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“Winking.”—No satisfactory determination has been made of the reason we wink. Some suppose that the descent and return of the lid over the eye serves to sweep or wash it off; others that covering of the eye gives it a rest from the labor of vision, if only for an inappreciable instant. This view borrows some force from the fact that the record of winking is considerably used by experimental physiologists to help measure the fatigue which the eye suffers. In another line of investigation Herr S. Garten has attempted to measure the length of time occupied by the different phases of a wink. He used a specially arranged photographic apparatus, and affixed a piece of white paper to the edge of the eyelid for a mark. He found that the lid descends quickly, and rests a little at the bottom of its movement, after which it rises, but more slowly than it fell. The mean duration of the downward movement was from seventy-five to ninety-one thousandths of a second; the rest with the eye shut lasted variously, the shortest durations being fifteen hundredths of a second with one subject and seventeen hundredths with another; and the third phase of the wink, the rising of the lid, took seventeen hundredths of a second more, making the entire duration of the wink about forty hundredths, or four tenths of a second. The interruption is not long enough to interfere with distinct vision. M.V. Henri says, inL’Année Psychologique, that different persons wink differently—some often, others rarely; some in groups of ten or so at a time, when they rest a while; and others regularly, once only at a time. The movement is modified by the degree of attention. Periods of close interest, when we wink hardly at all, may be followed by a speedy making up for lost time by rapid winking when the tension is relieved.
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An Ingenious Method of Locating an Obstruction.—The Engineering Record gives the following interesting account of the scientific solving of a practical commercial problem: “The pneumatic dispatch tube for the delivery of mail between the main Philadelphia post office and a branch office at Chestnut and Third Streets is a cast-iron pipe buried below the surface of the street, and in it small cylindrical carriers, six inches in diameter, are propelled from end to end by air pressure. At one time a carrier became lodged atsome unknown point in the tube, and to remove the obstruction it was desirable to locate its position as closely as possible before digging down to the pipe. This was satisfactorily accomplished by firing a pistol at one end of the tube; its report was echoed from the obstruction, and indicated its position by the time required for the transmission of the sound. The pistol was fired in a hole in the side of the pneumatic tube near the end, which was capped and had a rubber-hose connection to the recording apparatus. The end of the rubber hose terminated in a chamber closed by a diaphragm about five inches in diameter, which had a stylus attached to it. A cock in the middle of the rubber hose was partly closed to reduce the force of the explosion on the diaphragm, and the pistol was fired. The sound-wave immediately produced a movement of the diaphragm, causing the stylus to make a mark on the record diagram. The hose cock was then fully opened, and when the sound-wave had traveled to the obstruction and been reflected back it again moved the diaphragm, and caused the stylus to make a second mark on the diagram. The lapse of time had been automatically recorded on the same diagram, so to determine the distance it was only necessary to note the exact interval of time between the direct and reflected reports, divide it by two, and multiply the quotient by the velocity of sound under the existing conditions.” The obstruction was indicated at 1,537 feet from the diaphragm. Excavations were made at this place, and the carrier was found nearly at the calculated point. The limits of distance at which this method is applicable have not yet been determined, but Mr. Batcheller, the engineer of the Pneumatic Tube Company and the deviser of the above ingenious expedient, has found that in a tube 43.3 inches in diameter a pistol shot will vibrate a sensitive diaphragm at a distance of 65,129 feet; decreasing the diameter of the tube decreases the distance over which the pistol shot will act.
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Diseased Meat in Paris.—The police of Paris, says the Lancet, have just laid hands on a vast fraudulent organization for evading the precautionary measures drawn up by the authorities for inspecting the meat distributed for consumption in the suburbs of Paris. Both for Paris and the suburbs all animals destined for food have to be killed in public slaughterhouses, where the strictest watch is kept by the municipal veterinary surgeons, who forbid the delivery to the butchers of any meat which exhibits the slightest suspicious signs. Elaborate regulations have been laid down as to the various diseases which render meat unfit for the food of man, and naturally enough tuberculosis is the complaint most rigorously watched for. The swindlers who have been arrested made up a vast organization which used to buy up from the farms of the eastern provinces and even in Germany such animals as, owing to disease, would have been refused for slaughter at the abattoirs, and, moreover, they bought them dirt cheap. These animals were then conveyed in regular herds to a small place near Paris and killed in sheds built at the bottom of an old quarry. Under cover of night the meat was taken away by the accomplice butchers and resold in the various suburban shops. In connection with this clandestine slaughterhouse the firm had a kind of cemetery, where those animals were buried the meat of which was too bad for even the swindlers to risk its sale in the market. Ivry was the place where the fraud was discovered, and the official inquiry shows that the organization was singularly complete. It is extraordinary that the slaughterhouse, which was in full work, should never have attracted the attention of the villagers, but it must be remembered that all killing was done by night and that the slaughtermen were all Germans who did not understand a word of French, and were therefore unable to engage in imprudent conversation with the neighbors.
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How Aluminum is made.—In a paper read before the Manchester Junior Electrical Engineers, J. H. Henderson describes the two commercial methods of making aluminum: The agent which has made aluminum a commercial product is electricity. This is how electrolysis produces it (by one successful method): In a metal, carbon-lined crucible having two carbon electrodes, one of which acts as anode and the other ascathode, are put the following ingredients: Fluoride of calcium, 234 parts by weight; double fluoride of cryolite, 421 parts by weight; fluoride of aluminum, 845 parts by weight. To these add three to four per cent of a suitable chloride—for example, calcium chloride. To this add alumina sufficient to form a very stiff mixture. Before electrolysis can begin the above are fused by means of heat, which should not exceed 1,210° F. The heat is obtained from a furnace heated by gas, coke, or charcoal, care being taken that no gases from the furnace enter the crucible. The bath fused, the electrodes are dipped into it, the current switched on, and the metal is deposited (in the best and largest of these crucibles) at the rate of one pound per five electrical horse-power hours. The current pressure required is six to eight volts, at a density of one and a half ampères per square inch. The metal from time to time is removed from the crucible by means of a siphon or a ladle, care being taken to remove as little of the haloid salts as possible. There is another method of extraction equally successful with this, but also more economical. In this other method a set of similar ingredients are placed in a crucible having one or more vertically movable carbon electrodes, which are used as one, or a collective anode, respectively. The crucible, though lined principally with carbon, has some metal exposed to act as a cathode at the beginning of the process, this to generate heat enough to fuse the bath, after which the anode is placed so that the extracted aluminum acts as a cathode. The molten metal is from time to time run out of a tap-hole into a mold, and thence cast into ingots, or granulated by being poured into cold water. The same particulars as to results apply to this crucible furnace process also, only that not nearly so much of the bath is wasted in it, and the metal needs less purifying when molten. There are, also, no loss of time and money from the use of gas, coke, or charcoal, and of an extra furnace in this method.
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“A Mechanical Bootblack.”—A bootblacking apparatus is one of the latest developments of the nickel-in-the-slot machine, a specimen of which is undergoing trial in a French public garden. The customer drops his coin—in the present case a ten centime, or a two-and-a-half-cent piece—into the receptacle, which opens the way to a compartment where a brush cleans his boots; he next puts his feet into a second compartment and has them blackened; and then into a third, where they are polished. The operation takes about a minute and a half, and during the time the customer may watch the indications of its progress as they are shown upon the dial. The machinery working in the inside is very simple. An electric motor of small power—about eighteen kilogrammetres per second—controls the shaft on which the three rotary brushes are fixed, and the customer has only to unlock the machine, the same as all others of its kind, with his coin, and move the handle which opens the circuit and starts the motion. A representation of the machine at work is given in the accompanying illustration, for which we are indebted toLa Nature.
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The “Barisal Guns.”—A curious phenomenon of unexplained sounds like those of explosions, occasionally heard in different places over the earth, has attracted much attention, has been made the subject of a book recording several hundred accounts of it, by M. Ernest Van den Broeck, of Brussels, and has already been mentioned in the Popular Science Monthly. The phenomenon has been most carefully observed in India, where it seems to have assumeda peculiarly marked form, and is known there as the “Barisal guns.” M. Van den Broeck calls it “mistpoeffers,” or air-puffs. The most definite description of it is given in Nature by Mr. Henry S. Schurr, as he has heard it in India, where it has been observed over a wide range, but most clearly and frequently in the Baekergunge district, of which Barisal is the headquarters. The Barisal guns are heard most frequently from February to October, not during fine weather but just before, during, or immediately after heavy rain. They always sound in triplets—that is, three reports occur, one after another, at regular intervals—and though several guns may be heard, the number is always three or a multiple of three. Sometimes only one series of triplets of sounds is remarked in a day; at other times the author has counted as many as forty-five of them, one after another, without a pause. The report is exactly like the firing of big guns heard at a distance, except that it is always double, or has an echo. A number of conjectural solutions of the phenomenon have been put forth, but none of them accounts for it as a whole in any approaching a satisfactory manner.
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Photographing Live Fishes.—A number of methods are mentioned by Dr. R. W. Schufeldt, in a paper on the subject, by which fishes may be photographed in their natural element, with natural surroundings. This can be done, even under the surface of the water, by the use of certain subaquatic apparatus. By the employment of instantaneous photography some fishes have been taken in the air, as of salmon in the act of leaping, or of flying fish in flight. Such pictures, however, illustrate special habits rather than the ordinary life of the subjects. Well-arranged aquariums afford opportunities for photographing fishes in almost every condition and position, and a command of light and situation can be had in them which is of great advantage to the operator. The specimens of fish photographs published by the author with his paper are in every way satisfactory. The spots on the sunfish, for example, are almost as clear and distinct as if we had the fish lying before us in the broad light. The photograph of the pike has afforded opportunity to correct some inaccuracies in the drawing of it as given in previous works of high authority.
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Marine Life at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island.—Mr. Francis N. Beach, in presenting to the Boston Society of Natural History a list of the Marine Mollusca of Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, speaks of the locality as representing “a fairly distinct facies of molluscan life—the fauna of the oyster beds, broadly speaking. From this point of view, its homogeneity and the absence of stragglers lend it value. Probably almost every species enumerated lives on the spot where found or in the immediate vicinity. This characteristic makes the spot a good sample of actual conditions of life in that interesting transitional region where the ‘Virginian’ and ‘Acadian’ (or ‘Boreal’) faunas overlap. From this point of view it is, so far from being homogeneous, strikingly heterogeneous.” Of the two faunas, the southern one contributes a quota rather more than twice that of the more northern one, and the increase in the preponderance of southern forms can be detected in a range of forty miles. The author concludes from his examination that, notwithstanding the well-marked character of Cold Spring Harbor as “muddy,” its molluscan fauna is determined not at all by that character, but predominantly by the depth of water and by the factors included in the “inclosedness” of the place—that is, he supposes, by the temperature, the specific gravity, the percentage of organic matter, etc. “It looks as though the various species would manage somehow to be represented on almost any stretch of shore or bottom, provided only thewater conditionsbe right.”
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Farm Homes for Neglected City Children.—The system of providing homes upon farms is represented in the last annual report of the New York Juvenile Asylum as being on the wane. While from 1880 to 1890 twenty-four per cent of the children committed to the asylum were placed in Western homes, the percentage from 1890 to 1897 was only fifteen. Among the reasons assigned for this diminution are the increase of undesirable material, chiefly ofraces against which prejudice is strong, and the growing habit of parents expecting their children to be restored to them when their services become profitable. Placing out street waifs and neglected and dependent children in the homes of private families, the report says, has been sadly abused. The degradation and moral corruption of the condition of such children are apt to make them so refractory and unsusceptible to the wholesome influences of family life that an abrupt transfer is liable to be attended with failure and disaster. The children should therefore be previously brought under the restraining and reformatory influences of a training school. At the best, a placing-out work can not be exempt from serious contingencies. “The second decade, the adolescent age, under most favorable conditions, is the period when the will is apt to be wholly dominated by the emotions, and unless the environment is peculiarly favorable, guardianship becomes a difficult function. With an indenturing system that prolongs the term of apprenticeship for boys throughout their minority, both apprentice and guardian must possess an extraordinary measure of amiable qualities to insure a continuance of their relation through an extended period.” When the boy is old enough to earn wages from strangers the temptation to leave and go out for hire is very strong, and must be met by a corresponding degree of tact and liberality; and even when interests are happily adjusted “a placing-out system ought to take account of the tastes and aptitudes of young people, and leave the way open for the deserving at a suitable age to start upon a new career.”
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Animals Helping One Another.—While the ruminant animals as a rule do not seem to have made any further advance toward forming communal groups than to post sentinels while pasturing together, a few marked cases are found in which a division of labor and some system of assistance seem to have been given effect. One such instance is cited in the London Spectator as having been observed by Lord Lovat in the Highland deer, where large stags have smaller stags to attend them and serve them very much as the English school bully is attended and served by his fag. Lord Lovat tells another story of compassion manifested and help afforded by a stag to a younger animal. Of three stags on the move, two jumped the wire fence, and the third, a two-year-old, halted and would not venture the leap. The two waited for some time while the little fellow ran along the fence, till the larger of them came back to coax him, and “actually kissed him several times.” Finally, the animal gave up and went on, after which the little stag took courage and made the jump. The social organization is very far advanced with the beavers, and is quite elaborate with the rabbits, which excavate common and interlacing burrows, and with insects like ants and bees.
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Geological Formations and Forests in New Jersey.—From a study of the relation between forestry and geology in New Jersey, Arthur Hollick finds that two distinctly defined forest zones have long been recognized in the State—a deciduous and a coniferous—the contrast between the two being so obvious as to attract the attention even of superficial observers. While the deciduous zone is roughly confined to the northern part of the State and the coniferous to the southern part, yet when the line of demarcation is carefully followed up across the State and beyond its confines it is found not to coincide with any parallel of latitude or isothermal line, and not to be entirely dependent either on topography or the physiographic conditions. “If, however, a geological map of the region be examined, the line of demarcation between the two zones will be found to follow the trend of the geologic formations whose outcrops extend in a northeast direction across the State and southward beyond. A coincidence was suggested, and it became more apparent, as the investigations proceeded, that the two classes of angiosperms and gymnosperms were severally identified with certain geological formations, and also that the distribution of many species within each of the zones was capable of being similarly associated, and their limits of being more or less accurately defined. The deciduous zone is roughly located as lying north of a line between Woodbridge and Trenton, and the coniferouszone as being south of a line between Eatontown and Salem. Between these two lines is an area about sixteen miles wide where these zones overlap, which the author calls the “tension zone,” because a constant state of strain or tension in the struggle for existence prevails in it. In the deciduous zone the geological formations are numerous, with various soils and every gradation of topography, and the diversity of trees is great. Its southern line is coterminous with the southern edge of the Triassic formation. The coniferous zone presents but little diversity in geology or topography, and little variety of trees. Its northern border is coterminous with the northern border of Tertiary gravels, sands, and sandy clays. The “tension zone” includes practically the whole of the Cretaceous plastic clays, and the clay-marls and marls.
A conference was appointed, to be held at Wiesbaden, Germany, October 9th and 10th, to promote the formation of an International Federation of Science—a scheme which was referred to in Sir Michael Foster’s presidential address before the British Association. This idea for the establishment of an international association of great learned societies appears, the London Athenæum says, to be the outcome of discussions carried on at Göttingen in 1898. For some time past the Academies of Vienna, Munich, Göttingen, and Leipsic have been federated into an association or “Castell,” each meeting in turn at their respective headquarters to talk over scientific matters of joint interest. At two or three recent meetings questions were brought up, such as antarctic research and the cataloguing of scientific literature, which, besides being of sufficient interacademic value to come before the “Castell,” were of prime importance to English men of science. English delegates were therefore invited to attend, and did so; and out of this invitation has grown a desire for a wider international basis for the association. The adherence of the principal learned societies of the world, including our National Academy, is said to have been secured to the movement.
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The thirteenth season of the Department of Botany at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Holl, Mass., will open July 5th and continue till August 16th. Three laboratory courses are provided, accompanied by lectures, including the subjects of cryptogamic botany, plant physiology, and plant cytology and micro-technique. The principal instructors are Dr. Bradley R. Davis, Mr. George T. Moore, and Dr. Rodney H. True. The department extends a special welcome to investigators, and desires their co-operation in the development of the laboratory. Woods Holl offers great attractions in variety of material and facilities for biological research, and is proposed as an excellent center of resort where the botanists of the country may meet for a few weeks. A six weeks’ course in Nature study, including both animals and plants, and consisting largely of field work, is a new feature offered this year for the first time.
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On Friday, March 9th, occurred the death of two of the six surviving founders of the American Association for the Advancement of Science—Dr. Charles E. West, of Brooklyn, and Professor Oliver Payson Hubbard, of Manhattan. Both were distinguished teachers. Dr. West was born in Washington, Mass., in 1809, and after being graduated from Union College, began his career as a teacher in the Albany Female Academy. He was afterward principal of the Rutgers Female Institute, the Buffalo Female Seminary, and the Brooklyn Heights Seminary, where he remained twenty-nine years. He also assisted in preparing the original courses of instruction of Vassar Female College. He was one of the founders of the Long Island Historical Society; was a fellow of the Royal Antiquarian Society of Denmark; and was a member of the American Ethnological, the American Philosophical, and the New York and the Long Island Historical Societies. Professor Hubbard was born at Pomfret, Conn., in 1809, was graduated from Yale College in 1828, and was appointed Professor of Chemistry, Pharmacy, and Mineralogy at Dartmouth College in1836. He remained there, with an interval, from 1866 till 1871, in which he devoted himself to lecturing, till 1883, when he became professor emeritus. He was made in 1871 overseer of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, and he was a member of the New Hampshire Legislature in 1863 and 1864. Only four of the founders of the American Association are now living—namely, Dr. Martin H. Boye, of Cooperstown, Pa.; Prof. Walcott Gibbs, of Harvard; Dr. Samuel L. Abbot; and Epes Dixwell.
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The firm of Burroughs, Wellcome & Co., says the Lancet, are to be congratulated on the generous care which they have taken to promote the material and intellectual welfare of their employees. Their principal works are at Dartford, where they employ more than eight hundred persons of both sexes, including some two hundred scientific workers. For the purpose of establishing a sort of club for these employees, Mr. Wellcome succeeded in purchasing the Manor House known as Acacia Hall, and the extensive and beautiful grounds in which it is situated. The Manor House he has fitted up as a club for the members of his staff. An old mill which stands close by has been converted into what is called the library building. The upper floor is fitted out as a lecture-room, and there is a library which already contains some thousands of volumes. A third building, called the Tower House, contains club accommodations for men. Then there are elaborate bathrooms, and finally a large gymnasium. The grounds are most extensive, being half a mile in length and very tastefully laid out. There is a lake, a river, and many pleasure boats for rowing, a large field for sports of all sorts, a grand stand to witness the same, a rich orchard and a beautiful pleasure garden, several luxurious lawns, and many superb trees.
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A peculiar kind of glassy bodies, known as moldavite or bouteillenstein, is attracting the attention of Austrian and Bohemian geologists. These glasses are ovals from an inch to an inch and a half long, and are characterized by various markings, some of which suggest finger impressions, while others form a network of furrows, which may have in part a rough radial arrangement. They have been regarded by some authors as relics of prehistoric glass manufacture, but this view does not appear to have been sustained. Dr. F. E. Suess, the famous Austrian geologist, finds resemblances between them and meteorites, and the most general disposition of students of the subject is now to consider them of extra-terrestrial origin. Resemblances have further been pointed out between them and some peculiar obsidian bombs found in Australia. The moldavites in Bohemia occur in sandy deposits which are assigned to the late Tertiary or early Diluvial period.
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At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, besides studies bearing directly on science and the arts, courses are given in modern languages, as an important means of access to foreign works in the student’s professional department: English, for the purpose of training pupils to express themselves readily, accurately, and adequately, and of aiding them in the understanding and appreciation of good literature; history and political and social science, the instruction in which is arranged to connect with that in biology, so that the two departments shall present “an unbroken sequence of related studies extending through three successive years, and resting upon the fundamental knowledge of living forms and of prehistoric man that is presented in general biology, zoölogy, and anthropology,” followed by comparative politics and international law; and economics.
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A witness recently admitted to the British Government’s Committee now making inquiry into the use of coloring matters and preservatives in food, that yellow coloring substances were largely purchased without any discrimination for the purpose of giving a rich appearance to milk and milk products. As a rule, no question was asked as to the injurious or non-injurious character of the dye so used. One of the best coloring matters was known as Martius’s yellow, naphthol yellow, naphthalene yellow, Manchester yellow, saffron yellow, or golden yellow, and is chemically the same as the dinitro-alpha-naphthol prepared from the naphthalene that crystallizes in gas mains, which is an important constituent inthe making of lyddite. It is slightly explosive when heated, is injurious when it comes in contact with an abrasion of the skin, and has been shown by physiological experiments to be a highly improper substance to mix with food.
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A goose market is held regularly in October at Warsaw, Poland, to which about three million geese are brought, most of them to be exported to Germany. Often coming from remote provinces, many of these geese have to travel over long distances, upon roads which would wear out their feet if they were not “shod.” For this purpose they are driven first through tar poured upon the ground, and then through sand. After the operation has been repeated several times the feet of the geese become covered with a hard crust that effectively protects them.
The first summer session of Columbia University, 1900, will open July 2d, instruction beginning July 5th, and will continue till August 10th. The work will be under the general direction of Prof. Nicholas Murray Butler, and will be conducted by a large corps of instructors, in eleven courses, of thirty lectures or other exercises or their equivalent in laboratory or field work, each. The concluding examinations will be held August 9th and 10th. Credits will be given for courses pursued at the school in the requirements for a degree at the university, and for a Teachers’ College diploma, and in the examinations for teachers’ licenses in New York city.
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An International Congress of Medical Electrology and Radiology has been connected with the International Congress system of the Paris Exposition, 1900, and will be held July 27th to August 1st. The commission is composed of representative men from various universities, institutions, and hospitals of France, with Prof. E. Doumer, 57 Rue Nicolas Leblanc, Lille, as secretary.
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A curious fall of “black snow,” which was observed at Molding, Austria, at the beginning of the year, was found to consist largely of the insects known as “glacier fleas,” which were supposed to have come along with a violent snowstorm from some of the Alpine glaciers.
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How to write 1900 in Roman numerals is a question of the day that will have to be settled. Three ways are suggested by Mr. J. Fletcher Little in the London Times, either of which is correct according to the Roman system. They are MDCCCC, MDCD, and MCM. But when we reach the year 1988, if we use the first of these methods we shall have to write the formidable-looking formula MDCCCCLXXXVIII, whereas if we use the third and shortest method, it will only be MCMLXXXVIII—and that is long enough. The third method, therefore, which may be interpreted as meaning one thousand plus another thousand lacking a hundred, seems to be the simplest.
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Dr. St. George Mivart, Professor of Biology in University College, Kensington, died suddenly in London, April 1st, aged seventy-two years. He was author of numerous scientific works, of treatises critical of Darwinism and the theory of evolution, and of demonstrations of the harmony of Roman Catholic dogma with proved scientific facts. His name has been made prominent of late by his recantation of his previously expressed views of the consistency of dogma with science, and the correspondence with Cardinal Vaughan which grew out of it.
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An International Congress of Ethnographical societies has been arranged for by the Ethnographic Society of Paris, to be held in Paris, August 26th to September 1st.
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The Wollaston medal of the Royal Geological Society, London, for the most important geological discoveries, has this year been awarded to Mr. Grove K. Gilbert, of the United States Geological Survey. This is the third time the medal has been awarded to a citizen of this country.
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Among the recently announced publications of John Wiley and Sons we notice a third edition, revised and enlarged, of Allen Hazen’s Filtration of Public Water Supplies; a new and revised edition of Olof’s Text-book of Physiological Chemistry; The Cost of Living as Modified by Sanitary Science,by Ellen H. Richards; Examination of Water (Chemical and Biological), by William P. Mason; and the fifth edition of H. Van F. Furman’s Manual of Practical Assaying.
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In a method of sterilization of water by means of ozone, described by Dr. Weyl, of Berlin, at the German Scientific Conference, 1899, water is pumped to the top of a tower and allowed to flow freely over stones, meeting as it falls a current of air charged with ozone. The process appears to be likewise effectual in purifying peat and bog water, the solution of the iron salts of humic acid being decomposed and oxidized, and the brown color disappearing in consequence. The method, it is said, can be advantageously used in connection with filter beds.
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Our death list this month of men known in science is large. It includes the names of M. Philippe Salmon, archæologist, subdirector of l’École d’Anthropologie of Paris, President of the Ministry of Public Instruction’s Commission on Megalithic Monuments and author of numerous monographs on subjects of his studies, in Paris, aged seventy-six years; Dr. C. T. R. Luther, director of the Observatory at Bilk, near Dusseldorf, aged seventy-eight years. He discovered twenty-one of the minor planets and calculated the orbits of them all, as well as those of several other bodies; Dr. C. Piazzi Smith, formerly Astronomer Royal of Scotland, author of studies of the amount of heat given by the moon to the earth, and of some famous speculations upon the construction and purposes of the Great Pyramid as an exponent of the standard of measurement, February 21st, aged eighty-one years; M. Émile Blanchard, dean of the section of Anatomy and Physiology of the French Academy of Sciences; Captain Bernadières, member of the French Bureau des Longitudes and Director of the Observatory School of Montsouri for Officers of the Marine, who had fulfilled several astronomical and geodesic commissions; Dr. Hermann Schaeffer, honorary professor of Mathematics and Physics at Jena, aged seventy-six years; Leander J. McCormick, founder of the McCormick Observatory at the University of Virginia; President James H. Smart, of Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind.; General A. A. Tillo, Vice-President of the Russian Geographical Society, founder of an exact physical geography of Russia, based on scientific data, and of many contributions on the science, at St. Petersburg, January 11th, aged sixty years; Prof. E. Beltrami, of the University of Rome (Mathematical Physics), President of the Accademia dei Lincei, and correspondent of the Paris Academy of Sciences; M. Emmanuel Liais, Mayor of Cherbourg, France, also distinguished for useful and very meritorious work in Astronomy and Physics, aged seventy-four years; Dr. Hans Bruno, Professor of Mineralogy and Geology in the University of Dresden, Saxony, distinguished for his investigations of the Paleozoic, Cretaceous, and Permian rocks of Saxony, at Dresden, January 28th, aged eighty-five years; and William Thorpe, one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society of Chemical Industry.
Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins and Reports. Indiana (Purdue University). Twelfth Annual Report. Pp. 150.—Michigan. Monthly Bulletin of Vital Statistics, January, 1900. Pp. 18.—New Jersey: Bulletin No. 141. Forcing Tomatoes. By Alva T. Jordan. Pp. 18; No. 142. Pea-Growing in New Jersey. By Alva T. Jordan. Pp. 14.—New York: No. 162 (popular edition). Injury by Sun Scorching of Foliage. By F. H. Hale and F. C. Stewart. Pp. 6; No. 163 (popular edition). Canker, an Enemy of the Apple. By F. H. Hall and Wendell Paddock. Pp. 6; No. 164 (popular edition). Divers Diseases discussed. By F. H. Hall. Pp. 5; No. 165. Report of Analyses of Paris Green and other Insecticides. By L. L. Van Slyke. Pp. 10.—Ohio: No. 10. The Maintenance of Fertility. By C. E. Thorne. Pp. 91—United States Department of Agriculture Comparative Range Grass and Forage Plant Experiments at Highmore, South Dakota. By F. Lampson Scribner. Pp. 10.—List of Publications for Sale by the Superintendent of Documents,Union Building, Washington, to February 1, 1899. Pp. 33; Some Miscellaneous Results of the Work of the Division of Entomology. Part IV. Pp. 109.—Report of the North Dakota Section of the Climate and Crop Service of the Weather Bureau for February, 1900. Pp. 8.
Aluminum Plate Press Company, New York. Calendar for 1900.
Baudouin, Marcel, Editor-in-chief. Bibliographica Medica. Monthly, January, 1900. Paris: Institute de Bibliographie. Pp. 64. 5 francs; 60 francs a year.
Borosher, C. A. World Relations. Man and the Cosmic Principle. Champaign, Ill. Pp. 155.
Burnham, Judge C. E. Cæsar Lombroso; and Shepherd, L. A Criticism of Lombroso. Kansas City, Mo. Pp. 20.
Butler, the Hon. Marion. Speech in the United States Senate on Postal Savings Banks. Pp. 13.
Chamberlin, T. C. An Attempt to Frame a Working Hypothesis of the Cause of Glacial Periods on an Atmospheric Basis. University of Chicago Press. Pp. 104.
Chambers, G. F. The Story of Eclipses Simply Told for General Readers. (Library of Useful Stories.) New York: D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 222. 40 cents.
Dean, Bashford. The Devonian Lamprey, Palæospondylus Gunni, Traquair, with Notes on the Systematic Arrangement of Fishlike Vertebrates. New York Academy of Sciences. Pp. 32, with plate.
Fernow, B. E. Beginnings of Professional Forestry in the Adirondacks. New York State College of Forestry, Cornell University. Pp. 56.
Field Columbian Museum, Chicago. Annual Report of the Director for 1898–’99. Pp. 90, with plates.
Folkmar, Daniel. The Duration of School Attendance in Chicago and Milwaukee. Pp. 50.
Folkmar, Daniel. Leçons d’Anthropologie Philosophique; ses Applications à la Morale Positive. (Lessons of Philosophical Anthropology; its Applications to Positive Morals.) Paris: Schleicher Frères. Pp. 336. 7½ francs.
Gibier, Paul. Quarterly Bulletin of the New York Pasteur Institute. March, 1900. Pp. 8.
Gray, Elisha. Nature’s Miracles. Familiar Talks on Science. Vol. I. Earth, Air, and Water. New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert. Pp. 243. 60 cents.
Highsmith, George R. Contributions of the Medical Profession to General Literature and Collateral Sciences. Pp. 18.
Hinrichs, Gustavus D. The Present and Future Water Supply of St. Louis. Pp. 15.
Hollick, Arthur. Some Features of the Drift of Staten Island, N. Y. Pp. 12, with plate; The Relation between Forestry and Geology in New Jersey. Parts I and II. Pp. 221.
MacDougal, D. T. The Nature and Work of Plants. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 218. 80 cents.
Manning, Warren H. Directions for Surveying and Arranging Home and School Grounds. Boston, Mass. Pp. 12.
Marriott, H. P. F. The Secret Societies of West Africa. London: Harrison & Sons. Pp. 4.
Martens, Adolf. Handbook of Testing Materials. Part I. Vol. II. Illustrations. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Pp. (plates and explanations) 240.
Mexico. Boletin del consejo Superior de Salubridad. (Bulletin of the Superior Sanitary Council.) Mexico, January, 1900. Pp. 32.
Roisel. Essai de Chronologie des Temps Prehistoriques. (Essay on the Chronology of Prehistoric Times.) Paris: Félix Alcan. Pp. 60. 1 franc.
Schufeldt, R. W. Notes on the Mountain Partridge in Captivity. Pp. 4, with plate.
Scientific Alliance of New York. Ninth Annual Directory. Pp. 60. 25 cents.
Siebel, J. E. Compend of Mechanical Refrigeration. Chicago: H. S. Rich & Co. Pp. 389. Price, $3.
South Kensington Museum (London). Catalogue of the Collection of Pottery and Porcelain illustrating Popular British History, Lent by Henry Willett, Esq. Pp. 123.
Trelease, William. Classification of Botanical Publications. Pp. 12.
Williams, Thomas A., Editor. The Asa Gray Bulletin. Devoted to Plant Life in Field, Forest, and Garden. Bimonthly. February, 1900. Pp. 26.
Transcribers’ NotesPunctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained.Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.Page22: “the city to-day would drive from that source” may be a misprint for “derive”.Page54: “each of the tactile organ” probably should be “organs”.Page68: “beauxite” was spelled that way.Page107: Unmatched quotation mark in paragraph beginning “Geological Formations”.
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
Page22: “the city to-day would drive from that source” may be a misprint for “derive”.
Page54: “each of the tactile organ” probably should be “organs”.
Page68: “beauxite” was spelled that way.
Page107: Unmatched quotation mark in paragraph beginning “Geological Formations”.