612 Transactions of the American Institute. 



result. Even a journey to Edinburgh and back, by railway, daring 

 the recent hard frost, failed to have any effect in determining its 

 crystal izatiou. 



Dr. Vanderweyde suggested that the glucose, with which glyce- 

 rine is sometimes adulterated, produced the result stated. Glycer- 

 ine, pure, freezes at a very low temperature. 



LIGHT IN BASEMENTS AND NAEROW STREETS. 



Within the last three years, under many windows in basements 

 as well as in narrow alleys in New York, where but little light has 

 access, a metallic reflector has been set at an angle of forty-five 

 degrees to the window, which has the effect of reflecting the light 

 from above directly into the room. The same principle has been 

 applied to gas lights, so that they can be placed above and entirely 

 out of the way. In this way a flood of light is now thrown down 

 in the ferry-houses, directly on the place where the floating-bridge 

 and the ferry-boat meet. The London Builds' says that "wdndows 

 opening into streets, which are generally very narrow in that city, 

 give but little light in consequence of being set back several inches 

 from the face of the building. It proposes to substitute a window 

 placed flush with the front wall, in which all the panes are roughly 

 ground on the outside; the light from the whole of the visible sky 

 and from the remotest parts of the opposite wall will thus be 

 introduced into the apartment reflected from the innumerable faces 

 or facets, which the rough grinding of the glass has produced. 

 The whole window will appear as if the sky were beyond it, and 

 from every point of this surface light will radiate into all parts of 

 the room. 



NUTRITION. 



Dr. Rambosson has presented, at the French Academy of Sciences, 

 a curious paper on the effects which different kinds of food pro- 

 duce on the nervous system. For many years past the writer had 

 been making experiments upon himself by living entirely, for seve- 

 ral days consecutively, upon the single element he wished to test, 

 and even occasionally by remaining nearly forty hours without any 

 food except a little gum. The conclusions he came, to from his 

 experiments, were: 1. That certain articles of food exercise a 

 special action on the motor, and others on the sensory system of 

 nerves. 2. That the former particularly influence the intellect, 

 and the latter the feelings, and that there are some substances that 

 influence both systems, and, therefore, both the intellect and the 



