July io, 1891.J 



SCIENCE. 



19 



in such a maimer as to prevent the free revolution of the fans. If 

 gas meters were susceptible to similar treatment it is feared there 

 might be a tendency to perforate the cases and imprison spiders 

 therein.. 



— Mr. E. H. Kern, of Mankato, Kan., writes as follows to 

 Insect Life : " Several seasons ago my potato field was almost 

 ruined because I could not use Paris green, as my stock was in 

 danger from it. A large pond of water attracted about twenty of 

 my neighbor's dueks to its shore. I never did fancy ducks very 

 much, and I told him so. He said he would give them to me if 

 I could care for them, as he could not keep them at home. The 

 next morning I went down to the pond at sunrise to try and drive 

 said ducks in a pen. I saw a very curious sight. Headed by an 

 old drake, the twenty ducks were waddling off in a bee-line for 

 my potato field. I crawled into some bushes and awaited devel- 



, opments. As they came to the end of the rows they seemed to 

 deploy right and left, and such a shovellingin of bugs I never be- 

 held. They meant business, and for fully one-half hour did they 

 continue, until every duck was filled up to its bill with bugs. 

 Then they went for that pond, and I went for their owner and 

 paid him one dollar for the entire bunch — this being all he would 

 accept. When I returned, every duck seemed to be trying to 

 outdo its fellow in noise. This expedition was repeated about 4 

 P.M., and kept up imtU every bug went under. I have tried these 

 ducks and others since, and find they all like them, and seem to 

 get fat on potato bugs." 



— Fears had been entertained by the citizens of Provinoetown, 

 Mass., for some years before 1867 that the harbor was being silted 

 up by the movement of sands from Lancy's Harbor and House 

 Point Island flats on one side, and from East Harbor on the other 

 side, reinforced by such material as might find its way into the 

 harbor from the south side of Long Point. In 1867 a call was 

 made on the United States Coast Survey by the harbor commis- 

 sioners of Massachusetts for a re-survey of the harbor of Province- 

 town. This resulted in a survey during that year by the party of 

 Assistant Henry D. Whiting, followed by a report, published as 

 Appendix No. 13, Coast Survey Report for 1867. In this paper, 

 Mr. Whiting discussed the results of a comparison made with the 

 survey of Major Graham in 1835, treating the subject under three 

 heads; first, with reference to changes at Long Point and on 

 House Point Island flats ; second, East Harbor Inlet and Beach 

 Point; and third, the beaches at the head of East Harbor. His 

 recommendations for the construction of works for the improve- 

 ment of the harbor were based upon the conclusions stated in his 

 report, and some of his suggestions have been carried out. A dike 

 was built by the United States at the "wading place" at High 

 Head in 1838-69. Another dike was built across the outlet of 

 East Harbor creek by the State of Massachusetts, effectually out- 

 ting off the water communication between East Harbor and the 

 bay, and in 1870 still another dike was thrown across the head of 

 Lancy's Harbor at Abel HUl, to prevent the flow of the tide fi-om 

 that basin into the main harbor. This dike was rebuilt in 1871. 

 A study of the results of the present comparison points decidedly 

 to the conclusion that these improvements have in great measure 

 ■arrested the forces which were working toward the injury of the 

 liarbor. The success of the dike at Abel Hill in arresting the wash 

 of the sands from Lancy's Harbor only points with stronger em- 

 phasis to what should be done to arrest the wash of material from 

 House Point Island flats. So long as the low and narrow sandy 

 barrier to the northward of Wood End lighthouse remains intact, 

 the wash off the flats will remain at a minimum, but should the 

 seas make a breach through the beach during a gale, there is no 

 telling what damage might follow, and it would seem the part of 

 prudence for the Government to heed the recommendation made 

 by Mr. Whiting in 1867, and urged again in 1886 by Major Gilles- 

 pie, United States engineers, that a dike be built from Stevens 

 Point, in Provinoetown, to Long Point, thus effectually inclosing 

 the whole of House Point Island flats. The preservation of Long 

 Point (a natural mole guarding the deep-vvater basin of the har- 

 bor), which has been in charge of the United States engineers, 

 should be secured by ample appropriations from Congress. Two 

 ^comparative maps accompany the paper of which this note is an 



abstract, and which will be published as an appendix to the "Re- 

 port of the Coast and Geodetic Survey for 1890." In the prepara- 

 tion of these maps reference was made to Major Graliam's map of 

 1835. A comparison of the entire harbor area outside of the mean 

 low-water line shows that in 183.J this area was 1,303 acres, and 

 that in 1867 it had been reduced to 1,247 acres, a loss of 55 acres in 

 32 years, or one-tenth of one per cent per year. Between 1867 and 

 1889 the area increased to 1,274 acres, or 27 acres in 22 years, 

 which is at the rate of nine-thousandths of one per cent per year. 

 The maps confirm these results by indicating a resultant shore- 

 ward movement of the submerged contours, leading to the con- 

 clusion that the conditions since 1867 are most favorable to the 

 maintenance of the present depths. 



— "I recently had a curious bean shown to me by a friend," 

 says a correspondent in Insect Life, " and, desiring to learn more 

 about this interesting article, I take the liberty of addressing you 

 on the subject, and will thank you kindly for any information you 

 can give me regarding it. The bean in question came from Mex- 

 ico, is brown in color, and a section through it at right angles to 

 its length would be a triangle. My friend said the name he had 

 heard for it was ' broncho bean,' given from the fact that it had 

 the power of locomotion, by means of quick, short jumps or tum- 

 bles, imparted to it, as I have since learned, by a worm, which 

 claims the bean as its home. The muscular effort exerted by the 

 worm on the interior of the bean is sufBcient to propel it forward 

 about three-sixteenths of an inch at each jump. To a person who 

 has not heard the reason for the peculiar action of the bean the 

 movement is, to say the least, wonderful. If there is a printed 

 description of this bean, giving the localities in which it may be 

 found, will you kindly advise me of same?" To which the editor 

 replies: "It is the seed of a euphorbiaceous plant believed to be 

 Colliguaja odorifera Moline, and the contained ' worm ' is the 

 larva of a little tortrioid moth known as Carpocapsa saltitans, a 

 near relative of the common codling moth {Carpocapsa pomo- 

 nella). It is found chiefly in Sonora, Mexico." 



— At a meeting of the Royal Society, London, on May 18, re- 

 ported in a recent number of Nature, Dr. J. Berry Haycraft gave 

 an account of some experiments which show (1) that the displace- 

 ments of the heart, which since Harvey's time are supposed to 

 take place with every contraction, do not really occur in the un- 

 opened chest, and (2) that the cardiogi-am has been misinterpreted 

 by physiologists. It is usually supposed that, during each con- 

 traction, the heart twists towards the right while its apes moves 

 forward, and, pressing against the wall of the chest, causes the 

 "apex beat." Again, it has been supposed by some that, during 

 expansion, all diameters of the heart are not increased, but that, 

 on the conti-ary, one diameter is diminished in length. Dr. Hay- 

 craffs experiments show that all diameters are increased during 

 expansion, and that all are diminished during contraction. They 

 show also that the motions, above described, do not occur in the 

 unopened chest. The heart, in order that it may be observed in 

 the opened chest, is necessarily separated from its attachments 

 and falls towards the back of the chest (the animal operated upon 

 being supposed to be placed upon its back). Dm-ing expansion, 

 the heart becomes flaccid, and so is flattened against the back of 

 the chest. The first effect of the stiffening which occurs during 

 the muscular contraction is therefore an elevation of the heart, 

 against gravity, towards the front of the chest. Similarly, if the 

 animal be turned upon one side, the heart, during contraction, 

 moves towards the upper side of the chest; and the " beat" can 

 even be made to take place towards the back. In the unopened 

 chest, the heart on the whole remains in position during contrac- 

 tion, and therefore its boundaries move from the chest walls. But 

 the cardiogram, as usually interpreted, shows that the chest wall 

 is thrown outwards by the impact of the heart during contraction. 

 Dr. Haycraft asserts that this is due to deformation of the heart 

 by pressure of the chest wall when the button of the cardiograph 

 is pressed against the exterior of the chest. The first effect of the 

 muscular contraction and stiffening of the heart is therefore in- 

 creased pressure against the chest-wall, which gives rise to the 

 up-stroke of the cardiogram. When the cardiograph is made as 

 light as possible, the up-stroke is greatly diniinished; but it never 



