January 22, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



45 



Q, F. Stout, Dr. J. Ward, and Dr. de Watteville. The fee for 

 attendance at the congress is ten shillings. Arrangements will 

 be made for the accommodation of foreign members of the con- 

 gress at a moderate expense. Communications are invited, which 

 should be sent to one of the honorary secretaries (F. W. H. Myers, 

 Leckhampton House, Cambridge; or James Sully, East Heath 

 Road, Hampstead, London, N.W.)not later than the end of June, 

 and as much earlier than that date as possible. The communica- 

 tion should be accompanied by a precis of its contents for the use 

 of members. 



— In a recent number of the Revue M&dieale de la Suisse Bo- 

 mande, Dr. Grand jean has related a case of very great interest. It 

 is that of a man of thirty-foui-, who, with the exception of an attack 

 of somnambulism at the age of eight — an attack in which he had 

 walked into his father's bedroom and congratulated him on being 

 elected king of Italy — had been previously healthy. Towards 

 the end of January, 1890, he began to suffer from nightmare and 

 depression, without apparent cause, but he had no headache or 

 vomiting. This condition persisted for two weeks. Then, on 

 Feb. 9, after going to his office and working as usual, at nine 

 o'clock in the morning he took his hat, set out on foot, and ar- 

 rived at Payerne, a village fifty kilometres distant. He had no 

 recollection of anything that happened from the tijne he left his 

 office until he awoke, in the middle of the night, in an inn at 

 Payerne. His boots, he found, were much worn, but his clothes 

 were in good order. He presented none of the usual effects of 

 having passed through an epileptic paroxysm, except that he had 

 a violent headache. After this he remained as usual for seven 

 months, except that he had occasional "absences." Thus, on 

 one occasion, while writing, he was surprised to find that he had 

 continued at his work for an hour without any recollection of hav- 

 ing done so. The work was done perfectly, without a single 

 mistake. At the end of the seven months he had another attack 

 similar to the first, but lasting for two days, during which he had 

 gone about to different places acting in a manner which did not 

 strike any observer as strange or peculiar, but being all the time 

 unconscious. Five months later he had a similar, even more 

 elaborate, attack, which also lasted for two days, and was fol- 

 lowed by headache more violent than usual. Dr. Grand jean comes 

 to the conclusion that this is undoubtedly a case of epileptic au- 

 tomatism. He does so from the nature of the attacks, from the 

 fact that the man also suffered from "absences" of longer or 

 shorter duration, really attacks of petit mal, and because the latter 

 became almost totally suppressed under treatment by the bro- 

 mides. The case is an important one, and it should serve to im- 

 press the fact once more that some criminals who profess complete 

 unconsciousness of the act or acts with which they are charged 

 may really be the subjects of epileptic automatism. If this pa- 

 tient had committed some crime during one of those periods of 

 imconsciousness, a defence to the effect that he was the subject of 

 epilepsy would have been received with considerable doubt, espe- 

 cially as there was nothing in the nature of a severe fit to point to 

 in the former history, but only those temporary " absences" with- 

 out any obvious convulsion. 



— At the meeting of the Chemical Society of Washington, Jan. 

 14, Professor H. W. Wiley presented a paper on " Midzu-ame." 

 The sample of midzu-ame or Japanese glucose analyzed by Pro- 

 fessor Wiley was brought to the laboratory of the Agricultural 

 Department by Dr. W. St. George Ellior, having been sent to him 

 from Yokohama by Mr. J. H. Loomis. A sample of heavy con- 

 fectioner's glucose was analyzed at the same time and the two 

 compared. The characteristic of the midzu-ame is its high per- 

 centage of maltose, nearly all of the reducing sugar present being 

 maltose. The ash of the midzu-ame contained only a trace of 

 sulphate;, no lime, no chlorium, and was strongly alkaline. The 

 ash of the confectioner's glucose contained large quantities of sul- 

 phates, very little lime, and was also alkaline. The pleasant 

 flavor of the midzu-ame seems to render it preferable to glucose 

 for confectioners' use, and Professor Wiley thought it may be 

 destined to have an important future in this respect. He referred 

 to its use in Japan, where it has been used for medical purposes 

 with dialyzed iron and cod liver oil. Its only advantage over 



maltine is its easy digestibility. Professor Wiley also described 

 the methods of manufacture in Japan as given by Dr. J. C. Berry 

 and by Mr. Loomis. W. F. HUlebrand, in his paper on "Zinc- 

 bearing Spring Waters from Missouri," described the springs as 

 issuing from a low bluff a few miles south-west of Joplin, and 

 their chief constituent as zinc sulphate, amounting to three 

 hundred parts per million in a total weight of less than twice 

 that amount of salts. Cadmium, lead, and copper were found in 

 small quantity, and the other constituents were sulphates of cal- 

 cium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, manganese, aluminium, 

 and iron ; also calcium carbonate, silica, and a small amount of 

 sodium chloride. 



— Professor Albert A. Michelson of Clark University has been 

 invited by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures to 

 spend the coming summer at the Bureau's laboratory at Breteuil, 

 near Paris, for the purpose of establishing a metric standard in 

 terms of wave lengths of light. Of the three methods of deter- 

 mining a standard of length, the measuring a quadrant of the 

 earth's circumference, the oscillation of a pendulum under given 

 conditions, and the length of light waves at a given line in the 

 spectrum, the last is the most accurate and has the advantage of 

 being a cosmic rather than terrestrial standard. In his original 

 paper explaining the method, Professor Michelson had the co- 

 operation of Professor Morley of Cleveland. The invitation of the 

 International Committee has been accepted by Professor Michelson 

 with the informal approval of the president and trustees of Clark 

 University. Their formal action in granting him leave of absence 

 only awaits the arrival of official papers from Paris and Berlin. 

 The order for the additional new apparatus has been placed with 

 the American Watch and Tool Company of Waltham and with Mr. 

 Brashier of Pittsburg. The working drawings have been made 

 by F. L. C. Wardwell. Professor B. A. Gould of Cambridge, the 

 well-known astronomer and American representative of the Inter- 

 national Congress of Weights and Measures, writes to President 

 Hall as follows : " The proposed investigation is a magnificent one, 

 audacious, yet already proved by Professor Michelson to be feasi- 

 ble. The honor inuring to our country by the selection of an 

 American professor to carry it out and an American artist for con- 

 structing an apparatus requiring such surpassing delicacy is one 

 which, I am confident, you will appreciate as highly as I do. It 

 is my conviction that the assent of Clark University will not only 

 redound to its high honor and be gratefully recognized throughout 

 the civilized world, but will constitute an enduring title to re- 

 membrance and full appreciation in the history of science. It 

 seems to me a just source of pride that our country should be 

 called on to take the chief part, both scientific and technical, in 

 such an undertaking, and I will not deny that I am considerably 

 elated by it." Telegrams from Professor Foerster at Berlin and 

 Hirsch of Switzerland, president and secretary, respectively, of 

 the International Bureau, have been received, ratifying all ar- 

 rangements. 



— The Indiana Academy of Science held its annual meeting in 

 the Capitol at Indianapolis, Dec. 30 and 31, 1891, under the presi- 

 dency of Professor O. P. Hay of Butler University, Irvington, Ind. 

 Owing to the great number of papers entered, it was necessary, 

 throughout the most of the meeting, to meet in two sections: 

 Section A., zoology, botany, and geology; Section B., chemistry, 

 physics, and mathematics. On Wednesday morning and evening 

 general sessions were held. At the latter the president's address 

 on "The Present State of the Theory of Organic Evolution" was 

 delivered. There were ninety-eight papers entered, and under 

 the rules none were permitted on the programme except such as 

 were expected to be read. The committee appointed at the sum- 

 mer meeting of the Academy, at Lake Maxincuckee, to consider 

 the question of science work in the high schools of the Stale re- 

 ported that it had brought the subject to the attention of the State 

 Board of Education, with the result that the presidents of Purdue 

 University and Indiana University were appointed a commit- 

 tee to prepare a cu-cular of instruction, to be distributed by the 

 board to high schools and to school officers. The circular is nearly 

 ready for distribution. The committee appointed to secure the 

 passage by the legislature of an act to protect native birds reported 



