Munroe, Charles E. Notes on the Literature of Explosives. No. XIII. Pp. 24. Land, Dr. C. H., Detroit, Mich. The Inconsist- Hay, O. P., Irvington, Ind. On the Manner of Holmes, Mary E. The Morphology of the Carinæ upon the Septa of Rugose Corals. Boston: Bradlee Whidden. Pp. 31, with Sixteen Plates. Everhart, Professor Edgar. Infant Food and Infaut Feeding. Houston, Texas. Pp. 20. POPULAR MISCELLANY. some facts indicate that the presence in the vorable to it. The character of the seasons tion, not the production of crops, should be the controlling object. Recent Advances in Sanitary Science. According to a review of the subject in "Nature," the principal fields in which advance has been recently made in sanitary science are the etiology of such diseases as Asiatic cholera, typhoid fever, diphtheria, and tubercular disorders of the lungs. The organism observed by Koch may not yet have been proved to be the actual cause of chol-filter-beds. In all cases, efficient purificaera; but it has been shown to be different in its mode of growth from all other organisms asserted to be identical with it, and is therefore diagnostic of the disease. In any event, the validity of the measures relied upon to prevent cholera from breaking out and spreading is not affected by the results of Koch's researches. While no micro organism has yet been found which can be asserted to be the peculiar origin of typhoid fever, the view that that discase arises from a specific contagion, and is not propagated de novo, is gaining ground; and we have learned so much regarding the mode of origin and spread of the disease, that the discovery of its active cause would probably not greatly affect the measures now taken for its prevention. No results that can be exactly formulated have been obtained respecting diphtheria. It is not invariably dependent on insanitary conditions, and Chinese in America.-Professor Stewart Culin, in the American Association, described the characteristics of the Chinese immigrants in America. They all come from the departments of Kwang Chan and Shan-King, in the province of Kwantung. They describe themselves as "Puntis," or natives, as distinguished from the tribes called "Hal-Kus," or "Shangers," who seldom emigrate, and divide themselves into the people of the Sam-Yup (three towns) and those of Sz'-Yup (four towns), from terms applied to different divisions of their native province. The people of the different districts show distinguishing peculiarities of speech and customs. Representatives of some twenty or thirty clans only are found among the immigrants. The stores are the centers around which life in the Chinese colonies revolves, furnishing supplies of Chinese wares, and serving as clubrooms and assembly-halls. Nearly all of the Chinese in America have passed some of their early years at school, where they learned to write some of the characters in their language, and to read it with more or less facility. Among the immigrants from Hoh-Shan and the districts adjacent to Canton are found many of considerable attainments-not men who would be considered scholars in China, but clerks, who are able to read and understand much of the classical literature of their country, and whose sympathies and traditions are allied with those of the literary aristocracy. This class forms a small part, however, of the whole number. The Table-topped Hills of the Amazon. -To any one ascending the Amazon River, said Mr. James W. Wells, in the Royal Geographical Society, a most noticeable feature strikes his attention, in the table-topped hills of the Serras de Erere and Obidos, and the somewhat similar formation on the opposite bank, at the rear of the Santarem. These opposite islands form the walls of the valley through which the river, once probably a great inland lake, has excavated its way to the sea. Their summits, instead of being ridges, extend in the form of undulating savannas far inland, ever ascending, furrowed with hollows and valleys by many a stream or water-course. Strange and interesting as is the appearance of these cliffs of one thousand feet in height, yet they are not exceptional features of the basin of the Amazons; at its farther western extremity, in the Serra de Cupati, bordering on the banks of the Rio Japura, and also on the western face of the Chapada da Mangabeira, are encountered identical formations, and even to the north in Roraima and its brother Kukenam, also exists a somewhat similar appear sandstone, with flat summits, and looks, when viewed from the east, like gigantic fortresses. The base of these cliffs is composed of a natural earth-slope of the modern débris of the fallen materials of the walls. Evidence is presented that this tableland extended yet farther to the west from twenty to sixty miles. The vegetation and soil of the tops of these miniature Roraimas are precisely similar to those of the great plateau, whereas the vegetation of the surrounding lowlands is quite different in character. ...a most Some Notes about Bees.-A recently published book by Mr. Frank R. Cheshire, lecturer at South Kensington, gives some curious items of information about bees. A lens magnifying fifty times will reveal the trachea, and also the beautiful "salivary glands," which a skillful operator may extract through the head, after immersing the insect up to its neck in wax." There is considerable discussion among apiarists as to the uses of these glands, in which is incidentally included the question whether bees feed their young by regurgitating semi-digested food, or by a glandular system producing a nutritive secretion. Mr. Cheshire finds in the digestive system, in which "the salivary and gastric secretions perform precisely the same functions in both,"... helpful similarity of physical structure between mankind and bees." Bees have, however, the great advantage over mankind of being able to carry a large stock of food and drink in their insides, and of having the power of feeding upon these stores by means of what is called the "stomach-mouth," at pleasure; or, if they choose, they can convert these provisions into building-materials. Their foot is furnished with a very sharp and powerful claw, and with a sort of soft pad that gives out a clammy sccretion, by means of which they are able to walk on smooth surfaces. It is by the claws that bees hang one to another in swarming. The cutting off of a bee's head does not apparently of necessity kill it; for "drones in confinement will sometimes live very much longer without their heads than with them." The head, however, is not an unimportant part of the bee, which has a larger proportion of brain than many other insects. The poisonous property of the sting of bees lies in the formic acid it discharges, which is also "probably associated with some other toxic agent." The idea that the bee invariably dies after stinging is a vulgar error. "It will, if allowed time, generally carry its sting away by traveling round upon the wound, giving the instrument a screw-movement until it is free." More usually, however, the bee is not allowed time to travel round, "and she loses not only the sting and the venom-gland and sac, but also the lower portion of the bowel, so that her death follows in an hour or two." We are further informed that no bee inflicts a wound "until she has examined the nature of the surface to be punctured, using a pair of very beautiful organs called palpi, elaborately provided with feeling hairs and thin nerve-ends." Mr. Edison's Pyromagnetic Dynamo.Mr. Edison, in his paper, at the American Association, on the "Pyromagnetic Dynamo," after describing the construction and operation of the machine, said that the results thus far obtained lead to the conclusion that the economy of production of electric energy from fuel by the pyromagnetic dynamo will be at least equal to, and probably greater than, that of any of the methods in present use. But the actual output of the dynamo will be less than that of an ordinary dynamo of the same weight. To furnish thirty sixteen-candle lights in a dwelling-house would probably require a pyromagnetic generator weighing two or three tons. Since, however, the new dynamo will not interfere with using the excess of energy of the coal for warming the house itself, and, since there is no attendance needed to keep it running, there would seem to be already a large field of usefulness for it. Moreover, by using the regenerative principle in connection with it, great improvement may be made in its capacity, and its practical utility may very probably equal the interesting scientific principle which it embodies. traordinary size, strength, hardness, and solidity, as well as by durability, as against both weather and the attacks of insects. About thirty samples, selected simply by considerations of convenience and previous acquaintance from among an enormous number of probably equally valuable genera, were subjected by the author to special tests. Some of them resembled in appearance and quality mahogany; some, our own yellow pine; others, the oaks and other hard woods of our forests, but excelled them in density, strength, elasticity, and durability. While they may prove of extraordinary value for many purposes, they are often so hard to work that their usefulness is likely to be restricted. The Central American forests contain an enormous store of timber of remarkably fine quality. Exceptions to the Rule of LaissezFaire.-Professor Sidgwick read an elaborate paper in the British Association on the economic exceptions to the laissez-faire. Political economy, he said, as commonly understood, includes a general argument showing how wealth tends to be produced most amply and economically in a society in which government confines itself to the protection of person and property and the enforcement of contracts not brought about by force or fraud, leaving individuals free to produce and transfer to others whatever utilities they choose on any terms that may be freely arranged. The argument is, briefly, that in a society so constituted, the regard for self-interest on the part of consumers will lead to the effectual demand of the things that are most useful, and the regard for self-interest on the part of producers will lead to their production at the least cost. It is, however, now generally held that the broad rule of "leave alone," to which the argument points, must in practice be limited by various exceptions. Two classes of these exceptions are distinguished, viz. : (a) those which are due to the limitations under which abstract economic theory has to be applied in the art of government; and (b) those which it is the more direct Characteristics of Tropical Woods. business of economic theory to analyze and Professor R. H. Thurston, describing some systematize. In class (a) may be distinNicaraguan woods in the American Associa-guished—(1) governmental interference to tion, said that the tropical and sub-tropical woods are distinguished usually by their ex regulate the education or employment of children; (2) interference for the promo The Luminous Organs of an Insect.— Dr. Dubois has investigated the light-emitting organs of the cucuyo, or Pyrophorus noctilucus. They are three in numbertwo prothoracic and one ventral. The prothoracic plates give a good illumination in front, laterally, and above, and serve when the insect walks in the dark; when it flies or swims, its fine abdominal lantern is unmasked, throwing downward an intense light with much greater range. The insect seems to be guided by its own light. If the pro with a little black wax, the cucuyo walks in a curve, turning toward the side of the light. If both sides are quenched, it walks hesitatingly and irregularly, feeling the ground with its antennæ, and soon stops. The light gives a pretty long spectrum from the red to the first blue rays; is more green than the light of Lampyris noctiluca, and is capable of photography, but does not develop chlorophyl. No distinct electric action could be traced to the organs. The luminosity does not depend upon oxygen, for it is the same in pure oxygen, in air, in pressures under one atmosphere, and in compound oxygen. The organs are still brilliant when separated from the body, but the power of emission appears to depend upon a supply of water, and it is recoverable, after thorough drying, upon putting the organs again in water. Dr. Dubois found that the photogenic substance is an albuminoid, soluble in water and coagulable with heat, it entering into contact with another substance of the diastase group; part of the energy liberated appears as light. tion of morality, health, and culture; (3) interference, not with a view to the economic production of wealth, but with a view to its more equitable distribution (this is often spoken of as "socialistic" or "semisocialistic "); (4) interference on the ground that certain industrial classes are found by experience not to take sufficient care of their private economic interests (this is sometimes spoken of as "paternal legislation"), e. g., restrictions on freedom of contract between landlord and tenant. The same phrase is also applied to (2). As lead-thoracic apparatus is quenched on one side ing cases of class (6) may be noted-(1) where for the production of a certain utility or avoidance of detriment, a combination is required of which the value largely depends on its universality-e. g., protection of lands against floods, protection of useful animals against certain diseases; (2) especially where the combination of a large majority increases the interest which the minority have in standing aloof-e. g., abstinence from certain times, places, or instruments in fishing or hunting for the sake of future supply; (3) where a branch of industry, for technical or other reasons, has a tendency to fall under the conditions of monopoly, total or partial-e. g., provision of gas in towns; (4) where, from the nature of the required utility, its producers could not be remunerated adequately in the ordinary way by free exchange of their commodity-e. g., utility of forests in relation to climate or scientific discoveries; (5) where the process of exchange which would be required to remunerate a certain social service, would seriously detract from its utility, from waste of time or otherwise-e. g., provision of roads and bridges; (6) where government is peculiarly adapted to produce the kind of utility required-e. g., if what is required is security, as in the case of savings-banks, or uniformity, or stability of value, as in the case of currency. It is not argued that government necessarily ought to interfere In all cases that come under these headings; only that the general economic argument for laissez-faire falls away in such cases, wholly or to a great extent, or is balanced by strictly economic considerations on the other side; and that it is important to bear this in mind in discussing any particular practical case. The Drying up of Siberian Lakes.Mr. Yadrintseff has furnished the St. Petersburg Geographical Society with evidence, consisting of notes of surveys, and maps made at four different periods, that the lakes in the Aral-Caspian depression have dried up within the last hundred years at a speed which will surely appear astonishing to geographers." Lake Chany, the largest of the three principal lakes, has much diminished in size. Whole villages have grown on the site formerly occupied by Lake Moloki. Of Lake Abyshkan, which had a length of forty miles from north to south, and a width of seventeen miles, in the earlier years of this century, and whose surface was estimated at five hundred and thirty square miles, only three small ponds have remained. Even twenty-five years ago there were several lakes, ten and eight miles long and wide, where there are now but little ponds. The fate of Lake Abyshkan is substantially repeated in Lake Chebakly, which was represented in 1784 as an oval body forty miles long and three miles wide. Now, the largest of the three ponds which occupy its site is less than two miles wide. The same process is going on throughout the lakes of West Siberia and throughout the Aral-Caspian depression. give rise to rain. and keep much dust off themselves. In stove-heated rooms, things are liable to be colder than the air, and thus get exceedingly dusty. Professor Lodge supposes, also, that electrical conditions may have much to do with the matter, and relates several experiments which he has made that go to confirm this view. One of them is made with a minute, vertical water-jet, which usually scatters into drops and falls in a shower-like rain; but hold a piece of rubbed sealing-wax a yard or so distant from the place where the jet breaks, and the drops at once cease to scatter, but fall in large blobs, as in a thunder-shower. These principles are susceptible of applica Electric Deposition of Dust.-Professor tion in many processes where dust is genTyndall observed, in 1870, that when a hot erated in quantities that make it a nuibody was held in strongly-illuminated, dusty sance for laying it. Thus, chimney-flues air, a dust-free space was formed above it, may be fitted with spikes or wire nettings, and this may take place even when the which will cause the smoke to be conbody is only slightly warmer than the air. densed, and the dust to be deposited. So, Several hypothetical explanations of the on a larger scale, the introduction of elecphenomenon have been offered by Dr. Tyn-trical action into a cloud is supposed to dall, Dr. Frankland, and Lord Rayleigh, but they have been inadequate to meet the requirements of the case. Professor Oliver Lodge has sought an explanation by the application of the kinetic theory of gases, and supposes that the dust-particles are kept out of contact with the warm body by means of a differential molecular bombardment of their surfaces. On the other hand, with the singular and not explained exception, that a similar dark plane, but descending, is formed below a moderately cool body, the dust-particles are driven toward, instead of away from, a cold body. This fact has been observed by Mr. Aitken, and applied by himself to the explanation of the deposition of soot in chimneys, and of lamp-black on cold glass. The result of the dust-bombardment of cold bodies may also be seen in the blackening of a wall over hot-water pipes, or of a ceiling over a gas-jet. Smoking of the gas-jet will, of course, provide more material to be deposited, but the dust and smoke in the air are usually ample to effect a sufficient blackening over even a perfectly clear flame. An incandescent electric lamp, hung a foot or so under a white ceiling, will similarly cause a small, black patch. In rooms warmed by radiation, objects are warmer than the air, Origin of Strong Liquors.—Strong liquors are a modern invention. The ancients knew of nothing more powerful than lightly fermented wines, and have left warnings enough of the abuse of them. Alcohol was not discovered till the seventh century, although an older story exists of a monk, Marcus, who collected and condensed in wool the steam of heated whitewine, and then pressed out from the wool a balsam which he applied to the wounds of those who fell at the siege of Rheims, in the reign of Clovis I. He also mixed this balsam with honey, and produced a cordial which brought the moribund back to life. Clovis, however, did not wait for the approach of death, before claiming his share of the cordial. According to Dr. Stanford Chaille, the distillation of spirits from wine was not discovered till the twelfth century, and spirits did not come into common use as drinks until the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. Professor Arnoldus de Villanova, in the fourteenth century, made a panacea of the water-of-life, which gave sweet breath, and fortified the memory, besides being good for sore eyes, the toothache, and the gout, and having other |