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[Vol. VIII , No. 204 



and tilted and folded slates, worn down smooth, 

 close to its base level of erosion, and then recently 

 unevenly elevated in three great blocks. Every 

 block is slightly tilted to the westward, and sepa- 

 rated from its neighbor by a fault with bold face, 

 falling steeply to the east. Longitudinal valleys 

 lately occupied by lakes lie between the eastern 

 face of one block and the long western slope o£ 

 the next. During and since the uplift, streams 

 flowing westward down the longer slopes have 

 cut deep canons. The date of the faulting is in 

 great part later than the lavas of Lassen's Peak 

 and thereabouts, and it is at least very likely that 

 the dislocation is still in progress. The limestone 

 beds of the region are considered of carboniferous 

 age by previous observers, but a large portion 

 of the auriferous slate series is thought to be of 

 older origin. 



— A recent supplement (No. 83) to Petermann's 

 Mittlieilungen contains an elaborate account by 

 Dr. Berndt. of the effects of the foehn — the hot, 

 dry wind of the Swiss valleys — on organic and 

 inorganic nature. The memoir is prefaced by a 

 good description of the wind itself : it is illustrated 

 by a map showing the valleys, south as well as 

 north of the divide, that are most frequented by it, 

 and also by two weather-charts for the foehn of 

 Feb. 20, 1879, demonstrating its relation to a cy- 

 clonic area of low pressure that crossed Europe 

 from France over central Germany on that day. 

 The body of the work is concerned with the action 

 of the foehn on the mountain snow, and the floods 

 thereby produced in the valleys, with its relation 

 to rock-weathering and consequently to topog- 

 raphy, and to its effects on plants, animals, and 

 men. The danger of village fires is great during 

 the prevalence of the hot wind, and extra watch- 

 men are employed then. After the town of Glarus 

 was thus burned in 1861, even smoking vi-as pro- 

 hibited outdoors and in the public streets during 

 the blowing of the foehn. 



— Dr. Forel, the distinguished Swiss entomolo- 

 gist, has recently published an account of exj^eri- 

 ments designed to ascertain whether the percep- 

 tion of the ultra-violet rays of the spectrum by 

 ants took place by means of their eyes, or as a 

 photo-chemical action on the skin. By varnishing 

 the eyes of some ants, it became evident that the 

 main impression was a visual one : such ants did 

 not exhibit the preference for darkness above 

 ultra-violet light which normal ants showed. This 

 does not absolutely exclude any action on the 

 skin, but makes it improbable. It is interesting 

 to note that the blind are unable to judge of the 

 amount of light in a room if care is taken to ex- 

 clude the effects of heat and other indications. 



— The college building in Charleston was so 

 much injured by the recent earthquake that they 

 have been obliged to pull down entirely the two 

 wings, equivalent to nearly half the space occu- 

 pied by the whole building. Half of the speci- 

 mens in the museum of natural history, and all 

 the physical and chemical apparatus, have been 

 removed, and crowded into the remaining por- 

 tion, which has also to serve for lecture and reci- 

 tation rooms. The private library and collection 

 of Mollusca and Crustacea belonging to Prof. L. 

 R. Gibbes, and probably the most valuable in the 

 south, were also in one of the wings, and of 

 course had to be removed. Our naturalists will 

 have great sympathy for those upon whom this 

 unlooked-for labor has fallen, but will be glad 

 that the collections are uninjured. 



— A very interesting communication to the 

 Medical news has been made by Dr. F. Peyre 

 Porcher of Charleston, on the influence of the 

 recent earthquake shocks in that city upon the 

 health of the inhabitants. In addition to the 

 natural alarm and fright which were quite uni- 

 versal, some persons were attacked with nausea 

 and vomiting, which recurred or persisted in 

 several cases for days. Two gentlemen on the 

 islands eighty miles from Charleston bad their 

 eyes filled with tears not to be repressed, but not 

 caused by alarm, or fears for their jjersona! safety, 

 for the danger there was not imminent. Many 

 persons experienced decidedly electrical disturb- 

 ances, which were repeated upon the successive 

 recurrence of the shocks. These were generally 

 tingling, pricking sensations, like ' needles and 

 pins,' afifecting the lower extremities. One gentle- 

 man was completely relieved of his rheumatism ; 

 another, who for months was nervous, depressed, 

 and entirely unable to attend to business, regained 

 his former activity and energy. Several cases of 

 mental disturbance, owing to anxiety and pro- 

 longed loss of rest, some of them persistent, 

 occurred among Dr. Porcher's patients. 



— We had occasion in a recent number of Sci- 

 ence to refer to a remarkable case in which the 

 breath of an individual, or rather the eructations 

 from his stomach, took fire when brought in con- 

 tact with a lighted match. This case, which was 

 reported in the Medical record, has called forth 

 communications from physicians by which it 

 would appear that the phenomenon is not such 

 a rare one as was at first supposed. In one case 

 of disordered digestion the patient emitted in- 

 flammable gas from the mouth, which, upon 

 analysis, was found to be largely composed of 

 marsh gas. In another case the gas was sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen. A case is reported in the 



