30 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVIII. No 441 



meats consisted in using large threads which should interrupt the 

 star trail by their own occultation of the star. This divided a 

 continuous trail nicely, in two opposing cones of density, and was 

 eflfeotive, but had obvious disadvantages for a transit instrument. 

 Finally he found that by shining a light into the objective for two 

 or three seconds, the whole plate could be fogged down without 

 obscuring the dotted trail, which seemed ordy to advance in its • 

 densicy, while the lines behind the threads failed to be fogged, 

 and, retaining the original density of the unexposed plate, received 

 deiinite edges suitable for microscopic measures by bisection or 

 parallelism of threads. Small threads, even the ordinary ones 

 used in the transit reticule of observatory instruments, are amply 

 distinct for this purpose, and this part of the process leaves noth- 

 ing to be desired. 



There is no doubt that in a six-inch transit instrument stars can 

 be taken to the fourth magnitude, and wherever the elimination 

 of personal equation is suiSciently important the utility of the 

 method can hardly be doubted. It is believed, however, that the 

 chief field of usefulness will be found in the physical laboratory, 

 where any amount of artificial light can always be used, and the 

 automatic record can be made to assume any degree of accuracy 

 de>irable. It is known that many experiments in physics are 

 afBicted with personal equation, and thus there is a hope of avoid- 

 ing them by the introduction of this apparatus. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, quoting an Eng- 

 lish medical publication, says that the theory has been more than 

 once advanced that the origin of ether-drinking in Ireland can be 

 traced to the success of Father Matthew's crusade against drunk- 

 enness in its ordinary forms. Alcoholic nature, driven out bj his 

 eloquence, returned in a new disguise, and the last state of the 

 victims was as bad as the first. This theory has been called in 

 ^question, but it receives acci'lental confirmation from what is at 

 present happening in Norway. The sale of liquor is, in that 

 country, encompassed about with more restrictions than that of 

 the most deadly poison is with us. Temperance, in fact, is the 

 law of the land in Norway. But these people, made .sober by act 

 of parliament, have now discovered how to get di'unk without 

 violating the law. Ether-drinking, according to a Norwegian 

 contemporary, is becoming quite common in certain districts. The 

 farmers buy it in considerable quantities, especially at Christmas 

 time and on other festive occasions, and they treat each other and 

 get drunk on ether, as they formerly did on potato or barley 

 brandy. Ether is said to be drunk by young and old, men and 

 ■women, rich and poor. If this be true, it seems to point a moral 

 which perhaps thorough-going temperance advocates have not 

 taken sufficiently into account. Is there, after all, a grain of 

 truth in Byron's thesis that " man, being reasonable, muse get 

 drunk," and can the moderate use of ordinary stimulants be sup- 

 pressed only at the risk of the evil spirit, which has been cast out, 

 coming back after the house has been swept and garnished, bring- 

 ing with him seven devils worse than himself ? 



— A correspondent of Seience-Oossip writes to that periodical as 

 follows: " A friend of mine keeps a quantity of fowls. They are 

 the common kind, usually called, I think. ' barn-door fowls. ' On 

 Thursday, April 9. a number of eggs were collected. A few were 

 given to the gardener. His wife boiled one for his breakfast on 

 April 10, and when he cracked it a pin was found in the yolk. 

 The yolk and white were, in places, of a blue-bl,ick color. I 

 should feel obliged if any reader would inform me whether they 

 have ever heard of anything being found before inside an egg, and 

 hosv it got there." 



— Bulletin No. 13 of the Experiment Station of the Iowa Agri- 

 cultural College contains the results of a feeding experiment con- 

 ducted by the farm and chemical sections. Corn fodder, corn 

 ensilage, sorghum cane ensilage, and mangels were fed for sixty 

 days to eight cows. The milk was sampled at every milking, and 

 the composite samples analyzed every five days. The effect of 

 the four different fodder rations was tabulated and results indi- 

 cated from the butter fats and total solids produced by each ra- 



tion, calculated from a dry matter basis. Corn fodder shows 

 slightly better results than corn ensilage, which exceeds sorghum 

 caoe ensilage. The mangel ration is superior to any of the others. 

 Clover hay was fed with all the rations, a double amount being 

 given with the roots. 



— A simple method of applying concrete under Water has been 

 used by the French engineer Heude in connection with the foun- 

 dation wcirk of th^ bridge over the River Loire, at Blois. As de- 

 scribed in the Railroad Gazette, the concrete was deposited at the 

 desired points by means of a wooden pipe composed simply of 

 four boards and being about sixteen inches square in section. 

 This pipe or t ibe was lowered vertically into the water, and was 

 made of such length that when the lower end reached the bottom 

 the upper end projected about five feet above the surface of the 

 water. By means of suitable lifting tackle and scaffolding the 

 tube could be easily raised and lowered, and moved from place to 

 place as desired. The tube was flUed with concrete, and. on be- 

 ing slightly raised from the bottom, the concrete could flow out 

 and spread itself over the surrounding surface without previously 

 coming into intimate contact with the water. By moving the tube 

 about over any desired area, layers of concrete could thus he readily 

 put down varying in thickness from twelve to sixteen inches. The 

 only point to be specially observed was that the level of the con- 

 crete in the tube was always above the level of the w^ter on the 

 outside, thus maintaining a sufficient head of concrete to over- 

 balance the tendency of the water to enter at the lower end of the 

 tube. To secure this entire exclusion of water from the tube, the 

 primary filling with concrete was accomplished after bavins first 

 closed the lower end of the tube with a board ; the tube having 

 been filled this board was withdrawn. It is stated that with one 

 such tube about eighty yards of concrete could be deposited per 

 day, and that, in general, the results of the method were entirely 

 satisfactory. 



— The winter forcing of tomatoes is little understood by gar- 

 deners, and the literature of the subject is fragmentary and unsat- 

 isfactory. Yet It is a promising industry for all the older parts of 

 the country, particularly in the vicinity of the larger cities, as 

 winter tomatoes always find a ready sale at good prices. The 

 crop is one which demands a high temperature, an abundance of 

 sunlight, and great care in the growing, but the profits, under 

 good management, are correspondingly high Tomato forcing is 

 one of the most interesting and satisfactory enterprises for the 

 winter months. Careful experiments upon it during two winters, 

 made at the Cornell University Experiment Station by Professor 

 L. H. Bailey, have met with uniform success. Details of the ex- 

 periments are contained in Bulletin 28 of the station named, dated 

 June, 1891. 



— The Census Bureau at Washington has issued a bulletin on 

 the distribution of population in accordance with altitude. It ap- 

 pears that in the area less than five hundred feet above sea-level 

 is included nearly all that part of the population engaged in man- 

 ufacturing and in foreign commerce, and most of that engaged in 

 the culture of cotton, rice, and sugar. Between five hundred and 

 fifteen hundred feet above the sea are the greater part of the 

 prairie States and the grain-producing States of the North west. 

 East of the ninety-eighth meridian 1.500 feet is practically the 

 upper limit of population, all the country above that elevation be- 

 ing mountainous. Between 3,000 and 5.000 feet above sea-level 

 the population is found mainly on the slope of the great western 

 plains. Between 4,000 and 5,000 feet, and more markedly be- 

 tween 5,(100 and 6,000 feet, the population is decidedly in excess 

 of the grade or grades below it. This is mainly due to the fact 

 that the densest settlement at hiL'h altitudes in the Cordilleran re- 

 gion is at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains and in the 

 valleys about Great Salt Lake, nhich regions lie between 4,000 

 and 6,000 feet. Above 6 000 feet the population is almost entirely 

 engaged in the pursuit of mining, and the greater part of it is 

 situated in Colorado. New Mexico, Nevada, and California. While 

 the population is increasing numerically in all altitudes, its rela- 

 tive movement is decidedly toward the region of greater altitudes, 

 and is most marked in the country lying between l.OdO and 6 ODD 

 feet above the sea. The density of population is greatest near sea- 



