384 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



same discovery later, and publish it, the 

 anagram might show that the writer of it 

 had the prior claim. At present, the usual 

 custom is to send the discovery in a sealed 

 packet to some academy. A correspondent 

 of Nature, who signs himself " West," pub- 

 lishes a scientific discovery anagrammatical- 

 ly, as follows : 



A 8 C 3 DE 12 F 4 GH 6 I 6 L 3 M 3 N 5 6 P 



R 4 S 5 T 14TJ6y2 WX Y 2 . 



Now, who will be the first to find the key 

 to this anagram ? 



A chemical examination of the air 

 along the line of the London Underground 

 Railway has shown that, when trains are 

 frequent, the air is loaded with sulphurous- 

 acid gas ; and the authorities are now seek- 

 ing a remedy for what has long been a se- 

 rious annoyance to passengers. 



The waters of the Great Salt Lake ap- 

 pear to be rising from year to year. The 

 mountain -streams are steadily enlarging. 

 The humidity of the atmosphere annually 

 increases as the area of cultivation in the 

 valleys becomes greater, and, as a conse- 

 quence, the evaporation less. Tens of thou- 

 sands of acres of farming, meadow, and 

 pasture lands have been submerged along 

 the eastern and western shores of the lake. 



Frank Bdckland, having counted the 

 eggs in a single sturgeon, found that they 

 numbered 921,600. The total weight of 

 the eggs was 45 pounds. In one ounce 

 there were 1,280 eggs. 



This being the season for Christmas- 

 trees, attention is called to the fact that 

 the use of red and green wax tapers is 

 highly dangerous, owing to the poison- 

 ous natura of the coloring - matters em- 

 ployed. Analysis has shown the presence 

 in green tapers of arsenite of copper 

 (Scheele's green) to the extent of 0.60 per 

 cent., and of sulphide of mercury (vermil- 

 ion) in red tapers to the extent of 1.93 per 

 cent. Yellow and blue tapers, on the con- 

 trary, are pronounced harmless. 



Dr. Cobbold states that cases of tape- 

 worm are about twice as frequent among 

 males as among females, the difference being 

 explained, in his opinion, by the more cau- 

 tious and fastidious habits of the female 

 sex, as contrasted with males, in relation to 

 the ingestion of underdone meat 



The disappearance of nitrogenous or 

 organic matter from running water where 

 exposed to the air is well known. Mr. A. 

 Winter Blyth has lately shown that water 

 running through closed iron pipes under- 

 goes a similar process of purification, a re- 

 markable difference being observed between 

 the same water before and after it passes 

 through the mains. 



"Blue Gravel" is the name given to a 

 rock underlying the gold-bearing alluvium 

 of California and Nevada. Mr. E. Gold- 

 smith, in a communication to the Philadel- 

 phia Academy of Sciences, says that this 

 " gravel " is composed of iwo ingredients, 

 widely differing in age, viz., of pebbles, and a 

 lava by which they are cemented together. 

 Some of these pebbles appear to be de- 

 rived from slate rock and others from horn- 

 blend rock. The lava is extremely brittle. 

 In hardness it is equal to apatite. A few 

 grains of bright-yellow gold are found in it, 

 but how they came there it is not easy to 

 say. Whether the gold came from the peb- 

 bles, or was ejected from the volcano, it is 

 impossible to decide. 



Dr. John L. Le Conte calls attention to 

 the dangers attending the use of Paris green 

 for destroying noxious insects. It may so 

 poison the soil as to prevent the growth of 

 all vegetation. The National Academy of 

 Sciences has adopted the following resolu- 

 tion on the subject : " That a committee be 

 appointed to investigate and report upon 

 the subject of the use of poisons applied to 

 vegetables or otherwise for the destruction 

 of deleterious insects and other animals, 

 and also the incautious use of poisons in 

 the ornamentation of articles of food, and 

 for decorative purposes generally, such, for 

 instance, as the coloring of paper." 



Dr.. Edward Smith, F. E. S., one of the 

 most eminent physicians of England, died 

 November 16th, aged fifty-six years. His re- 

 searches on respiration and nrea earned for 

 him a fellowship in the Royal Society ; his 

 later researches were devoted to the inves- 

 tigation of the subject of dietetics. Dr. 

 Smith experimented upon himself mostly, 

 and thus subjected himself to many severe 

 physical restraints in the interest of sci- 

 ence. His published works are numerous, 

 one of the latest being a volume on foods, 

 in the " International Scientific Series." 



Dr. Edwin Lankester, a voluminous 

 writer on scientific subjects, and Fellow of 

 the Royal Society, died at Margate, Eng- 

 land, October 30th, aged sixty years. He 

 began the study of medicine at University 

 College, at the age of twenty, graduated at 

 twenty-three ; afterward studied botany un- 

 der Lindley, and subsequently became lect- 

 urer on materia medica and botany at the 

 St. George's School of Medicine. In 1844 

 he was elected secretary of the Ray Soci- 

 ety ; in 1845, was made Fellow of the Royal 

 Society ; and thereafter, to the end of his 

 life, held successively positions of import- 

 ance and trust in various scientific bodies, 

 and as an officer of the state. His writings 

 were chiefly on medical subjects and natu- 

 ral history, botany being his favorite branch 

 of study. 



