694 
Notes . 
[November. 
With reference to the hay- and corn-drying machine described 
in our October issue, we may mention that a contemporary esti- 
mates the loss sustained in the United Kingdom, from the bad 
harvests of 1879 and of the current year, at £150,000,000. 
French papers report that a dog at Metz has — not from its 
own folly, but by being shut up — gone through a fast of thirty- 
nine days in duration. He has recovered. 
The names of the Committee for the forthcoming Electrical 
Exhibition at the Crystal Palace are duly announced. Sir H. 
Cole is of course included, but why, oh why, is Mr. Buckmaster 
left out in the cold ? 
The fifty-fourth meeting of the Congress of German Natural- 
ists and Physicians took place this year at Salzburg, from the 
18th to the 24th of September, and was complicated with an 
Exhibition. 
A Sanitary Congress was held at Vienna on the 14th of Sep- 
tember and following days. M. Knauff, of Berlin, argued strongly 
in favour of a double system of sewerage, the rain-water, &c., 
not being allowed to mix with and dilute the sewage properly so 
called. 
According to Dr. Melius (“ Pharm. Central Halle ”) only 
o*ooi grm. oxide of copper was extracted from the intestines of 
a girl poisoned with “ Schweinfurt green,” although 130 grms. 
of the liver, 60 grms. of the kidneys, and half the stomach and 
its contents were operated upon. 
Lycopodium complanatum , L., is stated by Bodeker to contain 
more alumina than any other plant. 
We regret having to notice the death of Prof. Schiitzenberger, 
of Strasbourg. 
Sir Joseph Hooker considers that the flora of the Southern 
temperate zone has been derived from the Northern temperate 
regions. 
According to Oscar Low (“ Berichte Deutsch. Chem. Gesell.”) 
he has demonstrated the existence of free fluorine in the fluor- 
spar of Wolsendorf. 
W. B. Schmidt (“ Mineralog. Mittheilungen ”) points out that 
sulphurous acid is rare among the produces of Vesuvius, and of 
the volcanoes of equatorial America ; more common in Etna ; 
and abundant in the Lipari, the volcanoes of Iceland, and espe- 
cially in those of Java. 
M. Ziegler, of Geneva, announces two magnetised iron bars, 
joined together in a certain manner, produce definite effedts upon 
animals, which differ according to the angle of intersection of 
the bars. Prof. C. Vogt pronounces the discovery of importance. 
