NOTES. 



575 



that the earth is spherical ; that the land 

 above the waters is only a protuberance on 

 the surface of the globe ; that the continents 

 are grouped in the northern hemisphere ; 

 that there exists a universal attraction ; that 

 the elasticity of vapors is a motive power ; that 

 the continents have uprisen ; and that chem- 

 ical elements exist, more or less as Lavoisier 

 conceived them. 



THE largest continuous distinct forest 

 district in West Prussia is known as the 

 Tucheler Haide, and extends over an area of 

 thirty-five square miles. It is subject to 

 great and sudden changes of temperature. 

 Snow has fallen as late as May 19th, and 

 night frosts have occurred as late as the 1st 

 and 3d of June. Prehistoric remains are 

 found belonging to the later stone and to 

 the bronze ages. The inhabitants are occu- 

 pied almost entirely with forestry and agri- 

 culture. Polish is still the prevalent lan- 

 guage, though German is now generally un- 

 derstood. 



As to the speed with which the migra- 

 tion flights of birds are accomplished, Canon 

 Tristram, in the British Association, quoted 

 Herr Gatke as maintaining that godwits and 

 plovers can fly at the rate of 240 miles an 

 hour. Dr. Jerdon had stated that the spine- 

 tailed swift, roosting in Ceylon, would reach 

 the Himalayas, a thousand miles, before 

 sunset. In their ordinary flight the swift 

 was the only bird the author had ever no- 

 ticed to outstrip an express train on the 

 Great Northern Railway. 



TOBACCO juice is very useful to agricul- 

 turists as a remedy for sheep mange and an 

 insecticide, but its value is greatly lessened 

 by its rapid fermentability. Experiments 

 are making in the French Department of 

 Manufactures for a process for concentrating 

 an extract which shall be rich in nicotine and 

 capable of indefinite preservation. A color- 

 less extract is also sought which cultivators 

 may use upon flowers attacked by insects. 



PHOTOGRAPHS of the invisible are what 

 M. Zenger calls two pictures which he took 

 about midnight of August 17th from a win- 

 dow looking out upon the lake of Geneva. 

 They gave weak images of the lake and 

 of Mont Blanc, which could not be seen in 

 the darkness. Mr. Bertrand remarks that 

 invisibility is a relative term, the significance 

 of which depends on the power of the ob- 

 server's eyes. The photographs were taken 

 with a light of very small intensity, and did 

 not represent an invisible object. So sky- 

 photographs taken in observatories show 

 stars which can not be discerned by the 

 most piercing vision. 



THE absorption of light by platinum at 

 different temperatures was the subject of a 

 recent memoir to the Academy of Sciences 

 of Turin by Signer Rizzo. The author ob- 

 tained pellicles of unoxidizable platinum under 



the action of heat the transparency of which 

 he found increased with the temperature, es- 

 pecially in the more refrangible regions. The 

 determination of this fact establishes a new 

 correlation between light and electricity, the 

 augmentation of the electrical resistance of a 

 conductor being accompanied by an increase 

 of transparency. 



AN International Congress of Applied 

 Chemistry has been called by the Belgian 

 Association of Chemists, to meet in Brussels 

 August 4, 1894. A number of interesting 

 subjects appertaining to biological chemistry 

 are to be considered, including those of the 

 establishment of a Review of Reviews of Pure 

 and Applied Biological Chemistry ; pure yeast 

 in practical fermentation; new researches 

 of the relations of oxygen and yeast ; raw 

 grains in brewing ; studies on the morphol- 

 ogy and physiology of vinegar eels ; analyses 

 of grains as suitable for brewing, distilling, 

 and the manufacture of glucose ; and analy- 

 sis of molasses with a view to distilling. 

 Communications may be addressed to M. H. 

 Van Laer, General Secretary of the Congress, 

 15 Rue de Holland, Brussels. 



ACCORDING to one of the latest visitors to 

 the Ainus of Japan, Mr. A. H. Savage Lan- 

 dor, the supposed pious ejaculations, on the 

 strength of which these people have been 

 credited with a religious system, are really 

 execrations. 



AN examination of the molluscan fauna 

 that accumulate in the fresh-water pipes of 

 Paris, brought there from the rivers whence 

 the water is drawn, has been made by M. A. 

 Locard, of Lyons. The author's attention 

 was given chiefly to the study of the changes 

 the animals undergo in their new abode. The 

 medium differs from that of their native one 

 in that it is one of water in perpetual mo- 

 tion, that food supply is scant, that the tem- 

 perature is more constant than in open air, 

 and that there is no light. Under these con- 

 ditions the animals appear diminished in 

 size, pale in color, somewhat elongated in 

 shape, probably by the mechanical action of 

 the running water, and with shells uniform, 

 glossy, brilliant, without incrustations and 

 without vegetable deposits. Though their 

 presence contributes impurity to the water, 

 it is not enough, under ordinary conditions, 

 M. Locard believes, to do harm. 



THE schooner Ripple, in which the Swed- 

 ish explorers Bjorling and Kalstenmus 

 started in 1892 on their expedition to study 

 the fauna and flora of the arctic shores, 

 has been found by Captain Mackey, of the 

 Aurora, of Dundee, fast in the ice of Carey 

 Island, Baffin Bay. The vessel had been 

 cleared of boats and provisions, indicating 

 that she had been abandoned. The dead 

 body of a man was found in a cairn on the 

 shore; and in another cairn close by were 

 manuscripts written in English, with in- 



