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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



containing " bowlders of coral." As fast as 

 the sand was got out fresh material poured 

 in, and the water pumped down the tube 

 with a view of cleaning it actually flowed out 

 into the surrounding bed. So far as the reef 

 was pierced, it proved to be not solid coral, 

 but more like a vast coarse sponge of coral, 

 with wide interstices either empty or sand 

 filled. 



SiGNOR LuiGi Palmieri, the famous Ital- 

 ian meteorologist, who died September 10th, 

 was especially renowned for his observations 

 of the volcanic phenomena of Mount Vesu- 

 vius, where he was director of the observa- 

 tory for forty-two years. He was born at 

 Faicchio, Italy, in ISO*?, and was Professor 

 of Mathematics successively at Salerno, Cam- 

 pobasso, and Avelino, and afterward Pro- 

 fessor of Physics at the Normal School and 

 in the University of Naples. He was ap- 

 pointed to the Observatory of Mount Vesu- 

 vius, where he spent the remainder of his 

 life, in 1854. He invented some extremely 

 delicate instruments in the course of his re- 

 searches a bifilar electrometer, used in the 

 study of atmospheric electricity ; a pluviom- 

 eter ; and a seismometer for the detection 

 and measurement of ground vibrations. 

 With the last instrument he was able to 

 detect extremely slight movements of the 

 gi'ound and to predict the eruptions of the 

 volcano. During the eruption of 1872, while 

 every one else fled as far from the mountain 

 as he could, he stayed at his post and wrote 

 a description of every phase of the phe- 

 nomena. 



The death was announced in September, 

 1896, of M. Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau, 

 a French physicist, eminently distinguished 

 for his experimental determinations of the 

 velocity of light. He was born in 1819, the 

 son of a distinguished physician, and, having 

 an independent fortune, was able to devote 

 himself mainly to science. He communi- 

 cated the results of his experiments in nu- 

 merous memoirs to the Academy of Sciences 

 and to the Annales de physique et chimie. 

 Many of these were very important. He re- 

 ceived in 1856 the grand prize of one hun- 

 dred thousand francs awarded by the Acad- 

 emy of Sciences. One of the most interesting 

 of his discoveries was that of the means of 

 determining by means of the alteration of the 



wave-lengths as revealed through the spec- 

 troscope the direction and velocity of mo- 

 tion of bodies advancing or receding along 

 the line of vision, a method which has been 

 much used by astronomers in late years with 

 very fruitful results. 



Dr. Harley pointed out, in the British 

 Association, that an understanding of the 

 fast-dying system in Australia of conveying 

 ideas by horizontal straight lines might afford 

 a clew to the better interpretation of the an- 

 cient Irish oghams, as these two systems are 

 identical in form and to a certain extent in 

 modes of arrangement. The Gilas of cen- 

 tral Asia had also the same linear forms of 

 writing, the same grouping of the characters, 

 and a distinctly columnar arrangement. The 

 author thought that the Australian aborigines 

 had advanced one stage beyond the ancient 

 Irish, inasmuch as they possessed two dis- 

 tinctly different kinds of line characters 

 small and large analogous to our capital 

 letters, and also adopted the plan of empha- 

 sizing the small characters by turning them 

 into a kind of Italics. All the natives did 

 not write alike. 



In view of the anticipated exhaustion of 

 the quarries of lithographic stone at Solen- 

 hofen, Bavaria, the use of aluminum as a 

 substitute in engraving has been suggested,^ 

 and the'Gei'man journal, Neue&te Erfindungen 

 und Erfahrimgen, enumerates the qualities 

 that may render that metal suitable for the 

 purpose. The Natianal Druggist, of St. 

 Louis, points out, however, that there are 

 lithographic quarries in Tennessee which can 

 furnish immense quantities of stone fully 

 equal, for purposes of engraving, to the best 

 Solenhofen. 



M. Felix Tisserand, Director of the Ob- 

 servatory at Paris and professor in the sci- 

 entific faculty, whose death has been recently 

 announced, was one of the most famous 

 French astronomers and the author of impor- 

 tant works. He was born in 1845, and ob- 

 tained the degree of Doctor in Science in 

 1869. In 1875 he was appointed by Le Ver- 

 rier Director of the Observatory at Toulouse,, 

 and was also Professor of Rational Mechan- 

 ics there. He became astronomer adjunct 

 at the Paris Observatory in 1878, Professor 

 of Astronomy in 1883, and Director of tlie 

 Observatory in 1892. In his works he treats 



