NOTES. 



719 



Professor Mcshketoff describes the ef- 

 fects of the operations of tlic marmots in 

 modifying the surface of the Siberian steppes 

 as important. Their heaps of earth cover 

 hundreds of square miles, and each one of 

 them represents at least two cubic metres 

 of earth removed, or about 30,000 cubic 

 metres brought to the surface on each square 

 kilometre. 



The survey and last census of India 

 show that the area of the peninsula of Hin- 

 dostan is 1,38:2,021 square miles, and tlie 

 population 253,891,821. Although immense 

 tracts of country are annually cultivated, ten 

 million acres of land suitable for cultivation 

 have not as yet been plowed ; and one hun- 

 dred and twenty million acres arc returned 

 a3 waste lands. 



M. JoTis, Director of the Aeronautic 

 Union of France, has found a satisfactory 

 varnish for textile materials. It is described 

 as being of great flexibility, as containing 

 no oleaginous base, and, while adding little 

 to the weight, as conferring great imperme- 

 ability. It is well adapted for balloons, 

 marine cordage, sails, tents, and similar 

 structures ; is suitable for paintings and 

 wainscotings ; is exempt from moldiness ; 

 can be exposed to very varied temperatures 

 without alteration ; and furnishes sub-prod- 

 ucts which can be utilized for coating walls, 

 railway-sleepers, etc. 



Professor W. Mattieu Williams offers 

 as a better explanation than the old one of 

 the zigzag course of lightning, that owing to 

 variations of moisture the conducting power 

 of different portions of air is variable, and 

 the electric discharge follows the course of 

 least resistance. 



Experience at the Winter Palace of the 

 Czar at St. Petersburg indicates that the 

 electric light injures the exotic plants used 

 for the decoration of the rooms by causing 

 the leaves to turn yellow, dry up, and fall off. 

 The experiments of Dr. Siemens led him to 

 a different conclusion, but his greenhouse 

 was heated by the waste steam from the 

 engine diiving his dynamo, and this perhaps 

 was of beneficial effect sufiicient to counter- 

 act the mischief done by the light. 



An effective composition for a " hand- 

 grenade " fire-extinguisher is, common salt, 

 19-46 ; sal ammoniac, 8-88 ; water, 71-60 ; or 

 20 pounds of salt, 10 pounds of sal ammo- 

 niac, and 7 gallons of water. The flask 

 should be of thin glass, so that when thrown 

 with force againsi any object, it wiil fall to 

 pieces. The grenades, costing but little, 

 can be distributed freely all over the prem 

 ises to be protected ; and, should a fire oc- 

 cur, break a bottle or several bottles over 

 it, and the disaster will probably be averted- 



M. BoNNAL has observed, by experiment, 

 that hot baths induce a loss of weight caused 

 by the sweating, which lasts for about twen- 

 ty-four hours. It is compensated for by in- 

 creased drinking and diminished urinary 

 secretion. Uaths of dry hot air provoke a 

 sweat that ceases on coming out of the 

 bath, while the perspiration provoked by 

 warm-water baths and warm moist-air baths 

 lasts frequently for an hour after the bath 

 is over. The nervous incidents of the bath, 

 such as the acceleration of the pulse and of 

 respiration, make their appearance before 

 the central temperature exhibits any eleva- 

 tion. 



J. Chalmers Robertson, M. B., relates 

 in " The Lancet " the case of a family whom 

 he had attended, who were poisoned from 

 eating bread in which mold had developed 

 itself. Every member who had partaken of 

 the loaf in ordinary quantity had been made 

 ill ; one member who had merely eaten a 

 small piece, felt uncomfortable ; those who 

 did not eat any remained well. The sjTnp- 

 toms were diarrhoea and pain in the epi- 

 gastrium. The author suggests from this 

 experience, that it is possible that we may 

 have in undetected diseased bread an im- 

 portant factor in the causation of diarrhoea 

 which we would not readily suspect. 



Persons whose plants mysteriously sick- 

 en and die out, may learn from the expe- 

 rience of Dr. J. W. L. Thudicum, as related 

 by him to the London Society of Arts. He 

 watered a frame of flourishing young wall- 

 flowers, the ordinary tap being dry, with 

 water of at least suspicious purity from 

 another tap. The plants were soon infected 

 with a fungus, and in a short time the 

 frame did not contain a healthy, hardly a 

 living plant. For two summers the mignon- 

 ettes in a conservatory were destroyed by 

 a root-fungus which distorted the plants and 

 made them sickly and short-lived. The only 

 way in which this parasite could be got rid 

 of was by destroying the earth and all wood- 

 en boxes by fire, and growing no mignonette 

 in the conservatory for two years. 



Mr. Maignen made last year a success- 

 ful and satisfactory exhibition of his process 

 for softening water by means of the mate- 

 rial called " anti-calcaire." Steam-boilers 

 which had already become slightly incrusted 

 with lime, were worked for two years with 

 water softened by anti-calcaire without at- 

 tention. When opened, they were wholly 

 free from incrustation, showing that the 

 material had not only prevented the effect 

 taking place, but had also destroyed what 

 incrustations had already accrued. 



A COLLECTION of specimcns of poisonous 

 fishes is shown in connection with the ex- 

 hibition recently opened in Havre, France. 



