Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 35.djvu/155

Rh on starch. Peptic and pancreatic digestion of albuminoids were almost prevented by it. The experiments show that the indiscriminate use of these agents, without sanitary inspection, should not be allowed.

Bells as Weather Indicators.—M. P. J. de Ridder, of Lebbeke, Belgium, has observed that bells are heard further away when the atmosphere is in cyclonic motion, and that a calm atmosphere, saturated with moisture, favors the transmission of sound, while contrary winds are not always an obstacle. Certain small bells six and eight kilometres southeast from Lebbeke are called water bells by the people there, because their being heard at Lebbeke is immediately followed by a season of rain. And, generally, the hearing of a distant sound, like that of a bell or the rumbling of a railway train, is regarded as portending the end of fine weather and the approach of rain. One bell, which is ten kilometres away, is heard twice a year—in March or April, and in September or October—and always in identical conditions of the sky.



are indebted to the kindness of the Tiffany Glass Company, of New York, for the use of the photographs from which the illustrations were engraved for Prof. Henderson's article on "The History of a Picture-Window," in this issue of the "Monthly."

is commonly thought of as an exceedingly cold place, but, except in the northern part, this reputation is not justified. To be sure, in the Yukon district, comprising the country north of the Alaskan Mountains, the mean annual temperature is about 25° Fahr., and the ground thaws in summer only two or three feet down from the surface, remaining frozen continually below. In the Aleutian Peninsula and Islands, however, the mean is from 36° to 40°, and in a series of observations, extending over five years, the greatest cold was found to be zero, while the highest temperature was 77°. A still warmer and a moist climate belongs 10 the Sitka district, the strip extending down along the coast of British America. Here the mean is 44'7°, and the temperature during the winter seldom goes so low as the freezing-point. The mean annual temperature of the State of New York is 46-49°.

French Academy of Sciences has awarded its Cuvier medal to Prof. Joseph Leidy, of Philadelphia, for his eminent services in zoology. The medal was accompanied by a letter recognizing Dr. Leidy as a leader in his specialty.

report of the United States Commissioner of Education shows the following percentages of increase in ten years (1876-'77 to 1886-'87), in the five divisions of the Union, in population, school enrollment, and school expenditure:

Some erroneous opinions respecting reptiles are corrected by Arthur Ayling in "Science Gossip." Thus, the slow-worm or blind-worm (Anguis fragilis) is not blind, but has eyes which, though small in comparison with its size, are very bright, and are in fact the prettiest part of its body; and it can not inflict a poisonous bite. Snakes do not "sting" with their forked tongues. Reptiles can live a long time without food—a triton, for instance, has been kept in that condition for six months—but they die in the end; and stories of toads having been imprisoned in rocks for years or ages under circumstances where air was excluded from them are false. Toads can not "spit fire," and newts and lizards can not inflict dangerous bites.

Dr. F. B. Jessett, of London, claims to have shown, from a comparison of the number of deaths in England and Wales in various years, that the mortality from cancer increased from 4,966 in 1850 to 1.3,542 in 1881, and the death-rate per million inhabitants from 320 to 520. In view of these facts, he suggests that, instead of shirking the subject, it should be met, the cause of the mortality studied, and a remedy sought.

Nervelessness is mentioned by the "North China Herald" as the distinguishing quality of the yellow race. A Chinaman can go through the most tedious and monotonous work from hour to hour and from day to day, without any appreciable sense of weariness or irritation; and a school-boy can do the same with his lessons without even longing to be at play. The Chinese can also sleep under conditions which would make a European very uncomfortable and restless. This quality is one of the things that make the Chinese such unwelcome competitors in the labor markets.

The hamlet of Niveze, near Spa, in Belgium, is infested with what the inhabitants call "bad-air wells," or outlets whence carbonic-acid gas exhales. Dr. Parkin, of Spa, describes eight spots whence the exhalations are abundant, and most so in times of storm 