, and conduce to weakly offspring 

 and a short-lived stock. There seems, there- 

 fore, to be a kind of reproductive incom- 

 patibility between the two races. The oc- 

 cupation of the northern islands by the 

 Japanese in place of the Ainos, who are 

 diminishing, or of a half-breed race which 

 is not found, may be accounted for by the 

 unfruitfulness of the half-breeds, and by 

 the superior vigor of the Japanese race to 

 the Ainos. 



Mrs. Hardwicke, widow of the founder 

 of "Science Gossip," preserves eggs fresh 

 by carefully oiling them with a soft brush 

 all over, and packing them in a jar with 

 plenty of bran between each layer. A thick 

 brown paper should be tied over the jar 

 when it is full. "When eaten at three 

 months old," she says, "you could not tell 

 them from fresh eggs." 



The announcement is provocative of 

 thought that the invitation which the Gov- 

 ernment of New South Wales gave last year 

 to the British Association to meet in Sydney 

 in January, 1888, has had to be withdrawn, 

 because the matter had been made a party 

 question in the New South Wales Parlia- 

 ment. The fact illustrates anew the truth 

 that science and current politics will not 

 mix. 



According to the observations of 5L 

 Cazeneuve, the aniline dyes — fuchsine, Bor- 

 deaux red, red, purple-red, etc. — employed 

 in coloring wines, may persist for many 

 years in certain wines, and be obtained in- 

 tact therefrom by analysis. The chemical 

 changes that wine undergoes, especially in 

 the " stripping " of new wines, lead to the 

 precipitation of a greater or less amount of 

 the artificial coloring agent. The diseases 

 produced by microphytes also cause a dis- 

 appearance of color. 



