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THJ^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the West Indies, China, and the Cape of 

 Good Hope. Our beautiful little Calopogon 

 pulchdlus was introduced accidentally in 

 some bog earth which had been taken over 

 to England with some plants of Dionea for 

 the botanist Curtis. His gardener noticed 

 some small, toothlike, knobby roots in the soil 

 and took care of them so that they flowered 

 in the following summer. The first orchid 

 was figured in 1*790 from the strongest of 

 these plants. 



Philibert Commerson, the eminent natu- 

 ralist and botanist of Bougainville's scien- 

 tific and exploring expedition, 1766-'69, 

 wrote of Reaumur, the entomologist and 

 author of the Reaumur thermometer scale : 

 " Reaumur, the illustrious Reaumur, has 

 just died from the effects of a fall which 

 caused a suppuration of all the internal 

 parts of his head. Thus the poor insects 

 have become orphans for a long time, for we 

 other Liunasists are nothing but cruel im- 

 palers ; but Reaumur was their father, their 

 accoucheur, their nurse, their interpreter, 

 their all." 



The results of examinations of European 

 statistics by M. Lagneau go to show that as 

 among occupations consumption is most 

 prevalent among persons whose callings ex- 

 pose them to dusts ; and next among those 

 whose work is sedentary ; while persons liv- 

 ing in the open air enjoy an almost complete 

 immunity. From another point of view, con- 

 sumption appears to increase in towns rapid- 

 ly with the density of the population. 



Remarking upon a proposal to establish 

 a psychological laboratory in England, simi- 

 lar to the institutions of the kind that exist 

 " all over the Continent," the Revue Scien- 

 tifiqite observes that there is only one such 

 laboratory in France deserving the name, 

 and that to find really important installations 

 it is necessary to go to Germany or to the 

 United States ; and that the English in ar- 

 ranging their experimental establishment 

 will have to draw their inspiration from 

 these two countries. 



The Geographical Club of Philadelphia 

 was formed in 1891, and its first stated 

 meeting was held February 24, 1892, when 

 the president, Prof. Angelo Heilprin, read 

 an opening address on the Present Aspects 

 of Geographical Study. Since then, till 

 January, 1894, twelve stated meetings have 

 been held at which important and fciterest- 

 ing papers have been read. The club was 

 incorporated in May, 1892. Its purpose is 

 defined to be the advancement of the sci- 

 ence of geography and of geographical stud- 

 ies and exploration, the recording of discov- 

 eries, the presentation of researches, and the 

 accumulation of works on geography. Among 

 the features of its history to this time are 

 its association, through a contribution of 

 funds, with the Peary Arctic Expedition of 



1893, and the issue of the first number of 

 its Bulletin, containing an address, by Mr. E. 

 S. Balch, on Mountain Exploration. 



The English Society for the Protection 

 of Birds aims at preventing the destruction 

 of beautiful and useful birds by influencing 

 public opinion, and, if possible, by promot- 

 ing legislation. Mr. E. H. Bayley, M. P., 

 the president, referred, in his address at the 

 annual meeting of the society, to the whole- 

 sale catching and killing of birds for purposes 

 of sale, or for so-called sport. As an exam- 

 ple of abuse in sport, he instanced a case 

 which had been brought under his notice of 

 a man who went down to Devonshire from 

 London, and in a short time destroyed all 

 the kingfishers on a certain stream. The 

 number of members of the society has in- 

 creased in one year from 5,200 to 9,159. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



Prof. George John Romanes, author of 

 the work on Animal Intelligence in the In- 

 ternational Scientific Series, of the books. 

 Mental Evolution in Animals and in Man, and 

 Jellyfish, Starfish, and Sea Urchins, and of 

 other scientific essays and treatises, died 

 suddenly at Oxford, England, May 23d. He 

 was born in Kingston, Canada, in 1848, 

 spent his boyhood in Europe, and was 

 graduated in Natural Science at Cambridge 

 in 1870. His first scientific writmgs of 

 mark are a series of papers on the Nervous 

 System of Medusa;. He was elected a Fel- 

 low of the Royal Society in 1879. He held 

 the appointment of Fullerian Professor of 

 Natural History in the Royal Institution, 

 London, and Rosebery Lecturer on Natural 

 History in the University of Edinburgh. He 

 was a personal friend of Charles Darwin ; 

 and most of his writings were in develop- 

 ment of Mr. Darwin's theories and the doc- 

 trine of evolution, or in criticism of them. 



Prof. Robert Peter died at his home 

 near Lexington, Ky., on the 27th of April, 

 at the age of eighty-nine. He is well known 

 among the older generation of scientific men 

 for his chemical work in soil analyses in 

 connection with the various geological sur- 

 veys of Kentucky and Arkansas. He was 

 a contemporary of many of the older men 

 of science, and was for many years per- 

 sonally and oflScially associated with David 

 Dale Owen in his geological work. He was 

 the oldest medical professor in America; 

 and occupied the chair of Chemistry in the 

 Transylvania University in its earliest days. 

 When that school was removed to Louis- 

 ville and became the Kentucky School 

 of Medicine, he went with it. At the time 

 of his death he occupied, nominally, the 

 chair of Chemistry in the Agricultural and 

 Mechanical College at Lexington. He was 

 a native of Cornwall, England, and was 

 born in 1805. 



