September 25, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



173 



author has divided the country into three zones, and some valua- 

 ble data are given for various localities. Parts of the country are 

 subject to prolonged drought ; it is said that at Pernambuco no 

 rain fell during the whole year 1792, and a third of the population 

 died from its effects; droughts have recurred during the present 

 century with some regularity, the last being in the year 1888-89. 

 The most complete series of observations is that for Rio de Janeiro, 

 which dates from 1781, with occasional interruptions. The high- 

 est shade temperature was 99.5° in November, 1883, and the low- 

 est 50.4° in September, 1882. There are also good series of obser- 

 vations for Rio Grande do Sul and S5o- Paulo. 



— A recent calf-feeding experiment made at the Iowa Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station seems to indicate that (1) a vation of 

 skim milk and ground flaxseed compares favorably with a new- 

 milk ration for young calves; (2) the larger gain came from the 

 whole milk, but a part of it was partly due to the individuality of 

 the calves, and good results and thrifty growth were made on 

 skim milk and ground flaxseed; (3) the skim-milk calves were 

 interrupted less in their growth by weaning than the whole milk 

 calves; (4) a saving in value of butter fat alone of $1.11 per month 

 on each calf was effected by substituting the ground flaxseed ; and 

 (5) the cost of producing a pound of gain was 7. 6 cents for the 

 fresh-milk ration and 5 cents for the skim-milk ration. 



— According to Nature, M. Lancaster has recently indicated in 

 Ciel et Terre the divergences from normal temperature in Europe 

 in the five years 1886-90. It appears (and is shown in a map) 

 that the centre of the "island of cold" lies over the north of 

 France, the south of Belgium, and the most western parts of Ger- 

 many. From this centre the cold decreases pretty regularly out- 

 wards on all sides to a nearly circular line of nil divergence, which, 

 embracing the whole of Great Britain, crosses the south of Swe- 

 den, then goes along the German-Russian frontier, tlu-ough Hun- 

 gary, the south of Italy, the north of Africa, and across Spain. 

 Throughout this inclosed region abnormally low temperatures 

 have prevailed. Siberia, too, shows thermal depression, which 

 M. Lancaster thinks may be connected with that in western Eu- 

 rope. 



— In Nature Notes for August, Mr. R. T. Lewis, on the author- 

 ity of a correspondent in whose trustworthiness he has entire con- 

 fidence, gives a curious account of the appreciation with which 

 the song of the cicada is heard by insects other than those of its 

 own genus. The correspondent has frequently observed in Natal, 

 says Nature, that when the cicada is singing at its loudest, in the 

 hottest portion of the day, it is attended by a number of other in- 

 sects with lovely, gauze like, irridescent wings, whose demeanor 

 has left no doubt on his mind that the music is the attraction. 

 The cicada, when singing, usually stations itself upon the trunk 

 of a tree with its head uppermost, and the insects in question, to 

 the number sometimes of fifteen or sixteen, form themselves into 

 a rough semicircle at a short distance around its head. During a 

 performance one of the insects was observed occasionally to ap- 

 proach the cicada and to touch it upon its front leg or antennse, 

 which proceeding was resented by a vigorous stroke of the foot by 

 the cicada, without, however, any cessation of its song. The in- 

 sects composing the audience are extremely active ; and so wary 

 that they take flight at the least alarm on the too near approach 

 of any intruder. Some of them, however, have been captured; 

 and on examination these "proved to belong to the same family 

 as the most beautiful of British insects, the lace-wing fly, which, 

 indeed, they closely resemble except as to size, their measurement 

 across the expanded wings being a little over two inches. They 

 have since been identified by Mr. Kirby at the British ^Museum as 

 Nothochrysa gigantea." 



— An experiment to test the effect of feed on the quality of milk, 

 recently made at the Iowa Experiment Station, indicates that: (1) 

 quality of milk, so far as measured by its percentage of fat, was 

 changed by feed to a much greater degree than was quantity. 

 Two- thirds of the increase in average gross yield of butter fat was 

 due to improved quality of the milk, and only one-third to in- 

 creased milk flow. (3) Sugar meal produced ,58 of a pound more 

 butter fat per 100 pounds of milk than did corn and cob meal; 

 this difference is seventeen per cent of the amount of fat in 100 



pounds of milk produced by corn and cob meal. (3) Sugar meal 

 produced .73 of a pound more total solids per 100 pounds of milk 

 than did corn and cob meal ; this difference is six per cent of the 

 solids in 100 pounds of milk produced by corn and cob meal. (4) 

 As compared with corn and cob meal, sugar meal increased the 

 ratio of fat to " solids not fat" in 100 pounds of milk, from 896 

 per 1,000 of " solids not fat," to 457 per 1,000 of " solids not fat " 

 an increase of over fifteen per cent. 



— Under the heading " Breeding of Orchard and Garden Fruits " 

 attention is directed in a recent bulletin of the Iowa Agricultural 

 Experiment Station to the following well supported facts : (1) In 

 the States west of Lake Michigan no important advances have 

 been made in the great work of adapting fruits to the peculiar 

 climate and soil of Iowa by growing seedlings from the variety 

 introduced from south-western Europe, nor from their seedlings 

 originating in the Eastern or Southern States. (3) Valuable seed- 

 lings of the orchard and garden fruits have come from the vari- 

 eties introduced from eastern Europe or northern Asia, and from 

 native species. (3) Methodic crossing and hybridizing have given 

 in the past, and promise to give in the near future, more valuable 

 and certain results than can be hoped for from chance breeding 

 from intermingled varieties and species. 



— We learn from the Tiflis paper Caucasus, says Nature, that 

 during an excursion to the sources of the Jiagdon, which was made 

 recently by several explorers, no fewer than eight glaciers were 

 discovered, six of which are not marked on the five-versts-to-the- 

 inch map of Caucasus. They have been viewed now and sketched 

 from Styr-khokh Pass. The southern slope of the branch- ridge of 

 the main chain, between the Kazbek and the Syrkhubarzon peak, 

 has also been sketched from the Trussoff's Pass, and it appears that 

 several of the glaciers of this part of the chain are not represented 

 on the great map, while perpetual snow is shown where there is 

 none. The glaciers visited by the party proved to have very much 

 changed their aspect since 1883, Several sulphur and iron carbon- 

 ate springs vs^ere visited in the Trussoff's valley, and several inter- 

 esting Alpine flowei's in bloom were collected on the passes. 



— It is well known thHt the fox possesses an excellent " head 

 for country." Referring ^, oUis .subj-jco in ,i. - -- :.., ;.-..^ie 

 In the current number ol' the Zoologist, and quoted in Natute, Mr. 

 Harting says a fox has b?-?ii known to return seventy miles to his 

 " earth," and this not cnce, but tluee times. He was caught in 

 Yorkshire, and sent into Lai.cashire to be hunted by the hounds 

 of the late Mr. Fitzherber ' .ckholes of Claughton Hall, Gai-alang, 

 and his identity was ests ; ed by his having been marked in the 

 ear by the fox- catcher. s story Mr. Harting had from his 

 friend Captain P. H. Salvr -rho was Jiving in Yorkshire at the 

 time, and was well acqr 1 with Mr. Brockholes, who gave 

 him all the details. 



— The following are some results of Herren Elster and Geitel's 

 recent electric observations on the Sonnblick, described to the 

 Vienna Academy, and noted in Nature of Sept. 10 : The intensity 

 of the most refrangible solar rays, measured by their discharging 

 effect on a negatively electrified surface of amalgamated zinc, is 

 about doubled on rising 3,100 metres from the lowland. The 

 authors were unable to find other actino-electrically active sub- 

 stances ; even pure fresh snow and dry Soimblick rock were not 

 perceptibly discharged by light. "Waterfalls may produce in a 

 valley a negative fall of potential, and to considerable heights (500 

 metres). The morning maximum in fall of potential, observed 

 regularly between 7 and 9 a.m. in the plain and in Alpine valleys, 

 was absent at 3,100 metres. Before thunder-storms in July, the 

 positive fall of potential sank gradually, in light showers, to nil, 

 at which it remained sometimes two or three hours till completion 

 of the electrical process in the cloud. In thunder-clouds, or on 

 low ground, during a thunder-storm, the atmospheric electricity 

 usually changes sign after a discharge. St. Elmo's fire (negative 

 as often as positive) always accompanied thunder-storms. The ob- 

 servation that negative St. Elmo's fire burns with blue flame, 

 positive with red, was repeatedly confirmed. 



— Professor Erwin H. Barbour, formerly of Iowa College, Grin- 

 nell, lo., has been elected to the chair of geology at the University 

 of Nebraska, Lincoln, Neb. 



