Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 12.djvu/261

Rh capsules, at varying intervals. In the same hospital three cases of chronic rheumatism were treated with salicylic acid without any good results. In his private practice Dr. Yandell has used this drug in five pronounced cases of acute rheumatism with entire success; and in another case this drug, combined with quinine, broke up the disease. The author writes that salicylic acid is best given in milk; it gives the milk a sweetish-sourish taste; a little tickling and sense of slight constriction may be felt about the throat, and an insignificant cough is not uncommon. He adds: "Salicylic acid is the first and only remedy that has proved itself at all reliable in the control of acute rheumatism in my hands. Salicylate of soda has shown no superiority over salicylic acid."

Notes on Fish-culture.—The one great difficulty met with in hatching the striped bass is, according to an intelligent correspondent of Forest and Stream, the fact that spawners of this species are very rarely found. About four years ago, we are informed, a few ripe "rock-fish" (striped bass) were found in the Roanoke River, North Carolina, and about 100,000 young fish were hatched from their spawn. One reason assigned for the diminution of this fish is the fact that they are marketed before they reach maturity. Prof. Baird favors the enactment of a law prohibiting the marketing of these fish when less than twelve inches long. Striped bass frequently attain a weight of sixty and eighty pounds; and it has been held that they do not spawn until they attain a weight of about twenty pounds. The same correspondent cites, as an evidence of the success of salmon-propagation, the recent capture of a nine-pound salmon in the Delaware. The fish was a California salmon—a variety with which the Delaware, Potomac, Susquehanna, and other rivers, were supplied a few years ago. It is supposed they return in five or six years, though difference in the temperature of the water, currents, and other conditions, may accelerate or retard the return. Over 400,000 eggs of California salmon were shipped last fall to New Zealand, where they nearly all arrived in excellent condition.

Florida Lizards.—During a sojourn in Waldo, Florida, Mr. Henry Gillman has studied the characters and habits of a great variety of lizards, and, in a brief communication to the American Naturalist, states some of the results of his observations. One point which he has been enabled to determine is the possession by the lizards of Florida of the power of "chameleonization," or of changing color. The author states positively that the lizards of Florida possess this power in a remarkable degree. Thus, he has seen a small, yellowish-brown lizard, on quitting the ground, instantly assume the dull gray-hue of a weather-beaten fence-rail, along which it glided. Passing under some olive-tinted foliage, it next adopted that color, which was succeeded by a bright green, as the animal reached and rested under the grass and leaves of like shade. The original yellowish-brown color was again assumed on the lizard returning to the ground. Each of these changes was almost instantaneous, and the entire series could not have occupied much more than one-quarter of a minute of time.

International Scientific Service.—Of Prof. Grote's paper, mentioned in our October number, on an International Scientific Congress, and read at the meeting of the American Association, we find a very good abstract in the Polytechnic Review, from which journal we quote the essential points of the paper. The author referred to the excellent work done by national scientific associations, such as the British Association and the American Association, but said that there is urgent need of a still broader organization—of an international congress of scientific men. Foremost among the problems which Science is striving to solve is that of the origin of our species. The elucidation of this question concerns the whole race, and no merely national organization possesses the means of exploring the whole field. Then, the various scientific explorations in Africa, Australia, and the polar regions, need coöperative assistance to realize the best results from the outlays, while the new knowledge they bring is the common inheritance of all enlightened nations. Now, where all participate all should contribute. Prof. Grote's plan of an