NOTES. 



719 



Htdrographer Dyer, of the Navy De- 

 partment, reports that testimonials are con- 

 stantly received of the efficiency and useful- 

 ness of the pilot charts and supplements. 

 The record of floating vessels affords an ex- 

 cellent opportunity for studying the various 

 phases of ocean currents. The supplement is 

 issued whenever subjects of special interest 

 demand it. Such supplements have been 

 sent out descriptive of West Indian hurri- 

 canes and the law of storms ; on the best 

 transatlantic routes and the winter storm- 

 belt of the Atlantic ; and on water-spouts off 

 the Atlantic coast. Reports of marine me- 

 teorology are received regularly from forty- 

 six Government vessels and five hundred 

 and forty-four of the mercantile marine. 

 Many favorable reports have been received 

 on the efficacy of oil in smoothing the waves. 



A remark is made by Dr. A. G. Auld upon 

 the strange fact that the effects of tobacco 

 are so commonly overlooked in computing 

 the causes of disease — for it is one of the 

 most virulent poisons known, continually at 

 work in the systems of those who use it, and 

 a poison whose physical reactions have never 

 been accurately determined. Dr. Auld is im- 

 pressed that it is responsible for a variety of 

 functional derangements which there is no 

 reason to aver can not terminate in organic 

 disease. Among these are albuminuria of 

 which he has traced cases to the tobacco hab- 

 it ; and certain fibrillary twitchings, often 

 excessive, that occur most frequently about 

 the trunk and upper arms. When such 

 symptoms are found in association with to- 

 bacco-smoking, it will not suffice merely to 

 indulge less in the practice, but tobacco must 

 be dispensed with entirely. 



Concerning flamingoes straddling their 

 nests, which Mr. Henry A. Blake has dis- 

 puted ("Popular Science Monthly," March, 

 1888), Mr. E. J. Dunn, of Melbourne, has 

 written in " Nature " that he has seen in 

 Bushmanland numbers of the tall nests that 

 are described and pictured in the books. 

 They are conical, about eighteen inches high 

 and six inches in diameter at the top, with a 

 shallow, basin-like cavity for the eggs, were 

 built in the water where it was a few inches 

 deep, and could not have been sat upon un- 

 less they were straddled over. 



The London Diocesan Conference has 

 suggested legal measures to meet the evil of 

 too early marriages, and Dr. Matthews Dun- 

 can asserts that the age at which marriage 

 takes place is one of the most important 

 factors in the matter of defects of the re- 

 productive function. He believes that fer- 

 tility is surest and safest, and most happy 

 in its results, at between twenty and twenty- 

 five years in women, and twenty-five and 

 thirty years in men ; and regards the condi- 

 tions as more precarious at an earlier than at 

 a later age. The social and economical con- 

 ditions are also not to be overlooked. 



Dr. Batty Tttke insists upon the impor- 

 tance of giving more attention to efforts to 

 cure insanity. This thought has been sub- 

 ordinated under the operation of the asylum 

 system, which was begun for protection rath- 

 er than cure, and of the theory of the psy- 

 chological nature of insanity. The London 

 County Council has now before it a propo- 

 sition to appoint a committee to inquire con- 

 cerning the expediency of complementing the 

 existing system of treatment with a hospital 

 and medical staff having a curative course in 

 view. 



A remark in the report of Principal 

 Bliss, of the Detroit High School, on over- 

 work, touches what is incontestably one of 

 the weak points of the public schools. It 

 should be remembered, he says, " that over- 

 work is a continued rush. Our classes are 

 large and our recitation periods short. The 

 good of a class can not be sacrificed for that 

 of an individual. In the hurry of our daily 

 work, some boy or girl who is not strong 

 enough to do our work may be overlooked. 

 Have the public schools so far assumed the 

 duties of parents that parents can be ex- 

 cused for not calling our attention to such a 

 case ? " 



After twelve years of experimental work 

 at Rothamsted, Dr. Gilbert has found the 

 old views confirmed respecting the value of a 

 due apportionment of nitrogenous and min- 

 eral substance in the cultivation of potatoes. 

 The present practices of good farmers with 

 barn-yard manures are sustained, while min- 

 eral manures alone are of little effect. Al- 

 though liberal manuring increases the tend- 

 ency to disease, the effect is thought to be 

 offset by the advantage of a heavy crop. 

 The continuous growth of potatoes in the 

 same land does not appear to render the crop 

 more liable to disease, but rather the reverse. 

 Thus, during three periods, of four years 

 each, the percentage of disease in the va- 

 rious plots was reduced successively from 

 5-14-12-82 to 1-63-4-95, and l^-l-^. 



A biological survey of Kansas is in 

 progress, under the direction of members 

 of Washburn College, the eighth report of 

 which is given in the Bulletin of the Lab- 

 oratory of Natural History. It includes a 

 fourth series of notes on fishes, by Dr. C. H. 

 Gilbert, and Mr. B. B. Smyth's catalogue of 

 flowering plants and ferns, in which 1,602 

 species and varieties are named. 



Poeous rebaked porcelain has been 

 found by Dr. C. G. Currier to be the best 

 substance for domestic filters. If thick and 

 strong enough to allow the use of a large 

 surface, and the substance remains perfect, 

 it may yield a fair flow of clear water, free 

 from all bacteria; yet under the ordinary 

 Croton pressure, the yield is only in rapid 

 drops, unless the apparatus be complex. 

 The filter should be occasionally sterilized 

 throughout, by steaming or other means. 



