720 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



was extremely fine, and seemed more like a 

 fog, so that it was difficult to believe one's 

 eyes, and that even a few moments in a thin 

 fog sufficed to thoroughly wet one's outer 

 garments. He also speaks of the absence of 

 that bluish haze which so softens and beau- 

 tifies a distant view in lower latitudes. Un- 

 fortunately, Dr. Brewer was not equipped 

 for accurate meteorological research, or we 

 should doubtless have had from him valu- 

 able data on this very important and inter- 

 esting subject. 



A curious attempt to combine color im- 

 pressions with musical sounds was recently 

 made in London, by Mr. Wallace Rimington. 

 The instrument used, called a "color or- 

 gan," was so arranged that each organ note 

 had a corresponding colored disk ; pressure 

 on the key threw this disk in front of a 

 powerful arc or lime light by which an im- 

 age was projected on a screen, and at the 

 same time a musical tone was produced by 

 the organ. Extracts from Chopin and Wag- 

 ner were rendered ; the effects are said to 

 have been in the main pleasing, and were 

 certainly novel. 



The Royal Academy of Sciences of the 

 Institute of Bologna offers a gold medal of 

 one thousand francs' value for a memoir on 

 a practical system for the prevention or ex- 

 tinction of fire. Italian, French, or Latin 

 may be used ; if in another language, it 

 must be accompanied by an Italian transla- 

 tion. The essays should be signed by a 

 nom de plume and accompanied by an enve- 

 lope containing the author's real name. All 

 essays must be in before May 29, 1896, and 

 should be addressed to u Al segretario della 

 R. Accademia delle Scienze deW Institute di 

 Bologna." 



An examination of teas grown at vari- 

 ous altitudes w 7 as recently conducted in the 

 Lancet Laboratory, and seems to show that 

 while the content of caffeine, the refresh- 

 ing and important constituent of the tea 

 leaf, is not materially affected by an in- 

 crease of altitude, the tannin, the astrin- 

 gent principle, which gives to the stronger 

 teas their harsh, disagreeable flavor, is quite 

 markedly decreased. The essential oils, on 

 which the agreeable flavor and odor depend, 

 are increased by growth in higher altitudes. 

 Unfortunately, the higher the altitude the 

 less the yield as, for instance, at seven 

 thousand feet above sea level at Darjeeling, 

 the yield is only two hundred to three hun- 

 dred'pounds per acre, while on the plains of 

 Assam, at an elevation of from only one hun- 

 dred to five hundred feet, the yield averages 

 one thousand pounds per acre. 



TnE report of the British Opium Com- 

 mission is supplemented in a special memo- 

 randum by Sir William Roberts, who gives 

 opium a position as to its effects on the sys- 

 tem intermediate between alcohol and to- 



bacco. But the habitual and excessive use 

 of alcohol is followed by special organic 

 changes that can be traced both during life 

 and after death, while this is not the case 

 with either opium or tobacco. Sir William 

 thinks that the number of opium-eaters in 

 India is likely to be underestimated rather 

 than overestimated. He dwells upon the 

 greater tolerance for opium among the na- 

 tives of India as compared with Europeans, 

 and cites the evidence of Surgeon-Lieutenant- 

 Colonel Crombie as to the very different 

 effect of opium on native and English infants 

 in support of the view that this enhanced 

 tolerance on the part of the natives of India 

 is apparently congenital. 



A unique specimen of the great auk's 

 egg was sold recently in London. It is a 

 perfect egg, which was obtained sixty or 

 seventy years ago in Iceland. It sold for 

 $866.25. 



In a paper read before the Geographical 

 Club of Philadelphia, Mr. T. W. Balch re- 

 lates several incidents observed by him in a 

 journey through Alsace and Lorraine illus- 

 trative of the people's concealing French 

 hearts under their Germanized exteriors. 

 Among them was the evasion of the law 

 forbidding the display of French flags, per- 

 ceived in a show window in Strasburg. 

 The storekeeper, with a thoroughly German 

 name on his sign, had put in a conspicuous 

 place some white candles between two pack- 

 ages of red ones, wrapped at the bottom in 

 blue paper. " It was indeed a dull man who 

 did not see at once the tricolor." 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



Prof. Franz Neumann, of the chair of 

 Physics and Mineralogy at the University of 

 Ktinigsberg, died on May 23d at Konigs- 

 berg, at the advanced age of ninety-seven. 

 The work which placed him in the front 

 ranks of science was a Memoire sur la Theo- 

 rie des Ondulations, presented to the Berlin 

 Academy in 1835. 



Prof. Valentine Ball, of Dublin, died 

 on June 17th, aged fifty-two years. He was 

 Director of the Museum of Science and Art 

 of Dublin. He occupied the chair of Geolo- 

 gy and Mineralogy in the University of Dub- 

 lin from 1881 to 1883, and was the author 

 of several works oh geology. 



Theodore Brorsen, best known from his 

 discovery of five comets, has recently died, 

 in the seventy-seventh year of his age. He 

 discovered the comet that bears his name in 

 1846, and found its period to be five years 

 and a half. It has since been seen at four 

 returns, but not since 1879. He discovered 

 a second comet in 1846, a third in 1847, and 

 two others in 1851. 



