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wonderful properties. Distilled spirits came into use in London in 1450, and had to be prohibited in 1494. Michael Savonarola produced a treatise on making the water-oflife in the fifteenth century, which became a standard authority on the subject, and was followed by the work of Matthioli de Sienna. These books gave the start to brandymaking in Italy, whence the trade extended to France. About 1520 the Irish usquebaugh began to acquire reputation in England. Before 1601, "brand-wine" had begun to be distilled in the Low Countries from apples, pears, and malt; and in that year an ordinance was passed at Tournay forbidding the sale of the liquor except by apothecaries, partly "because of the dearness of corn, and partly because of the drunkenness which this cheap brand-wine caused, to the great prejudice not alone of homes and lives, but to the extreme danger of the souls of its drinkers, many of whom had died without confession." The art of extracting alcohol from other substances, was gradually discovered, and liquors of various names came into use. The trade grew great, and the present century has seen a new development of it in the general application of the art of "doctoring" liquors, or adulterating.

Are there Catastrophes ?-Read Mr. J. H. Kerry-Nichols's account of one only of the many things that took place in New Zealand on a June day only ahout a year ago: "The most remarkable feature in the same line of volcanic action was the extraordinary convulsion which had changed the whole conformation of the country around Rotomahana, and had transformed the hot, green lake with its marvelous terraces into a roaring crater, from which rose a column of steam nearly a mile and a quarter in diameter, that ascended in the form of a cumulus cloud to a height of thirteen thousand feet, and nearly a mile in width. Thus in

the Pink Terrace, once on the western shore of the lake, now stood a quarter of a mile from the margin of the present crater, in the midst of a mass of boiling mud black and brown in color, with seething pools of steaming water or liquid mud, which was sometimes cast up into fumaroles, ejecting steam and vomiting forth stones and mud, with a noise like the roar of innumerable steam-engines."

Persian Astrologers.-The monajem, or astrologer, is a power in Persia. He is recognized as a man of science, a member of a learned profession. The chief astrologer is a high court official, from whose ruling there is no appeal, for his decisions are based upon knowledge that is communicated directly from the stars. Thus, if he decrees that the Asylum of the Universe must not start on a hunting expedition on Thursday, but that half an hour after midnight on Saturday will be the fortunate hour, he is able to give irrefragable reasons for his conclusions by showing that Saturn is in the ascendant in the one case, while on Saturday night, at the precise time mentioned, there will be a happy conjunction of Venus. If another astrologer is consulted, he will give the same story. Every hour in the day, and every day in the year, is thus worked out as fortunate, indifferent, or unlucky in the astrologer's Books of Fate. Besides these calendars, they have as their stock in trade a plumb-line, a level, a celestial sphere, and an astrolabe. The astrolabes are in the form of a gigantic watch, and are often beautifully made. Every large town contains at least two astrologers, and they are very far from being poor. find an astrologer very useful, especially if he be an officer, and desire to evade some responsibility. Thus, suppose a provincial governor is ordered to the capital, and that he does not want to go, what more powerful reason for delay in starting than to re

A Persian may

the brief space of four hours this delight-ply that he is waiting for a fortunate hour, ful fairy-land was transformed into a condition suggestive of a scene in Dante's 'Inferno.' The spot where the white terrace formerly stood had been occupied by a crater, forming a kind of horseshoe bay, and from this a column of steam rose and mingled with the general mass. The site of

and what easier than to induce the astrologer to fail to find one? In the mean time, the officer has time to administer the necessary bribes at court, and the storm blows over. Istikhara, tossing up, or the drawing A bead of the lot, is done with a rosary. is grasped at hap-hazard, "Good," "Bad,"

"Indifferent," is ejaculated at each bead, till | about five hundred acres, is surrounded by a rocky formation having the aspect of a wall three or four hundred feet high. The ravines under the bases of these walls might be regarded as fosses, and the scattered groups of rocks in the neighborhood as the fortifications of outer lines of defense.

the big terminal one is reached, and that decides the question. Answers are given in conversation, bargains are made or refused, and serious acts are undertaken under the guidance of this formula. Another way is to thrust a knife into the leaves of the Koran or one of the poetical books, and be guided by what is found at the place. The diviners are real quacks, and gain their success by working on the fears of the people. The guilty party in a scandal or criminal inquiry in his nervousness is provoked to do some act that brings about his detection.

The Nature of Diatoms.-The curiously beautiful microscopic objects called diatoms can be found in the mud at the bottom of all pools of water. They were formerly regarded as animals, but are now classed among plants. Professor W. Mattieu Williams discovered their vegetable character thirty years ago by an observation which amounted to a demonstration. The white quartz pebbles in his aquarium became coated with a brown growth, caused by the development of these organisms, and at the same time evolved bubbles of gas. In the course of a few days he found an inch of the vertical space of the test-tube which he fixed to catch it filled with this gas, and it was proved by burning wood and other experiments to be nearly all oxygen. Animals expire carbonic acid, plants expire oxygen. Therefore the diatoms were plants.

A Rock-sculptured City.-Montpellier-le Vieux is the name given to a curious city-like group of weather-sculptured rocks, which M. E. A. Martel has described to the French Academy of Sciences. It is near Millau, in Auvergne, France, and about twenty-five hundred feet above the sea. It is composed of a mass of isolated rocks, averaging perhaps about two hundred feet in height, so similar to embattled towers that one group has been called the Citadel; around this mass are five depressions three or four hundred feet deep, of which one resembles an amphitheatre, a second a necropolis, a third a parade-ground, and another a regularly laid out city quarter with public monuments, gates, straight streets and intersections suggesting at once such places as Pompeii, Carnac, and Persepolis. The whole, occupying

Idiosyncrasies of Plants.-An English reviewer of a book by Mr. Charles Roberts, called "The Naturalist's Diary," mentions the idiosyncrasies of certain plants and animals as a feature to which more attention might be given. Thus, a quantity of seed taken from the same plant at the same time, and sown under the same conditions so far as possible, will nevertheless exhibit very great variation in the length of time required for germination. The fact enforces the circumstance that the same amount of aggregate temperature and of water-supply, the same conditions of soil, etc., do not necessarily imply corresponding identity of result. The same thing happens in trees. Every one knows how some individual horse-chestnut trees are year by year more precocious in their development than their fellows. It sometimes happens, too, that one branch of one tree is considerably in advance of the others. Some persons might call these cases exceptions, but they are hardly that. Since they are connected with the main body of habitudes by every possible gradation, they are to be considered as extremes rather than as exceptions, and therefore to be included in the making up of averages.

NOTES.

PRESIDENT PECKHAM, of the Natural History Society of Wisconsin, has been investigating the mental habits and peculiarities of wasps. On the question whether these insects have much sympathy with one another, he says: "To be sure, when we caught numbers of them, and painted them within the cage, they at once went to work to clean each other, and this shows that they have some desire to aid and comfort their friends. But we have often seen them continue to eat, with entire composure, near the body of one of their number that had just been crushed to death; and they frequently fall upon a dead relative, cut it up, and carry it into the nest to feed their young."

MR. H. STUART WORTLEY, of the South Kensing on Museum, has been led, by long and careful attention given to the observation of animals, to consider that they have true reasoning powers, and says on this subject: "I have frequently seen reasoning power exercised after obvious thought over the best course to pursue. Then, are animals speechless among themselves? I think not, and believe they speak freely to one another at needed times, in their own language. And I certainly with my own domestic animals can understand in a certain sense their language. I clearly know what they ask for, or what they wish to call my attention to, from the tone of the voice and its modulations, and this is, I assume, language as regards them."

PROFESSOR HELMHOLTZ has been appointed President of the Kuratorium of the Physical and Technical Imperial Institution which is to be opened at Berlin in 1888. Dr. Werner Siemens, the founder of the Institution, and Dr. Förster, the Director of the Berlin Observatory, will also be cura

tors.

At

ACCORDING to Mr. John Ball's "Notes of a Naturalist in South America," the various ports along the arid coast of Peru, destitute of verdure, reveal upon close examination the presence of plant-life. Coquimbo veritable bushes and a greenishgray tint on the surface of the soil were visible, and specimens were obtained of some curious and rare plants in flower peculiar to the vicinity, among them a dwarf cactus only three or four inches in height, with comparatively large crimson flowers.

AN appearance as of being hollowed out has been remarked in the surface of the hard, green sandstone rocks, near Lima, Peru, and was ascribed by Sir Charles Lyell to the result of water-action on ancient and subsequently elevated sea-beaches. Mr. Nation, of Lima, however, who has been observing the rocks for twenty-five years, is satisfied that the hollows are increasing in size and in number. He believes that they are the work of a cryptogamic plant, a lichen, which is in active vegetation during the foggy season, the swelling of whose cells causes a scaling of the rock.

A NEW telephonic apparatus, called the "Micro-telephone Push-button," has been successfully experimented with in Paris. It has the form of an ordinary electric pushbutton, and is so sensitive that in speaking at short distances there is no need to come close to the instrument. Persons using it may speak in their ordinary tone, walk about, and act as if they were conversing with some person in the room. The paragraph from which we derive this item intimates that the perfection of the instrument

is due to the inventor having resided in America, where his inventive talent was stimulated.

MR. CLEMENT REED, of Oneglia, believes that the destructive effects of the earthquake in the Riviera may have been more owing to the method of building than to the violence of the shocks. The walls of the houses at Oneglia and at Diano Marina are built of rounded stones or rubble, filled in with stucco, and the floors with brick arches, without sufficient care being given to lateral support; and the houses are usually three or four stories high. It is evident that even a slight shaking would be fatal to buildings thus constructed.

MR. CHAMBERLAIN, in his monograph on the Ainos, asserts, on the authority of the Rev. Mr. Batcheler, who has lived among that people for many years, that intermarriages between them and the Japanese are not fruitful, and conduce to weakly offspring and a short-lived stock. There seems, therefore, to be a kind of reproductive incompatibility between the two races. The oc cupation of the northern islands by the Japanese in place of the Ainos, who are diminishing, or of a half-breed race which is not found, may be accounted for by the unfruitfulness of the half-breeds, and by the superior vigor of the Japanese race to the Ainos.

MRS. HARDWICKE, widow of the founder of "Science Gossip," preserves eggs fresh by carefully oiling them with a soft brush all over, and packing them in a jar with plenty of bran between each layer. A thick brown paper should be tied over the jar when it is full. "When eaten at three months old," she says, "you could not tell them from fresh eggs."

THE announcement is provocative of thought that the invitation which the Government of New South Wales gave last year to the British Association to meet in Sydney in January, 1888, has had to be withdrawn, because the matter had been made a party question in the New South Wales Parliament. The fact illustrates anew the truth that science and current politics will not mix.

ACCORDING to the observations of M. Cazeneuve, the aniline dyes-fuchsine, Bordeaux red, red, purple-red, etc.-employed in coloring wines, may persist for many years in certain wines, and be obtained intact therefrom by analysis. The chemical changes that wine undergoes, especially in the "stripping" of new wines, lead to the precipitation of a greater or less amount of the artificial coloring agent. The diseases produced by microphytes also cause a disappearance of color.

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"SINCE the introduction of the watercloset, and, I believe, as a direct consequence of it," said Dr. G. V. Poore, at the anniversary meeting of the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain, we have had four severe epidemics of cholera (a disease not previously known), and enteric or typhoid fever (previously almost or quite unrecog nized) has risen to the place of first importance among fevers in this country (England). The evils which have arisen from cesspools and sewers have caused an enormous amount of attention to be devoted to what are known as 'sanitary appliances,' 'sewer constructions,' etc., and so great and so well recognized are the evils of sewers that many of our friends are anxious that we should be compelled by act of Parliament to protect ourselves from the mischief which previous acts of Parliament have produced."

THE preliminary steps have been taken for the organization of an Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science on the same lines as the British Association. The first and inaugural meeting is to be held in Sydney in 1888, which will be the centennial year of the foundation of the colony of New South Wales. The Royal Society of New South Wales, already in operation, is pursuing a system of offering medals and money prizes for original researches on scientific subjects, particularly for investigations relating to Australia. Four prizes are offered every year, consisting of the society's medal and £25, to be awarded for as many researches of superior merit.

A GRASS resembling the Canadian "sweet grass," but of finer texture and fragrance has been discovered growing at Ocean Beach, New Jersey, and is utilized by a family of Indians there for making fancy baskets. It is identified by Dr. Samuel Lockwood with the Hierochloa borealis, or "holy grass of Europe, and as probably the same colony which Dr. Knieskern announced several years ago that he had discovered near Squan Village. As the name "holy" or "sacred" grass would be without significance in this country, and the fragrance of the plant is like that of vanilla, Dr. Lockwood suggests that it be called "vanilla-grass."

DR. J. W. STICKLER, in the "Report of the New Jersey State Board of Health," finds that persons who work in hat-factories are subject to lung-complaints arising from the inhalation of fur-dust. Silk-weaving in dwelling-houses is deleterious, but ought to be a healthy occupation in properly lighted, heated, and ventilated factories. The hackling of flax and jute fills the air with a dust of dirt and minute fibers, leading to paroxysms of coughing, and often to early death; and the spinning process is attended with

similar evils. According to Dr. J. P. Davis, the disorders arising from India-rubber manufacturing are chiefly due to the leadcompounds used in the work, accompanied with heat and defective ventilation, to the introduction of naphtha, and to mechanical conditions.

BISCUITS appear to have been the most ancient form of bread. It is not known how early fermentation was introduced, but it appears certain that cakes made simply of flour and water preceded it. Such cakes, of the Neolithic age, are found in the lake-beds of Switzerland-and these are the oldest surviving specimens of bread. Most of the ancient peoples used biscuits on special occasions, as of war and long voyages. bread exposed twice to the fire. The RoThe Greeks called them arton dipuron, or mans had their panis nauticus or capta. Our word biscuit-bis, twice, and coctus, French cuit, cooked, twice cooked, the same in meaning as the Greek name, is a survival from the original method of preparing the cakes, which is no longer in use.

PROFESSOR EMIL DU BOIS-REYMOND, the twentieth anniversary of whose appointment as Secretary of the Academy of Sciences of Berlin is celebrated this year, has had the privilege of introducing a succession of famous representatives of science in speeches which gave proof of his great ability as an author. He is one of the oldest members of the physico-mathematical class of the Academy; the only member of older standing being Chevreul, whose patent antedates his seventeen years.

THE city of Nancy, in France, on the 21st of July, suffered the strange visitation of a rain of wood-ants. It was about five o'clock in the afternoon when the "shower" came up, and the insects, both winged and unwinged, fell upon the streets and public places, and on the heads of passers-by, like a snow-squall, for about an hour. Most of the town was literally covered with ants. They are supposed to have been taken up somewhere and brought to the place by the strong gusts which preceded a severe storm that fell upon the city during the night.

PROFESSOR TYNDALL expressed a doubt, in his last Royal Institution lecture, as to whether extensive reading and study had not a tendency to bamper original genius; whether doctrines handed down for generations as articles of faith, which it would be heresy to dispute, had not materially checked the progress of science.

PILOCARPINE is an alkaloid obtained from the leaves of Pilocarpus primatus. It is a viscous substance, giving finely-crystallized salts, and has been applied to various therapeutic uses.

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