510 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. Vlll., No. 200 



health can do to prevent adulteration of foods and 

 drinks and the sale of dangerous illunainants,' by 

 W. R. Newton of Paterson. Dr. Newton was 

 elected president for the ensuing year. The asso- 

 ciation adjourned to meet at Trenton next year. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The limits of glacial action in Russia appear 

 on all our maps, according to the observations of 

 Murchison and bis colleagues many years ago, at 

 a time when the glacial theory was in its infancy, 

 and when the investigation of glacial records was 

 in a very crude state. It is therefore welcome 

 news to students in this branch of geology to 

 learn that Nikitin, chief of the Russian geological 

 bureau, has lately reviewed the question, utilizing 

 all local information, so diflScult of access to 

 American readers from its being largely in Rus- 

 sian, and adding many special observations of his 

 own. His discussion is published in the ninth 

 number of Petermann's Mittheilungen for the cur- 

 rent year, and is accompanied by a small-scale 

 map showing the margin of the glaciated area, in 

 which the characteristic indented outline clearly 

 appears, though not on so remarkable a scale as in 

 this country. The subdivision of the drift is not 

 carried so far as it has been with us, and its influ- 

 ence on the topography is hardly considered : much 

 further information may therefore be expected 

 from later investigations. 



— Although Mont Blanc has for a quarter of a 

 century been French soil, its climbers have not 

 usually shown an annual majority of Frenchmen; 

 yet this has been the case this year. The ascent 

 was made by 31 French (three of them ladies), 25 

 English (one lady), 10 Americans, seven Swiss 

 (two ladies), six Germans, two Russians, two 

 Swedes, one Italian, and one Belgian, — total, 85. 



— Glanders is still quite prevalent in Brooklyn. 

 But a short time ago the officers of Bergh's so- 

 ciety found that a horse which had been trans- 

 porting meat from a slaughter-house to the butcher- 

 shops for eight months, had during all that time 

 been suffering from glanders. The owner of the 

 horse was arrested, and fined a hundred doUars, 

 and, in default of its payment, was sent to jail. 

 Thi-ee other horses have been attacked with the 

 disease in the same stable, and all four have been 

 killed. The number of horses which have been 

 exposed during these many months is incalculable, 

 and, unless rigid measures are taken, a wide- 

 spread epidemic may be expected. 



— The pharmaceutical society of Brooklyn has 

 permanently established a course of lectures to be 

 given annually to the drug-clerks of that society. 



The course for the coming year includes lectures 

 on poisons and their mode of action, antiseptics 

 and disinfectants, chemistry as related to phar- 

 macy, the microscope and its uses in pharmacy, 

 and other subjects of importance and interest. 

 The plan is an admirable one, and is worthy of 

 reproduction by the pharmacists of other cities. 



— The superintendent of buildings in Kansas 

 City says that he finds very few buildings in that 

 city in which the plumbing is as it should be. He 

 finds that in some cases the only escape for sewer- 

 gas is through the sink, the bath-tub, or the 

 water-closet. He recommends the appointment 

 of an inspector, whose duty it should be to ex- 

 amine the plumbing of all houses. 



— Dr. Cyrus Edson's vigorous inspection of the 

 food-supply of New York City is kept up with 

 unabated vigor, and is undoubtedly preventive 

 of much disease among the lower classes of the 

 population. Recently Mr. Edson visited a wine- 

 manufactory in Front Street, and reported that 

 wine was being made by the following process : 

 dried fruits, such as raisins, currants, and peaches, 

 of low grade, are macerated with water, to which 

 a certain amount of sugar is added. The mix- 

 ture is then fermented, and, when fermentation 

 is considered sufficiently advanced, it is checked by 

 the addition of salicylic acid. The so-called wine 

 is then clarified, flavored, and colored to resemble 

 port, claret, or any other desired kind, the ob- 

 ject being to imitate and undersell natural native 

 wines. Dr. Edson claims that salicylic acid taken 

 constantly, even in small doses, produces a de- 

 pressing effect on the nervous system, and he 

 believes the adulteration dangerous, and liable to 

 cause illness. The manufacturer uses 4+ grains 

 of acid to a pint, and Dr. Edson condemned and 

 seized all the wine that he found on the premises. 



— M. Paul Janet has in press a new and revised 

 edition of his valuable and suggestive work en- 

 titled ' Histoire de la science politique dans ses 

 rapports avec la morale.' 



— The French demand for English and German 

 philosophical works seems to increase rather than 

 diminish. M. Alcan has now in press translations 

 of Spencer's ' Principles of sociology,' and of Prey- 

 er's ' Die seele des kindes.' 



— In Belgium a royal decree of recent date has 

 established at Ghent an academy of scholars and 

 literary men, having for its object the study and 

 cultivation of the languages and literature of the 

 Netherlands. It is named Koninklijke vlaarasche 

 academie for taal-en letterkunde. The king of 

 the Belgians is the patron of the academy, which 



