466 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IV., No. 93. 



The poles were supplied with sulphuric-acid insula- 

 tors in order to prevent, as far as possible, the creep- 

 ing of electricity over their surfaces. From this 

 insulated system of points a wire was run to a ground- 

 connection at a lower level, perhaps from five hundred 

 to a thousand feet below. If the ground-connection 

 had been made on the same level, no current would 

 have been observed ; but when there was a difference 

 of level, even if not more than thirty feet, a current 

 was always observed from the higher point to the 

 lower. The luminous effects portrayed in the cut 



eral vineyards near Bordeaux, the workmen rubbing 

 the stocks with a chain-steel glove; but the results 

 are not satisfactory, as it is only the old wood which 

 can be treated in this way. The use of boiling water 

 would produce excellent re>ults but for the fact that 

 it is open, more than any other process, to careless- 

 ness in application; and that neutralizes all its good 

 effects. The rubbing of the vines with a preparation 

 composed of nine parts of coal-tar to one of oil was 

 open to the objection that the coal-tar got so thick in 

 cold weather that it could not be applied, and the 



A VERTICAL 



:IIEAF OF LIGHT OBSERVED, DURING A DISPLAY OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS, ABOVE A SYSTEM OF WIRES 



top of FiETARiXTUNTURi, near kultala, FINNISH lapj.and. (Reproduced from La Nature.) 



were only visible to the naked eye when there was a 

 marked display of northern lights; although by the 

 aid of the spectroscope, which would show the pecul- 

 iar spectrum of auroral light, the existence of the 

 streamer could often be proved. 



— Balbiani, professor at the College de France, 

 was commissioned a short time ago, by the minister 

 of agriculture, to report upon the best mode of de- 

 stroying the winter eggs of the Phylloxera, as it has 

 been found that it is in this way the progress of the 

 parasite is very materially checked. Professor Bal- 

 biani reports that three methods have been employed, 

 — the mechanical destruction of the eggs by barking 

 the vines, boiling water, and rubbing the vines with 

 preparations calculated to burn up the eggs. The 

 first-named of these methods has been tried in sev- 



cost of heating it again was considerable. Several 

 vine-growers tried to liquefy the mixture by adding 

 fifteen per cent of turpentine; but this, when applied, 

 killed the vines altogether. Balbiani tried several 

 fresh experiments, among others a mixture of oil, 

 naphtha, quicklime, and water. This mixture has 

 been tried upon a very large scale in the vineyards of 

 the Lot-et-Graronne and the Loir-et-Cher; and it 

 possesses, according to Balbiani, the double recom- 

 mendation of being effectual and cheap, as the cost 

 is under a franc for a hundred stocks. 



— A Washington correspondent informs us that it 

 was the Mohave and not the Zuiii women whom Dr. 

 Ty lor mentioned, at a recent meeting of the anthro- 

 pological society of Washington (see Science, p. 448), 

 as wearing bark skirts. 



