NOTES. 



431 



on the subject, with the present methods of 

 teaching the science, and of the desire for 

 important changes. 



Mr. T. Mellard Ke.ide has projected a 

 now theory of the origin of luountaitis, 

 which contradicts all the other theories. 

 Having shown that periods of great sedi- 

 mentary deposit precede the birth of every 

 large mountain-chain, he supposes, as Bab- 

 bage has proved, that a great elevation of 

 temperature ensues, producing expansions 

 of the strata. These being prevented from 

 spreading horizontally by the rigid mass of 

 the earth's crust that bounds the local area, 

 can only swell upward and cause those ridges 

 which we know as mountains. The author 

 has tried experiments in the mechanical ef- 

 fects of expansion by heat on various rocks, 

 and has found a similar result in miniature 

 produced upon them. 



Barrels are made in Jersey for the use 

 of the Channel Islands farmers which will 

 fold up when empty, and thus, having been 

 sent to market, can be packed into a small 

 space on the return. The staves are fixed 

 upon the hoops so that, the heads being re- 

 moved, they may be rolled up. They are 

 made perfect cylinders, and therefore oc- 

 cupy less space for the same capacity than 

 ordinary barrels. 



Sir James Paget spoke at a school fes- 

 tival, some time ago, of the importance of 

 " learning how to learn," and showed that 

 knowledge not immediately useful in itself 

 may be the means of developing the power 

 of learning in the mind acquiring it. The 

 cultivation of the faculty of knowing is of 

 incomparably greater importance than the 

 mere acquisition of knowledge ; and to the 

 student this faculty, so developed that when 

 need arises, knowledge may be quickly ob- 

 tained, is a better provision for the business 

 of life than is afforded by the largest and 

 richest stores of information packed away 

 in the memory; thus the brain -property 

 most worth carrying about is the power of 

 finding at pleasure and learning at will pre- 

 cisely what is wanted. 



Oyster-cultdre has had a great develop- 

 ment in France. Thus, while in 1857 there 

 were in the Bay of Arcachon twenty parks, 

 or district oyster-bods, in 1865 there were 

 297 beds, producing 10,000,003 oysters an- 

 nually; and there are now 15,000 acres 

 of beds, yielding an annual supply of 300,- 

 000,000 oysters. From Auray, on the coast 

 of Brittany, 7,000,000 oysters were sent to 

 market in lS76-'77; in 1885, the num- 

 bers exceeded 70,000,000. On the other 

 hand, the British oyster-industry has de- 

 clined ; and the coast which furnished an- 

 cient Rome with oysters, and within a gen- 

 eration exported then to Paris, now ranks 

 low in the list of oyster-nurseries. 



The recent International Hygienic Con- 

 gress at Vienna was attended by twenty-two 

 hundred and fifty members. M. Brouardel 

 spoke upon typhoid fever, which he said 

 was a far more dangerous disease to man 

 than cholera. Concerning its origin — wheth- 

 er from the decomposition of organic mat- 

 ter or from specific virus — there was still an 

 open question. Herr Pettenkofer, in a lect- 

 ure on hygienic instruction in universities 

 and technical schools, dwelt on the necessity 

 of spreading hygienic principles among all 

 classes of society. He referred to the sta- 

 tistics of mortality of London as showing 

 how hygienic piety there had been rewarded. 



The climate of the Sandwich Islands is 

 peculiarly adapted to the cultivation of rice 

 of a superior quality and in groat quantity, 

 its evenness of temperature permitting the 

 raising of two crops a year without any par- 

 ticular strain upon the soil. The crops are 

 raised in fields called patches, most of which 

 were formerly used by the natives for rais- 

 ing taro, and which are often not more than 

 an acre in extent. The fields are situated 

 in the lowlands, where abundant irrigation 

 can be obtained, and sometimes on slight 

 elevations where artesian wells can be suc- 

 cessfully established, and are the highest- 

 priced lands in the kingdom. The cultiva- 

 tion is almost entirely in the hands of the 

 Chinese. 



Mr. Matall, a London photographer- 

 claims to have perfected a system of pho, 

 tography in colors. He takes a negative 

 on a specially sensitized plate ; from this a 

 positive is produced on a chemically treated 

 basis by the aid of a solar camera and a 

 spectroscopic arrangement. The image is 

 produced in colors on the basis without the 

 aid of hand-work or brush. The colors are 

 said to be all hydrocarbons, specially pre- 

 pared and capable of subdivision to the 

 ISO-millionth of an inch. When the colored 

 picture is produced by chemical action, the 

 image exists between two films not more 

 than the hundredth part of an inch in thick- 

 ness. These photographs are said to be 

 permanent and not affected by climate. 



M. Wiectk has observed that the work- 

 men in the petroleum-mines of the Carpathi- 

 ans, having to breathe an air contaminated 

 with various hydrocarbons, carbonic acid 

 and oxide, and sulphureted hydrogen, are 

 not rarely subject to asphyxia. They are 

 also exposed to tingling in the cars, dazzling, 

 beating of the arteries of the head, syncopes, 

 and hallucinations of usually an agreeable 

 character. The respiration of petroleum- 

 vapors induces at first feelings of lightness 

 in the breast and greater freedom in breath- 

 ing, but in the end palpitations and general 

 weakness. The rareness of consumption 

 and infectious and epidemic diseases among 

 the workmen is remarked upon. 



