216 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [November, 



no religion. A marriage ceremony is not considered necessary, and a state of 

 nature seems to prevail which the anthropologists would find an interesting 

 subject for study. The governor (or autocrat by virtue of his superior strength) 

 has a sort of dependence upon the government of Ecuador, but he rules 

 despotically and maintains his position by a miniature standing army. The 

 islanders raise sugar-cane and make rum from it. They export fruits, hides, 

 mats, and orchilla. The latter is a moss from which a valuable dye-stuff is 

 obtained. 



NOTES. 



Prof. A. H. Tuttle, formerly of the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, has re- 

 cently become professor of biology in the University of Virginia. His wide experience, 

 both as a student and a teacher, and his skill, particularly in microscopical research, 

 will fit him well for his new position. 



Clark University, at Worcester, Mass., has secured as its president Prof. G. Stanley 

 Hall. In his letter of acceptance he intimates an intention to depart widely from the 

 traditions with reference to the character of the institution, and a purpose to institute a 

 new style of instrucdon which shall cause it to take a very high rank among the colleges. 



M. Pasteur has suggested a scheme to relieve the Australian government of the rab- 

 bits, now become a serious pest in that country, by introducing among the rabbits an 

 infection of chicken cholera. It is soon to be given a trial in New South Wales. 



Deaf-mutes, according to figures collected and published by Prof A. Graham Bell, 

 are rapidly on the increase in this country. The effect of taking young deaf persons 

 and housing them together in asylums is that they intermarry, and one-third of the 

 offspring of these intermarriages are born deaf and dumb. The consequence of this, 

 if unchecked, will be the estabhshment of a deaf and dumb variety of the human race. 



The number of physicians in Siberia is said to be in some districts only one to every 

 one hundred thousand inhabitants. Does this speak well for the health of the people, 

 the skill of that single, lonely practitioner, or does it speak ill for the government of 

 Russia ? 



Ptomaines and Leucomaines, or the putrefactive and physiological alkaloids, by 

 Victor C. Vaughan and Frederic C. Novy, is a complete survey of a subject on which 

 Professor Vaughan is especially entitled to speak. The authors are of opinion that 

 many diseases, at present investigated as to their setiology upon bacteriological lines 

 of research, are really caused by poisonous products, the result of tissue metabolisms 

 which are not excreted from the body as they normally should be. 



Distance of the sun and moon. — Prof Wm. Harkness, of the U. S. Naval Observa- 

 tory, has just completed an extended piece of work, in which data never before brought 

 together have been used, and which has resulted in giving, with far greater accuracy, 

 than ever before, certain figures. 



The data used consisted of the following : — 



1. All observations that have ever been made as to the size and figure of the earth. 



2. All observations that have been made for determining the force of gravity. 



3. All observations upon the velocity of light. 



4. All observations upon the positions of the stars. 



5. All observations upon the positions of the sun and moon. 



6. The observations upon Venus and Mars. 



The net result of calculations involving all these elements gives the sun's parallax 

 as 8.8357 zt seconds. The figures 8.83 are now settled beyond all possibility of dispute. 

 Future research can change only the thousandth figure. From the above parallax he 

 gets the sun's distance from the earth as 92,521,000. (The transit of Venus result was 

 92,385,000.) He gives the moon's parallax as 3,422.724 dz, whence its distance from 

 the earth is 238,852.4 miles, and the moon's mass is 1-81,519. The velocity of light is 

 186,298.4 miles per second. 



