NOTES. 



575 



article. It was not long before Italy followed 

 the example of these two countries, but the 

 first attempts were not fortunate." Italian 

 margarine butter costs from forty to forty- 

 five per cent less than pure butter, and is 

 more easily handled. 



NOTES. 



The " Hand-Book of Meteorological Ta- 

 bles," compiled by Prof. H. A. Hazen, con- 

 tains in a convenient form the reductions 

 needed for current work, omitting those not 

 now generally used. Several of the tables 

 are new, or recomputed in their present 

 form after some years' experience by the au- 

 thor in their use. The table for reduction 

 of barometrical observations to sea-level has 

 been extended to eight thousand feet. For- 

 mulae and tables are given for the determi- 

 nation of mean wind direction, and for the 

 conversion of wind velocities from miles per 

 hour to metres per second, and vice versa. 



The Society or Association of Sanitary 

 Inspectors of Great Britain is composed of 

 the professional inspectors who act under 

 the direction of the medical boards of health. 

 The " Lancet " claims that a great improve- 

 ment has come over the character of these 

 officers since the society was formed, five 

 years ago, and that they have gained great- 

 ly in influence. The examinations by the 

 Sanitary Institute have also contributed ma- 

 terially to raise the standing of these men. 

 The diploma of the institute conveys no legal 

 license or corporate privilege, but it is a tes- 

 timonial of qualification, a badge of honor, 

 and a stimulant to earnest work and improve- 

 ment. 



The Watson gold medal and $100 in 

 gold, founded by Dr. James C. Watson, to 

 be given to the citizen of any country who 

 has made the most important discoveries in 

 astronomy, has been awarded to Dr. Edward 

 Schonfeld, of the University of Bonn, Ger- 

 many. The medal is given to Dr. Schonfeld 

 for his researches concerning the variable 

 stars and for his work in cataloguing the 

 stars brighter than the tenth magnitude, 

 from the equator to the southern tropic. 



The Congress on Tuberculosis that was 

 held in Paris in the summer of 1888 recom- 

 mended the inclusion of that affection in the 

 . list of contagious diseases of animals, and 

 the seizure and destruction of every infected 

 beast. It urged the spread of popular in- 

 struction respecting the precautionary meth- 

 ods for preventing tubercular contagion, the 

 risks that are run by the infection of meat 

 and milk coming from tuberculous cattle, 

 and the measures to be taken for the disin- 

 fection of materials derived from phthisical 

 patients. It insisted on the inspection of 

 dairies and dairy farms. 



A lowland cure has been suggested 

 by Dr. Lindsley, to be applied in places be- 

 low the level of the sea, where the atmos- 

 phere is denser than at normal or higher 

 levels. Such places are the valley of Con- 

 chilla, near Los Angeles, California, about 

 two hundred and seventy-three feet ; the Dead 

 Sea district, twelve hundred and eighty-nine 

 feet; Lake Asal in East Africa, six hun- 

 dred and thirty-nine feet; the Arroyo del 

 Muerto, California, two hundred and thirty 

 feet ; the oasis of Sirrah in Libya, one 

 hundred and twenty-three feet, and the bor- 

 ders of the Caspian Sea, eighty-six feet below 

 the sea-level. 



Colorado possesses large coal-fields which 

 yielded 1,439,811 tons in 1886. The valua- 

 tion of coal on the cars, at $2.35 per ton 

 gross, was $3,375,095. About 3,500 men 

 are employed. The average cost of pro- 

 ducing the coal on the cars at the mines is 

 $1.H per ton. The fields yield anthracite, 

 bituminous, and lignite coals ; and it is 

 thought by the officers of our Geological Sur- 

 vey that about 100,000 square miles of the 

 territory of the State are underlaid by coal- 

 bearing strata. 



The monument to be placed over General 

 Prjevalsky's grave on the shores of Lake 

 Issik-kul will represent a rock twenty-eight 

 feet high, on the top of which a large eagle 

 is perched. The eagle grasps in its talons a 

 map of Central Asia, the arena of the scien- 

 tific exploits of the deceased, and in its beak 

 an olive-branch, symbolical of the peaceful 

 scientific conquests which Russia owes to 

 Prjevalsky. The inscription, recording the 

 name, birth, and death of the deceased, on 

 one side of the rock, is surmounted by a large 

 bronze cross. In the interior of the monu- 

 ment is cut a spiral staircase crowned with 

 an enlarged copy of the medal struck by the 

 Academy of Sciences in 188*7, and showing 

 the inscription, " To the first explorer of 

 Nature in Central Asia." 



Bishop's Ring was seen in February, 1889, 

 by Miss E. Brown, of Cirencester, England, 

 at about noon one day when the sun was 

 hidden behind a cloud. It appeared very 

 similar in extent and color, but not in inten- 

 sity, to its exhibition after the Krakatoa 

 eruption. 



In a paper on " Destructors and Refuse 

 Furnaces," read before a Yorkshire Sanitary 

 Science Conference, Mr. W. Warner said that 

 a chimney one hundred and sixty feet high 

 was suitable for the cremation, and could be 

 built, with a six-celled destructor, for about 

 £3,000, or $15,000. If a town could utilize 

 all the clinkers, fine ashes, and fine dust, it 

 would pay the cost of burning and the re- 

 turn of capital expended on the plant, and 

 produce a revenue to aid the necessary cost 

 of erection. The author did not see why 

 the point of perfection should not be reached. 



