182 
Notes. 
[March, 
Mr. Atkins (“ British Pharm. Confer.”), when at Vevey, was 
told by a large vine-grower that the grapes of one field, which 
had the afternoon sun, produced a wine of a much higher quality 
than the vines which had the morning sun. 
The Dutch Society of Sciences, at Harlem, offers prizes for 
new researches on the quantity of heat ladiating from stais of 
the first, and if possible of the second, magnitude, having regard 
to the heat absorbed by the atmosphere and by the lenses ; also 
for an examination of the results hitherto reached in the study 
of the specific volume of liquids or solids ; also for new observa- 
tions and experiments on the pathological phenomena occasioned 
in man and other animals by certain badferia ; also for a precise 
study of the history of the development of some species of 
Annelida ; also for a study of the means applied or proposed for 
determining the influence of the ironwork of ships upon the 
compass, and for the complete or partial elimination of this 
influence. Memoirs in reply to these questions, each accom- 
panied by a sealed letter containing the author’s name, must be 
sent to the Secretary of the Society before January ist, 1885. 
The memoirs may be written in Dutch, French, Latin, English, 
Italian, or German, but not in the German characters— a very 
prudent reservation. 
® Professors Morgen and Konig (“ Landwirth Versuchs. Stat.”) 
find, experimentally, that an addition of 10 per cent of kainite to 
decomposing horn-powder entirely prevents the loss of nitrogen. 
“ Science ” proposes to utilise the Yellowstone Parkas a bison 
preserve. This animal appears to be much nearer extermination 
than it has been commonly supposed. 
In some countries there prevails an opinion that to secure eggs 
during incubation from the injurious adtion of thunderstorms, a 
piece of iron ought to be placed beneath the nest. 
According to “Cosmos les Mondes ” a long-haired elephant, 
larger and more perfedt than any specimen hitherto secured, is 
being extricated from the ice at the mouth of the Lena. 
According to Nencki and Sieber (“ Berlin Berichte ”) the 
hsemine crystals of different animals appear to be identical. The 
hzemoglobine crystals of different species are, on the contrary, 
distindL The hsemoglobine of ox-blood is hygroscopic and 
deliquescent ; that of the raven is sparingly soluble in water. 
Most haemoglobines crystallise in the rhombic system, but that 
of the squirrel in the hexagonal. The authors ascribe these 
differences to the fadt that in different species one and the same 
colouring-matter (hsemine) is combined with different propor- 
tions of an albumenoid, or with different varieties of albu- 
menoids. 
