Oct. 5, 1882] 



NATURE 



557 



According to the Report of the Government Central 

 Museum at Madras for the year 1881-82, by Surgeon-Major 

 Bidie, the number of visitors was 211,246, and therefore 37,348 

 in excess of the attendance in the previous year, and 23,051 

 above the average of the preceding five years. Of the visitors, 

 40^17 per cent, were women and girls, and S9'82 men and boys; 

 the corresponding rates in 1S80-81 having been 39'36 and 6o'63. 

 There was thus a slight increase in the number of female visitors 

 on the days on which the Museum was open to all clashes. As 

 in former years, the building was cleared of males, and reserved 

 exclusively for native ladies on the afternoon of the first Saturday 

 of each month, but on these occasions the average daily attend- 

 ance was but 37 against 1 14 in the previous year. It is difficult 

 to explain this decline, in the face of the anxiety expressed by 

 native gentlemen for extended means of intellectual culture and 

 amusement for the ladies of their families. In some cases it was 

 evidently considered undignified to visit the Museum when other 

 ladies were also allowed to attend, as I had various importunate 

 requests to have the building specially opened for a single family on 

 Sunday, which I was obliged to refuse. AH visitors before 

 leaving the lobby are required to write their names in the door- 

 book, or if unable to sign, their numbers are counted During 

 the year 26 '45 P er cent, of the total visitors, against 2777 per 

 cent, in i8So-8i, entered their names in the book, and 73 '54 

 per cent, professed their inability to write. In looking at these 

 figures as a gauge of popular education, it has to be pointed out 

 that in many cases one member of a family or party signs for the 

 whole, and that a small proportion consists of children too young 

 too be able to write. As stated last year, a large number of the 

 more intelligent ordinary visitors pick up scraps of useful know- 

 ledge as they pass through the rooms, and may come for the 

 express purpose of acquiring information. As a whole the 

 Museum is perhaps the met popular public institution in 

 Madras, and there can be no doubt that its popularity and utility 

 will increase as the education of the lower classes advance. 

 Tables B and C in appendix show the monthly attendance and 

 other results as regards visitors. The report contains a list of 

 the numerous additions in all departments, made to the Museum 

 during the year. 



The mucous membrane of the larynx is known to be extremely 

 sensitive, so that, when touched, violent reflex movements are 

 produced, the glottis contracting spasmodically, and the whole 

 larynx rising forcibly. M. Brown Sequard has lately made the 

 interesting observation (Comptes Rendits) that complete local 

 anaesthesia may be obtained in the larynx by directing on the 

 upper part of that organ (through an incision at the back of the 

 animal's mouth), a rapid current of carbonic acid, for fifteen 

 seconds to two or three minutes. It becomes possible to intro- 

 duce a tube and even a finger (in the case of a large dog) into 

 the cavity of the larynx, and to turn it about without producing 

 reaction. Chloroform vapour gives the same effect, but the 

 other gas is preferred. There is some irritation at the outset. 

 The local anaesthesia, which is accompanied by incomplete 

 general anaesthesia, lasts several minutes (two to eight) after 

 stopping the current. The experiment was repeated several 

 times, at intervals, on the same animal, and no evil results were 

 apparent. M. Brown Sequard proposes to experiment on the 

 human subject by introducing carbonic acid into the larynx by 

 the mouth or nostrils. 



It has been recently observed by Prof. Feichtinger of Munich 

 (Folyt. Jour.) that of a number of different kinds of writing 

 and printing paper examined, all those kinds that had been 

 sized with resin had a more or less acid reaction, while this 

 property was never met with in paper with animal sizing. (Paper 

 can be easily tested in this respect by placing moistened blue 

 litmus paper between folds of it.) The acid reaction was found 



to be due to free sulphuric acid, and it is thought probable that 

 in the use of alum, in resin-sizing, free sulphuric acid is formed 

 in the mass of paper, and remains there. The durability of a 

 paper must undoubtedly be injured by presence of free sulphuric 

 acid. Some of the papers with a strong acid reaction were kept 

 fourteen days in a water bath, which was heated only by day, 

 and they became quite brittle. The acid also acts prejudicially 

 by gradually destroying the black colour of writing on the 

 paper, especially in damp places. 



M. Gauthier Villars has just published a translation of 

 M. Cully's " Handbook of Practical Telegraphy," by Mr. 

 Henry Berger and Paul Bardonnant, of the French Postal Tele- 

 graphic Service. This translation contains some useful supple- 

 ments on the peculiarities of French telegraphy and the 

 pneumatical service as established in Paris. 



We have received the Proceedings of the Norwich Geological 

 Society for 1SS0-S1, together with the anniversary address of 

 the president, Mr. J. H. Blake. The former contains several 

 good papers on local geology. 



A useful " Table Generate et Systematique des Matieres" 

 contained in the first fifty-six volumes (1829-81) of the Bulletin 

 of the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow, has been 

 prepared by M. E. Ballion, and published at Moscow by 

 Archipoff and Co. 



Mr. R. Anderson is preparing for publication the papers 

 read by him at the British Association, on Lightning Con- 

 ductors. 



There are now 375 naphtha wells on the Apsheron peninsula 

 of the Caspian, their aggregate yield being 9,600,000 cwts. 

 per year. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Macaque Monkeys {Macacus cynomolgus 

 t 9 ) from India, presented by Mr. A. Fitch ; two Macaque 

 Monkeys {Macaats cynomolgus 6 9 ) from India, presented by 

 Mr. L. Bennett ; a Macaque Monkey (Macaats cynomolgus 6 ) 

 from India, presented by Mrs. Paris ; a Nisnas Monkey (Cerco- 

 pithecus pyrrhonotus £ ) from Nubia, presented by Mrs. F. 

 Dixon ; a Glutton (Gu'o hocus) from Russia, presented by 

 General Astashoff ; a Hairy Armadillo (Dasypus vtllosits) from 

 South America, presented by Mr. F. R. Warre ; four Barbary 

 Mice (Mus barbarus) from Barbary, presented by M. Pichot ; a 

 Blue and Yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna) from South America, 

 presented by Mrs. Attenborough ; two Common Waxbills 

 [Eilrelda cincrca) from West Africa, presented by Miss E. 

 a Court ; six Florida Tortoises (Testudo polyphemus) from 



Florida, presented by Mr. G. E. Manigault ; eight 



Lemurs (sp. inc.) from Madagascar, deposited; two Malabar 

 Squirrels (Sciurus maximus) from South India, a Violaceus 

 Plantain Cutter (Musophaga violacea) from West Africa, a 

 Greenland Falcon {Falco candicans) from Greenland, a Razor- 

 billed Curassow [Mitua tubcrosa), a Crested Curassow (Crax 

 alector) from Guiana, three Elliot's Pheasants (Phasianus ellioli 

 £ 9 9 ) from Ningpo, purchased ; a Black-faced Spider Monkey 

 {A teles ater) from East Peru, an Eland (Oreas canna 9 ) from 

 South Africa, received on approval. 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES 

 On a New Genus of Cryptophyce/E. — A freshwater alga; 

 recently discovered in Brazil, belonging to the group of the 

 Stigonemeae, has been described by Drs. E. Bornet and A. 

 Grunow, under the name of Masaa rivularioides. This algse, 

 remarkable in various ways, externally resembles Rivularia 

 plicata, Harv., its fronds rounded, more or less irregularly 

 knobby, attain to a diameter of about twenty-five millimetres, at 

 first solid and somewhat firm ; later they become hollow and 



