Literary and Scientific Notes [pp. 123]

LITERATU.RE, SCIENVCE, AND ART.
The fifth number of APPLETONS' JOURNAL will be accompanied by a cartoon, the same size as the one presented with
the first number, giving a view of the Levee at New Orleans, a
scene conceded to be one of the most varied and bustling of any
in America.
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HE Londoni Examiner gives a lengthy and very appreciative review
of Mr. F. O. C. Darley's " Sketches Abroad with Pen and Pencil."
This charming little volume, in which Mr. Darley first appears as an author,
gives one of the most graphic pictures of European life the press has recently produced. The Examiner says of it: " We wish it were in our
power to communicate in some way the interest with which these admirable sketches may be said to inspire the book, but it would be useless to attempt a description of them; we can only say they are numerous and varied, always spirited and piquant. We strongly recommend
our readers to procure the book. We have dwelt chiefly on the artcriticism, because we felt that that was our author's strongest point,
where we found the most original ideas; but the little volume is full of
the pleasant experiences of travel. It is written with the buoyant
spirit of a man who is enjoying himself thoroughly, with the discrimination of one who can duly appreciate the treasures, the antiquities, or the
novelties that are shown to him."
The bee-fanciers of Germany have had a convention at Darmstadt.
The German Bee Journal says, that when the celebrated bee-masters
arrived at the Darmstadt station, although they had never met before, yet recognizing each other by long photographic familiarity, they
rushed into each other's arms and embraced, kissed, and squeezed hands
with a sentiment and enthusiasm which is rarely manifested outside of
Germany. Professor Leuckart gave an interesting discourse on social
insects: bees, humble-bees, insects, and wasps. In the course of his
remarks he made a curious calculation on the productiveness of the
queen-bee. The queen-wasp, he observed, having, when she first begins her nest, not only to lay eggs, but also to feed the brood, can at
first lay but sparingly. When the first workers are hatched, they begin
to help her in building cells, as well as in feeding the brood, and her
fertility is thus developed apace. In the case of the honey-bee, however, there being more or less workers in the hive the year through, the
queen is able to devote herself more entirely to laying eggs, and the
stronger the hive the more her fertility is stimulated. Thus, in good
hives, he reckoned that queens, weighing 100 grains, would produce, in
a year, 13,000 grains of eggs, or 130 times their own weight. Now, a
hen, he reckons, produces only five times its own weight; so that, for a
hen to equal the productiveness of the queen-bee, she must lay twenty
eggs a day throughout the year, while the woman, to be equal, must
have three or four children a day! Such is the effect of the division of
labor, which is carried to such an extent in the hive, that the queen is
exclusively an ego-laying machine.
Dzierzon stated that he attributed the size of the queens to the more
or less plentiful supply of pollen in bee-bread furnished to the larvce.
Should the bees, at the season when the grubs of the queens have to be
fed, be too much occupied in collecting honey, the queens are apt to be
born of smaller size than usual.
The question arose at what age bees first fly from the hive, and when
they become honey-carriers. Von Berlepsch had fixed sixteen days
from the birth of the bee as the period when she first begins to carry
honey, mnaking thirty-five or thirty-six from the laying of the egg.
Dzierzon was inclined to think that this depended on temperature, sea son, and other circumstances. For instance, he considered, that if, by
changing the place of a hive, it had been deprived of most of its carrier bees, the young bees would be found to fly out to pasture at a week old.
Mr. Samuel Bowles, of Springfield, has given us a second volume of
Western travel, which is fully as agreeable and instructive as his first.
The title of the volume just issued is, " A Summer Vacation in the
Parks and Mountains of Colorado." It carries the reader over the track
of the Union Pacific Railway, and sets before him succinctly and clearly
all the great features and statistics of that important region of country.
The growth of the mineral interests of Colorado Mr. Bowles considers
almost without lhrnit. The mountains, he declares, are full of ores hold ing fifteen to forty dollars' worth of the metals per ton.
After doing it many times before, Oxford has again beaten Cambridge
in the rowing-match. The Pall-Mall Gazette says that this is due to the
fact that Oxford has a quick stroke of the oars, and Cambridge a slow
stroke. By quicker, it refers to the time the oar-blade is in the water,
not to the frequency of the stroke. The object in rowing is to produce
motion; not motion of the water, but motion of the boat; and, as the
rower's force is a fixed quantity, all that he expends to produce movement of the water is so much deducted from the motion of the boat.
Oxford, with its short, quick stroke, moves little or no water aft, the oar
pressing as a lever against an almost fixed fulcrum; while Cambridge,
with its long, slow stroke against a yielding fulcrum, moves a considerable quantity of water aft, which is so much taken from the propulsion
of the boat. Oxford wins by striking its oar against the water, and
withdrawing it before the water takes up its motion. Oxford moves the
most boat, Cambridge the most water.
It is often said that insanity is on the increase with the growth of
civilization, and the statement has been as often denied. The last
elaborate statistical investigation of the subject is by Dr. Lockhart
Robinson, an eminent alienist of England, who denies the alleged increasing tendency. He does not question that there are more insane
persons now than formerly, in proportion to the population, but says
that this higher ratio is due to the fact that, from better care and treatment, they live longer than they did, and therefore accumulate. Dr.
Robinson read his paper before the Medico-Psychological Association,
by whom it was generally concurred in.
Miss Martineau's "Biographical Sketches" have been reprinted in
this country, by Leypold & Holt, in a very neat and pleasant-looking
volume. These sketches were first published in the London News, and
include biographies of eminent persons, in all walks of life, who have
passed away since 1852. They are thoroughly readable papers, are
marked by admirable analysis of character, are written with great
felicity and care, and must be considered valuable contributions to our
biographical literature.
The old readers of " Arnott's Physics," a book of science admirable
in its time, will be glad to learn that the venerable Doctor still retains his
interest in scientific education, and puts forth active efforts for its promotion. He has lately given ten thouband dollars to the University of
London, the interest of which is to be bestowed as a reward for special
proficiency in experimental physics.
A novelty in journalism is about to be issued in Jena, under the management of Professor Hallier. It will be devoted to the subject of vegetable and animal parasites, and is to be called the Journal of Parasitology.
It will appear once every two months, and its communications are to be
printed in the language of the author, so that French, English, Italian,
and German papers may be expected in every number.
Accurate observations of the time of the transit of Venus across the
sun's disk are of great importance in astronomy. This event occurs but
twice in a century, and will next take place in 1882. The observations,
to be of most use, must be taken near the high latitudes of the South
Pole, which arc difficult of access; while a winter's residence, for exam ple, on the shores of South Victoria, would be a hazardous and terrible
experience. Men of science are, nevertheless, already moving in the
matter. The Royal Geographical Society of England has taken it up,
and is determined to be in time in pressing upon Government the duty
of sending an expedition to the Antarctic coast in 1882. It is agreed
that a certain amount of training will be required of the officers and men
to be sent, and, to make the enterprise a successful one, it is thought that
thirteen years is none too little time for adequate preparation.
The starting-point of organic constructions is the chemistry of the
leaf, by which carbonic acid is decomposed and oxygen set free. This
effect has been supposed to take place only under the influence of light,
but the conditions are not so clearly defined as to make further research
unnecessary.
M. Bousingalt, of France, has made this subject a matter of investi gation, and has lately presented the results of a new series of studies
upon it. His question was, Does decomposition of carbonic acid, by
leaves, take place in diffused light. If once commenced, does it go on
in darkness? His mode of inquiry was based upon the fact that phos phorus does not shine in an atmosphere of carbonic acid, but becomes
fluorescent as soon as a little oxygen is mixed with it. Having ascer tained that phosphorus is not hurtful to plant when placed near them,
he put leaves of laurel in a vase of carbonic acid, containing also
phosphorus, and exposed it to the sun. Oxygen being liberated, the
phosphorus becomes fluorescent. When the vase is placed in darkness,
the fluorescence ceases, after a varying number of seconds, and lasts
the longer the smaller the surface exposed by the phosphorus. This
arises from the phosphorus requiring a certain time to absorb all the
oxygen engendered in the last moments of exposure. With a sufficient
surface of phosphorus the fluorescence ceases instantaneously, from
which it is inferred that the process of liberating oxygen does not go on
in the dark, but only when subjected to the motive force of light.
1869.]
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