February 26, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



117 



annuus. In the middle prairie States it is mostly the members of 

 the sunflower family, as tlie ragweeds and cockleburs, that pre- 

 vail. Coming into the central States the list is led by Canada 

 thistle, quackgrass. docks, daisy, chess, plantain, and purslane. 

 If to this list we add wild carrot, onion, and parsnip, and the like 

 old foreign enemies, we have the extensive catalogue of these 

 plant pests that prey upon the lands of New England. Of the 

 weeds of tlie South as compared with those of the North it has 

 not been the purpose here to speak, nor of the migration of 

 weeds. 



— At a meeting of the Chemical Society of Washington, Feb. 

 11, W. H. Krug read a paper on "The Behavior of Sugar Solu- 

 tions with Acetone." Acetone and water are miscible in all pro- 

 portions at ordinary temperatures. If a mixture is prepared 

 containing more than ten per cent acetone, and sugar added in 

 small quantities dissolving after each addition, a point wiU be 

 reached where the further addition of sugar causes a .separation 

 of acetone. We can continue adding sugar until the water is 

 saturated. It will then still contain a small percentage of acetone. 

 At 35° C. this is approximately 9.5 per cent. On account of the 

 highly viscous nature of a saturated sugar solution it is impossible 

 to determine this figure accurately. It is thus necessary to reverse 

 the problem, determining the solubility of acetone in sugar solu- 

 tions of varying strength. Sucrose is absolutely insoluble in pure 

 acetone. The acetone used boiled at 57.5° C. The following 

 method was used for determining the solubility of acetone in sugar 

 solutions. Twenty-five grams of a sugar solution of known strength 

 were rapidly weighed into a flask, a small thermometer inserted 

 and the ilask closed with a rubber stopper. The whole apparatus 

 was then weighed. It was brought to the required temperature 

 and acetone added in small quantities from a burette, the flask 

 being stoppered and shaken before each addition. The flask and 

 contents were carefully kept at the same temperature. As soon 

 as the saturation point was reached the next drop of acetone pro- 

 duced a milkiness, which on standing resolved itself into minute 

 drops of acetone. The flask was then weighed again, and the weight 

 of acetone added determined in this manner. The results were 

 very satisfactory. The solubility of acetone in sugar solutions 

 decreases as we raise the temperature. The curves of solubility 

 were determined for three temperatures, 30", 35", and 30° C. 

 From 40 to 50 per cent sugar they are practically parallel, and 

 from 50 per cent they approach each other. It seems probable 

 that they meet at 75 per cent. 



Table of Solubility. 

 One hundred grams sugar solutLon dissolve per cent acetone at — 



— According to a report recently published in Germany, there 

 were, in 1889, 5,260 workmen killed in accidents, and 35,393 seri- 

 ously injured. These losses do not vary much from one year to 

 another. Nature compares the figures with those of the killed 

 and wounded at Gravelotte — one of the most murderous battles 

 in this century — which were 4,449 and 20,977. The industries 

 furnishing most accidents were as follows, in descending order: 

 mines, railways, quarries, subterranean works, building, brew- 

 eries. All industries are arranged in 64 corporations, and it is 

 estimated that more than 4 500,000 of work-people are insurel. 

 Wounds and fractures are the most usual form of injury, and the 

 duration of treatment tends to increase every year, by virtue of a 

 law which makes an allowance when incapacity for work exceeds 



three weeks (this was based on the observation that fractures were 

 generally healed in three weeks). Since this law was introduced 

 the treatment of fractures has taken longer. There are always 

 more accidents in winter than in summer, and on Mondays and 

 Saturdays than on other days. Also, there are twice as many ac- 

 cidents from 9 A.M. to noon, and from 3 to 6 p.m., than from 6 to 

 9 A.M., and from noon to 8 P.M. Better light in summer, and fa 

 tigue towards the end of each half-day of sis hours, are sujiposed 

 to explain some of these variations. 



— In the February number of Nature Notes, Mr. Robert Morley 

 vouches for the accuracy of a story which seems to indicate the 

 possibility of very tender feeling in monkeys. A friend of Mr 

 Moi'ley's, a native of India, was sitting in his garden, when a loud 

 chattering announced the arrival of a large party of monkeys, who 

 forthwith proceeded to make a meal off his fruits. Fearing the 

 loss of his entire crop, he fetched his fowling-piece, and, to 

 frighten them away, fired it ofiF, as he thought, over the heads of 

 the chattering crew. They all fled away, but he noticed, left be- 

 hind upon a bough, what looked like one fallen asleep with its 

 head resting upon its arms. As it did not move, he sent a servant 

 up the tree, who found that it was quite dead, having been shot 

 through the heart. He had it fetched down and buried beneath 

 the tree ; and on the morrow he saw, tilting upon the little mound, 

 the mate of the dead monkey. It remained there for several days 

 bewailing its loss. 



— The people of Vienna have been greatly alarmed by the out- 

 break of a new epidemic, which is believed by some to be con- 

 nected with the influenza. It affects the intestines, its symptoms 

 being fever and acute colic, with the ejection of blood. Its ap- 

 pearance seems to indicate the absorption of some poisonous mat- 

 ter. At first it was attributed to the drinking-water,- but this 

 view has been generally abandoned. A representative of a Vienna 

 newspaper has taken the opinion of some of the Vienna physi- 

 cians on the subject. Professor Nothnagel hesitated to pronounce 

 any judgment on the illness, the facts not having been suiHciently 

 studied. Professor Drasche thought it might be " nothing else 

 than a distinct form of influenza," and was confident that it was 

 not due to the drinking-water. Professor Oser was also sure that 

 the drinking-water had nothing to do with the disease, and " did 

 not consider that there was any indisputable evidence of its con- 

 nection with influenza." Dr. Bettelheim seemed to think that 

 there was something in common between influenza and the new 

 malady called '' catarrh of the intestines." He based his opinion 

 on the fact that from the day when the latter made its appear- 

 ance in an epidemic form cases of ordinary influenza had begun 

 to decrease. He looked upon them both as being of an infectious 

 nature. A chemical analyst. Dr. Jolles, said it would require 

 three weeks to make a bacteriological inquiry into the character 

 of the illness. A chemical analysis of the drinking-water, says 

 Nature, showed it to be of normal purity. 



— Nature prints some notes by Mr. J. J. Walker, R N., on ants' 

 nest beetles at Gibraltar and Tangier, with especial reference to 

 the Hisperidse. The search for ants' nest Hister is a somewhat 

 troublesome employment, as only about two or three per cent of 

 the ants" nests contain the beetle. Mr Walker, however, thinks 

 "it is a pretty sight, and one which compensates for a great deal 

 of strain to the eyes, as well as to the back, to see a Sternoccelis 

 or Eretmotus lying motionless among the hurrying crowd of ants 

 and then, suidenly developing an amount of leg quite surprising 

 in so small a creature, marching o6f daintily on the tips of its toes 

 (or rather tarsi) with a ludicrous resemblance, in gait and appear- 

 ance, to a tiny ciab." The comparatively weak mandibles of the 

 ants are ineffective against the hard armor and tightly-packed 

 limbs of the beetles, which devour the helpless brood with impu- 

 nity. Mr. Walker has more than once taken S. acutangulus with 

 a half-eaten larva in his jaws, and they are usually to be found 

 clinging to the masses of larvse where these lie thickest. On the 

 other hand, he once (but once only) saw an ant take up a S. 

 araclmoides in it~ mandibles and carry it ofif into a lower gallery 

 of the nest; but this may have been done under the influence of 

 alarm, the frightened ant seizing on the first object that came in 

 its way. 



