314 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 610. 



that 88 per cent, of all the subjects examined 

 were infected by some one of these parasites 

 and that 76 per cent, of all the subjects in- 

 fected were infected by Ascaris mystax. 



Table 2 gives a detailed record of the age 

 and sex of each subject and the location and 

 extent of the parasitism. 



GoFFREY A, Lyon. 



Biological Laboeatobt, 

 Allegheny College. 



AN IMPROVED PYKNOMETER. 



In the course of investigation into the func- 

 tion of the bones of the middle ear there was 

 occasion to determine the specific gravity of 

 those ossicles and their constituent parts. The 

 parts are very small, so that the most suitable 

 method for determining their specific gravities 

 seemed to be that employed by Hammerschlag 

 for determining the specific gravity of a drop 

 of blood. 



The specific gravity of methylene bromide, 

 which is greater than that of bone, was gradu- 

 ally reduced by adding ether to it, until the 

 piece of bone under investigation which had 

 been dropped into this solution, remained sus- 

 pended therein. At this point the specific 



gravity of the particle of bone was, of course, 

 the same as that of the solution, which latter 

 was then determined. 



I attempted to use the pyknometer with a 

 perforated stopper to obtain equal quantities 

 of the solution and of distilled water for the 

 purpose of comparing their weights ; but found 

 the instrument unsatisfactory for exact de- 

 terminations. 



The water did not overflow the stopper as 

 readily as the solution, forming a much larger 



cap over the perforation so that an equal 

 quantity of water and of methylene bromide 

 could not be obtained. Furthermore, during 

 the necessarily slow process of careful weigh- 

 ing, three to four mg. of the solution would 

 evaporate. Besides, unless special care was 

 taken, a rising temperature would cause the 

 contents to overflow. 



To obviate these difficulties, I designed a 

 pyknometer here illustrated in vertical section. 



The cylindrical body or bulb, of convenient 

 size A, is provided at one end with a capillary 

 inlet — outlet tube or arm B, bent as shown; 

 at the other end with a similar tube or arm C, 

 having a mouthpiece D for drawing in and 

 blowing out the liquid. The arms B and 

 are marked as at F, F; the whole is mounted 

 on a suitable base such as E; by drawing in 

 or blowing out, the exact quantity of liquid 

 can readily be obtained; the lumen of the 

 arms at the marks F, F may be extremely 

 narrow and a perfect gauge of quantity be 

 thereby had; no attention need be paid to 

 changes in temperature after the pyknometer 

 is once filled ; the lumen being narrow and the 

 arms long, what little evaporation might pos- 

 sibly take place is beyond detection; the in- 

 strument is conveniently cleaned and dried 

 by rinsing it with a volatile solution and then 

 passing an air current through it. 



Otto Greenberg. 

 Univebsity of Chicago. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 



the cyclone of SEPTEMBER 22-28, 1905, in 



THE PHILIPPINES. 



The Bulletin of the Philippine Weather 

 Bureau for September, 1905, lately received, 

 contains an excellent account of an important 

 tropical cyclone which swept over the Philip- 

 pines from the twenty-second to the twenty- 

 eighth of that month, over a belt more than a 

 hundred miles wide. This cyclone has been 

 given the name Cantahria, after one of the 

 vessels which was wrecked by the storm. The 

 place of origin seems to have been in long. 

 142° E., and lats. 11°-12° N., between the 

 islands of Guam and Yap. It moved west to 

 Samar, and then northwest to the mainland. 



