576 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Professor A. Yogel has observed that 

 plants do not always contain their character- 

 istic alkaloids when grown under other than 

 natural conditions. Hemlock does not yield 

 conine in Scotland, and cinchona-plants are 

 nearly free from quinine when grown in hot- 

 houses. Tannin is found in the greatest 

 quantity in trees which have had a full sup- 

 ply of direct sunlight. 



The severe weather of the early days 

 of March in parts of England was very fatal 

 to birds of the thrush tribe, many of which 

 died from starvation and weakness. A 

 total change of scene followed the turn 

 of weather to warm, and the bird-life be- 

 came one of general vigor and activity, with 

 mating and singing, and nest-building con- 

 stantly going on. 



Dr. C. Blarez says that the materials 

 used for coloring wine, such as sulpho-fuch- 

 sine, are capable of setting up a great deal 

 of gastric disturbance in persons having 

 weak digestion. 



"Werkhojanck, in Siberia, latitude 674- 

 north, still maintains its position as the cold- 

 est place on the earth. A Russian Govern- 

 ment surveying expedition reporting to the 

 Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, con- 

 cerning its temperature observations there 

 in 1885, gives the mean temperature of the 

 year as 17 C, or 1 Fahr., the mean tem- 

 perature of January of that year as 49 

 C, or 56 Fahr., and the minimum for the 



same month as 



68 C, or 



90 Fahr. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



M. Jules Celestin Jamix, one of the 

 most eminent French physicists, died in 

 Paris on the 12th of February. He was 

 born in 1818, and spent most of his active 

 life in scientific professorships. He was 

 intrusted by Minister Duruy with the duty 

 of opening the public lectures of the Sor- 

 bonne. He was made a member of the 

 Physical Section of the Academy of Sci- 

 ences in 1868, and was elected perpetual 

 secretary, succeeding Dumas, in 1884. His 

 most important scientific labors were in the 

 field of optics. He also made investigations 

 in capillarity, devised a new method of 

 preparing magnets, introduced modifica- 

 tions into the Jablochkoff system of elec- 

 tric lighting, and at a later period devoted 

 his attention to the hygrometer. 



Professor Heinrich Fischer, of the Uni- 

 versity of Freiburg in Baden, who died last 

 February, was a diligent student of micro- 

 scopic mineralogy, and distinguished him- 

 self bv his investi ^rations on the origin and 

 character of jade, concerning which he 

 published, in 1875, the book "Nephrite and 

 Jade." 



Mrs. Erminxie A. Smith, who was a stu- 

 dent of American anthropology of growing 

 fame, died at her home in Jersey City, New 

 Jersey, June 9th. She was born at Marcellus, 

 New York, in 1838, and was taught in Mrs. 

 Willard's Seminary at Troy. As President 

 of the Jersey City ^Esthetic Society, which 

 she formed in 1876, it was her privilege to 

 entertain many literary persons. In 1880 

 she was engaged by the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution to investigate the folk-lore of the 

 Iroquois Indians, and went among them, 

 becoming a member of the tribe. At the 

 time of her death she was employed in 

 preparing a dictionary of the Iroquois lan- 

 guage. She was a member of Sorosis, the 

 New York Historical Society, the New York 

 Academy of Sciences, and the London Sci- 

 entific Society. 



Dr. Julius Adolph Stockhardt, the 

 eminent chemist, died at Tharandt, in Sax- 

 ony, June 1st, in his seventy-seventh year. 

 He was best known by the services he 

 rendered to agricultural chemistry. He 

 was the originator of the system of agri- 

 cultural experiment stations now become 

 so general, and was for many years di- 

 rector of the establishment of that charac- 

 ter at Tharandt. He was successively edit- 

 or of the " Polytechnisches Centralblatt," 

 the " Zeitschrif t f iir deutsche Landwirthe," 

 and " Der chemische Ackersmann," and 

 aided in the establishment of the journal 

 " Die Landwirthschaftcn - Yersuchs - Statio- 

 nen." His writings were usually intend- 

 ed to make chemistry intelligible to lay 

 minds; and one of them, translated and 

 published as " Stockhardt's Principles of 

 Chemistry," has found much favor in this 

 country as a text-book. A sketch by Pro- 

 fessor Atwater and portrait of Professor 

 Stockhardt were given in the " Monthly " 

 for June, 18S1. 



Dr. E. Linnemann, Professor of Chem- 

 istry at Prague, died April 27th. He had 

 prepared a communication, which was found 

 among his papers, announcing the discovery, 

 in the orthite of Arendal, of a new metallic 

 element, which he called Austrium. M. Le- 

 cocq de Boisbaudran has, however, suggest- 

 ed that this metal is probably gallium, of 

 which orthite contains a small quantity. 



A. Yon Lasaulx, Professor of Mineral- 

 ogy in the University of Bonn, who died 

 in January last, was one of the most active 

 of German workers in mineralogy and pe- 

 trology. He was forty-six years old. 



Dr. Charles Upham Shepard, formerly 

 of Amherst College and the South Carolina 

 Medical College, died in Charleston, S. C, 

 May 1st. He was the owner of extensive 

 collections in mineralogy, which he gave to 

 Amherst College a few years ago. 



