Dec. 21, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



62- 



©literal 0oU$. 



The Inhabitants of Ancient Egypt. — In opposition 

 to the hypothesis that the people of Ancient Egypt were 

 of a negroid type, Prof. Virchow shows that they were 

 of old, just as at present, a straight-haired race. 



The Sewage of Paris. — In spite of all the boasts 

 concerning the fertilising properties of the Paris sewage, 

 no one will have it. The last suggestion is a canal for 

 taking it to the coast between the Somme and Arthe. 



ground to powder and dissolved in boiling water, and is 

 said even to take out oil-spots. 



A New Chair of Botany. — Dr. Holbrook Gaskell has 

 promised to the Liverpool College of the Victoria Uni- 

 versity the sum of ,£5,000 towards the endowment of 

 the Chair of Botany. The total sum required will be 

 £10,000. 



Sweeping Adulteration. — At Stoke-upon-Trent " sub- 

 lime olive oil" has been sold which consisted entirely of 

 cotton-seed oil with a slight trace of some animal oil. 

 There can be no objection to cotton-seed oil if sold under 

 its own name. 



The Satellites of Mars. — M. Poincarre, in a com- 

 munication to the Academy of Sciences, calls in question 

 the hypothesis of M. Dubois that the satellites of Mars 

 are small planets which have passed some years back in 

 the vicinity of Mars, and have been retained by the at- 

 traction of that planet. 



Injurious Effects of the Telephone. — Dr. C. J. 

 Blake (Science) has communicated to the American Oto- 

 logical Society a paper on the injurious effects of the tele- 

 phone on the hearing power. He thinks that the ear is 

 fatigued and rendered liable to injury. Other medical 

 men present gave confirmatory evidence. 



Executions by Electricity. — Science, commenting on 

 the manner of applying the current as proposed by the 

 Medico-Legal Society of New York, thinks that it should 

 be passed from one arm to the other so as to traverse the 

 region of the heart. In almost all the fatal accidents 

 recorded the current has passed in this manner. 



Interruption of Electric Conductions by Snow. — 

 On November 9th, at the town of St. Joseph, in Montana, 

 a heavy snowstorm first broke down the telegraph and 

 telephone wires, and by 4 p.m. rendered the electric- 

 light wires useless. The electric tram-lines, however, 

 were not in the least interfered with, but went on work- 

 ing as usual. 



The Persistence of Human Races. — According to 

 Prof. Virchow (Vcrhandl. Berlin. Gesellsch.fi'trErdkunde), 

 the hereditary persistence of races is so strong that it is 

 maintained in spite of admixtures, and the ultimate fusion 

 of individuals to one common type is not so much a 

 product of the mixture as the elimination of some 

 element out of the mixture. 



The Universal Meridian. — Cosmos, deeply dissatis- 

 fied, like many other French organs of opinion, with the 

 proposed universal adoption of the meridian of Green- 

 wich, again proposes Bethlehem as the first meridian ! It 

 is needless to say that a place which has no observatory 

 and which lies outside the life of the present age is emin- 

 ently unsuitable for such a purpose. 



A Chinese Soap. — According to Father A. Chausse 

 (Cosmos), the favourite soap of the Chinese is the cake 

 left after pressing out the oil from the seeds of Camellia 

 oleifera, a near ally of the beautiful Camellia japonica, so 

 much cherished in our conservatories. The cake is 



Rain in Greenland. — According to Cosmos, violent 

 rains are not confined to the tropics. At Ivigtut, in the 

 south of Greenland, a rainfall of seven inches was regis- 

 tered on October 12th and 13th, 1887. In December 

 it rained without ceasing from the night of the 18th to 

 the night of the 29th, the depth of the rain being above 

 ten inches. During the last seven days the daily average 

 was close upon an inch. 



Progress of Cremation. — According to the Flamme, 

 the organ of the Berlin Cremation Society, the number 

 of bodies cremated in different countries up to August 

 1st last is, in Italy 998, Germany 554, America 287, 

 Sweden 39, England 16, France 7, and Denmark 1. The 

 members of the cremation societies number 3,012 in 

 Sweden, 1,326 in Denmark, 1,326 in Holland, 1,050 in 

 Germany, 580 in Italy, and 390 in Switzerland, 



The Sanitary State of Manchester. — The medical 

 papers are much exercised touching the high death rate 

 of Manchester, which is pronounced to be more unhealthy 

 by 70 per cent, than the average of other large towns in 

 the United Kingdom. Whatever may be the cause, or 

 causes, of this unsatisfactory state, it cannot be the soil 

 or climate, since the rural districts a few miles to the 

 west rank among the healthiest places on the earth. 



A Subterranean River. — M. Martel informs the 

 Academy of Sciences that he has recently performed a 

 voyage of about i| mile in the underground passages, in 

 which circulates a stream which disappears in the region 

 of Causses. The author's results lead him to propose a 

 theory on the formation of the celebrated canons such as 

 are met with in the State of Colorado, and, although on 

 a smaller scale, in France, at Montpellier-le-Vieux. 



Dreams of the Blind. — Jastrow (Humboldt) has re- 

 cently confirmed the conclusions of G. Herrmann that 

 persons, who have lost their eyesight prior to their 

 seventh year never dream in visual imagery, whilst in 

 those who have become blind later in life the dreams 

 are like those of persons who can see. Jastrow believes 

 that the blind dream unusually little, women more than 

 men. Dreams decrease in frequency from childhood to 

 age. 



The Sight- Seer's Headache. — The New York Medical 

 Record examines the origin of this affection so well-known 

 to the visitors of museums, picture-galleries, and exhibi- 

 tions. The principal causes seem to be a close atmo- 

 sphere, defective in ventilation, the mental fatigue from 

 long-continued observation, and the bodily weariness 

 from maintaining an upright position, and especially the 

 strain from continually moving the head and the eyes in 

 an upward position. 



