August 14, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



87 



thousand times more remote than the stream of stars which 

 compose our own galaxy ; and it also involved the assump- 

 tion that the matter of the universe is aggregated into clus- 

 ters, separated by immense barren spaces, in which we must 

 assume that there are very few luminous stars, and but few 

 dark stars which would absorb light, as well as compara- 

 tively very little opaque matter distributed as meteors are 

 distributed in the region of space we are familiar with. 



We have evidence that the greater part of the lucid stars 

 belong to the galactic system, but the large proper motion 

 of some stars, taken in conjunction with their small parallax, 

 affords evidence, as Professor Simon Newcomb has pointed 

 out, that they will in time pass away from our galaxy. 

 (Professor Newcomb has shown in his "Popular Astron- 

 omy" that, making the most liberal assumptions as to the 

 number and masses of the stars of our galactic system, the 

 highest speed which a body could attain if it fell from an 

 infinite distance through such a stellar system would be 

 twenty-five miles a second, a velocity which is certainly 

 smaller than that of many stars.) The regions outside our 

 galaxy cannot, therefore, be absolutely barren, but however 

 sparsely luminous stars are distributed through space, if 

 there were no absorption of light in its passage through the 

 ether, and no opaque bodies to blot out the light of distant 

 stars, it would be impossible, as Olbers long ago pointed out, 

 to draw a line in any direction which would not in an infi- 

 nite universe pass through some luminous star, and the 

 whole heavens ought to shine with the average brightness of 

 such stars. 



That the heavens are comparatively dark may, therefore, 

 be taken as proof either that the light-transmitting ether is 

 not perfectly elastic, or that there are numerous dark bodies 

 in space that blot out the light which we should otherwise 

 derive from the more distant parts of the universe. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Thanks to new sanitary measures in England, sa,ys the Medi- 

 cal Record, there has been a diminution of more than thirty per 

 cent in the death-rate from consumption since 1861. 



— In a recent number of the Archives of Surgery, Mr. Jonathan 

 Hutchinson says that he has for many years been in the habit of 

 forbidding fruit to all patients who suffer from tendency to gout. 

 In every instance in which a total abstainer of long standing has- 

 come under his observation for any affection related to gout, he 

 has found on inquiry that the sufferer was a liberal fruit eater. 

 Fruits are, of course, by no means all equally deleterious; cooked 

 fruits, especially if eaten hot with added sugar, are the most in- 

 jurious, the addition of cane-sugar to grape-sugar adds much to 

 the risk of disagreement. Fruit eaten raw and without the addi- 

 tion of sugar would appear to be comparatively safe. Natural 

 instinct and dietetic tastes have already led the way in this di- 

 rection ; few wine-drinkers take fruit or sweets to any extent, and 

 Mr. Hutchinson suggests as a dietetic law that alcohol and fruit- 

 sugar ought never to be taken together; and he believes that the 

 children of those who in former generations have established a 

 gouty constitution may, though themselves water-drinkers, excite 

 gout by the use of fruit and sugar. 



— A statement, by State Geologist Arthur Winslow, of the 

 operations of the Missouri geological survey during the month of 

 July shows that work on iron ores was begun during the latter 

 part of the month, and inspections were made in Callaway and 

 Wayne Counties. Zinc and lead deposits have been examined and 

 reported upon in Newton, McDonald, Barry, and Lawrence Coun- 

 ties. The occurrence and distribution of coal have been studied 

 in Carroll, Chariton, Howard, Monroe, Buchanan, Nodaway, Gen- 

 try, and Davis Counties. Detailed mapping has been prosecuted 

 in Macon, Madison. Ste. Francois, and Ste. Genevieve Counties, and 



about 160 square miles have been covered. In the laboratory the 

 analysis of some twenty-two samples of mineral waters have been 

 completed. The work on paleontology and general stratigraphy 

 has been actively prosecuted in the north-eastern part of the State 

 along and adjacent to the Missouri River. The quaternary for- 

 mations in Buchanan, Jackson, Saline, and adjacent counties have 

 received special study. A work recently started, looking towards 

 obtaining an estimate of the total amount and value of the mineral 

 products of the State up to the present date, has been given special 

 attention during the past month, and is now well advanced. In 

 the oflBce, Bulletin No. 5 will be ready for distribution soon. It 

 consists of a paper on the age and origin of the crystalline rocks 

 of Missouri and one on the clays and building stones of certain 

 counties tributary to Kansas City. Considerable progress has 

 been made in the preparation of Bulletin No. 6, and in the draught- 

 ing of maps for publication. The granites and porphyries in 

 Madison County have further been studied and their areas mapped, 

 and the distribution of the geological formations have been out- 

 lined in a part of Greene County. Inspections of building stones 

 and of clay deposits have been made in Stone, Jefferson, Ste. 

 Genevieve, Mississippi, Stoddard, Scott, Cape Girardeau, Madison, 

 Iron, Wayne, Butler, Greene, Webster, Phelps, and Crawford 

 Counties. In connection with the various works above referred 

 to, many photographs have been taken illustrating the occurrences 

 of minerals and other geological phenomena in the State, and a 

 large number of specimens have been collected for. purposes of 

 study, test, and exhibit. 



— A correspondent of the American Field, writing from Sidney, 

 O., says: " A friend of mine, a careful observer, recently related 

 an occurrence he witnessed some years ago. While watching fish 

 through clear ice in shallow water, he saw a muskrat moving 

 about on the bottom, apparently feeding. Presently the animal 

 stopped and emitted the air in his lungs, which came up in small 

 bubbles to the under surface of the ice. He then came up, put his 

 nose to the large bubble and rebreathed the an:. This may be old, 

 but it was new to me, and may be to others " 



— In a paper on the density of weak aqueous solutions of certain 

 sulphates, read before the Royal Society of Canada on May 28, 

 1890, Professor J. G. MacGregor of Dalhousie College, Halifax, 

 gives the following as the general results of his study of the sub- 

 ject: (1) In addition to magnesium, zinc, and copper sulphates, 

 already known to form weak aqueous solutions having a volume 

 less than their constituent water would have in a free state, 

 aluminum, cadmium (possibly), cobalt, and nickel sulphates are 

 found to exhibit the same peculiarity ; (3) the formation of such 

 solutions is not a property of the sulphates generally; (3) neither 

 is it a property of all the metals of any one of the groups into 

 which the metals are divided by chemists; (4) the formation of 

 such solutions does not seem to depend upon the amount of the 

 water of crystallization of a salt. 



— From a series of observations on woodpeckers, made in the 

 region of Mount Chocorua, New Hampshire, Mr. Frank Bolles, in 

 a communication to the Auk for July, draws the following con- 

 clusions: that the yellow-bellied woodpecker is in the habit for 

 successive years of drilling the canoe birch, red maple, red oak, 

 white ash, and probably other trees, for the purpose of taking 

 from them the elaborated sap and in some cases parts of the cam- 

 bium layer; that the birds consume the sap in large quantities 

 for its own sake and not for the insect matter which such sap 

 may chance occasionally to contain; that the sap attracts many 

 insects of various species, a few of which form a considerable part 

 of the food of this bird, but whose capture does not occupy its 

 time to any tning like the extent to which sap drinking occupies 

 it; that different families of these woodpeckers occupy different 

 "orchards," such families consisting of a male, female, and from 

 one to four or five young birds; that the "orchards" consist of 

 several trees usually only a few rods apart, and that these trees 

 are regularly and constantly visited from sunrise until long after 

 sunset, not only by the woodpeckers themselves, but by numerous 

 parasitical humming-birds, which are sometimes unmolested but 

 probably quite as often repelled ; that the forest trees attacked by 

 them generally die, possibly in the second or third year of use; 



