288 



P OP JJLAR SCIENCE MONTHL Y. 



co-operate with Englishmen in a work in 

 which all men of science were interested. 

 The cataloguing of general scientific work, 

 as it at present stands, is not at all satis- 

 factory, and the adoption of a general sys- 

 tem, by the scientists of all countries, which 

 seems likely to follow the conference, will 

 undoubtedly be a long step in advance. 



The excessive cost of the rare earths used 

 in the composition of the Welsbach and other 

 incandescent gas mantles has led to the for- 

 mulation of a process by which the residues 

 of the old mantles can be reduced, separated, 

 and used again repeatedly in new mantles. 

 The process consists in reducing the mantles 

 with ten times their weight of bisulphate of 

 sodium, taking up the product in water, and 

 adding excess of oxalate of ammonia to re- 

 dissolve oxalates of thorium and zirconium, 

 while the oxalates of cerium, lanthanium, 

 erbium, and yttrium remain insoluble. The 

 hquor is then filtered, the undissolved oxa- 

 lates remaining on the filter. The residue is 

 then treated with concentrated hydrochloric 

 acid to obtain the oxalates of thqrium and 

 zirconium. 



The supposition that by comparing nu- 

 merous elements in different myths, and thus 

 discovering that many are identical, a com- 

 mon origin is proved, was treated as a fal- 

 lacy by Dr. Brinton in a paper read before 

 the American Association. The method in 

 question. Dr. Brinton held, does not take 

 into account the essential unity of the human 

 mind, wherever it may be, and the laws that 

 govern its activity. Because of the tendency 

 of the mind, everywhere and in all condi- 

 tions, to act in the same manner, we find 

 myths of similar character in all parts of the 

 world. They may therefore be very similar, 

 and yet very diverse in origin. 



A SERIES of fifteen terminal moraines was 

 described by Mr. F. B. Taylor, in a paper 

 read in the American Association, as lying 

 between Cincinnati and the Straits of Macki- 

 naw. 



The cultivation of flowers for export and 

 for the perfumery factories at Grasse is an 

 important industry on the Riviera. It is offi- 

 cially estimated that the value of flowers an- 

 nually exported from Nice, Cannes, Beaulien, 

 and Mentone is six hundred thousand dollars. 



Prof. Josiah Dwight Whitney, of Har- 

 vard University, one of the most eminent of 

 American geologists, died at Lake Sunapee, 

 N. H., August 19th, in his seventy- seventh 

 year. He was born in Northampton, Mass. ; 

 was graduated at Yale in 1839, and, after 

 spending about twenty years in various geo- 

 logical surveys, was appointed Professor of 

 Geology at Harvard in 1864. His geological 

 work began in service as assistant geologist 

 in New Hampshire, subsequent to his gradu- 

 ation, after which he traveled and studied in 



Europe. In 184'7 he engaged, in connection 

 with John W. Foster, in the Government 

 survey of the Lake Superior region, the pub- 

 lished result of which, Foster and Whitney's 

 Report, was a famous book in its day and 

 long the chief authority. He next spent two 

 years in the examination of the mining and 

 mineral resources of the States east of the 

 Mississippi, and published The Metallic 

 Wealth of the United States in 1854. He 

 next became State Chemist and professor in 

 the State University of Iowa ; made a geo- 

 logical survey of that State ; surveyed the 

 lead region of the upper Missouri, in con- 

 nection with the official surveys of Wisconsin 

 and Illinois; and from 1860 till 1874 con- 

 ducted the topographical, geological, and 

 natural-history survey of California, publish- 

 ing the results in more than six volumes. 

 He translated the Use of the Blowpipe of 

 Berzelius, published a Yosemite Guidebook, 

 and contributed much to scientific and other 

 periodicals. Mount Whitney was named 

 after him. He was a brother to William 

 Dwight Whitney, the philologist. 



Among the results of the measurements 

 of the velocity of rotation of the planets by 

 the spectroscopic method reported by Prof. 

 J. E. Keeler to the British Association is the 

 observation that the inside of Saturn's ring 

 moves more quickly than the outside, and 

 consequently that the constituents of the 

 ring do not obey Kepler's third law. These 

 constituents are therefore not solid particles, 

 a fact which has been previously established 

 by other methods. 



Mr. William Crawford Winlock, assist- 

 ant in charge of the office of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, died at Bay Head, N. J., 

 September 20th, in his thirty- seventh year. 

 He was a son of Prof. Joseph Winlock, first 

 Director of the Harvard Observatory and 

 Superintendent of the American Ephemeris 

 and Nautical Almanac, and inherited a fond- 

 ness for astronomy from him. He was ap- 

 pointed curator of international exchanges 

 and afterward assistant in charge of the office 

 of the Smithsonian Institution ; prepared the 

 Annual Reports on the Progress of Astronomy 

 from 1885 to 1892; contributed articles on 

 astronomy to various periodicals ; and repre- 

 sented the Secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution at various scientific meetings, includ- 

 ing the centennial anniversary of the Ameri- 

 can Philosophical Society. 



Dr. H. Newell Martin, ex-Professor of 

 Biology in Johns Hopkins University, died 

 in Burley, England, October 29th, in the 

 forty-ninth year of his age. He was born in 

 Ncwry, Ireland ; was a fellow of Christ Col- 

 lege, Cambridge, where he received the de- 

 gree of A. B. in 1879, and that of A. M. in 

 1877; and was appointed to the professor- 

 ship in Johns Hopkins on the recommenda- 

 tion of Prof. Huxley. He retired from that 

 position in 1893 on account of ill health. 



